Search

Open-ended tasks can be decomposed into the three levels of Newell's Cognitive Band: the Unit-Task level, the Operation level, and the Deliberate-Act level. We analyzed the video game Co-op Space Fortress at these levels, reporting both the match of a cognitive model to subject behavior and the use of electroencephalogram (EEG) to track subject cognition. The Unit Task level in this game involves coordinating with a partner to kill a fortress. At this highest level of the Cognitive Band, there is a good match between subject behavior and the model. The EEG signals were also strong enough to track when Unit Tasks succeeded or failed. The intermediate Operation level in this task involves legs of flight to achieve a kill. The EEG signals associated with these operations are much weaker than the signals associated with the Unit Tasks. Still, it was possible to reconstruct subject play with much better than chance success. There were significant differences in the leg behavior of subjects and models. Model behavior did not provide a good basis for interpreting a subject's behavior at this level. At the lowest Deliberate-Act level, we observed overlapping key actions, which the model did not display. Such overlapping key actions also frustrated efforts to identify EEG signals of motor actions. We conclude that the Unit-task level is the appropriate level both for understanding open-ended tasks and for using EEG to track the performance of open-ended tasks.

High ventilation breathwork with retention (HVBR) has been growing in popularity over the past decade and might be beneficial for mental and physical health. However, little research has explored the potential therapeutic effects of brief, remotely delivered HVBR and the tolerability profile of this technique. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of a fully-automated HVBR protocol, along with its tolerability, when delivered remotely in a brief format. This study (NCT06064474) was the largest blinded randomised-controlled trial on HVBR to date in which 200 young, healthy adults balanced for gender were randomly allocated in blocks of 2 by remote software to 3 weeks of 20 min daily HVBR (fast breathing with long breath holds) or a placebo HVBR comparator (15 breaths/min with short breath holds). The trial was concealed as a fast breathwork study wherein both intervention and comparator were masked, and only ~ 40% guessed their group assignment with no difference in accuracy between groups. Both groups reported analogous credibility and expectancy of benefit, subjective adherence, positive sentiment, along with short- and long-term tolerability. At post-intervention (primary timepoint) for stress level (primary outcome), we found no significant group × time interaction, F(1,180) = 1.98, p = 0.16, ηp2 = 0.01, d = 0.21), nor main effect of group, (F = 0.35, p = 0.55, ηp2

ABSTRACT Purpose: The continuous improvement and development of fertility care, internationally, requires ongoing monitoring of current delivery processes and outcomes in clinical practice. This descriptive and exploratory mixed-methods study was conducted in eight countries (Brazil, China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain and the United Kingdom) to assess the unmet needs of fertility patients (male and female), and existing challenges, barriers and educational gaps of physicians and laboratory specialists involved in human fertility care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: The study was deployed sequentially in two phases: 1) in-depth 45-minute semi-structured interviews (n=76), transcribed, coded and thematically analysed using an inductive reasoning approach, 2) an online survey (n=303) informed by the findings of the qualitative interviews, face validated by experts in reproductive medicine, and analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: The integrated results of both phases indicated numerous areas of challenges, including: 1) investigating male-related infertility; 2) deciding appropriate treatment for men and selective use of assisted reproductive technology; and 3) maintaining access to high-quality fertility care during a pandemic. Conclusions: The paper presents a reflective piece on knowledge and skills that warrant ongoing monitoring and improvement amongst reproductive medicine healthcare professionals amidst future pandemics and unanticipated health system disruptions. Moreover, these findings suggest that there is an additional need to better understand the required changes in policies and organizational processes that would facilitate access to andrology services for male infertility and specialized care, as needed.

Objectives: While there are good reasons to assume that mindfulness protects against burnout in students, nothing is known about the role of caring for bliss. This study examined whether caring for bliss moderated the relationship between mindfulness at baseline and aspects of burnout approximately 12 weeks later. Participants: Students (n = 92) from a university in the United States. Methods: Online surveys were administered in 2018. Results: Moderated regression analyses, controlling for depressive symptoms and burnout at baseline, revealed that caring for bliss moderated the relationship between earlier mindfulness and two aspects of later student burnout, namely emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Specifically, exhaustion and cynicism were low when students reported either low or high scores on both mindfulness and caring for bliss. No moderating effect was found for academic efficacy. Conclusions: Mindfulness and caring for bliss appear to work synergistically to reduce aspects of student burnout over time.

