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Exploring university English language teachers’ understanding of their continuing professional development: a narrative inquiry into the Pakistani context.
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to explore Pakistani higher education (HE) English teachers’ understanding of continuous professional development (CPD). Professional development (PD) is provided through either campus support or elsewhere for formal and informal activities, such as studying for a teacher training qualification, achieving skills, establishing a community of practice (CoP), and in-service CPD. There are issues such as the CPD policy, effective and ineffective CPD, and follow up measures and evaluation. These issues are likely to be connected to the English teachers’ understanding of CPD and its proper utilisation to help them become motivated faculty members.
The study adopted a social constructivist approach. Participants were public/private university English teachers with 15 years of teaching experience. The data was obtained through interviews and analysis of participants’ profiles. Narrative inquiry (NI) was used as a framework to understand the participants’ awareness of their need for CPD, the level of support of their department, the affordances and barriers to their CPD, and the essential features which characterise their early and later years of the teaching.
The findings show that the English teachers have a clear understanding of their personal development. However, English teachers say there is a need to focus on the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and institutional support for creating ongoing and mandatory CPD that positively impacts students. Participants also indicate challenges in the form of scarcity of CPD resources, policy gaps, lack of executive efforts and a non-collaborative environment. In the context of affordances, language teaching is considered an asset and source of social prestige. However, the institutional role in CPD is so explicit for participants that they did not mention it as an influencing factor. Furthermore, the results indicate that participants successfully applied a range of skills acquired through CPD courses, even though they had not initially intended to enrol in any such courses. The skills included being reflective, student-centred, and balancing teaching and students’ learning. It is expected that the study will raise implications for stakeholders to consider more accessible CPD experiences
Forens-omics: How a multi-omics approach can reveal the mysteries of the postmortem interval
No full textWhen a body is discovered, scientists play a crucial role in helping investigators piece together the story. They work to uncover the identity of the victim, determine the cause of death, and, most importantly, estimate the time since death. This estimation, known as the postmortem interval (PMI), can be crucial when solving a case.
Traditional methods for estimating PMI – such as analyzing body temperature or insect activity – have limitations, especially as time passes. These methods can be subjective, often lack reproducibility, and become unusable when only skeletal remains are left.
That's where the “Forens-OMICS” approach comes into play. This emerging field, led by my team at the University of Central Lancashire, uses advanced molecular techniques to study the changes that occur in a body after death.
The Forens-OMICS team employs proteomics, metabolomics, and metabarcoding (analyzing microbial populations) to identify and measure various biological molecules in human remains. By examining how proteins, metabolites, and microbes change over time, the team is working toward more accurate PMI estimates
Conceptualising Centres of Clinical Excellence: A Scoping Review
Get PDFObjectives Centres of clinical excellence (CoCE) are healthcare facilities that provide excellent healthcare. However, despite their increasing prevalence, it is unclear how CoCE are identified and monitored. This paper explores how CoCE has been described in the literature, including its defining characteristics and selection and monitoring processes.
Design We conducted a scoping review following Arksey and O’Malley’s framework, enhanced by Levac et al. Additionally, we adhered to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines.
Data sources A comprehensive search using MEDLINE Ovid, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL and Scopus was conducted to identify relevant literature from January 2010 to June 2022.
Eligibility criteria for selecting studies We included published studies and grey literature that described how a CoCE was defined, established, monitored or evaluated.
Data extraction and synthesis Two independent reviewers completed the title and abstract screening, reviewed the full texts and extracted data.
Results 50 records describing 45 initiatives were included. More than half were published in the USA (n=25, 56%). All but one initiative focused on one clinical condition/population, most commonly cardiovascular disease (n=8, 17%), spinal surgeries (n=4, 9%) and pituitary tumours (n=4, 9%). Most initiatives (n=30, 67%) described a structured process to establish CoCE. The definitions of CoCE were not uniform. Common defining features included the volume of patients treated, medical expertise, a highly skilled multidisciplinary team, high-quality care and excellent patient outcomes. Identification as a CoCE varied from self-identification with no explicit criteria to application and assessment by an approval panel.
