Developing a coding scheme for analysing classroom dialogue across educational contexts

The research reported sought to develop a framework for systematically analysing classroom dialogue for application across a range of educational settings. The paper outlines the development and refinement of a coding scheme that attempts to represent and operationalise commonalities amongst some key theorists in the field concerning productive forms of educational dialogue. The team has tested it using video recordings from classroom settings in the UK and Mexico, across age phases, subject areas, and different interactional contexts including whole class, group and paired work. Our Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (SEDA) is situated within a sociocultural paradigm, and draws on Hymes' Ethnography of Communication to highlight the importance of context. We examined how such a tool could be used in practice. We found that concentrating on the ‘communicative act’ to explore dialogue between participants was an appropriate level of granularity, while clustering the 33 resulting codes according to function of the acts helped to highlight dialogic sequences within lessons. We report on the application of the scheme in two different learning contexts and reflect on its fitness for purpose, including perceived limitations. Development of specialised sub-schemes and a version for teachers is underway

Developing a coding scheme for analysing classroom dialogue across d educational contexts.

The research reported sought to develop a framework for systematically analysing classroom dialogue for application across a range of educational settings. The paper outlines the development and refinement of a coding scheme that attempts to represent and operationalise commonalities amongst some key theorists in the field concerning productive forms of educational dialogue. The team has tested it using video recordings from classroom settings in the UK and Mexico, across age phases, subject areas, and different interactional contexts including whole class, group and paired work. Our Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (SEDA) is situated within a sociocultural paradigm, and draws on Hymes' Ethnography of Communication to highlight the importance of context. We examined how such a tool could be used in practice. We found that concentrating on the ‘communicative act’ to explore dialogue between participants was an appropriate level of granularity, while clustering the 33 resulting codes according to function of the acts helped to highlight dialogic sequences within lessons. We report on the application of the scheme in two different learning contexts and reflect on its fitness for purpose, including perceived limitations. Development of specialised sub-schemes and a version for teachers is underway.This collaborative work was carried out for a project entitled “A Tool for Analysing Dialogic Interactions in Classrooms” (http://tinyurl.com/BAdialogue) funded through the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme (ref. RG66509), between January 2013 - December 2015. We are most grateful to colleagues on the project teams who made significant contributions and helpful input during development and testing of the scheme and preparation of the manuscript, including Farah Ahmed, Riikka Hofmann, Christine Howe, Ruth Kershner, Fiona Jackson, Karen Littleton, Neil Mercer, Paul Warwick (UK team); Mariana Alarcón, Nube Estrada, Erika Gil, Kissy Guzmán, Flora Hernández, José Hernández, Haydeé Pedraza, Ana Luisa Rubio, Brenda Itzel Sánchez, Ana Laura Trigo, Maricela Velez (Mexico team). We also thank all of the teachers (especially Lloyd and Tania) and students who participated in our previous research from which examples were taken. We appreciate the support of the Economic and Social Research Council, sponsor of most of the UK team’s work in this area over the years

Population Dynamics of Aedes aegypti and Dengue as Influenced by Weather and Human Behavior in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Previous studies on the influence of weather on Aedes aegypti dynamics in Puerto Rico suggested that rainfall was a significant driver of immature mosquito populations and dengue incidence, but mostly in the drier areas of the island. We conducted a longitudinal study of Ae. aegypti in two neighborhoods of the metropolitan area of San Juan city, Puerto Rico where rainfall is more uniformly distributed throughout the year. We assessed the impacts of rainfall, temperature, and human activities on the temporal dynamics of adult Ae. aegypti and oviposition. Changes in adult mosquitoes were monitored with BG-Sentinel traps and oviposition activity with CDC enhanced ovitraps. Pupal surveys were conducted during the drier and wetter parts of the year in both neighborhoods to determine the contribution of humans and rains to mosquito production. Mosquito dynamics in each neighborhood was compared with dengue incidence in their respective municipalities during the study. Our results showed that: 1. Most pupae were produced in containers managed by people, which explains the prevalence of adult mosquitoes at times when rainfall was scant; 2. Water meters were documented for the first time as productive habitats for Ae. aegypti; 3. Even though Puerto Rico has a reliable supply of tap water and an active tire recycling program, water storage containers and discarded tires were important mosquito producers; 4. Peaks in mosquito density preceded maximum dengue incidence; and 5. Ae. aegypti dynamics were driven by weather and human activity and oviposition was significantly correlated with dengue incidence

