bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Activity theory and technology mediated interaction: Cognitive scaffolding using question-based consultation on Facebook
Authors: Rambe Patient 
Published: April 2016

Studies that employed activity theory as a theoretical lens for exploring computer-mediated interaction have not adopted social media as their object of study. However, social media provides lecturers with personalised learning environments for diagnostic and prognostic assessments of student mastery of content and deep learning. The integration of Facebook into educators’ pedagogical intentions potentially scaffolds students cognitively, leverages their understanding of content and ameliorates limited mediated learning experiences. Using activity theory as an interpretive framework and a multi-method data construction process involving in-depth semi-structured interviews, in-class observations, post observation debriefingand data mining of student and lecturer-generated Facebook postings, the studyexplored Facebook’s potential to scaffold student cogitative processes and promote academic engagement. Findings suggest that the academic value of Facebook iscontingent upon the extent of its integration into the pedagogical design of courses, student academic maturity and their level of ICT competence. The unintended effects of Facebook were its reproduction of peer-based academic hierarchies, and its revelation of cognitive tensions and power differentials between academically gifted and cognitively challenged learners during lectures.
Learner perceptions and recall of small group discussions within 2D and 3D collaborative environments
Authors: Downey Steve , Mohler Jill , Morris Joan , Sanchez Rene 
Published: April 2016

Online learning critically relies upon good communication between engaged parties inorder to convey ideas, meanings, and values. Emerging technologies in collaborative virtual environments are providing new affordances in establishing greater online presence and, in turn, greater abilities to communicate and learn. This study examines how learners perceive, follow, and recall information presented in discussions in both a 2D and a 3D collaborative environment, Elluminate (now known as Blackboard Collaborate) and Second Life respectively. This exploratory study shows that learners observing discussions in Second Life have a tendency to better organise ideas, better identify who said what, and better recall what information was said throughout the discussion, than with similar discussions in Elluminate. On average, participants in this small scale study were able to follow and recall conversations in Second Life 10-13% better than the discussions in Elluminate. While findings produced positive trends towards Second Life, additional testing is required as the scale (n=42) was small and the frequencies of statistical results in excess of .05 were limited. Still, collectively they do point towards valuable insights for online educators in how they choose to deliver content, conduct synchronous class discussions, and communicate with their students.
The Rise of Li’ Ttledot: A study of citizenship education through game-based learning
Authors: Lim Kenneth Y.T. , Ong Matthew Y.C. 
Published: April 2016

This paper reports data obtained from the use of a bespoke video game – The Rise of Li’Ttledot – in promoting a sense of participatory citizenship among young learners. The game was developed through funding awarded by the Ministry of Education in Singapore, and was piloted in a primary school. Citizenship education illustrates well the truism that the learning of values is better caught than taught. The game was situated within a wider curricular program which included the use of question cardsin a post-gameplay dialogic session between teacher and students. The structure and scaffolds thusly afforded helped the pupils in the primary school to abstract from their experiences within the game, to relevant school-based examples.
Incorporating Internet resources into classroom practice: Secondary school teacher action plans
Authors: Ramirez Elena , Clemente Maria , Canedo Isabel , Martin Jorge 
Published: April 2016

Knowing precisely how teachers use Internet resources in their classroom practice is essential when seeking to explain what aspects support the real incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching, and in determining the mechanisms underlying the use of these resources in direct teaching situations.This article examines how five secondary school teachers assimilated different Internet resources into their teaching practice. Using a system for analysing classroom interaction that allowed us to segment teaching practice into categories differentiated by their level of generality, we studied the recordings of five class sessions in which Internet resources were used. The results show that common patterns existed in the way these teachers handled their sessions. The most outstanding pattern showed the overriding importance of curricular tasks and contents in the class sessions, and the subordination of the ICT resources to these curricular elements. It is also important to underscore the appearance of one type of task performance activity with ICT in all the sessions analysed, although more analysis about this activity is needed. The results pose challenges for the development of future research regarding consistency in the patterns of action found.
Reasons for using or not using interactive whiteboards: Perspectives of Taiwanese elementary mathematics and science teachers
Authors: Jang Syh-Jong , Tsai Meng-Fang 
Published: April 2016

This study examines the reasons for using or not using interactive whiteboards (IWBs) by elementary school mathematics and science teachers in Taiwan. It also considers whether there were any significant differences in the reasons according to teaching subjects, teacher gender, and teaching experience. The survey was developed based on an overview of the discussions from prior research related to the benefits and drawbacks in using IWBs. Percentages were high on all six reasons for using IWBs. Of the five reasons for not using IWBs, budget constraints appeared to be the most important reason why the teachers did not use IWBs in their classroom. Male teachers using IWBs showed significantly higher ratings than female teachers for getting students’ attention and increasing interaction. Experienced teachers’ ratings were significantly higher than novice teachers for getting students’ attention, helping teachers explain complex and abstract concepts, and helping the teaching process. In the group of teachers who reported not using IWBs, male teachers showed significantly higher ratings for the lack of time to design teaching materials, and limited sources of related teaching software. Research implications of this study are provided along with suggestions for future study.
“This is my thing!”: Middle years students’ engagement and learning using digital resources
Authors: Molyneux Paul , Godinho Sally 
Published: April 2016

