‘If your daughters are inclined to love reading, do not check their Inclination'

This paper examines attitudes to the education of children in elite families in eighteenth-century Scotland revealed in various letters, private papers, and memoirs. It takes as its starting point Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s famous advice to her daughter, Mary Stuart, Countess of Bute (1718-1794), on the education of her granddaughters. Lady Louisa Stuart, one of those six granddaughters, went on to become a writer as well as an avid reader, and later recalled the childhood pleasures of reading books from her grandmother’s vast library. Provision for the education of her daughters and grandchildren, at home and abroad, can also be traced in some detail in the meticulous Household Book and notebooks kept by Lady Grisell Baillie (1665-1746). Her daughter Griseld, Lady Murray (1693-1759), later commemorated her famous mother’s commitment to education. Attitudes to reading, learning languages and education through travel to Europe can be traced in the private papers of these families, and in the views of the children who went on to express their appreciation in memoirs and biographies published in honour of their mothers and grandmothers

War of words: Daniel Defoe and the 1707 Union

The Union of Scotland and England on 1 May 1707 was – and for some still is – undoubtedly contentious. This essay takes a close look at the language Defoe employed in his History of the Union, the language of persuasion, and perhaps also of propaganda, and in particular at some of the rhetorical figures and strategies he had refined as a journalist and pamphleteer. Some of the language he used provoked a small pamphlet war, in which his very words were flung back at him. In the second part of this essay I consider how Defoe handled outstanding Scottish historical grievances at the time of the Union, by examining his account of one of the most contentious political issues of the day, the Darien disaster, before offering some conclusions about the insights afforded by such a historical linguistic analysis

Threshold concepts: Impacts on teaching and learning at tertiary level

This project explored teaching and learning of hard-to-learn threshold concepts in first-year English, an electrical engineering course, leadership courses, and in doctoral writing. The project was envisioned to produce disciplinary case studies that lecturers could use to reflect on and refine their curriculum and pedagogy, thereby contributing to discussion about the relationship between theory and methodology in higher education research (Shay, Ashwin, & Case, 2009). A team of seven academics investigated lecturers’ awareness and emergent knowledge of threshold concepts and associated pedagogies and how such pedagogies can afford opportunities for learning. As part of this examination the lecturers also explored the role of threshold concept theory in designing curricula and sought to find the commonalities in threshold concepts and their teaching and learning across the four disciplines. The research highlights new ways of teaching threshold concepts to help students learn concepts that are fundamental to the disciplines they are studying and expand their educational experiences. Given that much of the international research in this field focuses on the identification of threshold concepts and debates their characteristics (Barradell, 2013; Flanagan, 2014; Knight, Callaghan, Baldock, & Meyer, 2013), our exploration of what happens when lecturers use threshold concept theory to re-envision their curriculum and teaching helps to address a gap within the field. By addressing an important theoretical and practical approach the project makes a considerable contribution to teaching and learning at the tertiary level in general and to each discipline in particular

Curriculum implementation exploratory studies: Final report

Throughout the history of schooling in New Zealand the national curriculum has been revised at fairly regular intervals. Consequently, schools are periodically faced with having to accommodate to new curriculum. In between major changes other specifically-focused changes may arise; for example, the increased recent emphasis upon numeracy and literacy

Seasonal regulation of petal number

International audienceFour petals characterize the flowers of most species in the Brassicaceae family, and this phenotype is generally robust to genetic and environmental variation. A variable petal number distinguishes the flowers of Cardamine hirsuta from those of its close relative Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), and allelic variation at many loci contribute to this trait. However, it is less clear whether C. hirsuta petal number varies in response to seasonal changes in environment. To address this question, we assessed whether petal number responds to a suite of environmental and endogenous cues that regulate flowering time in C. hirsuta. We found that petal number showed seasonal variation in C. hirsuta, such that spring flowering plants developed more petals than those flowering in summer. Conditions associated with spring flowering, including cool ambient temperature, short photoperiod, and vernalization, all increased petal number in C. hirsuta. Cool temperature caused the strongest increase in petal number and lengthened the time interval over which floral meristems matured. We performed live imaging of early flower development and showed that floral buds developed more slowly at 15°C versus 20°C. This extended phase of floral meristem formation, coupled with slower growth of sepals at 15°C, produced larger intersepal regions with more space available for petal initiation. In summary, the growth and maturation of floral buds is associated with variable petal number in C. hirsuta and responds to seasonal changes in ambient temperature

Chromosome Painting Reveals Asynaptic Full Alignment of Homologs and HIM-8–Dependent Remodeling of X Chromosome Territories during Caenorhabditis elegans Meiosis

During early meiotic prophase, a nucleus-wide reorganization leads to sorting of chromosomes into homologous pairs and to establishing associations between homologous chromosomes along their entire lengths. Here, we investigate global features of chromosome organization during this process, using a chromosome painting method in whole-mount Caenorhabditis elegans gonads that enables visualization of whole chromosomes along their entire lengths in the context of preserved 3D nuclear architecture. First, we show that neither spatial proximity of premeiotic chromosome territories nor chromosome-specific timing is a major factor driving homolog pairing. Second, we show that synaptonemal complex-independent associations can support full lengthwise juxtaposition of homologous chromosomes. Third, we reveal a prominent elongation of chromosome territories during meiotic prophase that initiates prior to homolog association and alignment. Mutant analysis indicates that chromosome movement mediated by association of chromosome pairing centers (PCs) with mobile patches of the nuclear envelope (NE)–spanning SUN-1/ZYG-12 protein complexes is not the primary driver of territory elongation. Moreover, we identify new roles for the X chromosome PC (X-PC) and X-PC binding protein HIM-8 in promoting elongation of X chromosome territories, separable from their role(s) in mediating local stabilization of pairing and association of X chromosomes with mobile SUN-1/ZYG-12 patches. Further, we present evidence that HIM-8 functions both at and outside of PCs to mediate chromosome territory elongation. These and other data support a model in which synapsis-independent elongation of chromosome territories, driven by PC binding proteins, enables lengthwise juxtaposition of chromosomes, thereby facilitating assessment of their suitability as potential pairing partners

Role of Pleiotropy in the Evolution of a Cryptic Developmental Variation in Caenorhabditis elegans

Using vulval phenotypes in Caenorhabditis elegans, the authors show that cryptic genetic variation can evolve through selection for pleiotropic effects that alter fitness, and identify a cryptic variant that has conferred enhanced fitness on domesticated worms under laboratory conditions