The Caring for Bliss Scale (CBS) is a new measure that assesses an individuals' capacity to cultivate inner joy and happiness. Developed in the United States, its generalizability remains unknown in non-Western contexts. This research explored the scale's cross-national invariance among college students in the Philippines (n = 546) and the United States (n = 643). A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation showed that the unidimensional model of caring for bliss exhibited configural, metric, scalar, and residual invariance across the Filipino and the U.S. samples. This scale also had good internal consistency estimates in both settings. In both contexts, caring for bliss was positively correlated with well-being and negatively correlated with different negative quality of life indicators (i.e., stress, anxiety, and depression). This study offered preliminary evidence regarding the cross-national applicability of the CBS in different cultural settings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Abstract High ventilation breathwork with retention (HVBR) has been growing in popularity over the past decade and might be beneficial for mental and physical health. However, little research has explored the potential therapeutic effects of brief, remotely delivered HVBR and the tolerability profile of this technique. Accordingly, we investigated the effects of a fully-automated HVBR protocol, along with its tolerability, when delivered remotely in a brief format. This study (NCT06064474) was the largest blinded randomised-controlled trial on HVBR to date in which 200 young, healthy adults balanced for gender were randomly allocated in blocks of 2 by remote software to 3 weeks of 20 min daily HVBR (fast breathing with long breath holds) or a placebo HVBR comparator (15 breaths/min with short breath holds). The trial was concealed as a ‘fast breathwork’ study wherein both intervention and comparator were masked, and only ~ 40% guessed their group assignment with no difference in accuracy between groups. Both groups reported analogous credibility and expectancy of benefit, subjective adherence, positive sentiment, along with short- and long-term tolerability. At post-intervention (primary timepoint) for stress level (primary outcome), we found no significant group × time interaction, F(1,180) = 1.98, p = 0.16, η p 2 = 0.01, d = 0.21), nor main effect of group, (F = 0.35, p = 0.55, η p 2

Two taste preference experiments were conducted with the same 8 multiparous lactating Jersey cattle (100 ± 7.1 DIM, 30.5 ± 4 0.06 kg of milk yield, 18.8 ± 2.52 kg of DMI in experiment 1; and 215 ± 7.1 DIM, 27.6 ± 3.98 kg of milk yield, 19.6 ± 3.03 kg of DMI in experiment 2). In experiment 1, 4 pellets were formulated and manufactured into 4.0-mm pellets. These were as follows: 45.7% alfalfa meal, 45.7% corn grain, and 8.57% wheat middlings (ALFC); 72.3% corn grain, 18.5% wheat middlings, and 9.25% dried distillers grains and solubles (ENG); a pellet containing 100% dehydrated alfalfa meal (DALF); and a pellet containing a mixture of concentrate ingredients (GMIX; 43.1% corn grain, 26.3% dried distillers grains and solubles, 13.8% wheat middlings, 7.10% dry molasses, 3.18% soybean meal, 0.93% corn oil, and 5.6% minor constituents). Cows were offered 0.50 kg of pellets in a randomized arrangement within the feed bunk. Feed preference was ranked from 1 to 4 with 1 being the most preferred and 4 the least. The resulting preference rankings were averaged (± SE) resulting in a highest (closest to 1) to lowest (furthest from 1) ranking as follows of ALFC (1.38 ± 0.164), ENG (2.13 ± 0.327), GMIX (2.88 ± 0.375), and DALF (3.13 ± 0.350). The probabilities of first choice were 70.6 ± 0.55% ALFC, 16.5 ± 0.46% ENG, 5.50 ± 0.475% DALF, and 7.48 ± 0.455% GMIX. A Z-test was conducted to determine the percentage a treatment would be chosen first differed from the value of no preference at 25%; ALFC and DALF differed from the mean value, whereas no difference was observed for ENG and GMIX. The most preferred pellet (ALFC) was used in a second study and compared against 3 other treatments in which different flavoring agents were added. In this study, 4 pellets were manufactured with ALFC: 45.7% alfalfa meal, 45.7% corn grain, 6.76% wheat middlings, and 1.81% oregano leaf (ALFCO); 45.7% alfalfa meal, 45.7% corn grain, 8.22% wheat middlings, 0.10% melon flavoring, and 0.25% BitterOff (ALFCM); and 45.7% alfalfa meal, 45.7% corn grain, 8.47% wheat middlings, and 0.10% licorice flavoring (ALFCL). The resulting preference rankings were averaged resulting in a highest to lowest ranking as follows: ALFC (1.25 ± 0.164), ALFCO (2.38 ± 0.263), ALFCM (2.63 ± 0.375), and ALFCL (3.25 ± 0.164). The probabilities of first choice were 81.9 ± 0.65% ALFC, 8.49 ± 0.46% ALFCO, 6.50 ± 0.481% ALFCM, and 3.12 ± 0.491% ALFCL. Of the pellet choices, ALFC and ALFCL differed from the mean value of no choice, whereas no difference was observed for ALFCO and ALFCM. Mixtures of corn grain and dehydrated alfalfa meal bound by wheat middlings may serve as a feeding strategy that is preferred by the animals and may be an effective reward to cows entering an automated milk system, and we were unable to improve preference by adding flavoring agents.

Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about its psychological impacts. The present study therefore investigated two negative states, loneliness and depression, and their temporal relationship, in two samples of emerging adults attending college. The first (N=323) was assessed prior to a stay-at-home order and 4 weeks after the order. To ensure that any findings reflected circumstances occasioned by the stay-at-home order a second pre COVID-19 sample (N=290) was also studied. Results were similar across both samples. No change was found in overall level of depressive symptoms and because the change in loneliness occurred in both samples it could not be attributed to circumstances resulting from the pandemic. Findings in both samples supported a relationship in which loneliness predicted later depressive symptoms and vice versa. The reasons why depressive symptoms might lead to loneliness are discussed.

Nucleolar morphology is a well-established indicator of ribosome biogenesis activity that has served as the foundation of many screens investigating ribosome production. Missing from this field of study is a broad-scale investigation of the regulation of ribosomal DNA morphology, despite the essential role of rRNA gene transcription in modulating ribosome output. We hypothesized that the morphology of rDNA arrays reflects ribosome biogenesis activity. We established GapR-GFP, a prokaryotic DNA-binding protein that recognizes transcriptionally-induced overtwisted DNA, as a live visual fluorescent marker for quantitative analysis of rDNA organization in Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We found that the morphology-which we refer to as spatial organization-of the rDNA arrays is dynamic throughout the cell cycle, under glucose starvation, RNA pol I inhibition, and TOR activation. Screening the haploid S. pombe Bioneer deletion collection for spatial organization phenotypes revealed large ribosomal protein (RPL) gene deletions that alter rDNA organization. Further work revealed RPL gene deletion mutants with altered rDNA organization also demonstrate resistance to the TOR inhibitor Torin1. A genetic analysis of signaling pathways essential for this resistance phenotype implicated many factors including a conserved MAPK, Pmk1, previously linked to extracellular stress responses. We propose RPL gene deletion triggers altered rDNA morphology due to compensatory changes in ribosome biogenesis via multiple signaling pathways, and we further suggest compensatory responses may contribute to human diseases such as ribosomopathies. Altogether, GapR-GFP is a powerful tool for live visual reporting on rDNA morphology under myriad conditions.

Abstract Background The global research response to the COVID-19 pandemic was impressive, but also led to an infodemic and considerable research waste. Registered, but unpublished trials added to this noise. We aimed to determine the proportion of registered randomised trials of common COVID-19 treatments that were published and to describe the characteristics of these trials to examine the association between trial characteristics, publication status and research waste. Methods This meta-epidemiological cohort study used a sample of randomised trials of corticosteroids, hydroxychloroquine or vitamin D as treatments for COVID-19, registered between 1 November 2019 and 31 December 2021 and available via the WHO ICTRP portal. We searched for the trials’ published results up to 20 October 2022. We extracted the trial characteristics, analysing with descriptive statistics. We performed univariate logistic regression to examine the association between trials’ characteristics and publication status, followed by multiple logistic regression using significant characteristics to assess the association between trial characteristics and publication status. Results We identified 357 eligible trials on ICTRP. Of these, 107 (30%) had published or made their results available publicly by 20 October 2022, while 250 (70%) had not been published or shared their results publicly. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that a larger target sample size was a significant positive predictor of publication with target sample sizes above 300 almost tripling the odds of publication (aOR: 2.75, 95% CI: 1.35 to 5.62). Conclusions Less than one third of registered trials made their results public and our findings identified that many trialists had not updated their trial registry entry with the trial status, results or both. Failure to share trial results publicly is a disservice to patients, clinicians and policy makers and adds to research waste.

