New Poll: Adults Working With Youths Say Minority Children Face More Obstacles to Health and Success than White Counterparts

Minority children and teenagers have fewer opportunities than white counterparts to be healthy, obtain a quality education and achieve economic success, according to a national survey of adults whose jobs involve children's education, health and economic well-being. The groundbreaking poll was released by the independent W.K. Kellogg Foundation, which sought to gauge the level of disparities affecting children of color

Using Supervision Mapping to Enrich School Counseling Fieldwork Supervision

Supervision mapping is a creative, visual approach to supervision wherein trainees identify concerns, strengths, goals, and ethical questions. While the supervision map has been identified as a potential tool for school counselors-in-training, no research has focused on its effectiveness. Therefore, this study sought to explore trainees’ experiences using the supervision map with faculty supervisors throughout their fieldwork experiences. The supervision map was used with school counseling trainees in two graduate practicum seminars in the Northeast (n=31). After using the supervision map for the duration of the seminar class, an electronic survey of their experience was administered, to which 23 trainees responded. Response frequencies, percentages, and qualitative feedback were analyzed to ascertain student perception of the supervision map. Results indicated favorable reactions to using this tool to help trainees develop reflective practices. Additionally, results suggest the benefit of using supervision maps may extend to the faculty supervisor, site supervisor, and group supervision process. Potential future uses for the supervision map are highlighted

Context Matters: Accounting for Item Features in the Assessment of Citizen Scientists’ Scientific Reasoning Skills

Citizen science (CS) projects engage citizens for research purposes and promote individual learning outcomes such as scientific reasoning (SR) skills. SR refers to participants’ skills to solve problems scientifically. However, the evaluation of CS projects’ effects on learning outcomes has suffered from a lack of assessment instruments and resources. Assessments of SR have most often been validated in the context of formal education. They do not contextualize items to be authentic or to represent a wide variety of disciplines and contexts in CS research. Here, we describe the development of an assessment instrument that can be flexibly adapted to different CS research contexts. Furthermore, we show that this assessment instrument, the SR questionnaire, provides valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills. We found that the deep-structure and surface features of the items in the SR questionnaire represent the thinking processes associated with SR to a substantial extent. We suggest that practitioners and researchers consider these item features in future adaptations of the SR questionnaire. This will most likely enable them to draw valid conclusions about participants’ SR skills and to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ SR skills in CS project evaluation

The clinical significance of transfer RNAs present in extracellular vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are important for intercellular signalling in multi-cellular organ-isms. However, the role of mature transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and tRNA fragments in EVs has yet to be characterised. This systematic review aimed to identify up-to-date literature on tRNAs pre-sent within human EVs and explores their potential clinical significance in health and disease. A comprehensive and systematic literature search was performed, and the study was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Electronic databases MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched up until 1st January 2022. From 685 papers, 60 studies were identified for analysis. The majority of papers reviewed focussed on the role of EV tRNAs in cancers (31.7%), with numerous other conditions represented. Blood and cell lines were the most common EV sources, representing 85.9% of protocols used. EV isolation methods included the most known methods, precipitation being the most common (49.3%). The proportion of EV tRNAs was highly variable, ranging be-tween 0.04% to >95% depending on tissue source. EV tRNAs are present in a multitude of sources and show promise as disease markers in breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and other diseases. EV tRNA research is an emerging field, with increasing numbers of papers highlighting novel methodologies for tRNA and tRNA fragment discovery

Empirical Comparison of Distributed Source Localization Methods for Single-Trial Detection of Movement Preparation

The development of technologies for the treatment of movement disorders, like stroke, is still of particular interest in brain-computer interface (BCI) research. In this context, source localization methods (SLMs), that reconstruct the cerebral origin of brain activity measured outside the head, e.g., via electroencephalography (EEG), can add a valuable insight into the current state and progress of the treatment. However, in BCIs SLMs were often solely considered as advanced signal processing methods that are compared against other methods based on the classification performance alone. Though, this approach does not guarantee physiological meaningful results. We present an empirical comparison of three established distributed SLMs with the aim to use one for single-trial movement prediction. The SLMs wMNE, sLORETA, and dSPM were applied on data acquired from eight subjects performing voluntary arm movements. Besides the classification performance as quality measure, a distance metric was used to asses the physiological plausibility of the methods. For the distance metric, which is usually measured to the source position of maximum activity, we further propose a variant based on clusters that is better suited for the single-trial case in which several sources are likely and the actual maximum is unknown. The two metrics showed different results. The classification performance revealed no significant differences across subjects, indicating that all three methods are equally well-suited for single-trial movement prediction. On the other hand, we obtained significant differences in the distance measure, favoring wMNE even after correcting the distance with the number of reconstructed clusters. Further, distance results were inconsistent with the traditional method using the maximum, indicating that for wMNE the point of maximum source activity often did not coincide with the nearest activation cluster. In summary, the presented comparison might help users to select an appropriate SLM and to understand the implications of the selection. The proposed methodology pays attention to the particular properties of distributed SLMs and can serve as a framework for further comparisons

