A Reflection on Teachers\u27 Experience as E-learners

This chapter explores the insights gained by a group of teachers from their lived experience as eLearners participating in a blended module on Designing eLearning. An understanding of the student perspective on online learning was obtained but we were also able to reflect on our participation in the module on the basis of our other roles; as teachers and potential eTutors and as course designers. As a result, important considerations were identified for the design and facilitation of online courses. These include; the support provided to online learners, particularly over the first few weeks, appropriate assessment methods, facilitation of online collaboration, access to the Internet, time management and contextualising and scaffolding learning activities. Some issues relating to implementation of effective eLearning in Higher Education Institutions were also considered. Our lived experience as eLearners was invaluable to our development as eTutors and module designers and this approach is strongly recommended to achieve effective learning on how to be an effective online tutor and facilitator and how to design and develop online programmes and activities that make full use of the strengths of online learning

La enseñanza de la oralidad en un Programa de inmersión al español: el caso de una escuela primaria en Chula Vista, CA.

El punto de inicio para esta investigación fue detectar que los estudiantes que egresan del sexto grado de primaria de un programa de doble inmersión, con el Modelo 50/50, no son capaces de emplear su idioma adquirido, el español, de manera fluida y espontánea para conversar sobre temas coloquiales con audiencias diversas. El método de investigación que se utilizó fue la investigación-acción-participativa con las fases de diagnóstico, planeación, intervención, observación y reflexión. Se realizaron siete intervenciones con una duración de ocho semanas, enfocadas en la gramática y la oralidad del idioma. Las participantes fueron cuatro maestras de Español que enseñan los componentes del idioma: leer, escribir, escuchar y hablar, a través de los contenidos de Ciencias Naturales e Historia, basadas en los estándares comunes del estado de California, EU. Las técnicas empleadas fueron un grupo nominal, una lluvia de ideas y un grupo focal. Los instrumentos que se utilizaron incluyeron un diario de campo, guiones de preguntas para el grupo nominal y la lluvia de ideas, un cuestionario para apoyar en la fase de diagnóstico, una guía para las intervenciones, una pre y post evaluación de gramática y un guion de temas para el grupo focal. Lo anterior se complementó con conversaciones no estructuradas realizadas con maestros del programa de inmersión de la escuela. El hallazgo más relevante es que una correcta enseñanza de gramática apoya la oralidad de un idioma y que deben brindarse oportunidades diversas y frecuentes para practicar el español hablado en escenarios de la vida real.Doctora en Educació

Characteristics of methadone related overdose deaths and comparisons between those dying on and off methadone substitution treatment: a national cohort study.

Background: Opioid users, particularly those with a history of injecting and dependence, have a high risk of fatal polysubstance and methadone related overdose. Aim: To describe characteristics of methadone related overdose deaths and assess if differences exist between those dying on and off opioid agonist treatment (OAT). Methods: A descriptive study of all persons dying of drug overdose involving methadone on the Irish National Drug Related Deaths Index (NDRDI) in 2012 and 2013. Results: A total of 182 methadone implicated deaths were recorded . 78% (n=142) were male; with a mean age of 36 years. Of the cohort, 61% (n=111) were not in receipt of opiate agonist treatment (OAT) at the time of death, 15.9% (n=29) had a previous history of non-fatal overdose and 24.7% (n=45) a history of alcohol dependence. Analysis and interpretations are limited by incomplete data on other characteristics but where available show that 89% (n=73) were injecting drug users, with 57.8% (n=26) injecting drugs at the time of death. History of mental illness was recorded in 96.3% (n=77) of cases, with 94.7% (n=107) having history of substance dependency treatment. Polysubstances were implicated in 86.8% (n=158) of deaths. The majority died in a private dwelling (74.7% n= 127) and were not alone 67.4% (n=114). Conclusions: Methadone related fatal overdose is a significant cause of death in young Irish, who share many characteristics with other drug related deaths. Improved monitoring, risk assessment and OAT retention strategies is warranted to inform national drug overdose plans and overdose prevention

Genomic markers of panitumumab resistance including ERBB2/ HER2 in a phase II study of KRAS wild-type (wt) metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

A prospective study was conducted to identify biomarkers associated with resistance to panitumumab monotherapy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Patients with previously treated, codon 12/13 KRAS wt, mCRC were prospectively administered panitumumab 6 mg/kg IV q2weeks. Of 34 panitumumab-treated patients, 11 (32%) had progressive disease at 8 weeks and were classified as non-responders. A Nanostring nCounter-based assay identified a 5-gene expression signature (ERBB2, MLPH, IRX3, MYRF, and KLK6) associated with panitumumab resistance (P = 0.001). Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization determined that the HER2 (ERBB2) protein was overexpressed in 4/11 non-responding and 0/21 responding cases (P = 0.035). Two non-responding tumors had ERBB2 gene amplification only, and one demonstrated both ERBB2 amplification and mutation. A non-codon 12/13 KRAS mutation occurred in one panitumumab-resistant patient and was mutually exclusive with ERBB2/HER2 abnormalities. This study identifies a 5-gene signature associated with non-response to single agent panitumumab, including a subgroup of non-responders with evidence of aberrant ERBB2/HER2 signaling. KRAS wt tumors resistant to EGFRi may be identified by gene signature analysis, and the HER2 pathway plays an important role in resistance to therapy

