Evaluation of Student and Staff Perceptions on L&T Models Across Multiple Disciplines

Moving towards Education 4.0, there has been a gradual shift in learning and teaching (L&T) practices worldwide towards active and deep learning (Gardiner, 2015). With technological advancements, different models of learning and teaching utilising digital mediums have evolved, alongside with frameworks to support transitions into enhanced blended learning (Adekola, Dale, & Gardiner, 2017). It was proposed that the students’ learning needs and expectations must be considered in the L&T pedagogy. In Ithaca S+R and the Univer¬sity System of Maryland, parallel comparisons of traditional versus blended courses were conducted (Griffiths, Chingos, Mulhern, & Spies, 2014). In this study, students on the blended courses performed slightly better or as well as those on the traditional courses but enjoyed the course less. At the University of Glasgow Singapore, L&T with different modes of blended instruction was explored. Four courses in Computing Science, Nursing, Mechatronics and Civil Engineering, which were hosted on different learning management systems, FutureLearn, Moodle and xSiTe, were considered. Across these courses, varying lesson plans and proportion of digital versus Face-to-face (F2F) interactions were provided. Lesson plans ranged from supplementary learning with videos to active and blended learning. Two surveys were developed to evaluate the staffs’ and students’ experiences. These included MCQs with a Likert-scale, as well as open ended questions. In this study, quantitative data was imported into Excel for visualisation, while qualitative data was subjected to categorisation and analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Results were collated from at least fifty respondents in each course. The evaluation study for the students was developed on the following areas: (1)Accessibility; (2)Acceptance Levels; (3)Learner’s Gain; (4)Learner’s Experience; (5)Learner’s Perception; (6)Viewing Duration; (7)Repeated Viewing; (8)Useful to Learning; (9)Higher Level Learning; and (10)Acceptance levels on proportion of Videos versus F2F interactions. Similar questions were posed to lecturers. Some of the key findings are as follows: (i) All four lecturers believe that the videos helped to raise the level of classroom discussion and channelled F2F consultation time to enhance the L&T gain for students. (ii) Most learners used a laptop for video viewing. This is closely followed by the smartphone, especially for Nursing. (iii) More than 93% of the learners believe that videos are helpful in their learning. (iv) Concept reinforcement was ranked to be most important approach for successful learning outcomes. Students also appreciate foundational materials and content to evoke active learning and critical thinking. (v) Over 78% of the students felt that they had to repeat the viewing of videos to grasp the concepts. (vi) Across all disciplines, more than 88% of the students felt that videos are useful to learning. Above 79% felt that they are learning at a higher level. (vii) Above 81% of the students are comfortable to engage in blended learning and felt that the optimal proportion of F2F consultation versus video time would be between 40% to 60%. In conclusion, it is evident that students are generally comfortable to engage in blended learning, if a good balance of digital and F2F interaction is provided. Students enjoy learning at their own pace and time. Many of the students felt that the digital content enabled them to review their learning and reinforce their understanding. Improvement in summative assessment scores is also demonstrated, where blended learning is offered to students. This project has provided the necessary guidance needed to develop successful courses for active and blended learning and demonstrates L&T examples with different pedagogical approaches. The results will be studied for future course development and lesson planning across all joint SIT-Glasgow degree programmes

UK Breastfeeding Helpline support: An investigation of influences upon satisfaction

