Math Learning Digital Choice Board

This choice board invites students to: Make a stop motion animation to teach a math concept. Make, fly, and measure your own paper airplane designs. Evaluate how math is used in digital games. And explore more math learning topics and learn about math and writing connections at our Bookcase for Young Writers.https://scholarworks.umass.edu/tecs_ed_materials/1027/thumbnail.jp

Middle and Late Pleistocene environmental history of the Marsworth area, south-central England

To elucidate the Middle and Late Pleistocene environmental history of south-central England, we report the stratigraphy, sedimentology, palaeoecology and geochronology of some deposits near the foot of the Chiltern Hills scarp at Marsworth, Buckinghamshire. The Marsworth site is important because its sedimentary sequences contain a rich record of warm stages and cold stages, and it lies close to the Anglian glacial limit. Critical to its history are the origin and age of a brown pebbly silty clay (diamicton) previously interpreted as weathered till. The deposits described infill a river channel incised into chalk bedrock. They comprise clayey, silty and gravelly sediments, many containing locally derived chalk and some with molluscan, ostracod and vertebrate remains. Most of the deposits are readily attributed to periglacial and fluvial processes, and some are dated by optically stimulated luminescence to Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 6. Although our sedimentological data do not discriminate between a glacial or periglacial interpretation of the diamicton, amino-acid dating of three molluscan taxa from beneath it indicates that it is younger than MIS 9 and older than MIS 5e. This makes a glacial interpretation unlikely, and we interpret the diamicton as a periglacial slope deposit. The Pleistocene history reconstructed for Marsworth identifies four key elements: (1) Anglian glaciation during MIS 12 closely approached Marsworth, introducing far-travelled pebbles such as Rhaxella chert and possibly some fine sand minerals into the area. (2) Interglacial environments inferred from fluvial sediments during MIS 7 varied from fully interglacial conditions during sub-stages 7e and 7c, cool temperate conditions during sub-stage 7b or 7a, temperate conditions similar to those today in central England towards the end of the interglacial, and cool temperate conditions during sub-stage 7a. (3) Periglacial activity during MIS 6 involved thermal contraction cracking, permafrost development, fracturing of chalk bedrock, fluvial activity, slopewash, mass movement and deposition of loess and coversand. (4) Fully interglacial conditions during sub-stage 5e led to renewed fluvial activity, soil formation and acidic weathering

Integrin-Dependent Activation of the JNK Signaling Pathway by Mechanical Stress

Mechanical force is known to modulate the activity of the Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling cascade. However, the effect of mechanical stresses on JNK signaling activation has previously only been analyzed by in vitro detection methods. It still remains unknown how living cells activate the JNK signaling cascade in response to mechanical stress and what its functions are in stretched cells

Protocol for an economic analysis of the randomised controlled trial of improving the wellbeing of people with opioid treated chronic pain : I-WOTCH study

Introduction: Over the last two decades, the use of opioids for the treatment of chronic pain in England has steadily increased despite lack of evidence of both long term effectiveness in pain relief and significant, well documented physical and mental adverse events. Guidelines recommend tapering when harms outweigh benefits, but the addictive nature of opioids hinders simple dose reduction strategies. Improving the Wellbeing of people with Opioid Treated CHronic pain (I WOTCH) trial tests a multicomponent self-management intervention aimed to help patients with chronic non malignant pain taper opioid doses. This paper outlines the methods to be used for the economic analysis of the I WOTCH intervention compared to the best usual care. Methods and analysis: Economic evaluation alongside the I WOTCH study, prospectively designed to identify, measure, and value key healthcare resource use and outcomes arising from the treatment strategies being compared. A within trial cost consequences analysis and a model based long-term cost effectiveness analysis will be conducted from the National Health Service and Personal Social Service perspective in England. The former will quantify key parameters to populate a Markov model designed to estimate the long-term cost and quality adjusted life years of the I-WOTCH programme against best usual care. Regression equations will be used to estimate parameters such as transition probabilities, utilities, and costs associated with the model’s states and events. Probabilistic sensitivity analysis will be used to assess the impact of parameter uncertainty onto the predicted costs and health outcomes, and the resulting value for money assessment of the I-WOTCH programme. Ethics and dissemination: Full ethics approval was granted by Yorkshire & The Humber – South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee on September 13th, 2016 (16/YH/0325). Current protocol: version 1.7, date 31 July 2019. Findings will be disseminated in peer reviewed journals, scientific conferences, newsletters, and websites. Registration details: International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number: 49470934 (6 Feb 2017)

Assessing a Nation’s Competitiveness in Global Food Innovation: Creating a Global Food Innovation Index

While food innovation is heavily influenced by the myriad of policies, regulations and other environmental factors within a country, globalization means that food innovation is also a matter of international competitiveness. This benchmarking exercise uses 24 variables to compare the different innovation environments across ten countries: Canada, the US, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Australia. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from publicly available sources only to measure each variable and ultimately provide a ranking. Qualitative data was evaluated using thematic coding to establish baseline practices and then compare each country to the baseline. Quantitative data was evaluated by constructing an average to which each country was compared. Countries whose data showed they met the average were awarded two points, and those who performed above or below average were either awarded an additional point or saw a point deducted. A final ranking was established from the scores across all four pillars, and the ranking was weighted to account for lacking data. The final weighted ranking saw the UK rank first, followed by the US, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, France and finally, Italy in tenth place

Assessing a Nation’s Competitiveness in Global Food Innovation: Creating a Global Food Innovation Index

While food innovation is heavily influenced by the myriad of policies, regulations and other environmental factors within a country, globalization means that food innovation is also a matter of international competitiveness. This benchmarking exercise uses 24 variables to compare the different innovation environments across ten countries: Canada, the US, Mexico, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, and Australia. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from publicly available sources only to measure each variable and ultimately provide a ranking. Qualitative data was evaluated using thematic coding to establish baseline practices and then compare each country to the baseline. Quantitative data was evaluated by constructing an average to which each country was compared. Countries whose data showed they met the average were awarded two points, and those who performed above or below average were either awarded an additional point or saw a point deducted. A final ranking was established from the scores across all four pillars, and the ranking was weighted to account for lacking data. The final weighted ranking saw the UK rank first, followed by the US, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Mexico, France and finally, Italy in tenth place

Preparing mental health professionals for new directions in mental health practice: evaluating the sensory approaches e-learning training package

The application of sensory modulation approaches in mental health settings is growing in recognition internationally. However, a number of barriers have been identified as limiting the implementation of the approach, including workplace culture and a lack of accessible and effective sensory approaches training. The aim of this project was to investigate the efficacy of providing this training through a custom-designed e-learning package. Participants in the present study were predominately nurses and occupational therapists working in mental health settings in Queensland, Australia. Data were collected from 121 participants using an online survey. Significant improvements were found between pre- and post-training in participants' real and perceived levels of knowledge, their perceived levels of confidence, and their attitudes towards using sensory modulation approaches in mental health settings. The findings of the study suggest that the custom-designed sensory approaches e-learning package is an effective, accessible, acceptable, and usable method to train health professionals in sensory modulation approaches. As this study is the first to analyse the efficacy of an e-learning sensory approaches package, the results are considered preliminary, and further investigation is required