Navigation-by-preference: A new conversational recommender with preference-based feedback

We present Navigation-by-Preference, n-by-p, a new conversational recommender that uses what the literature calls preference-based feedback. Given a seed item, the recommender helps the user navigate through item space to find an item that aligns with her long-term preferences (revealed by her user profile) but also satisfies her ephemeral, short-term preferences (revealed by the feedback she gives during the dialog). Different from previous work on preference-based feedback, n-by-p does not assume structured item descriptions (such as sets of attribute-value pairs) but works instead in the case of unstructured item descriptions (such as sets of keywords or tags), thus extending preference-based feedback to new domains where structured item descriptions are not available. Different too is that it can be configured to ignore long-term preferences or to take them into account, to work only on positive feedback or to also use negative feedback, and to take previous rounds of feedback into account or to use just the most recent feedback. We use an offline experiment with simulated users to compare 60 configurations of n-by-p. We find that a configuration that includes long-term preferences, that uses both positive and negative feedback, and that uses previous rounds of feedback is the one with highest hit-rate. It also obtains the best survey responses and lowest measures of effort in a trial with real users that we conducted with a web-based system. Notable too is that the user trial has a novel protocol for experimenting with short-term preferences

Effects of ocean acidification on invertebrate settlement at volcanic CO<inf>2</inf> vents

We present the first study of the effects of ocean acidification on settlement of benthic invertebrates and microfauna. Artificial collectors were placed for 1 month along pH gradients at CO2 vents off Ischia (Tyrrhenian Sea, Italy). Seventy-nine taxa were identified from six main taxonomic groups (foraminiferans, nematodes, polychaetes, molluscs, crustaceans and chaetognaths). Calcareous foraminiferans, serpulid polychaetes, gastropods and bivalves showed highly significant reductions in recruitment to the collectors as pCO2 rose from normal (336-341 ppm, pH 8.09-8.15) to high levels (886-5,148 ppm) causing acidified conditions near the vents (pH 7.08-7.79). Only the syllid polychaete Syllis prolifera had higher abundances at the most acidified station, although a wide range of polychaetes and small crustaceans was able to settle and survive under these conditions. A few taxa (Amphiglena mediterranea, Leptochelia dubia, Caprella acanthifera) were particularly abundant at stations acidified by intermediate amounts of CO2 (pH 7. 41-7.99). These results show that increased levels of CO2 can profoundly affect the settlement of a wide range of benthic organisms. © 2010 Springer-Verlag

Mutant huntingtin activates Nrf2-responsive genes and impairs dopamine synthesis in a PC12 model of Huntington's disease

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Huntington's disease is a progressive autosomal dominant neurodegenerative disorder that is caused by a CAG repeat expansion in the HD or Huntington's disease gene. Although micro array studies on patient and animal tissue provide valuable information, the primary effect of mutant huntingtin will inevitably be masked by secondary processes in advanced stages of the disease. Thus, cell models are instrumental to study early, direct effects of mutant huntingtin. mRNA changes were studied in an inducible PC12 model of Huntington's disease, before and after aggregates became visible, to identify groups of genes that could play a role in the early pathology of Huntington's disease.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Before aggregation, up-regulation of gene expression predominated, while after aggregates became visible, down-regulation and up-regulation occurred to the same extent. After aggregates became visible there was a down-regulation of dopamine biosynthesis genes accompanied by down-regulation of dopamine levels in culture, indicating the utility of this model to identify functionally relevant pathways. Furthermore, genes of the anti-oxidant Nrf2-ARE pathway were up-regulated, possibly as a protective mechanism. In parallel, we discovered alterations in genes which may result in increased oxidative stress and damage.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Up-regulation of gene expression may be more important in HD pathology than previously appreciated. In addition, given the pathogenic impact of oxidative stress and neuroinflammation, the Nrf2-ARE signaling pathway constitutes a new attractive therapeutic target for HD.</p

Reactor mixing angle from hybrid neutrino masses

In terms of its eigenvector decomposition, the neutrino mass matrix (in the basis where the charged lepton mass matrix is diagonal) can be understood as originating from a tribimaximal dominant structure with small deviations, as demanded by data. If neutrino masses originate from at least two different mechanisms, referred to as "hybrid neutrino masses", the experimentally observed structure naturally emerges provided one mechanism accounts for the dominant tribimaximal structure while the other is responsible for the deviations. We demonstrate the feasibility of this picture in a fairly model-independent way by using lepton-number-violating effective operators, whose structure we assume becomes dictated by an underlying $A_4$ flavor symmetry. We show that if a second mechanism is at work, the requirement of generating a reactor angle within its experimental range always fixes the solar and atmospheric angles in agreement with data, in contrast to the case where the deviations are induced by next-to-leading order effective operators. We prove this idea is viable by constructing an $A_4$-based ultraviolet completion, where the dominant tribimaximal structure arises from the type-I seesaw while the subleading contribution is determined by either type-II or type-III seesaw driven by a non-trivial $A_4$ singlet (minimal hybrid model). After finding general criteria, we identify all the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ symmetries capable of producing such $A_4$-based minimal hybrid models.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures. v3: section including sum rules added, accepted by JHE