The Roles and Barriers of Curriculum Leaders an Example of the Topic Scholarship by

The Roles and Barriers of Curriculum Leaders Leadership is experienced everywhere in the world, it is seen in organisations, schools, governments, small groups as well as in families. It enables a system to run well, effectively and with a sense of direction. Leadership therefore is not about power, accomplishments or what we do but it is about creating a domain in which human beings continually deepen their understanding of reality and become more capable of participating in the world and creating new realities. Need essay sample on "The Roles and Barriers of Curriculum Leaders" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed The functions that enables school systems and the schools to achieve goals and ensure quality of students in what they study and learn is therefore referred to as curriculum leadership. Supervisors, principles, classroom teachers and team leaders can all work together to discharge these responsibilities as the functions are goals oriented and the ultimate goal is to maximise student learning by providing quality learning content therefore making a distinction between curriculum, that is what is learnt and instruction which is the content taught. (Fullan 2004) Several theories in regard to leadership have been developed by philosophers from different schools of thought. (Gary 2001) came up with various leadership theories which focus on characteristics and behavioural success of leaders. These theories try to explain leadership and the different approaches used by leaders to effectively lead others. College Students Often Tell Us: How much do I have to pay someone to make my essay today? Specialists advise: Get Academic Writing At Reasonable Price With Us Cheap Essays Within Hours Write My Essay For Me Cheap Write My Essay Online Cheap Writing Service Reviews Contingency theory developed by Fred Fielder focuses on situations which affect a leaders effectiveness. The situations are such as leader-member relationship, which refer to the degree of confidence subordinates have in their leader. Another situation is task structure which refers to the degree to which followers works is routine in contrast to non routine and the final one is position power which include rewards and punishments associated with leaders formal authority, position and support that he or she receives from supervisors. The second theory is contingency theory which states that the most successful leaders are those who increase subordinate motivation by making sure they have control of outcome, reward them for their performance, encouraging them to achieve group and organisational goals and take into account their characteristics and the type of work they do. This theory explains why people perform well where their efforts are recognised by their leaders. For example in institutions where students are rewarded for their good work, there is usually stiff competition for the reward and this therefore improves the performance of the students Leader-style theory by Vroom and Yetton describes ways which leaders can make decisions and guide them to determine the extent to which subordinates should participate in decision making. The theory holds that organisational decisions should be of quality and subordinates should accept and be committed to the decisions made. The final theory is Hersey and Blachard theory which identifies three dimensional approaches for assessing leadership effectiveness; leaders should exhibit leadership and task behaviour, leader effectiveness depends on how his or her leadership style interrelates with the situational finally willingness and readiness of an employee to do a task. Leaders are on day to day basis faced with many roles which make them to be effective. These roles enable them to be able to handle the students and persons who are their juniors and allow them interact directly with team members. Curriculum leaders have both managerial roles as well as leadership roles. Managerial roles stresses on the role of leaders as custodians of institutions and also as a source of control of their institutions. The leaders should be able to manage all the curriculum activities of their institutions and ensure that they are running well and well adopted by the students. On the other hand, leadership roles stress on being the role model and making sure that there is discipline and sanity in the institutions. This creates a good picture to the community surrounding them and therefore holds a high level of respect from the people dealing with them as well as the community at large. This role also deals with improvement of instructional practice and performance which enables the curriculum leaders to be coalition builders as well as brokers among the perse interests of both the students and teachers of their institutions. Another role of curriculum leaders include monitoring team members behaviours and take action if needed in respect to team performance (Hackman 2002). The leader is meant to monitor performance and progress towards task accomplishment and if problems are discovered the leader should gather information to determine the nature of the problem and use it to implement an effective solution (Hackman 2002). Another role of curriculum leaders includes focusing on the enactment of team orientation which includes factors with motivational implications (that is promoting shared goals creating positive effect and shaping perceptions). Orientation represents effective bonds that connect members to the team and its mission. Team coherence represent team members collective bond and is also part of this role and includes development of linked inpidual goals checking team strategies and a compatible network of role expectations across team members. As (Koslowski 1996a) states team leaders have the role of building a new team. He or she should develop them into a coherent, seamless and well integrated work unit as the ongoing teams experience outflows and inflows overtime. Therefore as new replacements are brought to the team, there is need to socialise, assimilate them and make sure that they fit in the team. The other roles of curriculum leaders in schools are; One is to create a moral purpose which is a social responsibility to others and to the environment. School leaders with a moral purpose make a difference in the lives of their student. They are determined to close the gap between high performing and lower performing schools and students as they have the intension of making a positive difference in their schools. Another role is to improve relations as it leads to betterment of schools. The leaders should build relationships