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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a true challenge to students and educators in the teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) of the psychomotor domain integral in laboratory experiment and design work. The pandemic has opened venues for open distance learning (ODL) with a completely new outlook for educators. The objective of this paper is to examine the suitability of the alternative TLA methods adopted in laboratory courses in ODL during the pandemic. Document review was carried out on various laboratory courses for a civil engineering programme in Universiti Teknologi MARA. The findings show that the assessment methods commonly used during ODL are individual and group reports, lab demonstration, video presentation, laboratory projects, online tests, individual online interviews, home-based mini projects, peer evaluation, and simulation using various software. Each alternative assessment was evaluated based on three (3) criteria which are the relevancy of knowledge, TLA activities, and suitability of the TLA activities to address the respective learning domain of the courses. Overall, the alternative assessment methods used during ODL were found to be relevant in imparting knowledge in laboratory courses, except for the development of specialist knowledge (WK4) as students are not able to utilize the equipment in the laboratory. Meanwhile, alternative activities are found less suitable to address the psychomotor domain imparted in the learning outcomes that involve specified equipment or machinery. Finally, the alternative assessments are found to effectively capture the cognitive skills and the programme outcomes related to knowledge application (PO1) and analysis (PO2) but are less effective in capturing investigation skills (PO4) addressing the psychomotor domain.

Lysozyme is an important immune effector in innate immunity against pathogen infection. But the study on the active region of lysozyme is limited. In this study, two highly homologous lysozymes were identified from crayfish (designated as PcLysi4 and PcLysi5). The molecular structures of PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 were predicted by SWISS-MODEL with the structure of lysozyme (PDB accession No. 4PJ2.2.B) as model. The results suggested that the structure of PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 were highly similar, but there were more α-helices at positions (127–139) and longer β-sheet at positions (49–57) in the structure of PcLysi5 than in that of PcLysi4. The antibacterial and antiviral functions of the two lysozymes were investigated. PcLysi4 and PcLysi5 could promote the bacterial clearance ability of crayfish, and increase the survival rate of Vibrio-infected crayfish. Further study showed that PcLysi5 inhibited WSSV replication, and enhanced the survival rate of WSSV-infected crayfish. There was no evidence that PcLysi4 has an influence on WSSV replication. Furthermore, PcLysi5 was detected to interact with envelope protein VP24 of WSSV. Our results would provide a new reference for the study on active region of lysozyme.

Supernumerary teeth are advantaged sources for high‐quality stem cell preparation from both apical papilla (SCAP‐Ss) and dental pulp (DPSCs). However, the deficiency of the systematic and detailed comparison of the biological and transcriptomic characteristics of the aforementioned stem cells largely hinders their application in regenerative medicine. Herein, we collected supernumerary teeth for SCAP‐S and DPSC isolation and identification by utilizing multiple biological tests (e.g., growth curve, cell cycle and apoptosis, adipogenic and osteogenic differentiation, and quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction). Furthermore, we took advantage of transcriptome sequencing and multifaceted bioinformatic analyses to dissect the similarities and diversities between them. In this study, we found that SCAP‐Ss and DPSCs showed indistinctive signatures in morphology and immunophenotypes, whereas with diversity in cell vitality and multi‐lineage differentiation as well as gene expression profiling and differentially expressed genes‐associated gene ontology and signaling pathways. Collectively, our data indicated the diversity of the multifaceted signatures of human supernumerary teeth‐derived stem cells both at the cellular and molecular levels, which also supplied new references for SCAP‐Ss serving as splendid alternative stem cell sources for regenerative medicine purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outcome-Based Education (OBE) implementation is one of the qualifying requirements for engineering programme accreditation in Malaysia. Implementation of the OBE in Integrated Design Project (IDP) is essential in producing high quality engineering graduates that are able to meet the challenges especially in the era of Industry 4.0 in Malaysia. IDP is the course offered to the final year students of undergraduate programme in Faculty of Civil Engineering, University Teknologi MARA. This paper presents the mapping of the addressing Course Outcomes (CO) and Programme Outcomes (PO) to the scopes of assessment in a capstone project (CP) for IDP. The explicitness in the measurement of CO and PO in the course is demonstrated. The rubrics for the assessment of CP are also presented. Finally, evaluation of student performance in IDP particularly CP is discussed through a sample analysis of the CO and PO attainments.

This paper presents a numerical strategy for the shape change analysis of spine biotensegrity models in multi-directional modes. The formulation of incremental equilibrium equations and optimization problem for shape change analysis via the forced elongation of cables to achieve the target coordinates of the monitored nodes of spine biotensegrity models are presented. The distance between the monitored nodes and the target coordinates is chosen as the objective function which is minimized subject to inequality constraints on member axial forces and cable forced elongation. Three spine biotensegrity models were analyzed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The deformation characteristics of the Class-1 four-stage biotensegrity models mimicking the natural curvature of the human spine were investigated. A highly successful rate in achieving the target coordinates was observed in a total of 258 analysis cases, with percentages of 99.9%, 99.9% and 98.9% for shape change analysis involving uni-, bi- and tri-directional modes, respectively. The results show that the spine biotensegrity models have more flexibility in undergoing bending in comparison with axial deformation. With the established shape change strategy, the flexibility and versatility of the movement of spine biotensegrity models can be further studied for potential application in the shape change control of deployable structures together with the use of IoT.

This paper presents a study on form-finding of four-stage class one self-equilibrated spine biotensegrity models. Advantageous features such as slenderness and natural curvature of the human spine, as well as the stabilizing network that consists of the spinal column and muscles, were modeled and incorporated in the mathematical formulation of the spine biotensegrity models. Form-finding analysis, which involved determination of independent self-equilibrium stress modes using generalized inverse and their linear combination, was carried out. Form-finding strategy for searching the self-equilibrated models was studied through two approaches: application of various combinations of (1) twist angles and (2) nodal coordinates. A total of three configurations of the spine biotensegrity models with different sizes of triangular cell were successfully established for the first time in this study. All members in the spine biotensegrity models satisfied the assumption of linear elastic material behavior. With the established spine biotensegrity model, the advantageous characteristics of flexibility and versatility of movement can be further studied for potential application in deployable structures and flexible arm in the robotic industry.