Observing and assessing children's digital play in eary childhood settings

In early childhood education children increasingly have access to digital technologies to play on and with. Research often centers on using traditional play theories to understand what is occurring, but some theorists are now using a social-cultural lens to explore digital play in a way that is meaningful for the children and educators involved. In this paper we present a new conceptual framework to understand how children learn to use technologies through play. The framework is called the Digital Play Framework and is informed by the sociocultural concept of tool mediation (1997) and Hutt’s (1966) ideas about explorative and ludic play. The framework is pedagogically useful because it explains the relationship between technology-as-tool and children’s play-based behaviours. It is important to understand this relationship in early childhood because play is the basis for curriculum provision. With play as the basis for curriculum provision, educators need a way to assess and plan for children’s digital activities. In this paper we illustrate the potential of the Digital Play Framework for achieving this goal

A placebo-controlled trial of folic acid and betaine in identical twins with Angelman syndrome.

BackgroundAngelman syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is caused by maternal genetic deficiency of a gene that encodes E6-AP ubiquitin-protein ligase (gene symbol UBE3A) mapping to chromosome 15q11-q13. AS leads to stiff and jerky gait, excess laughter, seizures, and severe intellectual disability. In some parts of the brain, the paternally inherited UBE3A gene is subject to genomic imprinting by the action of the UBE3A-antisense transcript (UBE3A-ATS) on the paternally inherited allele. Consequently, only the maternally inherited UBE3A gene is expressed in mature neurons. AS occurs due to deletions of the maternal 15q11 - 13 region, paternal uniparental disomy (UPD), imprinting center defects, mutations in the maternal UBE3A gene, or other unknown genetic malfunctions that result in a silenced maternal UBE3A gene in the specific imprinted regions of the brain.ResultsA potential treatment strategy for AS is to increase methylation of UBE3A-ATS to promote expression of the paternal UBE3A gene and thus ameliorate the clinical phenotypes of AS. We treated two sets of male identical twins with class I deletions with a 1 year treatment trial of either betaine and folic acid versus placebo. We found no statistically significant changes in the clinical parameters tested at the end of the 1 year trial, nor did we find any significant adverse events.ConclusionsThis study tested the hypothesis that by increasing the methylation of the UBE3A-antisense transcript in Angelman syndrome to promote expression of the silenced paternal UBE3A gene we may ameliorate the clinical phenotypes of AS. We treated two sets of identical twins with placebo versus betaine and folic acid. Although this study represented a novel approach to treating Angelman syndrome, the differences in the developmental testing results was not significant. This paper also discusses the value of monozygotic twin studies in minimizing confounding variables and its utility in conducting small treatment studies.Trial registrationNCT00348933 . Registered 6 July 2006

Iowa State University ADVANCE Collaborative Transformation Project: Enhancing Departmental Cultures, Practices and Structures

“The Iowa State University ADVANCE program is […] designed to create an infrastructure at ISU for transforming structures, cultures, and practices in ways that enable and support recruitment and retention of a diverse, highly qualified and cohesive faculty. This infrastructure is designed to include “top down” university policies and procedures as well as “bottom up” initiatives involving departmental work climate and strategies for improving recruitment, retention and promotion of faculty” (Bird and Hamrick 2008). To this end, ISU ADVANCE: • collects base-line quantitative data on the faculty recruitment, retention and promotion, and on faculty work issues such as satisfaction with departmental work climate and resource distributions, • supports policies designed to enhance faculty productivity and job satisfaction, • has implemented new programs such as faculty networking events and a mentoring program for faculty of color, • supports three Equity Advisors in the three focal colleges, • provides training to STEM faculty and department Chairs about subtle biases and how they operate, • supports ADVANCE Professors in each of 9 focal departments who work with the ADVANCE Leadership Team, focal department Chairs, and fellow faculty members to develop and implement department-level transformation strategies as part of a process called “Collaborative Transformation.