with perse groups and people who think differently. As cultural change principal knows that building relationships and teams is a difficult skill, he or she should therefore work hard to develop full range of emotional intelligence domains and self management of emotions and empathy towards others. This not only boost scores for the next year but also lays a foundation for two years and beyond (Fullan 2004) knowledge creating and sharing is another role of leaders. Leaders should share and seek knowledge to ensure continual learning which add to students knowledge base. Curriculum leaders should appreciate that it is a both intellectual and moral profession therefore he or she should remember that they are engaged in practising, studying and refining the teaching craft. Effective leaders should be coherent makers (Fullan 2004), understanding the change process, ability to build relationships and creating and knowledge sharing help create coherence through checks and balances embedded in their interaction. Leaders with deep moral purpose provide guidance but can also be blinders if their ideas are not challenged by change dynamics, give and take relationships and ideas generated by new knowledge. Leadership and sustainability is another role faced by curriculum leaders. They can attain sustainability by developing social environment, learning in context, cultivating leaders at all levels and enhancing the teaching profession. According to (Collins 2001), an organisation cannot flourish for long with the top leader alone, schools therefore need leaders at many levels, curriculum leaders therefore has the responsibility of developing leaders from the lowest to the to level of education. To be able to deal with complex problem leaders need many years of experience and professional development of the job and to a certain extent, a school leaders effectiveness in creating a culture of sustained change will be determined by the leaders he leaves behind. Leadership succession is also likely if there are many leaders at all levels hence organisations should set their sight on continual improvement at all levels by nurturing, cultivating and appointing successive leaders who are moving in a sustained direction. It is also the role of curriculum leaders to set policies which should be followed by students. The policies can be achieved by setting performance targets, approve standards, monitor school performance, adjudicate conflicts over design performance issues, administer rewards and buffer non instructional issues, this enables smooth running of the system and therefore reduce their work load. Curriculum leaders also have professionals which include developing standards and setting new instructional practices, design pre-service and in-service learning, conducting model professional development and creating benchmarks for practice and content. The final role of curriculum leaders in schools is to enhance the teaching profession. This is because there will only be a pool of quality principals and leaders if we have a large pool of quality teachers who form ranks of the quality principals (Elmore, 2000). Despite the important leadership and managerial roles experienced by curriculum leaders, there are several barriers that they experience which hinders the full implementation of their roles. One of the barriers is the problem with the standard setting in curriculum which is set by staff officials who are already removed from schools and free from accountability. These standards are often not supported with other systematic changes like new approaches to teacher education therefore the standards are often fragmented and contradictory making it difficult for curriculum leaders, (Woolfolk 1994). In conclusion, the curriculum system complication is also another barrier which represents an almost impossible task for curriculum leaders. The complications faced also force the students to master several benchmarks which therefore make the system hard for both the student and the curriculum leaders.Curriculum leaders of late experience cultural barriers and difficulties when undertaking their leadership roles, this is due to lark of training on the many different cultural values and practices for different students and this therefore creates a misunderstanding between the student and his or he leader. The leaders should therefore have their own lessons on different cultures and how to handle students of different levels and races so as to ensure easy management of his or her duties. Learn more: ApplicationResponse to the ResumeWriting a research paper Bibliography Elmore Richard 1996, Restructuring in the classroom: teaching, learning and school management, Jessey Bass, Sanfransisco. Michael Fullan 2004 Moral imperative of school leadership, Corwin press ISBN 1412914779. Richard Hackman 2002, leading teams, Harvard business school press, London Richard .F Elmore 2000 Building a new structure for school leadership, Albert Shanker institute New York. Woolfolk Hoy, A. & Hoy, W. K 2006 Instructional Leadership: A research-based guide to learning in schools 2nd ed.Boston MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Whats a Good ACT Score for an Honors Student

What's a Good ACT Score for an Honors Student SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips It can be hard to tell what counts as a good score on the ACT, especially for high-achieving students. In this article, I'll explain what competitive ACT scores arefor an honors student and what that means for you. But first let's define our terms! What Is an Honors Student? Answering this question is tricky becausenot everyone or every school agrees.Some schools have specific honors classes, and enrolling in these is what wins you the title. Other schools name students to an honor roll based on their GPAs. Still others may associate the term "honors" with a certain level of class rank. Whatdo we all seem to agree on?Honors students are, relative to the general high school population, higher academic achievers. This means that their goals on the ACT are likely to be higher, too, so as to keep their standardized test scores in line with their grades, and, ultimately, so as to keep them competitive as applicants to more elite schools. What Is a Good ACT Score? It's a little tough to nail down an exact definition of a "good" score, because there's no single number that marks the boundary between a good score and a bad one.What a good score looks like for any given student ultimately depends on what they want to do with it and who they're competing with. For most student, getting a good score is less about hitting an arbitrary number and more about landing in a range that makes