Student-led success: Improving attendance and learning at Fourth Hour review sessions

This research continues the work of Gilbert et al. [1] by translating the “Fourth Hour” review session materials from Java to Python, keeping the focus on common misconceptions in the literature, continuing to use Peer Instruction (PI), and addressing two issues in the previous study: low attendance and short-term learning outcomes during the session. [2] The “Fourth Hour” is a review session designed to support students taking CS1 who may have missed class or need to review the previous week’s material. This review session is an hour long and is offered twice a week with the same material so more students can fit it into their schedules. In Gilbert et al’s study, attendance was too low for the results to be statistically significant. This new study attempts to address this issue by implementing in-class weekly assessments with retakes that will be used to improve attendance. This study also measures learning gains during the session by measuring the accuracy of the responses to the given PI questions to determine whether students who attend are actually learning the material being presented

THE EFFECT OF ETHANOLIC EXTRACT OF SOLANUM DUBIUM IN GLUCOSE INTRA-PERITONIALLY LOADED RATS (in-vivo) AND GLUCOSE UPTAKE IN ISOLATED RAT HEMIDIAPHRAGM (in-vitro)

ABSTRACT:Thirty westar albino rats of either sexes weighing 120gm to 250gm were divided into five groups to test three different doses of ethanolic extract of solanum dubium for its blood glucose lowering activity in comparison with glibenclamide as a positive control and distilled water as a negative control group. Blood glucose in the rats was evaluated in the first, second and fourth hour. The first and second hour the extract lowered blood glucose level potently to a decrement value of 25% in comparison to 17% decrement in the group administered glibenclamide. At the fourth hour the extract showed no effect on blood glucose level, nevertheless, it start rising, the fact that reveals it as a short acting drug. Using rat hemidiaphragm to check the potential of solanum extract in enhancing re-uptake of glucose by tissues, it showed good synergistic activity when administered with insulin.Key words: solanum dubium, glibenclamide, ethanolic, hypoglycemic, hemidiaphragm

Analyzing motivation and sense of belonging belonging in CS1 review sessions

The Computer Science Department at James Madison University has a Teaching Assistant program which aims to help students succeed in early-level Computer Science courses. Part of this program is a review session, the Fourth Hour, which provides students extra help on the concepts taught each week in class. Historically, attendance at this review session has been low. Because of this, the study aimed to increase attendance by motivating students through interventions, primarily offering quiz retakes to students who attended. Additionally, this study looked at the reported sense of belonging for participants who attended. We made three conclusions from survey data we collected. First, giving students incentives in the form of quiz retakes notably increased attendance. Second, students who did not attend the Fourth Hour had a greater sense of belonging, likely because many of them were not struggling. Third, the primary reason students reported not attending is that they did not see value in attending, possibly because they have a greater sense of belonging than students who attended

Antiarrhythmic effect of the calcium antagonist tiapamil (ro 11–1781) by intravenous administration in patients with coronary heart disease

Twenty coronary patients with a median age of 76 years were treated in the coronary care unit with tiapamil, a new Ca2+ antagonist, by intravenous infusion (until December, 1979, the generic name was dimeditiapramine). The following arrhythmias were identified: atrial fibrillation with ventricular rate greater than 95 beats/min (5 patients); supraventricular premature complexes (SVPC) (4 patients); and ventricular premature complexes (VPC), Lown grades 2-4 (15 patients). Electrocardiograms and hemodynamic parameters were continuously monitored prior to, during, and after the therapy. In patients with atrial fibrillation, sinus rhythm was not restored, but tiapamil decreased the ventricular rate by 54%. In patients with VPC, the median frequency of VPC decreased from 310.5 before tiapamil to 32.5 beats/h at the fourth hour of therapy (p less than 0.01). The median ectopic/sinus beat ratio decreased from 0.083 (pretreatment) to 0.008 at the fourth hour of infusion (p less than 0.10). In one of the patient with an insufficient decrease in the number of VPC, the VPOC changed from class 4a (pretreatment) to class 2 (during the therapy), returning to class 4a after the infusion was stopped. Tiapamil reduced the median systolic and diastolic blood pressures by 8.3 and 7.1%, respectively (p less than 0.05), the third hour. Hypotension and bradycardia were observed in 5/20 patients. The results show that tiapamil is effective against both supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias, and thus its spectrum of action differs from that of other calcium antagonists

A pilot study on the impact of teaching assistant led CS1 study sessions using Peer Instruction

James Madison University’s Computer Science program strives to be a student-centered learning environment with a focus on creating a community for undergraduate success. National data reveals computer science has the lowest student retention rate compared to other STEM majors. The National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) has compiled a list of ways to retain students in Computer Science. In particular, NCWIT calls for collaboration indicate that “a sense of belonging, or a feeling of fit, is important for supporting student interest and persistence.” One aspect of creating community is the department’s longstanding commitment to provide undergraduate teaching assistants (TAs). Traditionally, TAs provide one-on-one help in the classroom and also hold supplementary lab hours in the evenings to answer questions. As part of this honors project, we have developed a new program called “The Fourth Hour” to increase student retention. Led by TAs using Peer Instruction (PI), these weekly study sessions provide a structured review of introductory topics. The aim of this research is to discover if weekly study sessions promote an environment in which students feel an increased sense of belonging and improved course material retention. In the Fall 2019 semester, JMU offered ten sections of CS149, the introductory programming course, also known as “CS1” in the literature. Each section had approximately 30 students enrolled. Four TAs were chosen to lead one study session each week using the same lesson materials. Three attitudinal surveys were administered over the duration of the semester to collect data on student demographics, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging. Pre- and post assessment results were recorded to test student course material retention. Study session attendance was also collected to discern if there was a correlation with student demographics, self-efficacy, sense of belonging, and/or course material retention. Anomalies in the data and inconsistent attendance rates limited the statistical significance of our results. However, our qualitative analysis suggests that the study sessions had a positive impact on students. As a result, the CS department is planning to continue offering the Fourth Hour program

Quality Changes of Light Flesh Tuna at Water of Tomini Bay, Gorontalo Province

Tuna is one of the mainstay fisheries commodities that involve many of the ordinary fishermen. The handling usually still not follows the principles of good handling that causing the poor quality as the result.The aims of this research were to analyze and to determine the quality of tuna meat (the abdominal wall, dorsal fin, and caudal fin). Raw material yellowfin tuna meat prepared for the light, the meat section of the abdominal wall, dorsal fin, and caudal fin. The result of organoleptic analysis showed that the tuna meat was above the minimum value for the criteria of fresh fish. The result of TVB analysis showed that the meat on the caudal fin had the highest value and significantly different with the other, but still exist on the safe limits and on the fresh category. For the result of analysis in histamine, it shown that at the fourth hour the meat at the dorsal fin had the histamine content which were above the minimum that have been recommended. For the result of analysis in peroxide number, it shown that the tuna meat did not sustain the fat damage until the fourth hour after the catching process. And for the result of analysis in TPC, it showed that at the fourth hour the tuna meat on the pectoral fin had the highest number of total colony and significantly different with the other.Keywords: handling, histamine, light flesh, microbiology, yellowfi