The Education and Miseducation of Boys in Cultural, Political, and Christian Perspective

The trend of higher male achievement at of all levels of education has reversed in the last twenty years, in almost every major country except Japan, sparking global political and social debate about this intriguing phenomenon. Several cultural trends may contribute to this swing, including, but not limited to, a recent vibrant call for equity education for girls; shifting social norms of traditionally held views of masculinity and male dominance in the job market, academia, and society; delayed maturation physically and cognitively of the average male; teacher competence in the science of educating boys; school structures that are antithetical to the needs of boys; and the complex dichotomy between the demands of school life and the psyche of males. Whatever the causes, evidence demonstrates many boys exhibit behaviors antithetical to school success with significantly higher diagnoses rates of mental health disorders, failure and dropout rates, referrals for disruptive behaviors, and juvenile delinquency. The authors contend that school systems must put forth more intentionality regarding the education of boys, as well as girls, through training and supervision of all educators in gender-friendly methodologies, increased recruitment of male teachers, and redesign of the school day to provide opportunities for boys to fulfill their need to move, compete, and lead

Pharmacological Inhibition of Intracellular Signaling Pathways in Radioresistant Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer

Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is highly aggressive and has a poor therapeutic response and leads to high mortality. It has been shown that activation of intracellular c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and c-ABL signaling pathways is one of the manifestations of the highly resistant response to radiotherapy in ATC. Pharmacological inhibition of these pathways in combination with radiotherapy is a potential treatment modality of ATC

Subversion of Rho GTPases by WxxxE effectors of attaching and effacing pathogens

Enteropathogenic E. coli (EPEC), Enterohaemorhagic E. coli (EHEC) and Citrobacter rodentium are constituent members of the attaching and effacing (A/E) pathogens. The A/E group of bacteria are considered to be extracellular pathogens which form characteristic lesions by intimately adhering to host enterocytes and directing the effacement intestinal brush border. EPEC and EHEC are diarrhoeal pathogens, which are a global health burden in developing and industrialised countries respectively. Citrobacter rodentium is a murine pathogen which is an excellent animal model for EPEC and EHEC infection. EPEC, EHEC and C. rodentium conserve a genomic region termed the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) which encodes a type 3 secretion system (T3SS), a core set of type 3 secreted effector proteins and the outer membrane adhesin intimin, which are essential for A/E lesion formation. A/E pathogens utilise their T3SSs to translocate dozens of effector proteins directly from the bacteria into host cells. Once translocated these effector proteins modulate a range of eukaryotic signalling pathways including those which regulate the host cell cytoskeleton. An example of this is the T3SS effector Tir which localises to the mammalian plasma membrane, acts as a receptor for intimin and subsequently directs the polymerisation of actin rich pedestals beneath adherent bacteria. Subversion of the eukaryotic cytoskeleton is a strategy employed by a range of bacterial pathogens. Due to the pivotal role of Rho GTPases in regulating actin dynamics they are commonly targeted by bacterial virulence factors. Recently a family of type 3 secreted effector proteins has been defined based on their homology around an invariant tryptophan and glutamic acid residue separated by three variable amino acids (WxxxE). In this study we have identified the EspM family of proteins and EspT as novel WxxxE effectors in the A/E pathogens. We demonstrate that the EspM proteins and EspT are translocated into host cells in a T3SS dependent manner. Once translocated, EspM proteins direct the nucleation of actin stress fibres, while EspT drives the formation of lamellipodia and membrane ruffles. Furthermore, we found that the cytoskeletal re-arrangements associated with the WxxxE proteins are dependent on the activation of the small Rho GTPases. EspM proteins activate RhoA while EspT induces the activity of both Rac1 and Cdc42. A more detailed structural and function analysis of the mechanism by which EspM2 activates RhoA revealed that EspM2 binds RhoA in a concentration dependent manner and subsequently promotes RhoA nucleotide exchange from a GDP to GTP bound form. We also show that EspM2 adopts a structure similar to that of the previously reported Salmonella T3SS Rho GEF SopE despite their limited sequence homology. Although the catalytic domain of SopE was not conserved in EspM2 we identified a novel loop which is essential for EspM2 RhoA GEF activity. As expression of EspT resulted in the formation of membrane ruffles which are often associated with the invasion of bacterial pathogens we investigated whether EspT dependent cytoskeletal remodelling could facilitate the internalisation of the canonically non-invasive A/E pathogens. Interestingly, we found that EPEC strains expressing EspT were significantly more invasive than those which did not and furthermore that this invasion was dependent upon the activity of Rac1 and Wave2. Additionally, we demonstrate that once internalised EPEC is maintained within a vacuole (ECV) and is capable of surviving and replicating intracellularly. We also report that EPEC translocates Tir into the vacuolar membrane where it can nucleate actin in an analogous manner to the formation of pedestals by extracellular bacteria. This is the first time an intracellular bacterial pathogen has been shown to polymerise actin tails across a vacuolar membrane. Together the results presented in this study demonstrate that the EspM and EspT families of WxxxE effector proteins are potent modulators of eukaryotic GTPase signalling cascades and as a result convey novel virulence attributes to the A/E pathogen group

