OER “produsage” as a model to support language teaching and learning

Language education faculty face myriad challenges in finding teaching resources that are suitable, of high quality, and allow for the modifications needed to meet the requirements of their course contexts and their learners. The article elaborates the grassroots model of “produsage” (a portmanteau of “production” and “usage”) as a way of imagining a movement toward the use and creation of open educational resources (OER) for language learning. Through a set of examples of video resources that fill a need for authentically compelling language learning materials, the authors demonstrate the potential of produsage to engage teachers and learners around digital resources, to the benefit of language teaching and learning. In support of this grassroots model, the authors propose practices and policies to address challenges involved in engaging teachers and learners around OER in higher education

Self-determination in people with intellectual disability: The mediating role of opportunities

Abstract: The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities have proclaimed the basic right of people to make one?s own choices, have an e ective participation and inclusion. Research in the field of disability have stressed self-determination as a key construct because of its impact on their quality of life and the achievement of desired educational and adulthood related outcomes. Self-determination development must be promoted through specific strategies and especially, by providing tailored opportunities to practice those skills. Providing these opportunities across environments could be especially relevant as a facilitator of self-determination development. This manuscript aims to ascertain if opportunities at home and in the community to engage in self-determined actions are mediating the relationship between people intellectual disability level and their self-determination. Results have confirmed direct e ects of intellectual disability level on self-determination scores. Indirect e ects also predicted self-determination and almost all its related components (self-initiation, self-direction, self-regulation, self-realization, and empowerment) through opportunities in the community and at home. Autonomy was predicted by the intellectual disability level through an indirect e ect of opportunities at home, but not in the community. These results highlight the need for further research to better operationalize and promote contextually rooted opportunities for people with intellectual disability to become more self-determined.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, grant number PSI2016-75826-P. AEI/FEDER, UE

Location, number and factors associated with cerebral microbleeds in an Italian-British cohort of CADASIL patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The frequency, clinical correlates, and risk factors of cerebral microbleeds (CMB) in Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) are still poorly known. We aimed at determining the location and number of CMB and their relationship with clinical manifestations, vascular risk factors, drugs, and other neuroimaging features in CADASIL patients. METHODS: We collected clinical data by means of a structured proforma and centrally evaluated CMB on magnetic resonance gradient echo sequences applying the Microbleed Anatomical Rating Scale in CADASIL patients seen in 2 referral centers in Italy and United Kingdom. RESULTS: We evaluated 125 patients. CMB were present in 34% of patients and their presence was strongly influenced by the age. Twenty-nine percent of the patients had CMB in deep subcortical location, 22% in a lobar location, and 18% in infratentorial regions. After adjustment for age, factors significantly associated with a higher total number of CMB were hemorrhagic stroke, dementia, urge incontinence, and statins use (this latter not confirmed by multivariate analysis). Infratentorial and deep CMB were associated with dementia and urge incontinence, lobar CMB with hemorrhagic stroke, dementia, and statins use. Unexpectedly, patients with migraine, with or without aura, had a lower total, deep, and lobar number of CMB than patients without migraine. DISCUSSION: CMB formation in CADASIL seems to increase with age. History of hemorrhagic stroke, dementia, urge incontinence, and statins use are associated with a higher number of CMB. However, these findings need to be confirmed by longitudinal studies

Social cues in the expression of sequential alternative reproductive tactics in young males of the peacock blenny, Solaria pavo

