A collection and analysis of pupil-built problems in arithmetic.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

A closer look at ARSA activity in a patient with metachromatic leukodystrophy.

Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease mainly caused by a deficiency of arylsulfatase A activity. The typical clinical course of patients with the late infantile form includes a regression in motor skills with progression to dysphagia, seizures, hypotonia and death. We present a case of a 4-year-old female with rapidly progressive developmental regression with loss of motor milestones, spasticity and dysphagia. MRI showed volume loss and markedly abnormal deep white matter. Enzymatic testing in one laboratory showed arylsulfatase A activity in their normal range. However, extraction of urine showed a large increase in sulfatide excretion in a second laboratory. Measurement of arylsulfatase A in that laboratory showed a partial decrease in arylsulfatase A activity measured under typical conditions (about 37% of the normal mean). When the concentration of substrate in the assay was lowered to one quarter of that normally used, this individual had activity \u3c10% of controls. The patient was found to be homozygous for an unusual missense mutation in the arylsulfatase A gene confirming the diagnosis of MLD. This case illustrates the importance of careful biochemical and molecular testing for MLD if there is suspicion of this diagnosis

Testing together challenges the relationship': Consequences of HIV Testing as a couple in a High HIV prevalence setting in Rural South Africa

OBJECTIVE: We conducted qualitative individual and combined interviews with couples to explore their experiences since the time of taking an HIV test and receiving the test result together, as part of a home-based HIV counselling and testing intervention. METHODS: This study was conducted in October 2011 in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, about 2 years after couples tested and received results together. Fourteen couples were purposively sampled: discordant, concordant negative and concordant positive couples. FINDINGS: Learning about each other’s status together challenged relationships of the couples in different ways depending on HIV status and gender. The mutual information confirmed suspected infidelity that had not been discussed before. Negative women in discordant partnerships remained with their positive partner due to social pressure and struggled to maintain their HIV negative status. Most of the couple relationships were characterized by silence and mistrust. Knowledge of sero-status also led to loss of sexual intimacy in some couples especially the discordant. For most men in concordant negative couples, knowledge of status was an awakening of the importance of fidelity and an opportunity for behaviour change, while for concordant positive and discordant couples, it was seen as proof of infidelity. Although positive HIV status was perceived as confirmation of infidelity, couples continued their relationship and offered some support for each other, living and managing life together. Sexual life in these couples was characterized by conflict and sometimes violence. In the concordant negative couples, trust was enhanced and behaviour change was promised. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that testing together as couples challenged relationships in both negative and positive ways. Further, knowledge of HIV status indicated potential to influence behaviour change especially among concordant negatives. In the discordant and concordant positive couples, traditional gender roles exposed women’s vulnerability and their lack of decision-making power.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Out of the Weald, the secret Weald

This volume details the results of archaeological work conducted across four sites within the Sussex Weald. Among the findings presented here are some regionally important remains including a Palaeolithic handaxe, perhaps some of the earliest land division so far excavated in the Wealden region dating to the Late Bronze Age, a Roman shrine and what could possibly constitute the remains of an Iron Age fort, one of the hill-slope type

