Exploring Strategies To Promote Engagement And Active Learning Through Digital Course Design In Engineering Mathematics

This research explores the strategies and techniques used to foster and promote the engagement and active learning of engineering students within a digital course. This digital course has been developed to address the varying levels of understanding of fundamental mathematics among first-year engineering students, who often have disparate levels of prior knowledge at their high school completion. We observe an increasing need to bridge the widening gap between high school and university mathematics in order to prevent engineering students from being hindered in their academic successes due to a lack of prior mathematical understanding. With a team of engineers and mathematicians, both researchers and educators, we are developing a mathematics Bridging Course including the use of digital tools, such as videos, online interactions and technology-based assessments. These sources were created, investigated and/or modified to develop an engaging learning environment in which students are made aware of and guided through misconceptions and mistakes in their understanding of fundamental mathematics. In the development of this Bridging Course, we consider the importance of interactive learning and timely feedback for student learning. We investigate the impact of digital course design on students’ performance and learning outcomes using a qualitative approach. Students feedback within the first stage of the implementation of the course offered a positive assessment of the course, accentuating its inherent advantages and attributes. The students’ feedback proved to be an invaluable source of insights, specifically concerning the enhancement of question distractors, thus prompting revisions and augmentations in the assessment items employed

Cortical Tonotopic Map Changes in Humans Are Larger in Hearing Loss Than in Additional Tinnitus

Contains fulltext : 218553.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access

The Intra- and Interobserver Agreement on Diagnosis of Dupuytren Disease, Measurements of Severity of Contracture, and Disease Extent

This agreement study aimed to determine the intra- and interobserver agreement of four variables for diagnosing DD, determining severity of contracture, and disease extent. One of them is a new measurement on the area of nodules and cords, to be able to determine disease extent in early cases without flexion deformities. Intra-observer agreement was slightly higher on average than interobserver agreement. Overall, the intra- and interobserver agreement in diagnosing DD and determining the severity of flexion contracture is high. Also, the newly introduced variable area of nodules and cords has high intra- and interobserver agreement, indicating that it is suitable to measure disease extent

Disease course of primary Dupuytren’s disease:5-year results of a prospective cohort study

Background: Predicting progression of Dupuytren disease becomes relevant in an upcoming era with progression-preventing treatment. This study aimed to determine the course of Dupuytren disease and identify factors associated with progression. Methods: Two hundred fifty-eight patients with Dupuytren disease participated in this prospective cohort study, obtaining 17,645 observations in 5 years. Outcomes were disease extent (surface area) and contracture severity (total passive extension deficit). Demographics, lifestyle, health status, exposure to manual work, and genetic risk scores were gathered as potential predictors. Subject-specific, mixed-effects models were used to estimate disease course, and logistic regression with least absolute shrinkage and selection operator was used to evaluate factors associated with the presence of progression. Results: On average, Dupuytren disease was progressive in all finger rays with regard to area [yearly increase, 0.07 cm(2) (95% CI, 0.02 to 0.13 cm(2)) to 0.25 cm(2) (95% CI, 0.11 to 0.39 cm(2))]. Progression in total passive extension deficit was only present on the small finger side [yearly increase, 1.75 degrees (95% CI, 0.30 to 3.20 degrees) to 6.25 degrees (95% CI, 2.81 to 9.69 degrees)]. Stability or regression in area and total passive extension deficit was observed in 11 and 13 percent and 16 and 15 percent (dominant and nondominant hands), respectively. Smoking, cancer, genetic risk score, and hand injury were univariate associated with progression in area, but after multivariate variable selection, none of these associations remained. No predictors for progression in total passive extension deficit were found. Conclusions: Dupuytren disease is progressive, especially with respect to disease extent. Progression in contracture severity is mainly present on the small finger side of the hand. None of the traditional risk and diathesis factors were associated with progression, indicating that new hypotheses about Dupuytren disease progression might be needed.</p

Probing High Frequency Noise with Macroscopic Resonant Tunneling

We have developed a method for extracting the high-frequency noise spectral density of an rf-SQUID flux qubit from macroscopic resonant tunneling (MRT) rate measurements. The extracted noise spectral density is consistent with that of an ohmic environment up to frequencies ~ 4 GHz. We have also derived an expression for the MRT lineshape expected for a noise spectral density consisting of such a broadband ohmic component and an additional strongly peaked low-frequency component. This hybrid model provides an excellent fit to experimental data across a range of tunneling amplitudes and temperatures

A systematic review and meta-analysis on the prevalence of Dupuytren disease in the general population of Western countries

Background: Dupuytren disease is a fibroproliferative disease of palmar fascia of the hand. Its prevalence has been the subject of several reviews; however, an accurate description of the prevalence range in the general population—and of the relation between age and disease—is lacking. Methods: Embase and PubMed were searched using database-specific Medical Subject Headings; titles and abstracts were searched for the words Dupuytren, incidence, and prevalence. Two reviewers independently assessed the articles using inclusion and exclusion criteria, and rated the included studies with a quality assessment instrument. In a meta-analysis, the median prevalence, as a function of age by sex, was estimated, accompanied by 95 percent prediction intervals. The observed heterogeneity in prevalence was investigated with respect to study quality and geographic location. Results: Twenty-three of 199 unique identified articles were included. The number of participants ranged from 37 to 97,537, and age ranged from 18 to 100 years. Prevalence varied from 0.6 to 31.6 percent. The quality of studies differed but could not explain the heterogeneity among studies. Mean prevalence was estimated as 12, 21, and 29 percent at ages 55, 65, and 75 years, respectively, based on the relation between age and prevalence determined from 10 studies. Conclusions: The authors describe a prevalence range of Dupuytren disease in the general population of Western countries. The relation between age and prevalence of Dupuytren disease is given according to sex, including 95 percent prediction intervals. It is possible to determine disease prevalence at a certain age for the total population, and for men and women separately