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In his latest book, Marshall Gregory begins with the premise that our lives are saturated with stories, ranging from magazines, books, films, television, and blogs to the words spoken by politicians, pastors, and teachers. He then explores the ethical implication of this nearly universal human obsession with narratives. Through careful readings of Katherine Anne Porter’s The Grave, Thurber’s The Catbird Seat, as well as David Copperfield and Wuthering Heights, Gregory asks (and answers) the question: How do the stories we absorb in our daily lives influence the kinds of persons we turn out to be? Shaped by Stories is accessible to anyone interested in ethics, popular culture, and education. It will encourage students and teachers to become more thoughtful and perceptive readers of stories.

Microglia isolated from the neurogenic subependymal zone (SEZ) and hippocampus (HC) are capable of massive in vitro population expansion that is not possible with microglia isolated from non-neurogenic regions. We asked if this regional heterogeneity in microglial proliferative capacity is cell intrinsic, or is conferred by interaction with respective neurogenic or non-neurogenic niches. By combining SEZ and cerebral cortex (CTX) primary tissue dissociates to generate heterospatial cultures, we find that exposure to the SEZ environment does not enhance CTX microglia expansion; however, the CTX environment exerts a suppressive effect on SEZ microglia expansion. Furthermore, addition of purified donor SEZ microglia to either CTX- or SEZ-derived cultures suppresses the expansion of host microglia, while the addition of donor CTX microglia enhances the over-all microglia yield. These data suggest that SEZ and CTX microglia possess intrinsic, spatially restricted characteristics that are independent of their in vitro environment, and that they represent unique and functionally distinct populations. Finally, we determined that the repeated supplementation of neurogenic SEZ cultures with expanded SEZ microglia allows for sustained levels of inducible neurogenesis, provided that the ratio of microglia to total cells remains within a fairly narrow range.

The book is for beginning and experienced teachers of literature in higher education. The authors present a comprehensive overview of teaching English Literature, from setting teaching goals and syllabus planning through to a range of student assessment strategies and methods of course or teacher evaluation and improvement.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report findings from a larger study into the role of middle leaders of change in New Zealand higher education.Design methodology approach - In total, ten middle leaders from the New Zealand higher education sector took part in a recent research project which examined successful change leadership in higher education. As part of that larger study, each middle leader answered questions about their views on being in the \"middle\" in their change leadership roles and their views on middle leadership in general.Findings - The ten middle leaders all described their place in their respective organisations in terms of being \"caught in between\", or \"sandwiched between\" senior management to whom they were accountable, lecturers whom they described as colleagues or peers, and subordinates for whom they had some functional and often moral responsibility. The paper discusses the perceptions of being in the \"middle\" and how change leaders reconcile their position as a subordinate, an equal and a superior. Insight is gained into how educational leaders reconcile their position in the \"middle\" as they hold management responsibility for both academic and general staff who are hierarchically, beneath them; lead teams of colleagues in collegial decision making; and answer to higher authority in the form of senior organisational leadership.Research limitations implications - The participant contributions of personal observations and unfolding real life stories which meld personal common sense with local meaning have formed a unique local ontology therefore allowing for a deeper understanding of the contributing factors toward being in the \"middle\". Some of these perspectives have been used by the author's own organisation in the development of leadership training for future organisational change, particularly those aspects concerning communication and participation that are tailored to meet the unique needs of management and staff.Practical implications - For middle change leaders the focussed examination of the working relationship between middle change leaders and staff groups might prove to be a rich area of further study. These relationships take a variety of forms, including where a staff member has risen through the ranks (off the shop floor as it were) to take on the mantle of leadership, or simply where there is a shared understanding based on subject or professional backgrounds which binds the two together. Further investigation into these relationships may provide perspectives that enable leaders to develop a greater understanding of how change occurs.Originality value - The paper shows how the participants locate themselves as being \"very much\" in the middle in terms of line management of both resources and academic matters and often as being caught between competing imperatives, institutional dynamics and institutional structures.

Back to the Rough Ground is a philosophical investigation of practical knowledge, with major import for professional practice and the ethical life in modern society. Its purpose is to clarify the kind of knowledge that informs good practice in a range of disciplines such as education, psychotherapy, medicine, management, and law. Through reflection on key modern thinkers who have revived cardinal insights of Aristotle, and a sustained engagement with the Philosopher himself, it presents a radical challenge to the scientistic assumptions that have dominated how these professional domains have been conceived, practiced, and institutionalized.

Our best understanding of marine mammal mating systems comes from land-mating pinnipeds. Logistical problems of observing behavior at sea have limited our ability to make inferences about species with aquatic-mating systems, which comprise over half the pinnipeds. The mating systems of these species likely involve different mating tactics than land-mating species. We used several methods in combination (e.g., animal-borne cameras, radio telemetry, time-depth recorders, and DNA paternity assessment) to provide a comprehensive study of the aquatic-mating tactics of harbor seal males. Males decreased time offshore (26.0 vs 14.8%) and increased time near shore (33.8 vs 43.7%) between premating and mating periods, respectively. Concomitantly, males reduced foraging effort and increased activities associated with competition for females (e.g., visual/vocal displays and threats). As females come into estrus near the end of lactation and spend more time at sea, males reduced their near-shore ranges (4.2 vs 1.0 km²), which were clustered within 1-1.5 km of the beach where females attended their pups. Body mass of males was not a major factor affecting their reproductive behavior. From a small number of paternity assignments to study males, it appears that females select males. These combined results are more consistent with a lek-type mating system than with the territorial or female defense systems characteristic of land-mating pinnipeds.