Présentation du projet MOSAIC au sein de l\u27Open University

Intervention à la 4e journée FORMIST qui s\u27est déroulée le 8 juin 2004 à Bibliothèque municipale de la Part-Dieu à Lyon

How do young people (in the region) form their views on future learning and career options?

The research informed the activities of the Regional Employment and Skills Partnership, and more specifically to “inform the future development of labour market intelligence (LMI) to support the provision of employment related information advice and guidance (IAG) to support young people”. This report provides the 14 – 19 Commission with a literature review which: • highlights the core principles of young people’s decision-making processes; • takes into consideration research which discusses the cognitive changes that young people undergo between the ages of 14 -19; • focuses on structural issues, which affect young peoples views on future work and learning options; • Investigates the significance of place and locale in the formation of young people’s views and decision making in a manner that is mindful of the identity of the North East region

Immune- and nonimmune-compartment-specific interferon responses are critical determinants of herpes simplex virus-induced generalized infections and acute liver failure

The interferon (IFN) response to viral pathogens is critical for host survival. In humans and mouse models, defects in IFN responses can result in lethal herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infections, usually from encephalitis. Although rare, HSV-1 can also cause fulminant hepatic failure, which is often fatal. Although herpes simplex encephalitis has been extensively studied, HSV-1 generalized infections and subsequent acute liver failure are less well understood. We previously demonstrated that IFN-αβγR-/- mice are exquisitely susceptible to liver infection following corneal infection with HSV-1. In this study, we used bone marrow chimeras of IFN-αβγR-/- (AG129) and wild-type (WT; 129SvEv) mice to probe the underlying IFN-dependent mechanisms that control HSV-1 pathogenesis. After infection, WT mice with either IFN-αβγR-/- or WT marrow exhibited comparable survival, while IFN-αβγR-/- mice with WT marrow had a significant survival advantage over their counterparts with IFN-αβγR-/- marrow. Furthermore, using bioluminescent imaging to maximize data acquisition, we showed that the transfer of IFN-competent hematopoietic cells controlled HSV-1 replication and damage in the livers of IFN-αβγR-/- mice. Consistent with this, the inability of IFN-αβγR-/- immune cells to control liver infection in IFN-αβγR-/- mice manifested as profoundly elevated aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) levels, indicative of severe liver damage. In contrast, IFN-αβγR-/-mice receiving WT marrow exhibited only modest elevations of AST and ALT levels. These studies indicate that IFN responsiveness of the immune system is a major determinant of viral tropism and damage during visceral HSV infections

Is a standalone IL course useful?

Most Higher Education institutions are involved in the creation of online materials to support their students' information literacy skills development – which is labour intensive, and inevitably results in a great deal of duplication of effort across the sector. A recent project, run jointly by SCONUL's Advisory Committee on Information Literacy and The Open University, addressed whether it is possible to create a generic information literacy course that can be delivered anywhere. The OU's standalone module, MOSAIC, which has been running for the last three years with positive feedback from students, provided an ideal starting point for the investigation

Surviving and Thriving in COVID

[EN] Many summer bridge or other programs focus on initiating high impact activities (Kuh, 2008) as mechanisms of relationship-building among attendants and the university sponsoring these activities.  Additionally, a broad spectrum of these bridge programs are grant-funded by either state or federal funding agencies.  Mentored research within a university laboratory connects the undergraduate to career insights and cultural awareness of research.  COVID- has altered but not cancelled this activity over the last two years.  Keywords: Summer bridge; STEM research; Undergraduates; DOED MSEIP grant.Parker, MJ. (2023). Surviving and Thriving in COVID. En 9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'23). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 437-445. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd23.2023.1626343744

Strategies to improve the quality of initial teacher education for teachers in the education and training sector (further education and skills)

This report details the Inquiring Teachers, Inquiring Learners project which was developed to support partner institutions to develop and apply a culture of action research within their organisation. The underlying principle of the project was professionalism and in particular the promotion and development of teachers’ professional identities and attitudes as the key to the enhancement of student learning, above all, a vision of the ‘inquiring teacher’. Inquiring teachers it is felt are more likely to develop inquiring learners. Teachers are best placed to know about their subjects and their learners’ needs within their local contexts. The project aimed to support partners of the School of Education to develop the skills and knowledge to define and undertake an action research project that would contribute to improving ITE within their context.Education and Training Foundatio