you look attractive to the schools you hope to attend. Your score goal will be very different if you're looking at Ivy League schools than if you're looking at your local state school.Ultimately, agood score is thescore that gets you where you want to go. Nonetheless, you are being compared to the other applicants, so can it be helpful to understand how you stack up against your peers. Think of that ideal ACT score as a ticket to your dream school. Good ACTScores for Honors Students We ran some statistical analyses to answer the delicate question of what a good score really looks like for an honors student. We used what's called a Monte-Carlo method, which is a lot more accurate than just lining up percentiles and comparing those. You see, just because you're a topstudent at your school, that doesn't necessarily make you a toptest taker. Why not, you may ask? For one thing, high schools select honors students based on criteria other than the ACT. For another, some students withhigh GPAs struggle with low ACT scores. Our analysis take thesevariations into account. Based on our data, we've compiled high, average, and low scores for both honors and high honors students. Honors Students We're defining these as the top third of high school students. It's possible that some of these students are not recognized as honors students at their schools, and it's possible that some students recognized as honors students at their schools are not among this third. Let's look at the range of scores for this group: A low score(25th percentile) is24 An average score (median) is 26 Ahigh score (75th percentile) is 29 You'll notice that these scores are clusteredfairly close together. That's because it's really a pretty small range of scores, all things considered. Combine that fact with a steep bell curve distribution, consider that we're looking at the far ends, and, sure enough, you wind up with this cluster effect. High Honors Students We're defining these as the top tenth of high school students. These students are the ones most likely to be in high honors programs, though the same disclaimer applies here as it did before. Let's look at the range of scores for this group: A low score(25th percentile) is29 An average score (median) is30 Ahigh score (75th percentile) is32 Notice that these scores are clusteredextremely close together. As you get up to the highest scores, every point counts. Be a total miser when it comes to those points- pinch your proverbial pennies. Take-Aways Honors students, and especially high honors students, have to put in extra effort to distinguish themselves from the crowd. The difference between a decent showing of a score and a home-run of a score can be entirely in the details. What's Next? Start putting in the work to prepare for this test nice and early. Spend a little time figuring out just how long you should devote to preparation. Aim for perfection:a score of 36 is hard, but possible. What if you don't have the luxury of time? Read about stellar last-minute programs to prepare for the exam. Want to improve your ACT score by 4+ points? Download our free guide to the top 5 strategies you need in your prep to improve your ACT score dramatically.

Critically assess the virtues and shortcomings of Britain's Essay

Critically assess the virtues and shortcomings of Britain's 'un-codified' Constitution. Critically assess the Pr - Essay Example For this reason, the acts and laws passed in parliament become the constitution, as long as they have respect to the sovereignty of parliament as well as the principles of governance and legislation. The parliament in this case is sovereign and superior to every other institution in Britain, which means that it has the mandate of interpreting the constitution, thereby representing the sovereign will of the people. The un-codified British constitution constitutes values and political ideas that are based on ideals and precepts rather than fundamentals that are based on texts or documents (Williams, 1998: p 57). This means that the constitution and laws are symbols of the embodiment of their political culture, traditions and values of the British society. One of the strengths of the un-codified British constitution is that it is flexible. Many countries with the codified constitution find it difficult to pass legislation since the government is accountable and the constitution is prote cts individuals. For instance, Britain was able to pass legislation meant to detain terror suspects for a long period after several terrorist attacks. Other countries with the codified constitution during this period found it difficult to do the same since their constitutions were protecting the liberties of individuals (Watts, 2007: p 204). For this reason, these governments were not able to detain the terror suspects for a long duration, as the relevant authorities continued with their investigations. Apart from the flexibility of the un-codified constitution, its other strength is that it is able to evolve. Individuals in society live according to the changes in the political climate. This gives the British parliament the power to change some of the laws that seem to be outdated, consequently changing the way people live in the society (Watts, 2007: p 202). The ability of the evolution of the un-codified constitution creates an environment that is comfortable for individuals to r eside. For instance, in 1867, sovereignty was given to parliament, after it was taken away from the monarchy, which was responsible for the creation of a democratic political environment. This change made it possible for individuals to know their place in society. On the other hand, other than the opposition in parliament, there are no provisions for checking the government. This is one of the major shortcomings of the un-codified constitution. The absence of the checks and balance mechanisms might lead to the creation of an unjust political system, where the government might be in a position to oppress individuals in the society selectively. Using the previous example on terrorism, the British government had the capability of holding suspects for long periods, and with the probability that they might be lacking enough evidence to charge them, the detainment would be an infringement on the rights of the individual. Contrary to this, the codified constitution presents an opportunity for the creation of a political system that is just (Williams, 1998: p 52). In this case, the government will not be able to oppress individuals in the society, unless they have concrete evidence that a suspect is a terrorist. Before charging the suspect, he or she will be able to continue enjoying some of the rights and freedoms in society.

