Animals and the Shaping of the Early English Atlantic Experience, 1550-1630

Early English seafarers regularly documented the animals they encountered on long distance transatlantic voyages. These interactions have often been overlooked by historians seeking to understand the English experience when entering the emerging Atlantic world. Recent work in the field of Animal History has demonstrated that investigating human-animal interactions can reveal significant insight into the human past, offering explanations for our modern relationship with the natural world. The following study has used this perspective to reinvestigate how the English experienced the Atlantic and imagined their place within it. Predominantly focusing on published accounts written by English voyagers, this research has revealed that animals played a significant part in how seafarers communicated about foreign environments. As animals became part of a distinctly English discourse of discovery, their presence indicated the resource or settlement potential of foreign lands. In addition, descriptions of subduing, conquering or safely navigating the natural world became common methods of illustrating English success in an Atlantic currently dominated by the Spanish. Animals, and the natural world more broadly, were consequently used to justify the future possibility of an expanded English commonwealth. Overall, this research reconsiders how the English approached the Atlantic world and mentally constructed a place for themselves within it. This is significant as it shows how the growing violent and exploitative attitude seafarers developed towards the animal kingdom built a foundation for later English imperial activity

How Does Sense of Agency Develop Across Adolescence?

A sense of agency (SoA) refers to an individual’s awareness of their control over their voluntary actions and the sensory consequences of those actions. Experiencing a veridical SoA is imperative to basic functioning as it facilitates effective goal-directed action. Despite this, a consensus on the trajectory at which the capacity to experience a SoA develops from childhood to adulthood has remained absent from past literature. To resolve this issue, SoA development was investigated by evaluating the influence of age on the functional efficiency of the forward model; the cognitive framework believed to generate a SoA. More specifically, the current research examined the extent to which children, adolescents and adults could, i) accurately predict the outcome of their action, and ii) update their action-outcome knowledge following post-action feedback; two skills indicative of a precise forward model. A synchronisation-continuation task (chapter 3) was used to assess the impact of age on both the capacity to form veridical action-outcome predictions and update action-outcome knowledge in children, adolescents and adults. To isolate the effect of age on action-outcome prediction, a cued reaction time task (chapter 4) and a goal-switching task (chapter 5) were also administered to children, adolescents, and adults. Likewise, an outcome learning task (chapter 6) was used to assess how post-action learning changes from adolescence to adulthood. It was revealed that the frequency at which individuals engage in action-outcome prediction (chapter 4) and the quality of those predictions (chapters 3 and 5) improves with age. Similarly, the accuracy (chapter 3) and magnitude (chapter 6) to which individuals can update action-outcome knowledge in response to feedback was also found to refine with age. Moreover, the results of this thesis extend prior knowledge by suggesting that forward model precision, and thereby, the capacity to experience a SoA, develops with age across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood

How Does Sense of Agency Develop Across Adolescence?

A sense of agency (SoA) refers to an individual’s awareness of their control over their voluntary actions and the sensory consequences of those actions. Experiencing a veridical SoA is imperative to basic functioning as it facilitates effective goal-directed action. Despite this, a consensus on the trajectory at which the capacity to experience a SoA develops from childhood to adulthood has remained absent from past literature. To resolve this issue, SoA development was investigated by evaluating the influence of age on the functional efficiency of the forward model; the cognitive framework believed to generate a SoA. More specifically, the current research examined the extent to which children, adolescents and adults could, i) accurately predict the outcome of their action, and ii) update their action-outcome knowledge following post-action feedback; two skills indicative of a precise forward model. A synchronisation-continuation task (chapter 3) was used to assess the impact of age on both the capacity to form veridical action-outcome predictions and update action-outcome knowledge in children, adolescents and adults. To isolate the effect of age on action-outcome prediction, a cued reaction time task (chapter 4) and a goal-switching task (chapter 5) were also administered to children, adolescents, and adults. Likewise, an outcome learning task (chapter 6) was used to assess how post-action learning changes from adolescence to adulthood. It was revealed that the frequency at which individuals engage in action-outcome prediction (chapter 4) and the quality of those predictions (chapters 3 and 5) improves with age. Similarly, the accuracy (chapter 3) and magnitude (chapter 6) to which individuals can update action-outcome knowledge in response to feedback was also found to refine with age. Moreover, the results of this thesis extend prior knowledge by suggesting that forward model precision, and thereby, the capacity to experience a SoA, develops with age across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood

‘Treat GTAs as colleagues, rather than spare parts’: the identity, agency, and wellbeing of graduate teaching assistants

In recent years, the wellbeing of students and staff in Higher Education has received increased attention in pedagogical research. However, the experiences of Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs), or PhD researchers who teach alongside their doctoral studies, are notably absent from this literature. In this mixed-methods study, we examined predictors of GTA’s wellbeing in UK institutions. This demonstrated that greater perceived agency and lower levels of over-commitment predicted higher wellbeing. Other variables, including social identity, role pride, work/life balance, effort-reward imbalance, and perceived effectiveness of teaching, did not predict wellbeing. We also qualitatively examined the identity management practices of GTAs, using a brief story completion task. A reflexive thematic analysis generated two dominant themes (1), the ‘paradox of credibility’, whereby GTAs reported grappling with a concern to be perceived as credible and worthy of teaching whilst also managing student expectations about their own knowledge, and (2) GTAs’ desire to use their staff-student role to engage in ‘approachability and advocacy’ with and for students. We end with a set of recommendations for Higher Education Institutions that employ GTAs, informed by first-hand accounts of lived experiences

