Frances Tracy

Functional Analysis of Avr9/Cf-9 Rapidly Elicited Genes Identifies a Protein Kinase, ACIK1, That Is Essential for Full Cf-9–Dependent Disease Resistance in Tomato

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) Cf genes confer resistance to the fungal pathogen Cladosporium fulvum through recognition of secreted avirulence (Avr) peptides. Plant defense responses, including rapid alterations in gene expression, are immediately activated upon perception of the pathogen. Previously, we identified a collection of Avr9/Cf-9 rapidly (15 to 30 min) elicited (ACRE) genes from tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum). Many of the ACRE genes encode putative signaling components and thus may play pivotal roles in the initial development of the defense response. To assess the requirement of 42 of these genes in the hypersensitive response (HR) induced by Cf-9/Avr9 or by Cf-4/Avr4, we used virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) in N. benthamiana. Three genes were identified that when silenced compromised the Cf-mediated HR. We further characterized one of these genes, which encodes a Ser/Thr protein kinase called Avr9/Cf-9 induced kinase 1 (ACIK1). ACIK1 mRNA was rapidly upregulated in tobacco and tomato upon elicitation by Avr9 and by wounding. Silencing of ACIK1 in tobacco resulted in a reduced HR that correlated with loss of ACIK1 transcript. Importantly, ACIK1 was found to be required for Cf-9/Avr9- and Cf-4/Avr4-mediated HRs but not for the HR or resistance mediated by other resistance/Avr systems, such as Pto/AvrPto, Rx/Potato virus X, or N/Tobacco mosaic virus. Moreover, VIGS of LeACIK1 in tomato decreased Cf-9–mediated resistance to C. fulvum, showing the importance of ACIK1 in disease resistance.

NaCl-induced changes in cytosolic free Ca2+ in Arabidopsis thaliana are heterogeneous and modified by external ionic composition

Increases in cytosolic free Ca(2+) ([Ca(2+)](cyt)) are common to many stress-activated signalling pathways, including the response to saline environments. We have investigated the nature of NaCl-induced [Ca(2+)](cyt) signals in whole Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings using aequorin. We found that NaCl-induced increases in [Ca(2+)](cyt) are heterogeneous and mainly restricted to the root. Both the concentration of NaCl and the composition of the solution bathing the root have profound effects on the magnitude and dynamics of NaCl-induced increases in [Ca(2+)](cyt). Alteration of external K(+) concentration caused changes in the temporal and spatial pattern of [Ca(2+)](cyt) increase, providing evidence for Na(+)-induced Ca(2+) influx across the plasma membrane. The effects of various pharmacological agents on NaCl-induced increases in [Ca(2+)](cyt) indicate that NaCl may induce influx of Ca(2+) through both plasma membrane and intracellular Ca(2+)-permeable channels. Analysis of spatiotemporal [Ca(2+)](cyt) dynamics using photon-counting imaging revealed additional levels of complexity in the [Ca(2+)](cyt) signal that may reflect the oscillatory nature of NaCl-induced changes in single cells.

Researching the ethical dimensions of mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL): a thematic review and dialogue

In this article, we examine the ethical dimensions of researching the mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technology enhanced learning (MUITEL), with a particular focus on learning in informal settings. We begin with an analysis of the interactions between mobile, ubiquitous and immersive technologies and the wider context of the digital economy. In this analysis, we identify social, economic and educational developments that blur boundaries: between the individual and the consumer, between the formal and the informal, between education and other forms of learning. This leads to a complex array of possibilities for learning designs, and an equally complex array of ethical dimensions and challenges. We then examine the recent literature on the ethical dimensions of TEL research, and identify key trends, ethical dilemmas and issues for researchers investigating MUITEL in informal educational settings. We then present a summary of research dialogue between the authors (as TEL researchers) to illuminate these MUITEL research challenges, indicating new trends in ethical procedure that may offer inspiration for other researchers. We conclude with an outline, derived from the foregoing analysis, of ways in which ethical guidelines and processes can be developed by researchers – through interacting with participants and other professionals. We conclude that ethical issues need to remain as open questions and be revisited as part of research practices. Because technologies and relationships develop, reassessments will always be required in the light of new understandings. We hope this analysis will motivate and support continued reflection and discussion about how to conduct ethically committed MUITEL research.

Case-Based Learning, Pedagogical Innovation, and Semantic Web Technologies

This paper explores the potential of Semantic Web technologies to support teaching and learning in a variety of higher education settings in which some form of case-based learning is the pedagogy of choice. It draws on the empirical work of a major three year research and development project in the United Kingdom: “Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case-Based Learning” which has been oriented toward developing a better understanding of the nature of case-based learning in different settings, but also exploring the potential for Semantic Web technologies to support, enhance, and transform existing practice. The experience of working in diverse educational settings has highlighted Semantic Web technologies that may be particularly valuable, as well as some of the enablers and barriers to wider adoption, and areas for further research and development.

