Teachers' use and perceptions of progress monitoring

Progress monitoring is a set of techniques used to assess students' academic performance on a regular and frequent basis. Different forms of progress monitoring have been used effectively in the field of general special education for more than 20 years. However, to date, limited information about how progress monitoring is being used in the field of deaf education is available. The present study was undertaken to examine how progress monitoring is being used with students who are deaf or hard of hearing and to find out teachers' perceptions about the utilization and value of using progress monitoring. Overall, participants were very positive. They reported that the use of progress monitoring improved students' motivation and helped them better evaluate the effectiveness of their instruction. Participants' primary concern was with the amount of time progress monitoring takes away from teaching. Additional results and recommendations are provided.     

从“文化休克”到积极融入：来华留学生跨文化适应的探索与实践

近年来,随着中国综合国力的增强和高等教育突飞猛进的发展,越来越多的海外留学生将中国作为留学首选国。而伴随着来华留学人数的逐年上升,留学生在中国的适应问题也渐渐凸显。如何尽量缩短留学生的“文化休克”期,使其更快更好地适应中国的学习生活,是所有留学生管理工作者面临的一大挑战。本文以南京航空航天大学国际教育学院的留学生管理工作为例,探索留学生跨文化适应的方法和途径。     

关于提高药学专业《临床药理学》教学质量的探讨

临床药理学是药学专业学生最重要的一门必修课,现就如何提高药学专业临床药理学的教学质量,从采用病案教学法、加强药学专业学生临床知识的主动获取、理论联系实际,鼓励学生参加临床实践、注重加强师资的队伍建设几个方面进行讨论。     

Pharmacogenetic Aspects of Coumarinic Oral Anticoagulant Therapies

Coumarinic oral-anticoagulants (COAs) are commonly used for treatment of thromboembolic events. However, these medications have a narrow therapeutic range and there are large inter-individual variations in drug response. This is especially important in the initial phases of oral-anticoagulant therapy. Recent advancements in pharmacogenetics have established that clinical outcomes in oral-anticoagulant therapy are affected by genetic factors. The allelic variants of genes like cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9) and vitamin K epoxide reductase complex subunit 1 (VKORC1) are closely associated with maintenance dose of oral anti-coagulants. In addition, GGCX (Gamma-glutamyl carboxylase) polymorphism at position 12970 (rs11676382), CYP4F2 (rs2108622; V433M; 1347 C > T) and Apolipoprotein E (APOE) variants have been shown to explain a small but significant influence on dose requirements. There are large differences in the frequencies of these polymorphisms between different world populations which are also related to the requirements of oral anticoagulants. However, the final drug dosage in an individual is determined by complex sets of genetic and environmental factors and several dosing algorithms which combine clinical and genetic parameters to predict therapeutic COA doses have also been developed. The algorithm based dose prediction shows the importance of pharmacogenetic testing in patients undergoing oral anticoagulant therapies.     

Role of Cytokines in the Pathogenesis of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

A number of factors are linked with non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD), a condition that ranges from clinically benign fatty liver to its more severe form, non alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). In this study, we evaluated the role of cytokines secreted from adipose tissue in the pathogenesis and progression of NAFLD. We also compared anthropometric profile, lipid profile and insulin resistance data in 105 NAFLD patients with 77 normal subjects. These subjects showed a normal serum albumin level, prothrombin time and renal function but elevated aminotransferases. Predisposing factors were diabetes mellitus (35%), overweight (56%) and hyperlipidemia (44%). Insulin resistance (IR), determined by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) was confirmed in 70% patients with NAFLD and 42% patients fulfilled the minimum criteria for insulin resistance syndrome (IRS). NAFLD patients showed elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, and interleukin (IL)-6, while anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 level decreased and IL-10 level remain unchanged; however, TGF-β1 level elevated significantly compared to normal subjects. While insulin level and HOMA-IR both were significantly positively correlated with BMI, waist-to-hip ratio, total cholesterol, VLDL-cholesterol, triglyceride and TGF-β1; glucose, IL-6 and TNF-α levels were significantly positively correlated with HOMA-IR only. In conclusion, pro-inflammatory cytokines play an important link between metabolic and liver disorders in the fat accumulation, and thereby cause IR, inflammation and liver fibrosis.     

转化医学理念在医学机能学教学中的应用

转化医学作为一种新理念,旨在推动基础研究成果快速临床转化并用于疾病诊断、预防和治疗之中,其核心是在实验室与临床之间建立一个双向转化通道。随着对转化医学认识的不断深入,其理念已经渗透到基础医学研究的各个领域。本文对医学机能学与转化医学的联系进行了归纳和总结,对其医学机能学教学中培养转化医学理念进行分析和展望。     

Enhancing orthographic knowledge helps spelling production in eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia

We investigated the effects of enhancing orthographic knowledge on the spelling of Chinese characters and words in 131 eight-year-old Chinese children at risk for dyslexia. The traditional approach (37 children) emphasizing memory and repeated writing was the control condition. The analytic and synthetic approach (ASA, 33 children) stressed insight into character structure. The integrated analytic and synthetic approach added to ASA self-correction and metacognitive activities (INA, 61 children). The children were first asked to write down as many words as possible associated with pictures of home, school, and community; the correctly written words formed the baseline information. The children were then instructed by their classroom teachers in six especially designed short texts and assessed in eight measurable bujian or radical tasks subserving three constructs: morpheme completion, bujian analysis and synthesis and bujian compounding. Multivariate analyses of variance showed that the children in the INA condition outperformed those in the other conditions in three of the measurable bujian tasks. A confirmatory factor analysis verified the stability of the eight tasks and their clustering into three constructs. From these results, we tentatively propose a “bujian sensitivity hypothesis” as a means of helping young Chinese children at risk for spelling disorders.