Effects of Narrative Video Script Advance Organizer Strategies Used to Introduce Video in the Foreign Language Classroom

This study compared participant comprehension of content in foreign language videos using 2 different advance organizer (AO) strategies. The students were 50 college students enrolled in 3 sections of an intermediate-level Spanish course at the United States Air Force Academy. In the collaborative group reading condition (AOg), students read a target language narrative video script aloud in small groups. Students then watched the video corresponding to the script they had read and took a 10-question English only multiple choice test. In the quiet individual reading condition (AOq), students read the same narrative video script quietly before watching the same video and taking the same test. In the control group condition, students did not have access to the narrative video script AO before watching the same video and taking the same test. Over the 3 day study, all students participated in each of the 3 conditions. Results indicated that student scores were slightly better in the AOg condition than in the AOq condition. Student scores were significantly higher in the AOg and AOq conditions, when compared to control group scores. The researcher concluded that the narrative video script AO strategies utilized in this study increased target language video comprehension in participants, particularly when used in a collaborative group reading environment

A predictive mechano-biological model of the bone-implant healing

The quality of the fixation orthopaedic implant to its surrounding bone determines its clinical longevity. Up to 20% of hip replacement operations are currently revisions for aseptic loosening. While this fixation quality is determined primarily by the bone and tissue anchoring the implant, conditions influencing bone growth in the early post-operative period include the surgical technique and coupled mechanical and biochemical factors. The aim of the study was to propose an original mechano-biological formulation of the healing process of periprosthetic tissue. The multiphasic porous model involved the solid osseous matrix, the extracellular fluid phase, the osteoblastic cellular phase responsible from the bone formation and the growth factor phase promoting the cellular activity. To derive the non-linear convective-diffuse governing equations, mass balance was associated to cell active haptotactic and chemotactic migration, growth factor diffusion, cell proliferation (logistic law) and bone formation (reactive medium). The in-vivo application concerned a canine axisymmetric implant which was stable and mechanically unloaded. Predictive numerical results were compared to ex-vivo data from a histologic study. The generic healing pattern involving two main oscillations of the radial bone formation was well predicted. In the future, the model could assist in evaluating the role of growth factor concentrations and their temporal delivering as far as the role of pertinent sources such as bioactive coating or additional biomaterials

Separation of phosphorylated from non-phosphorylated LHCP polypeptides by two-dimensional electrophoresis

Abstract‘In vitro’ phosphorylated thylakoid polypeptides were studied by means of different electrophoretic techniques. A highly resolving two-dimensional electrophoresis method, recently developed in the laboratory using CHAPS and SDS as detergent for electrofocusing, allows the separation of each of the LHCP apoproteins into several molecular species. Those having more acidic isoelectric points correspond to the phosphorylated forms

Effect of collagen network orientation on the cervical intervertebral disc response to flexion load

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In-vitro testing of stent retrievers for cerebral thrombi removal

International audienceRecent articles appeared in literature demonstrated that early mechanical thrombectomy offered to patients presenting with acute ischemic stroke is related to improved functional outcome. Stent retrievers (STR) are recognized as the most effective devices for intracranial thrombectomy. In the present study we experimentally analyzed devices mechanical properties, behavior during retrieval and their interaction with clots of different features. The aim of this study was to identify any device feature that was functional to the thrombus removal

Intra-operative quantification of the surgical gesture in orbital surgery: Application to the proptosis reduction

Proptosis is characterized by a protrusion of the eyeball due to an increase of the orbital tissue volume. To recover a normal eyeball positioning, the most frequent surgical technique (BROD technique) consists in the osteotomy of orbital walls combined with a loading on the eyeball to initiate tissue decompression. This paper proposed an experimental method to quantify the intra-operative clinical gesture in proptosis reduction, and the pilot study concerned one clinical case. The eyeball's backward displacement was measured by an optical 3D localizer and the load applied by the surgeon was simultaneously measured by a custom-made force gauge. Quasi-static stiffness of the intra-orbital content was evaluated. The average values for the whole experiment was 16 N (SD: 3 N) for the force exerted by the surgeon and 9 mm (SD: 4 mm) for the eyeball backward displacement. The averaged quasi-static stiffness of the orbital content was evaluated to 2.4 N/mm (SD: 1.2) and showed a global decrease of 45% post-operatively

Imaging subsurface damage of grinded fused silica optics by confocal fluorescence microscopy

International audienceWe report an experimental investigation of fluorescence confocal microscopy as a tool to measure subsurface damage on grinded fused silica optics. Confocal fluorescence microscopy was performed with an excitation at the wavelength of 405 nm on fixed abrasive diamond grinded fused silica samples. We detail the measured fluorescence spectrums and compare them to those of oil based coolants and grinding slurries. We evidence that oil based coolant used in diamond grinding induces a fluorescence that marks the subsurface damages and eases its observation. Such residual traces might also be involved in the laser damage process

Sensitivity analysis of periprosthetic healing to cell migration, growth factor and post-operative gap using a mechanobiological model

A theoretical rationale, which could help in the investigation of mechanobiological factors affecting periprosthetic tissue healing, is still an open problem. We used a parametric sensitivity analysis to extend a theoretical model based on reactive transport and computational cell biology. The numerical experimentation involved the drill hole, the haptotactic and chemotactic migrations, and the initial concentration of an anabolic growth factor. Output measure was the mineral fraction in tissue surrounding a polymethymethacrylate (PMMA) canine implant (stable loaded implant, non-critical gap). Increasing growth factor concentration increased structural matrix synthesis. A cell adhesion gradient resulted in heterogeneous bone distribution and a growth factor gradient resulted in homogeneous bone distribution in the gap. This could explain the radial variation of bone density from the implant surface to the drill hole, indicating less secure fixation. This study helps to understand the relative importance of various host and clinical factors influencing bone distribution and resulting implant fixation