The evaluation of student-centredness of teaching and learning: a new mixed-methods approach.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to develop and consider the usefulness of a new mixed-methods approach to evaluate the student-centredness of teaching and learning on undergraduate medical courses. An essential paradigm for the evaluation was the coherence between how teachers conceptualise their practice (espoused theories) and their actual practice (theories-in-use). METHODS: The context was a module within an integrated basic sciences course in an undergraduate medical degree programme. The programme had an explicit intention of providing a student-centred curriculum. A content analysis framework based on Weimer's dimensions of student-centred teaching was used to analyze data collected from individual interviews with seven teachers to identify espoused theories and 34h of classroom observations and one student focus group to identify theories-in-use. The interviewees were identified by purposeful sampling. The findings from the three methods were triangulated to evaluate the student-centredness of teaching and learning on the course. RESULTS: Different, but complementary, perspectives of the student-centredness of teaching and learning were identified by each method. The triangulation of the findings revealed coherence between the teachers' espoused theories and theories-in-use. CONCLUSIONS: A mixed-methods approach that combined classroom observations with interviews from a purposeful sample of teachers and students offered a useful evaluation of the extent of student-centredness of teaching and learning of this basic science course. Our case study suggests that this new approach is applicable to other courses in medical education

New results on q-positivity

In this paper we discuss symmetrically self-dual spaces, which are simply real vector spaces with a symmetric bilinear form. Certain subsets of the space will be called q-positive, where q is the quadratic form induced by the original bilinear form. The notion of q-positivity generalizes the classical notion of the monotonicity of a subset of a product of a Banach space and its dual. Maximal q-positivity then generalizes maximal monotonicity. We discuss concepts generalizing the representations of monotone sets by convex functions, as well as the number of maximally q-positive extensions of a q-positive set. We also discuss symmetrically self-dual Banach spaces, in which we add a Banach space structure, giving new characterizations of maximal q-positivity. The paper finishes with two new examples.Comment: 18 page

Assessment of the proportionality of skin folds between professional footballers and alternate, Peruvian

El objetivo del estudio fue proporcionar información descriptiva sobre las diferencias de proporcionalidad de la masa corporal y pliegues cutáneos entre jugadores titulares y reservas en función de la posición de juego. Fueron seleccionados de forma no probabilística 4 clubes profesionales de Primera División del Fútbol Profesional Peruano, considerándose 44 titulares y 28 reservas. Se evaluó la masa corporal, estatura, seis pliegues cutáneos, determinándose la proporcionalidad corporal por medio de la estrategia del Phantom. Los resultados muestran que la proporcionalidad de la masa corporal y los pliegues cutáneos es similar, tanto de forma general y por ubicación de juego, no existiendo diferencias significativas entre las posiciones de juego y entre titulares y suplentes. En conclusión, todos los jugadores, independientemente de la posición de juego y la titularidad y/o suplencia muestran similares valores de proporcionalidad corporal y de pliegues cutáneos, mostrando en general altos valores de masa corporal y bajos niveles de tejido adiposo.The aim of the study was to provide descriptive information about the differences in proportionality of body mass and skinfold thickness between starters and reserves as playing position. They were selected in a non-probabilistic 04 professional clubs in the First Division of Professional Football Peruvian, considering 44 starters and 28 reserves. We assessed body mass, height, six skinfolds, body proportionality determined by the strategy of the Phantom. The results show that the proportionality of body mass and skinfold is similar, both generally and by playing position, with no significant differences between playing positions and titular or alternate players. In conclusion, all players regardless of playing position and title and/or substitution proportionality show similar values and skinfold body, showing generally high body mass values and low levels of fat.Peer Reviewe

On the recurrence and robust properties of Lorenz'63 model

Lie-Poisson structure of the Lorenz'63 system gives a physical insight on its dynamical and statistical behavior considering the evolution of the associated Casimir functions. We study the invariant density and other recurrence features of a Markov expanding Lorenz-like map of the interval arising in the analysis of the predictability of the extreme values reached by particular physical observables evolving in time under the Lorenz'63 dynamics with the classical set of parameters. Moreover, we prove the statistical stability of such an invariant measure. This will allow us to further characterize the SRB measure of the system.Comment: 44 pages, 7 figures, revised version accepted for pubblicatio

