Glacial History and Palaeoecology of Northeastern Nouveau-Québec and Northern Labrador

Between mid-July and mid-August 1975, a reconnaissance was made of a large tract of subarctic and arctic terrain bounded by Schefferville, Fort Chimo and the Torngat Mountains north to latitude 59°31' N. A float-plane was used for the purpose. Three main areas received special attention: the southern and central Torngat Mountains between Hebron Fiord and Ryans Bay; the lower George River between Wedge Hill and Port Nouveau Québec, and the Quebec-Newfoundland boundary area north of Schefferville. This work was designed to provide radiometric dating control for earlier studies in the same region carried out between 1955 and 1965. It was intended to lay a foundation for future detailed investigations of Holocene climatic and ecological history, including fluctuations in the position of the northern treeline, final disappearance of the late-Wisconsin Laurentide Ice Sheet, and the early development of human occupation of the area. Specific objectives included: 1. confirmation that three distinct rock weathering zones, related to discrete glacial stades, were indeed correlative with rock weathering zones recognized in Baffin Island through quantitative studies; 2. resolution of the questions of the existence of ice-free areas during the Wisconsin Maximum (Saglek Glaciation) and of the earlier total glacial inundation of the Torngat Mountains. The second question hinges on the interpretation of anomalous blocks on high mountain tops as glacial erratics; 3. dating of the major glacial lake shorelines in the George River basin (Naskaupi and McLean glacial lakes) and location of other suspected glacial lake systems; 4. determination of the date of final disappearance of late-Wisconsin ice in the central region of Labrador-Ungava; 5. study of the fluctuations in the position of the forest-tundra ecotone over the last 8,000 years and comparison with those in the Districts of Keewatin and Mackenzie, N.W.T.; 6. analysis of Holocene climatic and environmental fluctuations affecting plant communities and human occupancy

Inhibition of endothelial cell migration by thrombospondin-1 type-1 repeats is mediated by β1 integrins

The anti-angiogenic effect of thrombospondin-1 has been shown to be mediated through binding of the type-1 repeat (TSR) domain to the CD36 transmembrane receptor. We now report that the TSR domain can inhibit VEGF-induced migration in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), cells that lack CD36. Moreover, we identified β1 integrins as a critical receptor in TSR-mediated inhibition of migration in HUVEC. Using pharmacological inhibitors of downstream VEGF receptor effectors, we found that phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3k) was essential for TSR-mediated inhibition of HUVEC migration, but that neither PLCγ nor Akt was necessary for this response. Furthermore, β1 integrins were critical for TSR-mediated inhibition of microvascular endothelial cells, cells that express CD36. Together, our results indicate that β1 integrins mediate the anti-migratory effects of TSR through a PI3k-dependent mechanism

Ethnicity and the professional socialisation of teachers: final report to the Teacher Training Agency

This report draws together the outcomes of a programme of research that has extended over two years. The project, which was financed by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA), aimed to fill some important gaps in our understanding of issues surrounding the recruitment of people from ethnic minorities into the teaching profession, and their subsequent experiences during training and in their first appointments. The project was organised under five interlocking strands. The first consisted of a postal questionnaire to all 1998 Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) entrants who had identified themselves in the Graduate Teacher Training Registry’s (GTTR) returns as being from an ethnic minority, or who had ticked the category of ‘Other’. The questionnaire invited the respondents to comment on a range of issues concerning their motivations for entering teaching and for choosing the particular institution in which they were to train. Two hundred and eighty-nine of the 776 questionnaires sent out were returned, giving a satisfactory response rate for this kind of survey. The second strand examined a similar set of issues from the perspectives of PGCE staff in sixteen initial teacher training institutions, with above average ethnic minority intakes. This strand, which was based on interviews with course directors, admissions tutors and other key personnel, was conducted in seven pre-1992 universities, eight post-1992 universities and one SCITT (i.e. an institution providing school-centred initial teacher training). In the third strand of the study, we returned to many of the same institutions and, with their help, set up interviews with a cross-section of respondents to the trainee questionnaire. In all, forty-nine trainees participated. The fourth strand involved another questionnaire, this time going to newly qualified teachers (NQTs) who had just completed a PGCE course (i.e. the same cohort as had been targeted in the first strand). The main NQT sample comprised 149 respondents. Finally, in the fifth strand, we followed up forty-four of the respondents from the main NQT sample to obtain their personal reflections after nearly one year of teaching. As well as giving a detailed account of each strand of the research, the report also provides a critical bibliography of related work from recent years, an account of the methodologies used, and a set of conclusions and recommendations. The methodology section highlights the limitations of a study such as this, and should be read carefully before any claims are made on the basis of our work. This executive summary draws attention to the main points in each part of the report. 5 On 1 September 2005 the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) became the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) and took on an expanded remit. Visit www.tda.gov.uk for further information. We are re-branding our literature only when necessary

