Increasing the Effectiveness of Pedagogical Technologies in Education: Psychological Experience of Technological Change Management

This paper investigates the psychology of change management involving a technological change in the educational organization and the administrative and teaching staff. In particular, the paper delineates the staff’s psychological experience regarding the incorporation of pedagogical and educational technologies. In this regard, this article provides theoretical support based on the stimulus-organism-response theory, technological self-efficacy, and technological acceptance model and develops a theoretical model. A quantitative approach was applied to test the model, and research assumptions were drawn from the aforementioned theories. Particularly, disruptive statistics and correlation analysis were employed to test the assumption empirically by collecting data from 500 staff members. The research results highlight that a psychological response serves as the antecedent of the effectiveness of pedagogical and educational technologies, whereby the positive psychological responses (happiness, inspiration, or drive) would increase the effectiveness, while the negative psychological responses (anxiety, stress, and discomfort) would decrease it. This psychological response depends on the perceived self-efficacy and perceived ease of use of the staff, whose lower levels of the two raise the negative psychological response. Generally, to increase the effectiveness of pedagogical and educational technologies, it is essential to effectively manage the psychological well-being of the staff by reducing their negative psychological responses and developing their technological competence (self-efficacy and ability to use with ease). Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2023-SIED2-05 Full Text: PD

A computational model of excitation and contraction in uterine myocytes from the pregnant rat

Aberrant uterine myometrial activities in humans are major health issues. However, the cellular and tissue mechanism(s) that maintain the uterine myometrium at rest during gestation, and that initiate and maintain long-lasting uterine contractions during delivery are incompletely understood. In this study we construct a computational model for describing the electrical activity (simple and complex action potentials), intracellular calcium dynamics and mechanical contractions of isolated uterine myocytes from the pregnant rat. The model reproduces variant types of action potentials – from spikes with a smooth plateau, to spikes with an oscillatory plateau, to bursts of spikes – that are seen during late gestation under different physiological conditions. The effects of the hormones oestradiol (via reductions in calcium and potassium selective channel conductance), oxytocin (via an increase in intracellular calcium release) and the tocolytic nifedipine (via a block of L-type calcium channels currents) on action potentials and contractions are also reproduced, which quantitatively match to experimental data. All of these results validated the cell model development. In conclusion, the developed model provides a computational platform for further investigations of the ionic mechanism underlying the genesis and control of electrical and mechanical activities in the rat uterine myocytes

A Computational Model of the Ionic Currents, Ca2+ Dynamics and Action Potentials Underlying Contraction of Isolated Uterine Smooth Muscle

Uterine contractions during labor are discretely regulated by rhythmic action potentials (AP) of varying duration and form that serve to determine calcium-dependent force production. We have employed a computational biology approach to develop a fuller understanding of the complexity of excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling of uterine smooth muscle cells (USMC). Our overall aim is to establish a mathematical platform of sufficient biophysical detail to quantitatively describe known uterine E-C coupling parameters and thereby inform future empirical investigations of physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms governing normal and dysfunctional labors. From published and unpublished data we construct mathematical models for fourteen ionic currents of USMCs: currents (L- and T-type), current, an hyperpolarization-activated current, three voltage-gated currents, two -activated current, -activated current, non-specific cation current, - exchanger, - pump and background current. The magnitudes and kinetics of each current system in a spindle shaped single cell with a specified surface area∶volume ratio is described by differential equations, in terms of maximal conductances, electrochemical gradient, voltage-dependent activation/inactivation gating variables and temporal changes in intracellular computed from known fluxes. These quantifications are validated by the reconstruction of the individual experimental ionic currents obtained under voltage-clamp. Phasic contraction is modeled in relation to the time constant of changing . This integrated model is validated by its reconstruction of the different USMC AP configurations (spikes, plateau and bursts of spikes), the change from bursting to plateau type AP produced by estradiol and of simultaneous experimental recordings of spontaneous AP, and phasic force. In summary, our advanced mathematical model provides a powerful tool to investigate the physiological ionic mechanisms underlying the genesis of uterine electrical E-C coupling of labor and parturition. This will furnish the evolution of descriptive and predictive quantitative models of myometrial electrogenesis at the whole cell and tissue levels

