Group Work Assessment: Assessing Peer Assessment at Global College of Engineering and Technology

Students learning and autonomy can be improved by involving them in teaching and learning, especially in group work assessments, this can also greatly help cut down the amount of time spent by teachers on marking and providing feedback. Although peer assessment of student work can also accomplish these goals, but its application is frequently restricted to evaluating each participant's input or participation to a cooperative effort. This paper reports the considerations and lesson learnt to successfully develop a group work assessment and marked based on the individual’s contribution to avoid conflicts. It’s worth mentioning that the peer-assessed marks are not significantly different from those allocated by faculty based on evaluative criteria, quality definitions, and a scoring strategy

EFFECT OF PIOGLITAZONE AND GEMFIBROZIL ADMINISTRATION ON C-REACTIVE PROTEIN LEVELS IN NON-DIABETIC HYPERLIPIDEMIC RATS

OBJECTIVE: To assess and compare anti-inflammatory effect of pioglitazone and gemfibrozil by measuring C-reactive protein (CRP) levels in high fat fed non-diabetic rats. METHODS: A comparative animal study was conducted at the Post Graduate Medical Institute, Lahore, Pakistan in which 27, adult healthy male Sprague Dawley rats were used. The rats were divided into three groups. Hyperlipidemia was induced in all three groups by giving hyperlipidemic diet containing cholesterol 1.5%, coconut oil 8.0% and sodium cholate 1.0%. After four weeks, Group A (control) was given distilled water, Group B was given pioglitazone 10mg/kg body weight and Group C was given gemfibrozil 10mg/kg body weight as single morning dose by oral route for four weeks. CRP was estimated at zero, 4th and 8th week. RESULTS: There was significant increase in the level of CRP after giving high lipid diet from mean±SD of 2.59±0.28mg/L, 2.63±0.32mg/L and 2.67±0.23mg/L at 0 week to 3.55±0.44mg/L, 3.59±0.34mg/L and 3.6±0.32mg/L at 4th week in groups A, B and C respectively. Multiple comparisons by ANOVA revealed significant difference between groups at 8th week only. Post hoc analysis disclosed that CRP level was significantly low in pioglitazone treated group having mean±SD of 2.93±0.33mg/L compared to control group’s 4.42±0.30mg/L and gemfibrozil group’s 4.28±0.39mg/L. The p-value in each case was <0.001, while difference between control and gemfibrozil was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: Pioglitazone is effective in reducing hyperlipidemia associated inflammation, evidenced by decreased CRP level while gemfibrozil is not effective

Max-gain relay selection scheme for wireless networks

© 2020 Karabuk University Next generation wireless systems are supposed to handle high amount of data with broader coverage and high quality of service (QoS). When a signal travels from a source to destination, the signal quality may suffer from the fading, which makes it difficult to receive correct messages. To handle the impact of fading, various diversity techniques are performed with Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO). Considering cooperative wireless networks, virtual MIMOs are being used, which also called cooperative diversity. In this paper, we propose a max-gain relay selection scheme (MGRS) for buffer-aided wireless cooperative networks. This scheme determines the best link using the maximum gain based on quality of link and available buffer size. The time slot is divided into two parts, one is used to choose the best link from the source to relay transmission (odd slot) and another time slot (even) is used based on the selection of the best link from the relay to destination. Markov chain model is use to measure buffer status and QoS parameters to evaluate the performance. The proposed scheme provides better QoS (12%) compared to the existing relay selection schemes with respect to throughput, end-to-end delay and outage probability

COVID-19 and learning Styles: GCET as case study

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused higher educational institutions around the world to close campus-based activities and move to online delivery. The aim of this paper is to present the case of Global College of Engineering and Technology (GCET) and how its practices including teaching, students/staff support, assessments, and exam policies were affected. The paper investigates the mediating role of no detriment policy impact on students’ result along with the challenges faced by the higher educational institution, recommendations and suggestions. The investigation concludes that the strategies adopted for online delivery, student support, assessments and exam policies have helped students to effectively cope with the teaching and learning challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic without affecting their academic results. The study shows that 99% of students were able to maintain the same or better level of performance during the 1st COVID-19 semester. One percent of students had shown a slight decrease in their performance (about 1%–2%) with respect to their overall marks pre-COVID-19. The no detriment policy has succoured those 1% of the students to maintain their overall performance to what it used to be pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, the paper provides the list of challenges and suggestions for smooth conduction of online education

