Assessing student collaboration and learning in medical engineering from the perspectives of structures, behaviors, and function

Learning in biomedical engineering is highly interdisciplinary: students need to integrate concepts between engineering and life sciences, and be able to design and develop technologies with physiological considerations. In this study, biomedical engineering students’ artifacts were analyzed in detail according to the structure-behavior-framework (SBF) framework. The SBF framework has been investigated by educational researchers and learning scientists; in particular, the behavioral and functional dimensions were proved to be related to a sophisticated level of understanding of complex systems. Existing research results also indicate that experts (or expert-like learners) show a deeper understanding of the behavioral and functional aspects of systems. In the current study, a 5- level scale comprising structural, behavioral, andfunctional dimensions of integrated learning was constructed to assess student learning in a biomedical engineering project course. Our results indicate that high achievers and low achievers were different in the behavioral and functional dimensions. The results also indicate significant relationships between behavioral and functional dimensions of learning and students’ final course performance. These findings align with existing results in cognitive science and learning sciences on expert-novice differences, which help connecting engineering educational inquiries to the rich body of literature and findings in human learning

418 cm-1 Raman scattering from gallium nitride nanowires: Is it a vibration mode of N-rich Ga-N bond configuration?

A Raman-active vibration mode at 418 cm-1 is observed in wurtzite gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires synthesized by different growth methods. In particular, Raman scattering measurements of a number of GaN nanowires systematically prepared by nitriding Β- Ga2 O3 nanowires at different temperatures show an interesting evolution of the mode, revealing that it is most likely the vibration mode of N-rich octahedral Ga- N6 bonds. This idea is further supported by the high-resolution transmission electron microscopic observation. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.published_or_final_versio

A cluster analysis of patterns of objectively measured physical activity in Hong Kong

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An analysis on reasons of non-compliant to cardiac rehabilitation programme

Abstract no. 09published_or_final_versio

Evaporation induced flow inside circular wells

Flow field and height averaged radial velocity inside a droplet evaporating in an open circular well were calculated for different modes of liquid evaporation.Comment: 5 page, 3 figures, submitted to European Physical Journal

Return to work after cardiac rehabilitation

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Spacial and temporal dynamics of the volume fraction of the colloidal particles inside a drying sessile drop

Using lubrication theory, drying processes of sessile colloidal droplets on a solid substrate are studied. A simple model is proposed to describe temporal dynamics both the shape of the drop and the volume fraction of the colloidal particles inside the drop. The concentration dependence of the viscosity is taken into account. It is shown that the final shapes of the drops depend on both the initial volume fraction of the colloidal particles and the capillary number. The results of our simulations are in a reasonable agreement with the published experimental data. The computations for the drops of aqueous solution of human serum albumin (HSA) are presented.Comment: Submitted to EPJE, 7 pages, 8 figure

Interleukin gene polymorphisms in age-related macular degeneration

[[abstract]]PURPOSE. To investigate polymorphisms in a candidate gene of interleukin (IL) in unrelated Taiwan Chinese patients with late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and control subjects without AMD. METHODS. In this retrospective, case-control study, 312 unrelated Taiwan Chinese patients with late AMD and 180 age- and sex-matched control subjects were enrolled. Late AMD was classified as either atrophic (dry) or neovascular (wet) according to the International ARM Epidemiologic Study. Genomic DNA was prepared from peripheral blood obtained from all patients with AMD and control subjects. Polymerase chain reactions were used to analyze 14 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in candidate genes of 5 ILs: IL-1 beta(2q14): -511 T/C; IL-6 (7p21): -572 C/G and -596 G/A; IL-8 (4q13-q21): -251 A/T, +781 C/T, +1633 T/C, and +2767 A/T; IL-10 (1q31-q32): -592 A/C, -819 C/T, and -1082 G/A; and IL-18 (11q22.2-q22.3): +105 A/C, -137 C/G, -607 A/C, and -656 T/G. RESULTS. In the 312 patients with late AMD, dry AMD was diagnosed in 136 and wet AMD in 176. Among the 14 SNPs in the 5 IL genes studied, only the IL-8 +781 C/T SNP was significantly associated with wet AMD (T allele: 46% in wet AMD versus 28% in the control subjects, P = 1.03 x 10(-6), OR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.58-2.94). The association analysis based on genotypes at both IL-8 +781 C/T and the CFH Y402H demonstrated that the IL-8 +781 C/T to AMD was not significant when analyzed conditional on the presence of the CFH Y402H C risk allele and vice versa. The IL-8 +781 C/T was in low linkage disequilibrium with CFH Y402H (D' = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS. The data suggest that Taiwan Chinese carriers of the IL-8 +781 T allele, independent of the CFH Y402H polymorphism, are at increased risk of developing wet AMD