Applying the Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education; A Guide for Increased Learning in the Classroom

Education is essential for societal progress. Therefore, increasing performance in learning has become a popular research topic. However, determining this has proven difficult as all humans learn differently. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has focused on providing a set of intuitive teaching and course design guidelines that can increase learning (CAST, 2018; Meyer, Rose, & Gordon, 2014). UDL concepts have been implemented in K-12 education levels with successful outputs. However, these techniques effectiveness have been sparsely tested in higher education coursework. A study was conducted for this thesis that strived to determine the effectiveness of the UDL framework when applied in the higher education (HE). A set of slides implementing the UDL principles were created for this experiment from an existing aviation course. Thirty-six students from the University of Oklahoma participated in studying sample slides from either the UDL inspired content or Original course content. The subjects’ eye movement fixation duration, eye fixation count, pupil size and quiz results, were statistically analyzed to determine significance. The analyzed measures provided a way to quantify students engagement. This served to compare if enhancements using UDL were effective when applied to contents found in higher education. Additionally, a brief exit survey was conducted to further validate engagement and interest from the participants The results revealed an improvement when UDL contents are applied. Quiz result significantly improved with the UDL inspired contents. Eye movement fixation duration and eye fixation counts were higher for the UDL contents. Participants that had UDL enhanced contents had slightly higher pupil dilation which could be linked to greater focus. Finally UDL participants expressed higher levels of satisfaction and interest in the exit survey. Results indicated that when UDL contents were applied to learning materials students’ scores improved overall; additionally the longer eye fixation duration and eye fixation counts associates to an increase in attention. Therefore, implementing UDL into the higher education learning process shows promise in enhancing students’ scores and overall attentiveness

Change processes underlying 'good outcome' : a qualitative study on recovered and improved patients’ experiences in psychotherapy for major depression

Aim: Exploring change processes underlying "good outcome" in psychotherapy for major depression. We examined the perspectives of patients who "recovered" and "improved" (Jacobson & Truax) following time-limited CBT and PDT. Method: In the context of an RCT on the treatment of major depression, patients were selected based on their pre-post outcome scores on the BDI-II: we selected 28 patients who recovered and 19 who improved in terms of depressive symptoms. A grounded theory analysis was conducted on post-therapy client change interviews, resulting in an integrative conceptual model. Results: According to recovered and improved patients, change follows from an interaction between therapy, therapist, patient, and extra-therapeutic context. Both helping and hindering influences were mentioned within all four influencing factors. Differences between recovered and improved patients point at the role of patients' agency and patients' internal and external obstacles. However, patients marked as "improved" described heterogeneous experiences. CBT- and PDT-specific experiences were also observed, although our findings suggest the possible role of therapist-related influences. Conclusion: From patients' perspectives, various change processes underlie "good outcome" that do not necessarily imply an "all good process". This supports a holistic, multidimensional conceptualization of change processes in psychotherapy and calls for more fine-grained mixed-methods process-outcome research

Factores asociados a mortalidad en pacientes con peritonitis generalizada Hospital de Apoyo II Santa Rosa Enero 2017- Junio 2017

