The impacts of tourism on two communities adjacent to the Kruger National Park, South Africa

This paper explores the socioeconomic impacts of tourism associated with the Kruger National Park, South Africa's flagship national park, on the neighbouring villages of Cork and Belfast. Case study research, where the study area was characterised as a social-ecological system, was used to investigate the impacts of Park tourism on these communities. The findings offer a micro-scale, local community perspective of these impacts and indicate that the enclave nature of Park tourism keeps local communities separate from the Park and makes it hard for them to benefit from it. The paper concludes with reflections on this perceived separation, and suggests the need to make the Park boundaries more 'permeable' so as to improve relationships with adjacent communities, while also pragmatically managing community expectation

SUSTAINING A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS AT A TRANSNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: A SELF-STUDY

In this article we report on a self-study at a transnational researchintensive university in Qatar. We trace the shared perceptions of four emerging scholars, from two disciplines, coming together to build a sustainable community of scholars as an interdisciplinary team. We explore our initial thoughts in developing our group and illustrate the themes of collegiality, mentorship and conflict in sustaining a successful community of scholars. We conclude with lessons learned illustrating how the concept of support played a significant factor in sustaining our community and adjusting to both a transnational education setting and expatriate life. The findings may serve useful to others working in such a setting, and most expressively, provide an opportunity to broaden the continued scholarly discourses of scholarship, community of scholars, and interdisciplinary teams within the context of transnational education

SUSTAINING A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS AT A TRANSNATIONAL UNIVERSITY: A SELF-STUDY

In this article we report on a self-study at a transnational researchintensive university in Qatar. We trace the shared perceptions of four emerging scholars, from two disciplines, coming together to build a sustainable community of scholars as an interdisciplinary team. We explore our initial thoughts in developing our group and illustrate the themes of collegiality, mentorship and conflict in sustaining a successful community of scholars. We conclude with lessons learned illustrating how the concept of support played a significant factor in sustaining our community and adjusting to both a transnational education setting and expatriate life. The findings may serve useful to others working in such a setting, and most expressively, provide an opportunity to broaden the continued scholarly discourses of scholarship, community of scholars, and interdisciplinary teams within the context of transnational education

Authors' Response to Peer Reviews of “Using Structural Equation Modelling in Routine Clinical Data on Diabetes and Depression: Observational Cohort Study”

Background: Large data sets comprising routine clinical data are becoming increasingly available for use in health research. These data sets contain many clinical variables that might not lend themselves to use in research. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is a statistical technique that might allow for the creation of “research-friendly” clinical constructs from these routine clinical variables and therefore could be an appropriate analytic method to apply more widely to routine clinical data. Objective: SEM was applied to a large data set of routine clinical data developed in East London to model well-established clinical associations. Depression is common among patients with type 2 diabetes, and is associated with poor diabetic control, increased diabetic complications, increased health service utilization, and increased health care costs. Evidence from trial data suggests that integrating psychological treatment into diabetes care can improve health status and reduce costs. Attempting to model these known associations using SEM will test the utility of this technique in routine clinical data sets. Methods: Data were cleaned extensively prior to analysis. SEM was used to investigate associations between depression, diabetic control, diabetic care, mental health treatment, and Accident & Emergency (A&E) use in patients with type 2 diabetes. The creation of the latent variables and the direction of association between latent variables in the model was based upon established clinical knowledge. Results: The results provided partial support for the application of SEM to routine clinical data. Overall, 19% (3106/16,353) of patients with type 2 diabetes had received a diagnosis of depression. In line with known clinical associations, depression was associated with worse diabetic control (β=.034, P<.001) and increased A&E use (β=.071, P<.001). However, contrary to expectation, worse diabetic control was associated with lower A&E use (β=–.055, P<.001) and receipt of mental health treatment did not impact upon diabetic control (P=.39). Receipt of diabetes care was associated with better diabetic control (β=–.072, P<.001), having depression (β=.018, P=.007), and receiving mental health treatment (β=.046, P<.001), which might suggest that comprehensive integrated care packages are being delivered in East London. Conclusions: Some established clinical associations were successfully modelled in a sample of patients with type 2 diabetes in a way that made clinical sense, providing partial evidence for the utility of SEM in routine clinical data. Several issues relating to data quality emerged. Data improvement would have likely enhanced the utility of SEM in this data set

Micropatterning of Cells Reveals Chiral Morphogenesis

Invariant left-right (LR) patterning or chirality is critical for embryonic development. The loss or reversal of LR asymmetry is often associated with malformations and disease. Although several theories have been proposed, the exact mechanism of the initiation of the LR symmetry has not yet been fully elucidated. Recently, chirality has been detected within single cells as well as multicellular structures using several in vitro approaches. These studies demonstrated the universality of cell chirality, its dependence on cell phenotype, and the role of physical boundaries. In this review, we discuss the theories for developmental LR asymmetry, compare various in vitro cell chirality model systems, and highlight possible roles of cell chirality in stem cell differentiation. We emphasize that the in vitro cell chirality systems have great promise for helping unveil the nature of chiral morphogenesis in development