Social skills as predictors of communication, performance and quality of collaboration in project-based learning

The assumption that social skills are necessary ingredients of collaborative learning is well established but rarely empirically tested. In addition, most theories on collaborative learning focus on social skills only at the personal level, while the social skill configurations within a learning group might be of equal importance. Using the integrative framework, this study investigates which social skills at the personal level and at the group level are predictive of task-related e-mail communication, satisfaction with performance and perceived quality of collaboration. Data collection took place in a technology-enhanced long-term project-based learning setting for pre-service teachers. For data collection, two questionnaires were used, one at the beginning and one at the end of the learning cycle which lasted 3 months. During the project phase, the e-mail communication between group members was captured as well. The investigation of 60 project groups (N = 155 for the questionnaires; group size: two or three students) and 33 groups for the e-mail communication (N = 83) revealed that personal social skills played only a minor role compared to group level configurations of social skills in predicting satisfaction with performance, perceived quality of collaboration and communication behaviour. Members from groups that showed a high and/or homogeneous configuration of specific social skills (e.g., cooperation/compromising, leadership) usually were more satisfied and saw their group as more efficient than members from groups with a low and/or heterogeneous configuration of skills.

The origin of the low-spin character of the resting state of cytochrome P450cam investigated by means of active site analogues

Crown-capped iron(S−) porphyrins 1·H2O and 2·H2O and their corresponding Ba2+ complexes have been prepared as active site analogues of the resting state of cytochrome P450cam. cw-EPR studies and electronic structure calculations at the density functional theory (DFT) level of model systems suggest a functional role of the water cluster of P450cam.

Sport as a means of immigrant youth integration: An empirical study of sports, intercultural relations, and immigrant youth integration in Switzerland

Der Beitrag geht der Bedeutung des Sports für die Integration von jugendlichen Einwanderern in die Aufnahmegesellschaft nach. Aufgrund von Daten einer Querschnittstudie bei 454 Jugendlichen der ersten Einwanderergeneration aus Gymnasien, Berufsschulen und Vorlehreeinrichtungen der deutschen Schweiz zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass der Sport für die meisten Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund ein wichtiger Teil ihrer Freizeit darstellt, auch wenn der Anteil von Migrantinnen, die Mitglied eines Sportvereins sind, im Vergleich zu Migranten zweimal niedriger ausfällt. Zudem haben sowohl männliche wie weibliche Jugendliche mit Migrationshintergrund, die Sport in einem Sportverein ausüben, deutlich mehr persönliche Kontakte mit Schweizer Peers während ihrer sportlichen Aktivitäten. Jugendliche, die von häufigen persönlichen Kontakt mit Schweizer Peers im Sport berichten, haben auch deutlich mehr interkulturelle Kontakte in ihrer Freizeit generell und innerhalb des Kreises ihren engsten Freunde. Schließlich vermögen häufige Kontakte mit Schweizer Peers im Sport das Gefühl der jugendlichen Einwanderer, in der Schweiz integriert zu sein, zu erhöhen.

Immediate implant placement in mandible and prosthetic rehabilitation by means of all-zirconium oxide restorations: case report of a woman with a history of periodontitis.

Owing to its single surgical intervention, immediate implant placement has the advantage of shortening treatment time, and thus positively affects patient morbidity. According to the bone resorption pattern after tooth extraction, bone loss should be anticipated if immediate implant placement is considered. The present case report aims to present a possible treatment option and to demonstrate that a partially edentulous arch may be rehabilitated esthetically by immediate implant placement and by corresponding anticipatory measures.

Ancient History as a Means of Transforming Colonial India in the Late-Eighteenth and Early-Nineteenth Centuries

This article focuses on the studies and discourses of mostly British scholars of the early colonial period belonging to two schools of thought. It shows how the studies of both schools – European orientalism and utilitarianism – were intricately connected to the political development of the emerging British paramountcy over the South Asian sub-continent, as both were looking for means of establishing and/or strengthening colonial rule. Nevertheless, the debate was not just a continuation of discussions in Europe. Whereas the ideas of the European Enlightenment had some influence, the transformation of the Mughal Empire and especially the idea of a decline of Muslim rule offered ample opportunities for understanding the early history of India either as some sort of “Golden Age,” as the orientalists and their indigenous supporters did, or as something static and degenerate, as the utilitarians did, and from which the population of sub-continent had to be saved by colonial rule and colonial values. Fearing the spread of the ideas of the French Revolution, the first group of British scholars sought to persuade the native elites of South Asia to take the lessons of their past for the future development of their homeland. Just as the classicists back in Europe, these scholars were convinced that large-scale explanations of the past could also teach political and moral lessons for the present although it was important to deal with the distant past in an empirical manner. The utilitarians on the other hand believed that India had to be saved from its own depravity through the English language and Western values, which amounted to nothing less than the modern transformation of the true Classical Age.

Local Perceptions and Vertical Perspectives of a Large Scale Land Acquisition Project in Northern Sierra Leone

Despite increased scientific interest in the phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA), accurate data on implementation processes remain sparse. This paper aims at filling this gap by providing empirical in-depth knowledge on the case of the Swiss-based Addax Bioenergy Ltd. in Sierra Leone. Extensive fieldwork allowed the interdisciplinary research team 1) the identification of different actors that are necessary for the implementation on a vertical level and 2) the documentation of the heterogeneous group of project affected people’s perceptions and strategies on a horizontal level. Findings reveal that even a project labeled as best-practice example by UN agencies triggers a number of problematic processes for affected communities. The loss of natural resources that comes along with the land lease and the lack of employment possibilities mostly affects already vulnerable groups. On the other hand, strategies and resistance of local people also affect the project implementation. This shows that the horizontal and vertical levels are not separate entities. They are linked by social networks, social interactions, and means of communication and both levels take part in shaping the project’s impacts.

