A study of university law students’ self-perceived digital competences.

The concept of digital competences incorporates the effective use of constantly-changing digital tools and media for learning and performing digital tasks, digital behaviours (such as online communication, teamwork, ethical sharing of information), as well as digital mindsets that value lifelong digital learning and development. The current pandemic crisis has accelerated the need to diagnose and understand more systematically Higher Education students’ digital competences and the way in which they shape academic performance and outcomes. This empirical study explores the digital competences of students, studying in Law related courses, by means of a self-assessment survey tool, which has been previously tested with information and library science students, and was developed to study students’ technology mastery (i.e. the abilities, competences, capabilities and skills required for using digital technology, media and tools) and their digital citizenship mindsets (consisting of attitudes and behaviours necessary to develop as a critical, reflective and lifelong learners). The study found age demographic differences, which presented significant correlations pointing to the presence of diverse levels of competences in the student group. Correlation statistics of the survey data demonstrated that students’ prior everyday participation as a digital citizen was connected to a number of important academic skills, such as the ability to identify information in different contexts, students’ digital learning and development, their digital abilities to complete academic work, their information literacy skills and their skills around managing their digital wellbeing and identity. Focus groups data with academics revealed that they valued the development of students’ digital competences for the purposes of learning, while studying at university and placed less emphasis on digital citizenship skills. These academics also considered the value of digital platforms and tools (the focus on ‘ICT Proficiency’) to be more relevant for academic study than digital citizenship mindsets

A Study on the Effects Administration of One Dose of 300.000 I.u. Oral Vitamin a and Deworming for Prevention and Treatment of Vitamin a Deficiency

Suatu penyelidikan tentang pencegahan dan pengobatan defisiensi citamin A pada anak-anak prasekolah telah dikerjakan didesa Tegal dan Iwul, Bogor dengan memberikan preparat vitamin A oral dosis tinggi. Preparat tersebut mengandung emulsi retinyl-palminate 300.000 I.U. yang dicampur dengan 100 I.U. citamin E (tocopheryl acetate). Dua golongan anak yaitu 100 tanpa dan 75 dengan xerophthalmia dipergunakan untuk studi tersebut. Mereka dibagi lagi dalam 4 kelompok. Kelompok pertama diberikan hanya vitamin A oral. Kelompok kedua diberikan obat cacing (deworming) terlebih dahulu sebelum diberikan vitamin A oral, dengan combantrin (pyrantel pamoate) single dose 10 mg/kg. berat badan. Kelompok ketiga diberi obat cacing dan placebo dan kelompok keempat hanya diberi placebo. Ternyata pada pemeriksaan setelah 6 dan 12 bulan kemudian semua anak tanpa xerophthalmia tetap terlindung dari xeropthalmia setelah diberikan vitamin A baik dengan atau tanpa deworming terlebih dahulu. Sedangkan 5-8 persen anak dengan xerophthalmia tidak dapat disembuhkan. Obat ca­cing tidak jelas menunjukkan pengaruhnya untuk memperbaiki penggunaan oral vitamin A, tetapi obat cacing dan vitamin A oral tersebut menunjukkan pengaruh baik terhadap keadaan gizi. Sedangkan terhadap kejadian penyakit, pengaruhnya tidak begitu jelas

Identification of subgroups of early breast cancer patients at high risk of nonadherence to adjuvant hormone therapy: results of an italian survey.

The aim of this study was the identification of subgroups of patients at higher risk of nonadherence to adjuvant hormone therapy for breast cancer. Using recursive partitioning and amalgamation (RECPAM) analysis, the highest risk was observed in the group of unmarried, employed women, or housewives. This result might be functional in designing tailored intervention studies aimed at improvement of adherence. Background: Adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy (HT) is suboptimal among breast cancer patients. A high rate of nonadherence might explain differences in survival between clinical trial and clinical practice. Tailored interventions aimed at improving adherence can only be implemented if subgroups of patients at higher risk of poor adherence are identified. Because no data are available for Italy, we undertook a large survey on adherence among women taking adjuvant HT for breast cancer. Patients and Methods: Patients were recruited from 10 cancer clinics in central Italy. All patients taking HT for at least 1 year were invited, during one of their follow-up visit, to fill a confidential questionnaire. The association of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of participants with adherence was assessed using logistic regression. The RECPAM method was used to evaluate interactions among variables and to identify subgroups of patients at different risk of nonadherence. Results: A total of 939 patients joined the study and 18.6% of them were classified as nonadherers. Among possible predictors, only age, working status, and switching from tamoxifen to an aromatase inhibitor were predictive of nonadherence in multivariate analysis. RECPAM analysis led to the identification of 4 classes of patients with a different likelihood of nonadherence to therapy, the lowest being observed in retired women with a low level of education, the highest in the group of unmarried, employed women, or housewives. Conclusion: The identification of these subgroups of “real life” patients with a high prevalence of nonadherers might be functional in designing intervention studies aimed at improving adherenc

