Developing an understanding of coherent approaches between primary and secondary teachers: a case study within the design and technology curriculum in Scotland.

This study is based around Education Scotland's ambition to create a coherent learning framework for pupils aged 3-18, with particular focus on the technologies curricular area, and more specifically the subject of design and technology (D&T). The study investigates the views, definitions, and approaches adopted by primary and secondary educators applied to the D&T curricular area. Furthermore, the research explores curricular understanding and pedagogical approaches in addition to individual teacher's understanding of technology education.

The global hearing therapeutic pipeline: 2021.

Hearing loss is a serious condition affecting more than 1.5 billion people globally. Many affected people benefit from the use of devices, such as hearing aids, but these do not restore natural hearing, and many users still struggle to follow speech in the presence of background noise.

Fluralaner as a novel treatment for sarcoptic mange in the bare-nosed wombat (Vombatus ursinus): safety, pharmacokinetics, efficacy and practicable use.

Background: Sarcoptic mange causes significant animal welfare and occasional conservation concerns for bare-nosed wombats (Vombatus ursinus) throughout their range. To date, in situ chemotherapeutic interventions have involved macrocytic lactones, but their short duration of action and need for frequent re-administration has limited treatment success. Fluralaner (Bravecto®; MSD Animal Health), a novel isoxazoline class ectoparasiticide, has several advantageous properties that may overcome such limitations.

Quantitative estimates of average geomagnetic axial dipole dominance in deep geological time.

A defining characteristic of the recent geomagnetic field is its dominant axial dipole which provides its navigational utility and dictates the shape of the magnetosphere. Going back through time, much less is known about the degree of axial dipole dominance. Here we use a substantial and diverse set of 3D numerical dynamo simulations and recent observation-based field models to derive a power law relationship between the angular dispersion of virtual geomagnetic poles at the equator and the median axial dipole dominance measured at Earth's surface.

Delivering Therapeutics to the Cochlea: The Importance of the Patient's Perspective.

Hearing loss represents a major sensory impairment in humans with a strong impact on quality of life. The current standard of care for chronic sensorineural hearing loss is limited to hearing aids and implantable devices like cochlear implants. Treatments for acute hearing loss consist of systemic or intratympanic corticosteroids.

Why Is There No Cure for Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is unusual for such a common symptom in that there are few treatment options and those that are available are aimed at reducing the impact rather than specifically addressing the tinnitus percept. In particular, there is no drug recommended specifically for the management of tinnitus. Whilst some of the currently available interventions are effective at improving quality of life and reducing tinnitus-associated psychological distress, most show little if any effect on the primary symptom of subjective tinnitus loudness.

Hearing Protection, Restoration, and Regeneration: An Overview of Emerging Therapeutics for Inner Ear and Central Hearing Disorders.

Objective: To provide an overview of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies active in the field of inner ear and central hearing disorders and their therapeutic approaches.

Methods: Scientific and grey literature was searched using broad search terms to identify companies and their hearing-related therapeutic approaches. For each approach its lead indication, product, therapeutic modality, target, mechanism of action and current phase of clinical development was collated.

Expanded Molecular Typing of Sarcoptes scabiei Provides Further Evidence of Disease Spillover Events in the Epidemiology of Sarcoptic Mange in Australian Marsupials.

The invasive ectoparasite Sarcoptes scabiei affects the welfare and conservation of Australian marsupials. Molecular data suggest that spillover from other hosts may be responsible for the emergence of this infectious disease, but the scale of such studies is limited. We performed expanded molecular typing of the S.

Earth's magnetic field is probably not reversing.

The geomagnetic field has been decaying at a rate of ∼5% per century from at least 1840, with indirect observations suggesting a decay since 1600 or even earlier. This has led to the assertion that the geomagnetic field may be undergoing a reversal or an excursion. We have derived a model of the geomagnetic field spanning 30-50 ka, constructed to study the behavior of the two most recent excursions: the Laschamp and Mono Lake, centered at 41 and 34 ka, respectively.

Mitochondrial genome sequencing reveals potential origins of the scabies mite Sarcoptes scabiei infesting two iconic Australian marsupials.

Background: Debilitating skin infestations caused by the mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, have a profound impact on human and animal health globally. In Australia, this impact is evident across different segments of Australian society, with a growing recognition that it can contribute to rapid declines of native Australian marsupials. Cross-host transmission has been suggested to play a significant role in the epidemiology and origin of mite infestations in different species but a chronic lack of genetic resources has made further inferences difficult.

Domain Mapping of Heat Shock Protein 70 Reveals That Glutamic Acid 446 and Arginine 447 Are Critical for Regulating Superoxide Dismutase 2 Function.