Biography of Dr. Avraham Biran Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Biography of Dr. Avraham Biran - Research Paper Example To embellish his achievement, he also made it as the head of several archeology bodies both in Israel and the United States. He also had great interest in biblical archeology. This trait he always said he obtained from his mentor who also shared similar perceptions in biblical archeology. His vast knowledge of and interest in archeology made his speaking abilities more elegant. By then lectures had no importance as students and the general public were not regular attendants. Lectures and talks involving Avraham Biran used to be full to capacity as thousands of people flocked to grasp part of his knowledge. According to General Books LLC,2 it was only a person sharing the same features as Avraham Birian who was capable of achieving what he did with so many factors against his success. He was among the first archeology to help nurture a generation of well informed and knowledgeable archeologists. What made Biran an exceptional archeology is the fact that he gave a lot back to his count ry. This saw him achieve major awards in his home country. He unraveled the archeology potential of Israel. He also has in his name numerous articles and publications on archeology. Avraham Biran was born on 1909 in Petah Tivkah, part of the Ottoman Empire. Before changing his surname to Biran, he had the surname Bergman. He and his family moved to Rosh Pina which was a land of his ancestors. This made him adapt to the name Mayflower Israeli. He had his roots in Palestine where his great grandfather had first settled. In his youth his family moved to Egypt. His father managed to obtain a small farm in which he managed and produced some products for their support. His great grandfather had granted them the Palestinian roots after settling there and forming a political Zionism in 1897.3 However, he was Romania-born. A few years later, his father died. After which his family moved back to Palestine and spent his life in times with his grandparents until he reached the age of 13. Mr. Bi ran studied at the Hebrew Reali School of Haifa. It is from the school that he got the inspiration he needed in life. In his own words, he said that the impression the school left in him was lifelong. It was the time he spent at Reali School of Haifa that made him gain interest in archeology. The influence his principal had in him was very great. The principal Mr. Arthur Biram taught him the Bible and ancient history. At this time he attended many hikes in which he never left his Bible behind. They visited ancient Samaria, Jerusalem, Hebron and the Western Wall. With his Bible and exposure to ancient sites, his interest in archeology grew even greater.4 At times he used the Bible to relate to the archeological sites he visited. It was this great interest and passion that made Professor Albright, one of the greatest archeologists, call him to study with him. He then moved to Israel and continued his studies at the David Yellin Teacher’s College in Jerusalem. He then went back to teach in Haifa where his education started. In 1930 he moves to the United States to continue his studies. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A year later, he enrolled as a student in Near Eastern studies under Professor Albright at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. It was from the two institutions that he received his MA in 1934 and a PhD in 1935 respectively. He retired from his archeology career at the age of 93 when he moved back to

Effect of Mutant EDA-A1 Gene on Huvecs

Effect of Mutant EDA-A1 Gene on Huvecs Effect of EDA-A1 gene mutant on proliferation and cell cycle distribution of cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cell Running title: The effect of mutant EDA-A1 gene on HUVECs. Ke Lei, MM; Lunchang Wang, MD; Bing Ma, MM; Ping Shi, MD; Longjiang Li, MD; Tuanjie Che, MD; Xiangyi He, MD Highlights: EDA-A1 gene mutant significantly decreased proliferation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). HUVECs of mutant group were blocked at G0/G1 and S phase. HUVECs of wild group accumulated in S phase and decreased in G2/M phase. Abstract Background: To investigate the effect of ectodysplasin A gene (EDA-A1) on proliferation and cell cycle of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and explore the possible mechanism underlying this process. Methods: Recombinant eukaryotic expression vectors pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M/W (mutant, M; wild, W) containing the coding sequence of EDA-A1-M/W were transfected into HUVECs. EDA-A1-M/W genes were amplified by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and the proteins were detected by western blot. Then MTT assay for cell proliferation of HUVECs in each group was performed and cell cycle was detected using flow cytometry. Results: The EDA-A1 gene and protein were detected respectively by RT-PCR and western blot in HUVECs transfected with pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M/W, but not in HUVECs transfected with empty plasmid pcDNA3.1(-) (control group) and cells without transfection. Compared with control group, EDA-A1 gene mutant significantly decreased proliferation of HUVECs and the inhibition rate was 45.70% (PEDA-A1 gene did not cause such growth inhibition (P>0.05). A