Phenotypic change in response to variation in environmental cues has been widely documented in fish. Transitions in social dominance, in particular, have been shown to induce a rapid switch in reproductive phenotypes in many species. However, this effect has been mainly studied in adults and focused on behavioural transitions. The way social cues constraint the phenotypic development of juveniles remains poorly studied in fish. We tested the importance of social dominance and density in the phenotypic development of juveniles of the peacock blenny Solaria pavo. This species shows sequential male alternative reproductive tactics. In the first breeding season males can reproduce as nest-holders or as parasitic males (female-mimicking), or postpone reproduction; from the following season afterwards all males reproduce as nest-holders. Parasitic males have relatively larger testes that lack a testicular gland, present in the testes of nest-holders. The testicular gland is the main source of androgens in the testes and accordingly nest-holders have higher circulating androgen levels. In addition, exogenous androgen administration to parasitic males promotes the development of secondary sexual characters (SSC) only present in nest-holders such as a head crest and an anal gland. We raised juveniles under a high or low-density treatment and monitored social interactions for 1 month. No significant effect of density on the development of juvenile males was detected. However, within each replicate, the relative body size of juvenile males at the beginning of the experiment determined their dominance status, with dominant males developing towards the nest-holder morphotype. Dominant males engaged in more nest defence behaviour, showed larger testicular glands, had higher levels of 11-ketotestosterone (11-KT) and testosterone (T) and developed more SSC, as compared to subordinate males. However, these effects of social dominance were moderated by body condition as only dominant males in good body condition developed SSC. The effect of social dominance and of the area of the testicular gland on the development of SSC was mediated by 11-KT and on the expression of nest defence behaviour by T. Interestingly, in spite of the higher androgen levels and more pronounced morphologic development of SSC in dominant individuals, gonadal development was independent of social dominance and most fish still had underdeveloped testis at the end of the experiment. In conclusion, social dominance promoted the development of the testicular gland, an increase in circulating androgen levels and the development of SSC, but did not promote testicular development. This suggests a dissociation of mechanisms underlying sexual maturation and the expression of male reproductive traits. This dissociation seems to be the key for the occurrence of female-mimicking males in this species, which are sexually mature despite lacking the SSC typical of nest-holdets. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.R&D Units Plurianual Program (R&D unit) from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [331/2001]; FCT [SFRH/BD/6502/2001]; [POCTI/BSE/38395/2001]; [PTDC/MAR/71351/2006]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Codes of Commitment to Crime and Resistance: Determining Social and Cultural Factors over the Behaviors of Italian Mafia Women

This article categorizes thirty-three women in four main Italian Mafia groups and explores social and cultural behaviors of these women. This study introduces the feminist theory of belief and action. The theoretical inquiry investigates the sometimes conflicting behaviors of women when they are subject to systematic oppression. I argue that there is a cultural polarization among the categorized sub-groups. Conservative radicals give their support to the Mafia while defectors and rebels resist the Mafia. After testing the theory, I assert that emancipation of women depends on the strength of their beliefs to perform actions against the Mafiosi culture

Male gays in the female gaze: women who watch m/m pornography

This paper draws on a piece of wide-scale mixed-methods research that examines the motivations behind women who watch gay male pornography. To date there has been very little interdisciplinary research investigating this phenomenon, despite a recent survey by PornHub (one of the largest online porn sites in the world) showing that gay male porn is the second most popular choice for women porn users out of 25+ possible genre choices. While both academic literature and popular culture have looked at the interest that (heterosexual) men have in lesbian pornography, considerably less attention has been paid to the consumption of gay male pornography by women. Research looking at women's consumption of pornography from within the Social Sciences is very focused around heterosexual (and, to a lesser extent, lesbian) pornography. Research looking more generally at gay pornography/erotica (and the subversion of the ‘male gaze’/concept of ‘male as erotic object’) often makes mention of female interest in this area, but only briefly, and often relies on anecdotal or observational evidence. Research looking at women's involvement in slashfic (primarily from within media studies), while very thorough and rich, tends to view slash writing as a somewhat isolated phenomenon (indeed, in her influential article on women's involvement in slash, Bacon-Smith talks about how ‘only a small number’ of female slash writers and readers have any interest in gay literature or pornography more generally, and this phenomenon is not often discussed in more recent analyses of slash); so while there has been a great deal of very interesting research done in this field, little attempt has been made to couch it more generally within women's consumption and use of pornography and erotica or to explore what women enjoy about watching gay male pornography. Through a series of focus groups, interviews, and an online questionnaire (n = 275), this exploratory piece of work looks at what women enjoy about gay male pornography, and how it sits within their consumption of erotica/pornography more generally. The article investigates what this has to say about the existence and nature of a ‘female gaze’

