| 1. |
- Bourbour, Maryam, 1977-
(författare)
-
Digital technologies in preschool education : The interplay between interactive whiteboards and teachers' teaching practices
- 2020
-
Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis is aimed at exploring the ways in which a digital technology, the interactive whiteboard (IWB), interplays with preschool teachers’ teaching practices. In the literature and ongoing debates there are different claims about if and how digital technologies can contribute to children’s development and solving preschool educational challenges. The ways children learn from and by digital technologies have been widely studied, however, there is relatively little research on how digital technologies interplay with teachers’ teaching. Correspondingly, the approach taken here to the ways in which digital technologies contribute to early childhood education is based on preschool teachers’ practices and reasonings.In particular the focus is placed on the following research questions. How do preschool teachers reason about the embedding of IWB into their teaching practices? How do preschool teachers use IWB to structure their teaching practices? How do preschool teachers scaffold children’s learning processes in a context where IWB is used? How do IWBs mediate teaching actions? and What is privileged in the IWB-mediated teaching actions?To address these research questions, three sets of empirical data have been collected. These datasets, including interviews with preschool teachers and video observations of their teaching using IWB, were collected in 2012-2013 within the frame of the licentiate thesis and in late 2017 and early 2018 within the framework of the PhD thesis. Analytically, the study is built on a sociocultural perspective that assumes that learning is a constant social process.The findings of this study provide empirical knowledge regarding how preschool teachers reason about their use of IWB in teaching. The findings of the study, further, show that preschool teachers use diverse strategies to structure their teaching practice using the opportunities that IWB offers. The teachers’ use of IWBs exemplifies the ways they take into account the available technological features to support children’s learning within their ZPD.In its identification of scaffolding actions, this study provides rich details about how preschool teachers use a particular digital technology, IWB, in their teaching to support children’s learning and development. Scaffolding is seen as a collaborative process where preschool teachers’ active participation and emotional support plays an important role in fulfilling the given practices, and leads children’s learning to a higher level. By exploring how teachers’ teaching actions are meditated by the mediational aspects of IWB and what is privileged in the IWB-mediated teaching actions, the current study, moreover, contributes to mapping the desirable or undesirable consequences of using digital technologies in early childhood education. It also exemplifies how the use of IWB interplays with preschoolt eachers’ teaching practices.The new dimensions to scaffolding theory constructed in this thesis, further, contribute to expanding of Wood et al. (1976) theory. This can have significance for other studies using digital technologies in educational settings and can contribute to early childhood education, since early interventions, such as the ways preschool teachers support children, are particularly crucial for a child’s learning and their development later on in life.
|
|
| 2. |
- Ghavami, Saeid, 1965-, et al.
(författare)
-
Autophagy and Apoptosis Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Disorders
- 2014
-
Ingår i: Progress in Neurobiology. - Kidlington, Oxford, United Kingdom : Pergamon Press. - 0301-0082 .- 1873-5118. ; 112, s. 24-49
-
Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Autophagy and apoptosis are basic physiologic processes contributing to the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Autophagy encompasses pathways that target long-lived cytosolic proteins and damaged organelles. It involves a sequential set of events including double membrane formation, elongation, vesicle maturation and finally delivery of the targeted materials to the lysosome. Apoptotic cell death is best described through its morphology. It is characterized by cell rounding, membrane blebbing, cytoskeletal collapse, cytoplasmic condensation, and fragmentation, nuclear pyknosis, chromatin condensation/fragmentation, and formation of membrane-enveloped apoptotic bodies, that are rapidly phagocytosed by macrophages or neighboring cells. Neurodegenerative disorders are becoming increasingly prevalent, especially in the Western societies, with larger percentage of members living to an older age. They have to be seen not only as a health problem, but since they are care-intensive, they also carry a significant economic burden. Deregulation of autophagy plays a pivotal role in the etiology and/or progress of many of these diseases. Herein, we briefly review the latest findings that indicate the involvement of autophagy in neurodegenerative diseases. We provide a brief introduction to autophagy and apoptosis pathways focusing on the role of mitochondria and lysosomes. We then briefly highlight pathophysiology of common neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's diseases, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Then, we describe functions of autophagy and apoptosis in brain homeostasis, especially in the context of the aforementioned disorders. Finally, we discuss different ways that autophagy and apoptosis modulation may be employed for therapeutic intervention during the maintenance of neurodegenerative disorders.
|
|
| 3. |
- Glier, Tomke E., et al.
(författare)
-
Functional Printing of Conductive Silver-Nanowire Photopolymer Composites
- 2019
-
Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 2045-2322. ; 9
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated the fabrication and functional behaviour of conductive silver-nanowire-polymer composites for prospective use in printing applications. Silver-nanowires with an aspect ratio of up to 1000 were synthesized using the polyol route and embedded in a UV-curable and printable polymer matrix. Sheet resistances in the composites down to 13 Omega/sq at an optical transmission of about 90% were accomplished. The silver-nanowire composite morphology and network structure was investigated by electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, profilometry, ellipsometry as well as surface sensitive X-ray scattering. By implementing different printing applications, we demonstrate that our silver nanowires can be used in different polymer composites. On the one hand, we used a tough composite for a 2D-printed film as top contact on a solar cell. On the other hand, a flexible composite was applied for a 3D-printed flexible capacitor.
|
|
| 4. |
- Tayer, Akbar Hashemi, et al.
(författare)
-
Association of Circulating Procoagulant Microvesicles with Painful Vaso-Occlusive Crisis in Sickle Cell Disease
- 2023
-
Ingår i: Transfusion Medicine and Hemotherapy. - : KARGER. - 1660-3796 .- 1660-3818. ; 50:5, s. 448-455
-
Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: Thrombotic complication is one of the features of sickle cell disease (SCD), characterized by appearance of phosphatidylserine on the outer membrane of sickle-shaped red blood cells and most abundantly on membrane protrusions called microvesicles (MVs). However, the exact mechanism by which MVs may enhance coagulant activity in SCD patients has not been fully addressed. The aim of this study was to further investigate the procoagulant activity of circulating MVs in sickle cell crises. Materials and Methods: Subjects included in this cross-sectional study were 47 patients with SCD and 25 normal subjects with written informed consent obtained from all the participants. MV analysis was conducted by using CD61, CD235 alpha, and Annexin-V monoclonal antibodies. The coagulant activity of MVs was determined by an ELISA-based procoagulant activity assay. Results: The majority of MVs were originated from platelets (CD61+) and erythrocytes (CD235+). These MVs demonstrated significantly enhanced levels during the painful crisis when compared with the steady-state period (p < 0.001) and controls (p < 0.001). Also, the procoagulant activity of MVs was significantly higher in crisis compared to those of steady state (p < 0.001) and positively correlated with the number of Annexin-V+ MVs (p < 0.001). Significant correlations were found between erythrocyte-derived MVs with hemolysis marker (r = 0.51, p < 0.001) and the hemoglobin level (r = -0.63, p < 0.001). Conclusion: The numbers of platelet- and erythrocyte-derived MVs are related to painful crisis, and their quantification in SCD may be helpful for identifying cases at increased risk of thrombotic complications.
|
|
