Construção Colaborativa Online de Propostas de Ensino de Ciências e Biologia: Níveis de Colaboração e Impactos da Mediação

 In the last century, Collaborative Learning with Computer Support (CSCL) presents itself as the new basis of learning sciences. It seeks to clarify how learning within groups can promote, through technology, the interaction and collaboration of participants, through knowledge exchange. We took Murphy's research as a theoretical reference to verify the collaboration between Science and Biology teachers to construct teaching proposals. The objective was to evaluate different pedagogical strategies in the forums for the collaborative construction of teaching proposals by teachers in initial and continuing training, triangulating with the collaboration categories in two forums of two online refresher courses offered by the CECIERJ Foundation extension. Content analysis was carried out to verify these categories and then correlated with the factor whether or not there was mediation. A total of 137 course participants divided into twelve groups were involved in the research. The number of collaborations and the percentages of the categories that occurred in the forums in both courses were counted. During the study, it was found that forums made up of small groups were effective in building shared objectives and artifacts, thus reaching the most advanced levels of collaborative knowledge construction. The activity with a more closed and complex strategy, developed in Forum 2 of the courses (with and without mediation) was where the collaboration categories diversified the most and presented the greatest results. The proposal to work with small groups (around 10 participants) presented itself as an important alternative for deeper and more meaningful collaborative constructions of teaching and knowledge proposals.   Keywords: Online discussion forums. Collaborative learning. Knowledge construction. Mediation.Neste último século a Aprendizagem Colaborativa com Suporte Computacional (CSCL) se apresenta como a nova base das ciências da aprendizagem. Ela busca esclarecer como a aprendizagem dentro de grupos, consegue promover, por meio da tecnologia, a interação e a colaboração dos participantes, por meio das trocas de conhecimento. Tomamos por referencial teórico a pesquisa de Murphy para verificarmos a colaboração entre professores de Ciências e Biologia para construção de propostas de ensino. O objetivo foi avaliar diferentes estratégias pedagógicas dos fóruns para construção colaborativa de propostas de ensino por professores em formação inicial e continuada, triangulando com as categorias de colaboração em dois fóruns de dois cursos de atualização online da extensão da Fundação CECIERJ. Realizou-se a análise de conteúdo para verificar essas categorias e depois correlacionou-se com o fator ter ou não mediação. Estiveram envolvidos na pesquisa um total de 137 cursistas divididos em doze grupos. Foram contabilizados os números de colaborações e os percentuais das categorias que ocorreram nos fóruns em ambos os cursos. Constatou-se, no decorrer do estudo, que os fóruns constituídos por pequenos grupos foram eficazes na construção de objetivos e artefatos partilhados, atingindo assim os níveis mais avançados de construção colaborativa de conhecimento. A atividade com estratégia mais fechada e complexa, desenvolvida no Fórum 2 dos cursos (com e sem mediação) foi onde as categorias de colaboração mais se diversificaram e se apresentaram com maiores resultados. A proposta de trabalhar com pequenos grupos (em torno de 10 participantes) apresentou-se como alternativa importante para construções colaborativas mais profundas e significativas de propostas de ensino e conhecimento.   Palavras-chave: Fóruns de discussão online. Aprendizagem colaborativa. Construção do conhecimento. Mediação

Updated Italian Tetrapod Ichnology Reference List

We provide a list of contribution by Italian scientists to tetrapod ichnology with papers on both material from Italy and abroad. Foreign author’s contributions on tetrapod ichnology based on material from Italy are also considered. The list updates the previous one published by D’Orazi Porchetti et al. (2008) and, as a result, includes works from 1869 up to now. Following the previous reference list, papers of non-Italian researchers on foreign material are reported when the material was found on Italian territory at the time of publication

Falla renal aguda y nefritis intersticial asociada a picadura de alacrán: artículo de revisión

