Bullying in Schools in the United Arab Emirates and the Personal Safety of Students

© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. Although considerable research has been directed towards understanding and addressing bullying in schools in western countries, comparatively little has been undertaken in Arab countries. This article provides the first detailed examination of the nature and prevalence of peer victimisation and bullying behaviour among students in Grades 6 to 9 in 20 schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Questionnaires designed to assess the prevalence of different forms of bullying, as experienced by students and as perpetrated by their peers, were answered anonymously by 841 boys and 938 girls. In addition, questions were asked on how often students engaged in pro-social behaviour at school and how safe they felt when they were at their school. Approximately 16% of students reported that they usually or never felt safe at school. Boys were significantly more likely to experience and perpetrate all forms of bullying. No significant gender differences were found with respect to acting in general more pro-socially or in feeling unsafe. Results from regression analyses employing multi-item measures of (i) victimisation and (ii) bullying others, independently predicted students reporting feeling less safe, after controlling for gender and grade level. Students reporting relatively high levels of pro-social behaviour also reported significantly higher level of safety. Implication of these findings for increasing the safety of students in the UAE schools are discussed

11β-Hydroxysteroid Dehydrogenase-1 Is a Novel Regulator of Skin Homeostasis and a Candidate Target for Promoting Tissue Repair

11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1 (11β-HSD1) catalyzes the interconversion of cortisone and cortisol within the endoplasmic reticulum. 11β-HSD1 is expressed widely, most notably in the liver, adipose tissue, and central nervous system. It has been studied intensely over the last 10 years because its activity is reported to be increased in visceral adipose tissue of obese people. Epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts also express 11β-HSD1. However, the function of the enzymatic activity 11β-HSD1 in skin is not known. We found that 11β-HSD1 was expressed in human and murine epidermis, and this expression increased as keratinocytes differentiate. The expression of 11β-HSD1 by normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) was increased by starvation or calcium-induced differentiation in vitro. A selective inhibitor of 11β-HSD1 promoted proliferation of NHEKs and normal human dermal fibroblasts, but did not alter the differentiation of NHEKs. Topical application of selective 11β-HSD1 inhibitor to the dorsal skin of hairless mice caused proliferation of keratinocytes. Taken together, these data suggest that 11β-HSD1 is involved in tissue remodeling of the skin. This hypothesis was further supported by the observation that topical application of the selective 11β-HSD1 inhibitor enhanced cutaneous wound healing in C57BL/6 mice and ob/ob mice. Collectively, we conclude that 11β-HSD1 is negatively regulating the proliferation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts, and cutaneous wound healing. Hence, 11β-HSD1 might maintain skin homeostasis by regulating the proliferation of keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts. Thus 11β-HSD1 is a novel candidate target for the design of skin disease treatments

