682 research outputs found
Infectious intestinal disease : do we know it all?
Infectious intestinal disease (IID), with associated high morbidity and considerable mortality worldwide, causes a wide spectrum of illness. This ranges from mild discomfort to illness with severe complications. The economic burden from direct and indirect costs may be high. It is acquired by oral ingestion of micro-organisms which are transmitted from person to person; via food or water or through contact with animals or contaminated objects. Viruses are the commonest cause in developed countries. In Malta, medical practitioners and laboratories are the main source of data on IID. However, under-reporting is a problem. In order to fill in the lacunae in information on the disease burden, population-based-studies are required. Along with other countries, Malta has embarked on a number of studies to describe and quantify under-reporting of IID. This may assist in strengthening the surveillance system which, in combination with other measures, should result in an improvement of the control of IID.peer-reviewe
Laboratory surveillance of communicable diseases : enteric pathogens
Laboratories represent a crucial link in the surveillance chain. Since only a small proportion of cases of enteric infections are asked to submit a stool sample, one needs to assess the practices for testing for enteric pathogens and their notification practices. Five local laboratories participated in this study. This included a description of the laboratory practices; capacity for stool sample analysis; awareness of the notification system and the factors which could improve the system at laboratory level.peer-reviewe
Influenza, Campylobacter and Mycoplasma Infections, and Hospital Admissions for Guillain-Barré Syndrome, England
TOC Summary line: Campylobacter, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and influenza (or influenza vaccination) act as infectious triggers for Guillain-Barré syndrome
Troublesome concepts in statistics: a student perspective on what they are and how to learn them
The notion of threshold concepts (Meyer and Land 2002; 2004) has sparked renewed interest in examining what is important for students to learn, and the challenges they may encounter whilst learning (see for example Meyer and Land 2006). Most of these discussions have emerged from the perspective of disciplinary academics, many of whom nominate and exemplify the ‘threshold concepts’ within their discipline or field of study. We felt that the student’s experience of what is ‘threshold’ (Davies 2006) and equally of what seems troublesome (Perkins 2006) was also of significance, and would be potentially informative for the design of teaching, assessment and feedback.
In this modest study we sought to take an initial step in this direction. The study is focused on an introductory statistics course, which typically attracts between 300-500 students each semester. Our primary concern was to gain access to the student’s view of what constituted significant learning within the course, and the concepts they found particularly tricky or challenging. We were particularly interested to see if the concepts nominated as ‘important’ or significant in some way by the students aligned in any way with those nominated by the PASS (Peer Assisted Study Session) leaders and the lecturer. We were also keen to consider the types of difficulties students indicated they experienced, as this could inform future course design and teaching strategies
Whey for Sarcopenia; Can Whey Peptides, Hydrolysates or Proteins Play a Beneficial Role?
peer reviewedAs the human body ages, skeletal muscle loses its mass and strength. It is estimated that in
10% of individuals over the age of 60, this muscle frailty has progressed to sarcopenia. Biomarkers of
sarcopenia include increases in inflammatory markers and oxidative stress markers and decreases
in muscle anabolic markers. Whey is a high-quality, easily digested dairy protein which is widely
used in the sports industry. This review explores the evidence that whey protein, hydrolysates or
peptides may have beneficial effects on sarcopenic biomarkers in myoblast cell lines, in aged rodents
and in human dietary intervention trials with the older consumer. A daily dietary supplementation
of 35 g of whey is likely to improve sarcopenic biomarkers in frail or sarcopenia individuals. Whey
supplementation, consumed by an older, healthy adult certainly improves muscle mTOR signaling,
but exercise appears to have the greatest benefit to older muscle. In vitro cellular assays are central
for bioactive and bioavailable peptide identification and to determine their mechanism of action on
ageing muscle.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Irelan
Changing Patterns of Human Campylobacteriosis, England and Wales, 1990–2007
To explore hypotheses for age-related changes in the incidence of Campylobacter infections in England and Wales during 1990–2007, we analyzed electronic laboratory data. Disease incidence was reduced among children, and the greatest increase in risk was for those >60 years of age. Risk factors for campylobacteriosis in the elderly population should be identified
“I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On”: Liminality in Undergraduate Writing
According to Jan Meyer and Ray Land (2006), along with being troublesome, integrative, transformative, and probably irreversible, threshold
concepts are characterized as liminal. Their liminal nature is summarized by Linda Adler- Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle (2016): “Threshold
concepts involve what the name implies— thresholds. But the movement
toward and the (hopeful) crossing of those thresholds isn’t straightforward; instead, it happens in a two- steps- forward- one- step- back kind of
way as learners push against troublesome knowledge” (ix). Glynis Cousin
(2006) observes that the idea of liminal states aids “our understanding
of the conceptual transformations students undergo” in challenging
learning situations, like the grasping of threshold concepts (4). And
yet, Ray Land, Julie Rattray, and Peter Vivian (2014) suggest that the
liminal space “has remained relatively ill- defined, something of a ‘black
box’ within the conceptual framework of Threshold Concepts” (201).
This chapter focuses on this liminal space. Specifically, we wanted to
better understand the nature, occurrence, and impact of liminality in
undergraduate writing through the lens of threshold concepts of writing, through which those concepts could in turn provide an effective
theoretical and pedagogical framework for our particular context. Our
setting is a relatively new writing center (established 2011) in an Irish
university that has an undergraduate population of 10,050 students and
a postgraduate enrollment of 1,900. Following a presentation of our
distilled findings, we explore and contextualize one key action- oriented
insight about undergraduates’ experiences with threshold concepts of
writing that emerged from the data, that of the coexistence of apparent liminality, a stage that can be paralyzing for students, and authentic
liminality, a stage that is important for students grappling with threshold
concepts and that is therefore productive and potentially transformative.
In the next section, we review literature that has contributed to these
ideas of liminality; following that review, we describe the research that
led us to these definition
Meeting Report: The 2nd Annual Argonne Soils Workshop, Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago Illinois, USA, October 6-8, 2010
This report summarizes the proceedings of the 2nd Annual Argonne Soils Workshop held at Argonne National Laboratory October 6–8, 2010. The workshop assembled a diverse group of soil ecologists, microbiologists, molecular biologists, and computational scientists to discuss the challenges and opportunities related to implementation of metagenomics approaches in soil microbial ecology. The overarching theme of the workshop was “designing ecologically meaningful soil metagenomics research”, which encouraged presentations on both ecological and computational topics. The workshop fostered valuable cross-discipline communication and delivered the message that soil metagenomics research must be based on an iterative process between biological inquiry and bioinformatics tools
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