‘If they laugh they will love the learning’: Experiences of the Use of Humor by Adult Education Practitioners in Egypt and the United States

This qualitative research studied the experiences of adult education practitioners from Egypt and the United States with the usage of humor. The problem was that humor is a commonly used communication and education tool, yet it is not studied enough within adult education contexts. The sample included three participants from Egypt and three from the United States. All six had adult education experiences in different contexts, including educational interventions in nonprofits, manufacturing contexts, and corporate office settings. The study aimed to determine the positive and negative results of humor on adult learners, also the practitioners\u27 needs for a better usage of humor in the future, and their recommendations for other participants as well. Cross-cultural differences that might or might not emerge were also considered. The results showed how humor widely affects the learning experiences of adult learners, regarding the learning environment, learners’ learning abilities, learners’ interactions and impressions. Adult educators should perceive humor as a helpful tool, study their audience, and have confidence to use humor effectively. Future studies might consider interviewing a wider sample of participants, from more countries and from more adult education contexts. The field of AHRD might benefit from the results and stories of participants by having a better understanding of adult educators’ experiences, views, and perspectives about using humor in adult learning activities

Under-Approximate Reachability Analysis for a Class of Linear Uncertain Systems

Under-approximations of reachable sets and tubes have been receiving growing research attention due to their important roles in control synthesis and verification. Available under-approximation methods applicable to continuous-time linear systems typically assume the ability to compute transition matrices and their integrals exactly, which is not feasible in general, and/or suffer from high computational costs. In this note, we attempt to overcome these drawbacks for a class of linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, where we propose a novel method to under-approximate finite-time forward reachable sets and tubes, utilizing approximations of the matrix exponential and its integral. In particular, we consider the class of continuous-time LTI systems with an identity input matrix and uncertain initial and input values belonging to full dimensional sets that are affine transformations of closed unit balls. The proposed method yields computationally efficient under-approximations of reachable sets and tubes, when implemented using zonotopes, with first-order convergence guarantees in the sense of the Hausdorff distance. To illustrate its performance, we implement our approach in three numerical examples, where linear systems of dimensions ranging between 2 and 200 are considered

Theoretical and Numerical Analyses of Laryngeal Biomechanics: Towards Understanding Vocal Hyperfunction

