Immunopathology of Chlamydophila abortus infection in a pregnant mouse model

Chlamydophila abortus targets the ovine placenta, causing tissue damage, inflammation and abortion. C. abortus is the main infectious cause of abortion in ewes in the UK and results in major economic losses to the sheep industry. A pregnant mouse model was developed to investigate immune responses and disease pathogenesis for comparison with the ovine disease.Pregnant mice were inoculated at mid-gestation with C. abortus to investigate progression and pathogenesis of infection. This resulted in abortion on days 6-8 post¬ infection (p.i.). Infected cells were identified at the maternal-foetal interface on days 3 and 5 p.i. and chlamydial inclusions were scattered throughout the trophoblastic labyrinth of the placenta between days 3 and 7 p.i.. Infected areas were accompanied by a maternal mononuclear inflammatory cellular infiltrate, including polymorphonuclear neutrophils, B cells and CD4 and CD8 T cells. C. abortus organisms were cultured from both maternal and foetal tissues, higher numbers present in placenta, the target organ.A Thl type immune response was characterised in the mouse model, similar to that in ovine infections. A dominant IgG2a antibody response was identified and IFN-y and TNF-a expression were detected in both sera and supernatants from stimulated splenocytes. IFN-y mRNA and TNF-a mRNA expression were detected by in situ hybridisation in mouse tissues infected with C. abortus. A latent/subclinical persistent infection did not appear to develop in non-pregnant mice infected with C. abortus and abortion did not occur in the subsequent pregnancy, in contrast to that in ovine infections. Repeat abortion did not occur in the pregnancy subsequent to abortion in mice, similar to the situation observed in sheep. Mice were also immune to secondary infection in the pregnancy subsequent to abortion.Infection of pregnant mice resulted in abortion as observed in infected ewes, and a similar Thl immune response is elicited in both sheep and mice. This model will allow the rapid screening of novel protein and DNA based vaccines to protect against chlamydial abortion

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Childhood Development Initiative's Mate-Tricks Pro-Social Behaviour After-School Programme

Mate-Tricks is an after-school programme designed to promote pro-social behaviour in Tallaght West (Dublin). Tallaght West has been designated as an area of particular social and economic disadvantage with high levels of unemployment. Mate-Tricks is a bespoke intervention that combines elements of two pro-social behaviour programmes: the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) and Coping Power Program (CPP). The programme is a one-year multi-session after-school programme comprising 59 children-only sessions, 6 parent-only sessions and 3 family sessions, with each session lasting 1½ hours.The intended outcomes of this programme are stated as follows in the Mate-Tricks manual: enhance children's pro-social development; reduce children's anti-social behaviour; develop children's confidence and self-esteem; improve children's problem-solving skills; improve child-peer interactions; develop reasoning and empathy skills; improve parenting skills; improve parent/child interaction. This evaluation reports on the pilot of this programme. Of the 21 outcomes investigated, 19 showed no significant differences between the children who attended Mate-Tricks and the control group. However, there were 2 statistically significant effects of the Mate-Tricks programme and 3 other effects that approached significance. The lack of effects and the few negative effects found in this study replicates findings in several recent studies of after-school behaviour programmes

Supporting Coordinators of Large Units An Integrated, Team Approach - The OK Caral Model – From Peru’s Sandy Caral To Academe’s Stony Walls - Collaboration for Professional Development is OK!

In 2001, the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Teaching and Learning Committee approved funding for a professional development program for Coordinators of Large Units (CLU) for 2002. This program is jointly facilitated by the Human Resources Department (HR) and Teaching and Learning Support Services (TALSS). The program is unique in both its focus and the way it has harnessed the distinct development responsibilities of two departments – HR for development in management and leadership and TALSS for development in teaching and learning. The CLU program facilitation team comprises two staff members from each Department along with joint administrative support. The focus of the CLU program is twofold: a) to support CLUs as a staff cohort with unique and specific needs and b) to acknowledge and make visible the systemic issues associated with teaching large groups of students

“It is through others that we become ourselves.” A study of Vygotskian play in Russian and Irish schools.

<div> <div> <div> <p>Fifty years after publishing his seminal work on play and its role in child development, Vygotskian theory is still highly influential in education, and particularly in early years. This paper presents two examples of full integration of Vygotskian principles into schools in two very different settings. Both report improvements in learning and in well-being, and exemplify the theory–practice–theory cycle, highlighting the development of new theoretical constructs arising out of putting theory firmly into practice. In both settings, the positive results have come from years of effort, in which school personnel who may have been skeptical at first, have been inspired by the impact of adopting Vygotskian play on the children they teach. The Northern Ireland study shows that at least some of the Golden Key principles (mixed-age play and enhanced home–school links) translate perfectly into very different cultural-historical contexts. </p><p>International Research in Early Childhood Education, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 129–146</p> </div> </div> </div

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Childhood Development Initiative's Doodle Den Literacy Programme

This report presents the findings of an independent evaluation, undertaken by the Centre for Effective Education at Queen's University Belfast, of the Doodle Den after-school programme. The evaluation took the form of a randomised control trial and a qualitative process evaluation focusing on implementation. This report presents the key findings of the evaluation. The evaluation team is indebted to the children, parents, teachers, service providers, facilitators and schools who participated in the study. The team would also like to acknowledge the support and advice provided by the staff at the Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) and the Expert Advisory Committee, as well as The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs whose generous support made the evaluation possible

How to measure the free energy and partition function from atom-atom correlations

We propose an experimental approach for determining thermodynamic properties of ultracold atomic gases with short-range interactions. As a test case, we focus on the one-dimensional (1D) Bose gas described by the integrable Lieb-Liniger model. The proposed approach relies on deducing the Helmholtz or Landau free energy directly from measurements of local atom-atom correlations by utilising the inversion of a finite-temperature version of the Hellmann-Feynman theorem. We demonstrate this approach theoretically by deriving approximate analytic expressions for the free energies in specific asymptotic regimes of the 1D Bose gas and find excellent agreement with the exact results based on the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz available for this integrable model.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure