Mapping whole-brain seizure network recruitment with optogenetic kindling

Epilepsy is often labelled a network disorder, though a common view of seizures holds that they initiate in a singular onset zone before expanding contiguously outward. A recent report by Choy et al. (2021) leverages new tools to study whole-brain dynamics during epileptic seizures originating in the hippocampus. Cell-type-specific kindling and functional imaging revealed how various brain regions were recruited to seizures and uncovered a novel form of migrating seizure core.

Education for Gender Equality in Teacher Preparation

Since the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1979, education has been regarded as an essential vehicle to face gender inequities. As a result, universities are increasingly recognizing the need for mainstreaming gender into education to ensure that all graduates are prepared for developing a gender-sensitive practice. With the purpose of bringing evidence of present developments in connection with current European policies, student teachers' and educators' perceptions of gender mainstreaming implementation from three education programs at the University of Alicante, Spain were explored. Findings reveal that there is a common view that gender mainstreaming has not emerged as a priority in teacher education and that institutional indifference in implementing a gender approach in teaching is a norm. The study contributes to identifying areas of need suggesting actions for making progress in gender equality training at institutional and curricular levels.

Eustress And Distress In The Context Of Telework

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about a surge in telework, with many organizations using telework to continue operations. Teleworkers are subject to stress due to the demands of working from home. Despite the common view of stress as being detrimental, stress can also be beneficial. In this paper, we investigate two forms of stress, eustress (beneficial stress), and distress (detrimental stress) using a theoretically-derived model that includes antecedents and outcomes of eustress and distress. We test our model using data from a survey of 525 American teleworkers. Results indicate that job resources (autonomy, managerial support, and technical support), and personal resources (resilience and self-efficacy) affect eustress, while job demands (work overload, social isolation, and resource inadequacies) affect distress. Eustress is positively associated with job and telework satisfaction and negatively associated with telework exhaustion. Distress has the opposite effects. Our findings hold implications for researchers and practitioners.

The AgeCap Conceptual Framework for Research on Capability in Ageing

The overall goal of AgeCap is to contribute to increased wellbeing and participation in life for the older population. While there are several ways to meet this challenge, AgeCap has chosen the capability approach, which focuses on a subjective perceived health- and ability-related perspective, rather than on disease or disabilities. The understanding of capability used within the centre is based on the work of the philosopher and economist Amartya Sen, described as the individual’s ability to perform actions in order to reach goals he or she has reason to value (Sen A. The idea of justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2009). The capability approach focuses on what people are able to do and to be – their capabilities – and on their freedom of choice to perform those actions. AgeCap’s multidisciplinary setting was an opportunity to adopt the capability approach within its research. Nevertheless, it also created challenges in establishing a common view of what capability is, and how to apply the concept in collaborations across several different research fields. Thus, at an early stage during the setting up of the Centre, it was decided that a conceptual framework aiming to capture a shared view of capability in ageing should be developed. In addition, in order to facilitate the application of the capability approach within the research setting and make it more accessible to different target groups within society, it was later proposed that a graphic illustration of the AgeCap framework of capability should be created. This chapter describes the conceptual framework and graphic illustration that were developed by the Communication Group in collaboration with the Steering Committee, Principal Investigators, other researchers within AgeCap and the company Explain Artist. Central concepts include available resources, conversion factors, capability set, freedom of choice, goals of value and justice. The purpose of the conceptual framework is mainly to serve as a platform for researchers to use in any way they find relevant from their own perspective. Furthermore, the graphic illustration was developed in order to facilitate the application of the capability approach within AgeCap and make our research more accessible to society in order to dismantle the wall between researchers, older people and the general public.

