Judgment day: Activating computational thinking activities with popular culture

El interés como construcción de aprendizaje proporciona más que inspiración para la innovación. Dewey reconoció el papel del interés como una herramienta poderosa para involucrar a los estudiantes. Sin embargo, a pesar de los esfuerzos contemporáneos por estudiar el fenómeno, pocos diseños de aprendizaje reconocen este potencial. El presente artículo presenta un marco conceptual para la integración de la cultura popular en STEM, utilizando las competencias de pensamiento computacional como un mecanismo crítico y un contexto para la aplicación y las pruebas. El interés contribuye a la motivación a través de la autorregulación, y la autorregulación tiene el poder de mejorar el ciclo de logro e interés en el aprendizaje. A través de este marco, el Principio de activación de Merrill brinda orientación sobre por qué y cómo debemos atender este ciclo. Al evocar recuerdos positivos relacionados con los intereses del alumno, podemos mejorar otras etapas del aprendizaje desconectadas de la experiencia de aprendizaje inicial. Los educadores y académicos de STEM pueden usar este marco y diseñar y evaluar con confianza actividades de aprendizaje dirigidas al desarrollo del pensamiento computacional utilizando los medios y la cultura populares. Finding a foundation in Dewey, interest is an underestimated and often overlooked aspect of learning design. Yet, situational interest in a learning experience has the power to contribute to motivation through self-regulation. Self-regulation, a learning metaskill, has the power to aid the cyclical cycle of learning achievement and interest, especially in STEM learning. Additionally, Merrill’s Activation Principle provides guidance on why and how we should attend to this cycle. Though interest appears occasionally as a consideration in learning design, two aspects of such an approach are lacking in the literature. First, few STEM-learning designs evaluate activation strategies. Second, sparse examples of attention on designing for interest in STEM learning reference using popular culture as a specific trigger. The current paper explores a conceptual framework for integrating popular culture into STEM, using computational thinking competencies as a critical mechanism and context for application and testing.

Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in pregnancy

Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is a life-threatening systemic inflammatory syndrome defined by persistent fever, cytopenia and multi-organ dysfunction. Primary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis classically presents in childhood as a result of genetically abnormal perforin or inflammasome function, leading to the aberrant release of pro-inflammatory cytokines causing a hyperinflammatory state. Secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis is an acquired phenomenon occurring at any age as a result of immune dysregulation to a specific trigger such as infection, haematological malignancy or autoimmune disease. Secondary haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis occurring in the pregnant woman represents a diagnostic challenge and carries a significant mortality. This has led to its first inclusion in the fourth Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the United Kingdom annual maternal report in 2017. This article presents an overview of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, reviews the literature on haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in pregnancy, suggests diagnostic pathways and explores the safety and efficacy of existing and potential treatment strategies for haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis occurring during pregnancy.

Evaluation of a high-performance storage buffer with 3D XPoint devices for the DUNE data acquisition system

The DUNE detector is a neutrino physics experiment that is expected to take data starting from 2028. The data acquisition (DAQ) system of the experiment is designed to sustain several TB/s of incoming data which will be temporarily buffered while being processed by a software based data selection system. In DUNE, some rare physics processes (e.g. Supernovae Burst events) require storing the full complement of data produced over 1-2 minute window. These are recognised by the data selection system which fires a specific trigger decision. Upon reception of this decision data are moved from the temporary buffers to local, high performance, persistent storage devices. In this paper we characterize the performance of novel 3DXPoint SSD devices under different workloads suitable for high-performance storage applications. We then illustrate how such devices may be applied to the DUNE use-case: to store, upon a specific signal, 100 seconds of incoming data at 1.5 TB/s distributed among 150 identical units each operating at approximately 10GB/s.

Perioperative Transfusion Associated With Increased Morbidity and Mortality in Geriatric Patients Undergoing Hip Fracture Surgery

Introduction: Both conservative and liberal transfusion thresholds, in regard to hematocrit and hemoglobin levels, have been widely studied with varying outcomes. The aim of this study was to evaluate if transfusion administered peri- (anytime during the admission), pre-, intra-, or postoperatively an its association with morbidity and mortality in the geriatric population undergoing hip surgery. Methods: This study was an institutional review board approved retrospective analysis of data collected from 841 patients at a single urban institution who underwent surgical repairs for hip fractures from 2008 to 2010. Results: Our analysis included data from 841 surgical patients. Mean patient age was 83, 74% were female, 48% received spinal anesthesia while 52% underwent general anesthesia. Out of 841 patients, 425 were transfused during the perioperative period. Most transfusions occurred postoperatively. Perioperative, intraoperative and postoperative transfusion was associated with an increase in post-operative AKI. Intraoperative blood transfusion was associated with an increase in morbidity (11.6% increased to 22.2%) by 1.9 fold, AKI (3.9% increased to 11.1%) by 2.8 fold, as well as an increase in mortality (5.2 increased to 15.6%) within 60 days by 3 fold. Conclusions: This may suggest that patients transfused prior to surgery, despite having met a specific trigger hemoglobin level earlier, may have been treated before deteriorating to a point that would cause future systemic implications.

The healthy exocrine pancreas contains preproinsulin-specific CD8 T cells that attack islets in type 1 diabetes

Preproinsulin (PPI) is presumably a crucial islet autoantigen found in patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) but is also recognized by CD8+ T cells from healthy individuals. We quantified PPI-specific CD8+ T cells within different areas of the human pancreas from nondiabetic controls, autoantibody-positive donors, and donors with T1D to investigate their role in diabetes development. This spatial cellular quantitation revealed unusually high frequencies of autoreactive CD8+ T cells supporting the hypothesis that PPI is indeed a key autoantigen. To our surprise, PPI-specific CD8+ T cells were already abundantly present in the nondiabetic pancreas, thus questioning the dogma that T1D is caused by defective thymic deletion or systemic immune dysregulation. During T1D development, these cells accumulated in and around islets, indicating that an islet-specific trigger such as up-regulation of major histocompatibility complex class I might be essential to unmask beta cells to the immune system.

