Motivating Critical Thinkers in Fourth Grade Science: Action Research Promoting 21st Century Skills Through Technology Integrated Project-Based Learning.

The purpose of this action research was to evaluate the integration of technology with project-based learning to determine its effect on critical thinking, science content knowledge, and motivation for science learning for fourth grade students. There is increased motivation for student-centered learning environments that engage students in critical thinking, motivating students to learn in active ways that relate to the real-world applications. Project-based learning is based in constructivist learning theory, where students construct knowledge through active learning strategies. This research explored three questions related to increasing science content knowledge, critical thinking skills and motivation to learn science content through the implementation of technology integrated project-based learning. The first question looks at how technology integrated project-based learning affects the critical thinking skills of fourth grade students (n = 25). The second question looks at how fourth grade students’ life science content knowledge changes while integrating technology in a project-based learning unit. Finally, the last question addresses how integrating technology in project-based learning effect motivation to learn science content in fourth grade students. Quantitative data analysis showed significant growth in student’s science content knowledge. Survey results were not significantly higher for intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Technology integrated project-based learning had a positive impact on critical thinking skills. Students used critical thinking skills to evaluate information, plan for next steps in the process of learning, determine if information was missing from their body of knowledge, and search for missing information to prepare a complete picture of their animal’s life. Having an authentic audience gave students a purpose for their learning. Collaboration offered students a purpose for their learning, helping to focus them on the important information needed to complete their tasks. This research has implications for technology integration within the project-based learning classroom and for growing 21st century skills. Project learning environment increased interaction between science content and critical thinking skills deepening student understandings. Giving students a choice and voice in the learning process motivated them because they were personally invested. Technology allows students to collaborate in new and different ways, including sharing knowledge and co-creating artifacts

Uncertainty quantification of coal seam gas production prediction using Polynomial Chaos

A surrogate model approximates a computationally expensive solver. Polynomial Chaos is a method to construct surrogate models by summing combinations of carefully chosen polynomials. The polynomials are chosen to respect the probability distributions of the uncertain input variables (parameters); this allows for both uncertainty quantification and global sensitivity analysis. In this paper we apply these techniques to a commercial solver for the estimation of peak gas rate and cumulative gas extraction from a coal seam gas well. The polynomial expansion is shown to honour the underlying geophysics with low error when compared to a much more complex and computationally slower commercial solver. We make use of advanced numerical integration techniques to achieve this accuracy using relatively small amounts of training data

Spatial Environmental Modeling of Autoantibody Outcomes among an African American Population

In this study of autoimmunity among a population of Gullah African Americans in South Carolina, the links between environmental exposures and autoimmunity (presence of antinuclear antibodies (ANA)) have been assessed. The study population included patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (n = 10), their first degree relatives (n = 61), and unrelated controls (n = 9) where 47.5% (n = 38) were ANA positive. This paper presents the methodology used to model ANA status as a function of individual environmental influences, both self-reported and measured, while controlling for known autoimmunity risk factors. We have examined variable dimension reduction and selection methods in our approach. Following the dimension reduction and selection methods, we fit logistic spatial Bayesian models to explore the relationship between our outcome of interest and environmental exposures adjusting for personal variables. Our analysis also includes a validation “strip” where we have interpolated information from a specific geographic area for a subset of the study population that lives in that vicinity. Our results demonstrate that residential proximity to exposure site is important in this form of analysis. The use of a validation strip network demonstrated that even with small sample numbers some significant exposure-outcome relationships can be detected

The roles of calcium signaling and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in a Pax6(+/- )mouse model of epithelial wound-healing delay

BACKGROUND: Congenital aniridia caused by heterozygousity at the PAX6 locus is associated with ocular surface disease including keratopathy. It is not clear whether the keratopathy is a direct result of reduced PAX6 gene dosage in the cornea itself, or due to recurrent corneal trauma secondary to defects such as dry eye caused by loss of PAX6 in other tissues. We investigated the hypothesis that reducing Pax6 gene dosage leads to corneal wound-healing defects. and assayed the immediate molecular responses to wounding in wild-type and mutant corneal epithelial cells. RESULTS: Pax6(+/- )mouse corneal epithelia exhibited a 2-hour delay in their response to wounding, but subsequently the cells migrated normally to repair the wound. Both Pax6(+/+ )and Pax6(+/- )epithelia activated immediate wound-induced waves of intracellular calcium signaling. However, the intensity and speed of propagation of the calcium wave, mediated by release from intracellular stores, was reduced in Pax6(+/- )cells. Initiation and propagation of the calcium wave could be largely decoupled, and both phases of the calcium wave responses were required for wound healing. Wounded cells phosphorylated the extracellular signal-related kinases 1/2 (phospho-ERK1/2). ERK1/2 activation was shown to be required for rapid initiation of wound healing, but had only a minor effect on the rate of cell migration in a healing epithelial sheet. Addition of exogenous epidermal growth factor (EGF) to wounded Pax6(+/- )cells restored the calcium wave, increased ERK1/2 activation and restored the immediate healing response to wild-type levels. CONCLUSION: The study links Pax6 deficiency to a previously overlooked wound-healing delay. It demonstrates that defective calcium signaling in Pax6(+/- )cells underlies this delay, and shows that it can be pharmacologically corrected. ERK1/2 phosphorylation is required for the rapid initiation of wound healing. A model is presented whereby minor abrasions, which are quickly healed in normal corneas, transiently persist in aniridic patients, compromising the corneal stroma

Renal Medullary and Cortical Correlates in Fibrosis, Epithelial Mass, Microvascularity, and Microanatomy Using Whole Slide Image Analysis Morphometry