Abstract Breathwork may offer simple tools for stress resilience. We conducted the largest parallel randomised-controlled trial on breathwork to date (NCT05676658) wherein 400 participants on the research platform Prolific were randomised, in blocks of 2 via remote software, to coherent breathing at ~ 5.5 breaths/min or a matched attention-placebo at 12 breaths/min, for ~ 10 min/day over 4 weeks. Participants were blinded to their allocated interventions, both of which were paced with equal inhalation:exhalation ratios. There were no differences on credibility and expectancy of benefit between conditions. At the primary timepoint post-intervention for the primary outcome subjective stress, there was no significant group by time interaction (F(1,377) = 0.089, p = 0.765, η p 2

Changes in the frequency of extreme weather events related to climate change potentially pose significant challenges to UK agricultural production. There is a need for improved climate change risk assessments to support adaptation strategies and to ensure security of food production in future.We describe an innovative and practical framework for spatially explicit modelling of climate change impacts on crop yields, based on the UKCP18 climate projections. Our approach allows the integration of relatively simple crop growth models with high spatial and temporal resolution Earth Observation datasets, describing changes in crop growth parameters within year and over the longer term. We focus on modelling winter wheat, a commercially important crop. We evaluate the results of the model against precision yield data collected from 719 fields. We show that the assimilation of leaf area index data from Sentinel-2 satellite observations improves the agreement of the modelled yields with those observed. Our national-scale results indicate that wheat production initially becomes more favourable under climate change across much of the UK with the projected increase in temperature. From 2050 onwards, yields increase northwards, whilst they decline in South East England as the decrease in precipitation offsets the benefits of rising temperature.Our framework can readily accommodate growth models for other crops and LAI retrievals from other satellite sensors. The ability to explore impacts of crop yields at fine spatial resolutions is an important part of assessing the potential risks of climate change to UK agriculture and of designing more climate resilient agricultural systems.

Seeking divine forgiveness (forgiveness by a Supreme Being or Higher Power) is important because the perception of such forgiveness is associated with psychological well-being This paper is the first to examine a process model of divine forgiveness in which the decision to pursue such forgiveness initiates the process of seeking it. Two studies investigate the likelihood of seeking divine forgiveness. Study 1 (N = 190) introduces and provides discriminant validity for a unidimensional measure divine forgiveness seeking. Convergent validity is provided by demonstrating that seeking divine forgiveness correlates with reported experiences of divine forgiveness both concurrently and six weeks later. Study 2 (N = 390) provides a confirmatory factor analysis of seeking divine forgiveness scale items identified in Study 1 and replicates the concurrent and temporal association with reported experiences of divine forgiveness using a longer time interval (12 weeks). It also documents associations between a person’s image of God, attachment and closeness to God and the likelihood of seeking divine forgiveness. Both studies control for religiosity and Study 2 introduces an additional control for impression management. Together, they provide support for the idea that the decision to pursue divine forgiveness begins the process of seeking such forgiveness. We discuss limitations of the research and outline several paths for additional studies.

IntroductionAlthough a majority of the world’s population believes in a Higher Power and subscribes to a religion in which divine forgiveness is emphasized, little work has been done to understand individual differences associated with seeking divine forgiveness.MethodsBuilding on work that suggests trait self-control facilitates well-being, the current study (N = 439, undergraduate students) applies structural equation modeling (SEM) to test whether believers higher (vs. lower) in trait self-control are more likely to seek divine forgiveness, and, in turn, have better psychological health.Results and discussionWe find that people higher in self-control engage in more divine forgiveness seeking (b = 0.16), and seeking divine forgiveness represents one of the pathways associated with psychological health (i.e., seeking is associated with higher well-being, b = 0.21, and lower distress, b = −0.07). Crucially, we operationalize both positive (well-being and flourishing) and negative (depression, anxiety, stress) aspects of psychological health and control for religiosity. These results suggest that for those who believe in God, seeking divine forgiveness may be one mechanism that links individuals’ self-control to good psychological health, and this is not merely an artifact of higher levels of religiosity. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Mainstream images of "toddler" tend to serve a humorous purpose in mass media, most often presenting children of this age (18 months-3 years) as out-of-control. This assumed "barbaric" toddler promotes early childhood as a time for intervention, expecting adults to be the shapers of behavior and knowledge within discourses of social regulation which delineate possible childhoods. Within the Capitalocene, possible childhoods are inextricably linked to future adulthoods where this intervention is desired early to prepare children for future schooling and thus, future work to further industrial progress and consumption. This article revisits narrative, self-reflexive data from a larger study to identify and deconstruct mundane, acceptable teaching practices that promote the positioning of very young children as "lesser beings" through the constant control of children's bodies, ideas, and subjectivities. Through this deconstruction of practice and in turn adult-child power relations, ruptures in habitual ways of knowing and teaching lead to a reimagining of toddlers' actions in an effort to build counternarratives. Practices of disruption and resignification aim to challenge the positions of classroom subjects as they are continuously reproduced through discourses of development and the neoliberal agenda.

