Challenges and opportunities for culturally responsive leadership in schools: evidence from four European countries

Whether voluntary or enforced, increasing patterns of migration have significantly impacted schools by making them linguistically, culturally, religiously and ethnically more diverse than ever before. This increasing diversity requires school leaders to put in place mechanisms to ensure equity of participation for migration background students. Dimmock and Walker (2005) believe that school leaders need to play a vital role in promoting and sustaining an environment that embraces diversity and, by association, contributes to solving the macro problems of society. To accomplish this emerging role, there is a need for ‘new approaches to educational leadership in which leaders exhibit culturally responsive organisational practices, behaviours and competencies’ (Madhlangobe and Gordon, 2012: p. 177). This is all well and good in theory, but the current and historical context in which school leaders operate, together with the training and supports that are provided, influences, to a significant extent, how culturally responsive leadership can operate in practice. This study, which is part of a European Commission Erasmus+ funded project entitled Supporting Culturally Responsive Leadership and Evaluation in Schools (CReLES), examines these assumptions by mapping out the factors and actors that can hinder and facilitate the flourishing of such practices in four European countries, Austria, Ireland, Russia and Spain

Development of Fermented Kombucha Tea Beverage Enriched with Inulin and B Vitamins

Kombucha is a sweet and sour beverage made by fermenting a liquid base with a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Different tea substrates, carbohydrate sources, and additional ingredients are used to create beverages with different physical and chemical characteristics. The purpose of this work was to create a recipe and technology to study the properties of the beverage based on kombucha with a given chemical composition. The content of added functional ingredients (vitamins and inulin) in quantities comparable with reference daily intake was the specified parameter characterizing the distinctive features of the enriched beverages. For fermentation using symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast, a black tea infusion sweetened with sucrose was used as a substrate. The changes in the physicochemical characteristics of the fermented tea beverage base were evaluated. The dynamics of changes in pH, acidity, the content of mono- and disaccharides, ethanol, organic acids, polyphenolic compounds, and volatile organic substances were shown. The fermentation conditions were selected (pH up to 3.3 ± 0.3, at T = 25 ± 1 °C, process duration of 14 days) to obtain the beverage base. Strawberry and lime leaves were used as flavor and aroma ingredients, and vitamins with inulin were used as functional ingredients. Since the use of additional ingredients changed the finished beverage’s organoleptic profile and increased its content of organic acids, the final product’s physical–chemical properties, antioxidant activity, and organoleptic indicators were assessed. The content of B vitamins in the beverages ranges from 29 to 44% of RDI, and 100% of RDI for inulin, which allows it to be attributed to the category of enriched products. The DPPH inhibitory activity of the beverages was 82.0 ± 7%, and the ethanol content did not exceed 0.43%. The beverages contained a variety of organic acids: lactic (43.80 ± 4.82 mg/100 mL), acetic (205.00 ± 16.40 mg/100 mL), tartaric (2.00 ± 0.14 mg/100 mL), citric (65.10 ± 5.86 mg/100 mL), and malic (45.50 ± 6.37 mg/100 mL). The technology was developed using pilot equipment to produce fermented kombucha tea enriched with inulin and B vitamins

Characteristics of the Pharmacological Regulation of Functional States in Elderly Adults

Introduction. This paper reports a study of characteristics of pharmacological regulation of functional states in elderly adults by means of psycho-relaxation and aromatherapy sessions of various durations with the use of catnip oil. The assessment of functional states was carried out through the analysis of the main parameters of cardiovascular system and subjective estimates of respondents’ health, activity, and mood. This is the first study on the pharmacological effects of catnip essential oil on elderly adults’ functional states, depending on the diffusion duration (10, 20, and 30 minutes), monitored by psycho-relaxation recording. Methods. The study used the following techniques: (a) recording of cardiovascular parameters (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, heart rate, minute blood volume, heart stroke volume, cardiac index, blood circulation index); (b) the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); (c) the Technique for Measuring the Speed of Thought; (d) the Proofreading Test (modified version); (e) Ivanov-Smolensky proofreading tables; and (f) self-assessment diagnostic technique by Dembo-Rubinstein (modified by A. M. Prikhozhan). The study participants were 324 adults aged 50–90 years, including 94 hypertensive respondents who were registered at social services centers for elderly and disabled citizens in Yalta and Simferopol (the Republic of Crimea). Results. The study results show that a 10- or 20-minute non-invasive pharmacological exposure to aromatherapy with the use of catnip oil can positively affect psychophysiological and psychoemotional states and mental working capacity in elderly adults. Discussion. The data obtained indicate that aroma-relaxation treatment with the use of catnip essential oil positively affects functional states in elderly adults, reduces anxiety symptoms, and decreases pulse and systolic blood pressure. Highlights • Pharmacological exposure to catnip essential oil (EO) combined with the psycho-relaxation and aromatherapy treatment can positively affect psychophysiological and psychoemotional states and mental working capacity in elderly adults. • Inhaling catnip essential oil (1 mg/m3) for 10 and 20 minutes reduces situational anxiety. A 30-minute aromatherapy session with the use of catnip essential oil increases the speed of thought. Inhaling catnip essential oil for 10, 20, and 30 minutes increases mental working capacity and subjective self-rating of the overall respondents’ condition, health, mood, vitality, and attention. • Aroma-relaxation treatment with catnip essential oil has a pronounced impact on basic parameters of cardiovascular system in hypertensive elderly adults

Synthesis of NaYF4:Yb,Er@SiO2@Ag core-shell nanoparticles for plasmon-enhanced upconversion luminescence in bio-applications

The present report highlights our results on synthesis of NaYF4:Yb,Er@SiO2@Ag core–shell nanoparticles (CSNPs) for plasmon-enhanced upconversion luminescence (UCL). Hydrophilic surface UCL nanoparticles (UCLNPs) as cores were obtained by precipitation of Rare Earth Elements (REE) chlorides from water-alcohol solutions. The formation of a hydrophobic surface of α-NaYF4:Yb,Er NPs was achieved by thermolysis method at 280 °C and β-NaYF4:Yb,Er by precipitation method in nonpolar medium at 320 °C. Silica shell was formed by the modified Stöber method on the surfaces of UCLNPs with different polarity and phase composition. A mixture of hexane-cyclohexane-isopropyl alcohol was used as a medium for the formation of mononuclear CSNPs on hydrophobic surfaces of cores with different thicknesses of the silica shell: 5 nm and 14 nm. Formation of a predetermined thickness of silica shell was carried out by introducing a precise quantity of TEOS taking into account the size of core NPs with molar ratio TEOS: H2O equal to 1:6. The morphology and phase composition of cores and CSNPs were examined by transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction, respectively. The insertion of Ag NPs into the structure of NaYF4:Yb,Er@SiO2 was carried out in parallel at the stage of shell formation, which made this synthesis a one-step process. The control of the size of Ag NPs was implemented through the use of a colloidal solution of NPs of the cluster structure by changing the polarity of the medium. The highest intensity enhancement of 85-fold with 5 nm and 29-fold with 14 nm shell thickness was recorded, respectively. For the first time, tests on bioimaging of neutrophil cells by those CSNPs are demonstrated