significant increase of the G0/G1 and S fraction was seen in the HUVECs of mutant group, compared with wild group with an accumulation in S phase and a concomitant decrease in G2/M phase population (P Conclusion: Compared with the wide-type, the mutant EDA-A1 gene could inhibit the proliferation and cell cycle of the HUVEC. Key words: EDA-A1 gene; Mutant; Human umbilical vein endothelial cell; Cell cycle; Proliferation Introduction Hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (HED), also called anhidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (AED) or Christ-Siemens-Touraine Syndrome, is a kind of X-linked recessive genetic disease (XLHED) (1). HED is a rare congenital genetic disorder with a birth incidence of 1/100,000-1/10,000 (2, 3). It is characterized by the diminution or absence of eccrine sweat glands, oligodontia and peg shaped teeth and sparse hair (1, 4). Previous study indicates that XLHED is caused by the ectodysplasin A gene (EDA-A1) mutant (5). EDA-A1, a major causative gene of HED, locates in Xq12-13.1 and encodes a novel tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand family protein ectodysplasin A (EDA-A1) and this protein is associated with the nuclear factor-ÃŽ ºB (NF-ÃŽ ºB) signaling mechanisms (5-9). Bayes M et al. (10) indicates that the full-length of EDA-A1 is 5296bp (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/, AH007059, Gene ID 4007891), the open reading frame (ORF) of EDA-A1 is 1176bp, and it encoding the protein with 391 amino acids (EDA-A1, GeneID1896). Studies showed the combination of EDA-A1 and ectodysplasin receptor (EDAR) could promote programmed cell death and active the signaling of NF-ÃŽ ºB (8, 11). Recently, the related research on HED are mostly for mutation analysis of EDA-A1, and more than 100 mutations in the EDA gene have been reported to cause XLHED up to now (12, 13). However, there have few reports relating to the function of mutant EDA-A1, and the exact pathological mechanism of mutant EDA-A1 on HED is still unclear. In the present study, EDA-A1 mutant (pcDNA3.1 (-)-EDA-A1-M) and wild type (pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-W) eukaryotic expression vector that we used were constructed in our previous study (14). Then the function of transfected EDA-A1 and its mutant for cell proliferation and cell cycle of HUVECs were analyzed. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of EDA-A1 on proliferation and cell cycle of HUVECs and explore the possible mechanism underlying this process. Material and Method Cell culture HUVECs were kindly provided by professor Wang chunming (Lanzhou University, China). HUVECs were cultured in RPMI-1640 (Huamei Company, Shanghai, China) Medium. The medium were consisted of 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Evergreen Company, Hangzhou) and 100U/ml penicillin/streptomycin. All these cells were maintained in humidified incubator of 5% CO2 at 37à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™ (0.25% trypsin digestion overnight). Inverted microscope was used for the cell morphology investigation. All the experiments were performed at least in triplicate and repeated at least twice. Plasmid extraction EDA-A1 mutant (pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M) and wild type (pcDNA3.1 (-)-EDA-A1-W) eukaryotic expression vector that we used were constructed in our previous study (14). Totally 3ÃŽ ¼l mutant (M) and Wild-type (W) plasmid DNA was extracted respectively from transfected HUVECs, followed by the sterile deionized water diluted to 1ml. The values of à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬ ¹A260nm and A280nm were measured by UV spectrophotometer. Plasmid DNA concentration (ÃŽ ¼g / ÃŽ ¼l) = A260 Ãâ€" dilution factor Ãâ€" 50/1000. The plasmid DNA (positive recombinants and empty control) was precipitated by ethanol. Then the DNA pellet was resuspended in sterile deionized water. Cell transfection Cell transfection was carried out according to the instructions of QIAGEN-Effectene Transfection Reagent Kit (QIAGEN). Transfection was carried out when the cell density was up to 70% after 24 hour-cell passaging. Cells were transferred into a complete medium (CM) 2 hours before transfection. Totally 2.5 µg mutant (M) and Wild-type (W) plasmid DNA was slowly added to the 2 M CaCl2 solution (stand for 10 minutes). DNA-CaCl2 solution was slowly added dropwise to the 2 Ãâ€" HeBS (stand for 30 minutes) until the precipitation of tiny particles. The precipitate was uniformly dropwise added to the culture flasks. After a 12 hours growth under standard conditions, cells were washed 2 times with HeBS, followed by the cultured in CM. HUVECs transfected with empty vector were used as the control group. Semi-quantitative real-time PCR To identify the expression levels of EDA-A1 in HUVECs, semi-quantitative real-time PCR (SqRT-PCR) analysis was performed. Total RNA was extracted from cultured cells in each group (cultured for 48 hours) by using reverse transcription (RT) kit (Fermentas Company), followed by the EDA-A1 primers designation (Primer Premier 5.0 software) and synthesis (Shanghai Biological Engineering Company ). The primers used were as follows, EDA-A1 (408bp): 5’- CGC AGG ATC CAT GGG CTA CCC GGA GGT -3’ (forward) and 5’- ATT AAG CTT GCC AAG CGG GCA CCA GGG AGA C -3’ (reverse), ÃŽ ²-actin (230bp): 5’- ACG CAT TTG GTC GTA TTG GG-3’ (forward) and 