414 research outputs found
Predicting Desired Outcomes from Applicants’ Medical School Admission Data
Medical schools in the United States serve to train the next generation of physicians, admitting students who will continue to advance each school’s mission. Admission committees are tasked with identifying those candidates who will be successful academically and who promote the objectives of the school with respect to mission. The Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University in northeast Tennessee seeks to attract and retain physicians with an interest in rural and primary care medicine. A total of 630 students were included in this study representing classes from 2001 to 2011. This study examined admissions data including MCAT scores, undergraduate GPAs, admission interview scores, and admission committee rating scores along with USMLE Step 1 scores to determine if there is any correlation of these variables with graduates selecting a primary care career or a rural practice location.
With respect to data available at admission, only MCAT scores were shown to have a significant correlation to specialty choice. None of the admission data significantly correlated with practice location. USMLE Step 1 scores had a weak negative relationship with specialty choice and a negligible relationship with practice location.
This study provides the admission committee information that these variables are insufficient by themselves to predict whether a medical student applicant will select a primary care specialty or practice in a rural location. Other data, perhaps even subjective data, would need to be analyzed to predict how well the admissions committee is addressing the college’s mission with its selection of medical students
Growth hormone modulates hippocampal excitatory synaptic transmission and plasticity in old rats
Cataloged from PDF version of article.Alterations in the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate receptor (AMPA-R) and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor
(NMDA-R) have been documented in aged animals and may contribute to changes in hippocampal-dependent memory. Growth hormone
(GH) regulates AMPA-R and NMDA-R-dependent excitatory transmission and decreases with age. Chronic GH treatment mitigates
age-related cognitive decline. An in vitro CA1 hippocampal slice preparation was used to compare hippocampal excitatory transmission and
plasticity in old animals treated for 6–8 months with either saline or GH. Our findings indicate that GH treatment restores NMDA-Rdependent
basal synaptic transmission in old rats to young adult levels and enhances both AMPA-R-dependent basal synaptic transmission
and long-term potentiation. These alterations in synaptic function occurred in the absence of changes in presynaptic function, as measured
by paired-pulse ratios, the total protein levels of AMPA-R and NMDA-R subunits or in plasma or hippocampal levels of insulin-like growth
factor-I. These data suggest a direct role for GH in altering age-related changes in excitatory transmission and provide a possible cellular
mechanism through which GH changes the course of cognitive decline.
© 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
The GBT Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS): Survey Overview and First Data Release
The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) Diffuse Ionized Gas Survey (GDIGS) traces
ionized gas in the Galactic midplane by measuring GHz radio recombination
line (RRL) emission. The nominal survey zone is ,
, but coverage extends above and below the plane in select
fields, and additionally includes the areas around W47 () and W49 (). GDIGS simultaneously observes
22 Hn (15 usable), 25 Hn (18 usable), and 8 Hn RRLs (all
usable), as well as multiple molecular line transitions (including of
HCO, HCO, and CHOH). Here, we describe the GDIGS survey
parameters and characterize the RRL data, focusing primarily on the Hn
data. We produce sensitive data cubes by averaging the usable RRLs, after first
smoothing to a common spectral resolution of 0.5km/s and a spatial resolution
of 2.65' for Hn, 2.62' for Hn, and 2.09' for Hn. The
average spectral noise per spaxel in the \hna\ data cubes is mK
(mJy/beam). This sensitivity allows GDIGS to detect RRLs from plasma
throughout the inner Galaxy. The GDIGS Hn data are sensitive to
emission measures cmpc, which corresponds to a mean
electron density cm for a 1pc path
length or cm for a 1kpc path length.Comment: Accepted for publication by ApJS. Data may be downloaded here:
http://astro.phys.wvu.edu/gdigs
Complexity of the self-schema and responses to disconfirming feedback
This study focused on complexity of the self-schema as one factor that influences people's responses to social feedback that challenges their established view of self. Complexity refers to the number of independent attributes included in the schema. A card-sorting task (Zajonc, 1960) was used to identify the high- and low-complexity groups. Subjects were given bogus feedback relevant to the targeted domain of self-knowledge, and changes in self-descriptiveness ratings and response latency times were monitored. Results suggest that high-complexity subjects were able to attend to and encode the disconfirming feedback, while low-complexity subjects responded by rejecting the feedback and reasserting positive aspects of the self. The implications of these findings for clarifying the process of self-schema updating, revision, and change are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44337/1/10608_2006_Article_BF02357222.pd
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