Nursing Students' Perceptions of Academic Literacy Education - Reflections from the Swedish Red Cross University

Academic literacies refer to academic writing as social practices. This study describes first-term nursing students’ perceptions of the academic literacy education provided and its significance for their forthcoming training and clinical practice. Nine student nurses at the Swedish Red Cross University participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were analysed using latent content analysis. Two categories were identified: A challenging but rewarding step focused on the students’ struggles to become academically literate. A professional outlook targeted the students’ perceptions of the requirement to acquire academic literacies for their training and future clinical practice. The results provide insights of dichotomous perspectives among nursing students regarding their need to acquire academic literacies. Some of the students convey a resistant and sceptical view of adding academic education to nursing training. Others acknowledge the requirement of being academically literate, a competence sometimes hard-won. However, in their struggles, teacher guidance was requested; an appeal that needs to be met with creative solutions. Repetitive approaches by teachers combined with the use of student initiatives are proposed to enable improved academic literacy levels among the students.

Video Game Development in a Rush: A Survey of the Global Game Jam Participants

Video game development is a complex endeavor, often involving complex software, large organizations, and aggressive release deadlines. Several studies have reported that periods of "crunch time" are prevalent in the video game industry, but there are few studies on the effects of time pressure. We conducted a survey with participants of the Global Game Jam (GGJ), a 48-hour hackathon. Based on 198 responses, the results suggest that: (1) iterative brainstorming is the most popular method for conceptualizing initial requirements; (2) continuous integration, minimum viable product, scope management, version control, and stand-up meetings are frequently applied development practices; (3) regular communication, internal playtesting, and dynamic and proactive planning are the most common quality assurance activities; and (4) familiarity with agile development has a weak correlation with perception of success in GGJ. We conclude that GGJ teams rely on ad hoc approaches to development and face-to-face communication, and recommend some complementary practices with limited overhead. Furthermore, as our findings are similar to recommendations for software startups, we posit that game jams and the startup scene share contextual similarities. Finally, we discuss the drawbacks of systemic "crunch time" and argue that game jam organizers are in a good position to problematize the phenomenon.Comment: Accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Game

Comparative LCA of street sandboxes made of polyethylene and glass fibre reinforced plastic

Polyethylene and polyester are two very different types of plastics, both in material composition and qualities, but also in how it is produced and how it can be managed as waste. To be able to see these differences and assess the different impact on the environment the respective materials have, a life cycle assessment (LCA) is a preferable tool to use. In an LCA, all the different processes and flows are addressed, from the production of raw material to the waste management. In this study, two street sandboxes made of polyethylene (PE) and glass fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) are assessed to be able to determine which box that has the highest impact on four different impact categories, and to see where these impacts originates from. The impacts studied are climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, acidification and human toxicity. The study is a comparative, attributional LCA, with a cradle-to-grave perspective. Three scenarios are modelled, depending on different waste managements. Which management methods that are used depend on the waste management available for the respective materials. The results show that for the base scenario, the GFRP-box has more than 50% higher impact on all impact categories compared to the PE-box. The biggest difference is found for human toxicity and stratospheric ozone depletion, with an impact difference of more than 80%. For the GFRP-box, the emissions contributing to the impacts originates, for all impact categories, from the production of polyester resin, followed by smaller impacts from the production of glass fibre. For the PE-box, the origin of the emissions varies between the impact categories, where the production of PE-granulates contributes to high impact on climate change and acidification, the production of electricity has high impact on stratospheric ozone depletion and human toxicity, and the production of aluminium used in the PE-box production has a large impact on human toxicity. A sensitivity analysis was made to address the two boxes different lifetimes, where the impact from the GFRP-box increased due to the lower lifetime of the box, making the differences in impact greater. From a lifecycle perspective, the PE-box is better in all aspects addressed, mostly due to the lower emissions from the production of raw material, the recycling possibilities and the longer lifetime

Single fiber EMG reference values: Reformatted in tabular form

No Abstract.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/50162/1/880170720_ftp.pd

Introduction: Forensic Fail

Background: About 60% of Pheochromocytoma (PCC) and Paraganglioma (PGL) patients have either germline or somatic mutations in one of the 12 proposed disease causing genes; SDHA, SDHB, SDHC, SDHD, SDHAF2, VHL, EPAS1, RET, NF1, TMEM127, MAX and H-RAS. Selective screening for germline mutations is routinely performed in clinical management of these diseases. Testing for somatic alterations is not performed on a regular basis because of limitations in interpreting the results. Aim: The purpose of the study was to investigate genetic events and phenotype correlations in a large cohort of PCC and PGL tumours. Methods: A total of 101 tumours from 89 patients with PCC and PGL were re-sequenced for a panel of 10 disease causing genes using automated Sanger sequencing. Selected samples were analysed with Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification and/or SNParray. Results: Pathogenic genetic variants were found in tumours from 33 individual patients (37%), 14 (16%) were discovered in constitutional DNA and 16 (18%) were confirmed as somatic. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was observed in 1/1 SDHB, 11/11 VHL and 3/3 NF1-associated tumours. In patients with somatic mutations there were no recurrences in contrast to carriers of germline mutations (P = 0.022). SDHx/VHL/ EPAS1 associated cases had higher norepinephrine output (P = 0.03) and lower epinephrine output (P<0.001) compared to RET/NF1/H-RAS cases. Conclusion: Somatic mutations are frequent events in PCC and PGL tumours. Tumour genotype may be further investigated as prognostic factors in these diseases. Growing evidence suggest that analysis of tumour DNA could have an impact on the management of these patients

Surgical management of pancreatico-duodenal tumors in multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1

