The Effects Of Gastrin Releasing Peptide In Fetal Sheep, Pregnant Sheep And Non Pregnant Sheep

These studies examined the hypothesis that GRP stimulates insulin release from the endocrine pancreas of ovine fetuses. This could occur due to the action of GRP directly within the fetal compartment or due to indirect effects of GRP on glucose and insulin concentrations in the maternal compartment which in turn influences the availability of glucose for transplacental transfer to the fetus and hence produce alterations in fetal insulin release.;The studies performed provided the following results: (1) IR-GRP was detectable in nerves of the GI tract and in the systemic circulation but not in the pancreas of fetal and adult sheep; (2) Intravenous administration of GRP stimulates insulin and glucagon release and potentiates glucose stimulated insulin release in adult non-pregnant sheep; (3) Preliminary studies suggest that plasma IR-GRP concentrations rise in non-pregnant sheep following feeding. These results are consistent with a proposed incretin action of GRP which acts systemically to alter insulin release. However, further experiments are necessary to confirm this suggestion. The ability of GRP to stimulate insulin release and potentiate glucose stimulated insulin release, is attenuated in pregnant compared to non-pregnant sheep. Furthermore, the diminished insulin response to GRP and/or glucose observed in pregnant sheep was reproduced in non-pregnant ovariectomized sheep treated with progesterone and estradiol but not estradiol alone. This suggests that elevated circulating progesterone concentrations which occur during pregnancy mediate, at least in part, the reduced ability for GRP to influence insulin release observed in pregnant sheep. Similar doses of GRP and/or glucose administered to fetal sheep over the last one-third of gestation did not alter fetal plasma insulin concentrations significantly. IR-GRP is present in very high concentrations in fetal plasma which probably explains why exogenous GRP administration into fetal sheep did not alter circulating GRP or insulin concentrations. Further experiments are necessary to determine the site of production and function of GRP within the fetus

Students’ experiences:choice, hope and everyday neoliberalism in English higher education

The idea of a neoliberal subject has become prevalent within critical debates about changes to higher education. This neoliberal subject is framed as an entrepreneur of the self and an investor in their human capital (Foucault: 2010). Students are urged by political policy and sector discourses to think of themselves as investors in their own futures. This manifests itself in the fetishisation of league tables and market rhetoric in the name of student choice; a concern for future employability and earnings; but also in the everyday practices of university life. This thesis aims to redress a gap in the literature on neoliberalism in higher education concerning this neoliberal subject by examining students’ experiences of higher education across different stages, subjects and universities. Drawing on Foucault (1978, 1985, 1986, 2010), Archer (2003, 2007) and Bourdieu (1986, 1988, 1990, 1991), the thesis explores how neoliberalism within higher education may affect students’ processes of self-work. In defining these narratives, it draws on broader critiques of the neoliberal project, particularly Philip Mirowski’s (2013) concept of ‘everyday neoliberalism’. In capturing students’ experiences of higher education, the thesis uses interview data alongside identity portfolios, consisting of biographical data and examples of different presentations of the self students enact during their higher education studies. The students’ narratives are analysed against the theoretical background of subject formation and neoliberalism

Cooperative approach in GPS training

As Global Positioning System (GPS) technology becomes more commonly used in many aspects of natural resource management, the need for education and training in this area has also increased. However, the high cost of the equipment and the high level of technical knowledge required has been a barrier to including GPS in forestry and other natural resources curricula. This fall the forest technology program at Penn State-Mont Alto and the Bartlett Tree Experts Company collaborated on a two-day training session in GPS using Trimble receivers and data collectors. Ten students and faculty from Mont Alto and ten Bartlett personnel participated in the program. The first day of field procedures and data processing was taught by a Trimble-certified trainer. The second day consisted of training by Bartlett Tree Research Laboratory staff in Bartlett’s tree inventory system and management plan writing. As a practical project over 400 trees in the campus’s arboretum were inventoried with the Bartlett tree inventory and appraisal system. The workshop was mutually beneficial to both groups. Bartlett was able to train its personnel in a well-equipped computer lab and typical landscaped environment on campus. The university students used the latest equipment and were able to get career and practical insights from arborists employing the technology in the field. The combined efforts of all the participants in the tree inventory facilitated a long-standing need in the arboretum’s management. Sharing resources in joint training exercises such as this one provides a realistic teaching opportunity in a time of budget restraint