"Trials and triumphs" : the heroine in selected novels of Anastasia English

Anastasia English (1862?-1959) is Newfoundland's first significant female novelist. She was not only prolific in several genres - short stories, novels, and poems - but was also the editor of a local Christmas annual for at least forty years. Although her name has fallen into relative obscurity, her contribution as a writer is a valuable one. In the absence of any sustained commentary on either her life or her works, this thesis presents a brief biography, followed by an analysis of her major work. -- An examination of the plots of three of English's four novels - Only a Fisherman's Daughter (1899), Faithless (1901), and When the Dumb Speak (1938) - reveals a recurring motif: the heroine undergoes a series of trials, but ultimately triumphs over them and achieves happiness. The pattern of trial and triumph, found in many novels written by women writers in the nineteenth century, not only reflects the moral consciousness of the time but makes a statement about the readership. Plot analysis, with its focus on the didacticism inherent in all three novels, stresses the centrality of contemporary moral values for both the author and her readers

Improved understanding of aerosol processes using satellite observations of aerosol optical properties

Atmospheric aerosols are the largest remaining uncertainty in the Earth’s radiative budget and it is important that we improve our knowledge of aerosol processes if we are to understand current radiative forcing and accurately project changes in future climate. Aerosols affect the radiation balance directly through the absorption and scattering of incoming solar radiation and indirectly through the modification of cloud microphysical properties. Understanding aerosol forcing remains challenging due to the short atmospheric residence time of aerosols resulting in large spatial and temporal heterogeneity in aerosol loading and chemical composition. Satellite retrievals are becoming increasingly important to improving our knowledge of aerosol forcing. They provide regular global data at finer spatial and temporal resolution than available through sparse groundbased point measurements or localised aircraft campaigns, but cannot unambiguously determine aerosol speciation, relying heavily on a priori assumptions. In this thesis I use data from two satellite instruments: the Along Track Scanning Radiometer 2 (ATSR-2) and the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) interpreted using the Oxford-RAL Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) retrieval scheme in three pieces of interrelated work. First I use satellite observations of aerosol optical depth a and cloud particle effective radius re from the ATSR-2 instrument in 1997 to investigate the Twomey indirect effect (IE, -δ ln re /δ ln τa) in regions of continental outflow. I generally find a negative correlation between τa and re with the strongest inverse relationships downwind of Africa. North America and eastern Asian continental outflow exhibits a strong seasonal dependence, as expected. Global values for IE range from 0.10 to 0.16, consistent with theoretical predictions. Downwind of Africa, I find that the IE is unphysically high but robust (r = −0.85) during JJA associated with high aerosol loading, and attribute this tentatively to the Twomey hypothesis accounting only for a limited number of physical properties of aerosols. Second, I test the response of the Oxford-RAL Aerosol and Cloud (ORAC) retrieval algorithm for MSG SEVIRI to changes in the aerosol properties used in the dust aerosol model, using data from the Dust Outflow and Deposition to the Ocean (DODO) flight campaign in August 2006. I find that using the observed DODO free tropospheric aerosol size distribution and refractive index compared with the dust aerosol properties from the Optical Properties of Aerosol and Cloud (OPAC) package, increases simulated top of the atmosphere radiance at 0.55 μm assuming a fixed aerosol optical depth of 0.5, by 10–15%, reaching a maximum difference at low solar zenith angles. This difference is sensitive to changes in AOD, increasing by ~2–4% between AOD of 0.4–0.6. I test the sensitivity of the retrieval to the vertical distribution of the aerosol and find that this is unimportant in determining