Lysozyme activity during adaptation to soft contact lenses

Lysozyme previously has been shown to be reduced from normal levels following ocular pathology, irritation, or hard contact lens wear. Utilizing a spectropholometric method to measure the activity of human tear lysozyme against a living bacterial substrate, we compared the activities in a group of new soft contact lens wearers during an adaptation period of two weeks with activities from a group of non-contact lens wearers. We found no significant difference in the tear lysozyme activities between the two groups but found a stabilizing effect of soft lens wear upon random activity variations

Estrategias de comprensión mientras se leen textos expositivos

[EN] The ability to comprehend written texts is essential in order to gain access to the vast amount of written information available today. This is especially true for university students who, in the context of their studies, often need to search for and use information in English. However, it is also the case that the English proficiency level of many students renders this task a laborious and frustrating experience. The starting point of this research was the consideration that without knowledge of how students go about processing texts, it would be difficult to design effective instruction in reading strategies that would meet their academic and professional needs. This study describes the use and awareness of comprehension strategies by a small group of students who were asked to report on what they did to understand while carrying out information-transfer tasks based on expository texts in Spanish (L1) and in English (L2). © 2013 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid.[ES] Ser competente para comprender textos escritos es esencial para acceder a la inmensa cantidad de información escrita disponible actualmente. Esto es especialmente cierto en el caso de los estudiantes universitarios que, en el contexto de sus estudios, necesitan buscar y usar información escrita en inglés. Sin embargo, también es cierto que el nivel de inglés de muchos estudiantes convierte dicha tarea en una laboriosa y frustrante experiencia. Esta investigación parte de la consideración de que, sin saber cómo los estudiantes se enfrentan a los textos escritos, sería difícil diseñar una instrucción eficaz de las estrategias de lectura que satisfagan sus necesidades académicas y profesionales. El presente estudio describe el uso de las estrategias de comprensión de un grupo de estudiantes a los que se pidió informar sobre lo que hacían para comprender mientras completaban tareas de transferencia de información basadas en textos expositivos en español (L1) y en inglés (L2). © 2013 Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid. Todos los derechos reservados.Perry, DR. (2013). Comprehension strategies while reading expository texts in Spanish (L1) and English (L2). Psicología Educativa. 19(2):75-81. doi:10.1016/S1135-755X(13)70013-7S758119

The acute effects of various types of stretching (static, dynamic, ballistic, and no stretch) of the iliopsoas on 40-yard sprint times in non-athletes

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of static, ballistic, dynamic, and no stretching immediately prior to a 40-yard sprint in college students. There were 35 healthy subjects (22 male and 13 female) between the ages of 24 and 37 (Mean = 26.46 yrs, SD = 2.99 yrs) who participated. The experiment consisted of running 4, 40-yard sprint trials immediately following 1 of 4 different stretching protocols. Prior to each 40- yard sprint trial, a 5-minute warm up was performed at 3.5 mph on a treadmill. Each subject received each of the four techniques in a randomized order and ran a baseline sprint prior to each stretching protocol. In each protocol, subjects received one of four stretching techniques: ballistic, dynamic, static, no stretch and immediately ran a timed 40-yard sprint post stretch. The trials were completed within a 2 week time period allowing 48-72 hours between each trial. In the no stretch condition, subjects improved significantly from pre to post sprint times (

Modelling Ecosystem Processes Acting On Upper Trophic Level Managed Species in the Salish Sea – Lessons Learned and Future Goals

Ecosystem models provide a means to examine how large-scale drivers and food web interactions can influence change in marine species. Coho and Chinook salmon are iconic species in the Salish Sea and have been significant components of ecosystem models developed for its sub-basins. We present results from models of three regions in the Salish Sea: the Strait of Georgia, the Central Basin of Puget Sound, and the Southern Basin of Puget Sound. Each of these models provides reasonable simulations of how ecosystem-level mechanisms can influence changes in target managed species. While there is some overlap in these models’ ability to explore changes in mammals and fished species, regional differences remain that make it difficult to integrate knowledge at the scale of the Salish Sea as a whole. For example, the Strait of Georgia and Puget Sound models all suggest that bottom-up type dynamics have influenced the dynamics of many species. Significant contrast, however, can be seen in the dominance of the Central basin of Puget Sound by ratfish, approximately a third of all fish biomass whereas, in the Strait of Georgia, Pacific herring and small pelagic species account for a third of all fish biomass. Understanding these similarities and differences will help researchers explain why significant species like Coho and Chinook salmon can exhibit quite different population dynamics in regions of the Salish Sea. As part of an integrated project spearheaded by the Pacific Salmon Foundation and Long Live the Kings, we hope to increase the overlap in both species and mechanisms modelled in future iterations of these modelling efforts

