Student Perceptions of Language Learning in Two Contexts: At Home and Study Abroad

This study investigated the relationship between students' self-reported perceptions of their learning experiences and outcomes on measures of oral fluency, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, communicative ability and cognitive ability. Specifically, the study analyzed the correlation between activities in the classroom, in the social realm, and in the home environments with outcomes from measures Spanish acquisition. In addition, diary analysis was conducted to investigate which environment seemed most relevant to the learners during the semester.The participants in this study were 37 college students learning Spanish in two contexts: at home (AH) in a university in Colorado, and study abroad (SA) in Alicante, Spain. The results of four companion studies that investigated linguistic gain were correlated with the student perception scores produced through diary analysis. These analyses were conducted in order to understand relationships between students' reports of their activities during the semester and changes in their overall Spanish acquisition.The results indicated that differences existed between the AH and SA groups in terms of which environment seemed to be most relevant. While the AH group discussed classroom activities to the greatest extent, the SA group talked most about their experiences with Spanish in the social environment. In addition, while several measures of fluency, grammatical ability, and vocabulary acquisition were related to the home and social environments for the SA group, the AH group data showed relationships between the classroom environment and those measures. Very few relationships were noted between communicative ability, vocabulary and cognitive measures and the perception scores. However, two especially noteworthy relationships were found. For the AH group, the positive classroom environment was related to better attention control, and the negative classroom environment was related to reduced ability to control attention in the target language.It was concluded that differences between the two contexts were evident. While the AH learners were minimally exposed to native speakers outside the classroom, the SA group enjoyed a great deal of exposure. This contact, however, was generally only related to gains in their ability to communicate orally, and may have actually negatively affected learners' ability to produce grammatical forms

Mobilizing diversity: transposable element insertions in genetic variation and disease

Transposable elements (TEs) comprise a large fraction of mammalian genomes. A number of these elements are actively jumping in our genomes today. As a consequence, these insertions provide a source of genetic variation and, in rare cases, these events cause mutations that lead to disease. Yet, the extent to which these elements impact their host genomes is not completely understood. This review will summarize our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying transposon regulation and the contribution of TE insertions to genetic diversity in the germline and in somatic cells. Finally, traditional methods and emerging technologies for identifying transposon insertions will be considered

Quarries of Hadrian's Wall: materials and logistics of a large-scale Imperial building project

This work examines the geo-archaeological landscape around Hadrian’s Wall, one of Rome’s best-preserved frontiers, and the only monument of its kind in Great Britain. Within the area surrounding Hadrian’s Wall, over 500 sandstone, limestone and dolerite quarries are recorded in modern mapping (BRITPITS 2020). This large number represents the complex and changing use of the landscape surrounding the Wall. Over the last two millennia, this region has seen Roman invasion and settlement, medieval monastic building, major agricultural land-use, military road construction, and the growth of two cities. It was necessary to understand the entire history of the region in order to establish which of the many quarries may have been associated with the Roman Wall, due to very limited changes in quarrying techniques up to the modern era. At this time, only seven of the hundreds of quarries have been identified as Roman due to inscriptions left by the quarrymen. Looking at land-use, historical mapping and industrial and pre-industrial quarrying methods has allowed a categorisation of the quarries to suggest which, if any, of the undated sites are the most likely to be associated with the Roman Wall. A gazetteer of 152 of the quarries has been produced which includes all the data gathered for this research. In addition to gathering data on the quarry sites, this research also attempted the largest scale petrological testing programme ever completed along Hadrian’s Wall. Ninety-three samples were taken in total, thirty-seven samples from archaeological remains and fifty-six quarry samples. Samples have been taken from Chesters Roman Fort, Birdoswald Roman Fort, Housesteads Roman Fort, Corbridge Roman Town, Carlisle Castle, and from thirteen quarries and five control locations. Loose powder XRF, and thin-section microscopy were used to identify links between the archaeological sites and potential stone sources, and the results show promising results which align well with long held historical expectations

Cultivating support during COVID ‐19 through clinical supervision: A discussion article

Aim: This article aims to discuss how clinical supervision is an important approach in supporting frontline nurses and students during and post COVID‐19 through the lens of the nursing metaparadigms. Design: Discussion article. Methods: Discourse of the literature considering the importance of working collaboratively with healthcare and educational organisations in operationalising clinical supervision. Results: The evidence base supporting clinical supervision as an effective support strategy for nurses exists, however, its implementation and practice has become sporadic. A resurgence is required to support student's and nurse's during this pandemic. It is timely for nurse educators to creatively engage with clinical partners in supporting clinical supervision to enhance both nurses and students pandemic practice experiences. Clinical supervision is proposed as one strategy to support and guide both nurses and students to develop, strengthen and challenge the effectiveness of their care during COVID‐19

