Mathematical pathways for students articulating to Business degrees

Australia needs more qualified professionals in the STEM areas. The national focus on widening participation in higher education (HE) includes strengthening pathways from vocational education and training (VET). VET students often lack the mathematics skills necessary to articulate successfully to their chosen degrees. Maths anxiety has been identified as a barrier to success in Business degrees in particular (Joyce, Hassal, Jose, Donose & Jose, 2006), highlighting the need for maths knowledge and support for students transitioning to these degrees. Of particular concern are those students who might be potentially less prepared for the transition, such as VET students. This project is part of a larger Office for Learning and Teaching grant focusing on developing contextualised pathways for four different disciplines (education, engineering, business and health science). The business pathway mapped mathematics topics covered in VET units associated with business qualifications at Certificate 3, 4 and Diploma level foundation level units to the base level maths knowledge required at the University of Tasmania and the University of Notre Dame Australia for completion of first year quantitative methods units. From this mapping, a set of online modules were developed to support students during their VET qualifications with foundation level skills, and fill the mathematics gap between VET and HE. These modules were also designed to provide support to first year business students, and assist them in completion of the quantitative methods units required in first year Bachelor of Business Degrees. The pathway developed has seven modules; two foundation level modules, three transition level modules and two providing resources for support through HE quantitative methods. For the first five modules, a pre-test determined whether a student needed to complete the module and a post-test (self-assessed) was developed to test the students’ knowledge after completing the module lessons, practice tasks and exercises. The project has recently concluded, and the pathway to business has now been active for 4 months during which it has been offered to first year business students at the University of Tasmania to trial. Successful completion of the module post-tests has been endorsed by the University of Notre Dame Australia’s School of Business for entry into the program for students with tertiary maths. This presentation describes the process of the business pathway development and the opportunities for cross sectoral course support and delivery. References: Joyce, J., Hassall, T., Arquero M., José L., Donoso A., & José A., Communication apprehension and maths anxiety as barriers to communication and numeracy skills development in accounting and business education, Education & Training 48.6 (2006): 454-464. Proceedings of the Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education, Curtin University, Sept 30th to Oct 1st, 2015, page X, ISBN Number 978-0-9871834-4-6

The seroprevalence of hepatitis C virus infection among children and their mothers attending for dental care in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

This paper describes a voluntary anonymous survey to investigate the seroprevalence of Hepatitis C (HCV) in children in Glasgow, UK attending a Dental Hospital and the proportion of HCV positive mothers who have a child who is HCV seropositive. The study was undertaken among children and accompanying parents and household contacts attending a general anaesthetic assessment clinic at Glasgow Dental Hospital and School. Children were asked to provide an oral fluid specimen for HCV testing. Accompanying adults were asked to provide demographic data on the child and information on familial risk factors for HCV infection using a standardised questionnaire. Birth mothers were also asked to provide an oral fluid specimen. Specimens and questionnaires were linked by a unique anonymous study number. Between June 2009 and December 2011, samples were collected from 2141 children and 1698 mothers. None of the samples from the children were HCV seropositive but 16 (0.9%, 95% CI 0.6% to 1.5%) of the specimens from mothers were HCV antibody positive. In summary, the prevalence of HCV seropositivity in the birth mothers of the children was similar to that estimated in the general population served by the hospital and showed no evidence of mother-to-child transmission of HCV

Thigh-length compression stockings and DVT after stroke

Controversy exists as to whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy improves survival in patients with invasive bladder cancer, despite randomised controlled trials of more than 3000 patients. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the effect of such treatment on survival in patients with this disease

Whole-genome sequencing of patients with rare diseases in a national health system

Most patients with rare diseases do not receive a molecular diagnosis and the aetiological variants and causative genes for more than half such disorders remain to be discovered1. Here we used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) in a national health system to streamline diagnosis and to discover unknown aetiological variants in the coding and non-coding regions of the genome. We generated WGS data for 13,037 participants, of whom 9,802 had a rare disease, and provided a genetic diagnosis to 1,138 of the 7,065 extensively phenotyped participants. We identified 95 Mendelian associations between genes and rare diseases, of which 11 have been discovered since 2015 and at least 79 are confirmed to be aetiological. By generating WGS data of UK Biobank participants2, we found that rare alleles can explain the presence of some individuals in the tails of a quantitative trait for red blood cells. Finally, we identified four novel non-coding variants that cause disease through the disruption of transcription of ARPC1B, GATA1, LRBA and MPL. Our study demonstrates a synergy by using WGS for diagnosis and aetiological discovery in routine healthcare

Azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised, controlled, open-label, platform trial

Background Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatory actions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19. Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients were randomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once per day by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatment groups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment and were twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants and local study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to the outcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936. Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) were eligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was 65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomly allocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall, 561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days (rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median 10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days (rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, no significant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilation or death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24). Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or other prespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restricted to patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication. Funding UK Research and Innovation (Medical Research Council) and National Institute of Health Research