2.2 Teaching Power Relations in Graduate Education: Reconciling Teacher Social Identity with Authenticity and Credibility

The purpose of this study is to apply a self-study research methodology to seek out insights into the relationship between teacher social identity and student perceptions of teacher authenticity and credibility. The research question for this study is: How does teacher social identity intersect with authenticity and credibility when teaching about power relations? The research problem for this study is grounded in the complexity of teaching power relations in graduate education to adult learners. I want to determine if my teaching practices are appropriate for a curriculum that examines diversity, multi-culturalism and social justice education. My social identity is white, woman, cis-gender, with an invisible learning disability (dyslexia), middle class, educated, Christian and English speaking. My social location, linked to my social identity, affords me a privileged space in a complex web of intersecting identities as I hold the privileged position of a university professor. The theoretical framework for this study draws upon self-study literature to inform the reflective and analytical framework of a practice of analysis grounded in self-reflection (Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001; Laboskey, 2004; Loughran, 2002, 2004, 2006; Russell & Loughran, 2007; Pinnegar, 1998; Samaras & Freese, 2006). The literature of developing teacher identity in relation to student’s perceptions of authenticity and credibility also supports the analysis in this study (Brookfield, 2002, 2013, 2014; Case, 2007; Cole & Knowles, 2000; Smith et. al, 2017)

Evaluating Container Ship Routes: A Case For Choosing Between The Panama Canal And The U.S. Land Bridge

For container traffic from the Far East to Europe, shipping routes and transportation choices are about to be taken to a new competitive level. Ship sizes have increased through time, yet the Panama Canal has remained unchanged, struggling to keep pace with larger size traffic. Over that same time span, more logistical pressure has been placed on the U.S. as a land bridge for container traffic from Asia to Europe. However, the canal is set to open new locks to accommodate today’s biggest container ships, creating more choices for container traffic to many eastern Atlantic ports. In our work, we investigate choices for container ship transportation from the eastern Pacific to the western Atlantic based solely on time. Choices include traveling through the Panama Canal or using the U.S. as a land bridge (via truck and rail car). A breakeven methodology, given vessel size, is employed to discriminate between paths. Implications for decision-making are then presented and discussed. Interested parties of our work might include those investigating multi-modal integration opportunities, those seeking transportation efficiencies in water, truck and rail, and students as a case assignment in Transportation and Logistics courses

What a Surprise: Challenges of Alternate Delivery Modes in Graduate Education

In this self-study of teacher educator practices (S-STEP) I follow my journey with the alternate delivery mode during four semesters of graduate education in Educational Studies. I encountered many surprises, that came in the form of tensions around engaging students in online delivery. The surprises were grounded in my teacher identity, I had been teaching online for 13 years and I identify as a strong online pedagogue. However, I encountered many challenges in the sudden pivot to alternate delivery mode required due to the COVID19 Pandemic. This study applies a reflective process through a collection and thematic analysis of data from four lenses: the lens of students, the lens of colleagues, the lens of self and the lens of the literature (Brookfield, 2010). The purpose of this study is to listen to self and to others to find ways to improve student engagement in the alternate delivery mode of learning. The implications of this study are for both personal and professional practice as well as for other educators who may be experiencing similar challenges

S-STEP 2.0 Finding our Way: Teaching in Alternate Modes of Delivery

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to critically re-evaluate teaching strategies. This self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) builds on previous research to compare effective traditional lessons with alternate modes of delivery. In this interactive session, we share several lessons. Participants will be actively engaged. In S-STEP 2.0, we compare and contrast lessons such as ice-breakers, jigsaws, discussions and group activities, utilizing Moodle, Big Blue Button, Padlet, Slido, Google Docs, and other online tools. We critically analyze the teaching of graduate students through S-STEP with the help of a critical friend. In addition, we explore Comparative Ethnographic Narrative (CEN) as another way of knowing within the S-STEP space (Howe, 2010). “A critical friend acts as a sounding board, asks challenging questions, supports reframing of events, and joins in the professional learning experience” (Schuck & Russell, 2005, p. 107). CEN is well-aligned with LaBoskey’s (2004) criteria of self-study: “it is self-initiated and focused; it is improvement-aimed; it is interactive; it includes multiple, mainly qualitative methods; and it defines validity as a validation process based on trustworthiness” (p. 817). Data includes detailed weekly reflections and feedback from students. Students provide written feedback at the end of each class and at the end of term through a survey and course evaluation. E-journal reflections are shared with a critical friend via email and in person over MS Teams. Then, together we make meaning from them. The research text evolves from teacher-to-teacher conversations (Howe, 2010; Howe & Cope-Watson, 2020; Yonemura, 1982)

“The Evolution we believe in … is not Darwin’s”: Evolution, Science, and Latter-day Saint Education, 1875-1911

My project was designed to answer one question and ended up answering several others. The original question was: Why has so little been written on Latter-day Saint responses to evolution prior to 1909? Darwin’s Origin of Species was published way back in 1859, a full fifty years prior. Surely somebody had said something important during that time, but if so, the secondary literature passed over it in almost total silence. Although my project has undergone several shifts in emphasis since I began it, resulting in two distinct papers, both already presented, one slated for publication in the near future, this topical focus underlay them all. In my journey to fill this lacuna, I not only learned about nineteenth-century Mormon ideas on evolution and science, but about the many different ways present(ist) concerns can limit on both the questions we ask of the past as well as the range of sources (and therefore voices) we consider relevant to answering them

