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Moving Beyond a Rule-Book Notion of Grammar with Metaphor-Led Pedagogy
Get PDFThe importance for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) pre-and in-service language teachers to have Language Awareness (LA) and to be able to apply this knowledge to their teaching is well recognised to be a key curriculum goal (Marr and English, 2019). Yet, many novice TESOL teachers find applying their knowledge of language systems to dynamic teaching situations in a meaningful way challenging and tend to resort to a reductive rule-based approach to teaching about language. By adopting an enabling approach to understanding language use that correlates with our embodied and metaphorical understanding of the world around us, I show how we can use this feature of language and languaging to build more meaningful bridges with our young and adult multilingual learners during language focused activities in the classroom. This approach shifts the learners’ attention to the meaning making process itself, resulting in a deeper understanding of the grammatical concepts
Educational institutions and epistemic freedom: the experiences of second-generation Zimbabwean immigrants in England
No full textGuided by a decolonial lens and Fricker’s [2007. Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing. Oxford: Oxford University Press] capability for epistemic contribution, this paper explores how English educational institutions enable second-generation immigrants to pursue opportunities to be and do what they value. It is informed by narratives on the educational experiences of 10 s-generation Zimbabwean immigrants. The young people had mixed learning experiences where some could freely participate and contribute to knowledge creation while others’ epistemic capacities were stifled because of their race or reference to “knowledges” informed by their migrant background. The paper illustrates the existence of the epistemological South in the geographical North [Santos 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. 1st ed. New York: Routledge] where subjective factors inform boundaries that determine one’s freedom to contribute to knowledge creation. It highlights the need for educational institutions to be more inclusive and pursue diverse ways of knowing and understanding through the curriculum, and teachers’ and lecturers’ equal recognition of all students as epistemic contributors. Given their role as creators and disseminators of knowledge, educational institutions ought to enable knowledge acquisition, sharing, and questioning in epistemologically hospitable environments that do not foreground a specific kind of knowledge or some students over others. This would foster more open-minded and critical graduates, better able to understand their oppressions and contribute to transforming society
Exploring Young Chinese Workers’ Sandwich Care Experiences Through a Confucian Ethic of Care Lens
Get PDFThis article examines sandwich caregiving in mainland China, with a focus on how culturally specific norms shape the experiences of young working sandwich caregivers. By employing a Confucian ethic of care perspective, the article broadens the notion of sandwich caregiving from the current focus on tasks related to daily living, to the underpinning social and moral obligations that shape caregiving within the Chinese cultural context. The study draws on interviews with 40 young working sandwich caregivers living in multigenerational households. The findings show how Confucian notions of goodness (ren) and behavioural prescriptions (li) guide sandwich caregiving in contemporary China, where young working sandwich caregivers navigate tensions between traditional values and changing roles in a rapidly changing society, while managing work and family obligations. The article enriches the sandwich care literature by demonstrating a shift in the understanding of sandwich caregiving from attending to individual needs to maintaining social harmony
1,2,5,6-Tetrathiocin as a scaffold for improved charge transport in double-cable oligothiophene systems
Get PDFFour novel small molecules featuring central 1,2,5,6-tetrathiocin (TTC) units fusing two oligothiophene chains have been prepared, characterised and their structures elucidated through X-ray crystallography. These compounds have been evaluated as p-channel semiconductors in organic field-effect transistor devices, representing the first time that any tetrathiocin-containing compound has been utilised in organic transistors. Through extensive optimisation, involving the screening of different processing solvents, surface treatments, post-processing conditions, dielectric materials, and device configurations, hole mobilities (µh) in the 10-2 cm2 V-1 s-1 range were obtained for the most optimised devices, with the highest value of 7.3 × 10-2 cm2 V-1 s-1 achieved in 5T-TTC. The double-cable design, established through two parallel oligothiophene chains in the same molecule bridged by a tetrathiocin core, provides improved device characteristics over analogous double-cable oligothiophenes with tetrathiafulvalene and germanium cores
