Oxford graduates' perceptions of a global health master's degree: a case study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Low and middle-income countries suffer an ongoing deficit of trained public health workers, yet optimizing postgraduate education to best address these training needs remains a challenge. Much international public health education literature has focused on global capacity building and/or the description of innovative programmes, but less on quality and appropriateness.</p> <p>Case description</p> <p>The MSc in Global Health Science at the University of Oxford is a relatively new, full-time one year master's degree in international public health. The programme is intended for individuals with significant evidence of commitment to health in low and middle income countries. The intake is small, with only about 25 students each year, but they are from diverse professional and geographical backgrounds. Given the diversity of their backgrounds, we wanted to determine the extent to which student background influenced their perceptions of the quality of their learning experience and their learning outcomes. We conducted virtual or face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews with students who had graduated from the course at least one year previously. Of the 2005 to 2007 intake years, 52 of 63 graduates (83%) were interviewed. We used thematic analysis to analyze the data, then linked results to student characteristics.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The findings from the evaluation suggested that all MSc GHS graduates who spoke with us, irrespective of background, appreciated the curriculum structure drawing on the strengths of a small, diverse student group, and the contribution the programme had made to their breadth of understanding and their careers. This evaluation also demonstrated the feasibility of an educational evaluation conducted several years after programme completion and when graduates were 'in the field'. This is important in ensuring international public health programmes are relevant to the day-to-day work of public health practitioners and researchers in low and middle-income countries.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Feedback from students, when they had either resumed their positions 'in the field' or pursued further training, was useful in identifying valuable and positive aspects of the programme and also in identifying areas for further action and development by the programme's management and by individual teaching staff.</p

The Psychological and Physical Effects of Power Posing on Running Performance

Extant literature suggests that body positioning prior to a high stakes event can influence performance (Cuddy et. al, 2012). Participants who performed a high-power pose (an open and expansive position of dominance) before a mock job interview were rated significantly higher on perceived confidence by the interviewer when compared to the participants performing a low power pose (a closed and constricted body position). Participants who engaged in the higher power pose reported higher feelings of preparedness and self-confidence. As a result, these individuals tended to have stronger presentation and speech quality. High power posing has also been found to decrease state anxiety through a decrease in cortisol (stress hormone, Carney et. al, 2010). While high power poses have been suggested to increase self-confidence and decrease state anxiety during a high-stakes event, they have not yet been studied in relation to sport performance. The purpose of our study was two-fold: 1) to examine how different body poses (high, low, neutral) will affect self-reported levels of confidence and anxiety, and 2) to assess the relationship between the psychological variables (confidence and anxiety) to sport performance measured through a 400-meter time trial. Male and female collegiate soccer players each completed three 400-meter time trials following a power pose regimen of either high, low, or no power posing. Participants were then asked to complete an established questionnaire in the Competitive State Anxiety Inventory which measures self-confidence and state anxiety. Directly after completing the questionnaire, participants were asked to complete a 400-meter time trial from a standing start. We hypothesized that participants who engaged in high power pose positions prior to the time trial would run faster 400-meter time trials compared to low and no power posing conditions. In addition, we hypothesized that higher reported scores of confidence and lower reported scores of anxiety would be associated with faster 400 meter times. Our work is important as it may provide a strong evidence for potential benefits of the mind-body connection specific to sport. This study is ongoing and results are pending

Cell density monitoring and control of microencapsulated CHO cell cultures

Though mammalian cells play a key role in the manufacturing of recombinant glycosylated proteins, cell cultures and productivity are limited by the lack of suitable systems to enable stable perfusion culture. Microencapsulation, or entrapping cells within a semi-permeable membrane, offers the potential to generate high cell density cultures and improve the productivity by mimicking the cells natural environment. However, the cells being secluded by the microcapsules membrane are difficult to access for monitoring purposes. In this study, CHO-DP12 cells were cultured within calcium-alginate-poly-Llysine-alginate microcapsules in two bench scale- bioreactors, including a highly sensitive bench-scale calorimeter. The different cultures were monitored by continuous real-time dielectric spectroscopy and/or heat-flow measurements. These measurements were acquired, saved and plotted as time charts for rapid culture evaluation within a LabVIEW Virtual Instrument specifically designed for this study. Findings of this study show that capacitance measurements gave real time information on the viable cell density evolution in batch, fed batch and high density perfusion cultures; and the heat flux measurements allowed to follow the cell evolution in high density perfusion cultures. More significantly, dielectric spectroscopy gave precise information throughout each stage of the culture, from inoculation to the maximum cell density reached and through the early stages of the decline phase. Based on these results, a control strategy was implemented within the tailored LabVIEW program to control the feed rate of fed-batch cultures. The feed rate was calculated directly in the Virtual Instrument in accordance with the viable cell density and growth rate measured by dielectric spectroscopy. The capability of monitoring the evolution of microencapsulated cultures brings microencapsulation technology a step towards a potential industrial application