Toward an Ecology of Gaming

In her introduction to the Ecology of Games, Salen argues for the need for an increasingly complex and informed awareness of the meaning, significance, and practicalities of games in young people's lives. The language of the media is replete with references to the devil (and heavy metal) when it comes to the ill-found virtues of videogames, while a growing movement in K-12 education casts them as a Holy Grail in the uphill battle to keep kids learning. Her essay explores the different ways the volume's contributors add shades of grey to this often black-and-white mix, pointing toward a more sophisticated understanding of the myriad ways in which gaming could and should matter to those considering the future of learning

Learning to Value Stories: A Review of Narrative Inquiry

In the book Narrative Inquiry, Kathleen Wells (2011) provides a concise and helpful pocket - guide regarding the narrative method for the student and researcher interested in garnering the basics of this qualitative approach. As a post - graduate professor of models and methodological issues in qualitative research, and a researcher who is proficient in investigating phenomena related to social work with the narrative method, she draws on her expertise to provide the reader with a volume of memorable illustrations from scholarly writings which serve to be helpful for those not only in the field of social work, but the fields of psychological and counseling research as well

Transitions of Care: Complications and Solutions

The delivery of medical care relies on effective, succinct, and ongoing communication between healthcare providers, called handoffs. Handoffs involve the transfer of professional responsibility and accountability for aspects of care for patients to another clinician or clinical team on a temporary or permanent basis. Handoffs have the potential for deleterious clinical impact if inadequately done. Only recently has data become available that demonstrate improvements in handoffs reduce the rate of subsequent clinical care error. This clinical vignette and subsequent discussion focuses on physician, particularly the resident physician in training, transfer of care: handoff complications, barriers to effective handoffs, regulatory agencies’ input on handoff improvement, standardization of the handoff process, assessment of the quality of handoff, handoff error avoidance, and improving the quality of handoff

Utilizing public repositories to improve the decision process for security defect resolution and information reuse in the development environment

Security risks are contained in solutions in software systems that could have been avoided if the design choices were analyzed by using public information security data sources. Public security sources have been shown to contain more relevant and recent information on current technologies than any textbook or research article, and these sources are often used by developers for solving software related problems. However, solutions copied from public discussion forums such as StackOverflow may contain security implications when copied directly into the developers environment. Several different methods to identify security bugs are being implemented, and recent efforts are looking into identifying security bugs from communication artifacts during software development lifecycle as well as using public security information sources to support secure design and development. The primary goal of this thesis is to investigate how to utilize public information sources to reduce security defects in software artifacts through improving the decision process for defect resolution and information reuse in the development environment. We build a data collection tool for collecting data from public information security sources and public discussion forums, construct machine learning models for classifying discussion forum posts and bug reports as security or not-security related, as well as word embedding models for finding matches between public security sources and public discussion forum posts or bug reports. The results of this thesis demonstrate that using public information security sources can provide additional validation layers for defect classification models, as well as provide additional security context for public discussion forum posts. The contributions of this thesis are to provide understanding of how public information security sources can better provide context for bug reports and discussion forums. Additionally, we provide data collection APIs for collecting datasets from these sources, and classification and word embedding models for recommending related security sources for bug reports and public discussion forum posts.Masteroppgave i Programutvikling samarbeid med HVLPROG399MAMN-PRO

A sense of pride over my size : a qualitative study of women of size who consider themselves body positive

This qualitative exploratory study investigated how women who self identify as a person of size and who have a positive body image developed their positive body identity. Through the process of a semi-structured interview, the study explored the personal experience of the participants from their youth into adulthood regarding the messages they received about their bodies and how they responded and resisted the impact of those messages. The theoretical underpinnings of this study were based on body objectification theory, stigma theory and feminist theory. Sixteen female participants participated in the study and shared what they believed contributed to their body positive identity. Major findings were that all of the participants had significant memories of receiving and internalizing negative messages about their bodies and most of the participants responded to these messages with shame, dieting, anger, and overachievement. Additionally, all of the participants reported utilizing multiple factors of support as a strategy to resist the external and internal messages and to develop a positive body identity. This study revealed the deep impact of familial and societal messages about body size on a woman\u27s mental well-being. It also identified the incredible resilience and strength of character the participants embodied in order to arrive at and maintain a body positive image

Validating the Tritiated Water Method in Adult Harp Seal

As one of the top predators in the northeast Atlantic, and most numerous, the harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus), has a significant role in the higher trophic levels in the ecosystem. Their condition can be an indicator of changes in prey availability, competition with other species or even climate. It can also be a useful tool in predicting the pup production and breeding success. The tritiated water method is used to estimate an animal’s total body water (TBW) and body composition. The method is based on the dilution volume of an injection of tritiated water into an animal’s body water. But the method requires validation. In order to validate the tritiated water method in a new species, the method is performed on the animal and compared with the results of another method that is as close to the correct value as possible. In this project that was a dissection, where the different values estimated by the tritiated water method could be obtained and determined through a thorough dissection. In this study harp seals of the pack ice of the Greenland Sea population were used (n=5). They were captured in the end of March 2021. The tritiated water method was performed, blood samples collected both prior to and after injecton, and the seals were euthanized, frozen and brought back to Tromsø for further processing. In Tromsø they were dissected, and the relative percentage amount and water content of different tissues were determined. Plasma samples collected when performing the tritiated water method were analyzed to determine specific radioactivity and total body water. In this study the tritiated water method underestimated the total body water of female breeding harp seals with on average 1.72±0.39% (SE). The average estimated TBW was 40.33±0.60%, while the determined value, calculated using the mass of tissues and water content was 42.04±0.42%. By plotting the estimated TBW and percentage amount of tissue the regression equations were derived. Estimating the body composition using these equations did not differ significantly from the determined values obtained by the dissections (P-value<0.05)

