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ChesterRep is the University of Chester's institutional repository and an online platform designed to collate, store, and aid discoverability of research carried out at the university to the wider research community
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The experience of young people transitioning between youth offending services to probation servicesThis article explores the experience of transitioning from youth offending services to adult probation services upon turning age 18 years while incarcerated. The significant differences in the level of provision have been described as a ‘cliff-edge’ (Transition to Adulthood Alliance (2009). Drawing upon interviews with young people held in institutions, stakeholders, and survey data from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons, it is argued that the drop in support is exacerbated by poor communication between institutions and services which has harmful implications for young people during this crucial period of developmental maturity and beyond custody.
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Exploring International Student Satisfaction in Private Higher Education Institutes in LondonIn March 2019 the government of the United Kingdom developed a new strategy to strengthen Britain's leading role in the global higher education market, by aiming to increase the number of international students studying in the country by more than 30 per cent – which in turn would help to boost the income of educational exports to £35 billion (UK Government, 2019). The purpose of this study is to explore an understanding of international student satisfaction in institutions of private higher education in London, adding to the paucity of literature centred on international student satisfaction in private higher education in the UK in general and particularly in London. The private higher education sector in the United Kingdom is expanding rapidly, especially in London. An indicator of this is the number of private higher education institutions with degree awarding powers, which increased from only one private university to ten within less than a decade. Student satisfaction is a complex phenomenon and arguably related to or even extended from the concept of customer satisfaction, a relatively well-known concept in marketing literature. In higher education, only a few studies, mostly based on quantitative methods, are available within the subject area of student satisfaction. Furthermore, this existing body of work is limited to the public higher education sector. This is equally true for international students studying in private higher education institutions (PrHEIs) in London. This signifies the need to investigate thoroughly the perception and experience of international students studying at PrHEIs in London. The outcome of such a study should contribute to improving the quality of educational provisions not only in PrHEIs but also in public higher education institutions (PuHEIs). For this particular study, qualitative research was employed, by conducting twelve indepth interviews with international students to capture their experiences whilst measuring their levels of satisfaction, leading to the production of rich data. From this data, three themes emerged along with several subthemes; (1) Flexibility in policies - tuition fee policy, admission policy, multiple intakes and speedy admission processes, (2) Student friendly management- fast communication, a simple structure, quick decision making and easy access to senior management and (3) Feel being customers - customised service while the other significant existing themes such as course and institution selection, pre-arrival and arrival experience, learning & teaching , resources and overall satisfaction were matched to the expectations of the international students and findings in the literature. Recommendations were made particularly around emerging themes and subthemes in order to improve satisfaction by giving more value to student opinions and being more responsive to their needs and demands. This study further concludes that this can only be achieved if higher education (HE) considers students as customers. A need for further research was identified, to study more closely the relationship between new themes and subthemes and student satisfaction.
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Nicotinamide restricts neural precursor proliferation to enhance catecholaminergic neuronal subtype differentiation from mouse embryonic stem cells.Emerging evidence indicates that a strong relationship exists between brain regenerative therapies and nutrition. Early life nutrition plays an important role during embryonic brain development, and there are clear consequences to an imbalance in nutritional factors on both the production and survival of mature neuronal populations and the infant's risk of diseases in later life. Our research and that of others suggest that vitamins play a fundamental role in the formation of neurons and their survival. There is a growing body of evidence that nicotinamide, the water-soluble amide form of vitamin B3, is implicated in the conversion of pluripotent stem cells to clinically relevant cells for regenerative therapies. This study investigated the ability of nicotinamide to promote the development of mature catecholaminergic neuronal populations (associated with Parkinson's disease) from mouse embryonic stem cells, as well as investigating the underlying mechanisms of nicotinamide's action. Nicotinamide selectively enhanced the production of tyrosine hydroxylase-expressing neurons and serotonergic neurons from mouse embryonic stem cell cultures (Sox1GFP knock-in 46C cell line). A 5-Ethynyl-2´-deoxyuridine (EdU) assay ascertained that nicotinamide, when added in the initial phase, reduced cell proliferation. Nicotinamide drove tyrosine hydroxylase-expressing neuron differentiation as effectively as an established cocktail of signalling factors, reducing the proliferation of neural progenitors and accelerating neuronal maturation, neurite outgrowth and neurotransmitter expression. These novel findings show that nicotinamide enhanced and enriched catecholaminergic differentiation and inhibited cell proliferation by directing cell cycle arrest in mouse embryonic stem cell cultures, thus driving a critical neural proliferation-to-differentiation switch from neural progenitors to neurons. Further research into the role of vitamin metabolites in embryogenesis will significantly advance cell-based regenerative medicine, and help realize their role as crucial developmental signalling molecules in brain development.