A Qualitative Study on Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Virtual Instruction During the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Midwest Public School District

During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed to in-person instruction and forced teachers and students into virtual learning environments. Schools and districts had to create new ways to deliver curriculum to their students, and most chose to switch to an online/virtual learning environment. In this learning environment, the teachers taught from a distance, and students received their instruction through synchronous and asynchronous methods. This change in content delivery was a new experience for most educators. Teachers worldwide expressed their frustrations with virtual instruction and dissatisfaction with student engagement through social media and mainstream media outlets. The study aimed to determine teachers’ perceptions of the virtual learning environment to assess Teacher Efficacy and ideas for possible improvement for that type of learning environment. Participants answered survey questions about teacher self-efficacy, collective Teacher Efficacy, school effectiveness, technology proficiency, and professional development needs through a qualitative study. These survey questions ranged from Likert-type scale and open-ended questions to allow participants multiple ways to express their feelings about teaching in a virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. After analyzing the data, the results indicated that teachers were primarily confident that they could impact student achievement while stressed over the virtual learning environment. They suggested a need for time to plan for virtual learning with their colleagues and focused professional development on the most important digital tools required for virtual instruction

Latest Pleistocene and Holocene Floodplain Evolution in Central Europe—Insights from the Upper Unstrut Catchment (NW-Thuringia/Germany)

The upper Unstrut River is located in Germany at the modern Central European climate boundary of Cfb and Dfb climate. The river drains a loess landscape, which has experienced important environmental changes throughout the last 12,000 years. To evaluate the impacts of these changes on floodplain evolution, a multi-proxy research program, consisting of 2D electrical resistivity tomography profiling (ERT), vibracoring, and sedimentological investigations, 14C and OSL dating were applied. From base to top the investigations the following fluvial deposits were revealed: (1) gravels embedded in a fine-grained sediment matrix (interpreted as fluvial bedload deposits); (2) silty sediment with pedogenic features (interpreted as overbank floodplain deposits); (3) peat and tufa deposits (interpreted as wetland deposits) intercalated by pedogenetically influenced silty sediments (interpreted as overbank deposits); (4) humic silty sediment with some pedogenic features (interpreted as overbank floodplain deposits); and (5) silty sediments (interpreted as overbank deposits). Radiocarbon and luminescence dates yielded the following periods for sediment formation: (1) Younger Dryas to Preboreal period (around 11.6 cal ka BP); (2) Preboreal to early Atlantic period (approx. 11.6 to 7.0 cal ka BP); (3) early Atlantic to late Subboreal period (approx. 7.3 to 3.4 cal ka BP); (4) late Subboreal to early Subatlantic period (2.9 to 2.3 cal ka BP); and (5) late Subatlantic period (approx. 1.0 to 0.6 cal ka BP). The results suggest that floodplain development during the latest Pleistocene and early Holocene (approx. 11.6 to 7.0 cal ka BP) was considerably controlled by climatic conditions and short-term climate variabilities, which caused gravel deposition and overbank sedimentation. Afterwards floodplain conditions varied between rather stable (peat and tufa development, initial soil formation) and active periods (deposition of overbank fines)

Using Gamification and Social Incentives to Increase Physical Activity and Related Social Cognition among Undergraduate Students in Shanghai, China

Gamification and social incentives are promising strategies to increase the effectiveness of web-based physical activity (PA) interventions by improving engagement. In this study, we designed a PA intervention integrating gamification and social incentives based on the most popular social networking service in China, WeChat. A controlled trial involving 52 Chinese undergraduate students was implemented to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. Subjects in the intervention group received a 7-week intervention. PA behavior and related social cognitive variables according to the theory of planned behavior were measured at the baseline and after the intervention. Daily physical activity duration was measured during the intervention. The results showed that PA-related subjective norms, perceived behavior control, and intention, as well as self-reported vigorous physical activity and moderate physical activity in the intervention group, were increased after the intervention, compared with the control group (p <0.05). During the intervention, perceived daily physical activity duration in the intervention group was on the rise, while it declined in the control group (p <0.001). The findings indicate that WeChat-based intervention integrating gamification and social incentives could effectively increase subjectively measured PA and related social cognition among Chinese undergraduate students and that it is a promising way to ameliorate the problem of insufficient PA among youths

