Hello BLAW: Bloomberg Law, the Newcomer in Legal Research, Meets Academic Users

There’s a new legal information provider in town. Bloomberg, a widely-known provider of business and financial data and news, has been working the past several years to create and disseminate its Bloomberg Law (BLAW) suite of services to law firms as well as to a number of law school libraries

Software reliability studies

There are many software reliability models which try to predict future performance of software based on data generated by the debugging process. Our research has shown that by improving the quality of the data one can greatly improve the predictions. We are working on methodologies which control some of the randomness inherent in the standard data generation processes in order to improve the accuracy of predictions. Our contribution is twofold in that we describe an experimental methodology using a data structure called the debugging graph and apply this methodology to assess the robustness of existing models. The debugging graph is used to analyze the effects of various fault recovery orders on the predictive accuracy of several well-known software reliability algorithms. We found that, along a particular debugging path in the graph, the predictive performance of different models can vary greatly. Similarly, just because a model 'fits' a given path's data well does not guarantee that the model would perform well on a different path. Further we observed bug interactions and noted their potential effects on the predictive process. We saw that not only do different faults fail at different rates, but that those rates can be affected by the particular debugging stage at which the rates are evaluated. Based on our experiment, we conjecture that the accuracy of a reliability prediction is affected by the fault recovery order as well as by fault interaction

Final Report: Preparing Academics to Teach in Higher Education

This work is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial- ShareAlike 2.5 Australia Licence. Under this Licence you are free to copy, distribute, display and perform the work and to make derivative works. Support for the original work was provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations

Transformative Pedagogies for Gaelic Revitalisation : Report to Soillse of a study of Gaelic-medium teachers' perspectives on the potential of translanguaging as a classroom pedagogy

Summary: This report This report presents the findings from a small-scale study of teachers’ views on the potential of translanguaging as a classroom pedagogy in Gaelic-medium education (GME). What is translanguaging? Translanguaging refers to the pedagogical use of two languages in a language immersion classroom: both the target language (i.e. Gaelic in Gaelic-medium classrooms), and the other language widely spoken by pupils in the class (i.e. English in the case of most Gaelic-medium pupils). Interest in translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy initially emerged in Welsh-medium education in the 1990s, but has grown world-wide, particularly over the last decade. Several studies have been conducted in Wales and in the USA, and researchers in the Basque Country and in Ireland are beginning to explore the potential of this approach. As far as we are aware, there have been no Scottish studies to date. What are the potential benefits of translanguaging as a pedagogical strategy? It is argued that translanguaging benefits learners in language immersion settings because it facilitates the development of flexible bilingualism – the ability to move easily between two languages – and that this is a factor underpinning certain cognitive advantages that bilinguals are known to acquire by virtue of using two languages from an early age. More pragmatically, proponents of translanguaging argue that it supports both content and language learning in immersion settings, because pupils learn to draw on both their languages to understand and process information. Research methods: As translanguaging is not currently in use as a pedagogical strategy in GME schools, this study set out to explore teachers’ perspectives on its potential. Six groups of practising and prospective GME teachers were invited to take part in professional development sessions run by the researchers. Following a pre-session reading from Colin Baker’s Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (2011) on translanguaging (pp 288-291), each session consisted of a presentation in which the researchers introduced translanguaging to the group; and a focus group discussion, facilitated by the researchers, in which the participants were asked to comment and explore the ideas they had encountered. There were 17 participants in total, from two primary and two secondary schools, and in each case, one from an urban and one from an island location; and a group of future GME teachers, which included prospective primary and secondary teachers. Teachers in this group were adult learners of Gaelic. Analysis: The focus group discussions, which largely took place in Gaelic, were recorded and transcribed, and have been analysed, using a thematic content analysis approach. Findings: concerns and questions The findings indicate that participants had significant concerns about translanguaging. They also raised a number of questions about possible use in GME classrooms. Their concerns derived from a sense that translanguaging is counter-intuitive in the context of language immersion, where the assumption is that the greater the exposure to Gaelic, the better children will acquire it. It contradicts current policy and practice, which mandate Gaelic at all times in the early years and a gradual, but strictly limited introduction of English from the mid primary years onwards. There is a strong consensus among teachers, policy-makers, parents, pupils and the wider community concerned with GME that this approach effectively secures GME pupils’ Gaelic and supports Gaelic revitalisation. Their questions reflect a recognition that English is, nevertheless, in use in GME classrooms, principally because a lack of resources in Gaelic sometimes entails the use of resources in English (particularly online resources). The discussion focused on how these resources are used, and how teachers scaffold the work based on them, to enable pupils to move from English to Gaelic in discussions and written outputs. This led to consideration of whether particular subject areas or particular stages in pupils’ careers are more suited to translanguaging, and whether translanguaging could mediate tensions that teachers sometimes encounter between the demands of ensuring that pupils develop high standards of competence in Gaelic and expectations that pupils will cover the same curriculum as their peers in English-medium classrooms. Participants recognised that the emphasis that proponents of translanguaging place on pupils’ emerging bilingualism differs in some respects from the current focus in GME on pupils’ competence in Gaelic. They considered whether there would be advantages in adopting a pedagogical approach which more overtly addresses this aspect of immersion pupils’ learning. They identified a number of areas in which translanguaging might be of benefit, including helping pupils to make connections between Gaelic and English; helping them to develop metalinguistic awareness in relation to both languages; supporting the learning of a third language; helping pupils to learn through another language; and engaging parents more effectively in their children’s learning. However, they concluded that more research would be needed to demonstrate that translanguaging effectively delivers these kinds of benefits; and that much work would be needed to change current attitudes, given the consensus that current provision meets both learner needs and revitalisation goals. Discussion: In our discussion of the findings, we focus on the following questions that the work has raised for us: •Why is translanguaging on the rise? •What are the goals of Gaelic-medium education and to what extent do current policy and practice achieve these? •How is English currently used in GME classrooms? What are the implications a) for the development of children’s Gaelic; b) for the development of their bilingualism; c) for children’s learning? •Can translanguaging benefit minoritised languages? Conclusions and recommendations In conclusion, we briefly review the most recent literature on translanguaging as a transformative pedagogical strategy noting, critically, that this entails a move from a language immersion model based on the concept of additive bilingualism (where learners add new languages without detriment to those they already know) to dynamic bilingualism (where learners use and expand their full linguistic repertoire to learn). In line with this literature, participants in our study recognised their responsibilities to GME pupils in relation to supporting content learning and providing opportunities to develop appropriate linguistic practices for academic purposes; and expressed a cautious interest in the potential of translanguaging to enhance this work. They also noted challenges in relation to opportunities for recognising pupils’ bilingualism and emerging bilingual identities. Participants felt that further research was needed to establish the effectiveness of translanguaging and we support this view, recommending, therefore, that a research agenda is developed in collaboration with all stakeholders

