Students' work with literary concepts in digitally rich L1 classrooms

Peer reviewe

Professionsutveckling för digitaliserad ämnesundervisning – reflektioner kring en videobaserad forskningsdesign

Syftet med artikeln är att diskutera en forskningsdesign, där ämneslärare i samarbete med forskare deltar i analysarbetet av videoinspelningar från det egna klassrummet, med fokus på användning av digitala resurser i undervisningen. Samtalen utgår från videoinspelningar i flera olika ämnen.The purpose of the article is to discuss a research design, in which subject teachers in collaboration with researchers participate in analysis of video recordings from their own classroom, with a focus on the use of digital resources in teaching

Логістика туризму: комплексний підхід

It is well-established that prostaglandins (PGs) affect tumorigenesis, and evidence indicates that PGs also are important for the reduced food intake and body weight loss, the anorexia–cachexia syndrome, in malignant cancer. However, the identity of the PGs and the PG producing cyclooxygenase (COX) species responsible for cancer anorexia–cachexia is unknown. Here, we addressed this issue by transplanting mice with a tumor that elicits anorexia. Meal pattern analysis revealed that the anorexia in the tumor-bearing mice was due to decreased meal frequency. Treatment with a non-selective COX inhibitor attenuated the anorexia, and also tumor growth. When given at manifest anorexia, non-selective COX-inhibitors restored appetite and prevented body weight loss without affecting tumor size. Despite COX-2 induction in the cerebral blood vessels of tumor-bearing mice, a selective COX-2 inhibitor had no effect on the anorexia, whereas selective COX-1 inhibition delayed its onset. Tumor growth was associated with robust increase of PGE2 levels in plasma – a response blocked both by non-selective COX-inhibition and by selective COX-1 inhibition, but not by COX-2 inhibition. However, there was no increase in PGE2-levels in the cerebrospinal fluid. Neutralization of plasma PGE2 with specific antibodies did not ameliorate the anorexia, and genetic deletion of microsomal PGE synthase-1 (mPGES-1) affected neither anorexia nor tumor growth. Furthermore, tumor-bearing mice lacking EP4 receptors selectively in the nervous system developed anorexia. These observations suggest that COX-enzymes, most likely COX-1, are involved in cancer-elicited anorexia and weight loss, but that these phenomena occur independently of host mPGES-1, PGE2 and neuronal EP4 signaling.Funding Agencies|Swedish Cancer Foundation||Swedish Research Council||Swedish Brain Foundation||</p

Modeling Amyloid Beta Peptide Insertion into Lipid Bilayers

Inspired by recent suggestions that the Alzheimer's amyloid beta peptide (A beta) can insert into cell membranes and form harmful ion channels, we model insertion of the 40 and 42 residue forms of the peptide into cell membranes using a Monte Carlo code which is specific at the amino acid level. We examine insertion of the regular A-beta peptide as well as mutants causing familial Alzheimer's disease, and find that all but one of the mutants change the insertion behavior by causing the peptide to spend more simulation steps in only one leaflet of the bilayer. We also find that A-beta 42, because of the extra hydrophobic residues relative to A-beta 40, is more likely to adopt this conformation than A-beta 40 in both wild-type and mutant forms. We argue qualitatively why these effects happen. Here, we present our results and develop the hypothesis that this partial insertion increases the probability of harmful channel formation. This hypothesis can partly explain why these mutations are neurotoxic simply due to peptide insertion behavior. We further apply this model to various artificial A-beta mutants which have been examined experimentally, and offer testable experimental predictions contrasting the roles of aggregation and insertion with regard to toxicity of A-beta mutants. These can be used through further experiments to test our hypothesis.Comment: 14 pages; 8 figures; 2nd revisio

Classrooms going online : Nordic lower secondary teachers’ readiness at the COVID-19 outbreak

