Applying Intersubjectivity for Professional Development

This is an intersubjective review of Loewen, G. V. (2012). Hermeneutic Pedagogy: Teaching and learning as dialogue and interpretation. Alcoa, TN, USA. Old Moon Academic Press. The four authors of the review used a reflective-reflexive, dialogic process to interpret and analyze Loewen’s text. Their review is presented in a dialogue format that resulted after analyzing a much longer set of narrative data.[1][1] Editorial Note: This is a very unusual review! There are four points of interest that make this review an interesting read. The first one concerns the subject of the review: the book on hermeneutics. The second point is the form of the review: it is dialogue between the authors presented in its development. The third point of interest is the personal nature of the contents: the authors masterly show how their work on the review of the book penetrates their lives thus showing the real life with its changes, happiness, sadness, struggles and tribulations. The last point of interest that makes this review worth to be read  is the pioneering character of the work behind this review. Glenda Moss used this review as a tool for professional development for the colleagues in her department. In my humble opinion, this review is the result of the very courageous, pioneering and inspirational work! (Mikhail Gradovski

Responding to the Initial Challenge of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Analysis of International Responses and Impact in School and Higher Education

This paper presents and analyses solutions where open education and open science were utilised to reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education. The COVID-19 outbreak and associated lockdowns created huge challenges in school and higher education, demanding sudden responses which aimed to sustain pedagogical quality. Responses have varied from conservative to radically innovative. Universally, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted and shocked societies worldwide, and education systems were on the front line. The lockdowns largely stopped face-to-face and formal education in almost all countries, and in most cases, distance learning soon became the ‘new normal’. A central challenge concerned sustaining educational visions and ideals in such circumstances. To better understand the state of the art in the educational landscape, we collected case studies from 13 countries during the first year of the pandemic starting on 11 March 2020 (when the World Health Organization declared a pandemic). This paper presents summaries of the full country reports that were collected and describe lessons learned. Our overall aim was to identify good practices and recommendations from the collected case studies that can be taken forward in the future. We categorised the responses on the three generic educational levels (macro, meso and micro) and identified seven key aspects and trends that are valid for all or most countries: (1) formal education at a distance for first time; (2) similar approaches for formal education; (3) missing infrastructure and sharing open educational resources; (4) diverse teaching and learning methods and practices; (5) open education and access to open educational resources; (6) urgent need for professional development and training for teachers and (7) assessing and monitoring learning environments, teachers and students. Finally, we identified key recommendations on how open education and open science can benefit formal education in schools and universities in the future, namely, improved awareness of open educational practices, provision of ICT infrastructure, embracing and sustaining the practice of open access publications and OERs, capacity building for stakeholders and finally encouraging research and development in the area of open education and open science. We found significant evidence for the proposition that open education and open science can support both traditional face-to-face and distance learning

The impact of missing data on clinical trials : a re-analysis of a placebo controlled trial of Hypericum perforatum (St Johns wort) and sertraline in major depressive disorder.

CAPRISA, 2013.Rationale and objective Hypericum perforatum (St John's wort) is used to treat depression, but the effectiveness has not been established. Recent guidelines described the analysis of clinical trials with missing data, inspiring the reanalysis of this trial using proper missing data methods. The objective was to determine whether hypericum was superior to placebo in treating major depression. Methods A placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial was conducted for 8 weeks to determine the effectiveness of hypericum or sertraline in reducing depression, measured using the Hamilton depression scale. We performed sensitivity analyses under different assumptions about the missing data process. Results Three hundred forty participants were randomized, with 28 % lost to follow-up. The missing data mechanism was not missing completely at random. Under missing at random assumptions, some sensitivity analyses found no difference between either treatment arm and placebo, while some sensitivity analyses found a significant difference from baseline to week 8 between sertraline and placebo (−1.28, 95 % credible interval [−2.48; −0.08]), but not between hypericum and placebo (0.56, [−0.64;1.76]). The results were similar when the missing data process was assumed to be missing not at random. Conclusions There is no difference between hypericum and placebo, regardless of the assumption about the missing data process. There is a significant difference between sertraline and placebo with some statistical methods used. It is important to conduct an analysis that takes account of missing data using valid statistically principled methods. The assumptions about the missing data process could influence the results

Tutorial:Speech assessment for multilingual children who do not speak the same language(s) as the speech-language pathologist

Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to support speech language pathologists (SLPs) undertaking assessments of multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders, particularly children who speak languages that are not shared with their SLP. Method: The tutorial was written by the International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children’s Speech, which comprises 46 researchers (SLPs, linguists, phoneticians, and speech scientists) who have worked in 43 countries and used 27 languages in professional practice. Seventeen panel members met for a 1-day workshop to identify key points for inclusion in the tutorial, 26 panel members contributed to writing this tutorial, and 34 members contributed to revising this tutorial online (some members contributed tomore than 1 task). Results: This tutorial draws on international research evidence and professional expertise to provide a comprehensive overview of working with multilingual children with suspected speech sound disorders. This overview addresses referral, case history, assessment, analysis, diagnosis, and goal setting and the SLP’s cultural competence and preparation for working with interpreters and multicultural support workers and dealing with organizational and government barriers to and facilitators of culturally competent practice. Conclusion: The issues raised in this tutorial are applied in a hypothetical case study of an English-speaking SLP’s assessment of a multilingual Cantonese-and English-speaking 4-year-old boy. Resources are listed throughout the tutorial.Australian Research Council: FT0990588United States Department of Health & Human Services National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA NIH National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor and angiotensin receptor blocker initiation on organ support-free days in patients hospitalized with COVID-19

