Using styles for more effective learning in multicultural and e-learning environments

Purpose – This Special Issue contains selected papers from the thirteenth annual European Learning Styles Information Network (ELSIN) conference held in Ghent, Belgium in June 2008. One of the key aims of ELSIN is to promote understanding of individual learning and cognitive differences through the dissemination of international multidisciplinary research about learning and cognitive styles and strategies of learning and thinking. Design/methodology/approach – Three papers within this special issue consider how style differences can inform the development of e-learning opportunities to enhance the learning of all (Vigentini; Kyprianidou, Demetriadis, Pombortsis and Karatasios; Zhu, Valcke and Schellens). The influence of culture on learning is also raised in the paper of Zhu and colleagues and those of Sulimma and Eaves which both focus more directly on cultural influences on style, learning and teaching. Findings – A number of key themes permeate the studies included in this Special Edition such as: the nature of styles; the intrinsic difficulty of isolating style variables from other variables impacting on performance; inherent difficulties in choosing the most appropriate style measures; the potential of e-learning to attend to individual learning differences; the role of culture in informing attitudes and access to learning; the development of constructivist learning environments to support learning through an understanding of individual differences; and most importantly how one can apply such insights about individual differences to inform and enhance instruction. Originality/value – The papers in this Special Issue contribute to enhanced knowledge about the value of style differences to design constructive learning environments in multicultural and e-learning contexts

The Use of the Xylose Tolerance Test as an Indicator of Malabsorption in Cryptosporidiosis

Cryptosporidium parvum, a protozoan parasite infecting epithelial cells lining the intestinal tract of animals and humans, causes fulminate diarrhea and malabsorption of essential nutrients following damage to the cellular brush border. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the use of a pentose sugar (D-xylose) in a standardized tolerance test as an indicator of malabsorption due to cryptosporidiosis in the dexamethasone (DEX)-immunosuppressed adult C57BL/6N mouse model. One group containing 14 experimental mice (in addition to appropriate control groups) was immunosuppressed using daily intraperitoneal injections of DEX (125 μg/mouse). On day 7 postimmunosuppression, mice were inoculated orally with 104 C. parvum oocysts/mouse. Approximately 1 month postinoculation, feces from individual mice were checked for oocyst shedding using an indirect immunofluorescent assay to confirm patent infections. After 24 hours of fasting, infected mice were administered Dxylose (2.5 mg/ g body weight) by gavage. Mice were killed at either 45 or 90 minutes post-D-xylose administration, blood was collected from the chest cavity, and the serum was harvested. Sections of the proximal duodenum and distal ileum of each mouse were histologically prepared for quantitation of C. parvum using brightfield microscopy. Serum was analyzed with a spectrophotometer (520 nm) by employing a calorimetric reaction as a measure of the absorptive capacity of D-xylose in the small intestine of C. parvum-infected mice. Statistical analysis revealed no significant correlation between the number of parasites present and intestinal absorption of D-xylose. However, administration of DEX was positively correlated to D-xylose absorption. These findings indicate that the xylose tolerance test is inappropriate in the adult C57BL/6N mouse model for evaluating malabsorption due to cryptosporidiosis in the presence o

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling to retail display and storage of food

This paper describes the work that has been conducted at the University of Bristol on the use of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling to aid the design of retail display cabinets and storage rooms

New Directions in Agricultural Communications Curricula

The title of this address - New Directions in Agricultural Communications Curricula - might better be paraphrased as sifting and winnowing the grain from the chaff