Teachers’ Perspectives on Achieving an Integrated Curricular Model of Primary STEM Education in Ireland: Authentic or Utopian Ideology?

Integrative science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is heralded as a promising model for effective learning of 21st century STEM literacies and has been suggested as an approach that increases student motivation and engagement. In recent years Ireland has introduced policy with a renewed emphasis on integrated STEM education across all levels of schooling and paying particular attention to the early years and primary settings. The available international literature cites many concerns with potential barriers and failures to achieve authentic integration of the various STEM disciplines in educational contexts. An important determinant of the success of integrated STEM curricula are the backgrounds and attitudes of the individual teachers, as well as supports/experiences in designing and implementing an integrated curricular approach. In the Irish context, this is often in conflict with prescribed overloaded curricula and a subject focused education system. Therefore, research is required into primary school teachers’ perspectives on achieving a truly integrated model of STEM education, particularly in the Irish context. This study employed a qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews with a sample of practicing teachers (N = 6) to gather perspectives on the potential and challenge of integrating STEM in their respective experiences. These teachers were enrolled in a practice orientated module on STEM education as part of their postgraduate studies. The data gathered was analysed to ascertain these teachers’ perspectives on the supports needed to overcome the challenges of integrating STEM subjects within their professional settings. Essentially, the findings of this study will discuss whether such an integrated STEM model is an authentic or utopian ideology

Intestinal barrier tightening by a cell-penetrating antibody to Bin1, a candidate target for immunotherapy of ulcerative colitis.

Patients afflicted with ulcerative colitis (UC) are at increased risk of colorectal cancer. While its causes are not fully understood, UC is associated with defects in colonic epithelial barriers that sustain inflammation of the colon mucosa caused by recruitment of lymphocytes and neutrophils into the lamina propria. Based on genetic evidence that attenuation of the bridging integrator 1 (Bin1) gene can limit UC pathogenicity in animals, we have explored Bin1 targeting as a therapeutic option. Early feasibility studies in the dextran sodium sulfate mouse model of experimental colitis showed that administration of a cell-penetrating Bin1 monoclonal antibody (Bin1 mAb 99D) could prevent lesion formation in the colon mucosa in part by preventing rupture of lymphoid follicles. In vivo administration of Bin1 mAb altered tight junction protein expression and cecal barrier function. Strikingly, electrophysiology studies in organ cultures showed that Bin1 mAb could elevate resistance and lowe

Rewriting Chaucer: culture, authority, and the idea of the authentic text, 1400-1602

(print) 301 p. ; 23 cmAcknowledgments -- Introduction: writing, authenticity, and the fabrication of the Chaucerian text. p.1 -- Chaucer's Canterbury tales - politically corrected. p.13 -- Creating comfortable boundaries: scribes, editors, and the invention of the Parson's tale. p.45 -- The fifteenth-century Prioress's tale and the problem of anti-Semitism. p.93 -- Scribal agendas and the text of Chaucer's tales in British Library MS Harley 7333. p.116 -- Geoffrey Chaucer and other contributors to the Treatise on the astrolabe. p.145 -- Bodleian MS Arch. Selden. B. 24 and the "Scotticization" of Middle English verse. p.166 -- Scottish Chaucer, misogynist Chaucer. p.186 -- The rewriting of the Wife of Bath's prologue in Cambridge Dd.4.24. p.203 -- The influence of printed editions and manuscripts on the canon of William Thynne's Canterbury tales. p.237 -- Chaucer's doppelganger: Thomas Usk and the reformation of Chaucer. p.258 -- Discourses of affinity in the reading communities of Geoffrey Chaucer. p.270 -- Contributors. p.293 -- Index. p.295 -- Index of manuscripts. p.30

Births to Teens Older and Younger Than 17 Years in San Bernardino County and California: Variables Associated with Infant Mortality and Survival

Objective: The purpose of this cohort, descriptive study was to attempt to understand the variables associated with discordant infant mortality among teenagers 17-19 years old whose infants demonstrated higher mortality than infants of teenagers who were younger than 17 years old in San Bernardino County, California. The intent was to elicit further research and/or define appropriate interventions for teen mothers within the age range 17-19 years. Methods: Data was abstracted from an electronic infant mortality data set, the State of California Birth Cohort File in which birth records from San Bernardino County for the period 1989 through 1993 were matched with mortality records. Results: The data showed that infants of white teens within the 17-19 age groups were more likely to have higher infant mortality rates when compared to their younger peers. Infant mortality rates among offspring of Hispanic and black teenage mothers showed no discrepancy between the two groups nor between county and state rates. Conclusions: Further study is needed to answer why infants of white teen mothers in the 17-19 age groups have higher mortality rates. There is also a need to review the services rendered to pregnant and parenting adolescents in San Bernardino County. In addition, very low birth weight infants were much more likely to die when born to older teens than when born to younger teens

