Identifying Informatively Easy and Informatively Hard Concepts

In this article, we leverage ideas from the theory of coevolutionary computation to analyze interactions of students with problems. We introduce the idea of informatively easy or hard concepts. Our approach is different from more traditional analyses of problem difficulty such as item analysis in the sense that we consider Pareto dominance relationships within the multidimensional structure of student–problem performance data rather than average performance measures. This method allows us to uncover not just the problems on which students are struggling but also the variety of difficulties different students face. Our approach is to apply methods from the Dimension Extraction Coevolutionary Algorithm to analyze problem-solving logs of students generated when they use an online software tutoring suite for introductory computer programming called problets . The results of our analysis not only have implications for how to scale up and improve adaptive tutoring software but also have the promise of contributing to the identification of common misconceptions held by students and thus, eventually, to the construction of a concept inventory for introductory programming.

Online Advanced Bacterial Identification Software, an Original Tool for Phenotypic Bacterial Identification

The objective of the study is to present and validate an original online Advanced Bacterial Identification Software, ABIS, by comparison to a commercially available, standardized identification system, API strips and apiweb™ bioMerieux software. Methods and results: presentation of ABIS online software, phenotypic bacterial identification of 16 reference strains and 123 wild isolates by ABIS and apiweb TM bioMerieux software and comparative analysis of results. Closed results were obtained (same taxa) for reference and wild strains of Enterobacteriaceae, Pasteurellaceae, Bacillaceae, Lactobacillaceae, Staphylococcaceae, Streptococcaceae, and other. Conclusions: Apiweb™ confirmed the results of ABIS, overall, average identification percent for ABIS being 91.8% and 90.4% for apiweb TM. ABIS online is a powerful tool for microbiology lab and the Encyclopedia connection provides essential information about the ecological significance, pathology and other features of the identified strains.

Isolation and phenotypic characterization of Gallibacterium anatis biovar haemolytica from a hen with hemorrhagic ooforitis

Objective: the isolation and phenotypically identification of a Gallibacterium anatis biovar haemolytica strain from a hen with hemorrhagic ooforitis; the antimicrobial susceptibility testing of this isolate. Methods and results: a strain of G. anatis biovar haemolytica, was isolated and phenotypic identified by morphological, cultural and biochemical characters examination, with API 20 E, API 20 NE, API STAPH, API ZYM tests and ABIS online software. The antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolate was performed using the standard disk diffusion method. Conclusions: a strain of G. anatis biovar haemolytica was isolated and phenotypically identified from a hen. From our knowledge, this is the first reporting in Romania of isolation and identification of G. anatis biovar haemolytica. The Gah IDSA 161 strain could be phenotypic identified only by ABIS on line software, Pasteurellaceae Database version, unifying the results of four API kits and other biochemical tests. The isolate showed a multi-drug resistant profile to tetracyclines (tetracycline, oxitetracycline, doxicyclin), floroquinolones (enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin), ampicillin, trimethoprim, nalidixic acid, clindamycin, and it was susceptible to sulfonamide, sulfomethoxazole/trimethoprim, gentamicin, cephalothin, streptomycin, amoxicilin/clavulanic acid.

QUATÉRNIOS: GENERALIZAÇÃO DOS NÚMEROS COMPLEXOS NA PERSPECTIVA DO USO DO SOFTWARE EDUCATIVO GEOGEBRA E O SOFTWARE ON-LINE LIVRE QUATERNION

This article was carried out under the Tutorial Education Program (PET Mathematical Knowledge connections), of the Mathematics Degree Course at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) - Três Lagoas Campus (CPTL). Our objective was to present both the consolidation of Complex Numbers (1833) and the class of hyper-complex Quaternions (1843), both conceptualized by Sir William Rowan Hamilton, as well as using the Free Educational Software GeoGebra and the Free Online Software QUATERNION, as alternative pedagogical resources facilitating the development of the teaching and learning process of abstract mathematical content.

