Gains in Knowledge and Perception of Engineering after Participation in an Engineering Design Web-Experience Are Gender-Dependent

Web-based activities have the potential to teach engineering in both formal and informal science education settings, maximizing outreach efforts. To date, many activities available on the internet teach about engineering, but few allow students to truly “do” engineering. This project utilized web animation and interaction in the design of a web-based experience focused on engineering design. In this activity, targeted toward middle school students, users played the role of engineer and engaged in the process of designing a cell phone for the older adult market. It was hoped that this web-based activity would increase participant understanding of what engineering is and the steps of the engineering design process, while also encouraging students to consider engineering-related careers. An additional aim of this study was to determine whether the web-based application and the object of design (a cell phone) would appeal to female students as much as it would to male students. To test this, 162 middle-school students participated in the web-experience. Summative measures were taken pre- and post- activity using an on-line web-based survey to test their knowledge of engineering design and the engineering design process. The post-survey also asked additional questions to determine students’ perceptions of engineering and also perceptions of the web activity. Data were analyzed for the central tendencies of each question, item and scale means, and cross tabulated to identify statistically significant differences between the responses of male and female students. Prior to the web-based experience female students had a higher base-line knowledge of what engineering is than male students (p = 0.026), however after participation in the activity there were no statistically significant gender-based differences. The activity did increase understanding of engineering in the group as a whole, with a mean increase from 5.12 out of 10 correct responses on the pre-test to 7.10 out of 10 (p = 0.000). Regarding the web-experience, female students tended to express better perceptions of the elements of the activity, but these differences were not statistically significant. Despite the activity, female students exhibited less positive perceptions of engineering and engineering as a career than male students. They were less likely to feel they could become an engineer if they wanted to (0.005), to see themselves in an engineering-related career (p \u3c 0.000), and to see themselves as an engineer (p These results suggest that female middle-school students have a better base knowledge of what engineering is than male students, and that a web-based engineering experience can improve understanding in both genders. Both female and male students perceived the website activity positively, which promotes future use of this educational means. Future work is needed to determine how similar activities can be altered to better address the disparity in perceptions of engineering as a career between genders

Tau Aggregation Correlates with Amyloid Deposition in Both Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Subjects

Background:Amyloid plaque and tau-containing neurofibrillary tangles are important features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, the relationship between these processes is still debated. Objective:We aimed to investigate local and distant relationships between tau and amyloid deposition in the cortex in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD using PET imaging. Methods:Seventy-nine subjects (51 controls, 13 amyloid-positive MCI subjects, and 15 amyloid positive AD subjects) underwent MRI and 18F-flutemetamol PET. All MCI/AD subjects and 8 healthy controls as well as 33 healthy control subjects from the ADNI dataset also had 18F-AV1451 PET. Regional and distant correlations were examined after sampling target-to-cerebellar ratio images. Biological parametric mapping was used to evaluate voxel level correlations locally. Results:We found multiple clusters of voxels with highly significant positive correlations throughout the association cortex in both MCI and AD subjects. Conclusion:The multiple clusters of positive correlations indicate that tau and amyloid may interact locally and be involved in disease progression. Our findings suggest that targeting both pathologies may be required

TIGA-CUB – manualised psychoanalytic child psychotherapy versus treatment as usual for children aged 5–11 years with treatment-resistant conduct disorders and their primary carers: study protocol for a randomised controlled feasibility trial

Background: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends evidence-based parenting programmes as a first-line intervention for conduct disorders (CD) in children aged 5–11 years. As these are not effective in 25–33% of cases, NICE has requested research into second-line interventions. Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists (CAPTs) address highly complex problems where first-line treatments have failed and there have been small-scale studies of Psychoanalytic Child Psychotherapy (PCP) for CD. A feasibility trial is needed to determine whether a confirmatory trial of manualised PCP (mPCP) versus Treatment as Usual (TaU) for CD is practicable or needs refinement. The aim of this paper is to publish the abridged protocol of this feasibility trial. Methods and design: TIGA-CUB (Trial on improving Inter-Generational Attachment for Children Undergoing Behaviour problems) is a two-arm, pragmatic, parallel-group, multicentre, individually randomised (1:1) controlled feasibility trial (target n = 60) with blinded outcome assessment (at 4 and 8 months), which aims to develop an optimum practicable protocol for a confirmatory, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial (RCT) (primary outcome: child’s behaviour; secondary outcomes: parental reflective functioning and mental health, child and parent quality of life), comparing mPCP and TaU as second-line treatments for children aged 5–11 years with treatment-resistant CD and inter-generational attachment difficulties, and for their primary carers. Child-primary carer dyads will be recruited following a referral to, or re-referral within, National Health Service (NHS) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) after an unsuccessful first-line parenting intervention. PCP will be delivered by qualified CAPTs working in routine NHS clinical practice, using a trial-specific PCP manual (a brief version of established PCP clinical practice). Outcomes are: (1) feasibility of recruitment methods, (2) uptake and follow-up rates, (3) therapeutic delivery, treatment retention and attendance, intervention adherence rates, (4) follow-up data collection, and (5) statistical, health economics, process evaluation, and qualitative outcomes. Discussion: TIGA-CUB will provide important information on the feasibility and potential challenges of undertaking a confirmatory RCT to evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of mPCP. Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials, ID: ISRCTN86725795. Registered on 31 May 2016

