Effects of Improvised Materials on Students’ Achievement and Retention of the Concept of Radioactivity

This paper is an empirical study aimed at finding out the effect of improvisedmaterial on students’ academic achievement and retention on the concept ofradioactivity. The study adopted the pretest post test non-equivalent controlgroup design and was carried out in Calabar Education Zone, Cross RiverState Nigeria. A total of two hundred and forty seven (247) SeniorSecondary School III Physics students took part in the study. The Analysis ofCovariance (ANCOVA), Multiple Analysis (MCA) and t-test were used toanalyze the data. The results of the study showed a significant difference inacademic achievement between the experimental and control groups infavour of the experimental group, a significant difference in the meanacademic achievement between the male and the female students in favour of the male students and a significant difference in the retention between theexperimental and control groups in favour of the experimental group. Thestudy recommend among others the use of improvised material in theteaching of physics where the accredited ones are lacking

The mPEG-PCL Copolymer for Selective Fermentation of Staphylococcus lugdunensis Against Candida parapsilosis in the Human Microbiome.

Many human skin diseases, such as seborrheic dermatitis, potentially occur due to the over-growth of fungi. It remains a challenge to develop fungicides with a lower risk of generating resistant fungi and non-specifically killing commensal microbes. Our probiotic approaches using a selective fermentation initiator of skin commensal bacteria, fermentation metabolites or their derivatives provide novel therapeutics to rein in the over-growth of fungi. Staphylococcus lugdunensis (S. lugdunensis) bacteria and Candida parapsilosis (C. parapsilosis) fungi coexist in the scalp microbiome. S. lugdunensis interfered with the growth of C. parapsilosis via fermentation. A methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(ε-caprolactone) (mPEG-PCL) copolymer functioned as a selective fermentation initiator of S. lugdunensis, selectively triggering the S. lugdunensis fermentation to produce acetic and isovaleric acids. The acetic acid and its pro-drug diethyleneglycol diacetate (Ac-DEG-Ac) effectively suppressed the growth of C. parapsilosis in vitro and impeded the fungal expansion in the human dandruff. We demonstrate for the first time that S. lugdunensis is a skin probiotic bacterium that can exploit mPEG-PCL to yield fungicidal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). The concept of bacterial fermentation as a part of skin immunity to re-balance the dysbiotic microbiome warrants a novel avenue for studying the probiotic function of the skin microbiome in promoting health

Consumption of cocoa flavanols results in acute improvements in mood and cognitive performance during sustained mental effort

Cocoa flavanols (CF) positively influence physiological processes in ways that suggest their consumption may improve aspects of cognitive function. This study investigated the acute cognitive and subjective effects of CF consumption during sustained mental demand. In this randomized, controlled, double-blinded, balanced, three period crossover trial 30 healthy adults consumed drinks containing 520 mg, 994 mg CF and a matched control, with a three-day washout between drinks. Assessments included the state anxiety inventory and repeated 10-min cycles of a Cognitive Demand Battery comprising of two serial subtraction tasks (Serial Threes and Serial Sevens), a Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) task and a mental fatigue scale, over the course of 1 h. Consumption of both 520 mg and 994 mg CF significantly improved Serial Threes performance. The 994 mg CF beverage significantly speeded RVIP responses but also resulted in more errors during Serial Sevens. Increases in self-reported mental fatigue were significantly attenuated by the consumption of the 520 mg CF beverage only. This is the first report of acute cognitive improvements following CF consumption in healthy adults. While the mechanisms underlying the effects are unknown they may be related to known effects of CF on endothelial function and blood flow

Effects of Fusion between Tactile and Proprioceptive Inputs on Tactile Perception

Tactile perception is typically considered the result of cortical interpretation of afferent signals from a network of mechanical sensors underneath the skin. Yet, tactile illusion studies suggest that tactile perception can be elicited without afferent signals from mechanoceptors. Therefore, the extent that tactile perception arises from isomorphic mapping of tactile afferents onto the somatosensory cortex remains controversial. We tested whether isomorphic mapping of tactile afferent fibers onto the cortex leads directly to tactile perception by examining whether it is independent from proprioceptive input by evaluating the impact of different hand postures on the perception of a tactile illusion across fingertips. Using the Cutaneous Rabbit Effect, a well studied illusion evoking the perception that a stimulus occurs at a location where none has been delivered, we found that hand posture has a significant effect on the perception of the illusion across the fingertips. This finding emphasizes that tactile perception arises from integration of perceived mechanical and proprioceptive input and not purely from tactile interaction with the external environment

Even after armed conflict, the environmental quality of Indigenous Peoples' lands in biodiversity hotspots surpasses that of non-Indigenous lands

