Using Precision Teaching to Improve Typically Developing Student’s Mathematical Skills Via Teleconferencing

This study evaluated the effects of Precision Teaching in improving typically developing students’ mathematical skills when delivered via teleconferencing in India. Four students received Precision Teaching, while nine acted as control participants. Precision teaching involved instruction in three mathematical skills; two prerequisite skills and the primary skill of mixed addition and subtraction facts. Instruction included untimed practice, timed practice, goal-setting, graphing, and a token economy. Participants who received Precision Teaching received ten practice sessions for the prerequisite skills and 55 sessions for the primary skill. The results demonstrated improvements in the prerequisite skills of varied magnitude and considerable improvements in the primary skill, which were maintained above baseline performance levels. In addition, those who received Precision Teaching were below the 15th percentile rank at the initial assessment and above the 65th percentile at the post-intervention assessment in the math fluency subtest of the Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement—Third Edition. Control participants did not demonstrate similar improvements. Results suggest that Precision Teaching could produce accelerated outcomes even when delivered via teleconferencing. Therefore, it could be a valuable system for helping students ameliorate potential learning losses resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic

Controlling systemic corruption through group size and salary dispersion of public servants

We investigate an agent-based model for the emergence of corruption in public contracts. There are two types of agents: business people and public servants. Both business people and public servants can adopt two strategies: corrupt or honest behavior. Interactions between business people and public servants take place through defined payoff rules. Either type of agent can switch between corrupt or honest strategies by comparing their payoffs after interacting. We measure the level of corruption in the system by the fractions of corrupt and honest agents for asymptotic times. We study the effects of the group size of the interacting agents, the dispersion with respect to the average salary of the public servants, and a parameter representing the institutional control of corruption. We characterize the fractions of honest and corrupt agents as functions of these variables. We construct phase diagrams for the level of corruption in the system in terms of these variables, where three collective states can be distinguished: i) a phase where corruption dominates; ii) a phase where corruption remains in less than 50% of the agents; and iii) a phase where corruption disappears. Our results indicate that a combination of large group sizes of interacting servants and business people and small dispersion of the salaries of public servants, contributes to the decrease of systemic corruption in public contracts

Eficacia de un tentempié de lupinus mutabilis sweet como complemento al tratamiento convencional de la diabetes mellitus tipo 2

Introducción: los cambios recomendados sobre los estilos de vida, incluido el consumo frecuente de leguminosas, han resultado en un mejor control metabólico y disminución de la presión arterial en pacientes con diabetes mellitus tipo 2 (DMT2). Objetivo: este fue un estudio casi experimental cruzado de 28 semanas que evaluó el efecto del consumo diario de la leguminosa Lupinus mutabilis Sweet (LM) en el control metabólico de pacientes con DMT2 con tratamiento oral hipoglucemiante. Material y métodos: inicialmente se reclutaron 79 pacientes adultos, hombres y mujeres, que fueron seguidos durante 14 semanas sin consumo de LM y luego recibieron dosis crecientes de un tentempié de LM durante otras 14 semanas. Resultados: se observó una disminución significativa en la presión arterial y un aumento significativo en el colesterol-HDL después del consumo de LM. Mientras que los pacientes con concentraciones de A1C sérica > 8 y ≤ 10 no mejoraron significativamente su control metabólico, los pacientes con concentraciones séricas de A1C ≤ 8,0% redujeron significativamente su A1C después de la intervención y el 71% de estos pacientes llegó a la meta de tratamiento ≤ 6,5%. Conclusión: los pacientes con DMT2 podrían beneficiarse con la adición de un tentempié de LM a su tratamiento convencionalIntroduction: therapeutic lifestyles changes including frequent consumption of legumes have resulted in improved metabolic control and decreased blood pressure in type 2 diabetes-mellitus (T2DM) patients. Objective: this was a quasi-experimental-28-week crossover-study that assessed the effect of daily consumption of the legume Lupinus mutabilis (LM) on metabolic control of T2DM patients under hypoglycemic oral treatment. Material and methods: we recruited 79 adult male and female patients that were followed for 14-weeks without LM consumption and then received increasing doses of a LM-based-snack for other 14-weeks. Results: there was a significant decrease in blood pressure and a significant increase in HDL-cholesterol after LM consumption. While patients with A1C concentrations > 8 and ≤ 10 did not significantly improve their metabolic control, patients with serum A1C concentrations ≤ 8.0% reduced significantly their A1C after the intervention and 71% achieved a target concentration of 6.5%. Conclusion: patients with T2DM could benefit with the addition of LMsnack to their conventional treatment