Enhancing Engineering Students\u27 Mathematics Learning Through Digitised Effective Feedback

This practice paper explores the impact of effective digitised feedback on engineering students\u27 mathematics learning in the digital environment. By using a schematic framework, an online repository will be developed to provide effective feedback to the first-year students taking mathematics courses. The repository takes into account calculus topics and focuses on providing guidance to students who give incorrect answers to questions by incorporating sub-questions based on Polya\u27s heuristics. The sub-questions aim to motivate students to draw on simpler connections and stimulate learning by encouraging students to check their answers and reflect on their initial responses. This study is currently an ongoing project in the Netherlands and aims to improve outcomes in calculus courses and provide a database of online exercises for digital exams, which will save teachers time, in long term

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

On boundary damping to reduce the rain–wind oscillations of an inclined cable with small bending stiffness

In this paper, a model will be derived to describe the rain–wind-induced oscillations of an inclined cable. Water rivulets running along the cable and aerodynamics forces acting on the cable are taken into account to describe these oscillations. A boundary damper is assumed to be present near the lower endpoint of the cable. For a linearly formulated initial-boundary value problem for a tensioned beam equation describing the in-plane transversal oscillations of the cable, the effectiveness of this damper is determined by using a two-timescales perturbation method. It is shown how mode interactions play an important role in the dynamic behaviour of the cable system. Some resonant and non-resonant cases have been studied in detail

Nature connectedness boosts the bright side of emotion regulation, which in turn reduces stress

This study investigated the mediator role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between nature connectedness and stress. The stress levels of participants were measured using two different methods: a) perceived stress and b) cumulative cortisol levels, which were analyzed by using the 3 cm segment of hair closest to the scalp. One hundred twenty-three female college students aged between 18 and 25 years old were included in this study. After controlling the influence of negative reactivity as a temperamental characteristic, nature connectedness predicted adaptive emotion regulation strategies of emerging adults, which in turn predicted a decline in their perceived stress. However, nature connectedness was not linked to non-adaptive regulation strategies and hair cortisol concentration (HCC). These findings highlight the importance of investigating different features of stress and suggest the restorative power of nature connectedness, which particularly bolsters positive outcomes, such as adaptive regulation skills

Now what? Pedagogical implications of a shift to open book assessment of vector calculus

During the global pandemic, a drastic change in higher-level education took place in assessment. The traditional closed book format had to evolve to a technology-mediated open book assessment for engineering students in a vector calculus course. It became evident that the traditional format was no longer in line with the modern world both functionally and didactically. Such change in the assessment places a responsibility upon us as teachers for constructive alignment of the teaching and learning environment. In this paper, we identify four categories of pedagogical implications and conclude with concrete suggestions for classroom practice