It is widely acknowledged that multimodal digital texts support student engagement with ideas, knowledge and new forms of literate practice. With this in mind, an interdisciplinary team at The University of Melbourne collaborated to create a digitalresource – The Venom Patrol website – to teach scientific concepts about Australia’s venomous animals to middle years students (Years 5-9). The website’s development was a response to students’ increasing use of digital texts and technologies, and the need to develop students’ skills around being ‘multiliterate’. An inquiry-based pedagogy sought to encourage interactive learning and to enhance student development of scientific literacy. This article reports the findings of a pilot study that investigated student and teacher responses to the functionality and appropriateness of the digital resource for teaching scientific literacy, and for engaging students with the science-based content. The study revealed different teacher approaches to using the digital resource in the classroom, with varying levels of success. It also found the students to be critical and insightful users of digital texts who welcomed both the choices offered by the non-linear structure of the resource and the opportunity this research afforded for their voices to be heard around texts and contexts for learning.
Does the use of technology make a difference in the geometric cognitive growth of pre-service mathematics teachers?
Authors: Stols Gerrit 
Published: April 2016

<blockquote>This study investigated the geometric cognitive growth of pre-service mathematics teachers in terms of the Van Hiele levels in a technology-enriched environment, as opposed to that of students in a learning environment without any technological enhancements. In order to investigate this, a quasi-experimental non-equivalent comparison group design was used. Similar course content was used for both the control and experimental groups. The students worked through a series of geometry activities and problems. The difference between the groups was that dynamic geometry software was integrated into the teaching of the experimental group. The <em>Cognitive Development and Achievement in Secondary School Geometry</em> (CDASSG) Van Hiele geometry test was used to determine all the students' level of geometric thinking before and after the course. The study found that the use of dynamic geometry software enhanced student teachers' geometric visualisation, analysis and deduction, but not their ability to informally justify their reasoning and to understand the formal aspects of deduction.</blockquote>
Teaching Teachers for the Future (TTF): Building the ICT in education capacity of the next generation of teachers in Australia
Authors: Romeo Geoff , Lloyd Margaret , Downes Toni 
Published: April 2016

<blockquote>The <em>Teaching Teachers for the Future</em> (TTF) project is a unique nationally significant project funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Employment, Education and Workplace Relations (DEEWR, Au$8.8 million) and the Information and Communication Technology Innovation Fund (ICTIF). This 2011-2012 project has ambitiously attempted to build the ICT education (ICTE) capacity of the next generation of Australian teachers through its focus on pre-service teachers, teacher educators and the new Australian Curriculum. This paper will provide an overview of the project including a description of its genesis in a changing educational and political landscape, its structure and operations, its grounding in contemporary theory, the research opportunities it has engendered and its tangible outcomes.</blockquote>
Enhancing teachers' ICT capacity for the 21st century learning environment: Three cases of teacher education in Korea
Authors: Kim Hyeonjin , Choi Hyungshin , Han Jeonghye , So Hyo-Jeong 
Published: April 2016

<blockquote>Korean teachers are generally considered well trained to integrate ICT into their teaching since the inception of the first IT Master Plan of Korea in 1996. However, the emergence and adoption of cutting-edge technologies create demands for evolving roles and competencies of teachers in the new knowledge society. Given this changing landscape of teacher education, the purpose of this paper is to explore new educational approaches to enhance teachers' ICT capabilities in the 21st century learning environment in Korea. The literature indicates that the new roles of teachers include new media literacy skills and adaptive expertise with efficiency and innovation. From this perspective, we examined three cases: (1) learning Scratch for computational and creative thinking, (2) learning robotics as emerging technology for convergent and divergent thinking, and (3) learning by design with ICT for systems thinking. The new approaches, such as focusing on thinking skills rather than technical skills, and providing various contexts different from ordinary classroom lessons, help teachers to develop adaptive expertise. On the other hand, participants in all three cases indicated difficulties in integrating new ideas, dealing with various course activities, and understanding unfamiliar design contexts in their comprehensive projects. For further studies, it is necessary to investigate learning processes and outcomes of teachers' learning with more depth and a larger number of cases and multiple sources of data to verify the potentials and challenges of these approaches more rigorously.</blockquote><p> </p>
Pathways for improving support for the electronic management and marking of assignments
Authors: Heinrich Eva , Milne John , Granshaw Bruce 
Published: April 2016

