Exploring new literacies: A case study on technology and teacher development in Cuban primary schools

Cuba has successfully eradicated traditional illiteracy -- boasting rates upwards of 99% of its population. However, as other societies have digitized and moved towards a globalized marketplace, U.S. sanctions have severely limited the import of new technologies into the country and classroom. In response, this case study sought to investigate the learning environments of Cuban primary schools to determine the breadth of a divide and the suitability for applying recommended frameworks to teaching. Observations of primary school classrooms and facilities provided insight, bolstered by semi-structured group interviews and surveys with teachers, teaching students, and education professors. Findings revealed a high-level of awareness and optimism around the use of technology, crowdsourcing, and knowledge sharing, as well as a strong informatics-based curriculum. However, low resources and techno-determinism infringe upon equitable skill-building, continuous scaffolding, and sustainable integration

Online Assessment in Large Undergraduate Courses During COVID-19 Emergency Response Teaching

The transition to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented and forced many universities to quickly embrace online distance learning. This context created new challenges, particularly around assessment strategies. Empirical research has demonstrated that formative assessment fosters more active learning in online classrooms. However, formative assessment strategies are not always adapted well to online platforms based on the nature of the subject matter and the size of the class. This qualitative case study sought to understand instructors’ experiences and strategies for conducting assessment remotely, specifically for large-size undergraduate courses. The investigation relied on data from semi-structured interviews with University of Maryland, College Park instructors who received a Teaching Innovation Grant from the Provost’s Office in Summer 2020 intended to fund sustainable online delivery beyond the emergency response teaching phase. For this analysis, we analyzed the transcripts of 13 interviews, representing a diverse range of programs, schools, and faculty seniority levels at the university. Findings show instructors experienced several successes during course retooling, including significant increases in student performance. Most instructors also indicated that they would continue to keep new online assessment strategies for the future, regardless of whether that future includes online, blended, or in-person delivery. Despite the anticipation that the pandemic would fuel more opportunities for cheating, there was only one experience of academic dishonesty

Fieldnotes: Facilitating Conversations about Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Field Education

This essay proposes that field supervision and peer reflection groups need to be spaces in which differences regarding sexuality, sex, and gender can be openly discussed in spite of and because of theological differences

The identification and evaluation of predictive and prognostic biomarkers in order to personalise treatment pathways for patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer survival has stagnated in recent years, with only 12% of patients alive after five years. The majority of patients present with either locally advanced or metastatic disease, that is not amenable to surgery. For patients with locally advanced disease, treatment involves neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with the view to shrink the tumour away from vital vasculature to allow for surgery to occur. The success of this approach, combined with poor survival outcomes has seen the introduction of NAC in patients with earlier (upfront or borderline resectable) disease. Whether this approach of NAC leads to a survival advantage over upfront surgery in this cohort of early pancreatic cancer patients, is debatable. A retrospective cohort analysis was conducted to help answer this question. This identified that for all patients there was no survival difference between neoadjuvant chemotherapy and upfront surgery, however, in patients with early disease (stage 1a), treatment with upfront surgery resulted in longer survival than NAC. To ascertain whether any biomarkers can assist with selecting the ideal upfront modality for each patient, a series of discovery experiments were conducted in both tumour tissue and blood to identify any novel prognostic or predictive biomarkers. In tissue, TGM2 (Transglutaminase 2) and OSMR (Oncostatin M receptor) were highlighted as a potential pathway involved in chemoresistance and CA125 expression on biopsy and surgical samples were found to be poor prognostic biomarkers. In blood, low levels of TNF-α (Tumour necrosis factor-) in patients were predictive of chemoresistance whereas higher levels of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio and eotaxin predicted for shorter overall survival. Whilst these results are promising, validation of these findings in a larger cohort of patients is needed, to enable use of these biomarkers as prognostic and predictive tools to guide treatment that may result in more meaningful survival gains

High-Resolution Convolutional Neural Networks on Homomorphically Encrypted Data via Sharding Ciphertexts

