1,333 research outputs found
Twelve tips for teaching brief motivational interviewing to medical students
Background: Shifting from paternalistic to patient-centred doctor-patient relationships has seen a growing number of medical programs incorporate brief motivational interviewing training in their curriculum. Some medical educators, however, are unsure of precisely what, when, and how to incorporate such training. Aims: This article provides educators with 12 tips for teaching brief motivational interviewing to medical students, premised on evidence-based pedagogy. Methods: Tips were drawn from the literature and authors’ own experiences. Results: The 12 tips are: (1) Set clear learning objectives, (2) Select experienced educators, (3) Provide theoretical perspectives, (4) Share the evidence base, (5) Outline the “spirit”, principles, and sequence, (6) Show students what it looks like, (7) Give students a scaffold to follow, (8) Provide opportunities for skill practice, (9) Involve clinical students in teaching, (10) Use varied formative and summative assessments, (11) Integrate and maintain, and (12) Reflect and evaluate. Conclusions: We describe what to include and why, and outline when and how to teach the essential components of brief motivational interviewing knowledge and skills in a medical curriculum
Ion-beam modification of fullerene
The response of thin films of fullerene (C60) to energetic ion impact is investigated. The diagnostics employed include Fourier-transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies, cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy, and atomic force microscopy. By combining the information obtained from these diagnostics with that from the dependence of the conductivity on ion dose, it is concluded that each C60 molecule completely disintegrates when hit by an energetic ion. The cross section for the destruction is about 6Ă—10-13 cm2 for irradiation with 620-keV Xe ions. The disintegration occurs when C atoms are knocked out of the molecule either directly by the impinging ion or by an energetic knock-on C atom within the damage cascade. This process is quite different from the Coulomb-explosion mechanism previously proposed in the literature. For very low ion doses
Low-temperature tapered-fiber probing of diamond NV ensembles coupled to GaP microcavities
In this work we present a platform for testing the device performance of a
cavity-emitter system, using an ensemble of emitters and a tapered optical
fiber. This method provides high-contrast spectra of the cavity modes,
selective detection of emitters coupled to the cavity, and an estimate of the
device performance in the single- emitter case. Using nitrogen-vacancy (NV)
centers in diamond and a GaP optical microcavity, we are able to tune the
cavity onto the NV resonance at 10 K, couple the cavity-coupled emission to a
tapered fiber, and measure the fiber-coupled NV spontaneous emission decay.
Theoretically we show that the fiber-coupled average Purcell factor is 2-3
times greater than that of free-space collection; although due to ensemble
averaging it is still a factor of 3 less than the Purcell factor of a single,
ideally placed center.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure
The hippocampi of children with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome have localized anterior alterations that predict severity of anxiety
BACKGROUND: Individuals with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) have an elevated risk for schizophrenia, which increases with history of childhood anxiety. Altered hippocampal morphology is a common neuroanatomical feature of 22q11.2DS and idiopathic schizophrenia. Relating hippocampal structure in children with 22q11.2DS to anxiety and impaired cognitive ability could lead to hippocampus-based characterization of psychosis-proneness in this at-risk population. METHODS: We measured hippocampal volume using a semiautomated approach on MRIs collected from typically developing children and children with 22q11.2DS. We then analyzed hippocampal morphology with Localized Components Analysis. We tested the modulating roles of diagnostic group, hippocampal volume, sex and age on local hippocampal shape components. Lastly, volume and shape components were tested as covariates of IQ and anxiety. RESULTS: We included 48 typically developing children and 69 children with 22q11.2DS in our study. Hippocampal volume was reduced bilaterally in children with 22q11.2DS, and these children showed greater variation in the shape of the anterior hippocampus than typically developing children. Children with 22q11.2DS had greater inward deformation of the anterior hippocampus than typically developing children. Greater inward deformation of the anterior hippocampus was associated with greater severity of anxiety, specifically fear of physical injury, within the 22q11.2DS group. LIMITATIONS: Shape alterations are not specific to hippocampal subfields. CONCLUSION: Alterations in the structure of the anterior hippocampus likely affect function and may impact limbic circuitry. We suggest these alterations potentially contribute to anxiety symptoms in individuals with 22q11.2DS through modulatory pathways. Altered hippocampal morphology may be uniquely linked to anxiety risk factors for schizophrenia, which could be a powerful neuroanatomical marker of schizophrenia risk and hence protection
Dephasing and Measurement Efficiency via a Quantum Dot Detector
We study charge detection and controlled dephasing of a mesoscopic system via
a quantum dot detector (QDD), where the mesoscopic system and the QDD are
capacitively coupled. The QDD is considered to have coherent resonant
tunnelling via a single level. It is found that the dephasing rate is
proportional to the square of the conductance of the QDD for the Breit-Wigner
