Measuring the Impact of Internships on Design using a Materials Activity

Our research question focused on how previous student experience, like a job internship, affects an ability to demonstrate engineering design skills. Principal student experience focused on prior industrial experience (e.g. internships), but also included annual project participation (e.g. ASME Design Challenge Teams). The scope of this effort included the creation and application of a design activity, resulting in documents that were evaluated with a metric. The activity focused on the effect of material selection and analysis with regard to ‘design performance’. Creating these activities, and using them to assess design skills is the novel aspect of this effort. Two classes (one in MET - Mechanical Engineering Technology, and one in EET -Electronics Engineering Technology) performed the design activity. The ET professors facilitated the activity during a normal class period. After the activity, the professors independently evaluated the team documents using a design metric (e.g. RADD – Requirements, Analysis, Documentation, Drawings). A correlation was found between previous internship experience and an increased ability to design and document this skill. This correlation appeared in both MET and EET disciplines. There were consistent results between the faculty members, using the RADD metric. A conclusion from this work is that participation in internships as an undergraduate positively contributes to students\u27 design abilities

Understanding the messy realities of teaching with technology in secondary school physical education in Scotland - an examination of the habits and practices of lead users

There is lack of research focused on the ‘…’messy’ realities of educational technology use in situ’ (Selwyn 2014 p.161). Following Selwyn’s recommendations for tracing a ‘bigger picture’, this study aimed to examine Physical Education (PE) teachers’ technology related habits on multiple levels, namely a macro level analysis of the wider socio-political backdrop, together with the national and local contexts influencing their associated practices with technology. Nine secondary school PE teachers in Scotland, all of whom were recognised by colleagues as being proficient in the use of technology, took part in the study. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted with each participant at their respective schools, in order to explore their experiences using technology, as well as their associated wider habits and practices with it. Close analysis of the data revealed the overarching concept of ‘weighted investment’ by the participants, which encapsulates their wider involvements associated with technology. The concept depicts the manner in which the teachers engaged with technology, specifically the time and effort they devoted to it and an appreciation of why they seemed predisposed to engage with technology. Specifically, the main reasons for investing time and energy, and undertaking practices with technology, relate to career advancement, enhancing pupil engagement, personally-held values and beliefs about technology use, and increasing professional expectations. However, the lack of a strategic overview for technology at local and national level, limited infrastructure and inconsistent technical support compounded matters with respect to the time and effort they were having to invest. These insights contribute to the education and physical education literature by presenting a more comprehensive picture of PE teachers’ use of technology in comparison to past studies

The zwitterion 1-butylimidazolium-3- (n-butanesulfonate)

The mol&shy;ecule of the title compound, C11H20N2O3S, contains a positively charged imidazolium head group and a negatively charged sulfonate tethered together by a four-carbon chain. There is weak intermolecular hydrogen bonding within the structure between the sulfonate O atoms and the H atoms of the imidazolium ring. The sulfonate group causes a twisting of the butyl chain and a decrease in the dihedral angle between the second and third carbon chain compared to the unsubstituted butyl group.<br /

Associations between daily sitting time and the combinations of lifestyle risk factors in men

Background: Understanding the reciprocal role that multiple problematic behaviours play in men's health is important for intervention delivery and for reducing the healthcare burden. Data regarding the concurrence of problematic health behaviours is currently limited but offers insights into risk profiles, and should now include total time spent sitting/day. Methods: Self-reported data on lifestyle health behaviours was collected from 232 men aged ≥18 years who engaged in a men's health promotion programme delivered by 16 English Premier League Clubs. Results: Men at risk due to high sitting display multiple concurrent lifestyle risk factors, 88.6% displayed at least two ancillary risk factors and were three times more likely to report ≥2 lifestyle risk factors (OR. =3.13, 95% confidence interval (CI). =1.52-6.42) than those with low sitting risk. Significant differences in the mean number of risk factors reported between those participants in the higher risk (2.43. ±. 0.90) and lower risk (2.13. ±. 0.96) sitting categories were also found (P=0.015). Conclusions: Hard-to-reach men displayed multiple problematic concurrent behaviours, strongly linked to total sitting time. © 2012 WPMH GmbH

The zebrafish xenograft platform-A novel tool for modeling KSHV-associated diseases

Kaposi\u27s sarcoma associated-herpesvirus (KSHV, also known as human herpesvirus-8) is a gammaherpesvirus that establishes life-long infection in human B lymphocytes. KSHV infection is typically asymptomatic, but immunosuppression can predispose KSHV-infected individuals to primary effusion lymphoma (PEL); a malignancy driven by aberrant proliferation of latently infected B lymphocytes, and supported by pro-inflammatory cytokines and angiogenic factors produced by cells that succumb to lytic viral replication. Here, we report the development of the firs

Comparative Genomics Search for Losses of Long-Established Genes on the Human Lineage

Taking advantage of the complete genome sequences of several mammals, we developed a novel method to detect losses of well-established genes in the human genome through syntenic mapping of gene structures between the human, mouse, and dog genomes. Unlike most previous genomic methods for pseudogene identification, this analysis is able to differentiate losses of well-established genes from pseudogenes formed shortly after segmental duplication or generated via retrotransposition. Therefore, it enables us to find genes that were inactivated long after their birth, which were likely to have evolved nonredundant biological functions before being inactivated. The method was used to look for gene losses along the human lineage during the approximately 75 million years (My) since the common ancestor of primates and rodents (the euarchontoglire crown group). We identified 26 losses of well-established genes in the human genome that were all lost at least 50 My after their birth. Many of them were previously characterized pseudogenes in the human genome, such as GULO and UOX. Our methodology is highly effective at identifying losses of single-copy genes of ancient origin, allowing us to find a few well-known pseudogenes in the human genome missed by previous high-throughput genome-wide studies. In addition to confirming previously known gene losses, we identified 16 previously uncharacterized human pseudogenes that are definitive losses of long-established genes. Among them is ACYL3, an ancient enzyme present in archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes, but lost approximately 6 to 8 Mya in the ancestor of humans and chimps. Although losses of well-established genes do not equate to adaptive gene losses, they are a useful proxy to use when searching for such genetic changes. This is especially true for adaptive losses that occurred more than 250,000 years ago, since any genetic evidence of the selective sweep indicative of such an event has been erased