Background Incentive or reward schemes are becoming increasingly popular to motivate healthy lifestyle behaviours. In this paper, insights from a qualitative and descriptive study to investigate the uptake, impact and meanings of a breastfeeding incentive intervention integrated into an existing peer support programme (Star Buddies) are reported. The Star Buddies service employs breastfeeding peer supporters to support women across the ante-natal, intra-partum and post-partum period. Methods In a disadvantaged area of North West England, women initiating breastfeeding were recruited by peer supporters on the postnatal ward or soon after hospital discharge to participate in an 8 week incentive (gifts and vouchers) and breastfeeding peer supporter intervention. In-depth interviews were conducted with 26 women participants who engaged with the incentive intervention, and a focus group was held with the 4 community peer supporters who delivered the intervention. Descriptive analysis of routinely collected data for peer supporter contacts and breastfeeding outcomes before and after the incentive intervention triangulated and retrospectively provided the context for the qualitative thematic analysis. Results A global theme emerged of 'incentives as connectors', with two sub-themes of 'facilitating connections' and 'facilitating relationships and wellbeing'. The incentives were linked to discussion themes and gift giving facilitated peer supporter access for proactive weekly home visits to support women. Regular face to face contacts enabled meaningful relationships and new connections within and between the women, families, peer supporters and care providers to be formed and sustained. Participants in the incentive scheme received more home visits and total contact time with peer supporters compared to women before the incentive intervention. Full participation levels and breastfeeding rates at 6-8 weeks were similar for women before and after the incentive intervention. Conclusion The findings suggest that whilst the provision of incentives might not influence women's intentions or motivations to breastfeed, the connections forged provided psycho-social benefits for both programme users and peer supporters

Management of children's urinary tract infections in Dutch family practice: a cohort study

BACKGROUND: Optimal clinical management of childhood urinary tract infections (UTI) potentiates long-term positive health effects. Insight into the quality of care in Dutch family practices for UTIs was limited, particularly regarding observation periods of more than a year. Our aim was to describe the clinical management of young children's UTIs in Dutch primary care and to compare this to the national guideline recommendations. METHODS: In this cohort study, all 0 to 6-year-old children with a diagnosed UTI in 2001 were identified within the Netherlands Information Network of General Practitioners (LINH), which comprises 120 practices. From the Dutch guideline on urinary tract infections, seven indicators were derived, on prescription, follow-up, and referral. RESULTS: Of the 284 children with UTI who could be followed for three years, 183 (64%) were registered to have had one cystitis episode, 52 (18%) had two episodes, and 43 (15%) had three or more episodes. Another six children were registered to have had one or two episodes of acute pyelonephritis. Overall, antibiotics were prescribed for 66% of the children having had ≤ 3 cystitis episodes, two-thirds of whom received the antibiotics of first choice. About 30% of all episodes were followed up in general practice. Thirty-eight children were referred (14%), mostly to a paediatrician (76%). Less than one-third of the children who should have been referred was actually referred. CONCLUSION: Treatment of childhood UTIs in Dutch family practice should be improved with respect to prescription, follow-up, and referral. Quality improvement should address the low incidence of urinary tract infections in children in family practice

A randomised controlled trial of the effects of a web-based PSA decision aid, Prosdex. Protocol

Contains fulltext : 51771.pdf ( ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Informed decision making is the theoretical basis in the UK for men's decisions about Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer testing. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of a web-based PSA decision-aid, Prosdex, on informed decision making in men. The objective is to assess the effect of Prosdex on six specific outcomes: (i) knowledge of PSA and prostate cancer-related issues - the principal outcome of the study; (ii) attitudes to testing; (iii) decision conflict; (iv) anxiety; (v) intention to undergo PSA testing; (vi) uptake of PSA testing. In addition, a mathematical simulation model of the effects of Prosdex will be developed. METHODS: A randomised controlled trial with four groups: two intervention groups, one viewing Prosdex and the other receiving a paper version of the site; two control groups, the second controlling for the potential Hawthorn effect of the questionnaire used with the first control group. Men between the ages of 50 and 75, who have not previously had a PSA test, will be recruited from General Practitioners (GPs) in Wales, UK. The principal outcome, knowledge, and four other outcome measures - attitudes to testing, decision conflict, anxiety and intention to undergo testing - will be measured with an online questionnaire, used by men in three of the study groups. Six months later, PSA test uptake will be ascertained from GP records; the online questionnaire will then be repeated. These outcomes, and particularly PSA test uptake, will be used to develop a mathematical simulation model, specifically to consider the impact on health service resources

Adolescent brain maturation and cortical folding: evidence for reductions in gyrification

