Using Assessment Practice to Evaluate the Legal Skills Curriculum

A comprehensive audit of the skills curriculum offered to students in a Bachelor of Laws program yielded important insights about the collective impact of assessment tasks on the hidden and operational skills curriculum. This qualitative case study supports the views (1) that assessment tasks provide significant skills practice and performance opportunities for students; (2) that assessment provides students with important cues about what type of learning is valued; and (3) that review of assessment practices across the curriculum can provide important information for curricular reform

Interference suppression in HO fluorescence detection

In this Letter we report preliminary results on a sampling method that greatly reduces the above interferences relative to hydroxyl fluorescence

Physical activity and sedentary time among preschoolers in centre-based childcare: A systematic review 11 Medical and Health Sciences 1117 Public Health and Health Services

Background: Many preschoolers spend a substantial portion of their day enrolled in centre-based childcare; the amounts of physical activity and sedentary time accumulated in this environment are critical to preschoolers\u27 ability to meet movement guidelines. The purpose of this systematic review was to provide a comprehensive overview of the objectively assessed physical activity and sedentary time of preschoolers in centre-based childcare (registration no. CRD42016033502). Methods: Eight online databases were searched using terms related to physical activity, sedentary time, preschoolers and centre-based childcare. Published, peer-reviewed primary studies written in English that objectively assessed (via accelerometry) the physical activity and sedentary time of preschoolers (2-5 years) in centre-based childcare were included. Results: Fifty-five studies (published 2004-2017) from 11 countries, representing 13,956 participants were included. Studies reported light physical activity (n=38) ranging from 2.94 to 29.96 mins/hr, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (n=46) which ranged from 1.29 to 22.66 mins/hr, and total physical activity (n=42) ranging from 4.23 to 47.17 mins/hr. Sedentary time (n=47) ranged from 12.38 to 55.77 mins/hr. Conclusion: Physical activity and sedentary time were highly varied and inconsistent between studies; therefore, it is difficult to determine preschoolers\u27 true amount of physical activity and sedentary time during childcare hours. Despite this variability, preschoolers were noted to participate in high rates of sedentary time in this setting. The lack of homogeneity is an important finding in and of itself as it highlights the lack of consistency in measuring, processing, and reporting paediatric physical activity data

Development and characterisation of a collagen nano-hydroxyapatite composite scaffold for bone tissue engineering.

Bone regeneration requires scaffolds that possess suitable mechanical and biological properties. This study sought to develop a novel collagen-nHA biocomposite scaffold via two new methods. Firstly a stable nHA suspension was produced and added to a collagen slurry (suspension method), and secondly, porous collagen scaffolds were immersed in nHA suspension after freeze-drying (immersion method). Significantly stronger constructs were produced using both methods compared to collagen only scaffolds, with a high porosity maintained (\u3e98.9%). It was found that Coll-nHA composite scaffolds produced by the suspension method were up to 18 times stiffer than the collagen control (5.50 +/- 1.70 kPa vs. 0.30 +/- 0.09 kPa). The suspension method was also more reproducible, and the quantity of nHA incorporated could be varied with greater ease than with the immersion technique. In addition, Coll-nHA composites display excellent biological activity, demonstrating their potential as bone graft substitutes in orthopaedic regenerative medicine

The Effects of Distraction and a Brief Intervention on Auditory and Visual-Spatial Working Memory in College Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Two studies addressed how young adult college students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (n = 44) compare to their nonaffected peers (n = 42) on tests of auditory and visual–spatial working memory (WM), are vulnerable to auditory and visual distractions, and are affected by a simple intervention. Students with ADHD demonstrated worse auditory WM than did controls. A near significant trend indicated that auditory distractions interfered with the visual WM of both groups and that, whereas controls were also vulnerable to visual distractions, visual distractions improved visualWM in the ADHD group. The intervention was ineffective. Limited correlations emerged between self-reported ADHD symptoms and objective test performances; students with ADHD who perceived themselves as more symptomatic often had better WM and were less vulnerable to distractions than their ADHD peers

Coupling Freshly Isolated CD44(+) Infrapatellar Fat Pad-Derived Stromal Cells with a TGF-β3 Eluting Cartilage ECM-Derived Scaffold as a Single-Stage Strategy for Promoting Chondrogenesis.

An alternative strategy to the use of in vitro expanded cells in regenerative medicine is the use of freshly isolated stromal cells, where a bioactive scaffold is used to provide an environment conducive to proliferation and tissue-specific differentiation in vivo. The objective of this study is to develop a cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM)-derived scaffold that could facilitate the rapid proliferation and chondrogenic differentiation of freshly isolated stromal cells. By freeze-drying cryomilled cartilage ECM of differing concentrations, it is possible to produce scaffolds with a range of pore sizes. The migration, proliferation, and chondrogenic differentiation of infrapatellar fat pad-derived stem cells (FPSCs) depend on the concentration/porosity of these scaffolds, with greater sulphated glycosaminoglycan (sGAG) accumulation observed in scaffolds with larger-sized pores. It is then sought to determine if freshly isolated fat pad-derived stromal cells, seeded onto a transforming growth factor (TGF)-β3 eluting ECM-derived scaffold, could promote chondrogenesis in vivo. While a more cartilage-like tissue could be generated using culture expanded FPSCs compared to nonenriched freshly isolated cells, fresh CD44(+) stromal cells are capable of producing a tissue in vivo that stained strongly for sGAGs and type II collagen. These findings open up new possibilities for in-theatre cell-based therapies for joint regeneration