A Model For Promoting Active Learning And Information Literacy Skills In Large And Small Classes

Collaboration between Education and Library Instruction faculty resulted in technology being integrated into the Adolescent Development course curriculum taught at SUNY Fredonia’s School of Education, fulfilling information literacy competency requirements.  Our paper presents a model for the practical application of implementing information literacy components required for each SUNY campus.  Our goal for an Adolescent Development course was to instruct students in the most efficient methods of library research while incorporating active learning strategies within large and small lecture classes.  Collaboration between two different disciplines yielded the formulation of student exercises on subject-specific research within ERIC and PsycINFO databases.  A Research Integration Project required students to compare resources, identify, and evaluate studies.  By utilizing peer-assisted teaching strategies, this method fostered active learning through cooperative groups and promoted critical thinking skills. Workshop effectiveness and the Library Instruction assessment tool are discussed

Production of protein extracts from Swedish red, green, and brown seaweeds, Porphyra umbilicalis Kützing, Ulva lactuca Linnaeus, and Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) J. V. Lamouroux using three different methods

peer-reviewedThe demand for vegetable proteins increases globally and seaweeds are considered novel and promising protein sources. However, the tough polysaccharide-rich cell walls and the abundance of polyphenols reduce the extractability and digestibility of seaweed proteins. Therefore, food grade, scalable, and environmentally friendly protein extraction techniques are required. To date, little work has been carried out on developing such methods taking into consideration the structural differences between seaweed species. In this work, three different protein extraction methods were applied to three Swedish seaweeds (Porphyra umbilicalis, Ulva lactuca, and Saccharina latissima). These methods included (I) a traditional method using sonication in water and subsequent ammonium sulfate-induced protein precipitation, (II) the pH-shift protein extraction method using alkaline protein solubilization followed by isoelectric precipitation, and (III) the accelerated solvent extraction (ASE®) method where proteins are extracted after pre-removal of lipids and phlorotannins. The highest protein yields were achieved using the pH-shift method applied to P. umbilicalis (22.6 ± 7.3%) and S. latissima (25.1 ± 0.9%). The traditional method resulted in the greatest protein yield when applied to U. lactuca (19.6 ± 0.8%). However, the protein concentration in the produced extracts was highest for all three species using the pH-shift method (71.0 ± 3.7%, 51.2 ± 2.1%, and 40.7 ± 0.5% for P. umbilicalis, U. lactuca, and S. latissima, respectively). In addition, the pH-shift method was found to concentrate the fatty acids in U. lactuca and S. latissima by 2.2 and 1.6 times, respectively. The pH-shift method can therefore be considered a promising strategy for producing seaweed protein ingredients for use in food and feed

The N2cc component as an electrophysiological marker of space-based and feature-based attentional target selection processes in touch

An electrophysiological correlate of attentional target selection processes in touch (N2cc component) has recently been discovered in lateralized tactile working memory experiments. This tactile N2cc emerges at the same time as the visual N2pc component, but has a different modality-specific topography over central somatosensory areas. Here, we investigated links between N2cc components and the space-based versus feature-based attentional selection of task-relevant tactile stimuli. On each trial, a pair of tactile items was presented simultaneously to one finger on the left and right hand. Target stimuli were defined by their location (e.g., left index finger; Spatial Attention Task), by a non-spatial feature (continuous versus pulsed; Feature-based Attention Task), or by a combination of spatial and non-spatial features (Conjunction Task). Reliable N2cc components were observed in all three tasks. They emerged considerably earlier in the Spatial Attention Task than in the Feature-based Attention Task, suggesting that space-based selection mechanisms in touch operate faster than feature-guided mechanisms. The temporal pattern of N2cc components observed in the Conjunction Task revealed that space-based and feature-based attention both contributed to target selection, which was initially driven primarily by spatial location. Overall, these findings establish the N2cc component as a new electrophysiological marker of the selective attentional processing of task-relevant stimuli in touch

Deployment of spatial attention towards locations in memory representations: an EEG study

Recalling information from visual short-term memory (VSTM) involves the same neural mechanisms as attending to an actually perceived scene. In particular, retrieval from VSTM has been associated with orienting of visual attention towards a location within a spatially-organized memory representation. However, an open question concerns whether spatial attention is also recruited during VSTM retrieval even when performing the task does not require access to spatial coordinates of items in the memorized scene. The present study combined a visual search task with a modified, delayed central probe protocol, together with EEG analysis, to answer this question. We found a temporal contralateral negativity (TCN) elicited by a centrally presented go-signal which was spatially uninformative and featurally unrelated to the search target and informed participants only about a response key that they had to press to indicate a prepared target-present vs. -absent decision. This lateralization during VSTM retrieval (TCN) provides strong evidence of a shift of attention towards the target location in the memory representation, which occurred despite the fact that the present task required no spatial (or featural) information from the search to be encoded, maintained, and retrieved to produce the correct response and that the go-signal did not itself specify any information relating to the location and defining feature of the target

