Children’s Creativity Lab : creating a ‘pen of the future’

This work is funded by EPSRC and SICSA.Technology is changing the way we acquire new skills and proficiencies and handwriting is no exception to this. However, while some technological advancements exist in this area, the question of how we can digitally enhance the process of learning handwriting remains under-explored. Being immersed in this process on an everyday basis, we believe that school aged children can provide valuable ideas and insights into the design of future writing tools for learners developing their (hand)writing skills. As end-users of the proposed technology, we explore including children in a form of informed participatory design during a creativity lab where we invited 12 children, aged 11–12, to put themselves into the shoes of a product designers and create a Pen of the Future using prototyping materials. In this paper we describe our methodology and discuss the design ideas that children came up with and how these may inform the design of future writing tools.Postprin

Temporal and Spatial Impacts of Water Control Structures on the Benthic Infaunal Community of a Tidally Restricted Wetland in Elkhorn Slough, CA

North Azevedo Pond in Elkhorn Slough, CA is a partially tidally restricted wetland that underwent an experimental ponding manipulation which increased inundation and tidal mixing within the system. This wetland has two spatially significant infaunal microsystems, south and north. Benthic cores taken before and after the manipulation showed that both the south and north infaunal communities remained dominated by the same major taxa, respectively. Both systems, however, experienced species shifts following the ponding manipulation. In the South, the non-native bivalve, Gemma gemma, declined from an average of 19,103 to 385 individuals (m2)-1 whereas the native clam, Nutricola tantilla, increased from an average of 128 to 26,154 individuals (m2)-1. In the north, Capitella teleta declined from an average of 15,256 to 1,667 individuals (m2)-1, while Pseudopolydora kempi, increased from a mean of 7,436 to 38,077 individuals (m2)-1. Overall, the hydrographic manipulations were successful in improving water quality by increasing ponding and creating more complex infaunal communities than those present prior to the ponding manipulation

Parental Multi-Meanings of School Choice: A Narrative, Phenomenological Case Study

Title from PDF of title page, viewed on June 5, 2015Dissertation advisor: Jennifer FriendVitaIncludes bibliographic references (pages 187-202)Thesis (Ed.D.)--School of Education. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2014The purpose of this narrative, phenomenological, case study was to develop a thick, rich description of the deeper meanings of school choice for parents at a Midwestern, midsize suburban public middle school. Parental school choice was defined as the untold, multifaceted understanding of values, beliefs, and the underlying personal preference regarding schools to discover meaning. The traditions of narratology, phenomenology, and case study were utilized to capture the voices of parents to understand the meaning of the phenomenon. The goal of this research was to share this information with school district leaders as it could, (a) help identify why parents are making school choice decisions, (b) identify resources parents utilized to make choice decisions, and (c) to understand the attributes parents were looking for in a school and why they specifically chose this particular district/school. In knowing this information school district leaders could use this knowledge to market their district and use the data to inform policy and practices. For the survey and narratives, data were analyzed using the process of a generic coding process that constituted identifying themes and subthemes. Transcendental phenomenology and cross-case analysis were used to analyze interviews. Findings from the surveys, narratives, and interviews themes suggested that the districts will want to gather their own data on what choice means, keep a focus on continuous student achievement, disseminate current school information to the public, and in particular develop positive partnerships with real estate agents to ensure new parents are provided accurate information about the school district. These findings revealed a real need for educational leaders to manage district growth and keep a small town feel, while maintaining low teacher-student ratios. The need to keep district and building-level websites current with data parents were looking for, as well as for districts to consider inter-district and intra-district student transfer opportunities also came to light. The experiences of the participants were from a privileged background, but equity for all students is something for which we continue to strive.Introduction -- Literature review -- Research and design methodology -- Results: the story behind the data -- Implications and recommendations -- Appendix A. Consent to participate in a resaerch study -- Appendix B. Participant survey -- Appendix C. Narrative prompt -- Appendix D. Semi-structured, open-ended interview guide -- Appendix E. Consent form for narratives and interview

SleepCompete: A Smart Bedside Device to Promote Healthy Sleeping Habits in Children

