History, Research, and Theory to Practice: Scaffolding Framework for Graduate Online Courses

The expansion of modern technology has vastly changed and continues to change the way we learn, communicate, and connect with one another. Institutions of higher learning including Community Colleges and Universities, traditionally known for their face-to-face courses, have had to reconsider programmatic and delivery mode over the years to transfer their face-to-face courses into online courses based on the growing demand. With this transition, comes reflective reevaluation of curriculum and programmatic structure of courses. These programmatic courses must provide instructional experiences that are meaningful and purposeful for graduate students in higher education and prepare them in the same manner and level of quality as face-to-face courses. There is a need for pedagogical research to assist faculty and instructors to make this transition to online teaching. The following paper examines 1) the historical context of distance education 2) research on face-to-face instruction in comparison to online instruction 3) a modern framework for scaffolding graduate courses and graduate course content

SEE-I Critical Thinking Framework: Expository Writing in Middle Schools

A variety of teaching strategies and process approach methods have been implemented as a means of improving student writing across the country. Despite efforts to improve student writing, specifically in secondary education, it has been reported that 70% of students in grades (4-12) are weak writers and additional studies indicate that one third of high school graduates are not prepared for college-level writing courses (Graham & Perin, 2007; Persky et. al. 2003). SEE-I framework facilitates the premise for problem solving and critical thinking strategies situated in the writing process. Flower and Hayes (1977) stress the importance of treating writing as a thinking problem within the act of composing. The following paper establishes the theoretical background for SEE-I, the premise of its inception, the implementation and modifications, and the challenges encountered

Qualitative Study on At-Risk Hispanic Adolescents engaged in Social Emotional Learning and Mindfulness Practices

The following study highlights the importance of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and provides a descriptive overview of the Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) organization competencies at both the national and state level. Qualitative data was collected during a study conducted on at-risk Hispanic high school students who engaged in a mindfulness yoga program. Adolescents voluntarily participated in 12 weeks of mindfulness yoga (24 classes) and provided post essay responses to questions associated with the five core competencies of SEL: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making. Evidence aligned with SEL competencies after 24 mindfulness yoga sessions through implicit yoga instruction (absence of explicit direct instruction) were coded and reported accordingly. Overall, findings indicate consistencies with previous research on mindfulness yoga programs in the schools of the impactful benefits of healthy behaviors and mental wellness for adolescents at risk. Documented conclusions from this study showcase an increased positive impact on SEL categories of self-awareness, self-management, and decision making

The Effects of Rhetorical Reading Interventions on the Reading and Writing Performances of Students Enrolled in College Composition Classes

The purpose of the study was to determine the impact of rhetorical reading interventions on ELL and dominant English speaking college students' perceptions of reading-writing connections, reading performances as measured by the Accuplacer Reading Test, and writing performances as measured by a holistic rubric. ELL, as defined here, refers to a student who is in the process of acquiring English and has knowledge of a first language other than English. The researcher applied a quasi-experimental comparison and treatment group post test design that included four composition classes. The independent variable was the rhetorical reading intervention. The dependent variables included: student reading- writing connection surveys, the Accuplacer Reading Test, and student generated essays. The rhetorical reading intervention applied focused on constructing awareness of an author?s purpose, context, and effect on audience (reader. Reading performance scores for the comparison group indicated an observed change in the mean score from pre-test to post-test of 0 .17. The observed change in the mean score from pre to post test performance for treatment group participants was 9.16. Repeated measures ANOVA test yielded a main effect for pre-post reading performance scores across groups, F (1,70)=16.153, p<.05. Results indicated that comparison group participants displayed minimal change between the pre and post Accuplacer Reading scores; while, treatment group participants reading scores increased significantly. Writing performance scores for the comparison group indicated an observed change from pre-post scores of .74. An observed change was indicated from pre-post scores of 1.02 for treatment group subjects. A repeated measures (ANOVA) test within groups yielded a main effect for pre-post writing performance scores across all groups, F(1,70)= 60.327, p<.05. The greater increase for the treatment group suggests that rhetorical reading interventions had an enhanced positive influence on writing performance scores. The analyses reported suggest varying degrees of the effects, on both reading and writing, the integration of reading with specific rhetorical guidelines appeared to maximize not only the connections between reading and writing, but also provide students opportunities to apply critical thinking skills when reading like a writer. The study provides noteworthy insights for educators in the areas of ELL instruction at the college level and provides information that facilitates bridging the achievement gap between dominant English speakers and ELL students