Crop Updates 2009 - Genetically Modified Crops, Nutrition, Soils, & Others

This session covers fifteen papers from different authors: 1. Performance of Canola Breeders Roundup Ready® canola hybrid CHYB-166 in 2008, Wallace Cowling, Canola Breeders Western Australia Pty Ltd 2. The implications of GM glyphosate resistant lupin, Art Diggle, Caroline Peek, Frank D’Emden, Fiona Evans, Bob French, Rob Grima, Sam Harburg, Abul Hashem,, John Holmes, Jeremy Lemon, Peter Newman, Janet Paterson, Steve Penny,Department of Agriculture and Food, Peter Portmann, Agriconnect 3. Nufarm Roundup Ready® Canola Systems Trials— 2008 Mark Slatter, Research and Development Officer, Victoria, Nufarm (0438 064 845) Angus MacLennan, Business Development Manager, New South Wales, Nufarm (0408 358 024) Cooperators: Monsanto, Nuseed, Pacific Seeds, Pioneer Seeds 4. Roundup Ready® canola—2008 Limited Commercial Release. Getting the system right, Andrew Wells and Mark Slatter, Nufarm Australia Limited (Reprint from 2008 GRDC Cropping Updates with Introductory note) NUTRITION 5. Fertilising in a changing price environment, Bill Bowden1, Wayne Pluske2 and Jeremy Lemon1, 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2Back Paddock Company 6. Making better fertiliser for Western Australian cropping systems, Wen Chen1 2, Geoff Anderson1, Ross Brennan1and Richard Bell2 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2School of Environmental Science, Murdoch University 7. The nitrogen fertiliser replacement value of biosolids from wastewater treatment, Hannah Rigby1, Deborah Pritchard1, David Collins1, Katrina Walton2, David Allen2 and Nancy Penney31School of Agriculture and Environment,Curtin University of Technology, Muresk Campus, 2Chemistry Centre of Western Australia 3Water Corporation of Western Australia 8. Fertilising to soil type (usually) pays, Michael Robertson, Bill Bowden and Roger Lawes, CSIRO, Floreat and Department of Agriculture and Food SOILS 9. Management of subsoil acidity and compaction using a combination of lime, deep ripping and controlled traffic, Stephen Davies, Chris Gazey, Breanne Best and David Gartner, Department of Agriculture and Food 10. Optimising gypsum applications through remote sensing and Variable Rate Technology, Frank D’Emden, Department of Agriculture and Food and Quenten Knight,Precision Agronomics Australia 11. Case study of a 17 year agricultural lime trial, Chris Gazey1, Joel Andrew2and Ryan Pearce3 1Department of Agriculture and Food; 2Precision SoilTech; 3ConsultAg 12. Soil organic carbon in WA agricultural soils, FC Hoyle and A Bennett, Department of Agriculture and Food OTHER 13. Is the no-till revolution complete in WA? Frank D’Emden1, Rick Llewellyn2 and Ken Flower3 1Department of Agriculture and Food, 2CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, 3University of Western Australia 14. Progression Planning (The Concept), Julian Krieg and Owen Catto, Wheatbelt Men’s Health 15. Is the Department of Agriculture and Food still a primary source of cropping information? Cindy Parsons, Department of Agriculture and Foo

Bullying escolar: um fenômeno multifacetado

School bullying can involve children in different ways, making them play different roles, among them, victims, bullies and bully-victims. The aim of this study was to describe how bullying occurs in high social vulnerability schools of Florianópolis metropolitan area and the roles played by students in this phenomenon. Overall, 409 children and adolescents from the 3rd to 5th grades and of two public elementary schools aged 8-16 years (X = 11.14) participated in this study. As a tool, the Olweus Questionnaire adapted to the Brazilian population was used. For data analysis, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were applied by the Mann Whitney and Kruskal Wallis tests. As for results, 29.8% of boys and 40.5% of girls reported being victims; 32.3% of boys and 24.6% of girls reported being bullies. Victims were the most willing to help a colleague who is suffering from bullying (X = 1.54; p> 0.001), even if they do not know the victims (X = 1.57; p> 0.004). Bullies are differentiated from the group that does not participate (X = 1.73) and the group of victims (X = 2.34), being those who felt less alone (x = 1.47; p> 0.001). It was concluded that the information obtained in this study is indispensable in the search for alternatives to reduce school bullying. The strengthening of relations between school and students and a better preparation of teachers and school staff are extremely necessary to try to minimize the effects of risk factors to which these children are exposed and consequently violence at school.O bullying escolar pode envolver crianças de diferentes maneiras, fazendo com que essas assumam papéis diferenciados. Dentre estes, têm-se vítimas, agressores e vítimas-agressoras. O objetivo deste estudo foi descrever como ocorre o bullying em escolas de alta vulnerabilidade social da Grande Florianópolis e os papéis assumidos pelos alunos nesse fenômeno. Quanto ao método, participaram 409 crianças e adolescentes do terceiro ao quinto ano e da quarta à sexta série do ensino fundamental, de duas escolas públicas municipais, com idades entre 8 e 16 anos (X=11,14). Como instrumento, utilizou-se o Questionário de Olweus adaptado à população brasileira. Para a análise dos dados, empregaram-se a estatística descritiva e estatística inferencial por meio dos testes Mann Whitney e Kruskal Wallis. Quanto aos resultados, 29,8% dos meninos e 40,5% das meninas relataram terem sido vítimas; já 32,3% dos meninos e 24,6% das meninas relataram terem sido agressores. As vítimas foram as que se mostraram mais dispostas a ajudar como podem um colega que esteja sofrendo agressão (X=1,54; p>0,001), mesmo que não o conheçam (X=1,57; p>0,004). Em contrapartida, os agressores se diferenciaram do grupo que não participa (X=1,73) e do grupo das vítimas (X=2,34), sendo aqueles que menos se sentiram sozinhos (X=1,47; p>0,001). Concluiu-se que as informações obtidas neste estudo são indispensáveis na busca de alternativas para redução do bullying escolar. O fortalecimento das relações entre escola e alunos, e um maior preparo dos professores e funcionários são extremamente necessários para tentar minimizar os efeitos dos fatores de risco a que essas crianças estão expostas e consequentemente a violência na escola.CAPES - Proc. nº 0815/14-4CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT)Projeto Estratégico da FCT: UID/CED/00317/201

