Multilevel D-loop PCR identification of hunting game

AbstractThe control region of mtDNA (D-loop) was used for hair samples of the five hunting game species identification: red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), fallow deer (Dama dama), mouflon (Ovis aries musimon), and wild boar (Sus scrofa). For D-loop multilevel PCR detection scheme was applied in six primers (CE CVZV 1=5′-GATCACGAGCTTGATCACCA-3′; CE CVZV 2=5′-AGGAGTGGGCGATTTTAGGT-3′; DD CVZV 3=5′-CGCGTGAAACCAACAACCCGC-3′; DD CVZV 4=5′-CCGGGTCGGGGCCTTAGACG-3′; SSW CVZV 5=5′-ACACGTGCGTACACGCGCATA-3′; SSW CVZV 6=5′-GGTGCCTGCT T TCGTAGCACG-3′) designed to identify unknown biological samples of the hunting game animals. The PCR reaction volume was 25μl at conditions 95°C for 2min, 94°C for 30s, 60°C for 30s, 72°C for 30s, 35cycles, with last extension at 72°C for 10min. D-loop mtDNA amplicons of the game animals are characterized with specific PCR product sizes depending on species: red deer=163bp and 140bp, fallow deer=280bp and 138bp, roe deer=303bp, 280bp, 160bp and 138bp, mouflon=299bp and 178bp, wild boar=137bp and 229bp

The impact of formative testing on study behaviour and study performance of (bio)medical students: a smartphone application intervention study.

BACKGROUND: Formative testing can increase knowledge retention but students often underuse available opportunities. Applying modern technology to make the formative tests more attractive for students could enhance the implementation of formative testing as a learning tool. This study aimed to determine whether formative testing using an internet-based application ("app") can positively affect study behaviour as well as study performance of (bio)medical students. METHODS: A formative testing app "Physiomics, to the next level" was introduced during a 4-week course to a large cohort (n = 461) of Dutch first year (bio)medical students of the Radboud University. The app invited students to complete 7 formative tests throughout the course. Each module was available for 3-4 days to stimulate the students to distribute their study activities throughout the 4-week course. RESULTS: 72% of the students used the app during the course. Study time significantly increased in intensive users (p < 0.001), while no changes were observed in moderate (p = 0.07) and non-users (p = 0.25). App-users obtained significantly higher grades during the final exam of the course (p < 0.05). Non-users more frequently failed their final exam (34%, OR 3.6, 95% CI: 2.0-6.4) compared to moderate users (19%) and intensive users (12%). Students with an average grade <6.5 during previous courses benefitted most from the app, as intensive (5.8 ± 0.9 / 36%) and moderate users (5.8 ± 0.9 / 33%) obtained higher grades and failed their exam less frequently compared to non-users (5.2 ± 1.1 / 61%). The app was also well appreciated by students; students scored the app with a grade of 7.3 ± 1.0 out of 10 and 59% of the students indicated that they would like the app to be implemented in future courses. CONCLUSIONS: A smartphone-based application of formative testing is an effective and attractive intervention to stimulate study behaviour and improve study performance in (bio) medical students

Worldwide network for technological information : recommendations of a UN study

Meeting: International Cooperative Information Systems, 9-13 July 1979, Wien, ATIn IDL-287

Reinstating elaborative encoding operations at test enhances episodic remembering.

Two experiments investigated the effects of reinstating encoding operations on remember and know responses in recognition memory. Experiment 1 showed that reinstating an effortful encoding task (generating words from fragments) increased remember responses at test but reinstating an automatic encoding task (reading intact words) did not. This pattern was confirmed in Experiment 2 in which words were either read intact or generated from anagrams. These findings show that repeating effortful (but not automatic) encoding operations at test cues not only the recognition of the information that was acquired via those operations but also the conscious recollection of the encoding episode