Putting the Comprehension in Metacomprehension

The purpose of the present piece is to integrate some current theories of text comprehension with the body of work on metacomprehension, and especially the calibration of comprehension monitoring. This paper explores some important methodological and conceptual issues, inspired by current theories in the text comprehension literature, which suggest that the nature of the texts used for metacomprehension studies may be a critical, and currently unrecognized, factor that should be considered. First, we need to re-examine what we mean by “comprehension,” and how we should measure it. There are important differences between memory for text and comprehension of text that need to be considered. Second, to fully deal with these concerns, we need to pay more attention to the kinds of expository text that are being used, the different ways that readers may understand these texts, and how readers may interpret the concept of “understanding” as they make their judgments

Understanding the Delayed-Keyword Effect on Metacomprehension Accuracy

The typical finding from research on metacomprehension is that accuracy is quite low. However, recent studies have shown robust accuracy improvements when judgments follow certain generation tasks (summarizing or keyword listing), but only when these tasks are performed at a delay rather than immediately after reading (Thiede & Anderson, 2003; Thiede, Anderson & Therriault, 2003). The delayed and immediate conditions in these past studies confounded the delay between reading and generation tasks with other task lags, such as the lag between multiple generation tasks and the lag between generation tasks and judgments. The first two experiments disentangle these confounded manipulations and provide clear evidence that the delay between reading and keyword generation is the only lag critical to improving metacomprehension accuracy. The third and fourth experiments show that not all delayed tasks will produce improvements and suggest that delayed generative tasks provide diagnostic cues about comprehension that are necessary for improving metacomprehension accuracy

Buchbesprechungen / Book Reviews

Lüdecke, C., Fritzsche, D., Dullo, C., Thiede, J., Salewski, C. (2016): Book Reviews. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 176: 224-225, DOI: 10.2312/polarforschung.86.1.72, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.2312/polarforschung.86.1.7

Relative importance of fluvial and glacial erosion in shaping the Chandra Valley, western Himalaya, India

Abstract HKT-ISTP 2013 B

Elementary School Experience with Comprehension Testing May Influence Metacomprehension Accuracy Among Seventh and Eighth Graders

We explored whether exposure to different kinds of comprehension tests during elementary years influenced metacomprehension accuracy among 7th and 8th graders. This research was conducted in a kindergarten through eighth grade charter school with an expeditionary learning curriculum. In literacy instruction, teachers emphasize reading for meaning and inference building, and they regularly assess deep comprehension with summarization, discussion, dialogic reasoning and prediction activities throughout the elementary years. The school recently expanded, doubling enrollments in 7th and 8th grades. Thus, approximately half of the students had long-term exposure to the curriculum and the other half did not. In Study 1, metacomprehension accuracy using the standard relative accuracy paradigm was significantly better for long-time students than for newcomers. In Study 2, all students engaged in delayed-keyword generation before judging their comprehension of texts. Metacomprehension accuracy was again significantly better for long-time students than for newcomers. Further, the superior monitoring accuracy led to more effective regulation of study, as seen in better decisions about which texts to restudy, that led, in turn, better comprehension. The results suggest the importance of early exposure to comprehension tests for developing skills in comprehension monitoring and self-regulated learning

Expression and mutational analysis of Nm23-H1 in liver metastases of colorectal cancer.

It has been proposed that nm23-H1, a candidate suppressor gene for metastasis, plays an important role in metastasis formation of human tumours. In order to investigate its role in the progression of colorectal cancer, we analysed 22 liver metastases of this malignancy with respect to mutational changes, loss of heterozygosity and expression levels of nm23-H1. Although genetic alterations in nm23-H1 have recently been described in those colorectal adenocarcinomas which give rise to distant metastases, we were unable to detect any mutation in the coding sequence of nm23-H1 in the metastatic tissue itself. We further analysed the metastases with respect to allelic deletions at the chromosomal locus of nm23. However, no loss of heterozygosity could be detected in ten informative cases. Moreover, the mRNA expression levels of nm23-H1 in the metastatic tissues were not significantly different from those in normal colon mucosa. Thus, although nm23-H1 might be involved in metastasis suppression of certain tumour types, in colorectal tumour progression its role remains to be determined

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age of the Daqiao gold deposit, West Qinling Orogen, China: implications for regional metallogeny