The aim of this article is to make visible Nordic lower secondary teachers’ experiences of the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, guided by three research questions: 1. What challenges and strategies can be identified in teachers’ descriptions of teaching during the pandemic outbreak? 2. What appears to be the role of digital technology in these challenges and strategies? 3. How can we understand the readiness and educational priorities of these Nordic schools in this time of crisis? Theoretically, we draw on the three main domains of purposes of education coined by Biesta (2015); qualification, socialisation and subjectification. The empirical data consists of online qualitative interviews with 17 lower secondary teachers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, teaching in different school subjects. A thematic content analysis was conducted, finding three main areas of challenges in relation to organisation of teaching, classroom dialogue and assessment of student learning. Our analysis makes visible how besides digital readiness, the readiness of the studied schools relied on the teachers' ability to act independently in finding professional solutions in a time of crisis. The teachers did not just sit and wait for instructions on what to do, but took initiatives and managed the situation as best as they could drawing on their professional competence.The aim of this article is to make visible Nordic lower secondary teachers’ experiences of the initial period of the COVID-19 pandemic, guided by three research questions: 1. What challenges and strategies can be identified in teachers’ descriptions of teaching during the pandemic outbreak? 2. What appears to be the role of digital technology in these challenges and strategies? 3. How can we understand the readiness and educational priorities of these Nordic schools in this time of crisis? Theoretically, we draw on the three main domains of purposes of education coined by Biesta (2015); qualification, socialisation and subjectification. The empirical data consists of online qualitative interviews with 17 lower secondary teachers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Sweden, teaching in different school subjects. A thematic content analysis was conducted, finding three main areas of challenges in relation to organisation of teaching, classroom dialogue and assessment of student learning. Our analysis makes visible how besides digital readiness, the readiness of the studied schools relied on the teachers' ability to act independently in finding professional solutions in a time of crisis. The teachers did not just sit and wait for instructions on what to do, but took initiatives and managed the situation as best as they could drawing on their professional competence.Peer reviewe

Utforskande samtal mellan lärare och forskare om uppkopplade klassrum

Den här artikeln sätter fokus på samtal mellan lärare och forskare om utmaningar kopplade till undervisningens digitalisering på en skola som har satsat på införandet av digital teknologi i alla ämnen. Syftet är att belysa transformationsprocesser i olika skolämnen i digitaliserade och uppkopplade klassrum, genom att analysera hur lärande om dessa frågor tar form i samtalen mellan deltagarna. Åtta fokusgruppsamtal genomfördes under fyra läsår och har analyserats med samtalsanalys för att synliggöra fysiska, semantiska och sociala dimensioner av de läranderum som formas. Resultaten visar att samtalsarrangemanget kan stödja lärandeprocesser både under och mellan samtalen, och kan överbrygga brott i kontinuiteten som kan relateras till organisatoriska förändringar på skolan. Vidare visar analysen att gruppsammansättningen med lärare från olika ämnen inte främst gynnade fördjupning av ämnesdidaktiska aspekter av undervisningens digitalisering utan framför allt gynnade fördjupning när det gäller ämnesövergripande frågor. ENGLISH: Exploratory conversations between teachers and researchers about connected classroom practices This article focuses on the conversations between teachers and researchers about challenges connected to the digitalisation of teaching at a school that invested in introducing digital technology in all subjects. The aim is to shed light on transformation processes in various school subjects in digitalised and connected classrooms by analysing how learning about these issues takes shape in the conversations between the participants. Eight group discussions were conducted over four school years and have been analysed with conversation analysis to make visible the physical, semantic and social dimensions of the learning spaces that are formed. The analysis makes visible how the conversation arrangement supports learning processes both during and between the conversations, and that they can bridge disruptions in continuity that can be related to organizational changes at the school. Furthermore, the analysis shows that the group composition with teachers from different subjects did not favour the deepening of subject didactic aspects of the digitalisation of teaching. Instead more general pedagogical aspects became developed. Keywords: Digitalisation, Powerful professional knowledge, Communicative spaces, Conversation analysis, Transformation

Nanotubes Impregnated Human Olfactory Bulb Neural Stem Cells Promote Neuronal Differentiation in Trimethyltin-induced Neurodegeneration Rat Model

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotent self-renewing cells that could be used in cellular-based therapy for a wide variety of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's diseases (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis (MS). Being multipotent in nature, they are practically capable of giving rise to major cell types of the nervous tissue including neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes. This is in marked contrast to neural progenitor cells which are committed to a specific lineage fate. In previous studies, we have demonstrated the ability of NSCs isolated from human olfactory bulb (OB) to survive, proliferate, differentiate, and restore cognitive and motor deficits associated with AD, and PD rat models, respectively. The use of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to enhance the survivability and differentiation potential of NSCs following their in vivo engraftment have been recently suggested. Here, in order to assess the ability of CNTs to enhance the therapeutic potential of human OBNSCs for restoring cognitive deficits and neurodegenerative lesions, we co-engrafted CNTs and human OBNSCs in TMT-neurodegeneration rat model. The present study revealed that engrafted human OBNSCS-CNTs restored cognitive deficits, and neurodegenerative changes associated with TMT-induced rat neurodegeneration model. Moreover, the CNTs seemed to provide a support for engrafted OBNSCs, with increasing their tendency to differentiate into neurons rather than into glia cells. The present study indicate the marked ability of CNTs to enhance the therapeutic potential of human OBNSCs which qualify this novel therapeutic paradigm as a promising candidate for cell-based therapy of different neurodegenerative diseases