SEFA Hub and Spoke Evaluation - year two progress report and interim findings 2014-15

This report details findings from the second year of a four-year evaluation of the ‘Hub and Spoke’ initiative, being undertaken by the University of Bedfordshire. Funded by the Child Sexual Exploitation Funders’ Alliance (CSEFA), this initiative aims to improve services in relation to child sexual exploitation (CSE). It utilises the expertise, resources and infrastructure of an established voluntary sector CSE service (the ‘Hub’) by locating experienced CSE workers (known as ‘Spoke workers’) into new service delivery areas. The evaluation assesses the extent to which the Hub and Spoke model triggers cultural and systemic change in the way that services engaging with young people respond to CSE.

The next generation of target capture technologies - large DNA fragment enrichment and sequencing determines regional genomic variation of high complexity

Abstract Background The ability to capture and sequence large contiguous DNA fragments represents a significant advancement towards the comprehensive characterization of complex genomic regions. While emerging sequencing platforms are capable of producing several kilobases-long reads, the fragment sizes generated by current DNA target enrichment technologies remain a limiting factor, producing DNA fragments generally shorter than 1 kbp. The DNA enrichment methodology described herein, Region-Specific Extraction (RSE), produces DNA segments in excess of 20 kbp in length. Coupling this enrichment method to appropriate sequencing platforms will significantly enhance the ability to generate complete and accurate sequence characterization of any genomic region without the need for reference-based assembly. Results RSE is a long-range DNA target capture methodology that relies on the specific hybridization of short (20-25 base) oligonucleotide primers to selected sequence motifs within the DNA target region. These capture primers are then enzymatically extended on the 3’-end, incorporating biotinylated nucleotides into the DNA. Streptavidin-coated beads are subsequently used to pull-down the original, long DNA template molecules via the newly synthesized, biotinylated DNA that is bound to them. We demonstrate the accuracy, simplicity and utility of the RSE method by capturing and sequencing a 4 Mbp stretch of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Our results show an average depth of coverage of 164X for the entire MHC. This depth of coverage contributes significantly to a 99.94 % total coverage of the targeted region and to an accuracy that is over 99.99 %. Conclusions RSE represents a cost-effective target enrichment method capable of producing sequencing templates in excess of 20 kbp in length. The utility of our method has been proven to generate superior coverage across the MHC as compared to other commercially available methodologies, with the added advantage of producing longer sequencing templates amenable to DNA sequencing on recently developed platforms. Although our demonstration of the method does not utilize these DNA sequencing platforms directly, our results indicate that the capture of long DNA fragments produce superior coverage of the targeted region

Democratization and gender-neutrality in English(es)

"Democratization" and "gender-neutrality" are two concepts commonly used in recent studies on language variation. While both concepts link linguistic phenomena to sociocultural changes, the extent to which they overlap and/or interact has not been studied in detail. In particular, not much is known about how linguistic changes related to democratization and gender-neutrality spread across registers or varieties of English, as well as whether speakers are aware of the changes that are taking place. In this paper we review the main theoretical issues regarding these concepts and relate them to the main findings in the articles in this issue, all of which study lexical and grammatical variation from a corpus-based perspective. Taken together, they help unveil some of the conscious and unconscious mechanisms that operate at the interface between democratization and gender-neutrality.Peer reviewe

Time-resolved angiography with stochastic trajectories for dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI in head and neck cancer: Are pharmacokinetic parameters affected?

Purpose To investigate the effects of different time-resolved angiography with stochastic trajectories (TWIST) k-space undersampling schemes on calculated pharmacokinetic dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) vascular parameters.Methods A digital perfusion phantom was employed to simulate effects of TWIST on characteristics of signal changes in DCE. Furthermore, DCE-MRI was acquired without undersampling in a group of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma and used to simulate a range of TWIST schemes. Errors were calculated as differences between reference and TWIST-simulated DCE parameters. Parametrical error maps were used to display the averaged results from all tumors.Results For a relatively wide range of undersampling schemes, errors in pharmacokinetic parameters due to TWIST were under 10% for the volume transfer constant, Ktrans, and total extracellular extravascular space volume, Ve. TWIST induced errors in the total blood plasma volume, Vp, were the largest observed, and these were inversely dependent on the area of the fully sampled k-space. The magnitudes of errors were not correlated with Ktrans, Vp and weakly correlated with Ve.Conclusions The authors demonstrated methods to validate and optimize k-space view-sharing techniques for pharmacokinetic DCE studies using a range of clinically relevant spatial and temporal patient derived data. The authors found a range of undersampling patterns for which the TWIST sequence can be reliably used in pharmacokinetic DCE-MRI. The parameter maps created in the study can help to make a decision between temporal and spatial resolution demands and the quality of enhancement curve characterization

