The role of online discussion in the context of the Master of Teaching (MTeach)

This research concerns the professional development of teachers in their first\ud year of teaching. It seeks to find out more about how online discussions (ODs)\ud undertaken by teachers, as part of the MTeach, contributed to this development\ud process. During the MTeach teachers in this study worked in online tutor\ud groups. These were made up from teachers from different schools, phases\ud (primary and secondary) and subjects. Their accounts of participation in the\ud ODs, written towards the end of the first year of teaching together with\ud interviews conducted with a selection of these teachers at a later stage in their\ud career, formed the data gathered for the research. The research was guided by\ud the main question: how have the ODs facilitated new teacher development\ud within the context of the MTeach? It appeared that the ODs enabled new\ud teachers to participate by writing for an audience of peers, and by providing a\ud sense of community, which through an underlying practitioner focus developed\ud their criticality. These new teachers developed a collegiality, reflexivity and an\ud engagement with wider and longer term perspectives about their professional\ud practice. The research concluded that the gains from the online discussions\ud were the result of careful 'pedagogic design' at several levels. The overarching\ud finding is that by foregrounding the situated experiences and interests of the\ud teachers, a 'way in' is provided for them to understand more fully the\ud complexities, dilemmas and strategies encountered in their own and others'\ud professional practice

Rural to Urban Migration and Changes in Cardiovascular risk Factors in Tanzania: A Prospective Cohort Study.

High levels of rural to urban migration are a feature of most African countries. Our aim was to investigate changes, and their determinants, in cardiovascular risk factors on rural to urban migration in Tanzania. Men and women (15 to 59 years) intending to migrate from Morogoro rural region to Dar es Salaam for at least 6 months were identified. Measurements were made at least one week but no more than one month prior to migration, and 1 to 3 monthly after migration. Outcome measures included body mass index, blood pressure, fasting lipids, and self reported physical activity and diet. One hundred and three men, 106 women, mean age 29 years, were recruited and 132 (63.2%) followed to 12 months. All the figures presented here refer to the difference between baseline and 12 months in these 132 individuals. Vigorous physical activity declined (79.4% to 26.5% in men, 37.8% to 15.6% in women, p < 0.001), and weight increased (2.30 kg men, 2.35 kg women, p < 0.001). Intake of red meat increased, but so did the intake of fresh fruit and vegetables. HDL cholesterol increased in men and women (0.24, 0.25 mmoll-1 respectively, p < 0.001); and in men, not women, total cholesterol increased (0.42 mmoll-1, p = 0.01), and triglycerides fell (0.31 mmoll-1, p = 0.034). Blood pressure appeared to fall in both men and women. For example, in men systolic blood pressure fell by 5.4 mmHg, p = 0.007, and in women by 8.6 mmHg, p = 0.001. The lower level of physical activity and increasing weight will increase the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. However, changes in diet were mixed, and may have contributed to mixed changes in lipid profiles and a lack of rise in blood pressure. A better understanding of the changes occurring on rural to urban migration is needed to guide preventive measures

Nano-scavengers for blood biomarker discovery in ovarian carcinoma

The development and implementation of biomarker-based screening tools for ovarian cancer require novel analytical platforms to enable the discovery of biomarker panels that will overcome the limitations associated with the clinically used CA-125.The systematic discovery of protein biomarkers directly from human plasma using proteomics remains extremely challenging, due to the wide concentration range of plasma proteins. Here, we describe the use of lipid-based nanoparticles (NPs) as an 'omics' enrichment tool to amplify cancer signals in the blood and to uncover disease specific signatures. We aimed to exploit the spontaneous interaction of clinically-used liposomes (Caelyx®) with plasma proteins, also known as' protein corona' formation, in order to facilitate the discovery of previously unreported differentially abundant molecules. Caelyx® liposomes were incubated with plasma samples obtained from advanced ovarian carcinoma patients and healthy donors and corona-coated liposomes were subsequently recovered. Comprehensive comparison between 'healthy' and 'diseased' corona samples by label-free proteomics resulted in the identification of multiple differentially abundant proteins. Moreover, immunoassay-based validation of selected proteins demonstrated the potential of nanoparticle-platform proposed to discover novel molecules with great diagnostic potential. This study proposes a nanoparticle-enabled workflow for plasma proteomic analysis in healthy and diseased states and paves the way for further work needed to discover and validate panels of novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis and monitoring

Stroke risk factors in an incident population in urban and rural Tanzania: a prospective, community-based, case-control study