Biomedical colonialism or local autonomy?: local healers in the fight against tuberculosis

Analiza el papel de los agentes médicos autóctonos y sus conocimientos en las campañas antituberculosas contemporáneas en el África subsahariana. Sitúa la medicina contemporánea, llevada a cabo en África en la herencia cultural de la medicina colonial, para comprender el marco histórico en el que se desarrollaron, a partir de los años setenta del siglo XX, las estrategias de la Organización Mundial de la Salud de promoción y desarrollo de las medicinas 'tradicionales'. En los proyectos sanitarios analizados, se evalúan las prácticas médicas locales y se entrenan a los agentes autóctonos para integrarlos en actividades estrictamente biomédicas: identificación de síntomas, remisión a hospitales o supervisión de tratamientos farmacológicos.The article explores the role played by indigenous medical agents, and their knowledge, within contemporary tuberculosis campaigns in sub-Saharan Africa. To understand the historical framework within which the World Health Organization devised its strategies to promote and develop traditional medicine as of the 1970s, the article contextualizes contemporary medicine as a cultural legacy of colonial medicine. Under the public healthcare projects analyzed in the article, local medical practices were assessed and indigenous agents trained so they could take part in strictly biomedical activities, like symptom identification, referrals to hospitals, or supervision of drug treatments.Trabajo realizado para la obtención del Diploma de Estudios Avanzados (DEA) en el programa de doctorado Salud: Antropología e Historia, bajo la dirección de la profesora Rosa María Medina Doménech

Instructional Models for Course-Based Research Experience (CRE) Teaching

The course-based research experience (CRE) with its documented educational benefits is increasingly being implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. This article reports on a study that was done over a period of 3 years to explicate the instructional processes involved in teaching an undergraduate CRE. One hundred and two instructors from the established and large multi-institutional SEA-PHAGES program were surveyed for their understanding of the aims and practices of CRE teaching. This was followed by large-scale feedback sessions with the cohort of instructors at the annual SEA Faculty Meeting and subsequently with a small focus group of expert CRE instructors. Using a qualitative content analysis approach, the survey data were analyzed for the aims of inquiry instruction and pedagogical practices used to achieve these goals. The results characterize CRE inquiry teaching as involving three instructional models: 1) being a scientist and generating data; 2) teaching procedural knowledge; and 3) fostering project ownership. Each of these models is explicated and visualized in terms of the specific pedagogical practices and their relationships. The models present a complex picture of the ways in which CRE instruction is conducted on a daily basis and can inform instructors and institutions new to CRE teaching

Measuring health-related quality of life measures in children : lessons from a pilot study

There is a debate in the health outcomes literature regarding who the most appropriate respondent is when assessing children’s health-related quality of life (HRQoL). In some cases, parent-proxy may be the only practical option where children are unable to self-complete an HRQoL questionnaire. However, children’s self-reported values may be preferable because HRQoL is subjective and represents the respondent own perception of health. We collected the youth version of the EQ-5D-3L as part of a feasibility study comparing psychoanalytic child psychotherapy with usual care for children aged 5-11 years with treatment resistant conduct disorders. The questionnaires were completed at baseline and 4-month follow-up by the child via face-to-face researcher administration, and by one parent as a proxy respondent. We present percentages of completion at each time-point and investigate the level of agreement between child and proxy-respondent on the child’s health. About two thirds of children (65.5%) were able to complete the EQ-5D-Y at baseline and 34.4% at follow-up. Children and primary carers were mostly concordant regarding overall child’s health. Parents reported more problems in ‘doing usual activities’ and ‘feeling worried, sad or unhappy’ and fewer problems with ‘pain’ and ‘looking after oneself’ than children did. The reports regarding ‘mobility’ were very similar between children and proxy-respondents. The assessment of quality of life by children using selfreport questionnaires is possible with the help of a face-to-face researcher, providing evidence that children should be asked to self-complete HRQoL questionnaires in trial studies

Chronology of sediment deposition in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon

A combination of tephrochronology and 14C, 210Pb, and 137Cs measurements provides a robust chronology for sedimentation in Upper Klamath Lake during the last 45 000 years. Mixing of surficial sediments and possible mobility of the radio-isotopes limit the usefulness of the 137Cs and 210Pb data, but 210Pb profiles provide reasonable average sediment accumulation rates for the last 100–150 years. Radiocarbon ages near the top of the core are somewhat erratic and are too old, probably as a result of detrital organic carbon, which may have become a more common component in recent times as surrounding marshes were drained. Below the tops of the cores, radiocarbon ages in the center of the basin appear to be about 400 years too old, while those on the margin appear to be accurate, based on comparisons with tephra layers of known age. Taken together, the data can be combined into reasonable age models for each site. Sediments have accumulated at site K1, near the center of the basin, about 2 times faster than at site CM2, on the margin of the lake. The rates are about 0.10 and 0.05 cm/yr, respectively. The chronological data also indicate that accumulation rates were slower during the early to middle Holocene than during the late Holocene, consistent with increasing wetness in the late Holocene