Effect of Teaching through Problem - Solving on Students’ Performance in Mathematics in Secondary School in Murang’a County, Kenya

Students’ are weak in curriculum outcomes in Mathematics at National examinations of secondary school education have been of concern to primary and secondary stakeholders. The concern was that result determines student’s participation in science oriented programmes at tertiary level. Many interventions have been put in place to avoid but performance persisted. Science programmes support Kenya development agenda as described in the current vision 2030 including social, economic, political technological and industrial development. The pedagogical interventions had been done in various Counties. The study examined effect of teaching through problem – solving on students’ achievements in Mathematics in secondary schools in Murang’a County, Kenya. This County was among 47 counties, but it was favoured because of climatic condition and assessable roads to schools. The study investigated students’ performance in Mathematics for those taught using problem - solving strategies with those taught using conventional strategies. The study employed quasi – experimental design using Solomon Four Group model. The target population was 28485 students in 340 secondary schools in Murang’a County. These schools were purposely stratified into four categories according to their performance in national examination past four years. Four schools from each stratum were randomly distributed into four groups. Two groups E1 and E2 were assigned as experimental groups whereas other two C1 and C2 as control groups. A total of 16 schools: 8 schools experimental and 8 schools, control. Sample size of 544 students and 16 teachers were involved in the study. Pretest and posttest Students’ Mathematics Achievement Questionnaire were constructed by national examiners and moderated by senior examiners not in sampled schools. Eight schools participated in pre-test in E1 and C1 and all 16 schools received post- test Mathematics achievements tests after intervention. In order to establish significance means difference between students taught through problem – solving and those taught through conventional strategies paired t –tests and Cohen’s d effect measure were used. Problem – solving method improved students’ performance and teachers should embrace facilitating Mathematics in an environment contributing to better achievement

HIGH TECH MEETS HIGH TOUCH:COHORT LEARNING ONLINE IN GRADUATE HIGHER EDUCATION

This paper discusses the results of a qualitative participatory action research study where the purpose was to examine the nature of the cohort learning experience in an online master’s program from both faculty and student perspectives. There has been much discussion in higher and adult education circles in the last decade on distance education, web based and web enhanced learning online, and online degree programs. Nearly all institutions of higher education now offer at least some classes online, and many offer entire degree programs. While many have discussed the plusses and minuses of online education, and considered what online pedagogy offers to adult learners, there has been little discussion of what online education looks like specifically in online cohort programs, from the students’ perspectives. Thus, the purpose of this paper is: (1) to discuss the results of a participatory action research project where the purpose was to examine the nature of the cohort learning experience in an online master’s program that began with a residential component from both faculty and student perspectives; and (2) to consider the implications for the ongoing development of both “high tech” and “high touch” and academically sound degree programs in adult education and related areas

Development and validation of a trans-ancestry polygenic risk score for type 2 diabetes in diverse populations

Background Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a worldwide scourge caused by both genetic and environmental risk factors that disproportionately afflicts communities of color. Leveraging existing large-scale genome-wide association studies (GWAS), polygenic risk scores (PRS) have shown promise to complement established clinical risk factors and intervention paradigms, and improve early diagnosis and prevention of T2D. However, to date, T2D PRS have been most widely developed and validated in individuals of European descent. Comprehensive assessment of T2D PRS in non-European populations is critical for equitable deployment of PRS to clinical practice that benefits global populations. Methods We integrated T2D GWAS in European, African, and East Asian populations to construct a trans-ancestry T2D PRS using a newly developed Bayesian polygenic modeling method, and assessed the prediction accuracy of the PRS in the multi-ethnic Electronic Medical Records and Genomics (eMERGE) study (11,945 cases; 57,694 controls), four Black cohorts (5137 cases; 9657 controls), and the Taiwan Biobank (4570 cases; 84,996 controls). We additionally evaluated a post hoc ancestry adjustment method that can express the polygenic risk on the same scale across ancestrally diverse individuals and facilitate the clinical implementation of the PRS in prospective cohorts. Results The trans-ancestry PRS was significantly associated with T2D status across the ancestral groups examined. The top 2% of the PRS distribution can identify individuals with an approximately 2.5–4.5-fold of increase in T2D risk, which corresponds to the increased risk of T2D for first-degree relatives. The post hoc ancestry adjustment method eliminated major distributional differences in the PRS across ancestries without compromising its predictive performance. Conclusions By integrating T2D GWAS from multiple populations, we developed and validated a trans-ancestry PRS, and demonstrated its potential as a meaningful index of risk among diverse patients in clinical settings. Our efforts represent the first step towards the implementation of the T2D PRS into routine healthcare

