Who makes better use of technology for learning in D&T? Schools or university?

University teacher training departments have many functions in their role as Schools for Initial Teacher Education (ITE), these include accrediting qualified teacher status, teaching subject knowledge and pedagogy, and influencing change in a school subject's content and pedagogy. This paper discusses this latter area. It can be easy for teacher training in universities to become ivory towers, modelling new ideas for curriculum delivery and content in a 'bubble' away from the real world of the school classroom. A centre of design and technology (D&T) education at an English university has undertaken research-led developments in the use of web 2.0 technologies and technology enhanced learning (TEL), modelling how they can be used in the classroom. The research examined in this paper is the next stage of the centre's curriculum development to ensure the relevance of the university curriculum content and practices. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the use of TEL in secondary schools is inconsistent and sporadic with D&T teachers using TEL, with minimal awareness of research available, which could inform their practice. This impacts on the centre's trainee teachers as they begin teaching in schools during their final year of the course, with a possible unrealistic expectation of how TEL is used in schools, based on their university experiences

Int J Audiol

ObjectiveWe assessed the reliability of a hearing risk factor screening survey used by hearing conservation programs for noise-exposed workers.DesignWe compared workers\u2019 answers from the screening survey to their answers to a confidential research questionnaire regarding hearing loss risk factors. We calculated kappa statistics to test the correlation between yes/no questions in the research questionnaire compared to answers from one and five years of screening surveys.Study SampleWe compared the screening survey and research questionnaire answers of 274 aluminum plant workers.ResultsMost of the questions in the in-company screening survey showed fair to moderate agreement with the research questionnaire (kappa range: 120.02, 0.57). Workers\u2019 answers to the screening survey had better correlation with the research questionnaire when we compared five years of screening answers. For nearly all questions, workers were more likely to respond affirmatively on the research questionnaire than the screening survey.ConclusionsHearing conservation programs should be aware that workers may underreport hearing loss risk factors and functional hearing status on an audiometric screening survey. Validating company screening tools could help provide more accurate information on hearing loss and risk factors.R01 OH008641/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States2017-12-06T00:00:00Z27609310PMC571884

Int J Audiol

ObjectiveWe assessed the reliability of a hearing risk factor screening survey used by hearing conservation programs for noise-exposed workers.DesignWe compared workers\u2019 answers from the screening survey to their answers to a confidential research questionnaire regarding hearing loss risk factors. We calculated kappa statistics to test the correlation between yes/no questions in the research questionnaire compared to answers from one and five years of screening surveys.Study SampleWe compared the screening survey and research questionnaire answers of 274 aluminum plant workers.ResultsMost of the questions in the in-company screening survey showed fair to moderate agreement with the research questionnaire (kappa range: 120.02, 0.57). Workers\u2019 answers to the screening survey had better correlation with the research questionnaire when we compared five years of screening answers. For nearly all questions, workers were more likely to respond affirmatively on the research questionnaire than the screening survey.ConclusionsHearing conservation programs should be aware that workers may underreport hearing loss risk factors and functional hearing status on an audiometric screening survey. Validating company screening tools could help provide more accurate information on hearing loss and risk factors.R01 OH008641/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States2017-12-06T00:00:00Z27609310PMC571884

Investigating human audio-visual object perception with a combination of hypothesis-generating and hypothesis-testing fMRI analysis tools

Primate multisensory object perception involves distributed brain regions. To investigate the network character of these regions of the human brain, we applied data-driven group spatial independent component analysis (ICA) to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data set acquired during a passive audio-visual (AV) experiment with common object stimuli. We labeled three group-level independent component (IC) maps as auditory (A), visual (V), and AV, based on their spatial layouts and activation time courses. The overlap between these IC maps served as definition of a distributed network of multisensory candidate regions including superior temporal, ventral occipito-temporal, posterior parietal and prefrontal regions. During an independent second fMRI experiment, we explicitly tested their involvement in AV integration. Activations in nine out of these twelve regions met the max-criterion (A < AV > V) for multisensory integration. Comparison of this approach with a general linear model-based region-of-interest definition revealed its complementary value for multisensory neuroimaging. In conclusion, we estimated functional networks of uni- and multisensory functional connectivity from one dataset and validated their functional roles in an independent dataset. These findings demonstrate the particular value of ICA for multisensory neuroimaging research and using independent datasets to test hypotheses generated from a data-driven analysis

Malformations of the sacculus and the semicircular canals in spider morph pythons

Spider morph ball pythons are a frequently-bred designer morph with striking alterations of the skin color pattern. We created high-resolution μCT-image series through the otic region of the skulls, used 3D-reconstruction software for rendering anatomical models, and compared the anatomy of the semicircular ducts, sacculus and ampullae of wildtype Python regius (ball python) with spider morph snakes. All spider morph snakes showed the wobble condition (i.e., twisting movements of the head, impaired locomotion, difficulty striking or constricting prey items). We describe the inner ear structures in wildtype and spider morph snakes and report a deviant morphology of semicircular canals, ampullae and sacculus in the latter. We also report about associated differences in the desmal skull bones of spider morph snakes, which were characterized by wider semicircular canals, ampullae widened and difficult to discern in μCT, a deformed crus communis, and a small sacculus with a highly deviant X-ray morphology as compared to wildtype individuals. We observed considerable intra- and interindividual variability of these features. This deviant morphology in spider morph snakes could easily be associated with an impairment of sense of equilibrium and the observed neurological wobble condition. Limitations in sample size prevent statistical analyses, but the anatomical evidence is strong enough to support an association between the wobble condition and a malformation of the inner ear structures. A link between artificially selected alterations in pattern and specific color design with neural-crest associated developmental malformations of the statoacoustic organ as known from other vertebrates is discussed

Search for Rapid Changes in the Visible-Light Corona during the 21 June 2001 Total Solar Eclipse

Some 8000 images obtained with the SECIS fast-frame CCD camera instrument located at Lusaka, Zambia, during the total eclipse of 21 June 2001 have been analyzed to search for short-period oscillations in intensity that could be a signature of solar coronal heating mechanisms by MHD wave dissipation. Images were taken in white- light and Fe XIV green-line (5303 A) channels over 205 seconds (frame rate 39 s-1), approximately the length of eclipse totality at this location, with a pixel size of four arcseconds square. The data are of considerably better quality than were obtained during the 11 August 1999 total eclipse, observed by us (Rudawy et al.: Astron. Astrophys. 416, 1179, 2004), in that the images are much better exposed and enhancements in the drive system of the heliostat used gave a much improved image stability. Classical Fourier and wavelet techniques have been used to analyze the emission at 29518 locations, of which 10714 had emission at reasonably high levels, searching for periodic fluctuations with periods in the range 0.1-17 seconds (frequencies 0.06-10 Hz). While a number of possible periodicities were apparent in the wavelet analysis, none of the spatially and time-limited periodicities in the local brightness curves was found to be physically important. This implies that the pervasive Alfven wave-like phenomena (Tomczyk et al.: Science 317, 1192, 2007) using polarimetric observations with the CoMP instrument do not give rise to significant oscillatory intensity fluctuations.Comment: Accepted by Solar Physics; 16 figure