Dialogic literacy: Talking, reading and writing among primary school children

This study investigates the interplay between talk, reading and writing as 6th grade Mexican primary school children worked together, in small groups, on a psycholinguistic task that required them to read three related texts and then write an integrative summary. The study was conducted in the context of an educational program called ‘Learning Together’ (LT), which uses collaborative learning to enhance the development of children's oracy and literacy. Analyses of children's dialogues using the Ethnography of Communication in combination with a novel ‘Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (SEDA)’ (Hennessy et al., 2016), revealed important improvements in effective oral communication - and specifically a shift towards the use of dialogic styles of interaction - between the children who participated in the LT program (as compared to those who did not). These improvements were accompanied by significantly higher quality integrative summaries, not only when children worked in small groups but also individually. The latter results indicate appropriation of sophisticated literacy abilities by the children. Further analyses of the relations among talk, reading and writing suggest that these processes are interwoven through subtle intertextual relations and support each other in a dynamic and iterative manner. We discuss the theoretical, methodological and practical relevance of the study.The work reported in this paper was supported by the Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) (DGAPA-UNAM) (PAPIIT Project Number: IN303716). Professor Rojas-Drummond would like to thank the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK for hosting her as Visiting Scholar while part of this manuscript was being prepared. Her visiting Scholarship was funded by the National Council of Science and Technology in Mexico (CONACYT Project Number: 160873). In addition, some of the methodological tools used in the study reported derived from a collaborative work carried out for a project entitled ‘A Tool for Analysing Dialogic Interactions in Classrooms’ (http://tinyurl.com/BAdialogue) funded through the British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme (ref. RG66509), between January 2013–December 2015

Ocean gliders for maritime surveillance: the FP7-Perseus project

The work presented in this paper is aimed to explain the key role of unmanned ocean vehicles in marine security applications such as the ones described in the FP7 PERSEUS Project. The PERSEUS project attempts to answer the demand of a European integrated system for border surveillance. Its main goal is to develop and test a European system for maritime monitoring through the integration of the already existent local systems and its update and improvement using technological innovations, setting up the standards and bases for its final development and implementation.Peer Reviewe

Spatial Division Multiplexed Microwave Signal processing by selective grating inscription in homogeneous multicore fibers

[EN] The use of Spatial Division Multiplexing for Microwave Photonics signal processing is proposed and experimentally demonstrated, for the first time to our knowledge, based on the selective inscription of Bragg gratings in homogeneous multicore fibers. The fabricated devices behave as sampled true time delay elements for radiofrequency signals offering a wide range of operation possibilities within the same optical fiber. The key to processing flexibility comes from the implementation of novel multicavity configurations by inscribing a variety of different fiber Bragg gratings along the different cores of a 7-core fiber. This entails the development of the first fabrication method to inscribe high-quality gratings characterized by arbitrary frequency spectra and located in arbitrary longitudinal positions along the individual cores of a multicore fiber. Our work opens the way towards the development of unique compact fiber-based solutions that enable the implementation of a wide variety of 2D (spatial and wavelength diversity) signal processing functionalities that will be key in future fiber-wireless communications scenarios. We envisage that Microwave Photonics systems and networks will benefit from this technology in terms of compactness, operation versatility and performance stability.We thank Prof. Jose Capmany for the thoughtful discussions and recommendations that greatly contribute to this work. This research was supported by the Spanish MINECO Projects TEC2014-60378-C2-1-R and TEC2015-62520-ERC, the Valencian Research Excellency Award Program GVA PROMETEO 2013/012, the Spanish MECD FPU Scholarship (FPU13/04675) for J. Hervas, and the Spanish MINECO Ramon y Cajal Program (RYC-2014-16247) for I. Gasulla.Gasulla Mestre, I.; Barrera Vilar, D.; Hervás-Peralta, J.; Sales Maicas, S. (2017). 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Photonic-assisted microwave signal multiplication and modulation using a silicon Mach–Zehnder modulator. Sci. Reports 6, 20215 (2016).J. Sancho, J. Bourderionnet, J. Lloret, S. Combrié, I. Gasulla, S. Xavier, S. Sales, P. Colman, G. Lehoucq, D. Dolfi, J. Capmany & A. De Rossi . Integrable microwave filter based on a photonic crystal delay line. Nat. Commun. 3, 1075 (2012).F. Ohman, K. Yvind & J. Mørk . Slow Light in a Semiconductor Waveguide for True-Time Delay Applications in Microwave Photonics. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 19, 1145–1157 (2007).P. A. Morton & J. B. Khurgin. Microwave photonic delay line with separate tuning of the optical carrier. IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 21, 1686–1688 (2009).D. Marpaung, C. Roeloffzen, R. Heideman, A. Leinse, S. Sales & J. Capmany . Integrated microwave photonics. Lasers Photon. Rev. 7, 506–538 (2013).I. Gasulla & J. Capmany . Microwave photonics applications of multicore fibers. Photonics J. 4, 877–888 (2012).S. Garcia & I. Gasulla . 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South Atlantic paleobathymetry since early Cretaceous

