Promoting the achievement of looked after children and young people across Cardiff

As of March 2017, there were 5,955 children and young people in care in Wales. Across the Central South Consortium (Bridgend, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynonn Taf and Vale of Glamorgan) there were 2,170 children and young people looked after. The majority of these children are in care as a result of birth families being unable to provide a level of care that meets their emotional and well-being needs. Children and young people who are in or have experienced care remain one of the lowest performing groups in terms of educational outcomes. In 2016, eleven per cent of young people in Wales achieved A* to C grade at GCSE. Care leavers can experience poorer employment and health outcomes after leaving school compared to their peers; for example, 45% of young people who were looked after were not engaged in education, training or employment (NEET) or not in touch with their local authority on their 19th birthday in 2015. This compares with around 4.9% of all other children who leave school at the end of Year 13. However, the education and achievement of children and young people in care is currently the focus of renewed policy, research and practice attention across Wales. The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 provides the legal framework for improving the well-being of people who need care and support. A national strategic approach to improving outcomes for children looked after is underway with a focus on promoting and improving collaborative working across agencies, identifying and sharing good practice and making improvements where they are needed. The purpose of this report is to share practice in selected in Cardiff schools that is contributing to improved outcomes and school experiences for children and young people in care

U-251MG Spheroid generation using a scaffold based method protocol

3D cell culture is a technique that is used to grow cells in vitro that will mimic an in vivo environment. 3D cell models are a helpful learning tool for researchers to better understand disease mechanisms and to explore different therapeutic properties of drugs. 3D cell cultures can be developed using patient derived cancer cells. Once they have been grown, these 3D cells can be used to screen for small molecule drugs or for genetic modification in for analysis of disease pathways or to predict drug treatments toxicity or efficacy. 3D cell cultures are a big step towards the more ethical testing of drug toxicity and efficacy as they decrease the need to use animals in research as well as providing more reliable results as the cells used are of human physiology. Cellusponge are 3D porous hydroxipropylcellulose scaffolds that are designed for use with cells that do not require specific ligands. As well as the standard non-coated cellusponge, there are two more of the same type of scaffold available for use that are made with two different coatings to allow for improved adaptation of different cell types, these are called Cellusponge-Gal and Cellusponge-Col. Cellusponge is a no-coating approach that is intended for use in the development of general soft tissue 3D culture. It has been used as soft matrix for 3D cell culture and 3D tumour model

U-251MG Spheroid Generation Using Hanging Drop Method Protocol

The use of 3D cell culture has been a major step in developing cellular models that can mimic physiological tissues. Traditional 2D cell cultures are often unable to accurately represent the cellular functions and responses that are present in tissues, as a result, research findings based on 2D cultures tend to be skewed with limited predictive capability. 3D cell cultures can be grown from cells obtained from cancer organoids in patients. These models are useful for understanding disease mechanisms and exploring drug therapeutics in areas such as toxicity and efficacy. In order to gather more physiologically relevant data, a variety of 3D cell culture techniques have been developed to mimic the in vivo characteristics of physiological tissues. This protocol describes in vitro generation of U-251MG spheroids using the hanging drop method. Advantages of using hanging drop plate method are, able to produce uniform size spheroids, low cost, comfortable to handling and suitable for short term culture. The main downside of this method is medium change, different drug treatment at different time points are impossible and labor intensive. This method uses the Perfecta3D hanging drop plate, a novel cell culture device that simplifies the process of spheroid formation, testing and analysis. Rather than having to invert the plates which often results in spillage or detachment, these plates are designed to create hanging drops using a plateau structure at the bottom of the plate

U-251MG Spheroid generation using low attachment plate method protocol

3D cell culture is a process used to grow cells in vitro to mimic an in vivo environment. 3D cell models are very useful for understanding disease mechanisms and exploring drug therapeutics. 3D cultures can be grown from cells taken from cancer organoids in patients. Once grown, they can be used to screen for small molecule drugs or they can be genetically modified in order to analyse disease pathways or predict the toxicity or efficacy of a drug treatment. These cultures decrease the need to use animals in research and provides more reliable results as it uses human physiology. This protocol describes the in vitro generation of spheroids using the low attachment plate method. This method uses low-adhesion plates that are coated with hydrophilic polymer to allow cells to cluster together, forming their own extracellular matrix, rather than sticking to the plate surface. The scaffold-free 3D cell culture models produced can more accurately reflect an in vivo microenvironment making them useful in the study of oncology, hepatotoxicity, neurology, nephrology and stem cell biology

Retrofit Of A Steam Turbine With Dry Gas Seals.

LecturePg. 45-50The solution to a chronic utility problem, with a critical natural gas compression unit, at the Ammonia plant at Du Pont's Beaumont, Texas facility, is described. The most critical problem, chronic steam leakage from the turbine and subsequent oil system contamination, was corrected by the installation of noncontacting spiral groove seals. In addition, vibration problems caused by coupling lockup and subsequent premature coupling failure were solved by replacing the grease lubricated gear type coupling with a nonlubricated flexible coupling. A feature of the coupling is a keyed hub, designed for hydraulic removal. The turbine was sensitive to minor upsets and a rotordynamics study was done. The coupling and seal changes were both done at the same time. The unique features of these designs and measures taken to ensure proper application are addressed along with shop fabrication, field installation, and subsequent operation requirements. A description of project justification of reduced maintenance costs and avoided investments is also included

Promoting the achievement of looked after children and young people across the Central South Consortium in Wales