The effects of baryon physics, black holes and AGN feedback on the mass distribution in clusters of galaxies

The spatial distribution of matter in clusters of galaxies is mainly determined by the dominant dark matter component, however, physical processes involving baryonic matter are able to modify it significantly. We analyse a set of 500 pc resolution cosmological simulations of a cluster of galaxies with mass comparable to Virgo, performed with the AMR code RAMSES. We compare the mass density profiles of the dark, stellar and gaseous matter components of the cluster that result from different assumptions for the subgrid baryonic physics and galaxy formation processes. First, the prediction of a gravity only N-body simulation is compared to that of a hydrodynamical simulation with standard galaxy formation recipes, then all results are compared to a hydrodynamical simulation which includes thermal AGN feedback from Super Massive Black Holes (SMBH). We find the usual effects of overcooling and adiabatic contraction in the run with standard galaxy formation physics, but very different results are found when implementing SMBHs and AGN feedback. Star formation is strongly quenched, producing lower stellar densities throughout the cluster, and much less cold gas is available for star formation at low redshifts. At redshift z = 0 we find a flat density core of radius 10 kpc in both of the dark and stellar matter density profiles. We specu- late on the possible formation mechanisms able to produce such cores and we conclude that they can be produced through the coupling of different processes: (I) dynamical friction from the decay of black hole orbits during galaxy mergers; (II) AGN driven gas outflows producing fluctuations of the gravitational potential causing the removal of collisionless matter from the central region of the cluster; (III) adiabatic expansion in response to the slow expulsion of gas from the central region of the cluster during the quiescent mode of AGN activity.Comment: Published on MNRAS - 13 pages, 4 tables, 9 figure

Cloud droplet number closure for tropical convective clouds during the ACRIDICON CHUVA campaign

The main objective of the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign in September 2014 was the investigation of aerosol-cloud-interactions in the Amazon Basin. Cloud properties near cloud base of growing convective cumuli were characterized by cloud droplet size distribution measurements using a cloud combination probe and a cloud and aerosol spectrometer. In the current study, an adiabatic parcel model was used to perform cloud droplet number closure studies for several flights in differently polluted air masses

Platypus globin genes and flanking loci suggest a new insertional model for beta-globin evolution in birds and mammals

Background: Vertebrate alpha (α)- and beta (β)-globin gene families exemplify the way in which genomes evolve to produce functional complexity. From tandem duplication of a single globin locus, the α- and β-globin clusters expanded, and then were separated onto different chromosomes. The previous finding of a fossil β-globin gene (ω) in the marsupial α-cluster, however, suggested that duplication of the α-β cluster onto two chromosomes, followed by lineage-specific gene loss and duplication, produced paralogous α- and β-globin clusters in birds and mammals. Here we analyse genomic data from an egg-laying monotreme mammal, the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), to explore haemoglobin evolution at the stem of the mammalian radiation. Results: The platypus α-globin cluster (chromosome 21) contains embryonic and adult α- globin genes, a β-like ω-globin gene, and the GBY globin gene with homology to cytoglobin, arranged as 5'-ζ-ζ'-αD-α3-α2-α1-ω-GBY-3'. The platypus β-globin cluster (chromosome 2) contains single embryonic and adult globin genes arranged as 5'-ε-β-3'. Surprisingly, all of these globin genes were expressed in some adult tissues. Comparison of flanking sequences revealed that all jawed vertebrate α-globin clusters are flanked by MPG-C16orf35 and LUC7L, whereas all bird and mammal β-globin clusters are embedded in olfactory genes. Thus, the mammalian α- and β-globin clusters are orthologous to the bird α- and β-globin clusters respectively. Conclusion: We propose that α- and β-globin clusters evolved from an ancient MPG-C16orf35-α-β-GBY-LUC7L arrangement 410 million years ago. A copy of the original β (represented by ω in marsupials and monotremes) was inserted into an array of olfactory genes before the amniote radiation (&gt;315 million years ago), then duplicated and diverged to form orthologous clusters of β-globin genes with different expression profiles in different lineages.Vidushi S. Patel, Steven J.B. Cooper, Janine E. Deakin, Bob Fulton, Tina Graves, Wesley C. Warren, Richard K. Wilson and Jennifer A.M. Grave

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival