Teaching without the teacher? Building a learning environment through computer simulations

This article analyzes the impact of a computer simulation (business game) on the users’ perceived learning. The theoretical model developed in this paper is derived from collaborative learning and human–computer interaction assumptions. The hypotheses relating to group dynamics and the user–computer interface design with the users’ perceived learning are tested using the business game “FirmReality” on a sample of 173 respondents. Multiple regression and qualitative results show that, in a computer-based simulation context, perceived learning is influenced more by human–computer interaction factors than by group dynamics. Furthermore, results point out a negative effect of interaction with the instructor on individual perceived learning. These results support the possibility to automate the interaction between teacher and students.     

Potential adverse cardiac remodelling in highly trained athletes: still unknown clinical significance

Moderate endurance exercise has long been considered an essential element to maintain cardiovascular health, and sedentary behaviour in the general population has been related to a significant increase in all-causes of mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality and cardiovascular disease incidence. However, a growing group of people performs an intense exercise that leads to multiple heart adaptive changes that are collectively called “athlete’s heart”. In this review, we discussed the evidence of cardiac remodelling process secondary to repetitive and strenuous exercise in some predisposed athletes that produces intense and probably deleterious changes in cardiac morphology and function with no clear clinical significance in long-term follow-up. Moreover, we also discussed the individual biological response to exercise assessed by myocardial damage, inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis and ventricular hypertrophy biomarkers showing different intensities with equivalent exertion.     

Using the value creation framework to capture knowledge co-creation and pathways to impact in a transnational community of practice in autism education

ABSTRACT

Although theories around Communities of Practice have gained significant ground in recent years and have become an important focus for organizational development, there is a gap in studies that investigate what members gain from participation in these communities. This paper explains how the value creation framework was implemented in a transnational research and development project in autism education by examining cycles of value creation and drawing on two types of data identified by Wenger and colleagues. The value creation framework is a theoretically driven framework to assess social learning in communities. Participants involved in the learning space were co-researchers engaged in a process of investigating, sharing and reflecting on their practice. The paper discusses the methodological challenges and strengths of using the value creation framework, with a particular focus on how insights and interactions led to subsequent changes in the practice of the participants. This work has the potential to make an important contribution to methods and analysis in assessing social learning and pathways to impact in participatory research and development projects more broadly.     

Recent advances in swollen-state NMR spectroscopy for the study of drying oils

The cross-linking processes of three drying oils (poppy, linseed, walnut), a class of organic compounds very important in the field of artworks, were studied by means of ¹H-NMR spectroscopy, following the change of the protons signals when oils are heated at 60 °C in the presence of air or nitrogen gas. This preliminary information is particularly important to identify the presence of drying oils within a solid painting film. We demonstrated that it was possible to study these films by swollen-state NMR, an innovative spectroscopy method that can directly analyze very small semisolid samples instead of solutions. The main advantages of this method are the short time of analysis, the possibility to analyze samples without any preliminary treatment, and the small quantity of the sample required. Therefore, swollen-state NMR technique was used to characterize three real painting films: in this way, we succeeded in recognizing in real paintings specimens the presence of drying oils employed as binders, avoiding any interferences due to other organic compounds acting as binding agents, like waxes or egg-yolk media.     

Noninvasive physicochemical characterization of two 19th century English ferrotypes

The present work was one of the first attempts to analyze the conservation status of two ferrotypes, ancient photographic plates realized on a support made of iron. The photographic material was constituted of collodion as binder for the photosensitive silver halides grains. The two ferrotypes studied belonged to a private collection of a family from Durham, UK, and were made at the end of the 19th century. The analytical techniques used for the morphological and physicochemical characterization were noninvasive. The surface morphology was studied by means of optical microscopy (OM) and environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) coupled with an energy dispersive X-rays (EDX) system for the elemental analysis. These techniques, together with microreflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) and contact angle, allowed to obtain information on both the chemical – elemental – composition of the materials constituting the ferrotypes, and the conservation status of these photographic plates. The study showed that the physicochemical diagnostics allowed to characterize the two ferrotypes that, despite their similar age and provenance, showed different conservation status, surface properties, and elemental composition.     

Effects of different physical education programmes on children’s skill- and health-related outcomes: a pilot randomised controlled trial

Aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of two different 5-month physical education (PE) interventions conducted by a specialist PE teacher on primary school children’s skill- and health-related outcomes. About 230 children were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups: experimental_1 group, experimental_2 group or control group (school curriculum given by the generalist teacher). Pre- and post-intervention tests assessed pupils’ fitness (pacer, curl-up, push-up, trunk lift, sit and reach tests) and gross motor coordination (shifting platforms, balance beam, jumping laterally, hopping on one leg over an obstacle tests). Both experimental groups significantly improved some fitness and coordinative tests after the intervention period when compared with control group. However, no differential changes on coordinative development were observed between the 2 experimental groups. Results of this study demonstrated that children benefitted from a well-structured PE intervention conducted and supervised by a specialist PE teacher improving their motor skills and fitness.     

