The cultural and creative function of moving image literacy in the subject of English in the Greek secondary school

Teaching media literacy as a separate school subject or as part of another school subject is lacking from the Greek educational reality, despite the international academic research and the development and application of media literacy teaching models. This thesis is an analysis of two case study research projects carried out in groups of students in two Greek secondary schools with the aim to study the students’ response to media projects, which are totally new for the Greek educational reality, realized in the English as a Foreign Language class. The data is analyzed according to Burn and Durran’s 3-Cs model of media literacy, and more precisely its Cultural and Creative functions are the aspects used that include the concepts of Cultural Taste, Identity, and Creativity. These concepts are interpreted within the framework of Cultural Studies and Psychology theories. Important theoreticians considered are Bourdieu, Bennett, Giddens, Vygotsky, Jenkins and Bakhtin. The examination of students’ participation in the media projects and their production work suggest that their cultural taste is a combination of global and local influences, a glocal result, in which the family, the peers, the media and the education play an important role. Their identity is multi-faceted, as a reflection of various aspects of their selves, and it is closely related to their cultural taste and their cultural capital. Students’ creativity is also expressed as a complex process, affected both by the guidance of the official educational context and the youth popular culture tendencies. The tensions that emerge in the expression of the students’ cultural taste, identity and creativity during moving image projects characterize the Greek adolescents’ response to the newly-learnt moving image literacy, and raise important questions for educators and researchers

Assessing the tourist and recreational potential in the South of Russia

The article is concerned with the holistic approach to the study of the tourism potential of the South of Russia. The paper presents analyses of various techniques to the research of the tourist opportunities of territories both in Russia and in other countries. Methodological approaches are described in the study of the macroregions tourist potential. The assessment and ranking of the natural, cultural, and socio-economic potential of all administrative entities forming the South of Russia in terms of their importance for tourism have been carried out. The aggregate indicator of tourist and recreational potential of each entity has been calculated. Regions with a high level of tourist and recreational potential, relatively high, average, and relatively low are identified

Effective blocking of the white enhancer requires cooperation between two main mechanisms suggested for the insulator function.

Chromatin insulators block the action of transcriptional enhancers when interposed between an enhancer and a promoter. In this study, we examined the role of chromatin loops formed by two unrelated insulators, gypsy and Fab-7, in their enhancer-blocking activity. To test for this activity, we selected the white reporter gene that is activated by the eye-specific enhancer. The results showed that one copy of the gypsy or Fab-7 insulator failed to block the eye enhancer in most of genomic sites, whereas a chromatin loop formed by two gypsy insulators flanking either the eye enhancer or the reporter completely blocked white stimulation by the enhancer. However, strong enhancer blocking was achieved due not only to chromatin loop formation but also to the direct interaction of the gypsy insulator with the eye enhancer, which was confirmed by the 3C assay. In particular, it was observed that Mod(mdg4)-67.2, a component of the gypsy insulator, interacted with the Zeste protein, which is critical for the eye enhancer-white promoter communication. These results suggest that efficient enhancer blocking depends on the combination of two factors: chromatin loop formation by paired insulators, which generates physical constraints for enhancer-promoter communication, and the direct interaction of proteins recruited to an insulator and to the enhancer-promoter pair

The enhancer-blocking activity of the Fab-7 insulator in one copy.

<p>Transgenic lines were grouped into those in which the Fab-7 insulator (F7, black rectangle) displayed (A) weak or (B) strong enhancer-blocking activity. (C) Homozygous transgenic lines in which the Fab-7 insulator displayed a weak enhancer-blocking activity. Other designations are as in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>.</p

Model describing the mechanisms of enhancer blocking by the <i>gypsy</i> insulator.

<p>(A) The chromatin loop formed by the interacting insulators is not sufficient for effective blocking of the enhancer–promoter communication coordinated by Zeste. (B) The <i>gypsy</i> insulators block the eye enhancer by two different mechanisms: the chromatin loop formed by interacting <i>gypsy</i> insulators induces physical constrains on the enhancer–promoter communication; the interaction of Mod(mdg4)-67.2 with Zeste interferes with the enhancer-promoter communication. (C) The <i>gypsy</i> insulators located in opposite orientation block interaction between the eye enhancer located within the loop and <i>white</i> promoter located outside the loop; (D) The <i>gypsy</i> insulators located in the same orientation bring together the eye enhancer located within the loop and the <i>white</i> promoter located outside the loop. (E) The <i>gypsy</i> insulator located on the 3′ side of the <i>white</i> gene interacts with the enhancer and promoter.</p

Testing for the interaction between the Mod(mdg4)-67.2 and Zeste proteins.

