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This study determined the effects of Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) on student achievement and engagement in physical science. A one-group pretest/posttest pre-experimental research design was employed. The participants were Grade 11 students (n=30) in a public stand-alone senior high school in Congressional District 1, Quezon City, Philippines, who were selected using purposive sampling. This study utilized five research instruments: (1) OCL-based lesson plans, (2) Learning Activity Sheets (LAS), (3) Physical Science Achievement Test (PSAT), (4) CIP Engagement Questionnaire, and (5) Student Learning Experience Survey. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted quantitatively and qualitatively. Quantitative data were obtained from the validated 40-item achievement test and the adopted engagement questionnaire, while responses to the Student Learning Experience Survey provided qualitative data. Paired t-test was employed to determine the significant difference in achievement and engagement before and after the OCL's implementation. The results showed a significant difference between the pretest and posttest mean scores of the students in the achievement and engagement in physical science. Likewise, there was a statistically significant difference between the pretest and posttest mean scores for all engagement factors: cooperation, interest, and participation. The result of the survey revealed that students' exposure to the OCL strategy was effective in facilitating significant improvements in their achievement and engagement in physical science. Overall, the findings signified that Online Collaborative Learning (OCL) as a teaching-learning strategy enhanced students' achievement and engagement in physical science.

Early alert systems (EAS) are an important technological tool to help manage and improve student retention. Data spanning 16,091 students over 156 weeks was collected from a regionally based university in Australia to explore various microeconometric approaches that establish links between EAS and student retention outcomes. Controlling for numerous confounding variables, significant relationships between the EAS and student retention were identified. Capturing dynamic relationships between the explanatory variables and the hazard of discontinuing provides new insight into understanding student retention factors. We concluded that survival models are the best methods of understanding student retention when temporal data is available.

Grit--"perseverance and passion for long-term goals" (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, p. 1087)--has attracted the attention of researchers in fields ranging from psychology to business to education (e.g., Robertson-Kraft & Duckworth, 2014; Robins, 2019). Continuing the line of research that explores the domain specificity of grit (e.g., F. T. C. Schmidt, Fleckenstein, Retelsdorf, Eskreis-Winkler, & Möller, 2017), this study introduces the L2-Teacher Grit Scale (L2TGS) developed to measure grit specifically among English language teachers (N = 202). The results demonstrated, first, that the L2TGS possessed sufficient internal-consistency reliability ([omega] = 0.77). A subsequent principal components analysis revealed a two-component structure (POV = 50.87%), thus yielding evidence in favor of construct validity. A one-tailed Pearson's test for positive correlation between Duckworth and Quinn's (2009) domain-general Grit--S and L2TGS scores established concurrent validity of the new measure (r[subscript c] = 0.84). Lastly, the L2TGS exhibited a stronger predictive validity, explaining approximately 21% of the variance in L2-teacher retention-related scores compared to the Grit--S, which was a statistically nonsignificant predictor accounting for 4% of the total variance. Of note, female teachers had higher levels of grit than male teachers. In sum, our findings indicate support for an occupation-specific approach to grit.

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is highly prevalent and associated with a significant impact on individuals’ well-being. Initial management involves various medications, but their benefits can be limited by side effects, particularly concerning young people. In this context, novel and better-tolerated therapeutic strategies have been proposed, thus including the modulation of the gut microbiome through probiotic ingestion. We aimed to examine the available evidence linking the urinary microbiome to lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and to evaluate the possible usefulness of probiotic supplementation as a novel treatment option for LUTS/BPH. A narrative review design was preferred to fulfill our purpose. The search strategy included a range of terms, e.g., “microbiome,” “microbiota,” “urobiome,” AND/OR “probiotics” AND “benign prostatic hyperplasia,” “benign prostatic enlargement,” “lower urinary tract symptoms.” A range of studies aimed to investigate the possible impact of urinary microbiome on BPH. Gut and/or urinary dysbiosis can alter the gut permeability and initiate/maintain inflammatory and oxidative processes in the prostate, which may contribute to the cell-hyper-proliferation leading to BPH. The modulation of the urinary and/or gut microbiome through probiotic supplementation seems to provide levels of clinical effectiveness in the management of BPH. Although different probiotics have been tested, a combination of B. Longum and F. Psychaerophilum seems to be particularly promising due to their capability of modulating both the inflammatory pathway and the intestinal barrier permeability. Gut and/or urinary microbiome dysbiosis is most likely contributing to the BPH pathogenesis. Even though only scarce evidence on the potential usefulness of probiotic supplementation in the management of BPH is currently available, the available studies seem to provide encouraging results. Further prospective trials are warranted in order to confirm these findings and to clarify which probiotic strains are more suitable for supplementation in this setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevalence of coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) beyond the spectrum of chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) is non-negligible, pertaining to pathophysiological and therapeutical implications. Thanks to the availability of accurate and safe non-invasive technique, CMD can be identified as a key player in heart failure, cardiomyopathies, Takotsubo syndrome, aortic stenosis. While CMD is widely recognized as a cause of myocardial ischemia leading to a worse prognosis even in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease, the characterization of CMD patterns beyond CCS might provide valuable insights on the underlying disease progression, being potentially a "red flag" of adverse cardiac remodeling and a major determinant of response to therapy and outcomes. In this review, we aimed to provide an overview of the latest evidence on the prevalence, mechanistic and prognostic implications of CMD beyond the spectrum of CCS (i.e. heart failure, cardiomyopathies, Takotsubo syndrome, aortic stenosis). [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking technological solutions to not only enhance the learning environment but also support students. In this study, we explored the case of an early alert system (EAS) at a regional university engaged in both on-campus and online teaching. Using a total of 16,142 observations captured between 2011 and 2013, we examined the relationship between EAS and the student retention rate. The results indicate that when controlling for demographic, institution, student performance and workload variables, the EAS is able to identify students who have a significantly higher risk of discontinuing from their studies. This implies that early intervention strategies are effective in addressing student retention, and thus an EAS is able to provide actionable information to the student support team.

