Development of the clinical learning evaluation questionnaire for undergraduate clinical education: Factor structure, validity, and reliability study

Background: Teaching and learning of clinical skills for undergraduate medical students usually takes place during the clinical clerkship. Therefore, it is of vital importance to ensure the effectiveness of the rotations within this clerkship. The aims of this study were to develop an instrument that measures the effectiveness of the clinical learning environment, to determine its factor structure, and to find first evidence for the reliability and validity of the total scale and the different factors. Methods. The Clinical Learning Evaluation Questionnaire (CLEQ) is an instrument, consisting of 40 items, which have been developed after consideration of the results of a qualitative study that investigated the important factors influencing clinical learning, both from the perspective of students, as well as teachers. Results of relevant literature that investigated this issue were also incorporated in the CLEQ. This instrument was administered to a sample of students (N = 182) from three medical colleges in Riyadh city, the capital of Saudi Arabia. The factor structure of the CLEQ (Principal component analysis, Oblimin rotation) and reliability of the factor scales (Cronbach's α) were determined. Hypotheses concerning the correlations between the different factors were tested to investigate their convergent and divergent validity. Results: One hundred and nine questionnaires were returned. The factor analysis yielded six factors: F1 Cases (8 items), F2 Authenticity of clinical experience (8 items), F3 Supervision (8 items), F4 Organization of the doctor-patient encounter (4 items), F5 Motivation to learn (5 items), and F6 Self awareness (4 items). The overall internal consistency (α) of the CLEQ was 0.88, and the reliabilities (Cronbach's α) of the six factors varied from.60 to.86. Hypotheses concerning the correlations between the different factors were partly confirmed, which supported the convergent validity of the factors, but not their divergent validity. Significant differences were found between the scores of the students of the three different schools on the factors Supervision and Organization of patient-doctor encounter. Conclusions: The results of this study demonstrated that CLEQ is a multidimensional and reliable instrument. It can be utilized as an evaluation tool for clinical teaching activities, both by educators as well as students. Further research is needed into the validity of the CLEQ

Determinants of Effective Clinical Learning: Student and Teacher Perspectives

Undergraduate medical education has witnessed a tremendous development in Saudi Arabia over the last four decades. The number of the medical colleges was increased from 3 in 1967 to 21 in 2010. In addition, an accreditation system, in the form of a National commission for academic accreditation and assessment, has been established to monitor and evaluate the quality of postgraduate education. Despite this, recent criticisms have been raised about the quality of the undergraduate medical education in Saudi Arabia. Details are provided in Chapter 1. The first objective of the dissertation was to present an overview of the literature concerning the factors that influence the effectiveness of the clerkships in undergraduate medical education and that contribute to the development of clinical competence of medical students (Chapter 2). The second objective was to investigate the perception of medical students and teachers in Saudi Arabia concerning the determinants of the effectiveness of clinical learning (Chapter 3). The third objective was to develop a new instrument to evaluate the quality of the clinical learning: The Clinical Learning Evaluation Questionnaire (CLEQ) (Chapter 4). The fourth objective of this dissertation was to study students’ evaluation of their exposure to the teaching of ethics (Chapter 5). The fifth objective of this dissertation was to study the perception of undergraduate medical students in Saudi Arabia regarding alcohol and substance use in the community (Chapter 6). The sixth objective was to study the knowledge, attitude and practice of Tobacco smoking by medical students in Saudi Arabia (Chapter 7)

Effect of cimetidine on some hematological indices of Wistar rats: modulatory role of vitamin c