OBJETIVOS: Determinar los factores asociados a mortalidad en pacientes con peritonitis generalizada Hospital de Apoyo II Santa Rosa Enero 2017- Junio 2017 y cuál de todos estos factores encontrado es el que con mayor frecuencia se asocia a mortalidad en estos pacientes. METODO: Se realizó un estudio descriptivo observacional , donde la población de estudio estuvo constituida por todos los pacientes intervenidos quirúrgicamente con diagnostico post operatorio de peritonitis secundaria intervenidos quirúrgicamente en el Hospital de Apoyo II Santa Rosa Enero 2017- Junio 2017. El universo y la muestra coincidieron, estando conformado por los 41 pacientes que se hospitalizaron con diagnóstico de peritonitis secundaria en las unidades de cirugía de dicho Hospital, en los que se cumplieron los criterios de inclusión y exclusión. Se confeccionó una base de datos con las variables que se analizaron en el estudio, que se obtuvieron de la ficha de vaciamiento a través de los datos ofrecidos en la historia clínica del paciente. (Anexo I) Se elaboró un fichero de datos con la utilización del programa Microsoft Excel, previo al procesamiento de los mismos y la obtención de los resultados a través del programa de análisis esta-dístico SPSS 18.0. En el análisis estadístico se hizo uso de la prueba Chi Cuadrado (X2), mediante el sistema estadístico SPSS, se calculó la chi2, las asociaciones fueron consideradas significativas si la posibilidad de equivocarse fue menor al 5% (p < 0.05).El estudio contó con el permiso del Comité de Investigación y Ética del Hospital de Apoyo II Santa Rosa- Piura .Todas las historias con las que se trabajó contaban con consentimiento informado de cirugía. RESULTADOS: Las variables que resultaron significativas y por tanto asociadas al riesgo de morir fueron: Edad, el retardo quirúrgico , el índice de mannheim y las comorbilidades asociadas. CONCLUSIONES: Los factores de riesgo asociados a mortalidad en pacientes con peritonitis por perforación intestinal en el Hospital de Apoyo II Santa Rosa Enero 2017- Junio 2017,fueron la edad, la presencia de comorbilidad, el retardo quirúrgico, el score de Mannheim.OBJECTIVES: To determine the factors associated with mortality in patients with generalized peritonitis Hospital support II Santa Rosa January 2017- June 2017 and who of all these factors was found to be most frequently associated with mortality in these patients. METHOD: An observational descriptive study was carried out, where the study population consisted of all the patients who underwent surgery with a postoperative diagnosis of secondary peritonitis surgically treated at the Hospital of Support II Santa Rosa January 2017-June 2017. The universe and the sample coincided, being made up of the 41 patients who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of secondary peritonitis in the surgery units of said hospital, which were completed with inclusion and exclusion criteria. A database was made with the variables that were considered in the study, which were obtained from the emptying sheet through the data offered in the patient's medical history. (Annex I) We used a data file with the function of the Microsoft Excel program, to process them and obtain the results through the statistical analysis program SPSS 18.0. In the statistical analysis, the Chi square test was used (X2), using the SPSS statistical system, the chi2 was calculated, the associations were considered significant if the possibility of being wrong was less than 5% (p <0.05). He had the permission of the Research and Ethics Committee of the Support Hospital II Santa Rosa-Piura. RESULTS:The variables that were significant and therefore associated with the risk of dying were: : Age, surgical delay, mannheim index and associated comorbidities. CONCLUSIONS:The risk factors associated with mortality in patients with intestinal perforation peritonitis at the Hospital of Support II Santa Rosa January 2017 to June 2017, were age, presence of comorbidity, surgical delay, Mannheim score. The main causes of secondary peritonitis were complicated acute appendicitis, sigmoid volvulus and intestinal perforation. The main causes of comorbidity were high blood pressure and DM2. The risk factors that had the greatest influence on mortality were age and preoperative time.Tesi

Bringing high resolution land cover products to the Puget Sound region and U.S.

Understanding land cover patterns and their changes is essential to comprehensive natural resource management and conservation planning. Land cover products derived from satellite imagery and other remotely sensed data can provide information for resource inventories and assessments, track progress of management plans, and monitor impacts of ecosystem change at the landscape scale. For almost two decades, NOAA’s Office for Coastal Management has been using satellite imagery to produce standardized, regional land cover and change information for the coastal U.S. through its Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP). C-CAP products are updated every five years and provide additional wetland categories for nearshore and coastal applications. Recent increases in high resolution imagery and LiDAR data availability combined with improvements in processing techniques are enabling more cost-effective production of high resolution land cover products. In recent years, NOAA has been working to establish an operational higher resolution land cover product line, bringing the national C-CAP framework to the local level and allowing for more site specific applications. The Puget Sound region is one of the few areas around the nation where this work is currently being piloted and made publicly available. This talk will highlight techniques NOAA is using to develop detailed land cover information, showcase example products from the Puget Sound, demonstrate how these products can be used for improved restoration and protection of coastal riparian habitats, and discuss partnership opportunities for producing high resolution land cover maps across broadening geographies

The implementation of shadowing technique to improve oral accuracy in young children

El siguiente proyecto de aula fue realizado por dos profesoras practicantes de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira del programa Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa, cuyo objetivo era ayudar a estudiantes del grado cuarto del colegio Instituto Técnico Superior sede primaria a articular con exactitud sonidos propios de la lengua inglesa a través de una técnica llamada shadowing. Durante la implementación del proyecto, una de las practicantes estuvo a cargo de desarrollar diferentes actividades de aula articuladas con la técnica, mientras la otra se encargó de observar y adjuntar información para obtener resultados. Es válido decir que el proceso en términos generales fue exitoso, ya que los estudiantes entendieron sin mucha dificultad la finalidad de la técnica y mostraron gran disponibilidad al momento de implementarla. Los aspectos que facilitaron el desarrollo de las actividades fueron la edad de los estudiantes, las ayudas audiovisuales con las que contaba el salón y las actividades que las practicantes encontraron motivantes para los estudiantes tales como juegos, canciones y películas que siguieron aplicando durante el resto del proceso