We present early Cretaceous to present paleobathymetric reconstructions and quantitative uncertainty estimates for the South Atlantic, offering a strong basis for studies of paleocirculation, paleoclimate and paleobiogeography. Circulation in an initially salty and anoxic ocean, restricted by the topography of the Falkland Plateau, Rio Grande Ridge and Walvis Rise, favoured deposition of thick evaporites in shallow water of the Brazilian-Angolan margins. This ceased as sea oor spreading propagated northwards, opening an equatorial gateway to shallow and intermediate circulation. This gateway, together with subsiding volcano-tectonic barriers would have played a key role in Late Cretaceous climate changes. Later deepening and widening of the South Atlantic, together with gateway opening at Drake Passage would lead, by mid-Miocene (∼15 Ma) to the establishment of modern-style thermohaline circulation

The Role of Extramembranous Cytoplasmic Termini in Assembly and Stability of the Tetrameric K+-Channel KcsA

Membrane-active alcohol 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol has been proven to be an attractive tool in the investigation of the intrinsic stability of integral membrane protein complexes by taking K+-channel KcsA as a suitable and representative ion channel. In the present study, the roles of both cytoplasmic N and C termini in channel assembly and stability of KcsA were determined. The N terminus (1–18 residues) slightly increased tetramer stability via electrostatic interactions in the presence of 30 mol.% acidic phosphatidylglycerol (PG) in phosphatidylcholine lipid bilayer. Furthermore, the N terminus was found to be potentially required for efficient channel (re)assembly. In contrast, truncation of the C terminus (125–160 residues) greatly facilitated channel reversibility from either a partially or a completely unfolded state, and this domain was substantially involved in stabilizing the tetramer in either the presence or absence of PG in lipid bilayer. These studies provide new insights into how extramembranous parts play their crucial roles in the assembly and stability of integral membrane protein complexes

Epidemiology of traumatic spinal cord injury in Galicia, Spain: trends over a 20-year period

[Abstract] Study design: Observational study with prospective and retrospective monitoring. Objective: To describe the epidemiological and demographic characteristics of traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI), and to analyze its epidemiological changes. Setting: Unidad de Lesionados Medulares, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña, in Galicia (Spain). Methods: The study included patients with TSCI who had been hospitalized between January 1995 and December 2014. Relevant data were extracted from the admissions registry and electronic health record. Results: A total of 1195 patients with TSCI were admitted over the specified period of time; 76.4% male and 23.6% female. Mean patient age at injury was 50.20 years. Causes of injury were falls (54.2%), traffic accidents (37%), sports/leisure-related accidents (3.5%) and other traumatic causes (5.3%). Mean patient age increased significantly over time (from 46.40 to 56.54 years), and the number of cases of TSCI related to traffic accidents decreased (from 44.5% to 23.7%), whereas those linked to falls increased (from 46.9% to 65.6%). The most commonly affected neurological level was the cervical level (54.9%), increasing in the case of levels C1–C4 over time, and the most frequent ASIA (American Spinal Injury Association) grade was A (44.3%). The crude annual incidence rate was 2.17/100 000 inhabitants, decreasing significantly over time at an annual percentage rate change of −1.4%. Conclusions: The incidence rate of TSCI tends to decline progressively. Mean patient age has increased over time and cervical levels C1–C4 are currently the most commonly affected ones. These epidemiological changes will eventually result in adjustments in the standard model of care for TSCI

Social sciences research in neglected tropical diseases 2: A bibliographic analysis

The official published version of the article can be found at the link below.Background There are strong arguments for social science and interdisciplinary research in the neglected tropical diseases. These diseases represent a rich and dynamic interplay between vector, host, and pathogen which occurs within social, physical and biological contexts. The overwhelming sense, however, is that neglected tropical diseases research is a biomedical endeavour largely excluding the social sciences. The purpose of this review is to provide a baseline for discussing the quantum and nature of the science that is being conducted, and the extent to which the social sciences are a part of that. Methods A bibliographic analysis was conducted of neglected tropical diseases related research papers published over the past 10 years in biomedical and social sciences. The analysis had textual and bibliometric facets, and focussed on chikungunya, dengue, visceral leishmaniasis, and onchocerciasis. Results There is substantial variation in the number of publications associated with each disease. The proportion of the research that is social science based appears remarkably consistent (<4%). A textual analysis, however, reveals a degree of misclassification by the abstracting service where a surprising proportion of the "social sciences" research was pure clinical research. Much of the social sciences research also tends to be "hand maiden" research focused on the implementation of biomedical solutions. Conclusion There is little evidence that scientists pay any attention to the complex social, cultural, biological, and environmental dynamic involved in human pathogenesis. There is little investigator driven social science and a poor presence of interdisciplinary science. The research needs more sophisticated funders and priority setters who are not beguiled by uncritical biomedical promises