Diverse assessment methods in group work settings

The assessment scheme and mid-course feedback play a central role in the student's learning experience. However, within the student population there are many different perceptions of teaching and learning, and to accommodate these a diverse range of assessment and feedback activites are required. This issue is particularly important when group-orientated problem-based learning is employed, since much of the learning occurs within the groups and away from the direct supervision of the unit coordinators. We have explored a range of assessment styles in a suite of units of study in second year chemical engineering, centred around group-based project work. Group written project reports, interviews, confidential self and peer-assessments, individual laboratory reports, quizzes and a final examination have been used so far. Alignment of these assessments and teaching & learning activities with the learning outcomes guided our development of this framework, and this alignment has been verified by the students' results. The projects themselves are open-ended and present realistic engineering scenarios, including recommending the best type of artificial heart, the overall design of a desalination plant, and the design of a soap and cosmetics factory. A high level of student engagement and enthusiasm for the project work has been observed, arising mainly from the real-world nature of the projects, coupled with the stimuli provided by the range of assessment activities used

Effect of remote ischaemic conditioning on clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI): a single-blind randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Remote ischaemic conditioning with transient ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm has been shown to reduce myocardial infarct size in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI). We investigated whether remote ischaemic conditioning could reduce the incidence of cardiac death and hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months. METHODS: We did an international investigator-initiated, prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial (CONDI-2/ERIC-PPCI) at 33 centres across the UK, Denmark, Spain, and Serbia. Patients (age >18 years) with suspected STEMI and who were eligible for PPCI were randomly allocated (1:1, stratified by centre with a permuted block method) to receive standard treatment (including a sham simulated remote ischaemic conditioning intervention at UK sites only) or remote ischaemic conditioning treatment (intermittent ischaemia and reperfusion applied to the arm through four cycles of 5-min inflation and 5-min deflation of an automated cuff device) before PPCI. Investigators responsible for data collection and outcome assessment were masked to treatment allocation. The primary combined endpoint was cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure at 12 months in the intention-to-treat population. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02342522) and is completed. FINDINGS: Between Nov 6, 2013, and March 31, 2018, 5401 patients were randomly allocated to either the control group (n=2701) or the remote ischaemic conditioning group (n=2700). After exclusion of patients upon hospital arrival or loss to follow-up, 2569 patients in the control group and 2546 in the intervention group were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At 12 months post-PPCI, the Kaplan-Meier-estimated frequencies of cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure (the primary endpoint) were 220 (8·6%) patients in the control group and 239 (9·4%) in the remote ischaemic conditioning group (hazard ratio 1·10 [95% CI 0·91-1·32], p=0·32 for intervention versus control). No important unexpected adverse events or side effects of remote ischaemic conditioning were observed. INTERPRETATION: Remote ischaemic conditioning does not improve clinical outcomes (cardiac death or hospitalisation for heart failure) at 12 months in patients with STEMI undergoing PPCI. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, University College London Hospitals/University College London Biomedical Research Centre, Danish Innovation Foundation, Novo Nordisk Foundation, TrygFonden

Fast crystallization of lactose and milk powder in fluidized bed dryer/crystallizer

International audienc

Control of crystallization and caking of skim milk powder in fluidized beds: A preliminary study

A stirred fluidized bed has been used with the aim of crystallizing skim milk powder from spray drying without caking the powders. The skim milk powder was crystallized in a stirred fluidized bed, then a sorption box was used to characterize the stability and a standard flow tester for dairy powders was used to measure the flowability. The results showed that the samples from the fluidized bed did not adsorb as much water as the original samples, suggesting that the samples from the fluidized bed were more stable than the original samples. The results of the flowability tests showed that the samples from the stirred fluidized beds were significantly more free flowing than either the caked samples from the sorption box or the original samples. This preliminary study indicates that fluidized-bed processing is a promising method for crystallizing some dairy powders