Recently, Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) including the ResNet-20 architecture have been privately evaluated on encrypted, low-resolution data with the Residue-Number-System Cheon-Kim-Kim-Song (RNS-CKKS) homomorphic encryption scheme. We extend methods for evaluating DCNNs on images with larger dimensions and many channels, beyond what can be stored in single ciphertexts. Additionally, we simplify and improve the efficiency of the recently introduced multiplexed image format, demonstrating that homomorphic evaluation can work with standard, row-major matrix packing and results in encrypted inference time speedups by $4.6-6.5\times$. We also show how existing DCNN models can be regularized during the training process to further improve efficiency and accuracy. These techniques are applied to homomorphically evaluate a DCNN with high accuracy on the high-resolution ImageNet dataset, achieving $80.2\%$ top-1 accuracy. We also achieve an accuracy of homomorphically evaluated CNNs on the CIFAR-10 dataset of $98.3\%$.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Planetary Collisions outside the Solar System: Time Domain Characterization of Extreme Debris Disks

Luminous debris disks of warm dust in the terrestrial planet zones around solar-like stars are recently found to vary, indicative of ongoing large-scale collisions of rocky objects. We use Spitzer 3.6 and 4.5 {\mu}m time-series observations in 2012 and 2013 (extended to 2014 in one case) to monitor 5 more debris disks with unusually high fractional luminosities ("extreme debris disk"), including P1121 in the open cluster M47 (80 Myr), HD 15407A in the AB Dor moving group (80 Myr), HD 23514 in the Pleiades (120 Myr), HD 145263 in the Upper Sco Association (10 Myr), and the field star BD+20 307 (>1 Gyr). Together with the published results for ID8 in NGC 2547 (35 Myr), this makes the first systematic time-domain investigation of planetary impacts outside the solar system. Significant variations with timescales shorter than a year are detected in five out of the six extreme debris disks we have monitored. However, different systems show diverse sets of characteristics in the time domain, including long-term decay or growth, disk temperature variations, and possible periodicity.Comment: 50 pages, 14 figures, 9 tables; Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy Does Not Improve Disease-Specific Survival in Elderly Patients with Intermediate Thickness Melanoma

Objective: To determine whether sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is associated with improved disease-specific survival among elderly patients with intermediate-thickness melanoma Design: Retrospective cohort study of prospectively-maintained tumor registry Setting: Single institution tertiary care center. P atients: Adults ≥ 70 years of age, who underwent surgical intervention for melanoma from 2000-2013. Main Outcome Measures: The primary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Other clinicopathologic variables measured included age, gender, anatomic site, histologic type, tumor thickness, presence of adverse features, receipt and result of SLNB, and receipt of completion lymph node dissection (CLND). Results: Ninety-one patients (mean age 80 years, 54% male) underwent wide excision of an intermediate-thickness melanoma. Forty-nine patients (54%) received a SLNB. Seven of these biopsies (14%) were positive, and five patients (71%) went on to receive CLND. Five-year OS was 41% in patients who did not receive SLNB and 52% in patients who did receive SLNB (Fig. 1A). However, 5-year DFS was 79% in patients who did not receive SLNB and 77% in patients who did receive SLNB (Fig. 1B). Conclusions: Among elderly patients with intermediate-thickness melanoma, patients who received SLNB had higher 5-year OS than those who did not receive SLNB. However, the 5-year DFS is similar between the two groups, which suggests that the OS differences are related to non-melanoma factors. Routine SLNB for intermediate-thickness melanoma patients may not significantly change the outcome for this age group, and clinical decision-making should consider individual patient comorbidities and goals of care

Earth Science Education #7. GeoTrails: Accessible Online Tools for Outreach and Education