Evidence from anatomical and functional imaging studies have highlighted major modifications of cortical circuits during adolescence. These include reductions of gray matter (GM), increases in the myelination of cortico-cortical connections and changes in the architecture of large-scale cortical networks. It is currently unclear, however, how the ongoing developmental processes impact upon the folding of the cerebral cortex and how changes in gyrification relate to maturation of GM/WM-volume, thickness and surface area. In the current study, we acquired high-resolution (3 Tesla) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data from 79 healthy subjects (34 males and 45 females) between the ages of 12 and 23 years and performed whole brain analysis of cortical folding patterns with the gyrification index (GI). In addition to GI-values, we obtained estimates of cortical thickness, surface area, GM and white matter (WM) volume which permitted correlations with changes in gyrification. Our data show pronounced and widespread reductions in GI-values during adolescence in several cortical regions which include precentral, temporal and frontal areas. Decreases in gyrification overlap only partially with changes in the thickness, volume and surface of GM and were characterized overall by a linear developmental trajectory. Our data suggest that the observed reductions in GI-values represent an additional, important modification of the cerebral cortex during late brain maturation which may be related to cognitive development

The economics of Theocracy

This paper models theocracy as a regime where the clergy in power retains knowledge of the cost of political production but which is potentially incompetent or corrupt. This is contrasted with a secular regime where government is contracted out to a secular ruler, and hence the church loses the possibility to observe costs and creates for itself a hidden-information agency problem. The church is free to choose between regimes – a make-or-buy choice – and we look for the range of environmental parameters that are most conducive to the superiority of theocracy and therefore to its occurrence and persistence, despite its disabilities. Numerical solution of the model indicates that the optimal environment for a theocracy is likely to be one in which the “bad” (high-cost) state is disastrously bad but the probability of its occurrence is not very high. A broad review of the historical evidence yields some suggestive support to the predictions of the model. Finally, the model is shown to be applicable to the make-or-buy-government choices of other groups, such as organized labor and the military

The Long March: A Sample Preparation Technique that Enhances Contig Length and Coverage by High-Throughput Short-Read Sequencing

High-throughput short-read technologies have revolutionized DNA sequencing by drastically reducing the cost per base of sequencing information. Despite producing gigabases of sequence per run, these technologies still present obstacles in resequencing and de novo assembly applications due to biased or insufficient target sequence coverage. We present here a simple sample preparation method termed the “long march” that increases both contig lengths and target sequence coverage using high-throughput short-read technologies. By incorporating a Type IIS restriction enzyme recognition motif into the sequencing primer adapter, successive rounds of restriction enzyme cleavage and adapter ligation produce a set of nested sub-libraries from the initial amplicon library. Sequence reads from these sub-libraries are offset from each other with enough overlap to aid assembly and contig extension. We demonstrate the utility of the long march in resequencing of the Plasmodium falciparum transcriptome, where the number of genomic bases covered was increased by 39%, as well as in metagenomic analysis of a serum sample from a patient with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute liver failure, where the number of HBV bases covered was increased by 42%. We also offer a theoretical optimization of the long march for de novo sequence assembly

Linear and non-linear dependencies between copy number aberrations and mRNA expression reveal distinct molecular pathways in breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Elucidating the exact relationship between gene copy number and expression would enable identification of regulatory mechanisms of abnormal gene expression and biological pathways of regulation. Most current approaches either depend on linear correlation or on nonparametric tests of association that are insensitive to the exact shape of the relationship. Based on knowledge of enzyme kinetics and gene regulation, we would expect the functional shape of the relationship to be gene dependent and to be related to the gene regulatory mechanisms involved. Here, we propose a statistical approach to investigate and distinguish between linear and nonlinear dependences between DNA copy number alteration and mRNA expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We applied the proposed method to DNA copy numbers derived from Illumina 109 K SNP-CGH arrays (using the log R values) and expression data from Agilent 44 K mRNA arrays, focusing on commonly aberrated genomic loci in a collection of 102 breast tumors. Regression analysis was used to identify the type of relationship (linear or nonlinear), and subsequent pathway analysis revealed that genes displaying a linear relationship were overall associated with substantially different biological processes than genes displaying a nonlinear relationship. In the group of genes with a linear relationship, we found significant association to canonical pathways, including purine and pyrimidine metabolism (for both deletions and amplifications) as well as estrogen metabolism (linear amplification) and BRCA-related response to damage (linear deletion). In the group of genes displaying a nonlinear relationship, the top canonical pathways were specific pathways like PTEN and PI13K/AKT (nonlinear amplification) and Wnt(B) and IL-2 signalling (nonlinear deletion). Both amplifications and deletions pointed to the same affected pathways and identified cancer as the top significant disease and cell cycle, cell signaling and cellular development as significant networks.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This paper presents a novel approach to assessing the validity of the dependence of expression data on copy number data, and this approach may help in identifying the drivers of carcinogenesis.</p

