Physically active academic lessons; Acceptance, barriers and facilitators for implementation

Background To improve health and academic learning in schoolchildren, the Active School programme in Stavanger, Norway has introduced physically active academic lessons. This is a teaching method combining physical activity with academic content. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the response to the physically active lessons and identify facilitators and barriers for implementation of such an intervention. Methods Five school leaders (principals or vice-principals), 13 teachers and 30 children from the five intervention schools were interviewed about their experiences with the 10-month intervention, which consisted of weekly minimum 2 × 45 minutes of physically active academic lessons, and the factors affecting its implementation. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using the qualitative data analysis program NVivo 10 (QSR international, London, UK). In addition, weekly teacher’s intervention delivery logs were collected and analysed. Results On average, the physically active academic lessons in 18 of the 34 weeks (53%) were reported in the teacher logs. The number of delivered physically active academic lessons covered 73% of the schools’ planned activity. Physically active lessons were well received among school leaders, teachers and children. The main facilitators for implementation of the physically active lessons were active leadership and teacher support, high self-efficacy regarding mastering the intervention, ease of organizing physically active lessons, inclusion of physically active lessons into the lesson curricula, and children’s positive reception of the intervention. The main barriers were unclear expectations, lack of knowledge and time to plan the physiclly active lessons, and the length of the physically active lessons (15–20 min lessons were preferred over the 45 min lessons). Conclusion Physically active academic lessons were considered an appropriate pedagogical method for creating positive variation, and were highly appreciated among both teachers and children. Both the principal and the teachers should be actively involved the implementation, which could be strengthened by including physical activity into the school’s strategy. Barriers for implementing physically active lessons in schools could be lowered by increasing implementation clarity and introducing the teachers to high quality and easily organized lessons.publishedVersio

Experiências de contacto dos bebés com a linguagem escrita

The purpose of this study is to characterize the literacy experiences ofbabies aged between 14 and 24 months. In this study, four issues were analysed: which type of written language experiences are offered to the children, how parents value these literacy experiences, the way parents perceive their own role in the literacy development of their children and what parents know about their means of contributing to the literacy development of their children. Six mothers were interviewed. These interviews were analysed with the use of a categorical content analysis. The results suggest that mothers value and include in their practices facilitative and mediation actions of literacy experiences with their children, noting some variability depending on the respective qualifications.Este estudo exploratório visa descrever as experiências de literacia de bebés entre os 14 e os 25 meses. Analisamse quatro questões, que experiências envolvendo a linguagem escrita no seio familiar são proporcionadas aos bebés, qual o valor que os pais lhes atribuem, como percepcionam o seu papel na promoção do desenvolvimento literácito dos filhos e como podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento da literacia dos mesmos. Adotou-se uma metodologia qualitativa, com recurso à análise de conteúdo categorial das respostas dadas por seis mães em entrevista individual e semiestruturada. Concluiu-se que estas mães valorizam e incluem nas suas práticas ações facilitadoras e de mediação de experiências de literacia por parte dos seus bebés, notando-se alguma variabilidade em função das respetivas habilitações académicas.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Preferential amplification of repetitive DNA during whole genome sequencing library creation from historic samples

Repetitive microsatellite DNA forms a universal component of eukaryote genomes and specific biochemical properties of such repeat regions may influence the outcome of laboratory protocols. The Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) genome contains an order of magnitude more dinucleotide repeats than the majority of vertebrates, with over eight percent of its genome that can be classified as either AC or AG dinucleotide repeat. We find that the abundance of these repeats can be inflated in ancient DNA (aDNA) whole genome sequencing (WGS) data generated from this species, in particular in samples with a lower fragment length. This inflation is suppressed by a reduced number of amplification cycles and by the inclusion of manufactured dinucleotide repeat oligonucleotides during amplification. These data indicate that a biased amplification reaction leads to artificially high levels of AC and AG repeats. This process appears to be particularly efficient in Atlantic cod –likely due to its high genomic content of repeats with relatively simple sequence complexity. While the extend of such bias in other studies is unclear, we nonetheless urge caution when quantifying repeat content in aDNA WGS data, given that amplification bias can be difficult to detect if this process affects more complex repeat structures than dinucleotide repeats

The abundance of interrupted palindromes in sequencing reads from ancient and historic specimens.

<p>The abundance of interrupted palindromes in sequencing reads from ancient and historic specimens.</p

Hypothetical process creating interrupted palindromes during library creation for next generation sequencing.

<p>Single stranded DNA forms a hairpin loop through the presence of short, naturally occurring reverse complement sequences (<b>a</b>). Exonuclease activity removes unannealed 3′-ends if present, creating a 5′ overhang (<b>b</b>). Polymerases extend the 3′ strand based on the 5′-end of the same strand and create an A-overhang (red, <b>c</b>). Forked Illumina adapters, P5 (blue) and P7 (grey) are ligated to the double stranded stem, using AT-overhang ligation (<b>d</b>). The denatured, ligated construct is suitable for amplification by PCR, and the artificially extended sequence results in a reverse complement artifact that covers both ends of the strand (<b>e</b>).</p

Frequency of nucleotide substitutions along historic reads of Atlantic cod.

<p>Reads were generated using the TruSeq V2 library creation protocol (<b>a</b>) or the Microplex single tube protocol (see methods) (<b>b</b>). Misalignments to the reference at the 5′ and 3′-end of sequencing reads are the result of elevated proportions of C to T substitutions (red), G to A substitutions (blue) and other possible substitutions (grey). The figure was generated using the program mapDamage V2.0.0 using 1 million randomly chosen reads for merged Illumina and Microplex libraries <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0089676#pone.0089676-Jonsson1" target="_blank">[13]</a>.</p

Proportion of reads aligning to the Atlantic cod genome for TruSeq and Microplex libraries.

<p>The proportions of reads aligning (relative to the number of untrimmed read pairs) were calculated for libraries including interrupted palindromes (light grey) and those for which these palindromes (dark gray) were removed at the 3′-end. Only reads with a minimum mapping quality (MapQ) value of 25 were considered.</p

Length distribution of interrupted palindromes at 5′ and 3′-ends in Illumina HiSeq 2000 reads of Atlantic cod (<i>Gadus morhua</i>).

<p>Reads were generated from 11 historic samples using TruSeq library creation protocols (red lines), four historic samples using Microplex protocols (black lines) and one modern sample using TruSeq protocols (grey line). Terminal palindromic sequences longer than three basepair are rare in the Microplex and modern samples.</p