Finland: An Exemplary STEM Educational System

There is a need for an increase in the number of students entering fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and the only way for that to happen is for educational reforms to be put into place (PCAST, 2012). Improvement and focus on STEM education are a concern of all nations whether they have an emerging economy or one that is long established. The world of the 21st century is such that in order to compete globally countries must invest in STEM education (Kennedy & Odell, 2014). The United States scores on the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) were not in the top ten for reading, mathematics, nor science. To rectify this, it is imperative that changes be made to the educational system (Schleicher, ed., 2012). Looking at countries that are consistently at the top is one way to find potential solutions and models of reform. One country that has successfully reformed their educational system is Finland. Within their educational system, the strategies of collaboration and communication are widely utilized by the instructors as well as the students (Sislian, Gabardo, Macedo, & Ribeiro, 2015). While analyzing a single country’s instructional program can give insights into what makes it successful, it is beneficial to compare that country to others that are also achieving success in order to determine any trends and commonalities. The countries used for this comparison were chosen because they were different culturally, geographically, and politically, but in spite of their differences, they were among the top-scoring nations on the PISA

Exploring coupled images fusion based on joint tensor decomposition

Data fusion has always been a hot research topic in human-centric computing and extended with the development of artificial intelligence. Generally, the coupled data fusion algorithm usually utilizes the information from one data set to improve the estimation accuracy and explain related latent variables of other coupled datasets. This paper proposes several kinds of coupled images decomposition algorithms based on the coupled matrix and tensor factorization-optimization (CMTF-OPT) algorithm and the flexible coupling algorithm, which are termed the coupled images factorization-optimization(CIF-OPT) algorithm and the modified flexible coupling algorithm respectively. The theory and experiments show that the effect of the CIF-OPT algorithm is robust under the influence of different noises. Particularly, the CIF-OPT algorithm can accurately restore an image with missing some data elements. Moreover, the flexible coupling model has better estimation performance than a hard coupling. For high-dimensional images, this paper adopts the compressed data decomposition algorithm that not only works better than uncoupled ALS algorithm as the image noise level increases, but saves time and cost compared to the uncompressed algorithm

Comparison of alfaxalone-medetomidine and tiletamine-zolazepam in rescued common palm civets (Paradoxurus musangus)

Forty rescued common palm civets were anesthetized. Twenty animals received intramuscular injections of alfaxalone 5 mg/kg and medetomidine 0.05 mg/kg (A-M group), whereas twenty animals received 5 mg/kg of tiletamine and zolazepam (T-Z group). The A-M group was reversed with atipamazole 0.25 mg/kg. There were no significant differences in the time from anesthetic injection to induction and intubation between the A-M and T-Z groups. The time from the injection of reversal in the A-M group and the time from cessation of isoflurane in the T-Z group to extubation, first response to recovery and ambulation were longer (P<0.05) in the T-Z group. The T-Z group recorded lower (P<0.05) rectal temperatures compared to the A-M group. This study showed that both drug combinations can be used effectively for the immobilization of civets. The A-M combination provided better anesthetic depth, but with higher incidence of bradycardia and hypoxemia. The recovery time was reduced significantly as atipamezole was used as a reversal agent in the A-M combination

HER2-enriched subtype and novel molecular subgroups drive aromatase inhibitor resistance and an increased risk of relapse in early ER+/HER2+ breast cancer

BACKGROUND: Oestrogen receptor positive/ human epidermal growth factor receptor positive (ER+/HER2+) breast cancers (BCs) are less responsive to endocrine therapy than ER+/HER2- tumours. Mechanisms underpinning the differential behaviour of ER+HER2+ tumours are poorly characterised. Our aim was to identify biomarkers of response to 2 weeks’ presurgical AI treatment in ER+/HER2+ BCs. METHODS: All available ER+/HER2+ BC baseline tumours (n=342) in the POETIC trial were gene expression profiled using BC360™ (NanoString) covering intrinsic subtypes and 46 key biological signatures. Early response to AI was assessed by changes in Ki67 expression and residual Ki67 at 2 weeks (Ki672wk). Time-To-Recurrence (TTR) was estimated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox models adjusted for standard clinicopathological variables. New molecular subgroups (MS) were identified using consensus clustering. FINDINGS: HER2-enriched (HER2-E) subtype BCs (44.7% of the total) showed poorer Ki67 response and higher Ki672wk (p<0.0001) than non-HER2-E BCs. High expression of ERBB2 expression, homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) and TP53 mutational score were associated with poor response and immune-related signatures with High Ki672wk. Five new MS that were associated with differential response to AI were identified. HER2-E had significantly poorer TTR compared to Luminal BCs (HR 2.55, 95% CI 1.14–5.69; p=0.0222). The new MS were independent predictors of TTR, adding significant value beyond intrinsic subtypes. INTERPRETATION: Our results show HER2-E as a standardised biomarker associated with poor response to AI and worse outcome in ER+/HER2+. HRD, TP53 mutational score and immune-tumour tolerance are predictive biomarkers for poor response to AI. Lastly, novel MS identify additional non-HER2-E tumours not responding to AI with an increased risk of relapse

