85 research outputs found
A Latent Class Analysis of University Lecturersâ Switch to Online Teaching during the First COVID-19 Lockdown: The Role of Educational Technology, Self-Efficacy, and Institutional Support
The switch to emergency remote teaching (ERT) due to the first COVID-19 lockdown demanded a lot from university lecturers yet did not pose the same challenge to all of them. This study sought to explain differences among lecturers (n = 796) from universities in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK in their use of educational technology for teaching, institutional support, and personal factors. Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), lecturersâ behavior (educational technology use), environment (institutional support), and personal factors (ERT self-efficacy, continuance intentions, and demographics) were examined. Latent class analysis was employed to identify different types of lecturers in view of educational technology use, while multinomial regression and Wald chi-square test were used to distinguish classes. The largest latent class were Presenters (45.6%), who focused on content delivery, followed by Strivers (22.1%), who strived for social interaction, Routineers (19.6%), who were ready for online teaching, and Evaders (12.7%), who evaded using technology for educational purposes. Both personal factors and perceived institutional support explained class membership significantly. Accordingly, Evaders were older, less experienced, and rarely perceived institutional support as useful. Routineers, the Evadersâ counterparts, felt most self-efficient in ERT and held the highest continuance intentions for educational technology use. This research suggests that universities engage lecturers in evidence-based professional development that seeks shared visions of digital transformation, networks and communities, and design-based researc
Preference reversals: Time and again
This paper sheds new light on the preference reversal phenomenon by analyzing decision times in the choice task. In a first experiment, we replicated the standard reversal pattern and found that choices associated with reversals take significantly longer than non-reversals, and non-reversal choices take longer whenever long-shot lotteries are selected. These results can be explained by a combination of noisy lottery evaluations (imprecise preferences) and an overpricing phenomenon associated with the compatibility hypothesis. The first cause explains the existence of reversals, while the second explains the predominance of a particular type thereof. A second experiment showed that the overpricing phenomenon can be shut down, greatly reducing reversals, by using ranking-based, ordinally-framed evaluation tasks. This experiment also disentangled the two determinants of reversals, because imprecise evaluations still deliver testable predictions on decision times even in the absence of the overpricing phenomenon. Strikingly, when unframed ranking tasks were used, decision times in the choice phase were greatly reduced, even though this phase was identical across treatments. This observation is consistent with psychological insights on conflicting decision processes
Recent Progress on Anomalous X-ray Pulsars
I review recent observational progress on Anomalous X-ray Pulsars, with an
emphasis on timing, variability, and spectra. Highlighted results include the
recent timing and flux stabilization of the notoriously unstable AXP 1E
1048.1-5937, the remarkable glitches seen in two AXPs, the newly recognized
variety of AXP variability types, including outbursts, bursts, flares, and
pulse profile changes, as well as recent discoveries regarding AXP spectra,
including their surprising hard X-ray and far-infrared emission, as well as the
pulsed radio emission seen in one source. Much has been learned about these
enigmatic objects over the past few years, with the pace of discoveries
remaining steady. However additional work on both observational and theoretical
fronts is needed before we have a comprehensive understanding of AXPs and their
place in the zoo of manifestations of young neutron stars.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures; to appear in proceedings of the conference
"Isolated Neutron Stars: From the Interior to the Surface" eds. S. Zane, R.
Turolla, D. Page; Astrophysics & Space Science in pres
Study protocol: Australasian Registry of Severe Cutaneous Adverse Reactions (AUS-SCAR)
Introduction Severe cutaneous adverse reactions (SCAR) are a group of T cell-mediated hypersensitivities associated with significant morbidity, mortality and hospital costs. Clinical phenotypes include Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS), toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DRESS) and acute generalised exanthematous pustulosis (AGEP). In this Australasian, multicentre, prospective registry, we plan to examine the clinical presentation, drug causality, genomic predictors, potential diagnostic approaches, treatments and long-term outcomes of SCAR in Australia and New Zealand.