Identities and identity politics play a significant role in the lives of Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Using empirical qualitative research with focus groups as the primary research method, this article is a critical investigation into the ways in which Syrian refugees in Lebanon are simultaneously politicized through their everyday lived experiences yet depoliticized through humanitarian policy and practice. In particular, the article explores how the politicization/depoliticization dichotomy impacts Syrian refugees' access to and experiences within higher education opportunities made available for them in Lebanon. The article argues that humanitarianism's inattentiveness to intersectional identities and social hierarchies of power has often resulted in physical and psychological educational exclusions and reinforced existing inequalities and fissures/divisions between different groups of refugees. In this way, higher education for refugees has often fallen short of its potential to transform lives.

Ribosome biogenesis is a vital and highly energy-consuming cellular function occurring primarily in the nucleolus. Cancer cells have an elevated demand for ribosomes to sustain continuous proliferation. This study evaluated the impact of existing anticancer drugs on the nucleolus by screening a library of anticancer compounds for drugs that induce nucleolar stress. For a readout, a novel parameter termed ‘nucleolar normality score’ was developed that measures the ratio of the fibrillar center and granular component proteins in the nucleolus and nucleoplasm. Multiple classes of drugs were found to induce nucleolar stress, including DNA intercalators, inhibitors of mTOR/PI3K, heat shock proteins, proteasome, and cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs). Each class of drugs induced morphologically and molecularly distinct states of nucleolar stress accompanied by changes in nucleolar biophysical properties. In-depth characterization focused on the nucleolar stress induced by inhibition of transcriptional CDKs, particularly CDK9, the main CDK that regulates RNA Pol II. Multiple CDK substrates were identified in the nucleolus, including RNA Pol I– recruiting protein Treacle, which was phosphorylated by CDK9 in vitro. These results revealed a concerted regulation of RNA Pol I and Pol II by transcriptional CDKs. Our findings exposed many classes of chemotherapy compounds that are capable of inducing nucleolar stress, and we recommend considering this in anticancer drug development.

This paper is a follow up to a previous article published online in this journal (Fincham; 2019) in which the writer describes the first phase of research into contemporary challenges facing headteachers in Catholic schools in England as expressed from the perspective of headteachers within one diocese. It was evident from the first phase that leaders in Catholic schools are subject not only to pragmatic concerns about funding and recruitment but also to both implied and overt challenges to Catholic identity and integrity, which are tested by pressures of social media, which have an impact upon the mental and emotional health of young people, and a pervasive secular mind-set, which impinges on faith practice in families and in the community. It was noted that the reduction in the number of priests in Catholic dioceses in England has also often left the school as the single focus of the Catholic community, which has implications for sustaining spiritual capital. The first phase of the investigation examined responses to an open question in which headteachers at a Catholic diocesan conference were invited to indicate their three most pressing challenges. The responses were subject to a process of Thematic Analysis (TA), as a result of which five pre-eminent issues were identified. The opportunity was also taken to investigate the extent to which spiritual capital was being renewed in Catholic schools. These 'categories of discourse' informed the face-to-face interviews that were conducted with five primary headteachers and four secondary headteachers in the second phase of the investigation. The data gathered enabled the researcher to ascribe meaning to headteachers' unique experiences. [For "Headteachers in Catholic Schools in England: Contemporary Challenges. A Follow-Up Research Study: Part 1," see EJ1338202.]

Headteachers of Catholic schools in England in the early twenty-first century are facing unprecedented challenges in exercising their role. In addition to concerns about funding and recruitment, leaders in Catholic schools are subject to challenges about Catholic identity and integrity, which are tested by pressures such as social media that have an impact not only upon the mental and emotional health of young people but on faith practice in families and in the community. Traditionally, the Catholic school community comprised a balance across the home, the parish and the school. However, pressures on home life and the reduction in the number of priests have often left the school as the single focus of the Catholic community. Catholic education, moreover, has been open to challenges from what Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor called 'aggressive secularism', which questions the very existence of Catholic schools. In this paper, the writer explores contemporary challenges for headteachers in Catholic schools as expressed from the perspective of headteachers in one diocese in England. The research was conducted in two phases. In the first phase of the investigation, an open question was distributed at a diocesan conference of Catholic headteachers and deputy headteachers, inviting participants to indicate their three most pressing challenges. A phenomenological approach was adopted, and, through a process of Thematic Analysis (TA), five pre-eminent issues were identified.