Fluoroless catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation: integration of intracardiac echocardiography and cartosound module

Objective: To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and clinical efficacy of non-fluoroscopic radiofrequency catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) in comparison to traditional fluoroscopy-guided ablation in a local Canadian community cohort. Methods: We retrospectively studied consecutive patients with paroxysmal and persistent AF undergoing pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) guided by intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) and Carto system (CartoSound module). ICE-guided PVI without fluoroscopy (Zero-fluoro group) was performed in 116 patients, and conventional fluoroscopy-guided PVI (Traditional group) was performed in 131 patients. Results: Two hundred and forty-seven patients with AF (60.7% male; mean age: 62.2 ± 10.6 years; paroxysmal AF =63.1%) who underwent PVI were studied. Mean procedure times were similar between both groups (136.8±33.4 minutes in the zero-fluoro group vs. 144.3±44.9 minutes in the traditional group; p=0.2). Acute PVI was achieved in all patients. Survival from early AF recurrence was 85% and 81% in the zero-fluoro and traditional groups, respectively (p = 0.06). Survival from late AF recurrence (12-months) between the zero-fluoro and traditional groups was also similar (p=0.1). Moreover, there were no significant differences between complication rates, including hematoma (p = 0.2) and tamponade (p = 1),between both groups. Conclusions: Zero-fluoroscopy ICE and CartoSound-guided AF ablation may be safe and feasible in patients undergoing PVI compared to conventional fluoroscopy-guided ablation

Nested inversion polymorphisms predispose chromosome 22q11.2 to meiotic rearrangements [RETRACTED]

Inversion polymorphisms between low-copy repeats (LCRs) might predispose chromosomes to meiotic non-allelic homologous recombination (NAHR) events and thus lead to genomic disorders. However, for the 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS), the most common genomic disorder, no such inversions have been uncovered as of yet. Using fiber-FISH, we demonstrate that parents transmitting the de novo 3 Mb LCR22A–D 22q11.2 deletion, the reciprocal duplication, and the smaller 1.5 Mb LCR22A–B 22q11.2 deletion carry inversions of LCR22B–D or LCR22C–D. Hence, the inversions predispose chromosome 22q11.2 to meiotic rearrangements and increase the individual risk for transmitting rearrangements. Interestingly, the inversions are nested or flanking rather than coinciding with the deletion or duplication sizes. This finding raises the possibility that inversions are a prerequisite not only for 22q11.2 rearrangements but also for all NAHR-mediated genomic disorders

A large-scale genome-wide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder

Summary Background Variation in liability to cannabis use disorder has a strong genetic component (estimated twin and family heritability about 50–70%) and is associated with negative outcomes, including increased risk of psychopathology. The aim of the study was to conduct a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel genetic variants associated with cannabis use disorder. Methods To conduct this GWAS meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder and identify associations with genetic loci, we used samples from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders working group, iPSYCH, and deCODE (20 916 case samples, 363 116 control samples in total), contrasting cannabis use disorder cases with controls. To examine the genetic overlap between cannabis use disorder and 22 traits of interest (chosen because of previously published phenotypic correlations [eg, psychiatric disorders] or hypothesised associations [eg, chronotype] with cannabis use disorder), we used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate genetic correlations. Findings We identified two genome-wide significant loci: a novel chromosome 7 locus (FOXP2, lead single-nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] rs7783012; odds ratio [OR] 1·11, 95% CI 1·07–1·15, p=1·84 × 10−9) and the previously identified chromosome 8 locus (near CHRNA2 and EPHX2, lead SNP rs4732724; OR 0·89, 95% CI 0·86–0·93, p=6·46 × 10−9). Cannabis use disorder and cannabis use were genetically correlated (rg 0·50, p=1·50 × 10−21), but they showed significantly different genetic correlations with 12 of the 22 traits we tested, suggesting at least partially different genetic underpinnings of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder. Cannabis use disorder was positively genetically correlated with other psychopathology, including ADHD, major depression, and schizophrenia. Interpretation These findings support the theory that cannabis use disorder has shared genetic liability with other psychopathology, and there is a distinction between genetic liability to cannabis use and cannabis use disorder. Funding National Institute of Mental Health; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism; National Institute on Drug Abuse; Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine and the Centre for Integrative Sequencing; The European Commission, Horizon 2020; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; Health Research Council of New Zealand; National Institute on Aging; Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium; UK Research and Innovation Medical Research Council (UKRI MRC); The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation; National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering; National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Australia; Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the University of California; Families for Borderline Personality Disorder Research (Beth and Rob Elliott) 2018 NARSAD Young Investigator Grant; The National Child Health Research Foundation (Cure Kids); The Canterbury Medical Research Foundation; The New Zealand Lottery Grants Board; The University of Otago; The Carney Centre for Pharmacogenomics; The James Hume Bequest Fund; National Institutes of Health: Genes, Environment and Health Initiative; National Institutes of Health; National Cancer Institute; The William T Grant Foundation; Australian Research Council; The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation; The VISN 1 and VISN 4 Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Centers of the US Department of Veterans Affairs; The 5th Framework Programme (FP-5) GenomEUtwin Project; The Lundbeck Foundation; NIH-funded Shared Instrumentation Grant S10RR025141; Clinical Translational Sciences Award grants; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute; National Institute of General Medical Sciences.Peer reviewe

