Revitalizing the PE social-justice agenda in the global era: Where do we go from here?

Critical theorists have called attention to the intensification of diversity that is now occurring inside and outside of school, while critically engaging with the detrimental effects of globalization on equity, diversity, and social justice. Globalization presents new challenges to education and to issues of social justice. In this article, we argue that there is a need for scholars in the field of physical education (PE) to re-think and re-frame the social-justice agenda to address current inequalities produced by globalization. To support this argument, first, we reflect on the impact of global neoliberalism on PE; second, we discuss the ways in which, as a result of global neoliberalism, public health discourses have an “othering” effect on ethnically diverse young people; third, we propose a theoretical shift from a focus on equality to a focus on difference; and finally, we conclude with considerations for future research and curricula in school PE.

Dual stimulation of antigen presenting cells using carbon nanotube-based vaccine delivery system for cancer immunotherapy

Although anti−cancer immuno−based combinatorial therapeutic approaches have shown promising results, efficient tumour eradication demands further intensification of anti−tumour immune response. With the emerging field of nanovaccinology, multi−walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) have manifested prominent potentials as tumour antigen nanocarriers. Nevertheless, the utilization of MWNTs in co−delivering antigen along with different types of immunoadjuvants to antigen presenting cells (APCs) has not been investigated yet. We hypothesized that harnessing MWNT for concurrent delivery of cytosine−phosphate−guanine oligodeoxynucleotide (CpG) and anti-CD40 Ig (αCD40), as immunoadjuvants, along with the model antigen ovalbumin (OVA) could potentiate immune response induced against OVA−expressing tumour cells. We initially investigated the effective method to co−deliver OVA and CpG using MWNT to the APC. Covalent conjugation of OVA and CpG prior to loading onto MWNTs markedly augmented the CpG−mediated adjuvanticity, as demonstrated by the significantly increased OVA−specific T cell responses in vitro and in C57BL/6 mice. αCD40 was then included as a second immunoadjuvant to further intensify the immune response. Immune response elicited in vitro and in vivo by OVA, CpG and αCD40 was significantly potentiated by their co−incorporation onto the MWNTs. Furthermore, MWNT remarkably improved the ability of co−loaded OVA, CpG and αCD40 in inhibiting the growth of OVA−expressing B16F10 melanoma cells in subcutaneous or lung pseudo−metastatic tumour models. Therefore, this study suggests that the utilization of MWNTs for the co−delivery of tumour−derived antigen, CpG and αCD40 could be a competent approach for efficient tumours eradication.

Predicting bee community responses to land-use changes: Effects of geographic and taxonomic biases

Land-use change and intensification threaten bee populations worldwide, imperilling pollination services. Global models are needed to better characterise, project, and mitigate bees' responses to these human impacts. The available data are, however, geographically and taxonomically unrepresentative; most data are from North America and Western Europe, overrepresenting bumblebees and raising concerns that model results may not be generalizable to other regions and taxa. To assess whether the geographic and taxonomic biases of data could undermine effectiveness of models for conservation policy, we have collated from the published literature a global dataset of bee diversity at sites facing land-use change and intensification, and assess whether bee responses to these pressures vary across 11 regions (Western, Northern, Eastern and Southern Europe; North, Central and South America; Australia and New Zealand; South East Asia; Middle and Southern Africa) and between bumblebees and other bees. Our analyses highlight strong regionally-based responses of total abundance, species richness and Simpson's diversity to land use, caused by variation in the sensitivity of species and potentially in the nature of threats. These results suggest that global extrapolation of models based on geographically and taxonomically restricted data may underestimate the true uncertainty, increasing the risk of ecological surprises.

The role of dietary breadth in national bumblebee (Bombus) declines: Simple correlation?

Bumblebee species declines have been reported in Europe, North America and Asia. Loss of suitable habitat to agricultural intensification is considered to be the main cause of declines in Europe. Differential impacts on species have been recorded but insufficient knowledge of species ecology means that effective conservation management prescriptions cannot be put into place with certainty. Dietary specialisation, specifically on flowers of Fabaceae, has been hypothesised as driving differential declines but the reliability of previous studies has been questioned. Here we present a three-year study of the foraging behaviour of two UK Biodiversity Action Plan bumblebee species. For the first time, analysis of nectar and pollen foraging was performed on sites where nationally rare UK bumblebees were as abundant as more nationally ubiquitous species. Results indicated that the nationally rare Bombus sylvarum collected the majority of its pollen from flowers of Odontites verna and had a significantly narrower mean nectar dietary breadth than ecologically similar species Bombus humilis and Bombus pascuorum (p = 0.004 and 0.008 respectively). In contrast, the dietary breadth of the nationally rare B. humilis was similar to the more nationally ubiquitous species B. pascuorum and Bombus lapidarius. Moreover, B. lapidarius was recorded as having the narrowest pollen dietary breadth, collected pollen from the least number of floral taxa and was the most specialised of the Bombus species on pollen of Fabaceae. Patterns of dietary specialization were inconsistent with national declines and results highlighted a need for further detailed investigation into the factors contributing to differential declines.