27 research outputs found

    Interactivity and learning: Examining primary school children's activity within virtual environments

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    The two essential properties of a virtual reality (VR) experience, especially in entertainment and in formal learning applications, are immersion and interactivity---each of which is advertised widely to attract and motivate participants. In particular, it is commonly considered that a learning environment is more effective if it is interactive. However, little systematic research has been available to substantiate this assumption and no clear evidence has existed that interactive virtual environments (VEs) can bring "added value" to learning, especially in children. This research investigates user interaction in virtual reality learning environments, focusing on the role and the effect of interactivity on learning and change in conceptual understanding. The goal has been to examine whether children learn by interacting in an immersive VE, i.e. exploring, reacting to, and acting upon events. In this research, empirical studies were carried out with 60 primary school students (ages 8 -12), in a number of different studies. An exploratory study was carried out to test the methodology and prepare for the main study. The main study, a large scale experiment, was conducted with a VE designed to simu late a 'virtual playground', which focused on a presentation of problems in mathematical fractions (such as ordering fractions). Three conditions---an interactive VR, a passive (or guided) VR, and a non-VR condition using LEGO bricks---each with different levels of activity and interactivity, were designed to evaluate how children accomplish the various conceptual tasks. Pre-tests, post-tests, interviews, video, and computer activity logs were collected for each participant, and analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Qualitatively, the descriptive framework of Activity Theory was used to analyse user be haviour in the immersive VR environments and to identify conceptual contradictions, i.e. the occurrence of critical incidents, focus shifts or breaks in the elements of the learner's activity that led to indications of the learner's construction of meaning. The results indicate that activity based on the cues or feedback provided by the VE led participants to complete the tasks successfully in the interactive VR condition compared to the non-VR condition. Interactivity aided in promoting skill and problem solving and provided opportunities for contradictions to emerge. However, interactivity did not necessarily lead to resolution of these contradictions nor did it ensure that, if resolution was made, this was at the conceptual level. On the other hand, the passive VR form of experience, where the tasks were performed by a virtual robot observed throughout by the participant, showed the potential to support resolution of contradictions in a way that encouraged reflection of the underlying conceptual learning problems. This guided form of interaction, rather than the fully interactive condition, provided evidence of sustained conceptual change

    Functional characterisation of banana (Musa spp.) 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases involved in flavonoid biosynthesis

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    5openInternationalInternational coauthor/editorBananas (Musa) are non-grass, monocotyledonous, perennial plants that are well known for their edible fruits. Their cultivation provides food security and employment opportunities in many countries. Banana fruits contain high levels of minerals and phytochemicals, including flavonoids, which are beneficial for human nutrition. To broaden the knowledge on flavonoid biosynthesis in this major crop plant, we aimed to identify and functionally characterise selected structural genes encoding 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases, involved in the formation of the flavonoid aglycon. Musa candidates genes predicted to encode flavanone 3-hydroxylase (F3H), flavonol synthase (FLS) and anthocyanidin synthase (ANS) were assayed. Enzymatic functionalities of the recombinant proteins were confirmed in vivo using bioconversion assays. Moreover, transgenic analyses in corresponding Arabidopsis thaliana mutants showed that MusaF3H, MusaFLS and MusaANS were able to complement the respective loss-of-function phenotypes, thus verifying functionality of the enzymes in planta. Knowledge gained from this work provides a new aspect for further research towards genetic engineering of flavonoid biosynthesis in banana fruits to increase their antioxidant activity and nutritional value.openBusche, M.; Acatay, C.; Martens, S.; Weisshaar, B.; Stracke, R.Busche, M.; Acatay, C.; Martens, S.; Weisshaar, B.; Stracke, R

    MOESM2 of Consideration of non-canonical splice sites improves gene prediction on the Arabidopsis thaliana Niederzenz-1 genome sequence

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    Additional file 2. Non-canonical splice sites in Nd-1. All occurrences of the different splice site pairs within the first transcript of predicted Nd-1 genes in GeneSet_Nd1_v.1.1 are listed