5’- TGA TTT TGG AGG GAT CTC GC-3’ (reverse). The 50ÃŽ ¼l PCR reaction system were: cDNA template (2ÃŽ ¼l), 10 Ãâ€" PCR Buffer (5ÃŽ ¼l), dNTP (1ÃŽ ¼l), primer (up and downstream, 1ÃŽ ¼l), Taq DNA polymerase (1ÃŽ ¼l), ddH2O (39ÃŽ ¼l). Products were subjected to electrophoresis (1.5% agarose gel, 120V, 90mA). Western blot analysis For Western blot analysis, proteins were extracted from HUVECs in each group. Proteins were collected after cell lysis. Protein concentration was determined using the Bradford dye-binding method (15). The proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and transferred to the 0.45ÃŽ ¼m pore size nitrocellulose (NC) membrane (RPN303E, Amersham Company). NC membranes were blocked with TBS buffer (5% milk and 0.5%-Tween) for 1 hour (37 °C). Then, the membrane was incubated overnight at 4à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™ with the rabbit antibodies EDA-A1 and ÃŽ ²-actin (1:200 dilution with TBST solution), followed by incubation at room temperature for 1h with an anti-rabbit secondary antibody (Sigma). Finally, the expression levels of the target proteins were visualized withchromogenic substrate. MTT assay for cell proliferation detection To determine the proliferation of HUVECs in each group, the 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide (MTT) assay was performed. The 24 hours-transfected and untransfected cells were seeded into 96-well plate with inculation density of 5000 cells/well and incubated at 37à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™. After 12 hours, 100 ÃŽ ¼l serum-free DMEM was added in each well. After 72 hours, 20 ÃŽ ¼l MTT was added into each well to continue incubation at 37à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™(4 hours). Then, the medium was removed and the precipitation was dissolved in DMSO. The absorbance at 560 nm was measured by SpectraMax 190 microplate reader (Moteular Devices Company) for colorimetric analysis. Inhibition rate of cell growth was calculated (n=10) based on the experimentally measured absorbance value (OD value). Cell cycle analysis Flow cytometry was used to detect the cell cycle.After incubation for 48 h, the cells were collected and washed with cold PBS. The washed cells were fixed in 70% cold ethanol with incubation overnight at 4à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã†â€™. To stain the cells, prodium iodide (PI) solution was added. Flow cytometer (Coulter Epics XL, Beckman Coulter Company) was used to analyze the samples. Cell Quest software was used to analyze the cell percentage of G0 / G1 phase, S phase, and G2 / M phase. Statistical analysis All assays were performed in triplicate and datawere expressed as mean values  ±s.d. The SPSS 13.0 software employing ANOVA was used to analyze all data which expressed as mean ±SD. P values less than 0.05 was considered as significantly different. Results EDA-A1 expression pattern in HUVECs influenced by plasmid-mediated transfection To identify the expression level of ED1-A1 in HUVECs transfected with vector pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M or pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-W, the RNA samples with an OD260/OD280 ration of 1.8-2.0 were chosen for RT-PCR. The HUVECs with pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M or pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-W transfection showed a band nearly 400 bp compared with control using semi-quantitative PCR and primers specific to EDA-A1 (Figure 1). Additionally, ÃŽ ²-actin band between 200 bp and 300 bp have been seen in all the groups. Then, EDA-A1 protein expression in HUVECs were detected by western blot. Figure 1 shows that the EDA-A1 protein was expressed in the transfected cells with pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-M or pcDNA3.1(-)-EDA-A1-W vector, however, it could not be achieved in control group. In conclusion, the EDA-A1 was expressed in HUVECs after exogenous delivered of EDA-A1, but not in the un-treated control cells. Overexpression of EDA-A1 affects HUVECs proliferation To elucidate the effect of EDA-A1 on HUVECs proliferation, the MTT assays were performed. As shown in Figure 2, the HUVECs viability at 96 h transfection was decreased significantly in the mutant group by comparison with wild type and control. The proliferation of mutant group cells was suppressed by 45.7% compaired to control, while the wild type group was suppressed by 16.0% (Table 1, Figure 3). EDA-A1 overexpression regulates the cell cycle of HUVECs To determine the role of plasmid-mediated EDA-A1 transfection in cell cycle of HUVECs, the flow cytometry was used (Figure 4). We observed that 25.45  ± 1.89 % cells were arrested at G0/G1 phase of cell cycle in the mutant group compared with 20.37  ± 0.6% and 20.30  ± 0.68% cells in wild type and control groups, respectively (Table 2). During S phase, both mutant and wild type groups showed significantly higher cell percentages (14.80  ± 1.45% and 12.4 0  ± 1.75%) than that of control (8.55  ± 0.57%). However, both transfection groups had lower cell percentages than control in G2/M phase. The lowest cell percentage with 62.15  ± 1.94% was showed in the mutant group during S phase. We could conclude that the cell cycle distribution in G0/G1, S, and G2/M of HUVECs were regulated by EDA-A1 overexpression. Discussion HED characterized by impaired development