Scaffolding problem-based learning with CSCL tools

Small-group medical problem-based learning (PBL) was a pioneering form of collaborative learning at the university level. It has traditionally been delivered in face-to-face text-based format. With the advancement of computer technology and progress in CSCL, educational researchers are now exploring how to design digitally-implemented scaffolding tools to facilitate medical PBL. The "deteriorating patient" (DP) role play was created as a medical simulation that extends traditional PBL and can be implemented digitally. We present a case study of classroom usage of the DP role play that examines teacher scaffolding of PBL under two conditions: using a traditional whiteboard (TW) and using an interactive whiteboard (IW). The introduction of the IW technology changed the way that the teacher scaffolded the learning. The IW showed the teacher all the information shared within the various subgroups of a class, broadening the basis for informed classroom scaffolding. The visual records of IW usage demonstrated what students understood and reduced the need to structure the task. This allowed more time for engaging students in challenging situations by increasing the complexity of the problem. Although appropriate scaffolding is still based on the teacher's domain knowledge and pedagogy experience, technology can help by expanding the scaffolding choices that an instructor can make in a medical training context. © 2010 The Author(s).published_or_final_versionSpringer Open Choice, 01 Dec 201

Enhancing cultural diversity through e-PBL

Awarded: Excellent Performance in Oral SessionBACKGROUND: Exposure to cultural diversity is important in medical education in order to produce global leaders with multicultural sensitivity and communicative competency. E-learning platforms allow learners from different geographic regions and cultures to form learning communities, thus exposing students to a culturally diverse learning environment. This study explores the use of an e-learning platform that allows students and facilitators with different cultural backgrounds to collaborate in PBL centered activities that pertain to communicating bad news. METHODS: Four medical ...postprin

A case-study exploring the role of affect and culture in communicating bad news: technology triggers for problem based learning and practice

Poster Presentations: abstract no. P-35A case study is presented of an international technology rich learning module that uses a problem based learning video based approach to trigger student learning issues about giving bad news to HIV patients. The role of emotion and culture is explored in this context. Mixed groups of medical students from Canada and Hong Kong work with facilitators from each country. Technology supports PBL through the use of transparent examples of how experts solve cases involving physician-patient communication. Adobe connect supports the international model through synchronous video interaction and shared applications. After the instructional sessions, each student practices giving bad news to standardized patients using video-conferencing tools. Students receive feedback on their physician-patient communication from experts assessing their performance. The case study supports several types of data analyses. Pre-post test measures address students’ motivation and ability to identify the important aspects of physician-patient communication. The instructional discourse will be analyzed for: the type of affective content considered pertinent to each case, cultural differences between Canada and Hong Kong students, and types of instructor facilitation. The practice discourse with standardized patients examines student ability to transfer what they have learned from the instructional models to patient communication skills. We anticipate that medical students will improve their ability to regulate physician-patient communication. Such regulation will include cognitive, metacognitive, and emotional regulation of knowing what to do and when to do it, and knowing how to communicate in a manner that is most appropriate given a set of circumstances.postprintThe 2011 Simulation Summit of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC), Montreal, QC., 3-4 November 2011

Psicologia pediátrica: Do comportamento a saúde infantil

Os autores começam por caracterizar de forma sucinta a psicologia da saúde, realçando o papel do comportamento na saúde e na doença. Em seguida, são apresentados aspectos característicos da intervenção psicológica no âmbito da saúde da criança, denominada desde há alguns anos como psicologia pediátrica. Esta é definida e caracterizada como uma prática psicológica nos serviços médicos de crianças, cujos objectivos são contribuir para a promoção da saúde e prevenção da doença na criança, colaborar no tratamento, recuperação e apoio a criança doente, apoio a família, e participar na investigação aplicada dos factores psicossociais associados a saúde e a doença. E descrita a orientação predominante e objectivos da intervenção psicológica realizada pelos autores, no serviço pediátrico em que estão integrados desde há alguns anos. Finalmente é apresentada uma referência crítica e breve a legislação, recentemente publicada no nosso país, que enquadra os psicólogos que trabalham na saúde na carreira dos técnicos superiores de saúde, regulamentando o papel e funções, e a formação destes.The authors caracterize the pediatric psychology witch is defined as a psychology applied to children’s medical context, and conceptualized as a health psychology and different from the clinic psychology. Some aspects of the psychological intervention in this context are discribed such as prevention and promotion of children’s health, intervention in children’s illness and family, and research directions in the field. Some relevant aspects of the psychological intervention in a portuguese pediatric service are discribed. Recente portuguese legislation about health psychologist’s role definition and trainning is analised.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Endogenous Th17 Response in NO<inf>2</inf>-Promoted Allergic Airway Disease Is Dispensable for Airway Hyperresponsiveness and Distinct from Th17 Adoptive Transfer