<blockquote>This article investigates the support e-learning can provide for the management and marking of assignments. The work is contextualised in the importance of assessment with assignments in tertiary education, in the theories about high quality marking of assignments, and the practical experiences of academics at tertiary institutions. The tasks that need to be carried out as part of assignment management and marking are detailed. A set of requirements is derived based on the education literature and on practical needs established in interviews with academics. Possible architectures for an e-learning system implementing these requirements are suggested and arguments are provided towards using an architecture that combines existing learning management system functionality for assignments with a specialised assignment management and marking application. A specific implementation based on <em>Moodle</em>and <em>Lightwork</em> is introduced. The article concludes with thoughts on the cognitive fit of learning management systems for assignment marking tasks and their core roles in supporting teaching and learning.</blockquote><p> </p>
Integrating book, digital content and robot for enhancing elementary school students' learning of English
Authors: Chen Nian-Shing , Quadir Benazir , Teng Daniel C. 
Published: April 2016

<blockquote>Early school years are an important period to lay out the foundation for learning a second language. In addition to mastering the basic language skills and keeping the learning process fun, promoting a lifelong learning habit should also be emphasised. Motivating elementary school students to learn English and avoiding misconceptions associated with the learning process are very important issues. This study attempted to explore the integration of book, computer and robot to create a novel and joyful English learning environment. Books are the most common learning media. If we can design a special mechanism linking books with digital learning content and a robot, students will be able to obtain supplementary learning content including motions performed by the robot to enhance learning outcomes. To implement this idea, a new learning system was designed and developed. Learning activities included vocabulary, single sentence read-along, full article read-along, conversation, sing-along and dancing. Cloze tests were implemented and the feasibility of the learning system was evaluated. Data collected from field observation and interviews were analysed. The results suggest that this system did enrich students' learning experience and enhance their motivation and engagement.</blockquote><p> </p>
A novel method for automatically locating the pylorus in the wireless capsule endoscopy
Authors: Zhou Shangbo , Yang Han , Siddique Muhammad Abubakar , Xu Jie , Zhou Ping 
Published: April 2016

AbstractWireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a non-invasive technique used to examine the interiors of digestive tracts. Generally, the digestive tract can be divided into four segments: the entrance; stomach; small intestine; and large intestine. The stomach and the small intestine have a higher risk of infections than the other segments. In order to locate the diseased organ, an appropriate classification of the WCE images is necessary. In this article, a novel method is proposed for automatically locating the pylorus in WCE. The location of the pylorus is determined on two levels: rough-level and refined-level. In the rough-level, a short-term color change at the boundary between stomach and intestine can help us to find approximately 70–150 positions. In the refined-level, an improved Weber local descriptor (WLD) feature extraction method is designed for gray-scale images. Compared to the original WLD calculation method, the method for calculating the differential excitation is improved to give a higher level of robustness. A K-nearest neighbor (KNN) classifier is incorporated to segment these images around the approximate position into different regions. The proposed algorithm locates three most probable positions of the pylorus that were marked by the clinician. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method is effective.
Different performances of CXCR4, integrin-1β and CCR-2 in bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) migration by low-intensity pulsed ultrasound stimulation
Authors: Xiao Weixiong , Xu Qian , Zhu Zhimin , Li Lei , Chen Wenchuan 
Published: April 2016

AbstractLow-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) is an established therapy for fracture healing where bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) migration is crucial to bone regeneration. This work focused on different performances of C-X-C-receptor 4 (CXCR4), integrin-1β and chemokine-chemokine receptor2 (CCR-2) in BMSCs migration by LIPUS stimulation. Single 20-min LIPUS treatment was applied to BMSCs during wound healing assay with or without the inhibitor AMD3100. The migration rate of BMSCs with LIPUS stimulation exhibited a higher closure rate than that of BMSCs without LIPUS stimulation, which was 1.89 μm/h and 1.38 μm/h, respectively. After LIPUS stimulation, significant elevation of the expression of CXCR4, integrin-1β and CCR-2 was observed. When AMD3100 was added, the migration rate of the BMSCs was obviously declined with or without LIPUS treatment. Furthermore, the expression of CXCR4 was significantly down-regulated by AMD3100, while integrin-1β and CCR-2 were less affected. It suggested that the enhancement of the migration of the BMSCs by LIPUS was inhibited by AMD3100. The results confirmed that LIPUS stimulation was able to activate and improve migration of BMSCs. Nevertheless, CXCR4 and both integrin-1β and CCR-2 had different roles in BMSCs migration after LIPUS treatment.
Hyaluronic acid-modified zirconium phosphate nanoparticles for potential lung cancer therapy
Authors: Li Ranwei , Liu Tiecheng , Wang Ke 
Published: April 2016