Integrating Christian caring in nursing curriculum: One school’s experience

The link between caring and nursing has been evident since the days of Florence Nightingale. She referred to nursing as an act of charity or God\u27s work. Nursing within the Judea-Christian tradition was viewed as a mission, ministry or call from God to serve others. Those entering nursing fulfilled a commitment to God through service and care for others. Over time the focus in nursing shifted from the Christian perspective of being called to be a nurse to technical and physio­logical reasons for helping people. Virginia Henderson defined nursing as that service to an individual that helps him to attain or maintain a healthy state of mind or body.\u27\u27 In recent years the concept of caring has reemerged within nursing but from a different worldview. The theoretical basis for caring includes humanistic and Eastern philosophies.At the same time, the connection of caring in nursing with Christian beliefs has been diluted, ignored and often excluded. Change is the norm in the current dynamic health care envi­ronment. With change comes the challenge to redesign curricula to educate future nurses. As the curriculum of our school of nursing was reorganized, the faculty made a commitment to make our Christian heritage and values more explicit. We recognized the significance of working at a private, religiously affiliated university, where Christian educa­tion was a priority. Based on that commitment, we incorporated into the design of the nursing curriculum a Christian caring environment and Christian caring activities, which helped students to identify their personal beliefs and values, to recognize how Christian caring can be shown in nursing and to develop their own Christian caring philosophy

Extracellular Matrix Protein Tenascin C Increases Phagocytosis Mediated by CD47 Loss of Function in Glioblastoma.

Glioblastomas (GBM) are highly infiltrated by myeloid-derived innate immune cells that contribute to the immunosuppressive nature of the brain tumor microenvironment (TME). CD47 has been shown to mediate immune evasion, as the CD47-SIRPα axis prevents phagocytosis of tumor cells by macrophages and other myeloid cells. In this study, we established CD47 homozygous deletion (CD47-/-) in human and mouse GBM cells and investigated the impact of eliminating the "don't eat me" signal on tumor growth and tumor-TME interactions. CD47 knockout (KO) did not significantly alter tumor cell proliferation in vitro but significantly increased phagocytosis of tumor cells by macrophages in cocultures. Compared with CD47 wild-type xenografts, orthotopic xenografts derived from CD47-/- tumor cells grew significantly slower with enhanced tumor cell phagocytosis and increased recruitment of M2-like tumor-associated microglia/macrophages (TAM). CD47 KO increased tumor-associated extracellular matrix protein tenascin C (TNC) in xenografts, which was further examined in vitro. CD47 loss of function upregulated TNC expression in tumor cells via a Notch pathway-mediated mechanism. Depletion of TNC in tumor cells enhanced the growth of CD47-/- xenografts in vivo and decreased the number of TAM. TNC knockdown also inhibited phagocytosis of CD47-/- tumor cells in cocultures. Furthermore, TNC stimulated release of proinflammatory factors including TNFα via a Toll-like receptor 4 and STAT3-dependent mechanism in human macrophage cells. These results reveal a vital role for TNC in immunomodulation in brain tumor biology and demonstrate the prominence of the TME extracellular matrix in affecting the antitumor function of brain innate immune cells. SIGNIFICANCE: These findings link TNC to CD47-driven phagocytosis and demonstrate that TNC affects the antitumor function of brain TAM, facilitating the development of novel innate immune system-based therapies for brain tumors