The Nature of Study Programmes in Vocational Education: Evaluation of the Model for Comprehensive Competence-Based Vocational Education in the Netherlands

In a previous series of studies, a model of comprehensive competence-based vocational education (CCBE model) was developed, consisting of eight principles of competence-based vocational education (CBE) that were elaborated for four implementation levels (Wesselink et al. European journal of vocational training 40:38–51 2007a). The model thus consisted of 32 cells, all defined by text. It was developed to provide study programme teams working in vocational education with an instrument to assess the actual and desired “competentiveness” of their study programmes. “Competentiveness” refers to the extent to which study programmes are based on the principles of CBE that we formulated. The model is an instrument for analysing the alignment of study programmes with the defining principles of CBE and clarifying programme teams’ intentions, i.e. the extent to which they wish to achieve higher levels of implementation of the different principles. This article presents the results of two studies, the aim of which was to identify adjustments the teachers felt were necessary to make the CCBE model a valid instrument for assessing the actual and desired “competentiveness” of their study programmes. In study A, 57 teachers evaluated the model during focus group discussions, resulting in a revised CCBE model consisting of ten principles for five levels of implementation. In study B, 151 teachers completed a questionnaire to evaluate the comprehensibility of the revised model. The study showed that teachers understood and interpreted the revised model as intended, were able to position their study programmes by using the revised model and that the content validity of the revised model was good

Gene3D: comprehensive structural and functional annotation of genomes

Gene3D provides comprehensive structural and functional annotation of most available protein sequences, including the UniProt, RefSeq and Integr8 resources. The main structural annotation is generated through scanning these sequences against the CATH structural domain database profile-HMM library. CATH is a database of manually derived PDB-based structural domains, placed within a hierarchy reflecting topology, homology and conservation and is able to infer more ancient and divergent homology relationships than sequence-based approaches. This data is supplemented with Pfam-A, other non-domain structural predictions (i.e. coiled coils) and experimental data from UniProt. In order to enhance the investigations possible with this data, we have also incorporated a variety of protein annotation resources, including protein–protein interaction data, GO functional assignments, KEGG pathways, FUNCAT functional descriptions and links to microarray expression data. All of this data can be accessed through a newly re-designed website that has a focus on flexibility and clarity, with searches that can be restricted to a single genome or across the entire sequence database. Currently Gene3D contains over 3.5 million domain assignments for nearly 5 million proteins including 527 completed genomes. This is available at: http://gene3d.biochem.ucl.ac.uk

The neurological wake-up test in severe pediatric traumatic brain injury: a long term, single-center experience

ObjectivesTo describe the use and outcomes of the neurological wake-up test (NWT) in pediatric severe traumatic brain injury (pTBI).DesignRetrospective single-center observational cohort study.SettingMedical-surgical tertiary pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in a university medical center and Level 1 Trauma Center.PatientsChildren younger than 18 years with severe TBI [i.e., Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) of ≤8] admitted between January 2010 and December 2020. Subjects with non-traumatic brain injury were excluded.Measurements and main resultsOf 168 TBI patients admitted, 36 (21%) met the inclusion criteria. Median age was 8.5 years [2 months to 16 years], 5 patients were younger than 6 months. Median initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Glasgow Motor Scale (GMS) was 6 [3–8] and 3 [1–5]. NWTs were initiated in 14 (39%) patients, with 7 (50%) labelled as successful. Fall from a height was the underlying injury mechanism in those seven. NWT-failure occurred in patients admitted after traffic accidents. Sedation use in both NWT-subgroups (successful vs. failure) was comparable. Cause of NWT-failure was non-arousal (71%) or severe agitation (29%). Subjects with NWT failure subsequently had radiological examination (29%), repeat NWT (43%), continuous interruption of sedation (14%) or intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring (14%). The primary reason for not doing NWTs was intracranial hypertension in 59%. Compared to the NWT-group, the non-NWT group had a higher PRISM III score (18.9 vs. 10.6), lower GCS/GMS at discharge, more associated trauma, and circulatory support. Nine patients (25%) died during their PICU admission, none of them had an NWT.ConclusionWe observed limited use of NWTs in pediatric severe TBI. Patients who failed the NWT were indistinguishable from those without NWT. Both groups were more severely affected compared to the NWT successes. Therefore, our results may indicate that only a select group of severe pTBI patients qualify for the NWT

Percutaneous treatment of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures

Background. The outcome after displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures is influenced by the condition of the surrounding soft tissues. To avoid secondary soft tissue complications after surgical treatment, several less-invasive procedures for reduction and fixation have been introduced. The percutaneous technique according to Forgon and Zadravecz is suitable for all types of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures and was therefore introduced in our clinic. The aim of this study was to evaluate the lon

Kinematics of Interstellar Gas in Nearby UV-Selected Galaxies Measured with HST/STIS Spectroscopy

