Exploring Self-regulation of More or Less Expert College-Age Video Game Players: A Sequential Explanatory Design

This study examined differences in self-regulation among college-age expert, moderately expert, and non-expert video game players in playing video games for fun. Winnie\u27s model of self-regulation (Winne, 2001) guided the study. The main assumption of this study was that expert video game players used more processes of self-regulation than the less-expert players. We surveyed 143 college students about their game playing frequency, habits, and use of self-regulation. Data analysis indicated that while playing recreational video games, expert gamers self-regulated more than moderately expert and non-expert players and moderately expert players used more processes of self-regulation than non-experts. Semi-structured interviews also were conducted with selected participants at each of the expertise levels. Qualitative follow-up analyses revealed five themes: (1) characteristics of expert video gamers, (2) conditions for playing a video game, (3) figuring out a game, (4) how gamers act and, (5) game context. Overall, findings indicated that playing a video game is a highly self-regulated activity and that becoming an expert video game player mobilizes multiple sets of self-regulation related skills and processes. These findings are seen as promising for educators desiring to encourage student self-regulation, because they indicate the possibility of supporting students via recreational video games by recognizing that their play includes processes of self-regulation

Using Online Learning Resources to Promote Deeper Learning

This paper describes research on four web-based learning applications that employ a variety of assessment approaches and student tracking and data aggregation mechanisms. These applications are aimed at promoting deeper learning in web-based learning applications and courses and at facilitating a research-based, design experiment approach to prototype development and improvement. Developmental research on two of these tools, Affinity Learning and Critical Thinking, is discussed in this paper. Affinity Learning uses database-driven software to capture the teaching skill of a master teacher. Students are guided through online activities and assessments in accord with their skills and rate of learning. When a student outcome is unanticipated in the software/database, the teacher is solicited for help. In offering that help, the teacher designs a new activity and assessment that is incorporated into the environment. The Affinity environment grows from an initial state to more and more sophisticated capabilities. The Critical Thinking Tool requires students to make and justify their answers to queries about web-based instructional content. The Tools database then graphically displays all students choices, plus their rationales. Students are asked to review and rate the quality of others rationales and to modify their own as needed. Both tools provide fine-grained information on student decision-making and performance that is useful for informing improvements in design. Both also have demonstrated their ability to produce student learning and promote deep understanding of concepts and principles

Using Responsive Evaluation to Evaluate a Professional Conference

In a statewide conference on alternative methods for assessing students’ learning, we incorporated responsive evaluation methods into the structure of the conference. The application of these interactive evaluation techniques serves as a pilot study that illustrates the possible utility of these tech-niques in evaluating conferences. This paper provides a brief review of the literature surrounding responsive evaluation, a description of the responsive evaluation methods applied to this conference, and a discussion of the results and implications of this pilot study

Using GLM Flash Density, Flash Area, and Flash Energy to Diagnose Tropical Cyclone Structure and Intensification

Increased lightning in tropical cyclones (TCs) is typically associated with intensification, but significant lightning outbreaks are also observed in weakening storms. The total number of lightning flashes in a TC is not always a reliable indicator of TC intensity evolution. Issues with the range and detection efficiency of ground-based networks, particularly for intracloud lightning. Physical processes such as vertical wind shear can intensify asymmetric convection while also weakening the TC. The commissioning of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) aboard GOES-16 and GOES-17 marked, for the first time, the presence of an operational lightning detector in geostationary orbit. In addition to flash density (the number of flashes per unit area per unit time), GLM also provides continuous observations of flash area and total optical energy

Variable- and person-centered approaches to examining construct-relevant multidimensionality in writing self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is an essential component of students’ motivation and success in writing. There have been great advancements in our theoretical understanding of writing self-efficacy over the past 40 years; however, there is a gap in how we empirically model the multidimensionality of writing self-efficacy. The purpose of the present study was to examine the multidimensionality of writing selfefficacy, and present validity evidence for the adapted Self-Efficacy for Writing Scale (SEWS) through a series of measurement model comparisons and person-centered approaches. Using a sample of 1,466 8th–10th graders, results showed that a bifactor exploratory structural equation model best represented the data, demonstrating that the SEWS exhibits both construct-relevant multidimensionality and the presence of a global theme. Using factor scores derived from this model, we conducted latent profile analysis to further establish validity of the measurement model and examine how students disaggregate into groups based on their response trends of the SEWS. Three profiles emerged, differentiated by global writing self-efficacy, with substantively varying factor differences among the profiles. Concurrent, divergent, and discriminant validity evidence was established through a series of analyses that assessed predictors and outcomes of the profiles (e.g., demographics, standardized writing assessments, and grades). Theoretical and practical implications and avenues for future research are discussed. Supplement attached below

Widefield two laser interferometry

A novel system has been developed that can capture the wide- field interference pattern generated by interfering two independent and incoherent laser sources. The interferograms are captured using a custom CMOS modulated light camera (MLC) which is capable of demodulating light in the megahertz region. Two stabilised HeNe lasers were constructed in order to keep the optical frequency difference (beat frequency) between the beams within the operational range of the camera. This system is based on previously reported work of an ultrastable heterodyne interferometer [Opt. Express 20, 17722 (2012)]. The system used an electronic feedback system to mix down the heterodyne signal captured at each pixel on the camera to cancel out the effects of time varying piston phase changes observed across the array. In this paper, a similar technique is used to track and negate the effects of beat frequency variations across the two laser pattern. This technique makes it possible to capture the full field interferogram caused by interfering two independent lasers even though the beat frequency is effectively random. As a demonstration of the system’s widefield interferogram capture capability, an image of a phase shifting object is taken using a very simple two laser interferometer

