Soluble Fermentable Dietary Fibre (Pectin) Decreases Caloric Intake, Adiposity and Lipidaemia in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Rats

Funding: This work was funded by the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Gifted Reading Programs: Uncovering the Hidden Potential

Within the last decade there has been a noticeable increase in the attention afforded the special segment of the school population termed gifted by reading educators. This interest has been engendered in part by the availability of Federal and State funds set aside for gifted instruction. Even with the rising concern for improved reading instruction of the gifted student, the questions arise as to whether the applied methods of identification used to affirm giftedness are indeed adequate and if reading instructional programs initiated for these students meet their highly specialized needs

Dose-dependent effects of a soluble dietary fibre (pectin) on food intake, adiposity, gut hypertrophy and gut satiety hormone secretion in rats

Acknowledgments We thank Donna Wallace and Animal House staff at the Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health for the daily care of experimental rats and for the body weight, food intake and MRI measurements.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Different types of soluble fermentable dietary fibre decrease food intake, body weight gain and adiposity in young adult male rats

We thank Donna Wallace and the Rowett Animal House staff for the daily care of experimental rats, body weight and food intake measurements and MRI scanning, Vivien Buchan and Donna Henderson of the Rowett Analytical Department for proximate analyses and SCFA GC, and Andrew Chappell for conducting the beta-glucan analysis. This research was funded by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Near Peer Learning To Facilitate Nursing Students’ First Medical Surgical Clinical Experience / Apprentissage par les pairs proches de manière à faciliter les premières expériences cliniques en médecine et chirurgie pour les étudiantes en sciences infirmières

Introduction and Background: Ensuring an appropriate clinical experience for students is becoming more challenging in the context of a global nursing shortage, more acutely ill clientele, and limited numbers of educators, academics and clinical instructors. Near Peer Learning Activities (NPLA) have been shown to be effective and may help students to feel prepared and confident to begin the clinical rotation. This study explored nursing students’ experiences in their first medical-surgical practicum following a NPLA involving Health and Physical Assessment (HPA). Methods: Educators at one Canadian University recently designed and implemented a NPLA in the clinical setting where junior nursing students performed a focused health and physical assessment on a patient, in an acute medical-surgical unit with the guidance of senior students. Ten nursing students who took part in the NPLA were individually interviewed. Thematic content analysis was used to generate the themes. Findings: Following the NPLA, two main themes captured the essence of the students’ experience: (1) making nursing real through near peer learning and (2) surmounting personal and contextual challenges in a first medical-surgical experience. Students “owned” their HPA skills, felt excited and prepared entering their medical-surgical placement. During the experience, however, students worried about not measuring up and the unreceptive learning environment. Conclusion: The NPLA provided a safe context for novice students to apply HPA and become familiar with the hospital setting, facilitating their transition into a challenging first medical-surgical practicum. Résumé Introduction et contexte : Assurer une expérience clinique appropriée aux étudiantes devient de plus en plus difficile dans le contexte d’une pénurie généralisée d’infirmières, d’une clientèle plus gravement malade et d’un nombre limité d’enseignantes, de professeures et de formatrices cliniques. L’efficacité d’activités d’apprentissage par les pairs proches (en anglais, Near Peer Learning Activities ou NPLA) a été mise en évidence; ces activités pourraient aider les étudiantes à se sentir plus confiantes et prêtes à débuter leurs stages cliniques. Cette étude a exploré les expériences d‘étudiantes en sciences infirmières lors de leur premier stage médico-chirurgical à la suite d’une activité d’apprentissage par les pairs proches quant à l’évaluation physique et de la santé (en anglais, Health and Physical Assessment ou HPA). Méthodologie : Les professeures d’une université canadienne ont récemment conçu et mis en place des activités d’apprentissage par les pairs proches dans un environnement clinique où des étudiantes infirmières débutantes dans une unité médico-chirurgicale de soins de courte durée effectuaient une évaluation physique et de la santé ciblée d’un patient avec l’aide d’étudiantes plus avancées dans leur programme. Des entrevues individuelles furent effectuées avec dix étudiantes en sciences infirmières qui avaient participé aux activités d’apprentissage par les pairs proches. L’analyse thématique de contenu a été utilisée pour générer les thèmes. Résultats : Les activités d’apprentissage par les pairs proches ont permis d’identifier deux thèmes principaux qui englobaient l’expérience des étudiantes : (1) concrétiser les soins infirmiers grâce à un apprentissage par les pairs proches; et (2) relever des défis personnels et contextuels lors d’une première expérience médico-chirurgicale. Les étudiantes « s’appropriaient » leurs habiletés en matière d’évaluation physique et de la santé, et étaient motivées et préparées à entrer dans leur stage médico-chirurgical. Au cours de l’expérience, cependant, les étudiantes se sont inquiétées de ne pas être à la hauteur et de se buter à un environnement d’apprentissage peu réceptif. Conclusion : Les activités d’apprentissage par les pairs proches ont créé un contexte sûr pour que les étudiantes novices mettent en pratique l’évaluation physique et de la santé et se familiarisent avec le milieu hospitalier, facilitant ainsi leur transition vers un premier stage médico-chirurgical stimulant

