Peer Teaching and Social Interaction

The purpose of this research was to determine the affect of peer teaching on the social and academic interactions of children in an early childhood setting. The research took place at a Montessori school with two classrooms containing 56 students ages three to six. The duration of the study was six weeks. During the study the data collected included number of peer interactions per week and overall number of children working at each half hour increment of the day. Data also included positive and negative behaviors during peer teaching interactions, and the children’s level of understanding during a peer presentation. Data was mostly inconclusive during this study except that the number of children distracted during the day decreased over the six-week period

Addiction through the Ages: a review of the development of concepts and ideas about addiction in European countries since the nineteenth century and the role of international organisations in the process

The work on addiction through the ages proceeded through 4 interlinked studies: The emergence of concepts of addiction across Europe at the national level, 1860-1980 The framing of the alcohol question at the international alcohol conferences The role of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its expert committees in defining addiction from the 1940s to the early twenty first century The role of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) in defining concepts of addiction The long view of addiction concepts at the country level over time points to continuities and changes across countries. They have also played a significant role in international organisations, the pre World War Two alcohol conferences and the World Health Organisation (WHO) after that war. The European level through the European Monitoring Centre on Drugs and Drug Addiction has also come into the picture in more recent times with discussion of a different set of concepts. Although a degree of stability has been achieved around addiction concepts, these still encapsulate a variety of meanings which translate into different treatment and policy approaches and traditions within Europe. By understanding the history of such concepts and how and why they came in and out of use, we can better understand addiction terminology and substance use policy today

No response? Simulating Fear of Missing Out Experiences to Investigate Relationships with Emotion Regulation, Negative Affect, and Counterfactual-Seeking through Social Media

Fear of missing out (FoMO) is a common experience among young adults characterized by the apprehension that others are having rewarding experiences from which one is absent. The present study investigates the construct of FoMO through simulated experiences in order to clarify the context in which FoMO occurs and to examine its relationship with emotion regulation, counterfactual-seeking, and negative affect. The vignette had a significant effect of increasing feelings of FoMO which was positively associated with difficulties in emotion regulation, counterfactual-seeking, and both regret and disappointment. Feelings of FoMO were significantly greater in the enjoyable task in comparison to the obligatory task despite their social nature

Genomic analysis of four strains of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis bv. Equi isolated from horses showing distinct signs of infection.

The genomes of four strains (MB11, MB14, MB30, and MB66) of the species Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis biovar equi were sequenced on the Ion Torrent PGM platform, completely assembled, and their gene content and structure were analyzed. The strains were isolated from horses with distinct signs of infection, including ulcerative lymphangitis, external abscesses on the chest, or internal abscesses on the liver, kidneys, and lungs. The average size of the genomes was 2.3 Mbp, with 2169 (Strain MB11) to 2235 (Strain MB14) predicted coding sequences (CDSs). An optical map of the MB11 strain generated using the KpnI restriction enzyme showed that the approach used to assemble the genome was satisfactory, producing good alignment between the sequence observed in vitro and that obtained in silico. In the resulting Neighbor-Joining dendrogram, the C. pseudotuberculosis strains sequenced in this study were clustered into a single clade supported by a high bootstrap value. The structural analysis showed that the genomes of the MB11 and MB14 strains were very similar, while the MB30 and MB66 strains had several inverted regions. The observed genomic characteristics were similar to those described for other strains of the same species, despite the number of inversions found. These genomes will serve as a basis for determining the relationship between the genotype of the pathogen and the type of infection that it causes

Synchronization of active mechanical oscillators by an inertial load

Motivated by the operation of myogenic (self-oscillatory) insect flight muscle, we study a model consisting of a large number of identical oscillatory contractile elements joined in a chain, whose end is attached to a damped mass-spring oscillator. When the inertial load is small, the serial coupling favors an antisynchronous state in which the extension of one oscillator is compensated by the contraction of another, in order to preserve the total length. However, a sufficiently massive load can sychronize the oscillators and can even induce oscillation in situations where isolated elements would be stable. The system has a complex phase diagram displaying quiescent, synchronous and antisynchrononous phases, as well as an unsual asynchronous phase in which the total length of the chain oscillates at a different frequency from the individual active elements.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, To appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Inter-Intra Molecular Dynamics as an Iterated Function System

The dynamics of units (molecules) with slowly relaxing internal states is studied as an iterated function system (IFS) for the situation common in e.g. biological systems where these units are subjected to frequent collisional interactions. It is found that an increase in the collision frequency leads to successive discrete states that can be analyzed as partial steps to form a Cantor set. By considering the interactions among the units, a self-consistent IFS is derived, which leads to the formation and stabilization of multiple such discrete states. The relevance of the results to dynamical multiple states in biomolecules in crowded conditions is discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures. submitted to Europhysics Letter

Survival and residence times in disordered chains with bias

We present a unified framework for first-passage time and residence time of random walks in finite one-dimensional disordered biased systems. The derivation is based on exact expansion of the backward master equation in cumulants. The dependence on initial condition, system size, and bias strength is explicitly studied for models with weak and strong disorder. Application to thermally activated processes is also developed.Comment: 13 pages with 2 figures, RevTeX4; v2:minor grammatical changes, typos correcte

Genome Sequence of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis MB20 bv. equi Isolated from a Pectoral Abscess of an Oldenburg Horse in California.

The genome of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis MB20 bv. equi was sequenced using the Ion Personal Genome Machine (PGM) platform, and showed a size of 2,363,089 bp, with 2,365 coding sequences and a GC content of 52.1%. These results will serve as a basis for further studies on the pathogenicity of C. pseudotuberculosis bv. equi

The fitness of African malaria vectors in the presence and limitation of host behaviour

<p>Background Host responses are important sources of selection upon the host species range of ectoparasites and phytophagous insects. However little is known about the role of host responses in defining the host species range of malaria vectors. This study aimed to estimate the relative importance of host behaviour to the feeding success and fitness of African malaria vectors, and assess its ability to predict their known host species preferences in nature.</p> <p>Methods Paired evaluations of the feeding success and fitness of African vectors Anopheles arabiensis and Anopheles gambiae s.s in the presence and limitation of host behaviour were conducted in a semi-field system (SFS) at Ifakara Health Institute, Tanzania. In one set of trials, mosquitoes were released within the SFS and allowed to forage overnight on a host that was free to exhibit natural behaviour in response to insect biting. In the other, mosquitoes were allowed to feed directly on from the skin surface of immobile hosts. The feeding success and subsequent fitness of vectors under these conditions were investigated on 6 host types (humans, calves, chickens, cows, dogs and goats) to assess whether physical movements of preferred host species (cattle for An. arabiensis, humans for An. gambiae s.s.) were less effective at preventing mosquito bites than those of common alternatives.</p> <p>Results Anopheles arabiensis generally had greater feeding success when applied directly to host skin than when foraging on unrestricted hosts (in five of six host species). However, An. gambiae s.s obtained blood meals from free and restrained hosts with similar success from most host types (four out of six). Overall, the blood meal size, oviposition rate, fecundity and post-feeding survival of mosquito vectors were significantly higher after feeding on hosts free to exhibit behaviour, than those who were immobilized during feeding trials.</p> <p>Conclusions Allowing hosts to move freely during exposure to mosquitoes was associated with moderate reductions in mosquito feeding success, but no detrimental impact to the subsequent fitness of mosquitoes that were able to feed upon them. This suggests that physical defensive behaviours exhibited by common host species including humans do not impose substantial fitness costs on African malaria vectors.</p&gt