A half-open door: pathways for VET award holders into Australian universities

Effective pathways from vocational education and training (VET) to higher education help to alleviate skill shortages as well as increase access to higher qualifications and lifetime earnings for people holding VET awards. Nationally, the proportion of students admitted to higher education on the basis of a VET award is now around 10%. However, there is considerable variation in the rates of admission between different higher education institutions. The authors investigate the extent to which these differences were the product of factors associated with specific fields of study or the result of factors related to the university, such as institutional policies and practices

PAIN MECHANISMS — A REVIEW I. Characteristics of the peripheral receptors* *This is the first of a series of articles on pain mechanisms. Other papers will be published in subsequent issues of the Journal.

This paper is the first in a series summarizing recent developments in our understanding of pain mechanisms. While neural mechanisms must exist for the two components (perception and aversion) of pain experience, the prime role of pain systems is still unclear. The major difficulties encountered in experimentally evaluating pain are considered briefly, as it is essential that these be appreciated by workers in this field. General sensory mechanisms are briefly summarized, including factors determining whether conscious awareness of a stimulus occurs and the acuity of stimulus site localization. Nociceptors (“pain” receptors) are considered in terms of their structural characteristics and fibre groups. Although it is still unclear precisely how nociceptors are activated, their known functional characteristics probably provide the basis for distinguishing stabbing from burning pain, and for the sensations associated with primary hyperalgesia

The Electoral Commission’s Jenny Watson on votes at 16, information for voters, and modernising our electoral infrastructure

The Electoral Commission is the public body responsible for regulating party and election finance and setting standards for UK elections. In the second part of a two part Q&A with Democratic Audit’s Sean Kippin, The organisation’s Chair, Jenny Watson discussed modernising our electoral infrastructure, the Electoral Commission’s remit, and the standard of electoral information availability

The Electoral Commission’s Jenny Watson on internet voting, electoral fraud, and individual voter registration

The Electoral Commission is the public body responsible for regulating party and election finance and setting standards for UK elections. The organisation’s Chair, Jenny Watson, agreed to answer questions from Democratic Audit’s Sean Kippin on the prospects for moving voting online, recent allegations about the integrity of postal voting, and the concerns around the implementation of Individual Voter Registration (IER)

The Aberdeen Reading Bus : A journey to excellence

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

PP2Cdelta (Ppm1d, WIP1), an endogenous inhibitor of p38 MAPK, is regulated along with Trp53 and Cdkn2a following p38 MAPK inhibition during mouse preimplantation development.

Preimplantation embryos utilize mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling (MAPK) pathways to relay signals from the external environment to prepare appropriate responses and adaptations to a changing milieu. It is therefore important to investigate how MAPK pathways are regulated during preimplantation development. This study was conducted to investigate whether PP2Cdelta (Ppm1d, WIP1) is expressed during mouse preimplantation development and to determine the influences of p38 MAPK inhibition on expression of Trp53 (p53), Ppm1d, (WIP1), and Cdkn2a (p16) during mouse preimplantation development. Our results indicate that Trp53, Ppm1d, and Cdkn2a mRNAs and TRP53 and PP2Cdelta proteins are expressed throughout mouse preimplantation development. Treatment of 2-cell embryos with SB220025 (potent inhibitor of p38 MAPK alpha/beta/MAPK 14/11) significantly increased Trp53, Ppm1d and Cdkn2a and Mapk14 mRNA levels at 12 and 24 hr. Treatment of 8-cell embryos with SB220025 for 12 hr increased Trp53, Ppm1d, and Cdkn2a mRNA levels, but not Mapk14 mRNA levels. Treatment of 8-cell embryos for 24 hr increased Trp53, and Ppm1d mRNA levels, but decreased Cdkn2a and Mapk14 mRNA levels. Therefore, blockade of p38 MAPK activity is associated with embryo stage specific influences on Trp53, Ppm1d, Cdkn2a, and Mapk14 expression during mouse preimplantation development. These results define downstream targets of p38 MAPK during preimplantation development and indicate that the p38 MAPK pathway regulates Trp53, Ppm1d, and Cdkn2a expression. This study increases our understanding of the mechanisms controlling preimplantation development and of the interactions between preimplantation embryos and their culture environments

Introduction:Herta Müller and the currents of European history

Ten years on from the award to her of the Nobel Prize in Literature and twenty years after German reunification and the fall of the Ceausescu regime in Romania this volume of essays by international scholars revisits Herta Müller’s work and places it within broader intellectual, geographical, and historical horizons than has hitherto been attempted. It also reconciles the public intellectual with the literary author. For while it has long been clear that Müller’s aesthetically innovative and highly acclaimed novels, essays, and collages stand as a testament to the major upheavals of twentieth-century European history, her self-adopted role as moral voice and her willingness to make broad historical comparisons over the past three decades have often met with controversy. The broad relevance of Müller’s ethical and political concerns – central, we argue here, to both her literary work and her public statements – has been underestimated in both the feuilleton and scholarly criticism in favour of a focus on the historical interest of her life under Romanian communism. But her warnings regarding the vulnerability of the West’s post-war settlement, denazification and the stability of Europe, received by some as tiresome ten years ago, are, at the time of writing, thrown into sharp relief by the greatest humanitarian crisis Europe has faced since 1945 – the so-called refugee crisis – and by the global rise of populism. Put plainly, the complacency that might previously have allowed Müller’s interventions on the topics of xenophobia, nationalism, flight, and expulsion to be regarded as pertaining solely to Europe’s pre-1989 history is no longer sustainable

Sources of Pb(0) artefacts during XPS analysis of lead halide perovskites

X-Ray Photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) spectra of methyl ammonium lead halide perovskite films typically show the presence of lead as Pb(II), but Pb(0) is also often observed, potentially influencing the interpretation of the device physics. In this article the reproducible evolution of Pb(0) peaks which are likely artefacts generated under typical XPS analytical conditions are demonstrated from methyl ammonium lead halide films that contain no Pb(0) initially. The evolution of Pb(0) occurs via (1) X-ray photolysis under typical analytical conditions and (2) alongside other chemical changes as a result of film aging in air. In both cases we note the presence of PbI2 as a common factor contributing to in situ reactions to generate Pb(0) artefacts. Hence the observation of Pb(0) should be treated with extreme caution and here we recommend simple precautions to ensure materials analysis of these films gives reliable information when analyzed under UHV conditions