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Effects of captions, transcripts and reminders on learning and perceptions of lecture capture
Get PDFLecture capture is popular within Higher Education, but previous research suggests that students do not always optimally select content to review, nor do they make the most of specific functions. In the current study conducted in the 2019/20 academic year, we used a repeated-measures crossover design to establish the effects of transcripts with closed captioning, and email reminders, on use (self-reported and system analytics), perceptions of lecture capture and student performance, as measured by multiple-choice question (MCQ) tests designed to assess the module learning outcomes. System analytics (N = 129) and survey data (N = 42) were collected from students alongside qualitative data from semi-structured interviews (N = 8). We found that students value lecture capture highly, but do not access it extensively during the teaching period. The availability of transcripts and closed captions did not impact the amount of capture use or performance on MCQ tests, but did result in more positive perceptions of capture, including increased likelihood of recommending it to others. The use of email reminders referring students to specific segments of capture and reminding them of the functionality had no impact on any measure, although qualitative data suggested that the content of reminders may be used in revision rather than during the teaching period, which fell outside the period we investigated. Collectively, these data suggest that the use of captions and transcripts may be beneficial to students by allowing dual processing of visual and audio content, and a searchable resource to help consolidate their learning but there is little evidence to support reminders
Adipocytokines and disease progression in endometrial cancer: a systematic review
No full textThe objective of the study was to document the effect of adipocytokines on endometrial cancer progression. A search of the databases CINAHL, Medline, PubMed, Cochrane, Web of Science, Embase and Google Scholar was performed for English language articles from January 2000 to December 2020 using the keywords: (Endometrial cancer) AND (progression OR metastasis) AND (adipocytokine OR adiponectin OR leptin OR visfatin OR IL-6 OR TNF-alpha OR adipokine OR cytokine). Forty-nine studies on adipocytokines have been included in this review. Adiponectin has been linked with anti-proliferative and anti-metastatic effects on endometrial cancer cells and is associated with a better prognosis. Leptin, visfatin and resistin are linked to the stimulation of endometrial cancer growth, proliferation, invasion and metastasis and are associated with worse prognosis or with a higher grade/stage of endometrial cancer. IL-6, Il-11, IL-31, IL-33, TNF-alpha, TGF-beta 1, SDF-1 and CXCR are involved in endometrial cancer cell growth and metastasis or involved in epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT) or associated with advanced disease. Adipocytokines have been found to directly impact endometrial cancer cell proliferation, invasion and migration. These molecules and their signalling pathways may be used to determine prognosis and course of the disease and may also be exploited as potential targets for cancer treatment and prevention of progression
Ground-state β-decay spectroscopy of 187 Ta
Get PDFBeta-decay spectroscopy of the 187 Ta ground state was performed at the KEK Isotope Separation System. β-delayed γ rays corresponding to the previously reported in-beam transitions were observed. The β-decay half-life of the 187 Ta ground state was determined to be 283(10) s by analyzing a time spectrum of β-γ coincidence events. The β-decay branching ratio and log(f t) values were evaluated for the first time. Based on the newly evaluated log(f t) values of >6.0 and a decay scheme, spin-parity values of I π = 7/2 + originating from the odd-proton orbit π 7/2[404] were assigned with high confidence, which is consistent with the systematics of neighboring odd-A nuclides
Evaluating Sustainable Efficiency of Decision Making Units Considering Undesirable Outputs: An Application to Airline Using Integrated Multi-Objective DEA-TOPSIS
Get PDFSustainable development has gained significant attention in the literature due to the increased global awareness of environmental sustainability during the last decade. Sustainable development has three aspects, including economic, social, and environmental. The challenge of sustainable development is to establish a balance between these three aspects. Assessing the efficiency of a company contributes comprehensive information to improve its overall performance. Despite numerous studies in this field, the literature lacks studies that simultaneously consider all three aspects of sustainable development, especially the social aspect. The main objective of this paper is to calculate the technical, social, and environmental efficiency scores. We also introduce a new efficiency called sustainable efficiency that merges all three sustainable development aspects in one efficiency score. This study applies two existing data envelopment analysis (DEA) models to evaluate technical, social, environmental, and sustainable efficiencies. These models, namely the three-step method and the modified three-step method, are computationally intensive. Also, this paper introduces two new DEA models, namely the common weight goal programming DEA and the common weight DEA, to assess the efficiencies with much fewer computations. Each model produces results that are different from one another. Therefore, the TOPSIS approach is applied to provide an overall result by integrating the results obtained from the four presented models. For this purpose, the implementation of four TOPSIS models is required. To illustrate the capability and validity of the developed models in efficiency calculation, a case of Iranian airlines is presented. The selected airlines are evaluated in different aspects and final results are obtained by applying TOPSIS. The findings show that using TOPSIS to combine the results of several DEA models lead to fully ranking of airlines in four aspects of technical, social, environmental, and sustainable efficiencies. Also, it is recommended to managers to probe pairwise comparison between different efficiencies of airlines in order to find and improve the weak ones
Energy-aware job scheduling in a multi-objective production environment – An integrated DEA-OWA model
