Development And Validation Of Two Versions Of The Student Prior Attitude Scale (SPA)

It is not uncommon for students to have preconceptions of a class before it begins. These preconceptions may come from information about a class, often through word of mouth, or knowledge that the class requires skills inconsistent with the student’s skill set. These preconceptions of a class may have a positive or negative effect on how a student initially feels about the class, and may, in fact, have an effect on end-of-term student evaluations. Since student evaluations are often used for personnel decisions, it is vital that these evaluations be reliable and valid. This study reports on the development and validation of a scale, the Student Prior Attitude (SPA) scale, to measure the degree to which students are engaged/disengaged, interested/uninterested, or excited/unexcited to be taking a class before the class even begins. Both an 11-item and a 4-item scale are investigated for reliability and validity. Possible uses of the scales are discussed and descriptive data from the sample are reported for both scales. Implications for future research are discussed

Diagnosis and management of dementia with Lewy bodies:Fourth consensus report of the DLB Consortium

The Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB) Consortium has refined its recommendations about the clinical and pathologic diagnosis of DLB, updating the previous report, which has been in widespread use for the last decade. The revised DLB consensus criteria now distinguish clearly between clinical features and diagnostic biomarkers, and give guidance about optimal methods to establish and interpret these. Substantial new information has been incorporated about previously reported aspects of DLB, with increased diagnostic weighting given to REM sleep behavior disorder and 123iodine-metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) myocardial scintigraphy. The diagnostic role of other neuroimaging, electrophysiologic, and laboratory investigations is also described. Minor modifications to pathologic methods and criteria are recommended to take account of Alzheimer disease neuropathologic change, to add previously omitted Lewy-related pathology categories, and to include assessments for substantia nigra neuronal loss. Recommendations about clinical management are largely based upon expert opinion since randomized controlled trials in DLB are few. Substantial progress has been made since the previous report in the detection and recognition of DLB as a common and important clinical disorder. During that period it has been incorporated into DSM-5, as major neurocognitive disorder with Lewy bodies. There remains a pressing need to understand the underlying neurobiology and pathophysiology of DLB, to develop and deliver clinical trials with both symptomatic and disease-modifying agents, and to help patients and carers worldwide to inform themselves about the disease, its prognosis, best available treatments, ongoing research, and how to get adequate support

Surface Phonons: Theoretical Methods and Results

peer reviewedThe theoretical methods currently in use for the calculation of surface phononsurface phonon dispersion curves and how they have evolved from the phenomenological force-constant models to the present day first principles theories are discussed. A selection of paradigmatic examples for the different classes of crystal surfaces is presented with comparisons to the experimental data obtained from helium atom scattering or electron energy-loss spectroscopy. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG