Evaluating a formative feedback intervention for international students

Assessment is too often concerned with measurement, rather than learning; however, there is a growing interest in research into formative assessment, which appears justified by studies into its effects on learning. Changes in higher education have led to increased numbers of students, many of whom are from non-traditional backgrounds. This has highlighted the need for transparency and student involvement in assessment. However, the corresponding pressures on staff and on resources mean that many desirable innovations are not easy to implement. The overall aim of this formative feedback intervention (FFI) was to provide timely and helpful feedback to international students who are final-year direct entrants in a large business school. Timeliness of feedback and the development of academic literacy were key concerns. The study concludes that although the FFI did not have a significant impact on module grades, the intervention was successful in getting students to engage in academic writing at an early stage. Most respondents perceived the feedback to be helpful and the feedback messages were clearly received and internalised. Whether appropriate actions were taken by the students to close the gap between their current and their target level requires further investigation

Formative Feedback First – does it really work for International Students?

This study presents a small scale study, which focuses on the impact of “Formative Feedback First” a collaborative intervention made on a final year module undertaken by all one year “top up” students. The majority of these students are international, many of whom are not only new to the university but also to the country. The “Formative Feedback First” intervention is twofold in nature, the initial stage is to provide formative feedback on a 600-800 word proposal supported by a minimum of three journals / authoritative sources; the second stage is to capture the student’s reflection on the intervention via the use of Gibbs (1988) reflective cycle. This intervention is regarded as low risk as the proposal is not formally marked but timely feedback is provided via the use of a “Formative Feedback First” matrix which has been specifically developed for this purpose. The matrix consists of indicative degree classifications, across four criteria which are knowledge and understanding, theory and practice recognition, use of resources and references and presentation, structure and language. The written feedback is to be returned to the student during a one to one tutorial which will permit verbal clarification of points raised and questions to be raised by both parties. It is anticipated that the intervention will provide the opportunity to give formative feedback in a low risk setting prior to any summative feedback. This aims to give the international students the chance to develop the necessary skills and culturally adjust, i.e. close any gap (Sadler, 1989) between their actual performance and that of a desired standard, in time before the assessments are done in a high risk setting

An MLE method for finding LKB NTCP model parameters using Monte Carlo uncertainty estimates

The aims of this work were to establish a program to fit NTCP models to clinical data with multiple toxicity endpoints, to test the method using a realistic test dataset, to compare three methods for estimating confidence intervals for the fitted parameters and to characterise the speed and performance of the program

Long-term glycemic variability and risk of adverse outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: Glycemic variability is emerging as a measure of glycemic control, which may be a reliable predictor of complications. This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluates the association between HbA1c variability and micro- and macrovascular complications and mortality in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Medline and Embase were searched (2004–2015) for studies describing associations between HbA1c variability and adverse outcomes in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. Data extraction was performed independently by two reviewers. Random-effects meta-analysis was performed with stratification according to the measure of HbA1c variability, method of analysis, and diabetes type. RESULTS: Seven studies evaluated HbA1c variability among patients with type 1 diabetes and showed an association of HbA1c variability with renal disease (risk ratio 1.56 [95% CI 1.08–2.25], two studies), cardiovascular events (1.98 [1.39–2.82]), and retinopathy (2.11 [1.54–2.89]). Thirteen studies evaluated HbA1c variability among patients with type 2 diabetes. Higher HbA1c variability was associated with higher risk of renal disease (1.34 [1.15–1.57], two studies), macrovascular events (1.21 [1.06–1.38]), ulceration/gangrene (1.50 [1.06–2.12]), cardiovascular disease (1.27 [1.15–1.40]), and mortality (1.34 [1.18–1.53]). Most studies were retrospective with lack of adjustment for potential confounders, and inconsistency existed in the definition of HbA1c variability. CONCLUSIONS: HbA1c variability was positively associated with micro- and macrovascular complications and mortality independently of the HbA1c level and might play a future role in clinical risk assessment

Ambulatory Thoracoscopic Pleurodesis Combined With Indwelling Pleural Catheter in Malignant Pleural Effusion.