The Mwangaza Project: A Comprehensive Report on the Nationwide Baseline Survey of Technology Skills for Learners with Vision Impairment in Kenya

This document presents the results of a major portion of the PEER-funded collaborative research project called the Mwangaza Project. The project is a shared effort between: the Sonification Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology (“Georgia Tech”) in Atlanta, USA; inABLE, a non-profit organization based in Nairobi, Kenya, and Washington DC, USA; and Kenyatta University, in Nairobi. This research team has completed a two-phase project including (1) a nation-wide survey of the interests, needs, skills, and opinions of blind students and their teachers, with respect to information and communications technology (ICT, aka “technology”); and (2) initial development, deployment, and evaluation of some novel assistive technologies that represent potential new approaches to STEM education for students with vision loss. This report describes the baseline survey of students and teachers

An in vitro and clinical dose-finding study of antifoaming effects of simethicone during colonoscopy

Simethicone is an antifoaming agent frequently added to endoscopic rinse solutions but has recently been implicated as a risk factor for transmission of infections due to the formation of simethicone deposits within scope channels. Since the build-up of residue is likely dose-related, the smallest effective dose of simethicone should be used but there are no data available on the effective dose. Thus, we conducted a dose-finding study in an “in vitro bubble model” to determine the appropriate simethicone dose. Six 100-mL test tubes were filled with a 1% (v/v) solution of kitchen detergent (Fairy®, Procter & Gamble,\ua0London, England) in water for irrigation (Baxter®, Sydney, Australia). One test tube served as the control, while different doses of simethicone (Infacol®, Nice Pak, Melbourne, Australia) were added to the other five tubes (0.02, 0.2, 2.0, 20, and 200\ua0mg/100\ua0mL). Oxygen was streamed for 30\ua0s into the test tubes at a rate of 2\ua0L/min. After 10\ua0s, photographs were taken and the visible\ua0bubbles were semi-quantitatively rated by independent assessors blinded to the dosing of simethicone. Simethicone at doses of 2\ua0mg/100\ua0mL had no appreciable antifoaming effect, whereas concentrations ≥ 20\ua0mg/100\ua0mL were sufficient to suppress bubble formation. This is substantially lower compared with frequently used doses of up to 200\ua0mg/100\ua0mL. Subsequently, we tested the lower simethicone dose with previously used higher doses, in 1475 and 1340 patients, respectively. We found it to have no impact on polyp detection with a rate of 56.7% (54.2–59.3% [95% CI]) at the lower dose and 56.5% (53.8–59.1% [95% CI]) at the higher dose. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Correction to: An in vitro and clinical dose-finding study of antifoaming effects of simethicone during colonoscopy (Indian Journal of Gastroenterology, (2019), 38, 3, (268-272), 10.1007/s12664-019-00966-3)

In the above article, due to probable typo error with the picture and legend, the correct Fig. 1 and the Legend to the Fig. 1 are printed here: (Figure presented.)

Prediction of Prostate Cancer Biochemical and Clinical Recurrence Is Improved by IHC-Assisted Grading Using Appl1, Sortilin and Syndecan-1

Gleason scoring is used within a five-tier risk stratification system to guide therapeutic decisions for patients with prostate cancer. This study aimed to compare the predictive performance of routine H&E or biomarker-assisted ISUP (International Society of Urological Pathology) grade grouping for assessing the risk of biochemical recurrence (BCR) and clinical recurrence (CR) in patients with prostate cancer. This retrospective study was an assessment of 114 men with prostate cancer who provided radical prostatectomy samples to the Australian Prostate Cancer Bioresource between 2006 and 2014. The prediction of CR was the primary outcome (median time to CR 79.8 months), and BCR was assessed as a secondary outcome (median time to BCR 41.7 months). The associations of (1) H&E ISUP grade groups and (2) modified ISUP grade groups informed by the Appl1, Sortilin and Syndecan-1 immunohistochemistry (IHC) labelling were modelled with BCR and CR using Cox proportional hazard approaches. IHC-assisted grading was more predictive than H&E for BCR (C-statistic 0.63 vs. 0.59) and CR (C-statistic 0.71 vs. 0.66). On adjusted analysis, IHC-assisted ISUP grading was independently associated with both outcome measures. IHC-assisted ISUP grading using the biomarker panel was an independent predictor of individual BCR and CR. Prospective studies are needed to further validate this biomarker technology and to define BCR and CR associations in real-world cohorts