Medical undergraduates' use of behaviour change talk: The example of facilitating weight management

BACKGROUND: Obesity, an increasing problem worldwide, is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Management principally requires lifestyle (i.e. behavioural) changes. An evidence-base exists of behaviour change techniques for weight loss; however, in routine practice doctors are often unsure about effective treatments and commonly use theoretically-unfounded communication strategies (e.g. information-giving). It is not known if communication skills teaching during undergraduate training adequately prepares future doctors to engage in effective behaviour change talk with patients. The aim of the study was to examine which behaviour change techniques medical undergraduates use to facilitate lifestyle adjustments in obese patients. METHODS: Forty-eight medical trainees in their clinical years of a UK medical school conducted two simulated consultations each. Both consultations involved an obese patient scenario where weight loss was indicated. Use of simulated patients (SPs) ensured standardisation of key variables (e.g. barriers to behaviour change). Presentation of scenario order was counterbalanced. Following each consultation, students assessed the techniques they perceived themselves to have used. SPs rated the extent to which they intended to make behavioural changes and why. Anonymised transcripts of the audiotaped consultations were coded by independent assessors, blind to student and SP ratings, using a validated behaviour change taxonomy. RESULTS: Students reported using a wide range of evidence-based techniques. In contrast, codings of observed communication behaviours were limited. SPs behavioural intention varied and a range of helpful elements of student’s communication were revealed. CONCLUSIONS: Current skills-based communication programmes do not adequately prepare future doctors for the growing task of facilitating weight management. Students are able to generalise some communication skills to these encounters, but are over confident and have limited ability to use evidence-based theoretically informed techniques. They recognise this as a learning need. Educators will need to tackle the challenges of integrating theoretically informed and evidence based behaviour change talk within medical training

Data Librarianship at UNC Greensboro [Poster]

Poster presented at the The Southeast Data Librarian Symposium (SEDLS) at Tulane University on October 11th. SEDLS is intended to provide a low-cost opportunity for librarians and other research data specialists to gather and explore developments in the field of data librarianship, including the management and sharing of research data, this poster reflects the challenges in education and hiring for the position

On the Maxwell-Stefan approach to multicomponent diffusion

We consider the system of Maxwell-Stefan equations which describe multicomponent diffusive fluxes in non-dilute solutions or gas mixtures. We apply the Perron-Frobenius theorem to the irreducible and quasi-positive matrix which governs the flux-force relations and are able to show normal ellipticity of the associated multicomponent diffusion operator. This provides local-in-time wellposedness of the Maxwell-Stefan multicomponent diffusion system in the isobaric, isothermal case.Comment: Based on a talk given at the Conference on Nonlinear Parabolic Problems in Bedlewo, Mai 200

LinkedIn Groups: Building a community to create real connections to benefit students and alumni in Fashion and Textiles

This Fashion & Textiles Collective community presentation focuses on updating and encapsulating progress in the School of Art, Design & Architecture Teaching and Learning funded project. The project team include Fashion and Textiles Design and Business academics, International careers advisor and undergraduate researcher co-presented the latest results, evolving strategies and user experiences on how the project has leveraged and increased the social capital within this professional Fashion & Textiles Higher education community network. LinkedIn has become the premier social media site for professionals, most employers will search for a job candidate on LinkedIn; despite this many students use a range of other social media. LinkedIn has many powerful tools and inherent capabilities that facilitate the range of networking that students engage in to find internships, placements, jobs, and to make professional connections, but compiling a profile takes time with a slow build to engage as “future professionals”. The project team have encouraged undergraduates to join the UoH alumni group on LinkedIn since 2013. The ADA funded T&L project (2016/17) aimed to link these early disconnected undergraduate and alumni activities into a community hub, and recently this initiative is now providing data on graduate destinations (including data for DHLE) and fast paced career progression, as well as sharing current professional resources and encouraging and enhancing networking opportunities for undergraduates and postgraduates to exist in a vibrant online community. The project has demonstrated the potential to more actively connect with and draw upon the experience of alumni as role models and mentors. We have started immediately to launch LinkedIn with our first years, who have responded enthusiastically and very professionally. The project has attracted increased numbers of alumni and business partners to connect with the LinkedIn group