Evaluating the use of a student response system in high enrollment anatomy lectures

Student response systems1 (SRS) are devices or software that allow students to provide responses to questions embedded within a lecture, which can then be automatically summarized to provide immediate feedback to the students and/or teachers (Wieman 2008, Mathiasen 2013, Vicens 2013). I recently used an SRS, Shakespeak®, for my lectures in Anatomy in the course Exercise Physiology 1 at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen. Anatomy lectures are often thought to be dull and full of details and difficult names, and with 136 students in the course it can be challenging to engage and interact with the students. The aim of this project was to evaluate the use of Shakespeak® based on student feedback from a questionnaire and a focus group interview. Questionnaire results showed that 99% of respondent liked the quizzes, while 88% thought that they helped them to remember the content of the lectures. About 55% believed that the quizzes influenced how they studied after a lecture and 72% felt better prepared for the exam. Qualitative analyses of the students’ open-ended responses in the questionnaire and comments from the focus group interview provided support and additional insights for the quantitative analyses. Overall, the Shakespeak® quizzes were popular with the students, andthey made the course more engaging and motivating. The quizzes helped 100 Svend Sparre Geertsen the students to retain information and prepare them for the exam, and the students wished that they would also be used in courses other than justAnatomy

Preschool Children\u27s Expectations for Parental Discipline

Many factors influence preschool children\u27s expectations for parental discipline. Parent characteristics such as personality, values, social class, and disciplinary methods can affect the expectations children have for parental discipline. Children\u27s ability to understand and interpret parental messages can also influence how they will respond. All of these factors need to be taken into consideration in order for effective communication between parents and children to occur. In this study, preschool children\u27s expectations for parental discipline were examined by using puppets to reenact three different types of disciplinary situations: prudent, moral, and social-conventional. Children, acting as their mother, used puppets to role play six disciplinary puppet vignettes. Their responses to each vignette were then categorized. Mothers\u27 views on child-rearing issues were also garnered by their responses to the Parental Authority Questionnaire. Forty children (20 males, 20 females), ranging in age from 4-l to 66 months. along with their mothers ili = 40). participated in the study. The children were currently attending the Child Development Laboratory at Utah State University An analysis of variance test (child\u27s gender [2) x child \u27s response to puppet vignette [3 or 4)) for each maternal PAQ subscale (permissive, authoritarian, authoritative) for each puppet vignette was performed (three subscale scores x six puppet vignettes). A statistically significant relationship between mothers\u27 scores on the authoritative subscale and children\u27s responses to the lighting matches vignette was revealed. The second statistically significant difference emerged between PAQ scores for mothers of boys and mothers of girls on the authoritarian sub scale for the bedtime vignette. The adjusted mean score was significantly higher for mothers of boys than for mothers of girls. Finally, a chi-square analysis was computed comparing children\u27s responses to prudent, moral, and social-conventional vignettes. A statistically significant relationship emerged between children\u27s responses to the prudent, moral, and social-conventional puppet vignettes. Correctional responses were used most frequently for the prudent and moral vignettes, and positive responses were used most frequently for the social-conventional vignettes

What Are Polymorphically-Typed Ambients?

Abstract: The Ambient Calculus was developed by Cardelli and Gordon as a formal framework to study issues of mobility and migrant code. We consider an Ambient Calculus where ambients transport and exchange programs rather that just inert data. We propose different senses in which such a calculus can be said to be polymorphically typed, and design accordingly a polymorphic type system for it. Our type system assigns types to embedded programs and what we call behaviors to processes; a denotational semantics of behaviors is then proposed, here called trace semantics, underlying much of the remaining analysis. We state and prove a Subject Reduction property for our polymorphically typed calculus. Based on techniques borrowed from finite automata theory, type-checking of fully type-annotated processes is shown to be decidable; the time complexity of our decision procedure is exponential (this is a worst-case in theory, arguably not encountered in practice). Our polymorphically-typed calculus is a conservative extension of the typed Ambient Calculus originally proposed by Cardelli and Gordon

3D printing for cyclonic spray chambers in ICP spectrometry

International audienceAdditive manufacturing (AM) or 3D-printing is an increasingly widespread technique which is often described as a source for rapid prototyping whereas it is a manufacturing process in itself. It is a new tool for instrumental research laboratories which can now easily manufacture by themselves a large variety of devices. This article describes its application to ICP introduction system spray chambers. We undertake to print and study cyclone spray chambers by combining and comparing for the first time 3 different AM processes, 5 materials and 8 designs. The analytical performances of these spray chambers are compared with commercial glass and PFA chambers in terms of signal intensity, stability, oxide ratio, LOD and wash-out time. LODs measured with polymer printed chambers are in the range or even outperform those measured with the glass chamber even though 3D-printed chambers provide lower results in terms of sensitivity than glass. Compared to PFA chambers, the printed chambers are superior in terms of LOD. At low temperature, the printed chambers' efficiency depends on both AM process and manufacturing material. SLA and FDM printers give lower results in terms of sensitivity but not in LOD than the Polyjet printer. This study also illustrates the influence of the inner shape of the side arm nebulizer and confirms the importance of a free aerosol recirculation current around the nebulizer tip. Transfer tube efficiency is also questioned; it is found to be weakly detrimental to the sensitivity to light elements but shows no influence on heavy ones as well as on the stability or oxide ratio, whatever the element

