Flipping the classroom:an effective approach to deal with diversity at higher education

Even though the flipped classroom is an increasingly popular method in education, a literature search shows a gap in research on this method in higher education. This article describes an experiment with two central questions: (1) How do students and lecturers assess the effectiveness of the FC method? And (2) What are crucial design elements? To be able to answer these questions we designed an experiment within a large-size, interdisciplinary, course. For three years we carefully monitored and evaluated the course. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Our findings show a positive contribution of the FC approach to the learning experience of students. We also found that a strong link between theory and practice is essential in the course design; combined with active learning we were able to involve students and stimulate them to reach a deeper level of understanding. Moreover, we believe that the FC approach offers opportunities to have a large interdisciplinary group, with different learning needs, work together on higher attainment levels

Bringing Empathy into Play: On the Effects of Empathy in Violent and Nonviolent Video Games

While violent media has adverse effects on cognition, emotion and behavior, prosocial content promotes these variables in a prosocial way. Greater individual levels of empathy as well as increasing the level of empathy in media content typically foster prosocial behavior and reduce aggression. Two experiments replicated game content findings, and also showed that inducing empathy prior to a video game had a positive influence on behavior. However, under certain circumstances, inducing empathy before playing a violent video game may even have negative effects on behavior. As empathy is a common tool in prevention programs, the implications of these findings are discussed

Driving pressure during general anesthesia for open abdominal surgery (DESIGNATION) : study protocol of a randomized clinical trial

Background Intraoperative driving pressure (Delta P) is associated with development of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPC). When tidal volume (V-T) is kept constant, Delta P may change according to positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP)-induced changes in lung aeration. Delta P may decrease if PEEP leads to a recruitment of collapsed lung tissue but will increase if PEEP mainly causes pulmonary overdistension. This study tests the hypothesis that individualized high PEEP, when compared to fixed low PEEP, protects against PPC in patients undergoing open abdominal surgery. Methods The "Driving prESsure durIng GeNeral AnesThesIa for Open abdomiNal surgery trial" (DESIGNATION) is an international, multicenter, two-group, double-blind randomized clinical superiority trial. A total of 1468 patients will be randomly assigned to one of the two intraoperative ventilation strategies. Investigators screen patients aged >= 18 years and with a body mass index <= 40 kg/m(2), scheduled for open abdominal surgery and at risk for PPC. Patients either receive an intraoperative ventilation strategy with individualized high PEEP with recruitment maneuvers (RM) ("individualized high PEEP") or one in which PEEP of 5 cm H2O without RM is used ("low PEEP"). In the "individualized high PEEP" group, PEEP is set at the level at which Delta P is lowest. In both groups of the trial, V-T is kept at 8 mL/kg predicted body weight. The primary endpoint is the occurrence of PPC, recorded as a collapsed composite of adverse pulmonary events. Discussion DESIGNATION will be the first randomized clinical trial that is adequately powered to compare the effects of individualized high PEEP with RM versus fixed low PEEP without RM on the occurrence of PPC after open abdominal surgery. The results of DESIGNATION will support anesthesiologists in their decisions regarding PEEP settings during open abdominal surgery

Dendritic Cell Migration to Skin-Draining Lymph Nodes Is Controlled by Dermatan Sulfate and Determines Adaptive Immunity Magnitude

Immunobiology of allogeneic stem cell transplantation and immunotherapy of hematological disease

Here Comes the Bad News: Doctor Robot Taking Over

To test in how far the Media Equation and Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) validly explain user responses to social robots, we manipulated how a bad health message was framed and the language that was used. In the wake of Experiment 2 of Burgers et al. (Patient Educ Couns 89(2):267–273, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2012.08.008), a human versus robot doctor delivered health messages framed positively or negatively, using affirmations or negations. In using frequentist (robots are different from humans) and Bayesian (robots are the same) analyses, we found that participants liked the robot doctor and the robot’s message better than the human’s. The robot also compelled more compliance to the medical treatment. For the level of expected quality of life, the human and robot doctor tied. The robot was not seen as affectively distant but rather involving, ethical, skilled, and people wanted to consult her again. Note that doctor robot was not a seriously looking physician but a little girl with the voice of a young woman. We conclude that both Media Equation and CASA need to be altered when it comes to robot communication. We argue that if certain negative qualities are filtered out (e.g., strong emotion expression), credibility will increase, which lowers affective distance to the messenger. Robots sometimes outperform humans on emotional tasks, which may relieve physicians from a most demanding duty of disclosing unfavorable information to a patient

Development of atypical parental behavior during an inpatient family preservation intervention program

Since failed reunification is a detrimental outcome for children, particularly infants and toddlers, the aim of this study was to gain insight into support to families in multiple-problem situations to help them achieve sustainable good-enough parenting. Therefore, we examined outcomes of an assessment-based inpatient family preservation program. We prepared a thorough target-population description (n = 70) using file analysis. Next, we examined atypical parental behavior during the intervention using the Atypical Maternal Behavior Instrument for Assessment and Classification with a repeated measures design (n = 30). The family files revealed a great number of issues at the family, parent, and child levels, such as practical matters, problems in parent functioning and between parents, and difficulties in the broader environment. We found a significant decline in three dimensions of atypical parental behavior over time. This program has great potential in supporting vulnerable families in their pursuit of family preservation