Growth rate of an endomorphism of a group

In [B] Bowen defined the growth rate of an endomorphism of a finitely generated group and related it to the entropy of a map $f:M \mapsto M$ on a compact manifold. In this note we study the purely group theoretic aspects of the growth rate of an endomorphism of a finitely generated group. We show that it is finite and bounded by the maximum length of the image of a generator. An equivalent formulation is given that ties the growth rate of an endomorphism to an increasing chain of subgroups. We then consider the relationship between growth rate of an endomorphism on a whole group and the growth rate restricted to a subgroup or considered on a quotient.We use these results to compute the growth rates on direct and semidirect products. We then calculate the growth rate of endomorphisms on several different classes of groups including abelian and nilpotent

An Exploratory Study of Lecturers' Views of Out-of-class Academic Collaboration Among Students

This article reports an exploratory study of lecturers' perceptions of out-of-class academic collaboration (OCAC) among students at a large Singapore university. Two types of OCAC were investigated: collaboration initiated by students, e.g., groups decide on their own to meet to prepare for exams, and collaboration required by teachers, e.g., teachers assign students to do projects in groups. Data were collected via one-on-one interviews with 18 faculty members from four faculties at the university. Findings suggest that OCAC, especially of a teacher-required kind, is fairly common at the university. Faculty members' views on factors affecting the success of OCAC are discussed for the light they might shed on practices to enhance the effectiveness of OCAC

Molecular subgroups of adult medulloblastoma: a long-term single-institution study

Background Recent transcriptomic approaches have demonstrated that there are at least 4 distinct subgroups in medulloblastoma (MB); however, survival studies of molecular subgroups in adult MB have been inconclusive because of small sample sizes. The aim of this study is to investigate the molecular subgroups in adult MB and identify their clinical and prognostic implications in a large, single-institution cohort. Methods We determined gene expression profiles for 13 primary adult MBs. Bioinformatics tools were used to establish distinct molecular subgroups based on the most informative genes in the dataset. Immunohistochemistry with subgroup-specific antibodies was then used for validation within an independent cohort of 201 formalin-fixed MB tumors, in conjunction with a systematic analysis of clinical and histological characteristics. Results Three distinct molecular variants of adult MB were identified: the SHH, WNT, and group 4 subgroups. Validation of these subgroups in the 201-tumor cohort by immunohistochemistry identified significant differences in subgroup-specific demographics, histology, and metastatic status. The SHH subgroup accounted for the majority of the tumors (62%), followed by the group 4 subgroup (28%) and the WNT subgroup (10%). Group 4 tumors had significantly worse progression-free and overall survival compared with tumors of the other molecular subtypes. Conclusions We have identified 3 subgroups of adult MB, characterized by distinct expression profiles, clinical features, pathological features, and prognosis. Clinical variables incorporated with molecular subgroup are more significantly informative for predicting adult patient outcome

Dietary patterns of school-age children in Scotland : association with socio-economic indicators, physical activity and obesity

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

"Psychometric evidence of a new short version in Spanish of the COVID-19 impact scale: A study based on confirmatory factor analysis, graded response model, multigroup analysis, and path analysis"

"The aim of the study was to translate and evaluate the psychometric evidence of the Spanish version of the COVID19 impact scale in the general population of Peru, to measure psychological stress responses produced by the COVID-19 pandemic, including emotional responses and difficulty in performing activities of daily living. Participants were 601 Peruvians, who responded to an online survey consisting of questions designed to collect sociodemographic data, the CIS and the fear of COVID-19 scale. The forward and backward translation method was used to translate the English version into Spanish. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), graded response model was used to estimate the discrimination (a) and difficulty (b) parameters of the items. Multi-group CFA was used to assess measurement invariance. Regarding validity based on the validity in relation to other variables, an explanatory model was proposed using the SEM path method. The unidimensional structure of the 10-item CIS was not confirmed. Therefore, it was suggested that a six-item model of the CIS (CIS-6) provides a better fit and reliable score. The multigroup CFA showed that the CIS-6 does not exhibit measurement invariance between males and females. In addition, the CIS-6 items present adequate discrimination and difficulty indices. A higher presence of the latent trait (in this case, perception of the impact of COVID-19) is required to answer the higher response categories. The findings would help to assess those individuals more prone to the impact of the COVID19 pandemic and to have evidence for the development of interventions aimed at decreasing the impact