Overcoming the barriers of distance: using mobile technology to facilitate moderation and best practice in initial teacher training

This case study describes the development process of a model using readily-available technology to facilitate collaboration, moderation and the dissemination of best practice in initial teacher training in the UK. Students, mentors, tutors and external examiners from a number of educational institutions in a UK, higher education-led Lifelong Learning Sector partnership (LLS) participated. The study explored the extent to which using group video-conferencing software and tablet computing had the potential to model best practice in giving feedback to students, in the setting of targets and in the joint observations of mentors and tutors based in separate institutions. A further area of investigation was the impact of the technology on the observation and moderation of teaching practice by external examiners. The study found that participants could identify a wide range of advantages of using the technology and also some disadvantages. The impact of the study was measured qualitatively via the students’ professional development record (PDR). The challenges involved in undertaking a multi-site study requiring Wi-Fi connectivity and involving participants from several institutions are described. The introduction of key information sets (KISs) related to employability creates an urgent need for HEIs to develop measures which enhance the employment prospects of all students

Amino Acid Levels in Carrot Cell Suspension Culture: No Correlation with Aspartate Kinase Isoenzyme Levels

Free and protein amino acids were analyzed during the growth cycle of a suspension culture of carrot (Daucus carota L.) in which there is a 10-fold increase in a lysine-sensitive isoenzyme of aspartate kinase during the early part of the growth cycle. There is little change in either total amino acids or in the amino acids derived from aspartate between 3 and 24 days of culture. It is estimated that the demand for net synthesis of aspartate-derived amino acids is decreased as the growth rate declines and that there is no correlation between the amount of extractable lysine-sensitive aspartate kinase and the amounts of amino acids being synthesized

Addition of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Enhances Terpene Synthase Expression in <i>Salvia rosmarinus</i> Cultivars

Culinary herbs are commercially cultivated for their wide range of volatile compounds that give characteristic aromas and tastes. Rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus Spenn.) is an excellent model for assessment of methods improvement of volatile production as cultivars offer a wide variety of aromatic profiles due to the large family of terpene synthase genes. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) associations have been shown to improve essential oil production in aromatic plants and offer one approach to enhance aroma in commercial herb production. Changes in the expression of seven different terpene synthases were compared in six rosemary cultivars in response to addition of AMF to a peat substrate. Addition of AMF profoundly influenced terpene synthase expression in all cultivars and did so without impacting the optimised plant size and uniformity achieved in these conditions. In addition, two methods for AMF application, developed with the horticultural industry in mind, were tested in this study. Uniform incorporation of AMF mixed into the growing substrate prior to planting of a root plug produced the most consistent root colonisation. Overall, our findings demonstrate the potential for the use of AMF in the improvement of aroma in culinary herbs within a commercial setting but show that outcomes are likely to greatly vary depending on variety

Acute kidney injury in COVID‐19: Identification of risk factors and potential biomarkers of disease in a large UK cohort

BackgroundCOVID‐19 is associated with increased risk of acute kidney injury (AKI). Risk factors and biomarkers linked to AKI have now been recognized by national guidelines in the United Kingdom. This analysis aims to validate and expand the comorbidities and biomarkers associated with the presence and severity of AKI in these patients.MethodsData were extracted via structured query language for patients with COVID‐19 at University Hospital Southampton between 1 March and 10 June 2020. Demographics, comorbidities, common biomarkers and AKI stage within 48 hours of admission, peak during admission and the last measurement prior to patient outcome (discharge or death) were collected and statistically analysed.ResultsSix hundred and thirty‐two COVID‐19 positive patients were admitted during this period; 34.2% had an AKI during their entire admission, 20.3% had AKI stage 1, 8.5% stage 2 and 5.4% stage 3. This was higher when compared with data from the same period in 2019. AKI carried an increased risk of death, 50.0% vs 21.1% (P = &lt;.001). AKI stage was significantly associated with age over 65, diabetes, heart failure, peripheral vascular disease, haematological malignancy, hypertension, respiratory rate, albumin, C‐reactive protein (CRP), d‐dimer, ferritin, high‐sensitivity troponin‐I, neutrophil count, total white cell counts, National Early Warning Score‐2 (NEWS‐2), Charlson comorbidity index and alanine‐aminotransferase. COVID‐19 specific treatment, including dexamethasone, reduced discharge creatinine.ConclusionCOVID‐19 increases the risk of AKI and this kidney injury may be responsive to treatment. This analysis identified that AKI is associated with both previously described and new comorbidities and biomarkers.</p

Distributed sensemaking: a case study of military analysis

Sensemaking frequently involves the use of representations ‘in the world’ embodied within representational artefacts. However, theories of sensemaking tend not to engage with this issue in depth. Such an understanding, we propose, is important for supporting artefact design. This article develops a perspective on distributed sensemaking by taking as the unit of analysis an assembly of people and/or artefacts, potentially distributed physically, socially and over time rather than the mind of an individual sensemaker. Through an observational study of military analysts we explore how a sensemaking task can be understood in terms of the distribution of task-relevant representations across internal and external representations. We conclude that in sensemaking, as with many cognitive activities, the design and interactional properties of external representational media has a profound effect on the properties of the combined distributed sensemaking system

A gene pathogenicity tool ‘GenePy’ identifies missed biallelic diagnoses in the 100,000 Genomes Project

Purpose: the 100,000 Genomes Project (100KGP) diagnosed a quarter of affected participants, but 26% of diagnoses were not on the applied gene panel(s); with many being de novo variants. Assessing biallelic variants without a gene panel is more challenging.Methods: we sought to identify missed biallelic diagnoses using GenePy, which incorporates allele frequency, zygosity, and a user-defined deleterious metric, generating an aggregate GenePy score per gene, per participant. We calculated GenePy scores for 2862 recessive disease-genes in 78,216 100KGP participants. For each gene, we ranked participant GenePy scores, and scrutinised affected participants without a diagnosis whose scores ranked amongst the top-5 for each gene. Where participant phenotypes overlapped with the disease gene of interest, we extracted rare variants and applied phase, ClinVar and ACMG classification.Results: 3184 affected individuals without a molecular diagnosis had a top-5 ranked GenePy score and 682/3184 (21%) had phenotypes overlapping with a top-ranking gene. In 122/669 (18%) of the phenotype-matched cases (excluding 13 withdrawn participants), we identified a putative missed diagnosis (2.2% of all undiagnosed participants). A further 334/669 (50%) of cases have a possible missed diagnosis but require functional validation.Conclusion: applying GenePy at scale has identified 456 potential diagnoses, demonstrating the value of novel diagnostic strategies