Graduate attributes : what are they and how do we know if students can achieve them?

This paper considers two practical issues regarding graduate attributes. The first issue concerns the development of a comprehensive list of graduate attributes whilst the second issue addresses the question of how one determines whether graduate attributes and generic skills have been adequately fostered throughout an undergraduate program of study

Providing guidelines for the first-year assessment tasks as a means of developing core graduate attributes : nurturing or spoonfeeding?

Developing written and oral skills is an important part of first-year university experience as this is the time to set the tone and standards for later years. This paper will describe the rationale for providing through instructions, desired learning outcomes, and assessment criteria to first year students enrolled in a core business subject - with the objective of guiding students into deep approaches to learning

Multiomics Analysis Provides Novel Pathways Related to Progression of Heart Failure

Background: Despite major advances in pharmacological treatment for patients with heart failure, residual mortality remains high. This suggests that important pathways are not yet targeted by current heart failure therapies. Objectives: We sought integration of genetic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data in a large cohort of patients with heart failure to detect major pathways related to progression of heart failure leading to death. Methods: We used machine learning methodology based on stacked generalization framework and gradient boosting algorithms, using 54 clinical phenotypes, 403 circulating plasma proteins, 36,046 transcript expression levels in whole blood, and 6 million genomic markers to model all-cause mortality in 2,516 patients with heart failure from the BIOSTAT-CHF (Systems BIOlogy Study to TAilored Treatment in Chronic Heart Failure) study. Results were validated in an independent cohort of 1,738 patients. Results: The mean age of the patients was 70 years (Q1-Q3: 61-78 years), 27% were female, median N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide was 4,275 ng/L (Q1-Q3: 2,360-8,486 ng/L), and 7% had heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. During a median follow-up of 21 months, 657 (26%) of patients died. The 4 major pathways with a significant association to all-cause mortality were: 1) the PI3K/Akt pathway; 2) the MAPK pathway; 3) the Ras signaling pathway; and 4) epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor resistance. Results were validated in an independent cohort of 1,738 patients. Conclusions: A systems biology approach integrating genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data identified 4 major pathways related to mortality. These pathways are related to decreased activation of the cardioprotective ERBB2 receptor, which can be modified by neuregulin