Sea Urchin Body Plan Development and Evolution: An Integrative Transcriptomic Approach

My dissertation work integrates comparative transcriptomics and functional analyses to investigate gene expression changes underlying two significant aspects of sea urchin evolution and development: the dramatic developmental changes associated with an ecologically significant shift in life history strategy and the development of the unusual radial body plan of adult sea urchins.

In Chapter 2, I investigate evolutionary changes in gene expression underlying the switch from feeding (planktotrophic) to nonfeeding (lecithotrophic) development in sea urchins. In order to identify these changes, I used Illumina RNA-seq to measure expression dynamics across 7 developmental stages in three sea urchin species: the lecithotroph Heliocidaris erythrogramma, the closely related planktotroph Heliocidaris tuberculata, and an outgroup planktotroph Lytechinus variegatus. My analyses draw on a well-characterized developmental gene regulatory network (GRN) in sea urchins to understand how the ancestral planktotrophic developmental program was altered during the evolution of lecithotrophic development. My results suggest that changes in gene expression profiles occurred more frequently across the transcriptome during the evolution of lecithotrophy than during the persistence of planktotrophy. These changes were even more pronounced within the GRN than across the transcriptome as a whole, and occurred in each network territory (skeletogenic, endomesoderm and ectoderm). I found evidence for both conservation and divergence of regulatory interactions in the network, as well as significant changes in the expression of genes with known roles in larval skeletogenesis, which is dramatically altered in lecithotrophs. I further explored network dynamics between species using coexpression analyses, which allowed me to identify novel players likely involved in sea urchin neurogenesis and endoderm patterning.

In Chapter 3, I investigate developmental changes in gene expression underlying radial body plan development and metamorphosis in H. erythrogramma. Using Illumina RNA-seq, I measured gene expression profiles across larval, metamorphic, and post-metamorphic life cycle phases. My results present a high-resolution view of gene expression dynamics during the complex transition from pre- to post-metamorphic development and suggest that distinct sets of regulatory and effector proteins are used during different life history phases.

Collectively, my investigations provide an important foundation for future, empirical studies to investigate the functional role of gene expression change in the evolution of developmental differences between species and also for the generation of the unusual radial body plan of sea urchins.

(Un)veiling desire: re-defining relationships between gendered adult education subjects and adult education programmes

My underlying argument, in this paper, is that conceptualisations of power as a commodity, through which the 'disempowered-as-illiterate' subject moves towards becoming an 'empowered-as-literate' subject, forces constructs of identities into a powerful/powerless dichotomy which does not always do justice to diverse experiences. The claimed 'empowering' intentions of adult education programme and policy practice may, in reality, contribute to the dominance of restrictive disciplining and regulatory discursive practices. Moving away from emancipatory trajectories of adult education programmes that allege only liberation from domination, through 'literacy', can promise freedom points to another position of hope. Drawing on Foucauldian analysis, I explore sites of resistance as possibilities of transforming 'structures of understanding' at different levels. Officially validated and recognised transformations, in adult education programme as well as policy understandings, of the 'illiterate' subject may also hope to include choices in postures of autonomy (see Spivak 1996) made by programme participants in other 'fields' of socio-cultural practice linked to their material realities. Subsequently, 'empowerment' of the 'illiterate Indian village woman' cannot solely be imagined as a product of laws, policies and institutional discursive practices (see, for example, Gouws 2005; Rai 2003 on gender mainstreaming and Mosse 2005 on aid policy and practice). The 'illiterate Indian village woman' represented as a site of resistance, throughout this paper, displaces homogeneous representations of the 'illiterate' which situate her in the role of 'dependent' or 'victim', as failed attempts to rob her of her historical and political agency (Mohanty 1996). Through narrating other 'images' of refusal in my ethnographic vignettes, I hope to recognise different individuals' sense of agency, at all levels, as embedded in and evolving through forms of collective action that activate differences in order to develop possibilities and sustain hope for transforming historically rooted discursive practices of inequality. I provide ethnographic accounts of resisting 'literacy' programme participants, based in different villages in Bihar (Northern India), as accounts of resistance impacted on by notions of norms, translating and interpreting Others, networks and empowerment.

Adult personality inconsistency and problems with parents: uncovering the roots of the false self

