Religieuze socialisatie in het ouderlijke gezin: een sibling-analyse

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Reading Ability and Academic Acculturation: The Case of South African Students entering Higher Education

First-year students experience a range of challenges when transferring from secondary to higher education (HE) (cf. Darlaston-Jones et al. 2003, Leki 2006, Brinkworth et al. 2009). This is no different in South Africa, where deviating levels of preparedness for the demands of HE is a recurring theme (Slonimsky and Shalem 2005, Van Schalkwyk 2008, Scott 2009, Yeld 2009, Van Dyk 2010, Van Dyk and Coetzee-Van Rooy 2012). Weideman (2003:56) rightfully points out that the inability to understand and utilise appropriate academic discourse has a detrimental effect on academic success. Young students need to acculturate to the academic environment while adopting the academic community’s currency (Van de Poel and Gasiorek 2012a:294). With this article, we wish to contribute to the discussion by reporting on the academic language ability of one group of first-year students at a South African university, with specific reference to these students’ reading ability, on the basis of the following data: (i) individual differences in terms of learner characteristics (race, first language, gender, Grade 12 results, academic performance); (ii) self-reported reading preparedness; and (iii) reading profiles resulting from a valid and reliable academic literacy test, the Test of Academic Literacy Levels (TALL) and its Afrikaans counterpart, the Toets van Akademiese Geletterdheidsvlakke (TAG). The findings suggest that academic reading ability, as reflected in the test results, is indeed one of the salient contributors to academic success (as confirmed in the literature), regardless of social and individual differences, and that it needs to be supported in order for students to perceive their reading ability in accordance with their reading performance and be able to progress in their academic acculturation. A follow-up study will report on students’ awareness-raising about their own academic reading through the use of the validated scale for Perceived Academic Reading Preparedness (PARP) as a pedagogical tool.Keywords: Academic Acculturation, Academic Literacy, Academic Reading, Perceptions of Reading Ability, Academic Performanc

Land-use effects on local biodiversity in tropical forests vary between continents

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A phylogenetic classification of the world’s tropical forests

Knowledge about the biogeographic affinities of the world’s tropical forests helps to better understand regional differences in forest structure, diversity, composition and dynamics. Such understanding will enable anticipation of region specific responses to global environmental change. Modern phylogenies, in combination with broad coverage of species inventory data, now allow for global biogeographic analyses that take species evolutionary distance into account. Here we present the first classification of the world’s tropical forests based on their phylogenetic similarity. We identify five principal floristic regions and their floristic relationships: (1) Indo-Pacific, (2) Subtropical, (3) African, (4) American, and (5) Dry forests. Our results do not support the traditional Neo- versus Palaeo-tropical forest division, but instead separate the combined American and African forests from their Indo-Pacific counterparts. We also find indications for the existence of a global dry forest region, with representatives in America, Africa, Madagascar and India. Additionally, a northern hemisphere Subtropical forest region was identified with representatives in Asia and America, providing support for a link between Asian and American northern hemisphere forests

IFN(sic) but not IFNa increases recognition of insulin defective ribosomal product-derived antigen to amplify islet autoimmunity

Aims/hypothesisThe inflammatory milieu characteristic of insulitis affects translation fidelity and generates defective ribosomal products (DRiPs) that participate in autoimmune beta cell destruction in type 1 diabetes. Here, we studied the role of early innate cytokines (IFNα) and late immune adaptive events (IFNɣ) in insulin DRiP-derived peptide presentation to diabetogenic CD8+ T cells.MethodsSingle-cell transcriptomics of human pancreatic islets was used to study the composition of the (immuno)proteasome. Specific inhibition of the immunoproteasome catalytic subunits was achieved using siRNA, and antigenic peptide presentation at the cell surface of the human beta cell line EndoC-βH1 was monitored using peptide-specific CD8 T cells.ResultsWe found that IFNγ induces the expression of the PSMB10 transcript encoding the β2i catalytic subunit of the immunoproteasome in endocrine beta cells, revealing a critical role in insulin DRiP-derived peptide presentation to T cells. Moreover, we showed that PSMB10 is upregulated in a beta cell subset that is preferentially destroyed in the pancreases of individuals with type 1 diabetes.Conclusions/interpretationOur data highlight the role of the degradation machinery in beta cell immunogenicity and emphasise the need for evaluation of targeted immunoproteasome inhibitors to limit beta cell destruction in type 1 diabetes.Nephrolog

Hunting motivations, behaviour and forest access: Characterising wildlife hunting practices in a multi‐ethnic, forested landscape of Brunei Darussalam, Southeast Asia

Unsustainable hunting practices can alter population dynamics, driving biodiversity declines, which leads to ‘empty forests’. Understanding hunting behaviour, including motivations for hunting and relationships with market drivers, and access to hunting grounds are important to develop affirmative policies to stem biodiversity loss. Here, we investigate community hunting behaviour and motivations in the context of road network expansion. We focus on the Temburong District, Brunei Darussalam, which retains large tracts of undegraded rainforests. Cultural hunting has a long history in the region, which few studies have investigated. In 2022, following preliminary research that suggested widespread hunting across Brunei's forests, we conducted household surveys (n = 32) and in‐depth interviews (n = 3) with Temburong residents from multiple ethnic backgrounds to characterise hunting behaviours. We contextualised these surveys and interviews within the recently completed construction of Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien (SOAS) Bridge, which we expected would increase human mobility and thus hunting access. Applying a thematic analysis, we characterised hunting in Temburong. Hunting motivations varied greatly, but the primary motivation for hunting was non‐market wild meat consumption, with target species including bearded pig, muntjac and mousedeer, which were primarily snare caught. Hunting had a high level of cultural importance in the region. While hunting is still present in the region, its cultural importance appears to be waning. Our data also present perceptions that the SOAS Bridge may be facilitating access to Temburong's forests for novel hunters, potentially increasing hunting pressure. Policy implications. In Southeast Asia, narratives around hunting often centre on overexploitation and trade. We show that in Brunei, hunting has cultural importance, particularly among Indigenous communities, requiring more careful planning for mitigation strategies aiming to conserve biodiversity to avoid marginalisation of vulnerable communities. Road network expansion may attract new and distant hunters, while complex factors linked to generational changes may reduce hunting pressure in Brunei's forests. Our research thus highlights that local, context‐specific research is required for effective decision‐making surrounding both hunting and development. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

Long RNA sequencing and ribosome profiling of inflamed beta-cells reveal an extensive translatome landscape

Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is an autoimmune disease characterized by autoreactive T cell-mediated destruction of the insulin-producing pancreatic beta -cells. Increasing evidence suggest that the beta -cells themselves contribute to their own destruction by generating neoantigens through the production of aberrant or modified proteins that escape central tolerance. We recently demonstrated that ribosomal infidelity amplified by stress could lead to the generation of neoantigens in human beta -cells, emphasizing the participation of nonconventional translation events in autoimmunity, as occurring in cancer or virus-infected tissues. Using a transcriptome-wide profiling approach to map translation initiation start sites in human beta -cells under standard and inflammatory conditions, we identify a completely new set of polypeptides derived from noncanonical start sites and translation initiation within long noncoding RNA. Our data underline the extreme diversity of the beta -cell translatome and may reveal new functional biomarkers for beta -cell distress, disease prediction and progression, and therapeutic intervention in T1D.Molecular Epidemiolog