Efeitos Da Clonidina E Da Rilmenidina Sobre Os Sistemas Cardiorrespiratório E Gastrointestinal De Equinos

Clonidine and rilmenidine are drugs used in human medicine as central acting antihypertensive agents due to their actions on the alpha2-adrenoceptor and I1 imidazoline receptors in the central nervous system. Currently, clonidine is also used as a pre-anesthetic medication and in spinal anesthesia, and rilmenidine, despite the lower selectivity for alpha2-adrenergic receptors than clonidine, has also shown antinociceptive potential in experimental pain models. In this study, six horses were submitted to four treatments: R1 group (0.014 mg/kg of rilmenidine); R2 group (0.021 mg/kg of rilmenidine); Clo group (0.002 mg/kg of clonidine), and a control group. The assessment comprehended their heart and respiratory rates, systolic blood pressure and intestinal motility at basal levels and, then, 60 and 120 minutes after the oral administration of the drugs. Rilmenidine decreased heart rate on the two tested doses, which did not occur in the Clonidine treatment; slight variations in systolic blood pressure in all treatments and respiratory rate reduction in treatments with rilmenidine at 0.021 mg/ kg and clonidine at 0.002 mg/kg were also observed. Further studies with different dosages and varied administration routes are still necessary in order to elucidate more effects of these drugs on horses. © 2016, Cienc. anim. bras., Goiânia. All rights reserved.17460861

Overexpression of adenosine A2A receptors in rats: effects on depression, locomotion, and anxiety

Adenosine A2A receptors (A2AR) are a sub-type of receptors enriched in basal ganglia, activated by the neuromodulator adenosine, which interact with dopamine D2 receptors. Although this reciprocal antagonistic interaction is well-established in motor function, the outcome in dopamine-related behaviors remains uncertain, in particular in depression and anxiety. We have demonstrated an upsurge of A2AR associated to aging and chronic stress. Furthermore, Alzheimer's disease patients present A2AR accumulation in cortical areas together with depressive signs. We now tested the impact of overexpressing A2AR in forebrain neurons on dopamine-related behavior, namely depression. Adult male rats overexpressing human A2AR under the control of CaMKII promoter [Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR)] and aged-matched wild-types (WT) of the same strain (Sprague-Dawley) were studied. The forced swimming test (FST), sucrose preference test (SPT), and the open-field test (OFT) were performed to evaluate behavioral despair, anhedonia, locomotion, and anxiety. Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR) animals spent more time floating and less time swimming in the FST and presented a decreased sucrose preference at 48 h in the SPT. They also covered higher distances in the OFT and spent more time in the central zone than the WT. The results indicate that Tg(CaMKII-hA2AR) rats exhibit depressive-like behavior, hyperlocomotion, and altered exploratory behavior. This A2AR overexpression may explain the depressive signs found in aging, chronic stress, and Alzheimer's disease

No evidence of break-up effects on the fusion of 9Be with medium-light nuclei

AbstractFusion cross sections were measured for the 9Be+27Al and 19F+9Be, 12C systems, at energies above the Coulomb barrier, in order to investigate the possible effect of fusion hindrance due to the break-up of the weakly bound nuclei. Comparisons with one-dimensional barrier penetration models and with other similar systems, where no break-up is expected to occur, show no evidence of fusion hindrance

Translating Message Sequence Charts to other Process Languages Using Process Mining

Message Sequence Charts (MSCs) are often used by software analysts when discussing the behavior of a system with different stakeholders. Often such discussions lead to more complete behavioral models in the form of, e.g., Event-driven Process Chains (EPCs), Unified Modeling Language (UML), activity diagrams, Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) models, Petri nets, etc. Process mining on the other hand, deals with the problem of constructing complete behavioral models by analyzing event logs of information systems. In contrast to existing process mining techniques, where logs are assumed to only contain implicit information, the approach presented in this paper combines the explicit knowledge captured in individual MSCs and the techniques and tools available in the process mining domain. This combination allows us to discover high-quality process models. To constructively add to the existing work on process mining, our approach has been implemented in the process mining framework ProM (www.processmining.org)