Using Multiple Choice Questions During Lecture to Create an Active Learning Atmosphere

Prior to this research, lecture was the primary instructional method used to teach an urban high school Advanced Placement (AP) Biology class. Students often lose focus during the first 15 minutes of lecture (Mazur, 1 997). As a result, multiple choice questions were added to each lecture every 15-20 minutes. Students were encouraged to actively discuss the questions as a group to determine the correct answer. The focus of this method is increasing student involvement in lecture and critical thinking of the class material. Informal interviews of students and instructor observations provided qualitative data regarding the efficacy of this strategy, while tally sheets of the groups\u27 correct answers and student survey results quantitatively provided evidence of its success. Continued use of this method as a strategy of increasing student involvement is suggested, with the caveat of development of more complex and topic encompassing questions being applied

Clinical Placements: The Perspectives of UK Physiotherapy Students on How Prepared they were by their University for their First Clinical Placements: an example of one HEI

Background. Clinical placements are an integral component of physiotherapy education as they give physiotherapy students the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge and skills and at the same time universities aim to provide an education that responds to the demands of practice settings.Objective. This study aims to investigate the perceptions of second year physiotherapy students on a range of aspects regarding their university’s education as a preparation for their first clinical placement.Method. Second-year physiotherapy students were invited to participate in a survey before and after engaging in their first clinical placement. Domains covered by the survey were: knowledge and skills, professionalism, communication, inter-professional awareness, and stress, coping and support.Results. The findings revealed that although the students felt prepared with regard to their anatomy, physiology, manual handling and treatment strategies they felt unprepared in patient record keeping, clinical reasoning, goal setting and communicating with families and carers.Conclusion. Universities can do much to ease their students’ path into the clinical setting and create a seamless transition from academic life to the world of practice. Possible ways in which this could be achieved are discussed

A systematic review of selected interventions to reduce juvenile re-offending. Technical Report.

What do we want to know? Persistent juvenile re-offending remains an area of concern for public policy, due to the social, economic and health impacts of such offending on victims and offenders. A large proportion of criminal offences are committed by repeat offenders. The broad purpose of this systematic review was to review the research evidence on a selected range of interventions to reduce re-offending by juveniles to try and identify more effective interventions. What did we find and what are the implications? When compared to standard diversion (caution and monitoring) there was consistent evidence of reductions in re-offending from the following intervention: Pre-sentencing diversion with personal skills training and reparation The intervention included: - personal skills training/ counselling about anger management, personal responsibility and decision making. - some form of reparation to the community/ victim of crime. - family involvement. When compared to standard residential placement there was consistent evidence of reductions in re-offending from the following intervention: • Community based family residential placement for female juvenile offenders The intervention included: - residential placement for six months to a year in small group supportive ‘family type’ environment. - personal skills training/counselling which is about anger management, personal responsibility and decision making. - monitoring and use of appropriate incentives and sanctions. Promising effects The following interventions were classified as having promising positive effects with limited or inconsistent evidence: • ‘Teen Courts’ compared to other diversion • Community based family residential placements compared to standard residential placements for male juvenile offenders Insufficient evidence There was insufficient evidence identified to assess the impact of the following interventions: • Secure incarceration compared to community sentence • Psycho-dynamic counselling compared to normal court interventions • Pre-sentence diversions compared to court community sentence • Multi-component diversion for persistent offenders (comparison not clear) • Multi-component diversion for mixed groups of offence severity (comparison not clear) • Supported transition from secure incarceration to community compared to no or limited support • Probation plus sports counselling compared to probation only • Violence re-education programme compared to court imposed community service What are the implications? The results suggest that those interventions where there is consistent evidence of beneficial effect could be priorities for possible implementation accompanied by rigorous evaluation in the UK context as the evidence on the effects of this intervention in this review all came from the USA. The ‘promising’ interventions could be considered priorities for further rigorous evaluation. How did we get these results? The review was undertaken in a number of stages. The first stage consisted of identifying all studies that met the review inclusion criteria published between 1998 and 2007. Descriptive information about these studies was collected and used as a ‘map’ of research in the field of interventions to reduce juvenile re-offending. At this point there were 94 studies included the map. A further round of coding was undertaken to help identify sub-groups of studies. The results of this coding were discussed with the steering group and a decision was made at that point to focus on a number of subgroups for the in-depth review. At this stage detailed data extraction was undertaken to assess the quality of the studies and facilitate synthesis of the findings of the selected studies in order to provide answers to the review questions

Status, Testosterone, and Human Intellectual Performance: Stereotype Threat as Status Concern

