The influence of exercise-induced fatigue on cognitive function

Although anecdotal reports suggest that information processing and decision making is impaired immediately following prolonged periods of physical activity, results obtained from laboratory studies of exercise-induced fatigue have been inconsistent. Fatigue effects may be task specific and related to the time of post-exercise testing. The present study examined the effects on adults' performance of two cognitive tasks that differed in processing demands over an 80-min period of fatigue. Thirty young adult men and women were randomly assigned to either an exercise group and completed a 60-min bout of cycle ergometry at 90% ventilatory threshold or a control group and rested for 60 min. Following interventions, each participant completed a simple and complex version of a visual perceptual discrimination test, a 40-min memory-based vigilance test and a repetition of the visual perceptual discrimination tests. Those who exercised evidenced significant decrements in performance on complex perceptual-discrimination tasks compared to participants who rested. The response time of exercisers during a memory-demanding vigilance test were significantly slower than those of participants who rested; however, detection performance did not differ between groups neither was there a decrease in target detection across the vigil. The effects of exercise-induced fatigue may be task specific, with greater effects on perceptual tasks, which involve relatively automatic processing, compared to effortful memory-based tasks.     

Co-inheritance of HbD Iran/Beta Thalassemia IVS1–5 (G?>?C) Trait in a Punjabi Lady with Diabetes

The present report describes the molecular study of HbD ^Iran (beta) 22 Glu → Gln associated with β-Thalassemia IVS1–5 (G > C) found in India, and the first case in which mutation has been identified using mass spectrometry. Given the apparent ethnic origin and the mobility of the variant hemoglobin at alkaline pH, hemoglobin D-Punjab would be suspected, but HPLC excluded this possibility. Further characterization of hemoglobinopathy was made by using nondenaturing gel electrophoresis and matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry and IVS1–5 being validated by reverse dot blot hybridization followed by sequencing of the β-globin gene.     

Condensed Mastery Profile Method for Setting Standards for Diagnostic Assessment Systems

The purpose of this study was to develop a standard‐setting method appropriate for use with a diagnostic assessment that produces profiles of student mastery rather than a single raw or scale score value. The condensed mastery profile method draws from established holistic standard‐setting methods to use rounds of range finding and pinpointing to specify cut points between performance levels. Panelists are convened to review profiles of mastery and specify cut points between performance levels based on the total number of skills mastered. Following panelist specification of cut points, a statistical method is implemented to smooth cut points over grades to decrease between‐grade variability. Procedural evidence, including convergence plots, standard errors of pinpointing ratings, and panelist feedback, suggest the condensed mastery profile method is a useful and technically sound approach for setting performance standards for diagnostic assessment systems.     

UNDERSTANDING TEST‐TYPE ASSIGNMENT: WHY DO SPECIAL EDUCATORS MAKE UNEXPECTED TEST‐TYPE ASSIGNMENTS?

We interviewed special educators (a) whose students with disabilities (SWDs) were proficient on the 2008 general education assessment but were assigned to the 2009 alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards (AA‐MAS), and (b) whose students with mild disabilities took the 2008 alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA‐AAS) and then the 2009 AA‐MAS. We explored teachers’ rationales for test‐type assignment, student characteristics, and quality of instruction to determine the test‐type decisions’ appropriateness. All teachers based their decisions on combinations of factors in the guidelines plus subjective and noninstructional factors. Findings raised concerns about the subjectivity of the assessment assignment system and the inappropriate grade‐level instruction for SWDs. Future research, implications of these findings, and limitations are discussed.     

Effects of aerobic exercise on overweight children's cognitive functioning: a randomized controlled trial

The study tested the effect of aerobic exercise training on executive function in overweight children. Ninety-four sedentary, overweight but otherwise healthy children (mean age = 9.2 years, body mass index 85th percentile) were randomized to a low-dose (20 min/day exercise), high-dose (40 min/day exercise), or control condition. Exercise sessions met 5 days/week for 15 weeks. The Cognitive Assessment System (CAS), a standardized test of cognitive processes, was administered individually before and following intervention. Analysis of covariance on posttest scores revealed effects on executive function. Group differences emerged for the CAS Planning scale (p = .03). Planning scores for the high-dose group were significantly greater than those of the control group. Exercise may prove to be a simple, yet important, method of enhancing aspects of children's mental functioning that are central to cognitive and social development.     

Reconceptualising advocacy: creating inclusive education in US universal pre-kindergarten

This narrative inquiry concerns preschool education in the USA. It describes and analyses the barriers and possibilities for inclusion/exclusion that educators and parents of young children in a West Virginian community believe that it poses. The researchers present a case study designed to examine the context of inclusive education as revealed in 15 educators’ and parents’ narratives and observations of universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) practice. Due to semi-market-based orientations, new UPK structures, and perceptions of acceptable roles for parents and educators, possibilities for advocacy, and inclusive education often went unrealised. Based on these data, the researchers offer suggestions for how teacher education might be further developed to reconceptualise advocacy as inclusive education created in part through a praxis orientation and deliberative relationships between homes and schools.     

Lab-on-a-chip workshop activities for secondary school students

The ability to engage and inspire younger generations in novel areas of science is important for bringing new researchers into a burgeoning field, such as lab-on-a-chip. We recently held a lab-on-a-chip workshop for secondary school students, for which we developed a number of hands-on activities that explained various aspects of microfluidic technology, including fabrication (milling and moulding of microfluidic devices, and wax printing of microfluidic paper-based analytical devices, so-called μPADs), flow regimes (gradient formation via diffusive mixing), and applications (tissue analysis and μPADs). Questionnaires completed by the students indicated that they found the workshop both interesting and informative, with all activities proving successful, while providing feedback that could be incorporated into later iterations of the event.