Orchestrating learning analytics (OrLA): Supporting inter-stakeholder communication about adoption of learning analytics at the classroom level

© 2019 Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. Despite the recent surge of interest in learning analytics (LA), their adoption in everyday classroom practice is still slow. Knowledge gaps and lack of inter-stakeholder communication (particularly with educational practitioners) have been posited as critical factors for previous LA adoption failures. Yet, what issues should researchers, practitioners and other actors communicate about, when considering the adoption of an LA innovation in a particular context? We reviewed and synthesised existing literature on four focus areas related to LA, their adoption, implications for practice, and more general factors that have emerged as crucial when studying everyday classroom adoption of technologies (i.e., classroom orchestration). This synthesis resulted in two conversational frameworks and an inter-stakeholder communication tool. These can be used to guide and support conversations and decision-making about the adoption of LA innovations. We illustrate their usefulness with examples of use in ongoing LA adoption processes in Australia, Spain and Estonia

Bed-slope-related diffusion of an erodible hump

In certain conditions, the bed slope has a substantial influence on sediment transport rates and hence morphological evolution. Approaches to account for such influence usually suffer from a high degree of empiricism and/or mathematical complexity. We propose a bed slope related diffusivity parameter, derived from a morphodynamic model previously validated against empirical data for bedload transport on horizontal and steep sloping channels. The proposed diffusivity parameter is easy to include in a conventional morphodynamic model via the modification of a typical bedload formula originally developed for sediment transport in a nearly horizontal channel. A conventional model modified through this parameter proves to yield enhanced results in the case study of a submerged migrating sandbar, by avoiding the generation of unrealistic high-frequency oscillations in the bed profile, yet permitting the expected steepening of its downstream face with time. Other models derived for sloping channels do not satisfy the latter condition. It is also shownthat unre-alistic oscillations can be avoided through numerical means; however, their use should be interpreted carefully from a hydrodynamic and sedimentological viewpoint

Study of Beauveria bassiana growth, blastospore yield, desiccation-tolerance, viability and toxic activity using different liquid media

Beauveria bassiana was grown on three liquid media containing casaminoacids, corn steep liquor or peptone. After incubation, the blastospore counts reached 6.38 × 109 blastospores/ml, in the medium containing sucrose and corn steep liquor, which was significantly higher than the obtained with media containing casaminoacids or peptone. The medium containing corn steep liquor produced predominately submerged conidia, meanwhile the other media produced blastospores. The blastospores produced in the medium containing casaminoacids presented faster germination rates, than the blastospores produced in media containing corn steep liquor or peptone, although, after airdrying, were observed significant reductions on the viability of blastospores produced in the media composed by casaminoacids or peptone, but the spores produced in the medium with corn steep liquor were not affected. For storage of blastospores at 4 and 26°C after some months, the blastospores produced in the medium with casaminoacids showed the highest viability at 26°C, whereas at 4°C the counts of viable blastospores produced in medium containing corn steep liquor were significantly higher than the counts of blastospores produced in the other media with casaminoacids or peptone. The blastospores maintained for six months at 4°C showed high mortality against third-instar Plutella xylostella larvae.Key words: Beauveria bassiana, liquid media, fermentation, short times of propagation, biological control, entomopathogen fungus

Caso clínico: Insuficiencia Respiratoria Aguda en el Postoperatorio de una Cesárea Urgente

Paciente de 31 años de edad, gestante gemelar mediante FIV con feto muerto a la 21 semana. Sin antecedentes personales ni familiares, no consumo de fármacos, no hábitos tóxicos, sin alergias medicamentosas conocidas. ASA I. Ingresa por amenaza de parto prematuro, realizándosele cesárea urgente por situación transversa del feto. Intraoperatorio sin incidentes. Recién nacido prematuro. Al segundo día del postoperatorio comienza con cuadro de abdomen agudo compatible con íleo paralítico, que empeora al día siguiente precisando laparotomía exploradora. Se aprecia peritonitis secundaria a endometritis. Se realizan lavados de cavidad abdominal y se instaura tratamiento antibiótico. Ingresa en la Unidad de Reanimación extubada, consciente, orientada, hemodinámicamente estable con bajas dosis de vasoactivos, y con función respiratoria y renal conservada. Evolución ligeramente favorable en los días posteriores permitiendo retirar vasoactivos; auscultación cardio-respiratoria normal; radiografía de tórax con pinzamiento del ángulo costodiafragmático izquierdo, sin otros hallazgos. Sin embargo, la paciente presenta una discreta taquicardia (100-105 lpm), abdomen distendido, doloroso y sin peristaltismo, leucocitosis (entorno a los 11.000 x 109 L-1) y hemoglobina de 9 mg dl-1 (resto de la analítica compatible con la normalidad). En el tercer día de estancia en la Unidad presenta un importante deterioro del estado general, con clínica de insuficiencia respiratoria aguda severa (disnea, taquipnea, uso de la musculatura accesoria, descoordinación tóraco-abdominal, obnubilación), reagudización del dolor abdominal con distensión, fiebre de 38,5ºC y descenso de la hemoglobina de un punto sin sangrado aparente por drenajes

Pharmacological Primary Cardiovascular Prevention and Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Men: Evidence from the Aragon Workers' Health Study.

