3,478 research outputs found
Communicating learning: evaluating the learning experience of distance learning students
Drawing upon research into studentsā perceptions of their learning experience as distance learners, this paper explores what works well and what doesnāt. How to more effectively support the learning process through better directive and interactive communication emerges as a key theme
Fostering Scholarly Approaches to Peer Review of Teaching in a Research-Intensive University: Strategic Development of a Departmental SPRoT Protocol
This article draws on a 10-year institutional initiative and examines whether and how a strategic departmental Summative Peer Review of Teaching (SPRoT) Protocol was implemented at a Canadian research-intensive university. A peer review of teaching initiative (2010-12), led by a team of UBC national teaching fellows, was prompted by institutional concerns about the quality of student learning experiences and the effectiveness of teaching in a multi-disciplinary research-intensive university context. Canadian universities have long recognized the importance of attending to the evaluation of teaching practices in their particular contexts; however, the enactment of localized scholarship directed at these practices remains very much in its infancy. Traditional approaches to the evaluation of university teaching have often resulted in the over-reliance on student evaluation of teaching data and/or ad-hoc peer-review of teaching practices with numerous accounts of methodological shortcomings that tend to yield less useful and less authentic data. Using a case study research methodology, this paper examines the strategic development of a departmental SPRoT protocol at the University of British Columbia, Canada. Issues addressed in this article include contemporary approaches to the evaluation of teaching in higher education, faculty ābuy-inā for the evaluation of teaching in a research intensive university, scholarly approaches to summative and formative Performance Reviews of Teaching (PRT), faculty-specific engagement in summative and formative (informal to formal) PRT training and implementation, and strategic institutional supports (funding, expertise, mentoring, technological resources)
Henrik VIII. i MaruliÄev EvanÄelistar
This paper examines Henry VIIIās ownership and reading of Marko MaruliÄās Evangelistarium. In order to explain the context in which the Evangelistarium entered the Royal Library, the first part of the paper provides an overview of the transformation that Henryās library underwent in the late 1520s and early 1530s, when royal agents and scholars searched for evidence to justify Henryās growing doubts about his marriage to Katherine of AragĆ³n. The second part of the paper focuses on Henryās marginalia in his personal copy of the Evangelistarium, one of the most heavily-annotated books to survive from Henryās library, and demonstrates that an examination of the Kingās marginal comments provide important insights into his theological concerns and the development of his thinking concerning his marriage, papal authority and his relationship with god.Britanska knjižnica posjeduje primjerak MaruliÄeva EvanÄelistara iz 1529. koji je bio osobno vlasniÅ”tvo engleskoga kralja Henrika VIII. Uz Henrikov osobni psaltir, MaruliÄev EvanÄelistar je knjiga s najveÄim brojem vlastoruÄnih bilježaka meÄu saÄuvanim svescima Henrikove knjižnice; stoga ona može mnogo otkriti o vlasnikovim najskrovitijim razmiÅ”ljanjima na prekretnici njegova životnog i vladarskog puta.
Rad zapoÄinje razmatranjem promjena Å”to ih je Henrikova knjižnica doživjela u kasnim dvadesetim i ranim tridesetim godinama 16. st. Tijekom tog razdoblja kraljevskim je posrednicima i uÄenjacima naloženo da prikupljaju knjige i rukopise u kojima bi se mogli naÄi podatci koji bi opravdavali Henrikove rastuÄe dvojbe o valjanosti braka s Katarinom Aragonskom, udovicom njegova brata. Potvrdu da je EvanÄelistar nabavljen i Äitan upravo u tom kontekstu pruža sveÄani primjerak djela Gravissimae academiarum censurae, Å”to su ga Henrikovi uÄenjaci objavili 1531. godine u prilog njegovu pravu na razvod, temeljeÄi to pravo na Levitskom zakoniku, koji zabranjuje da se za ženu uzme bratova udovica. Gravissimae censurae sadrže ulomak iz EvanÄelistara (1,8: De lege et euangelio) o važnosti i trajnoj valjanosti moralnih propisa sadržanih u Starom zavjetu. U Henrikovu osobnom primjerku EvanÄelistara upravo uz taj ulomak nalazimo kraljevu zabiljeÅ”ku koja nedvojbeno potvrÄuje kako je knjigu Äitao prije nego Å”to su Gravissimae censurae bile tiskane.
Drugi dio rada nudi detaljne podatke o Henrikovim marginalijama u EvanÄelistaru. UÄestalost rubnih bilježaka i komentara otkriva nam da su kralja ponajveÄma zanimala poglavlja o prouÄavanju svetih tekstova, o sluÅ”anju rijeÄi Božje, o deset zapovijedi, o pokornosti Bogu i o izboru supruge. Kraljevi rubni komentari omoguÄuju važan uvid u njegove teoloÅ”ke preokupacije i u razvoj njegova razmiÅ”ljanja o statusu vlastitoga braka, o papinskom autoritetu i o odnosu prema Bogu
Externalized ATP in intact erythrocyte suspensions: modulation and determination
Well recognized for its role as the energy currency of cells, ATP plays an altogether different role in the mammalian vascular system. Erythrocyte-derived extracellular ATP is fast gaining recognition as a vital vasodilator in blood; stimulating a rapid widening of blood vessels when released into the circulation. Currently, the primary technique employed to determine the concentration of ATP released from erythrocytes is the luciferin-luciferase chemiluminescent assay, which is both robust in signal and specific for ATP. However, the assay is subject to interferences inherent to working with erythrocytes, such as the presence of hemoglobin, which filters the emitted chemiluminescence signal.