ON THE QUESTION OF THE BASIC PERIODIZATION OF IMITATIONS OF THE ROMAN IMPERIAL DENARII IN THE CHERNYAKHIV CULTURE AREA: THE CONCEPT OF TWO «WAVES»

Imitations of Roman coins, the findings of which are very numerous and diverse in Ukraine, have already attracted the attention of researchers. The material accumulated over the last two decades, when taking into account its scale and diversity, allows us to state that imitations of Roman coins in the area of Chernyakhiv culture, is an unique and large-scale phenomenon, visible on the imaginary «map» of ancient numismatics. In this context, the growing number of new findings of imitations actualizes the task of more detailed and meaningful categorization of the accumulated material, in order to create a certain integral «canvas» of such a phenomenon as the imitations of Roman coins from the area of Chernyakhiv culture. The article is devoted to the improvement of the existing typology and periodization of imitations of Roman imperial denarii, which were made in the area of Chernyakhiv culture during the II - IV centuries. To solve this problem, the authors proposed and used an analytical scheme, consisting of a set of classification parameters for the typology of imitations of Roman coins in the area of Chernyakhiv culture. The use of this scheme allowed to form «profiles» and to substantiate the presence in the general set of imitations of two large, non-intersecting groups («waves») of imitations. Further analysis allowed to describe and compare these two «waves» of imitation in more detail. It was found that the first «wave» refers to the period of gradual entry of the Roman silver coins into the area of Chernyakhiv culture (II - early III century), which significantly clarifies the common view, according to which all imitations belong to the second half of the III century or even later. The second «wave» of imitations really refers to the second half of the III - early IV century, as it was established in the literature. Thus, the results of the study substantiated a comprehensive approach to the classification of imitations of Roman coins in the area of Chernyakhiv culture and significantly clarified the chronological framework of their production. In the future, the concept of two «waves» and the analytical scheme proposed by the authors may contribute to a more accurate classification and periodization of the whole array of imitations of Roman coins, which were made in the area of Chernyakhiv culture

Teaching the pragmatics of English as an international language: A focus on pragmatic markers

The current era of globalization and emergence of English as an international language (EIL) has brought about new opportunities for L2 pragmatic learning and teaching. The common view of pragmatic learning as an approximation to native-likeness is changing towards conceiving pragmatic ability as a tool to interact with people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the majority of whom are non-native speakers (NNSs) of English. While such reality is widely acknowledged, few attempts have been made to teach pragmatic competence in EIL. Addressing this concern, the present study investigates the effects that a pedagogical intervention on EIL pragmatics has on the oral use of pragmatic markers (PMs): a key tool for successful communication in the current increasingly multicultural and multilingual society. Seventy-three Spanish EFL students were divided into an instructional ( n = 34) and a control group ( n = 39). The instructional group received 4 interventional sessions that included (1) awareness of the legitimacy of EIL, (2) meta-pragmatic awareness of pragmatic behavior across the world, (3) task-supported instruction on PMs, and (4) strategy-based instruction. Pragmatic competence was assessed by students’ use of PMs in oral academic presentations. The results revealed that the instructional group had more significant changes in the frequency and variety of PMs used than the control one, as they widened the repertoire of PMs uttered in their academic presentations. These findings project the future of pragmatic instruction in EIL and provide directions for reorienting the EIL curriculum towards the integration of L2 pragmatics.

GNSS time and frequency transfers through national positioning, navigation and timing infrastructure

GNSS signals have been a practical time transfer tool to realise a Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and set civilian clocks around the world with respect to this atomic time standard. UTC time scale is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measurements (BIPM) adjusted to be close to a time scale based on the Earth’s rotation. In Thailand, the official atomic time clocks are maintained by the National Institute of Metrology Thailand (NIMT) to produce UTC(NIMT) and Thailand standard time which is always 7 hours ahead of UTC(NIMT) because of the time zone differences between Greenwich and Bangkok. National Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) infrastructure comprises of GNSS geodetic receivers uniformly distributed to continually observe GNSS signals, mainly for geodetic survey applications both real-time and post-processing services. NIMT is involved in order to provide time link to UTC and to determine the characteristics of GNSS receiver internal clocks; namely, fractional frequency offset and frequency stabilities by applying the GNSS time transfer techniques of common-view algorithms. Monitored time differences with respect to UTC(NIMT) are achieved from selected 4 ground stations in different parts of the country with observations of 21 days in order to determine the frequency stability at 1-day and 7-day modes. GNSS standard log files; in RINEX format, at these receivers are transformed into a time transfer standard format; CGGTTS, used to compute the time differences between two stations, the fractional frequency offset and the frequency stability. Averaged fractional frequency offsets are 2.8 × 10 − 13 Hertz/Hertz 2.8\times {10^{-13}}\hspace{2.38387pt}\text{Hertz/Hertz} and computed Allan deviation is around 1.5 × 10 − 13 Hertz/Hertz 1.5\times {10^{-13}}\hspace{2.38387pt}\text{Hertz/Hertz} for an averaging time of 1 day. The comparison of the national time scale and receiver clock offsets of every receivers in this national GNSS PNT infrastructure could be accomplished through common-view time transfer using GNSS satellites to maintain the time link of geodetic active control points to UTC as well as to determine receiver internal clock characteristics.

