The Continuing Debate on Deep Molluscan Phylogeny: Evidence for Serialia (Mollusca, Monoplacophora + Polyplacophora)

Molluscs are a diverse animal phylum with a formidable fossil record. Although there is little doubt about the monophyly of the eight extant classes, relationships between these groups are controversial.We analysed a comprehensive multilocus molecular data set for molluscs, the first to include multiple species from all classes, including five monoplacophorans in both extant families. Our analyses of fivemarkers resolve two major clades: the first includes gastropods and bivalves sister to Serialia (monoplacophorans and chitons), and the second comprises scaphopods sister to aplacophorans and cephalopods. Traditional groupings such as Testaria, Aculifera, and Conchifera are rejected by our data with significant Approximately Unbiased (AU) test values. A new molecular clock indicates that molluscs had a terminal Precambrian origin with rapid divergence of all eight extant classes in the Cambrian. Therecovery of Serialia as a derived, Late Cambrian clade is potentially in line with the stratigraphic chronology of morphologically heterogeneous early mollusc fossils. Serialia is in conflict with traditional molluscan classifications and recent phylogenomic data. Yet our hypothesis, as others from molecular data, implies frequent molluscan shell and body transformations by heterochronic shifts in development and multiple convergent adaptations, leading to the variable shells and body plans in extant lineages.

Effects of continuing professional development on group work practices in Scottish primary schools

The present study investigated the effects of a continuing professional development (CPD) initiative that provided collaborative group work skills training for primary school teachers. The study collected data from 24 primary school classrooms in different schools in a variety of urban and rural settings. The sample was composed of 332 pupils, aged 9-12 years old, and 24 primary school teachers. Results indicated that the CPD initiative had a significant impact on the attainment of pupils in science. In addition, data indicated that the CPD promoted effective discourse and pupil dialogue during science lessons. Pre-test and post-test observation scores were significantly different in terms of children giving of suggestions or courses of actions, offering of explanations, and telling someone to say something or carry out an action. Increases in effective dialogue were significantly correlated to increased science attainment, and teacher evaluations of the impact of the CPD were positive. Significant correlations were found between teacher evaluation of impact upon pupil learning and increased attainment in science. The design and structure of CPD initiatives and the implications for practice, policy and future research are explored.

Development of a continuing professional development website to raise awareness of preconception counselling and pre-pregnancy care for Women with Diabetes

Aims: Pre-pregnancy care reduces the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with diabetes, yet the majority of women receive suboptimal care due to poor preconception counselling rates and a lack of awareness about the importance of specialised pre-pregnancy care. The primary aim was to develop a continuing professional development (CPD) resource for healthcare professionals (HCPs) who work with women with diabetes to facilitate preconception counselling with this group.

Methods: The website was developed under the direction of a multidisciplinary team, adhering to NICE guidelines. The tone, key messages and format are informed by the “Women with Diabetes” preconception counselling website, www.womenwithdiabetes.net, an existing resource which is effective in helping women to be better prepared for pregnancy.Results: This e-learning resource will give HCPs the necessary knowledge and tools to prepare women with diabetes to plan for pregnancy. The website features women with diabetes sharing their views and experiences, alongside an evidence-based commentary and key messages from research papers and clinical guidelines. It comprises two modules: “Planning for Pregnancy”, focusing on contraception, risks and planning; and “Diabetes and Pregnancy”, focusing on support during pregnancy with an overview of each trimester of pregnancy.

Conclusion: This website will be a useful CPD resource for all HCPs working with women with diabetes, providing a certificate on completion. This resource will empower HCPs to engage in preconception counselling with women with diabetes by providing the HCP with a greater understanding of the specific needs of women with diabetes both preconception and during pregnancy.

Continuing the fight in reducing the risk of surgical site infections in the perioperative environment

Assessing risk has become part of the process of supporting patients andmaintaining safety in the healthcare setting. The risk of healthcare associatedinfections (HCAIs) has long been well documented and surgical site infection (SSI)is recognised as one of the most prevalent (Tanner & Khan 2008, Wilson 2013a).

