Online Initial Teacher Education in Australia: Affordances for Pedagogy, Practice and Outcomes

This paper reports on interviews with 19 senior teacher educators from 18 universities across Australia who offer fully online courses in initial teacher education (ITE). Teacher educators provided insight into four focus areas related to online ITE: 1) institutional practices; 2) affordances; 3) challenges; and 4) research priorities. Analysis revealed teacher educators perceived that online ITE can not only match on campus delivery but is also able to respond to reform agendas in ITE, including attracting students with attributes and characteristics that are likely to see them succeed as teachers, enabling students to experience contemporary approaches to learning, building strong partnerships between schools and universities, and helping address teacher shortages in rural/regional areas

Active oceanic spreading in the northern north Fiji basin : results of the NOFI cruise of R/V l'Atalante (Newstarmer project)

The South Pandora and the Tripartite Ridges are active spreading centers located in the northern part of the North Fiji Basin. These spreading centers were surveyed over a distance of 750 km during the NOFI cruise of R/V L'Atalante (August-September 1994) which was conducted in the frame of the french-japanese Newstarmer cooperation project. SIMRAD EM12-dual full coverage swath bathymetric and imagery data as well as airgun 6-channel seismic, magnetics and gravity profiles were recorded along an off-axis from 170°40'E to 178°E. Dredging and piston coring were also performed along and off-axis. The axial domain of the South Pandora Ridge is divided into 5 first-order segments characterized by contrasted morphologies. The average width of the active domain is 20 km and corresponds either to bathymetric highs or to deep elongated grabens. The bathymetric highs are volcanic constructions, locally faulted and rifted, which can obstruct totally the axial valley. The grabens show the typical morphology of slow spreading axes, with two steep walls flanking a deep axial valley. Elongated lateral ridges may be present on both sides of the grabens. Numerous volcanoes, up to several kilometers in diameter, occur on both flanks of the South Pandora Ridge. The Tripartite Ridge consists of three main segments showing a sigmoid shape. Major changes in the direction of the active zones are observed at the segment discontinuities. These discontinuities show various geometrical patterns which suggest complex transform relay zones. Preliminary analysis of seismic reflection profiles suggest that the Tripartite Ridge is a very young feature which propagates into an older oceanic domain characterized by a significant sedimentary cover. By contrast, a very thin to absent sedimentary cover is observed about 100 km on both flanks of the South Pandora Ridge active axis. The magnetic anomaly profiles give evidence of long and continuous lineations, parallel to the South Pandora Ridge spreading axis. (Résumé d'auteur

Implementation of Epilepsy Multigene Panel Testing in Ontario, Canada

Background: Epilepsy is a common neurological condition that shows a marked genetic predisposition. The advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) has transformed clinical genetic testing by allowing the rapid screen for causative variants in multiple genes. There are currently no NGS-based multigene panel diagnostic tests available for epilepsy as a licensed clinical diagnostic test in Ontario, Canada. Eligible patient samples are sent out of country for testing by commercial laboratories, which incurs significant cost to the public healthcare system.Objective: An expert Working Group of medical geneticists, pediatric neurologists/epileptologists, biochemical geneticists, and clinical molecular geneticists from Ontario was formed by the Laboratories and Genetics Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to develop a programmatic approach to implementing epilepsy panel testing as a provincial service.Results: The Working Group made several recommendations for testing to support the clinical delivery of care in Ontario. First, an extension of community healthcare outcomes-based program should be incorporated to inform and educate ordering providers when requesting and interpreting a genetic panel test. Second, any gene panel testing must be evidence-based and takes into account varied clinical indications to reduce the chance of uncertain and secondary results. Finally, an ongoing evaluative process was recommended to ensure continued test improvement for the future.Conclusion: This epilepsy panel testing implementation plan will be a model for genetic care directed toward a specific set of conditions in the province and serve as a prototype for genetic testing for other genetically heterogeneous diseases

Unraveling the sequence of serpentinization reactions : petrography, mineral chemistry, and petrophysics of serpentinites from MAR 15°N (ODP Leg 209, Site 1274)

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 33 (2006): L13306, doi:10.1029/2006GL025681.The results of detailed textural, mineral chemical, and petrophysical studies shed new light on the poorly constrained fluid-rock reaction pathways during retrograde serpentinization at mid-ocean ridges. Uniformly depleted harzburgites and dunites from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 15°N show variable extents of static serpentinization. They reveal a simple sequence of reactions: serpentinization of olivine and development of a typical mesh texture with serpentine-brucite mesh rims, followed by replacement of olivine mesh centers by serpentine and brucite. The serpentine mesh rims on relic olivine are devoid of magnetite. Conversely, domains in the rock that are completely serpentinized show abundant magnetite. We propose that low-fluid-flux serpentinization of olivine to serpentine and ferroan brucite is followed by later stages of serpentinization under more open-system conditions and formation of magnetite by the breakdown of ferroan brucite. Modeling of this sequence of reactions can account for covariations in magnetic susceptibility and grain density of the rocks.Funding for this research was provided by USSSP and NSF-OCE grant 9986135. WB acknowledges support through a fellowship by the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute

American Society for Bone and Mineral Research-Orthopaedic Research Society Joint Task Force Report on Cell-Based Therapies - Secondary Publication.

