Innovative learning at The University of Edinburgh

The activities available to civil engineering students during the University of Edinburgh's innovative learning week in 2012 were examined. The academic staff proposed a wide range of possible activities and student participation was optional. Popular activities were those with a ‘hands-on’ element: making or doing something. The practical activities offered included designing and building trebuchets, relaying railway permanent way on a heritage railway, practical workshops on engineering in international development and learning to juggle. These activities suggested that heuristic learning by trial and error was likely to enhance the visualisation skills that contribute to good engineering design. Further, the linking of achievement to purposeful practice rather than innate talent could inform teaching methods in the future. They also showed that in some cases safety culture messages were still not fully assimilated by students

P2 receptors are involved in the mediation of motivation-related behavior

The importance of purinergic signaling in the intact mesolimbic–mesocortical circuit of the brain of freely moving rats is reviewed. In the rat, an endogenous ADP/ATPergic tone reinforces the release of dopamine from the axon terminals in the nucleus accumbens as well as from the somatodendritic region of these neurons in the ventral tegmental area, as well as the release of glutamate, probably via P2Y1 receptor stimulation. Similar mechanisms may regulate the release of glutamate in both areas of the brain. Dopamine and glutamate determine in concert the activity of the accumbal GABAergic, medium-size spiny neurons thought to act as an interface between the limbic cortex and the extrapyramidal motor system. These neurons project to the pallidal and mesencephalic areas, thereby mediating the behavioral reaction of the animal in response to a motivation-related stimulus. There is evidence that extracellular ADP/ATP promotes goal-directed behavior, e.g., intention and feeding, via dopamine, probably via P2Y1 receptor stimulation. Accumbal P2 receptor-mediated glutamatergic mechanisms seem to counteract the dopaminergic effects on behavior. Furthermore, adaptive changes of motivation-related behavior, e.g., by chronic succession of starvation and feeding or by repeated amphetamine administration, are accompanied by changes in the expression of the P2Y1 receptor, thought to modulate the sensitivity of the animal to respond to certain stimuli

1-Methylindole-3-carboxaldehyde oxime derivatives.

1-Methylindole-3-carboxaldehyde oxime, C10H10N2O, (I), and (E)-5-methoxy-1-methylindole-3-carboxaldehyde oxime, C11H12N2O2, (II), were examined structurally to ascertain the geometry of the hydroxyimino function relative to the indole core. Oxime (I) exhibits cis geometry and there are two molecules in the asymmetric unit. In contrast, oxime (II) exhibits trans geometry and has four molecules in the asymmetric unit, with the geometry of the 5-methoxy group in one molecule differing from that in the other three. Both crystal structures are maintained by hydrogen bonding with no pi-stacking of the indole moiety present

The assessment of paranoia in young people: Item and test properties of the Bird Checklist of Adolescent Paranoia

Background Precise assessment tools for psychotic experiences in young people may help identify symptoms early and facilitate advances in treatment. In this study we provide an exemplar - with a paranoia scale for youth – for improving measurement precision for psychotic experiences using item response theory (IRT). We evaluate the psychometric properties of the new measure, test for measurement invariance, and assess its potential for computerised adaptive testing (CAT). Method The 18-item Bird Checklist of Adolescent Paranoia (B-CAP) was completed by 1102 adolescents including 301 patients with mental health problems and 801 from the general population. After excluding outliers (n = 10), IRT was used to examine item properties, test reliability, and measurement invariance. The properties of an adaptive B-CAP were assessed using a simulation of 10,000 responses. Results All B-CAP items were highly discriminative (a = 1.14–2.77), whereby small shifts in paranoia led to a higher probability of item endorsement. Test reliability was high (a > 0.90) across a wide range of paranoia severity (θ = −0.45–3.36), with the greatest precision at elevated levels. All items were invariant for gender, age, and population groups. The simulated adaptive B-CAP performed with high accuracy and required only 5–6 items at higher levels of paranoia severity. Conclusions The B-CAP is a reliable assessment tool with excellent psychometric properties to assess both non-clinical and clinical levels of paranoia in young people, with potential as an efficient adaptive test. In future, these approaches could be used to develop a multidimensional CAT to assess the full range of psychotic experiences in youth.</p