Coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity in the hybrid ruthenate-cuprate compound RuSr_2GdCu_2O_8 studied by muon spin rotation (\mu SR) and DC-magnetization

We have investigated the magnetic and the superconducting properties of the hybrid ruthenate-cuprate compound RuSr_{2}GdCu_{2}O_{8} by means of zero-field muon spin rotation- (ZF-$\mu$SR) and DC magnetization measurements. The DC-magnetisation data establish that this material exhibits ferromagnetic order of the Ru-moments ($\mu (Ru) \approx 1 \mu_{B}$) below T_{Curie} = 133 K and becomes superconducting at a much lower temperature T_c = 16 K. The ZF-$\mu$SR experiments indicate that the ferromagnetic phase is homogeneous on a microscopic scale and accounts for most of the sample volume. They also suggest that the magnetic order is not significantly modified at the onset of superconductivity.Comment: improved version submitted to Phys. Rev.

A dedicated vascular access clinic for children on haemodialysis: Two years' experience

BACKGROUND: Arteriovenous fistula (AVF) formation for long-term haemodialysis in children is a niche discipline with little data for guidance. We developed a dedicated Vascular Access Clinic that is run jointly by a transplant surgeon, paediatric nephrologist, dialysis nurse and a clinical vascular scientist specialised in vascular sonography for the assessment and surveillance of AVFs. We report the experience and 2-year outcomes of this clinic. METHODS: Twelve new AVFs were formed and 11 existing AVFs were followed up for 2 years. All children were assessed by clinical and ultrasound examination. RESULTS: During the study period 12 brachiocephalic, nine basilic vein transpositions and two radiocephalic AVFs were followed up. The median age (interquartile range) and weight of those children undergoing new AVF creation were 9.4 (interquartile 3-17) years and 26.9 (14-67) kg, respectively. Pre-operative ultrasound vascular mapping showed maximum median vein and artery diameters of 3.0 (2-5) and 2.7 (2.0-5.3) mm, respectively. Maturation scans 6 weeks after AVF formation showed a median flow of 1277 (432-2880) ml/min. Primary maturation rate was 83 % (10/12). Assisted maturation was 100 %, with two patients requiring a single angioplasty. For the 11 children with an existing AVF the maximum median vein diameter was 14.0 (8.0-26.0) mm, and the median flow rate was 1781 (800-2971) ml/min at a median of 153 weeks after AVF formation. Twenty-two AVFs were used successfully for dialysis, a median kt/V of 1.97 (1.8-2.9), and urea reduction ratio of 80.7 % (79.3-86 %) was observed. One child was transplanted before the AVF was used. CONCLUSIONS: A multidisciplinary vascular clinic incorporating ultrasound assessment is key to maintaining young children on chronic haemodialysis via an AVF

Drosophila heat shock response requires the JNK pathway and phosphorylation of mixed lineage kinase at a conserved serine-proline motif

Abstract Defining context specific requirements for proteins and pathways is a major challenge in the study of signal transduction. For example, the stress-activated protein kinase (SAPK) pathways are comprised of families of closely related transducers that are activated in a variety of tissues and contexts during development and organismal homeostasis. Consequently, redundant and pleiotropic effects have hampered a complete understanding of the individual contributions of transducers in distinct contexts. Here, we report on the function of a context-specific regulatory phosphorylation site, PXSP, in the Drosophila mixed lineage kinase protein, Slpr, a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K) in the Jun Kinase (JNK) pathway. Genetic analysis of the function of non-phosphorylatable (PXAP) and phosphomimetic mutant (PXEP) Slpr transgenes in several distinct contexts revealed minimal effects in JNK-dependent tissue closure processes but differential requirements in heat stress response. In particular, PXAP expression resulted in sensitivity of adults to sustained heat shock, like p38 and JNK pathway mutants. In contrast, PXEP overexpression conferred some resistance. Indeed, phosphorylation of the PXSP motif is enriched under heat shock conditions and requires in part, the p38 kinases for the enrichment. These data suggest that coordination of signaling between p38 and Slpr serves to maintain JNK signaling during heat stress. In sum, we demonstrate a novel role for JNK signaling in the heat shock response in flies and identify a posttranslational modification on Slpr, at a conserved site among MAP3K mixed lineage kinase family members, which bolsters stress resistance with negligible effects on JNK-dependent developmental processes

Fertilizer Statistics for Texas, 1926-1938.

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Commercial Fertilizers in 1943-44.

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Pre-service teachers’ engagement in a cross-curricular television news project: impact on professional identity

This paper focuses on the impact of pre-service teachers’ engagement in the annual BBC News School Report project on their emerging professional identity and on the evidence they provide as part of the process of becoming qualified. The research reported on is drawn from three years of enquiry. Respondents included pre-service teachers themselves, their tutors as representatives of teacher education providers and their mentors as representatives of schools in which they were placed. The methodological approach was interpretative and phenomenological with qualitative and quantitative data being analysed for emergent themes. Two years of evaluations were followed by a third year in which a set of case studies were developed. The research showed that professional identity is enhanced through being in a leading role in respect of curriculum and working with other staff. Through engagement in such projects, this paper moots that preservice teachers develop richer evidence of emerging professionalism as defined by standards of initial teacher training. Moreover, self-perception of role was modified to one in which they saw themselves, and were seen, as equals to qualified staff rather than subservient to or dependent on them. A new more equal power relationship developed as they took on responsibility for the project. Preservice teachers’ move to become full members of the professional community for which they are training was accelerated

“Hello Central, Give Me Doctor Jazz”: Auto/Ethnographic Improvisation as Educational Event in Doctoral Supervision

Through exchanges within a doctoral supervision, the authors explore a range of dilemmas and challenges for reflexive inquiry. These include the problematic business of naming, the impossibility of objective separation of self from research, the merging of researcher subjectivities, and differences between performance and performativity. We note the educational potential in what can conventionally be considered “unprofessional” approaches to qualitative inquiry: neologisms, personal experience, stories, conversations, music, poetry, paintings, and film. We engage in reflexive interactions with each other and with such “data.” This was undertaken in the spirit of jazz improvisation—an unrehearsed performance—something that “happened,” an unplanned educational event but also an agency enabled by structure

Subjectivation and performative politics—Butler thinking Althusser and Foucault: intelligibility, agency and the raced-nationed-religioned subjects of education

Judith Butler is perhaps best known for her take-up of the debate between Derrida and Austin over the function of the performative and her subsequent suggestion that the subject be understood as performatively constituted. Another important but less often noted move within Butler‘s consideration of the processes through which the subject is constituted is her thinking between Althusser‘s notion of subjection and Foucault‘s notion of subjectivation. In this paper, I explore Butler‘s understanding of processes of subjectivation; examine the relationship between subjectivation and the performative suggested in and by Butler‘s work, and consider how the performative is implicated in processes of subjectivation – in =who‘ the subject is, or might be, subjectivated as. Finally, I examine the usefulness of understanding the subjectivating effects of discourse for education, in particular for educationalists concerned to make better sense of and interrupt educational inequalities. In doing this I offer a reading of an episode of ethnographic data generated in an Australian high School. I suggest that it is through subjectivating processes of the sort that Butler helps us to understand that some students are rendered subjects inside the educational endeavour, and others are rendered outside this endeavour or, indeed, outside student-hood