Tight junctional abnormality in multiple sclerosis white matter affects all calibres of vessel and is associated with blood-brain barrier leakage and active demyelination

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) hyperpermeability in multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with lesion pathogenesis and has been linked to pathology in microvascular tight junctions (TJs). This study quantifies the uneven distribution of TJ pathology and its association with BBB leakage. Frozen sections from plaque and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) in 14 cases were studied together with white matter from six neurological and five normal controls. Using single and double immunofluorescence and confocal microscopy, the TJ-associated protein zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1) was examined across lesion types and tissue categories, and in relation to fibrinogen leakage. Confocal image data sets were analysed for 2198 MS and 1062 control vessels. Significant differences in the incidence of TJ abnormalities were detected between the different lesion types in MS and between MS and control white matter. These were frequent in oil-red O (ORO)+ active plaques, affecting 42% of vessel segments, but less frequent in ORO- inactive plaques (23%), NAWM (13%), and normal (3.7%) and neurological controls (8%). A similar pattern was found irrespective of the vessel size, supporting a causal role for diffusible inflammatory mediators. In both NAWM and inactive lesions, dual labelling showed that vessels with the most TJ abnormality also showed most fibrinogen leakage. This was even more pronounced in active lesions, where 41% of vessels in the highest grade for TJ alteration showed severe leakage. It is concluded that disruption of TJs in MS, affecting both paracellular and transcellular paths, contributes to BBB leakage. TJ abnormality and BBB leakage in inactive lesions suggests either failure of TJ repair or a continuing pathological process. In NAWM, it suggests either pre-lesional change or secondary damage. Clinically inapparent TJ pathology has prognostic implications and should be considered when planning disease-modifying therapy

Constructions of locality and gender and their impact on the educational aspirations of working class children

Over recent years the moral panic that has surrounded 'boys' underachievement' has tended to encourage crude and essentialist comparisons between all boys and all girls and to eclipse the continuing and more profound effects on educational achievement exerted by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. While there are differences in educational achievement between working class boys and girls, these differences are relatively minor when comparing the overall achievement levels of working class children with those from higher, professional social class backgrounds. This paper argues that a need exists therefore for researchers to fully contextualise the gender differences that exist in educational achievement within the over-riding contexts provided by social class and 'race'/ethnicity. The paper provides an example of how this can be done through a case study of 11-year-old children from a Catholic, working class area in Belfast. The paper shows how the children's general educational aspirations are significantly mediated by their experiences of the local area in which they live. However, the way in which the children come to experience and construct a sense of locality differs between the boys and girls and this, it is argued, helps to explain the more positive educational aspirations held by some of the girls compared to the boys. The paper concludes by considering the relevance of locality for understanding its effects on educational aspirations among other working class and/or minority ethnic communities.

The Effect of Human RIghts on Criminal Evidentiary Processes: Convergence, Divergence or Realignment?

This article examines the contribution which the European Court of Human Rights has made to the development of common evidentiary processes across the common law and civil law systems of criminal procedure in Europe. It is argued that the continuing use of terms such as 'adversarial' and 'inquisitorial' to describe models of criminal proof and procedure has obscured the genuinely transformative nature of the Court's jurisprudence. It is shown that over a number of years the Court has been steadily developing a new model of proof that is better characterised as 'participatory' than as 'adversarial' or 'inquisitorial'. Instead of leading towards a convergence of existing 'adversarial' and 'inquisitorial' models of proof, this is more likely to lead towards a realignment of existing processes of proof which nonetheless allows plenty of scope for diverse application in different institutional and cultural settings.

Teachers' and teacher educators' lives: the role of emotion

This paper reports research which focuses on ways of enhancing understandings by teachers of the key role that emotions play in their personal professional growth. It combines the narrative, autobiographical accounts of teachers attending part-time masters degree programmes in England (Continuing Professional Development and School Improvement) and Northern Ireland (Personal and Social Development) with an interrogation of the underlying values which affect the practices of their tutors. It reveals the effects of powerful and often unacknowledged interaction between personal biography and professional and social contexts upon teachers in schools and higher education.