Limits of Calcium Clearance by Plasma Membrane Calcium ATPase in Olfactory Cilia

BACKGROUND: In any fine sensory organelle, a small influx of Ca(2+) can quickly elevate cytoplasmic Ca(2+). Mechanisms must exist to clear the ciliary Ca(2+) before it reaches toxic levels. One such organelle has been well studied: the vertebrate olfactory cilium. Recent studies have suggested that clearance from the olfactory cilium is mediated in part by plasma membrane Ca(2+)-ATPase (PMCA). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, electrophysiological assays were devised to monitor cytoplasmic free Ca(2+) in single frog olfactory cilia. Ca(2+) was allowed to enter isolated cilia, either through the detached end or through membrane channels. Intraciliary Ca(2+) was monitored via the activity of ciliary Ca(2+)-gated Cl(-) channels, which are sensitive to free Ca(2+) from about 2 to 10 microM. No significant effect of MgATP on intraciliary free Ca(2+) could be found. Carboxyeosin, which has been used to inhibit PMCA, was found to substantially increase a ciliary transduction current activated by cyclic AMP. This increase was ATP-independent. CONCLUSIONS: Alternative explanations are suggested for two previous experiments taken to support a role for PMCA in ciliary Ca(2+) clearance. It is concluded that PMCA in the cilium plays a very limited role in clearing the micromolar levels of intraciliary Ca(2+) produced during the odor response

Ca2+ Extrusion by NCX Is Compromised in Olfactory Sensory Neurons of OMP−/− Mice

The role of olfactory marker protein (OMP), a hallmark of mature olfactory sensory neurons (OSNs), has been poorly understood since its discovery. The electrophysiological and behavioral phenotypes of OMP knockout mice indicated that OMP influences olfactory signal transduction. However, the mechanism by which this occurs remained unknown.We used intact olfactory epithelium obtained from WT and OMP(-/-) mice to monitor the Ca(2+) dynamics induced by the activation of cyclic nucleotide-gated channels, voltage-operated Ca(2+) channels, or Ca(2+) stores in single dendritic knobs of OSNs. Our data suggested that OMP could act to modulate the Ca(2+)-homeostasis in these neurons by influencing the activity of the plasma membrane Na(+)/Ca(2+)-exchanger (NCX). Immunohistochemistry verifies colocalization of NCX1 and OMP in the cilia and knobs of OSNs. To test the role of NCX activity, we compared the kinetics of Ca(2+) elevation by stimulating the reverse mode of NCX in both WT and OMP(-/-) mice. The resulting Ca(2+) responses indicate that OMP facilitates NCX activity and allows rapid Ca(2+) extrusion from OSN knobs. To address the mechanism by which OMP influences NCX activity in OSNs we studied protein-peptide interactions in real-time using surface plasmon resonance technology. We demonstrate the direct interaction of the XIP regulatory-peptide of NCX with calmodulin (CaM).Since CaM also binds to the Bex protein, an interacting protein partner of OMP, these observations strongly suggest that OMP can influence CaM efficacy and thus alters NCX activity by a series of protein-protein interactions

Modern Trends of Organic Chemistry in Russian Universities

© 2018, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. This review is devoted to the scientific achievements of the departments of organic chemistry in higher schools of Russia within the past decade

Socio-humanitarian potential of education as a factor in the modernization of Ukrainian society

У колективній монографії визначено зміст сучасної освіти, зокрема розглянуто її онтологічний та епістемологічний виміри, розкрито специфіку модернізації освіти крізь призму компетентнісного та ментального підходів, здійснено критичний аналіз стратегій сучасного гуманітарного знання в контексті актуалізації формування сучасно освіченої, світоглядно зрілої, високоморальної особистості; розкрито сутність та визначено завдання освіти в світлі глобалізаційних процесів, що обумовлюють необхідність формування людини як глобального громадянина – представника мультикультурного суспільства та інтелігента – представника інтелектуальної еліти нашої держави; показано, що визначення фундаментальних цілей освіти неможливо без дослідження історичних тенденцій розвитку освіти.The collective monograph defined the content of modern education, in particular, examined its ontological and epistemological measurements, revealed the specifics of modernizing education through the prism of competence and mental approaches, made a critical analysis of the strategies of modern humanitarian knowledge in the context of actualizing the formation of a modernly educated, ideologically mature, highly moral person; the essence and objectives of education are identified in the light of globalization processes that determine the need to form a person as a global citizen - a representative of a multicultural society and an intellectual - a representative of the intellectual elite of our state; It is shown that the definition of the fundamental goals of education is impossible without a study of historical trends in the development of education

Analysis of various organic and organometallic compounds using nanostructure-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (NALDI-TOFMS)

Nanostructure-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (NALDI-TOFMS) has been developed recently as a matrix-free/surface-assisted alternative to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS). The NALDI surface of silicon nanowires is already very effective for the analysis of small to medium sized, polar organic molecules in positive ion mode. The current study examined this technology for the analysis of several nonpolar organic, organometallic, and ionic compounds in positive ion mode, as well as a fluorinated compound and various acids in negative ion mode. NALDI data are compared and contrasted with MALDI data for the same compounds, and the higher sensitivity of NALDI is highlighted by the successful characterization of two porphyrins for a sample amount of 10 amol per spot