Understanding Creative Partnerships: An examination of policy and practice

Creative Partnerships was launched in 2002 as an arts-based education programme that aimed to transform the aspirations of young people living in socially and economically deprived areas of England. The organisation was established in response to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education (NACCCE, 1999), which offered an account of creativity as a means to foster individual self-reliance and social unity. This thesis explores how the NACCCE’s construction of creativity enabled New Labour to appear to endorse the value of the arts in education whilst promoting the model of the self as an autonomous economic unit, and considers how Creative Partnerships was paradoxically welcomed by supporters of the arts in education who were displeased with the instrumentalism at work in much of New Labour’s education policy. The aim of this thesis is to understand Creative Partnerships by examining the discourse that constitutes the programme, and by offering an empirical enquiry into a project that took place within a secondary school in the north of England. In so doing, this thesis critically evaluates the political motivation for the use of arts-based education as a means to develop self-reliance, and considers how successive governments have imported the free market economic model into education to promote efficiency, and the role that Creative Partnerships might be said to play in the maximisation of the total social system. Finally, this thesis considers the current limitations of Creative Partnerships, and how arts-based education might be used to develop social cohesion

Surfaces and depths : evaluating the theoretical assumptions of cognitive skills programmes

Cognitive skills programmes for offenders such as Reasoning and Rehabilitation (R & R) have been around now for over 20 years and were developed in part to address their poor reasoning and decision-making skills. In this paper we critically examine the theoretical underpinnings of the R & R programme in light of current theoretical developments and research from cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, biology, and psychology. After considering recent theoretical and empirical research on rationality, emotions, distributed cognition, and embodiment we conclude with some thoughts about how to fine-tune cognitive skills programmes such as R & R in light of this research

Subtyping somatic tinnitus: a cross-sectional UK cohort study of demographic, clinical and audiological characteristics

Somatic tinnitus is the ability to modulate the psychoacoustic features of tinnitus by somatic manoeuvres. The condition is still not fully understood and further identification of this subtype is essential, particularly for the purpose of establishing protocols for both its diagnosis and treatment. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of somatic tinnitus within a large UK cohort using a largely unselected sample. We believe this to be relatively unique in comparison to current literature on the topic. This was investigated by using a total of 608 participant assessments from a set of recognised tinnitus and audiology measures. Results from a set of chi-square tests of association found that amongst the individuals with somatic tinnitus, a higher proportion had pulsatile tinnitus (different from heartbeat), were under the age of 40, reported variation in the loudness of their tinnitus and reported temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. The same pattern of results was confirmed using a multivariate analysis of the data based on logistic regression. These findings have strong implications towards the profiling of somatic tinnitus as a distinct subtype of general tinnitus

Exploring Students’ Epistemological Understanding of Atomic Structure Models

Developing a robust understanding of atomic structure and the nature of matter is foundational across chemistry and STEM courses. The development of this concept is challenging because it relies on models to illustrate something not directly observable. Scientific models are important tools used to explain phenomena, particularly phenomena that are not directly observable. In general chemistry, students are typically asked to consider four different models: (1) the particle model, (2) the nuclear model, (3) the Bohr model, and (4) the Quantum model. Each depiction has its own advantages and limitations, where instructors introduce each model to explain specific parts of an atom. However, little evaluation is done by instructors on students’ epistemological understanding of the nature of models which could impact how they interact directly with atomic models. Previous research indicates that students ranging from general chemistry to physical chemistry struggle to explain and apply atomic structure (Papageorgiou et al., 2016; Roche Allred & Bretz, 2019; Zarkadis et al., 2017). Students are most comfortable with the Bohr model as it shows electrons orbiting the nucleus (Roche Allred & Bretz, 2019). Students have found it difficult to connect probability to the depiction of an electron cloud and tend to rely on classical ideas (Papageorgiou et al., 2016; Roche Allred & Bretz, 2019; Zarkadis et al., 2017). By relying on the classical and simplistic Bohr model, students may struggle to explain more complex concepts in future courses, such as resonance. In this study, students’ understanding of the nature of models and how they applied that understanding in the context of atomic models was investigated. Semi-structured interviews were used to elicit students’ epistemological understanding of models and their general understanding of atomic structure. For instance, students were asked to explain how scientists generate models and identify the characteristics of a good scientific model. Subsequently, students were asked to explain ideas such as nuclear attraction and probability using the four different models described above (1 - 4) to investigate which features students attend to for specific concepts. Results from this qualitative study include the variety of ways students understand and conceptualize models of an atom as well as how their general notions of the nature of models play a role in their conceptualization. The implications for introducing atomic structure models and promoting an epistemological understanding of models in general chemistry will be discussed

