The representation of scientific research in the national curriculum and secondary school pupils’ perceptions of research, its function, usefulness and value to their lives

Young people’s views on what research is, how it is conducted and whether it is important, influences the decisions they make about their further studies and career choices. In this paper we report the analysis of questionnaire data with a particular focus on pupil perceptions of research in the sciences and of the scientific method. The questionnaire was a 25-item Likert Scale (1-5) distributed to seven collaborating schools. We received 2634 returns from pupils across key stages 3, 4 and 5. We also asked teachers to complete the questionnaire in order to explore how they thought their pupils would respond. We received 54 teacher responses. Statistically significant differences in the responses were identified through a chi-square test on SPSS. As what is being taught influences secondary pupil views on research we also consider how the term ‘research’ appears in the national curriculum for England and Wales and the three main English exam boards. The main theoretical construct that informs our analysis of the questionnaire data and the national curriculum is Angela Brew’s 4-tier descriptor of perceptions of research (domino, trading, layer, journey). We use this framework in order to map what, when and how research is presented to school pupils in England and Wales. We also use this framework in order to highlight and discuss certain pupil views that emerged from the questionnaire data and which indicate areas where curriculum and pedagogy intervention may be necessary: pupils seem less confident in their understanding of research as involving the identification of a research question; and, they often see research as a means to confirm one’s own opinion. They do however understand research as involving the generation of new knowledge and the collection of new data, such as interviews and questionnaires as well as laboratory work, field trips and library searches and they appear relatively confident in their statements about their ability to do research, their school experiences of research and the importance of research in their future career choice

A Unified Strategy to ent-Kauranoid Natural Products: Total Syntheses of (−)-Trichorabdal A and (−)-Longikaurin E

The first total syntheses of (−)-trichorabdal A and (−)-longikaurin E are reported. A unified synthetic strategy is employed that relies on a Pd-mediated oxidative cyclization of a silyl ketene acetal to generate an all-carbon quaternary center and build the bicyclo[3.2.1]octane framework. These studies, taken together with our previous synthesis of (−)-maoecrystal Z, demonstrate that three architecturally distinct ent-kauranoids can be prepared from a common spirolactone intermediate

Comparison of Electrical Moisture Meters for Baled Alfalfa Hay

A primary concern in producing quality alfalfa hay is moisture measurement. Some precision in moisture measurement is required since hay can be too wet, leading to dry matter and quality loss through mold; it can be too dry, leading to shatter loss during baling, handling and storage. Moisture measurement in hay can take many forms. One form of subjective (personal judgment) evaluation is brittleness of leaves and stems in the windrow or bale. Typical objective methods consist of electric meters with calibration curves and oven drying

First simultaneous observations of flux transfer events at the high-latitude magnetopause by the cluster spacecraft and pulsed radar signatures in the conjugate ionosphere by the CUTLASS and EISCAT radars

Cluster magnetic field data are studied during an outbound pass through the post-noon high-latitude magnetopause region on 14 February 2001. The onset of several minute perturbations in the magnetospheric field was observed in conjunction with a southward turn of the interplanetary magnetic field observed upstream by the ACE spacecraft and lagged to the subsolar magnetopause. These perturbations culminated in the observation of four clear magnetospheric flux transfer events (FTEs) adjacent to the magnetopause, together with a highly-structured magnetopause boundary layer containing related field features. Furthermore, clear FTEs were observed later in the magnetosheath. The magnetospheric FTEs were of essentially the same form as the original “flux erosion events” observed in HEOS-2 data at a similar location and under similar interplanetary conditions by Haerendel et al. (1978). We show that the nature of the magnetic perturbations in these events is consistent with the formation of open flux tubes connected to the northern polar ionosphere via pulsed reconnection in the dusk sector magnetopause. The magnetic footprint of the Cluster spacecraft during the boundary passage is shown to map centrally within the fields-of-view of the CUTLASS SuperDARN radars, and to pass across the field-aligned beam of the EISCAT Svalbard radar (ESR) system. It is shown that both the ionospheric flow and the backscatter power in the CUTLASS data pulse are in synchrony with the magnetospheric FTEs and boundary layer structures at the latitude of the Cluster footprint. These flow and power features are subsequently found to propagate poleward, forming classic “pulsed ionospheric flow” and “poleward-moving radar auroral form” structures at higher latitudes. The combined Cluster-CUTLASS observations thus represent a direct demonstration of the coupling of momentum and energy into the magnetosphere-ionosphere system via pulsed magnetopause reconnection. The ESR observations also reveal the nature of the structured and variable polar ionosphere produced by the structured and time-varying precipitation and flow

