Peer expectations about outstanding competencies of men and women medical students

Men and women enrolled in a combined premedical-medical school programme were asked as they began their clinical training to rate their anticipated competence on sixteen criteria relevant to medical practice. Competence dimensions tapped scientific/technical skills, dedication/commitment, and interpersonal skills. Students then were asked to nominate one classmate whom they expected might be‘the best’in each area. Self-ratings revealed few differences among men and women. Peer nominations, however, revealed a preponderance of male nominees in ten competence areas. Women dominated nominations only in the category of sensitivity to patients. Patterns persisted when peer nominations were controlled for students’academic standing and self-ratings on parallel dimensions. The data suggest that medical school peer groups share expectations about competencies of men and women as physicians which are consistent with generalized sex stereotypes and career patterns of men and women physicians.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/74843/1/1467-9566.ep11340055.pd

Behavioral and electroantennogram responses of plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar, to selected noxious plant extracts and insecticides

WOS: 000338917100004Behavioral and electroantennogram responses of plum curculio, Conotrachelus nenuphar (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), adults were tested for several methanolic plant extracts and organically approved insecticides. Plant extracts were evaluated for their potential as antifeedants or oviposition deterrents. These extract responses were also compared to those elicited by the non-neurotoxic, organic irritant-insecticide kaolin clay. Both sexes of plum curculio exhibited antennal response as measured by electroantennogram, which ranged from 0.2 to 1.1 mV, to plant extracts and the organic irritant/insecticide, with the greatest response to the extract of rough cocklebur, Xanthium strumarium L. (1.1 mV). No choice tests were conducted to compare feeding and oviposition by plum curculio on untreated apples or on apples treated with one of the extracts or the insecticide. The insecticide pyrethrum and extracts of X. strumarium and greater burdock, Arctium lappa L., significantly reduced feeding. Also, pyrethrum, A. lappa, Humulus lupulus L. (common hop), X. strumarium, and Verbascum songaricum Schrenk extracts completely inhibited egg deposition. In no-choice assays, the effects of kaolin clay with incorporated plant extracts on plum curculio feeding and oviposition were monitored as complementary tests. A. lappa-kaolin, H. lupulus-kaolin, and X. strumarium-kaolin mixtures significantly reduced the feeding of plum curculio compared to the control or kaolin clay alone. Each of the plant extract-kaolin mixtures evaluated, with the exception of Bifora radians Bieberstein (wild bishop), completely inhibited plum curculio oviposition as compared to controls

: Development of an Autonomous Mobile Agent for the Disabled and Elderly

Omnibot 2000 is designed to be a personal assistant, capable of helping the elderly or disabled. Additionally, Omnibot 2000 can entertain and perform. Behaviors include obstacle avoidance, wall following, obeying commands, and performing. The user determines the behaviors using voice recognition. Commands are issued to Omnibot, and it responds by repeating the words, and performs the specified behavior. Omnibot contains four different sensor suites, including infrared emitters and detectors, bump switches, voice recognition, and low-resolution vision. During wall following behavior, Omnibot will turn away from objects in its path. When it is doing wall following, it will follow the walls of a room, and it will also avoid bumping into obstacles. When Omnibot is in its obeying commands behavior, the user can instructs it to move the arms, grippers, head, and body. Omnibot is a slave, performing any tasks the user requests. When it is told to dance, it will start singing and dancing to YM..

N2O production in the eastern South Atlantic: analysis of N2O stable isotopic and concentration data

The stable isotopic composition of dissolved nitrous oxide (N2O) is a tracer for the production, transport, and consumption of this greenhouse gas in the ocean. Here we present dissolved N2O concentration and isotope data from the South Atlantic Ocean, spanning from the western side of the mid-Atlantic Ridge to the upwelling zone off the southern African coast. In the eastern South Atlantic, shallow N2O production by nitrifier denitrification contributed a flux of isotopically depleted N2O to the atmosphere. Along the African coast, N2O fluxes to the atmosphere of up to 46 µmol/m2/d were calculated using satellite-derived QuikSCAT wind speed data, while fluxes at the offshore stations averaged 0.04 µmol/m2/d. Comparison of the isotopic composition of the deeper N2O in the South Atlantic (800 m to 1000 m) to measurements made in other regions suggests that water advected from one or more of the major oxygen deficient zones contributed N2O to the mesopelagic South Atlantic via the Southern Ocean. This deeper N2O was isotopically and isotopomerically enriched (δ15Nbulk − N2O = 8.7 ± 0.1‰, δ18O − N2O = 46.5 ± 0.2‰, and Site Preference = 18.7 ± 0.6‰) relative to the shallow N2O source, indicating that N2O consumption by denitrification influenced its isotopic composition. The N2O concentration maximum was observed between 200 m and 400 m and reached 49 nM near the Angolan coast. The depths of the N2O concentration maximum coincided with those of sedimentary particle resuspension along the coast. The isotopic composition of this N2O (δ15Nbulk − N2O = 5.8 ± 0.1‰, δ18O − N2O = 39.7 ± 0.1‰, and Site Preference = 9.8 ± 1.0‰) was consistent with production by diffusion-limited nitrate (NO3−) reduction to nitrite (NO2−), followed by NO2− reduction to N2O by denitrification and/or nitrifier denitrification, with additional N2O production by NH2OH decomposition during NH3 oxidation. The sediment surface, benthic boundary layer, or particles resuspended from the sediments are likely to have provided the physical and chemical conditions necessary to produce this N2O