Results from two experiments suggest that stereotype-threat effects are special cases of a more general process involving the need to maintain or enhance status. We hypothesized that situations capable of confirming a performance stereotype might represent either a threat to status or an opportunity for enhancement of status, depending on the nature of the stereotype. The positive relationship between baseline testosterone and status sensitivity led us to hypothesize that high testosterone levels in males and females would amplify existing performance expectations when gender-based math-performance stereotypes were activated. In Study 1, high-testosterone females performed poorly on a math test when a negative performance stereotype was primed. In Study 2, high-testosterone males excelled on a math test when a positive performance stereotype was primed. The moderating effect of testosterone on performance suggests that a stereotype-relevant situation is capable of conferring either a loss or a gain of status on targets of the stereotype.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Relation of Patients Living Without a Partner or Spouse to Being Physically Active After Acute Coronary Syndromes (from the PULSE Accelerometry Substudy)

Living alone is associated with adverse outcomes after acute coronary syndromes (ACS). One potential mediator of the relation between partner status and outcomes after ACS is physical activity. To evaluate the association of partner status with physical activity after ACS, data from 107 participants enrolled in the Prescription Use, Lifestyle, and Stress Evaluation (PULSE) study, a prospective observational study of post-ACS patients, were analyzed. Accelerometers were used to measure physical activity after hospital discharge. The primary outcome measure was a maximum 10 hours of daytime activity 1 month after discharge. One month after discharge from ACS hospitalizations, participants without a partner or spouse exhibited 24.4% lower daytime activity than those with a partner or spouse (p = 0.003). After controlling for age, gender, body mass index, Charlson co-morbidity index, and traditional psychosocial and clinical cardiovascular correlates of post-ACS physical activity, partner status remained an independent predictor of post-ACS physical activity (20.5% lower daytime activity among those without a partner or spouse, p = 0.008). In conclusion, in this study of accelerometer-measured physical activity after an ACS hospitalization, those without a partner or spouse exhibit significantly less physical activity than those with a partner or spouse 1 month after discharge from the hospital. Low physical activity may be an important mediator of the prognosis associated with partner status after ACS

Prevalence and Characteristics of Anergia (Lack of Energy) in Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome

Anergia, a commonly occurring syndrome in older adults and patients with cardiovascular diseases, is associated with functional and clinical limitations. To date, the prevalence and clinical–demographic characteristics of anergia in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have not been elucidated. We examined the prevalence and clinical–demographic characteristics of anergia in a multiethnic sample of patients with ACS. Hospitalized patients with ACS (n = 472), enrolled in the Prescription Usage, Lifestyle, and Stress Evaluation (PULSE) prospective cohort study, completed assessments of demographic, behavioral, and clinical characteristics within 7 days of hospitalization for an ACS event. Current depressive disorder was ascertained using a structured psychiatric interview 3 to 7 days after discharge. Anergia was assessed at baseline and defined using patients' binary responses (yes/no) to 7 items related to energy level. At least 1 complaint of anergia was reported by 79.9% of patients (n = 377) and 32% of patients (n = 153) met criteria for anergia. In a multivariable logistic regression model, anergia was independently associated with being a woman, being white (compared to black), having bodily pain, participating in exercise, having current depressive disorder, and having higher values on the Charlson Co-morbidity Index. In conclusion, anergia is a highly prevalent syndrome in patients with ACS. It is distinct from depression and is associated with modifiable clinical factors such as participation in exercise and bodily pain that may be appropriate targets for intervention

The Guinea Pig as a Model for Sporadic Alzheimer\u27s Disease (AD): The Impact of Cholesterol Intake on Expression of AD-Related Genes

We investigated the guinea pig, Cavia porcellus, as a model for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), both in terms of the conservation of genes involved in AD and the regulatory responses of these to a known AD risk factor - high cholesterol intake. Unlike rats and mice, guinea pigs possess an Ab peptide sequence identical to human Ab. Consistent with the commonality between cardiovascular and AD risk factors in humans, we saw that a high cholesterol diet leads to up-regulation of BACE1 (b-secretase) transcription and down-regulation of ADAM10 (a-secretase) transcription which should increase release of Ab from APP. Significantly, guinea pigs possess isoforms of AD-related genes found in humans but not present in mice or rats. For example, we discovered that the truncated PS2V isoform of human PSEN2, that is found at raised levels in AD brains and that increases c-secretase activity and Ab synthesis, is not uniquely human or aberrant as previously believed. We show that PS2V formation is up-regulated by hypoxia and a high-cholesterol diet while, consistent with observations in humans, Ab concentrations are raised in some brain regions but not others. Also like humans, but unlike mice, the guinea pig gene encoding tau, MAPT, encodes isoforms with both three and four microtubule binding domains, and cholesterol alters the ratio of these isoforms. We conclude that AD-related genes are highly conserved and more similar to human than the rat or mouse. Guinea pigs represent a superior rodent model for analysis of the impact of dietary factors such as cholesterol on the regulation of AD-related genes

Salvage and storage of infectious disease protein targets in the SSGCID high-throughput crystallization pathway using microfluidics

SSGCID protein crystals were salvaged and stored using the MPCS Plug Maker and CrystalCards when high-throughput traditional sitting-drop vapor diffusion initially failed