Residencia universitaria en la Universidad de Lausana, Suiza

This university residence consists, basically, of two main blocks. One contains the bedrooms, and operates in a manner that is similar to that of a hotel. The other is occupied by the hexagonally shaped restaurant, and its lower height provides a pleasant contrast to the total design. Both blocks are linked by a platform that serves as roof for the commercial zone, the offices and the laboratories. The residence has 150 bedrooms, 3 apartments, a restaurant, a cafeteria, a music room, a reading room and the usual services. The external and internal aspect is satisfying and correct, very simple, and is expressed in long lasting textures that are easy to maintain.Esta residencia universitaria consta, esencialmente, de dos cuerpos de edificio: uno aloja las habitaciones y funciona con régimen similar al de un hotel; y otro, ocupado por un restaurante con planta hexagonal, cuyo volumen más bajo aporta una nota graciosa al conjunto. Ambos cuerpos están unidos por una plataforma que sirve de techo a los locales comerciales, despachos y laboratorios creados. La residencia comprende: 150 habitaciones, 3 apartamentos, un restaurante y una cafetería, sala de música, sala de lectura, etc., y los servicios generales correspondientes. Sus tratamientos exterior e interior son correctos, de elegante sencillez, textura duradera y de fácil entretenimiento

Oncologist-led BRCA ‘mainstreaming’ in the ovarian cancer clinic: A study of 255 patients and its impact on their management

Although guidelines recommend BRCA testing for all women with non-mucinous epithelial ovarian cancer, there is significant variability in access to testing across the UK. A germline BRCA mutation (BRCAm) in ovarian cancer patients provides prognostic and predictive information and influences clinical management, such as the use of PARP inhibitors, which have demonstrated a progression-free survival benefit in the BRCAm cohort. Additionally, the finding of a BRCAm has significant implications for patients and their families in terms of cancer risk and prevention. We studied the impact of a newly-formed, oncologist-led ‘mainstreaming’ germline BRCA testing pathway in 255 ovarian cancer patients at Imperial College NHS Trust. Prior to the establishment of ‘mainstreaming’, uptake of germline BRCA testing was 14% with a mean turnaround time of 148.2 calendar days. The ‘mainstreaming’ approach led to a 95% uptake of germline BRCA testing and a mean turnaround time of 20.6 days. Thirty-four (13.33%) BRCAm patients were identified. At the time of data collection nine BRCAm patients had received a PARP inhibitor off-trial, three had entered a PARP inhibitor trial and 5 were receiving platinum-based chemotherapy with a plan to receive PARP inhibitor maintenance. This study provides further evidence of the impact of oncologist-led ‘mainstreaming’ programs

Reimagining heritage buildings as technological spaces

In the course of two immersive projects, Digital Ghost Hunt (UKRI/AHRC) and XR3 (UKRI/AHRC; in process), we have developed a framework for temporarily reconfiguring heritage buildings as technological performance spaces for roaming audiences, without the need for making any permanent changes to the fabric of the buildings. The performances produced within this framework are designed as participatory, ‘storified’ encounters with heritage buildings and their history, utilising a range of simple hand-held sensor devices (SEEK detectors, designed and built for the project), the heritage building itself, and a custom ‘ghost story’ that allows participants to uncover the history of the building. At the immediate level, our framework builds new young and young adult audiences to engage with heritage and enter the technological design process as collaborative makers and performers. Beyond this immediate level, our approach superimposes a technological space onto an architectural heritage space, emphasising its potential as an ‘experience machine’ that is animated by our movements, perceptions and actions. Reconfiguring and combining technological spaces and heritage spaces, or aim is to create a subject position that is located where they intersect, inviting participation as agents that connect and ‘caretake’

Inverting the 'black box' of technology: The Digital Ghost Hunt

The Digital Ghost Hunt was a 2017-2019 collaboration between The University of Sussex, King’s Digital Lab and KIT Theatre. The project was funded by AHRC in the Immersive Experience funding stream and was awarded a full grant for the pilot and an extension to build and widen audiences in the second phase. We were primarily interested in how immersive experience can be designed so as to emphasise and deepen sociality and engagement with the physical world, in contrast with the idea of ‘black box’ applications. We also wanted to explore the interactions between design and technology as means to bring people of different ages and attitudes to technology together through shared learning and problem-solving, with a nod to the popularity of escape rooms. Designing technology-led experience to enhance engagement with external worlds rather than enclosing the attention and focus of the ‘user’ or audience within display-dependent experiences raises many challenges. First and perhaps foremost the degree to which control can be exercised over the environment and the interactions of the audience, but also what type of environments and stories will lend themselves to storytelling that appeals to a range of audiences; different technological abilities, different experience of participatory experience, and different ages. We decided to focus on heritage venues, as they offer rich histories and collections but also ‘worlds’ that are, at least to some degree, contained. Our stated aims and objectives included not only the design of a replicable live immersive augmented reality experience for young audiences, but the production and publication of scripts and open-source code libraries for other producers (primarily in the third sector) to use and adapt for other heritage venues and audience cohorts