Designing and Implementing a Qualitative Evaluation Protocol for Non-Credit Life Long Learning Programs 1

This study was undertaken to determine whether an evaluation model employing multiple methods of data collection and analysis might yield more useful information for improving lifelong learning courses than existing models. Major findings included: (1) learning satisfaction appears to be dependent on the instructional environment adults may be most comfortable with and; (2) the confidence gained in using computers, rather than skills acquisition, was the greatest benefit students derived from their participation. Findings from this study suggest the value of mixed methods evaluation designs for generating information that is useful for improving lifelong learning courses. Findings also suggest the need for much more research in this domain of inquiry

Maternal age effect and severe germ-line bottleneck in the inheritance of human mitochondrial DNA

The manifestation of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diseases depends on the frequency of heteroplasmy (the presence of several alleles in an individual), yet its transmission across generations cannot be readily predicted owing to a lack of data on the size of the mtDNA bottleneck during oogenesis. For deleterious heteroplasmies, a severe bottleneck may abruptly transform a benign (low) frequency in a mother into a disease-causing (high) frequency in her child. Here we present a high-resolution study of heteroplasmy transmission conducted on blood and buccal mtDNA of 39 healthy mother–child pairs of European ancestry (a total of 156 samples, each sequenced at ∼20,000× per site). On average, each individual carried one heteroplasmy, and one in eight individuals carried a disease-associated heteroplasmy, with minor allele frequency ≥1%. We observed frequent drastic heteroplasmy frequency shifts between generations and estimated the effective size of the germ-line mtDNA bottleneck at only ∼30–35 (interquartile range from 9 to 141). Accounting for heteroplasmies, we estimated the mtDNA germ-line mutation rate at 1.3 × 10−8 (interquartile range from 4.2 × 10−9 to 4.1 × 10−8) mutations per site per year, an order of magnitude higher than for nuclear DNA. Notably, we found a positive association between the number of heteroplasmies in a child and maternal age at fertilization, likely attributable to oocyte aging. This study also took advantage of droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) to validate heteroplasmies and confirm a de novo mutation. Our results can be used to predict the transmission of disease-causing mtDNA variants and illuminate evolutionary dynamics of the mitochondrial genome

You Win Some, You Lose Some: How Demographic Factors Interact with the Ubiquity of the Framing Effect

The current literature review is a compilation of research that addresses the ubiquity of the framing effect and presents examples of demographic features that hinder or facilitate the susceptibility to it. The framing effect, which was initially empirically studied through the exploration of gain vs. loss frames (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981), is a phenomenon in which discrepancies in the phrasing of the same content can elicit significantly different responses. A variety of frames, contexts, and demographics are discussed to reveal examples where the framing effect is present. Although our susceptibility to the framing effect emerges from underlying cognitive processes, the purpose of the current literature review is to promote awareness of the framing effect by explaining how it is utilized so that we can consciously decrease our susceptibility to our own cognitive biases

Designing and implementing a qualitative evaluation protocol for non-credit lifelong learning programs

The purpose of my study was to determine whether an evaluation model employing multiple methods of data collection and analysis might yield more useful information for improving non-credit lifelong learning courses than previous models, most of which have used variable analytic research designs and quantitative methods almost exclusively. Based on Tashakkori and Teddlie\u27s (1998) Dominant-Less Dominant Mixed Method Design, the study\u27s dominant component was qualitative in nature and involved collecting interview, observational, and archival data. These data were analyzed using both the constant comparative method of grounded theory analysis (e.g., Strauss & Glaser, 1967) and discourse analysis (e.g., Gee, 1999). The less dominant component was quantitative in nature. Data from students\u27 course surveys were collected and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. In all, 30 adults enrolled in two different 10-week computer software-training courses at a community college participated in the study. The study\u27s two major findings were: (1) the most satisfying way adults learn appears to be dependent on the instructional environment that they may be most comfortable with. Older students were provided with a formal, subject-oriented environment, while their younger counterparts were provided with a more self-directed, task-oriented environment; (2) although students from both courses reported that they had achieved their learning objectives, the confidence they gained in using computers, rather than the actual skills they learned, was the greatest benefit they derived from their participation. This study was one small attempt to develop and implement an evaluation model using a mixed-methods design that might be more useful than more typical quantitative designs for generating information that is useful for improving non-credit lifelong learning courses. Although the study suggests that such a model holds promise for accomplishing this goal, more research is needed to make this claim with confidence. Particularly important would be studies with much larger samples, as well as studies within a more diverse range of learning environments and learning activities

Deep-Coverage MPS Analysis of Heteroplasmic Variants within the mtGenome Allows for Frequent Differentiation of Maternal Relatives

Distinguishing between maternal relatives through mitochondrial (mt) DNA sequence analysis has been a longstanding desire of the forensic community. Using a deep-coverage, massively parallel sequencing (DCMPS) approach, we studied the pattern of mtDNA heteroplasmy across the mtgenomes of 39 mother-child pairs of European decent; haplogroups H, J, K, R, T, U, and X. Both shared and differentiating heteroplasmy were observed on a frequent basis in these closely related maternal relatives, with the minor variant often presented as 2–10% of the sequencing reads. A total of 17 pairs exhibited differentiating heteroplasmy (44%), with the majority of sites (76%, 16 of 21) occurring in the coding region, further illustrating the value of conducting sequence analysis on the entire mtgenome. A number of the sites of differentiating heteroplasmy resulted in non-synonymous changes in protein sequence (5 of 21), and to changes in transfer or ribosomal RNA sequences (5 of 21), highlighting the potentially deleterious nature of these heteroplasmic states. Shared heteroplasmy was observed in 12 of the 39 mother-child pairs (31%), with no duplicate sites of either differentiating or shared heteroplasmy observed; a single nucleotide position (16093) was duplicated between the data sets. Finally, rates of heteroplasmy in blood and buccal cells were compared, as it is known that rates can vary across tissue types, with similar observations in the current study. Our data support the view that differentiating heteroplasmy across the mtgenome can be used to frequently distinguish maternal relatives, and could be of interest to both the medical genetics and forensic communities