'GRAMMARLY' AS A TEACHERS' ALTERNATIVE IN EVALUATING NON -EFL STUDENTS WRITINGS

In evaluating students’ EFL writing, lecturers nowadays can implement corrective evaluation by using an online automatic software. Grammarly is automated online software that is comonly used in EFL writing classes. It is an internet proofreading service that evaluates the correctness grammarl, spelling, punctuation, and vocabulary as well as detects plagiarism. This paper reports research aimed at exploring the use of Grammarly software for evaluating non-EFL students’ writings. This research employed descriptive-qualitative method with students of ITB AAS Indonesia as the data sources. The results of analysis show that in correcting students' language errors, lecturers can evaluate and analyze in details without a lot of correcting efforts or improvements. Grammarly can be considered as a useful tool for lecturers who need to correct non-EFL students’ writings. Grammarly will automatically check or detect the work being typed from various related aspects. Various writing errors made by the students were found in Grammarly’s reports, both in the aspect of correctness and clarity. Correctness is concerned with the mechanical norms in writing, whereas clarity deals with concise and direct language use. The spelling errors found in students’ writings are text inconsistencies, misspelled words, and improper formatting whereas for grammatical there are subject-verb disagreement, passive voice misuse, as well as unclear, wordy, and incomplete sentences. Meanwhile, the errors in punctuation are shown by inappropriate use of punctuation marks in compound/complex sentence, comma misuse within clauses, and improper formatting. It can be concluded that Grammarly can be an alternative for lecturers’ in evaluating non-EFL students' writings.

Rhetorical Analysis of Introduction Sections from Humanities and Sciences Research Theses Authored by Pakistani Scholars

This research aims to investigate the rhetorical structures of the introduction sections of Pakistani research theses at postgraduate level. The corpus of study contains 32 “Introduction” sections of Pakistani research theses from two faculties: Humanities and Sciences. The faculty of Sciences include theses from disciplines of Zoology, Chemistry, Botany and Biochemistry, whereas the faculty of Humanities include theses of Mass Communication, English, Gender Studies and Computer Studies. Both qualitative and quantitative methods including textual analysis and frequency percentages have been used for data analysis. The online software Compleat Lexical Tutor(Cobb.2015) was employed to extract the sentence units of the data. A hand tagged move analysis was conducted by following Swales’ Model (2004) as a reference framework. All the instances of moves and steps were calculated to explore the rhetorical variation across two faculties. Findings of the study disclosed that Pakistani authors follow their own pattern of Move 1 (Establishing the research territory) along with the variation in frequency of its constituent steps across two faculties. The demarcation between two faculties has revealed that, in the field of sciences, there is a stronger use of topic generalization than in humanities. Moreover, the inter-textual links to prior research in the field of sciences are provided more frequently than in the field of humanities. However, scholars from the faculty of Humanities represent their stance by claiming relevance of the field.

Lines of thought: The emergence of meaning through collaborations and remix

In this report on a specialised topic of remix and emergent learning we will demonstrate an open education project that emerged from the future. Using open and inclusive practices, a global group of educators engaged in some serious fun to collaborate and share digital and physical artefacts based on a poem. The poem itself was collaboratively created using open, online software, and allowed for serendipitous participation without the need to learn new skills. The set of work that was and is being created is beautiful, diverse, and far reaching. We discuss the practices of remix that this collaboration uses and show how these seemingly trivial experiences both nurture wellbeing, lead to serious learning, and have wide applicability in other, more formal, learning contexts.

Therapeutic Drug Monitoring and Pharmacogenetic Testing in Northern China

Background: Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) and pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing are widely used as approaches to improve individualized (personalized) pharmacotherapy. Little is known about TDM and PGx testing services in China. This study is aimed to describe the TDM and PGx testing services in northern China, and to lay the foundation for improving these services.Methods: We developed an electronic survey using online software and disseminated it to 32 public hospitals in northern China from May to July 2019. The data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program (Ver.27.0).Results: We collected 29 of the 32 questionnaires (90.6% response rate) from public hospitals in seven provinces of northern China. Twenty-two public hospitals (76%) utilized TDM; immune suppressants, antiepileptic drugs and anti-infective drugs were the main drugs monitored. The hospitals that did not provide TDM service were traditional Chinese medicine hospitals and hospitals with a smaller number of hospital beds. Seventeen public hospitals (58.6%) had PGx testing programs. The hospitals that did not offer PGx testing service had a smaller number of hospital beds and had fewer daily outpatients.Conclusion: TDM is available in the vast majority of public hospitals in northern China, although mainly in tertiary hospitals. PGx testing, a newer approach, is less widely available. We recommend that more hospitals be encouraged to provide TDM and PGx testing services and more efforts be directed toward quality control, delivery of results and counseling of patients based on those results.