Renal tubulointerstitial injury often leads to interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA). IF/TA is typically assessed in the renal cortex and can be objectively quantitated with computerized image analysis (IA). However, the human medulla accounts for a substantial proportion of the nephron; therefore, medullary scarring will have important cortical consequences and may parallel overall chronic renal injury. Trichrome, periodic acid–Schiff (PAS), and collagen III immunohistochemistry (IHC) were visually examined and quantitated on scanned whole slide images (WSIs) (N = 67 cases). When tuned to measure fibrosis, IA of trichrome and Trichrome-PAS (T-P) WSIs correlated for all anatomic compartments (among cortex, medulla, and entire tissue, r = 0.84 to 0.89, P all <0.0001); and collagen III deposition correlated between compartments (r = 0.69 to 0.89, P <0.0001 to 0.0002); however, trichrome and T-P measures did not correlate with collagen deposition, suggesting heterogeneous contributions to extracellular matrix deposition. Epithelial cell mass (EPCM) correlated between cortex and medulla when measured with cytokeratin IHC and with the trichrome red portion (r = 0.85 and 0.66, respectively, all P < 0.0001). Visual assessment also correlated between compartments for fibrosis and EPCM. Correlations were found between increasing medullary inner stripe (IS) width and fibrosis in all of the tissue and the medulla by trichrome morphometry (r = 0.56, P < 0.0001, and r = 0.48, P = 0.00008, respectively). Weak correlations were found between increasing IS width and decreasing visual assessment of all tissue EPCM. Microvessel density (MVD) and microvessel area (MVA) measured using a MVD algorithm applied to CD34 IHC correlated significantly between all compartments (r = 0.76 to 0.87 for MVD and 0.71 to 0.87 for MVA, P all < 0.0001). Overall, these findings demonstrate the interrelatedness of the cortex and medulla and the importance of considering the renal parenchyma as a whole

Feminist Economics, Setting out the Parameters

___Introduction___ Feminist economics has developed its position over the past decade, towards a firmer embeddedness in economic science and a source of inspiration for activists, policy makers, and social science researchers in a wide variety of fields of research. This development has come about in a relatively short period of time, as is reflected, for example, in the follow-up book of the feminist economic primer Beyond Economic Man (Ferber/Nelson 1993), published ten years later: Feminist Economics Today (Ferber/Nelson, 2003) The strengthened position of feminist economics also shows in the 10-year anniversary of the prize-winning journal Feminist Economics, the flourishing of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE), as well as the more regular demand for feminist economic policy advise by institutions like the UN, OECD and governments in developed and developing countries, and in well-established training courses in feminist economics, such as at the Institute of Social Studies and University of Utah . It is impossible to give a fair overview of the state of the art of feminist economics in the number of pages available, even when limited to issues pertaining to development and macroeconomics . As a consequence, this is a very sketchy and subjective overview of what I perceive to be recent developments in feminist economics that have relevance for feminist development analysis and policy. The next section recognizes three trends in feminist economics, in particular the engagement of feminist economists with heterodox schools of economics. The following sections will briefly review developments in methodology and methods in feminist economics. These will be followed by three sections on topics that have recently become key themes or areas of research in feminist economics, in particular in the area of development economics: unpaid labour and the care economy; the two-way relationship between gender and trade; and gender, efficiency and growth. Each of these topics will be introduced, with references to the main literature, and some links to policy recommendations. The paper will end with a conclusion

Application of Simple Smart Logic for Waterflooding Reservoir Management

A simple smart logic for controlling inflow control valves (ICV) in waterflooding reservoir management is implemented and analyzed, with the final objective of improving the long term financial return of a petroleum reservoir. Such a control is based in a reactive simple logic that responds to the watercut measured in the ICV. Basically, when the watercut increases, the ICV is set to close proportionally. For comparison purposes, four strategies are presented: base case scenario with conventional control, the best completion configuration found by trial-and-error, the reactive control, and a deterministic optimal control based on Nonlinear Gradient Method with adjoint-gradient formulation is shown for comparison purposes. Finally, all four strategies are tested again in different reservoir realizations in order to mimic the geological uncertainties. Two different synthetic reservoir models were studied. First, a simple cube with a five-spot well configuration, in which the permeability field has a horizontal pattern defined by lognormal distributions. The second model is a benchmark proposed by the Dutch university, TU delft, with 101 channelized permeability fields representing river patterns. For the first model, no significant relative gain is found neither in the variable control nor in the optimal control. Manly because of the high homogeneity of the reservoir models. Therefore, no intelligent completion is recommended. On the other hand, for the second and more complex case, the results indicate an expressive relative gain in the use of simple reactive logic. Besides, this type of control achieves results nearly as good as the optimal control. The test in different realizations, however, shows that reservoir characterization is still a key part of any attempt to improve production. Although the variable reactive control is semi-independent, with action being taken based on measurements, some parameters need a priori model to be tuned

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Tourism and autism: Journeys of mixed emotions

There is an evolving tourism literature around psychological wellbeing, social exclusion and disability. This paper advances tourism knowledge into the terrain of psychological health and developmental complexities, and psychological distress. It draws on a phe-nomenological position to understand the lived experiences of mothers of children with developmental difficulties, in this case diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It discusses the emotional and everyday challenges of caring for a child diagnosed with ASD on holiday, discusses the perceived benefits holidays offer and outlines care-giving strategies adopted by mothers to manage their children’s tourism experiences. The paper discusses the uniqueness of the context of autism and problematizes popular discourses, which predominantly frame tourism as pleasurable settings of escape, stimulation, novelty and relaxation