A framework to study learning in a complex learning environment

This paper presents a framework for analysing variations in the ways in which students experience learning in complex, computer-supported environments. It involves an application of phenomenography extended to encompass the content of the learning as well as its context. Concepts from activity theory are drawn upon to enlarge the scope of phenomenography. By applying this framework, researchers, as well as course organisers, may gain insights into how courses are experienced by the participants and can thus develop these in a way that will be perceived as improvement by the course participants. Within this predominantly phenomenographic approach, the focus is upon the content of the learning experience, giving the ability to relate learning outcomes to the experience of the learning environment. Hence, insights can be gained that can help to improve learning environments and thereby outcomes. A case study illustrating the kinds of results than can be obtained when using the framework is provided

Risk factors for criminal recidivism - a prospective follow-up study in prisoners with substance abuse

Background: Substance use in general has been shown to predict criminal recidivism. The present study aimed to examine potential predictors of criminal recidivism, including substance-specific substance use patterns, in prisoners with substance use. Methods: A cohort of prisoners with substance use problems (N = 4,152) were assessed with the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) in the Swedish criminal justice system. Clients were followed for an average of 2.7 years. Criminal recidivism was defined as any return to the criminal justice system. Results: During follow-up, 69 percent (n = 2,862) returned to the criminal justice system. Recidivism was associated with amphetamine and heroin use, with an additive risk for injectors, and with polysubstance use. Also, recidivism was negatively associated with alcohol, other opioids than heroin/methadone and with hallucinogenic drugs, and positively associated with previous psychiatric in-patient treatment, violent behaviour, and with a shorter index sentence. Associations remained when controlling for type of crime. Conclusions: Even when controlling for type and severity of crime, and for psychiatric problems, risk of criminal relapse was increased by substance use variables, including amphetamine, heroin and polysubstance use, and an additional risk was shown for injection drug users. These findings have implications for the need for substance abuse treatment after release from prison

Influencing student academic integrity choices using ethics scenarios.

Academic misconduct seems to have increased substantially during the pandemic, with a worldwide upsurge in reported cases. The aim of this project is to construct a framework for helping students engage with issues concerning academic integrity and avoid academic misconduct. This Work-In-Progress paper reports on the construction of a scenario-based framework to investigate the beliefs and attitudes of university stakeholders when confronted with decisions about potential academic misconduct. The framework will be based on using scenarios to spur individual reflections and discussions among the students regarding values related to academic integrity focusing on Uppsala University context. A repository of "misconduct" scenarios related to different cultures, including different views and regulations, is intended to support teachers to develop modules tailored to their current need. The underlying idea is to provide students with an understanding of what constitutes academic misconduct in Uppsala University setting and to help them find honest alternatives when faced with temptations to "cheat". Our view is that students, in general, want to behave honestly, and that this framework will provide a means to help students follow their moral "compass" and avoid dishonest behaviour

Socioeconomic factors and the influence of comorbidity in the management and survival in lung and prostate cancer

