Extraordinary Everyday Stories: Audio Resources for the Communication Instructor

Communication instructors often supplement course texts with artistic works such as feature films, short stories, and memoirs. A less common form of supplementary material is the audio documentary/story. The discussion below introduces several audio resources likely to help students deepen their understanding of communication in general and interpersonal and intercultural communication in particular. I also offer a few ideas to those instructors wishing to help students create their own small-scale audio productions

A scoping review on the use of speech-to-text technology for adolescents with learning difficulties in secondary education

Conclusion The scoping review shows that very little research has been conducted on the use of STT for adolescents with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings from the studies identified five areas of interest: writing related skills, text assessment, writing processes, accuracy of the technology, and participants’ experiences. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT. Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION There is a great need for more robust research on the use of speech-to-text technology (STT) in educational settings, especially on its effect on writing skills Studies describe STT as either an assistive (a compensatory aid for poor writing performance) or instructional technology (aiming to improve learning in general). It is important that practitioners are aware of the different aims and possible consequences of introducing STT to learners with writing difficulties. STT provides both opportunities and challenges for writers with learning difficulties in secondary education. Findings indicate that writing performance among students with learning difficulties improves when using STT, yet inaccuracy of the technology was presented as one of the main challenges. Parents, teachers, and pupils report positive experiences with the technology, particularly for students with severe reading and writing difficulties.publishedVersionPaid open acces

Accommodating Students With Special Educational Needs During School Closures Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Norway: Perceptions of Teachers and Students

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BonFIRE: A multi-cloud test facility for internet of services experimentation

BonFIRE offers a Future Internet, multi-site, cloud testbed, targeted at the Internet of Services community, that supports large scale testing of applications, services and systems over multiple, geographically distributed, heterogeneous cloud testbeds. The aim of BonFIRE is to provide an infrastructure that gives experimenters the ability to control and monitor the execution of their experiments to a degree that is not found in traditional cloud facilities. The BonFIRE architecture has been designed to support key functionalities such as: resource management; monitoring of virtual and physical infrastructure metrics; elasticity; single document experiment descriptions; and scheduling. As for January 2012 BonFIRE release 2 is operational, supporting seven pilot experiments. Future releases will enhance the offering, including the interconnecting with networking facilities to provide access to routers, switches and bandwidth-on-demand systems. BonFIRE will be open for general use late 2012

Partial cooperative unfolding in proteins as observed by hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Reviews in Physical Chemistry on 2013-1-1, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/0144235X.2012.751175.Many proteins do not exist in a single rigid conformation. Protein motions, or dynamics, exist and in many cases are important for protein function. The analysis of protein dynamics relies on biophysical techniques that can distinguish simultaneously existing populations of molecules and their rates of interconversion. Hydrogen exchange (HX) detected by mass spectrometry (MS) is contributing to our understanding of protein motions by revealing unfolding and dynamics on a wide timescale, ranging from seconds to hours to days. In this review we discuss HX MS-based analyses of protein dynamics, using our studies of multi-domain kinases as examples. Using HX MS, we have successfully probed protein dynamics and unfolding in the isolated SH3, SH2 and kinase domains of the c-Src and Abl kinase families, as well as the role of inter- and intra-molecular interactions in the global control of kinase function. Coupled with high-resolution structural information, HX MS has proved to be a powerful and versatile tool for the analysis of the conformational dynamics in these kinase systems, and has provided fresh insight regarding the regulatory control of these important signaling proteins. HX MS studies of dynamics are applicable not only to the proteins we illustrate here, but to a very wide range of proteins and protein systems, and should play a role in both classification of and greater understanding of the prevalence of protein motion

Consequences of digital mammography in population-based breast cancer screening: initial changes and long-term impact on referral rates

Contains fulltext : 89208.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)OBJECTIVES: To investigate the referral pattern after the transition to full-field digital mammography (FFDM) in a population-based breast cancer screening programme. METHODS: Preceding the nationwide digitalisation of the Dutch screening programme, an FFDM feasibility study was conducted. Detection and referral rates for FFDM and screen-film mammography (SFM) were compared for first and subsequent screens. Furthermore, radiological characteristics of referrals in digital screening were assessed. RESULTS: A total of 312,414 screening mammograms were performed (43,913 digital and 268,501 conventional), with 4,473 consecutive referrals (966 following FFDM). Initially the FFDM referral rate peaked, and many false-positive results were noted as a consequence of pseudolesions and increased detection of (benign) microcalcifications. A higher overall referral rate was observed in FFDM screening in both first and subsequent examinations (p < .001), with a significant increase in cancer detection (p = .010). CONCLUSION: As a result of initial inexperience with digital screening images implementing FFDM in a population-based breast cancer screening programme may lead to a strong, but temporary increase in referral. Dedicated training in digital screening for radiographers and screening radiologists is therefore recommended. Referral rates decrease and stabilise (learning curve effect) at a higher level than in conventional screening, yet with significantly enhanced cancer detection.1 september 201

Theoretical biology - Comparing models of species abundance

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/62867/1/nature04826.pd

How are species interactions structured in species-rich communities? A new method for analysing time-series data

Estimation of intra- and interspecific interactions from time-series on species-rich communities is challenging due to the high number of potentially interacting species pairs. The previously proposed sparse interactions model overcomes this challenge by assuming that most species pairs do not interact. We propose an alternative model that does not assume that any of the interactions are necessarily zero, but summarizes the influences of individual species by a small number of community-level drivers. The community-level drivers are defined as linear combinations of species abundances, and they may thus represent e.g. the total abundance of all species or the relative proportions of different functional groups. We show with simulated and real data how our approach can be used to compare different hypotheses on community structure. In an empirical example using aquatic microorganisms, the community-level drivers model clearly outperformed the sparse interactions model in predicting independent validation data.Peer reviewe

The oral commensal Streptococcus mitis shows a mixed memory Th cell signature that is similar to and cross-reactive with Streptococcus pneumoniae

Background: Carriage of and infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae is known to predominantly induce T helper 17 (Th17) responses in humans, but the types of Th cells showing reactivity towards commensal streptococci with low pathogenic potential, such as the oral commensals S. mitis and S. salivarius, remain uncharacterized. Methods: Memory CD4+ T helper (Th) cell subsets were isolated from healthy human blood donors according to differential expression of chemokine receptors, expanded in vitro using polyclonal stimuli and characterized for reactivity against different streptococcal strains. Results: Th cells responding to S. mitis, S. salivarius and S. pneumoniae were predominantly in a CCR6+CXCR3+ subset and produced IFN-γ, and in a CCR6+CCR4+ subset and produced IL-17 and IL-22. Frequencies of S. pneumoniae-reactive Th cells were higher than frequencies of S. mitis- and S. salivarius-specific Th cells. S. mitis and S. pneumoniae isogenic capsule knock-out mutants and a S. mitis mutant expressing the serotype 4 capsule of S. pneumoniae showed no different Th cell responses as compared to wild type strains. S. mitis-specific Th17 cells showed cross-reactivity with S. pneumoniae. Conclusions: As Th17 cells partly control clearance of S. pneumoniae, cross-reactive Th17 cells that may be induced by commensal bacterial species may influence the immune response, independent of capsule expression