Low-cost Printable Robots in Education

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10846-015-0199-xThe wider availability of 3D printing has enabled small printable robots (or printbots) to be incorporated directly into engineering courses. Printbots can be used in many ways to enhance lifelong learning skills, strengthen understanding and foster teamwork and collaboration. The experiences outlined in this paper were used in our teaching during the last academic year, although much of the methodology and many of the activities have been used and developed over the past 8 years. They include project based assignments carried out by multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, a number of theoretical and practical classroom and laboratory activities all aimed at familiarizing students with fundamental concepts, programming and simulation, and which now form part of our regular robotics courses, and some brief descriptions of how printable robots are being used by students carrying out final projects for Bachelor and Master degrees. The online resources show many of these activities in action.Armesto Ángel, L.; Fuentes-Durá, P.; Perry, DR. (2016). Low-cost Printable Robots in Education. Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems. 81(1):5-24. doi:10.1007/s10846-015-0199-xS524811Criteria for accrediting engineering programs (Unknown Month 2015, 2014). http://www.abet.org/eac-criteria-2014-2015Board, N.S.: Moving forward to improve engineering education (2007). http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/nsb07122/nsb07122.pdfCampion, G., Bastin, G., d’Andréa Novel, B.: Structural properties and classification of kinematic and dynamic models of wheeled mobile robots. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 12(1), 47–62 (1996)Carberry, A.R., Lee, H.-S., Ohland, M.W.: Measuring engineering design self-efficacy. J. Eng. Educ. 99(1), 71–79 (2010)Castro. A.: Robotic arm with 6 dof (2012). http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:30163Choset, H., Lynch, K.M., Hutchinson, S., Kantor, G.A., Burgard, W., Kavraki, L.E., Thrun, S.: Principles of Robot Motion: Theory, Algorithms, and Implementations. MIT Press, Cambridge MA (2005)d’Andréa Novel, B., Campion, G., Bastin, G.: Control of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robots by state feedback linearization. Int. J. Robot. Res. 14(6), 543–559 (1995)Denavit, J., Hartenberg, R.S.: A kinematic notation for lower-pair mechanisms based on matrices. Trans. ASME J. Appl. Mech 22(2), 215–221 (1955)Dowdall. J.: Rofi robot five (2012). http://www.projectbiped.com/prototypes/rofiEliot, M., Howard, P., Nouwens, F., Stojcevski, A., Mann, L., Prpic, J., Gabb, R., Venkatesan, S., Kolmos, A.: Developing a conceptual model for the effective assessment of individual student learning in team-based subjects. Australas. J. Eng. Educ. 18(1), 105–112 (2012)Fox, D., Burgard, W., Thrun, S.: The dynamic window approach to collision avoidance. Robot. Autom. Mag. IEEE 4(1), 23–33 (1997)Fuentes-Dura, P., Armesto, L., Perry, D.: Multidisciplinary projects: Critical points and perceptions in valladolid in innovation and quality in engineering education. In: Innovation and Quality in Engineering Education, pp 315–331 (2012)Fuentes-Dura, P., Cazorla, M.P., Molina, M.G., Perry, D.: European project semester: Good practices for competence acquisition. In: Valencia Global, pp 165– 172 (2014)González, J., Barrientos, A., Prieto-Moreno, A., de Frutos, M.A.: Miniskybot 2 (2012). http://www.iearobotics.com/wiki/index.php?Miniskybot_2Gonzalez-Gomez, J., Valero-Gomez, A., Prieto-Moreno, A., Abderrahim, M.: A new open source 3d-printable mobile robotic platform for education. In: Rckert, U., Joaquin, S., Felix, W. (eds.) Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots, pp 49–62. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2012)Gonzlez, J., Wagenaar, R. (eds.): Tuning Educational Structures in Europe University of Deusto and Groningen. Deusto (2003)Heinrich, E., Bhattacharya, M., Rayudu, R.: Preparation for lifelong learning using eportfolios. Eur. J. Eng. Educ. 32(6), 653–663 (2007)Khatib, O.: Real-time obstacle avoidance for manipulators and mobile robots. The Int. J. Robot. Res. 5(1), 90–98 (1986)Krassman, J.: Quadcopter hummingbird ii (2013). http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:167721Langevin, G.: Inmoov (2012). http://www.inmoov.frMadox: ecanum wheel rover 2 (2011). http://www.madox.net/blog/2011/01/24/mecanum-wheel-rover-2Miles, M.B., Analysis, A.M.: Huberman. Qualitative Data: An Expanded Sourcebook. SAGE Publications (1994)Minguez, J., Montano, L.: Nearness diagram (nd) navigation: Collision avoidance in troublesome scenarios. IEEE Trans. Robot. Autom. 20, 2004 (2004)Olalla: Caterpillator v1.1 (2011). http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8559Ollero, A.: Robótica. Manipuladores y robots móviles Marcombo, S.A. Barcelona (2001)Price, M.: Hf08 hexapod robot (2012). http://www.heliumfrog.com/hf08robot/hf08blog.htmlRawat, K., Massiha, G.: A hands-on laboratory based approach to undergraduate robotics education. 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Extended depth of field imaging for high speed object analysis