Background The burden of stroke on health systems in low-income and middle-income countries is increasing. However, high-quality data for modifi able stroke risk factors in sub-Saharan Africa are scarce, with no communitybased, case-control studies previously published. We aimed to identify risk factors for stroke in an incident population from rural and urban Tanzania. Methods Stroke cases from urban Dar-es-Salaam and the rural Hai district were recruited in a wider study of stroke incidence between June 15, 2003, and June 15, 2006. We included cases with fi rst-ever and recurrent stroke. Community-acquired controls recruited from the background census populations of the two study regions were matched with cases for age and sex and were interviewed and assessed. Data relating to medical and social history were recorded and blood samples taken. Findings We included 200 stroke cases (69 from Dar-es-Salaam and 131 from Hai) and 398 controls (138 from Dar-es- Salaam and 260 from Hai). Risk factors were similar at both sites, with previous cardiac event (odds ratio [OR] 7·39, 95% CI 2·42–22·53; p<0·0001), HIV infection (5·61, 2·41–13·09; p<0·0001), a high ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol (4·54, 2·49–8·28; p<0·0001), smoking (2·72, 1·49–4·96; p=0·001), and hypertension (2·14, 1·09–4·17; p=0·026) identifi ed as signifi cant independent risk factors for stroke. In Hai, additional risk factors of diabetes (4·04, 1·29–12·64) and low HDL cholesterol (9·84, 4·06–23·84) were also signifi cant. Interpretation We have identifi ed many of the risk factors for stroke already reported for other world regions. HIV status was an independent risk factor for stroke within an antiretroviral-naive population. Clinicians should be aware of the increased risk of stroke in people with HIV, even in the absence of antiretroviral treatment

The Application of a Hypothesis-driven Strategy to the Sensitive Detection and Location of Acetylated Lysine Residues

The application of a hypothesis-driven method for the sensitive determination of lysine acetylation sites on enzymatically digested proteins is described. Comparative sensitivity tests were carried out using serial dilution of an acetylated bovine serum albumin (AcBSA) digest to assess the performance of a multiple reaction monitoring (MRM)–based approach as compared to a more conventional precursor scanning (PS) method. Both methods were capable of selectively detecting an acetylated peptide at the low femtomole level when spiked into a background of 500 fmol six-protein tryptic digest. The MRM approach was roughly tenfold more sensitive than precursor scanning with one acetylated peptide detected and sequenced at the level of 2 fmol on-column. The technique was subsequently applied to a gel-derived sample of cytokeratin-8 (CK8) shown to contain acetylated lysine residues by Western blot analysis. The strategy applied herein, termed MRM-initiated detection and sequencing (MIDAS), resulted in the facile identification of novel sites of acetylation on this protein

Pan-cerebral sodium elevations in vascular dementia: Evidence for disturbed brain-sodium homeostasis

Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of cognitive impairment amongst the elderly. However, there are no known disease-modifying therapies for VaD, probably due to incomplete understanding of the molecular basis of the disease. Despite the complex etiology of neurodegenerative conditions, a growing body of research now suggests the potential involvement of metal dyshomeostasis in the pathogenesis of several of the age-related dementias. However, by comparison, there remains little research investigating brain metal levels in VaD. In order to shed light on the possible involvement of metal dyshomeostasis in VaD, we employed inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to quantify the levels of essential metals in post-mortem VaD brain tissue (n = 10) and age-/sex-matched controls (n = 10) from seven brain regions. We found novel evidence for elevated wet-weight cerebral sodium levels in VaD brain tissue in six out of the seven regions analyzed. Decreased cerebral-potassium levels as well as increased Na/K ratios (consistent with high tissue sodium and low potassium levels) were also observed in several brain regions. These data suggest that reduced Na+/K+-exchanging ATPase (EC 7.2.2.13) activity could contribute to the contrasting changes in sodium and potassium measured here

Identification and Prioritization of Analysis Cases for Marine and Hydrokinetic Energy Risk Screening

In this report we describe the development of the Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), a risk-informed analytical process for estimating the environmental risks associated with the construction and operation of marine and hydrokinetic energy generation projects. The development process consists of two main phases of analysis. In the first phase, preliminary risk analyses will take the form of screening studies in which key environmental impacts and the uncertainties that create risk are identified, leading to a better-focused characterization of the relevant environmental effects. Existence of critical data gaps will suggest areas in which specific modeling and/or data collection activities should take place. In the second phase, more detailed quantitative risk analyses will be conducted, with residual uncertainties providing the basis for recommending risk mitigation and monitoring activities. We also describe the process used for selecting three cases for fiscal year 2010 risk screening analysis using the ERES. A case is defined as a specific technology deployed in a particular location involving certain environmental receptors specific to that location. The three cases selected satisfy a number of desirable criteria: 1) they correspond to real projects whose deployment is likely to take place in the foreseeable future; 2) the technology developers are willing to share technology and project-related data; 3) the projects represent a diversity of technology-site-receptor characteristics; 4) the projects are of national interest, and 5) environmental effects data may be available for the projects