Student's perception of effectiveness of a technology enhanced problem based learning environment in a Mechanical Engineering module

The main aim of this research is to improve the use of education technology inproblem based learning (PBL) environment in a Mechanical Engineering (ME) module. The research study adoptedthe quantitative and qualitative methods. The study sample comprised of 79 students from Edinburgh Napier University (ENU), Scotland. Thedata gathering instrument comprised of two quantitative and one qualitative student’s feedback questionnaires. The results shows that education technology integration into the PBL environment according to the students learning needs,toprovide students with an opportunities to collaborate and build new knowledge in a PBL environment. Finally, the study proposed an improved design of the learning task. It implies the need for the teaching institution to provide academic staff development to support tutors in carrying out PBL and to encourage the use of tools like 3E-Framework that help academic staff to meaningfully incorporate technology into learning and teaching

Investigating the Effect of Theoretical and Laboratory Teaching on the Students’ Academic Performance in Mechanical Engineering

In order to improve the students’ learning experience in the Mechanical Engineering (ME) modules, a problem based learning (PBL) approach is used and the learning activities are designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn theory and perform the experiments to develop a better understanding of the subject. The aim of this action research is to investigate the effect of the theoretical and laboratory based instructions in the Engineering Applications module on the students’ academic performance. The sample is composed of 106 students from Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) in Scotland. The data is comprised of the marks obtained by the students in the summative design assessment, based on the theoretical studies and the two online quizzes based on the laboratory experiments. The results show that the module’s instructions are mostly focused on the experimental studies which indicates that the experimental studies are not supporting the theoretical studies. It illustrates that the theoretical studies and the experimental studies indirectly support each other. It also shows that the students are not provided with an adequate opportunities to develop the engineering application skills. This implies a need to constructively align such modules, in order to improve the student’s learning experience. The concept mapping tools can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching practices on the students learning experience. The learning activities design should take into consideration the learning styles of the students to encourage them to actively participate in the PBL environment. In addition, the educational institutions should provide support to the academics to improve their facilitation skills in the PBL environment. A suggestion for further research is made to evaluate the effectiveness of the theoretical and experimental teaching instructions based on the Bloom’s Taxonomy on the students learning experience

Undergraduate College Students' Perceived Sense of Civic Responsibility and Social Change Behaviors in the Context of Service, Advocacy, and Identity-Based Student Organizations

This study utilized data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) to explore the differences between college students involved with service, advocacy, and identity-based student organizations, as well as those not involved in any of these organizations, in their perceived sense of civic responsibility, as well as their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. In addition, it explored the relationship between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and their frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. The researcher utilized two one-way ANOVAs to see if there were significant differences in perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among students who were involved exclusively in service, advocacy, or identity-based organizations, as well as students who were involved in a combination of these organizations, and students who did not participate in any of these organizations. The researcher found significant differences between students in the different organizations, with students in a combination of organizations and students involved exclusively in advocacy organizations having the highest mean scores on perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors. Students in identity-based organizations and those not involved in any of the organizations had the lowest mean scores on these two variables. In addition, the researcher found a positive, medium strength correlation between students' perceived sense of civic responsibility and frequency of engagement in social change behaviors among all of the involvement categories. Overall, this study provides important initial findings regarding the civic engagement characteristics of students involved in particular student organizations

Engineering cell free protein synthesis and synthetic cells

Mimicking the structure and function of natural cells, synthetic cells hold significant potential in various applications. These synthetic cells, which come in numerous forms, are developed from different materials, including lipids and proteins, as well as synthetic materials such as polymers. The method of producing synthetic cells depends largely on their intended use and the materials used in their formation. Expression of genes within a synthetic cell can allow its usage in many fields to either study minimal cellular behaviour and function or use them as cargo holding vehicles for controlled delivery to target sites. This thesis focuses on the production of lipid-based synthetic cells using a cell-free protein expression system and a DNA template. The primary objective of this study was to generate synthetic cells capable of producing a target protein, which can be released in a controlled manner upon the application of heat. Heat is a promising stimulus for future applications in SCs due to its thermal control to allow precise manipulation, biocompatibility, non-invasiveness, versatility, scalability, and integration with existing technologies. To produce the SCs, we initially optimized the inverted-emulsion method to create giant unilamellar vesicles. These vesicles successfully encapsulated the cell-free protein expression system, enabling the production of a fluorescent protein or a reporter enzyme. However, incorporating heat-sensitive lipids into the synthetic cells using this approach proved unsuccessful. Consequently, we pursued an alternative strategy to produce SCs known as the freeze-dried empty liposomes (FDEL) method. Through optimization, this method enabled us to incorporate thermosensitive materials such as DPPC, lysolipids, and PEG into the SCs at specific compositions, facilitating controlled release upon heating. Furthermore, we investigate a genetic engineering method to enhance the protein yield in the E. coli cell-free protein expression system, PURExpress, by introducing a short sequence referred to as a "booster." We identify specific cell penetrating peptide nucleotide sequences and their derivatives which allow higher expression of the fluorescent protein, mVenus

Trustee: A Trust Management System for Fog-enabled Cyber Physical Systems

In this paper, we propose a lightweight trust management system (TMS) for fog-enabled cyber physical systems (Fog-CPS). Trust computation is based on multi-factor and multi-dimensional parameters, and formulated as a statistical regression problem which is solved by employing random forest regression model. Additionally, as the Fog-CPS systems could be deployed in open and unprotected environments, the CPS devices and fog nodes are vulnerable to numerous attacks namely, collusion, self-promotion, badmouthing, ballot-stuffing, and opportunistic service. The compromised entities can impact the accuracy of trust computation model by increasing/decreasing the trust of other nodes. These challenges are addressed by designing a generic trust credibility model which can countermeasures the compromise of both CPS devices and fog nodes. The credibility of each newly computed trust value is evaluated and subsequently adjusted by correlating it with a standard deviation threshold. The standard deviation is quantified by computing the trust in two configurations of hostile environments and subsequently comparing it with the trust value in a legitimate/normal environment. Our results demonstrate that credibility model successfully countermeasures the malicious behaviour of all Fog-CPS entities i.e. CPS devices and fog nodes. The multi-factor trust assessment and credibility evaluation enable accurate and precise trust computation and guarantee a dependable Fog-CPS system