Research has established that individuals who tend to vary their personality depending on who they are with, show a variety of signs of psychological maladjustment in comparison to those who do not; they show more negative affect (Baird, Le and Lucas, 2006), lower life satisfaction (Suh, 2002), lower self-esteem (Sheldon et al., 1997), lower role-satisfaction (Donahue et al., 1993), higher rates of depression (Lutz and Ross, 2003), more anxiety (Diehl, Hastings and Stanton, 2001) and poorer physical health (Cross, Gore and Morris, 2003). It has also been shown that personality variability is positively related to the experience of inauthenticity and falsity (Sheldon et al., 1997). Donahue, Roberts, Robins and John (1993) found that personality inconsistency of this type is related to tension within the family. Psychoanalytic theory has also linked the operation of an adult false self to experiences with parents, particularly in early life (Winnicott, 1960). It was hypothesized that personality variability and the adult experience of falsity in social situations would be related to an emotionally unstable relationship with parents. The method to test this comprised a questionnaire-based survey given to a non-clinical population. The final sample comprised 305, with 193 women and 112 men, aged from 19 to 55. The first questionnaire asked participants to rate personality traits, including emotional stability, in three social contexts - with parents, with friends and with work colleagues. The second part involved 3 questions; participants were asked to select in which of the aforementioned three social contexts they felt “most themselves”; in which they were “most authentic” and in which they “put on a front”. It was found, consistent with predictions, that an index of overall personality variability calculated from the personality questionnaire correlated strongly with emotional instability around parents (r = 0.46, p<0.001), while not correlating with emotional instability in either of the other two contexts measured. This suggests a specific link between a person’s relationship with their parents and their overall personality integration. Furthermore, it was found that participants who cited one of the three social contexts (parents, friends, work colleagues) as being one in which they were “more themselves” or “more authentic” had significantly higher ratings of emotional instability with parents than those participants who found that they were equally authentic across settings (F = 9.8, p<0.005). The results suggest a clear link between a person’s relationships with their parents and their adult personality integration. An explanation is that individuals who experience an anxious or ambiguous attachment with their parents in childhood may fear rejection or abandonment in later life, and so habitually adapt their personality to fit in to social contexts as adults, in order to be accepted by others and to minimize the possibility of social rejection. These individuals meanwhile retain an emotionally unstable relationship with their parents in adulthood. This interpretation is speculative but is open to empirical testing. Clinicians should be aware that attachment problems with parents may underlie poor personality integration in adulthood.

Ambitious mothers – successful daughters: Mothers’ early expectations for children’s education and children’s earnings and sense of control in adult life

Background. Mothers' expectations for their children's educational attainment are related to children's educational and occupational attainment. Studies have yet to establish, however, the long-term links between maternal expectations and offspring earnings, which are not always related to occupational attainment especially in women, or between maternal expectations and offspring sense of control and self-efficacy, which are pivotal factors in career choice and development. Aims. To explore the role of mothers' expectations for their children's educational attainment in children's earnings attainment and sense of control later in life. Method. Data from sweeps of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) were used. The study sample was those cohort members with complete information on all the variables of interest. The study sample (N = 3,285) was more educated and less disadvantaged than the whole sample. If cohort members of this type are more likely to have a mother who has high expectations, then our results are biased downwards, which suggests that we underestimate the effect of expectations on our two outcome variables. Results. Mothers' expectations at the age of 10 were positively related to daughters' sense of control at the age of 30 even after controlling for ethnicity, educational attainment, and concurrent partner, parent, and labour market participation status, as well as the following confounding variables (measured at the ages of 0–10): general ability and general ability squared, locus of control, emotional and behavioural problems and emotional and behavioural problems squared, socio-economic disadvantage, parental social class, parental family structure, and mothers' education, child-rearing attitudes, and mental health. Mothers' expectations had no effect on sons' adult outcomes. Conclusions. Given that women are particularly at risk for poor psychological and economic outcomes in adulthood, and that this study likely underestimated the effect of expectations on these two outcomes, this is an important conclusion.

Early growth and adult respiratory function in men and women followed from the fetal period to adulthood

While some studies suggest that poor fetal growth rate, as indicated by lower birth weight, is associated with poor respiratory function in childhood, findings among adults remain inconsistent. A study was undertaken to determine the association between early growth and adult respiratory function.

‘Nothing will prevent me from doing a good job’. The professionalisation of part-time teaching staff in further and adult education

Approximately 85,000 part-time teaching staff working in further education (FE) and adult and community learning (ACL) are often seen as ‘a problem’. The intrinsic ‘part-timeness’ of these staff tends to marginalise them: they remain under-recognised and largely unsupported. Yet this picture is over-simplified. This article examines how part-time staff make creative use of professional autonomy and agency to mitigate problematic ‘casual employment’ conditions, reporting on results from Learning and Skills Development Agency-sponsored research (2002–2006) with 700 part-time staff in the learning and skills sector. The question of agency was reported as a key factor in part-time employment. Change is necessary for the professional agency of part-timers to be harnessed as the sector responds to ambitious sectoral ‘improvement’ agendas following the Foster Report and FE White Paper. Enhanced professionalisation for part-time staff needs greater recognition and inclusion in change agendas.

Chronotype, sleep quality and sleep duration in adult distance education: Not related to study progress

Research in traditional education shows chronotype, sleep duration and sleep quality to be related to learning performance. Research in adult students participating in distance education (DE) is scarce. This study aims to provide knowledge on these relationships in this educational setting. In an observational longitudinal study, chronotype, sleep duration (i.e., for work and free days separately) and sleep quality of 894 students were analyzed in a multiple regression analyses. Students provided information on sleep-relatedmeasures and important covariates at the start of their study and study progress was evaluated after 14 months (i.e., the number of successfully completed modules). In linewith previous research, chronotype did not predict study progress. Further, sleep duration did not predict study progress, neither as a linear nor as a polynomial term. Third, sleep quality did not predict study progress. Concluding, these results are in linewith previous research that DE provides a solution to the asynchrony problem. Findings regarding sleep duration and sleep quality are new and unexpected, asking for attention and further research. Despite the study's observational nature, findings suggest that students participating in DE may benefit from this type of education as the asynchrony problem appears not to apply here, as students can choose their own study schedule.