A high speed, high-resolution flow imaging system is modified to achieve extended depth of field imaging. An optical distortion element is introduced into the flow imaging system. Light from an object, such as a cell, is distorted by the distortion element, such that a point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system is invariant across an extended depth of field. The distorted light is spectrally dispersed, and the dispersed light is used to simultaneously generate a plurality of images. The images are detected, and image processing is used to enhance the detected images by compensating for the distortion, to achieve extended depth of field images of the object. The post image processing preferably involves de-convolution, and requires knowledge of the PSF of the imaging system, as modified by the optical distortion element

A rare cause of specific cough in a child: the importance of following-up children with chronic cough

For many years, the term 'specific cough' has been used as a clinical cough descriptor in children to signify the likelihood of an underlying disease causing the cough. In this case study, we describe a child with specific cough caused by a rare carcinoma, a mucoepidermoid carcinoma of the bronchus. The cough only totally resolved after the primary cause was successfully treated. This report highlights the importance of following up children with cough, especially those with specific cough

Emerging NDE Technology for aging aircraft

This paper presents an overview of several emerging nondestructive evaluation technologies that are being employed or considered for use to inspect commercial transport, commuter aircraft and military aircraft. An overview of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airworthiness Assurance NDI Validation Center (AANC) is described and how AANC teams with industry, universities, and other federal entities to assess these technologies

Mejora de la competencia comunicativa de los estudiantes de la ETSID a través de Clilstore

[ES] El artículo se centra en los resultados de un proyecto de mejora educativa llevado a cabo en la Universitat Politècnica de València durante el curso académico 2013-14 para ayudar a los estudiantes a mejorar sus competencias lingüísticas en inglés. El proceso que se ha seguido es el de crear materiales didácticois específicos para los diversos grados que se imparten en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería del Diseño (ETSID) utilizando una nueva herramienta de autor que ha sido desarrollada dentro del proyecto europeo Tools for CLIL Teachers en el que han participado los autores. La utilización de dichos materiales, así como la evaluación y validación de los mismos, se realizará a lo largo del curso 2014-15. El diseño de estos materiales se ha apoyado en dos aproximaciones a la docencia de lenguas extranjeras; por una parte, el denominado Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenido y Lenguas Extranjeras (AICLE) y, por otra, la Enseñanza de Lenguas Asistida por Ordenador (ELAO).[EN] The article is based on the results of a teaching innovation project conducted at the Universitat Politècnica de València during the 2013-14 school year to aid undergraduate learners at the School of Design Engineering to improve their communicative competences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The authors created EFL learning materials using an innovative authoring tool, which has recently been launched, developed within the Tools for CLIL Teachers EU-funded project. The materials development was based on two well-established approaches to foreign language learning, i.e. Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Evaluation and validation of the materials will take place during 2014-15.Los autores quisieran agradecer a la Comisión Europea la subvención recibida para realizar el proyecto Tools for CLIL Teachers (Ref.: 517543-LLP-2011-DK-KA2-KA2MP) y al Vicerrectorado de Estudios, Calidad y Acreditación por la ayuda recibida para llevar a cabo el Proyecto de Innovación y Mejora Educativa descrito en este artículo (Ref.: B22/13).Gimeno Sanz, A.; Perry, DR. (2014). Mejora de la competencia comunicativa de los estudiantes de la ETSID a través de Clilstore. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 26-38. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/168635S263