Pancreatico-duodenal tumors are the second most common endocrinopathy in multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1, and have a pronounced effect on life expectancy as the principal cause of disease-related death. Previous discussions about surgical management have focused mainly on syndromes of hormone excess and, in particular, the management of multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1-related Zollinger-Ellison syndrome. Since hormonal syndromes tend to occur late and indicate the presence of metastases, screening with biochemical markers and endoscopic ultrasound is recommended for early detection of pancreatico-duodenal tumors, and with early surgery before metastases have developed. Surgery is recommended in patients with or without hormonal syndromes in the absence of disseminated liver metastases. The suggested operation includes distal 80% subtotal pancreatic resection together with enucleation of tumors in the head of the pancreas, and in cases with Zollinger-Ellison syndrome, excision of duodenal gastrinomas together with clearance of regional lymph node metastases. This strategy, with early and aggressive surgery before metastases have developed, is believed to reduce the risks for tumor recurrence and malignant progression

Surgical management of pancreatico-duodenal tumors in multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1

Pancreatico-duodenal tumors are the second most common endocrinopathy in multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1, and have a pronounced effect on life expectancy as the principal cause of disease-related death. Previous discussions about surgical management have focused mainly on syndromes of hormone excess and, in particular, the management of multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 1-related Zollinger–Ellison syndrome. Since hormonal syndromes tend to occur late and indicate the presence of metastases, screening with biochemical markers and endoscopic ultrasound is recommended for early detection of pancreatico-duodenal tumors, and with early surgery before metastases have developed. Surgery is recommended in patients with or without hormonal syndromes in the absence of disseminated liver metastases. The suggested operation includes distal 80% subtotal pancreatic resection together with enucleation of tumors in the head of the pancreas, and in cases with Zollinger–Ellison syndrome, excision of duodenal gastrinomas together with clearance of regional lymph node metastases. This strategy, with early and aggressive surgery before metastases have developed, is believed to reduce the risks for tumor recurrence and malignant progression

Morphometric variation of flounder (Platichthys flesus) : could there be a correlation with ecology?

Fiskars morfologi, det vill säga dess utseende och form, kan variera beroende på hur de utvecklas och fortplantar sig. Morfometriska analyser används för olika typer av studier då det ger information om grupper av individer med samma reproduktions-takt, tillväxt och överlevnad samt fenotypiska grupper. Skrubbskädda, Platichthys flesus, delas in i två olika lektyper; utsjölekande och kustlekande, där de utsjöle-kande lägger pelagiska ägg och de kustlekande lägger demersala ägg. Morfomet-riska analyser kan vara en bra metod att skilja dessa lektyper åt i förvaltningen. I denna studie fotograferades skrubbskäddor och morfometriska analyser utfördes i samarbete med BONUS-INSPIRE för att avgöra om dessa två lektyper skiljer sig åt i morfologi. Skillnader mellan de olika lektyperna hittades för längden på stjärtfe-nan, bröstfenan och huvudet samt avståndet mellan anal- och bukfena och fiskens bredd. Skillnader kunde även ses mellan de olika könen samt mellan de olika fångst-områdena. De kustlekande skrubbskäddorna lägger mer energi på reproduktiv till-växt och har därför bredare buk pga. större gonader, de har kortare huvud, bröst- och stjärtfena vilket indikerar att lite energi läggs på kroppstillväxt. Utsjölekande skrubbskäddor lägger istället mer energi på somatisk tillväxt vilket förklarar att de är relativt längre men smalare kropp än de kustlekande. Honor har bredare buk än hanar då de har större gonader, tarmar och lever. Individerna klassades utifrån deras morfologi i en diskriminantanalys som visade att 76 av 85 individer klassades till rätt lektyp när man endast såg till deras morfologi, det ger en felmarginal på 10,5%.The morphology of fishes could vary depending on how they develop and repro-duce. Morphometric analysis is used in many different types of studies because it gives information about groups of individuals with the same rate of development, growth and survival and phenotypic groups. The European flounder, Platichthys flesus, can be categorized into two different types of groups depending on their spawning strategies; deep water spawning (offshore spawning) with pelagic eggs and shallow water spawning (costal spawning) with demersal eggs. Morphometric analysis could be a good method to use when trying to separate these two spawning types apart in an efficient and economic way. In this study the flounder was photo-graphed and morphometric analysis was conducted in cooperation with BONUS INSPIRE to see if the two different spawning types differed in morphology. Differ-ences between the different spawning types was found on the length of the pectoral fin, the cadual fin and the head. Differences was also found for the distance between the insertion of the anal fin and the insertion of pelvic the fin, differences was also seen in body depth. There was also morphometric differences when looking at the different types of sex and the different catch areas. The costal spawning flounder focuses more on reproductive growth and has therefore a wider body depth because their gonads are larger. They have a shorter head, pectoral fin and cadual fin which indicate that more energy is used for body growth. Offshore spawning flounder fo-cuses more on somatic growth which explain their longer and slimmer body com-pared to the costal spawning flounder. Females have a larger abdomen than males because their gonads, liver and intestine are larger. With a discriminant analysis all the individuals where classified into spawning type based only on their morphology, 76 of 85 individuals where classified into correct spawning type which gives an error of 10,5 %

Diversity is Key: Fantasy football dream teams under budget constraints

Imagine you are managing a football team and have a fixed budget for salaries. Which players should you draft for your team? We investigated this question using the wealth of data available from fantasy premier league football (soccer). Using the players' data from past seasons, for several seasons and several different budget constraints, we identified the highest scoring fantasy team for each season subject to each budget constraint. We then investigated quantifiable characteristics of these teams. Interesting, across nearly every variable that is significant to the game of football and the budget, these top teams display diversity across these variables. Our results indicate that diversity is a general feature of top performing teams.Comment: 21 pages, 6 tables, 5 figure