Actividad física y cognición: inseparables en el aula

Tradicionalmente, la educación ha tendido a compartimentar el pensamiento abstracto, la emoción y la actividad física. Sin embargo, la evidencia neurocientífica sugiere que estos tres elementos están estrechamente vinculados con el proceso de aprendizaje. En la “Introducción” de este artículo se repasa el contexto actual: cómo la tradicional clase magistral relega a los estudiantes a un papel pasivo y sedentario que impide el movimiento físico; cómo en los colegios se van reduciendo las horas de recreo y suprimiendo las clases de educación física o aquellas asignaturas que involucran todo el cuerpo (teatro, música, actividades al aire libre), con lo cual se limita aún más la presencia de la actividad física en el entorno de aprendizaje. La evidencia neurocientífica sugiere que el sedentarismo no solo tiene un impacto nocivo en el bienestar físico, sino también en la salud cerebral. El ser humano está diseñado para moverse, para interrelacionarse con su medioambiente, con el movimiento: la actividad física es un factor clave que contribuye al funcionamiento saludable del cerebro. En la sección 2, “Aportes de la investigación neurocientífica”, las autoras presentan y analizan diversos estudios y metaanálisis que destacan la asociación positiva entre la actividad física y la cognición en estudiantes de Educación Primaria y Secundaria.  En estas investigaciones examinan este vínculo en tres niveles: el incremento de la vascularización (que incrementa el oxígeno y la glucosa en el cerebro); la liberación de neurotransmisores y el factor neurotrófico derivado del cerebro (BDNF en sus siglas en inglés) que favorecen la neurogénesis, la memoria, la atención y la motivación; y el desarrollo de circuitos neurales complejos relacionados con el movimiento y su interconexión con las funciones ejecutivas del cerebro. En la sección 3, “Discusión”, se repasan las limitaciones y las aplicaciones de la evidencia examinada. El artículo concluye con unas recomendaciones para que los docentes puedan integrar la actividad física en el aula o en el entorno de aprendizaje. Teniendo en cuenta esta evidencia y la realidad educacional actual, que generalmente considera al aprendizaje como una actividad abstracta, divorciada de nuestra corporalidad, las autoras argumentan la necesidad de incorporar la actividad física al entorno de aprendizaje

Building a Sustainable Model for Developing Digital Fluency in Higher Education Faculty on a Shoestring Budget

Building on experience with a campus digital fluency initiative, a sustainable professional development model has been developed that is transferable to mentoring the next generation of leaders in many areas in higher education. Data from four years of faculty development in digital fluency will be shared along with how to get buy-in from administration and motivation for faculty to change current teaching styles to incorporate more technology into existing pedagogy

Digital Fluency Initiative and Faculty Development

A faculty-led peer mentoring program integrating education technologies and complementary pedagogies to facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes

Distinct DNA repair pathways involving RecA and nonhomologous end joining in Mycobacterium smegmatis

Mycobacterium smegmatis was used to study the relationship between DNA repair processes involving RecA and nonhomologous end joining (NHEJ). The effect of gene deletions in recA and/or in two genes involved in NHEJ (ku and ligD) was tested on the ability of bacteria to join breaks in plasmids transformed into them and in their response to chemicals that damage DNA. The results provide in vivo evidence that only NHEJ is required for the repair of noncompatible DNA ends. By contrast, the response of mycobacteria to mitomycin C preferentially involved a RecA-dependent pathway

Microbial Ecology and Geo-electrical Responses across a Groundwater Plume

We have used geophysics, microbiology, and geochemistry to link large-scale (30+ m) geophysical self-potential (SP) responses at a groundwater contaminant plume with its chemistry and microbial ecology of groundwater and soil from in and around it. We have found that microbially mediated transformation of ammonia to nitrite, nitrate, and nitrogen gas was likely to have promoted a well-defined electrochemical gradient at the edge of the plume, which dominated the SP response. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that the plume fringe or anode of the geobattery was dominated by electrogens and biodegradative microorganisms including Proteobacteria alongside Geobacteraceae, Desulfobulbaceae, and Nitrosomonadaceae. The uncultivated candidate phylum OD1 dominated uncontaminated areas of the site. We defined the redox boundary at the plume edge using the calculated and observed electric SP geophysical measurements. Conductive soils and waste acted as an electronic conductor, which was dominated by abiotic iron cycling processes that sequester electrons generated at the plume fringe. We have suggested that such geoelectric phenomena can act as indicators of natural attenuation processes that control groundwater plumes. Further work is required to monitor electron transfer across the geoelectric dipole to fully define this phenomenon as a geobattery. This approach can be used as a novel way of monitoring microbial activity around the degradation of contaminated groundwater plumes or to monitor in situ bioelectric systems designed to manage groundwater plumes