A discourse analysis of trainee teacher identity in online discussion forums

Teacher education involves an identity transformation for trainees from being a student to being a teacher. This discourse analysis examined the online discussion board communications of a cohort of trainee teachers to better understand the situated identities of the trainees and how they were presented online. Their discussion board posts were the primary method of communication during placement periods and, as such, provided insight into how the trainees situated their identities in terms of being a student or being a teacher. During the analysis, the community boundaries, language and culture were explored along with the tutor's power and role in the identity transformation process. This involved looking at the lexis used by the students, the use of pronouns to refer to themselves and others such as teachers and pupils, the types of messages allowed in the community and the effect of the tutor's messages on their communication. The research found that the trainees felt comfortable with teaching but did not feel like teachers during the course. Tutors and school teachers need to develop an awareness of the dual nature of trainees' identities and help promote the transition from student to teacher. In the beginning of the course, trainees should be familiarised with teacher vocabulary and practical concepts in addition to pedagogical theory. Towards the end of the course, trainee identity as teachers could be promoted through the use of authentic assessments that mirror real teacher tasks and requirements

Adult advanced life support: Section 3 of the European Resuscitation Council Guidelines for Resuscitation 2015

Erweiterte lebensrettende Maßnahmen für Erwachsene („advanced life support“, ALS) kommen zum Einsatz, nachdem Basismaßnahmen zur Wiederbelebung („basic life support“, BLS) begonnen und, wenn sinnvoll, ein automatisierter externer Defibrillator (AED) verwendet wurde. Die Basismaßnahmen zur Wiederbelebung eines Erwachsenen und der Einsatz von AEDs wird in Kap. 2 ausgeführt. Basis- und erweiterte Maßnahmen sollen nahtlos ineinander übergehen, da erstere fortgeführt werden und sich mit den erweiterten überschneiden. Dieses Kapitel über die erweiterten Maßnahmen beinhaltet die Vermeidung des Kreislaufstillstands, spezielle Aspekte des außerklinischen ALS, den Start der innerklinischen Reanimation, den ALS-Algorithmus, die manuelle Defibrillation, das Atemwegsmanagement während der Reanimaton, Medikamente und ihre Anwendung während der Reanimation sowie die Behandlung von Periarrest-Arrhythmien. Es gibt zwei Änderungen in der äußeren Form dieser Leitlinien des Europäischen Rats für Wiederbelebung seit den Leitlinien von 2010: [1] Das Kapitel „Elektrotherapie“ [2] ist nicht mehr eigenständig, sondern Teil dieses Kapitels; und die Leitlinien zur Behandlung nach Reanimation sind in ein neues Kapitel ausgegliedert, welches die Bedeutung dieses letzten Glieds der Überlebenskette unterstreicht [3]. Diese Leitlinien basieren auf den International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) Consensus on Science and Treatment Recommendations (CoSTR) für ALS von 2015 [4]. Die Überprüfung der ILCOR-Empfehlungen von 2015 konzentrierte sich auf 42 Themen, entsprechend der zeitlichen Abfolge der erweiterten Maßnahmen: Defibrillation, Atemwege, Oxygenierung und Ventilation, Kreislaufunterstützung und Überwachung und Einsatz von Medikamenten während der Reanimation. Für diese Leitlinien wurden die ILCOR-Empfehlungen durch ein gezieltes Literatur-Review ergänzt, welches von der ERC-ALS-Leitlinien Autorengruppe zu den Themen die nicht in den ILCOR-CoSTR-Empfehlungen von 2015 überarbeitet wurden erstellt wurde. Die Leitlinien wurden ausgearbeitet, von den ALS-Verfassern geprüft und abschließend von der ERC-Vollversammlung und dem ERC-Vorstand abgesegnet

