Young People, Conflict and Regulation

Set against the progress claimed since the Good Friday/ Belfast Agreement, this article reflects the reality of life for children and young people as they negotiate the aftermath of the Conflict in Northern Ireland. Their experiences of informal and formal policing, community and State control, demonstrate the need to understand the lasting impacts of the Conflict when developing policies and practices affecting their lives. At a crucial defining period in the devolution of justice and policing, and based on primary research conducted by the authors, the article establishes key rights-compliant principles central to reform of youth justice.

Qualifications, examinations and assessment: views and perspectives of students in the 14–19 phase on policy and practice

This paper brings to the forefront students’ views on one of the most significant aspects of education in the 14-19 phase, specifically the qualifications, examinations and assessment they experience. In this respect the paper foregrounds students as ‘policy actors’, they are significant players in the mediation of national qualification systems rather than just subjects in their implementation. Data from a national dataset of focus groups with 243 students from the 14-19 phase is presented. Key themes are highlighted relating to young people’s experiences of qualifications, examinations and assessment at this stage of education in a context of continuous initiatives and change as well as the impact of students being on the receiving end of qualification reform in situ which can be confusing, unsettling and ultimately detrimental to future success.

Molecular cloning, expression, and regulation in Escherichia coli K-12 of a chromosome-mediated aerobactin iron transport system from a human invasive isolate of E. coli K1

We have cloned chromosomal genes determining the aerobactin iron transport system from the Escherichia coli K1 strain VW187. Mapping and hybridization experiments showed that the VW187 aerobactin region was identical to that of the plasmid ColV-K30. However, in the E. coli K-12 background, the biosynthesis of both siderophore and ferric aerobactin receptor encoded by the VW187-derived recombinant plasmids was not repressed by iron to the same extent found when a recombinant plasmid derived from pColV-K30 was used. RNA-DNA dot-blot hybridization experiments demonstrated that the aerobactin-specific mRNA synthesized by the VW187-derived clones was not iron regulated in E. coli K-12. In contrast, the synthesis of aerobactin and its receptor in strain VW187 was completely repressed by iron regardless of whether the recombinant plasmids originated from VW187 or pColV-K30. Similar results were obtained with gene fusions in which a promoterless lac operon was placed under the control of aerobactin promoter regions of either chromosome- or plasmid-mediated aerobactin systems. DNA sequencing of the chromosomal aerobactin promoter region showed changes in bases located immediately upstream to the -35 region compared with the corresponding region in pColV-K30, which is known to be part of the binding site for the Fur repressor protein.