Technology Based Interventions Impact on Phonemic Awareness Growth

The research question that was addressed in this project was What impact do technological based interventions have on student’s phonemic awareness growth? It followed the author’s desire to discover a supplemental online literacy tool that would be beneficial to their kindergarten students and help them progress through the early stages of reading. According to Saine (2012), when students are exposed to digital literary activities, they do not see the activities as school work, but as new and exciting tools for learning. The author looked at two online literacy tools and created a tool for teacher use that focused on components of phonemic awareness, such as letter names, sounds, listening, and speaking. It also focused on developmental tasks such as creative animations, incentives, and pacing of activities. These items aim to meet the kindergarten level at the start of the school year. Teachers and/or districts can use this tool to share their findings on literacy sites with each other. The tool also allows for individual teachers to determine what is important for them and their students. Looking towards the future, this tool could be adapted to any other online tool, for any grade the teacher may need. It was designed to be simple in approach in order to invite educators to lend a perceptive eye towards digital tools in the classroom

Bayesian global-local shrinkage methods for regularisation in the high dimension linear model

This paper reviews global-local prior distributions for Bayesian inference in high-dimensional regression problems including important properties of priors and efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for inference. A chemometric example in drug discovery is used to compare the predictive performance of these methods with popular methods such as Ridge and LASSO regression

Moving climate change beyond the tragedy of the commons

 This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)UK National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Change and HealthAustralian Research CouncilPew Charitable TrustPaul M. Angell Family Foundatio

Species-specific differences in the expression of the HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes

addresses: Institute of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom. [email protected]: PMCID: PMC2773013types: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tCopyright: © 2009 Harries et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The HNF1A, HNF1B and HNF4A genes are part of an autoregulatory network in mammalian pancreas, liver, kidney and gut. The layout of this network appears to be similar in rodents and humans, but inactivation of HNF1A, HNF1B or HNF4A genes in animal models cause divergent phenotypes to those seen in man. We hypothesised that some differences may arise from variation in the expression profile of alternatively processed isoforms between species

Desaturation after remifentanil-propofol induced apnea

No Abstract. Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia and Analgesia Vol. 12(1) 2006: 4

Coping with metastatic melanoma: the last year of life.

BackgroundFew longitudinal studies have concurrently investigated cognitive appraisal, coping and psychological adjustment in patients with terminal cancer. This study aimed to (i) consider patterns of change in these variables during the last year of life and (ii) consider covariates associated with patients' psychological adjustment.Methods and patientsQuestionnaires were sent to a cohort of stage IV melanoma patients seen at the Sydney Melanoma Unit between 1991 and 1996, approximately every 3 months, for up to 2 years. A sub-sample of 110 patients completed at least one questionnaire in the last year of life. Repeated measures linear regression was used to model cognitive appraisal, coping and psychological adjustment.ResultsIn the last year of life, patients' cognitive appraisal of their disease remained relatively stable, whereas their use of active coping strategies increased (p=0. 04). There was some deterioration in psychological adjustment, particularly in patients' ability to minimize the impact of cancer on daily life (p=0.03), but this effect did not remain significant when patients' level of tiredness was included in the model. Cognitive appraisal, coping style and quality of life indicators were all associated with psychological adjustment.ConclusionThese findings suggest that while patients work hard to actively cope with their disease, they experience increasing levels of tiredness, and deterioration in their mood and ability to function in their daily lives

Presynaptic actions of 4-Aminopyridine and γ-aminobutyric acid on rat sympathetic ganglia in vitro

Responses to bath-applications of 4-aminopyridine (4-AP) and -aminobutyric acid (GABA) were recorded intracellularly from neurones in the rat isolated superior cervical ganglion. 4-aminopyridine (0.1–1.0 mmol/l) usually induced spontaneous action potentials and excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), which were blocked by hexamethonium. Membrane potential was unchanged; spike duration was slightly increased. Vagus nerve B-and C-fibre potentials were prolonged. In 4-AP solution (0.1–0.3 mmol/l), GABA (0.1 mmol/l), 3-aminopropanesulphonic acid or muscimol evoked bursts of spikes and EPSPs in addition to a neuronal depolarization. These bursts, which were not elicited by glycine, glutamate, taurine or (±)-baclofen, were completely antagonised by hexamethonium, tetrodotoxin or bicuculline methochloride. It is concluded that: (a) 4-AP has a potent presynaptic action on sympathetic ganglia; (b) presynaptic actions of GABA can be recorded postsynaptically in the presence of 4-AP; and (c) the presynaptic GABA-receptors revealed in this condition are similar to those on the postsynaptic membrane

Review of "Pediatric Hydrocephalus" by Guiseppe Cinalli, Wirginia Maixner, Christian Sainte-Rose (editors)

This review summarizes the content and usefulness of this multi-author volume for those involved in the treatment of pediatric hydrocephalus