Applying the partial credit method of Rasch analysis: language testing and accountability

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68583/2/10.1177_026553228900600109.pd

The Physio-Chemical Properties for the Interior of Enceladus

We have reviewed the current physical and chemical conditions of the Enceladus sub-surface environment, including the composition, temperature, pH and pressure. Here we have defined some of these parameters and, through the aid of modelling, will define and refine the remaining parameters needed for our experimental work. Simulations of the chemical reactions occurring within Enceladus can then be carried out to advance our understanding of the internal environment of Enceladus and help evaluate its potential habitability. Once a better understanding of the chemical reactions occurring at the rock-water interface has been carried out, then potential analogues on Earth can be evaluated and known microbial life can be tested to see if it could survive the conditions of Enceladus

Effects of Menopause in Women With Multiple Sclerosis: An Evidence-Based Review

Over two thirds of all individuals who develop multiple sclerosis (MS) will be women prior to the age of menopause. Further, an estimated 30% of the current MS population consists of peri- or postmenopausal women. The presence of MS does not appear to influence age of menopausal onset. In clinical practice, symptoms of MS and menopause can frequently overlap, including disturbances in cognition, mood, sleep, and bladder function, which can create challenges in ascertaining the likely cause of symptoms to be treated. A holistic and comprehensive approach to address these common physical and psychological changes is often suggested to patients during menopause. Although some studies have suggested that women with MS experience reduced relapse rates and increased disability progression post menopause, the data are not consistent enough for firm conclusions to be drawn. Mechanisms through which postmenopausal women with MS may experience disability progression include neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration from age-associated phenomena such as immunosenescence and inflammaging. Additional effects are likely to result from reduced levels of estrogen, which affects MS disease course. Following early retrospective studies of women with MS receiving steroid hormones, more recent interventional trials of exogenous hormone use, albeit as oral contraceptive, have provided some indications of potential benefit on MS outcomes. This review summarizes current research on the effects of menopause in women with MS, including the psychological impact and symptoms of menopause on disease worsening, and the treatment options. Finally, we highlight the need for more inclusion of MS patients from underrepresented racial and geographic groups in clinical trials, including among menopausal women

Processfolio: uniting Academic Literacies and Critical Emancipatory Action Research for practitioner-led inquiry into EAP writing assessment

This paper reports on the design and implementation of an alternative form of writing assessment on a UK English for Academic Purposes (EAP) presessional course. The assessment, termed processfolio, was a response to research inquiry into how writing assessment in a local context negated student agency and inculcated disempowering models of teaching and learning academic writing. The project merged an Academic Literacies approach to writing (Lea and Street, 1998) with a Critical Emancipatory Action Research (Carr and Kemmis, 1986) framework and a Critical Realist(Bhaskar, 1989) perspective. Data collected from the folios and interviews with students and teachers on their experiences of the processfolio found that a small scale intervention has potential for agency to be exercised within the highly constrained context of a UK EAP pre-sessional. New directions in research are proposed which can engage students and teachers to work for change in UK EAP assessment within their internal and external constraints

jMOTU and Taxonerator: Turning DNA Barcode Sequences into Annotated Operational Taxonomic Units

BACKGROUND: DNA barcoding and other DNA sequence-based techniques for investigating and estimating biodiversity require explicit methods for associating individual sequences with taxa, as it is at the taxon level that biodiversity is assessed. For many projects, the bioinformatic analyses required pose problems for laboratories whose prime expertise is not in bioinformatics. User-friendly tools are required for both clustering sequences into molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTU) and for associating these MOTU with known organismal taxonomies. RESULTS: Here we present jMOTU, a Java program for the analysis of DNA barcode datasets that uses an explicit, determinate algorithm to define MOTU. We demonstrate its usefulness for both individual specimen-based Sanger sequencing surveys and bulk-environment metagenetic surveys using long-read next-generation sequencing data. jMOTU is driven through a graphical user interface, and can analyse tens of thousands of sequences in a short time on a desktop computer. A companion program, Taxonerator, that adds traditional taxonomic annotation to MOTU, is also presented. Clustering and taxonomic annotation data are stored in a relational database, and are thus amenable to subsequent data mining and web presentation. CONCLUSIONS: jMOTU efficiently and robustly identifies the molecular taxa present in survey datasets, and Taxonerator decorates the MOTU with putative identifications. jMOTU and Taxonerator are freely available from http://www.nematodes.org/

Evolutionary Relationships of Wild Hominids Recapitulated by Gut Microbial Communities

Although bacteria are continually acquired over the lifetime of an individual, the phylogenetic relationships of great ape species is mirrored in the compositions of their gut microbial communities