simulated radiance at 0.55 μm. I also test the ability of the ORAC retrieval when used to produce the GlobAerosol dataset to correctly identify continental aerosol outflow from the African continent and I find that it poorly constrains aerosol speciation. I develop spatially and temporally resolved prior distributions of aerosols to inform the retrieval which incorporates five aerosol models: desert dust, maritime, biomass burning, urban and continental. I use a Saharan Dust Index and the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model to describe dust and biomass burning aerosol outflow, and compare AOD using my speciation against the GlobAerosol retrieval during January and July 2006. I find AOD discrepancies of 0.2–1 over regions of biomass burning outflow, where AOD from my aerosol speciation and the GlobAerosol speciation can differ by as much as 50 - 70 %. Finally I use satellite observations of aerosol optical depth and cloud fraction from the MSG SEVIRI instrument to investigate the semi-direct effect of Saharan dust aerosol on marine stratocumulus cloud cover over the Atlantic during July 2006. I first use these data to study the spatial autocorrelation of aerosol optical depth and find that it is correlated over a lag of 0.1◦ (approximately 10 km at low latitudes), beyond which it rapidly decorrelates. I find a 15 % higher cloud fraction in regions with high dust loading (AOD > 0.5), compared with scenes with a lower dust loading (AOD < 0.5), which for high dust scenes increases with local static stability. I attribute this tentatively to aerosol solar shielding enhancing longwave cloud top radiative cooling which drives marine stratocumulus convection

Independent uncertainty estimates for coefficient based sea surface temperature retrieval from the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer instruments

We establish a methodology for calculating uncertainties in sea surface temperature estimates from coefficient based satellite retrievals. The uncertainty estimates are derived independently of in-situ data. This enables validation of both the retrieved SSTs and their uncertainty estimate using in-situ data records. The total uncertainty budget is comprised of a number of components, arising from uncorrelated (eg. noise), locally systematic (eg. atmospheric), large scale systematic and sampling effects (for gridded products). The importance of distinguishing these components arises in propagating uncertainty across spatio-temporal scales. We apply the method to SST data retrieved from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) and validate the results for two different SST retrieval algorithms, both at a per pixel level and for gridded data. We find good agreement between our estimated uncertainties and validation data. This approach to calculating uncertainties in SST retrievals has a wider application to data from other instruments and retrieval of other geophysical variables

Cloud clearing techniques over land for land surface temperature retrieval from the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer

We present five new cloud detection algorithms over land based on dynamic threshold or Bayesian techniques, applicable to the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) instrument and compare these with the standard threshold based SADIST cloud detection scheme. We use a manually classified dataset as a reference to assess algorithm performance and quantify the impact of each cloud detection scheme on land surface temperature (LST) retrieval. The use of probabilistic Bayesian cloud detection methods improves algorithm true skill scores by 8-9 % over SADIST (maximum score of 77.93 % compared to 69.27 %). We present an assessment of the impact of imperfect cloud masking, in relation to the reference cloud mask, on the retrieved AATSR LST imposing a 2 K tolerance over a 3x3 pixel domain. We find an increase of 5-7 % in the observations falling within this tolerance when using Bayesian methods (maximum of 92.02 % compared to 85.69 %). We also demonstrate that the use of dynamic thresholds in the tests employed by SADIST can significantly improve performance, applicable to cloud-test data to provided by the Sea and Land Surface Temperature Radiometer (SLSTR) due to be launched on the Sentinel 3 mission (estimated 2014)