Speech is a cornerstone in human communication and an irreplaceable tool for several academic, legal, and artistic careers. Producing intelligible speech is an extremely complex process, involving coupling between the air flow driven by the pressure built up in the lungs, the vibrating viscoelastic tissues in the larynx, namely the vocal folds, and the subglottal and supraglottal (vocal) tracts, including the nasal and oral passages. Therefore, the occurrence of a pathology in one of the organs responsible for voice production may result in deteriorated speech production and, consequently, a negative impact on the daily life and/or professional career of the individual. A specific class of voice disorders that is common among adults is vocal hyperfunction, which is associated with the misuse of vocal organs, resulting in inefficient voice production and, in some cases, vocal trauma. Researchers over the years have conducted clinical and numerical analyses of vocal hyperfunction and have developed assessment tools and therapeutic procedures for vocal hyperfunction; however, a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms of vocal hyperfunction remains unachieved. Fortunately, easily collected clinical measurements shed some light on potential mechanisms underlying vocal hyperfunction, and numerical and theoretical modelling campaigns of laryngeal biomechanics have shown some success in partially elucidating the biomechanics of voice production. Therefore, a potential route to pursue for a better understanding of the mechanics of vocal hyperfunction lays behind numerical and theoretical analyses guided by available clinical and experimental data. The aim of this thesis is to explore and elucidate, through four research projects, some of the underlying mechanisms associated with voice production in general and vocal hyperfunction in particular, where we resort to 1) data collected using some promising assessment tools and standard clinical measurements, and 2) models of voice production and larynx biomechanics, where theoretical and numerical analyses are conducted guided by the aforementioned clinical measurements. The first project analyses theoretically and numerically the underlying laryngeal factors altering fundamental frequency, for both healthy speakers and speakers with phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction, during phonation offset, where clinical data of relative fundamental frequency are resorted to in modeling and analysis. We show that the clinically observed drop in fundamental frequency during phonation offset is potentially due to the decline in vocal fold collision forces, which is induced by increasing the glottal gap. We also show how the fundamental frequency drop rate can be modulated by the activation of certain laryngeal muscles, which we speculate to underlie the differences between healthy and hyperfunctional speakers. Besides, we illustrate how certain manifestations of vocal hyperfunction can also affect the drop rate during phonation offset. The second project extends the first one, where phonation onset is explored with similar numerical and theoretical approaches. We illustrate that, when all laryngeal and aerodynamic parameters are fixed in time, fundamental frequency tends to rise due to the increased vocal fold collision levels, and that matches with the clinical observations of the onset of initial or isolated vowels and, in some cases, vowels preceded by voiced consonants. On the other hand, we show through numerical simulations that the decline in fundamental frequency in the case of onset of vowels preceded by voiceless consonants requires involvement of laryngeal muscles, which we speculate to manifest the differences between healthy speakers and patients with vocal hyperfunction. In the third project, we attempt to elucidate the influence of extrinsic laryngeal muscles on posturing mechanics and phonation, and link findings with clinical observations collected from patients with vocal hyperfunction. We show how the vocal fold tension and phonation fundamental frequency vary with varying the magnitude, direction, and location of the net pulling force exerted by the extrinsic laryngeal muscles. Using the previous analysis in combination with clinical data, we pinpoint potential roles of specific extrinsic muscles in modulating fundamental frequency and we suggest some potential roles for extrinsic laryngeal muscles in hyperfunctional phonation. Finally, in the fourth project, we study the mechanics underlying curved and incomplete glottal closure configurations that are observed in some patients with vocal hyperfunction, where we develop and analyse a composite beam model for the vocal folds and we integrate it with a posturing model to enable exploring the effects of certain laryngeal maneuvers. The model predictive capability is adequate, matching clinical observations and simulations produced by high-fidelity models, yet providing useful insights into the underlying mechanism of curved glottal configurations due to its relative simplicity. Our analyses, based on the proposed model, show that the vocal fold layered structure and its interaction with the mechanical loading, resulting during laryngeal maneuvers, induce bending moments that result in different curved (convex and concave) vocal fold shapes that are associated with incomplete glottal closure patterns. We suggest, based on the conducted analyses, some potential laryngeal mechanisms that may be at play in patients with vocal hyperfunction

Surgical treatment of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fracture using a single small lateral approach

The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcome of semi-open reduction and minimal internal fixation through a single small lateral approach as a minimally invasive technique for treatment of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures. This prospective study was conducted on eighteen patients (16 men and 2 women). The average age was 37.7 (22–55). The most common cause of injury was a fall from height in fourteen patients. Patients were operated on within a mean time of 4.8 days of admission (1–11 days) and were followed up for an average period of 24.1 months (6–39 months). Patients were evaluated clinically using the Creighton-Nebraska Heath Foundation Assessment score of Crosby and Fitzgibbons (J Bone Joint Surg (Am) 72-A:852–859, 1990). The scoring system proposed by Knirk and Jupiter was used for radiological assessment of the posterior subtalar joint (Knirk and Jupiter in J Bone Joint Surg (Am) 68-A: 647–659, 1986). The skin incision healed in all cases without necrosis, infection, or sural nerve injury. All fractures healed after an average of 8 weeks (7–10 weeks), and patients returned to the routine daily activities after an average time of 4.3 months (3–7 months). In conclusion, semi-open reduction and minimal internal fixation through a small lateral approach is an effective treatment for carefully selected cases of displaced intra-articular calcaneal fractures

Facies analysis, glauconite distribution and sequence stratigraphy of the middle Eocene Qarara Formation, El-Minya area, Egypt

AbstractThe Qarara Formation consists mainly of shale at the base and overlain by limestone at the top. The formation is Middle Eocene (Lutetian) in age. Three sections located at the eastern bank of the Nile River in El-Minya Province have been measured, described, and sampled. These sections from north to south are: Gebel Qarara, El-Sheikh Fadl, and Gebel El-Ahmar.The main microfacies identified in the studied sections are: silty claystone, silty shale, fossiliferous glauconite, glauconitic (green) sand, glauconitic fossiliferous ironstone, glauconitic bioclastic wacke-packstone, glauconitic bioclastic lime-mudstone-wackestone. These microfacies have been deposited in shallow open marine environment.Collectively the studied rocks contain two principal facies: lower argillaceous facies and upper carbonate facies that separated by glauconitic fossiliferous ironstone bed. The lower argillaceous part represents highstand systems tract (HST), whereas the upper carbonate part represents transgressive systems tract (TST). The glauconitic fossiliferous ironstone bed is recognized as a sequence boundary (SB)

