The GeoHistorian Project

The GeoHistorian Project is an initiative from Kent State University's Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET), aimed at educating K-12 students to become local historians who create digital content for an audience that transcends the walls of their classrooms. Project activities will include the creation of curriculum for teaching how to do digital, local history, training teachers how to apply it in their classrooms, and curriculum implementation. Expected outcomes include student-created, digital, and local historical content that will be available online and freely accessible by way of wireless mobile devices and QR codes (2-dimensional bar codes) that will be placed in relevant community locations. In addition, we will evaluate the impact of the GeoHistorian curriculum on student learning in the humanities and the role that digital technologies play in this process. Finally, we will investigate how our efforts can be scaled up and sustained over a longer period of time

Varumärkeskaraktären – den levande marknadsföringsstrategin

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate what the process should look like when a company chooses a brand character to personify their brand. Furthermore the purpose is to recognize the challenges and risks that should be taken into consideration when managing this strategy. The aim of this is to give marketers clear guidelines regarding the work process of how a brand character should be formed. Methodology: This study is based on a qualitative method where a multiple case study has been executed, containing four different cases. The empirical findings have been collected through in-depth interviews and the authors’ own observations. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical perspectives presented in the thesis are primarily based on research about celebrity endorsement, storytelling and brand personification. Theories regarding the managerial process, marketing actors and branding have also been used. Empirical foundation: The empirical foundation contains of 14 in-depth interviews with nine respondents; five of the interviews were follow-up interviews. The interviews were semi- structured with the purpose of receiving as much information as possible from the respondents. The authors’ own observations contributed to the empirical foundation. Conclusion: This thesis has found that many of the successful marketing concepts are difficult to predict. After executing the study, several conclusions have been reached. Among the most important ones; corporate brands have advantages in reaching customers through their brand characters because of more avaliable communication platforms. The study has also found that thanks to brand characters, customers can feel happiness when consuming from low-budget brands, as opposed to previous theory, which has primarily made this connected to the consumption of luxury brands. Finally, the process of brand characters can be run by external sources, and is not always a result of an internal strategy surrounding a Marketing manager

Methods used to assess outcome consistency in clinical studies: A literature-based evaluation.

Evaluation studies of outcomes used in clinical research and their consistency are appearing more frequently in the literature, as a key part of the core outcome set (COS) development. Current guidance suggests such evaluation studies should use systematic review methodology as their default. We aimed to examine the methods used. We searched the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) database (up to May 2019) supplementing it with additional resources. We included evaluation studies of outcome consistency in clinical studies across health subjects and used a subset of A MeaSurement Tool to Assess systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) 2 (items 1-9) to assess their methods. Of 93 included evaluation studies of outcome consistency (90 full reports, three summaries), 91% (85/93) reported performing literature searches in at least one bibliographic database, and 79% (73/93) was labelled as a "systematic review". The evaluations varied in terms of satisfying AMSTAR 2 criteria, such that 81/93 (87%) had implemented PICO in the research question, whereas only 5/93 (6%) had included the exclusions list. None of the evaluation studies explained how inconsistency of outcomes was detected, however, 80/90 (88%) concluded inconsistency in individual outcomes (66%, 55/90) or outcome domains (20%, 18/90). Methods used in evaluation studies of outcome consistency in clinical studies differed considerably. Despite frequent being labelled as a "systematic review", adoption of systematic review methodology is selective. While the impact on COS development is unknown, authors of these studies should refrain from labelling them as "systematic review" and focus on ensuring that the methods used to generate the different outcomes and outcome domains are reported transparently

AllelicImbalance: An R/ bioconductor package for detecting, managing, and visualizing allele expression imbalance data from RNA sequencing

BACKGROUND: One aspect in which RNA sequencing is more valuable than microarray-based methods is the ability to examine the allelic imbalance of the expression of a gene. This process is often a complex task that entails quality control, alignment, and the counting of reads over heterozygous single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Allelic imbalance analysis is subject to technical biases, due to differences in the sequences of the measured alleles. Flexible bioinformatics tools are needed to ease the workflow while retaining as much RNA sequencing information as possible throughout the analysis to detect and address the possible biases. RESULTS: We present AllelicImblance, a software program that is designed to detect, manage, and visualize allelic imbalances comprehensively. The purpose of this software is to allow users to pose genetic questions in any RNA sequencing experiment quickly, enhancing the general utility of RNA sequencing. The visualization features can reveal notable, non-trivial allelic imbalance behavior over specific regions, such as exons. CONCLUSIONS: The software provides a complete framework to perform allelic imbalance analyses of aligned RNA sequencing data, from detection to visualization, within the robust and versatile management class, ASEset. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12859-015-0620-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Frontotemporal dementia, music perception and social cognition share neurobiological circuits:A meta-analysis