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission: Optical Telescope Element Design, Development, and Performance

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a large, infrared space telescope that has recently started its science program which will enable breakthroughs in astrophysics and planetary science. Notably, JWST will provide the very first observations of the earliest luminous objects in the Universe and start a new era of exoplanet atmospheric characterization. This transformative science is enabled by a 6.6 m telescope that is passively cooled with a 5-layer sunshield. The primary mirror is comprised of 18 controllable, low areal density hexagonal segments, that were aligned and phased relative to each other in orbit using innovative image-based wavefront sensing and control algorithms. This revolutionary telescope took more than two decades to develop with a widely distributed team across engineering disciplines. We present an overview of the telescope requirements, architecture, development, superb on-orbit performance, and lessons learned. JWST successfully demonstrates a segmented aperture space telescope and establishes a path to building even larger space telescopes.Comment: accepted by PASP for JWST Overview Special Issue; 34 pages, 25 figure

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Climate, human behaviour or environment: individual-based modelling of Campylobacter seasonality and strategies to reduce disease burden

Acknowledgements: We thank colleagues within the Modelling, Evidence and Policy Research Group for useful feedback on this manuscript. Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Availability of data and materials: The R code used in this research is available at https://gitlab.com/rasanderson/campylobacter-microsimulation; it is platform independent, R version 3.3.0 and above. Funding: This research was funded by Medical Research Council Grant, Natural Environment Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, and the Food Standards Agency through the Environmental and Social Ecology of Human Infectious Diseases Initiative (Sources, seasonality, transmission and control: Campylobacter and human behaviour in a changing environment (ENIGMA); Grant Reference G1100799-1). PRH, SJO’B, and IRL are funded in part by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Gastrointestinal Infection, at the University of Liverpool. PRH and IRL are also funded in part by the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response, at King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR, the Department of Health or Public Health England.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Radio-to-mm Census of Star-forming Galaxies in Protocluster 4C23.56 at Z = 2.5:Gas Mass and Its Fraction Revealed with ALMA

We investigate gas contents of star-forming galaxies associated with protocluster 4C23.56 at z = 2.49 by using the redshifted CO (3-2) and 1.1 mm dust continuum with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. The observations unveil seven CO detections out of 22 targeted Hα emitters (HAEs) and four out of 19 in 1.1 mm dust continuum. They have high stellar mass ({M}\star > 4× {10}10 M ⊙) and exhibit a specific star-formation rate typical of main-sequence star-forming galaxies at z˜ 2.5. Different gas-mass estimators from CO (3-2) and 1.1 mm yield consistent values for simultaneous detections. The gas mass ({M}{gas}) and gas fraction ({f}{gas}) are comparable to those of field galaxies, with {M}{gas}=[0.3,1.8]× {10}11× ({α }{CO}/(4.36× A(Z))) {M}⊙ , where {α }{CO} is the CO-to-H2 conversion factor and A(Z) is the additional correction factor for the metallicity dependence of {α }{CO}, and < {f}{gas}> =0.53+/- 0.07 from CO (3-2). Our measurements place a constraint on the cosmic gas density of high-z protoclusters, indicating that the protocluster is characterized by a gas density higher than that of the general fields by an order of magnitude. We found ρ ({H}2)˜ 5× {10}9 {M}⊙ {{Mpc}}-3 with the CO(3-2) detections. The five ALMA CO detections occur in the region of highest galaxy surface density, where the density positively correlates with global star-forming efficiency (SFE) and stellar mass. Such correlations possibly indicate a critical role of the environment on early galaxy evolution at high-z protoclusters, though future observations are necessary for confirmation

Bullying interventions in schools : six basic approaches/ Rigby

xviii, 164 hal.; 20cm

Bullying interventions in schools : six basic approaches/ Rigby

xviii, 164 hal.; 20cm