Sars-Cov2 Induced Biochemical Mechanisms in Liver Damage and Intestinal Lesions

Multiple pathogenic mechanisms are found in SARS-CoV2 systemic inflammation. Oxidative stress, altered proteolysis, hypercoagulation, and metabolic disorders are significant in virus-induced lesions.The study aimed to investigate the biochemical mechanism of virus-induced disorders and determine the biochemical features in SARS-CoV2-associated liver damage and intestine lesions.A retrospective case series of ninety-two patients diagnosed with COVID-19 pnemonia. The ACE, α1-proteinase inhibitor, trypsin-like proteinase, and elastase activity were measured. Nitrites level was detected in reaction with Griess reagent. The ELISA kit measured Troponin, C-peptide, leptin, adiponectin, PAR4, and neuropilin level.It was obtained an increase in ACE activity and nitrites ions content in SARS-CoV2 associated patients. The hyperglycemia and an increase in adipose tissue-derived hormones guided the virus-induced metabolic disorders. Proteolysis activation was revealed in SARS-CoV2 pneumonia patients. The found molecular event was accompanied by hyperglycemia induction. Multiorgan lesions manifest in in cardiac failure, which was detected in patients with ARDS. Moreover, high arterial blood pressure in patients with COVID-19 was associated with the hyperglycemia and increased ACE activity and NO ions level. Liver damage was specific for COVID-19-associated patients with severe ARDS and heart failure. Proteolysis overactivation resulting in vasoactive substances imbalance was detected in patients with the intestinal lesions. The obtained data shows the the neuropilin-dependent axis in damage prevalence in the intestine.Metabolic disorders resulting in the growth of adipose-derived tissue hormones, nitrites, and neuropilin levels was triggered by prolonged inflammation. So, the impaired metabolism and SARS-CoV2 associated hyperglycemia influence on SARS-CoV2 multiple mechanisms. Gastrointestinal manifestations in SARS-CoV2 infection was found to be related to various biochemical and molecular tools. ACE2 receptors axis is prevalent for liver damage, but NRP-1 protein (neuropilin), NO derivatives, and adipose tissue-derived hormones are essential for intestinal lesions.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12291-022-01089-x.     

A comparative approach to cue competition with one and two strong predictors

The relative validity effect (Wagner, Logan, Haberlandt, & Price, 1968) demonstrated that a strong cue or cause reduces responding to, or judgments of, a weaker cue or cause. We report two experiments with human subjects using relative validity preparations in which we investigate one- and two-cue competition effects. Previously, we investigated the effect using instrumental and Pavlovian conditioning preparations with rats. In the first experiment, we used a procedure analogous to the animal preparations. In the second experiment, we used a different probabilistic procedure. The results with humans and rats are very similar. In each species we find similar interference with processing the moderate predictor with one or with two strong competitors.     

Gaining legitimacy: mentoring as an avenue to navigate the transition into a new academic workplace / Conseguir legitimidad: las mentorías como medio para gestionar la transición a un puesto académico distinto

This paper discusses the learning and development experiences of academics who make transitions between higher education institutions involving multiple communities. In these communities, they may act on the periphery as both newcomers and academics with established credentials that may have a significant impact on their participation. In acknowledging this, this paper uses Lave and Wenger’s concept of Community of Practice to better understand how these academics gain their legitimacy, and whether mentoring has a specific role to play in their development into full members of communities. Based on the analysis of the themes generated from 12 in-depth semi-structured interviews with academics who have experienced transitions between higher education institutions, this paper suggests that restricted access to a mentoring programme may lead these academics to question their status benefits and their development into full participants of communities. Referring to the examples of mentoring programmes used in other universities, this paper shows that among experienced academics, mentoring can contribute to their development and provide a range of psychosocial benefits from the increased level of support.     

Tracking Professional Development of Novice Teachers when Integrating Technology in Teaching Mathematics

This research traced changes in choices of technological tools and attitudes toward technology use among novice mathematics teachers at three stages of their professional development: as pre-service teachers, a year later, and in their work as novice teachers. At each stage, the participants were required to evaluate the benefits of technology use in their learning/teaching.

We found that the novice mathematics teachers used a variety of technological tools, while as students they preferred to use digital presentations or dynamic software. Moreover, the novice teachers used two additional tools: the school platform and the WhatsApp instant messaging application. The novice teachers placed significantly higher value on the benefits of using technology in teaching in terms of improvement in learning, enhancement of pupils' motivation and increased effectiveness of the lesson. These results indicated that only as practical teachers were the participants able to see the benefits of technology.     

Perpetuating academic capitalism and maintaining gender orders through career practices in STEM in universities

Academic capitalism is an outcome of the interplay between neoliberalism, globalisation, markets and universities. Universities have embraced the commercialisation of knowledge, technology transfer and research funding as well as introducing performance and audit practices. Academic capitalism has become internalised as a regulatory mechanism by academics who attempt to accumulate academic capital. Universities are traditionally gendered organisations, reflecting the societal gender order. Despite fears regarding the feminisation of the academy, the embrace of academic capitalism is contributing to its re-masculinisation and exercises an incidental gender effect. Practicing is the means by which the gender order is constituted at work. Three practices in which academics engage are examined as exemplars of the way academics increase their academic capital stock in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) faculties in four European universities, in Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland and Turkey. These practices tend to be more achievable and likely to be engaged in by men, thus, career practices are the mechanism through which the gender effect of academic capitalism is achieved, academic capitalism perpetuated and the gender order maintained in STEM in academia.     

Rethinking the use of Multi-User Virtual Environments in education

ABSTRACT

Multi-User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) have gained more prominence in education of late; however, the question of their theoretically sound implementation remains relatively understudied. The current article addresses this gap through the explanation of how a MUVE platform Second Life was used in an undergraduate course for pre-service teachers. Instructional decisions are explained within a theoretical framework of Open Source Educative Processes and are illustrated by specific multiple data sources. Based on the semester-long observations, the authors argue that Second Life can be used to create independent learning communities that have possibilities for transformative learning, creating contexts in which students move beyond simple understanding and engage multiple perspectives in their meaning-making processes. The authors explain the potential instructional and technological pitfalls involved and how to deal with them through a micro-analytic Open Source methodology, and raise broader philosophical questions about the role of technology in education.     

Teacher facilitating of group learning in science with digital technology and insights into students’ agency in learning to learn

ABSTRACT

The study provides an insight into how teachers may facilitate students’ group learning in science with digital technology, which was examined when Norwegian lower secondary school students engaged in learning concepts of mitosis and meiosis. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the teacher’s assistance draw on Galperin’s conceptualisation of learning.

Findings reveal patterns in the teacher’s guidance: the teacher fulfilled the orienting, executive and controlling functions while assisting students in identifying the key features of mitosis and meiosis and solving the compare and contrast task. The teacher relied on and interplayed with the available mediational resources: compare and contrast task, digital animations, and collaborating peers. However, it was the compare and contrast task that demonstrated an approach to study scientific concepts which may have contributed to the development of learners’ understanding about to engage in learning in science. By adopting such an approach, learning activity has the potential to not only help students to achieve learning outcomes but it acquires a functional significance, becoming a tool in the learning process aimed at the development of students’ as learners. The digital animations, in turn, demonstrated scientific processes that were otherwise invisible for students and triggered group discussions. The study, therefore, raises questions about the need for practitioners’ awareness of the type of support the technology and other resources provide to assist both conceptual learning and enhancing students’ agency in learning to learn.