Euler, Jacobi, and Missions to Comets and Asteroids

Whenever a freely spinning body is found in a complex rotational state, this means that either the body is a recent victim of an impact or a tidal interaction, or is a fragment of a recently disrupted progenitor. Another factor (relevant for comets) is outgassing. Due to impacts, tidal forces and outgassing, the asteroidal and cometary precession must be a generic phenomenon: while some rotators are in the state of visible tumbling, a much larger amount of objects must be performing narrow-cone precession not so easily observable from the Earth. The internal dissipation in a freely precessing top leads to relaxation (gradual damping of the precession) and sometimes to spontaneous changes in the rotation axis. Recently developed theory of dissipative precession of a rigid body reveals that this is a highly nonlinear process: while the body is precessing at an angular rate $\omega$, the precession-caused stresses and strains in the body contain components oscillating at other frequencies. Dependent upon the spin state, those frequencies may be higher or, most remarkably, lower than the precession rate. In many states dissipation at the harmonics is comparable to or even exceeds that at the principal frequency. For this and other reasons, in many spin states the damping of asteroidal and cometary wobble happens faster, by several orders, than believed previously. This makes it possible to measure the precession-damping rate. The narrowing of the precession cone through the period of about a year can be registered by the currently available spacecraft-based observational means. However, in the near-separatrix spin states a precessing rotator can considerably slow down its relaxation.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figur

Advances in transcatheter mitral and tricuspid therapies

BACKGROUND: While rheumatic mitral stenosis has been effectively treated percutaneously for more than 20 years, mitral and tricuspid regurgitation treatment appear as a contemporary unmet need. The advent of transcatheter therapies offer new treatment options to often elderly and frail patients at high risk for open surgery. We aimed at providing an updated review of fast-growing domain of transcatheter mitral and tricuspid technology. MAIN BODY: We reviewed the existing literature on mitral and tricuspid transcatheter therapies. Mitraclip is becoming an established therapy for secondary mitral regurgitation in selected patients with disproportionately severe regurgitation associated with moderate left ventricle dysfunction. Evidence is less convincing for primary mitral regurgitation. Transcatheter mitral valve replacement is a promising emerging alternative to transcatheter repair, for secondary as well as primary mitral regurgitation. But further development is needed to improve delivery. Transcatheter tricuspid intervention arrives late after similar technologies have been developed for aortic and mitral valves and is currently at its infancy. This is likely due in part to previously under-recognized impact of tricuspid regurgitation on patient outcomes. Edge-to-edge repair is the most advanced transcatheter solution in development. Data on tricuspid annuloplasty and replacement is limited, and more research is warranted. CONCLUSION: The future appears bright for transcatheter mitral therapies, albeit their place in clinical practice is yet to be clearly defined. Tricuspid transcatheter therapies might address the unmet need of tricuspid regurgitation treatment

Indoximod: An Immunometabolic Adjuvant That Empowers T Cell Activity in Cancer

Exploding interest in immunometabolism as a source of new cancer therapeutics has been driven in large part by studies of tryptophan catabolism mediated by IDO/TDO enzymes. A chief focus in the field is IDO1, a pro-inflammatory modifier that is widely overexpressed in cancers where it blunts immunosurveillance and enables neovascularization and metastasis. The simple racemic compound 1-methyl-D,L-tryptophan (1MT) is an extensively used probe of IDO/TDO pathways that exerts a variety of complex inhibitory effects. The L isomer of 1MT is a weak substrate for IDO1 and is ascribed the weak inhibitory activity of the racemate on the enzyme. In contrast, the D isomer neither binds nor inhibits the purified IDO1 enzyme. However, clinical development focused on D-1MT (now termed indoximod) due to preclinical cues of its greater anticancer activity and its distinct mechanisms of action. In contrast to direct enzymatic inhibitors of IDO1, indoximod acts downstream of IDO1 to stimulate mTORC1, a convergent effector signaling molecule for all IDO/TDO enzymes, thus possibly lowering risks of drug resistance by IDO1 bypass. In this review, we survey the unique biological and mechanistic features of indoximod as an IDO/TDO pathway inhibitor, including recent clinical findings of its ability to safely enhance various types of cancer therapy, including chemotherapy, chemo-radiotherapy, vaccines, and immune checkpoint therapy. We also review the potential advantages indoximod offers compared to selective IDO1-specific blockade, which preclinical studies and the clinical study ECHO-301 suggest may be bypassed readily by tumors. Indoximod lies at a leading edge of broad-spectrum immunometabolic agents that may act to improve responses to many anticancer modalities, in a manner analogous to vaccine adjuvants that act to boost immunity in settings of infectious disease