How do educators experience teaching with digital personalised learning:through the lens of Finnish and Flemish educators

Abstract. The use of educational technology has accelerated in primary and secondary education; platforms and tools are utilised on a weekly basis. The effect and impact of these technological implementations have not been met with the same speed. The work of educators is critical in incorporating those technologies, and in that regard, their significance is often under-researched. With a particular interest in primary education, I aim to include the voices of those standing in the classroom and implementing Digital Personalised Learning (DPL) tools such as the ViLLE platform and i-Learns’ online portal. Accordingly, this qualitative research study investigates (primary school) educators’ experiences with DPL using the ViLLE tool (Finland) and the i-Learn tool (Flanders/Belgium). This research aims to address the research question of “How do Educators Experience Teaching with Digital Personalised Learning?” by conducting semi-structured interviews with educators who have implemented DPL through the method of reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) following Braun and Clarke’s principles (2019). This study involves 12 educators (n=12), of which six are from the Belgian group and six from the Finnish one. With the constructionist epistemology of RTA, I explored the variety of experiences and the meaning given by these educators. The results found that support, autonomy, efficiency, effort and sentiment are important factors to consider when researching DPL efforts in these contexts. The most prevalent finding showcased the stress on educators exercising an active role within the classroom when using the DPL tool, in which description of guiding and facilitating students were prioritised. This study overall aims to provide several insights with important themes, such as the need for additional support, the role of efficiency and effort, and educators’ views on the extent of technology’s involvement in education. In addition, the findings provided insight into educators’ perceptions of technology’s role in education as either an aiding tool or regarded with an overtly technocentric view. It also showcases the need for future research. A discrepancy between the interpretation and the theoretical definition was showcased through participants’ emphasis on pupils’ autonomy and its importance which illustrated how the aspect of autonomy is significant to DPL from an educator’s perspective

Protein glycosylation as a diagnostic and prognostic marker of chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal and liver diseases

Glycans are sequences of carbohydrates that are added to proteins or lipids to modulate their structure and function. Glycans modify proteins required for regulation of immune cells, and alterations have been associated with inflammatory conditions. For example, specific glycans regulate T-cell activation, structures, and functions of immunoglobulins; interactions between microbes and immune and epithelial cells; and malignant transformation in the intestine and liver. We review the effects of protein glycosylation in regulation of gastrointestinal and liver functions, and how alterations in glycosylation serve as diagnostic or prognostic factors, or as targets for therapy

Heating of the molecular gas in the massive outflow of the local ultraluminous-infrared and radio-loud galaxy 4C12.50

We present a comparison of the molecular gas properties in the outflow vs. in the ambient medium of the local prototype radio-loud and ultraluminous-infrared galaxy 4C12.50 (IRAS13451+1232), using new data from the IRAM Plateau de Bure interferometer and 30m telescope, and the Herschel space telescope. Previous H_2 (0-0) S(1) and S(2) observations with the Spitzer space telescope had indicated that the warm (~400K) molecular gas in 4C12.50 is made up of a 1.4(+-0.2)x10^8 M_sun ambient reservoir and a 5.2(+-1.7)x10^7 M_sun outflow. The new CO(1-0) data cube indicates that the corresponding cold (25K) H_2 gas mass is 1.0(+-0.1)x10^10 M_sun for the ambient medium and <1.3x10^8 M_sun for the outflow, when using a CO-intensity-to-H_2-mass conversion factor alpha of 0.8 M_sun /(K km/s pc^2). The combined mass outflow rate is high, 230-800 M_sun/yr, but the amount of gas that could escape the galaxy is low. A potential inflow of gas from a 3.3(+-0.3)x10^8 M_sun tidal tail could moderate any mass loss. The mass ratio of warm-to-cold molecular gas is >= 30 times higher in the outflow than in the ambient medium, indicating that a non-negligible fraction of the accelerated gas is heated to temperatures at which star formation is inefficient. This conclusion is robust against the use of different alpha factor values, and/or different warm gas tracers (H_2 vs. H_2 plus CO): with the CO-probed gas mass being at least 40 times lower at 400K than at 25K, the total warm-to-cold mass ratio is always lower in the ambient gas than in the entrained gas. Heating of the molecular gas could facilitate the detection of new outflows in distant galaxies by enhancing their emission in intermediate rotational number CO lines.Comment: A&A, in pres

‘Pene (r)tsogpo’ (L’argent [roupies] c’est sale). Approche anthropologique de la monnaie. Le cas de la Vallée du Zanskar, Himalaya indien

Titre du No : La Monnaie en Relation, Sophie Laligant et Géraldine Le Rou

Cultural Landscape Design in Nigeria during the Pre-Colonial, Colonial and Twenty-First Century.

Landscape is an integral part of man’s environment and the term in relation to a place may invoke the creation and experience of multiple meanings. This research investigates the relationship between landscapes in Nigeria during the precolonial, colonial and the twenty-first century. It looks at the influences of colonialism on landscape design, which seeks to find out how Nigeria has fared in its land use planning. The research highlighted the continued importance of historically constituted landscape upon which present-day activities in Nigeria are performed, and also considered the existing relationships of the present to the past. This paper through intensive review of relevant literature - books, journals and seminar papers amongst other documents, critically examined the factors that best answer the objectives of the study. The paper also outlines outdoor spaces that connect individuals to their social, economic and religious or cultural activities. It reviewed reasons that necessitate the proper organisation or arrangement that landscape design is concerned with. The paper recommended adequate implementation of town planning laws such as the active participation of the masses. Keywords: architecture, cultural landscape, design, environment DOI: 10.7176/CER/11-2-08 Publication date:March 31st 201

Characterization of Pathogenic Fungi Infecting Citrullus lanatus in Different Agroecological Regions of Embu County, Kenya

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) fruit is nutritious and a profitable cash crop. Its production in Kenya however has dropped from 379.36K metric tonnes to 173.70K metric tonnes in the last five years; attributed to pests, diseases and unpredictable climatic conditions. Study done between July and November, 2018 isolated and characterized fungi associated with watermelon determining their diversity and occurence frequency in Embu County, Kenya. Necrotic fruits and leaves (n=160) were sampled from random farms (n=16). Fungi isolated and  cultured on PDA.; characterized by morphological and molecular method. ANOVA was used to detect fungal prevalence differences among sites. Fusarium oxysporum was most prevelent with 73% frequency, Aspergillus niger (32%). Penicilliun crustosum and Fusarium brachygibbosum at 31%  each. Least prevalent was Trichoderma asperellum (1%). Significant differences (F= 23.365, p=0.05, df=13), were observed among agroecological sites except for Fusarium oxysporium and F. brachygibbosum. Majority of fungi identified were of significant economic importance

Avoiding spurious feedback loops in the reconstruction of gene regulatory networks with dynamic bayesian networks

Feedback loops and recurrent structures are essential to the regulation and stable control of complex biological systems. The application of dynamic as opposed to static Bayesian networks is promising in that, in principle, these feedback loops can be learned. However, we show that the widely applied BGe score is susceptible to learning spurious feedback loops, which are a consequence of non-linear regulation and autocorrelation in the data. We propose a non-linear generalisation of the BGe model, based on a mixture model, and demonstrate that this approach successfully represses spurious feedback loops