Poetry as hybrid pedagogy in mental health nurse education

Poetry has emerged as a significant resource in nurse education in recent times. Over the last four years for example, this journal has hosted a number research and theoretical- conceptual papers that discuss and evaluate the use of poetry in undergraduate nurse curricula. In these papers, their authors express the explicit aim of advancing nurse education through helping students to explore their feelings about practice issues over a range of contexts. Included among these are reflective writing (Coleman and Willis, 2015), compassionate practice (Curtis, 2013), the development of emotional intelligence (Jack, 2015), the promotion of liberal nurse education (McKie, 2012) and clinical practice artistry (Chan, 2014), and the use of poetry to remove barriers to perception (Rolfe, 2012). From a related but qualitatively different emerging contemporary perspective, our aim in this paper is to promote poetry as hybrid pedagogy in mental health nurse education. We do so in order to challenge longstanding epistemological assumptions guiding aspects of the conventional range, content and delivery of the mental health nursing curriculum. We wish to highlight the value of adding the poetic work in context, of academics who have hybrid, ‘hyphenated’ identities to this curriculum. In our case, this is reflected in the fact that we explicitly teach and write from the standpoint position of mental health/nurse lecturers-ex- mental health professionals-survivors of the UK psychiatric system (Grant et al., 2015a). We will explore this topic area further and in a more nuanced way in this current paper. In specifically focusing on poetry as hybrid pedagogy, one of our own co-written and previously unpublished poems will be used in a theoretical and analytical context to advance our argument for the use of this approach in mental health nurse education. In the final section of our paper, our attention will turn to some of the benefits and one possible drawback for this approach, emerging from our discussion

All Six Planets Known to Orbit Kepler-11 Have Low Densities

The Kepler-11 planetary system contains six transiting planets ranging in size from 1.8 to 4.2 times the radius of Earth. Five of these planets orbit in a tightly-packed configuration with periods between 10 and 47 days. We perform a dynamical analysis of the system based upon transit timing variations observed in more than three years of \ik photometric data. Stellar parameters are derived using a combination of spectral classification and constraints on the star's density derived from transit profiles together with planetary eccentricity vectors provided by our dynamical study. Combining masses of the planets relative to the star from our dynamical study and radii of the planets relative to the star from transit depths together with deduced stellar properties yields measurements of the radii of all six planets, masses of the five inner planets, and an upper bound to the mass of the outermost planet, whose orbital period is 118 days. We find mass-radius combinations for all six planets that imply that substantial fractions of their volumes are occupied by constituents that are less dense than rock. The Kepler-11 system contains the lowest mass exoplanets for which both mass and radius have been measured.Comment: 39 pages, 10 figure

The recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups

This article reports on part of a larger, ongoing two-year investigation supported by the Teacher Training Agency into the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic backgrounds via Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) courses in England. The authors focus here on interviews with admissions tutors, course directors and other senior staff at teacher training institutions. The interviews revealed differences between institutions in the measures taken to attract minority ethnic students. The research indicates a need for much clearer guidelines for admissions tutors on the issues surrounding the question of ‘positive action’ on the recruitment of new teachers from minority ethnic groups

Nonthermal Hard X-ray Emission and Iron Kalpha Emission from a Superflare on II Pegasi