Impact of cardiac arrest centers on the survival of patients with nontraumatic out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest : a systematic review and meta‐analysis

Background The role of cardiac arrest centers (CACs) in out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest care systems is continuously evolving. Interpretation of existing literature is limited by heterogeneity in CAC characteristics and types of patients transported to CACs. This study assesses the impact of CACs on survival in out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest according to varying definitions of CAC and prespecified subgroups. Methods and Results Electronic databases were searched from inception to March 9, 2021 for relevant studies. Centers were considered CACs if self‐declared by study authors and capable of relevant interventions. Main outcomes were survival and neurologically favorable survival at hospital discharge or 30 days. Meta‐analyses were performed for adjusted odds ratio (aOR) and crude odds ratios. Thirty‐six studies were analyzed. Survival with favorable neurological outcome significantly improved with treatment at CACs (aOR, 1.85 [95% CI, 1.52–2.26]), even when including high‐volume centers (aOR, 1.50 [95% CI, 1.18–1.91]) or including improved‐care centers (aOR, 2.13 [95% CI, 1.75–2.59]) as CACs. Survival significantly increased with treatment at CACs (aOR, 1.92 [95% CI, 1.59–2.32]), even when including high‐volume centers (aOR, 1.74 [95% CI, 1.38–2.18]) or when including improved‐care centers (aOR, 1.97 [95% CI, 1.71–2.26]) as CACs. The treatment effect was more pronounced among patients with shockable rhythm ( P =0.006) and without prehospital return of spontaneous circulation ( P =0.005). Conclusions were robust to sensitivity analyses, with no publication bias detected. Conclusions Care at CACs was associated with improved survival and neurological outcomes for patients with nontraumatic out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest regardless of varying CAC definitions. Patients with shockable rhythms and those without prehospital return of spontaneous circulation benefited more from CACs. Evidence for bypassing hospitals or interhospital transfer remains inconclusive

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

PROFESSIONALIZATION AND DIRTY" WORK : A STUDY OF EMBALMERS IN SINGAPORE"

Bachelor'sBACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (HONOURS

Development of a mobile application for pre-diabetic and diabetic patients (C)

This project aims to develop an application to better serve the needs of diabetics and prediabetics in Singapore. Three students teamed up to complete this project. The mobile application consists of 3 main functionalities, which are: providing food recommendations, logging of blood glucose levels and food intake, and an interactive game. In particular, the interactive game will be the focus of this paper. The game is location-based, and promotes physical activity by encouraging the user to move around to collect points. Augmented Reality is also included in the game where the user can interact with virtual objects. The application was developed on Xamarin Visual Studios while the game was developed on Unity3D. The programming language used in both platforms was C#.Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Leadership and psychological capital : influence of servant leadership on followers’ psychological capital.

Do servant leaders, who primarily emphasize the needs and desires of followers before the needs of the leader increase followers’ psychological capital (PsyCap)? This study answers this question. A total of 53 female and 24 male undergraduates were randomly assigned to either a servant leadership or leaderless condition. They completed a 10-minute group activity with a confederate who posed either as a servant leader or a laissez-faire leader. Participants filled out two questionnaires that measured their perception of the leader and their level of PsyCap. Participants were able to recognize the different leadership style in each condition (p < .05). Participants in the servant leadership condition had significantly higher PsyCap (M = 4.54, SD = .53) than those in the leaderless condition (M = 4.33, SD = .47), t(75) = 1.86, p = .0335. The result indicated servant leadership increased followers’ PsyCap. Based on these results, it is expected that servant leadership is likely to be an antecedent to positive organizational behavior in the workplace.Bachelor of Art