Attitudes to the Use of L1 and Translation in Second Language Teaching and Learning (Part 2)

This paper reports on the qualitative research carried out on own-language use and particularly translation, previously summarised in an earlier article together with discussion of the quantitative findings and conclusions. A number of ‘mini’ case histories are presented based on face-to-face interviews with teachers together with verbatim respondent comments and opinions. The data illustrate the wide variation in individual views which are often not apparent from quantitative data

New perspectives on health professions students' e-learning:Looking through the lens of the "visitor and resident" model

<p><b>Background:</b> The growth of e-learning in health professional education reflects expansion of personal use of online resources. Understanding the user perspective in a fast-changing digital world is essential to maintain the currency of our approach.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> Mixed methods were used to investigate a cohort of postgraduate, e-learning healthcare students’ perspectives on their use of online resources for personal and/or professional roles, via questionnaire and student-constructed diagrams, capturing use of online resources (underpinned by White’s model of “resident” and “visitor” online engagement). Semistructured interviews explored the use and value of resources afforded via the online environment.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> The 45 study participants described a range of prior experiences with online resources in personal and professional capacities, but overall students tended to use online “tools” (“visitor” mode) rather than highly collaborative networks (“resident” mode). In relation to e-learning, the dominant interview theme was valuing knowledge transfer from the tutor and using “visitor” behaviors to maximize knowledge acquisition. Peer-learning opportunities were less valued and barriers to collaborative “resident” modes were identified.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> These findings help to inform e-learning course design to promote engagement. The results enable recommendations for use of the “Visitor and Residents” model and for planning activities that learners might utilize effectively.</p

Orbital Instabilities in a Triaxial Cusp Potential

This paper constructs an analytic form for a triaxial potential that describes the dynamics of a wide variety of astrophysical systems, including the inner portions of dark matter halos, the central regions of galactic bulges, and young embedded star clusters. Specifically, this potential results from a density profile of the form $\rho (m) \propto m^{-1}$, where the radial coordinate is generalized to triaxial form so that $m^2 = x^2/a^2 + y^2/b^2 + z^2/c^2$. Using the resulting analytic form of the potential, and the corresponding force laws, we construct orbit solutions and show that a robust orbit instability exists in these systems. For orbits initially confined to any of the three principal planes, the motion in the perpendicular direction can be unstable. We discuss the range of parameter space for which these orbits are unstable, find the growth rates and saturation levels of the instability, and develop a set of analytic model equations that elucidate the essential physics of the instability mechanism. This orbit instability has a large number of astrophysical implications and applications, including understanding the formation of dark matter halos, the structure of galactic bulges, the survival of tidal streams, and the early evolution of embedded star clusters.Comment: 50 pages, accepted for publication in Ap

Sleep and Pain : A Systematic Review of Studies of Mediation

DW is funded by a Versus Arthritis Foundation Fellowship [grant number 21742].Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Analytical sensitivity of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests: A case for a robust reference standard

Aggressive diagnostic testing remains an indispensable strategy for health and aged care facilities to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in vulnerable populations. The preferred diagnostic platform has shifted towards COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) to identify the most infectious individuals. As such, RATs are being manufactured faster than at any other time in our history yet lack the relevant quantitative analytics required to inform on absolute analytical sensitivity enabling manufacturers to maintain high batch-to-batch reproducibility, and end-users to accurately compare brands for decision making. Here, we describe a novel reference standard to measure and compare the analytical sensitivity of RATs using a recombinant GFP-tagged nucleocapsid protein (NP-GFP). Importantly, we show that the GFP tag does not interfere with NP detection and provides several advantages affording streamlined protein expression and purification in high yields as well as faster, cheaper and more sensitive quality control measures for post-production assessment of protein solubility and stability. Ten commercial COVID-19 RATs were evaluated and ranked using NP-GFP as a reference standard. Analytical sensitivity data of the selected devices as determined with NP-GFP did not correlate with those reported by the manufacturers using the median tissue culture infectious dose (TCID50) assay. Of note, TCID50 discordance has been previously reported. Taken together, our results highlight an urgent need for a reliable reference standard for evaluation and benchmarking of the analytical sensitivity of RAT devices. NP-GFP is a promising candidate as a reference standard that will ensure that RAT performance is accurately communicated to healthcare providers and the public

Evolutionary and network analysis of virus sequences from infants infected with an Australian recombinant strain of human parechovirus type 3

We present the near complete virus genome sequences with phylogenetic and network analyses of potential transmission networks of a total of 18 Australian cases of human parechovirus type 3 (HPeV3) infection in infants in the period from 2012&ndash;2015. Overall the results support our previous finding that the Australian outbreak strain/lineage is a result of a major recombination event that took place between March 2012 and November 2013 followed by further virus evolution and possibly recombination. While the nonstructural coding region of unknown provenance appears to evolve significantly both at the nucleotide and amino acid level, the capsid encoding region derived from the Yamagata 2011 lineage of HPeV3 appears to be very stable, particularly at the amino acid level. The phylogenetic and network analyses performed support a temporal evolution from the first Australian recombinant virus sequence from November 2013 to March/April 2014, onto the 2015 outbreak. The 2015 outbreak samples fall into two separate clusters with a possible common ancestor between March/April 2014 and September 2015, with each cluster further evolving in the period from September to November/December 2015

Influenza D virus: Serological evidence in the Italian population from 2005 to 2017

Influenza D virus is a novel influenza virus, which was first isolated from an ailing swine in 2011 and later detected in cattle, suggesting that these animals may be a primary natural reservoir. To date, few studies have been performed on human samples and there is no conclusive evidence on the ability of the virus to infect humans. The aim of this serological study was to assess the prevalence of antibodies against influenza D virus in human serum samples collected in Italy from 2005 to 2017. Serum samples were analysed by haemagglutination inhibition and virus neutralization assays. The results showed that the prevalence of antibodies against the virus increased in the human population in Italy from 2005 to 2017, with a trend characterized by a sharp increase in some years, followed by a decline in subsequent years. The virus showed the ability to infect and elicit an immune response in humans. However, prevalence peaks in humans appear to follow epidemics in animals and not to persist in the human population