Auto-Antibodies to β-F1-ATPase and Vimentin in Malignant Mesothelioma

Patients with Malignant Mesothelioma (MM) develop unidentified auto-antibodies to MM tumour antigens. This study was conducted to identify the targets of MM patient auto-antibodies in order to try to understand more of the anti-tumour response and to determine if these antibodies might be helpful for diagnosis or prognostication. Using MM patient sera in a Western immunoblott screening strategy, no common immunoreactive proteins were identified. The sera from one long-term survivor recognised a protein band of 50–60 kDa present in cell lysates from four of five MM cell lines tested. The immunoreactive proteins in this band were identified by 2D electrophoretic separation of a MM cell line protein lysate, followed by analysis of excised immunoreactive proteins on a MALDI TOF mass spectrometer and peptide mass fingerprinting. The immunoreactive proteins identified were vimentin (accession gi55977767) and the ATP synthase (F1-ATPase) beta chain (accession gi114549 and gi47606749). ELISA assays were developed for antibodies to these proteins. Neither vimentin (median and 95% CI 0.346; 0.32–0.468 for MM patients, 0.327; 0.308–0.428 for controls) nor ß-F1-ATPase (0.257; 0.221–0.453 for MM patients, 0.263; 0.22–0.35 for controls) showed significant differences in autoantibody levels between a group of MM patients and controls. Using a dichotomized antibody level (high, low) for these targets we demonstrated that vimentin antibody levels were not associated with survival. In contrast, high ß-F1-ATPase antibody levels were significantly associated with increased median survival (18 months) compared to low ß F1 ATPase antibody levels (9 months; p = 0.049). Immunohistochemical analysis on a MM tissue microarray showed cytoplasmic staining in 28 of 33 samples for vimentin and strong cytoplasmic staining in14 and weak in 16 samples for ß-F1-ATPase. Therefore antibodies to neither vimentin nor ß-F1-ATPase are useful for differential diagnosis of MM, however high antibody levels to ß-F1-ATPase may be associated with increased survival and this warrants further investigation

Relationships among intramammary health, udder and teat characteristics, and productivity of extensively managed ewes

Mastitis is an economically important disease and its subclinical state is difficult to diagnose, which makes mitigation more challenging. The objectives of this study were to screen clinically healthy ewes in order to 1) identify cultivable microbial species in milk, 2) evaluate somatic cell count (SCC) thresholds associated with intramammary infection, and 3) estimate relationships between udder and teat morphometric traits, SCC, and ewe productivity. Milk was collected from two flocks in early (\u3c5 \u3ed) and peak (30 to 45 d) lactation to quantify SCC (n = 530) and numerate cultivable microbial species by culture-based isolation followed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS; n = 243) identification. Within flock and lactation stage, 11% to 74% (mean = 36%) of samples were culture positive. More than 50 unique identifications were classified by MALDI-TOF MS analysis, and Bacillus licheniformis (18% to 27%), Micrococcus flavus (25%), Bacillus amyloliquefaciens (7% to 18%), and Staphylococcus epidermidis (26%) were among the most common within flock and across lactation stage. Optimum SCC thresholds to identify culture-positive samples ranged from 175 × 103 to 1,675 × 103 cells/mL. Ewe productivity was assessed as total 120-d adjusted litter weight (LW120) and analyzed within flock with breed, parity, year, and the linear covariate of log10 SCC (LSCC) at early or peak lactation. Although dependent on lactation stage and year, each 1-unit increase in LSCC (e.g., an increase in SCC from 100 × 103 to 1,000 × 103 cells/mL) was predicted to decrease LW120 between 9.5 and 16.1 kg when significant. Udder and teat traits included udder circumference, teat length, teat placement, and degree of separation of the udder halves. Correlations between traits were generally low to moderate within and across lactation stage and most were not consistently predictive of ewe LSCC. Overall, the frequencies of bacteria-positive milk samples indicated that subclinical mastitis (SCM) is common in these flocks and can impact ewe productivity. Therefore, future research is warranted to investigate pathways and timing of microbial invasion, genomic regions associated with susceptibility, and husbandry to mitigate the impact of SCM in extensively managed ewes