Research ethics and participatory research in an interdisciplinary technology‐enhanced learning project

This account identifies some of the tensions that became apparent in a large interdisciplinary technology‐enhanced learning project as its members attempted to maintain their commitment to responsive, participatory research and development in naturalistic research settings while also ‘enacting’ these commitments in formal research review processes. It discusses how these review processes were accompanied by a commitment to continuing discussion and elaboration across an extended research team and to a view of ethical practice as an aspect of phronesis or ‘practical wisdom’ which demands understanding of specific situations and reference to prior experience. In this respect the interdisciplinary nature of the project allows the diverse experience of the project team to be brought into play, with ethical issues a joint point of focus for continuing interdisciplinary discourse.

Troubling the field of service user involvement in research

This paper sets out to interrogate two key issues in the field of service user or public engagement in research. These relate to privileging personal experience as a way of knowing and the forms of knowledge production that are assumed to take place in research partnerships. In both instances it is suggested that current orthodoxies may ‘close down’ opportunities for learning and understanding rather than democratising them. The final section of the paper suggests alternative ways of thinking about these aspects of service user involvement in research. These include ‘troubling’ identity claims and the forms of knowledge that tend to accompany them, a reconceptualisation of how they have come to be known in research partnerships and a reorientation towards the centrality of relations/hips in these research endeavours.

Students as designers of semantic web applications

This paper draws upon the experience of an interdisciplinary research group in engaging undergraduate university students in the design and development of semantic web technologies. A flexible approach to participatory design challenged conventional distinctions between ‘designer’ and ‘user’ and allowed students to play a role in developing technological and pedagogical insights as well as their own domain knowledge. The use of semantic web technologies in particular facilitated student engagement with issues around the classification, structuring and representation of knowledge, the relationships between data and concepts, and data quality and standardisation. Through the presentation of two case examples of the development of semantic web tools, it is argued that this is an effective means by which student learning can be aligned with research activity and with models of learning as knowledge construction: not only in the subject domains of their study, but in relation to learning and learning technologies as well.

Threshold Concepts as Focal Points for Supporting Student Learning

Abstract The Plant Sciences Pedagogy Project conducted research into undergraduate teaching and learning in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of Cambridge and has translated the research findings into interventions to improve support for student learning. A key research objective for the project was to investigate how teachers within the Department support student learning in small group tutorials. This was undertaken using questionnaires, focus groups and interviews. During focus groups students reported that they valued tutors who were able to anticipate topics that they found difficult to master. The threshold concepts framework provided a medium for discussion about these troublesome areas in this discipline area and a number of threshold concepts were identified by interviewing teaching staff. The topics that emerged from this were used as focal points for development of new online resources for students. As threshold concepts are typically difficult to teach, they are challenging to one’s own practice as a teacher. Threshold concepts may provide a good focus for continuing professional development of teaching staff.

Undergraduate student expectations of university in the United Kingdom: What really matters to them?

Abstract Students spend 12 to 14 years in school settings learning in what could be considered a carefully controlled and structured environment. Higher education may not offer the same landscape to students and it appears that many enter with unrealistic conceptions of what is expected of them and are faced with different approaches to aspects of teaching, learning and assessment. This qualitative study explores the perceptions of second-year and final-year students in relation to their expectations whilst studying at university. Focus groups were used across two programmes in one university faculty to ascertain student expectations and what they perceived as important. From the thematic analysis, four areas were highlighted by the students as key to the transition into university these were directed time, non-directed time, support and relationships. Overall these students where positive about the university experience and the levels of support offered to them, particularly noting that working in peer learning groups (PLGs) was beneficial. Issues were raised around the timetabling of face-to-face contact time and the value of the experience and this is an area that needs further research as is understanding the complexity of the students’ lives outside of the institution.

Disrupting the dissertation: Linked data, enhanced publication and algorithmic culture

This article explores how the three aspects of Striphas’ notion of algorithmic culture (information, crowds and algorithms) might influence and potentially disrupt established educational practices. We draw on our experience of introducing semantic web and linked data technologies into higher education settings, focussing on extended student writing activities such as dissertations and projects, and drawing in particular on our experiences related to undergraduate archaeology dissertations. The potential for linked data to be incorporated into electronic texts, including academic publications, has already been described, but these accounts have highlighted opportunities to enhance research integrity and interactivity, rather than considering their potential creatively to disrupt existing academic practices. We discuss how the changing relationships between subject content and practices, teachers, learners and wider publics both in this particular algorithmic culture, and more generally, offer new opportunities; but also how the unpredictability of crowds, the variable nature and quality of data, and the often hidden power of algorithms, introduce new pedagogical challenges and opportunities.