Four ESOL Graduate Students’ Hybrid Learning Through a Reflective Project: A Qualitative Case Study

This is a qualitative case study to investigate English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) graduate students’ learning experiences when completing a reflective project. Four graduate students in the United States participated in this study and completed the project to share their linguistic and cultural stories in a traditional paper-based essay format and in a multimedia format. The data consisted of a reflection paper, digital storytelling (DST), a project report, an oral presentation, and an interview, which were analysed through content analysis. The findings included participants’ learning of (a) language and culture, (b) language teaching, (c) language teachers’ responsibilities, and (d) technology. These showed that ESOL graduate students’ dialogues with preceding, current, and future utterances indicated their hybrid learning experiences through traditional and technology-mediated reflective tasks. The author discussed the influences of dialogues within their hybrid learning. In addition, pedagogical implications of a combined project between a reflection paper and DST and the instructional elements of DST that teachers need to consider were suggested

Digital storytelling as a tool for reflection in virtual reality projects

Reflection is essential for learning and development, especially among middle school students. In this paper, we describe how middle school students can engage in reflective learning by composing digital stories in a project-based learning environment employing virtual reality. Adopting multiple case study methods, we examined the digital stories of five students, together with classroom observations and interviews about their experiences, in order to explore how digital storytelling can allowed students to reflect upon their experiences in a year-end capstone program. Creating digital stories allowed students to 1) reflect on their learning experiences teaching younger students with virtual reality, 2) present their reflections in multiple modalities, and 3) make connections between their present experiences and the past and future. This study demonstrates how digital storytelling can enable multimodal reflection for middle school students, particularly within technology-focused project-based learning environments

Basic study on the oil recovery in a hybrid heat pump using ammonia/water solution

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.In an ammonia/water hybrid heat pump system which is a vapor compression cycle with a solution circuit, lubricating oil is commonly used for the compressor. Since Poly-Alpha-Olefin (PAO) oil which is commonly used for ammonia is immiscible with the ammonia/water solution, a proper oil recovery method is required for a smooth operation of the compressor. Although the oil separator installed at the outlet of the compressor removes most of the oil from the refrigerant vapor, some oil droplets are carried over and accumulated in the solution reservoir. Unlike the pure ammonia vapor compression system, the density of PAO oil is smaller than that of ammonia/water mixture which has the ammonia concentration of 30-40%, and the oil tends to rise and gather near the liquid/vapor interface. In this study, a method for oil recovery from the solution reservoir is suggested. In the present method, the mixture of the oil and the solution is drained into an oil separator having a narrow cylinder at the top, if the oil in the reservoir is greater than a certain amount. The oil droplets in the solution rise by buoyancy and gather at this upper narrow cylinder. The gathered oil is extracted and returned to the compressor by an oil recovery pump. Since the solution has to be returned to the reservoir as soon as the separation process is finished, the process time for the separation should be as short as possible. To predict the time for the separation, experiments and simulations have been carried out. The model using the multiphase segregated flow (MSF) showed that a proper choice of droplet diameter is necessary to predict a correct separation time. Also, a simulation model which is able to consider the effect of surface tension and droplet merging is needed to be developed.dc201

Strong ferromagnetism in Pt-coated ZnCoO: The role of interstitial hydrogen

We observed strong ferromagnetism in ZnCoO as a result of high concentration hydrogen absorption. Coating ZnCoO with Pt layer, and ensuing hydrogen treatment with a high isostatic pressure resulted in a highly increased carrier concentration of 10(21)/cm(3). This hydrogen treatment induced a strong ferromagnetism at low temperature that turned to superparamagnetism at about 140 K. We performed density functional method computations and found that the interstitial H dopants promote the ferromagnetic ordering between scattered Co dopants. On the other hand, interstitial hydrogen can decrease the magnetic exchange energy of Co-H-Co complexes, leading to a reduction in the blocking temperature.open7

A Case of Hypothyroidism and Type 2 Diabetes Associated with Type V Hyperlipoproteinemia and Eruptive Xanthomas

Primary hypothyroidism and type 2 diabetes are both typically associated with the increased level of triglycerides. To date, there have been only a few case reports of type 2 diabetes patients with both type V hyperlipoproteinemia and eruptive xanthomas, but there have been no reports of hypothyroidism patients associated with eruptive xanthomas. We report here on a case of a 48-yr old female patient who was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and primary hypothyroidism associated with both type V hyperlipoproteinemia and eruptive xanthomas. We found rouleaux formation of RBCs in peripheral blood smear, elevated TSH, and low free T4 level, and dyslipidemia (total cholesterol 18.1 mM/L, triglyceride 61.64 mM/L, HDL 3.0 mM/L, and LDL 2.54 mM/L). She has taken fenofibrate, levothyroxine, and oral hypoglycemic agent for 4 months. After treatment, both TSH level and lipid concentration returned to normal range, and her yellowish skin nodules have also disappeared

Comparison of orthopaedic manifestations of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia caused by MATN3 versus COMP mutations: a case control study