Background and Objective: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) often results in debilitating symptoms. Relief of dyspnoea and improvement in quality of life can be achieved with either talc pleurodesis or insertion of an indwelling tunneled pleural catheter (IPC). The former requires a lengthy hospital stay and the latter is associated with lower pleurodesis rates. In response to limited hospital bed capacity, we developed a pragmatic approach in managing MPE by combining thoracoscopic talc poudrage and insertion of IPC into a single day case procedure. We present data on the safety and efficacy of this approach. Methods: Patients who had undergone the abovementioned procedure between 2017 and 2020 were analyzed. Demographic data, hospital length of stay (LOS), histological diagnosis, rates of pleurodesis success and procedural related complications were collated. Patients were followed-up for 6 months. Results: Forty-five patients underwent the procedure. Mean age was 68.5 ± 10.4 years and 56% were male. Histological diagnosis was achieved in all cases. 86.7% of patients were discharged on the day of the procedure. Median LOS was 0 (IQR 0-0) days. Successful pleurodesis was attained in 77.8% at 6-month follow-up. No procedure related deaths or IPC related infections were recorded. Conclusion: Ambulatory thoracoscopic poudrage and IPC insertion is a safe and effective option in the management of MPE. All patients received a definitive pleural intervention with 77.8% pleurodesis success at 6-months and majority of them discharged on the same day. Future randomized trials are required to confirm these findings

Towards Secure and Legal E-Tendering

Tendering processes are considered to be a suitable mechanism for governments to fairly assign contracts for construction projects and procurement. The demand for efficiencies to be created in the process has resulted in a significant number of governments implementing e-tendering systems. E-tendering systems generally involve the submission of tender offer documents to a secure system hosted by the government (principal). An electronic environment presents obvious opportunities for collusion between principal and certain tenderers, fraud by tenderers and a minefield of legal uncertainties for fuelling protracted disputes. Critical examination of the security and legal requirements for e-tendering systems does not appear in the current literature. This paper identifies key security and legal issues to be addressed in the design of e-tendering systems, which may be included in e-procurement software, and proposes a new e-tendering architecture, using distributed trusted third parties which may be suitable for secure large scale operations such as the construction industry

Genome-wide conserved consensus transcription factor binding motifs are hyper-methylated.

BACKGROUND: DNA methylation can regulate gene expression by modulating the interaction between DNA and proteins or protein complexes. Conserved consensus motifs exist across the human genome ("predicted transcription factor binding sites": "predicted TFBS") but the large majority of these are proven by chromatin immunoprecipitation and high throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) not to be biological transcription factor binding sites ("empirical TFBS"). We hypothesize that DNA methylation at conserved consensus motifs prevents promiscuous or disorderly transcription factor binding. RESULTS: Using genome-wide methylation maps of the human heart and sperm, we found that all conserved consensus motifs as well as the subset of those that reside outside CpG islands have an aggregate profile of hyper-methylation. In contrast, empirical TFBS with conserved consensus motifs have a profile of hypo-methylation. 40% of empirical TFBS with conserved consensus motifs resided in CpG islands whereas only 7% of all conserved consensus motifs were in CpG islands. Finally we further identified a minority subset of TF whose profiles are either hypo-methylated or neutral at their respective conserved consensus motifs implicating that these TF may be responsible for establishing or maintaining an un-methylated DNA state, or whose binding is not regulated by DNA methylation. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis supports the hypothesis that at least for a subset of TF, empirical binding to conserved consensus motifs genome-wide may be controlled by DNA methylation.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

High-throughput sequencing identifies STAT3 as the DNA-associated factor for p53-NF-kappaB-complex-dependent gene expression in human heart failure.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide maps of DNA regulatory elements and their interaction with transcription factors may form a framework for understanding regulatory circuits and gene expression control in human disease, but how these networks, comprising transcription factors and DNA-binding proteins, form complexes, interact with DNA and modulate gene expression remains largely unknown. METHODS: Using microRNA-21 (mir-21), which is an example of genes that are regulated in heart failure, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays to determine the occupancy of transcription factors at this genetic locus. Tissue ChIP was further performed using human hearts and genome-wide occupancies of these transcription factors were analyzed by high-throughput sequencing. RESULTS: We show that the transcription factor p53 piggy-backs onto NF-kappaB/RELA and utilizes the kappaB-motif at a cis-regulatory region to control mir-21 expression. p53 behaves as a co-factor in this complex because despite a mutation in its DNA binding domain, mutant p53 was still capable of binding RELA and the cis-element, and inducing mir-21 expression. In dilated human hearts where mir-21 upregulation was previously demonstrated, the p53-RELA complex was also associated with this cis-element. Using high-throughput sequencing, we analyzed genome-wide binding sites for the p53-RELA complex in diseased and control human hearts and found a significant overrepresentation of the STAT3 motif. We further determined that STAT3 was necessary for the p53-RELA complex to associate with this cis-element and for mir-21 expression. CONCLUSIONS: Our results uncover a mechanism by which transcription factors cooperate in a multi-molecular complex at a cis-regulatory element to control gene expression