Acute Regression in Down Syndrome

Background: Acute regression has been reported in some individuals with Down syndrome (DS), typically occurring between the teenage years and mid to late 20s. Characterized by sudden, and often unexplained, reductions in language skills, functional living skills and reduced psychomotor activity, some individuals have been incorrectly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Methods: This paper compares five individuals with DS who previously experienced acute regression with a matched group of 15 unaffected individuals with DS using a set of AD biomarkers. Results: While the sample was too small to conduct statistical analyses, findings suggest there are possible meaningful differences between the groups on proteomics biomarkers (e.g., NfL, total tau). Hippocampal, caudate and putamen volumes were slightly larger in the regression group, the opposite of what was hypothesized. A slightly lower amyloid load was found on the PET scans for the regression group, but no differences were noted on tau PET. Conclusions: Some proteomics biomarker findings suggest that individuals with DS who experience acute regression may be at increased risk for AD at an earlier age in comparison to unaffected adults with DS. However, due to the age of the group (mean 38 years), it may be too early to observe meaningful group differences on image-based biomarkers.

The Distinction between the Absolute and Relative Advantages of Cultural Capital: Different Conceptualizations, Different Consequences

Cultural capital has been increasingly understood as acquirable cultural resources that concern a plural class structure and localized relational symbolic struggles. Against this background, the advantages of cultural capital can be conceptualized not only as the gap between the upper and the lower classes (the absolute advantage), but also as the status relative to the peers of a substantively meaningful group (the relative advantage). The current study makes the distinction between the absolute and relative advantages of cultural capital, and illustrates it using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000. Both types of advantages are significantly stratified by family origin, but the absolute advantage has a significantly stronger positive correlation with test performances than the relative advantage while only the relative advantage reveals a significantly negative correlation with school misbehaviour.

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy Outcomes Across Healthcare and Community Settings for Individuals With Dementia

Cognitive Stimulation Therapy (CST) is an evidenced-based intervention for individuals with mild to moderate dementia. Originally developed in the U.K., CST has been adapted in several areas of the United States as a meaningful group intervention to help aid in recall and reminiscence for this population. Adaptations of CST have now been developed, including the application of these groups in medical and healthcare settings. However, no study to date has compared memory and mood outcomes of community CST groups to healthcare CST groups. This study will examine the differences in memory, mood and physical mobility scores across both rural and urban settings where CST is used. Two-hundred and sixty-six total participants who have completed all 14 sessions were analyzed, with 150 who participated in a rural hospital and 116 who were in community or university settings. Preliminary data shows that CST is an intervention that can be used effectively in both environments. The results from this study show that improvements in scores were seen in both community (SLUM = +1.75; Cornell = -1.41) and healthcare settings (SLUM = +2.59; Cornell = -2.63). CST might be a meaningful intervention to also help in decrease depression and loneliness in this population. Continued group interventions should be developed in medical and healthcare settings as a resource for patients and family members with dementia-related disorders. There should also be further consideration on the factors that impacted the difference between the two settings.

An Exploration Into the Importance of a Sense of Belonging for Online Learners

Fostering a sense of belonging and a personal connection is seen as fundamental by many educational researchers, regardless of the learning environment. Online learning certainly provides flexible learning opportunities but comes with notable issues. For online learners, nurturing a sense of belonging may present a way of improving their experiences and attainment, as well as reducing attrition rates. Research specifically exploring sense of belonging and online learning is limited. This article addresses that gap and reports on a small-scale exploratory study using qualitative data-collection and analysis methods to investigate the importance, or not, of sense of belonging for postgraduates’ online education by exploring the origins and nature of their lived experience of online learning and their sense of belonging therein. Our initial findings emphasise its importance for them as online learners and have identified three significant themes: interaction/engagement, the culture of the learning, and support. These early findings highlight the importance of these three themes in promoting a sense of belonging and in ensuring that there are opportunities for meaningful group and peer interactions; they will be of interest to all engaged in online education.

A TECHNOLOGY OF COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE DOCTORS IN THE PROCESS OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

The article analyzed the problem of development of communicative competence of future doctors in the process of their professional training. The characteristic features of the physician communicative competent are distinguished. As a result of research, a peculiarity of communicators is highlighted. A slight percentage of the surveyed have quite significant personal problems that require long-term psychotherapeutic work, that should precede measures directly aimed to the development of their communicative competence. Models of communicative competence development are considered. It is presented a fairly a common feature, namely: competence in communication is understood as a result of quantitative accumulation of communication skills. It is assumed that at some point this number translates the person to a qualitatively new level of communicative behavior. Communicative skills are regarded as means of overcoming the drama of communication. The meaning of the training in the context of professional training of specialists are emphasized and substantiated. The basic training of communicative competence should be focused on developing the skills of active listening and regulation of emotional tension, since these skills allow to greatly solve the drama of communication. The logic scheme of the training is proposed based on the fact that the professional communication of a doctor is considered as a sequence of communication tasks of varying degrees of complexity. The task of the training was to correct the settings of participants regarding communication with people in general and patients in particular; development of abilities to action in unusual situations, forecasting the consequences of people's interaction. In accordance with these tasks, a meaningful group operation is highlighted. The implementation of the program included the use of various psychotechnical methods of work: exercises, rehearsal of behavior, situational and role-playing games, group discussions and discussions, bodily and motor techniques.