The geopolitics of hydrogen: technologies, actors and scenarios until 2040

The transition to a hydrogen-based economy is gaining momentum in both Germany and the European Union (EU). Used as an energy carrier, hydrogen holds the promise of freeing hard-to-decarbonise sectors like heavy industry, aviation, and maritime trade from their emissions. At the same time, policymakers hope that hydrogen will promote Europe's energy independence, push sustainable development, and strengthen value-based trade. This study presents three plausible yet disruptive scenarios for the geo­politics of hydrogen up to the year 2040 (developed with a team of experts in a multi-stage foresight process). "Hydrogen Realignment" considers the possibility of an eastward shift of industry, power, and technological lead­er­ship; "Hydrogen (In)Dependence" depicts a future, in which Europe pur­sues hydrogen self-sufficiency but becomes dependent on raw material supply; and "Hydrogen Imperialism" delves into the dystopian scenario of a hydrogen transition dominated by hegemons and despots. The transition to hydrogen is likely to shift and complicate Europe's exter­nal dependence rather than eliminate it; the role of supply chains will become more important. Moreover, the potential of hydrogen trade for global sustainable development is limited and requires targeted efforts. Resource distribution, production potential, current geopolitical power dynamics, and their interplay will influence hydrogen policy and deci­sion-making along the entire value chain, with actors often giving priority to socioeconomic, geopolitical, and technopolitical considerations. Germany and the EU must pursue a proactive hydrogen strategy, acknowl­edge the preferences of external actors, and form pragmatic partnerships to keep sight of climate goals, retain industry, and avoid losing global influence. In addition to promoting targeted technologies, decision-makers must manage dependencies across sectors and do so in an anticipatory way. Pursuing diversification is indispensable, and instituting targeted diplomacy and development assistance would be helpful. The new hydrogen sector also needs governing institutions - for example a "Hydrogen Alli­ance" - to mitigate geopolitical risks and allocate investments correctly. (author's abstract

Geoparsing the Historical Gazetteers of Scotland: Accurately Computing Location in Mass Digitised Texts

This paper describes work in progress on devising automatic and parallel methods for geoparsing large digital historical textual data by combining the strengths of three natural language processing (NLP) tools, the Edinburgh Geoparser, spaCy and defoe, and employing different tokenisation and named entity recognition (NER) techniques. We apply these tools to a large collection of nineteenth century Scottish geographical dictionaries, and describe preliminary results obtained when processing this data

THE ROLE OF LIPASE MATURATION FACTOR 1 IN THE MATURATION OF LIPOPROTEIN LIPASE

Over a third of the US adult population has elevated blood triglyceride (TG) levels (hypertriglyceridemia), resulting in an increased risk of atherosclerosis, pancreatitis, and metabolic syndrome. Lipases are responsible for lipid uptake from dietary sources and for the distribution of fatty acids to different tissues. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL), a dimeric enzyme, is the main lipase responsible for TG clearance from the blood after food intake. In difference of monomeric lipases, dimeric lipases require lipase maturation factor 1 (LMF1) for proper folding, activity, and secretion. LMF1 is a transmembrane protein located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Although LMF1 is crucial for ER exit of dimeric lipases, the mechanism by which LMF1 promotes lipase maturation is not known. My thesis work aims to understand LMF1's role in LPL maturation using cell biology and biochemical methods. I have developed N-terminal truncation mutants of LMF1, which revealed that full length LMF1 is required for the maturation of LPL. We employed LMF1-crosslinking/mass spectrometry studies to identify proteins with a role in LPL maturation. Our novel interacting partners of LMF1 and LPL were validated by pull down assays and by protein knockdowns to assess effects on LPL maturation. We found five novel, ER-resident binding partners of LMF1. Three of these proteins are involved in formation and isomerization of disulfide bonds. Given the role in oxidative folding of most of the new partners we propose that LMF1 promotes LPL folding by promoting redox homeostasis in the ER.Doctor of Philosoph