Introduction: Cimetidine is a drug used in the treatment of dyspepsia, a clinical condition with widespread distribution. Many studies have reported cimetidine to cause many unwanted effects. However, in most of those studies cimetidine was administered at higher than therapeutic doses. Aim: The aim of this study was, therefore, to evaluate the effect of chronic cimetidine treatment at therapeutic dose on some hematological indices and the possible modulatory role of vitamin C on any such effect. Experimental design and Animal grouping: Forty adult male Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n = 10) and treated orally for 60 days with distilled water (control); cimetidine (30 mg kg-1); cimetidine (30 mg kg-1) + vitamin C (25 mg kg-1) and cimetidine (30 mg kg-1) + vitamin C (50 mg kg-1). At the end of the study blood was collected for analysis. Results: Total white blood cell (WBC) count (5.99 ± 0.20 x 103/mm3) of the cimetidine only-treated group was significantly lower than that of the control (7.95 ± 0.29 x 103/mm3).However, the valuesof red blood cell (RBC) count, packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin(MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), and color index of the experimental groups were not significantly different from that of the control. Treatment with vitamin C modulated the cimetidine-induced decrease in total WBC count. Conclusion: It was concluded that chronic cimetidine administration at therapeutic dose caused a significant decrease in WBC count and this was modulated by vitamin C. Key words: Cimetidine; WBC count; RBC count; hemoglobin and vitamin C

Implications of the CP asymmetry in semileptonic B decay

Recent experimental searches for $A_{SL}$, the CP asymmetry in semileptonic B decay, have reached an accuracy of order one percent. Consequently, they give meaningful constraints on new physics. We find that cancellations between the Standard Model (SM) and new physics contributions to $B^0 - \bar B^0$ mixing cannot be as strong as was allowed prior to these measurements. The predictions for this asymmetry within the SM and within models of minimal flavor violation (MFV) are below the reach of present and near future measurements. Including order $m_c^2/m_b^2$ and $\Lambda_{QCD}/m_b$ corrections we obtain the SM prediction: $-1.3 \times 10^{-3} < A_{SL} < -0.5 \times 10^{-3}$. Future measurements can exclude not only the SM, but MFV as well, if the sign of the asymmetry is opposite to the SM or if it is same-sign but much enhanced. We also comment on the CP asymmetry in semileptonic $B_s$ decay, and update the range of the angle $\beta_s$ in the SM: $0.026 < \sin2\beta_s < 0.048$.Comment: 16 pages, a sign typo in eq.(11) fixed, to appear in Phys. Rev.

PENGGUNAAN TEKNIK MURDER PENDEKATAN METAKOGNITIF UNTUK MENINGKATKAN PENALARAN MATEMATIS MAHASISWA PENDIDIKAN MATEMATIKA PADA MATAKULIAH GEOMETRI ANALITIK

Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah menelaah peningkatan kemampuan penalaran matematis mahasiswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran teknik MURDER pendekatan metakognitif dan mahasiswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran ekspositori pada materi garis dan lingkaran. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kuantitatif. Subjek penelitian adalah mahasiswa tingkat dua kelas A dan kelas B yang terdiri dari 35 mahasiswa. Metode pengumpulan data yang digunakan meliputi: (1) tes kemampuan penalaran matematis, (2) observasi, (4) dokumentasi. Data dianalisis menggunakan uji-t atau uji mann whitney. Hasil temuan penelitianin adalah: (1) Peningkatan kemampuan penalaran matematis mahasiswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran teknik MURDER pendekatan metakognitif lebih baik daripada peningkatan kemampuan penalaran matematis mahasiswa yang memperoleh pembelajaran ekspositori; (2) kualifikasi peningkatan penalaran matematis yang menggunakan pembelajaran teknik MURDER pendekatan metakognitif dan pembelajaran ekspositori masih dalam kategori sedang

Gluino Contribution to Radiative B Decays: Organization of QCD Corrections and Leading Order Results

The gluino-induced contributions to the decay b-> s gamma are investigated in supersymmetric frameworks with generic sources of flavour violation. It is shown that, when QCD corrections are taken into account, the relevant operator basis of the Standard Model effective Hamiltonian gets enlarged to contain: i) magnetic and chromomagnetic operators with a factor of alpha_s and weighted by a quark mass m_b or m_c; ii) magnetic and chromomagnetic operators of lower dimensionality, also containing alpha_s; iii) four-quark operators weighted by a factor alpha_s^2. Numerical results are given, showing the effects of the leading order QCD corrections on the inclusive branching ratio for b-> s gamma. Constraints on supersymmetric sources of flavour violation are derived.Comment: 36 pages including 16 postscript figures; uses epsf; journal version: one ref. added; rephrasing of a couple of paragraph