Stress-inducible heat shock protein 70 (hsp70) interacts with superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) in the cytosol after synthesis to transfer the enzyme to the mitochondria for subsequent activation. However, the structural basis for this interaction remains to be defined. To map the SOD2-binding site in hsp70, mutants of hsp70 were made and tested for their ability to bind SOD2.

Tryptophan 415 Is Critical for the Cholesterol Transport Functions of Scavenger Receptor BI.

High density lipoproteins (HDL) are anti-atherogenic particles, primarily due to their role in the reverse cholesterol transport pathway whereby HDL delivers cholesteryl esters (CE) to the liver for excretion upon interaction with its receptor, scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI). We designed experiments to test the hypothesis that one or more of the eight highly conserved tryptophan (Trp; W) residues in SR-BI are critical for mediating function. We created a series of Trp-to-phenylalanine (Phe, F) mutant receptors, as well as Trp-less SR-BI (ΔW-SR-BI), and assessed their ability to mediate cholesterol transport.

Palaeomagnetic field intensity variations suggest Mesoproterozoic inner-core nucleation.

The Earth's inner core grows by the freezing of liquid iron at its surface. The point in history at which this process initiated marks a step-change in the thermal evolution of the planet. Recent computational and experimental studies have presented radically differing estimates of the thermal conductivity of the Earth's core, resulting in estimates of the timing of inner-core nucleation ranging from less than half a billion to nearly two billion years ago.

Acrolein impairs the cholesterol transport functions of high density lipoproteins.

High density lipoproteins (HDL) are considered athero-protective, primarily due to their role in reverse cholesterol transport, where they transport cholesterol from peripheral tissues to the liver for excretion. The current study was designed to determine the impact of HDL modification by acrolein, a highly reactive aldehyde found in high abundance in cigarette smoke, on the cholesterol transport functions of HDL. HDL was chemically-modified with acrolein and immunoblot and mass spectrometry analyses confirmed apolipoprotein crosslinking, as well as acrolein adducts on apolipoproteins A-I and A-II.

SR-BI/CD36 chimeric receptors define extracellular subdomains of SR-BI critical for cholesterol transport.

High-density lipoproteins (HDLs) are athero-protective, primarily because of their ability to promote cholesterol flux from peripheral tissues to the liver by reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). The delivery of HDL-cholesteryl esters (CE) into cells is mediated by the HDL receptor, scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), a promising target for enhancing whole body cholesterol disposal and preventing cardiovascular disease. A detailed understanding of the structural determinants underlying proper SR-BI/HDL alignment that supports the selective uptake of HDL-CE into cells remains lacking.

Characterization and implications of intradecadal variations in length of day.

Variations in Earth's rotation (defined in terms of length of day) arise from external tidal torques, or from an exchange of angular momentum between the solid Earth and its fluid components. On short timescales (annual or shorter) the non-tidal component is dominated by the atmosphere, with small contributions from the ocean and hydrological system. On decadal timescales, the dominant contribution is from angular momentum exchange between the solid mantle and fluid outer core.

The Effect of Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator (r-tPA) on Quantitation of Neutralising Anti-Streptokinase Antibodies.

The measurement of anti-streptokinase antibodies can distinguish the patients who may benefit from streptokinase and those who should be treated with some other thrombolytic regimen. Neutralising titration test is a commonly used classical assay for measuring anti-streptokinase antibodies and in this assay the ability of anti-streptokinase antibodies in patients' sera in preventing the lytic effect of streptokinase is assessd. As we showed previously the presence of r-tPA in the serum may interefere with the neutralising titration test, we investigated this interference in vitro.

Progressive hearing loss and increased susceptibility to noise-induced hearing loss in mice carrying a Cdh23 but not a Myo7a mutation.

Exposure to intense noise can damage the stereocilia of sensory hair cells in the inner ear. Since stereocilia play a vital role in the transduction of sound from a mechanical stimulus into an electrical one, this pathology is thought to contribute to noise-induced hearing loss. Mice homozygous for null mutations in either the myosin VIIa ( Myo7a) or cadherin 23 ( Cdh23) genes are deaf and have disorganized stereocilia bundles.

Cdh23 mutations in the mouse are associated with retinal dysfunction but not retinal degeneration.

Mutations in the cadherin 23 gene (CDH23) cause Usher syndrome type 1D in humans, a disease that results in retinitis pigmentosa and deafness. Cdh23 is also mutated in the waltzer mouse. In order to determine if the retina of the waltzer mouse undergoes retinal degeneration and to gain insight into the function of cadherin 23 in the retina, we have characterized the anatomy and physiology of retinas of waltzer mouse mutants.