Improving Students\u27 Assessment Performance by Reducing Stress and Anxiety in the Testing Environment

The driving focus of this action research was to better understand how teachers and school districts can help with students\u27 anxiety and stress surrounding assessments. This better understanding of anxiety and stress is crucial to improving academic performance not only on assessments but also across their academic life. A quantitative study was conducted with 88 students spread over two unique content types. 30 students were part of the control group, and the rest of the students were split between one of four different interventions which attempted to reduce students’ assessment anxiety and stress to lead to performance increases. The results showed mixed results, the interventions over the course of the semester didn\u27t show significant impacts to assessment performance. However, some variables on their own had significance across the semester. Which indicated that certain assessments or classes were significantly different. This action research concludes that more research should be conducted into individual interventions across long periods of time as well as having students research and learn about reappraisal and coping methods of anxiety and stress to better serve them longer term

Acute perioperative-stress-induced increase of atherosclerotic plaque volume and vulnerability to rupture in apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice is amenable to statin treatment and IL-6 inhibition

Myocardial infarction and stroke are frequent after surgical procedures and consume a considerable amount of benefit of surgical therapy. Perioperative stress, induced by surgery, is composed of hemodynamic and inflammatory reactions. The effects of perioperative stress on atherosclerotic plaques are ill-defined. Murine models to investigate the influence of perioperative stress on plaque stability and rupture are not available. We developed a model to investigate the influence of perioperative stress on plaque growth and stability by exposing apolipoprotein-E-deficient mice, fed a high cholesterol diet for 7 weeks, to a double hit consisting of 30 min of laparotomy combined with a substantial blood loss (approximately 20% of total blood volume; 400 µl). The innominate artery was harvested 72 h after the intervention. Control groups were sham and baseline controls. Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and serum amyloid A (SAA) plasma levels were determined. Plaque load, vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) and macrophage content were quantified. Plaque stability was assessed using the Stary score and frequency of signs of plaque rupture were assessed. High-dose atorvastatin (80 mg/kg body weight/day) was administered for 6 days starting 3 days prior to the double hit. A single dose of an IL-6-neutralizing antibody or the fusion protein gp130-Fc selectively targeting IL-6 trans-signaling was subcutaneously injected. IL-6 plasma levels increased, peaking at 6 h after the intervention. SAA levels peaked at 24 h (n=4, P<0.01). Plaque volume increased significantly with the double hit compared to sham (n=8, P<0.01). More plaques were scored as complex or bearing signs of rupture after the double hit compared to sham (n=5-8, P<0.05). Relative VSMC and macrophage content remained unchanged. IL-6-inhibition or atorvastatin, but not blocking of IL-6 trans-signaling, significantly decreased plaque volume and complexity (n=8, P<0.01). Using this model, researchers will be able to further investigate the pathophysiology of perioperative plaque stability, which can result in myocardial infarction, and, additionally, to test potential protective strategies

Computational exploration of molecular receptive fields in the olfactory bulb reveals a glomerulus-centric chemical map

© The Author(s) 2020. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Progress in olfactory research is currently hampered by incomplete knowledge about chemical receptive ranges of primary receptors. Moreover, the chemical logic underlying the arrangement of computational units in the olfactory bulb has still not been resolved. We undertook a large-scale approach at characterising molecular receptive ranges (MRRs) of glomeruli in the dorsal olfactory bulb (dOB) innervated by the MOR18-2 olfactory receptor, also known as Olfr78, with human ortholog OR51E2. Guided by an iterative approach that combined biological screening and machine learning, we selected 214 odorants to characterise the response of MOR18-2 and its neighbouring glomeruli. We found that a combination of conventional physico-chemical and vibrational molecular descriptors performed best in predicting glomerular responses using nonlinear Support-Vector Regression. We also discovered several previously unknown odorants activating MOR18-2 glomeruli, and obtained detailed MRRs of MOR18-2 glomeruli and their neighbours. Our results confirm earlier findings that demonstrated tunotopy, that is, glomeruli with similar tuning curves tend to be located in spatial proximity in the dOB. In addition, our results indicate chemotopy, that is, a preference for glomeruli with similar physico-chemical MRR descriptions being located in spatial proximity. Together, these findings suggest the existence of a partial chemical map underlying glomerular arrangement in the dOB. Our methodology that combines machine learning and physiological measurements lights the way towards future high-throughput studies to deorphanise and characterise structure-activity relationships in olfaction.Peer reviewe

Mehrgroessen-Regelungskonzept fuer ein Gasturbinentriebwerk

Das entwickelte Regelungskonzepet ist nicht nur in der Lage, ein Flugtriebwerk im ungestoerten Fall und ohne Parameterabweichungen zu betreiben, sondern kompensiert auch bordseitige Stoereinfluesse wie Zapfleistungs- und Zapfluftentnahme. Verschlechterungen der Triebwerkskennwerte wie Verdichter- und Turbinenwirkungsgrande in der im realen Betrieb auftretenden Groessenordnung. Stoerungen im Verdichtereinlauf koennen hingegen nur zum Teil ausgeregelt werden. Ihre differenzierende Wirkung auf den Pumpgrenzabstand kann prinzipiell nur korrigiert werden, wenn die Stoerung vor ihrem Wirksamwerden im Triebwerk an anderem Ort gemessen werden kann. Eine weitere Moeglichkeit der Erweiterung und Verbesserung des vorgestellten Regelungskonzeptes besteht darin, die Messinformationen zur Lokalisierung der Parameterabweichung zu nutzen. (orig.)The control concept developed is not only in the position to operate an aircraft engine in an undisturbed case and without parametric deviations, but also compensates interfering influences from the board such as removal of fuel performance and gasoline air, deteriorations of characteristic values of power units such as efficiencies of compressors and turbines within the dimension occurring in real operation. Disturbances in the compressor inlet can be only partly levelled. Their differentiated effect on the maximum distance of pumping can be only corrected in principle, if the disturbance can be measured on another place before becoming effective in the power unit. A further possibilty of increasing and improving the control concepts presented is to utilize the measuring information for the localization of the parametric deviations. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: DW 7279 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Analytische Beitraege zur Flugmechanik von Wendemanoevern in der Vertikalebene

SIGLECopy held by FIZ Karlsruhe; available from UB/TIB Hannover / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Personal Papers (MS 80-0002)

Letter from G. L. Soelter to I. H. Kempner discussing Kempner having to pay his premiums by sending payments directly to the insurance company as paying through the U. S. National Bank is no longer plausible