Engaging Actively with Issues in the Responsible Conduct of Science: Lessons from International Efforts Are Relevant for Undergraduate Education in the United States

Numerous studies are demonstrating that engaging undergraduate students in original research can improve their achievement in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and increase the likelihood that some of them will decide to pursue careers in these disciplines. Associated with this increased prominence of research in the undergraduate curriculum are greater expectations from funders, colleges, and universities that faculty mentors will help those students, along with their graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, develop an understanding and sense of personal and collective obligation for responsible conduct of science (RCS). This Feature describes an ongoing National Research Council (NRC) project and a recent report about educating faculty members in culturally diverse settings (Middle East/North Africa and Asia) to employ active-learning strategies to engage their students and colleagues deeply in issues related to RCS. The NRC report describes the first phase of this project, which took place in Aqaba and Amman, Jordan, in September 2012 and April 2013, respectively. Here we highlight the findings from that report and our subsequent experience with a similar interactive institute in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our work provides insights and perspectives for faculty members in the United States as they engage undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral fellows, to help them better understand the intricacies of and connections among various components of RCS. Further, our experiences can provide insights for those who may wish to establish “train-the-trainer” programs at their home institutions.     

Optimizing Instructional Video for Preservice Teachers in an Online Technology Integration Course

This study assessed the effect of design instructional video based on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning by applying segmentation and signaling on the learning outcome of students in an online technology integration course. The study assessed the correlation between students’ personal preferences (preferred learning styles and area of specialization) and their learning outcomes. A three-group pretest–posttest design was employed to assess whether there were significant differences in students’ test scores after they watched an instructional video. The results of the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) analysis indicate that instructional design had a significant effect on students’ learning outcome. This effect was demonstrated by the statistically significant differences in students’ learning outcomes, with the highest scores achieved by students in the segmented and signaled video group and the lowest scores in the no-segmentation and no-signaling group. Moreover, results indicate that students’ learning preferences and area of specialization related significantly and positively to their learning outcomes. These findings suggest that the use of educational video in online courses has the potential to effectively improve students’ learning outcome; however, it requires design manipulation. The results also emphasize the importance of rethinking the one-size-fits-all approach in developing online course content and include consideration of the students’ learning preferences and area of specialization to optimize their learning.     

Identification and control of a small-scale helicopter

Designing reliable flight control for an autonomous helicopter requires a high performance dynamics model.In this paper,a nonlinear autoregressive with exogenous inputs （NLARX） model is selected as the mathematical structure for identifying and controlling the flight of a small-scale helicopter.A neural network learning algorithm is combined with the NLARX model to identify the dynamic component of the rotorcraft unmanned aerial vehicle （RUAV）.This identification process is based on the well-known gradient descent learning algorithm.As a case study,the multiple-input multiple-output （MIMO） model predictive control （MPC） is applied to control the pitch motion of the helicopter.Results of the neural network output model are closely match with the real flight data.The MPC also shows good performance under various conditions.     

Study on Urinary Candidate Metabolome for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer

A metabolomic study for determination of certain urinary metabolomes, 1-methyladenosine (1-MA), 1-methylguanosine (1-MG), and 8-hydroxy-2′ deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) in urine specimens of breast cancer patients. The accuracy of these metabolites and their combined score with cancer antigen 15-3 (CA15-3) was developed to improve the early detection of breast cancer. This study recruited 52 healthy individuals, 47 benign breast tumors, and 167 malignant breast tumor patients. Urine samples were handled to adjust the creatinine concentrations to 8 mg/dL (0.7 mmol/L) and analyzed using GC–MS to detect and quantify the selected urinary metabolomes in urine samples of all participants. The accuracy of individual urinary metabolomes and their combination with CA15-3 were evaluated using multivariate statistical analysis. The cutoff value of CA15-3 was 32.5 U/mL. Cutoff values of 1-MA, 1-MG, and 8-OHdG were 2.19, 2.1, and 7.3 µmol/mmol creatinine, respectively. The concentrations of 1-MA, 1-MG, and 8-OHdG were significantly higher in breast cancer patients, especially in the early-stage. The combination of three urinary metabolomes with CA15-3 improves the diagnostic sensitivity of breast cancer. For the combined score, the area under the curve (AUC) value of combined score ranged from 0.820 to 0.950, with high accuracy, ranged from 77.0 to 95.5%. The most significant AUC (0.973), sensitivity (90.1%), selectivity (94.0%) was recorded at comparing the healthy control with the early-stage of malignant breast cancer. In conclusion, the combination of three urinary metabolomes with serum CA15-3 improves the diagnostic sensitivity of breast cancer.     