We outline SleepCompete: a bedside device that encourages and promotes healthy sleeping behaviour in families, with a particular focus on children, in a fun and useful way. SleepCompete encourages children and their parents to monitor sleeping habits by introducing a ‘sleep score’. By sharing this score with others we propose that SleepCompete persuades its users to improve sleeping habits. We outline the concept of our device and the preliminary study we conducted

The Mass-Radius Relation Of Young Stars. I. Usco 5, An M4.5 Eclipsing Binary In Upper Scorpius Observed By K2

We present the discovery that UScoCTIO 5, a known spectroscopic binary in the Upper Scorpius star-forming region (P = 34 days, M-tot sin(i) = 0.64M(circle dot)), is an eclipsing system with both primary and secondary eclipses apparent in K2 light curves obtained during Campaign 2. We have simultaneously fit the eclipse profiles from the K2 light curves and the existing RV data to demonstrate that UScoCTIO 5 consists of a pair of nearly identical M4.5 stars with M-A = 0.329 +/- 0.002 M-circle dot, R-A = 0.834 +/- 0.006 R-circle dot, M-B = 0.317 +/- 0.002 M-circle dot, and R-B = 0.810 +/- 0.006 R-circle dot. The radii are broadly consistent with pre-main-sequence ages predicted by stellar evolutionary models, but none agree to within the uncertainties. All models predict systematically incorrect masses at the 25%-50% level for the HR diagram position of these mid-M dwarfs, suggesting significant modifications to mass-dependent outcomes of star and planet formation. The form of the discrepancy for most model sets is not that they predict luminosities that are too low, but rather that they predict temperatures that are too high, suggesting that the models do not fully encompass the physics of energy transport (via convection and/or missing opacities) and/or a miscalibration of the SpT-T-eff scale. The simplest modification to the models (changing T-eff to match observations) would yield an older age for this system, in line with the recently proposed older age of Upper Scorpius (tau similar to 11 Myr).NASA Science Mission directorateW. M. Keck FoundationAstronom

DNA-coated microcrystals

Coprecipitation leads to self-assembly of bioactive DNA on the surface of salt, sugar or amino-acid crystals and provides a rapid inexpensive immobilization method suitable for preparing dry-powder formulations of nucleic acids, useful for storage, imaging and drug delivery

Child-centred technologies as learning tools within the primary classroom : exploring the role of tablets and the potential of digital pens in schools

This thesis provides insights into how technology can be and is used as child-centric learning tools within primary school classrooms. The conducted studies look closely at how tablet technology is integrated into the modern classroom, and considers how existing digital writing technologies could support handwriting-based learning exercises in future. This is achieved by conducting three in-the-wild studies, using different approaches, with a total of seventy-four children in school classrooms. In the first study, focus is placed on how tablets integrate into and with existing classroom practices, documenting when and how children use tablets in class. Relevant and complementary to this, the use of traditional writing tools is questioned and two further studies explore the potential and suitability of digital pens to support children’s handwriting-based learning. One looks in detail at how children’s handwriting is effected by different existing digital pen technologies. The other study, conducted through a creative, participatory design session, asks children to provide their opinions regarding desirable features for digital writing technology. The findings from this research classify and exemplify the role of tablets in the classroom, and explore potential design directions of digital writing tools which could be used by children in the future. This work may be useful and of interest to others who conduct research with children within the fields of Human Computer Interaction, Child Computer Interaction or education

Can shared decision making reduce medical malpractice litigation? : A systematic review

© 2015 Durand et al.; licensee BioMed Central. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise statedTo explore the likely influence and impact of shared decision-making on medical malpractice litigation and patients’ intentions to initiate litigation. We included all observational, interventional and qualitative studies published in all languages, which assessed the effect or likely influence of shared decision-making or shared decision-making interventions on medical malpractice litigation or on patients’ intentions to litigate. The following databases were searched from inception until January 2014: CINAHL, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, HMIC, Lexis library, MEDLINE, NHS Economic Evaluation Database, Open SIGLE, PsycINFO and Web of Knowledge. We also hand searched reference lists of included studies and contacted experts in the field. Downs & Black quality assessment checklist, the Critical Appraisal Skill Programme qualitative tool, and the Critical Appraisal Guidelines for single case study research were used to assess the quality of included studiePeer reviewedFinal Published versio