Cell-based therapies, defined here as the delivery of cells in vivo to treat disease, have recently gained increasing public attention as a potentially promising approach to restore structure and function to musculoskeletal tissues. Although cell-based therapy has the potential to improve the treatment of disorders of the musculoskeletal system, there is also the possibility of misuse and misrepresentation of the efficacy of such treatments. The medical literature contains anecdotal reports and research studies, along with web-based marketing and patient testimonials supporting cell-based therapy. Both the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) and the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) are committed to ensuring that the potential of cell-based therapies is realized through rigorous, reproducible, and clinically meaningful scientific discovery. The two organizations convened a multidisciplinary and international Task Force composed of physicians, surgeons, and scientists who are recognized experts in the development and use of cell-based therapies. The Task Force was charged with defining the state-of-the art in cell-based therapies and identifying the gaps in knowledge and methodologies that should guide the research agenda. The efforts of this Task Force are designed to provide researchers and clinicians with a better understanding of the current state of the science and research needed to advance the study and use of cell-based therapies for skeletal tissues. The design and implementation of rigorous, thorough protocols will be critical to leveraging these innovative treatments and optimizing clinical and functional patient outcomes. In addition to providing specific recommendations and ethical considerations for preclinical and clinical investigations, this report concludes with an outline to address knowledge gaps in how to determine the cell autonomous and nonautonomous effects of a donor population used for bone regeneration. © 2020 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 38:485-502, 2020

American Society for Bone and Mineral Research-Orthopaedic Research Society Joint Task Force Report on Cell-Based Therapies.

Cell-based therapies, defined here as the delivery of cells in vivo to treat disease, have recently gained increasing public attention as a potentially promising approach to restore structure and function to musculoskeletal tissues. Although cell-based therapy has the potential to improve the treatment of disorders of the musculoskeletal system, there is also the possibility of misuse and misrepresentation of the efficacy of such treatments. The medical literature contains anecdotal reports and research studies, along with web-based marketing and patient testimonials supporting cell-based therapy. Both the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) and the Orthopaedic Research Society (ORS) are committed to ensuring that the potential of cell-based therapies is realized through rigorous, reproducible, and clinically meaningful scientific discovery. The two organizations convened a multidisciplinary and international Task Force composed of physicians, surgeons, and scientists who are recognized experts in the development and use of cell-based therapies. The Task Force was charged with defining the state-of-the art in cell-based therapies and identifying the gaps in knowledge and methodologies that should guide the research agenda. The efforts of this Task Force are designed to provide researchers and clinicians with a better understanding of the current state of the science and research needed to advance the study and use of cell-based therapies for skeletal tissues. The design and implementation of rigorous, thorough protocols will be critical to leveraging these innovative treatments and optimizing clinical and functional patient outcomes. In addition to providing specific recommendations and ethical considerations for preclinical and clinical investigations, this report concludes with an outline to address knowledge gaps in how to determine the cell autonomous and nonautonomous effects of a donor population used for bone regeneration. © 2019 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research

Magnetism, FeS colloids, and Origins of Life

A number of features of living systems: reversible interactions and weak bonds underlying motor-dynamics; gel-sol transitions; cellular connected fractal organization; asymmetry in interactions and organization; quantum coherent phenomena; to name some, can have a natural accounting via $physical$ interactions, which we therefore seek to incorporate by expanding the horizons of `chemistry-only' approaches to the origins of life. It is suggested that the magnetic 'face' of the minerals from the inorganic world, recognized to have played a pivotal role in initiating Life, may throw light on some of these issues. A magnetic environment in the form of rocks in the Hadean Ocean could have enabled the accretion and therefore an ordered confinement of super-paramagnetic colloids within a structured phase. A moderate H-field can help magnetic nano-particles to not only overcome thermal fluctuations but also harness them. Such controlled dynamics brings in the possibility of accessing quantum effects, which together with frustrations in magnetic ordering and hysteresis (a natural mechanism for a primitive memory) could throw light on the birth of biological information which, as Abel argues, requires a combination of order and complexity. This scenario gains strength from observations of scale-free framboidal forms of the greigite mineral, with a magnetic basis of assembly. And greigite's metabolic potential plays a key role in the mound scenario of Russell and coworkers-an expansion of which is suggested for including magnetism.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures, to be published in A.R. Memorial volume, Ed Krishnaswami Alladi, Springer 201

Somatic PIK3R1 Variation as a Cause of Vascular Malformations and Overgrowth

PurposeSomatic activating variants in the PI3K-AKT pathway cause vascular malformations with and without overgrowth. We previously reported an individual with capillary and lymphatic malformation harboring a pathogenic somatic variant in PIK3R1, which encodes three PI3K complex regulatory subunits. Here, we investigate PIK3R1 in a large cohort with vascular anomalies and identify an additional 16 individuals with somatic mosaic variants in PIK3R1.MethodsAffected tissue from individuals with vascular lesions and overgrowth recruited from a multisite collaborative network was studied. Next-generation sequencing targeting coding regions of cell-signaling and cancer-associated genes was performed followed by assessment of variant pathogenicity.ResultsThe phenotypic and variant spectrum associated with somatic variation in PIK3R1 is reported herein. Variants occurred in the inter-SH2 or N-terminal SH2 domains of all three PIK3R1 protein products. Phenotypic features overlapped those of the PIK3CA-related overgrowth spectrum (PROS). These overlapping features included mixed vascular malformations, sandal toe gap deformity with macrodactyly, lymphatic malformations, venous ectasias, and overgrowth of soft tissue or bone.ConclusionSomatic PIK3R1 variants sharing attributes with cancer-associated variants cause complex vascular malformations and overgrowth. The PIK3R1-associated phenotypic spectrum overlaps with PROS. These data extend understanding of the diverse phenotypic spectrum attributable to genetic variation in the PI3K-AKT pathway