Initiating change in classrooms: Pathways and challenges for East African schools

This paper draws upon classroom-related findings from a set of impact case studies of whole school improvement in six primary schools that have been involved as “cooperating schools” in long-term school-university partnerships with the Aga Khan University Institute for Educational Development (IED), and it’s Professional Development Centre in East Africa (PDC-EA). The IED approach for school improvement involves participating schools in multiple strands of professional development, including: a two-year masters degree programme that provides selected teachers with the pedagogical and leadership knowledge and skills to serve as Professional Development Teachers in their schools; Certificate in Education programmes (CEP) for teachers focused on enhancing subject matter content knowledge and methods (English, Maths, Science, Social Studies, Primary Education); and a certificate programme for head teachers designed to develop their capacity to manage and lead continuous school development in coordination with the teacher development inputs. School participation in the IED and PDC-EA programmes is expected to result in positive impact in four areas: teaching and learning methods; academic coordination and leadership; professional collaboration amongst teachers; and student learning outcomes. IED and PDC-EA inputs into cooperating schools are not delivered all at once. The schools typically involve a few teachers and/or administrators over a period of years in the various programs. Thus, in order to assess and understand the “impact” of this multi-pronged approach to school improvement, it was necessary to select and study schools that had been involved with IED and/or PDC-EA over a long term (5+ years) and that had supported teacher and administrator participation in a variety of the IED and PDC-EA training programmes. The case studies were conducted between August 2004 and March 2005 by a team of researchers from AKU-IED and PDCEA. Data sources included classroom observations, interviews with teacher leaders and teachers (trained and untrained), interviews with school administrators, collection of relevant documents (lesson plans, sample of students’ work, school development plan), collection and analysis of samples of student work and examination papers, and the collection and analysis of student academic results (e.g., in-school test outcomes) maintained by the school over the time frame studied

Bystander effects and their implications for clinical radiation therapy : insights from multiscale in silico experiments

GGP and MAJC thank University of Dundee, where this research was carried out. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the ERC Advanced Investigator Grant 227619, M5CGS - From Mutations to Metastases: Multiscale Mathematical Modelling of Cancer Growth and Spread. AJM Acknowledges support from EU BIOMICS Project DG-CNECT Contract 318202.Radiotherapy is a commonly used treatment for cancer and is usually given in varying doses. At low radiation doses relatively few cells die as a direct response to radiation but secondary radiation effects, such as DNA mutation or bystander phenomena, may affect many cells. Consequently it is at low radiation levels where an understanding of bystander effects is essential in designing novel therapies with superior clinical outcomes. In this article, we use a hybrid multiscale mathematical model to study the direct effects of radiation as well as radiation-induced bystander effects on both tumour cells and normal cells. We show that bystander responses play a major role in mediating radiation damage to cells at low-doses of radiotherapy, doing more damage than that due to direct radiation. The survival curves derived from our computational simulations showed an area of hyper-radiosensitivity at low-doses that are not obtained using a traditional radiobiological model.PostprintPeer reviewe

The Evidence for a Pentaquark Signal and Kinematic Reflections

Several recent experiments have reported evidence for a narrow baryon resonance with positive strangeness ($\Theta^+$) at a mass of 1.54 GeV/$c^2$. Baryons with $S=+1$ cannot be conventional $qqq$ states and the reports have thus generated much theoretical speculation about the nature of possible $S=+1$ baryons, including a 5-quark, or pentaquark, interpretation. We show that narrow enhancements in the $K^+n$ effective mass spectrum can be generated as kinematic reflections resulting from the decay of mesons, such as the $f_2(1275)$, the $a_2(1320)$ and the $\rho_3(1690)$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Investigating the energy consumption of the PECM process for consideration in the selection of manufacturing process chains

The initial planning of manufacturing process chains provides the opportunity to sustainably influence the energy requirement for the manufacturing of industrial products by selecting the process chain with the lowest energy consumption. However, the task is still challenging due to the need for energy consumption data of manufacturing equipment. In this paper, the analysis of the energy consumption of a manufacturing process is illustrated by the example of the Pulse Electrochemical Machining (PECM) process. A comparison of two machine tool generations of the same manufacturer shows the improvement in energy consumption. Based on the information gained from the analysis, an approach for the provision of energy consumption data is presented

Epigenetic regulation of Dlg1, via Kaiso, alters mitotic spindle polarity and promotes intestinal tumourigenesis

Both alterations to the epigenome and loss of polarity have been linked to cancer initiation, progression and metastasis. It has previously been demonstrated that loss of the epigenetic reader protein Kaiso suppresses intestinal tumourigenesis in the Apc+/min mouse model, in which altered polarity plays a key role. Thus, we investigated the link between Kaiso deficiency, polarity and suppression of intestinal tumourigenesis. We used Kaiso deficient mice to conditionally delete Apc within the intestinal epithelia and demonstrated up-regulation of the spindle polarity genes Dlg1 and Dlgap1. To understand the role of Dlg1 we generated Villin-creApc+/minDlg1flx/flx Kaiso-/y mice to analyse gene expression, survival, tumour burden and spindle orientation. In vivo analysis of the Dlg1 deficient intestine revealed improper orientation of mitotic spindles and a decreased rate of cellular migration. Loss of Dlg1 decreased survival in Apc+/min mice, validating its role as a tumour suppressor in the intestine. Significantly the increased survival of Apc+/minKaisoy/- mice was shown to be dependent on Dlg1 expression. Taken together this data indicates that maintenance of spindle polarity in the intestinal crypt requires appropriate regulation of Dlg1 expression. As Dlg1 loss leads to incorrect spindle orientation and a delay in cells transiting the intestinal crypt. We propose that the delayed exit from the crypt increases the window in which spontaneous mutations can become fixed, producing a 'tumour-permissive' environment, without an increase in mutation rate. Implications: Loss of mitotic spindle polarity delays the exit of cells from the intestinal crypt and promotes a tumourigenic environment

A search for J^{PC}=1^{-+} exotic mesons in the pi- pi- pi+ and pi- pi0 pi0 systems

A partial wave analysis (PWA) of the pi-pi-pi+ and pi-pi0pi0 systems produced in the reaction pi- p -> (3pi)-p at 18 GeV/c was carried out using an isobar model assumption. This analysis is based on 3.0M pi-pi0pi0 events and 2.6M pi-pi-pi+ events and shows production of the a2(1320), pi2(1670) and \pi(1800) mesons. An earlier analysis of 250K pi-pi-pi+ events from the same experiment showed possible evidence for a J^{PC}=1^{-+}$ exotic meson with a mass of 1.6 GeV/c^2 decaying into rho pi. In this analysis of a higher statistics sample of the (3pi)- system in two charged modes we find no evidence of an exotic meson.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, added comment about the negative reflectivity exotic wave