The influence of audibility on speech recognition with nonlinear frequency compression for children and adults with hearing loss

Objective—The primary goal of nonlinear frequency compression (NFC) and other frequency lowering strategies is to increase the audibility of high-frequency sounds that are not otherwise audible with conventional hearing-aid processing due to the degree of hearing loss, limited hearing aid bandwidth or a combination of both factors. The aim of the current study was to compare estimates of speech audibility processed by NFC to improvements in speech recognition for a group of children and adults with high-frequency hearing loss. Design—Monosyllabic word recognition was measured in noise for twenty-four adults and twelve children with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss. Stimuli were amplified based on each listener’s audiogram with conventional processing (CP) with amplitude compression or with NFC and presented under headphones using a software-based hearing aid simulator. A modification of the speech intelligibility index (SII) was used to estimate audibility of information in frequency-lowered bands. The mean improvement in SII was compared to the mean improvement in speech recognition. Results—All but two listeners experienced improvements in speech recognition with NFC compared to CP, consistent with the small increase in audibility that was estimated using the modification of the SII. Children and adults had similar improvements in speech recognition with NFC. Conclusion—Word recognition with NFC was higher than CP for children and adults with mild to severe hearing loss. The average improvement in speech recognition with NFC (7%) was consistent with the modified SII, which indicated that listeners experienced an increase in audibility with NFC compared to CP. Further studies are necessary to determine if changes in audibility with NFC are related to speech recognition with NFC for listeners with greater degrees of hearing loss, with a greater variety of compression settings, and using auditory training

The Epistemic Dimension of Competence in the Social Sciences

To investigate competence in the social sciences, we propose to define competence as a particular configuration of the learner’s cognition, strategic repertoire, motivation, and orientation toward knowing. Specifically, we focus on epistemic beliefs and on the changes that a view of knowing as a complex, effortful, generative, evidence-seeking, and reflective enterprise entails. In this context, we discuss how familiarity with the processes used to justify knowledge claims within specific disciplinary communities can provide useful tools to develop the kind of adaptive and consistent thinking that characterize competence in different domains and how this focus may aid the identification of characteristics common across domains. We use our empirical exploration of adolescents’ development of competence in the domain of history to illustrate the implications of this theoretical framework, to highlight the relations between domain-specific epistemic beliefs and kind of understanding that students built as a result of reading multiple texts, and to suggest what pedagogical practices may have influenced students’ orientations toward knowing in these three history classes

Effect of Achilles Tendon Rupture on Player Performance and Longevity in Women\u27s National Basketball Association Players