Aim: The presence of co-existing disease is common in cancer patients, and for many cancer forms outcomes are associated with socioeconomic status. The present thesis aimed to explore possible associations between socioeconomic status and comorbidity on the one hand, and clinical management and survival on the other hand, in patients diagnosed with lung and prostate cancer. Methods: In study I, 3,370 patients diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer between 1996 and 2004 were identified in the Regional Lung Cancer Register in central Sweden with additional information obtained from other population based registers. Study II encompassed 15,518 patients diagnosed with lung cancer identified in the Thames Cancer Register in South East England between 2006 and 2008. A total of 17,899 high risk prostate cancer patients (Study III) and all 77,536 men diagnosed with prostate cancer (Study IV) between 1997 and 2006 were identified in PCBaSE Sweden, a database of prostate cancer patients based on the National Prostate Cancer Register of Sweden with additional information retrieved from other population based registers. Level of education, a deprivation index, and a socioeconomic index based on occupation were used as the main indicators of socioeconomic status. Comorbidity burden was assessed using the Charlson comorbidity index. Binary logistic regression and time to event analyses were used to address associations between socioeconomic status, comorbidity, management and survival. Results: We observed social differences in time between referral and date of diagnosis and in diagnostic intensity in lung cancer patients in Sweden. No social differences in stage at diagnosis were observed in Sweden or in South East England. In both regions the most privileged lung cancer patients were more likely to receive treatment with curative intent and had a better survival, foremost in early stage disease. We observed socioeconomic disparities the management of high risk prostate cancer. The likelihood to undergo a bone scan, receive curative treatment, and undergo radical prostatectomy was higher in patients with high socioeconomic status, a group that experienced a lower mortality. Prostate cancer patients with severe comorbidity received curative treatment less often, had a higher all-cause and competing cause mortality, but not higher prostate cancer specific mortality. However, in analyses given no death from other causes, men with severe comorbidity had a higher prostate cancer specific mortality. Conclusions: Taken together, the results of the present thesis show that socioeconomic status influences not only clinical management, but also survival in patients diagnosed with lung cancer both in central Sweden and South East England, as well as in Swedish patients with high risk prostate cancer. Comorbidity burden influenced both treatment decisions and mortality in prostate cancer patients. The pattern of care and survival observed in the most privileged groups demonstrates what is achievable and should represent a minimum standard for all cancer patient

Основи інформатики з елементами програмування та сучасні інформаційні технології навчання. Ч. І. Основи інформатики

У посібнику представлено загальні відомості з основ інформатики: апаратне забезпечення інформаційних систем; операційні системи; прикладне програмне забезпечення; комп’ютерна графіка; текстовий і табличний процесори; бази даних та системи управління базами даних. Посібник складається з двох частин: «Теоретична частина» і «Лабораторні роботи». Посібник містить приклади, рекомендації виконання завдань та примітки у вигляді порад для їхнього раціонального виконання. Навчальний посібник призначений для супроводу курсу «Основи інформатики з елементами програмування та сучасні інформаційні технології навчання», який передбачено навчальним планом для студентів напрямів підготовки: «Початкова освіта», «Дошкільна освіта». Також посібник адресовано педагогічним працівникам і студентам інших напрямів підготовки

Cyber-Physical Production Testbed: Literature Review and Concept Development

Many researchers use virtual and simulation-based testbed technology for research in production and maintenance optimization. Although, the virtual environment produces good results, it cannot imitate the unexpected changes that occur in actual production. There are very few physical testbeds emulating actual production environment. The aim of this paper is to present a concept of a cyber-physical production testbed based on review of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) testbeds in research. The testbed consists of a semi-automatic production line equipped with system monitoring tools, data analysis capabilities and commercial software. This testbed will be used for demonstration of data acquisition for production and maintenance prioritization. Additionally, the testbed will be used for research in IoT platforms for production optimization

Высшая математика

ВГМУВЫСШАЯ МАТЕМАТИКАУЧЕБНЫЕ ПОСОБИЯЦель пособия - ознакомить студентов с основами современного математического аппарата как средства решения теоретических и практических задач фармации, физики, биологии, химии

