A Case Study on How Children Develop Computational Thinking Collaboratively with Robotics Toys

This article reports on a case study on how robotics toys provide the affordances for developing computational thinking (henceforth abbreviated to CT) in young learners. The three key constructs of CT -abstraction, algorithms and automation - are used in the research. The study results identify how children interact with robotics toys collaboratively and acquire CT skills. Problems were presented to the children through planned non-routine and immersive collaborative group activities. The Situations in which they externalised their inquiries and internalised new knowledge were observed. A detailed examination of the data collected was made to determine which robotics toys mediated the children’s acquisition while seamlessly switching between individual and collaborative activities and has led to the development of a framework of the stages in CT learning designs. This paper synthesises the relevant classroom activity designs in addressing CT as a general term that involves solving problems, entails a whole set of mental tools that enable people to reduce complex problems into readily solvable subtasks and composes algorithms that are executable by machines. Moreover, the article will also include details and analyses of the selection of commercially available technologies for developing CT in the young learners in the study

Childrens Digital Practices: Case Studies Of Children Viewing And Representing With Digital Text

This paper reports on case studies of four primary school children and their digital practices in Hong Kong. The study explored how the participating children view and represent through digital text in the context of their out-of-school technology use. Understanding how these practices extended into their English language classrooms was explicated based on emerging data. The study results identify six aspects of emerging skills acquired by the children. These skills were not extended into the childrens schoolwork a reflection on the emphasis on uni-modal language learning in the class setting. A detailed examination of the individual skills led to a set of recommendations for curriculum review, suitable pedagogical strategies and classroom learning resources that English Language Educators may utilize to facilitate development of viewing and representing skills through digital text

Sequencing of prostate cancers identifies new cancer genes, routes of progression and drug targets

Prostate cancer represents a substantial clinical challenge because it is difficult to predict outcome and advanced disease is often fatal. We sequenced the whole genomes of 112 primary and metastatic prostate cancer samples. From joint analysis of these cancers with those from previous studies (930 cancers in total), we found evidence for 22 previously unidentified putative driver genes harboring coding mutations, as well as evidence for NEAT1 and FOXA1 acting as drivers through noncoding mutations. Through the temporal dissection of aberrations, we identified driver mutations specifically associated with steps in the progression of prostate cancer, establishing, for example, loss of CHD1 and BRCA2 as early events in cancer development of ETS fusion-negative cancers. Computational chemogenomic (canSAR) analysis of prostate cancer mutations identified 11 targets of approved drugs, 7 targets of investigational drugs, and 62 targets of compounds that may be active and should be considered candidates for future clinical trials

A study of children's viewing and representing skills through digital text

The notion of literacy in the 21st century has changed with the emergence of advanced technologies. We can no longer treat written language as the sole resource in contemporary literacy. The advancement of technology has led to some fundamental changes in the ways we receive and produce texts. Theories of literacy that underpin the concept of writing need to be reconsidered both explicitly and implicitly. This paper reports on four case studies of primary school children in Hong Kong, focusing on their emerging digital competencies when engaging with digital text. The study investigates how the participating children engaged with digital text in the context of their out-of-school technology use. Each was observed to have developed a set of digital competencies in their receptive and productive engagements to deal with information on screens. Understanding how these competencies extended into their English language classrooms was explicated based on the data that emerged from the study. The study results identify five emerging competencies acquired by the children from their extra-school digital practices. Two of these were not extended into the children’s schoolwork – a reflection on the emphasis on mono-modal language learning in the class setting. At the heart of this research are two research questions: (1) What digital literacy practices emerge from the participating children’s out-of-school technology use? (2) How have these practices been extended to school activities? These research questions guided the methodological choice of the current study. The research was conducted with a view to understanding the understudied phenomena in their naturalistic settings. Different data collection methods were applied to uncover the emerging skills in the participants’ receptive and productive engagement with digital text inductively and iteratively. The skills utilize but are additional to listening, speaking, reading and writing, and involve frequent use of visuals, dynamic information and interaction through digital text. Such skills are categorized in the literature as viewing and representing. A detailed examination of the each of the five competencies led to the development of a framework of viewing and representing skills used by the participants during their receptive and productive engagement with information. These skills apply the five competencies in two different processes. The framework serves as a basis for recommendations for curriculum review, suitable pedagogical strategies and classroom learning resources that English language educators may utilize to facilitate development of students’ viewing and representing skills through the use of the five competencies.published_or_final_versionEducationDoctoralDoctor of Educatio

GlycoSHIELD Glycan Conformer Library

Dataset containing GROMACS trajectories and reference structures of glycans used by the GlycoSHIELD pipeline

GlycoSHIELD Glycan Conformer Library

Dataset containing GROMACS trajectories and reference structures of glycans used by the GlycoSHIELD pipeline

Using whole genome amplification (WGA) of low-volume biopsies to assess the prognostic role of EGFR, KRAS, p53, and CMET mutations in advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

10.1097/JTO.0b013e3181913e28Journal of Thoracic Oncology4112-2

Sex differences in oncogenic mutational processes

Funder: Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100002790Funder: Genome Canada (Génome Canada); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/100008762Funder: Canada Foundation for Innovation (Fondation canadienne pour l'innovation); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100000196Funder: Terry Fox Research Institute (Institut de Recherche Terry Fox); doi: https://doi.org/10.13039/501100004376Abstract: Sex differences have been observed in multiple facets of cancer epidemiology, treatment and biology, and in most cancers outside the sex organs. Efforts to link these clinical differences to specific molecular features have focused on somatic mutations within the coding regions of the genome. Here we report a pan-cancer analysis of sex differences in whole genomes of 1983 tumours of 28 subtypes as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium. We both confirm the results of exome studies, and also uncover previously undescribed sex differences. These include sex-biases in coding and non-coding cancer drivers, mutation prevalence and strikingly, in mutational signatures related to underlying mutational processes. These results underline the pervasiveness of molecular sex differences and strengthen the call for increased consideration of sex in molecular cancer research

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts