Investigating the Essential of Meaningful Automated Formative Feedback for Programming Assignments

This study investigated the essential of meaningful automated feedback for programming assignments. Three different types of feedback were tested, including (a) What's wrong - what test cases were testing and which failed, (b) Gap - comparisons between expected and actual outputs, and (c) Hint - hints on how to fix problems if test cases failed. 46 students taking a CS2 participated in this study. They were divided into three groups, and the feedback configurations for each group were different: (1) Group One - What's wrong, (2) Group Two - What's wrong + Gap, (3) Group Three - What's wrong + Gap + Hint. This study found that simply knowing what failed did not help students sufficiently, and might stimulate system gaming behavior. Hints were not found to be impactful on student performance or their usage of automated feedback. Based on the findings, this study provides practical guidance on the design of automated feedback

What's the most practical way to rule out adrenal insufficiency?

A morning serum cortisol level >13 mcg/dL reliably rules out adrenal insufficiency, and the test is easy and safe to perform. Because of low specificity, patients with a level of ≤13 mcg/dL need further evaluation with the cosyntropin stimulation test (CST) (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, meta- analysis of diagnostic cohort studies)

New Directions in Tort Law - 1995 Monsanto Lecture Valparaiso University School of Law

There are four different levels to recent developments in the law of torts: what's happening in practice, what's happening in Congress, what's happening with the Restatements at the American Law Institute, and, more fundamentally, what are the practical and theoretical effects of an important change in the basic approach that has been gaining form in torts over the last thirty years. After a preliminary nod to the first three, we will focus on this last one, which involves the emergence of splitting rules and the ways in which the trend toward splitting has manifested itself in various tort doctrines

Ecological thresholds and large carnivores conservation: Implications for the Amur tiger and leopard in China

The ecological threshold concept describes how changes in one or more factors at thresholds can result in a large shift in the state of an ecosystem. This concept focuses attention on limiting factors that affect the tolerance of systems or organisms and changes in them. Accumulating empirical evidence for the existence of ecological thresholds has created favorable conditions for practical application to wildlife conservation. Applying the concept has the potential to enhance conservation of two large carnivores, Amur tiger and leopard, and the knowledge gained could guide the construction of a proposed national park. In this review, ecological thresholds that result from considering a paradigm of bottom-up control were evaluated for their potential to contribute to the conservation of Amur tiger and leopard. Our review highlights that large carnivores, as top predators, are potentially affected by ecological thresholds arising from changes in climate (or weather), habitat, vegetation, prey, competitors, and anthropogenic disturbances. What's more, interactions between factors and context dependence need to be considered in threshold research and conservation practice, because they may amplify the response of ecosystems or organisms to changes in specific drivers. Application of the threshold concept leads to a more thorough evaluation of conservation needs, and could be used to guide future Amur tiger and leopard research and conservation in China. Such application may inform the conservation of other large carnivores worldwide

The role of practical work in the developing practice of beginning physics teachers

The role and rationale of practical work in teaching school science are receiving renewed scrutiny (Abrahams and Saglam, 2010). This paper is a case study which reports part of a larger longitudinal study which used semi-structured interviews to explore the approaches of beginning teachers of physics to teaching electricity during Initial Teacher Education (ITE) and beyond. The interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis. One of the emergent themes was the use of practical work in secondary school science. All of the beginning teachers had embedded the use of practical work in their teaching. This paper discusses their reasons for doing so and compares their responses with the rationales suggested by Hodson (1993), Lunetta, Hofstein, Clough, Abell, & Leerman (2007) and Abrahams (2011). The implications for ITE and continuing professional development (CPD) are discussed

What's next? A practical guide for exploring your job opportunities outside academia

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