of hair, eccrine sweat glands and teeth is caused by mutations in the EDA-A1 gene (3, 16). Recently, the related research on HED are focused on the mutation analysis of EDA-A1, however, the exact pathological mechanism of HED caused by mutant EDA-A1 is still unclear (17). In this study, we investigated the effect of HED related gene EDA-A1 on proliferation and cell cycle of HUVECs. The results showed that mutant EDA-A1 gene significantly decreased proliferation of HUVECs (P EDA-A1 protein, a type à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ¡ transmembrane protein, is one of the TNF ligand family members involved in ectodermal development (18). EDA-A1 contains a TNF-like domain (aa: 245–391), a collagen domain, and a furin protease recognition sequence (7, 8, 19-21). The TNF-like domain is necessary and sufficient for receptor molecule EDAR binding (22, 23). Furthermore, EDA-A1 has been shown to specifically bind to EDAR, which could promote programmed cell death and active the signaling of NF-ÃŽ ºB (8, 11). In our study, the reason why EDA-A1 mutant could inhibit the proliferation and block the cell cycle progression in G0/G1 phase and S phase of HUVECs might be the change of protein spatial configuration and biological activity that caused by the EDA-A1 gene mutation and the changed protein could not combined with EDAR and thus inhibit the signaling of NF-ÃŽ ºB. Maria et al. found that HED was related with the blocked signaling pathway of NF-ÃŽ ºB (9). Pascal et al. found th at point mutations in the TNF-like domain of EDA-A1 strongly decreased EDAR binding to EDA-A1 by altering the folding of EDA (21). Moreover, the substitution of Gln306 with Pro in our study was found to be located in the TNF-like domain of EDA-A1 and may influence the epithelial signaling pathway required for the normal ectodermal development through altering the topology of EDA, which is consistent with previous study. HUVECs are cells derived from the endothelium of veins from the umbilical cord, and they are often used as a laboratory model system for the study of the function and pathology of endothelial cells (24). Some studies showed that during vascular development and pathological angiogenesis, the maintenance of blood vessel homeostasis and its functional execution depend on the integrity of vascular endothelium, which is affected by proliferation, migration and apoptosis of endothelial cells (25, 26). Furthermore, Jie et al. showed that recovery of injured endothelial cells through regulated endothelial cell proliferation plays significant roles in thrombosis disease (27). In our study, mutant EDA-A1 decreased the proliferation of HUVECs, therefore, we suspected that pathological mechanism underlying HED caused by EDA-A1 may be the growth inhibit of endothelial cells which could lead to the defection of eccrine sweat glandsis. Despite of all results mentioned above, there were still some l imitations in the present study, whether the EDA-A1 mutant blocked the combination of EDA-A1 with EDAR required further experiment. In conclusion, our study revealed EDA-A1 gene mutant could inhibit the proliferation and cell cycle of HUVECs. We explored the mechanism of HED caused by mutant EDA-A1. The substitution of Gln306 with Pro may influence the epithelial signaling pathway required for the normal ectodermal development through altering the topology of EDA, which could impair the binding of EDA-A1 to EDAR and further inhibit the signaling of NF-ÃŽ ºB. Our finding broadens the spectrum of EDA-A1 mutations and may help to understand the molecular basis of XLHED and aid genetic counseling. Acknowledgements We wish to express our warm thanks to Fenghe(Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd. Their ideas and help gave a valuable added dimension to our research. Conflict of interest The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Authors’ contributions KL and LW participated in the design of this study, and they both performed the statistical analysis. BM and TC carried out the study, together with PS, collected important background information, and drafted the manuscript. LL and XH conceived of this study, and participated in the design and helped to draft the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Figure legends: Figure 1 Detection of mRNA expression of EDA-A1gene in ECV304 cells by RT-PCR: M: mutant group; W: wild group; C: control group. Figure 2 Expression of ECV304 cells transfected with EDA-A1 gene and mutant: M: mutant group; W: wild group; C: control group. Figure 3 OD560 value of ECV304 cells transfected with EDA-A1 gene after cultured for 96h: M: mutant group; W: wild group; C: control group; a: compared with the control group, P Figure 4 The effect of EDA-A1 gene mutant on cell cycle in ECV304 cells. Table 1 OD560 value of ECV cells transfected with EDA-A1 gene after cultured for 96h Note: a: compared with control group, P Table 2 Effect of EDA-A1 gene mutant on cell cycle in ECV304 cells Note: a: compared with control group, P

Functions of Doctrine in a Christian and African Perspective