KIKS Creativity and Technology for All

To help meet an educational and societal requirement for all students to enjoy, have confidence and ability in creativity and technology, the ?Kids Inspiring Kids in STEAM? (KIKS) EU project adopted an intensive Hothousing process challenging students in Finland, Spain, Hungary and the United Kingdom to engage in collaborative problem solving to develop solutions to: ?How would you get your schoolmates to LOVE STEAM?? The project provided a process and technology toolkit for students, including those with special educational needs, to achieve their solutions. A completion rate of 90% suggested that all schools and students could cope with and enjoy the process and associated technology toolkit, which featured social media plus Micro:bit, Tracker and GeoGebra for data collection and modelling. We have extended the toolkit with simulation software and a graphical programming environment to produce realistic animations of objects in motion. Thus students will have a creativity and technology toolkit to experience the kinds of techniques and skills used by software engineers in the video, games and special effects industries. The toolkit will be on the GeoGebra platform which, in addition to mathematics, embraces STEAM and social media

Tackling overprescribing

Long overdue with a lot to d

Kids Inspire Kids for STEAM

The goal of the Kids Inspiring Kids in STEAM (KIKS) project was to raise students’ awareness towards the multi- and transdisciplinary connections between the STEAM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics), and make the learning about topics and phenomena from these fields more enjoyable. In order to achieve these goals, KIKS project has popularized the STEAM-concept by projects based on the students inspiring other students-approach and by utilizing new technologies, tools, open educational resources, and everyday items and materials. Through the students-inspiring-other-students-approach, we have aimed to get participating students developing STEAM activities for other students in their own local context and in a wider European physical and virtual community. English, Finnish, Hungarian and Spanish children were participating in the project

Engaging Emergency Department Patients in the Creation of a Shared Decision-­Making Tool Regarding CT Scanning in Kidney Stones: Challenges to Traditional Stakeholder Engagement

Background: Every year approximately 2 million patients are seen in US EDs for suspected renal colic, and the majority receive CT scans. The objective of our study was to develop a stakeholder-informed conversation aid to help clinicians use SDM regarding CT scanning in patients with suspected renal colic. Methods: Using a published decision aid development framework, and under the direction of a multi-disciplinary Steering Committee, we engaged a diverse set of stakeholders via qualitative methods. EM clinicians, urologists, radiologists, researchers, and emergency department patients participated in focus groups and semi-structured interviews. All groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in an iterative process by a four-person coding team. Emergent themes were identified and used to develop a decision aid which was iteratively refined. Results: A total of 8 interviews and 7 focus groups were conducted with 36 stakeholders (including local ED patients) The following three themes emerged: 1. Patient participants reported a desire to be involved in this decision and wanted more information regarding risks and benefits of CT scans. 2. Clinicians were comfortable diagnosing kidney stones without a CT scan, however, some felt that clinical uncertainty was a barrier to SDM. 3. All stakeholders identified strategies to facilitate this conversation such as check-lists and visual aids. Conclusion: Using stakeholder input, we developed a communication tool to facilitate an SDM conversation around the use of CT in suspected renal colic. Further testing will assess whether this tool can safely improve patient engagement and decrease low yield CT usage

Models for Estimating the Cold Hardiness of Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium cv. Sweetheart and Lapins) in Cold Climate Regions

Plant cold hardiness is a dynamic process, and seasonal changes occur through cold acclimation and deacclimation to help prevent lethal injury from the cold. Cold weather injury resulting from inadequate plant cold hardiness can result in significant economic losses to growers of perennial crops in temperate climates. The objective of the current study was to develop models that estimate the lethal temperature that causes 10%, 50%, and 90% mortality (LT10, LT50, LT90) to two cultivars of sweet cherry (Prunus avium) flower buds from the early fall through to spring. We parameterized regression models using lethal temperature data collected in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada, over six seasons (2013–17, 2019–20, 2021–22) for ‘Sweetheart’ sweet cherry and three seasons (2013–15, 2016–17) for ‘Lapins’ sweet cherry. These models incorporate parameters that are based on equations that describe chill and heat accumulation that rely on measures of hourly air temperature. Model evaluation and validation using several seasons of lethal temperature data not included in model development were completed. Models for estimating the cold hardiness of sweet cherry showed good agreement between model lethal temperature predictions and observed values for both sweet cherry cultivars. In addition, an open-access, interactive, web-based application was developed to access the outputs of these models in real time for use by growers, researchers, and extension workers. These current models of sweet cherry cold hardiness have potential application for use as a decision support tool for cold damage management as well as crop site suitability modeling

Introduction: Popular Economies in South Africa

African economies have long been a matter of concern to anthropologists, not least in the pages of Africa. These economies are situated, somewhat contradictorily, between global settings of financialized capitalism on the one hand and impoverished local arenas where cash-based economic transfers predominate on the other. The more such economies appear to be tied to wider global arenas and operations that place them beyond the reach of ordinary people, the more necessary it is to explore the logics and decisions that tie them inexorably to specific everyday settings