Measuring New Zealand students' international capabilities: an exploratory study

Executive summary: This exploratory study considers the feasibility of measuring New Zealand senior secondary (Years 12/13) students’ \u27international capabilities\u27. Building on background work undertaken by the Ministry’s International Division, the methodology had three components. An analysis of New Zealand and international literature pertinent to assessment of international capabilities was undertaken. Small-group workshops were conducted with 13 secondary school staff, 21 senior secondary students, and 10 adults with relevant expertise and perspectives about expression of international capabilities in post-school life. The third component was a visit to the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to discuss similar assessment challenges in their work. What are international capabilities and why measure them? Broadly speaking, international capabilities can be described as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that enable people to live, work, and learn across international and intercultural contexts. These capabilities, or aspects of them, are described by a range of terms in the literature, including international knowledge and skills, global competence, global/international citizenship, global/international mindedness, and intercultural competence. The Ministry’s background work suggests international capabilities can be seen as “the international and intercultural facet of the key competencies”. Focusing on development of New Zealand students’ international capabilities could, among other things: help make more explicit what the key competencies look like when they’re applied in intercultural or international situations provide a way to open a conversation with schools about internationalisation of education support New Zealand schools to better understand, analyse, and talk about the intercultural/internationalising learning activities they already do  open conversations about cultural diversity in New Zealand schools and communities and the opportunities this can provide for intercultural learning  create an opportunity for schools to revisit parts of The New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2007) vision, including the notion of students being “international citizens”  encourage schools to connect with businesses and the wider community to develop learning opportunities that help students to develop innovation and entrepreneurial capabilities and connect these capabilities with intercultural and international contexts. Measuring New Zealand students’ international capabilities could help us to better understand how the schooling system helps to “increase New Zealanders’ knowledge and skills to operate effectively across cultures.” It could feed into ongoing developments within educational policy and practice to better align curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy with the high-level goals of The New Zealand Curriculum. Looking further into the future, knowledge about how our schools support the development of students’ international capabilities could assist with longer-term redesign of educational policy, curriculum, assessment, and qualifications to keep pace as demands and pressures on learning and schooling continue to change through the 21st century

History and Health Policy in the United States: The Making of a Health Care Industry

Summary. The UK's National Health Service is approaching its sixtieth anniversary, an oppportune time perhaps to consider the case of the United States, where there is no national health service. Federal law requires hospitals to treat those who enter their emergency rooms, but not for free; military veterans are offered care in health facilities supported by federal tax dollars and the national Medicare programme provides government-sponsored health insurance for specified services to those over 65 years of age and to individuals certified as disabled. However, Medicare does not provide health services, which are predominantly purchased in the private sector. This article considers the history of American health care over the past 60 years, reflecting the diverse ways in which health care is embedded in the economy, politics, power structures and culture of the United States and discussing what it is like to have a health care industry without having a national health service or universal health insurance. The article concludes that, since the Second World War, the United States has been successful in achieving highly specialized, valued, life-improving health care for most-not for all-members of the population, but at a huge and rising cost. Notable achievements have been produced by the public-private mix of the American health enterprise. However, broad questions of social class, illness, insurance and the burden of payment for health care remain in a society with widening divisions of the population by socio-economic class, education, health literacy and computer skills

The role of Mce proteins in Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis infection

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of Johne's Disease, a chronic granulomatous enteritis of ruminants. MAP establishes an infection in the host via the small intestine. This requires the bacterium to adhere to, and be internalised by, cells of the intestinal tract. The effector molecules expressed by MAP for this purpose remain to be fully identified and understood. Mammalian cell entry (mce) proteins have been shown to enable other Mycobacterial species to attach to and invade host epithelial cells. Here, we have expressed Mce1A, Mce1D, Mce3C and Mce4A proteins derived from MAP on the surface of a non-invasive Escherichia coli to characterise their role in the initial interaction between MAP and the host. To this end, expression of mce1A was found to significantly increase the ability of the E. coli to attach and survive intracellularly in human monocyte-like THP-1 cells, whereas expression of mce1D was found to significantly increase attachment and invasion of E. coli to bovine epithelial cell-like MDBK cells, implying cell-type specificity. Furthermore, expression of Mce1A and Mce1D on the surface of a previously non-invasive E. coli enhanced the ability of the bacterium to infect 3D bovine basal-out enteroids. Together, our data contributes to our understanding of the effector molecules utilised by MAP in the initial interaction with the host, and may provide potential targets for therapeutic intervention.</p