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease that presents with profound changes in social cognition. Music might be a sensitive probe for social cognition abilities, but underlying neurobiological substrates are unclear. We performed a meta-analysis of voxel-based morphometry studies in FTD patients and functional MRI studies for music perception and social cognition tasks in cognitively normal controls to identify robust patterns of atrophy (FTD) or activation (music perception or social cognition). Conjunction analyses were performed to identify overlapping brain regions. In total 303 articles were included: 53 for FTD (n = 1153 patients, 42.5% female; 1337 controls, 53.8% female), 28 for music perception (n = 540, 51.8% female) and 222 for social cognition in controls (n = 5664, 50.2% female). We observed considerable overlap in atrophy patterns associated with FTD, and functional activation associated with music perception and social cognition, mostly encompassing the ventral language network. We further observed overlap across all three modalities in mesolimbic, basal forebrain and striatal regions. The results of our meta-analysis suggest that music perception and social cognition share neurobiological circuits that are affected in FTD. This supports the idea that music might be a sensitive probe for social cognition abilities with implications for diagnosis and monitoring

Análisis de la percepción de la exposición a riesgos ambientales para la salud, en dos poblaciones infantiles, mediante la elaboración de dibujos

The exposure to environmental pollutants implies a risk for health, mainly for the children population. A strategy of preventive intervention may be a Risks Communication Program (RCP). In order for a RCP to be carried out in an effective form, it is necessary to know the perception of the community about the exposure to environmental risks. Knowing children perception is essential for designing PCR to be implemented in each community. In this work the drawing was used as a tool to understand the perception of the children from a rural-indigenous community and from a marginalized urban community. The activity consisted on the formulation of two questions, which children answered sketching a drawing. The questions were formulated to know their perception in two sceneries: inside and outside their home. The obtained results indicated that the children perceive most of the environmental issues previously detected by our group and there were some differences between communities. In addition, it was found that some children perceived problems that had not been identified by the researchers.La exposición a contaminantes ambientales implica un riesgo para la salud, principalmente para la población infantil. Una estrategia de intervención puede ser un Programa de Comunicación de Riesgos (PCR). Para que un PCR sea efectivo es necesario conocer la percepción de la comunidad sobre la exposición a riesgos ambientales. El conocer la percepción de los niños es fundamental para el diseño de los PCR que serán implementados en cada comunidad. En este trabajo se utilizó el dibujo como una herramienta para conocer la percepción de los niños de una comunidad rural-indígena y de niños de una comunidad urbano-marginada. La actividad consistió en la formulación de dos preguntas, las cuales respondieron los niños por medio de la elaboración de un dibujo. Las preguntas se formularon para conocer la percepción en los escenarios dentro y fuera de la casa. Los resultados obtenidos indicaron que los niños perciben la mayoría de las problemáticas ambientales detectadas con anterioridad por nuestro grupo y se encontraron diferencias por comunidad. Además se encontró que algunos niños percibieron problemáticas que no habían sido detectadas por los investigadores

Hospitalização por asma em crianças no município de Divinópolis, Minas Gerais

Este estudo objetiva levantar a realidade das hospitalizaes por asma em crianas com idade entre zero e 12 anos em Divinpolis, Minas Gerais, no perodo de janeiro de 2012 a janeiro de 2013. Realizou-se pesquisa documental nos pronturios das crianas internadas em hospital local. Os resultados demonstraram que a asma equivaleu a 21,8% das hospitalizaes peditricas por doenas respiratrias. A maioria das crianas eram provenientes do Pronto Socorro Regional (75,6%) e atendidas pelo Sistema nico de Sade (78,2%). Os principais sinais e sintomas identificados durante a hospitalizao incluam tosse (92,3%), sibilos (91%) e dispneia (84,6%). A mdia de tempo de permanncia na instituio foi de 4,6 dias (+/- 2). A maior frequencia de internao ocorreu nos meses agosto (19,2%), junho (11,5%) e fevereiro (11,5%). Grande parte das hospitalizaes ocorreu em crianas do sexo masculino (61,6%), em menores de um ano (51,3%) e entre as provenientes da regio sudeste do municpio (24,4%). Este estudo mostrou que relevante a prevalncia de hospitalizaes infantis por asma no municpio no perodo estudado, apontando a necessidade de maiores esforos do poder pblico para a implementao de programas de preveno e controle da doena com possvel minimizao das internaes hospitalares na infncia por esse agravo

Progesterone for prevention of preterm birth in women with short cervical length : 2-year infant outcomes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Triple P study is registered as NL1961. https://www.trialregister.nl/trial/1961 The original Triple P study was funded by ZonMW number 120620030. The follow-up study was funded by the Amsterdam UMC, Academic Medical Center. BWM is supported by a NHMRC Investigatorgrant (GNT1176437). BWM reports consultancy for ObsEva, Merck Merck KGaA, iGenomix and Guerbet.Peer reviewedPublisher PD