AbstractNovel tumor-targeting zirconium phosphate (ZP) nanoparticles modified with hyaluronic acid (HA) were developed (HA-ZP), with the aim of combining the drug-loading property of ZP and the tumor-targeting ability of HA to construct a tumor-targeting paclitaxel (PTX) delivery system for potential lung cancer therapy. The experimental results indicated that PTX loading into the HA-ZP nanoparticles was as high as 20.36%±4.37%, which is favorable for cancer therapy. PTX-loaded HA-ZP nanoparticles increased the accumulation of PTX in A549 lung cancer cells via HA-mediated endocytosis and exhibited superior anticancer activity
Laboratory testing in monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS)
Authors: Leung Nelson , Barnidge David R. , Hutchison Colin A. 
Published: April 2016

AbstractRecently, monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance (MGRS) reclassified all monoclonal (M) gammopathies that are associated with the development of a kidney disease but do not meet the definition of symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM) or malignant lymphoma. The purpose was to distinguish the M gammopathy as the nephrotoxic agent independent from the clonal mass. The diagnosis of MGRS obviously depends on the detection of the M-protein. More importantly, the success of treatment is correlated with the reduction of the M-protein. Therefore, familiarity with the M-protein tests is a must. Protein electrophoresis performed in serum or urine is inexpensive and rapid due to automation. However, poor sensitivity especially with the urine is an issue particularly with the low-level M gammopathy often encountered with MGRS. Immunofixation adds to the sensitivity and specificity but also the cost. Serum free light chain (sFLC) assays have significantly increased the sensitivity of M-protein detection and is relatively inexpensive. It is important to recognize that there is more than one assay on the market and their results are not interchangeable. In addition, in certain diseases, immunofixation is more sensitive than sFLC. Finally, novel techniques with promising results are adding to the ability to identify M-proteins. Using the time of flight method, the use of mass spectrometry of serum samples has been shown to dramatically increase the sensitivity of M-protein detection. In another technique, oligomeric LCs are identified on urinary exosomes amplifying the specificity for the nephrotoxic M-protein.
Preoperative serum potassium predicts the clinical outcome after non-cardiac surgery
Authors: Arora Pradeep , Pourafkari Leili , Visnjevac Ognjen , Anand Edwin J. , Porhomayon Jahan , Nader Nader D. 
Published: April 2016

Abstract

Background:
Potassium disorders have been linked to adverse outcomes in various medical conditions. However, the association of preoperative serum potassium with postoperative outcome is not well established. We aimed to examine the association between preoperative potassium with a 30-day mortality and adverse cardiovascular event (MACE).

Methods:
We conducted a cohort study using a prospectively collected database of patients, undergoing surgical procedures from 1998 to 2013 in the VA Western New York Healthcare System, which are reported to the Veterans Affairs Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP). The patients were categorized into three groups based on their documented preoperative potassium concentrations. Hypokalemia was defined as serum potassium concentration <4 mmol/L and hyperkalemia was defined as serum potassium concentrations >5.5 mmol/L. The values within the range of 4.0–5.5 mmol/L were considered as normokalemia and used as the control group. Statistical analyses included Chi-square test, analysis of variance and multivariate logistic regression to estimate the risk of MACE within 30 days of surgery.

Results:
Study included 5959 veterans who underwent surgery between 1998 and 2013. The patients in the hyperkalemics group had lower kidney function compared to the other two groups. The frequency of MACE was 13.6% in hypokalemics and 21.9% in hyperkalemics that were both significantly higher than 4.9% in controls. In multivariate logistic regression the hazard risk (HR) ratios of MACE were (2.17, 95% CI 1.75–2.70) for hypokalemics and (3.23, 95% CI 2.10–4.95) for hyperkalemics when compared to normokalemic controls.

Conclusions:
Preoperative hypokalemia and hyperkalemia are both independent predictors of MACE within 30 days.
Synthesis, in-vitro cytotoxicity of 4H-benzo[h]chromene derivatives and structure–activity relationships of 4-aryl group and 3-, 7-positions
Authors: El-Agrody Ahmed M. , Abd El-Mawgoud Heba K. , Fouda Ahmed M. , Khattab Essam S. A. E. H. 
Published: April 2016

AbstractA series of 2-amino-4
Alkyl glycosides as potential anti-Candida albicans growth agents
Authors: Klunda Tomáš , Machová Eva , Čížová Alžbeta , Horák Radim , Poláková Monika , Bystrický Slavomír 
Published: April 2016

Abstractinfections are becoming increasingly prevalent and many clinical isolates are resistant to common azole derivatives treatment. Accordingly, the capacity of a series of 19 alkyl glycosides, mainly mannosides and glucosides but also a cellobioside with aglycone chain-length from C-6 to C-20, to inhibit the growth of laboratory and clinically isolated strains of