Midwifery students’ views and experiences of birth on mainstream factual television

© 2020 Objectives: To investigate midwifery students’ experiences of viewing childbirth on mainstream factual television and to explore implications for student career intentions and potential pedagogical uses of television excerpts in midwifery education. Design: Twenty-two undergraduate midwifery students at one of two universities took place in focus groups between February and June 2019. Ethical approval was obtained at both sites. Thematic analysis was employed to generate key themes from the data. Setting: Two UK universities based in the East Midlands and East Yorkshire regions of England. Participants: Twenty-two midwifery students at any stage of their studies. Findings: Researchers generated four key themes from the data a) Changed Perspectives on Televised Childbirth, b) Representations of Midwives and Social Implications, c) Representation of Childbirth and Social Implications and d) The Role of Televising Childbirth in Midwifery Education. Key conclusions: Midwifery students often experience a change of perspective on birth on television as they acquire new knowledge and skills. They recognise the potential social implications of how childbirth and midwifery are represented on television. Pedagogical use of televised birth has potential benefits but needs further investigation in the context of midwifery education. Implications for practice: Midwifery students are likely to begin their studies with pre-existing views and experiences around how birth is represented on mainstream factual television. They may need support to reflect on these to consider their expectations of the profession, to effectively support childbearing women and to potentially influence future production of media images of childbirth

Teaching open and reproducible scholarship: a critical review of the evidence base for current pedagogical methods and their outcomes

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate research training. Specifically, a critical overview of the literature which investigates how integrating open and reproducible science may influence student outcomes is needed. In this paper, we provide the first critical review of literature surrounding the integration of open and reproducible scholarship into teaching and learning and its associated outcomes in students. Our review highlighted how embedding open and reproducible scholarship appears to be associated with (i) students' scientific literacies (i.e. students’ understanding of open research, consumption of science and the development of transferable skills); (ii) student engagement (i.e. motivation and engagement with learning, collaboration and engagement in open research) and (iii) students' attitudes towards science (i.e. trust in science and confidence in research findings). However, our review also identified a need for more robust and rigorous methods within pedagogical research, including more interventional and experimental evaluations of teaching practice. We discuss implications for teaching and learning scholarship.Social decision makin

Heterogeneity in the physiological states and pharmacological responses of differentiating 3T3-L1 preadipocytes

A systems biology–based analysis shows that differentiating adipocytes look very different at the single-cell level and form distinct cellular subpopulations

Magnetic Flux Density Sensor Analysis

Undergraduate Basi

Worldwide comparison of survival from childhood leukaemia for 1995–2009, by subtype, age, and sex (CONCORD-2): a population-based study of individual data for 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries

Background Global inequalities in access to health care are reflected in differences in cancer survival. The CONCORD programme was designed to assess worldwide differences and trends in population-based cancer survival. In this population-based study, we aimed to estimate survival inequalities globally for several subtypes of childhood leukaemia. Methods Cancer registries participating in CONCORD were asked to submit tumour registrations for all children aged 0-14 years who were diagnosed with leukaemia between Jan 1, 1995, and Dec 31, 2009, and followed up until Dec 31, 2009. Haematological malignancies were defined by morphology codes in the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third revision. We excluded data from registries from which the data were judged to be less reliable, or included only lymphomas, and data from countries in which data for fewer than ten children were available for analysis. We also excluded records because of a missing date of birth, diagnosis, or last known vital status. We estimated 5-year net survival (ie, the probability of surviving at least 5 years after diagnosis, after controlling for deaths from other causes [background mortality]) for children by calendar period of diagnosis (1995-99, 2000-04, and 2005-09), sex, and age at diagnosis (< 1, 1-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years, inclusive) using appropriate life tables. We estimated age-standardised net survival for international comparison of survival trends for precursor-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Findings We analysed data from 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries. During 1995-99, 5-year agestandardised net survival for all lymphoid leukaemias combined ranged from 10.6% (95% CI 3.1-18.2) in the Chinese registries to 86.8% (81.6-92.0) in Austria. International differences in 5-year survival for childhood leukaemia were still large as recently as 2005-09, when age-standardised survival for lymphoid leukaemias ranged from 52.4% (95% CI 42.8-61.9) in Cali, Colombia, to 91.6% (89.5-93.6) in the German registries, and for AML ranged from 33.3% (18.9-47.7) in Bulgaria to 78.2% (72.0-84.3) in German registries. Survival from precursor-cell ALL was very close to that of all lymphoid leukaemias combined, with similar variation. In most countries, survival from AML improved more than survival from ALL between 2000-04 and 2005-09. Survival for each type of leukaemia varied markedly with age: survival was highest for children aged 1-4 and 5-9 years, and lowest for infants (younger than 1 year). There was no systematic difference in survival between boys and girls. Interpretation Global inequalities in survival from childhood leukaemia have narrowed with time but remain very wide for both ALL and AML. These results provide useful information for health policy makers on the effectiveness of health-care systems and for cancer policy makers to reduce inequalities in childhood survival