As of March 2017, there were 5,955 children and young people in care in Wales. Across the Central South Consortium (Bridgend, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Rhondda Cynonn Taf and Vale of Glamorgan) there were 2,170 children and young people looked after. The majority of these children are in care as a result of birth families being unable to provide a level of care that meets their emotional and well-being needs. Children and young people who are in or have experienced care remain one of the lowest performing groups in terms of educational outcomes. In 2016, eleven per cent of young people in Wales achieved A* to C grade at GCSE. Care leavers can experience poorer employment and health outcomes after leaving school compared to their peers; for example, 45% of young people who were looked after were not engaged in education, training or employment (NEET) or not in touch with their local authority on their 19th birthday in 2015. This compares with around 4.9% of all other children who leave school at the end of Year 13. However, the education and achievement of children and young people in care is currently the focus of renewed policy, research and practice attention across Wales. The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 provides the legal framework for improving the well-being of people who need care and support. A national strategic approach to improving outcomes for children looked after is underway with a focus on promoting and improving collaborative working across agencies, identifying and sharing good practice and making improvements where they are needed. The purpose of this report is to share practice in selected in Central South Consortium (CSC) schools that is contributing to improved outcomes and school experiences for children and young people in care

Tribal Relationships in the Gesneriaceae: Evidence from DNA Sequences of the Chloroplast Gene \u3cem\u3endh\u3c/em\u3eF

The tribal relationships of the Gesneriaceae are investigated using ndhF sequences. A full analysis of 70 taxa including 16 species from the Scrophulariaceae, Bigoniaceae, and Acanthaceae as outgroups, resulted in two most-parsimonious trees of 5610 steps each. In all trees the Gesneriaceae were a monophyletic group and Paulownia was the closest single-species outgroup for the analysis. Further analyses eliminated all but the members of the Gesneriaceae and Paulownia in order to better asses relationships within the family. The smaller analysis resulted in a single most-parsimonious tree of 4613 steps. The Klugieae are identified as the sister to the remainder of the family and could potentially be separated as a distinct subfamily. The subfamilies Cyrtandroideae (excluding Klugieae) and Gesnerioideae are monophyletic. The placement of Coronallthereae in Cyrtandroideae does not have support from this analysis, whereas its placement in Gesnerioideae is supported. Alternatively Coronanthereae could be segregated as a seperate subfamily but in order to avoid a paraphyletic Gesnerioideae would either include the Napeantheae and Beslerieae or elevate these two tribes to an additional subfamily. Within Gesnerioideae the genus Sinningia is removed from the tribe Gloxinieae into the Sinningieae, which also contains the recently combined species Sinningia brasiliensis (Lietzia), as well as Paliavana and Vanhouttea. The Episcieae, Gesnerieae, Napeantheae, and Beslerieae are identified as monophyletic groups, as are the remainder of the Gloxineae with Sinningia sensu lato removed. Within Cyrtandroideae, several well-supported, monophyletic lineages within the large, heterogeneous tribe Didymocarpeae are identified, and with the current data the tribe Trichosporeae appears to be polyphyletic. The distribution of chromosome numbers, nodal anatomy, placental structure, and stem modification are examined based on these molecular trees

Spatiotemporal variation in the endangered Thymus decussatus in a hyper-arid environment

Aims: Arid environments are resource limited, with scarcity of water the key limiting factor, but hyper-arid environments are rarely studied. We test for spatial and temporal variation in ecologically important characteristics to deduce plant adaptations to the extreme climate. Methods: The endangered Sinai Thyme (Thymus decussatus) exists as a set of patches on mountaintops within the St Katherine Protectorate, South Sinai, a hyper-arid environment with rare events of good rains (every 10–15 years). Important Findings: From spatial and temporal patterns of plant mortality, size, condition and flowering among 10 patches on the Mt Sinai massif, we deduce that the incidence and amount of flowering responds relatively quickly (1–2 years) to rainfall fluctuations, but plant growth respond only very slowly. Small individuals are most at risk of death during drought, and a high proportion of plants were dead at the end of 8 years of very low or no rainfall. No recruitment of seedlings was observed even in years of good rainfall. Droughts are expected to become increasingly frequent due to climate change; this may have important consequences for Sinai Thyme and also its associated herbivores, such as the Critically Endangered Sinai Baton Blue (Pseudophilotes sinaicus) whose larval stage feeds exclusively upon the flowers of this plant

Consumer Use of Turkey

Purposes of this study were to compare: ( 1) family characteristics of high- and low-level users of turkey, and ( 2) attitudes, preferences, purchase, and use. patterns for turkey. Such comparative information should suggest explanations for variation in turkey consumption levels among individual families. It should also indicate modifications in turkey producing, processing, and marketing which could result in increased consumer satisfaction. 16 pages. This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from University of Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station: http://www.maes.umn.edu

Dark Energy or Apparent Acceleration Due to a Relativistic Cosmological Model More Complex than FLRW?

We use the Szekeres inhomogeneous relativistic models in order to fit supernova combined data sets. We show that with a choice of the spatial curvature function that is guided by current observations, the models fit the supernova data almost as well as the LCDM model without requiring a dark energy component. The Szekeres models were originally derived as an exact solution to Einstein's equations with a general metric that has no symmetries and are regarded as good candidates to model the true lumpy universe that we observe. The null geodesics in these models are not radial. The best fit model found is also consistent with the requirement of spatial flatness at CMB scales. The first results presented here seem to encourage further investigations of apparent acceleration using various inhomogeneous models and other constraints from CMB and large structure need to be explored next.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure, matches version published in PR