    Additional file 1: of Rapid gene identification in sugar beet using deep sequencing of DNA from phenotypic pools selected from breeding panels

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    “concat_contigs.py” script for generation of RefBeet-1.2.joined.fa. The python script “concat_contigs.py” and supporting files were used to generate the concatenated sequence RefBeet-1.2.joined.fa from RefBeet-1.2.fna [GenBank:AYZS00000000.1] [18]. It was tested on Unix/Linux systems with at least python version 2.7 installed. (ZIP 2 kb

    A <i>De Novo</i> Genome Sequence Assembly of the <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> Accession Niederzenz-1 Displays Presence/Absence Variation and Strong Synteny

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    <div><p><i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> is the most important model organism for fundamental plant biology. The genome diversity of different accessions of this species has been intensively studied, for example in the 1001 genome project which led to the identification of many small nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and small insertions and deletions (InDels). In addition, presence/absence variation (PAV), copy number variation (CNV) and mobile genetic elements contribute to genomic differences between <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i> accessions. To address larger genome rearrangements between the <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i> reference accession Columbia-0 (Col-0) and another accession of about average distance to Col-0, we created a <i>de novo</i> next generation sequencing (NGS)-based assembly from the accession Niederzenz-1 (Nd-1). The result was evaluated with respect to assembly strategy and synteny to Col-0. We provide a high quality genome sequence of the <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i> accession (Nd-1, LXSY01000000). The assembly displays an N50 of 0.590 Mbp and covers 99% of the Col-0 reference sequence. Scaffolds from the <i>de novo</i> assembly were positioned on the basis of sequence similarity to the reference. Errors in this automatic scaffold anchoring were manually corrected based on analyzing reciprocal best BLAST hits (RBHs) of genes. Comparison of the final Nd-1 assembly to the reference revealed duplications and deletions (PAV). We identified 826 insertions and 746 deletions in Nd-1. Randomly selected candidates of PAV were experimentally validated. Our Nd-1 <i>de novo</i> assembly allowed reliable identification of larger genic and intergenic variants, which was difficult or error-prone by short read mapping approaches alone. While overall sequence similarity as well as synteny is very high, we detected short and larger (affecting more than 100 bp) differences between Col-0 and Nd-1 based on bi-directional comparisons. The <i>de novo</i> assembly provided here and additional assemblies that will certainly be published in the future will allow to describe the pan-genome of <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i>.</p></div

    Assembly statistics.

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    <p>Metrics of the Nd-1 genome sequence assembly before and after application of SSPACE, GapFiller and subsequent RBH-based manual improvement.</p

    Summary of the sizes of large insertions, deletions and HDRs.

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    <p>The data were compiled from reciprocal read mapping of Nd-1 reads to the Col-0 genome sequence and vice versa. However, the table presents the results regarding PAV from the view of Nd-1; an insertion in Nd-1 is at the same time a deletion in Col-0, and a deletion in Nd-1 is at the same time an insertion in Col-0.</p

    Mapping of Nd-1 scaffolds to Col-0 reference sequence.

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    <p>Schematic chromosomes are shown in grey with centromere positions in purple. Below each chromosome, red bars indicate the frequency of scaffolds. Above each chromosome, black bars show the abundance of the 180 bp centromeric repeat that has been shown to be a major component of <i>A</i>. <i>thaliana</i> centromeric DNA [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0164321#pone.0164321.ref062" target="_blank">62</a>]. Data were calculated for a window size of 50 kbp.</p

    Differential regulation of closely related R2R3-MYB transcription factors controls flavonol accumulation in different parts of the seedling-5

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    <p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Differential regulation of closely related R2R3-MYB transcription factors controls flavonol accumulation in different parts of the seedling"</p><p></p><p>The Plant Journal 2007;50(4):660-677.</p><p>Published online Jan 2007</p><p>PMCID:PMC1976380.</p><p>© 2007 The Authors Journal compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd</p
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