Effect of proofreading on mechanics and structure of writing--grades four, five, six

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston Universit

Prospectus, February 27, 1985

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_1985/1004/thumbnail.jp

Do current methods of measuring the impact of chronic pain on work reflect the experience of working-age adults? : An integrated mixed methods systematic narrative review

The authors would like to acknowledge contributions to the QUICK study by members of the study advisory group: Patrice Forget, Siladitya Bhattacharya, Peter Goadsby, Cathy Price, David Coggon, Maureen McAllister, Stephen Bevan. The work presented in this manuscript was funded by the Medical Research Council (grant MR/V020676/1).Peer reviewe

Using species A rotavirus reverse genetics to engineer chimeric viruses expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike epitopes:Heterologous viral peptide expression by rotavirus A

Species A rotavirus (RVA) vaccines based on live attenuated viruses are used worldwide in humans. The recent establishment of a reverse genetics system for rotoviruses (RVs) has opened the possibility of engineering chimeric viruses expressing heterologous peptides from other viral or microbial species in order to develop polyvalent vaccines. We tested the feasibility of this concept by two approaches. First, we inserted short SARS-CoV-2 spike peptides into the hypervariable region of the simian RV SA11 strain viral protein (VP) 4. Second, we fused the receptor binding domain (RBD) of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, or the shorter receptor binding motif (RBM) nested within the RBD, to the C terminus of nonstructural protein (NSP) 3 of the bovine RV RF strain, with or without an intervening Thosea asigna virus 2A (T2A) peptide. Mutating the hypervariable region of SA11 VP4 impeded viral replication, and for these mutants, no cross-reactivity with spike antibodies was detected. To rescue NSP3 mutants, we established a plasmid-based reverse genetics system for the bovine RV RF strain. Except for the RBD mutant that demonstrated a rescue defect, all NSP3 mutants delivered endpoint infectivity titers and exhibited replication kinetics comparable to that of the wild-type virus. In ELISAs, cell lysates of an NSP3 mutant expressing the RBD peptide showed cross-reactivity with a SARS-CoV-2 RBD antibody. 3D bovine gut enteroids were susceptible to infection by all NSP3 mutants, but cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2 RBD antibody was only detected for the RBM mutant. The tolerance of large SARS-CoV-2 peptide insertions at the C terminus of NSP3 in the presence of T2A element highlights the potential of this approach for the development of vaccine vectors targeting multiple enteric pathogens simultaneously. IMPORTANCE We explored the use of rotaviruses (RVs) to express heterologous peptides, using SARS-CoV-2 as an example. Small SARS-CoV-2 peptide insertions (<34 amino acids) into the hypervariable region of the viral protein 4 (VP4) of RV SA11 strain resulted in reduced viral titer and replication, demonstrating a limited tolerance for peptide insertions at this site. To test the RV RF strain for its tolerance for peptide insertions, we constructed a reverse genetics system. NSP3 was C-terminally tagged with SARS-CoV-2 spike peptides of up to 193 amino acids in length. With a T2A-separated 193 amino acid tag on NSP3, there was no significant effect on the viral rescue efficiency, endpoint titer, and replication kinetics. Tagged NSP3 elicited cross-reactivity with SARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies in ELISA. We highlight the potential for development of RV vaccine vectors targeting multiple enteric pathogens simultaneously

Toxin-Coupled MHC Class I Tetramers Can Specifically Ablate Autoreactive CD8+ T Cells and Delay Diabetes in Nonobese Diabetic Mice

There is compelling evidence that self reactive CD8+ T cells are a major factor in development and progression of Type 1 diabetes in animals and humans. Hence, great effort has been expended to define the specificity of autoimmune CD8+ T cells, and to alter their responses. Much work has focused on tolerization of T cells using proteins or peptides. A weakness in this approach is residual autoreactive T cells may be activated and exacerbate disease

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy