Virtual flipped teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced teaching to be shifted to an online platform. Since the flipped teaching (FT) model has been shown to engage students through active learning strategies and adapt both synchronous and asynchronous components, it was a convenient choice for educators familiar with this instructional method. This study tested the effectiveness of a virtual FT method during the pandemic in a graduate-level physiology course. Besides assessing knowledge gained in the virtual FT format, student surveys were used to measure student perception of their adjustment to the new FT format, their confidence in completing the course successfully, and the usefulness of assessments and assignments in the remote FT. Students reported that they adjusted well to the remote FT method (P < 0.001), and their confidence in completing the course in this teaching mode successfully improved from the beginning to the end of the semester (P < 0.05). Students expressed a positive response to the synchronous computerized exams (90.32%) and the formative group (93.51%) and individual (80.65%) assessments. Both collaborative activities (93.55%) and in-class discussions (96.77%) were found to be effective. The course evaluations and the overall semester scores were comparable to the previous semesters of face-to-face FT. Overall, students' perceptions and performance suggested that they embraced the virtual FT method and the tested teaching method maintained the same strong outcome as before. Thus, this study presents a promising new instructional method in the teaching of future physiology courses.

A random object-oriented population study of household paints measured by infrared spectroscopy.

Forensic paint analysis heavily relies on population studies and creation of databases for estimating frequencies of apparition and perform discrimination studies. An important part of the paint market is currently led by household paints, that can be recovered in cases of burglaries of forced entries. Here, we present a database of 166 household paint samples collected at random in a waste recycling plant, and measured by infrared spectroscopy. We provide general demographic information on the paint such as their type, brand, model, and color. Based on their infrared spectra, we present the differentiation among samples and the calculation of the discriminating power for various attributes. We compare our visual discrimination results with a principal component analysis. This study provides valuable information for paint evaluation and association evidence, but will also be used to create a searchable database to tentatively determine the chemical composition, brand, or model of a questionned specimen in absence of reference material.