Analyzing Students’ Perceptions of Their Learning in Online and Hybrid First-Year Composition Courses

This article presents a study of first-year composition (fyc) courses that were taught in both online and hybrid formats in order to determine students’ perceptions on how much they learned in them. The students’ responses to an extensive survey, in which they analyzed their experiences in their courses, point to larger questions about our individual pedagogical assumptions as well as larger issues related to the structures of first-year composition courses and their required status.     

Attachment and entry of Candida famata in monocytes and epithelial cells

Candida albicans is considered the main pathogenic yeast responsible for a multitude of infective disorders. However, other yeasts, such as Candida famata, are being recognized as potential emerging pathogens that cause several types of infections in humans and animals. Consequently, we have investigated the adhesion and internalization of Candida famata into monocytes and epithelial cells. The interaction of the yeast with the cells is very rapid and takes place during the first 15 min of injection. However, the affinity of the yeast for the cells varies, THP-1 (human monocytes) being the highest and followed in decreasing order by HeLa (human carcinoma), HaCaT, and Pam-212 (human and mouse keratinocytes, respectively). Heat inactivation or treatment with nystatin, significantly decreases yeast adhesion to cells. Immunofluorescence, as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, reveals that cell lines are able to internalize C. famata. At 48 h after infection, most of the yeasts located inside cells appear degraded, but some yeasts recovered from lysed cells, were still viable. Adhesion and internalization of C. famata into HeLa cells were found to be lower than those of C. albicans and C. glabrata, but higher than those of S. cerevisiae. In addition, infection with C. famata results in actin microfilaments rearrangement. This article presents novel data in the interaction of this pathogenic yeast with mammalian cells.     

Analysis of membrane microdomain-associated proteins in the insular cortex of post-mortem human brain

Membrane microdomains (MM) are membrane rafts within the cell membrane enriched in cholesterol and glycosphingolipids that have been implicated in the trafficking and sorting of membrane proteins, secretory and endocytotic pathways, and signal transduction. To date, MM have not been characterised in the human brain. We reason that by identifying MM in the normal human cortex, we may better understand the molecular mechanisms of human brain dysfunction. To characterize the protein composition of MM in the human brain, we have carried out a comprehensive proteomic analysis of detergent resistant membranes (DRMs) associated proteins derived from human postmortem insular cortex using 1-DE separation prior to LC coupled to MS/MS or GeLC-MS/MS. Eighty five proteins were identified including 57 unique to human brain cortex DRMs (by comparison with DRM proteins reported in other cell types). High levels of signal transduction, cell adhesion, cell transport and cell trafficking proteins were identified including synaptic proteins such as synapsin II and synaptic vesicle membrane protein, mitochondrial proteins such as ATPase subunits and metabolic enzymes such as malate dehydrogenase. This data will facilitate our understanding of protein expression changes within membranes in candidate brain regions in human brain diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.     

Describing nurses' work: combining quantitative and qualitative analysis

OBJECTIVE: To better understand nursing activities and working conditions. BACKGROUND: Nursing practice involves astute clinical decision making and the competent delivery of nursing care procedures. To complete nursing procedures, nurses must simultaneously organize and reorganize priorities and manage changing clinical information for multiple patients. Few researchers have examined the specific nature of nurses' activities and the effect of the environment on their work. METHODS: Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to collect data on 7 nurses engaged in nursing activities. Examples of methods include link analysis, subject matter expert, task analysis, cognitive pathway, and "stacking." Data collection focused on how nurses managed priorities, changing clinical information, and interruptions. RESULTS: The "cognitive pathway" graphically depicts the nature of nurses' work. Specifically, it reveals the shifting of the nurse's attention from patient to patient and the occurrence of interruptions. "Stacking" shows the number of tasks a nurse must balance at any one time. On average, nurses had 10 or more activities waiting to be performed and experienced 3.4 interruptions/hr. CONCLUSION: These methods provide unique insight into the dynamic nature of patient care and nursing work. APPLICATION: Extension of the methods demonstrated here may be useful in guiding efforts to change the work of nursing to better provide quality care and less stressful work environments.     

