Conceptualising design knowledge and its recontextualisation in the studiowork component of a design foundation curriculum

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references.Universities of Technology have traditionally prepared students for the world of work and their close ties with industry directly impact on vocational curriculum, which has to impart subject knowledge and specialized knowledge valued by industry, whilst simultaneously encouraging the acquisition of vocational identity. This study of a Design Foundation Course’s curriculum is located at a University of Technology which is currently undergoing a process of re-curriculation, which has initiated a process of examining subject knowledge and its structuring in various course’s curricula. In the light of these developments, an examination of the nature of design knowledge and the role of the foundation curriculum in the transfer of core disciplinary knowledge to underprepared students appeared both timely and necessary

A risk prediction model for the assessment and triage of women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy in low-resourced settings: the miniPIERS (Pre-eclampsia Integrated Estimate of RiSk) multi-country prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Pre-eclampsia/eclampsia are leading causes of maternal mortality and morbidity, particularly in low- and middle- income countries (LMICs). We developed the miniPIERS risk prediction model to provide a simple, evidence-based tool to identify pregnant women in LMICs at increased risk of death or major hypertensive-related complications. METHODS AND FINDINGS: From 1 July 2008 to 31 March 2012, in five LMICs, data were collected prospectively on 2,081 women with any hypertensive disorder of pregnancy admitted to a participating centre. Candidate predictors collected within 24 hours of admission were entered into a step-wise backward elimination logistic regression model to predict a composite adverse maternal outcome within 48 hours of admission. Model internal validation was accomplished by bootstrapping and external validation was completed using data from 1,300 women in the Pre-eclampsia Integrated Estimate of RiSk (fullPIERS) dataset. Predictive performance was assessed for calibration, discrimination, and stratification capacity. The final miniPIERS model included: parity (nulliparous versus multiparous); gestational age on admission; headache/visual disturbances; chest pain/dyspnoea; vaginal bleeding with abdominal pain; systolic blood pressure; and dipstick proteinuria. The miniPIERS model was well-calibrated and had an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC ROC) of 0.768 (95% CI 0.735-0.801) with an average optimism of 0.037. External validation AUC ROC was 0.713 (95% CI 0.658-0.768). A predicted probability ≥25% to define a positive test classified women with 85.5% accuracy. Limitations of this study include the composite outcome and the broad inclusion criteria of any hypertensive disorder of pregnancy. This broad approach was used to optimize model generalizability. CONCLUSIONS: The miniPIERS model shows reasonable ability to identify women at increased risk of adverse maternal outcomes associated with the hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. It could be used in LMICs to identify women who would benefit most from interventions such as magnesium sulphate, antihypertensives, or transportation to a higher level of care

Enabling knowledge progression in vocational curricula: Design as a case study

The Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s Design Foundation Course (DFC) has as its purpose to give talented but underprepared students epistemological accessto the general field of design as well as to a range of specific design disciplines. Inorder to design curricula that enable epistemological access we argue that educatorsneed to make explicit what makes their knowledge practices special. Drawing onresearch into levels of design expertise as well as Legitimation Code Theory, this paper offers a theoretical and analytical framework that accounts for progression inlevels of expertise, forms of knowledge and the cultivation of a designer gaze. Theanalysis of the DFC curriculum briefs reveals that design expertise develops throughthe engagement between increasingly more context-dependent design problems andincreasingly complex design concepts. The paper concludes by drawing on the designcase for a set of principles which can inform the progression of knowledge invocational curricula more generally

Calibration plot of the miniPIERS model applied 2,081 women in the cohort (H–L goodness of fit <i>p</i> = 0.1616).

<p>Green line represents line of perfect fit between observed and predicted outcomes and orange line is a smoothed fit line between predicted probability and mean observed probability in each range.</p

Results of sensitivity analysis using the miniPIERS model to predict adverse maternal outcome in subsets of the data or to predict restricted definition of the combined adverse outcome, as described, in the miniPIERS and fullPIERS cohorts.

a<p>Other hypertensive disorders excluded: chronic hypertension, gestational hypertension without proteinuria, or other adverse conditions, partial HELLP.</p><p>GA, gestational age.</p

Performance of the model in each study site region as a predictor of combined adverse maternal outcome occurring within 48

<p>Performance of the model in each study site region as a predictor of combined adverse maternal outcome occurring within 48</p

Maternal adverse outcomes occurring in the total miniPIERS cohort, outcome counts not mutually exclusive when listed within 48

<p>Full definitions of all outcomes available at <a href="http://pre-empt.cfri.ca/OBJECTIVES/miniPIERS/Reference.aspx" target="_blank">http://pre-empt.cfri.ca/OBJECTIVES/miniPIERS/Reference.aspx</a>.</p>a<p>Includes five cases of pulmonary embolism, two cardiac arrests, one ruptured uterus.</p><p>SpO₂, blood oxygen saturation; FiO₂, fractional inspired oxygen; PPH, postpartum haemorrhage.</p