Qualitative Distinction of Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Processes at the Leaf Level by Means of Triple Stable Isotope (C–O–H) Patterns

Foliar samples were harvested from two oaks, a beech, and a yew at the same site in order to trace the development of the leaves over an entire vegetation season. Cellulose yield and stable isotopic compositions (δ13C, δ18O, and δD) were analyzed on leaf cellulose. All parameters unequivocally define a juvenile and a mature period in the foliar expansion of each species. The accompanying shifts of the δ13C-values are in agreement with the transition from remobilized carbohydrates (juvenile period), to current photosynthates (mature phase). While the opponent seasonal trends of δ18O of blade and vein cellulose are in perfect agreement with the state-of-art mechanistic understanding, the lack of this discrepancy for δD, documented for the first time, is unexpected. For example, the offset range of 18 permil (oak veins) to 57 permil (oak blades) in δD may represent a process driven shift from autotrophic to heterotrophic processes. The shared pattern between blade and vein found for both oak and beech suggests an overwhelming metabolic isotope effect on δD that might be accompanied by proton transfer linked to the Calvin-cycle. These results provide strong evidence that hydrogen and oxygen are under different biochemical controls even at the leaf level.

A New Approach for Automatic Removal of Movement Artifacts in Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Time Series by Means of Acceleration Data

Abstract: Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) enables the non-invasive measurement of changes in hemodynamics and oxygenation in tissue. Changes in light-coupling due to movement of the subject can cause movement artifacts (MAs) in the recorded signals. Several methods have been developed so far that facilitate the detection and reduction of MAs in the data. However, due to fixed parameter values (e.g., global threshold) none of these methods are perfectly suitable for long-term (i.e., hours) recordings or were not time-effective when applied to large datasets. We aimed to overcome these limitations by automation, i.e., data adaptive thresholding specifically designed for long-term measurements, and by introducing a stable long-term signal reconstruction. Our new technique (“acceleration-based movement artifact reduction algorithm”, AMARA) is based on combining two methods: the “movement artifact reduction algorithm” (MARA, Scholkmann et al. Phys. Meas. 2010, 31, 649–662), and the “accelerometer-based motion artifact removal” (ABAMAR, Virtanen et al. J. Biomed. Opt. 2011, 16, 087005). We describe AMARA in detail and report about successful validation of the algorithm using empirical NIRS data, measured over the prefrontal cortex in adolescents during sleep. In addition, we compared the performance of AMARA to that of MARA and ABAMAR based on validation data.

Denying the foreseeability of an event as a means of self-protection. The Impact of Self-Threatening Outcome Information on the Strength of the Hindsight Bias

The hindsight bias represents the tendency of people to falsely believe that they would have predicted the outcome of an event, once the outcome is known. Two experiments will be presented that show a reduction or even reversal of the hindsight bias when the outcome information is self-threatening for the participants. Participants read a report of an interaction between a man and a woman that ended with different outcomes: The woman was raped vs. the woman was not raped vs. no outcome information was given. Results of the first experiment indicated that especially female participants, who did not accept rape myths, showed a reversed hindsight bias, when they received the rape outcome information. The more threatening the rape outcome had been, the lower was their estimated likelihood of rape. Results of the second experiment confirmed those of the first. Female participants, who did not accept rape myths and perceived themselves highly similar to the victim, showed a strong reversed hindsight bias, when threatened by the rape outcome, whereas female participants, who did believe in rape myth and were not similar to the victim, showed a classical hindsight bias. These effects were interpreted in terms of self-serving or in-group serving functions of the hindsight bias: Participants deny the foreseeability of a self-threatening outcome as a means of self-protection even if they are not personally affected by the negative information, but a member of their group.

Tattoo: a multifaceted medium of communication

This article suggests the systems theoretical distinction of form/medium as a useful tool for distinguishing social phenomena that might look as if they stem from the same process. This is shown to be the case for the tattoo and tattooing. The tattoo is conceived as a medium of communication through which different forms of communication emerge. Tattooing is one of these forms of communication that shapes the medium in a particular way. The current article sheds a special light on its intricate, communicational constellation, for which the concept of parallax is suggested. Law, medicine and cosmetics as other forms of communication use the medium of tattoo in their own way as well. The form/medium distinction allows us to grasp these different forms of communication, while it shows that they share the tattoo as medium. The article’s ultimate goal is to illustrate that the tattoo figures as a multifaceted medium of communication.

Improving the Assessment of Communication Skills at the Swiss Federal Licensing Exam: Results of a Student's Needs Assessment

Introduction With a three year project the assessment of communication skills within the Swiss Federal Licensing Examinations (FLE) shall be improved. As a first step a needs assessment among communication experts and medical students of the Swiss Medical Faculties will be performed. In this presentation the results of the students’ needs assessment will be presented. Methods A bilingual student’s online questionnaire will be developed by an expert panel taking relevant literature, the Swiss Catalogue of Learning Objectives and other consensus statements for communication (e.g., the European and Basler consensus statements) into account. With a think aloud study response process validity evidence will be sought. The questionnaire will focus on the following topics related to communication skills: (1) What has been taught?, (2) What has been assessed in the faculty exams?, (3) What has been assessed in the FLE?, (4) What should have been assessed in the FLE and how should the assessment be improved? Results Results of the students’ needs assessment will be available by the end of 2015 and be presented. Conclusions/ Take-home message We hope for valuable input for improving the assessment of communications skills within the FLE also from the students’ side. Results of the needs assessment from the students and experts will be combined and taken as input for an international expert symposium on how to improve the communication skills assessment within the FLE.