As geoscientists, we must prioritize improving our ability to communicate science to the public. Effective geoscience communication enables communities to understand how geological processes have shaped our planet and make informed decisions about Earth’s future. However, geoscience research outputs have traditionally been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at academic conferences. Consequently, essential information about local geology is rarely available in accessible, open access, and engaging formats. Here, we propose virtual field trips, or ‘GeoTrails’, as a possible solution to address the disconnect between geoscience research and public knowledge by improving our communication to the public. This initiative is largely driven by undergraduate students, who identify points of geological interest along selected hiking trails, write concise descriptions derived from scientific sources (e.g. longer peer-reviewed articles and government reports), and collect field data (e.g. 3-D LiDAR models, drone photography) to illustrate the characteristics of these geological features. The goal of the project is to communicate the importance of local geology on our environment and to raise awareness of how changing climates could affect us in the future; this information can empower communities to make better, more informed planning decisions. The creation of GeoTrails along the Niagara Escarpment offers a promising strategy to highlight the role of geoscientists and to engage the public in our ongoing research that aims to showcase Canada’s geoheritage.En tant que géoscientifiques, nous devons donner la priorité à l’amélioration de notre capacité à communiquer la science au public. Une communication efficace des géosciences permet aux communautés de comprendre comment les processus géologiques ont façonné notre planète et de prendre des décisions éclairées sur l’avenir de la Terre. Cependant, les résultats de la recherche en géosciences ont traditionnellement été publiés dans des revues à comité de lecture et présentés lors de conférences académiques. Par conséquent, les informations essentielles sur la géologie locale sont rarement disponibles sous des formats accessibles, en libre accès et attrayants. Dans cette optique, nous proposons des excursions virtuelles, ou « GeoTrails », comme solution possible pour combler le fossé entre la recherche en géosciences et la connaissance du public en améliorant notre communication avec celui-ci. Cette initiative est en grande partie menée par des étudiants de premier cycle, qui identifient des points d’intérêt géologiques le long de sentiers de randonnée sélectionnés, rédigent des descriptions concises basées sur des sources scientifiques (par exemple, des articles à comité de lecture plus longs et des rapports gouvernementaux) et collectent des données sur le terrain (par exemple, des modèles LiDAR 3-D, des photographies par drone) pour illustrer les caractéristiques de ces caractéristiques géologiques. L'objectif du projet est de communiquer l'importance de la géologie locale sur notre environnement et de sensibiliser aux façons dont les changements climatiques pourraient nous affecter à l'avenir; cette information peut permettre aux communautés de prendre des décisions de planification meilleures et plus éclairées. La création de GeoTrails le long de l'escarpement du Niagara offre une stratégie prometteuse pour mettre en valeur le rôle des géoscientifiques et pour engager le public dans notre recherche en cours qui vise à présenter le patrimoine géologique du Canada

Learning to communicate computationally with Flip: a bi-modal programming language for game creation

Teaching basic computational concepts and skills to school children is currently a curricular focus in many countries. Running parallel to this trend are advances in programming environments and teaching methods which aim to make computer science more accessible, and more motivating. In this paper, we describe the design and evaluation of Flip, a programming language that aims to help 11–15 year olds develop computational skills through creating their own 3D role-playing games. Flip has two main components: 1) a visual language (based on an interlocking blocks design common to many current visual languages), and 2) a dynamically updating natural language version of the script under creation. This programming-language/natural-language pairing is a unique feature of Flip, designed to allow learners to draw upon their familiarity with natural language to “decode the code”. Flip aims to support young people in developing an understanding of computational concepts as well as the skills to use and communicate these concepts effectively. This paper investigates the extent to which Flip can be used by young people to create working scripts, and examines improvements in their expression of computational rules and concepts after using the tool. We provide an overview of the design and implementation of Flip before describing an evaluation study carried out with 12–13 year olds in a naturalistic setting. Over the course of 8 weeks, the majority of students were able to use Flip to write small programs to bring about interactive behaviours in the games they created. Furthermore, there was a significant improvement in their computational communication after using Flip (as measured by a pre/post-test). An additional finding was that girls wrote more, and more complex, scripts than did boys, and there was a trend for girls to show greater learning gains relative to the boys