We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST/STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature, and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in eight of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., CII, SiII, AlII), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), and we confirm that their outflow speeds (ranging from -100 km/s to nearly -520 km/s with an accuracy of ~80 km/s) are intermediate to those previously measured in dwarf starbursts and LIRGs. We do not detect the outflow in high-ionization lines (such as CIV or SiIV); higher quality data will be needed to empirically establish how velocities vary with the ionization state of the outflow. We do verify that the low-ionization UV lines and optical NaI doublet give roughly consistent outflow velocities solidifying an important link between studies of galactic winds at low and high redshift. To obtain higher signal-to-noise, we create a local average composite spectrum, and compare it to the high-z Lyman Break composite spectrum. Surprisingly, the low-ionization lines show similar outflow velocities in the two samples. We attribute this to a combination of weighting towards higher luminosities in the local composite, as well as both samples being on average brighter than the ``turnover'' luminosity in the v-SFR relation.Comment: 41 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Коннотации этнонима. Лингвокультурологический аспект (на материале английского языка)

Статья посвящена исследованию коннотаций этнонимической лексики в рамках лингвокультурологического подхода. Предпринимается попытка создания языкового портрета ирландца на номинативном материале английского языка и выявления этнокультурных стереотипов в отношении представителей этого этноса.Стаття присвячується дослідженню коннотацій етнонимічної лексики у межах лінгвокультурологичного підходу. Автор робить спробу створити лінгвистичний портрет ирландця спираючись на номінативний матеріал англійської мови і виявити етнокультурні стереотипи у відношенні представників цього етносу.The article deals with the analysis of ethnonym connotation in the aspect of linguistic culturology. The author makes an attempt to create the linguistic portrait of an Irishman on the basis of English language and reveal the ethnocultural stereotypes in relation to the Irish

Teachers as brokers: adding a university-society perspective to higher education teacher competence profiles

Higher education institutions are increasingly engaged with society but contemporary higher education teacher competence profiles do not include university-society oriented responsibilities of teachers. Consequently, comprehensive insights in university-society collaborative performance of higher education teachers are not availab

An association study of DRD2 and COMT polymorphisms with novelty seeking and harm avoidance scores, in two independent samples of depressed patients

BACKGROUND: It was recently reported that an interaction of the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) influences the behavioural approach system – as measured using Carver and White's Behavioural Inhibition and Behavioural Approach System (BIS/BAS) scales – in a sample of healthy German subjects. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), in particular the novelty seeking (NS) and harm avoidance (HA) scales, correlates moderately with the BIS/BAS measure. This study aimed to examine support for an association of DRD2 and COMT with behavioural activation, using the TCI within two independent samples of depressed outpatients (for both samples n = 146). METHODS: Two clinical samples of depressed patients were ascertained to assess the efficacy of two different pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy treatments. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse NS and HA scale and subscale scores with respect to gene loci within each clinical sample. Analysis of covariance were undertaken to examine the association of age and gender with NS and HA scores. An association of age group or gender with gene loci were explored using chi-squared tests, in each sample. RESULTS: No significant effect of DRD2 or COMT, either independently or as an interaction, on NS or HA scores was observed, within either sample. Whilst age was significantly negatively associated with NS scores, including age in the two- and three-way interactions did not affect the significance of the association of personality with gene loci. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the COMT-DRD2 Equilibrium Model of Positive Emotionality recently proposed by Reuter and his colleagues is not applicable amongst currently depressed individuals, whose behavioural approach and inhibition tendencies have been assessed using the TCI

MyDas, an extensible Java DAS server

A large number of diverse, complex, and distributed data resources are currently available in the Bioinformatics domain. The pace of discovery and the diversity of information means that centralised reference databases like UniProt and Ensembl cannot integrate all potentially relevant information sources. From a user perspective however, centralised access to all relevant information concerning a specific query is essential. The Distributed Annotation System (DAS) defines a communication protocol to exchange annotations on genomic and protein sequences; this standardisation enables clients to retrieve data from a myriad of sources, thus offering centralised access to end-users. We introduce MyDas, a web server that facilitates the publishing of biological annotations according to the DAS specification. It deals with the common functionality requirements of making data available, while also providing an extension mechanism in order to implement the specifics of data store interaction. MyDas allows the user to define where the required information is located along with its structure, and is then responsible for the communication protocol details

SDSSJ103913.70+533029.7: A Super Star Cluster in the Outskirts of a Galaxy Merger

We describe the serendipitous discovery in the spectroscopic data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey of a star-like object, SDSSJ103913.70+533029.7, at a heliocentric radial velocity of +1012 km/s. Its proximity in position and velocity to the spiral galaxy NGC 3310 suggests an association with the galaxy. At this distance, SDSSJ103913.70+533029.7 has the luminosity of a super star cluster and a projected distance of 17 kpc from NGC 3310. Its spectroscopic and photometric properties imply a mass of > 10^6 solar masses and an age close to that of the tidal shells seen around NGC 3310, suggesting that it formed in the event which formed the shells.Comment: Accepted by AJ: 4 figures (1 color