A partnership-based model for embedding employability in urban planning education

This paper proposes a partnership-based model for embedding employability in urban planning education. The model is based on the author’s experiences of implementing an international project which supported the development of employability skills in urban and regional planning education in Malawi. Since independence, urban planners have typically trained outside the country, attending university in the UK and other Commonwealth countries. More recently, the paradigm has shifted towards in-country education delivered by academic staff cognisant with the opportunities and challenges of development in Malawi. There remains, though, a gap between graduate knowledge of the subject and the skills necessary to pursue a professional career in the sector. Although there is no consensus yet on the meaning of employability in the literature, lessons from the project indicate that academic–public–private collaboration helps incorporate in curriculum skills that employers anticipate. Applicability of these principles is however context dependent, particularly in the emerging economy context where institutional capacity may be less developed compared to elsewhere

Activated tumor cell integrin αvβ3 cooperates with platelets to promote extravasation and metastasis from the blood stream.

Metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients, and understanding mechanisms that control tumor cell dissemination may lead to improved therapy. Tumor cell adhesion receptors contribute to cancer spreading. We noted earlier that tumor cells can expressing the adhesion receptor integrin αvβ3 in distinct states of activation, and found that cells which metastasize from the blood stream express it in a constitutively high affinity form. Here, we analyzed steps of the metastatic cascade in vivo and asked, when and how the affinity state of integrin αvβ3 confers a critical advantage to cancer spreading. Following tumor cells by real time PCR, non-invasive bioluminescence imaging, intravital microscopy and histology allowed us to identify tumor cell extravasation from the blood stream as a rate-limiting step supported by high affinity αvβ3. Successful transendothelial migration depended on cooperation between tumor cells and platelets involving the high affinity tumor cell integrin and release of platelet granules. Thus, this study identifies the high affinity conformer of integrin αvβ3 and its interaction with platelets as critical for early steps during hematogenous metastasis and target for prevention of metastatic disease

Validation of a Short French UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale in Patients with Substance use Disorder

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct playing an important role in the development and maintenance of substance use disorders (SUD). The Short French UPPS-P consists of a 20-item scale measuring five impulsivity components: negative urgency, positive urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, and sensation seeking. The aim of the present study is to validate this scale in a population suffering from SUD. One hundred twenty-three participants treated in the specialized addiction division of the Geneva University Hospitals completed the short French UPPS-P. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a hierarchical model comprising two higher order factors of urgency (resulting from negative urgency and positive urgency) and lack of conscientiousness (resulting from lack of premeditation and lack of perseverance) as well as a separate factor of sensation seeking. The results indicate acceptable to good internal consistency. The short French version of the UPPS-P in a SUD population presents good psychometric properties and may be considered a promising instrument for both research and clinical practice in SUD population

African Women\u27s Movements and Struggles over Land

Access to land and other property is crucial to the livelihoods of women across the African continent. Women need land for residence, to grow crops and raise livestock, and to operate businesses and to secure access to and control over property which can provide them with a degree of stability in otherwise precarious and uncertain times. This chapter reviews contemporary women’s struggles for land and property rights in Africa. Drawing from country-focused, regional, and continental analyses, it addresses collective efforts by women’s and land rights movements to increase women’s access to and control over property through policy advocacy, litigation, and education; discusses the barriers to gender-equitable land and property rights reforms; and suggests that women property claimants may be propelling a shift toward more gender equitable property norms and practices in many places. The chapter concludes that supportive public policies and social institutional changes are both necessary to ensure that women have access to and control over the property necessary to their livelihoods. It further highlights the need for more research on the property struggles of differently situated African women such as those without children, those living in informal settlements, and those who are queer or trans, as well as on the counter-mobilization against women’s property rights movements

Activated tumor cell integrin αVβ3 cooperates with platelets to promote extravasation and metastasis from the blood stream.

Metastasis is the main cause of death in cancer patients, and understanding mechanisms that control tumor cell dissemination may lead to improved therapy. Tumor cell adhesion receptors contribute to cancer spreading. We noted earlier that tumor cells can expressing the adhesion receptor integrin αvβ3 in distinct states of activation, and found that cells which metastasize from the blood stream express it in a constitutively high affinity form. Here, we analyzed steps of the metastatic cascade in vivo and asked, when and how the affinity state of integrin αvβ3 confers a critical advantage to cancer spreading. Following tumor cells by real time PCR, non-invasive bioluminescence imaging, intravital microscopy and histology allowed us to identify tumor cell extravasation from the blood stream as a rate-limiting step supported by high affinity αvβ3. Successful transendothelial migration depended on cooperation between tumor cells and platelets involving the high affinity tumor cell integrin and release of platelet granules. Thus, this study identifies the high affinity conformer of integrin αvβ3 and its interaction with platelets as critical for early steps during hematogenous metastasis and target for prevention of metastatic disease