Severe, glucocorticoid-resistant asthma comprises 5-7% of patients with asthma. IL-17 is a biomarker of severe asthma, and the adoptive transfer of Th17 cells in mice is sufficient to induce glucocorticoid-resistant allergic airway disease. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an environmental toxin that correlates with asthma severity, exacerbation, and risk of adverse outcomes. Mice that are allergically sensitized to the antigen ovalbumin by exposure to NO2 exhibit a mixed Th2/Th17 adaptive immune response and eosinophil and neutrophil recruitment to the airway following antigen challenge, a phenotype reminiscent of severe clinical asthma. Because IL-1 receptor (IL-1R) signaling is critical in the generation of the Th17 response in vivo, we hypothesized that the IL-1R/Th17 axis contributes to pulmonary inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in NO2-promoted allergic airway disease and manifests in glucocorticoid-resistant cytokine production. IL-17A neutralization at the time of antigen challenge or genetic deficiency in IL-1R resulted in decreased neutrophil recruitment to the airway following antigen challenge but did not protect against the development of AHR. Instead, IL-1R-/- mice developed exacerbated AHR compared to WT mice. Lung cells from NO2-allergically inflamed mice that were treated in vitro with dexamethasone (Dex) during antigen restimulation exhibited reduced Th17 cytokine production, whereas Th17 cytokine production by lung cells from recipient mice of in vitro Th17-polarized OTII T-cells was resistant to Dex. These results demonstrate that the IL-1R/Th17 axis does not contribute to AHR development in NO2-promoted allergic airway disease, that Th17 adoptive transfer does not necessarily reflect an endogenously-generated Th17 response, and that functions of Th17 responses are contingent on the experimental conditions in which they are generated. © 2013 Martin et al

Exploring Action Dynamics as an Index of Paired-Associate Learning

Much evidence exists supporting a richer interaction between cognition and action than commonly assumed. Such findings demonstrate that short-timescale processes, such as motor execution, may relate in systematic ways to longer-timescale cognitive processes, such as learning. We further substantiate one direction of this interaction: the flow of cognition into action systems. Two experiments explored match-to-sample paired-associate learning, in which participants learned randomized pairs of unfamiliar symbols. During the experiments, their hand movements were continuously tracked using the Nintendo Wiimote. Across learning, participant arm movements are initiated and completed more quickly, exhibit lower fluctuation, and exert more perturbation on the Wiimote during the button press. A second experiment demonstrated that action dynamics index novel learning scenarios, and not simply acclimatization to the Wiimote interface. Results support a graded and systematic covariation between cognition and action, and recommend ways in which this theoretical perspective may contribute to applied learning contexts

Production of phi mesons at mid-rapidity in sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions at RHIC

We present the first results of meson production in the K^+K^- decay channel from Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 200 GeV as measured at mid-rapidity by the PHENIX detector at RHIC. Precision resonance centroid and width values are extracted as a function of collision centrality. No significant variation from the PDG accepted values is observed. The transverse mass spectra are fitted with a linear exponential function for which the derived inverse slope parameter is seen to be constant as a function of centrality. These data are also fitted by a hydrodynamic model with the result that the freeze-out temperature and the expansion velocity values are consistent with the values previously derived from fitting single hadron inclusive data. As a function of transverse momentum the collisions scaled peripheral.to.central yield ratio RCP for the is comparable to that of pions rather than that of protons. This result lends support to theoretical models which distinguish between baryons and mesons instead of particle mass for explaining the anomalous proton yield.Comment: 326 authors, 24 pages text, 23 figures, 6 tables, RevTeX 4. To be submitted to Physical Review C as a regular article. Plain text data tables for the points plotted in figures for this and previous PHENIX publications are (or will be) publicly available at http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/papers.htm

