Development of a Web System to Improve and Reinforce Learning in Mathematics in Primary and Secondary Students in Peru

This article describes the development and evaluation of a web system that aims to improve and reinforce mathematics learning in primary school students in Peru. Mathematics education is central to the school curriculum and it is important that students gain a solid understanding and ability to apply mathematical concepts in everyday situations. However, it is common for students to have difficulty learning and understanding courses in this subject, which can negatively affect their academic performance and self-confidence. To address this issue, a web-based system was developed that includes interactive lessons and personalized learning tools that are tailored to the individual needs of each student. The system also offers online resources and activities to help students deepen mathematical concepts and apply them to practical problems. To evaluate some drawbacks, a study was carried out with a group of parents of some primary school students in Peru. The results of the study showed that there is a worrying distrust of online study. Technology is set to revolutionize the way primary school students in Peru learn and study, providing access to a wide variety of digital resources and tools that can improve comprehension and academic performance. This work demonstrates the effectiveness of the web system developed as a tool to improve and reinforce mathematics learning in primary school students in Peru. The system provides a personalized and adaptive online learning platform that can help students improve their math skills and understanding, and increase their motivation and confidence

Extinction of cue-evoked drug-seeking relies on degrading hierarchical instrumental expectancies

There has long been need for a behavioural intervention that attenuates cue-evoked drug-seeking, but the optimal method remains obscure. To address this, we report three approaches to extinguish cue-evoked drug-seeking measured in a Pavlovian to instrumental transfer design, in non-treatment seeking adult smokers and alcohol drinkers. The results showed that the ability of a drug stimulus to transfer control over a separately trained drug-seeking response was not affected by the stimulus undergoing Pavlovian extinction training in experiment 1, but was abolished by the stimulus undergoing discriminative extinction training in experiment 2, and was abolished by explicit verbal instructions stating that the stimulus did not signal a more effective response-drug contingency in experiment 3. These data suggest that cue-evoked drug-seeking is mediated by a propositional hierarchical instrumental expectancy that the drug-seeking response is more likely to be rewarded in that stimulus. Methods which degraded this hierarchical expectancy were effective in the laboratory, and so may have therapeutic potential

Rapamycin-Insensitive Up-Regulation of Adipocyte Phospholipase A2 in Tuberous Sclerosis and Lymphangioleiomyomatosis

Tuberous sclerosis syndrome (TSC) is an autosomal dominant tumor suppressor gene syndrome affecting multiple organs, including renal angiomyolipomas and pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM). LAM is a female-predominant interstitial lung disease characterized by the progressive cyst formation and respiratory failure, which is also seen in sporadic patients without TSC. Mutations in TSC1 or TSC2 cause TSC, result in hyperactivation of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and are also seen in LAM cells in sporadic LAM. We recently reported that prostaglandin biosynthesis and cyclooxygenase-2 were deregulated in TSC and LAM. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) is the rate-limiting enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of plasma membrane phospholipids into prostaglandins. In this study, we identified upregulation of adipocyte AdPLA2 (PLA2G16) in LAM nodule cells using publicly available expression data. We showed that the levels of AdPLA2 transcript and protein were higher in LAM lungs compared with control lungs. We then showed that TSC2 negatively regulates the expression of AdPLA2, and loss of TSC2 is associated with elevated production of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostacyclin (PGI2) in cell culture models. Mouse model studies also showed increased expression of AdPLA2 in xenograft tumors, estrogen-induced lung metastatic lesions of Tsc2 null leiomyoma-derived cells, and spontaneous renal cystadenomas from Tsc2+/− mice. Importantly, rapamycin treatment did not affect the expression of AdPLA2 and the production of PGE2 by TSC2-deficient mouse embryonic fibroblast (Tsc2−/−MEFs), rat uterine leiomyoma-derived ELT3 cells, and LAM patient-associated renal angiomyolipoma-derived “mesenchymal” cells. Furthermore, methyl arachidonyl fluorophosphate (MAFP), a potent irreversible PLA2 inhibitor, selectively suppressed the growth and induced apoptosis of TSC2-deficient LAM patient-derived cells relative to TSC2-addback cells. Our findings suggest that AdPLA2 plays an important role in promoting tumorigenesis and disease progression by modulating the production of prostaglandins and may serve as a potential therapeutic target in TSC and LAM