Surf and Swash Dynamics on Low Tide Terrace Beaches

Low tide terrace (LLT) beaches are characterised by a moderately steep beach face and a flat shallow terrace influencing the local hydro-morphodynamics during low tide. The upper beachface slope (β) and the terrace width (Lt) are the main morphological parameters that define the shape of LTT cross-shore beach profiles. This work aims at better understanding the behaviour of β and Lt and their link with the incoming wave forcing. For this purpose, our results are based on 3.5 years times series of daily beach profiles and wave conditions surveys at two different microtidal LTT beaches with similar sediments size but different wave climate, one at Nha Trang (Vietnam) and the other one at Grand Popo (Benin). While they look similar, two contrasting behaviour were linked to two sub-types of LTT regimes: the first one is surf regulated beaches (SRB) where the swash zone is highly regulated by the surf zone wave energy dissipation on the terrace, and the second is swash regulated beaches (SwRB) acting in more reflective regime where the terrace is not active and the energy dissipation is mainly produced in the swash zone, the terrace becomes a consequences of the high dynamics in the swash zone. Finally, extending the common view of an equilibrium beach profile as a power law of the cross-shore distance, the ability of a simple parametrized cubic function model with the Dean number as unique control parameters is proposed and discussed. This simple model can be used for the understanding of LLT environments but it can not be extended to the whole beach spectrum.

The proteome, not the transcriptome, predicts that oocyte superovulation affects embryonic phenotypes in mice

Superovulation is the epitome for generating oocytes for molecular embryology in mice, and it is used to model medically assisted reproduction in humans. However, whether a superovulated oocyte is normal, is an open question. This study establishes for the first time that superovulation is associated with proteome changes that affect phenotypic traits in mice, whereas the transcriptome is far less predictive. The proteins that were differentially expressed in superovulated mouse oocytes and embryos compared to their naturally ovulated counterparts were enriched in ontology terms describing abnormal mammalian phenotypes: a thinner zona pellucida, a smaller oocyte diameter, increased frequency of cleavage arrest, and defective blastocyst formation, which could all be verified functionally. Moreover, our findings indicate that embryos with such abnormalities are negatively selected during preimplantation, and ascribe these abnormalities to incomplete ovarian maturation during the time of the conventional superovulation, since they could be corrected upon postponement of the ovulatory stimulus by 24 h. Our data place constraints on the common view that superovulated oocytes are suitable for drawing general conclusions about developmental processes, and underscore the importance of including the proteins in a modern molecular definition of oocyte quality.

Education and Mentoring About Cyberbullying Through Law of Information and Electronic Transaction and Islamic Teaching to “Generation Z”

The purposes of this mentoring are obtained education about perspective of cyberbullying through Law of Information and Electronical Transaction (A.K.A. UU ITE) and Fatwa MUI Number 24 Year 2017 to students that incidentally called “Generation Z”, a generation that cannot be separated from social media in their lives. The method that used in this mentoring is education in the form of training with model of participatory. It educates more motivating participants actively, not only knowledge transferring but it emphasizes on question and answers, discussion and reflection even though the interest of the students is limit, considering those activities were conducted on Zoom Application. This mentoring was succeeded to change the point of view of students that cyberbullying is a common view, cyber joke is a behaviour that must be avoided because it has an impact on juvenile delinquency, adult crime, domestic violence and suicide. It also creates friendship feud).