The West Qinling Orogen is endowed with more than 100 sediment-hosted gold deposits with an estimated resource of > 2000 t Au. Previous radiometric dating results have shown that most deposits formed during a Late Triassic to Early Jurassic period of contractional deformation over the orogen. However, here we show that the newly discovered Daqiao gold deposit (> 105 t at 3–4 g/t) in the southern belt of the West Qinling Orogen formed in latest Jurassic to Early Cretaceous under a different tectonic regime. The Daqiao gold deposit is hosted in weakly metamorphosed Triassic turbidites and is spatially associated with hydrothermally altered granodiorite and diorite porphyry dykes. Six granodiorite dykes have similar zircon U–Pb ages ranging from 215.0 ± 1.1 to 211.5 ± 1.5 Ma (1s), whereas one diorite porphyry dyke has a zircon U–Pb age of 187.5 ± 2.1 Ma (1s). The age of gold mineralization is constrained by two types of sericite: sericite aggregates coexisting with disseminated auriferous pyrite in relatively high-grade breccia ores and sericite coexisting with auriferous pyrite in weakly mineralized granodiorite dykes. Sericite aggregates from the breccia ores have 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages ranging from 150.7 ± 3.1 to 142.3 ± 2.5 Ma (2s), whereas grains from the altered granodiorite dykes and low-grade breccia ores have 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages of 130.8 ± 3.1 to 127.2 ± 0.6 Ma (2s). The 40Ar/39Ar ages thus suggest two periods of gold mineralization in the latest Jurassic and Early Jurassic that are likely related to repeated brecciation at Daqiao. These Jurassic-Cretaceous mineralization ages coincide with discounted ages from several other gold deposits in the region and suggest that there is an underappreciated gold event in the West Qinling Orogen that may not have been associated with the orogenic deformation but is genetically related to the far-field effects of plate reorganization during Paleo-Pacific subduction beneath the eastern Eurasian continent

Hematopoietic chimerism after allogeneic stem cell transplantation: a comparison of quantitative analysis by automated DNA sizing and fluorescent in situ hybridization

BACKGROUND: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is performed mainly in patients with high-risk or advanced hematologic malignancies and congenital or acquired aplastic anemias. In the context of the significant risk of graft failure after allo-HSCT from alternative donors and the risk of relapse in recipients transplanted for malignancy, the precise monitoring of posttransplant hematopoietic chimerism is of utmost interest. Useful molecular methods for chimerism quantification after allogeneic transplantation, aimed at distinguishing precisely between donor's and recipient's cells, are PCR-based analyses of polymorphic DNA markers. Such analyses can be performed regardless of donor's and recipient's sex. Additionally, in patients after sex-mismatched allo-HSCT, fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) can be applied. METHODS: We compared different techniques for analysis of posttransplant chimerism, namely FISH and PCR-based molecular methods with automated detection of fluorescent products in an ALFExpress DNA Sequencer (Pharmacia) or ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer (PE). We used Spearman correlation test. RESULTS: We have found high correlation between results obtained from the PCR/ALF Express and PCR/ABI 310 Genetic Analyzer. Lower, but still positive correlations were found between results of FISH technique and results obtained using automated DNA sizing technology. CONCLUSIONS: All the methods applied enable a rapid and accurate detection of post-HSCT chimerism

A Randomized and Blinded Study for the Treatment of Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Range of Motion Restriction: The Prone-Passive Stretching Technique

A Randomized and Blinded Study for the Treatment of Glenohumeral Internal Rotation Range of Motion Restriction: The Prone-Passive Stretching Technique Background: Prior research has focused on specific interventions to reduce the symptoms of glenohumeral internal rotation deficit (GIRD) and posterior glenohumeral (GH) tightness; however, clinicians often utilize a prone stretching technique instead for which a lack of evidence exists to support the use of. Hypothesis: Improvements in GH Internal rotation (IR) range of motion (ROM) will be greater in a group of overhead athletes using a prone-passive stretching technique than for overhead athletes using a cross-body stretching technique. Design: Randomized and blinded comparative research study Methods: 34 asymptomatic overhead athletes exhibiting ≥ 10° of GH IR deficit randomly received either 12 prone-passive (n=17) or cross-body (n=17) stretching treatments for the deficit over a consecutive 28 day period. Measures of IR and external rotation (ER) for both the dominant and non-dominant shoulders were taken with a modified digital inclinometer before and after participants underwent 12 treatments over a consecutive 28-day period in either the prone-passive or cross-body group. Results: Analysis revealed increased dominant shoulder IR ROM and total motion, whereas IR deficit decreased for both groups, but no group differences. Gain scores for the prone-passive and cross-body respectively: IR ROM (13.23° ± 7.78°, 8.47° ± 8.71°), IR deficit (-12.64° ± 11.49°, -9.13 ± 8.33°), and total motion (14.81° ± 11.27°, 9.97° ± 11.99°). Conclusion: The prone-passive stretching technique is as effective as the cross-body technique at improving IR ROM, IR deficit, and total motion in the shoulder joint in participants with IR deficit. Clinical Relevance: Accounting for IR deficits in the overhead athlete shoulder is effectively managed through both clinician-assisted and self-stretching techniques. Clinicians treating overhead athletes with greater limitations in IR ROM may find the prone-passive technique advantageous when compared to the cross-body technique. Key Words: shoulder, GIRD, stretching, overhead athlete