A spatiotemporal analysis of the relationship between near-surface air temperature and satellite land surface temperatures using 17 years of data from the ATSR series

The relationship between satellite land surface temperature (LST) and ground-based observations of 2m air temperature (T2m) is characterised in space and time using >17 years of data. The analysis uses a new monthly LST climate data record (CDR) based on the Along-Track Scanning Radiometer (ATSR) series, which has been produced within the European Space Agency GlobTemperature project (http://www.globtemperature.info/). Global LST-T2m differences are analysed with respect to location, land cover, vegetation fraction and elevation, all of which are found to be important influencing factors. LSTnight (~10 pm local solar time, clear-sky only) is found to be closely coupled with minimum T2m (Tmin, all-sky) and the two temperatures generally consistent to within ±5 °C (global median LSTnight- Tmin= 1.8 °C, interquartile range = 3.8 °C). The LSTday (~10 am local solar time, clear-sky only)-maximum T2m (Tmax, all-sky) variability is higher (global median LSTday- Tmax= -0.1°C, interquartile range = 8.1 °C) because LST is strongly influenced by insolation and surface regime. Correlations for both temperature pairs are typically >0.9 outside of the tropics. The monthly global and regional anomaly time series of LST and T2m – which are completely independent data sets - compare remarkably well. The correlation between the data sets is 0.9 for the globe with 90% of the CDR anomalies falling within the T2m 95% confidence limits. The results presented in this study present a justification for increasing use of satellite LST data in climate and weather science, both as an independent variable, and to augment T2m data acquired at meteorological stations

So very really variable: Social patterning of intensifier use by Newfoundlanders online

Previous studies have shown that one of the linguistic tools that individuals use to identify themselves is adjectival intensification (e.g., so cool, very cool, really cool). We assembled and analyzed a corpus of over 3000 intensifiable adjectives (i.e., environments where intensification could occur) extracted from Newfoundland-oriented public internet forums. Statistical analysis of the correlations between intensifier choice social patterning among our speakers led to findings similar to previous studies. So is the most common variant, especially among urban females, while the older variants really and very are favoured in rural areas, especially among males. Conditioning of the less frequent variant fuckin( g) seems to show the persistence of gender distinctions outside urban areas

Modern Technologies for Timely Detection and Differential Diagnosis of Gastric Cancer

The diagnostic potentialities of laser spectro- and videofluorescence endoscopy, complex transabdominal US examination, dynamic multihelical computed tomography (MHCT) with the possibility of constructing multiplanar reformations, and virtual gastroscopy were studied with a view to diagnosing gastric cancer (GC). It was established that laser spectral fluorescence with the drug Alasens (5-aminolevulinic acid) is a highly revealing method for diagnosis and differential diagnosis of GC. The sensitivity of the method is 96%, and its specificity is 78%. Well-defined videofluorescence was noted in 91.3% of patients with GC. The possibility of detecting cancer with complex trans-ultrasonography in the pyloroantral division and in the lower third of the body of the stomach constitutes 95.6% attaining absolute values in T3 and T4. Dynamic MHCT allows 97% detection of GC attaining absolute values, beginning with T2 invasion depth; tumor localization is irrelevant. Comparative visual assessment of the quality of a virtual image and conventional video esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGDS) was made. The study demonstrated a sufficiently high level of virtual images whose quality was not inferior to that of conventional images in intraluminal tumor growth. The indications for the application of this technique require further specification