Transport and shear in a microfluidic membrane bilayer device for cell culture

Microfluidic devices have been established as useful platforms for cell culture for a broad range of applications, but challenges associated with controlling gradients of oxygen and other soluble factors and hemodynamic shear forces in small, confined channels have emerged. For instance, simple microfluidic constructs comprising a single cell culture compartment in a dynamic flow condition must handle tradeoffs between sustaining oxygen delivery and limiting hemodynamic shear forces imparted to the cells. These tradeoffs present significant difficulties in the culture of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where shear is known to regulate signaling, proliferation, and expression. Several approaches designed to shield cells in microfluidic devices from excessive shear while maintaining sufficient oxygen concentrations and transport have been reported. Here we present the relationship between oxygen transport and shear in a "membrane bilayer" microfluidic device, in which soluble factors are delivered to a cell population by means of flow through a proximate channel separated from the culture channel by a membrane. We present an analytical model that describes the characteristics of this device and its ability to independently modulate oxygen delivery and hemodynamic shear imparted to the cultured cells. This bilayer configuration provides a more uniform oxygen concentration profile that is possible in a single-channel system, and it enables independent tuning of oxygen transport and shear parameters to meet requirements for MSCs and other cells known to be sensitive to hemodynamic shear stresses.     

Constant and variable irrelevant cues during intra- and extradimensional transfer

Experiment I compared constant (CI), variable-between (VBI), and variable-within (WVI) irrelevant cues during an extradimensional (ED) shift discrimination. Performance was better for CI than for VBI and better for VBI than for VWI. Experiment II combined CI, VBI, and VWI cues with ED or intradimensional (ID) shifts. Irrelevant-cue conditions did not affect ID performance but did affect ED performance. The typical superiority of ID, as compared to ED, shifts was observed in the VWI condition but not in the CI condition. Implications for mediating-response (i.e., attention or observing-response) theories were indicated.     

Enhancing curriculum and delivery: linking assessment to learning objectives

Typical university‐wide course evaluations do not provide instructors with sufficient information on the effectiveness of their courses. This article describes a course assessment and enhancement model where student feedback can be used to improve courses and/or programs. The model employs an assessment tool that measures student perceptions of importance and their current competence in course‐specific learning objectives both pre‐ and post‐course. Information gained from this assessment enables course improvement over time and also allows for modification in delivery and/or content of the current course. This model is intended to augment traditional course evaluation mechanisms based on specific and actionable feedback on learning objectives.     

Depending on the kindness of strangers: current national data initiatives and developmental research

This article provides a brief review of current large-scale, longitudinal data collection initiatives focusing on children. These studies will be available for secondary data analyses in the twenty-first century. In addition to child outcome data, process-oriented information is being collected on child-parent interactions, quality of child care, elementary school teacher reports and classroom observations, accessibility and use of health, educational and social services, parental mental health, family violence, fathering, parental residence patterns, income and income sources, child support, employment patterns, and community characteristics. Several of these studies are randomized trials of the efficacy of early childhood intervention services and housing mobility programs. The usefulness of these efforts for exploring policy-relevant issues (child support enforcement, work requirements for welfare recipients, antipoverty strategies, housing subsidies and relocation, availability of child care, child-care subsidies) are discussed.     

Prenatal Risk Predicts Preschooler Executive Function: A Cascade Model

Little research has considered whether prenatal experience contributes to executive function (EF) development above and beyond postnatal experience. This study tests direct, mediated, and moderated associations between prenatal risk factors and preschool EF and IQ in a longitudinal sample of 1,292 children from the Family Life Project. A composite of prenatal risk factors (i.e., low birth weight, prematurity, maternal emotional problems, maternal prepregnancy obesity, and obstetric complications) significantly predicted EF and IQ at age 3, above quality of the postnatal environment. This relationship was indirect, mediated through infant general cognitive abilities. Quality of the postnatal home and child-care environments did not moderate the cascade model. These findings highlight the role of prenatal experience as a contributor to individual differences in cognitive development.     

Innovations in creative education for tertiary sector in Australia: present and future challenges

Abstract

Recent significant changes in technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and big data analysis have a wide impact in many areas of human societies, not least in education. Advances in efficiency of new technologies, with impacts in renewable energy and transport affected by environmental concerns and climate change mitigation, demand a reassessment and adjustment of the industrial structure of the economy. Technological advances enhancing creativity and analytical skills mean people must learn and adapt to a fast-changing economic environment. This paper present some key changes in Australian educational areas in recent years that are important and relevant to the subject of education innovation and philosophy to achieve outcomes in training and sustainable economic development, as anticipated by the community and government. Education courses and curricula in many countries have been transformed by technological advance. It is the swift incorporation of new technologies that best prepares students for the dynamics of economic and social change. Even though technological responsiveness is not a new phenomenon, it is established that the teaching methods found to be most successful include complementary and supplemental courses producing multi-skilled and creative graduates. These courses are delivered with significant emphasis upon self-development skills and are less focused upon traditional content. A move toward horizontal focus and a student-centric balance is the current trend, displacing vertical over-specialisation of learning. Yet, the central role of educator is seen as still appropriate and necessary where the aim is to equip graduates with creative and adaptive skills.     

Associations between adolescent boys’ and girls’ psychological adjustment and behaviour in school

The present study examined associations between boys’ and girls’ self-reported psychological adjustment and a wide spectrum of peer-rated behaviours in the school context using a sample of 463 Estonian early adolescents (M_age = 12.90). Although girls had more internalised problems and boys more externalised problems, the associations between adolescents’ psychological adjustment and behaviour were not gender-specific. Among both boys and girls, hostility was positively associated not only with their peer-reported misbehaviour, but also with sociable behaviour and negatively with studiousness. Adolescents with negative self-esteem were perceived to exhibit high levels of self-centred competitive behaviour, misbehaviour and also sociable behaviour. Those with negative self-adequacy, on the contrary, were less likely to behave in a self-centred competitive and sociable manner. In general, the findings show that psychological maladjustment may appear not only in well-observed problematic behaviour but also in seemingly ordinary behaviour in school.     

The personal tutor–student relationship: student expectations and experiences of personal tutoring in higher education

The personal tutor plays a key role in the student experience at university, and personal tutoring embodies the student relationship with the university, suggesting that it has the potential to provide insights beyond that specific relationship to the institution and higher education context. A focus session with first year undergraduate students explored expectations and experiences of personal tutoring from the student perspective. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore students’ lived experiences, and identified superordinate themes of expectations, experiences and relationships, with cluster themes including independence and authenticity. Developing a positive and genuine relationship with the personal tutor was found to ‘buffer’ against some of the first year challenges and contribute towards a sense of belonging. Importantly, this study provides evidence that experiencing poor personal tutoring is worse than not having a personal tutor at all, as this can lead to students experiencing strong negative emotions and re-evaluating their decision to go to university. Implications of these findings in the current higher education context of fee-paying students and competing institutional demands are discussed.