Major obstetric haemorrhageRachel Collis

Successful management of major obstetric haemorrhage requires a multi-professional team to work together to avoid catastrophic consequences: obstetricians, anaesthetists, midwives, ODPs, theatre scrub staff, porters, as well as blood bank technicians and specialist haematologists. The key pillars of management include; antenatal risk assessment of all women, early recognition of haemorrhage, measured blood loss, prompt escalation at specific trigger points, i.e. >500ml, >1000ml, and review by senior team members to ensure rapid source control. This chapter explores the causes of bleeding, management steps based on algorithms from current practice, and latest evidence for use of point of care testing with visco-elastography for goal-directed control of early clotting failure.

Reduction-Responsive Molecularly Imprinted Poly(2-isopropenyl-2-oxazoline) for Controlled Release of Anticancer Agents

Trigger-responsive materials are capable of controlled drug release in the presence of a specific trigger. Reduction induced drug release is especially interesting as the reductive stress is higher inside cells than in the bloodstream, providing a conceptual controlled release mechanism after cellular uptake. In this work, we report the synthesis of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) based on poly(2-isopropenyl-2-oxazoline) (PiPOx) using 3,3′-dithiodipropionic acid (DTDPA) as a reduction-responsive functional cross-linker. The disulfide bond of DTDPA can be cleaved by the addition of tris(2-carboxyethyl)phosphine (TCEP), leading to a reduction-induced 5-FU release. Adsorption isotherms and kinetics for 5-FU indicate that the adsorption kinetics process for imprinted and non-imprinted adsorbents follows two different kinetic models, thus suggesting that different mechanisms are responsible for adsorption. The release kinetics revealed that the addition of TCEP significantly influenced the release of 5-FU from PiPOx-MIP, whereas for non-imprinted PiPOx, no statistically relevant differences were observed. This work provides a conceptual basis for reduction-induced 5-FU release from molecularly imprinted PiPOx, which in future work may be further developed into MIP nanoparticles for the controlled release of therapeutic agents.

ETHIOPATHOGENETIC BIOMARKERS FOR THE FORMATION OF HEPATOSPLENOMEGAL SYNDROME AND THE CHOICE OF TREATMENT OF PATIENTS WITH ESOPHAGEAL PHLEBECTASIS BLEEDING

Summary. A range of specific biomarkers to evaluate the severity of the condition, the choice of tactics, effectiveness and prognosis of treatment are used. Goal. Evaluation of biomarkers characterizing the etiopathogenetic disorders in hepatosplenomegaly syndrome complicated by recurrent bleeding from esophageal phlebectasis to select individual treatment tactics. Materials and methods. The digestive function of phagocytes is investigated, the concentration of opsonizing, membranotropic cytotoxic factors and the degree of endogenous intoxication in 3 groups of patients with different etiological factors of hepatosplenomegaly, complicated by bleeding are evaluated. Results. The presence of specific trigger factors (viral hepatitis, herpes viruses, hereditary-related disorders of lysosomal enzymes) made it possible to classify patients into three groups. In the first group of patients with viral hepatitis B and C the induction of phagocytic activity of neutrophils, a significant increase in lymphocytotoxicity on the background of disorders of protein and lipid metabolism showed. In the second group of patients with the presence of herpes group viruses and autoimmune component an imbalance of opsonizing factors revealed, in particular proteins of the complement system, which caused impaired clearance of low molecular weight immune complexes and products of their degradation. In the third group of patients with hepatitis a significant decrease in the activity of lysosomal enzymes of phagocytic cells are found. The identified pathogenetic biomarkers indicate the presence in this group of patients with congenital enzymopathy characteristic of accumulation diseases. For patients with a pronounced manifestation of intercellular interactions disorders, as an effective alternative to liver transplantation the use of transfusions of mesenchymal stem cells, which are capable of trans differentiation under the influence of mediator microenvironment factors may be.

High intrinsic hydrolytic activity of cyanobacterial RNA polymerase compensates for the absence of transcription proofreading factors

The vast majority of organisms possess transcription elongation factors, the functionally similar bacterial Gre and eukaryotic/archaeal TFIIS/TFS. Their main cellular functions are to proofread errors of transcription and to restart elongation via stimulation of RNA hydrolysis by the active centre of RNA polymerase (RNAP). However, a number of taxons lack these factors, including one of the largest and most ubiquitous groups of bacteria, cyanobacteria. Using cyanobacterial RNAP as a model, we investigated alternative mechanisms for maintaining a high fidelity of transcription and for RNAP arrest prevention. We found that this RNAP has very high intrinsic proofreading activity, resulting in nearly as low a level of in vivo mistakes in RNA as Escherichia coli. Features of the cyanobacterial RNAP hydrolysis are reminiscent of the Gre-assisted reaction—the energetic barrier is similarly low, and the reaction involves water activation by a general base. This RNAP is resistant to ubiquitous and most regulatory pausing signals, decreasing the probability to go off-pathway and thus fall into arrest. We suggest that cyanobacterial RNAP has a specific Trigger Loop domain conformation, and isomerises easier into a hydrolytically proficient state, possibly aided by the RNA 3′-end. Cyanobacteria likely passed these features of transcription to their evolutionary descendants, chloroplasts.