Conditional reliability of admissions interview ratings: extreme ratings are the most informative

Admissions interviews are unreliable and have poor predictive validity, yet are the sole measures of non-cognitive skills used by most medical school admissions departments. The low reliability may be due in part to variation in conditional reliability across the rating scale. Objectives  To describe an empirically derived estimate of conditional reliability and use it to improve the predictive validity of interview ratings. Methods  A set of medical school interview ratings was compared to a Monte Carlo simulated set to estimate conditional reliability controlling for range restriction, response scale bias and other artefacts. This estimate was used as a weighting function to improve the predictive validity of a second set of interview ratings for predicting non-cognitive measures (USMLE Step II residuals from Step I scores). Results  Compared with the simulated set, both observed sets showed more reliability at low and high rating levels than at moderate levels. Raw interview scores did not predict USMLE Step II scores after controlling for Step I performance (additional r 2  = 0.001, not significant). Weighting interview ratings by estimated conditional reliability improved predictive validity (additional r 2  = 0.121, P  < 0.01). Conclusions  Conditional reliability is important for understanding the psychometric properties of subjective rating scales. Weighting these measures during the admissions process would improve admissions decisions.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71581/1/j.1365-2929.2006.02634.x.pd

Photonic mode density effects on single-molecule fluorescence blinking

We investigated the influence of the photonic mode density (PMD) on the triplet dynamics of individual chromophores on a dielectric interface by comparing their response in the presence and absence of a nearby gold film. Lifetimes of the excited singlet state were evaluated in ordet to measure directly the PMD at the molecules position. Triplet state lifetimes were simultaneously determined by statistical analysis of the detection time of the fluorescence photons. The observed singlet decay rates are in agreement with the predicted PMD for molecules with different orientations. The triplet decay rate is modified in a fashion correlated to the singlet decay rate. These results show that PMD engineering can lead to an important suppression of the fluorescence, introducing a novel aspect of the physical mechanism to enhance fluorescence intensity in PMD-enhancing systems such as plasmonic devices

Supported polysilsesquioxane membrane and production thereof

Membranes of the invention comprise a hybrid silica film on a organic polymer support. The silica comprises organic bridging groups bound to two or more silicon atoms, in particular at least 1 of said organic bridging groups per 10 silicon atoms. The membranes can be produced by dry chemistry processes, in particular plasma-enhanced vapour deposition of bridged silane precursors, or by wet chemistry involving hydrolysis of the bridged silane precursors. The membranes are inexpensive and efficient for separation of small molecules and filtration processes

New web-based applications for mechanistic case diagramming

The goal of mechanistic case diagraming (MCD) is to provide students with more in-depth understanding of cause and effect relationships and basic mechanistic pathways in medicine. This will enable them to better explain how observed clinical findings develop from preceding pathogenic and pathophysiological events. The pedagogic function of MCD is in relating risk factors, disease entities and morphology, signs and symptoms, and test and procedure findings in a specific case scenario with etiologic pathogenic and pathophysiological sequences within a flow diagram. In this paper, we describe the addition of automation and predetermined lists to further develop the original concept of MCD as described by Engelberg in 1992 and Guerrero in 2001. We demonstrate that with these modifications, MCD is effective and efficient in small group case-based teaching for second-year medical students (ratings of ~3.4 on a 4.0 scale). There was also a significant correlation with other measures of competency, with a ‘true’ score correlation of 0.54. A traditional calculation of reliability showed promising results (α =0.47) within a low stakes, ungraded environment. Further, we have demonstrated MCD's potential for use in independent learning and TBL. Future studies are needed to evaluate MCD's potential for use in medium stakes assessment or self-paced independent learning and assessment. MCD may be especially relevant in returning students to the application of basic medical science mechanisms in the clinical years

Report of the AD HOC Study Group on integrated versus dispersed fuel cycle facilities

To provide isolation of strategic materials and confinement of nuclear wastes, the basic facilities considered in assessing the DFCF and IFCF were mixed plutonium and uranium oxide and HTGR fuel fabrication, fuel reprocessing, high- enrichment isotopic separation and interim waste storage. Reactors, low- enrichment isotopic separation, and low-enrichment uranium facilities were excluded. It is expected that the IFCF would attract uranium fuel fabrication and possibly reactors. An assumption was made for the study that the choice of either IFCF or DFCF would not alter the nuclear power generation pattern postulated to exist up to the year 2000. The advantages of IFCF are seen to outweigh disadvantages. (auth

Temporal decorrelation of collective oscillations in neural networks with local inhibition and long-range excitation

We consider two neuronal networks coupled by long-range excitatory interactions. Oscillations in the gamma frequency band are generated within each network by local inhibition. When long-range excitation is weak, these oscillations phase-lock with a phase-shift dependent on the strength of local inhibition. Increasing the strength of long-range excitation induces a transition to chaos via period-doubling or quasi-periodic scenarios. In the chaotic regime oscillatory activity undergoes fast temporal decorrelation. The generality of these dynamical properties is assessed in firing-rate models as well as in large networks of conductance-based neurons.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

VISIR federation: Initial building steps (PILAR experience – work in progress)

Collaborative working as well as sharing resources and knowledge represent key points in today's development in all fields, including education. Know-how transfer and collaboration in learning and teaching are aspects promoted and sustained by institutional management as well as the European initiatives. Thus, leading to the idea of a federation which will facilitate engineering education. A consortium formed by five European universities decided to join efforts to provide to the community a federation, which could be used by different stakeholders interest in teaching, learning or developing new skills in the field of electronics. The proposed remote system, Virtual Instruments System in Reality, or VISIR in short, offers the possibility of working with real equipment and obtain the real-world/ real-time measurements. By developing such a VISIR federation some of the constraints of using remote labs, the ones associated with development and maintenance costs, and scalability, will be minimized.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DNA markers to disentangle complexes of cryptic taxa in mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae).

Mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) are major pests of a wide range of crops and ornamental plants worldwide. Their high degree of morphological similarity makes them difficult to identify and limits their study and management. We aimed to identify a set of markers for the genetic characterization and identification of complexes of taxa in the Pseudococcidae. We surveyed and tested the genetic markers used in previous studies and then identified new markers for particularly relevant genomic regions for which no satisfactory markers were available. We tested all markers on a subset of four taxa distributed worldwide. Five markers were retained after this first screening: two regions of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene, 28S-D2, the entire internal transcriber space 2 locus and the rpS15-16S region of the primary mealybug endosymbiont Tremblaya princeps. We then assessed the utility of these markers for the characterization and identification of 239 samples from 43 sites in France and Brazil. The five markers studied (i) successfully distinguished all species identified by morphological examination, (ii) disentangled complexes of species by revealing intraspecific genetic variation and identified a set of closely related taxa for which taxonomic status requires clarification through further studies, and (iii) facilitated the inference of phylogenetic relationships between the characterized taxa

Fluorescent dyes as a probe for the localized field of coupled surface plasmon-related resonances

M. Kreiter, T. Neumann, S. Mittler, W. Knoll, and J. Roy Sambles, Physical Review B, Vol. 64, article 075406 (2001). "Copyright © 2001 by the American Physical Society."The fluorescence light of Cy5 dye molecules in the vicinity of a metal grating is studied for varying directions of both the exciting and the emitted light. A different angular dependence of the intensity of the emitted light is observed for different directions of excitation. Model calculations that take into account the localization of the electrical field of grating-coupled surface plasmon-related resonances are in good agreement with the experimental observations. In addition, the spatially inhomogenous photobleaching of the dye in the field of the coupled resonances is experimentally observed. These results can be viewed both as a way to use chromophores as molecular probes for the localized electrical near field of coupled surface plasmon-related resonances and as a way to manipulate dye molecules on a submicron scale