Evaluation of the usefulness of a computer‐based learning program to support student learning in pharmacology

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer‐based teaching program in supporting and enhancing traditional teaching methods. The program covers the pharmacology of inflammation and has been evaluated with a group of second‐year medical students at a UK university. The study assessed subject‐specific knowledge using a pre‐ and post‐test and surveyed, by questionnaire, students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the program to support learning before and after use. The use of computers for learning amongst this cohort of students was widespread. The results demonstrated an increase in students ‘ knowledge of the pharmacology of inflammation, coupled with a positive attitude towards the CBL program they had used and the advantages that this mode of study may provide in enabling students to manage their own learning. However, students did not feel that the program could substitute for traditional teaching (lectures)

Gauge Theory for Spectral Triples and the Unbounded Kasparov Product

We explore factorizations of noncommutative Riemannian spin geometries over commutative base manifolds in unbounded KK-theory. After setting up the general formalism of unbounded KK-theory and improving upon the construction of internal products, we arrive at a natural bundle-theoretic formulation of gauge theories arising from spectral triples. We find that the unitary group of a given noncommutative spectral triple arises as the group of endomorphisms of a certain Hilbert bundle; the inner fluctuations split in terms of connections on, and endomorphisms of, this Hilbert bundle. Moreover, we introduce an extended gauge group of unitary endomorphisms and a corresponding notion of gauge fields. We work out several examples in full detail, to wit Yang--Mills theory, the noncommutative torus and the $\theta$-deformed Hopf fibration over the two-sphere.Comment: 50 pages. Accepted version. Section 2 has been rewritten. Results in sections 3-6 are unchange

Research Notes : Canada : On the response of the Rpsl-b allele to race 17 of Phytophthora megasperma f. sp. Glycinea

The first report of the interaction between race 17 of Phytophthora megasperma f. sp. glycinea (Pmg) and the Rpsl-b allele was made by Keeling (1982) in his initial report on this race. Keeling (1982) reported that \u27Sanga\u27 (Rpsl-b) gave a resistant response to race 17, but that PI 171442 (Rps3) and \u27Tracy\u27, which possesses the Rpsl-b and Rps3 alleles (Athow et al., 1979), gave a susceptible response. The relative responses of Tracy and Sanga were unexpected, since, in all cases studied to date, an Rps allele for resistance is epistatic to Rps alleles for susceptibility at any loci (e.g., Athow et al., 1980; Layton et al., 1984; Ploper et al., 1985; Athow et al., 1986)