11237 research outputs found
Sort by
Implementing a gameful formative assesment (GFA)-based model into secondary school classroom instruction to facilitate learner- generated feedback and promote autonomous and heutagogic learning
No full textGameful formative assessments (GFAs) are instructional tools that use game components to assess and provide quick feedback on learner competencies with the intention of promoting learning. This research used three iterative Pedagogical Action Research (PedAR) cycles to introduce a GFA based model and refine classroom assessment routines around its use to establish a heutagogical culture in which students became more self-determined and autonomous. This was necessary to help prepare students for success in the twenty-first century. During the first cycle, implementing the GFA-based model resulted in a significant change in assessment routines in the research classrooms and improved learner attitudes towards formative assessment. The strategies from the previous cycle were refined and adjusted in the second cycle to achieve a discernible shift in practice towards pedagogical partnerships in formative evaluation, as well as an understanding that ongoing teacher training and support were required to use GFA tools effectively. The third cycle built on previous achievements to foster a culture of self-directed learning through formative evaluations. In this culture, teachers guided and supported self-sufficient, responsible, and motivated students.The study discovered that sustained autonomous feedback generation increased learner engagement in formative evaluation and improved learners' ability to self-evaluate and devise appropriate strategies to advance their learning. Over time, these strategies promoted agentic engagement. The study found that staff skills and beliefs had a significant impact on student attitudes and achievement. The findings also showed that learner-centric approaches can transform instructional practices and equip students with critical lifelong learning skills when combined with appropriate tools and strategies. The study serves as a practical case study for studies into instructional innovation, gameful learning, involving learners in decision-making, and the factors that promote learner autonomy.</p
Velocity-Based Curve Differential Repeated Sprinting Training: A Novel Approach to Shape Physical Performance in Young Basketball Players
No full textBackground: Basketball necessitates high-intensity, intermittent efforts with multidirectional and unpredictable movements, requiring training strategies that enhance players’ physical capacity to meet these demands efficiently. This study aimed to examine the effects of a velocity-based curve differential sprinting training on the overall performance of young male basketball players. Methods: A total of 24 participants were tested for single- and double-legged counter-movement jump (CMJ) height, 10 m linear sprint time, and agility performance in a pre–post–retention test design. The 12-week intervention consisted of two weekly sessions with differential sprint training in addition to normal basketball training. Sessions consisted of two sets of ten 20 m sprints whereby participants were instructed to perform additional fluctuations in joints velocity for each repetition. Results: Results show strong evidence for H1 (significant effect) for the experimental group in CMJ height (right leg) (BF10 = 19.24) between pre-, post-, and retention test values (BF10 = 10.24–17.85). For the remaining variables, no significant differences were observed. In contrast, the control group showed no significant effects including sprinting variables, indicating limited training effects. Conclusions: In conclusion, this research found that the 12-week differential curve sprinting training improved physical performance in the CMJ for the experimental group. Therefore, adding velocity-based random fluctuations during curve sprint training could be an effective training strategy for enhancing jumping performance in youth basketball players, which should encourage practitioners to implement different variations of the differential training approach.</p
Perceptions of diabetic retinopathy patients on the management of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in South Tarawa, Kiribati: a qualitative study
No full textDiabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the most common causes of legal blindness in developing countries, particularly between the ages of 20 to 65 years. Kiribati is currently facing the burden of DR where more than 5% of diabetes patients had experienced negative impacts of DR. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of DR patients on DR management in South Tarawa, Kiribati. This qualitative study was carried out at the Eye clinic in Tarawa Central Hospital from the 29th of August to 23rd of September, 2022. Patients diagnosed with DR of both sexes aged ≥ 18 years were purposively selected to participate in this study. 27 DR patients were recruited and interviewed using a semi-structured open-ended questionnaire. Manual thematic analysis was applied to observe the similarities and differences in answers obtained from interview transcripts. A total of 27 DR patients were enrolled in this study. The majority of patients were between the age of 50–59 (37%) and were males (62%). The findings highlighted a lack of knowledge and awareness of DR management among patients with diabetes in Kiribati. Poor health education, in-availability and lack of access to eye care services, patient belief, and healthcare system issues were identified as the most crucial contributing barriers. These data characterized the need for more communication campaigns including specific messaging on DR and its management to increase diabetes patients’ awareness of the importance of DR treatments.</p