Doctrine, in Ninian Smart’s dimensions of religion refers to the writings and textbook knowledge that people have regarding their religion. This is exactly what people believe about their respective religions passed on from the generation to generation. Doctrine is in fact, â€Å"the set of answers one has accepted to life’s profound questions. † It intrinsically comprises what the ethical standards of a certain religion would have and it â€Å"directly affects† the behavior of its followers. The â€Å"symbolic and mythical† are given order by doctrine, since people cannot rely on abstract truths alone.The main purpose of doctrine is to give â€Å"authoritative and sometimes systematic proofs that their religious reality and everyday reality is one and the same. † It may also be said that doctrines are somewhat answers laid out by the authoritative body in a certain religion, to answer the questions of life. They are â€Å"logical† hig hly systematized body of religious knowledge intrinsic in religion. It is evident that when two opposing doctrines clash, â€Å"believers commit the most bloody atrocities in the name of their belief† and in the process stay true to the doctrines they uphold.Certain aspects of the human life such as â€Å"death, suffering and change† are given light by religious doctrines, since it gives a foundation of belief to the religious follower. It may be said that people need something to hold on too, because these facts of life are much too grave for the ordinary human mind. In general, doctrines are â€Å"belief systems which provide answers to certain boundary/identity questions. † What cannot be explained is therefore given light by religious doctrines, and this help in a person’s acceptance of life and its realities.The functions then of doctrine are to â€Å"bring order and focus to myth and ritual†, â€Å"provide institutionalization of answers to the unexplainable†, â€Å"control boundaries of religious expression†, and â€Å"determine what is inclusive and exclusive in a given religion. † African religion has been greatly questioned by early European explorers visiting the continent. Some Africans were actually even converted to both Islam and Christianity through these explorers. In modern times, African religion still continues to be dominantly pagan.Dialogues regarding African religions have had certain difficulties since African â€Å"ethnic groups lack a term for religion in the Western sense as an entity or activity separate from everyday life. † Africans uphold religion as a complete way of life. African religion also may become misleading, since doctrines per tribe differ in degree and belief, where it is only called â€Å"doctrines† for formality purposes. As most world religions, the African religions hold that there is one creator of the universe who withdrew and remains remote f rom the concerns of the world.Believers do not directly talk to this god, nor do they offer sacrifices to him. Instead, secondary divinities are seen as ‘middlemen’ between them and their god. They are considered as â€Å"children of the god† or at least are held to be high ranking in their religious hierarchy. It should be noted that African â€Å"religions do not demand adherence to any single doctrine. † The intent of these religions is almost always pragmatic, where â€Å"religious rituals serve as strategies for reinforcing life, fertility and power. Doctrine then for them is a set of practice and rituals that they do in order for them to survive.What they believe in is that â€Å"the principal vision shared by African religions is that human beings must vigilantly maintain a harmonious relationship with divine powers in order to prosper. † The goal of these religions is to control these divine powers for the betterment of their lives, and â⠂¬Å"ritual is the way to do so†. A practical way of looking at religion and doctrine is what comprises African religions.Ritual then â€Å"ensures a community’s responsible relationship with ancestors who are guardians of the moral order, with spiritual forces within nature, and with the gods. † Of course, for Christianity, it is a totally different story. Doctrine for Christianity is a way of life, yet it is not purely for survival. Rituals are present yet not in the same sense as African religion where they offer animal sacrifices and hold mystical ceremonies. Christian doctrine therefore is an ethical way of life, a compilation of the facts about the religion, compiled by the Catholic Church.Christian doctrine therefore centers on the truth about God, Jesus and life. These are ways on how to live a Christian life which also teaches the way of Jesus. It may be seen as dogmatic, since the early doctrines were considered more of dogma than a religion that can hel p in a person’s salvation. These Catholic doctrines had been protested and continuously scrutinized by scientists and philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche. The Catholic Church has been known in its early years to have imposed a way of life to the Christians, implementing soul and even physical persecution in the name of sin.The Catholic Church, though not changing the religious doctrines through time, adapts to the modern world of democracy and human rights. Persecution, like in Dante’s Inferno is not taught anymore, and was instructed to be uplifted because people follow not because they believe in the doctrine, but because of fear of persecution. Christian doctrine has now become a way of life for most Christians, deepening and rejuvenating their faith in their daily lives through it.

Reliable Tips for Disadvantaged Student Essay Samples You Can Use Starting Today

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