Assessment of the biocompatibility of three-dimensional-printed polymers using multispecies toxicity tests     

Feng Zhu  Timo Friedrich  Dayanthi Nugegoda  Jan Kaslin  Donald Wlodkowic 《Biomicrofluidics》2015,9(6)

Additive manufacturing was adopted in multiple fields of life sciences. It is also becoming a popular tool for rapid prototyping of microfluidic and biomedical devices. Limited studies have been performed to investigate the biological implications of using 3D printed polymers. Here we assessed the biocompatibility of seven commercially available polymers, using a battery of standardized bioassays for chemical risk assessment. Our data show that leachates from photopolymers substrata appear to be very toxic to vertebrates and several invertebrate indicator organisms. These results demonstrate significant consequences for the use of selected photopolymers in the fabrication of bio-devices.  相似文献   

The associations among fundamental movement skills,self-reported physical activity and academic performance during junior high school in Finland     

Timo Jaakkola  Charles Hillman  Sami Kalaja  Jarmo Liukkonen 《Journal of sports sciences》2015,33(16):1719-1729

The purpose of this study was to analyse the longitudinal associations between (1) fundamental movement skills (FMSs) and academic performance, and (2) self-reported physical activity and academic performance through junior high school in Finland. The participants of the study were 325 Finnish students (162 girls and 163 boys), who were 13 years old at the beginning of the study at Grade 7. Students performed three FMS tests and responded to a self-reported physical activity questionnaire at Grades 7 and 8. Marks in Finnish language, mathematics and history from Grades 7, 8 and 9 were collected. Structural equation modelling with multigroup method demonstrated that in the boys’ group, a correlation (0.17) appeared between FMS and academic performance measured at Grade 7. The results also indicated that FMS collected at Grade 8 were significantly but weakly (path coefficient 0.14) associated with academic performance at Grade 9 for both gender groups. Finally, the results of this study demonstrated that self-reported physical activity was not significantly related to academic performance during junior high school. The findings of this study suggest that mastery of FMS may contribute to better student achievement during junior high school.  相似文献   

Implicitly measuring attitudes towards inclusive education: a new attitude test based on single-target implicit associations     

Timo Lüke  Michael Grosche 《欧洲特需教育杂志》2018,33(3):427-436

Recent research on attitudes towards inclusion uses almost exclusively explicit measures such as questionnaires. Unfortunately, explicit attitude measures are biased by social desirability, particularly when the attitude object is ‘sensible’, as with inclusive education. Implicit attitude measures are less prone to social desirability, but research on implicit attitudes towards inclusive education is scarce. Thus, we introduce a new attitude measure based on the Single-Target Implicit Association Test (ST-IAT). In our study, 163 teacher students took the new implicit attitude test and completed questionnaires on their explicit attitudes towards inclusive education and persons with disabilities and a comprehensive scale on socially desirable responding. The results support the psychometric quality of our ‘Inclusion ST-IAT’. The implicit and explicit attitude measures are correlated but empirically distinct. Furthermore, the social desirability scores were associated with explicit but not with implicit attitudes towards inclusion, i.e. our measure of attitudes towards inclusion (a sensible topic) was not biased by social desirability. We propose that implicit measures should be used to reduce the influence of social desirability in inclusive education research. To encourage replications, we outline important research questions and provide the source code of our ST-IAT, which is open and free to use.  相似文献   

Are habitual runners physically inactive?     