Consensus-based course design and implementation of constructive alignment theory in a power system analysis course

This article presents the implementation of the constructive alignment theory (CAT) in a power system analysis course through a consensus-based course design process. The consensus-based design process involves both the instructor and graduate-level students and it aims to develop the CAT framework in a holistic manner with the goal of including different perceptions. The considerations required to implement this approach are described in detail. To examine the effect of this approach, three different course evaluations were conducted by querying the students during different stages of the course. These evaluations show that most of the students find a benefit for their learning in the implementation of CAT within the new course design. These observations are supported by a comparison of the students’ performance in the new course and the previous one. Finally, the revised two-factor study process questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) is utilised to identify the students’ learning approach towards the course. The aim is to correlate the students’ approach with their final grade to assess if students adopting a deep learning approach are rewarded with higher marks and vice versa, that is, to check if the CAT implementation was successful. Meanwhile, some of the R-SPQ-2F limitations, which affect the quality of the results, are identified and discussed. Additionally, to facilitate the practical usage of R-SPQ-2F, an algorithm was developed by the authors to rank the students’ approach towards the course. The results of the new ranking algorithm demonstrate positive correlation with the students’ final grade, which is an indication of the effective CAT implementation.     

Additive benefits of external focus and enhanced performance expectancy for motor learning

The authors examined the individual and combined influences of 2 factors that have been shown to benefit motor learning: an external focus of attention and enhanced performance expectancies. Another purpose of this study was to gain further insight into the mechanisms underlying these variables. In a factorial design, participants learning a novel motor skill (i.e., throwing with the non-dominant arm) were or were not given external focus instructions, and were or were not provided bogus positive social-comparative feedback to enhance their expectancies. This resulted in 4 groups: external focus, enhanced expectancy, external focus/enhanced expectancy and control. External focus instructions and enhanced expectancies had additive benefits for learning: the external focus/enhanced expectancy group demonstrated the greatest throwing accuracy on both retention and transfer tests, while the accuracy scores of the external focus and enhanced expectancy groups were lower, but higher than those of the control group. Furthermore, self-efficacy was increased by both external focus and enhanced expectancy, and predicted retention and transfer performance. Positive affect was heightened in the enhanced expectancy and external focus/enhanced expectancy groups after practice and predicted transfer performance. The findings suggest that the learning benefits of an external focus and enhanced expectancies mediate learning through partially different mechanisms.     

Delayed preconditioning-mimetic actions of exercise or nitroglycerin do not affect haemodynamics and exercise performance in trained or sedentary individuals

Nitroglycerin induces the so-called second window of protection (SWOP), which alleviates myocardial damage and stunning after ischaemia/reperfusion. To determine whether myocardial performance during exercise is improved in the second window of protection, we studied the haemodynamic responses of 12 trained and 11 sedentary individuals during a sequence of maximal tests on a cycle ergometer. A baseline test (basal test) was followed by a second effort performed during the second window of protection (exercise-SWOP test). Haemodynamics was also evaluated after pharmacologically induced SWOP 48 h after transdermal administration of 10 mg of nitroglycerin (pharmacologically induced SWOP test). The exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests were separated by a 1-week washout period. Endothelial-dependent vasodilatation after nitroglycerin pre-treatment was also assessed in five sedentary individuals to determine whether nitrate donors could affect vascular function. We found that nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not induce any improvement in haemodynamics in either trained or sedentary individuals, since maximum values of workload, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, myocardial contractility, and double product were similar between the exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests in both groups. Furthermore, nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not alter flow-mediated dilation during pharmacologically induced SWOP. Although nitroglycerin pre-treatment alleviates post-ischaemic myocardial stunning, our results suggest that it does not affect the myocardial performance of healthy individuals during exercise performed in the second window of protection, independently of the training status of the individuals. Moreover, nitroglycerin pre-treatment does not ameliorate endothelial function.     

A new class of gels for the conservation of painted surfaces

The application of a new class of organogels as cleaning tools for painted surfaces is described. It combines some of the most attractive features of cleaning liquids and normal gels while diminishing the deleterious characteristics of both. Thus, the ‘latent’ gellant, polyethyleneimine (PEI), reacts with CO₂ at room temperature in solutions of several organic liquids to produce an ammonium carbamate form (PEICO₂). This charged species organizes itself into 3D polymer networks which immobilize the liquids as gels. The properties of the original solution (i.e. a free-flowing liquid) are re-established immediately after addition of a small amount of a weak acid which displaces the CO₂ molecules and makes the PEI chains positively charged. The visual changes are substantiated by rheological analyses. Results from analytical tests to determine the utility of these gels as cleaning tools for painted surfaces of historical and artistic interest, have been obtained from contact angle and FTIR measurements as well as visual comparisons of the surfaces before and after application of the gels. The analyses indicate that the PEICO₂-based organogels were very effective in removing different surface patinas from painted supports. A surface layer of dammar was completely removed from a test canvas with oil paint, an aged painting from the XIX century, and a XV century oil-on-wood panel attributed to Mariotto di Cristoforo. Finally, a surface acrylic polymeric resin (used in a restoration performed during the 1960s) was also successfully removed from Renaissance wall paintings decorating the Santa Maria della Scala Sacristy in Siena, Italy. The isothermally rheoreversible gel approach described in this work represents a new, highly versatile, and very efficient method for removing aged surface patinas from works of art.