Evolution of Preprofessional Pharmacy Curricula

Objectives. To examine changes in preprofessional pharmacy curricular requirements and trends, and determine rationales for and implications of modifications. Methods. Prerequisite curricular requirements compiled between 2006 and 2011 from all doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) programs approved by the Accreditation Council of Pharmacy Education were reviewed to ascertain trends over the past 5 years. An online survey was conducted of 20 programs that required either 3 years of prerequisite courses or a bachelor’s degree, and a random sample of 20 programs that required 2 years of prerequisites. Standardized telephone interviews were then conducted with representatives of 9 programs. Results. In 2006, 4 programs required 3 years of prerequisite courses and none required a bachelor’s degree; by 2011, these increased to 18 programs and 7 programs, respectively. Of 40 programs surveyed, responses were received from 28 (70%), 9 (32%) of which reported having increased the number of prerequisite courses since 2006. Reasons given for changes included desire to raise the level of academic achievement of students entering the PharmD program, desire to increase incoming student maturity, and desire to add clinical sciences and experiential coursework to the pharmacy curriculum. Some colleges and schools experienced a temporary decrease in applicants. Conclusions. The preprofessional curriculum continues to evolve, with many programs increasing the number of course prerequisites. The implications of increasing prerequisites were variable and included a perceived increase in maturity and quality of applicants and, for some schools, a temporary decrease in the number of applicants

Tourism discretionary spending choice behaviour

Studies of tourism demand are numerous. But studies of how consumers apportion discretionary resources to tourism and across other competing categories of discretionary expenditure are non-existent. Therefore, how individuals and households make trade-offs between, or assess the respective utilities of, the various categories of discretionary expenditure and allocate discretionary financial resources, appears to be unknown. This study seeks to address this need by examining discretionary expenditure through choice experiments. The data provide insights into how each type of discretionary expenditure is valued and how each type competes for a share of the discretionary expenditure ‘pie’. We discuss the results with an emphasis on the implications for tourism marketing

New horses for old courses - questioning the limitations of sustainable tourism to supply-driven measures and the nature-based context

It seems a general belief that (1) sustainable tourism is supply-driven, and (2) sustainable tourists are visitors engaging in nature-based travel activities. Results reported in this paper challenge these assumptions. Findings from an online survey indicate that nature-based travel is not solely related to environmentally protective attitudes. Market-driven mechanisms could therefore be used to strengthen ecological sustainable tourism. Only 39 % of respondents classified as ‘Ecologically Caring Tourists’ stated that an intense experience of nature is a motivation for their vacation travel behaviour. The findings indicate two possible directions for the strengthening of sustainable tourism measures: (1) demand-driven mechanisms could be used in addition to supply-side measures to identify and attract groups of tourists with a smaller ecological footprint; (2) the tourism market suitable to increase ecological sustainability is likely to be much larger than assumed by focusing on nature-based tourism only. These findings could be of great benefit to any tourism destination in terms of the development of new tools and the identification of new tourism contexts for managing ecological sustainability

Large-Area Liquid Scintillation Detector Slab

A low-cost detector 18' x 2' x 5" has been developed for an underground cosmic ray neutrino experiment. The liquid employed is a high-clarity mineral oil-based mixture, and light is guided to the ends of the detector by total internal reflection at the surface of the Lucite container. Signals from 2 five-inch photomultipliers at each end give energy and event location for single penetrating particles, with relatively good discrimination against natural radioactivity by virtue of the substantial thickness. Data are presented on the response function of the tank, energy resolution, rates and thresholds. A number of modifications that have been tried are also described

Higher education and unemployment in Europe : an analysis of the academic subject and national effects

This paper examines the impact of an academic degree and field of study on short and long-term unemployment across Europe (EU15). Labour Force Survey (LFS) data on over half a million individuals are utilised for that purpose. The harmonized LFS classification of level of education and field of study overcomes past problems of comparability across Europe. The study analyses (i) the effect of an academic degree at a European level, (ii) the specific effect of 14 academic subjects and (iii) country specific effects. The results indicate that an academic degree is more effective on reducing the likelihood of short-term than long-term unemployment. This general pattern even though it is observed for most of the academic subjects its levels show significant variation across disciplines and countries

NEXUS/Physics: An interdisciplinary repurposing of physics for biologists

In response to increasing calls for the reform of the undergraduate science curriculum for life science majors and pre-medical students (Bio2010, Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians, Vision & Change), an interdisciplinary team has created NEXUS/Physics: a repurposing of an introductory physics curriculum for the life sciences. The curriculum interacts strongly and supportively with introductory biology and chemistry courses taken by life sciences students, with the goal of helping students build general, multi-discipline scientific competencies. In order to do this, our two-semester NEXUS/Physics course sequence is positioned as a second year course so students will have had some exposure to basic concepts in biology and chemistry. NEXUS/Physics stresses interdisciplinary examples and the content differs markedly from traditional introductory physics to facilitate this. It extends the discussion of energy to include interatomic potentials and chemical reactions, the discussion of thermodynamics to include enthalpy and Gibbs free energy, and includes a serious discussion of random vs. coherent motion including diffusion. The development of instructional materials is coordinated with careful education research. Both the new content and the results of the research are described in a series of papers for which this paper serves as an overview and context.Comment: 12 page

