Enhancing students' learning through a blended learning cycle for engineering mathematics

BACKGROUND This study responds to the need for developing effective teaching methods helping students with the acquisition of specific STEM skills (West, 2012, 2013). It applies principles of blended learning design (Saliba, et al. 2013), in the context of mathematics courses (Stevenson & Zweier, 2011; Calderon, et al., 2012; Carbonell, et al., 2013) with attention paid to the potential for use – affordances – (Gibson, 1977, 1979; Hartson, 2003; Good, 2007) of Information Communication Technologies (ICT) offered by e-learning environments (Kirschner, 2004; Kirschner et al., 2004). AIMS The overall goal of the study was to improve student engagement and satisfaction, by re-designing a 1st year engineering mathematics unit. Specific objectives included: (1) investigating ways of effectively using the online tool WeBWorK for mathematics competence diagnostics, (2) improving the delivery of face-to-face (f2f) lectures and tutorials by designing, developing and implementing activities that explicitly link f2f delivery with online components, and (3) improving 1st year student engagement by developing a model of close collaboration between the teaching team and student success and learning support programs. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION Inspired by recent changes to the University’s learning and teaching vision, the authors anchored the unit’s re-design process in the blended learning methodology (Saliba, G. et al, 2013). Its principles were used to systematically evaluate the delivery modes and learning and teaching (L&T) methodologies of the unit, define areas for improvement, design and implement the changes and complete the first part of the study. More precisely, the changes included: (1) re-designing the unit’s online presence to be more efficient in providing students with a well-organized, structured L&T platform; (2) embedding online tools in the unit content; (3) designing and developing ‘challenge questions’ – activities making direct connection between theoretical content of the lecture with its practical applications during the f2f, small-group workshops, and (4) coordinating the actions of institutional learning support and student success programs to make the support visible to students. DESIGN AND METHODS The project used an action research approach to investigate the designed intervention’s effectiveness. A questionnaire composed of Likert-scale and open-ended questions was distributed at the end of semester to two cohorts of students (Summer 2013 and Semester 1 2014). Here we report on the data analysis focused on the students’ perception and the uptake of the potential for an action (affordances) offered by WeBWorK. The results allowed the designer and the teaching team to reflect on and re-think the ways the tools have been used in the unit, re-program the tool and implement the modified tool in Semester 2 2014. RESULTS Preliminary conclusion: The results of the data collected in phase 1 of the project indicated that students did not perceive full potential offered by the tool, therefore the possibility to enhance their engagement and satisfaction has not been entirely exploited. CONCLUSIONS Based on the data analysis, the authors formulated: (1) hypotheses for explaining the results and (2) possible improvements to be made in order to allow students to use more efficiently the potential offered by the tool. These will be discussed at the presentation along with the first observations made based on the implemented modifications

Overexpression of Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein in the Pancreatic Islets of Transgenic Mice Causes Islet Hyperplasia, Hyperinsulinemia, and Hypoglycemia

Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) is produced by the pancreatic islet. It also has receptors on islet cells, suggesting that it may serve a paracrine or autocrine role within the islet. We have developed transgenic mice, which overexpress PTHrP in the islet through the use of the rat insulin II promoter (RIP). Glucose homeostasis in these mice is markedly abnormal; RIP-PTHrP mice are hypoglycemic in the postprandial and fasting states and display inappropriate hyperinsulinemia. At the end of a 24-hour fast, blood glucose values are 49 mg/dl in RIP-PTHrP mice, as compared to 77 mg/dl in normal littermates; insulin concentrations at this time are 6.3 and 3.9 ng/ml, respectively. Islet perifusion studies failed to demonstrate abnormalities in insulin secretion. In contrast, quantitative islet histomorphometry demonstrates that the total islet number and total islet mass are 2-fold higher in RIP-PTHrP mice than in their normal littermates. PTHrP very likely plays a normal physiologic role within the pancreatic islet. This role is most likely paracrine or autocrine. PTHrP appears to regulate insulin secretion either directly or indirectly, through developmental or growth effects on islet mass. PTHrP may have a role as an agent that enhances islet mass and/or enhances insulin secretion

Cathepsin K-deficient osteocytes prevent lactation-induced bone loss and parathyroid hormone suppression

Lactation induces bone loss to provide sufficient calcium in the milk, a process that involves osteoclastic bone resorption but also osteocytes and perilacunar resorption. The exact mechanisms by which osteocytes contribute to bone loss remain elusive. Osteocytes express genes required in osteoclasts for bone resorption, including cathepsin K (Ctsk), and lactation elevates their expression. We show that Ctsk deletion in osteocytes prevented the increase in osteocyte lacunar area seen during lactation, as well as the effects of lactation to increase osteoclast numbers and decrease trabecular bone volume, cortical thickness, and mechanical properties. In addition, we show that Ctsk deletion in osteocytes increased bone parathyroid hormone-related peptide (PTHrP) and prevented the decrease in serum parathyroid hormone (PTH) induced by lactation, but amplified the increase in serum 1,25-dyhydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)(2)D]. The net result of these changes is to maintain serum and milk calcium levels in the normal range, ensuring normal offspring skeletal development. Our studies confirm the fundamental role of osteocytic perilacunar remodeling in physiological states of lactation and provide genetic evidence that osteocyte-derived Ctsk contributes not only to osteocyte perilacunar remodeling, but also to the regulation of PTH, PTHrP, 1,25(OH)(2)D, osteoclastogenesis, and bone loss in response to the high calcium demand associated with lactation

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements