Workshop in Moodle: a tool for peer critiquing

This paper will begin with a brief discussion of the benefits of peer assessment and peer critiquing. In particular, it will examine how both can be beneficial in helping to introduce, and reinforce, valuable graduate attributes in students throughout their university careers. It will then examine the tools available at the University of Glasgow and evaluate them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses. In order to explain this in detail, a real life case study from a third year class in Nursing will be presented. The paper will conclude that, while there are obvious benefits to peer critiquing tools being used with a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), some modifications are necessary in order to make them more easily usable by staff and students

What is it like to learn and participate in rhizomatic MOOCs? a collaborative autoethnography of #RHIZO14

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called "Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum" (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited participants to contribute narratives to a collaborative autoethnography (CAE), which comprises an assortment of collaborative Google Docs, blog posts by individuals, and comments on those documents and posts. This strategy afforded insight into what many participants found to be a most engaging course and what for some was a transformative experience. In discussing the findings from the CAE, our intent is to benefit others interested in rhizomatic learning spaces such as cMOOCs. This authoethnography specifically addresses gaps both in the understanding of the learner experience in cMOOCs and in the nature of rhizomatic learning

Writing the unreadable untext: a collaborative autoethnography of #rhizo14

No abstract available

Emergence of negative viscosities and colored noise under current-driven Ehrenfest molecular dynamics

Molecules in molecular junctions are subject to current-induced forces that can break chemical bonds, induce reactions, destabilize molecular geometry, and halt the operation of the junction. Theories behind current-driven molecular dynamics simulations rely on a perturbative time-scale separation within the system with subsequent use of nonequilibrium Green's functions (NEGF) to compute conservative, non-conservative, and stochastic forces exerted by electrons on nuclear degrees of freedom. We analyze the effectiveness of this approximation, paying particular attention to the phenomenon of negative viscosities. The perturbative approximation is directly compared to the nonequilibrium Ehrenfest approach. We introduce a novel time-stepping approach to calculate the forces present in the Ehrenfest method via exact integration of the equations of motion for the nonequilibrium Green's functions, which does not necessitate a time-scale separation within the system and provides an exact description for the corresponding classical dynamics. We observe that negative viscosities are not artifacts of a perturbative treatment but also emerge in Ehrenfest dynamics. However, the effects of negative viscosity have the possibility of being overwhelmed by the predominantly positive dissipation due to the higher-order forces unaccounted for by the perturbative approach. Additionally, we assess the validity of the white-noise approximation for the stochastic forces, finding that it is justifiable in the presence of a clear time-scale separation and is more applicable when the current-carrying molecular orbital is moved outside of the voltage window. Finally, we demonstrate the method for molecular junction models consisting of one and two classical degrees of freedom

What is it Like to Learn and Participate in Rhizomatic MOOCs? A Collaborative Autoethnography of #RHIZO14

In January 2014, we participated in a connectivist-style massive open online course (cMOOC) called Rhizomatic Learning – The community is the curriculum (#rhizo14). In rhizomatic learning, teacher and student roles are radically restructured. Course content and value come mostly from students; the teacher, at most, is a curator who provides a starting point and guidance and sometimes participates as a learner. Early on, we felt that we were in a unique learning experience that we wanted to capture in writing. Explaining #rhizo14 to others without the benefit of traditional processes, practices, roles, or structures, however, presented a challenge. We invited participants to contribute narratives to a collaborative autoethnography (CAE), which comprises an assortment of collaborative Google Docs, blog posts by individuals, and comments on those documents and posts. This strategy afforded insight into what many participants found to be a most engaging course and what for some was a transformative experience. In discussing the findings from the CAE, our intent is to benefit others interested in rhizomatic learning spaces such as cMOOCs. This authoethnography specifically addresses gaps both in the understanding of the learner experience in cMOOCs and in the nature of rhizomatic learning

Determination of Malachite Green in Aquaculture Water by Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry

