Assessing the Learning Environment at the University of Michigan Medical School Through a National Collaboration

The Learning Environment Study involves 28 medical schools belonging to the Innovative Strategies for Transforming the Education of Physicians (ISTEP): an initiative founded by the American Medical Association in 2006. ISTEP is a unique medical education research collaborative that brings together individuals and institutions across the continuum of student/physician learning with a mission to foster evidence-based changes in physician education that will improve patient care. In early 2010, ISTEP developed a protocol to examine the undergraduate medical education environment: a prospective, repeated measures, longitudinal research design, employing a diverse set of established measures. The class of 2014 became the first cohort enrolled in this study, with 11 schools participating. A second cohort from the class of 2015 became the second cohort with 25 schools participating. The results reported here summarize the University of Michigan Medical School data for student empathy, patient-provider orientation, ways of coping, tolerance for ambiguity, and their perceptions of the learning environment at UMMS.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91290/1/poster1.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91290/3/MEDI01poster.pd

Computer‐assisted Curie scoring for metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) scans in patients with neuroblastoma

BackgroundRadiolabeled metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is sensitive and specific for detecting neuroblastoma. The extent of MIBG‐avid disease is assessed using Curie scores. Although Curie scoring is prognostic in patients with high‐risk neuroblastoma, there is no standardized method to assess the response of specific sites of disease over time. The goal of this study was to develop approaches for Curie scoring to facilitate the calculation of scores and comparison of specific sites on serial scans.ProcedureWe designed three semiautomated methods for determining Curie scores, each with increasing degrees of computer assistance. Method A was based on visual assessment and tallying of MIBG‐avid lesions. For method B, scores were tabulated from a schematic that associated anatomic regions to MIBG‐positive lesions. For method C, an anatomic mesh was used to mark MIBG‐positive lesions with automatic assignment and tallying of scores. Five imaging physicians experienced in MIBG interpretation scored 38 scans using each method, and the feasibility and utility of the methods were assessed using surveys.ResultsThere was good reliability between methods and observers. The user‐interface methods required 57 to 110 seconds longer than the visual method. Imaging physicians indicated that it was useful that methods B and C enabled tracking of lesions. Imaging physicians preferred method B to method C because of its efficiency.ConclusionsWe demonstrate the feasibility of semiautomated approaches for Curie score calculation. Although more time was needed for strategies B and C, the ability to track and document individual MIBG‐positive lesions over time is a strength of these methods.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146464/1/pbc27417.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146464/2/pbc27417_am.pd

National mitigation potential from natural climate solutions in the tropics.

Better land stewardship is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement's temperature goal, particularly in the tropics, where greenhouse gas emissions from the destruction of ecosystems are largest, and where the potential for additional land carbon storage is greatest. As countries enhance their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, confusion persists about the potential contribution of better land stewardship to meeting the Agreement's goal to hold global warming below 2°C. We assess cost-effective tropical country-level potential of natural climate solutions (NCS)-protection, improved management and restoration of ecosystems-to deliver climate mitigation linked with sustainable development goals (SDGs). We identify groups of countries with distinctive NCS portfolios, and we explore factors (governance, financial capacity) influencing the feasibility of unlocking national NCS potential. Cost-effective tropical NCS offers globally significant climate mitigation in the coming decades (6.56 Pg CO2e yr-1 at less than 100 US$ per Mg CO2e). In half of the tropical countries, cost-effective NCS could mitigate over half of national emissions. In more than a quarter of tropical countries, cost-effective NCS potential is greater than national emissions. We identify countries where, with international financing and political will, NCS can cost-effectively deliver the majority of enhanced NDCs while transforming national economies and contributing to SDGs. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change and ecosystems: threats, opportunities and solutions'

Sacred turf: the Wimbledon tennis championships and the changing politics of Englishness

© 2015 Taylor & Francis. This article is about ‘Wimbledon’, widely celebrated – not least in its own publicity material – as the world’s premier tennis tournament. It examines ‘Wimbledon’ essentially as a text (hence the inverted commas), viewed politically and historically. In this context, ‘Wimbledon’ is seen as a signifier of a certain kind of Englishness, carefully adapted to meet changing social and economic circumstance. Loose parallels are drawn between the cultural trajectory of ‘Wimbledon’ and that of the British royal family. The transmutations of ‘Wimbledon’ as a tennis championship are also seen as reflecting Britain’s decline as a world power during the twentieth century

Comprehension skills : Comprehension B1 :

186p. : ill. ; 28 c

Potential for low-cost carbon dioxide removal through tropical reforestation

Achieving the 1.5–2.0 °C temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement requires not only reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) but also increasing removals of GHGs from the atmosphere. Reforestation is a potentially large-scale method for removing CO and storing it in the biomass and soils of ecosystems, yet its cost per tonne remains uncertain. Here, we produce spatially disaggregated marginal abatement cost curves for tropical reforestation by simulating the effects of payments for increased CO removals on land-cover change in 90 countries. We estimate that removals from tropical reforestation between 2020–2050 could be increased by 5.7 GtCO (5.6%) at a carbon price of US $20 CO, or by 15.1 GtCO (14.8$50 tCO. Ten countries comprise 55% of potential low-cost abatement from tropical reforestation. Avoided deforestation offers 7.2–9.6 times as much potential low-cost abatement as reforestation overall (55.1 GtCO at US$20 tCO or 108.3 GtCO at US$50 tCO), but reforestation offers more potential low-cost abatement than avoided deforestation at US$20 tCO in 21 countries, 17 of which are in Africa

Working Paper 5 Working Paper 5 Working Paper 5 Working Paper 5 Working Paper 59 9 9 9 9

The Lucille Mountain silvicultural systems project is a multi-disciplinary research trial that explores the effects of various harvest treatments on a stand in the moist mild Engelmann Spruce--Subalpine Fir subzone (ESSFmm). The trial, established in , includes clearcut, patch cut, irregular shelterwood, group retention, and single-tree selection systems. Its initial focus was to evaluate the effectiveness of various silvicultural systems for achieving regeneration, but other research topics have been added. We present 8-year results of studies of the establishment and growth of planted seedlings, including investigations of the roles of light, soil temperature, and nitrogen availability. Studies of seed supply and the effects of seedbed condition on germination and survival have implications for the potential of natural regeneration to reforest the site. Growth and mortality in the residual stand after partial cutting at the individual-tree level and the stand level are reported. Taken together, these studies begin to elucidate complex relationships among the various components of the stand: the retained canopy trees, the vegetation community, and the natural, artificial, and advance regeneration. Detailed climate studies provide additional baseline data for the ESSF, allow comparisons between conditions in the partial cuts and the clearcut, and provide background for interpretation of other studies. Since , wind has also been monitored, along with wind damage in the partial cuts and adjacent to the clearcut. Other investigations reported here include the effects of partial cutting on the abundance and growth rates of arboreal lichens used by mountain caribou, and decomposition rates of forest floor litter. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We gratefully acknowledge the cont..