Familiarity and relatedness: Effects on social learning about foods by Norway rats and Mongolian gerbils

In recent experiments in which the social influences on feeding in Mongolian gerbils were investigated, observer gerbils acquired food preferences from conspecific demonstrators only if the demonstrators and observers were either related or familiar. Even then, the effects of demonstrator gerbils on observers’ food choices lasted less than 24 h. In similar experiments with Norway rats, the familiarity/relatedness of demonstrators and observers had little effect on social learning, and the demonstrators’ influence on observers’ food choices lasted many days. We examined the causes of these differences and found that, after observer gerbils interacted with either unfamiliar or familiar conspecific demonstrators that had been fed using procedures typically used to feed demonstrator rats, they showed long-lasting social learning about foods, whereas observer rats interacting with conspecific demonstrators that had been fed as demonstrator gerbils normally are fed showed effects of familiarity/relatedness to demonstrators on their social learning about foods. Procedural differences, rather than species differences, seem to be responsible for reported inconsistencies in social learning about foods by rats and gerbils.     

How Can We Show You,If You Can't See It? Trialing the Use of an Interactive Three-Dimensional Micro-CT Model in Medical Education

Teaching internal structures obscured from direct view is a major challenge of anatomy education. High-fidelity interactive three-dimensional (3D) micro-computed tomography (CT) models with virtual dissection present a possible solution. However, their utility for teaching complex internal structures of the human body is unclear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of a realistic 3D micro-CT interactive visualization computer model to teach paranasal sinus anatomy in a laboratory setting during pre-clinical medical training. Year 1 (n = 79) and Year 2 (n = 59) medical students undertook self-directed activities focused on paranasal sinus anatomy in one of two laboratories (traditional laboratory and 3D model). All participants completed pre and posttests before and after the laboratory session. Results of regression analyses predicting post-laboratory knowledge indicate that, when students were inexperienced with the 3D computer technology, use of the model was detrimental to learning for students with greater prior knowledge of the relevant anatomy (P < 0.05). For participants experienced with the 3D computer technology, however, the use of the model was detrimental for students with less prior knowledge of the relevant anatomy (P < 0.001). These results emphasize that several factors need to be considered in the design and effective implementation of such models in the classroom. Under the right conditions, the 3D model is equal to traditional laboratory resources when used as a learning tool. This paper discusses the importance of preparatory training for students and the technical consideration necessary to successfully integrate such models into medical anatomical curricula.     

Early Language Experience in a Tseltal Mayan Village

Daylong at-home audio recordings from 10 Tseltal Mayan children (0;2–3;0; Southern Mexico) were analyzed for how often children engaged in verbal interaction with others and whether their speech environment changed with age, time of day, household size, and number of speakers present. Children were infrequently directly spoken to, with most directed speech coming from adults, and no increase with age. Most directed speech came in the mornings, and interactional peaks contained nearly four times the baseline rate of directed speech. Coarse indicators of children’s language development (babbling, first words, first word combinations) suggest that Tseltal children manage to extract the linguistic information they need despite minimal directed speech. Multiple proposals for how they might do so are discussed.     

The neoliberal toxic university: Beyond no is not enough and daring to dream a socially just alternative into existence

Abstract

This article deploys critical sociology to examine institutions of higher learning, worldwide, within a context of a more utopian set of possibilities. The article contests the idea of universities as marketplaces – competition, commercialisation and vocationalisation; the synthetic values of docility, conformity, and image/impression management; the calibration and metrification of all facets of university activity; and the containment of universities as places of dissent and social critique, shackling them instead to the whims of capitalism. As an alternative, the author explores Klein's elements of a social imaginary that involves extirpating the alien interloper neoliberal ideology that has been allowed to invade and colonise universities, and instead allowing indigenous ideologies to emerge from the discourses of those who do academic work. The austerity logic that has so poisoned universities, is replaced by the humanising and democratising practices and voices of those who have been wilfully excluded. Above all, what the author pitches towards is not ‘fixing’ our broken universities, for that would be in Klein's terms ‘fitting into the box’ that has been constructed for universities over the past half-century, but rather an ‘exploding of the box’. Examples from the author's prior community-based research are used to illustrate humanising, transformative possibilities.     

High stakes testing and student perspectives on teaching and learning in the Republic of Ireland

There is now a well developed literature on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching approaches and student outcomes. However, the student perspective has been neglected in much research. This article draws on a mixed method longitudinal study of secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of two sets of high stakes examinations on student experiences. The analyses are based on surveys completed by 897 lower secondary students and 748 upper secondary students, along with 47 lower secondary and 53 upper secondary group interviews with students. Findings show the presence of impending high stakes exams results in increased workload for students, with many reporting pressure and stress. Throughout their schooling career, students clearly favour active learning approaches. However, for some students, particularly high-aspiring middle-class students, these views change as they approach the terminal high stakes exam, with many showing a strong preference for a more narrowly focussed approach to exam preparation. This article highlights how students shift from a position of critiquing exam-focused teaching methods as inauthentic to accepting such methods as representing ??good teaching??.     

Research supervision: the research management matrix

We briefly make a case for re-conceptualising research project supervision/advising as the consideration of three inter-related areas: the learning and teaching process; developing the student; and producing the research project/outcome as a social practice. We use this as our theoretical base for an heuristic tool, ‘the research management matrix’ and this is the major focus of this paper. The matrix facilitates the work of supervision. In the matrix we privilege the research questions. The research management matrix can be easily used to focus on key research features and the relationships amongst them. The timing of different parts of research is introduced so that practical goals are identified. This facilitates project and research student learning management and timely completions. For these reasons the research management matrix is a useful tool for supervisors/advisors     

p38 MAPK Inhibitor (SB203580) and Metformin Reduces Aortic Protein Carbonyl and Inflammation in Non-obese Type 2 Diabetic Rats

Microvascular and macrovascular diseases are the main causes of morbidity in type 2 diabetes patients through chronic hyperglycaemic condition via oxidative stress and inflammation. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) activate p38 MAPK phosphorylation and inflammation which enhances protein modification by carbonylation. The use of metformin and a p38 MAPK inhibitor is hypothesised to reduce ROS production and inflammation but effects of metformin and p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) on ROS production and inflammation in vascular type 2 diabetes mellitus non-obese (T2DM) have not been investigated. The Goto-Kakizaki rat T2DM model was divided into three groups as T2DM, T2DM treated with 15 mg/kg bw metformin and T2DM treated with 2 mg/kg bw SB203580 for 4 weeks. Rat aortas were isolated and protein carbonyl (PC) contents were measured by spectrophotometric DNPH assay. Aortic IL-1ß level was determined by ELISA. Results showed that aortic PC contents in the T2DM group were significantly higher than in non-diabetic rats. Treatment with metformin or SB203580 significantly reduced PC contents while only metformin significantly reduced IL-1ß levels. Findings indicated that metformin reduced ROS production and inflammation in diabetic vessels and possibly reduce vascular complications in non-obese T2DM.