Mobile learning in higher education: An empirical assessment of a new educational tool

ABSTRACT Mobile Learning, or M-learning as it is often called, is a relatively new tool in the pedagogical arsenal to assist students and teachers as they navigate the options available in the expanding distance learning world. This article assesses some of the possible methods, challenges and future potential of using this approach in a college classroom and describes an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of M-learning in a college classroom. One hundred twelve students in an introductory survey course in sociology were given the opportunity to use an MLearning product developed by HotLava Software for the purpose of assisting them in preparation for two scheduled exams. Both practice and review questions were made available on Smart Phones, Web enabled phones, PDAs and other Internet capable mobile devices via Learning Mobile Author. Forty-two of the 112 students in the class chose to access these data via their personal devices and their responses were collected and recorded. The results of their performance, as indicated by a final grade in the course, were compared to the outcomes for those students who chose not to use the M-Learning tool. Students using the software demonstrated a higher level of knowledge of the subject matter covered in the course when compared to students choosing not to use the tools (p<.01). Conclusions and a discussion of these outcomes are offered as well as some inferences and speculation regarding the future of M-Learning in the classroom and beyond

Pre-hybridisation: an efficient way of suppressing endogenous biotin-binding activity inherent to biotin–streptavidin detection system

Endogenous biotin or biotinylated protein binding activity is a major drawback to biotin-avidin/streptavidin detection system. The avidin/streptavidin conjugate used to detect the complex of the biotinylated secondary antibody and the primary antibody binds to endogenous biotin or biotinylated proteins leading to non-specific signals. In Western blot, the endogenous biotin or biotinylated protein binding activity is usually manifested in the form of ~72kDa, ~75kDa and ~150kDa protein bands, which often mask the signals of interest. To overcome this problem, a method based on prior hybridisation of the biotinylated secondary antibody and the streptavidin conjugate was developed. The method was tested alongside the conventional biotin-streptavidin method on proteins extracted from zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. Results showed that the newly developed method efficiently suppresses the endogenous biotin or biotinylated protein binding activity inherent to the biotin-streptavidin detection system

Identification of Novel Seroreactive Antigens in Johne’s Disease Cattle by Using the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Protein Array

Johne’s disease, a chronic gastrointestinal inflammatory disease caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, is endemic in dairy cattle and other ruminants worldwide and remains a challenge to diagnose using traditional serological methods. Given the close phylogenetic relationship between M. aviumsubsp. paratuberculosis and the human pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis, here, we applied a whole-proteome M. tuberculosis protein array to identify seroreactive and diagnostic M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis antigens. A genome-scale pairwise analysis of amino acid identity levels between orthologous proteins in M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis and M. tuberculosis showed an average of 62% identity, with more than half the orthologous proteins sharing 75% identity. Analysis of the M. tuberculosis protein array probed with sera from M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis- infected cattle showed antibody binding to 729 M. tuberculosis proteins, with 58% of them having 70% identity to M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis orthologs. The results showed that only 4 of the top 40 seroreactive M. tuberculosis antigens were orthologs of previously reported M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis antigens, revealing the existence of a large number of previously unrecognized candidate diagnostic antigens. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing of 20 M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis recombinant proteins, representing reactive and nonreactive M. tuberculosis orthologs, further confirmed that the M. tuberculosis array has utility as a screening tool for identifying candidate antigens for Johne’s disease diagnostics. Additional ELISA testing of field serum samples collected from dairy herds around the United States revealed that MAP2942c had the strongest seroreactivity with Johne’s disease-positive samples. Collectively, our studies have considerably expanded the number of candidate M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis proteins with potential utility in the next generation of rationally designed Johne’s disease diagnostic assays

Vision and Change Through the Genome Consortium for Active Teaching using Next-Generation Sequencing (GCAT-SEEK)

Development of the Genome Consortium on Active Teaching using Next Generation Sequencing (GCAT-SEEK) is described. Workshops, educational modules, assessment resources, data analysis software and computer hardware available for faculty are described

Instantaneous Temperature Measurement

Copyright 1973 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.The following article appeared in Review of Scientific Instruments Vol. 44 No. 9 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/44/9/10.1063/1.1686387.Measurement of temperature using a thermocouple or any other device requires a certain length of time. This time interval is of the order of magnitude of the thermal time constant of the measuring device. Here we describe an electronic circuit which makes the temperature measurement “instantaneous.” This is accomplished by combining the temperature at any instant with the rate of change of temperature. Thus the only limiting factor becomes the electronic time constant of the circuits involved. We have used our device in absolute measurement of optical power and have found that the typical time necessary for a temperature measurement can easily be 10 -3 x the thermal time constant of the measuring device.http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/44/9/10.1063/1.168638

Mobile learning in higher education: An empirical assessment of a new educational tool. The Turkish Online

ABSTRACT Mobile Learning, or M-learning as it is often called, is a relatively new tool in the pedagogical arsenal to assist students and teachers as they navigate the options available in the expanding distance learning world. This article assesses some of the possible methods, challenges and future potential of using this approach in a college classroom and describes an empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of M-learning in a college classroom. One hundred twelve students in an introductory survey course in sociology were given the opportunity to use an MLearning product developed by HotLava Software for the purpose of assisting them in preparation for two scheduled exams. Both practice and review questions were made available on Smart Phones, Web enabled phones, PDAs and other Internet capable mobile devices via Learning Mobile Author. Forty-two of the 112 students in the class chose to access these data via their personal devices and their responses were collected and recorded. The results of their performance, as indicated by a final grade in the course, were compared to the outcomes for those students who chose not to use the M-Learning tool. Students using the software demonstrated a higher level of knowledge of the subject matter covered in the course when compared to students choosing not to use the tools (p<.01). Conclusions and a discussion of these outcomes are offered as well as some inferences and speculation regarding the future of M-Learning in the classroom and beyond