Enhancing health care non-technical skills: the TINSELS programme

Background and Context: Training in ‘non-technical skills’, social (communication and team work) and cognitive (analytical and personal behaviour) skills, in healthcare have been of great interest over the last decade. Whilst the majority of publications focus on ‘whether’ such education can be successful, they overlook the question of ‘how’ they enhance skills. We designed and piloted an original, theoretically robust and replicable teaching package that addresses non-technical skills in the context of medicines safety through simulation-based inter professional learning: the TINSELS (Training In Non-technical Skills to Enhance Levels of Medicines Safety) Programme. Innovation: A modified Delphi process was completed to identify learning outcomes, and recruitment of multi-professional teams was through local publicity. The faculty developed a three-session simulation based intervention: session one was a simulated ward encounter with multiple medicine related activities; session two was an extended debrief and facilitated discussion; and session three a ‘chamber of horrors’ where inter professional teams identified potential sources of error. Each session was completed in the simulation suite with 6 – 9 participants, lasted approximately 90m minutes, and took place over 2 weeks. Full details of the course will be presented to facilitate dissemination. Implications: Likert scale feedback was collected after the course (1 strongly disagree-5 strongly agree). Mean scores were all greater than 4, with qualitative feedback noting the fidelity of the authentic inter professional learner groups. A previously validated safety attitudes questionnaire found changes in attitudes towards handover of care and perceptions of safety levels in the workplace post intervention. An original, simulation based, multi-professional training programme has been developed with learning and assessment materials available for widespread replication

EXPRESS: Flexible Letter-Position Coding in Chinese-English L2 Bilinguals: Evidence from Eye Movements

Theories suggest that efficient recognition of English words depends on flexible letter-position coding, demonstrated by the fact that transposed-letter primes (e.g., JUGDE-judge) facilitate written word recognition more than substituted-letter primes (e.g., JUFBE-judge). The multiple route model predicts that reading experience should drive more flexible letter-position coding as readers transition from decoding words letter-by-letter to recognising words as wholes (Grainger et al., 2012). This study therefore examined whether letter-position is coded flexibly in second language English sentence reading for native Chinese speakers, and if this is influenced by English proficiency. Eye-movements were measured whilst 54 adult native Chinese speakers read English sentences including either a real word (e.g., cheaply), a transposed-letter nonword (e.g., 'chepaly'), or a substituted-letter nonword (e.g., 'chegely'). Flexible letter-position coding was observed in initial and later processing stages- reading times were longer for substituted-letter than transposed-letter nonwords. Additionally, reading times were longer in both initial and later processing stages for transposed-letter nonwords than real words indicating that, despite encoding letter-position flexibly, readers processed letter-position. Although pre-registered frequentist analyses suggested that English proficiency did not predict overall reading times, Bayes Factors indicated that there was evidence for such a relationship. It is therefore likely that this proficiency analysis suffered from low power. Finally, neither frequentist nor Bayes Factor analyses suggested that English proficiency influenced the difference in reading times between different target word types, i.e. the nature of letter-position coding. Overall, these results suggest that highly proficient L2 learners code letter-position flexibly

Psychological predictors of health anxiety and pain in ambulatory presentations in a hospital emergency department

Abstract Background: Health anxiety in attendees of out-patient medical clinics is well established; however, there has been a lack of research into health anxiety within emergency settings. Aims: This study explored the prevalence of health anxiety in ambulatory presentations in a tertiary emergency department (ED) as well as the factors associated with pain and health anxiety in this setting. Method: A cross-sectional questionnaire design was used to gather data from adult ED ambulatory attendees across a 4-day sampling period to assess psychological and physical health variables. Number of attendances to ED over the previous 12 months was accessed through healthcare records. Results: Of the final sample (n = 106), 77%were white British, 54%were male, and 14%presented with severe health anxiety as measured by the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (≥18). Participants with pre-existing health conditions had significantly higher levels of health anxiety (M = 12.36, SE = 1.59) compared with those without (M = 7.79, SE = 0.66). Stepwise multiple regression analyses identified anxiety sensitivity and pain catastrophizing as significant independent predictors of health anxiety, explaining 51%of the variance in health anxiety. Pain catastrophizing was also a significant independent predictor of pain level, accounting for 20%of the variance. Conclusion: This study provides insight into the prevalence of health anxiety in ED ambulatory presentations and key psychological predictors of health anxiety and pain. This has implications for treatment in an ED setting whereby patients may benefit from referral to medical psychology or mental health services.</p

Fractal Image Editing with PhotoFrac

In this paper, we describe the development and use of PhotoFrac, an application that allows artists and designers to turn digital images into fractal patterns interactively. Fractal equations are a rich source of procedural texture and detail, but controlling the patterns and incorporating traditional media has been difficult. Additionally, the iterative nature of fractal calculations makes implementation of interactive techniques on mobile devices and web apps challenging. We overcome these problems by using an image coordinate based orbit trapping technique that permits a user-selected image to be embedded into the fractal. Performance challenges are addressed by exploiting the processing power of graphic processing unit (GPU) and precomputing some intermediate results for use on mobile devices. This paper presents results and qualitative analyses of the tool by four artists (the authors) who used the PhotoFrac application to create new artworks from original digital images. The final results demonstrate a fusion of traditional media with algorithmic art