Robust pricing and hedging of double no-touch options

Double no-touch options, contracts which pay out a fixed amount provided an underlying asset remains within a given interval, are commonly traded, particularly in FX markets. In this work, we establish model-free bounds on the price of these options based on the prices of more liquidly traded options (call and digital call options). Key steps are the construction of super- and sub-hedging strategies to establish the bounds, and the use of Skorokhod embedding techniques to show the bounds are the best possible. In addition to establishing rigorous bounds, we consider carefully what is meant by arbitrage in settings where there is no {\it a priori} known probability measure. We discuss two natural extensions of the notion of arbitrage, weak arbitrage and weak free lunch with vanishing risk, which are needed to establish equivalence between the lack of arbitrage and the existence of a market model.Comment: 32 pages, 5 figure

“All citizens of the world can save a life” — The World Restart a Heart (WRAH) initiative starts in 2018

“All citizens of the world can save a life”. With these words, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) is launching the first global initiative – World Restart a Heart (WRAH) – to increase public awareness and therefore the rates of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for victims of cardiac arrest. In most of the cases, it takes too long for the emergency services to arrive on scene after the victim's collapse. Thus, the most effective way to increase survival and favourable outcome in cardiac arrest by two- to fourfold is early CPR by lay bystanders and by “first responders”. Lay bystander resuscitation rates, however, differ significantly across the world, ranging from 5 to 80%. If all countries could have high lay bystander resuscitation rates, this would help to save hundreds of thousands of lives every year. In order to achieve this goal, all seven ILCOR councils have agreed to participate in WRAH 2018. Besides schoolchildren education in CPR (“KIDS SAVE LIVES”), many other initiatives have already been developed in different parts of the world. ILCOR is keen for the WRAH initiative to be as inclusive as possible, and that it should happen every year on 16 October or as close to that day as possible. Besides recommending CPR training for children and adults, it is hoped that a unified global message will enable our policy makers to take action to address the inequalities in patient survival around the world.Revisión por pare

Surface and Image-Potential States on the MgB_2(0001) Surfaces

We present a self-consistent pseudopotential calculation of surface and image-potential states on $MgB_2(0001)$ for both $B$-terminated ($B-t$) and $Mg$-terminated ($Mg-t$) surfaces. We find a variety of very clear surface and subsurface states as well as resonance image-potential states n=1,2 on both surfaces. The surface layer DOS at $E_F$ is increased by 55% at $B-t$ and by 90% at the $Mg-t$ surface compared to DOS in the corresponding bulk layers.Comment: 3 pages, 6 figure

Reduced adiposity attenuates FGF21 mediated metabolic improvements in the Siberian hamster

FGF21 exerts profound metabolic effects in Siberian hamsters exposed to long day (LD) photoperiods that increase appetite and adiposity, however these effects are attenuated in short day (SD) animals that display hypophagia and reduced adiposity. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the beneficial effects of a novel mimetic of FGF21 in the LD state are a consequence of increased adiposity or of the central photoperiodic state. This was achieved by investigating effects of FGF21 in aged hamsters, which is associated with reduced adiposity. In LD hamsters with increased adiposity, FGF21 lowered body weight as a result of both reduced daily food intake and increased caloric expenditure, driven by an increase in whole-body fat oxidation. However, in LD animals with reduced adiposity, the effect of FGF21 on body weight, caloric intake and fat oxidation were significantly attenuated or absent when compared to those with increased adiposity. These attenuated/absent effects were underpinned by the inability of FGF21 to increase the expression of key thermogenic genes in interscapular and visceral WAT. Our study demonstrates the efficacy of a novel FGF21 mimetic in hamsters, but reveals attenuated effects in the animal model where adiposity is reduced naturally independent of photoperiod

Scale-free memory model for multiagent reinforcement learning. Mean field approximation and rock-paper-scissors dynamics