On the Analysis of Genome-Wide Association Studies in Family-Based Designs: A Universal, Robust Analysis Approach and an Application to Four Genome-Wide Association Studies

For genome-wide association studies in family-based designs, we propose a new, universally applicable approach. The new test statistic exploits all available information about the association, while, by virtue of its design, it maintains the same robustness against population admixture as traditional family-based approaches that are based exclusively on the within-family information. The approach is suitable for the analysis of almost any trait type, e.g. binary, continuous, time-to-onset, multivariate, etc., and combinations of those. We use simulation studies to verify all theoretically derived properties of the approach, estimate its power, and compare it with other standard approaches. We illustrate the practical implications of the new analysis method by an application to a lung-function phenotype, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) in 4 genome-wide association studies

Enablers of and barriers to perinatal mental healthcare access and healthcare provision for refugee and asylum-seeking women in the WHO European region: a scoping review

Perinatal mental health is a growing public health concern. Refugee and asylum-seeking women are particularly susceptible to experiencing perinatal mental illness and may encounter a range of challenges in accessing healthcare. This scoping review sought to identify the enablers of and barriers to healthcare access and healthcare provision for refugee and asylum-seeking women experiencing perinatal mental illness in the WHO European Region. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews was applied. Nine databases and six grey literature sources were initially searched in April 2022, and an updated search was completed in July 2023. The search identified 16,130 records, and after the removal of duplicates and the screening process, 18 sources of evidence were included in this review. A data extraction table was used to extract significant information from each individual source of evidence, which was then mapped to the seven dimensions of the candidacy framework. Empirical (n = 14; 77.8%) and non-empirical (n = 4; 22.2%) sources of evidence were included. The literature originated from seven countries within the WHO European Region, including the United Kingdom (n = 9; 50%), Germany (n = 3; 16.7%), Denmark (n = 2; 11.2%), Norway (n = 1; 5.6%), Greece (n = 1; 5.6%), Sweden (n = 1; 5.6%), and Switzerland (n = 1; 5.6%). The results indicate that, although enablers and barriers were apparent throughout the seven dimensions of candidacy, barriers and impeding factors were more frequently reported. There was also a notable overall lack of reported enablers at the system level. Unaddressed language barriers and lack of attention to the diversity in culturally informed perceptions of perinatal mental illness were the main barriers at the individual level (micro-level) to identifying candidacy, navigating healthcare systems, and asserting the need for care. The lack of culturally appropriate alignment of healthcare services was the key organizational (meso-level) barrier identified. The wider structural and political contexts (macro-level factors), such as lack of funding for consultation time, focus on Western diagnostic and management criteria, and lack of services that adequately respond to the needs of refugee and asylum-seeking women, negatively influenced the operating conditions and wider production of candidacy. It can be concluded that there are multilevel and interconnected complexities influencing access to and provision of perinatal mental healthcare for refugee and asylum-seeking women

Therapeutic utilization of meditation resources by people with multiple sclerosis : Insights from an online patient discussion forum

We aimed to describe website traffic and qualitatively analyze an e-health community discussion forum. Participants in this study were people affected by multiple sclerosis visiting the Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis (OMS) website. This mixed methods study combined descriptive analysis of website traffic over 7 years and 1 month, and qualitative analysis of 1 week of posts in the meditation topic, coded into theme groups using qualitative thematic analysis. There were 166 meditation topics posted with 21,530 initial views of primary post and 785 sub-post responses. Meditation posts and sub-posts received 368,713 replies. Number of views increased from 4,684 in 2011 to over 80,000 in 2017, a considerably greater rate of increase than overall traffic. Qualitative analysis of posts on the meditation forum identified themes of barriers and enablers to utilization of meditation resources. Enablement themes dominated, observed across six of the seven theme groups with various forms of positive social and emotional support to learn and practice meditation. One theme, negative emotion, was identified as a barrier. The OMS peer-to-peer patient online discussion forum serves important functions in encouraging, educating and enabling its growing online community. Our analysis may help improve and innovate online support for lifestyle management in many chronic diseases