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-MIndigenous Peoples lands cover over a fifth of the world's land surface and support high levels of biodiversity. However, for centuries Indigenous Peoples have suffered from deprivation, often dispossession, and even cultural genocide, a process continuing today in some regions. Biodiversity hotspots, global areas of high endemicity that are heavily threatened by habitat loss and other human activities are also affected by conflict. Although covering only 2.4 % of the world's surface, over 80 % of armed conflicts occurred in biodiversity hotspots between 1950 and 2000. Given that many hotspots overlap with Indigenous Peoples' lands, we asked whether the co-occurrence of Indigenous Peoples' lands and high ecological integrity, measured by using Intact Forest Landscapes as units which still contain significant biological diversity, and the Human Footprint as a proxy for anthropogenic impacts, increased the persistence of biodiversity in hotspots where there has been armed conflict. Our results show that, withinbiodiversity hotspots, armed conflict was more likely to occur on Indigenous Peoples' lands than non-Indigenous lands, yet environmental damage and anthropogenic impacts were both lower. We suggest that Indigenous Peoples have been able to moderate ecosystem degradation processes before, during, and after armed conflict because of their strong ties to their lands and their determination to defend their rights and territories. We argue that recognition and support for the efforts of Indigenous Peoples to protect their lands is not only socially just but also essential for meeting the now pressing global post-2020 conservation targets

Multi-membership gene regulation in pathway based microarray analysis

This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Gene expression analysis has been intensively researched for more than a decade. Recently, there has been elevated interest in the integration of microarray data analysis with other types of biological knowledge in a holistic analytical approach. We propose a methodology that can be facilitated for pathway based microarray data analysis, based on the observation that a substantial proportion of genes present in biochemical pathway databases are members of a number of distinct pathways. Our methodology aims towards establishing the state of individual pathways, by identifying those truly affected by the experimental conditions based on the behaviour of such genes. For that purpose it considers all the pathways in which a gene participates and the general census of gene expression per pathway. Results: We utilise hill climbing, simulated annealing and a genetic algorithm to analyse the consistency of the produced results, through the application of fuzzy adjusted rand indexes and hamming distance. All algorithms produce highly consistent genes to pathways allocations, revealing the contribution of genes to pathway functionality, in agreement with current pathway state visualisation techniques, with the simulated annealing search proving slightly superior in terms of efficiency. Conclusions: We show that the expression values of genes, which are members of a number of biochemical pathways or modules, are the net effect of the contribution of each gene to these biochemical processes. We show that by manipulating the pathway and module contribution of such genes to follow underlying trends we can interpret microarray results centred on the behaviour of these genes.The work was sponsored by the studentship scheme of the School of Information Systems, Computing and Mathematics, Brunel Universit

Zebrafish models of the immune response: taking it on the ChIn

The zebrafish is proving to be an extremely versatile new experimental model for unraveling the mysteries of innate immunity and has considerable promise as a system for the identification of novel modulators of this crucial biological process. A rate-limiting factor, however, is the mechanical stimulus required to induce the inflammatory response. A new chemically induced inflammation assay ('ChIn' assay) published in BMC Biology obviates this requirement and seems set to accelerate progress in the field

Microwave Integrated Circuits Design with Relational Induction Neural Network

The automation design of microwave integrated circuits (MWIC) has long been viewed as a fundamental challenge for artificial intelligence owing to its larger solution space and structural complexity than Go. Here, we developed a novel artificial agent, termed Relational Induction Neural Network, that can lead to an automotive design of MWIC and avoid brute-force computing to examine every possible solution, which is a significant breakthrough in the field of electronics. Through the experiments on microwave transmission line circuit, filter circuit and antenna circuit design tasks, strongly competitive results are obtained respectively. Compared with the traditional reinforcement learning method, the learning curve shows that the proposed architecture is able to quickly converge to the pre-designed MWIC model and the convergence rate is up to four orders of magnitude. This is the first study which has been shown that an agent through training or learning to automatically induct the relationship between MWIC's structures without incorporating any of the additional prior knowledge. Notably, the relationship can be explained in terms of the MWIC theory and electromagnetic field distribution. Our work bridges the divide between artificial intelligence and MWIC and can extend to mechanical wave, mechanics and other related fields

Development of a decision support tool to facilitate primary care management of patients with abnormal liver function tests without clinically apparent liver disease [HTA03/38/02]. Abnormal Liver Function Investigations Evaluation (ALFIE)

Liver function tests (LFTs) are routinely performed in primary care, and are often the gateway to further invasive and/or expensive investigations. Little is known of the consequences in people with an initial abnormal liver function (ALF) test in primary care and with no obvious liver disease. Further investigations may be dangerous for the patient and expensive for Health Services. The aims of this study are to determine the natural history of abnormalities in LFTs before overt liver disease presents in the population and identify those who require minimal further investigations with the potential for reduction in NHS costs