Shared genetic risk between eating disorder- and substance-use-related phenotypes:Evidence from genome-wide association studies

First published: 16 February 202

A large-scale genome-wide association study meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder

Background: Variation in liability to cannabis use disorder has a strong genetic component (estimated twin and family heritability about 50-70%) and is associated with negative outcomes, including increased risk of psychopathology. The aim of the study was to conduct a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify novel genetic variants associated with cannabis use disorder. Methods: To conduct this GWAS meta-analysis of cannabis use disorder and identify associations with genetic loci, we used samples from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders working group, iPSYCH, and deCODE (20 916 case samples, 363 116 control samples in total), contrasting cannabis use disorder cases with controls. To examine the genetic overlap between cannabis use disorder and 22 traits of interest (chosen because of previously published phenotypic correlations [eg, psychiatric disorders] or hypothesised associations [eg, chronotype] with cannabis use disorder), we used linkage disequilibrium score regression to calculate genetic correlations. Findings: We identified two genome-wide significant loci: a novel chromosome 7 locus (FOXP2, lead single-nucleotide polymorphism [SNP] rs7783012; odds ratio [OR] 1·11, 95% CI 1·07-1·15, p=1·84 × 10-9) and the previously identified chromosome 8 locus (near CHRNA2 and EPHX2, lead SNP rs4732724; OR 0·89, 95% CI 0·86-0·93, p=6·46 × 10-9). Cannabis use disorder and cannabis use were genetically correlated (rg 0·50, p=1·50 × 10-21), but they showed significantly different genetic correlations with 12 of the 22 traits we tested, suggesting at least partially different genetic underpinnings of cannabis use and cannabis use disorder. Cannabis use disorder was positively genetically correlated with other psychopathology, including ADHD, major depression, and schizophrenia. Interpretation: These findings support the theory that cannabis use disorder has shared genetic liability with other psychopathology, and there is a distinction between genetic liability to cannabis use and cannabis use disorder

Virus genomes reveal factors that spread and sustained the Ebola epidemic.

The 2013-2016 West African epidemic caused by the Ebola virus was of unprecedented magnitude, duration and impact. Here we reconstruct the dispersal, proliferation and decline of Ebola virus throughout the region by analysing 1,610 Ebola virus genomes, which represent over 5% of the known cases. We test the association of geography, climate and demography with viral movement among administrative regions, inferring a classic 'gravity' model, with intense dispersal between larger and closer populations. Despite attenuation of international dispersal after border closures, cross-border transmission had already sown the seeds for an international epidemic, rendering these measures ineffective at curbing the epidemic. We address why the epidemic did not spread into neighbouring countries, showing that these countries were susceptible to substantial outbreaks but at lower risk of introductions. Finally, we reveal that this large epidemic was a heterogeneous and spatially dissociated collection of transmission clusters of varying size, duration and connectivity. These insights will help to inform interventions in future epidemics