We report on an X-ray flare detected on the active binary system II~Pegasi with the Swift telescope. The trigger had a 10-200 keV luminosity of 2.2$\times10^{32}$ erg s$^{-1}$-- a superflare, by comparison with energies of typical stellar flares on active binary systems. The trigger spectrum indicates a hot thermal plasma with T$\sim$180 $\times10^{6}$K. X-ray spectral analysis from 0.8--200 keV with the X-Ray Telescope and BAT in the next two orbits reveals evidence for a thermal component (T$>$80 $\times10^{6}$K) and Fe K 6.4 keV emission. A tail of emission out to 200 keV can be fit with either an extremely high temperature thermal plasma (T$\sim3\times10^{8}$K) or power-law emission. Based on analogies with solar flares, we attribute the excess continuum emission to nonthermal thick-target bremsstrahlung emission from a population of accelerated electrons. We estimate the radiated energy from 0.01--200 keV to be $\sim6\times10^{36}$ erg, the total radiated energy over all wavelengths $\sim10^{38}$ erg, the energy in nonthermal electrons above 20 keV $\sim3\times10^{40}$ erg, and conducted energy $<5\times10^{43}$ erg. The nonthermal interpretation gives a reasonable value for the total energy in electrons $>$ 20 keV when compared to the upper and lower bounds on the thermal energy content of the flare. This marks the first occasion in which evidence exists for nonthermal hard X-ray emission from a stellar flare. We investigate the emission mechanism responsible for producing the 6.4 keV feature, and find that collisional ionization from nonthermal electrons appears to be more plausible than the photoionization mechanism usually invoked on the Sun and pre-main sequence stars.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Genetic variation at MECOM, TERT, JAK2 and HBS1L-MYB predisposes to myeloproliferative neoplasms

Clonal proliferation in myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) is driven by somatic mutations in JAK2, CALR or MPL, but the contribution of inherited factors is poorly characterized. Using a three-stage genome-wide association study of 3,437 MPN cases and 10,083 controls, we identify two SNPs with genome-wide significance in JAK2V617F-negative MPN: rs12339666 (JAK2; meta-analysis P=1.27 × 10−10) and rs2201862 (MECOM; meta-analysis P=1.96 × 10−9). Two additional SNPs, rs2736100 (TERT) and rs9376092 (HBS1L/MYB), achieve genome-wide significance when including JAK2V617F-positive cases. rs9376092 has a stronger effect in JAK2V617F-negative cases with CALR and/or MPL mutations (Breslow–Day P=4.5 × 10−7), whereas in JAK2V617F-positive cases rs9376092 associates with essential thrombocythemia (ET) rather than polycythemia vera (allelic χ2 P=7.3 × 10−7). Reduced MYB expression, previously linked to development of an ET-like disease in model systems, associates with rs9376092 in normal myeloid cells. These findings demonstrate that multiple germline variants predispose to MPN and link constitutional differences in MYB expression to disease phenotype

Theory of output coupling for trapped fermionic atoms

We develop a dynamic theory of output coupling, for fermionic atoms initially confined in a magnetic trap. We consider an exactly soluble one-dimensional model, with a spatially localized delta-type coupling between the atoms in the trap and a continuum of free-particle external modes. Two important special cases are considered for the confinement potential: the infinite box and the harmonic oscillator. We establish that in both cases a bound state of the coupled system appears for any value of the coupling constant, implying that the trap population does not vanish in the infinite-time limit. For weak coupling, the energy spectrum of the outgoing beam exhibits peaks corresponding to the initially occupied energy levels in the trap; the height of these peaks increases with the energy. As the coupling gets stronger, the energy spectrum is displaced towards dressed energies of the fermions in the trap. The corresponding dressed states result from the coupling between the unperturbed fermionic states in the trap, mediated by the coupling between these states and the continuum. In the strong-coupling limit, there is a reinforcement of the lowest-energy dressed mode, which contributes to the energy spectrum of the outgoing beam more strongly than the other modes. This effect is especially pronounced for the one-dimensional box, which indicates that the efficiency of the mode-reinforcement mechanism depends on the steepness of the confinement potential. In this case, a quasi-monochromatic anti-bunched atomic beam is obtained. Results for a bosonic sample are also shown for comparison.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, added discussion on time-dependent spectral distribution and corresponding figur