Conclusion Despite a growing prevalence of CoCE, there are inconsistencies in how CoCE are established, identified, monitored and evaluated. Common (but not uniform) features of CoCE are highly skilled staff, high-quality care delivery and optimal patient outcomes
Insights into Peri-implantitis, Collagen Attachments, Plaque Biofilm Dynamics and the Impact of Biomaterials
No full textDental implants are widely used for replacing missing teeth. This chapter looks at the role of particle release from implant biomaterials in the onset of peri-implantitis, and materials that can potentially provide resistance to implant failure. The chapter aims to bridge the knowledge gap between the role of dental implant biomaterials in the onset and progression of peri-implantitis and preventative strategies, which is important for clinical, manufacturing, and research
Insight into the anti-cancer and anti-viral therapeutic properties of biological active molecule prodigiosin
Get PDFBioactive compounds from natural sources play an important role as an immunomodulator in diseases such as cancer, inflammatory and viral diseases. Immunomodulator functions to regulate the immune system and defends against infectious foreign particles. Naturally occurring bioactive compounds have been shown to boost the immunity and increase the anti-cancer immune response, as well as in cancer patients. Prodigiosin is reported as an anticancer agent and effective against multiple tumor cell lines and also combat to viral diseases. Innate cytotoxicity is one of the main problems linked with the use of immunosuppressants, especially in oncology that leads scientists toward the application of combined regimens. In this perception, prodigiosin offers an interesting perspective of combinatorial applications. However, the major devastating limitation associated with its use is an infectious strain: Serratia marcescens source linked with a few harmful pathologies in mammals. The present article will review the potential roles of prodigiosin as a key player of immunomodulator in different immune cells such as T and B lymphocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells and natural killer cells as well as antiviral activity
On Presenters and Commenters in YouTube Climate Change Videos
Get PDFSocial media videos can promote viewers responsibility to solve social problems such as climate change. Not all aspiring videos, however, are successful in persuading their viewers on the perils involved in climate change and on the need for pro-environmental behaviour. Our study examined attributes that could explain a video’s persuasiveness and focused on the video presenter traits. Videos on climate change were sourced from YouTube conjointly with the comments they elicited. The presenters in these videos addressed the negative effects and dangers of climate change and the role of human activity in resolving them. Two attributes were manually coded for each video: the type of presenter in the videos– scientist, politician or celebrity, and their presentation style: blaming, stating the problem, or suggesting a solution. A measure of persuasiveness was computed from the YouTubers comments using sentiment analysis. This computation provided a polarity label – positive, negative, or neutral, for all comments, for each video. Subsets of 50 comments per video were manually coded to validate the computational analysis. The findings indicated that a predominant number of positive-polarity comments was elicited by video presenters who were scientists. Videos that proposed potential solutions to climate change elicited a majority of positive polarity. Politicians and celebrity presenters, as well as blame-oriented videos elicited a larger number of negative-polarity comments. These initial findings imply a potential of sentiment analysis of comments to elucidate which attributes can increase a video’s persuasiveness on its viewers. This insight can improve future video production and enhance their influence
Anthranilic Acid: A Versatile Monomer for the Design of Functional Conducting Polymer Composites
Get PDFPolyaniline has been utilized in various applications, yet its widespread adoption has often been impeded by challenges. Composite systems have been proposed as a means of mitigating some of these limitations, and anthranilic acid (2-aminobenzoic acid) has emerged as a possible moderator for use in co-polymer systems. It offers improved solubility and retention of electroactivity in neutral and alkaline media, and, significantly, it can also bestow chemical functionality through its carboxylic acid substituent, which can greatly ease post-polymer modification. The benefits of using anthranilic acid (as a homopolymer or copolymer) have been demonstrated in applications including corrosion protection, memory devices, photovoltaics, and biosensors. Moreover, this polymer has been used as a versatile framework for the sequestration of metal ions for water treatment, and, critically, these same mechanisms serve as a facile route for the production of catalytic metallic nanoparticles. However, the widespread adoption of polyanthranilic acid has been limited, and the aim of the present narrative review is to revisit the early promise of anthranilic acid and assess its potential future use within modern smart materials. A critical evaluation of its properties is presented, and its versatility as both a monomer and a polymer across a spectrum of applications is highlighted
In vitro degradation, swelling, and bioactivity performances of in situ forming injectable chitosan‐matrixed hydrogels for bone regeneration and drug delivery
Get PDFInjectable, tissue mimetic, bioactive, and biodegradable hydrogels offer less invasive regeneration and repair of tissues. The monitoring swelling and in vitro degradation capacities of hydrogels are highly important for drug delivery and tissue regeneration processes. Bioactivity of bone tissue engineered constructs in terms of mineralized apatite formation capacity is also pivotal. We have previously reported in situ forming chitosan‐based injectable hydrogels integrated with hydroxyapatite and heparin for bone regeneration, promoting angiogenesis. These hydrogels were functionalized by glycerol and pH to improve their mechano‐structural properties. In the present study, functionalized hybrid hydrogels were investigated for their swelling, in vitro degradation, and bioactivity performances. Hydrogels have degraded gradually in phosphate‐buffered saline (PBS) with and without lysozyme enzyme. The percentage weight loss of hydrogels and their morphological and chemical properties, and pH of media were analyzed. The swelling ratio of hydrogels (55%–68%(wt), 6 h of equilibrium) indicated a high degree of cross‐linking, can be suitable for controlled drug release. Hydrogels have gradually degraded reaching to 60%–70% (wt%) in 42 days in the presence and absence of lysozyme, respectively. Simulated body fluid (SBF)‐treated hydrogels containing hydroxyapatite‐induced needle‐like carbonated‐apatite mineralization was further enhanced by heparin content significantly
Predictive modeling for ubiquitin proteins through advanced machine learning technique
Get PDFUbiquitination is an essential post-translational modification mechanism involving the ubiquitin protein's bonding to a substrate protein. It is crucial in a variety of physiological activities including cell survival and differentiation, and innate and adaptive immunity. Any alteration in the ubiquitin system leads to the development of various human diseases. Numerous researches show the highly reversibility and dynamic of ubiquitin system, making the experimental identification quite difficult. To solve this issue, this article develops a model using a machine learning approach, tending to improve the ubiquitin protein prediction precisely. We deeply investigate the ubiquitination data that is proceed through different features extraction methods, followed by the classification. The evaluation and assessment are conducted considering Jackknife tests and 10-fold cross-validation. The proposed method demonstrated the remarkable performance in terms of 100 %, 99.88 %, and 99.84 % accuracy on Dataset-I, Dataset-II, and Dataset-III, respectively. Using Jackknife test, the method achieves 100 %, 99.91 %, and 99.99 % for Dataset-I, Dataset-II and Dataset-III, respectively. This analysis concludes that the proposed method outperformed the state-of-the-arts to identify the ubiquitination sites and helpful in the development of current clinical therapies. The source code and datasets will be made available at Github
Facilitating collaborations between home and international students; different perspectives of engagement associated with having responsibilities in a group environment
Get PDFThis case study reports on students' responses to a newly designed group project used in a second-year undergraduate module at the University of Liverpool. The goals of the group project were to improve student engagement in the module and facilitate a collaboration between home and international students to develop a broader sense of student community within the department of mathematics. The extent to which these goals were achieved are explored in detail