IMPORTANCE Overactivation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) may contribute to poor clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19. Objective To determine whether angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) initiation improves outcomes in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS In an ongoing, adaptive platform randomized clinical trial, 721 critically ill and 58 non–critically ill hospitalized adults were randomized to receive an RAS inhibitor or control between March 16, 2021, and February 25, 2022, at 69 sites in 7 countries (final follow-up on June 1, 2022). INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive open-label initiation of an ACE inhibitor (n = 257), ARB (n = 248), ARB in combination with DMX-200 (a chemokine receptor-2 inhibitor; n = 10), or no RAS inhibitor (control; n = 264) for up to 10 days. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcome was organ support–free days, a composite of hospital survival and days alive without cardiovascular or respiratory organ support through 21 days. The primary analysis was a bayesian cumulative logistic model. Odds ratios (ORs) greater than 1 represent improved outcomes. RESULTS On February 25, 2022, enrollment was discontinued due to safety concerns. Among 679 critically ill patients with available primary outcome data, the median age was 56 years and 239 participants (35.2%) were women. Median (IQR) organ support–free days among critically ill patients was 10 (–1 to 16) in the ACE inhibitor group (n = 231), 8 (–1 to 17) in the ARB group (n = 217), and 12 (0 to 17) in the control group (n = 231) (median adjusted odds ratios of 0.77 [95% bayesian credible interval, 0.58-1.06] for improvement for ACE inhibitor and 0.76 [95% credible interval, 0.56-1.05] for ARB compared with control). The posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitors and ARBs worsened organ support–free days compared with control were 94.9% and 95.4%, respectively. Hospital survival occurred in 166 of 231 critically ill participants (71.9%) in the ACE inhibitor group, 152 of 217 (70.0%) in the ARB group, and 182 of 231 (78.8%) in the control group (posterior probabilities that ACE inhibitor and ARB worsened hospital survival compared with control were 95.3% and 98.1%, respectively). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this trial, among critically ill adults with COVID-19, initiation of an ACE inhibitor or ARB did not improve, and likely worsened, clinical outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0273570

Multisyllabic word production of school-aged children with and without protracted phonological development

Few studies exist concerning multisyllabic word development, yet researchers suggest that evaluation of long words is essential for phonological assessment of school-aged children (e.g. Holm, Farrier, & Dodd, 2008; James, 2006). Furthermore, multisyllabic word (MSW) production may be related to literacy development (Carroll & Snowling, 2004). The goal of this thesis therefore was to further study the phonological acquisition of MSWs. The dissertation begins with a meta-analysis (Chapter 2) that examines factors related to word level literacy skills in children with and without protracted phonological development (PPD). Fifty-two eligible studies were evaluated that had measured at least one word level literacy construct. Sixty-four independent samples were generated for evaluation of: Phonological awareness, Decoding, Fluency, Nonword decoding and Spelling. A mean mixed weighted d was compared on the Q-statistic using a random effects model. MSW evaluation was a relevant moderator of literacy for children with PPD as expected and motivated the remainder of the thesis. A pilot study (Chapter 3) evaluated a new MSW metric based on nonlinear phonological and language processing frameworks. Six MSWs were analyzed for ten English-speaking typically developing (TD) 5-year-olds, and eight French-speaking 3- to 4-year-olds with PPD. Mismatches were tallied and ranked, and compared with tallies from Phonological Mean Length of Utterance (Ingram, 2002) and Percent Consonants Correct (Shriberg, Austin, Lewis, McSweeny, & Wilson, 1997). The number of different ranks was significant and systematically higher with the new metric. Chapter 4 examines production of 20 MSWs in three sub-studies: (a) longitudinal: 44 TD children at ages 5 and 8 to 10 years; (b) cross-sectional by age: twelve age-matched 8- to 10-year-olds with and without PPD; and (c) cross-sectional by group: 62 TD 5-year-olds and the 12 8- to 10-year-olds with PPD. Lexical and phonological tallies decreased significantly between ages 5 and 8 years for the TD children. The 8- to 10-year-olds with PPD showed overall scores equivalent to those of the TD 5-year-olds although some different mismatch (error) patterns. In summary, the thesis further examines the link between MSWs and literacy and provides both a new whole-word metric for MSWs and phonological data for school-aged children.Medicine, Faculty ofAudiology and Speech Sciences, School ofGraduat

Learning About Your NSDL Collection's Use and Users

Presentation at the annual NSDL Conference, Washington DC, November 2010unpublishe

The impact of sirolimus on hepatitis C recurrence after liver transplantation

While some immunosuppression strategies may accelerate hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence after liver transplantation (LT), the impact of sirolimus (SRL) is not known