N-fold Supersymmetry in Quantum Mechanics - Analyses of Particular Models -

We investigate particular models which can be N-fold supersymmetric at specific values of a parameter in the Hamiltonians. The models to be investigated are a periodic potential and a parity-symmetric sextic triple-well potential. Through the quantitative analyses on the non-perturbative contributions to the spectra by the use of the valley method, we show how the characteristic features of N-fold supersymmetry which have been previously reported by the authors can be observed. We also clarify the difference between quasi-exactly solvable and quasi-perturbatively solvable case in view of the dynamical property, that is, dynamical N-fold supersymmetry breaking.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures, REVTeX

Disparities in Antifibrotic Medication Utilization Among Veterans With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

BackgroundTwo antifibrotic medications, pirfenidone and nintedanib, are approved for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Little is known about their real-world adoption.Research questionWhat are the real-world antifibrotic utilization rates and factors associated with uptake among a national cohort of veterans with IPF?Study design and methodsThis study identified veterans with IPF who received care either provided by the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System or non-VA care paid for by the VA. Patients who had filled at least one antifibrotic prescription through the VA pharmacy or Medicare Part D between October 15, 2014, and December 31, 2019, were identified. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to examine factors associated with antifibrotic uptake, accounting for comorbidities, facility clustering, and follow-up time. Fine-Gray models were used to evaluate antifibrotic use by demographic factors, accounting for the competing risk of death.ResultsAmong 14,792 veterans with IPF, 17% received antifibrotics. There were significant disparities in adoption, with lower uptake associated with female sex (adjusted OR, 0.41; 95% CI, 0.27-0.63; P < .001), Black race (adjusted OR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.49-0.73; P < .001), and rural residence (adjusted OR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.80-0.97; P = .012). Veterans who received their index diagnosis of IPF outside the VA were less likely to receive antifibrotic therapy (adjusted OR, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.10-0.22; P < .001).InterpretationThis study is the first to evaluate the real-world adoption of antifibrotic medications among veterans with IPF. Overall uptake was low, and there were significant disparities in use. Interventions to address these issues deserve further investigation

Developing a parent vocabulary checklist for young Indigenous children growing up multilingual in the Katherine region of Australia's Northern Territory

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a checklist to assess vocabulary development in Indigenous Australian children, with a local focus on Indigenous Australian children growing up in the towns and communities of the Katherine Region in the Northern Territory of Australia. In this region, many families are multilingual and/or multidialectal and children’s home languages include varieties of Aboriginal English, Kriol, traditional Aboriginal languages, and/or other languages. Method: Over four years, a checklist was iteratively developed from parent interviews, comparisons of potential items to the content and structure of the Communicative Development Inventories (CDI): Words & Gestures (Short Form), team discussions and pilot testing with 33 parents of infants aged 0–4 years. Result: The Early Language Inventory (ERLI) checklist offers new content compared with the CDI: Words & Gestures (short form) and the OZI (Australian English CDI, long form). Initial data from 33 parents suggests the checklist has desirable features: scores correlated positively with age and related to word combining, reaching ceiling around 3 years of age for many children. Infants whose parents had concerns tended to have lower scores. Conclusion: ERLI is a new local adaptation of the CDI (Words & Gestures) for assessing early communication among Indigenous infants growing up in the Katherine region of the Northern Territory, Australia

A tale of two community networks program centers: Operationalizing and assessing CBPR principles and evaluating partnership outcomes

BACKGROUND: Community Networks Program (CNP) centers are required to use a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach within their specific priority communities. Not all communities are the same and unique contextual factors and collaborators’ priorities shape each CBPR partnership. There are also established CBPR and community engagement (CE) principles shown to lead to quality CBPR in any community. However, operationalizing and assessing CBPR principles and partnership outcomes to understand the conditions and processes in CBPR that lead to achieving program and project level goals is relatively new in the science of CBPR. OBJECTIVES: We sought to describe the development of surveys on adherence to and implementation of CBPR/CE principles at two CNP centers and examine commonalities and differences in program- versus project-level CBPR evaluation. METHODS: A case study about the development and application of CBPR/CE principles for the Missouri CNP, Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities, and Minnesota CNP, Padres Informados/Jovenes Preparados, surveys was conducted to compare project versus program operationalization of principles. Survey participant demographics were provided by CNP. Specific domains found in CBPR/CE principles were identified and organized under an existing framework to establish a common ground. Operational definitions and the number of survey items were provided for each domain by CNP. CONCLUSION: There are distinct differences in operational definitions of CBPR/CE principles at the program and project levels of evaluation. However, commonalities support further research to develop standards for CBPR evaluation across partnerships and at the program and project levels

