Catalogue Search | MBRL
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
{{itemTitle}}
69
result(s) for
"Gale, Trevor"
Sort by:
Widening and expanding participation in Australian higher education : In the absence of sociological imagination
Social inclusion in Australian higher education was high on the agenda of the recent Rudd/Gillard Australian Government. This paper offers an assessment of that agenda, particularly the extent to which it worked in favour of under-represented groups. It argues that the Government's widening and expansion policies and its equity and aspiration strategies lacked sociological imagination, projecting deficits onto individuals who refused to be taken in by its ambitions for higher education participation. The paper concludes that in the absence of a sociological imagination in government policy, the freedoms of disadvantaged groups continued to be curtailed: not just to choose futures in keeping with their goals but also the freedom to formulate choices. [Author abstract]
Journal Article
Elevated l-threonine is a biomarker for Lassa fever and Ebola
Background
Lassa fever and Ebola are characterized by non-specific initial presentations that can progress to severe multisystem illnesses with high fatality rates. Samples from additional subjects are examined to extend and corroborate biomarkers with prognostic value for these diseases.
Methods
Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry metabolomics was used to identify and confirm metabolites disrupted in the blood of Lassa fever and Ebola patients. Authenticated standards are used to confirm the identify of key metabolites.
Results
We confirm prior results by other investigators that the amino acid
l
-threonine is elevated during Ebola virus infection.
l
-Threonine is also elevated during Lassa virus infection. We also confirmed that platelet-activating factor (PAF) and molecules with PAF moiety are reduced in the blood of patients with fatal Lassa fever. Similar changes in PAF and PAF-like molecules were not observed in the blood of Ebola patients.
Conclusions
Metabolomics may provide tools to identify pathways that are differentially affected during viral hemorrhagic fevers and guide development of diagnostics to monitor and predict outcome.
Journal Article
To aspire : a systematic reflection on understanding aspirations in higher education
Aspirations for higher education by people from low socioeconomic status backgrounds are now a focus of government policy in many OECD nations. This is part of a global trend emphasising the perceived benefits of 'raising' aspirations among under-represented groups as a social inclusion strategy to widen university participation, but also ultimately as a strategy to increase national competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. Yet despite its importance, aspiration tends to carry simplistic meanings in much higher education policy and practice. This paper attempts to craft a more nuanced account of the term, informed by four concept-clusters derived from sociological and philosophical literatures and research, and with a more mutual relation of public and private interests. It complements this 'intellectual craftsmanship' or 'systematic reflection' with data drawn from a future-focused survey of secondary school students from low and low-mid socioeconomic status backgrounds in regional Australia. Results from the survey provide illustrations that help expand understandings of student aspirations for higher education, from a group presumed to be deficit in aspirations. [Author abstract, ed]
Journal Article
Metabolomics analyses identify platelet activating factors and heme breakdown products as Lassa fever biomarkers
Lassa fever afflicts tens of thousands of people in West Africa annually. The rapid progression of patients from febrile illness to fulminant syndrome and death provides incentive for development of clinical prognostic markers that can guide case management. The small molecule profile of serum from febrile patients triaged to the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Ward at Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone was assessed using untargeted Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. Physiological dysregulation resulting from Lassa virus (LASV) infection occurs at the small molecule level. Effects of LASV infection on pathways mediating blood coagulation, and lipid, amino acid, nucleic acid metabolism are manifest in changes in the levels of numerous metabolites in the circulation. Several compounds, including platelet activating factor (PAF), PAF-like molecules and products of heme breakdown emerged as candidates that may prove useful in diagnostic assays to inform better care of Lassa fever patients.
Journal Article
pH Sensitive Erythrocyte-Derived Membrane for Acute Systemic Retention and Increased Infectivity of Coated Oncolytic Vaccinia Virus
Oncolytic viruses have emerged as a promising modality in cancer treatment given their high synergy with highly efficient immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, their potency is limited by their rapid in vivo clearance. To overcome this, we coated oncolytic vaccinia viruses (oVV) with erythrocyte-derived membranes (EDMs), hypothesizing that they would not only remain in systemic circulation for longer as erythrocytes would when administered intravenously, but also respond to environmental pH cues due to their membrane surface sialic acid residues. For this, we developed a model based on DLVO theory to show that the acidic moieties on the surface of EDM confers it the ability to respond to pH-based stimuli. We corroborate our modeling results through in vitro cell culture models and show that EDM-coated oVV infects cancer cells faster under acidic conditions akin to the tumor microenvironment. When EDM-coated oVVs were intravenously injected into wild-type mice, they exhibited prolonged circulation at higher concentrations when compared to the unprocessed oVV. Furthermore, when EDM-coated oVV was directly injected into xenografted tumors, we observed that they were suppressed earlier than the tumors that received regular oVV, suggesting that the EDM coating does not hinder oVV infectivity. Overall, we found that EDM was able to serve as a multi-functional encapsulant that allowed the payload to remain in circulation at higher concentrations when administered intravenously while simultaneously exhibiting pH-responsive properties.
Journal Article
Student equity's starring role in Australian higher education : not yet centre field
The field of Australian higher education has changed, is changing and is about to change, repositioned in relation to other 'fields of power'. It is a sector now well defined by its institutional groupings and by their relative claims to selectivity and exclusivity, with every suggestion of their differentiation growing. The potential of a 'joined-up' tertiary education system, of vocational education and training (VET) and universities, has the potential to further rework these relations within Australian higher education, as will lifting the volume caps on university student enrolments. Moreover, Australian universities now compete within an international higher education marketplace, ranked by THES and Shanghai Jiao Tiong league tables. 'Catchment areas' and knowledge production have become global. In sum, Australian universities (and agents within them) are positioned differently in the field. And being so variously and variably placed, institutions and agents have different stances available to them, including the positions they can take on student equity. In this article the author begins from the premise that the current stance on equity has been out-positioned, as much by a changing higher education field as by entrenched representations of social groups across regions, institutions, disciplines and degrees. In taking a new stance on equity, the article is also concerned with the positioning in the field of a new national research centre with a focus on student equity in higher education. In particular, the article asks what stance this new centre can take on student equity that will resonate on a national and even international scale. And, given a global field of higher education, what definitions of equity and propositions for policy and practice can it offer? What will work in the pursuit of equity? [Author abstract]
Journal Article
Classroom teacher effectiveness research: a conceptual critique
Teacher effectiveness research now informs the rationale of much Australian education policy aimed at redressing student under-achievement. The approach draws a 'straight line' between teacher practice and student outcomes, 'controlling' for and ultimately dismissive of other possible influences. The paper calls into question this conception of teaching–learning relations, particularly the extent to which teaching practice can be reasonably quantified and improvements in students' academic achievement can be solely attributed to and/or sole responsibility placed on the pedagogic strategies employed by teachers. Drawing on the theoretical resources of Foucault and Bourdieu, the paper argues further that teacher effectiveness research is flawed in both means and ends. It concludes that in its ranking of student and teacher performance, such research actually works against the purposes of education; specifically, authentic teaching and learning.
Journal Article
Re-asserting the place of context in explaining student (under-)achievement
One popular view of student achievement is that the quality of teaching students receive plays an important part in whether or not they do well at school. In this article we draw attention to 'context' as a complementary explanation, particularly regarding achievement differences between students from different socio-economic backgrounds. In making these observations, we utilise data from one Australian secondary school located in an economically depressed rural community. Drawing on the insights of Bourdieu, our focus is on the broader social and economic influences that can adversely position students and schools, as well as work to inform the institutional stance that schools take in relation to their students.
Journal Article