At the outset, the current work examined the luciferin-luciferase chemiluminescent assay in the microplate format and evaluated the parameters necessary to determine ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes. Based on the methodological considerations which arose from the examination of the assay, the concentration of ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes was compared to that of their supernatants. It was determined that the ATP released into the supernatants of erythrocyte suspensions represents but a fraction of the ATP which is externalized and accessible for enzymatic reactions. Known stimuli of ATP release, including CO2 and hypo-osmotic stress, were also used to compare the sensitivity of erythrocytes obtained from humans to those from rats, a common pharmacological model organism: human erythrocytes proved to be more sensitive to stimuli than rat erythrocytes.
Ultimately, a method for measuring ATP in suspensions of intact erythrocytes was developed, and the possibility of two modes of erythrocyte release was discovered. The erythrocyte has long been held as a sensor within the vasculature, and this work underscores the growing importance being placed on the erythrocyteās role as an effector through the regulation of the release of the vasodilator AT
The Crystal Structure of the Extracellular 11-heme Cytochrome UndA Reveals a Conserved 10-heme Motif and Defined Binding Site for Soluble Iron Chelates
Members of the genus Shewanella translocate deca- or undeca-heme cytochromes to the external cell surface thus enabling respiration using extracellular minerals and polynuclear Fe(III) chelates. The high resolution structure of the first undeca-heme outer membrane cytochrome, UndA, reveals a crossed heme chain with four potential electron ingress/egress sites arranged within four domains. Sequence and structural alignment of UndA and the deca-heme MtrF reveals the extra heme of UndA is inserted between MtrF hemes 6 and 7. The remaining UndA hemes can be superposed over the heme chain of the decaheme MtrF, suggesting that a ten heme core is conserved between outer membrane cytochromes. The UndA structure has also been crystallographically resolved in complex with substrates, an Fe(III)-nitrilotriacetate dimer or an Fe(III)-citrate trimer. The structural resolution of these UndA-Fe(III)-chelate complexes provides a rationale for previous kinetic measurements on UndA and other outer membrane cytochromes
Strategic Approaches to SoEL Inquiry Within and Across Disciplines: Twenty-year Impact of an International Faculty Development Program in Diverse University Contexts
Educational leaders on university campuses around the world are increasingly required to account for the effectiveness, efficiency and quality of their undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The S Scholarship of Educational Leadership (SoEL) in higher education is a distinctive form of strategic inquiry for educational leaders with an explicit transformational agenda of educational practices within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts. This paper examines complex institutional challenges and strategic approaches to SoEL inquiry. In an international faculty development context, data suggests that educational leaders from a variety of disciplines face significant challenges when undertaking SoEL inquiry. Strategic institutional supports and customised professional development are key to facilitating SoEL inquiry in higher education. Further, SoEL is inherently situated, socially mediated, and responsive to the professional learning needs and circumstances of educational leaders within and across the disciplines in diverse university contexts
Classroom Level Effects of Childrenās Prior Participation in Child Care
Previous research indicates that children who spend many hours in early child care exhibit more externalizing behavior problems than children who spend less time in child care. Concern has been expressed regarding the cumulative effect of these problem behaviors on elementary school classes. We collected information about childrenās child-care histories from parents of first through fourth graders (N = 429) and about classroom functioning from their teachers (N = 31). We analyzed associations between the proportion of children in the class who had spent many hours in care prior to school entry and teachersā reports of the time they spent in instruction and management, the difficulty they had in teaching and managing the class and the frequency of studentsā positive and negative behavior in the classroom. No significant associations were found to support the contention that prior child-care participation negatively affects classroom functioning
An investigation into the temporal reproducibility of Tryptophan metabolite networks among healthy adolescents
Tryptophan and its bioactive metabolites are associated with health conditions such as systemic inflammation, cardiometabolic diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders. There are dynamic interactions among metabolites of tryptophan. The interactions between metabolites, particularly those that are strong and temporally reproducible could be of pathophysiological relevance. Using a targeted metabolomics approach, the concentration levels of tryptophan and 18 of its metabolites across multiple pathways was quantified in 24-hours urine samples at 2 time-points, age 17āyears (baseline) and 18āyears (follow-up) from 132 (52% female) apparently healthy adolescent participants of the DOrtmund Nutritional and Anthropometric Longitudinally Designed (DONALD) Study. In sex-specific analyses, we applied 2 network approaches, the Gaussian graphical model and Bayesian network to (1) explore the network structure for both time-points, (2) retrieve strongly related metabolites, and (3) determine whether the strongly related metabolites were temporally reproducible. Independent of selected covariates, the 2 network approaches revealed 5 associations that were strong and temporally reproducible. These were novel relationships, between kynurenic acid and indole-3-acetic acid in females and between kynurenic acid and xanthurenic acid in males, as well as known relationships between kynurenine and 3-hydroxykynurenine, and between 3-hydroxykynurenine and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid in females and between tryptophan and kynurenine in males. Overall, this epidemiological study using network-based approaches shed new light into tryptophan metabolism, particularly the interaction of host and microbial metabolites. The 5 observed relationships suggested the existence of a temporally stable pattern of tryptophan and 6 metabolites in healthy adolescent, which could be further investigated in search of fingerprints of specific physiological states. The metabolites in these relationships may represent a multi-biomarker panel that could be informative for health outcome
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