The talented Mr. Littlepage & The Spirit of ’76: An American character study

The curious life of Lewis Littlepage, an American-born courtier in late eighteenth century Europe, revealed the true nature of the United States’ exceptional identity and highlighted the negative effects of social refinement on its unique character. Initially imbued with republican values, Littlepage traveled to Europe in order to pursue a practical political education that would render him useful to the U.S. However, the Virginian’s experiences overseas transformed him into a man unable to control his ambitions, incapable of feeling loyalty to any nation or set of principles, and more dedicated to his personal comfort and luxury than to any sense of republican duty. This study, in order to reach its conclusions, compares Littlepage’s education to that advocated by Thomas Jefferson and examines the differences between the leadership style he eventually developed and the noble republican example modeled by George Washington. It utilizes primary evidence from the Curtis Carroll Davis Collection and the Holladay Family Papers to support its assertions. The uniqueness of the U.S., its exceptionalism, was ultimately a product of its citizens’ self-control. The earliest concern of the nation’s founders, the creators of the grand American experiment to prove that humans were capable of self-government, was how to produce citizens capable of controlling themselves and supporting a republican government. Answering this question, Thomas Jefferson and other Founders concluded that Americans needed a practical republican education and proper role models. The purpose of this training was to teach them how to pursue the common good by controlling their own ambitions, dedicating themselves to republican principles rather than to rulers, and persevering in the face of hardship. Littlepage’s polite education and the process of social refinement he underwent were in opposition to these republican values. Rather than teaching the Virginian to control his own ambitions, to subordinate his interests to the importance of upholding republican values, and to persevere in these endeavors, these processes taught him to proudly display his self-interested ambitions through ostentatious dress and elaborate shows of his useless knowledge. The result was to produce an image of a character that did not conform to America’s exceptional identity

Advanced Organic Chemistry laboratory curricula in Australian universities: Investigating the major topics and approaches to learning

A key goal of tertiary education is to prepare graduates with the training, skills, and knowledge necessary to thrive in the workforce. In chemistry, 50% of undergraduate students from Australia, New Zealand and the UK plan to pursue a career that uses chemistry (Ogunde et al., 2017). However, it has also been noted that there is a mismatch in the skills desired by industry when compared with what is taught to undergraduates (Martin et al., 2011; Yasin & Yueying, 2017). Laboratory work is an essential part of undergraduate programs with the objective of developing practical and interpersonal skills with ‘real world’ engagement in chemistry. It is therefore concerning to note the perception among industry stakeholders that the laboratory skills of high-achieving chemistry graduates do not meet the desired standard (Kirton et al., 2014). This project aims to investigate how we can better develop higher level undergraduate chemistry laboratory programs to improve training and competency with industrially relevant skills. This research will undertake an initial investigation into the current organic chemistry laboratory curricula of second- and third-year courses in Australian universities through content analysis of laboratory manuals and unit outlines. To extend our understanding, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with key external stakeholders, academics, and post-graduate teaching staff. This presentation will introduce the initial stages of this project and expand on our intentions to utilise these data to develop an intervention and set of recommendations for undergraduate laboratories. REFERENCES Kirton, S. B., Al-Ahmad, A., & Fergus, S. (2014). Using Structured Chemistry Examinations (SChemEs) as an assessment method to improve undergraduate students’ generic, practical, and laboratory-based skills. Journal of Chemical Education, 91(5), 648-654. Martin, C. B., Schmidt, M., & Soniat, M. (2011). A survey of the practices, procedures, and techniques in undergraduate organic chemistry teaching laboratories. Journal of Chemical Education, 88(12), 1630-1638. Ogunde, J. C., Overton, T. L., Thompson, C. D., Mewis, R., & Boniface, S. (2017). Beyond graduation: Motivations and career aspirations of undergraduate chemistry students. Chemistry Education Research and Practice, 18(3), 457-471. Yasin, N. Y. B. M., & Yueying, O. (2017). Evaluating the relevance of the chemistry curriculum to the workplace: Keeping tertiary education relevant. Journal of Chemical Education, 94(10), 1443-1449

Abstracts from the 8th International Conference on cGMP Generators, Effectors and Therapeutic Implications

This work was supported by a restricted research grant of Bayer AG

CONQUEST : a quality improvement program for defining and optimizing standards of care for modifiable high-risk COPD patients

Funding This study was conducted by Optimum Patient Care Global and the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute (OPRI) Pte Ltd and was co-funded by Optimum Patient Care Global and AstraZeneca. No funding was received by the Observational & Pragmatic Research Institute Pte Ltd (OPRI) for its contribution. Acknowledgements Hana Muellerova, Patrick Darken, Paul Dorinsky, Frank Trudo, and Alex De Giorgio-Miller of AstraZeneca are acknowledged for their contribution to protocol development. Writing, editorial support, and/or formatting assistance in the development of this manuscript was provided by Shilpa Suresh, MSc, of the Observational and Pragmatic Research Institute, Singapore. Professor Dave Singh is supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A New Paradigm for Observing and Modeling of Air-Sea Interactions to Advance Earth System Prediction

The protection of people, property, and environmental resources from extreme weather, seasonal patterns, and climate change drives the need for predictions of weather, ocean, and climate patterns that have skill and value at timescales longer than traditional 1-10-day forecasts, including outlooks spanning weeks to decades. Advancing Earth System Prediction (ESP) skill at this range of timescales requires improved observations, understanding, and modeling of the processes in the ocean boundary layer, the atmospheric boundary layer, and their interface. A new way of referring to this coupled system is the Air-Sea Transition Zone (ASTZ). The report that follows is framed by the paradigm that the ASTZ is a single entity that regulates the flow of energy and matter between the ocean and the atmosphere. The ASTZ is thus the medium through which the ocean and atmosphere respond to and influence one another across their often disparate scales of variability. ASTZ modeling, observing, and understanding needs are particularly acute because very few measurements exist over oceans, and even fewer span the entire ASTZ, even though oceans cover 70% of Earth’s surface and are the source of most of the rain and snow that falls on both the land and the oceans

Does computer-assisted surgery benefit leg length restoration in total hip replacement? Navigation versus conventional freehand

Leg length discrepancy following total hip replacement (THR) can contribute to poor hip function. Abnormal gait, pain, neurological disturbance and patient dissatisfaction have all been described as a result of leg length inequality after THR. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of computer navigation in THR can improve limb length restoration and early clinical outcomes. We performed a matched-pair study comparing 48 computer-assisted THR with 48 THRs performed using a traditional freehand alignment method. The same implant with a straight non-modular femoral stem was used in all cases. The navigation system used allowed the surgeon to monitor both acetabular cup placement and all the phases of femoral stem implantation including rasping. Patients were matched for age, sex, arthritis level, pre-operative diagnosis and pre-operative leg length discrepancy. At a minimum follow-up of six months, limb length discrepancy was measured using digital radiographs and a standardised protocol. The number of patients with a residual discrepancy of 10 mm or more and/or a post-operative over-lengthening were measured. The clinical outcome was evaluated using both the Harris Hip Score and the normalised Western Ontario and McMaster Universities (WOMAC) Arthritis Index. Restoration of limb length was significantly better in the computer-assisted THR group. The number of patients with a residual limb length discrepancy greater than 10 mm and/or a post-operative over-lengthening was significantly lower. No significant difference in the Harris Hip Score or normalised WOMAC Arthritis Index was seen between the two groups. The surgical time was significantly longer in the computer-assisted THR group. No post-operative dislocations were seen