This article investigates use of digital storytelling as a learning activity in education about migration. Based on a study in two Norwegian schools and two adult education centers for refugees and ...migrants, the article analyzes student's digital stories and observations of the process of production. Counter to research on the promise of digital storytelling to promote diverse perspectives, personal experience and creativity, our findings show that digital stories as a learning activity includes powerful standardization drivers. The standardization limits diversity in students' knowledge and experience from coming into view in the final product. The identified standardization drivers are; (1) discursive blueprints of refugee experience, including the narrative about the 'Good Refugee' and idealization of the destination country, (2) challenges with representing traumatic experiences through photographic imagery, and (3) material affordances in the production process such as google algorithms. In conclusion, we argue that critical engagement with the involved modalities and standardization drivers is a condition for using digital stories to foster critical thinking about migration.
The relationship between acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity in the CSF and brain of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) was investigated in 18 mild AD patients following galantamine treatment. ...The first 3 months of the study had a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design, during which 12 patients received galantamine (16–24
mg/day) and six patients placebo. This was followed by 9 months galantamine treatment in all patients. Activities and protein levels of both the “read-through” AChE (AChE-R) and the synaptic (AChE-S) variants in CSF were assessed in parallel together with the regional brain AChE activity by
11C-PMP and PET. The AChE-S inhibition was 30–36% in CSF, which correlated well with the
in vivo AChE inhibition in the brain. No significant AChE inhibition was observed in the
placebo group. The increased level of the AChE-R protein was 16% higher than that of AChE-S. Both the AChE inhibition and the increased level of AChE-R protein positively correlated with the patient's performance in cognitive tests associated with visuospatial ability and attention. In conclusion, AChE levels in CSF closely mirror
in vivo brain AChE levels prior to and after treatment with the cholinesterase inhibitors. A positive cognitive response seems to dependent on the AChE inhibition level, which is balanced by an increased protein level of the AChE-R variant in the patients.