Get PDFManufacturing is a major source of energy consumption and, therefore, a significant contributor to emissions and greenhouse gases. This paper is concerned with evaluating different scheduling policies in a job shop system where energy-efficient scheduling is incorporated with multiple other scheduling criteria. In the production systems being investigated, the electrical energy is offered on a time-of-use (TOU) pricing regime. The objective of minimizing TOU energy costs conflicts sharply with most other traditional objectives in production scheduling. The aim is to identify best performing scheduling rules for different scenarios based on different shop congestion levels, and devise new rules to enable an improved integration of energy cost with other scheduling criteria.A ranking approach based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and Ordered Weighting Average (OWA) concepts is presented. The proposed methodology exploits the preference voting system embedded under the cross-efficiency (CE) matrix to derive a collective importance scale for the aggregation process. The approach is applied to 28 dispatching rules (DRs) for scheduling jobs that arrive continuously at random points in time during the production horizon. Computational results highlight the effect of energy costs on the overall ranking of the DRs, and unveil the superiority of certain rules under multi-objective performance criteria
Why were COVID-19 infections lower than expected amongst people who are homeless in London, UK in 2020? Exploring community perspectives and the multiple pathways of health inequalities in pandemics
No full textHigh rates of COVID-19 infections and deaths amongst people who are homeless in London, UK were feared. Rates however stayed much lower than expected throughout 2020; an experience that compares to other settings globally. This study sought a community level perspective to explore this rate of infections, and through this explore relationships between COVID-19 and existing health inequalities. Analyses are reported from ongoing qualitative studies on COVID-19 and homeless health service evaluation in London, UK. Repeated in-depth telephone interviews were implemented with people experiencing homelessness in London (n=17; 32 interviews in total) as well as street outreach workers, nurses and hostel staff (n=10) from September 2020 to early 2021. Thematic analysis generated three themes to explore peoples’ experiences of, and perspectives on, low infections: people experiencing homelessness following, creating and breaking social distancing and hygiene measures; social distancing in the form of social exclusion as a long-running feature of life; and a narrative of ‘street immunity’ resulting from harsh living conditions. Further study is needed to understand how these factors combine to prevent COVID-19 and how they relate to different experiences of homelessness. This community perspective can ensure that emerging narratives of COVID-19 prevention success don’t ignore longer running causes of homelessness and reinforce stigmatising notions of people who are homeless as lacking agency. Our findings aid theorisation of how health inequalities shape pandemic progression: severe exclusion may substantially delay epidemics in some communities, although with considerable other non-COVID-19 impacts. Highlights:•COVID-19 amongst people homeless in the UK was lower than predicted in 2020.•Agency, social exclusion and street immunity may have prevented COVID-19.•Severe health inequalities and social exclusion could substantially delay COVID-19.</p
Why do acute healthcare staff engage in unprofessional behaviours towards each other and how can these behaviours be reduced? A realist review protocol
Get PDFIntroduction Unprofessional behaviours encompass many behaviours including bullying, harassment and microaggressions. These behaviours between healthcare staff are problematic; they affect people’s ability to work, to feel psychologically safe at work and speak up and to deliver safe care to patients. Almost a fifth of UK National Health Service staff experience unprofessional behaviours in the workplace, with higher incidence in acute care settings and for staff from minority backgrounds. Existing analyses have investigated the effectiveness of strategies to reduce these behaviours. We seek to go beyond these, to understand the range and causes of such behaviours, their negative effects and how mitigation strategies may work, in which contexts and for whom.Methods and analysis This study uses a realist review methodology with stakeholder input comprising a number of iterative steps: (1) formulating initial programme theories drawing on informal literature searches and literature already known to the study team, (2) performing systematic and purposive searches for grey and peer-reviewed literature on Embase, CINAHL and MEDLINE databases as well as Google and Google Scholar, (3) selecting appropriate documents while considering rigour and relevance, (4) extracting data, (5) and synthesising and (6) refining the programme theories by testing the theories against the newly identified literature.Ethics and dissemination Ethical review is not required as this study is a secondary research. An impact strategy has been developed which includes working closely with key stakeholders throughout the project. Step 7 of our project will develop pragmatic resources for managers and professionals, tailoring contextually-sensitive strategies to reduce unprofessional behaviours, identifying what works for which groups. We will be guided by the ‘Evidence Integration Triangle’ to implement the best strategies to reduce unprofessional behaviours in given contexts. Dissemination will occur through presentation at conferences, innovative methods (cartoons, videos, animations and/or interactive performances) and peer-reviewed journals
Acoustic Source Localization in the Circular Harmonic Domain Using Deep Learning Architecture
Get PDFAn integrated analysis and comparison of serum, saliva and sebum for COVID-19 metabolomics
No full textAbstract The majority of metabolomics studies to date have utilised blood serum or plasma, biofluids that do not necessarily address the full range of patient pathologies. Here, correlations between serum metabolites, salivary metabolites and sebum lipids are studied for the first time. 83 COVID-19 positive and negative hospitalised participants provided blood serum alongside saliva and sebum samples for analysis by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Widespread alterations to serum-sebum lipid relationships were observed in COVID-19 positive participants versus negative controls. There was also a marked correlation between sebum lipids and the immunostimulatory hormone dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate in the COVID-19 positive cohort. The biofluids analysed herein were also compared in terms of their ability to differentiate COVID-19 positive participants from controls; serum performed best by multivariate analysis (sensitivity and specificity of 0.97), with the dominant changes in triglyceride and bile acid levels, concordant with other studies identifying dyslipidemia as a hallmark of COVID-19 infection. Sebum performed well (sensitivity 0.92; specificity 0.84), with saliva performing worst (sensitivity 0.78; specificity 0.83). These findings show that alterations to skin lipid profiles coincide with dyslipidaemia in serum. The work also signposts the potential for integrated biofluid analyses to provide insight into the whole-body atlas of pathophysiological conditions
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