High- and Low-Mass Star Forming Regions from Hierarchical Gravitational Fragmentation. High local Star Formation Rates with Low Global Efficiencies

We investigate the properties of "star forming regions" in a previously published numerical simulation of molecular cloud formation out of compressive motions in the warm neutral atomic interstellar medium, neglecting magnetic fields and stellar feedback. In this simulation, the velocity dispersions at all scales are caused primarily by infall motions rather than by random turbulence. We study the properties (density, total gas+stars mass, stellar mass, velocity dispersion, and star formation rate) of the cloud hosting the first local, isolated "star formation" event in the simulation and compare them with those of the cloud formed by a later central, global collapse event. We suggest that the small-scale, isolated collapse may be representative of low- to intermediate-mass star-forming regions, while the large-scale, massive one may be representative of massive star forming regions. We also find that the statistical distributions of physical properties of the dense cores in the region of massive collapse compare very well with those from a recent survey of the massive star forming region in the Cygnus X molecular cloud. The star formation efficiency per free-fall time (SFE_ff) of the high-mass SF clump is low, ~0.04. This occurs because the clump is accreting mass at a high rate, not because its specific SFR (SSFR) is low. This implies that a low value of the SFE_ff does not necessarily imply a low SSFR, but may rather indicate a large gas accretion rate. We suggest that a globally low SSFR at the GMC level can be attained even if local star forming sites have much larger values of the SSFR if star formation is a spatially intermittent process, so that most of the mass in a GMC is not participating of the SF process at any given time.Comment: Accepted by ApJ. Revised version, according to exchanges with referee. Original results unchanged. Extensive new discussion on the low global efficiency vs. high local efficiency of star formation. Abstract abridge

Cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer\u27s disease in a cohort of adults with Down syndrome

Introduction: Virtually all individuals with Down syndrome (DS) will develop Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD) pathology by age 40. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers have characterized AD pathology in cohorts of late-onset AD (LOAD) and autosomal-dominant AD (ADAD). Few studies have evaluated such biomarkers in adults with DS. Methods: CSF concentrations of amyloid beta (Aβ)40, Aβ42, tau, phospho-tau181 (p-tau), neurofilament light chain (NfL), soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (sTREM2), chitinase-3-like protein 1 (YKL-40), alpha synuclein (αSyn), neurogranin (Ng), synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP-25), and visinin-like protein 1 (VILIP-1) were assessed in CSF from 44 adults with DS from the Alzheimer\u27s Biomarker Consortium-Down Syndrome study. Biomarker levels were evaluated by cognitive status, age, and apolipoprotein E gene ( Results: Biomarker abnormalities indicative of amyloid deposition, tauopathy, neurodegeneration, synaptic dysfunction, and neuroinflammation were associated with increased cognitive impairment. Age and Discussion: The profile of many established and emerging CSF biomarkers of AD in a cohort of adults with DS was similar to that reported in LOAD and ADAD, while some differences were observed

The Ship of Theseus Puzzle

Does the Ship of Theseus present a genuine puzzle about persistence due to conflicting intuitions based on “continuity of form” and “continuity of matter” pulling in opposite directions? Philosophers are divided. Some claim that it presents a genuine puzzle but disagree over whether there is a solution. Others claim that there is no puzzle at all since the case has an obvious solution. To assess these proposals, we conducted a cross-cultural study involving nearly 3,000 people across twenty-two countries, speaking eighteen different languages. Our results speak against the proposal that there is no puzzle at all and against the proposal that there is a puzzle but one that has no solution. Our results suggest that there are two criteria—“continuity of form” and “continuity of matter”— that constitute our concept of persistence and these two criteria receive different weightings in settling matters concerning persistence