Methods and analysis Adult and adolescent patients with SCAR including SJS, TEN, DRESS, AGEP and another T cell-mediated hypersensitivity, generalised bullous fixed drug eruption, will be prospectively recruited. A waiver of consent has been granted for some sites to retrospectively include cases which result in early mortality. DNA will be collected for all prospective cases. Blood, blister fluid and skin biopsy sampling is optional and subject to patient consent and site capacity. To develop culprit drug identification and prevention, genomic testing will be performed to confirm human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type and ex vivo testing will be performed via interferon-Îł release enzyme linked immunospot assay using collected peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The long-term outcomes of SCAR will be investigated with a 12-month quality of life survey and examination of prescribing and mortality data.
Ethics and dissemination This study was reviewed and approved by the Austin Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/50791/Austin-19). Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at relevant conferences
UV emission from young and middle-aged pulsars: Connecting X-rays with the optical
We present the UV spectroscopy and timing of three nearby pulsars (Vela,
B0656+14 and Geminga) recently observed with the Space Telescope Imaging
Spectrograph. We also review the optical and X-ray properties of these pulsars
and establish their connection with the UV properties. We show that the
multiwavelengths properties of neutron stars (NSs) vary significantly within
the sample of middle-aged pulsars. Even larger differences are found between
the thermal components of Ge-minga and B0656+14 as compared to those of
radio-quiet isolated NSs. These differences could be attributed to different
properties of the NS surface layers.Comment: To appear in Astrophysics and Space Science, Proceedings of "Isolated
Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface", eds. D. Page, R. Turolla
and S. Zane; 10 pages, 4 figures, 3 table
Broken seniority symmetry in the semimagic proton mid-shell nucleus <sup>95</sup>Rh
Lifetime measurements of low-lying excited states in the semimagic ( N = 50 ) nucleus 95Rh have been performed by means of the fast-timing technique. The experiment was carried out using Îł -ray detector arrays consisting of LaBr3(Ce) scintillators and germanium detectors integrated into the DESPEC experimental setup commissioned for the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) Phase-0, Darmstadt, Germany. The excited states in 95Rh were populated primarily via the ÎČ decays of 95Pd nuclei, produced in the projectile fragmentation of a 850 MeV/nucleon 124Xe beam impinging on a 4 g / cm2 9Be target. The deduced electromagnetic E2 transition strengths for the Îł -ray cascade within the multiplet structure depopulating from the isomeric IÏ = 21 / 2+ state are found to exhibit strong deviations from predictions of standard shell model calculations which feature approximately conserved seniority symmetry. In particular, the observation of a strongly suppressed E2 strength for the 13 / 2+ â 9 / 2+ ground state transition cannot be explained by calculations employing standard interactions. This remarkable result may require revision of the nucleon-nucleon interactions employed in state-of-the-art theoretical model calculations, and might also point to the need for including three-body forces in the Hamiltonian
The switch to online teaching during the first COVID-19 lockdown: A comparative study at four European universities
In 2020, for the first time in history, COVID-19 measures necessitated emergency online teaching to ensure continuity of education. Although institutional support was offered to lecturers, the situation posed an extraordinary challenge for university teaching. Using a comparative approach, this study surveys lecturers from different countries and their use of educational technology for emergency online teaching. Its focus lies on the relationships between use of educational technology, online teaching self-efficacy and attitudes towards educational technology. Overall and according to reports, the use of educational technology increased significantly compared to pre-pandemic conditions. The universities studied had different levels of digitalization, which influenced lecturersâ use of educational technology. Furthermore, lecturers differed in terms of self-efficacy, attitude, and perception. Regarding factors affecting educational technology use, results showed that especially pre-pandemic experiences with educational technology, as well as self-efficacy and perceptual variables influenced the use of educational technology during the pandemic. Based on these results, it is advisable for universities to embrace this ad hoc switch to online teaching as an opportunity for purposeful digitalization of university teaching
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