El carnaval de los desencuentros : la construcción de los derechos humanos, sexuales y reproductivos en adolescentes

Este trabajo propone acercarse a la interpretación de las representaciones sociales de los derechos sexuales y reproductivos de la población adolescente y de las instituciones que los garantizan en tres localidades de Bogotá. Mediante una mirada integradora e interdisciplinaria, se realizan pesquisas en el universo simbólico de los adolescentes sobre cómo estos construyen cotidianamente sus comportamientos y prácticas sociales en el campo de la sexualidad y cuál es la respuesta institucional de los sectores educativo y salud que interactúan con ellos. Finalmente se presenta una alternativa de trabajo en el campo de los derechos sexuales y reproductivos para los adolescentes, que se traduce en comunicación educativa. La investigación apoya el trabajo del personal del campo de la salud responsable de los actuales programas de salud sexual y reproductiva, tanto en el campo de la prestación de servicios, como en el aseguramiento. Es una mirada útil para los tomadores de decisiones a nivel local y nacional, pues ofrece al sector educativo elementos de reflexión que ayudan a una búsqueda de encuentros con los adolescentes. Además, brinda a estos jóvenes herramientas de apoyo para su encuentro con los adultos.

Colin Marsh (2008) Becoming a Teacher: Knowledge, Skills and Issues. 4th edition, Frenchs Forrest: Pearson Education Australia, 460 pages

Becoming a Teacher is structured in five very readable sections. The introductory section addresses the nature of teaching and the importance of developing a sense of purpose for teaching in a 21st century classroom. It also introduces some key concepts that are explored throughout the volume according to the particular chapter focus of each part. For example, the chapters in Part 2 explore aspects of student learning and the learning environment and focus on how students develop and learn, learner motivation, developing self esteem and learning environments. The concepts developed in this section, such as human development, stages of learning, motivation, and self-concept are contextualised in terms of theories of cognitive development and theories of social, emotional and moral development. The author, Colin Marsh, draws on his extensive experience as an educator to structure the narrative of chapters in this part via checklists for observation, summary tables, sample strategies for teaching at specific stages of student development, and questions under the heading ‘your turn’. Case studies such as ‘How I use Piaget in my teaching’ make that essential link between theory and practice, something which pre-service teachers struggle with in the early phases of their university course. I was pleased to see that Marsh also explores the contentious and debated aspects of these theoretical frameworks to demonstrate that pre-service teachers must engage with and critique the ways in which theories about teaching and learning are applied. Marsh weaves in key quotations and important references into each chapter’s narrative and concludes every chapter with summary comments, reflection activities, lists of important references and useful web sources. As one would expect of a book published in 2008, Becoming a Teacher is informed by the most recent reports of classroom practice, current policy initiatives and research.

Cycloidal magnetic order in the compound IrMnSi

A new compound, IrMnSi, has been synthesized, and its crystal structure and magnetic properties have been investigated by means of neutron powder diffraction, magnetization measurements, and first-principles theory. The crystal structure is found to be of the TiNiSi type (ordered Co2P, space group Pnma). The Mn-projected electronic states are situated at the Fermi level, giving rise to metallic binding, whereas a certain degree of covalent character is observed for the chemical bond between the It and Si atoms. A cycloidal, i.e., noncollinear, magnetic structure was observed below 460 K, with the propagation vector q=[0,0,0.4530(5)] at 10 K. The magnetism is dominated by large moments on the Mn sites, 3.8 mu(B)/atom from neutron diffraction. First-principles theory reproduces the propagation vector of the experimental magnetic structure as well as the angles between the Mn moments. The calculations further result in a magnetic moment of 3.21 mu(B) for the Mn atoms, whereas the Ir and Si moments are negligible, in agreement with observations. A calculation that more directly incorporates electron-electron interactions improves the agreement between the theoretical and experimental magnetic moments. A band mechanism is suggested to explain the observed magnetic order.

A cluster randomised controlled trial of “Bookstart+”: a book gifting programme

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of a free book gifting programme, called “Bookstart+”, in improving family reading outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach – Bookstart+ consists of a pack of books and reading materials provided to families at their two-year-old child's statutory health visit. The pack is accompanied by a short priming demonstration, delivered by the health visitor, on shared reading. The evaluation took the form of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) with 460 families from the client lists of 115 health visitors.

Findings – The study found evidence of: a positive significant effect on parents’ attitudes to reading and books (Cohen's d=+0.192, p=0.034); no significant effect on parental attitudes to their child reading (d=+0.085, p=0.279); and a negative effect, approaching significance, on public library usage (d=-0.160, p=0.055).

Research limitations/implications – The attrition rate was high, with only 43.9 per cent of the target families completing all of the research. However, this level of attrition did not lead to any significant differences between the control and intervention groups on their pre-test measures.

Practical implications – The study provides recommendations for free book gifting service provision in relation to pack contents and delivery.

Originality/value – This paper contributes to the limited international RCT evidence on free book gifting programmes.