Evaluation of Apoptotic Marker Bcl2, CD4+, Human Hepatocyte Growth Factor and Metalloproteinase-9 as Tumor Markers for Patients with Hepatocellular Carcinoma

To examine the possible involvement of human B cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2), CD4+ cells, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), as biomarkers in early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), activities of these biomarkers in serum were demonstrated by the method of Enzyme Linked Immunosorbant Assay. Two groups of subjects (60 for each), were examined in this study; healthy controls and patients with HCC. The present results declare that, significant decrease in Bcl-2 (p ≤ 0.0001), and CD 4+ (p ≤ 0.001), while significant increase in HGF and MMP-9 (p ≤ 0.05). These findings imply an influence of these biomarkers by the existence of hepatic carcinoma that might reflect the progression of disease and a distinction between the pathological mechanisms involved in hepatic carcinoma. Since, the serum MMP-9 activity was significantly varied between each stage of HCC. An individual profile of the present investigated parameters was detected that might serve as an easy accessing serum marker to monitor the progression of hepatic cell disorders.     

Modalités de prise de décision chez les filles et les garçons en la présence ou en l’absence de l’enseignant

How girls and boys take decisions in the presence and absence of a teacher – This work is part of an innovative approach to physical and sports education in Tunisia, and team sports in particular. It uses language studies carried out within the framework of this teaching both to generate a reflective attitude on the part of students, and to identify the effect of gender as a variable in the ways in which they make decisions. Discourse analysis highlights the importance of language output by girls and boys in football teaching when a teacher is present or absent. The teacher is an institutional authority who imposes specific uses of language, and when he/she is absent, emotional tensions predominate and may reflect the repression of ideas that occurs when the teacher is present. Although girls appear to take part in the discussion, their utterances are fewer in number, and their analytical statements less effective than those of boys. Girls never gain the upper hand over boys. The study also suggests a redefinition of social role divisions on the basis of gender – masculinity and femininity.     

Why Is Health Literacy Related to Health? An Exploration Among U.S. National Assessment of Adult Literacy Participants 40 Years of Age and Older

Health literacy has emerged as an important factor related to health in older persons. The reason for the link between health literacy and health outcomes is not clear. Possible explanations include common relations among income, education, access to health care, health-promotion behaviors, frequency of reading, and perceptual impairments. In this study we investigate the relation of health literacy to self-reported health status and explore the impact of these explanatory variables on this relation in persons aged 40 years and older who participated in the 2003 U.S. National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL). Using regression models, we evaluated the impact of potential explanatory variables on the relation of health literacy to self-reported health status. Regression models confirmed previously-observed relations of health literacy, age, income, and education to health. The inclusion of income and education significantly decreased the relation of health literacy to health. While other variables, such as health maintenance and preventive health behaviors, were significantly related to health, they did not change the relation of health literacy to health. Even after taking multiple explanatory variables into account, the relation between health literacy and health status remained significant, suggesting that they alone do not completely account for the observed relation. Some other factor or combination of factors may account for the relation of health literacy to health.     

Designing e-assessment activities appropriate to learner's competency levels: Hybrid pedagogical framework and authoring tool

Education and Information Technologies - E-Assessment, which is a key element in the instructional design process, plays a major role in supporting and enhancing learning. However, the current...     

Trends in the use of affective computing in e-learning environments

Education and Information Technologies - Considering that emotions have a great impact on motivation, reasoning, and decision making, affective computing methods, that were designed to attempt to...