The Impact of Fatigue on Medical Error and Clinician Wellness: A Vignette-Based Discussion

Fatigue-induced medical errors and complications spark concern in patients, clinicians, and policy makers, as documented by the Institute of Medicine report in 1999 that approximately 100,000 Americans die annually secondary to potentially avoidable injurious events. Over the last 2 decades, multiple organizations have advocated for the implementation of labor hour restrictions to redress physician in training fatigue and enhance patient safety. Advocates for duty hour caps in physician training programs cite the potential for improvements in patient safety, whereas adversaries allege that curtailing duty hours compromises medical education and readiness for solo practice. Sleep deprivation impairs multiple aspects of cognition, function, and capacity, including many aspects essential to the practice of medicine, e.g., cognizance, recollection, and dexterity. Resident physicians’ traditional extended duty shifts for 24–30 consecutive hours pose significant hazards not only to patients but also to the physicians in training themselves. Burnout among physicians in training occurs commonly and results from work-related stress characterized by emotional prostration, depersonalization manifest as cynicism and detachment toward patients, and diminution of personal esteem. Curtailed shift duration correlates best with improved patient care of the strategies for managing physician fatigue. Adequate supervision of residents and medical students has the potential to improve resident education and further patient safety. Night float shifts improve resident’s well-being in terms of acclimating to a consistent nocturnal schedule. Data supporting capping physician work hours demonstrates evidence of amelioration of fatigue, thereby improving physician’s quality of life; evidence supporting duty hour restriction for enhancing patient safety, decreasing medical errors, and physician training, including surgical, is mixed and more nuanced

Do statins increase and Mediterranean diet decrease the risk of breast cancer?

BACKGROUND: Physical exercise and healthy dietary habits are recommended to prevent breast cancer. DISCUSSION: Increased intake of omega-3 fatty acids associated with decreased omega-6 - resulting in higher omega-3 to omega-6 ratio compared with Western-type diet - is inversely associated with breast cancer risk. The modernized Mediterranean diet with high omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, high fiber and polyphenol intake, and consumption of low-glycemic index foods reduces overall cancer risk and specifically breast cancer risk. It has been suggested that consuming no more than one alcoholic drink per day, preferably wine, is preferable. Eliminating environmental contaminants, including endocrine disruptors, and favoring organic foods to increase polyphenol intake and the omega-3 to omega-6 ratios were also shown to be beneficial. Cholesterol-lowering statins may decrease antitumor defenses; are toxic for the mitochondria; decrease the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio; increase body mass index, insulin resistance and diabetic risk; and have been associated with an increased breast cancer risk. SUMMARY: Therefore, as well as making lifestyle changes to decrease breast cancer risk, we argue that physicians should carefully consider (and often avoid) therapies that may increase breast cancer or diabetes risk in high-risk women and women who wish to decrease their breast cancer risk

Market timing and selectivity: an empirical investigation of european mutual fund performance

JEL classification: G11, G14Mutual fund managers can enhance their returns by selecting assets with superior returns or by advantageously timing their portfolio allocation strategy to the stock market, or both. In the present study we examine the timing ability of mutual fund managers to denote the practice of these strategies as a way to achieve superior performance. Of the 193 European equity funds that followed active management strategies between January 2000 and December 2012, the results do not evidence that fund managers have denoted abilities to positively anticipate market movements (market timing). Nevertheless, the selectivity component of returns presents slightly positive results, despite the generally poor overall performanceOs gestores de fundos de investimento podem aumentar as suas rendibilidades através da seleção dos melhores ativos ou da antecipação vantajosa do momento em que canalizam os fluxos de investimento para o mercado com risco, ou ambos. No presente estudo investigamos a capacidade que os gestores denotaram na utilização destas estratégias como forma de obterem uma performance superior. Dos 193 fundos europeus de ações que seguiram estratégias de gestão ativa entre Janeiro de 2000 e Dezembro de 2012, não obtivemos evidência de que os gestores destes fundos denotassem positivas capacidades de antecipação dos movimentos do mercado (market timing). Já na componente seletividade, os resultados são ligeiramente mais favoráveis, não obstante a performance total evidenciada ser globalmente reduzida

Is it smoking or related lifestyle variables that increase metabolic syndrome risk?

Metabolic syndrome is considered as mainly caused by a deleterious lifestyle (sedentarity and diet). That smoking contributes to metabolic syndrome had been suggested by several small studies and a meta-analysis. The interesting study by Slagter et al. published in BMC Medicine is the first very large study confirming this association in both genders, in all classes of body mass index, and in a dose-related manner. Surprisingly, smoking is even associated with increased abdominal fat. Rather than a direct causal effect of smoking, the reason for these associations is most probably the frequent presence of other lifestyle components in smokers. For example, physical inactivity and alcohol drinking are known to be more often present in smokers and could completely explain the observations of the Slagter et al. study. Unfortunately, these factors, already not properly checked in the first studies, were not assessed at all in the present one. However, as it is still on-going, we hope that other lifestyle factors will be included in future publications. Please see related research: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/11/195