Factors Influencing Quality of Team Discussion: Discourse Analysis in an Undergraduate Team-Based Learning Biology Course

Group activities as part of active-learning pedagogies are thought to be effective in promoting student learning in part because of the quality of discussion they engender in student teams. Not much is known, however, about which instructional factors are most important in achieving productive conversation or how these factors may differ among different collaborative pedagogies. We explored what provokes meaningful group discussions in a university physiology course taught using team-based learning (TBL). We were most interested in discussions that evoke explanations that go beyond statements of basic facts and into disciplinary reasoning. Using transcribed conversations of four randomly selected teams three times throughout the semester, we analyzed three distinct discursive phenomena—conceptual explanations, re-evaluations, and co-construction—that occurred in productive conversations. In this paper, we provide examples from student discussions showing the role of each of these elements in moving students toward conceptual understanding. These phenomena were more likely to occur in response to higher-order questions in Bloom’s taxonomy. Preclass preparation and student accountability as part of TBL may be important factors in this finding. We share implications for practice based on our results.

Errors in Translation: A Comparative Study of Noun Phrase in English and Malay Abstracts

as a summary of a dissertation harbours important information where it serves to attract readers to consider reading the entire passage or to abandon it. This study seeks to investigate the backward translation of abstracts made by 10 randomly selected postgraduate students. This research serves as a guideline for students in composing their abstracts as it aims to compare the differences in noun phrase structure written in Malay as translated from English. It also analyses the types of errors when English noun phrases are translated to Malay. Preliminary findings from this pilot study found that translation errors committed were mainly inaccurate word order, inaccurate translation, added translation, dropped translation and also structure change. For this study, an exploratory mode of semantic analysis is applied by looking at noun phrases, the meaningful group of words that form a major part of any sentence, with the noun as the head of the group. Syntax is inevitably interwoven in the analysis as the structure and grammatical aspects of the translations are also analysed. They are examined by comparing English texts to its corresponding translation in the Malay language. Particularly relevant in this study is the need to emphasize on the semantics and syntax skills of the students before a good transaltion work can be produced. Language practitioners can also tap on translation activities to improve the learners’ language competency.

Committee machine that votes for similarity between materials

A method has been developed to measure the similarity between materials, focusing on specific physical properties. The information obtained can be utilized to understand the underlying mechanisms and support the prediction of the physical properties of materials. The method consists of three steps: variable evaluation based on nonlinear regression, regression-based clustering, and similarity measurement with a committee machine constructed from the clustering results. Three data sets of well characterized crystalline materials represented by critical atomic predicting variables are used as test beds. Herein, the focus is on the formation energy, lattice parameter and Curie temperature of the examined materials. Based on the information obtained on the similarities between the materials, a hierarchical clustering technique is applied to learn the cluster structures of the materials that facilitate interpretation of the mechanism, and an improvement in the regression models is introduced to predict the physical properties of the materials. The experiments show that rational and meaningful group structures can be obtained and that the prediction accuracy of the materials' physical properties can be significantly increased, confirming the rationality of the proposed similarity measure.

Shift models for dose-finding in partially ordered groups

Background Limited options are available for dose-finding clinical trials requiring group-specific dose selection. While conducting parallel trials for groups is an accessible approach to group-specific dose selection, this approach allows for maximum tolerated dose selection that does not align with clinically meaningful group order information. Methods The two-stage continual reassessment method is developed for dose-finding in studies involving three or more groups where group frailty order is known between some but not all groups, creating a partial order. This is an extension of the existing continual reassessment method shift model for two ordered groups. This method allows for dose selection by group, where maximum tolerated dose selection follows the known frailty order among groups. For example, if a group is known to be the most frail, the recommended maximum tolerated dose for this group should not exceed the maximum tolerated dose recommended for any other group. Results With limited alternatives for dose-finding in partially ordered groups, this method is compared to two alternatives: (1) an existing method for dose-finding in partially ordered groups which is less computationally accessible and (2) independent trials for each group using the two-stage continual reassessment method. Simulation studies show that when ignoring information on group frailty, using independent continual reassessment method trials by group, 30% of simulations would result in maximum tolerated dose selection that is out of order between groups. In addition, the two-stage continual reassessment method for partially ordered groups selects the maximum tolerated dose more often and assigns more patients to the maximum tolerated dose compared to using independent continual reassessment method trials within each group. Simulation results for the proposed method and the less computationally accessible approach are similar. Conclusion The proposed continual reassessment method for partially ordered groups ensures appropriate maximum tolerated dose order and improves accuracy of maximum tolerated dose selection, while allowing for trial implementation that is computationally accessible.