<p>(A) Summary of interactions between Mod(mdg4)-67.2 and Zeste in the yeast two-hybrid assay. Schemes show the structure of the full-length Mod(mdg4)-67.2 and its deletion derivatives, indicating the main domains of this protein. Plus and minus signs refer to a relatively strong interaction and the absence of interaction, respectively. Different fragments of Mod(mdg4)-67.2 were individually fused to the C-terminus of the GAL4 activating domain and tested for the interaction with Zeste fused to the C terminus of GAL4 DNA binding domain. All Mod(mdg4) fragments were tested for the absence of interaction with GAL4 DNA binding domain alone. (B) Nuclear extracts from <i>Drosophila</i> S2 cells were immunoprecipitated with antibodies specific for the indicated proteins (with preimmune IgG used as a negative control), and the immunoprecipitates (IPs) were analyzed by Western blotting for the presence of Mod(mdg4)-67.2 (designated Mod), Su(Hw) and Zeste proteins. (C) The results of ChIP (percentage of input DNA normalized relative to the endogenous positive binding site for Zeste from the <i>Ubx</i> promoter region) of specified chromatin regions with antibodies to Zeste in the transgenic construct. Analysis was performed with wild-type and <i>mod(mdg4)^u1/mod(mdg4)^u1</i> (m/m) pupae carrying the transgenic construct. Error bars indicate standard deviations of quadruplicate PCR measurements. Other designations are as in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g009" target="_blank">9</a>.</p

Binding of insulator proteins to the eye enhancer, promoter, <i>white</i> gene and <i>gypsy</i> insulators in the transgenic construct.

<p>Chromatin was isolated from transgenic flies carrying the construct or its derivatives described in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g008" target="_blank">Figure 8</a> was treated with antibodies against CP190, Mod(mdg4)-67.2 (designated as MOD), E(y)2, and Su(Hw). The results of ChIP are presented as a percentage of input DNA normalized relative to the endogenous positive binding site for insulator proteins from the 62D region. Relative locations of primers for ChIP are indicated under the construct scheme. Proximal and distal <i>gypsy</i> insulators are designated as Gp and Gd correspondingly. The <i>rpl32</i> and <i>tubulin</i> (tub) coding regions were used as controls devoid of binding sites for the test proteins. Error bars indicate standard deviations of quadruplicate PCR measurements. Other designations are as in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1</a>.</p

Testing the enhancer-blocking activity of the <i>gypsy</i> insulator in one copy.

<p>Transgenic lines were grouped into those in which the <i>gypsy</i> insulator displayed (A) weak or (B) strong enhancer-blocking activity. (C) Homozygous transgenic lines in which the <i>gypsy</i> insulator displayed a weak enhancer-blocking activity. In the reductive scheme of the transgenic construct used in the assay, the <i>white</i> gene is shown as white box with an arrow indicating the direction of transcription; the triangle indicates deletion of the Wari insulator located at the 3′ end of the <i>white</i> gene; downward arrows indicate target sites for Flp recombinase (<i>frt</i>) or Cre recombinase (<i>lox</i>); the same sites in construct names are denoted by parentheses; the eye enhancer (E) is shown as white rectangle; the direction of the <i>gypsy</i> insulator (Gy) is indicated by the apex of the pentagon. The numbers of transgenic lines with different levels of <i>white</i> pigmentation in the eyes are indicated. Arrows indicate the excision of an element to produce the derivative transgenic lines. Wild-type <i>white</i> expression determined the bright red eye color (R); in the absence of <i>white</i> expression, the eyes were white (W). Intermediate levels of pigmentation, with the eye color ranging from pale yellow (pY), through yellow (Y), dark yellow (dY), orange (Or), dark orange (dOr), and brown (Br) to brownish red (BrR), reflect the increasing levels of <i>white</i> expression. N is the number of lines in which flies acquired a new eye color phenotype by deletion (Δ) of the specified DNA fragment; T is the total number of lines examined for each particular construct. <i>z^v77h</i>, a null-mutation of the <i>zeste</i> gene.</p

Testing the activities of <i>gypsy</i> insulators flanking the <i>white</i> gene.

<p>The <i>gypsy</i> insulators flanking the <i>white</i> gene are inserted either (A) in the opposite or (B) in the same orientation. (C) Insertion of the 4.6-kb DNA fragment between the eye enhancer and the <i>white</i> gene domain flanked by the <i>gypsy</i> insulators. (D) Insertion of the 4.6-kb DNA fragment between the <i>gypsy</i> insulator and the <i>white</i> promoter. Designations are as in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g001" target="_blank">Figures 1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g004" target="_blank">4</a>.</p

The role of <i>gypsy</i> orientation and distance between <i>gypsy</i> insulators in blocking the eye enhancer.

<p>The eye enhancer is inserted in the center of a 4.3-kb domain bordered by the <i>gypsy</i> insulators located (A) in the opposite or (B) in the same orientation. (C) Insertion of additional 2-kb DNA fragment between the 4.3-kb domain bordered by the <i>gypsy</i> insulators and the <i>white</i> promoter. (D, E) The eye enhancer is inserted in a 5.5-kb loop formed by the <i>gypsy</i> insulators located (D) in the opposite or (E) in the same orientation. Designations are as in <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g001" target="_blank">Figures 1</a> and <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1003606#pgen-1003606-g004" target="_blank">4</a>.</p