Background: Women\u27s National Basketball Association (WNBA) players have a greater incidence of lower extremity injury compared with male players, yet no data exist on functional outcomes after Achilles tendon rupture (ATR). Purpose: To evaluate the effect of Achilles tendon repair on game utilization, player performance, and career longevity in WNBA athletes. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: WNBA players from 1997 to 2019 with a history of ATR (n = 12) were matched 1:2 to a healthy control group. Player characteristics, game utilization, and in-game performance data were collected for each athlete, from which the player efficiency rating (PER) was calculated. Statistical analysis was performed comparing postinjury data to preinjury baseline as well as cumulative career data. Changes at each time point relative to the preinjury baseline were also compared between groups. Results: Of the 12 players with ATR, 10 (83.3%) returned to play at the WNBA level at a mean (+/- SD) of 12.5 +/- 3.3 months. Four players participated in only 1 WNBA season after injury. There were no differences in characteristics between the 10 players who returned to play after injury and the control group. After return to play, the WNBA players demonstrated a significant decrease in game utilization compared with preinjury, playing in 6.0 +/- 6.9 fewer games, starting in 12.7 +/- 15.4 fewer games, and playing 10.2 +/- 9.1 fewer minutes per game (P \u3c .05 for all). After the index date of injury, the players with Achilles repair played 2.1 +/- 1.2 more years in the WNBA, while control players played 5.35 +/- 3.2 years (P \u3c .01) Additionally, the players with Achilles repair had a significant decrease in PER in the year after injury compared with preinjury (7.1 +/- 5.3 vs 11.0 +/- 4.4; P = .02). The reduction in game utilization and decrease in PER in these players was maintained when compared with the matched controls (P \u3c .05 for both). Conclusion: The majority of WNBA players who sustained ATR were able to return to sport after their injury; however, their career longevity was shorter than that of healthy controls. There was a significant decrease in game utilization and performance in the year after return to play compared with healthy controls

Towards a New Science of a Clinical Data Intelligence

In this paper we define Clinical Data Intelligence as the analysis of data generated in the clinical routine with the goal of improving patient care. We define a science of a Clinical Data Intelligence as a data analysis that permits the derivation of scientific, i.e., generalizable and reliable results. We argue that a science of a Clinical Data Intelligence is sensible in the context of a Big Data analysis, i.e., with data from many patients and with complete patient information. We discuss that Clinical Data Intelligence requires the joint efforts of knowledge engineering, information extraction (from textual and other unstructured data), and statistics and statistical machine learning. We describe some of our main results as conjectures and relate them to a recently funded research project involving two major German university hospitals.Comment: NIPS 2013 Workshop: Machine Learning for Clinical Data Analysis and Healthcare, 201

Cyclic behavior of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete beam-column joint

[EN] Ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) is a unique class of fiber-reinforced concrete featuring ultra-high compressive strength and ductil e tensile strain hardening behavior, accompanied by multiple narrow cracking. Although many studies have confirmed its superior mechanical and damage tolerance properties under monotonic or blast loading, limited research has been carried out on the cyclic performance of UHPFRC structural members. This paper proposes the use of UHPFRC to improve the cyclic performance of structural elements. An experimental program was carried out on a large number of UHPFRC beam-column joint specimens under a cyclic lateral load. After the cyclic loading test, the following results were obtained: (a) hysterical performance, (b) maximum load, (c) maximum displacement, (d) the maximum energy dissipation (measured by hysteresis cycles), (e) stiffness degradation, (f) the cracking pattern, and (g) the cracking area. The analysis showed that UHPFRC specimens have at least 157% higher energy dissipation than nonfiber conventional reinforced concrete (RC). The initial stiffness of UHPFRC specimens without fibers (NF) was at least 23% higher than the RC specimen. For UHPFRC with fiber, initial stiffness was at least 45% higher than RC specimen.This work was supported by Cementos Argos, Colciencias and the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá (Colombia).Sarmiento, PA.; Torres Górriz, B.; Ruiz, DM.; Alvarado Vargas, YA.; Gasch, I.; Machuca, AF. (2019). Cyclic behavior of ultra-high performance fiber reinforced concrete beam-column joint. Structural Concrete. 20(1):348-360. https://doi.org/10.1002/suco.201800025S34836020