Bioactive Compounds, Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Cancer, and Toxicity Assessment of Tribulus terrestris—In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Tribulus terrestris L. Belongs to the family Zygophyllaceae and integral part of various ancient medicinal systems including Chinese, Indian, and European to combat various health ailments. The aim of the present study was to assess the phytochemical constituents, in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH, FRAP, and H2O2 assays, in vitro anticancer activity using MTT assay, and in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory properties of T. terrestris. The acute and sub-acute toxicity of extracts exhibiting most biological potential was examined using murine models. Liquid–liquid partitioning followed by RP–HPLC sub-fraction of crude extract was performed. After that, ESI-MS/MS analysis was done for the timid identification of bioactive metabolites responsible for bioactivities of sub-fractions and HPLC analysis to quantify the compounds using external standards. Among all extracts, T. terrestris methanol extract was noted to hold maximum phenolic (341.3 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid (209 mg QE/g) contents, antioxidant activity in DPPH (IC50 71.4 µg/mL), FRAP (35.3 mmol/g), and H2O2 (65.3% inhibition) assays, anti-inflammatory activities in vitro at 400 µg/mL (heat-induced hemolysis, % inhibition 68.5; egg albumin denaturation, % inhibition 75.6%; serum albumin denaturation, % inhibition 80.2), and in vivo at 200 mg/kg (carrageenan-induced paw edema, % inhibition 69.3%; formaldehyde-induced paw edema, % inhibition 71.3%) and anticancer activity against breast cancer cell (MCF-7) proliferation (IC50 74.1 µg/mL). Acute and sub-acute toxicity studies recorded with no change in body weight, behavior, hematological, serum, and histopathological parameters in treated rats with T. terrestris methanol extracts when compared to control group. Fraction B obtained through liquid–liquid partitioning resulted in more bioactive potential as compared to the parent methanol extract. RP–HPLC analysis of fraction B resulted with four sub-fractions (TBTMF1-TBTMF4), wherein TBTMF3 delineated notable bioactive capabilities as compared to other fractions and parent methanol extract. ESI-MS/MS analysis of TBTMF3 resulted with tentative identification of myricetin, rutin, liquitrigenin, physcion, and protodioscin. It can be stated that T. terrestris is a potential bearing herb and findings of current study further verify the claims made in ancient medicinal systems. However, after investigation of each identified compound, it must be considered for drug discovery

Chatbot in E-learning

In many modern apps, especially those that provide the user intelligence help, the usage of chatbots is quite common. In reality, these systems frequently have chatbots that can read user inquiries and give the appropriate replies quickly and accurately in order to speed up the support. This article describes the creation of a Chatbot prototype for the educational sector. A system for offering assistance to university students in certain courses has been established. The first goal was on the creation of the particular architecture, model to handle communication, and supply the learner with the correct answers. A system that can recognize questions and provide answers to students by utilizing natural language processing methods has been developed to achieve this goal. After the developed model was put into use, an experimental campaign was run to show how effective and enforceable it was

Bioactive Compounds, Antioxidant, Anti-Inflammatory, Anti-Cancer, and Toxicity Assessment of Tribulus terrestris—In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Tribulus terrestris L. belongs to the family Zygophyllaceae and integral part of various ancient medicinal systems including Chinese, Indian, and European to combat various health ailments. The aim of the present study was to assess the phytochemical constituents, in vitro antioxidant activity using DPPH, FRAP, and H2O2 assays, in vitro anticancer activity using MTT assay, and in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory properties of T. terrestris. The acute and sub-acute toxicity of extracts exhibiting most biological potential was examined using murine models. Liquid–liquid partitioning followed by RP–HPLC sub-fraction of crude extract was performed. After that, ESI-MS/MS analysis was done for the timid identification of bioactive metabolites responsible for bioactivities of sub-fractions and HPLC analysis to quantify the compounds using external standards. Among all extracts, T. terrestris methanol extract was noted to hold maximum phenolic (341.3 mg GAE/g) and flavonoid (209 mg QE/g) contents, antioxidant activity in DPPH (IC50 71.4 µg/mL), FRAP (35.3 mmol/g), and H2O2 (65.3% inhibition) assays, anti-inflammatory activities in vitro at 400 µg/mL (heat-induced hemolysis, % inhibition 68.5; egg albumin denaturation, % inhibition 75.6%; serum albumin denaturation, % inhibition 80.2), and in vivo at 200 mg/kg (carrageenan-induced paw edema, % inhibition 69.3%; formaldehyde-induced paw edema, % inhibition 71.3%) and anti-cancer activity against breast cancer cell (MCF-7) proliferation (IC50 74.1 µg/mL). Acute and subacute toxicity studies recorded with no change in body weight, behavior, hematological, serum, and histopathological parameters in treated rats with T. terrestris methanol extracts when compared to control group. Fraction B obtained through liquid–liquid partitioning resulted in more bioactive potential as compared to the parent methanol extract. RP–HPLC analysis of fraction B resulted with four sub-fractions (TBTMF1-TBTMF4), wherein TBTMF3 delineated notable bioactive capabilities as compared to other fractions and parent methanol extract. ESI-MS/MS analysis of TBTMF3 resulted with tentative identification of myricetin, rutin, liquitrigenin, physcion, and protodioscin. It can be stated that T. terrestris is a potential bearing herb and findings of current study further verify the claims made in ancient medicinal systems. However, after investigation of each identified compound, it must be considered for drug discovery. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Self-adapting security monitoring in Eucalyptus cloud environment