Secondary poisoning from scorpion stings is common in tropical and subtropical regions, even representing a public health problem in the north of the Sahara, the Middle East, the south of India, Mexico and Brazil, however, because in various parts of the world its occurrence is not mandatory notification, there is currently an underreporting of its prevalence. The clinical manifestations related to the attack of these animals vary from local presentations to moderate to severe multisystemic involvement that, if not identified in time, could lead to death. Medical management focuses on initial support measures as well as the administration of the antidote, which has successfully demonstrated the reduction of complications associated with lethality. Through this document, we seek to provide an updated vision of the problem in question to facilitate the timely identification of cases as well as the effective establishment of comprehensive medical management and, therefore, the reduction of epidemiological figures related to morbidity and mortality.El envenenamiento secundario a la picadura de alacrán es común en las regiones tropicales y subtropicales llegando a representar incluso un problema en salud pública en el norte del Sáhara, Oriente Medio, el sur de la India, México y Brasil sin embargo, debido a que en diversas partes del mundo su ocurrencia no es de obligatoria notificación, en la actualidad existe un subregistro sobre su prevalencia. Las manifestaciones clínicas relacionadas con el ataque de estos animales varían desde presentaciones locales hasta compromiso multisistémico de gravedad moderada a severa que de no ser identificados a tiempo podrían llegar a generar la muerte. El manejo médico se enfoca en medidas de soporte inicial así como en la administración del antídoto el cual ha logrado evidenciar de manera exitosa la disminución de complicaciones asociadas con letalidad. Por medio de este documento se busca brindar una visión actualizada sobre la problemática en cuestión con el fin de facilitar la identificación oportuna de los casos así como la instauración efectiva del manejo médico integral y por ende, la disminución de cifras epidemiológicas relacionadas con morbimortalidad

Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

男女間の不平等と脳の性差 --男女間の不平等は脳構造の性差と関連する--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-05-10.Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women’s worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7, 876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women’s brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality

Country-level gender inequality is associated with structural differences in the brains of women and men

Gender inequality across the world has been associated with a higher risk to mental health problems and lower academic achievement in women compared to men. We also know that the brain is shaped by nurturing and adverse socio-environmental experiences. Therefore, unequal exposure to harsher conditions for women compared to men in gender-unequal countries might be reflected in differences in their brain structure, and this could be the neural mechanism partly explaining women's worse outcomes in gender-unequal countries. We examined this through a random-effects meta-analysis on cortical thickness and surface area differences between adult healthy men and women, including a meta-regression in which country-level gender inequality acted as an explanatory variable for the observed differences. A total of 139 samples from 29 different countries, totaling 7,876 MRI scans, were included. Thickness of the right hemisphere, and particularly the right caudal anterior cingulate, right medial orbitofrontal, and left lateral occipital cortex, presented no differences or even thicker regional cortices in women compared to men in gender-equal countries, reversing to thinner cortices in countries with greater gender inequality. These results point to the potentially hazardous effect of gender inequality on women's brains and provide initial evidence for neuroscience-informed policies for gender equality

Large-scale analysis of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia via the ENIGMA consortium

Left-right asymmetry is an important organizing feature of the healthy brain that may be altered in schizophrenia, but most studies have used relatively small samples and heterogeneous approaches, resulting in equivocal findings. We carried out the largest case-control study of structural brain asymmetries in schizophrenia, using MRI data from 5,080 affected individuals and 6,015 controls across 46 datasets in the ENIGMA consortium, using a single image analysis protocol. Asymmetry indexes were calculated for global and regional cortical thickness, surface area, and subcortical volume measures. Differences of asymmetry were calculated between affected individuals and controls per dataset, and effect sizes were meta-analyzed across datasets. Small average case-control differences were observed for thickness asymmetries of the rostral anterior cingulate and the middle temporal gyrus, both driven by thinner left-hemispheric cortices in schizophrenia. Analyses of these asymmetries with respect to the use of antipsychotic medication and other clinical variables did not show any significant associations. Assessment of age- and sex-specific effects revealed a stronger average leftward asymmetry of pallidum volume between older cases and controls. Case-control differences in a multivariate context were assessed in a subset of the data (N = 2,029), which revealed that 7% of the variance across all structural asymmetries was explained by case-control status. Subtle case-control differences of brain macro-structural asymmetry may reflect differences at the molecular, cytoarchitectonic or circuit levels that have functional relevance for the disorder. Reduced left middle temporal cortical thickness is consistent with altered left-hemisphere language network organization in schizophrenia

Risk factors for infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales: an international matched case-control-control study (EURECA)