Hands behind your back: effects of arm posture on tactile attention in the space behind the body

Previous research has shown that tactile-spatial information originating from the front of the body is remapped from an anatomical to an external-spatial coordinate system, guided by the availability of visual information early in development. Comparably little is known about regions of space for which visual information is not typically available, such as the space behind the body. This study tests for the first time the electrophysiological correlates of the effects of proprioceptive information on tactile-attentional mechanisms in the space behind the back. Observers were blindfolded and tactually cued to detect infrequent tactile targets on either their left or right hand and to respond to them either vocally or with index finger movements. We measured event-related potentials (ERPs) to tactile probes on the hands in order to explore tactile-spatial attention when the hands were either held close together or far apart behind the observer's back. Results show systematic effects of arm posture on tactile-spatial attention different from those previously found for front space. While attentional selection is typically more effective for hands placed far apart than close together in front space, we found that selection occurred more rapidly for close than far hands behind the back, during both covert attention and movement preparation tasks. This suggests that proprioceptive space may ‘wrap’ around the body, following the hands as they extend horizontally from the front body midline to the centre of the back

Influence of hand position on the near-effect in 3D attention

Voluntary reorienting of attention in real depth situations is characterized by an attentional bias to locations near the viewer once attention is deployed to a spatially cued object in depth. Previously this effect (initially referred to as the ‘near-effect’) was attributed to access of a 3D viewer-centred spatial representation for guiding attention in 3D space. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the near-bias could have been associated with the position of the response-hand, always near the viewer in previous studies investigating endogenous attentional shifts in real depth. In Experiment 1, the response-hand was placed at either the near or far target depth in a depth cueing task. Placing the response-hand at the far target depth abolished the near-effect, but failed to bias spatial attention to the far location. Experiment 2 showed that the response-hand effect was not modulated by the presence of an additional passive hand, whereas Experiment 3 confirmed that attentional prioritization of the passive hand was not masked by the influence of the responding hand on spatial attention in Experiment 2. The pattern of results is most consistent with the idea that response preparation can modulate spatial attention within a 3D viewer-centred spatial representation

Mechanical performances of the interface between the substrate and deposited material in aluminium wire Direct Energy Deposition

Wire and Arc Additive manufacturing (WAAM) is a Direct Energy Deposition process suitable for the manufacture of large aluminium components. Additive Manufacturing can enable the production of functionally graded structure which could be done by integrating the substrate required to start the deposition into the final component. This paper aims to assess the possibility of including a substrate in a component by investigating the mechanical performances of the interface between a wrought plate and WAAM deposit. Four substrates alloys and 2319 WAAM alloy were investigated. Inter-layer rolling and heat treatment, process steps known for improving the properties of WAAM deposit, were implemented. Each interface was examined using microhardness profiles, tensile tests, post rupture fractography and microstructural analysis. The WAAM deposit hardness was lower than that of the substrate in the as-deposited condition. Although the interface had no impact when using the same alloy for both substrate and wire, the weakest point of the combination was at the interface in dissimilar alloy combination. Heat treatment reduced the properties difference between the substrate and WAAM deposit. Inter-pass rolling strengthen the WAAM deposit without impacting the substrate and eliminated the micro crack that occasionally formed in the fusion zone in the as-deposited condition

Tactile-visual links in exogenous spatial attention under different postures: convergent evidence from psychophysics and ERPs

Tactile-visual links in spatial attention were examined by presenting spatially nonpredictive tactile cues to the left or right hand, shortly prior to visual targets in the left or right hemifield. To examine the spatial coordinates of any cross-modal links, different postures were examined. The hands were either uncrossed, or crossed so that the left hand lay in the right visual field and vice versa. Visual judgments were better on the side where the stimulated hand lay, though this effect was somewhat smaller with longer intervals between cue and target, and with crossed hands. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) showed a similar pattern. Larger amplitude occipital N1 components were obtained for visual events on the same side as the preceding tactile cue, at ipsilateral electrode sites. Negativities in the Nd2 interval at midline and lateral central sites, and in the Nd1 interval at electrode Pz, were also enhanced for the cued side. As in the psychophysical results, ERP cueing effects during the crossed posture were determined by the side of space in which the stimulated hand lay, not by the anatomical side of the initial hemispheric projection for the tactile cue. These results demonstrate that crossmodal links in spatial attention can influence sensory brain responses as early as the N1, and that these links operate in a spatial frame-of-reference that can remap between the modalities across changes in posture