Taking iRAT Outside The Classroom: Using an Interactive Book to Modify Team-Based Learning in a First-Year Programming Course

Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an evidence-based collaborative learning teaching strategy designed around units of instruction, known as “modules” that are taught in a three-step cycle: preparation, inclass readiness assurance test (RAT), and application-focused exercise. The in-class RAT includes two sub-tests; individual RAT (iRAT) and team RAT (tRAT). In first-year programming classes, the instructors rely on the mini-lecture to deliver advanced concepts or present a programming exercise to the students. Meanwhile, most of the class time is consumed by the iRAT, tRAT, and application-focused exercise. This paper sheds light on an attempt to modify the conventional TBL approach by taking the iRAT outside the classroom and exploit its time to extend the mini-lecture time. This modification is achieved by the aid of an interactive online book, which ensures that the students finished their reading assignments before the class. Hence, the interactive book can allow us to take the iRAT outside the classroom, which will save at least 20% of the class time. The proposed approach was implemented to a class of 165 students in Fall 2019 and 47 students in Spring 2020, and the preliminary results show that the students finish each class reading assignment with an average percentage of 87%

Simulation Pipeline of Milli-scale Magnetic Robots for Blood Clot Removal

Milliscale, magnetically-controlled robots can be used for targeted blood clot removal. This method may provide a more precise, less dangerous, and less invasive removal process than the current methods which utilize blood thinning medication and catheters. These robots have helical threads so that magnetically induced rotation will produce a propulsive force that is controlled by an external magnetic system. The speed at which the robots need to rotate in order to hover in place in human blood is called the hovering frequency, and was used as a measure of the efficiency of the robot designs. We developed a pipeline for simulated testing of the robots using Finite Element Methods and post-processing. The flow of blood around the robots when rotating at various frequencies was modeled with the Navier-Stokes equations and approximated using the penalty method. In post-processing, the simulations were evaluated by visualizing the interaction of flow lines with the design geometries, confirming that the divergence is approximately zero along the geometry's surface, and calculating the generated propulsive forces. Various physical design parameters including thread depth, air pocket size, tip shape, and pitch, were tested with this method to compare the efficiency of hovering frequencies between simulated models. Future work will involve further optimization of the robot's shapes, evaluation of the model, and automation of the simulation process.Mechanical Engineering, Department ofHonors Colleg

A Coupled Equations Model for Epitaxial Growth on Textured Surfaces

We have developed a continuum model that explains the complex surface shapes observed in epitaxial regrowth on micron scale gratings. This model describes the dependence of the surface morphology on film thickness and growth temperature in terms of a few simple atomic scale processes including adatom diffusion, step-edge attachment and detachment, and a net downhill migration of surface adatoms. The continuum model reduces to the linear part of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation with a flux dependent smoothing coefficient in the long wavelength limit.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to the Journal of Crystal Growt

Planting a Soft Skills Seed In a First-Year Introductory Programming Class Using Team-Based Learning

Today\u27s competitive global market demands that engineers possess soft skills in addition to technical skills. Currently, engineers learn leadership, teamwork, and management skills while working soft skills the hard way . In order to meet the demands of this changing world, engineering programs in different universities are challenged to come up with innovative ways to teach classes so that graduates are prepared to take on the challenges twenty-first-century engineers face. Team-Based Learning (TBL) is an advancing teaching pedagogy that shifts instruction from a traditional lecture-based teaching paradigm to a structured learning sequence. TBL has shown to be effective in student academic success and retention; however, it may also aid in the development of soft skills required for the industry. This study focuses on 165 students who were enrolled in a freshman-level programming course in the Fall 2019. The students were all asked voluntarily to fill a Soft Skills Survey in the second week of the semester that consisted of 38 questions evaluating various categories of soft skills. At the end of the semester, the same survey was given and both were used to evaluate the effectiveness of TBL on students\u27 soft skills. The conducted survey is designed to assess five overarching factors within the TBL framework: The first is how group work improves individual motivation; the second is how group work stimulates academic growth; the third is the individual student\u27s creative and critical thinking skills; the fourth is the value of group work for their overall education; the last is confidence in their own academic skills. Traditionally, the effectiveness of TBL has been assessed through grades and numeric measures of performance; however, TBL was designed to both enhance learning as well as team collaboration and critical thinking skills. These two surveys were conducted to assess the soft skills outcome gains. Preliminary results for this study showed modest gains in critical thinking and external motivation. The results show that using TBL will organically enhance the students\u27 soft skills

Transforming a TBL Programming Class from Face-to-Face to Online Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a public health emergency of international concern. The spread of the virus all over the world sent billions of people into lockdown. In light of rising concerns, a growing number of universities across the globe and specifically in the United States have either postponed or canceled all campus events such as workshops, conferences, sports, and other activities. Universities took intensive measures to prevent and protect all students, faculty, and staff members from the highly infectious disease. This resulted in migrating all face-to-face courses into an online course. In this paper, the authors present the impact of COVID19 on migrating a Team-based Learning C programming course from face-to-face to online delivery and its effect on student learning. The results section of this paper shows that the student learning curve was affected significantly by the sudden online delivery of the course

Critical role of actin in modulating BBB permeability

Abstract A major obstacle in the treatment of degenerative manifestations and debilitating diseases in the central nervous system (CNS) lies in the impediment of drug delivery into these tissues. The impediment is due to a membrane barrier referred to as the blood -brain barrier (BBB). It is known that the BBB is a unique membranous structure in brain capillaries that tightly segregates the brain from systemic blood circulation. It is imperative to have a thorough understanding of the molecular components and their integrated function of this barrier to develop effective therapeutics for CNS disorders and diseases. Although there are other cell and biochemical properties that underlie this barrier function, it is well established that the barrier is mainly made up of the physical elements of tight junction (TJ) complex. The major constituents of TJ, such as occludin, claudins, zonula occludens (ZOs) and junctional adhesion molecule (JAM) have been subjects of intensive studies and reviews. However, after examining currently proposed models, we have come to believe that a cytoskeletal componentactin may play a critical role in interacting TJ molecular constituents and modulating functional TJ complex. In this review, we will discuss the correlation of temporal and spatial distribution and remodeling of actin filaments with altering integrity of TJ complexes in various systems and present a hypothesis to depict its potential role in modulating BBB permeability.