© 2016, Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. An adsorptive stripping voltammetric method for the determination of malachite green in aquaculture water has been developed. Initial studies were made using the cyclic voltammetry of malachite green at a glassy carbon electrode in 0.1M phosphate buffer from pH 2 to 10. The redox behavior observed for malachite green was verified by the characterization of malachite green and its reduction product, leucomalachite green. Furthermore, leucomalachite green was found not to interfere with the determination of malachite green at pH 7.4, the optimum pH for malachite green determination. As a result, further studies were performed using adsorptive stripping voltammetry for the determination of malachite green in aquaculture water. The voltammetric waveform, accumulation potential, and accumulation time were optimized. The calibration plot was linear from 0.2µM to 1.2µM for malachite green using differential pulse voltammetry with a sensitivity of 0.8311µA/µM. Using the method of multiple standard addition, aquaculture water fortified with 0.5µM and 0.75µM malachite green provided mean recoveries of 78.79% and 87.20% with coefficients of variation of 2.07% and 1.45%. Therefore, analytical figures of merit suggest that this method provides rapid, simple, economical, and precise determination of malachite green in aquaculture water

Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A collective reflection from the educational landscape

While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd)and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset

Stromal cell inhibition of anti-CD20 antibody mediated killing of B-cell malignancies

Introduction: The glycoengineered type II anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody obinutuzumab has been licensed for treatment in follicular non-Hodgkin lymphoma and B-CLL following clinical trials demonstrating superior outcomes to standard of care treatment. However, ultimately many patients still relapse, highlighting the need to understand the mechanisms behind treatment failure to improve patient care. Resistance to chemotherapy is often caused by the ability of malignant B-cells to migrate to the bone marrow and home into the stromal layer. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate whether stromal cells were also able to inhibit type II anti-CD20 antibody mechanisms of action, contributing to resistance to therapy.Methods: A stromal-tumor co-culture was established in vitro between Raji or Daudi B-cell tumor cells and M210B4 stromal cells in 24 well plates.Results: Contact with stromal cells was able to protect tumor cells from obinutuzumab mediated programmed cell death (PCD), antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis and antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Furthermore, such protection required direct contact between stroma and tumor cells. Stromal cells appeared to interfere with obinutuzumab mediated B-cell homotypic adhesion through inhibiting and reversing actin remodelling, potentially as a result of stromal-tumor cell contact leading to downregulation of CD20 on the surface of tumor cells. Further evidence for the potential role of CD20 downregulation comes through the reduction in surface CD20 expression and inhibition of obinutuzumab mediated PCD when tumor cells are treated with Ibrutinib in the presence of stromal cells. The proteomic analysis of tumor cells after contact with stromal cells led to the identification of a number of altered pathways including those involved in cell adhesion and the actin cytoskeleton and remodeling.Discussion: This work demonstrates that contact between tumor cells and stromal cells leads to inhibition of Obinutuzumab effector functions and has important implications for future therapies to improve outcomes to anti-CD20 antibodies. A deeper understanding of how anti-CD20 antibodies interact with stromal cells could prove a useful tool to define better strategies to target the micro-environment and ultimately improve patient outcomes in B-cell malignancies

Updates on radiotherapy-immunotherapy combinations: Proceedings of 6th annual ImmunoRad conference.

Focal radiation therapy (RT) has attracted considerable attention as a combinatorial partner for immunotherapy (IT), largely reflecting a well-defined, predictable safety profile and at least some potential for immunostimulation. However, only a few RT-IT combinations have been tested successfully in patients with cancer, highlighting the urgent need for an improved understanding of the interaction between RT and IT in both preclinical and clinical scenarios. Every year since 2016, ImmunoRad gathers experts working at the interface between RT and IT to provide a forum for education and discussion, with the ultimate goal of fostering progress in the field at both preclinical and clinical levels. Here, we summarize the key concepts and findings presented at the Sixth Annual ImmunoRad conference