Background : Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED) is a relatively common skeletal dysplasia mainly involving the epiphyses of the long bones. However, it is a genetically heterogeneous group of diseases sharing certain aspects of the radiologic phenotype. In surveys conducted in East Asia, MATN3 was the most common causative gene, followed by COMP. In this study, the authors compared clinical manifestation of MED patients caused by MATN3 and COMP gene mutations, as well as subsequent orthopaedic interventions. Methods : Fifty nine molecularly-confirmed MED patients were subjects of this study. The MATN3 gene mutation group comprised of 37 patients (9 female, 28 male). The COMP gene mutation consisted of 22 cases (15 females, 7 males). Medical records and radiographs were reviewed, and questionnaire surveys or telephone interviews were conducted. Results : At the first presentation, the mean age was 8.8 ± 2.8 years (mean ± standard deviation) in the MATN3 group, and 8.5 ± 3.5 years in the COMP group (p = 0.670). The height in the COMP group was significantly shorter than those in the MATN3 group (p < 0.001). Gait abnormality at the first visit (p = 0.041) and the lastest follow-up (p = 0.037) were statistically significant difference. Hip pain (p = 0.084), limitation of daily activity (p = 0.075) at the latest follow-up tended to be more frequent in the COMP group. Hip dysplasia was more common in the COMP group, having significantly larger acetabular angle (p = 0.037), smaller center-edge angle (p = 0.002), severe Stulberg classification (p < 0.001), and smaller femoral head coverage (p < 0.001). Conclusions : Clinical manifestations of MED caused by MATN3 were milder than manifestations of the COMP mutation group. These differences in clinical manifestation and prognosis justify molecular differentiation between the two genotypes.This study was supported by a grant from the SNUH Research Fund (No. 04-2013-0640).Peer Reviewe

Comparison of orthopaedic manifestations of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia caused by MATN3 versus COMP mutations: a case control study

Background : Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED) is a relatively common skeletal dysplasia mainly involving the epiphyses of the long bones. However, it is a genetically heterogeneous group of diseases sharing certain aspects of the radiologic phenotype. In surveys conducted in East Asia, MATN3 was the most common causative gene, followed by COMP. In this study, the authors compared clinical manifestation of MED patients caused by MATN3 and COMP gene mutations, as well as subsequent orthopaedic interventions. Methods : Fifty nine molecularly-confirmed MED patients were subjects of this study. The MATN3 gene mutation group comprised of 37 patients (9 female, 28 male). The COMP gene mutation consisted of 22 cases (15 females, 7 males). Medical records and radiographs were reviewed, and questionnaire surveys or telephone interviews were conducted. Results : At the first presentation, the mean age was 8.8 ± 2.8 years (mean ± standard deviation) in the MATN3 group, and 8.5 ± 3.5 years in the COMP group (p = 0.670). The height in the COMP group was significantly shorter than those in the MATN3 group (p < 0.001). Gait abnormality at the first visit (p = 0.041) and the lastest follow-up (p = 0.037) were statistically significant difference. Hip pain (p = 0.084), limitation of daily activity (p = 0.075) at the latest follow-up tended to be more frequent in the COMP group. Hip dysplasia was more common in the COMP group, having significantly larger acetabular angle (p = 0.037), smaller center-edge angle (p = 0.002), severe Stulberg classification (p < 0.001), and smaller femoral head coverage (p < 0.001). Conclusions : Clinical manifestations of MED caused by MATN3 were milder than manifestations of the COMP mutation group. These differences in clinical manifestation and prognosis justify molecular differentiation between the two genotypes.This study was supported by a grant from the SNUH Research Fund (No. 04-2013-0640).Peer Reviewe

Comparison of orthopaedic manifestations of multiple epiphyseal dysplasia caused by MATN3 versus COMP mutations: a case control study

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Abstract Background Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia (MED) is a relatively common skeletal dysplasia mainly involving the epiphyses of the long bones. However, it is a genetically heterogeneous group of diseases sharing certain aspects of the radiologic phenotype. In surveys conducted in East Asia, MATN3 was the most common causative gene, followed by COMP. In this study, the authors compared clinical manifestation of MED patients caused by MATN3 and COMP gene mutations, as well as subsequent orthopaedic interventions. Methods Fifty nine molecularly-confirmed MED patients were subjects of this study. The MATN3 gene mutation group comprised of 37 patients (9 female, 28 male). The COMP gene mutation consisted of 22 cases (15 females, 7 males). Medical records and radiographs were reviewed, and questionnaire surveys or telephone interviews were conducted. Results At the first presentation, the mean age was 8.8 ± 2.8 years (mean ± standard deviation) in the MATN3 group, and 8.5 ± 3.5 years in the COMP group (p = 0.670). The height in the COMP group was significantly shorter than those in the MATN3 group (p < 0.001). Gait abnormality at the first visit (p = 0.041) and the lastest follow-up (p = 0.037) were statistically significant difference. Hip pain (p = 0.084), limitation of daily activity (p = 0.075) at the latest follow-up tended to be more frequent in the COMP group. Hip dysplasia was more common in the COMP group, having significantly larger acetabular angle (p = 0.037), smaller center-edge angle (p = 0.002), severe Stulberg classification (p < 0.001), and smaller femoral head coverage (p < 0.001). Conclusions Clinical manifestations of MED caused by MATN3 were milder than manifestations of the COMP mutation group. These differences in clinical manifestation and prognosis justify molecular differentiation between the two genotypes