model, showing that the dephasing is completely different from the shot noise
of the detector. The measurement rate, on the other hand, shows a dip near the
resonance. Our findings are peculiar especially for a symmetric detector in the
following aspect: The dephasing rate is maximum at resonance of the QDD where
the detector conductance is insensitive to the charge state of the mesoscopic
system. As a result, the efficiency of the detector shows a dip and vanishes at
resonance, in contrast to the single-channel symmetric non-resonant detector
that has always a maximum efficiency. We find that this difference originates
from a very general property of the scattering matrix: The abrupt phase change
exists in the scattering amplitudes in the presence of the symmetry, which is
insensitive to the detector current but {\em stores} the information of the
quantum state of the mesoscopic system.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
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Effects of classification context on categorization in natural categories
The patterns of classification of borderline instances of eight common taxonomic categories were examined under three different instructional conditions to test two predictions: first, that lack of a specified context contributes to vagueness in categorization, and second, that altering the purpose of classification can lead to greater or lesser dependence on similarity in classification. The instructional conditions contrasted purely pragmatic with more technical/quasi-legal contexts as purposes for classification, and these were compared with a no-context control. The measures of category vagueness were between-subjects disagreement and within-subjects consistency, and the measures of similarity based categorization were category breadth and the correlation of instance categorization probability with mean rated typicality, independently measured in a neutral context. Contrary to predictions, none of the measures of vagueness, reliability, category breadth, or correlation with typicality were generally affected by the instructional setting as a function of pragmatic versus technical purposes. Only one subcondition, in which a situational context was implied in addition to a purposive context, produced a significant change in categorization. Further experiments demonstrated that the effect of context was not increased when participants talked their way through the task, and that a technical context did not elicit more all-or-none categorization than did a pragmatic context. These findings place an important boundary condition on the effects of instructional context on conceptual categorization
Semi-supervised learning is observed in a speeded but not an unspeeded 2D categorization task
Abstract Recent empirical studies of semi-supervised category learning-where learners only occasionally receive information about a given item's category membership-have yielded contradictory results, with some studies showing strong effects of unlabeled experience and others little or no effect. We report two experiments designed to help understand this heterogeneity. In both, participants performed a two-category classification task with novel stimuli varying along two psychologically separable dimensions. In semi-supervised conditions, participants categorized and received feedback on 32 "labeled" items intermixed with a large number of "unlabeled" items. In the supervised-only condition, participants viewed the same labeled trials intermixed with a large number of filler trials. Without time pressure participants learned the task equally well in both conditions. When required to respond very rapidly, however, participants performed substantially better in the semi-supervised condition. The discrepant results may indicate a role for selective attention in human semi-supervised learning
Crossover from mesoscopic to universal phase for electron transmission in quantum dots
Measuring phase in coherent electron systems (mesoscopic systems) provides
ample information not easily revealed by conductance measurements. Phase
measurements in relatively large quantum dots (QDs) recently demonstrated a
universal like phase evolution independent of dot size, shape, and occupancy.
Explicitly, in Coulomb blockaded QDs the transmission phase increased
monotonically by pi throughout each conductance peak, thereafter, in the
conductance valleys the phase returned sharply to its base value. Expected
mesoscopic features in the phase, related to spin degeneracy or to exchange
effects, were never observed. Presently, there is no satisfactory full
explanation for the observed phase universality. Unfortunately, the phase in a
few-electron QDs, where it can be better understood was never measured. Here we
report on such measurements on a small QD that occupy only 1-20 electrons. Such
dot was embedded in one arm of a two path electron interferometer, with an
electron counter near the dot. Unlike the repetitive behavior found in larger
dots we found now mesoscopic features for dot occupation of less than some 10
electrons. An unexpected feature in this regime is a clear observation of the
occupation of two different orbital states by the first two electrons -
contrary to the recent publications. As the occupation increased the phase
evolved and turned universal like for some 14 electrons and higher. The present
measurements allowed us to determine level occupancy and parity. More
importantly, they suggest that QDs go through a phase transition, from
mesoscopic to universal like behavior, as the occupancy increases. These
measurements help in singling out potential few theoretical models among the
many proposed.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
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