Top 10 drugs most frequently associated with adverse events of myocarditis and pericarditis
No full textMyocarditis and pericarditis are managed with various treatments, yet prior studies and case reports indicate that certain drug classes may elevate the risk for these inflammatory cardiac conditions. This research aimed to systematically identify the leading drugs most frequently associated with myocarditis and pericarditis cases. Analyses were carried out using the global database of individual case safety reports from 1968 to 2024. We identified the drugs most frequently reported in signal detection with myocarditis and pericarditis, selecting the top 10 drugs based on record count, excluding those used in the treatment of inflammatory cardiac conditions to avoid potential confounding. Two statistical indicators, the information component (IC) with IC025 and reporting odds ratio (ROR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were used to conduct the disproportionality analysis in this study. The following five drugs were consistently observed with both myocarditis and pericarditis: clozapine, mesalazine, smallpox vaccine, influenza vaccine, and COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. The other leading drugs differed by condition, with nivolumab, pembrolizumab, ipilimumab, valproate, and metronidazole appearing more frequently for myocarditis, and ribavirin, sulfasalazine, methotrexate, omalizumab, and heparin for pericarditis. Each of these drugs showed a significant signal detection with myocarditis (ROR, 83.22 [95% CI, 81.17–85.33]; IC, 3.96 [IC025, 3.94]) and pericarditis (42.16 [41.19–43.16]; 3.66 [3.64]). Although our findings did not allow for causal inference, these findings highlight the importance of monitoring for possible adverse carditis cases when prescribing these drugs. Further studies are encouraged to investigate underlying mechanisms, assess individual patient risk factors, and explore the long-term impacts associated with myocarditis and pericarditis in relation to drug.</p
Gender and Youth (Eritrea)
No full textEritrea has an estimated population of 5 million people, with a gender ratio of 0.972 (972 males per 1,000 females) (Tsegay and Tecleberhan 2023). The Eritrean society is based on a patriarchal culture that, in some cases, places women below or subordinate to men...</p
Artificial intelligence and architectural design before generative AI: artificial intelligence algorithmics approaches 2000-2022 in review
No full textThis study explores the evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in the AEC from 2000 to 2022, focusing on the transition leading up to the accessibility of Generative AI in 2023. Through a Bibliometric review of publications indexed in Scopus, Web of Science, and CumInCAD, the research examines the adoption of specific algorithmic approaches: Genetic Algorithms (GAs), Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), and Agent-Based Systems(ABS). Findings reveal that GAs and ANNs exhibited comparable use until 2015, after which ANNs experienced exponential growth, surpassing GAs by 2016. ABS, although less prominent overall, saw a temporary surge starting in 2008, which established ABS as a distinct research category. Comparative analysis with CumInCAD highlights its early role as a primary repository for specialized research, surpassing WoS and Scopus untill quite a few years afterward. This research underscores key historical milestones marking AI's integration into the AEC, including advancements in evolutionary computation, machine learning, and distributed AI systems. While revealing critical trends, the study acknowledges its limitations, such as database bias and the exclusion of developments post-2023. Future research should extend beyond this period, incorporate qualitative analysis, and explore emerging tools in generative design to understand AI's growing impact.</p
Content oriented 3D-CNN sequence learning architecture for academic activities recognition using a realistic CAD dataset
No full textIn computer vision, video analytic researchers have been developing techniques for human activity recognition in several application domains. Academic institutions are in possession of rich video repository generated by the surveillance system in respective campuses. One major requirement is to develop lightweight adaptable models capable of recognizing academic activities, enabling effective decision making in various application domains. This research article proposes a lightweight 3D-CNN architecture for recognizing a novel set of academic activities using a realistic campus video dataset. The proposed sequence learning model is obtained by utilizing spatial and temporal video information enabling accurate classification of the target activity sequences. The proposed model is compared with the LSTM model, a state-of-the-art algorithm for time-series and sequence-learning problems, by performing sufficient experimentations. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed 3D-CNN model outperforms other variants, achieving the highest accuracy of 95%, minimum computational cost of 13.3 GFLOPs, and low memory overhead of 18,464 KB. These performance indicators make the proposed model an efficient and effective classifier for the proposed academic activity recognition task.</p
