An Experience Report on the Effectiveness of Five Themed Workshops at Inspiring High School Students to Learn Coding

Today there is a high demand for computing programmers, and at the same time a shortage of skilled professionals. This has triggered the creation of many initiatives in the past few years, with the aim of reversing the phenomenon. To achieve this, such events are designed to promote a more appealing image for programming, both as a profession and as a skill. This paper describes one such initiative, which uses a unique blend of differently themed, parallel workshops to motivate high school students to learn programming. With the use of questionnaires, we survey the participants and present our findings concerning the effectiveness of these workshops to engage the participants, to promote the value of coding, and to encourage the participants to consider a career in the field. We evaluate our results both at a general level, as well as by comparison among five individually themed workshops

First treatment of mycosis fungoides by total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy in Greece

BackgroundMycosis fungoides (MF), the most common subtype of cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL), is a rare chronic skin neoplasia. Total skin electron irradiation has been employed along with a variety of other topical or systemic treatments for MF management.AimTo report the first case treated by TSEB irradiation protocol in Greece.Materials and methodsA fractionated 36[[ce:hsp sp="0.25"/]]Gy total skin electron beam (TSEB) therapy was prescribed to a 65-years-old male patient with mycosis fungoides (MF), stage IIB, refractory to several treatments during a 20-year period. Dose uniform delivery was monitored by thermo-luminescence dosimetry.Results and discussionThe homogeneous skin dose distribution resulted in a complete clinical response. Limited, irradiation-oriented, side effects appeared.ConclusionsThe first TSEB irradiation prescription in Greek medical chronicles was proved effective in this case of tumor stage MF (T3-IIB), which had been refractory to several single or combination treatments

In Utero Gene Therapy (IUGT) Using GLOBE Lentiviral Vector Phenotypically Corrects the Heterozygous Humanised Mouse Model and Its Progress Can Be Monitored Using MRI Techniques

Funder: UK Thalassaemia SocietyAbstract: In utero gene therapy (IUGT) to the fetal hematopoietic compartment could be used to treat congenital blood disorders such as β-thalassemia. A humanised mouse model of β-thalassemia was used, in which heterozygous animals are anaemic with splenomegaly and extramedullary hematopoiesis. Intrahepatic in utero injections of a β globin-expressing lentiviral vector (GLOBE), were performed in fetuses at E13.5 of gestation. We analysed animals at 12 and 32 weeks of age, for vector copy number in bone marrow, peripheral blood liver and spleen and we performed integration site analysis. Compared to noninjected heterozygous animals IUGT normalised blood haemoglobin levels and spleen weight. Integration site analysis showed polyclonality. The left ventricular ejection fraction measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in treated heterozygous animals was similar to that of normal non-β-thalassemic mice but significantly higher than untreated heterozygous thalassemia mice suggesting that IUGT ameliorated poor cardiac function. GLOBE LV-mediated IUGT normalised the haematological and anatomical phenotype in a heterozygous humanised model of β-thalassemia

Publisher Correction: In Utero Gene Therapy (IUGT) Using GLOBE Lentiviral Vector Phenotypically Corrects the Heterozygous Humanised Mouse Model and Its Progress Can Be Monitored Using MRI Techniques

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Publisher Correction: In Utero Gene Therapy (IUGT) Using GLOBE Lentiviral Vector Phenotypically Corrects the Heterozygous Humanised Mouse Model and Its Progress Can Be Monitored Using MRI Techniques.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Investigating the effectiveness of a dynamic integrated approach to teacher professional development

This paper argues that research on teacher professional development could be integrated with validated theoretical models of educational effectiveness research (EER). A dynamic integrated approach (DIA) to teacher professional development is proposed. The methods and results of a study comparing the impact of the DIA and the Holistic - Reflective Approach (HA) to teacher professional development are presented. Teaching skills and teacher perceptions of teaching of 130 teachers and the achievement of their students (n=2356) were measured at the beginning and at the end of the intervention. Teachers found to be at a certain developmental stage were randomly allocated evenly into two groups. The first group employed the DIA and the second the HA. Teachers employing the DIA managed to improve their teaching skills more than teachers employing the HA. Teacher perceptions and attitudes towards teaching have not been modified due to their participation in the interventions. On the other hand, the use of DIA also had a significant impact on student achievement. Implications of findings for the use of EER for improvement purposes are drawn and suggestions for research and practice in teacher professional development are provided. (DIPF/Orig.

How and under Which Conditions Can We Best Combine Research on School Effectiveness with Research on School Improvement? Establishing Connections Using the Dynamic Approach to School Improvement

This paper aims to discuss how and under which conditions can we best combine research on School Effectiveness with research on School Improvement by utilizing the Dynamic Approach (DA) to School Improvement. We firstly elaborate on the difficulties that exist in trying to merge results from research on School Effectiveness with research on School Improvement. Then, we discuss the need and potential benefit from merging the two research strands, and finally we propose a fruitful merging with reference to the DA framework. Studies that have utilized the DA are also presented and their implications for research, policy and practice are discussed. The last section summarizes the results of the studies that have utilized the DA to highlight conditions that could facilitate a productive merging of the School Effectiveness and School Improvement research