A gene signature for post-infectious chronic fatigue syndrome

Background: At present, there are no clinically reliable disease markers for chronic fatigue syndrome. DNA chip microarray technology provides a method for examining the differential expression of mRNA from a large number of genes. Our hypothesis was that a gene expression signature, generated by microarray assays, could help identify genes which are dysregulated in patients with post-infectious CFS and so help identify biomarkers for the condition. Methods: Human genome-wide Affymetrix GeneChip arrays (39,000 transcripts derived from 33,000 gene sequences) were used to compare the levels of gene expression in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of male patients with post-infectious chronic fatigue (n = 8) and male healthy control subjects (n = 7). Results: Patients and healthy subjects differed significantly in the level of expression of 366 genes. Analysis of the differentially expressed genes indicated functional implications in immune modulation, oxidative stress and apoptosis. Prototype biomarkers were identified on the basis of differential levels of gene expression and possible biological significance Conclusion: Differential expression of key genes identified in this study offer an insight into the possible mechanism of chronic fatigue following infection. The representative biomarkers identified in this research appear promising as potential biomarkers for diagnosis and treatment

Efficiency of primary saliva secretion: an analysis of parameter dependence in dynamic single-cell and acinus models, with application to aquaporin knockout studies

Secretion from the salivary glands is driven by osmosis following the establishment of osmotic gradients between the lumen, the cell and the interstitium by active ion transport. We consider a dynamic model of osmotically driven primary saliva secretion and use singular perturbation approaches and scaling assumptions to reduce the model. Our analysis shows that isosmotic secretion is the most efficient secretion regime and that this holds for single isolated cells and for multiple cells assembled into an acinus. For typical parameter variations, we rule out any significant synergistic effect on total water secretion of an acinar arrangement of cells about a single shared lumen. Conditions for the attainment of isosmotic secretion are considered, and we derive an expression for how the concentration gradient between the interstitium and the lumen scales with water- and chloride-transport parameters. Aquaporin knockout studies are interpreted in the context of our analysis and further investigated using simulations of transport efficiency with different membrane water permeabilities. We conclude that recent claims that aquaporin knockout studies can be interpreted as evidence against a simple osmotic mechanism are not supported by our work. Many of the results that we obtain are independent of specific transporter details, and our analysis can be easily extended to apply to models that use other proposed ionic mechanisms of saliva secretion

A new Late Agenian (MN2a, Early Miocene) fossil assemblage from Wallenried (Molasse Basin, Canton Fribourg, Switzerland)

Excavations of two fossiliferous layers in the Wallenried sand- and marl pit produced a very diversified vertebrate fauna. New material allows the reassessment of the taxonomic position of the ruminant taxa Andegameryx andegaviensis and endemic Friburgomeryx wallenriedensis. An emended diagnosis for the second species is provided and additional material of large and small mammals, as well as ectothermic vertebrates, is described. The recorded Lagomorpha show interesting morphological deviations from other Central European material, and probably represent a unique transitional assemblage with a co-occurrence of Titanomys, Lagopsis and Prolagus. Rodentia and Eulipotyphla belong to typical and well-known species of the Agenian of the Swiss Molasse Basin. Abundant small mammal teeth have allowed us to pinpoint the biostratigraphic age of Wallenried to late MN2a. The biostratigraphic age conforms to data derived from the charophyte assemblages and confirms the oldest occurrence of venomous snake fangs. The palaeoenvironmental context is quite complex. Sedimentary structures and fauna (fishes, frogs, salamanders, ostracods) are characteristic for a humid, lacustrine environment within a flood plain system

Comprehensive and Integrated Genomic Characterization of Adult Soft Tissue Sarcomas

Summary Sarcomas are a broad family of mesenchymal malignancies exhibiting remarkable histologic diversity. We describe the multi-platform molecular landscape of 206 adult soft tissue sarcomas representing 6 major types. Along with novel insights into the biology of individual sarcoma types, we report three overarching findings: (1) unlike most epithelial malignancies, these sarcomas (excepting synovial sarcoma) are characterized predominantly by copy-number changes, with low mutational loads and only a few genes (TP53, ATRX, RB1) highly recurrently mutated across sarcoma types; (2) within sarcoma types, genomic and regulomic diversity of driver pathways defines molecular subtypes associated with patient outcome; and (3) the immune microenvironment, inferred from DNA methylation and mRNA profiles, associates with outcome and may inform clinical trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors. Overall, this large-scale analysis reveals previously unappreciated sarcoma-type-specific changes in copy number, methylation, RNA, and protein, providing insights into refining sarcoma therapy and relationships to other cancer types

Regulation of immunity during visceral Leishmania infection

Unicellular eukaryotes of the genus Leishmania are collectively responsible for a heterogeneous group of diseases known as leishmaniasis. The visceral form of leishmaniasis, caused by L. donovani or L. infantum, is a devastating condition, claiming 20,000 to 40,000 lives annually, with particular incidence in some of the poorest regions of the world. Immunity to Leishmania depends on the development of protective type I immune responses capable of activating infected phagocytes to kill intracellular amastigotes. However, despite the induction of protective responses, disease progresses due to a multitude of factors that impede an optimal response. These include the action of suppressive cytokines, exhaustion of specific T cells, loss of lymphoid tissue architecture and a defective humoral response. We will review how these responses are orchestrated during the course of infection, including both early and chronic stages, focusing on the spleen and the liver, which are the main target organs of visceral Leishmania in the host. A comprehensive understanding of the immune events that occur during visceral Leishmania infection is crucial for the implementation of immunotherapeutic approaches that complement the current anti-Leishmania chemotherapy and the development of effective vaccines to prevent disease.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement No.602773 (Project KINDRED). VR is supported by a post-doctoral fellowship granted by the KINDReD consortium. RS thanks the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for an Investigator Grant (IF/00021/2014). This work was supported by grants to JE from ANR (LEISH-APO, France), Partenariat Hubert Curien (PHC) (program Volubilis, MA/11/262). JE acknowledges the support of the Canada Research Chair Program