Zoledronic acid treatment impairs protein geranyl-geranylation for biological effects in prostatic cells

BACKGROUND: Nitrogen-containing bisphosphonates (N-BPs) have been designed to inhibit osteoclast-mediated bone resorption. However, it is now accepted that part of their anti-tumor activities is related to interference with the mevalonate pathway. METHODS: We investigated the effects of zoledronic acid (ZOL), on cell proliferation and protein isoprenylation in two tumoral (LnCAP, PC-3,), and one normal established (PNT1-A) prostatic cell line. To assess if inhibition of geranyl-geranylation by ZOL impairs the biological activity of RhoA GTPase, we studied the LPA-induced formation of stress fibers. The inhibitory effect of ZOL on geranyl geranyl transferase I was checked biochemically. Activity of ZOL on cholesterol biosynthesis was determined by measuring the incorporation of (14)C mevalonate in cholesterol. RESULTS: ZOL induced dose-dependent inhibition of proliferation of all the three cell lines although it appeared more efficient on the untransformed PNT1A. Whatever the cell line, 20 μM ZOL-induced inhibition was reversed by geranyl-geraniol (GGOH) but neither by farnesol nor mevalonate. After 48 hours treatment of cells with 20 μM ZOL, geranyl-geranylation of Rap1A was abolished whereas farnesylation of HDJ-2 was unaffected. Inhibition of Rap1A geranyl-geranylation by ZOL was rescued by GGOH and not by FOH. Indeed, as observed with treatment by a geranyl-geranyl transferase inhibitor, treatment of PNT1-A cells with 20 μM ZOL prevented the LPA-induced formation of stress fibers. We checked that in vitro ZOL did not inhibit geranyl-geranyl-transferase I. ZOL strongly inhibited cholesterol biosynthesis up to 24 hours but at 48 hours 90% of this biosynthesis was rescued. CONCLUSION: Although zoledronic acid is currently the most efficient bisphosphonate in metastatic prostate cancer management, its mechanism of action in prostatic cells remains unclear. We suggest in this work that although in first intention ZOL inhibits FPPsynthase its main biological actitivity is directed against protein Geranylgeranylation

Motivated learning with digital learning tasks: what about autonomy and structure?

Article about Motivated learning with digital learning tasks: what about autonomy and structure

Effects of different lower-limb sensory stimulation strategies on postural regulation – A systematic review and meta-analysis

Systematic reviews of balance control have tended to only focus on the effects of single lower-limb stimulation strategies, and a current limitation is the lack of comparison between different relevant stimulation strategies. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to examine evidence of effects of different lower-limb sensory stimulation strategies on postural regulation and stability. Moderate- to high- pooled effect sizes (Unbiased (Hedges’ g) standardized mean differences (SMD) = 0.31 – 0.66) were observed with the addition of noise in a Stochastic Resonance Stimulation Strategy (SRSS), in three populations (i.e., healthy young adults, older adults, and individuals with lower-limb injuries), and under different task constraints (i.e., unipedal, bipedal, and eyes open). A Textured Material Stimulation Strategy (TMSS) enhanced postural control in the most challenging condition – eyes-closed on a stable surface (SMD = 0.61), and in older adults (SMD = 0.30). The Wearable Garments Stimulation Strategy (WGSS) showed no or adverse effects (SMD = -0.68 – 0.05) under all task constraints and in all populations, except in individuals with lower-limb injuries (SMD = 0.20). Results of our systematic review and meta-analysis revealed that future research could consider combining two or more stimulation strategies in intervention treatments for postural regulation and balance problems, depending on individual need