Timo Rantalainen  Arto J. Pesola  Matthew Quittner  Nicola D. Ridgers  Daniel L. Belavy 《Journal of sports sciences》2018,36(16):1793-1800

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) physical activity guidelines recommend 150min/week of moderate- to vigorous-intensity physical activity (MVPA) accumulated in 10 min bouts. To see whether people performing habitual exercise for recreation meet these guidelines, 25 long-distance runners [mean 67 km/wk], 25 joggers [mean 28 km/wk], and 20 sedentary adults wore an ActiGraph GT3X+ accelerometer for 7 days. Sedentary time and bouts were similar in runners and sedentary adults (p > 0.46). Sedentary adults performed 20 ± 16 min/day of MVPA (usual bout duration (W50%): 9.53 ± 3.45min), with joggers and runners performing 45 ± 31min (W50%: 16.92 ± 9.53min) and 83 ± 58min (W50%: 20.35 ± 8.85min), respectively (p ≤ 0.001 versus sedentary group). Data showed that 65% of the sedentary group, 32% of joggers and 4% of long-distance runners did not meet the WHO guideline for MVPA. Failure to meet the guideline was most prominent in, but not restricted to, runners who reported ≤50km running per week. Self-reported running does not ensure adults meet physical activity guidelines or offset daily sedentary behaviours. On the other hand, the sedentary group was very close in accumulating recommended bouts of MVPA in incidental activities. Future studies should assess whether modification of work and leisure physical activity would be more fruitful than encouraging recreational exercise per se in meeting physical activity guidelines.  相似文献   

Concurrent validity and reliability of torso-worn inertial measurement unit for jump power and height estimation     

Timo Rantalainen  Paul B. Gastin  Rhys Spangler  Daniel Wundersitz 《Journal of sports sciences》2018,36(17):1937-1942

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the concurrent validity and test-retest repeatability of torso-worn IMU-derived power and jump height in a counter-movement jump test. Twenty-seven healthy recreationally active males (age, 21.9 [SD 2.0] y, height, 1.76 [0.7] m, mass, 73.7 [10.3] kg) wore an IMU and completed three counter-movement jumps a week apart. A force platform and a 3D motion analysis system were used to concurrently measure the jumps and subsequently derive power and jump height (based on take-off velocity and flight time). The IMU significantly overestimated power (mean difference = 7.3 W/kg; P < 0.001) compared to force-platform-derived power but good correspondence between methods was observed (Intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.69). IMU-derived power exhibited good reliability (ICC = 0.67). Velocity-derived jump heights exhibited poorer concurrent validity (ICC = 0.72 to 0.78) and repeatability (ICC = 0.68) than flight-time-derived jump heights, which exhibited excellent validity (ICC = 0.93 to 0.96) and reliability (ICC = 0.91). Since jump height and power are closely related, and flight-time-derived jump height exhibits excellent concurrent validity and reliability, flight-time-derived jump height could provide a more desirable measure compared to power when assessing athletic performance in a counter-movement jump with IMUs.  相似文献   

Patent trolls on markets for technology - An empirical analysis of NPEs’ patent acquisitions     

Timo Fischer 《Research Policy》2012,41(9):1519-1533

Patent trolls, or NPEs, appropriate profits from innovation solely by enforcing patents against infringers. They are often characterized as relying on low-quality patents, an assessment that, if correct, would imply that eradicating such patents would effectively terminate the NPE business. In this paper, we shed light on this issue by empirically analyzing NPEs’ patent acquisitions. We draw on a unique dataset of 392 U.S. patents acquired by known NPEs between 1997 and 2006, which we compare to three control groups of 784 U.S. patents each acquired by practicing firms. We find that the probability that a traded patent is acquired by an NPE rather than a practicing entity increases in the scope of the patent, in the patent density of its technology field and, contrary to common belief, in the patent's technological quality. Our findings thus support recent theoretical propositions about the NPE business model, showing that NPEs procure patents that are more likely to be infringed, harder to substitute for, and robust to legal challenges. The fact that NPE-acquired patents are of significantly higher quality than those in the control group implies that elevating minimum patent quality will not put an end to the NPE business, and suggests that this business is sustainable in the long run. We furthermore discuss the fact that NPEs are peculiar players on markets for technology insofar as they are solely interested in the exclusion right, not in the underlying knowledge. We posit that transactions involving NPEs may only be the tip of the iceberg of “patent-only” transactions, a conjecture with strong implications for the efficiency and the study of markets for technologies. Managerial and policy implications are discussed.  相似文献   