Walks of Life: The Journey of (some) Women

Panel Chair: Marta Moore, Collin Colleg

Building Recognition, Redistribution, and Representation in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods: Exploring the Potential of Youth Activism in Scotland

This is a time of intersecting crises for young people in Scotland. More than a decade of austerity, the Covid‐19 pandemic, cost‐of‐living crisis, climate emergency, and ongoing global conflict all threaten youth security and create barriers to economic and civic participation. Alongside this, youth non‐participation is often framed as an individualised moral problem, diverting focus away from its structural causes. Evidence on youth activism suggests that young people are seeking new, creative spaces and modes of expression to challenge stigma, express dissent, and challenge inequalities in their communities. With support from grassroots youth and community organisations, youth activists can build trust, critical thinking skills, and solidarity. However, the extent to which youth activism can succeed in challenging structural causes of inequality, especially in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, requires further scrutiny. We draw on Nancy Fraser’s theory of participatory parity to explore how redistribution, recognition, and representation play out in the lives of young people, and how grassroots youth and community organisations support their development as activists. Based on a research study on the barriers and enablers to youth activism in Scotland, we seek to understand how neighbourhood‐based efforts to challenge stigma and economic inequality build dignity and hope, how relationship‐building between young people and the adults in their communities can support status recognition, and how these both contribute to emergent youth political representation

Good collaborative practice - persepectives from a paediatric Malaria vaccine trial in Ghana and Tanzania

This ethics project investigates what constitutes good collaborative practice in international health research partnerships. The research sets out to understand the roles and responsibilities of collaborative research partners operating in low resource settings from the perspectives of stakeholders in Ghana and Tanzania. The methodology is based on the inclusion of 52 semi-structured, interviews with major stakeholders in an international multicentre partnership between GlaxoSmithKline (GSK, Vaccine Developer) and the global health non-profit product developer PATH and its Malaria Vaccine Initiative program (PATH/MVI, Funder-Development Partner), (RTS, S) (NCT00866619). The project demonstrates that ethical governance is needed for international research partnerships to serve improved population health through local-leadership, building research capacity and effective integration with local health care settings. The project concludes with a proposition for a new research ethics framework based on principles of public health ethics entitled, The Global Population Approach

Lamina-associated polypeptide 2 (LAP2) expression patterns in transformed and cancer cells

The Lamina-associated polypeptide two (LAP2) proteins comprising three human isoforms, LAP2 +- LAP2β and LAP2 have been shown to provide a structural framework in the nucleus and to facilitate nuclear assembly and disassembly during the cell cycle. Expression profiling studies, using microarrays, identified elevated levels of LAP2α in cervical cancer patient material compared to normal. Altered expression of LAP2 may thus have significance in the development of certain cancers. The aim of this project was thus to independently confirm the up-regulation of LAP2α in cancer material and to determine the effect of inhibiting its expression on the biology of cancer and transformed cells. LAP2α mRNA and protein expression was shown to be elevated in cervical cancer tissue compared to normal cervical tissue by Real-time RT-PCR and immunohistochemical analysis respectively. Interestingly, LAP2 (both the LAP2α and LAP2β isoforms) was shown to be overexpressed in cervical cancer cell lines compared to a normal primary cervical epithelial cell line. Higher LAP2 expression appears to associate with cellular transformation as increased expression was observed in transformed human fibroblast cells compared to normal fibroblasts. LAP2 expression was also elevated in oesophageal cancer cell lines compared to normal suggesting that the overexpression of LAP2 associates with multiple cancer types. In order to determine the role of LAP2 in cancer cell biology, its expression was inhibited using specific siRNA molecules. Inhibition of LAP2 did not have an effect on adherent cell proliferation; however under anchorage-independent growth conditions a significant decrease in cell proliferation and colony formation was observed in LAP2 knockdown cells. This was accompanied by a decrease in cyclin D1 levels and an increase in p16 levels in LAP2 siRNA transfected cells. Our results did not conclusively show xiii that this decrease in proliferation was as a result of an alteration in the cell cycle profile or due to an increase in apoptosis. In addition, inhibition of LAP2 expression resulted in a decrease in Rb protein expression. It is proposed that LAP2 plays a role in stabilizing the Rb protein, as inhibition of LAP2 expression did not affect Rb mRNA levels but substantially reduced the protein half-life. In summary, increased LAP2 expression associates with transformed and cancer cells and suggests potential for use as a cancer biomarker. Its potential as an anti-cancer therapeutic, however requires further investigation