The Function of Social Behavior in Water Resource Development

Preface: This report is an analysis of a social survey of the middle and lower Bear River Basin of southeastern Idaho and northern Utah concerning the problem of water resource development in a semiarid region of the Western United States. The survey part of the study, carried out in the summer of 1966, dealt with both general social factors and a specific proposal made by the Bureau of Reclamation for developing water resources of the Bear River. In many respects this proposal and the resulting behavior is typical of other western river basin projects, in some other ways, however, it is also unique. It is expected that the broad exploratory nature of this study will provide a useful background for other studies with more specialized and limited goals. The limited application of research to the behavioral problems of water resources research has guided the wide focus of this problem. This monograph reports a considerable amount of data. It is recommended that the reader interested in less detail might well confine himself to the champter summaries and the final chapter on conclusions. In some cases, in concluding or projecting, the writers have taken the liberty to speculate beyond the strict confines of the data, including some prespectives they have obtained in the process of the study. These occasions are indicated for the reader

Ordbogsredaktion med COMPULEXIS hos Munksgaard

Ethvert ordbogsprojekt starter med at forlag, hovedredaktør og forfatterne diskuterer redaktionsprincipperne for ordbogen. Disse redaktionsprincipper skrives ned og redigeres, så de mere og mere udgør en redaktionsvejledning, dvs et dokument, som kan blive en daglig manual for alle involverede i ordbogen, men mest af alt naturligvis en manual for forfatteren/forfatterne. En vigtig opgave for redaktionsvejledningen er at fastlægge principperne for hvordan de enkelte ordbogsartikler opbygges

Barriers to Critical Thinking Across Domains

The transfer of critical thinking across domains presents both a significant challenge and meaningful opportunity for college education as well as programs of continuing education and · efforts to encourage lifelong learning. After examining different approaches to teaching critical thinking, this paper examines some of the barriers to transfer across domains using an interactionist perspective. This perspective underscores the fact that developing and using critical thinking is a lifelong endeavor due to the tunnel-vision tendencies that naturally follow from situated learning in a particular domain. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the potential blinding effects of situated learning resulting from years of on-the-job training in critical thinking. The domain of possible transfer is a medical diagnosis of a terminal condition. Questions are raised about how critically-thinking patients might approach an assertion of this magnitude. Implication for adult education and self-directed learning are discussed

Impaired ability to suppress excitability of antagonist motoneurons at onset of dorsiflexion in adults with cerebral palsy

We recently showed that impaired gait function in adults with cerebral palsy (CP) is associated with reduced rate of force development in ankle dorsiflexors. Here, we explore potential mechanisms. We investigated the suppression of antagonist excitability, calculated as the amount of soleus H-reflex depression at the onset of ankle dorsiflexion compared to rest, in 24 adults with CP (34.3 years, range 18–57; GMFCS 1.95, range 1–3) and 15 healthy, age-matched controls. Furthermore, the central common drive to dorsiflexor motoneurons during a static contraction in the two groups was examined by coherence analyses. The H-reflex was significantly reduced by 37% at the onset of dorsiflexion compared to rest in healthy adults (P<0.001) but unchanged in adults with CP (P=0.91). Also, the adults with CP had significantly less coherence. These findings suggest that the ability to suppress antagonist motoneuronal excitability at movement onset is impaired and that the central common drive during static contractions is reduced in adults with CP

Oscillatory corticospinal activity during static contraction of ankle muscles is reduced in healthy old versus young adults

Aging is accompanied by impaired motor function, but age-related changes in neural networks responsible for generating movement are not well understood. We aimed to investigate the functional oscillatory coupling between activity in the sensorimotor cortex and ankle muscles during static contraction. Fifteen young (20–26 yr) and fifteen older (65–73 yr) subjects were instructed to match a target force by performing static ankle dorsi- or plantar flexion, while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded from the cortex and electromyographic (EMG) activity was recorded from dorsi- (proximal and distal anterior tibia) and plantar (soleus and medial gastrocnemius) flexor muscles. EEG-EMG and EMG-EMG beta band (15–35 Hz) coherence was analyzed as an index of corticospinal activity. Our results demonstrated that beta cortico-, intra-, and intermuscular coherence was reduced in old versus young subjects during static contractions. Old subjects demonstrated significantly greater error than young subjects while matching target forces, but force precision was not related to beta coherence. We interpret this as an age-related decrease in effective oscillatory corticospinal activity during steady-state motor output. Additionally, our data indicate a potential effect of alpha coherence and tremor on performance. These results may be instrumental in developing new interventions to strengthen sensorimotor control in elderly subjects