Seasonality of fertility measured by physical activity traits in Holstein cows

AbstractSeasonality of female fertility traits, including the interval from calving to first high activity (CFHA), duration of high activity episode (DHA), and strength of high activity episode (SHA) of first estrus, were studied. The physical activity traits were derived from electronic activity tags for 20,794 Holstein cows in 135 commercial Holstein herds in Denmark. Data were categorized in 3 ways: (1) into 4 seasons of calving: winter (January–March), spring (April–June), summer (July–September), and fall (October–December); (2) into 2 seasons: a cold season (October–March) and a warm season (April–September); and (3) into an increasing light season (IL; January–June), where daylight hours gradually increased, and a decreasing light season (DL; July–December), where daylight hours gradually decreased. At the phenotypic level, least squares means of CFHA were highest at 55d for cows calving in December and lowest at 31d for cows calving in September. The highest least squares means of DHA and SHA were recorded for cows calving in November and lowest for cows calving in May and June. Genetic parameters for all traits were estimated using average information-REML in a bivariate animal model that treated the same trait in different calving seasons as different traits. Heritability estimates for CFHA were highest for the winter season (0.13) and low for the other seasons (0.03–0.04), whereas heritability estimates for DHA and SHA were lowest for winter and highest for fall. Heritability estimates for CFHA for the cold season (0.17) was higher than that for the warm season (0.10). Heritability estimates of CFHA for the IL season (0.12) was higher than for the DL season (0.07), but the opposite pattern was found for DHA and SHA. Genetic correlations (rA) of CFHA between winter and summer (rA=0.34±0.27), and winter and fall (rA=0.65±0.20) were significantly lower than unity. The corresponding correlations of DHA and SHA between seasons were all close to unity, except for the correlation of SHA between winter and fall (rA=0.36±0.34). When the year was split into only 2 seasons, the genetic correlation of CFHA between cold and warm seasons was only moderate (rA=0.46±0.15) but was slightly stronger between IL and DL seasons (rA=0.63±0.16); both significantly deviated from unity. These results indicate the existence of a genotype by environment interaction for CFHA regardless of calving season classification

The Measurement of Sexual Selection Using Bateman's Principles: An Experimental Test in the Sex-Role-Reversed Pipefish Syngnathus typhle.

Angus J. Bateman's classic study of sexual selection in Drosophila melanogaster has had a major influence on the development of sexual selection theory. In some ways, Bateman's study has served a catalytic role by stimulating debate on sex roles, sexual conflict and other topics in sexual selection. However, there is still considerable disagreement regarding whether or not "Bateman's principles" are helpful in the study of sexual selection. Here, we test the idea that Bateman's principles provide the basis for a useful method to quantify and compare mating systems. In this study, we focus on the sex-role-reversed pipefish Syngnathus typhle as a model system to study the measurement of sexual selection. We set up artificial breeding assemblages of pipefish in the laboratory and used microsatellite markers to resolve parentage. Three different sex-ratio treatments (female-biased, even and male-biased) were used to manipulate the expected intensity of sexual selection. Measures of the mating system based on Bateman's principles were calculated and compared to the expected changes in the intensity of sexual selection. We also compare the results of this study to the results of a similar study of Bateman's principles in the rough-skinned newt, a species with conventional sex roles. The results of this experiment show that measures of the mating system based on Bateman's principles do accurately capture the relative intensities of sexual selection in the different treatments and species. Thus, widespread use of Bateman's principles to quantify mating systems in nature would facilitate comparative studies of sexual selection and mating system evolution

Sequence signature analysis of chromosome identity in three Drosophila species

BACKGROUND: All eukaryotic organisms need to distinguish each of their chromosomes. A few protein complexes have been described that recognise entire, specific chromosomes, for instance dosage compensation complexes and the recently discovered autosome-specific Painting of Fourth (POF) protein in Drosophila. However, no sequences have been found that are chromosome-specific and distributed over the entire length of the respective chromosome. Here, we present a new, unbiased, exhaustive computational method that was used to probe three Drosophila genomes for chromosome-specific sequences. RESULTS: By combining genome annotations and cytological data with multivariate statistics related to three Drosophila genomes we found sequence signatures that distinguish Muller's F-elements (chromosome 4 in D. melanogaster) from all other chromosomes in Drosophila that are not attributable to differences in nucleotide composition, simple sequence repeats or repeated elements. Based on these signatures we identified complex motifs that are strongly overrepresented in the F-elements and found indications that the D. melanogaster motif may be involved in POF-binding to the F-element. In addition, the X-chromosomes of D. melanogaster and D. yakuba can be distinguished from the other chromosomes, albeit to a lesser extent. Surprisingly, the conservation of the F-element sequence signatures extends not only between species separated by approximately 55 Myr, but also linearly along the sequenced part of the F-elements. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that chromosome-distinguishing features are not exclusive to the sex chromosomes, but are also present on at least one autosome (the F-element) in Drosophila