The objective of this study is to describe the profile of primary preventive treatment for cardiovascular disease in adult males and to analyze the association between treatment profile and subclinical atherosclerosis. We selected male workers who had undergone ultrasound imaging and had no previous history of cardiovascular disease (n = 2138). Data on the consumption of primary cardiovascular drugs from the previous year were obtained. We performed bivariate analyses to compare patient characteristics according to cardiovascular treatment and the presence of subclinical atherosclerosis, and logistic regression models to explore the association between these two variables. Among participants with no personal history of cardiovascular disease, subclinical atherosclerosis was present in 77.7% and 31.2% had received some form of preventive treatment. Of those who received no preventive treatment, 73.6% had subclinical atherosclerosis. Cardiovascular preventive treatment was associated only with CACS > 0 (odds ratio (OR), 1.37; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.06-1.78). Statin treatment was associated with a greater risk of any type of subclinical atherosclerosis (OR, 1.73) and with CACS > 0 (OR, 1.72). Subclinical atherosclerosis existed in almost 75% of men who had no personal history of cardiovascular disease and had not received preventive treatment for cardiovascular disease

2nd Crossmmla: Multimodal learning analytics across physical and digital spaces

© 2018 CEUR-WS. All Rights Reserved. Students’ learning is ubiquitous. It happens wherever the learner is rather than being constrained to a specific physical or digital learning space (e.g. the classroom or the institutional LMS respectively). A critical question is: how to integrate and coordinate learning analytics to provide continued support to learning across physical and digital spaces? CrossMMLA is the successor to the Learning Analytics Across Spaces (CrossLAK) and MultiModal Learning Analytics (MMLA) series of workshops that were merged in 2017 after successful cross-pollination between the two communities. Although it may be said that CrossLAK and MMLA perspectives follow different philosophical and practical approaches, they both share a common aim. This aim is: deploying learning analytics innovations that can be used across diverse authentic learning environments whilst learners feature various modalities of interaction or behaviour

Some Like It Fat: Comparative Ultrastructure of the Embryo in Two Demosponges of the Genus Mycale (Order Poecilosclerida) from Antarctica and the Caribbean

0000-0002-7993-1523© 2015 Riesgo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License [4.0], which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Randomized clinical trial to evaluate the effect of fecal microbiota transplant for initial Clostridium difficile infection in intestinal microbiome

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of fecal donor-unrelated donor mix (FMT-FURM) transplantation as first-line therapy for C. difficile infection (CDI) in intestinal microbiome. Methods We designed an open, two-arm pilot study with oral vancomycin (250mg every 6 h for 10–14 days) or FMT-FURM as treatments for the first CDI episode in hospitalized adult patients in Hospital Universitario “Dr. Jose Eleuterio Gonzalez”. Patients were randomized by a closed envelope method in a 1: 1 ratio to either oral vancomycin or FMT-FURM. CDI resolution was considered when there was a reduction on the Bristol scale of at least 2 points, a reduction of at least 50% in the number of bowel movements, absence of fever, and resolution of abdominal pain (at least two criteria). From each patient, a fecal sample was obtained at days 0, 3, and 7 after treatment. Specimens were cultured to isolate C. difficile, and isolates were characterized by PCR. Susceptibility testing of isolates was performed using the agar dilution method. Fecal samples and FMT-FURM were analyzed by 16S rRNA sequencing. Results We included 19 patients; 10 in the vancomycin arm and 9 in the FMT-FURM arm. However, one of the patients in the vancomycin arm and two patients in the FMT-FURM arm were eliminated. Symptoms resolved in 8/9 patients (88.9%) in the vancomycin group, while symptoms resolved in 4/7 patients (57.1%) after the first FMT-FURM dose (P = 0.26) and in 5/7 patients (71.4%) after the second dose (P = 0.55). During the study, no adverse effects attributable to FMT-FURM were observed in patients. Twelve isolates were recovered, most isolates carried tcdB, tcdA, cdtA, and cdtB, with an 18-bp deletion in tcdC. All isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and moxifloxacin but susceptible to metronidazole, linezolid, fidaxomicin, and tetracycline. In the FMT-FURM group, the bacterial composition was dominated by Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria at all-time points and the microbiota were remarkably stable over time. The vancomycin group showed a very different pattern of the microbial composition when comparing to the FMT-FURM group over time. Conclusion The results of this preliminary study showed that FMT-FURM for initial CDI is associated with specific bacterial communities that do not resemble the donors’ sample.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Protective role of vitamin B6 (PLP) against DNA damage in Drosophila models of type 2 diabetes

Growing evidence shows that improper intake of vitamin B6 increases cancer risk and several studies indicate that diabetic patients have a higher risk of developing tumors. We previously demonstrated that in Drosophila the deficiency of Pyridoxal 5' phosphate (PLP), the active form of vitamin B6, causes chromosome aberrations (CABs), one of cancer prerequisites, and increases hemolymph glucose content. Starting from these data we asked if it was possible to provide a link between the aforementioned studies. Thus, we tested the effect of low PLP levels on DNA integrity in diabetic cells. To this aim we generated two Drosophila models of type 2 diabetes, the first by impairing insulin signaling and the second by rearing flies in high sugar diet. We showed that glucose treatment induced CABs in diabetic individuals but not in controls. More interestingly, PLP deficiency caused high frequencies of CABs in both diabetic models demonstrating that hyperglycemia, combined to reduced PLP level, impairs DNA integrity. PLP-depleted diabetic cells accumulated Advanced Glycation End products (AGEs) that largely contribute to CABs as α-lipoic acid, an AGE inhibitor, rescued not only AGEs but also CABs. These data, extrapolated to humans, indicate that low PLP levels, impacting on DNA integrity, may be considered one of the possible links between diabetes and cancer