An empirical study of the “prototype walkthrough”: a studio-based activity for HCI education

For over a century, studio-based instruction has served as an effective pedagogical model in architecture and fine arts education. Because of its design orientation, human-computer interaction (HCI) education is an excellent venue for studio-based instruction. In an HCI course, we have been exploring a studio-based learning activity called the prototype walkthrough, in which a student project team simulates its evolving user interface prototype while a student audience member acts as a test user. The audience is encouraged to ask questions and provide feedback. We have observed that prototype walkthroughs create excellent conditions for learning about user interface design. In order to better understand the educational value of the activity, we performed a content analysis of a video corpus of 16 prototype walkthroughs held in two HCI courses. We found that the prototype walkthrough discussions were dominated by relevant design issues. Moreover, mirroring the justification behavior of the expert instructor, students justified over 80 percent of their design statements and critiques, with nearly one-quarter of those justifications having a theoretical or empirical basis. Our findings suggest that PWs provide valuable opportunities for students to actively learn HCI design by participating in authentic practice, and provide insight into how such opportunities can be best promoted

Molecular serotyping and virulence potential of Listeria monocytogenes isolated from bovine, swine and human in the province of Quebec

Listeria monocytogenes (L mono) cause rare but critical diseases, particularly for at risk population that include pregnant women. Food-borne origin of listeriosis is clearly recognised only since 1984. Since then, a great number of grouped cases occurred and milk or meat products, particularly pork meat, were implicated. Management of this zoonotic pathogen considers all strains as at equal risk. Recently a new perspective for characterisation of strain virulence was allowed since unaltered sequence of InlA was recognised as a key for strain virulence

Pollen-Mediated Gene Flow from Genetically Modified Herbicide Resistant Creeping Bentgrass

Approximately 162 ha of multiple experimental fields of creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) genetically modified for resistance to Roundup ®herbicide, were planted in central Oregon in 2002. When the fields flowered for the first time in the summer of 2003, a unique opportunity was presented to evaluate methods to monitor potential pollen-mediated gene flow from the experimental GM crop fields to compatible sentinel and resident plants that were located in surrounding, primarily non-agronomic areas

Exploring the potential of a school-based online health and wellbeing screening tool : young people’s perspectives

Despite high levels of need, many young people who experience health issues do not seek, access or receive support. Between May and November 2021, using semi-structured interviews we explored the perspectives of 51 young people (aged 13-14) from two schools who had taken part in a novel online health and wellbeing screening programme, the Digital Health Contact (DHC). One school delivered the DHC during home-learning due to Covid-19 restrictions, whilst the other delivered it in school when restrictions were lifted. The DHC was seen as a useful approach for identifying health need and providing support, and had high levels of acceptability. Young people appreciated the online format of the DHC screening questionnaire and thought this facilitated more honest responses than a face-to-face approach might generate. Completion at home, compared to school-based completion, was perceived as more private and less time-pressured, which young people thought facilitated more honest and detailed responses. Young people’s understanding of the screening process (including professional service involvement and confidentiality) influenced engagement and responses. Overall, our findings afford important insights around young people’s perspectives of participating in screening programmes, and highlight key considerations for the development and delivery of health screening approaches in (and out of) school

Understanding Society Innovation Panel Wave 6: results from methodological experiments

This paper presents some preliminary findings from Wave 6 of the Innovation Panel (IP6) of Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Study. Understanding Society is a major panel survey in the UK. In March 2013, the sixth wave of the Innovation Panel went into the field. IP6 used a mixed-mode design, using on-line interviews and face-to-face interviews. This paper describes the design of IP6, the experiments carried and the preliminary findings from early analysis of the data

Human-lineage-specific genomic elements are associated with neurodegenerative disease and APOE transcript usage.

Knowledge of genomic features specific to the human lineage may provide insights into brain-related diseases. We leverage high-depth whole genome sequencing data to generate a combined annotation identifying regions simultaneously depleted for genetic variation (constrained regions) and poorly conserved across primates. We propose that these constrained, non-conserved regions (CNCRs) have been subject to human-specific purifying selection and are enriched for brain-specific elements. We find that CNCRs are depleted from protein-coding genes but enriched within lncRNAs. We demonstrate that per-SNP heritability of a range of brain-relevant phenotypes are enriched within CNCRs. We find that genes implicated in neurological diseases have high CNCR density, including APOE, highlighting an unannotated intron-3 retention event. Using human brain RNA-sequencing data, we show the intron-3-retaining transcript to be more abundant in Alzheimer's disease with more severe tau and amyloid pathological burden. Thus, we demonstrate potential association of human-lineage-specific sequences in brain development and neurological disease

Challenging school reform from below: is leadership the missing link in mobilization theory?

This article presents research relating to the experiences of union and community-based campaigns that have sought to challenge the establishment of academy and free schools in England. Such schools are removed from local government control and are seen as a defining element of the neoliberal restructuring of public education. The research draws on social-movement literature, and particularly mobilization theory, to better understand the dynamics of such campaigns and the contexts in which they can either thrive or wither. In the article, I argue that mobilization theory provides a useful framework for such analysis but that it fails to adequately reflect the importance of individual agency and the role of leadership at a local level. Leadership of such campaigns is often assumed by individuals reluctantly, and often defies traditional descriptions of “leadership,” but must be recognized if mobilization theory is to avoid being overly deterministic

The effects of multiple features of alternatively spliced exons on the K(A)/K(S )ratio test

BACKGROUND: The evolution of alternatively spliced exons (ASEs) is of primary interest because these exons are suggested to be a major source of functional diversity of proteins. Many exon features have been suggested to affect the evolution of ASEs. However, previous studies have relied on the K(A)/K(S )ratio test without taking into consideration information sufficiency (i.e., exon length > 75 bp, cross-species divergence > 5%) of the studied exons, leading to potentially biased interpretations. Furthermore, which exon feature dominates the results of the K(A)/K(S )ratio test and whether multiple exon features have additive effects have remained unexplored. RESULTS: In this study, we collect two different datasets for analysis – the ASE dataset (which includes lineage-specific ASEs and conserved ASEs) and the ACE dataset (which includes only conserved ASEs). We first show that information sufficiency can significantly affect the interpretation of relationship between exons features and the K(A)/K(S )ratio test results. After discarding exons with insufficient information, we use a Boolean method to analyze the relationship between test results and four exon features (namely length, protein domain overlapping, inclusion level, and exonic splicing enhancer (ESE) frequency) for the ASE dataset. We demonstrate that length and protein domain overlapping are dominant factors, and they have similar impacts on test results of ASEs. In addition, despite the weak impacts of inclusion level and ESE motif frequency when considered individually, combination of these two factors still have minor additive effects on test results. However, the ACE dataset shows a slightly different result in that inclusion level has a marginally significant effect on test results. Lineage-specific ASEs may have contributed to the difference. Overall, in both ASEs and ACEs, protein domain overlapping is the most dominant exon feature while ESE frequency is the weakest one in affecting test results. CONCLUSION: The proposed method can easily find additive effects of individual or multiple factors on the K(A)/K(S )ratio test results of exons. Therefore, the system can analyze complex conditions in evolution where multiple features are involved. More factors can also be added into the system to extend the scope of evolutionary analysis of exons. In addition, our method may be useful when orthologous exons can not be found for the K(A)/K(S )ratio test

Rehabilitation Exercise and psycholoGical support After covid-19 InfectioN' (REGAIN):a structured summary of a study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

OBJECTIVES The primary objective is to determine which of two interventions: 1) an eight week, online, home-based, supervised, group rehabilitation programme (REGAIN); or 2) a single online session of advice (best-practice usual care); is the most clinically and cost-effective treatment for people with ongoing COVID-19 sequelae more than three months after hospital discharge. TRIAL DESIGN Multi-centre, 2-arm (1:1 ratio) parallel group, randomised controlled trial with embedded process evaluation and health economic evaluation. PARTICIPANTS Adults with ongoing COVID-19 sequelae more than three months after hospital discharge Inclusion criteria: 1) Adults ≥18 years; 2) ≥ 3 months after any hospital discharge related to COVID-19 infection, regardless of need for critical care or ventilatory support; 3) substantial (as defined by the participant) COVID-19 related physical and/or mental health problems; 4) access to, and able/supported to use email and internet audio/video; 4) able to provide informed consent; 5) able to understand spoken and written English, Bengali, Gujarati, Urdu, Punjabi or Mandarin, themselves or supported by family/friends. EXCLUSION CRITERIA 1) exercise contraindicated; 2) severe mental health problems preventing engagement; 3) previous randomisation in the present study; 4) already engaged in, or planning to engage in an alternative NHS rehabilitation programme in the next 12 weeks; 5) a member of the same household previously randomised in the present study. INTERVENTION AND COMPARATOR Intervention 1: The Rehabilitation Exercise and psycholoGical support After covid-19 InfectioN (REGAIN) programme: an eight week, online, home-based, supervised, group rehabilitation programme. Intervention 2: A thirty-minute, on-line, one-to-one consultation with a REGAIN practitioner (best-practice usual care). MAIN OUTCOMES The primary outcome is health-related quality of life (HRQoL) - PROMIS® 29+2 Profile v2.1 (PROPr) - measured at three months post-randomisation. Secondary outcomes include dyspnoea, cognitive function, health utility, physical activity participation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity, depressive and anxiety symptoms, work status, health and social care resource use, death - measured at three, six and 12 months post-randomisation. RANDOMISATION Participants will be randomised to best practice usual care or the REGAIN programme on a 1:1.03 basis using a computer-generated randomisation sequence, performed by minimisation and stratified by age, level of hospital care, and case level mental health symptomatology. Once consent and baseline questionnaires have been completed by the participant online at home, randomisation will be performed automatically by a bespoke web-based system. BLINDING (MASKING) To ensure allocation concealment from both participant and REGAIN practitioner at baseline, randomisation will be performed only after the baseline questionnaires have been completed online at home by the participant. After randomisation has been performed, participants and REGAIN practitioners cannot be blind to group allocation. Follow-up outcome assessments will be completed by participants online at home. NUMBERS TO BE RANDOMISED (SAMPLE SIZE) A total of 535 participants will be randomised: 263 to the best-practice usual care arm, and 272 participants to the REGAIN programme arm. TRIAL STATUS Current protocol: Version 3.0 (27th October 2020) Recruitment will begin in December 2020 and is anticipated to complete by September 2021. TRIAL REGISTRATION ISRCTN:11466448 , 23rd November 2020 FULL PROTOCOL: The full protocol Version 3.0 (27th October 2020) is attached as an additional file, accessible from the Trials website (Additional file 1). In the interests of expediting dissemination of this material, the familiar formatting has been eliminated; this Letter serves as a summary of the key elements of the full protocol. The study protocol has been reported in accordance with the Standard Protocol Items: Recommendations for Clinical Interventional Trials (SPIRIT) guidelines