Scaling Up Inductive Logic Programming: An Evolutionary Wrapper Approach

Inductive logic programming (ILP) algorithms are classification algorithms that construct classifiers represented as logic programs. ILP algorithms have a number of attractive features, notably the ability to make use of declarative background (user-supplied) knowledge. However, ILP algorithms deal poorly with large data sets (>10⁴ examples) and their widespread use of the greedy set-covering algorithm renders them susceptible to local maxima in the space of logic programs.This paper presents a novel approach to address these problems based on combining the local search properties of an inductive logic programming algorithm with the global search properties of an evolutionary algorithm. The proposed algorithm may be viewed as an evolutionary wrapper around a population of ILP algorithms.The evolutionary wrapper approach is evaluated on two domains. The chess-endgame (KRK) problem is an artificial domain that is a widely used benchmark in inductive logic programming, and Part-of-Speech Tagging is a real-world problem from the field of Natural Language Processing. In the latter domain, data originates from excerpts of the Wall Street Journal. Results indicate that significant improvements in predictive accuracy can be achieved over a conventional ILP approach when data is plentiful and noisy.     

The 1992 ethics code: boon or bane?

Discusses the 1992 version of the American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct that marks the first major revision since 1981. It has a table of contents that facilitates location of standards about specific topics and it is the 1st code to be divided into 2 sections. These include a set of principles that are aspirational, representing the professional ideals, and a set of enforceable standards that are intended to be used as compelling rules. The most controversial standard pertains to sexual relationships with former psychotherapy clients. Standards related to other topics for the first time, such as the practice of forensic psychology and bartering, distinguish the 1992 APA code from its predecessors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A systematic review on the use of quantitative imaging to detect cancer therapy adverse effects in normal-appearing brain tissue

Cancer therapy for both central nervous system (CNS) and non-CNS tumors has been previously associated with transient and long-term cognitive deterioration, commonly referred to as ‘chemo fog’. This therapy-related damage to otherwise normal-appearing brain tissue is reported using post-mortem neuropathological analysis. Although the literature on monitoring therapy effects on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is well established, such macroscopic structural changes appear relatively late and irreversible. Early quantitative MRI biomarkers of therapy-induced damage would potentially permit taking these treatment side effects into account, paving the way towards a more personalized treatment planning.

This systematic review (PROSPERO number 224196) provides an overview of quantitative tomographic imaging methods, potentially identifying the adverse side effects of cancer therapy in normal-appearing brain tissue. Seventy studies were obtained from the MEDLINE and Web of Science databases. Studies reporting changes in normal-appearing brain tissue using MRI, PET, or SPECT quantitative biomarkers, related to radio-, chemo-, immuno-, or hormone therapy for any kind of solid, cystic, or liquid tumor were included. The main findings of the reviewed studies were summarized, providing also the risk of bias of each study assessed using a modified QUADAS-2 tool. For each imaging method, this review provides the methodological background, and the benefits and shortcomings of each method from the imaging perspective. Finally, a set of recommendations is proposed to support future research.

     

Iterative solution of large linear systems with non‐smooth submatrices using partial wavelet transforms and split‐matrix matrix–vector multiplication

The iterative solution of large linear systems with highly irregular matrices cannot be accelerated by wavelet transformation and subsequent sparsification if the transformed matrix is still highly irregular. In this paper we show that if the irregularity of the original matrix is limited to a relatively small known set of rows or columns (as is the case in significant applications), then acceleration can be achieved by a mixed approach in which only the ‘smooth’ submatrix is transformed and iterative solution is implemented using a novel ‘split‐matrix’ form of matrix–vector multiplication. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender and Culture Differences in Emotion.

In this article, the authors report a secondary analysis on a cross-cultural dataset on gender differences in 6 emotions, collected in 37 countries all over the world. The aim was to test the universality of the gender-specific pattern found in studies with Western respondents, namely that men report more powerful emotions (e.g., anger), whereas women report more powerless emotions (e.g., sadness, fear). The authors expected the strength of these gender differences to depend on women's status and roles in their respective countries, as operationalized by the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM; United Nations Development Programme Human Development Report 2002). Overall, the gender-specific pattern of women reporting to experience and express more powerless emotions and men more powerful emotions was replicated, and only some interactions with the GEM were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dopamine Antagonists Do Not Block Conditioned Place Preference Induced by Paced Mating Behavior in Female Rats.

The authors assessed the behavioral effects of dopamine (DA) receptor antagonists, Cis (Z) flupentixol and S(+)-raclopride L-tartrate, on conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by paced mating behavior. Ovariectomized female rats of the Wistar strain were used. The administration of amphetamine (1 ior. mg/kg) induced a clear CPP that was completely blocked by the DA antagonists flupentixol (0.25 mg/kg) or raclopride (0.125 mg/kg). These doses had no effect on motor coordination. Female rats that mated in a pacing chamber developed a clear CPP. Neither flupentixol nor raclopride blocked the reward state induced by paced mating behavior. These results indicate that DA is not involved in the reward state induced by paced mating behavior in female rats. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)