Activating <Emphasis Type="Italic">quasi</Emphasis>-organizational memory in environmental scenario building

This paper presents the results of an on-going research project aiming at developing GraviCS, an information system supporting local government and citizens in managing argumentations during the setting up of a Regional Natural Park in Southern Italy. We consider that organizational memory, structured within information systems supporting decision-making and action in organizational environments, can be a useful means for developing multilevel (individual, group, organizational) collaborative learning; in this sense the system architecture was designed referring to the organizational domain emerging in the decision making context of a Natural Park and was finalized to the dynamic representation of the organizational memory. Starting from the case study – the process for the Gravina Natural Park setting-up – , the paper describes the system's architecture and discusses some issues related to: possible dynamic representations of organizational memory; creation, use and storage of decision/learning histories.     

Tactile training facilitates infants' ability to reach to targets on the body

This longitudinal study investigated the effect of experience with tactile stimulation on infants' ability to reach to targets on the body, an important adaptive skill. Infants were provided weekly tactile stimulation on eight body locations from 4 to 8 months of age (N = 11), comparing their ability to reach to the body to infants in a control group who did not receive stimulation (N = 10). Infants who received stimulation were more likely to successfully reach targets on the body than controls by 7 months of age. These findings indicate that tactile stimulation facilitates the development of reaching to the body by allowing infants to explore the sensorimotor correlations emerging from the stimulation.     

Scientific Literacy: The Role of Goal-Directed Reading and Evaluation in Understanding Scientific Information

In this article, we examine the mental processes and representations that are required of laypersons when learning about science issues from texts. We begin by defining scientific literacy as the ability to understand and critically evaluate scientific content in order to achieve one's goals. We then present 3 challenges of learning from science texts: the intrinsic complexity of science phenomena, the need to coordinate multiple documents of various types, and the rhetorical structure of the texts themselves. Because scientific information focuses on models, theories, explanations, and evidence, we focus on how explanatory and argumentative texts are processed. Then we examine 2 components of executive control in reading—goal-directed guidance and evaluation of content—that readers can acquire and adopt to deal with these challenges. Finally, we discuss 3 implications that these theories and empirical findings have for interventions intended to improve laypersons’ understanding of scientific information.     

Inspiring Academically Talented High School Students to Consider Teaching Careers in Urban Schools

This article addresses a unique effort to implement a summer residential program that identifies and inspires potential educators by reaching down the pipeline to academically talented high school students. The primary goal of the program was to introduce participants to various dimensions of urban teaching. The research and evaluation for the program was designed to include diverse forms of data (quantitative and qualitative) from both staff and program participants. This study??s findings indicate that participants became more informed about prevalent issues in under-resourced urban schools, better understood the need for teachers?? ongoing professional development and felt more comfortable in urban schools. A number of the focal participants also expressed sustained or increased aspirations for teaching youth in urban schools.     

How reliable are students’ evaluations of teaching quality? A variance components approach

The inter-rater reliability of university students’ evaluations of teaching quality was examined with cross-classified multilevel models. Students (N = 480) evaluated lectures and seminars over three years with a standardised evaluation questionnaire, yielding 4224 data points. The total variance of these student evaluations was separated into the variance components of courses, teachers, students and the student/teacher interaction. The substantial variance components of teachers and courses suggest reliability. However, a similar proportion of variance was due to students, and the interaction of students and teachers was the strongest source of variance. Students’ individual perceptions of teaching and the fit of these perceptions with the particular teacher greatly influence their evaluations. This casts some doubt on the validity of student evaluations as indicators of teaching quality and suggests that aggregated evaluation scores should be used with caution.     

On-chip microelectrode impedance analysis of mammalian cell viability during biomanufacturing

The characterization of cell viability is a challenging task in applied biotechnology, as no clear definition of cell death exists. Cell death is accompanied with a change in the electrical properties of the membrane as well as the cell interior. Therefore, changes in the physiology of cells can be characterized by monitoring of their dielectric properties. We correlated the dielectric properties of industrially used mammalian cells, sedimented over interdigitated microelectrodes, to the AC signal response across the chip. The voltage waveforms across the electrodes were processed to obtain the circuit impedance, which was used to quantify the changes in cell viability. We observed an initial decrease in impedance, after which it remained nearly constant. The results were compared with data from the dye exclusion viability test, the cell specific oxygen uptake rate, and the online viable cell density data from capacitance probes. The microelectrode technique was found to be sensitive to physiological changes taking place inside the cells before their membrane integrity is compromised. Such accurate determination of the metabolic status during this initial period, which turned out to be less well captured in the dye exclusion tests, may be essential for several biotechnology operations.