Chinese master’s students studying at a United Kingdom higher education campus in China: the impact of differences in learning dispositions

This research followed the transition of twelve Chinese students (studying business or social science subjects) from different Chinese learning environments to a UK Higher Education environment situated within a UK satellite campus in China. Using an interpretive research methodology, the participants were interviewed at different stages of one year of master’s study to discover their interpretations of the challenges they faced and their responses to these challenges. Drawing on the idea of learning dispositions and Bourdieu’s concept of hysteresis, the thesis proposes a model for the process that Chinese students undergo when they transfer from a Chinese education system to a UKHE setting. ! The findings of the research show that while learning experiences before the master’s study usually played a crucial part in the students’ preparation, those at their Chinese institutions did not provide the dispositions required for UK academic study. Although use of English and subject knowledge were major challenges, the new ways of studying and thinking also caused significant difficulties. Given time to adapt their learning dispositions, however, the students were capable of succeeding in their new learning environment. For some participants, more time was needed to adjust to UK academic study before the start of the master’s courses, while others needed less time because their learning experiences had already started to help their adjustment. Implications are drawn from the findings in relation to both students and institutions in support of the aim of achieving better teaching and learning experiences and outcomes

Researching metadiscourse markers in candidates’ writing at Cambridge FCE, CAE and CPE levels

This paper reports on research funded through the Cambridge ESOL Funded Research Programme, Round Three, 2012

Socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical screening coverage in England: Are we closing the gap?

Objective: Health policy in the UK is committed to tackling inequalities in cancer screening participation. We examined whether socioeconomic inequalities in breast and cervical cancer screening participation in England have reduced over five years.  Methods: Cross-sectional analyses compared cervical and breast screening coverage between 2007/8 and 2012/13 in Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England in relation to area-level income deprivation.  Results: At the start and the end of this five year period, there were socioeconomic inequalities in screening coverage for breast and cervical screening. Inequalities were highest for breast screening. Over time, the coverage gap between the highest and lowest quintiles of income deprivation significantly reduced for breast screening (from 12.3 to 8.3 percentage points), but not for cervical screening (5.3 to 4.9 percentage points).  Conclusions: Efforts to reduce screening inequalities appear to have resulted in a significant improvement in equitable delivery of breast screening, although not of cervical screening. More work is needed to understand the differences, and see whether broader lessons can be learned from the reduction of inequalities in breast screening participation

QN-302 demonstrates opposing effects between i-motif and G-quadruplex DNA structures in the promoter of the S100P gene

GC-rich sequences can fold into G-quadruplexes and i-motifs and are known to control gene expression in many organisms. The potent G-quadruplex experimental anticancer drug QN-302 down-regulates a number of cancer-related genes, in particular S100P. Here we show this ligand has strong opposing effects with i-motif DNA structures and is one of the most potent i-motif destabilising agents reported to date. QN-302 down-regulates the expression of numerous cancer-related genes by pan-quadruplex targeting. QN-302 exhibits exceptional combined synergistic effects compared to many other G-quadruplex and i-motif interacting compounds. This work further emphasises the importance of considering G-quadruplex and i-motif DNA structures as one dynamic system

Using a Bull Call Spread

4 pp., 1 figure, 3 tablesThe Bull Call Spread can be used to hedge against or to benefit from a rising market. The user buys a call option at a particular strike price and sells a call option at a higher strike price. Margin requirements, advantages and disadvantages of this strategy are explained

Precise multimodal optical control of neural ensemble activity.

Understanding brain function requires technologies that can control the activity of large populations of neurons with high fidelity in space and time. We developed a multiphoton holographic approach to activate or suppress the activity of ensembles of cortical neurons with cellular resolution and sub-millisecond precision. Since existing opsins were inadequate, we engineered new soma-targeted (ST) optogenetic tools, ST-ChroME and IRES-ST-eGtACR1, optimized for multiphoton activation and suppression. Employing a three-dimensional all-optical read-write interface, we demonstrate the ability to simultaneously photostimulate up to 50 neurons distributed in three dimensions in a 550 × 550 × 100-µm3 volume of brain tissue. This approach allows the synthesis and editing of complex neural activity patterns needed to gain insight into the principles of neural codes

Promoting prompt help-seeking for symptoms – assessing the impact of a gynaecological cancer leaflet on presentations to primary care: a record-based randomised control trial

BACKGROUND: Information leaflets have been shown to significantly improve awareness of the symptoms of gynaecological cancers and to reduce perceived barriers to seeking medical help. This record-based, parallel, randomised control trial study aimed to assess whether receipt of a leaflet would change the behaviour of women experiencing symptoms indicative of gynaecological cancers by prompting them to visit their general practitioner (GP). METHODS: 15,538 women aged 40 years or over registered with five general practices in Northamptonshire, UK were randomised to two groups using the SystmOne randomise facility. Those in the intervention group received an educational leaflet from their general practice explaining the symptoms of gynaecological cancers and advising symptomatic women to visit their GP. The control group were not contacted. Electronic records were interrogated to extract sociodemographic data and details of GP consultations for symptoms, tests, referrals and diagnoses relating to gynaecological cancers in the 4-month period following the mail-out of the leaflets. RESULTS: 7739 records were extracted from the intervention group and 7799 from the control group. 231 (3.0%) of the women in the intervention group, and 207 (2.7%) of the controls, presented to their GP with a relevant symptom during the 4-month period following leaflet distribution. The slightly higher rate in the intervention group did not reach statistical significance at the 5% level (RR = 1.11; 95% CI 0.92-1.33; z = 1.08; p = 0.28). There was a significantly lower mean time to first presentation in the symptomatic intervention group (57.2 days, sd = 36.5) compared to the control group (65.2 days, sd = 35.0) (t = - 2.415; p = 0.016). Survival analysis did not reveal a difference between the patterns of presentation in the two cohorts (Log Rank (Mantel-Cox) χ 2 = 1.42; p = 0.23). CONCLUSION: There was no difference between intervention and control groups in the proportion of women presenting with symptoms identified in the leaflet in the four months following leaflet distribution, although the women who had been sent a leaflet presented earlier than those in the control group. A larger study is needed to test for a modest effect of leaflet distribution. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Listed on the ISRCTN registry with study ID ISRCTN61738692 on 23-8-2017 (retrospectively registered)