Within-host evolution of Staphylococcus aureus during asymptomatic carriage

Background Staphylococcus aureus is a major cause of healthcare associated mortality, but like many important bacterial pathogens, it is a common constituent of the normal human body flora. Around a third of healthy adults are carriers. Recent evidence suggests that evolution of S. aureus during nasal carriage may be associated with progression to invasive disease. However, a more detailed understanding of within-host evolution under natural conditions is required to appreciate the evolutionary and mechanistic reasons why commensal bacteria such as S. aureus cause disease. Therefore we examined in detail the evolutionary dynamics of normal, asymptomatic carriage. Sequencing a total of 131 genomes across 13 singly colonized hosts using the Illumina platform, we investigated diversity, selection, population dynamics and transmission during the short-term evolution of S. aureus. Principal Findings We characterized the processes by which the raw material for evolution is generated: micro-mutation (point mutation and small insertions/deletions), macro-mutation (large insertions/deletions) and the loss or acquisition of mobile elements (plasmids and bacteriophages). Through an analysis of synonymous, non-synonymous and intergenic mutations we discovered a fitness landscape dominated by purifying selection, with rare examples of adaptive change in genes encoding surface-anchored proteins and an enterotoxin. We found evidence for dramatic, hundred-fold fluctuations in the size of the within-host population over time, which we related to the cycle of colonization and clearance. Using a newly-developed population genetics approach to detect recent transmission among hosts, we revealed evidence for recent transmission between some of our subjects, including a husband and wife both carrying populations of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Significance This investigation begins to paint a picture of the within-host evolution of an important bacterial pathogen during its prevailing natural state, asymptomatic carriage. These results also have wider significance as a benchmark for future systematic studies of evolution during invasive S. aureus disease

An Integrated Strategy to Study Muscle Development and Myofilament Structure in Caenorhabditis elegans

A crucial step in the development of muscle cells in all metazoan animals is the assembly and anchorage of the sarcomere, the essential repeat unit responsible for muscle contraction. In Caenorhabditis elegans, many of the critical proteins involved in this process have been uncovered through mutational screens focusing on uncoordinated movement and embryonic arrest phenotypes. We propose that additional sarcomeric proteins exist for which there is a less severe, or entirely different, mutant phenotype produced in their absence. We have used Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) to generate a comprehensive profile of late embryonic muscle gene expression. We generated two replicate long SAGE libraries for sorted embryonic muscle cells, identifying 7,974 protein-coding genes. A refined list of 3,577 genes expressed in muscle cells was compiled from the overlap between our SAGE data and available microarray data. Using the genes in our refined list, we have performed two separate RNA interference (RNAi) screens to identify novel genes that play a role in sarcomere assembly and/or maintenance in either embryonic or adult muscle. To identify muscle defects in embryos, we screened specifically for the Pat embryonic arrest phenotype. To visualize muscle defects in adult animals, we fed dsRNA to worms producing a GFP-tagged myosin protein, thus allowing us to analyze their myofilament organization under gene knockdown conditions using fluorescence microscopy. By eliminating or severely reducing the expression of 3,300 genes using RNAi, we identified 122 genes necessary for proper myofilament organization, 108 of which are genes without a previously characterized role in muscle. Many of the genes affecting sarcomere integrity have human homologs for which little or nothing is known

Energy Injection for Fast Ignition

In the fast ignition concept, assembled fuel is ignited through a separate high intensity laser pulse. Fast Ignition targets facilitate this ignition using a reentrant cone. It provides clear access through the overlaying coronal plasma, and controls the laser plasma interaction to optimize hot-electron production and transport into the compressed plasma. Recent results suggest that the cone does not play any role in guiding light or electrons to its tip, and coupling to electrons can be reduced by a small amount of preplasma. This puts stringent requirements on the ignition laser focusing, pointing, and prepulse