Contexts that discriminate: international perspectives on the education of Roma students

Theoretical assumptions about educational disadvantages of minority students can be broadly distinguished between approaches assuming that inequality is triggered by characteristics of the minority students (their parents and communities) and approaches assuming that inequality is triggered by characteristics of institutional schooling and its surrounding dominant discourses (Diefenbach 2010 Diefenbach, H. 2010. Kinder und Jugendliche aus Migrantenfamilien im deutschen Bildungssystem: Erklärungen und empirische Befunde [Children and Youth from Migrant Families in the German Education System: Explanations Empirical Results]. 3rd ed. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag. 10.1007/978-3-531-92186-0[CrossRef], 90). Several articles published in this journal have emphasised the latter approach and explored the complex dynamics of racial and ethnic discrimination in education (e.g. Araújo 2016 Araújo, M. 2016. “A Very ‘Prudent Integration’: White Flight, School Segregation and the Depoliticization of (Anti-)Racism.” Race Ethnicity and Education 19 (2): 300–323. doi:10.1080/13613324.2014.969225.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]; Beratan 2008 Beratan, G. D. 2008. “The Song Remains the Same: Transposition and the Disproportionate Representation of Minority Students in Special Education.” Race Ethnicity and Education 11 (4): 337–354. doi:10.1080/13613320802478820.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]; Gafford Muhammad 2009 Gafford Muhammad, C. 2009. “Mississippi Higher Education Desegregation and the Interest Convergence Principle: A Crt Analysis of the ‘Ayers Settlement’.” Race Ethnicity and Education 12 (3): 319–336. doi:10.1080/13613320903178279.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]; Gillies and Robinson 2012 Gillies, V., and Y. Robinson. 2012. “Including While Excluding: Race, Class and Behaviour Support Units.” Race Ethnicity and Education 15 (2): 157–174. doi:10.1080/13613324.2011.578126.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]; Hamilton, Bloomer, and Potter 2012 Hamilton, J., F. Bloomer, and M.Potter. 2012. “The Adequacy of Traveller Education in Northern Ireland.” Race Ethnicity and Education 15 (4): 501–524. doi:10.1080/13613324.2011.645574.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]; Johnson 2007 Johnson, E. 2007. “Schooling, Blackness and National Identity in Esmeraldas, Ecuador.” Race Ethnicity and Education 10 (1): 47–70. doi:10.1080/13613320601100377.[Taylor & Francis Online]; Kruss 2001 Kruss, G. 2001. “Towards Human Rights in South African Schools: An agenda for research and practice.” Race Ethnicity and Education 4 (1): 45–62. doi:10.1080/713693047.[Taylor & Francis Online], [CSA]; Webb 2015 Webb, A. 2015. “Indigenous Schooling Grants in Chile: The Impacts of an Integrationist Affirmative Action Policy Among Mapuche Pupils.” Race Ethnicity and Education 18 (3): 419–441. doi:10.1080/13613324.2014.918944.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®]). This special issue follows this tradition by concentrating on the ways in which education systems and prevailing discourses disadvantage minority learners

Development and Validation of a Raman Spectroscopic Classification Model for Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia (CIN)

The mortality associated with cervical cancer can be reduced if detected at the precancer stage, but current methods are limited in terms of subjectivity, cost and time. Optical spectroscopic methods such as Raman spectroscopy can provide a rapid, label-free and nondestructive measurement of the biochemical fingerprint of a cell, tissue or biofluid. Previous studies have shown the potential of Raman spectroscopy for cervical cancer diagnosis, but most were pilot studies with small sample sizes. The aim of this study is to show the clinical utility of Raman spectroscopy for identifying cervical precancer in a large sample set with validation in an independent test set. Liquid-based cervical cytology samples (n = 662) (326 negative, 200 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN)1 and 136 CIN2+) were obtained as a training set. Raman spectra were recorded from single-cell nuclei and subjected to a partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLSDA). In addition, the PLSDA classification model was validated using a blinded independent test set (n = 69). A classification accuracy of 91.3% was achieved with only six of the blinded samples misclassified. This study showed the potential clinical utility of Raman spectroscopy with a good classification of negative, CIN1 and CIN2+ achieved in an independent test set