Technology-enhanced learning in higher education : How to enhance student engagement through blended learning

Blended learning has risen in popularity in the last two decades as it has been shown to be an effective approach for accommodating an increasingly diverse student population in higher education and enriching the learning environment by incorporating online teaching resources. Blending significant elements of the learning environment such as face-to-face, online and self-paced learning leads to better student experiences and outcomes and more efficient teaching and course management practices if combined appropriately. Hence, an appropriate systematic and dynamic approach of blended learning design is crucial for a positive outcome, starting with planning for integrating blended elements into a course and creating blended activities and implementing them. Evaluating their effectiveness and knowing in which environments they work better and improving the blended activities designed from both the student’s and instructor’s perspective are critical for the next delivery of the course. This article aims to increase awareness of higher education educators about how traditional face-to-face learning can be transformed into blended courses so as to develop student engagement with both in-class and online approaches, whilst being time effective for the instructor

In-plane electronic confinement in superconducting LaAlO3/SrTiO3 nanostructures

We describe the transport properties of mesoscopic devices based on the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG) present at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface. Bridges with lateral dimensions down to 500 nm were realized using electron beam lithography. Their detailed characterization shows that processing and confinement do not alter the transport parameters of the 2DEG. The devices exhibit superconducting behavior tunable by electric field effect. In the normal state, we measured universal conductance fluctuations, signature of phase-coherent transport in small structures. The achievement of reliable lateral confinement of the 2DEG opens the way to the realization of quantum electronic devices at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface

A microRNA screen reveals that elevated hepatic ectodysplasin A expression contributes to obesity-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle

Over 40% of microRNAs (miRNAs) are located in introns of protein-coding genes, and many of these intronic miRNAs are co-regulated with their host genes(1,2). In such cases of co-regulation, the products of host genes and their intronic miRNAs can cooperate to coordinately regulate biologically important pathways(3,4). Therefore, we screened intronic miRNAs dysregulated in the livers of mouse models of obesity to identify previously uncharacterized protein-coding host genes that may contribute to the pathogenesis of obesity-associated insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Our approach revealed that expression of both the gene encoding ectodysplasin A (Eda), the causal gene in X-linked hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia (XLHED)(5), and its intronic miRNA, miR-676, was increased in the livers of obese mice. Moreover, hepatic EDA expression is increased in obese human subjects and reduced upon weight loss, and its hepatic expression correlates with systemic insulin resistance. We also found that reducing miR-676 expression in db/db mice increases the expression of proteins involved in fatty acid oxidation and reduces the expression of inflammatory signaling components in the liver. Further, we found that Eda expression in mouse liver is controlled via PPAR gamma and RXR-alpha, increases in circulation under conditions of obesity, and promotes JNK activation and inhibitory serine phosphorylation of IRS1 in skeletal muscle. In accordance with these findings, gain-and loss-of-function approaches reveal that liver-derived EDA regulates systemic glucose metabolism, suggesting that EDA is a hepatokine that can contribute to impaired skeletal muscle insulin sensitivity in obesity

Study of Rashba Spin-Orbit Field at LaAlO3/SrTiO3 Heterointerfaces

Oxide interfaces such as LaAlO3/SrTiO3 (LAO/STO) are interesting platforms for the investigation of ???spin-orbitronics??? because of their strongly coupled spin and orbital degrees of freedom due to the inversion asymmetry of the structure. In this investigation, we demonstrate a tunable Rashba spin-orbit field at the LAO/STO interface via the application of an external gate electric field. The strength of the Rashba field was indirectly estimated by measuring the planar angle dependence of the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). The asymmetry of the planar AMR between ?? = 0 and ?? indicates the existence of Rashba spin-orbit fields, which are tunable by adjusting the current density and gate electric field. From the AMR measurements, the effective Rashba field exhibits up to 4 T for the application of an external back-gate voltage of 30 V. This controllable and relatively high Rashba field suggests that the LAO/STO is an attractive 2-D interface for potential spin-orbitronic applications, such as spin-charge converters, spin-FETs, and spin-orbit torque devices