Whose landlord is it anyway? Let-to-let and rent-to-rent in Scotland
No full textThis article explores the operation of rent-to-rent schemes, also known as
guaranteed rentschemes, in the private residential market in Scotland. It evaluates the reforms in England & Wales to regulate rent-to-rent scheme operators and considers the existing legislation in Scotland. The article concludes that private residential legislation in Scotland is insufficiently designed to tackle rent-to-rent schemes and reform is needed
Real-time wide-field fluorescence lifetime imaging via single-snapshot acquisition for biomedical applications
Get PDFFluorescence lifetime imaging (FLI) is a powerful tool for investigating molecular processes, microenvironmental parameters, and molecular interactions across tissue to (sub-)cellular levels. Despite its established value in numerous biomedical applications, conventional FLI techniques are hindered by long acquisition times. This limitation restricts their use in real-time scenarios, such as monitoring fast biological processes, studying live organisms, and in environments that require rapid imaging and immediate inference, such as clinical image-guided interventions. Here, we present a novel FLI approach that combines a large-format time-gated SPAD array with dual-gate acquisition capability, alongside a rapid lifetime determination algorithm. This integration allows for real-time fluorescence lifetime estimation through single-snapshot acquisitions, eliminating the need for traditional, time-consuming time-resolved data collection. We demonstrate the scalability and versatility of this method by achieving real-time FLI across challenging biomedical applications, ranging from capturing fast neural dynamics at the microscopic scale, performing multimodal 3D volumetric FLI of tumor organoids at the mesoscopic scale, to macroscale FLI in both direct and highly scattering regimes. Furthermore, we validate its utility in fluorescence lifetime-guided surgical procedures using tissue-mimicking phantoms. Overall, this new methodology significantly enhances the temporal and spatial capabilities of FLI, opening the door to the assessment of fast dynamic biomedical signals. It also enables the seamless integration of FLI into clinical workflows, particularly in applications like fluorescence-guided surgery
Mpf1 affects the dual distribution of tail-anchored proteins between mitochondria and peroxisomes
Get PDFMost cellular proteins require targeting to a distinct cellular compartment to function properly. A subset of proteins is distributed to two or more destinations in the cell and little is known about the mechanisms controlling the process of dual/multiple targeting. Here, we provide insight into the mechanism of dual targeting of proteins between mitochondria and peroxisomes. We perform a high throughput microscopy screen in which we visualize the location of the model tail-anchored proteins Fis1 and Gem1 in the background of mutants in virtually all yeast genes. This screen identifies three proteins, whose absence results in a higher portion of the tail-anchored proteins in peroxisomes: the two paralogues Tom70, Tom71, and the uncharacterized gene YNL144C that we rename mitochondria and peroxisomes factor 1 (Mpf1). We characterize Mpf1 to be an unstable protein that associates with the cytosolic face of the mitochondrial outer membrane. Furthermore, our study uncovers a unique contribution of Tom71 to the regulation of dual targeting. Collectively, our study reveals, for the first time, factors that influence the dual targeting of proteins between mitochondria and peroxisomes
Reproductive Rights in Modern France: Feminism, Contraception, and Abortion, 1950-1980
No full textThe introduction of the principle of women's reproductive liberty in France, tentatively by the family planning movement after 1960 and explicitly by the women's liberation movement after 1970, marked a deep shift, transforming public discourses. Yet this principle remained fiercely contested, and moderate and conservative actors responded by foregrounding notions of 'reproductive responsibility', or the expectation that individuals perform the 'right' sexual and family-making behaviour, benefiting not only themselves and their families, but the nation at large. Such responsibilisation underpinned the legal reforms of the 1960s-70s, framing a notion of reproductive citizenship based on a tension between individual rights and social norms.
This book breaks new ground by taking an intersectional approach to the defining moments of this period: the legalisation of contraception (the laws of 1967 and 1974) and the liberalisation of abortion (1975, 1979). Drawing on a wide range of sources and actors - including feminist and family planning movements, government actors, demographers, medical-professional organisations, disability rights groups, and key actors in the overseas departments - Maud Bracke demonstrates how the discourse of responsibilisation allowed actors to distinguish between citizens 'worthy' of reproductive rights and those seen as less worthy. Bracke analyses the distinct regulations regarding contraception in the overseas departments of Guadeloupe and Martinique, framed by racialised anti-natalism. The book also demonstrates that disability rights organisations contributed to the discrediting of the notion of 'eugenic abortion', used among experts and policy-makers until the early 1970s. Furthermore, Bracke goes on to highlight the silence in the feminist movement around both disability rights and race as part of its universalisation of women's conditions of oppression, and analyses the emergence of Black Feminism in late-1970s France. In so doing, the book offers a major contribution to the history of sex, gender, family life, healthcare, demography, and political debate in post-war France, and more generally
An experimental investigation into the focusing behaviours of flagellated and elongated cells in inertial microfluidic devices
Get PDFInertial microfluidics has demonstrated tremendous potential to impact biological – and notably medical – fields, by offering a highly versatile, portable and cost-effective approach to cell focusing and sorting. While the range of applications of inertial devices spans medical diagnostics, bioprocessing or water engineering to mention a few, translation is still impeded by the lack of clear understanding of cell interactions in such devices. This often leads to bespoke designs that take years of development and characterisation for one targeted application, and limited tools for informed optimisation. A more fundamental knowledge of inertial behaviours is key to future translational works and impact, by enabling a deeper understanding of inertial forces in biological systems. Towards this goal, this paper focuses on high-throughput morphological phenotyping of the single-celled, flagellated parasite Leishmania mexicana to better understand how variations in cell body length, width and flagellated status impact the focusing patterns of highly non-spherical cells in curved inertial devices. Some of the key findings in this study include (i) flagella do not always alter focusing if body shape is conserved, (ii) the impact of cell shape is specific to a channel design and slight changes in e.g., cell confinement can drastically change focusing patterns, (iii) elongated prolate-like cells align differently depending on their lateral position within a curved channel, and (iv) despite variabilities observed in focusing patterns for elongated versus rounder cell phenotypes, large morphological variations can be completely overcome at high Reynolds numbers so that all phenotypes tightly focus at a single and stable position (here, towards the channel outer wall). This last finding, in particular, may open new avenues for highly efficient cell enrichment processes
Apparatus and method for intraoperative real-time tumour tissue discrimination
No full textApparatus for discriminating between tumour tissue and non-tumorous tissue, the apparatus comprising: a handheld bioimpedance probe having a plurality of electrodes mounted thereon, wherein the plurality of electrodes are greater than four in number; a current source configured to generate a stimulation current; a voltage sensor; one or more multiplexers coupled between the current source, the voltage sensor and the electrodes and configured to changeably select a subset of four electrodes from the plurality of electrodes, and, for each selected subset of four electrodes, to switch between a plurality of switching configurations, wherein, in each switching configuration, a first pair of the selected subset of four electrodes are connected to the current source, and a second pair of the selected subset of four electrodes are connected to the voltage sensor, the electrodes that constitute the first pair and the electrodes that constitute the second pair changing from one switching configuration to the next; and processor-controlled circuitry configured to: control the selection of the subset of four electrodes by the one or more multiplexers; control the switching configuration of the one or more multiplexers with respect to the selected subset of four electrodes; control the generation of the stimulation current by the current source and the application of the stimulation current to the first pair of electrodes of each switching configuration, such that, in use, the stimulation current flows through tissue between the first pair of electrodes; control the measurement, by the voltage sensor, of the voltage between the second pair of electrodes of each switching configuration, across the tissue; determine, based on the applied current and the measured voltages for each switching configuration, a measure of relative impedance of the tissue for each switching configuration; and supply such impedance measurements as output data to a data analyser to enable real-time discrimination of the tissue to be performed, based on the impedance measurements
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