One man\u27s swordfish story: The link between Alzheimer\u27s disease and mercury exposure

© 2020 It is well-documented that when mercury levels surpass the permissible value, individuals experience a myriad of symptoms that include chronic fatigue, dizziness, and loss of appetite. Mercury is also known to be one of the most potent neurotoxins. This case study depicts a 91- year-old who presented with cognitive decline diagnosed as Alzheimer\u27s disease. This patient was found to have severely elevated mercury levels caused by consuming high mercury containing fish. Following diet adjustment and detoxification, this patient\u27s cognitive impairment significantly improved in proportion to the decline in methylmercury level. One year later, his cognition and functional status rapidly and unexpectedly declined. A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed multiple new lacunar subacute strokes. Thus, it is critical to address biological etiologies such as mercury toxicity in the elderly population diagnosed with Alzheimer\u27s, but end organ damage may not be reversible

Dynamic quality of teacher interaction in professional learning communities

The quality of teacher interaction is essential for the effectiveness of professional learning communities (PLCs). The current study was based on dynamic systems theory to grasp the complexity of teacher interaction. We examined attractor states and attractor sequences in interaction in two teacher PLCs, using state space grids and orbital decomposition. Results reveal more high-quality attractors in PLC2 than in PLC1. The poster illustrates these analyses and discusses implications and directions for further research

Co-designing a collective journey of knowledge creation with idea-friend maps

We examined a knowledge building environment, mediated by Knowledge Forum®, in which representations from a learning analytics tool were used for creating “Idea-Friend Maps”, to scaffold knowledge creation. Fifty-two Grade Five students studying Human Input & Output participated and worked in 12 groups. Quantitative analysis of Knowledge Forum notes shows that students’ contribution to collective knowledge advancement significantly predicted students’ science scores. By examining analytics-based pivotal turns, centralities, and knowledge building discourse moves, this analysis reveals different patterns of knowledge building trajectories among high-, medium-, and low-contribution groups, as well as the role of Idea-Friend Maps in scaffolding collective knowledge creation. We also examined how students co-designed and used the collective journey to sustain their knowledge creation, with the aid of Idea-Friend Maps. This study sheds light on using opportunistic groups and learning analytics approach to examine and to scaffold student knowledge building trajectories in collective inquiry and ways of fostering collective knowledge creation in large communities

Basin-wide aphotic N2 fixation in the Mediterranean Sea

Original research paperRecent findings indicate that N2fixation is significant in aphotic waters, presumably due toheterotrophic diazotrophs depending on organic matter for their nutrition. However, the relationshipbetween organic matter and heterotrophic N2fixation remains unknown. Here we explore N2fixation inthe deep chlorophyll maximum and underneath deep waters across the whole Mediterranean Sea andrelate it to organic matter composition, characterized by optical and molecular methods. Our N2fixation rateswere in the range of those previously reported for the euphotic zone of the Mediterranean Sea (up to0.43 nmol N L1d1) and were significantly correlated to the presence of relatively labile organic matter withfluorescence and molecular formula properties representative for peptides and unsaturated aliphatics andassociated with the presence of more oxygenated ventilated water masses. Finally, and despite that theaphotic N2fixation contributes largely to total water column diazotrophic activity (>50%), its contribution tooverall nitrogen inputs to the basin is negligible (<0.5%).Project HOTMIX (CTM2011-30010-C02-01 and CTM2011-30010-C02-02) ; the MarieSklodowska-Curie Actions of theEuropean Union’s Seventh FrameworkProgramme (FP7/2007-2013) undergrant agreement 625185; the Institut de Recherchepour le Développement (IRD); FPI and short stay fellowships from the Spanish Ministry ofEconomy and Competitiveness; the CSIC Program“Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios”cofinanced by the ESF and a collaborative grant with S.B.from MOST Israel and the High Councilfor Science and Technology (HCST)Versión del editor4,78