To Flip or Not to Flip: Learning Style Preferences among Millennial Physician Assistant Students

Introduction: Presenting material in a manner that is most palatable to students is important to improve the learning process. We evaluated the efficacy of different teaching styles including the flipped classroom and assessed the learning style preferences of a cohort of medical learners in a preclinical obstetrics and gynecology course. Methods: We conducted three teaching sessions with 35 physician assistant students. A different teaching style was implemented for each session including a traditional lecture with interactive learning technology augmentation, a flipped classroom, and a hybrid approach incorporating lecture and group work. Students were surveyed using a Likert scale regarding the efficacy of the format, clinical relevance of the material, and their learning preference for future sessions. Results: Students rated the traditional approach as the most effective, most relevant, and most preferred method. Students preferred the flipped classroom least, but they rated it as slightly more effective and relevant than the hybrid approach. Conclusion: The teaching style of various coursework including the preclinical obstetrics and gynecology curriculum may not need to be altered for millennial learners. This study showed the flipped classroom was the least favored teaching style and that there was a marked preference by students for a more traditional didactic lecture

Habitat Selection of White-tailed Deer Fawns and their Dams in the Northern Great Plains

Habitat availability can affect important life-history traits such as survival; however, little information exists on how microhabitat characteristics found at parturition sites selected by dams and bed sites selected by their offspring differ fromthe surrounding area and from each other. Therefore, we assessed how vegetation affected maternal parturition and offspring bed site selection for white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the Northern Great Plains. Dams selected for sites with decreased vegetation height, potentially improving their visibility, which may increase their ability to escape approaching predators. Conversely, there was no variation between vegetative characteristics at neonate bed sites and their associated random sites, indicating grasslands provide adequate concealment for neonates. Dams possess the ability to flee from approaching predators, thus increasing the importance of visibility while giving birth. Conversely, neonates depend on fear bradycardia as their main antipredator defense, so concealment is more important. Our results suggest that vegetation structure is an important characteristic to white-tailed deer as habitat needs vary between adults and neonates

Affective cognition in bipolar disorder: A systematic review by the ISBD targeting cognition task force

Background: Impairments in affective cognition are part of the neurocognitive profile and possible treatment targets in bipolar disorder (BD), but the findings are heterogeneous. The International Society of Bipolar Disorder (ISBD) Targeting Cognition Task Force conducted a systematic review to (i) identify the most consistent findings in affective cognition in BD, and (ii) provide suggestions for affective cognitive domains for future study and meta‐analyses.Methods: The review included original studies reporting behavioral measures of affective cognition in BD patients vs controls following the procedures of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta‐Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Searches were conducted on PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsychInfo from inception until November 2018.Results: A total of 106 articles were included (of which nine included data for several affective domains); 41 studies assessed emotional face processing; 23 studies investigated reactivity to emotional words and images; 3 investigated explicit emotion regulation; 17 assessed implicit emotion regulation; 31 assessed reward processing and affective decision making. In general, findings were inconsistent. The most consistent findings were trait‐related difficulties in facial emotion recognition and implicit emotion regulation, and impairments in reward processing and affective decision making during mood episodes. Studies using eye‐tracking and facial emotion analysis revealed subtle trait‐related abnormalities in emotional reactivity.Conclusion: The ISBD Task Force recommends facial expression recognition, implicit emotion regulation, and reward processing as domains for future research and meta‐analyses. An important step to aid comparability between studies in the field would be to reach consensus on an affective cognition test battery for BD

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

Mortality and pulmonary complications in patients undergoing surgery with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection: an international cohort study

Background: The impact of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) on postoperative recovery needs to be understood to inform clinical decision making during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study reports 30-day mortality and pulmonary complication rates in patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: This international, multicentre, cohort study at 235 hospitals in 24 countries included all patients undergoing surgery who had SARS-CoV-2 infection confirmed within 7 days before or 30 days after surgery. The primary outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality and was assessed in all enrolled patients. The main secondary outcome measure was pulmonary complications, defined as pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or unexpected postoperative ventilation. Findings: This analysis includes 1128 patients who had surgery between Jan 1 and March 31, 2020, of whom 835 (74·0%) had emergency surgery and 280 (24·8%) had elective surgery. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed preoperatively in 294 (26·1%) patients. 30-day mortality was 23·8% (268 of 1128). Pulmonary complications occurred in 577 (51·2%) of 1128 patients; 30-day mortality in these patients was 38·0% (219 of 577), accounting for 81·7% (219 of 268) of all deaths. In adjusted analyses, 30-day mortality was associated with male sex (odds ratio 1·75 [95% CI 1·28–2·40], p\textless0·0001), age 70 years or older versus younger than 70 years (2·30 [1·65–3·22], p\textless0·0001), American Society of Anesthesiologists grades 3–5 versus grades 1–2 (2·35 [1·57–3·53], p\textless0·0001), malignant versus benign or obstetric diagnosis (1·55 [1·01–2·39], p=0·046), emergency versus elective surgery (1·67 [1·06–2·63], p=0·026), and major versus minor surgery (1·52 [1·01–2·31], p=0·047). Interpretation: Postoperative pulmonary complications occur in half of patients with perioperative SARS-CoV-2 infection and are associated with high mortality. Thresholds for surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic should be higher than during normal practice, particularly in men aged 70 years and older. Consideration should be given for postponing non-urgent procedures and promoting non-operative treatment to delay or avoid the need for surgery. Funding: National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland, Bowel and Cancer Research, Bowel Disease Research Foundation, Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, British Association of Surgical Oncology, British Gynaecological Cancer Society, European Society of Coloproctology, NIHR Academy, Sarcoma UK, Vascular Society for Great Britain and Ireland, and Yorkshire Cancer Research