Mired in the shadows: quiet students in secondary schools

Quiet students are a feature of the organisation of secondary schools. Using qualitative methods and Deleuzean conceptualisations of modern subjectivity, this paper explores the ways that quiet students negotiate the terrain of their school. These negotiations often seem to produce a self that is trapped rather than a subject who seizes opportunities to be inventive, creative and experimental of their self. Understanding the faciality of quiet students provides opportunities to advance debate on how schools could encourage freer selves

Phenotypic and functional characteristics of exosomes derived from irradiated mouse organs and their role in the mechanisms driving non-targeted effects.

Molecular communication between irradiated and unirradiated neighbouring cells initiates radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBE) and out-of-field (abscopal) effects which are both an example of the non-targeted effects (NTE) of ionising radiation (IR). Exosomes are small membrane vesicles of endosomal origin and newly identified mediators of NTE. Although exosome-mediated changes are well documented in radiation therapy and oncology, there is a lack of knowledge regarding the role of exosomes derived from inside and outside the radiation field in the early and delayed induction of NTE following IR. Therefore, here we investigated the changes in exosome profile and the role of exosomes as possible molecular signalling mediators of radiation damage. Exosomes derived from organs of whole body irradiated (WBI) or partial body irradiated (PBI) mice after 24 h and 15 days post-irradiation were transferred to recipient mouse embryonic fibroblast (MEF) cells and changes in cellular viability, DNA damage and calcium, reactive oxygen species and nitric oxide signalling were evaluated compared to that of MEF cells treated with exosomes derived from unirradiated mice. Taken together, our results show that whole and partial-body irradiation increases the number of exosomes, instigating changes in exosome-treated MEF cells, depending on the source organ and time after exposure

Anti-schoolness in context: the tension between the youth project and the qualifications project

Published version of an article in the journal Social Psychology of Education. Also available from the publisher at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11218-011-9153-3In this ethnographic study conducted in two classrooms in Norway, grade nine (14-year-olds) in lower secondary school and the first year (16-year-olds) of upper secondary school, attention is drawn to how classroom culture is constituted through relationships between students. Through processes of power, dominance, hegemony and marginalisation, classroom culture forms the conditions for a learning environment, and has different opportunities, dilemmas and costs for the students. As classroom culture is negotiated in contextual and relational processes, classroom culture and ways of performing masculinities and femininities vary in the different classrooms, even within the same school. This article explores two classroom cultures, a "rule-breaking" classroom culture and a classroom culture in which the fear of being labelled a "nerd" dominates, to show how boys and girls use different solutions to balance the development of their identity as youths (the youth project) and the acquisition of academic competence and skills (the qualifications project)