Peer assisted learning in higher education: Roles, perceptions and efficacy

Universities are increasingly examining alternative means of teaching and learning, and supplemental instruction in the form of peer tutoring is progressively used to support learning in selected courses. This small scale ethnographic study investigates the roles and relationships between the peer tutors and tutees to uncover their perceptions of peer tutoring and their perceived effects. Semi-structured focus group discussions of ten tutors and ten tutees and two participant group observations were employed. The findings suggest that perceptions of the success of this programme were attributed to low power distance of the tutors and tutees, the development of friendships and the metacognitive learning strategies that were explicitly taught. Implications arising from this study suggest a greater focus on roles and expectations in the design of peer tutoring programmes

The Neural Basis of Predicting the Outcomes of Imagined Actions

A key feature of human intelligence is the ability to predict the outcomes of one’s own actions prior to executing them. Action values are thought to be represented in part in the dorsal and ventral medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), yet current studies have focused on the value of executed actions rather than the anticipated value of a planned action. Thus, little is known about the neural basis of how individuals think (or fail to think) about their actions and the potential consequences before they act. We scanned individuals with fMRI while they thought about performing actions that they knew would likely be rewarded or unrewarded. Here we show that merely imagining an unrewarded action, as opposed to imagining a rewarded action, increases activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, independently of subsequent actions. This activity overlaps with regions that respond to actual unrewarded actions. The findings show a distinct network that signals the prospective outcomes of one’s possible actions. A number of clinical disorders such as schizophrenia and drug abuse involve a failure to take the potential consequences of an action into account prior to acting. Our results thus suggest how dysfunctions of the mPFC may contribute to such failures

Psychosocial factors in sports injury rehabilitation and return to play

This article discusses the principles and practices that guide psychological intervention with injury, and encourages a psychological approach to injury for clinicians. Part 1 reviews the research literature, and serves as a foundation for the review of clinical practices in part 2. Examination of the research literature highlights 4 areas: (1) psychological factors influencing rehabilitation, (2) social factors affecting rehabilitation, (3) performance concerns among returning athletes, and (4) tools/inventories for assessing psychological readiness to return. A synopsis of an injury intervention plan is provided, and the influence of pain and fear in the rehabilitation process is described

Reliability of the straight leg raise test for suspected lumbar radicular pain:A systematic review with meta-analysis

Background: The passive straight leg raise (SLR) and crossed SLR are recommended tests for lumbar radicular pain. There are no recent reviews of test reliability. Objectives: To summarize SLR and crossed SLR reliability in patients with suspected lumbar radicular pain. Design: Systematic review with meta-analysis. Method: MEDLINE and CINAHL were searched for studies published before April 2021 that reported SLR or crossed SLR reliability in patients with low back-related leg pain. Supplemental analyses also included patients with low back pain only. Study selection, risk of bias assessment (QAREL), and data extraction were performed in duplicate. Kappa, intraclass correlation coefficients, and smallest detectable difference (SDD95) quantified reliability. Meta-analysis was performed when appropriate. Confidence in the evidence was determined by applying GRADE principles. Results/findings: Fifteen studies met selection criteria. One-hundred-eighty-nine participants had low back-related leg pain. Four-hundred-thirty-nine were included in supplemental analyses. Meta-analyses showed at least fair inter-rater reliability when a positive SLR required provocation of lower extremity symptoms or pain. SLR reliability was at least moderate when testing included structural differentiation (e.g., ankle dorsiflexion). A low prevalence of positive crossed SLR tests led to wide-ranging reliability estimates. Confidence in the evidence for identifying a positive SLR or crossed SLR was moderate to very low. SDD95 values for different raters measuring SLR range of motion ranged from 13 to 20°. Conclusions: Reliability data support testing SLR with structural differentiation manoeuvres. Crossed SLR reliability data are inconclusive. Measurement error likely prohibits using SLR range of motion for clinical decision-making

