‘Question Moments’: A Rolling Programme of Question Opportunities in Classroom Science

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This naturalistic study integrates specific 'question moments' into lesson plans to increase pupils' classroom interactions. A range of teaching tools has explored students' ideas through opportunities to ask and write questions. Their oral and written outcomes provide data on individual and group misunderstandings. Changes to the schedule of lessons were introduced to discuss these questions and solve disparities. Flexible lesson planning over fourteen lessons across a four-week period of highschool chemistry accommodated students' contributions and increased student participation, promoted inquiring and individualised teaching, with each teaching strategy feeding forward into the next

A Decidable Multi-agent Logic for Reasoning About Actions, Instruments, and Norms

We formally introduce a novel, yet ubiquitous, category of norms: norms of instrumentality. Norms of this category describe which actions are obligatory, or prohibited, as instruments for certain purposes. We propose the Logic of Agency and Norms (LAN) that enables reasoning about actions, instrumentality, and normative principles in a multi-agent setting. Leveraging LAN , we formalize norms of instrumentality and compare them to two prevalent norm categories: norms to be and norms to do. Last, we pose principles relating the three categories and evaluate their validity vis-à-vis notions of deliberative acting. On a technical note, the logic will be shown decidable via the finite model property

Prediction of Glioblastoma Multiform Response to Bevacizumab Treatment Using Multi-Parametric MRI

Glioblastoma multiform (GBM) is a highly malignant brain tumor. Bevacizumab is a recent therapy for stopping tumor growth and even shrinking tumor through inhibition of vascular development (angiogenesis). This paper presents a non-invasive approach based on image analysis of multi-parametric magnetic resonance images (MRI) to predict response of GBM to this treatment. The resulting prediction system has potential to be used by physicians to optimize treatment plans of the GBM patients. The proposed method applies signal decomposition and histogram analysis methods to extract statistical features from Gd-enhanced regions of tumor that quantify its microstructural characteristics. MRI studies of 12 patients at multiple time points before and up to four months after treatment are used in this work. Changes in the Gd-enhancement as well as necrosis and edema after treatment are used to evaluate the response. Leave-one-out cross validation method is applied to evaluate prediction quality of the models. Predictive models developed in this work have large regression coefficients (maximum R2 = 0.95) indicating their capability to predict response to therapy

Logics of knowledge and action: critical analysis and challenges

International audienceWe overview the most prominent logics of knowledge and action that were proposed and studied in the multiagent systems literature. We classify them according to these two dimensions, knowledge and action, and moreover introduce a distinction between individual knowledge and group knowledge, and between a nonstrategic an a strategic interpretation of action operators. For each of the logics in our classification we highlight problematic properties. They indicate weaknesses in the design of these logics and call into question their suitability to represent knowledge and reason about it. This leads to a list of research challenges

Effect of a cast on short-term reproducibility and bone parameters obtained from HR-pQCT measurements at the distal end of the radius

\u3cp\u3eBACKGROUND: High-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT) is a promising tool to assess the fracture-healing process at the microscale in vivo. Since casts are often used during fracture treatment, they might affect the assessment of bone density, microarchitectural, and biomechanical parameters and the short-term reproducibility of those parameters, e.g., as a result of beam-hardening. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of a plaster-of-Paris and/or fiberglass cast on bone parameters and on the short-term reproducibility of the HR-pQCT measurements of those parameters.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eMETHODS: The effects of a cast on HR-pQCT-derived bone parameters were evaluated by comparing HR-pQCT scans of fifteen human cadaveric distal radial specimens from one male and fourteen female donors (median age, eighty-four years [range, sixty-two to ninety years] at the time of death) in three conditions: with a plaster-of-Paris cast, with a fiberglass cast, or without a cast. Short-term reproducibility was assessed using duplicate scans of the distal end of the radius in sixteen healthy volunteers without a fracture (nine men and seven women with a median age of twenty-six years; range, twenty-two to thirty-nine years) while wearing and not wearing a fiberglass cast.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eRESULTS: Compared with measurements made with no cast, the plaster-of-Paris cast introduced a systematic error in the bone parameters ranging from -2.6% in trabecular separation to -9.8% in cortical thickness. Bone parameters were affected only marginally by fiberglass, with errors between -0.6% and -1.6% in trabecular separation and cortical thickness, respectively. Short-term reproducibility with a fiberglass cast was similar to that with no cast: approximately 1% for bone density parameters, 4% to 5% for microarchitectural parameters, and 3% to 4% for biomechanical parameters.\u3c/p\u3e\u3cp\u3eCONCLUSIONS: A plaster-of-Paris cast has a considerable effect on HR-pQCT measurements. A fiberglass cast only marginally affects the bone parameters, and the short-term reproducibility of HR-pQCT measurements in patients with a fiberglass cast is comparable with that in patients without a cast. In studies on fracture-healing using HR-pQCT, a fiberglass cast is desirable if immobilization is indicated. The use of a plaster-of-Paris cast should be avoided if possible; however, if not avoidable, corrections after the scan are desirable to adjust for the error introduced in the bone parameters.\u3c/p\u3

Semantics for intuitionistic epistemic logics of shallow depths for game theory

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Early changes in bone density, microarchitecture, bone resorption, and inflammation predict the clinical outcome 12 weeks after conservatively treated distal radius fractures : an exploratory study

Fracture healing is an active process with early changes in bone and inflammation. We performed an exploratory study evaluating the association between early changes in densitometric, structural, biomechanical, and biochemical bone parameters during the first weeks of fracture healing and wrist-specific pain and disability at 12 weeks in postmenopausal women with a conservatively treated distal radius fracture. Eighteen patients (aged 64¿±¿8 years) were evaluated at 1 to 2 and 3 to 4 weeks postfracture, using high-resolution peripheral quantitative computed tomography (HR-pQCT), micro-finite element analysis, serum procollagen type-I N-terminal propeptide (P1NP), carboxy-terminal telopeptide of type I collagen (ICTP), and high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP). After 12 weeks, patients rated their pain and disability using Patient Rated Wrist Evaluation (PRWE) questionnaire. Additionally, Quick Disability of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (QuickDASH) questionnaire and active wrist range of motion was evaluated. Linear regression models were used to study the relationship between changes in bone parameters and in hsCRP from visit 1 to 2 and PRWE score after 12 weeks. A lower PRWE outcome, indicating better outcome, was significantly related to an early increase in trabecular bone mineral density (BMD) (ß -0.96 [95% CI -1.75 to -0.16], R2¿=¿0.37), in torsional stiffness (-0.14 [-0.28 to -0.004], R2¿=¿0.31), and to an early decrease in trabecular separation (209 [15 to 402], R2¿=¿0.33) and in ICTP (12.1 [0.0 to 24.1], R2¿=¿0.34). Similar results were found for QuickDASH. Higher total dorsal and palmar flexion range of motion was significantly related to early increase in hsCRP (9.62 [3.90 to 15.34], R2¿=¿0.52). This exploratory study indicates that the assessment of early changes in trabecular BMD, trabecular separation, calculated torsional stiffness, bone resorption marker ICTP, and hsCRP after a distal radius fracture provides valuable information regarding the 12-week clinical outcome in terms of pain, disability, and range of motion and validates its use in studies on the process of early fracture healing. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research