Association between dynapenic abdominal obesity and mild cognitive impairment among middle-aged and older community-dwelling adults
No full textObjectives: Dynapenic abdominal obesity (DAO) may potentially increase risk for mild cognitive impairment (MCI), but data is scarce, and community-based studies are lacking. Thus, we aimed to investigate the association between DAO and MCI in a large nationally representative community-based sample from six LMICs (China, Ghana, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa).Methods: We analyzed cross-sectional data from the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health. Dynapenia was defined as handgrip strength of 88 cm for women and > 102 cm for men. DAO was defined as having both dynapenia and abdominal obesity. The National Institute on Ageing-Alzheimer’s Association criteria were used to define MCI. Multivariable logistic regression was performed.Results: Data on 32,715 individuals aged ≥ 50 years were analyzed [mean (SD) age 62.1 (15.6) years; 48.3% males]. Among those aged 50–64 years, dynapenia alone and DAO were significantly associated with MCI with the OR for DAO (OR = 1.79; 95%CI = 1.26–2.56) being higher than that of dynapenia alone (OR = 1.40; 95%CI = 1.15–1.71). In those aged ≥ 65 years, only dynapenia alone (OR = 1.53; 95%CI = 1.23–1.89) was significantly associated with MCI but not DAO. Abdominal obesity alone was not significantly associated with MCI in both age groups.Conclusions: Among community-dwellers in six LMICs, DAO was significantly associated with MCI among middle-aged individuals, but not among older people. However, it is important to note that the study was cross-sectional in nature, and thus, it is not known whether DAO leads to MCI or vice versa. Therefore, future longitudinal studies are necessary to clarify temporal associations and possible causality.</p
Comparative biology needs de novo transcriptome assemblies: drawing attention towards amphibians
No full textThe study of transcriptomics across amphibians opens a window to understand how species have adapted to and cope with their environment, diseases, and new challenges. Transcriptomics can accelerate comparative studies across the amphibian tree of life because they capture diverse biological information at a fraction of the cost of genomics. Currently, 337 amphibians (3.82% of the described species) have transcriptomic data available, and 60 of them (0.68% of the described amphibian species) have reconstructed de novo assemblies readily accessible on public repositories. Here, we summarise taxonomic gaps for amphibian transcriptomics, highlighting studies that have used these resources in a multi-species comparative framework to uncover the genetic variation and gene expression patterns that underlie phenotypes across different aspects of amphibian biology. Given the particularities of amphibians, including their complex life cycles, we provide some guidelines to generate reference transcriptomes while identifying challenges that researchers might encounter. We explore the developmental and tissue-specific transcriptome divergence across the three amphibian orders to aid in identifying suitable target samples for reference transcriptomes (e.g., developmental stages, brain, kidney, reproductive tissues). Since annotations for amphibians are very limited, we recommend researchers to be critical of annotations assigned through homology. We encourage the availability of transcriptome assemblies in public repositories, sparing computational efforts and costs to advance multi-species research. Comparative studies should expand taxonomic and ecological breadth to unveil the molecular bases of evolution, adaptation, and resilience mechanisms for one of the most imperilled groups of vertebrates.</p
Ten facts from critical and interpretive social sciences for environmental research
No full textThe social sciences are crucial contributors to environmental research. Collectively, they provide insights on the economic, cultural, political, and psychological dimensions of sustainability challenges. Yet, efforts to mainstream the social sciences in environmental research are missing the diversity of social science scholarship. Here, we contend that the critical and interpretive social sciences —which question and rethink established paradigms and power structures— have an invaluable, yet still underutilized, role. We propose that rethinking the focus, conduct, and goals of environmental research recognizing 10 facts from the critical and interpretive social sciences can help environmental research to better support desired transformative change for the benefit of both people and planet.</p
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