This paper discusses the importance of virtual machine (VM) scheduling strategies in cloud computing environments for handling the increasing number of tasks due to virtualization and cloud computing technology adoption. The paper evaluates legacy methods and specific VM scheduling algorithms for the Eucalyptus cloud environment and compare existing algorithms using QoS. The paper also presents a self-adapting security monitoring system for cloud infrastructure that takes into account the specific monitoring requirements of each tenant. The system uses Master Adaptation Drivers to convert tenant requirements into configuration settings and the Adaptation Manager to coordinate the adaptation process. The framework ensures security, cost efficiency, and responsiveness to dynamic events in the cloud environment. The paper also presents the need for improvement in the current security monitoring platform to support more types of monitoring devices and cover the consequences of multi-tenant setups. Future work includes incorporating log collectors and aggregators and addressing the needs of a super-tenant in the security monitoring architecture. The equitable sharing of monitoring resources between tenants and the provider should be established with an adjustable threshold mentioned in the SLA. The results of experiments show that Enhanced Round-Robin uses less energy compared to other methods, and the Fusion Method outperforms other techniques by reducing the number of Physical Machines turned on and increasing power efficienc

Measurement of natural frequency and mechanical damping of thin brass diaphragm by pulsed laser generated vibrations

Damped harmonic oscillator model based fitting of nanosecond pulsed laser induced amplitude variations of clamped vibrating circular plate is used to estimate the mechanical damping and natural frequency of the sample in current work. Laser Pulses of 50 mJ energy, 20 ns duration, and focused at a spot of 4 mm diameter at the center of the circular thin brass sheet of 100 µm thickness is used to generate vibrations in the target. Quadrature Michelson interferometer (QMI) with CW laser focused on the opposite side of the target surface is used to measure the amplitude of vibrations. Variations of fringe frequencies are identified in the frequency domain. Finite element based numerical modal analyses are also performed in ANSYS Workbench for the verification of experimental results for the same geometry and materials. Experimental frequencies of vibrations are found to match nearly 2 percent of FEM modes. Moreover, Elastic parameters are also found using the first two mode frequencies and a reasonable agreement is observed while comparing with the elastic parameter data of brass. Current work in itself is a unique attempt of getting mechanical parameters for the determination of elastic parameters in a single laser pulse impulse excited measurement for thin clamped targets

Context-aware multi-user offloading in mobile edge computing: A federated learning-based approach

Mobile edge computing (MEC) provides aneffective solution to help the Internet of Things (IoT)devices with delay-sensitive and computation-intensivetasks by offering computing capabilities in the proximityof mobile device users. Most of the existing studies ignorecontext information of the application, requests, sensors,resources, and network. However, in practice, contextinformation has a significant impact on offloading decisions.In this paper, we consider context-aware offloadingin MEC with multi-user. The contexts are collected usingautonomous management as the MAPE loop in alloffloading processes. Also, federated learning (FL)-basedoffloading is presented. Our learning method in mobiledevices (MDs) is deep reinforcement learning (DRL). FLhelps us to use distributed capabilities of MEC with updatedweights between MDs and edge devices (Eds). Thesimulation results indicate our method is superior to localcomputing, offload, and FL without considering contextawarealgorithms in terms of energy consumption, executioncost, network usage, delay, and fairness