Macroarray for studying chloroplast gene expression profiles associated with the initial development of wheat

Item does not contain fulltextOBJECTIVES: Feedback should facilitate learning, but within medical education it often fails to deliver on its promise. To better understand why feedback is challenging, we explored the unique perspectives of doctors who had also trained extensively in sport or music, aiming to: (i) distinguish the elements of the response to feedback that are determined by the individual learner from those determined by the learning culture, and (ii) understand how these elements interact in order to make recommendations for improving feedback in medical education. METHODS: Using a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 27 doctors or medical students who had high-level training and competitive or performance experience in sport (n = 15) or music (n = 12). Data were analysed iteratively using constant comparison. Key themes were identified and their relationships critically examined to derive a conceptual understanding of feedback and its impact. RESULTS: We identified three essential sources of influence on the meaning that feedback assumed: the individual learner; the characteristics of the feedback, and the learning culture. Individual learner traits, such as motivation and orientation toward feedback, appeared stable across learning contexts. Similarly, certain feedback characteristics, including specificity, credibility and actionability, were valued in sport, music and medicine alike. Learning culture influenced feedback in three ways: (i) by defining expectations for teachers and teacher-learner relationships; (ii) by establishing norms for and expectations of feedback, and (iii) by directing teachers' and learners' attention toward certain dimensions of performance. Learning culture therefore neither creates motivated learners nor defines 'good feedback'; rather, it creates the conditions and opportunities that allow good feedback to occur and learners to respond. CONCLUSIONS: An adequate understanding of feedback requires an integrated approach incorporating both the individual and the learning culture. Our research offers a clear direction for medicine's learning culture: normalise feedback; promote trusting teacher-learner relationships; define clear performance goals, and ensure that the goals of learners and teachers align

Detection of organic materials by spectrometric radiography method

In this paper we report a spectrometric approach to dual-energy digital radiography that has been developed and applied to identify specific organic substances and discern small differences in their effective atomic number. An experimental setup has been designed, and a theoretical description proposed based on the experimental results obtained. The proposed method is based on application of special reference samples made of materials with different effective atomic number and thickness, parameters known to affect X-ray attenuation in the low-energy range. The results obtained can be used in the development of a new generation of multi-energy customs or medical X-ray scanners.Comment: 6 pages, 2 tables, 5 figures, will be presented at the Workshop on X-Ray Imaging, 22-24 October, 2008, Dresden, German

Long-lived driven solid-state quantum memory

We investigate the performance of inhomogeneously broadened spin ensembles as quantum memories under continuous dynamical decoupling. The role of the continuous driving field is two-fold: first, it decouples individual spins from magnetic noise; second and more important, it suppresses and reshapes the spectral inhomogeneity of spin ensembles. We show that a continuous driving field, which itself may also be inhomogeneous over the ensemble, can enhance the decay of the tails of the inhomogeneous broadening distribution considerably. This fact enables a spin ensemble based quantum memory to exploit the effect of cavity protection and achieve a much longer storage time. In particular, for a spin ensemble with a Lorentzian spectral distribution, our calculations demonstrate that continuous dynamical decoupling has the potential to improve its storage time by orders of magnitude for the state-of-art experimental parameters

Understanding the evolution of native pinewoods in Scotland will benefit their future management and conservation

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) is a foundation species in Scottish highland forests and a national icon. Due to heavy exploitation, the current native pinewood coverage represents a small fraction of the postglacial maximum. To reverse this decline, various schemes have been initiated to promote planting of new and expansion of old pinewoods. This includes the designation of seed zones for control of the remaining genetic resources. The zoning was based mainly on biochemical similarity among pinewoods but, by definition, neutral molecular markers do not reflect local phenotypic adaptation. Environmental variation within Scotland is substantial and it is not yet clear to what extent this has shaped patterns of adaptive differentiation among Scottish populations. Systematic, rangewide common-environment trials can provide insights into the evolution of the native pinewoods, indicating how environment has influenced phenotypic variation and how variation is maintained. Careful design of such experiments can also provide data on the history and connectivity among populations, by molecular marker analysis. Together, phenotypic and molecular datasets from such trials can provide a robust basis for refining seed transfer guidelines for Scots pine in Scotland and should form the scientific basis for conservation action on this nationally important habitat

PERCEPTION AND INTERPRETATION AT THE CORE OF COMMUNICATION

A theoretical-review approach to visually mediated communication is offered, and the emphasis is on how visual stimuli affect the subconscious mind and how they can influence an individual's reactions. The environment is constantly changing, and one of the factors for this is the constant exchange of visual information. That is why the assumption is made that visual intelligence is of particular importance in selection in the sea of information. In this context, the effectiveness of communication is largely measured by the emotional effect it evokes. Of particular importance is the filtering of the useful from the unnecessary, and it is important to assess the need for visual communication. The other assumption is that the essence of visual intelligence, in turn, is rooted in the awareness and management of a critical evaluation of perception (1)