Hypothalamic Reactive Oxygen Species Are Required for Insulin-Induced Food Intake Inhibition: An NADPH Oxidase–Dependent Mechanism

1939-327X (Electronic) Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tOBJECTIVE: Insulin plays an important role in the hypothalamic control of energy balance, especially by reducing food intake. Emerging data point to a pivotal role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in energy homeostasis regulation, but their involvement in the anorexigenic effect of insulin is unknown. Furthermore, ROS signal derived from NADPH oxidase activation is required for physiological insulin effects in peripheral cells. In this study, we investigated the involvement of hypothalamic ROS and NADPH oxidase in the feeding behavior regulation by insulin. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We first measured hypothalamic ROS levels and food intake after acute intracerebroventricular injection of insulin. Second, effect of pretreatment with a ROS scavenger or an NADPH oxidase inhibitor was evaluated. Third, we examined the consequences of two nutritional conditions of central insulin unresponsiveness (fasting or short-term high-fat diet) on the ability of insulin to modify ROS level and food intake. RESULTS: In normal chow-fed mice, insulin inhibited food intake. At the same dose, insulin rapidly and transiently increased hypothalamic ROS levels by 36%. The pharmacological suppression of this insulin-stimulated ROS elevation, either by antioxidant or by an NADPH oxidase inhibitor, abolished the anorexigenic effect of insulin. Finally, in fasted and short-term high-fat diet-fed mice, insulin did not promote elevation of ROS level and food intake inhibition, likely because of an increase in hypothalamic diet-induced antioxidant defense systems. CONCLUSIONS: A hypothalamic ROS increase through NADPH oxidase is required for the anorexigenic effect of insulin

Genome-Wide Meta-Analyses of Breast, Ovarian, and Prostate Cancer Association Studies Identify Multiple New Susceptibility Loci Shared by at Least Two Cancer Types.

UNLABELLED: Breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers are hormone-related and may have a shared genetic basis, but this has not been investigated systematically by genome-wide association (GWA) studies. Meta-analyses combining the largest GWA meta-analysis data sets for these cancers totaling 112,349 cases and 116,421 controls of European ancestry, all together and in pairs, identified at P < 10(-8) seven new cross-cancer loci: three associated with susceptibility to all three cancers (rs17041869/2q13/BCL2L11; rs7937840/11q12/INCENP; rs1469713/19p13/GATAD2A), two breast and ovarian cancer risk loci (rs200182588/9q31/SMC2; rs8037137/15q26/RCCD1), and two breast and prostate cancer risk loci (rs5013329/1p34/NSUN4; rs9375701/6q23/L3MBTL3). Index variants in five additional regions previously associated with only one cancer also showed clear association with a second cancer type. Cell-type-specific expression quantitative trait locus and enhancer-gene interaction annotations suggested target genes with potential cross-cancer roles at the new loci. Pathway analysis revealed significant enrichment of death receptor signaling genes near loci with P < 10(-5) in the three-cancer meta-analysis. SIGNIFICANCE: We demonstrate that combining large-scale GWA meta-analysis findings across cancer types can identify completely new risk loci common to breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers. We show that the identification of such cross-cancer risk loci has the potential to shed new light on the shared biology underlying these hormone-related cancers. Cancer Discov; 6(9); 1052-67. ©2016 AACR.This article is highlighted in the In This Issue feature, p. 932.The Breast Cancer Association Consortium (BCAC), the Prostate Cancer Association Group to Investigate Cancer Associated Alterations in the Genome (PRACTICAL), and the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC) that contributed breast, prostate, and ovarian cancer data analyzed in this study were in part funded by Cancer Research UK [C1287/A10118 and C1287/A12014 for BCAC; C5047/A7357, C1287/A10118, C5047/A3354, C5047/A10692, and C16913/A6135 for PRACTICAL; and C490/A6187, C490/A10119, C490/A10124, C536/A13086, and C536/A6689 for OCAC]. Funding for the Collaborative Oncological Gene-environment Study (COGS) infrastructure came from: the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme under grant agreement number 223175 (HEALTH-F2-2009-223175), Cancer Research UK (C1287/A10118, C1287/A 10710, C12292/A11174, C1281/A12014, C5047/A8384, C5047/A15007, C5047/A10692, and C8197/A16565), the US National Institutes of Health (CA128978) and the Post-Cancer GWAS Genetic Associations and Mechanisms in Oncology (GAME-ON) initiative (1U19 CA148537, 1U19 CA148065, and 1U19 CA148112), the US Department of Defence (W81XWH-10-1-0341), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for the CIHR Team in Familial Risks of Breast Cancer, Komen Foundation for the Cure, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund [with donations by the family and friends of Kathryn Sladek Smith (PPD/RPCI.07)]. Additional financial support for contributing studies is documented under Supplementary Financial Support.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from the American Association for Cancer Research via http://dx.doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-122

\u3ci\u3eThinkAboutIt\u3c/i\u3e: A framework for learner-learner and learner‐expert interactions

Roger Bruning will describe an online system, ThinkAboutIt (TAI) that gives learners opportunities to make and justify decisions about content, compare these decisions to those of others, and access experts’ judgments. TAI has been used in a variety of contexts, including judging quality of children’s writing samples (elementary‐level literacy education students), value of differing testing and measurement strategies (teachers), utility of NOAA and other weather products for farming decisions (farmers), and effectiveness of medical case presentations (medical students). The presentation and discussion will focus on TAI’s general design features, their ties to cognitive and motivational theory, and how these features can be incorporated in online and classroom instruction