Cases were patients with complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), complicated intraabdominal (cIAI), pneumonia or bacteraemia from other sources (BSI-OS) due to CRE; control groups were patients with infection caused by carbapenem-susceptible Enterobacterales (CSE), and by non-infected patients, respectively. Matching criteria included type of infection for CSE group, ward and duration of hospital admission. Conditional logistic regression was used to identify risk factors. Findings Overall, 235 CRE case patients, 235 CSE controls and 705 non-infected controls were included. The CRE infections were cUTI (133, 56.7%), pneumonia (44, 18.7%), cIAI and BSI-OS (29, 12.3% each). Carbapenemase genes were found in 228 isolates: OXA-48/like, 112 (47.6%), KPC, 84 (35.7%), and metallo-beta-lactamases, 44 (18.7%); 13 produced two. The risk factors for CRE infection in both type of controls were (adjusted OR for CSE controls; 95% CI; p value) previous colonisation/infection by CRE (6.94; 2.74-15.53; <0.001), urinary catheter (1.78; 1.03-3.07; 0.038) and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics, as categorical (2.20; 1.25-3.88; 0.006) and time-dependent (1.04 per day; 1.00-1.07; 0.014); chronic renal failure (2.81; 1.40-5.64; 0.004) and admission from home (0.44; 0.23-0.85; 0.014) were significant only for CSE controls. Subgroup analyses provided similar results. Interpretation The main risk factors for CRE infections in hospitals with high incidence included previous coloni-zation, urinary catheter and exposure to broad spectrum antibiotics

Cortical brain abnormalities in 4474 individuals with schizophrenia and 5098 control subjects via the enhancing neuro Imaging genetics through meta analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium

BACKGROUND: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group. METHODS: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.3 years; range, 11-78 years; 66% male) and 5098 healthy volunteers (mean age, 32.8 years; range, 10-87 years; 53% male) assessed with standardized methods at 39 centers worldwide. RESULTS: Compared with healthy volunteers, individuals with schizophrenia have widespread thinner cortex (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.530/-0.516) and smaller surface area (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.251/-0.254), with the largest effect sizes for both in frontal and temporal lobe regions. Regional group differences in cortical thickness remained significant when statistically controlling for global cortical thickness, suggesting regional specificity. In contrast, effects for cortical surface area appear global. Case-control, negative, cortical thickness effect sizes were two to three times larger in individuals receiving antipsychotic medication relative to unmedicated individuals. Negative correlations between age and bilateral temporal pole thickness were stronger in individuals with schizophrenia than in healthy volunteers. Regional cortical thickness showed significant negative correlations with normalized medication dose, symptom severity, and duration of illness and positive correlations with age at onset. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the ENIGMA meta-analysis approach can achieve robust findings in clinical neuroscience studies; also, medication effects should be taken into account in future genetic association studies of cortical thickness in schizophrenia

Event reconstruction for KM3NeT/ORCA using convolutional neural networks

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently under construction at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ORCA water-Cherenkov neutrino detector off the French coast will instrument several megatons of seawater with photosensors. Its main objective is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. This work aims at demonstrating the general applicability of deep convolutional neural networks to neutrino telescopes, using simulated datasets for the KM3NeT/ORCA detector as an example. To this end, the networks are employed to achieve reconstruction and classification tasks that constitute an alternative to the analysis pipeline presented for KM3NeT/ORCA in the KM3NeT Letter of Intent. They are used to infer event reconstruction estimates for the energy, the direction, and the interaction point of incident neutrinos. The spatial distribution of Cherenkov light generated by charged particles induced in neutrino interactions is classified as shower- or track-like, and the main background processes associated with the detection of atmospheric neutrinos are recognized. Performance comparisons to machine-learning classification and maximum-likelihood reconstruction algorithms previously developed for KM3NeT/ORCA are provided. It is shown that this application of deep convolutional neural networks to simulated datasets for a large-volume neutrino telescope yields competitive reconstruction results and performance improvements with respect to classical approaches

Event reconstruction for KM3NeT/ORCA using convolutional neural networks

The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently under construction at two locations in the Mediterranean Sea. The KM3NeT/ORCA water-Cherenkov neutrino de tector off the French coast will instrument several megatons of seawater with photosensors. Its main objective is the determination of the neutrino mass ordering. This work aims at demonstrating the general applicability of deep convolutional neural networks to neutrino telescopes, using simulated datasets for the KM3NeT/ORCA detector as an example. To this end, the networks are employed to achieve reconstruction and classification tasks that constitute an alternative to the analysis pipeline presented for KM3NeT/ORCA in the KM3NeT Letter of Intent. They are used to infer event reconstruction estimates for the energy, the direction, and the interaction point of incident neutrinos. The spatial distribution of Cherenkov light generated by charged particles induced in neutrino interactions is classified as shower-or track-like, and the main background processes associated with the detection of atmospheric neutrinos are recognized. Performance comparisons to machine-learning classification and maximum-likelihood reconstruction algorithms previously developed for KM3NeT/ORCA are provided. It is shown that this application of deep convolutional neural networks to simulated datasets for a large-volume neutrino telescope yields competitive reconstruction results and performance improvements with respect to classical approaches