Effects of scalding and dehairing of pig carcasses at abattoirs on the visibility of welfare-related lesions

There is increasing interest in developing abattoir-based welfare measures for pigs.The primary aim of this study was to determine the most appropriate place on theslaughter line to conduct assessments of welfare-related lesions, namely apparentaggression-related skin lesions (hereafter referred to as 'skin lesions'), loin bruising andapparent tail biting damage. The study also lent itself to an assessment of theprevalence of these lesions, and the extent to which they were linked with productionparameters. Finishing pigs processed at two abattoirs on the Island of Ireland (n =1950 in abattoir A, and n = 1939 in abattoir B) were used. Data were collected over 6days in each abattoir in July 2014. Lesion scoring took place at two points on theslaughter line: (1) at exsanguination (Slaughter Stage 1 [SS1]), and (2) followingscalding and dehairing of carcasses (Slaughter Stage 2 [SS2]). At both points, eachcarcass was assigned a skin and tail lesion score ranging from 0 (lesion absent) to 3 or4 (severe lesions), respectively. Loin bruising was recorded as present or absent.Differences in the percentage of pigs with observable lesions of each type werecompared between SS1 and SS2 using McNemar/McNemar-Bowker tests. Theassociations between each lesion type, and both cold carcass weight andcondemnations, were examined at batch level using Pearson's correlations. Batch wasdefined as the group of animals with a particular farm identification code on a givenday. The overall percentage of pigs with a visible skin lesion (i.e. score > 0) decreasedbetween SS1 and SS2 (P<0.001). However, the percentage of pigs with a severe skinlesion increased numerically from SS1 to SS2. The percentage of pigs with a visible taillesion and with loin bruising also increased between SS1 and SS2 (P<0.001). Therewas a positive correlation between the percentage of carcasses that were partiallycondemned, and the percentage of pigs with skin lesions, tail lesions and loin bruising(P<0.05). Additionally, as the batch-level frequency of each lesion type increased,average cold carcass weight decreased (P<0.001). These findings suggest that severeskin lesions, tail lesions and loin bruising are more visible on pig carcasses after theyhave been scalded and dehaired, and that this is when abattoir-based lesion scoringshould take place. The high prevalence of all three lesion types, and the links witheconomically important production parameters, suggests more research into identifying key risk factors is warranted.

Stratified analysis reveals chemokine-like factor (CKLF) as a potential prognostic marker in the MSI-immune consensus molecular subtype CMS1 of colorectal cancer

The Colorectal Cancer (CRC) Subtyping Consortium (CRCSC) recently published four consensus molecular subtypes (CMS’s) representing the underlying biology in CRC. The Microsatellite Instable (MSI) immune group, CMS1, has a favorable prognosis in early stage disease, but paradoxically has the worst prognosis following relapse, suggesting the presence of factors enabling neoplastic cells to circumvent this immune response. To identify the genes influencing subsequent poor prognosis in CMS1, we analyzed this subtype, centered on risk of relapse.
In a cohort of early stage colon cancer (n=460), we examined, in silico, changes in gene expression within the CMS1 subtype and demonstrated for the first time the favorable prognostic value of chemokine-like factor (CKLF) gene expression in the adjuvant disease setting [HR=0.18, CI=0.04-0.89]. In addition, using transcription profiles originating from cell sorted CRC tumors, we delineated the source of CKLF transcription within the colorectal tumor microenvironment to the leukocyte component of these tumors. Further to this, we confirmed that CKLF gene expression is confined to distinct immune subsets in whole blood samples and primary cell lines, highlighting CKLF as a potential immune cell-derived factor promoting tumor immune-surveillance of nascent neoplastic cells, particularly in CMS1 tumors. Building on the recently reported CRCSC data, we provide compelling evidence that leukocyte-infiltrate derived CKLF expression is a candidate biomarker of favorable prognosis, specifically in MSI-immune stage II/III disease.

Commercial Use of WS-PGRADE/gUSE

Although originally an academic and research product, the WS-PGRADE/gUSE framework is increasingly applied by commercial institutions too. Within the SCI-BUS project, several commercial gateways have been developed by various companies. WS-PGRADE/gUSE is also intensively used within another European research project, CloudSME (Cloud-based Simulation Platform for Manufacturing and Engineering). This chapter provides an overview and de-scribes in detail some commercial WS-PGRADE/gUSE based gateway implemen-tations. Two representative case studies from the SCI-BUS project, the Build and Test portal and the eDOX Archiver Gateway are introduced. An overview of WS-PGRADE/gUSE based gateways for running simulation applications in the cloud within the CloudSME project is also provided.

WS-PGRADE/gUSE in European Projects

Besides core project partners, the SCI-BUS project also supported several external user communities in developing and setting up customized science gateways. The focus was on large communities typically represented by other European research projects. However, smaller local efforts with the potential of generalizing the solution to wider communities were also supported. This chapter gives an overview of support activities related to user communities external to the SCI-BUS project. A generic overview of such activities is provided followed by the detailed description of three gateways developed in collaboration with European projects: the agINFRA Science Gateway for Workflows for agricultural research, the VERCE Science Gateway for seismology, and the DRIHM Science Gateway for weather research and forecasting.

Developing Science Gateways at Various Levels of Granularity Using WS-PGRADE/gUSE

Science gateways can provide access to distributed computing resources and applications at very different levels of granularity. Some gateways do not even hide the details of the underlying infrastructure, while on the other end some provide completely customized high-level interfaces to end-users. In this chapter the different granularity levels at which science gateways can be developed with WS-PGRADE/gUSE are analysed. The differences between these various granu-larity levels are also illustrated via the example of a molecular docking gateway and its four different implementations.