The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades

Despite the widespread use of social media by students and its increased use by instructors, very little empirical evidence is available concerning the impact of social media use on student learning and engagement. This paper describes our semester‐long experimental study to determine if using Twitter – the microblogging and social networking platform most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for educationally relevant purposes can impact college student engagement and grades. A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar course for pre‐health professional majors participated in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in the control group). With the experimental group, Twitter was used for various types of academic and co‐curricular discussions. Engagement was quantified by using a 19‐item scale based on the National Survey of Student Engagement. To assess differences in engagement and grades, we used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA) models, with class sections nested within treatment groups. We also conducted content analyses of samples of Twitter exchanges. The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities. This study provides experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role.     

Discriminative touch and emotional touch.

Somatic sensation comprises four main modalities, each relaying tactile, thermal, painful, or pruritic (itch) information to the central nervous system. These input channels can be further classified as subserving a sensory function of spatial and temporal localization, discrimination, and provision of essential information for controlling and guiding exploratory tactile behaviours, and an affective function that is widely recognized as providing the afferent neural input driving the subjective experience of pain, but not so widely recognized as also providing the subjective experience of affiliative or emotional somatic pleasure of touch. The discriminative properties of tactile sensation are mediated by a class of fast-conducting myelinated peripheral nerve fibres--A-beta fibres--whereas the rewarding, emotional properties of touch are hypothesized to be mediated by a class of unmyelinated peripheral nerve fibres--CT afferents (C tactile)--that have biophysical, electrophysiological, neurobiological, and anatomical properties that drive the temporally delayed emotional somatic system. CT afferents have not been found in the glabrous skin of the hand in spite of numerous electrophysiological explorations of this area. Hence, it seems reasonable to conclude that they are lacking in the glabrous skin. A full understanding of the behavioural and affective consequences of the differential innervation of CT afferents awaits a fuller understanding of their function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing skin cancer in college females: Heterogeneous effects over time.

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of an appearance-focused intervention to reduce the risk of skin cancer by decreasing indoor tanning, examine potential heterogeneity in tanning across this time, and correlate the subtypes with predictors collected at baseline. Design: Randomized controlled trial with 379 female college students measured at 6 monthly time points. Main Outcome Measure: Self-reported indoor tanning frequency. Results: The intervention was effective at decreasing tanning over the period between the fall and spring. Longitudinal latent class analysis found 3 patterns of tanners among the treatment individuals: abstainers, moderate tanners, and heavy tanners. These classes appeared in both the treatment and control conditions, and the intervention had a harm reduction effect by reducing levels of exposure within the moderate and heavy tanner classes. Participant age and self-reported tanning patterns were found to be predictive of class membership. Conclusions: This research suggests that brief intervention approaches can be effective at reducing risk for skin cancer and illustrates several ways in which these protective effects can be enhanced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sustained attention after severe closed head injury.

Sustained attention was assessed in 20 patients with severe closed head injury (CHI) and 20 normal matched controls. Participants were presented with a visual continuous performance task (CPT) with 3 levels of complexity. Performance was assessed by examining response latencies and error rates. Across all levels of complexity, the CHI patients demonstrated a vigilance decrement, whereas the performance of the matched controls was stable across time. The vigilance decrement was not differentially affected by the manipulation of task complexity in the CHI patients. However, findings suggest that the overall vigilance performance of CHI patients was differentially affected by increasing the complexity of the task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Occult B cell malignancies can be detected by three-color flow cytometry in patients with cytopenias

Patients with unexplained cytopenias often present a diagnostic dilemma with minimal morphologic or cytogenetic changes to identify the underlying disease process. We have used multidimensional flow cytometry in a study of patients with cytopenias and found that this technology established, changed, or refined the diagnosis in 17/121 patients. Using the flow cytometric technique of CD45 and right angle light scatter (SSC) gating with two additional markers in a three-color analysis, eight of 121 patients were found to have hairy cell leukemia (HCL), in the absence of definitive morphologic findings of HCL. Two additional patients were found to have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Myeloid abnormalities, myelodysplasia (MDS) or acute leukemia was detected in seven of 56 patients with unexplained pancytopenia. Six of 65 patients identified with cytopenias resulting from lymphoid neoplasms had been referred for bone marrow transplantation (BMT) with a presumptive diagnosis of MDS, with subsequent deferral of BMT upon correct diagnosis. The screening technique is incorporated into an extensive immunophenotyping scheme to identify hematopoietic abnormalities using multidimensional flow cytometry (MDF). HCL cells (detected as low as 1.3%) reside in the same position as normal monocytes in the CD45 and SSC plots but could be distinguished from monocytes based on the expression of HLA-DR without CD11b, and expression of CD19. Further phenotyping of the abnormal population confirmed immunoglobulin light chain restriction, CD11c, and CD25 expression. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma was detected as aberrant mature lymphocytes expressing B lymphoid markers, CD5 and light chain restriction. Myeloid abnormalities were identified in the myeloblast or maturing myeloid cell fractions. The flow cytometric scheme described can be used in primary diagnosis. The technique is definitive, sensitive, and stresses the importance of distinguishing lymphoid from myeloid etiology of cytopenias.     

Respiratory arrest following peribulbar anesthesia for cataract surgery: case report and review of the literature

Hypnic headache syndrome is a rare benign disorder which occurs in the elderly. It presents as a holocephalic or, less frequently, hemicranial headache during night sleep, lasting between 20 and 180 min; it is not associated with autonomic signs and responds well to lithium carbonate. We report a new case which responded well to indomethacin, and suggest that indomethacin may be used as an alternative treatment in this rare headache syndrome of the elderly.     

Neuropsychological mediators of the links among age, chronic illness, and everyday problem solving.

Reductions in everyday problem solving (EPS) are often reported in older age, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The authors examined the role of 2 variables predicted to mediate (neuropsychological abilities and health status) or moderate (health status) the relationship between age and EPS performance. Toward these ends, they compared EPS and neuropsychological performance in 50 functionally independent adults with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 64 control participants matched on age and education. Both older age and CKD were associated with worse performance on measures of EPS and memory/executive abilities. Neuropsychological abilities were positively associated with EPS performance. In both the full sample and control participants only, memory/executive functioning mediated the association between presence of chronic illness and EPS. Furthermore, memory/executive functioning partially mediated the link between age and EPS. Findings indicate that relations among age, health status, and EPS are not straightforward. Although performance on neuropsychological measures appeared to underlie EPS declines in chronic illness, increasing age remained independently associated with reduced EPS. The authors discuss implications for models of adult developmental changes in everyday cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)