Need for Local Laboratory Reference Values in Recruitment into Studies of Emerging Infectious Diseases: Insight from Participant Screening for an Ebola Vaccine Trial in a Rural African Setting

Introduction: The EBOVAC-Salone trial of a candidate Ebola two-dose vaccine regimen (Ad.ZEBOV/MVA-BN-Filo) was conducted in a research-naïve setting in rural northern Sierra Leone, where no local laboratory reference values (LRV) had been established. In the first stage (n = 43) of the trial, laboratory screening was based on internationally-derived protocol LRV (PLRV). For postrecruitment participant care, LRV derived from a West African population (WALRV) were used. We assessed what difference using WALRV rather than PLRV for screening might have made to the eligibility of volunteers. METHODS: We reviewed the laboratory screening results of study volunteers. Red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells (WBC), platelets (PTT), haemoglobin, haematocrit, creatinine, and alanine (ALT) and aspartate (AST) transaminases were measured. Overall and for each parameter, we compared the actually eligible proportion of volunteers using PLRV with the potentially eligible proportion using WALRV. Results: Of 102 (82 males, 20 females) volunteers, overall 55 (53.9% males) met PLRV eligibility criteria for inclusion, compared with 91 (89.2% males) who were within WALRV normal limits (p < 0.0001). Thus, 36 volunteers who failed laboratory screening using PLRV (76.6% of screening failures) might have been eligible if WALRV had been applied. Parameters with significant effect were haemoglobin (33 ineligible by PLRV, vs. 2 ineligible by WALRV; p < 0.0001); RBC (27 vs. 1; p < 0.0001); and PTT (18 vs. 6; p = 0.0093). Levels of creatinine and ALT did not present any differences. Discussion: Use of WALRV in eligibility assessment would potentially have led to considerable differences in the baseline laboratory characteristics of enrolled volunteers. Clinical trials are increasingly common and crucial in emerging infectious disease research. Our findings underscore the importance of locally-derived LRV in clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa, to avoid excluding potentially eligible study volunteers, and to better support routine clinical care and safety assessments. Appropriately designed studies are needed in each region to establish local LRV

Asymptomatic Malaria Infection and the Immune Response to the 2-Dose Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo Ebola Vaccine Regimen in Adults and Children

Background Malaria infection affects the immune response to some vaccines. As Ebola virus (EBOV) outbreaks have occurred mainly in malaria-endemic countries, we have assessed whether asymptomatic malaria affects immune responses to the 2-dose Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo Ebola vaccine regimen. Methods In this sub-study of the EBOVAC-Salone Ebola vaccine trial in Sierra Leone, malaria microscopy was performed at the time of Ebola vaccination. Participants with symptomatic malaria were treated before vaccination. Ebola vaccine responses were assessed post-dose 1 (day 57) and post-dose 2 (day 78) by the EBOV glycoprotein FANG enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and responses expressed as geometric mean concentrations (GMCs). Geometric mean ratios (GMRs) of the GMCs in malaria-positive versus malaria-negative participants were derived with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results A total of 587 participants were studied, comprising 188 adults (≥18 years) and 399 children (in age groups of 12–17, 4–11, and 1–3 years). Asymptomatic malaria was observed in 47.5% of adults and 51.5% of children on day 1. Post-dose 1, GMCs were lower in 1–3-year-old malaria-positive compared with malaria-negative children (age group–specific GMR, .56; 95% CI, .39–.81) but not in older age groups. Post-dose 2, there was no consistent effect of malaria infection across the different age groups but there was a trend toward a lower response (GMR, .82; 95% CI, .67–1.02). Conclusions The Ad26.ZEBOV, MVA-BN-Filo Ebola vaccine regimen is immunogenic in participants with asymptomatic malaria. Therefore, it is not necessary to screen for asymptomatic malaria infection prior to vaccination with this regimen