Attitude and Performance in Mathematics I of Bachelor of Elementary Education Students: A Correlational Analysis

This paper determines the relationship between attitude and performance in Mathematics of 105 Bachelor of Elementary Education (BEEd) freshman students by using correlational research with the questionnaire as the main instrument. The study found that the performance in Mathematics I of the respondents was below average. Their attitudes are significantly correlated with their performance in Mathematics I. The higher their positive attitude, the higher their performance (r=.792**, p<0.01), whereas the higher their negative attitude the lower their performance (r= -.940**, p<0.01). Further, the respondents believe that working with Mathematics problems will make them better critical thinkers and they assume that they have more chance of becoming successful in life if they are good in Mathematics. However, the respondents consider Mathematics as the most difficult subject. They were scared of Mathematics problems and easily give up with answering when they cannot solve them. The overall result revealed that the respondents exhibit negative attitude towards Mathematics. The significant findings of this study provide valuable information for Mathematics teachers, administrators and curriculum planners to enhance policies and pedagogies relating to Mathematics instruction

Formulation of Biologically-Inspired Silk-Based Drug Carriers for Pulmonary Delivery Targeted for Lung Cancer

The benefits of using silk fibroin, a major protein in silk, are widely established in many biomedical applications including tissue regeneration, bioactive coating and in vitro tissue models. The properties of silk such as biocompatibility and controlled degradation are utilized in this study to formulate for the first time as carriers for pulmonary drug delivery. Silk fibroin particles are spray dried or spray-freeze-dried to enable the delivery to the airways via dry powder inhalers. The addition of excipients such as mannitol is optimized for both the stabilization of protein during the spray-freezing process as well as for efficient dispersion using an in vitro aerosolisation impactor. Cisplatin is incorporated into the silk-based formulations with or without cross-linking, which show different release profiles. The particles show high aerosolisation performance through the measurement of in vitro lung deposition, which is at the level of commercially available dry powder inhalers. The silk-based particles are shown to be cytocompatible with A549 human lung epithelial cell line. The cytotoxicity of cisplatin is demonstrated to be enhanced when delivered using the cross-linked silk-based particles. These novel inhalable silk-based drug carriers have the potential to be used as anti-cancer drug delivery systems targeted for the lungs