Impact of an entrustable professional activities-based assessment system

Background: Beginning in 2014, all Accreditation Counsel of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accredited residency programs were required to move to a Milestones-based system for biannual resident assessment. The resident assessment system for the Virginia Tech-Carilion Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB/GYN) residency program was re-designed to meet this requirement in July, 2014. The ACGME Milestones based assessment tool was identified on multiple faculty surveys as an area for improvement. To address this issue, an entrustable professional activities (EPA) based assessment system was designed and implemented for assessment of all OB/GYN rotations. Objective: To evaluate the impact of an EPA based resident assessment system on faculty member’s evaluation of resident assessment tools. Methods: In this prospective quality improvement study, a survey was sent to all faculty members prior to the implementation of the EPA-based assessment system. The same survey was performed three months after the implementation of the new system. To facilitate analysis, each level of agreement was assigned a numerical value (1-5). The results were aggregated, and were analyzed using t-tests, assuming unequal variances. Results: Sixty-eight percent of the faculty responded to the first survey, and 67% responded to the follow up survey. Statistically significant (p<.05) improvements were noted in most measures of the EPA based assessment tool including “ease of use” (2.2 vs 4.4, p< 0.001) and “accurate representation of resident performance” (2.5 vs 3.9, p <0.001). Conclusion: An EPA based resident evaluation system significantly improved teaching faculty’s impression of most domains of our OB/GYN resident assessment tools

Prioritized Agenda for Mental Health Research in Pediatric Rheumatology from the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance Mental Health Workgroup

Objective Mental health problems are prevalent in youth with rheumatologic disease. Gaps in knowledge exist regarding their effect, as well as strategies for detection and effective treatment. To address these gaps, the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA) Mental Health Workgroup developed and prioritized an agenda of research topics. Methods We systematically reviewed the literature and identified 5 major research domains in further need of study: (A) mental health burden and relationship to pediatric rheumatologic disease, (B) effect of mental health disorders on outcomes, (C) mental health awareness and education, (D) mental health screening, and (E) mental health treatment. Research topics within these areas were developed by workgroup leaders and refined by the workgroup. Members were surveyed to prioritize the topics by importance, feasibility of study, and actionability. Results Fifty-nine members (57%) completed the survey. Among the proposed research topics, 31/33 were rated as highly important and 4/33 were rated highly for importance, feasibility, and actionability. Topics rated most important related to (A) mental health burden and relationship to rheumatologic disease, and (B) the effect of mental health on outcomes. Topics rated most feasible and actionable were related to (D) mental health screening. Conclusion Addressing gaps in knowledge regarding mental health in youth with rheumatologic disease is essential for improving care. We have identified high priority research topics regarding mental health of pediatric rheumatology patients in need of further investigation that are feasible to study and believed to lead to actionable results in patient care

The Multi-Object, Fiber-Fed Spectrographs for SDSS and the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey

We present the design and performance of the multi-object fiber spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and their upgrade for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Originally commissioned in Fall 1999 on the 2.5-m aperture Sloan Telescope at Apache Point Observatory, the spectrographs produced more than 1.5 million spectra for the SDSS and SDSS-II surveys, enabling a wide variety of Galactic and extra-galactic science including the first observation of baryon acoustic oscillations in 2005. The spectrographs were upgraded in 2009 and are currently in use for BOSS, the flagship survey of the third-generation SDSS-III project. BOSS will measure redshifts of 1.35 million massive galaxies to redshift 0.7 and Lyman-alpha absorption of 160,000 high redshift quasars over 10,000 square degrees of sky, making percent level measurements of the absolute cosmic distance scale of the Universe and placing tight constraints on the equation of state of dark energy. The twin multi-object fiber spectrographs utilize a simple optical layout with reflective collimators, gratings, all-refractive cameras, and state-of-the-art CCD detectors to produce hundreds of spectra simultaneously in two channels over a bandpass covering the near ultraviolet to the near infrared, with a resolving power R = \lambda/FWHM ~ 2000. Building on proven heritage, the spectrographs were upgraded for BOSS with volume-phase holographic gratings and modern CCD detectors, improving the peak throughput by nearly a factor of two, extending the bandpass to cover 360 < \lambda < 1000 nm, and increasing the number of fibers from 640 to 1000 per exposure. In this paper we describe the original SDSS spectrograph design and the upgrades implemented for BOSS, and document the predicted and measured performances.Comment: 43 pages, 42 figures, revised according to referee report and accepted by AJ. Provides background for the instrument responsible for SDSS and BOSS spectra. 4th in a series of survey technical papers released in Summer 2012, including arXiv:1207.7137 (DR9), arXiv:1207.7326 (Spectral Classification), and arXiv:1208.0022 (BOSS Overview

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Simple Benchtop Approach to Polymer Brush Nanostructures Using Visible-Light-Mediated Metal-Free Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization.

The development of an operationally simple, metal-free surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ATRP) based on visible-light mediation is reported. The facile nature of this process enables the fabrication of well-defined polymer brushes from flat and curved surfaces using a "benchtop" setup that can be easily scaled to four-inch wafers. This circumvents the requirement of stringent air-free environments (i.e., glovebox), and mediation by visible light allows for spatial control on the micron scale, with complex three-dimensional patterns achieved in a single step. This robust approach leads to unprecedented access to brush architectures for nonexperts

Effects of tailored dispersity on the self-assembly of dimethylsiloxane–methyl methacrylate block co-oligomers

The effect of dispersity on block polymer self-assembly was studied in the monodisperse limit using a combination of synthetic chemistry, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization spectroscopy, and small-angle X-ray scattering. Oligo(methyl methacrylate) (oligoMMA) and oligo(dimethylsiloxane) (oligoDMS) homopolymers were synthesized by conventional polymerization techniques and purified to generate an array of discrete, semidiscrete, and disperse building blocks. Coupling reactions afforded oligo(DMS-MMA) block polymers with precisely tailored molar mass distributions spanning single molecular systems (D= 1.0) to low-dispersity mixtures (d ≈ 1.05). Discrete materials exhibit a pronounced decrease in domain spacing and sharper scattering reflections relative to disperse analogues. The order-disorder transition temperature (T) also decreases with increasing dispersity, suggesting stabilization of the disordered phase, presumably due to the strengthening of composition fluctuations at the low molar masses investigated

Controlled Formation and Binding Selectivity of Discrete Oligo(methyl methacrylate) Stereocomplexes

The triple-helix stereocomplex of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is a unique example of a multistranded synthetic helix that has significant utility and promise in materials science and nanotechnology. To gain a fundamental understanding of the underlying assembly process, discrete stereoregular oligomer libraries were prepared by combining stereospecific polymerization techniques with automated flash chromatography purification. Stereocomplex assembly of these discrete building blocks enabled the identification of (1) the minimum degree of polymerization required for the stereocomplex formation and (2) the dependence of the helix crystallization mode on the length of assembling precursors. More significantly, our experiments resolved binding selectivity between helical strands with similar molecular weights. This presents new opportunities for the development of next-generation polymeric materials based on a triple-helix motif