Academic procrastination is widespread among college students, leads to poorer academic performance and has been related to concurrent stress. Because the direction of effects between procrastination and stress is unclear, two longitudinal studies were conducted. Study 1 (n = 454) showed that mid-semester levels of stress were related to end of semester procrastination controlling for mid-semester procrastination but not vice versa. Study 2 (n = 326) examined procrastination and stress both before and during a quarantine occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic. Although procrastination increased during the quarantine, this study replicated the Study 1 finding that earlier stress is associated with later procrastination rather than vice versa. The importance of these findings is emphasized by the need for empirically based interventions for academic procrastination in tertiary education.

The widespread adoption of digital e-learning environments and other learning technology has provided researchers with ready access to large quantities of data. Much of this data comes from discussion forums and has been studied with analytical methods drawn from social network analysis. However, within this large body of research there exists considerable variation in the definition of what constitutes a social tie, and the consequences of this choice are rarely described or examined. This paper presents findings from two distinct learning environments regarding different social tie extraction methods and their influence on the structural and statistical properties of the induced networks, and the association between measures of centrality and academic performance. Our findings indicate that social tie definitions play an important role in shaping the results of our analyses. The primary purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the consequences that such methodological choices may have, and to promote transparency in future research.

Abstract Deliberate control of the breath (breathwork) has recently received an unprecedented surge in public interest and breathing techniques have therapeutic potential to improve mental health. Our meta-analysis primarily aimed to evaluate the efficacy of breathwork through examining whether, and to what extent, breathwork interventions were associated with lower levels of self-reported/subjective stress compared to non-breathwork controls. We searched PsycInfo, PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus, Web of Science, ClinicalTrials.gov and ISRCTN up to February 2022, initially identifying 1325 results. The primary outcome self-reported/subjective stress included 12 randomised-controlled trials (k = 12) with a total of 785 adult participants. Most studies were deemed as being at moderate risk of bias. The random-effects analysis yielded a significant small-to-medium mean effect size, g = − 0.35 [95% CI − 0.55, − 0.14], z = 3.32, p = 0.0009, showing breathwork was associated with lower levels of stress than control conditions. Heterogeneity was intermediate and approaching significance, χ 2 11 = 19, p = 0.06, I 2 = 42%. Meta-analyses for secondary outcomes of self-reported/subjective anxiety (k = 20) and depressive symptoms (k = 18) showed similar significant effect sizes: g = − 0.32, p

Using hidden Markov models (HMM), the current study looked at how learners' metacognitive monitoring is related to their physiological reactivity in the context of collaborative learning. The participants (N = 12, age 16-17 years, three females and nine males) in the study were high school students enrolled in an advanced physics course. The results show that during collaborative learning, the students engaged in monitoring in each self-regulated learning phase such as task understanding, planning and goal setting, task enactment, adaptation and reflection. The results of the HMM indicated that the learners' physiological reactivity was low when monitoring occurred. The associations between the states based on the HMM provide insights not only into how learners engage in metacognitive monitoring but also about their level of physiological reactivity in each state. In conclusion, exploring aspects of metacognitive monitoring in collaborative learning can be done with the help of physiological reactions.

There has been a growing interest in the application of information and communication technology (ICT) as a means of improving and extending participation in Higher Education and in its impact on pedagogy. Six years ago, two students were recruited to a Masters Degree programme at St Mary's University, London, as Full Distance Learners. Full Distance Learning implies that through asynchronous participation, students are not required to be together at the same time but can access course materials and communicate with tutors and other students flexibly at their own time and convenience through a virtual learning environment (VLE). Numbers have grown exponentially and, currently, there are more than fifty Full Distance Learners engaged at some point in the programme. This paper sets out to explore the personal reflections of the experiences of Full Distance Learners who have successfully completed the course. Adopting a phenomenological approach, it was possible for the researcher to explore individual perceptions of students in order to evaluate their particular experiences, which are not often studied. Consequently, it was possible to interpret the benefits and limitations of studying as Full Distance Learners from their own experiences. It was hoped that an examination of the experiences and perceptions of individuals from their own personal points of view would indicate to what extent they would support, inform and challenge conventional practice.