An Application of Augmented Reality (AR) in the Teaching of an Arc Welding Robot

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emerging technology that utilizes computer vision methods to overlay virtual objects onto the real world scene so as to make them appear to co-exist with the real objects. Its main objective is to enhance the user’s interaction with the real world by providing the right information needed to perform a certain task. Applications of this technology in manufacturing include maintenance, assembly and telerobotics. In this paper, we explore the potential of teaching a robot to perform an arc welding task in an AR environment. We present the motivation, features of a system using the popular ARToolkit package, and a discussion on the issues and implications of our research.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

The Relationship Between Self-Presentation Concerns and Pre-Game Affect among Adolescent Football Players

Background: The influence of self-presentation concerns on the adolescent sport experience has received scant empirical attention. The purpose of this investigation was to prospectively examine the relationship among self-presentational concerns and pre-game affective states among middle and high school aged football players. Methods: American football players (n = 112; mean age = 15.57 years) completed a measure of self-presentational concerns (SPSQ, McGowan, et al., 2008) a week prior to the measurement of selected pre-game affective states (i.e., attentiveness, self-assurance, serenity, and fear). Results: Regression analyses revealed that concerns about appearing athletically untalented negatively contributed to the significant prediction ( p \u3c 0.001) of pre-game attentiveness, b = 0.43, R2 adj = 19.5% ( p \u3c 0.001), and self-assurance, b = 0.38, R2 adj = 11.9% ( p \u3c 0.01). Conclusion: These findings highlight the importance of reducing self-presentational concerns in promoting positive pre-game mental states that likely impact the quality of athletes’ competitive play and experience

Management and Rehabilitation Strategies Following IED Related Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Civilian Settings - What to Expect and How to Optimize Recovery From mTBI

The wide array of psychological and physical responses following an IED bombing may reduce the likelihood that appropriate assessment and recovery from mTBI occur. Such a situation is problematic as mTBI itself may negatively influence the recovery from the traumatic event or associated injuries if not diagnosed and managed properly. Consequently, the overall aim of this article is to better inform healthcare practitioners, patients, and patients’ social support networkabout the nature of IED-related mild traumatic brain injuries. In so doing, we hope to facilitate enhanced assessment, management, and rehabilitation of this injury. In particular, the specific goals of the review include: (i) a description of the nature of an IED-related mTBI in a civilian setting (section 2 to 2.3); (ii) a description of the unique circumstances for mTBI survivors in regards to the signs and symptoms that may be anticipated (section 2.4); (iii) what key stakeholders including: the rehabilitant, the managing health care team, and social support providers (e.g., family members) can expect in terms of the physical and emotional recovery process (sections 3 to 4.4.) Finally, general and specific lifestyle modifications to improve survivors’ health are described in order to lay a clear foundation for patients’ recovery from an IED-related mTBI

Species Abundance Patterns in Complex Evolutionary Dynamics

An analytic theory of species abundance patterns (SAPs) in biological networks is presented. The theory is based on multispecies replicator dynamics equivalent to the Lotka-Volterra equation, with diverse interspecies interactions. Various SAPs observed in nature are derived from a single parameter. The abundance distribution is formed like a widely observed left-skewed lognormal distribution. As the model has a general form, the result can be applied to similar patterns in other complex biological networks, e.g. gene expression.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Physical Review Letters, in pres

Network effects, cooperation and entrepreneurial innovation in China

The rapid rise of an innovative private manufacturing economy in China challenges standard economic explanations of growth, which typically assume the existence of well-defined formal institutions such as property rights and company laws safeguarding investor and creditor interests. We highlight the social structure of cooperation that enables innovative activity in private manufacturing firms when formal property rights protection remains weak. We show how network effects linked to inter-firm cooperation in industrial clusters allowed private entrepreneurs to quickly develop reliable business norms to reduce the inherent risk of malfeasance and contract breach in formal and informal collaborative efforts. Survey data from a sample of 700 manufacturing firms located in China’s Yangzi Delta region confirms that both formal and informal types of inter-firm collaboration are effective, though in different areas of innovative activity