This article provides an analysis of the academic performance of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Vietnam with 50 universities and 50 colleges in 2011/12. The two-stage semiparametric data envelopment analysis is used to estimate the efficiency of HEIs and investigate the effects of various factors on their performance. The findings reveal that HEIs in the surveyed sample show that there are still potential avenues to improve their existing performance. There appears to be a difference in the efficiencies of public and private HEIs in the reported year. It is noted that the inefficiency of HEIs are not entirely a result of managerial performance, but also influenced by other factors such as location, age and the contribution of tuition fees. Our results are expected to provide more understanding of the operational efficiency of HEIs for educational managers and policymakers to find possible solutions to improve the performance of Vietnamese higher education.

Introduction Aspirin is one of the most commonly used drugs worldwide. It is known to present antipyretic, anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombotic actions, making it extremely useful in a wide range of clinical contexts. Interestingly, homeopathically prepared Aspirin 15cH has been found to have a pro-thrombotic effect in rats, raising the hypothesis that Aspirin 15cH could also modulate the activity of inflammatory cells in different pathological processes. Objective Our objective was to assess what effect Aspirin 15cH has on RAW 264.7 macrophages in vitro. Methods The effects of Aspirin 15cH on biochemical and morphological activities of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated RAW 264.7 macrophages were evaluated. These effects were compared with unchallenged macrophages (negative control), untreated LPS-stimulated macrophages, macrophages treated with succussed water (vehicle control), or aspirin 200 µg/mL (pharmacological inhibitor of LPS activity). Cell morphology (adhered cell area and cytoskeleton arrangements), cell viability, toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) expression, and the production of nitric oxide, cytokines and intracellular reactive oxygen species were assessed. ResultsAspirin 15cH reduced the number of cells expressing TLR-4 on the surface (p = 0.03) and induced a "columnar" morphology of macrophage pseudopods, indicating changes in cytoskeleton arrangement. When cells were treated with both Aspirin 15cH and LPS, cell morphology became heterogeneous, suggesting that sub-populations of cells had differing sensitivities to LPS or Aspirin 15cH. Exposure of the cells to LPS alone, succussed water or aspirin 200 µg/mL produced effects consistent with the literature. ConclusionAspirin 15cH, aspirin 200 µg/mL, LPS and succussed water appear to act as independent stimuli able to induce different patterns of macrophage response. Aspirin 15cH induced changes suggestive of M2 polarization of the macrophages (i.e., toward a wound healing or tissue repair, rather than inflammatory, phenotype). These preliminary findings need to be confirmed in further specific studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Budgetary constraints on the public purse have led Australian Federal and State governments to focus increasingly on the efficiency of public institutions, including Technical and Further Education (TAFE) institutes. In this study, we define efficiency as the relationship between financial and administrative inputs and educational outputs. We employ stochastic frontier analysis in determining the efficiency of Australian TAFE institutes using data sourced from institutional annual reports, the Student Outcomes Survey and administrative databases. We found significant economies of scale effects and conclude that increasing institutional size for very small institutions may result in increased efficiencies.

Recent findings have suggested that adults' and children's approximate number system (ANS) acuity may be malleable through training, but research on ANS acuity has largely been conducted with adults and children who are from middle- to high-income homes. We conducted 2 experiments to test the malleability of ANS acuity in preschool-aged children from low-income homes and to test how non-numerical stimulus features affected performance. In Experiment 1, mixed-effects models indicated that children significantly improved their ratio achieved across training. Children's change in probability of responding correctly across sessions was qualified by an interaction with surface area features of the arrays such that children improved their probability of answering correctly across sessions on trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets significantly more than on trials in which total surface area positively correlated with numerosity. In Experiment 2, we found that children who completed ANS acuity training performed better on an ANS acuity task compared with children in a control group, but they only did so on ANS acuity trials in which numerosity conflicted with the total surface area of object sets. These findings suggest that training affects ANS acuity in children from low-income homes by fostering an ability to focus on numerosity in the face of conflicting non-numerical stimulus features.