Optimization of mosquito egg production under mass rearing setting: effects of cage volume, blood meal source and adult population density for the malaria vector, Anopheles arabiensis

Background: Anopheles arabiensis is one of the major malaria vectors that put millions of people in endemic countries at risk. Mass-rearing of this mosquito is crucial for strategies that use sterile insect technique to suppress vector populations. The sterile insect technique (SIT) package for this mosquito species is being developed by the Insect Pest Control Subprogramme of the Joint FAO/IAEA Division of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture. To improve mass-rearing outcomes for An. arabiensis, the question of whether the egg production by females would be affected by the size of the adult holding cages, the source of the blood meal and the total number of pupae that could be loaded into the cages was addressed and finally the impact of adding additional pupae to the cage daily to maintain adult numbers on egg productivity assessed. Methods: Mass production cages of two different volumes, two different sources of blood meal (bovine and porcine) and two different population densities (cages originally loaded with either 15,000 or 20,000 pupae) were tested and evaluated on the basis of eggs produced/cage or per female. Males and females pupae with a ratio of 1:1 were added to the cages at day 1 and 2 of pupation. The emerging adults had constant access to 5% sugar solution and blood fed via the Hemotek membrane feeding system. Eggs were collected either twice a week or daily. A generalized linear model was used to identify factors which gave significantly higher egg production. Results: Neither cage volume nor blood meal source affected egg production per cage or per female. However, increasing population density to 20,000 pupae had a negative effect on eggs produced per cage and per female. Although high density negatively impacted egg production, adding 1000 daily additional pupae compensating for daily mortality resulted in a substantial increase in egg production. Moreover, in all tests the first and the third egg batches collected were significantly higher than others eggs batches. With the equipment and protocols described here and routinely used at the Insect Pest Control Laboratory (IPCL), it was possible to produce up to 120,000 eggs/cage/day. Conclusion: These results demonstrated that 15,000 is the optimal number of pupae to be loaded into the Anopheles Mass production cages. Under this condition, an average of 40 eggs per female was obtained for five gonotrophic cycles. However, an improvement in egg production can be achieved by daily addition, to the original 15,000 pupae

Analysis of Supersymmetric Effects on B -> phi K Decays in the PQCD Approach

We study the effects of the MSSM contribution on B -> phi K decays using the perturbative QCD approach. In this approach, strong phases can be calculated, so that we can predict the values of CP asymmetries with the MSSM contribution. We predict a large relative strong phase between the penguin amplitude and the chromomagnetic penguin amplitude. If there is a new CP violating phase in the chromomagnetic penguin amplitude, then the CP asymmetries may change significantly from the SM prediction. We parametrize the new physics contributions that appear in the Wilson coefficients. We maximize the new physics parameters up to the point where it is limited by experimental constraints. In the case of the LR insertion, we find that the direct CP asymmetries can reach about 85% and the indirect CP asymmetry can reach about -30%.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, REVTeX, Minor changes, Version to appear in Phys. Rev.

Challenges of Conservation and Sustainable Management of African Rosewood (<em>Pterocarpus</em><em>erinaceus</em>) in West Africa

Pterocarpus erinaceus is an endemic and threatened plant species in arid and semiarid zones of West Africa and is highly exploited for timber, animal feeding, and various medicinal uses. The species is currently native to the Guinean forest-savannah mosaic ecoregion and reported from Senegal to Cameroon. The values of the main characteristics of the P. erinaceus forest stands (density, average diameter, average height and average stem height) vary significantly (P < 10−3) from the Guinean zone to the Sahelian zone. It has high technological performance and can be classified as heavy and very hard wood with a density of the order of 0.80 ± 0.07 g/cm3 and an average hardness of 12 ± 3.7 g/cm3. The species is the subject of large-scale international traffic between West Africa and Asia, which is by far the greatest threat to the species. The various uses induce repeated mutilation and increase pressures on the species resulting in a significant reduction in its natural populations. In response to this situation, measures are proposed, including large-scale plant production strategies, the definition of minimum felling diameters, policy measures, etc., to meet the restoration needs of natural stands of P. erinaceus and the fight against climate change