Mixed Active-Traditional Learning versus Team-Based Learning: A Comparative Study for a Freshman Programming Course

A comparative study to show the effectiveness of Team-Based Learning (TBL) and Mixed Active-Traditional (MATL) learning for an introductory programming course at Iowa State University is discussed in this paper. The introductory programming C course was offered to 46 students using TBL and 50 students using MATL, led by two different instructors who use the same course schedule and textbook. The students on both courses received the same number of lectures/labs during the semester. To be able to assess the two methodologies, the instructors deliver the same course contents. Still, they differ with the course delivery method. MATL utilizes maximum class time for traditional lectures with class activities, and the TBL utilizes the maximum class time for interactive group activities with mini-lectures. Homework, reading assignments, and the final exam results are compared to check both teaching methods\u27 overall effectiveness. Although students were satisfied with both teaching methods, students\u27 performances were better in TBL than the MATL

Finite Coulomb Crystal Formation

Dust particles immersed within a plasma environment, such as those found in planetary rings or comets, will acquire an electric charge. If the ratio of the inter-particle potential energy to average kinetic energy is large enough the particles will form either a "liquid" structure with short-range ordering or a crystalline structure with long-range ordering. Since their discovery in laboratory environments in 1994, such crystals have been the subject of a variety of experimental, theoretical and numerical investigations. Most numerical and theoretical investigations have examined infinite systems assuming periodic boundary conditions. Since experimentally observed crystals can be comprised of a few hundred particles, this often leads to discrepancies between predicted theoretical results and experimental data. In addition, recent studies have concentrated on the importance of random charge variations between individual dust particles, but very little on the importance of size variations between the grains. Such size variations naturally lead to inter-grain charge variations which can easily become more important than those due to random charge fluctuations (which are typically less than one percent). Although such size variations can be largely eliminated experimentally by introducing mono-dispersive particles, many laboratory systems and all astrophysical environments contain significant size distributions. This study utilizes a program to find the equilibrium positions of a dusty plasma system as well as a modified Barnes-Hut code to model the dynamic behavior of such systems. It is shown that in terms of inter-particle spacing and ordering, finite systems are significantly different than infinite ones, particularly for the most-highly ordered states.Comment: 6 pages, Presented at COSPAR '0

Association of plasma GFAP with elevated brain amyloid is dependent on severity of white matter lesions in an Asian cognitively impaired cohort

INTRODUCTION: While elevated blood glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) has been associated with brain amyloid pathology, whether this association occurs in populations with high cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) concomitance remains unclear. METHODS: Using a Singapore-based cohort of cognitively impaired subjects, we assessed associations between plasma GFAP and neuroimaging measures of brain amyloid and CSVD, including white matter hyperintensities (WMH). We also examined the diagnostic performance of plasma GFAP in detecting brain amyloid beta positivity (Aβ+). RESULTS: When stratified by WMH status, elevated brain amyloid was associated with higher plasma GFAP only in the WMH– group (β = 0.383; P &lt; 0.001). The diagnostic performance of plasma GFAP in identifying Aβ+ was significantly higher in the WMH– group (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.896) than in the WMH+ group (AUC = 0.712, P = 0.008). DISCUSSION: The biomarker utility of plasma GFAP in detecting brain amyloid pathology is dependent on the severity of concomitant WMH. Highlight: Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP)’s association with brain amyloid is unclear in populations with high cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). Plasma GFAP was measured in a cohort with CSVD and brain amyloid. Plasma GFAP was better in detecting amyloid in patients with low CSVD versus high CSVD. Biomarker utility of GFAP in detecting brain amyloid depends on the severity of CSVD.</p

Functional GLP-1R antibodies identified from a synthetic GPCR-focused library demonstrate potent blood glucose control.

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a group of seven-transmembrane receptor proteins that have proven to be successful drug targets. Antibodies are becoming an increasingly promising modality to target these receptors due to their unique properties, such as exquisite specificity, long half-life, and fewer side effects, and their improved pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic profiles compared to peptides and small molecules, which results from their more favorable biodistribution. To date, there are only two US Food and Drug Administration-approved GPCR antibody drugs, namely erenumab and mogamulizumab, and this highlights the challenges encountered in identifying functional antibodies against GPCRs. Utilizing Twists precision DNA writing technologies, we have created a GPCR-focused phage display library with 1&nbsp;×&nbsp;1010 diversity. Specifically, we mined endogenous GPCR binding ligand and peptide sequences and incorporated these binding motifs into the heavy chain complementarity-determining region 3 in a synthetic antibody library. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1&nbsp;R) is a class B GPCR that acts as the receptor for the incretin GLP-1, which is released to regulate insulin levels in response to food intake. GLP-1&nbsp;R agonists have been widely used to increase insulin secretion to lower blood glucose levels for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, whereas GLP-1&nbsp;R antagonists have applications in the treatment of severe hypoglycemia associated with bariatric surgery and hyperinsulinomic hypoglycemia. Here we present the discovery and creation of both antagonistic and agonistic GLP-1&nbsp;R antibodies by panning this GPCR-focused phage display library on a GLP-1&nbsp;R-overexpressing Chinese hamster ovary cell line and demonstrate their in vitro and in vivo functional activity