A continuous time model for multiagent systems governed by reinforcement learning with scale-free memory is developed. The agents are assumed to act independently of one another in optimizing their choice of possible actions via trial-and-error search. To gain awareness about the action value the agents accumulate in their memory the rewards obtained from taking a specific action at each moment of time. The contribution of the rewards in the past to the agent current perception of action value is described by an integral operator with a power-law kernel. Finally a fractional differential equation governing the system dynamics is obtained. The agents are considered to interact with one another implicitly via the reward of one agent depending on the choice of the other agents. The pairwise interaction model is adopted to describe this effect. As a specific example of systems with non-transitive interactions, a two agent and three agent systems of the rock-paper-scissors type are analyzed in detail, including the stability analysis and numerical simulation. Scale-free memory is demonstrated to cause complex dynamics of the systems at hand. In particular, it is shown that there can be simultaneously two modes of the system instability undergoing subcritical and supercritical bifurcation, with the latter one exhibiting anomalous oscillations with the amplitude and period growing with time. Besides, the instability onset via this supercritical mode may be regarded as "altruism self-organization". For the three agent system the instability dynamics is found to be rather irregular and can be composed of alternate fragments of oscillations different in their properties.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figur

The First VERITAS Telescope

The first atmospheric Cherenkov telescope of VERITAS (the Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) has been in operation since February 2005. We present here a technical description of the instrument and a summary of its performance. The calibration methods are described, along with the results of Monte Carlo simulations of the telescope and comparisons between real and simulated data. The analysis of TeV $\gamma$-ray observations of the Crab Nebula, including the reconstructed energy spectrum, is shown to give results consistent with earlier measurements. The telescope is operating as expected and has met or exceeded all design specifications.Comment: Accepted by Astroparticle Physic

Antibody-mediated inhibition of the FGFR1c isoform induces a catabolic lean state in Siberian hamsters

Hypothalamic tanycytes are considered to function as sensors of peripheral metabolism [1]. To facilitate this role, they express a wide range of receptors, including fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1). Using a monoclonal antibody (IMC-H7) that selectively antagonizes the FGFR1c isoform [2], we investigated possible actions of FGFR1c in a natural animal model of adiposity, the Siberian hamster. Infusion of IMC-H7 into the third ventricle suppressed appetite and increased energy expenditure. Likewise, peripheral treatment with IMC-H7 decreased appetite and body weight and increased energy expenditure and fat oxidation. A greater reduction in body weight and caloric intake was observed in response to IMC-H7 during the long-day fat state as compared to the short-day lean state. This enhanced response to IMC-H7 was also observed in calorically restricted hamsters maintained in long days, suggesting that it is the central photoperiodic state rather than the peripheral adiposity that determines the response to FGFR1c antagonism. Hypothalamic thyroid hormone availability is controlled by deiodinase enzymes (DIO2 and DIO3) expressed in tanycytes and is the key regulator of seasonal cycles of energy balance [3 and 4]. Therefore, we determined the effect of IMC-H7 on hypothalamic expression of these deiodinase enzymes. The reductions in food intake and body weight were always associated with decreased expression of DIO2 in the hypothalamic ependymal cell layer containing tanycytes. These data provide further support for the notion the tanycytes are an important component of the mechanism by which the hypothalamus integrates central and peripheral signals to regulate energy intake and expenditure

Nuclear transparency from quasielastic A(e,e'p) reactions uo to Q^2=8.1 (GeV/c)^2

The quasielastic (e,e$^\prime$p) reaction was studied on targets of deuterium, carbon, and iron up to a value of momentum transfer $Q^2$ of 8.1 (GeV/c)$^2$. A nuclear transparency was determined by comparing the data to calculations in the Plane-Wave Impulse Approximation. The dependence of the nuclear transparency on $Q^2$ and the mass number $A$ was investigated in a search for the onset of the Color Transparency phenomenon. We find no evidence for the onset of Color Transparency within our range of $Q^2$. A fit to the world's nuclear transparency data reflects the energy dependence of the free proton-nucleon cross section.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figure