Tunneling through a multigrain system: deducing the sample topology from the nonlinear conductance

We study a current transport through a system of a few grains connected with tunneling links. The exact solution is given for an arbitrarily connected double-grain system with a shared gate in the framework of the orthodox model. The obtained result is generalized for multigrain systems with strongly different tunneling resistances. We analyse the large-scale nonlinear conductance and demonstrate how the sample topology can be unambiguously deduced from the spectroscopy pattern (differential conductance versus gate-bias plot). We present experimental data for a multigrain sample and reconstruct the sample topology. A simple selection rule is formulated to distinguish samples with spectral patterns free from spurious disturbance caused by recharging of some grains nearby. As an example, we demonstrate experimental data with additional peaks in the spectroscopy pattern, which can not be attributed to coupling to additional grains. The described approach can be used to judge the sample topology when it is not guaranteed by fabrication and direct imaging is not possible.Comment: 13 pages (including 8 figures

Applications of biotechnology for crop improvement: prospects and constraints

Recombinant DNA technology has significantly augmented the conventional crop improvement, and has a great promise to assist plant breeders to meet the increased food demand predicted for the 21st century. Dramatic progress has been made over the past two decades in manipulating genes from diverse and exotic sources, and inserting them into microorganisms and crop plants to confer resistance to insect pests and diseases, tolerance to herbicides, drought, soil salinity and aluminium toxicity; improved postharvest quality; enhanced nutrient uptake and nutritional quality; increased photosynthetic rate, sugar, and starch production; increased effectiveness of biological control agents; improved understanding of gene action and metabolic pathways; and production of drugs and vaccines in crop plants. Despite the diverse and widespread beneficial applications of biotechnology products, there remains a critical need to present these benefits to the general public in a real and understandable way that stimulates an unbiased and responsible public debate. The development, testing and release of agricultural products generated through biotechnology-based processes should be continuously optimized based on the most recent experiences. This will require a dynamic and streamlined regulatory structure, clearly supportive of the benefits of biotechnology, but highly sensitive to the well being of humans and environment

Comparative Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Genotypes with Various Levels of Resistance to Bacterial Wilt Through SSR and AFLP Analyses

Bacterial wilt (BW) caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is an important constraint to peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) production in several Asian and African countries, and planting BW-resistant cultivars is the most feasible method for controlling the disease. Although several BW-resistant peanut germplasm accessions have been identified, the genetic diversity among these has not been properly investigated, which has impeded efficient utilization. In this study, the genetic relationships of 31 peanut genotypes with various levels of resistance to BW were assessed based on SSR and AFLP analyses. Twenty-nine of 78 SSR primers and 32 of 126 AFLP primer combinations employed in this study were polymorphic amongst the peanut genotypes tested. The SSR primers amplified 91 polymorphic loci in total with an average of 3.14 alleles per primer, and the AFLP primers amplified 72 polymorphic loci in total with an average of 2.25 alleles per primer. Four SSR primers (14H06, 7G02, 3A8, 16C6) and one AFLP primer (P1M62) were found to be most efficient in detecting diversity. The genetic distance between pairs of genotypes ranged from 0.12 to 0.94 with an average of 0.53 in the SSR data and from 0.06 to 0.57 with an average of 0.25 in the AFLP data. The SSR-based estimates of the genetic distance were generally larger than that based on the AFLP data. The genotypes belonging to subsp. fastigiata possessed wider diversity than that of subsp. hypogaea. The clustering of genotypes based on the SSR and AFLP data were similar but the SSR clustering was more consistent with morphological classification of A. hypogaea. Optimum diverse genotypes of both subsp. hypogaea and subsp. fastigiata can be recommended based on this analysis for developing mapping populations and breeding for high yielding and resistant cultivar

Dynamics of a mesoscopic qubit under continuous quantum measurement

We present the conditional quantum dynamics of an electron tunneling between two quantum dots subject to a measurement using a low transparency point contact or tunnel junction. The double dot system forms a single qubit and the measurement corresponds to a continuous in time readout of the occupancy of the quantum dot. We illustrate the difference between conditional and unconditional dynamics of the qubit. The conditional dynamics is discussed in two regimes depending on the rate of tunneling through the point contact: quantum jumps, in which individual electron tunneling current events can be distinguished, and a diffusive dynamics in which individual events are ignored, and the time-averaged current is considered as a continuous diffusive variable. We include the effect of inefficient measurement and the influence of the relative phase between the two tunneling amplitudes of the double dot/point contact system.Comment: 12 pages (one-column Revtex), 7 figure