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This paper investigates whether predictions about a greater centralization and control in educational policy-making, made after New Labour's election to power in 1997, have been realized since that time, and particularly with respect to educational leadership. It also asks whether recent changes in New Labour policies are likely to provide greater freedom for head teachers in English schools. It does this by means of investigating evidence at global, national and school levels, and in particular draws upon recent interview research by the author with head teachers. The article suggests that whilst the architecture of central steerage and control is still very much in evidence, there are strands of greater policy flexibility, though these may be as much about empowering external sponsors as anything to do with greater professional discretion. However, the research suggests that, whatever happens, there will almost certainly be room for resistance and personal manoeuvre at the school level, which is ultimately dependent upon context and personality.

This article investigates the perceptions of English headteachers to questions addressing the setting of goals and the effects of external pressure on headteachers. The research utilizes semi-structured interviews with headteachers from a variety of contexts. These interviews were used to write individual headteacher "portraits", which were then re-examined to answer the questions generated. The findings suggest that: (1) contrary to current literature, it is not sensible to suggest either that headteachers have considerable flexibility in how they approach their work, nor that they are so ground down by legislative imperatives that they can do little more than be agents of implementation; (2) appropriate CPD should be individually tailored to the contexts and personalities of the individuals involved; (3) English headteachers may be so focussed on the local that they may fail to have a sufficient grasp of the global and national changes around them to fully lead the profession in responding appropriately to these.

This article, through an investigation of the development of the concept of the "consumer", argues that recent thinking on consumerism is likely to radically change the metaphors and processes of much business management, and that these changes are likely to feed through into further calls for a restructuring of concepts and practices in the public sector arena. It will describe the history of the concept of consumerism, and critically examine its new conceptualization. It will suggest that the adoption of the concept, and of related management practices, heavily damages public sector and welfare state agendas by limiting the lexicon used to describe the benefits of education. It will further argue that if public sector and welfare state agendas are to be regenerated, a re-conceptualization of the rights and responsibilities of professionals within the public sector needs to be made.

Argues that global trends toward fragmentation and control are created by the convergence of certain economic forces, especially those related to modern capitalism, including globalization, existentialism, cultural context, and certain personal and social consequences related thereto. Concludes that educational leaders must cultivate certain qualities to respond effectively to these economic forces. (Contains 25 references.) (PKP)

The tsetse fly is the insect vector for the Trypanosoma brucei parasite, the causative agent of human African trypanosomiasis. The colonization and spread of the trypanosome correlate positively with the presence of a secondary symbiotic bacterium, Sodalis glossinidius The metabolic requirements and interactions of the bacterium with its host are poorly understood, and herein we describe a metabolic model of S. glossinidius metabolism. The model enabled the design and experimental verification of a defined medium that supports S. glossinidius growth ex vivo This has been used subsequently to analyze in vitro aspects of S. glossinidius metabolism, revealing multiple unique adaptations of the symbiont to its environment. Continued dependence on a sugar, and the importance of the chitin monomer N- acetyl-d-glucosamine as a carbon and energy source, suggests adaptation to host-derived molecules. Adaptation to the amino acid-rich blood diet is revealed by a strong dependence on l-glutamate as a source of carbon and nitrogen and by the ability to rescue a predicted l-arginine auxotrophy. Finally, the selective loss of thiamine biosynthesis, a vitamin provided to the host by the primary symbiont Wigglesworthia glossinidia , reveals an intersymbiont dependence. The reductive evolution of S. glossinidius to exploit environmentally derived metabolites has resulted in multiple weaknesses in the metabolic network. These weaknesses may become targets for reagents that inhibit S. glossinidius growth and aid the reduction of trypanosomal transmission. IMPORTANCE Human African trypanosomiasis is caused by the Trypanosoma brucei parasite. The tsetse fly vector is of interest for its potential to prevent disease spread, as it is essential for T. brucei life cycle progression and transmission. The tsetse's mutualistic endosymbiont Sodalis glossinidius has a link to trypanosome establishment, providing a disease control target. Here, we describe a new, experimentally verified model of S. glossinidius metabolism. This model has enabled the development of a defined growth medium that was used successfully to test aspects of S. glossinidius metabolism. We present S. glossinidius as uniquely adapted to life in the tsetse, through its reliance on the blood diet and host-derived sugars. Additionally, S. glossinidius has adapted to the tsetse's obligate symbiont Wigglesworthia glossinidia by scavenging a vitamin it produces for the insect. This work highlights the use of metabolic modeling to design defined growth media for symbiotic bacteria and may provide novel inhibitory targets to block trypanosome transmission., (Copyright © 2019 Hall et al.)

Entamoeba histolytica is an intestinal parasite that infects 50-100 million people and causes up to 55,000 deaths annually. The transmissive form of E. histolytica is the cyst, with a single infected individual passing up to 45 million cysts per day, making cyst production an attractive target for infection control. Lectins and chitin are secreted to form the cyst wall, although little is known about the underlying membrane trafficking processes supporting encystation. As E. histolytica does not readily form cysts in vitro, we assessed membrane trafficking gene expression during encystation in the closely related model Entamoeba invadens. Genes involved in secretion are up-regulated during cyst formation, as are some trans-Golgi network-to-endosome trafficking genes. Furthermore, endocytic and general trafficking genes are up-regulated in the mature cyst, potentially preserved as mRNA in preparation for excystation. Two divergent dynamin-related proteins found in Entamoeba are predominantly expressed during cyst formation. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that they are paralogous to, but quite distinct from, classical dynamins found in human, suggesting that they may be potential drug targets to block encystation. The membrane-trafficking machinery is clearly regulated during encystation, providing an additional facet to understanding this crucial parasitic process.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) plasmids frequently carry antibiotic resistance genes conferring qualitatively different mechanisms of resistance. We show here that the antibiotic concentrations selecting for the RK2 plasmid inEscherichia colidepend upon the sociality of the drug resistance: the selection for selfish drug resistance (efflux pump) occurred at very low drug concentrations, just 1.3% of the MIC of the plasmid-free antibiotic-sensitive strain, whereas selection for cooperative drug resistance (modifying enzyme) occurred at drug concentrations exceeding the MIC of the plasmid-free strain., (Copyright © 2016 Bottery et al.)