Walk-ins seeking treatment at an emergency department or general practitioner out-of-hours service: a cross-sectional comparison

Background Emergency Departments (ED) in Switzerland are faced with increasing numbers of patients seeking non-urgent treatment. The high rate of walks-ins with conditions that may be treated in primary care has led to suggestions that those patients would best cared for in a community setting rather than in a hospital. Efficient reorganisation of emergency care tailored to patients needs requires information on the patient populations using the various emergency services currently available. The aim of this study is to evaluate the differences between the characteristics of walk-in patients seeking treatment at an ED and those of patients who use traditional out-of-hours GP (General Practitioner) services provided by a GP-Cooperative (GP-C). Methods In 2007 and 2009 data was collected covering all consecutive patient-doctor encounters at the ED of a hospital and all those occurring as a result of contacting a GP-C over two evaluation periods of one month each. Comparison was made between a GP-C and the ED of the Waid City Hospital in Zurich. Patient characteristics, time and source of referral, diagnostic interventions and mode of discharge were evaluated. Medical problems were classified according to the International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC-2). Patient characteristics were compared using non-parametric tests and multiple logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate independent determinants for contacting a GP-C or an ED. Results Overall a total of 2974 patient encounters were recorded. 1901 encounters were walk-ins and underwent further analysis (ED 1133, GP-C 768). Patients consulting the GP-C were significantly older (58.9 vs. 43.8 years), more often female (63.5 vs. 46.9%) and presented with non-injury related medical problems (93 vs. 55.6%) in comparison with patients at the ED. Independent determining factors for ED consultation were injury, male gender and younger age. Walk-in distribution in both settings was equal over a period of 24 hours and most common during daytime hours (65%). Outpatient care was predominant in both settings but significantly more so at the GP-C (79.9 vs. 85.7%). Conclusions We observed substantial differences between the two emergency settings in a non gate-keeping health care system. Knowledge of the distribution of diagnoses, their therapy, of diagnostic measures and of the factors which determine the patients' choice of the ED or the GP-C is essential for the efficient allocation of resources and the reduction of costs

The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations

The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing metallicity and in increasingly massive early-type galaxies. It declines quite steeply below about 0.07Msun with brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low mass stars having their own IMF. The most massive star of mass mmax formed in an embedded cluster with stellar mass Mecl correlates strongly with Mecl being a result of gravitation-driven but resource-limited growth and fragmentation induced starvation. There is no convincing evidence whatsoever that massive stars do form in isolation. Various methods of discretising a stellar population are introduced: optimal sampling leads to a mass distribution that perfectly represents the exact form of the desired IMF and the mmax-to-Mecl relation, while random sampling results in statistical variations of the shape of the IMF. The observed mmax-to-Mecl correlation and the small spread of IMF power-law indices together suggest that optimally sampling the IMF may be the more realistic description of star formation than random sampling from a universal IMF with a constant upper mass limit. Composite populations on galaxy scales, which are formed from many pc scale star formation events, need to be described by the integrated galactic IMF. This IGIMF varies systematically from top-light to top-heavy in dependence of galaxy type and star formation rate, with dramatic implications for theories of galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 167 pages, 37 figures, 3 tables, published in Stellar Systems and Galactic Structure, Vol.5, Springer. This revised version is consistent with the published version and includes additional references and minor additions to the text as well as a recomputed Table 1. ISBN 978-90-481-8817-