Caught up in the past? Social inclusion,skills, and vocational education and training policy in England     

Timo Fleckenstein  Soohyun Christine Lee 《Journal of Education & Work》2018,31(2):109-124

Since the mid-1990s, governments of different political persuasion have tried to reform VET policy to address problems in skills formation and social inclusion. Despite considerable policy activism, success has been somewhat limited, and England failed to overcome the problems associated with its liberal training regime. This article assesses the failure in vocational skills formation as a political economy and a public policy problem. It challenges the determinism in the political economy literature, points to poor public policy-making, and outlines possible policy levers.  相似文献   

The role of reading difficulties in the associations between task values,efficacy beliefs,and achievement emotions     

Päivinen  Maria  Eklund  Kenneth  Hirvonen  Riikka  Ahonen  Timo  Kiuru  Noona 《Reading and writing》2019,32(7):1723-1746

Reading and Writing - The aim of this study was to examine the situational associations of reading-related task values and efficacy beliefs with achievement emotions, and whether these associations...  相似文献   

Reproducing,disrupting and reforming understanding of cultural diversity: theorising future subject teachers’ pedagogical reflections     

Pia-Maria Niemi  Kaisa Hahl 《Teaching Education》2019,30(3):319-336

Despite the growing demands for carrying out intercultural education as part of all teaching and learning, little attention has been given to the ways in which future subject teachers understand the meaning of ‘cultural diversity’ and how teacher education programmes prepare future teachers to consider intercultural aims in education. Therefore, this study investigates how future subject teachers, studying in an international teacher education programme in Finland, conceptualise the educational aims related to cultural diversity in reflective group discussions. For theorising the student teachers’ reflections, this study applies the idea of cultural reproduction depicted in the theory of communicative action by Habermas as an analytical framework for identifying how student teachers reach agreement or disagreement in issues regarding educational aims related to cultural diversity. This study identified three main forms of cultural reproduction from the student teachers’ discussions and showed that the underlying understanding about ‘cultural diversity’ and the educational aims related to it are in a state of disruption. This study highlights the need to clarify the theoretical concepts and aims used to guide intercultural education and to further emphasise issues of cultural diversity during teacher education. The findings are important for developing practices within subject teacher education internationally.  相似文献   

The precursors of double dissociation between reading and spelling in a transparent orthography     

Minna Torppa  George K. Georgiou  Pekka Niemi  Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen  Anna-Maija Poikkeus 《Annals of dyslexia》2017,67(1):42-62

Research and clinical practitioners have mixed views whether reading and spelling difficulties should be combined or seen as separate. This study examined the following: (a) if double dissociation between reading and spelling can be identified in a transparent orthography (Finnish) and (b) the cognitive and noncognitive precursors of this phenomenon. Finnish-speaking children (n?=?1963) were assessed on reading fluency and spelling in grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. Dissociation groups in reading and spelling were formed based on stable difficulties in grades 1–4. The groups were compared in kindergarten phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, letter knowledge, home literacy environment, and task-avoidant behavior. The results indicated that the double dissociation groups could be identified even in the context of a highly transparent orthography: 41 children were unexpected poor spellers (SD), 36 were unexpected poor readers (RD), and 59 were poor in both reading and spelling (RSD). The RSD group performed poorest on all cognitive skills and showed the most task-avoidant behavior, the RD group performed poorly particularly on rapid automatized naming and letter knowledge, and the SD group had difficulties on phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Fathers’ shared book reading was less frequent in the RD and RSD groups than in the other groups. The findings suggest that there are discernible double dissociation groups with distinct cognitive profiles. This further suggests that the identification of difficulties in Finnish and the planning of teaching and remediation practices should include both reading and spelling assessments.  相似文献