Teaching and learning reflection in MPA programs: towards a strategy

__Abstract__ Reflection is an essential ingredient of academic education in PublicAdministration, both for an academic and a professional career. Making a distinction between reflectivity and reflexivity we identify 30 foci of reflection. The main question of the article is how these forms of reflection can be taught and learned in PA programs, especially in post-experience PAprograms. To answer this question,westudied de programand interviewed the teaching staff op the post-experienceMPA program at Erasmus University in Rotterdamto describe what is actually done in the to teach students reflection competences and to identify success and limitations of these efforts. We present our findings and describe how we, in consultation with the teaching staff, developed a number of feasible options for improvement. We discuss these options and present a strategy to actually get these implemented

osl-dynamics, a toolbox for modeling fast dynamic brain activity

Neural activity contains rich spatiotemporal structure that corresponds to cognition. This includes oscillatory bursting and dynamic activity that span across networks of brain regions, all of which can occur on timescales of tens of milliseconds. While these processes can be accessed through brain recordings and imaging, modeling them presents methodological challenges due to their fast and transient nature. Furthermore, the exact timing and duration of interesting cognitive events are often a priori unknown. Here, we present the OHBA Software Library Dynamics Toolbox (osl-dynamics), a Python-based package that can identify and describe recurrent dynamics in functional neuroimaging data on timescales as fast as tens of milliseconds. At its core are machine learning generative models that are able to adapt to the data and learn the timing, as well as the spatial and spectral characteristics, of brain activity with few assumptions. osl-dynamics incorporates state-of-the-art approaches that can be, and have been, used to elucidate brain dynamics in a wide range of data types, including magneto/electroencephalography, functional magnetic resonance imaging, invasive local field potential recordings, and electrocorticography. It also provides novel summary measures of brain dynamics that can be used to inform our understanding of cognition, behavior, and disease. We hope osl-dynamics will further our understanding of brain function, through its ability to enhance the modeling of fast dynamic processes

A pilot study evaluating the use of ABCD2 score in pre-hospital assessment of patients with suspected transient ischaemic attack: experience and lessons learned

Background: Suspected transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is a common presentation to emergency medical services (EMS) in the United Kingdom (UK). Several EMS systems have adopted the ABCD2 score to aid pre-hospital risk stratification and decision-making on patient disposition, such as direct referral to an Emergency Department or specialist TIA clinic. However, the ABCD2 score, developed for hospital use, has not been validated for use in the pre-hospital context of EMS care. Methods: We conducted a pilot study to assess eligibility criteria, recruitment rates, protocol compliance, consent and follow-up procedures to inform the development of a definitive study to validate the ABCD2 tool in pre-hospital evaluation of patients with suspected TIA. Results: From 1st May–1st September 2013, nine patients with an EMS suspected diagnosis of TIA had the TIA diagnosis later confirmed by a specialist from five participating sites. This recruitment rate is comparable to stroke trials in the EMS setting. Bureaucratic obstacles and duplication of approval processes across participating sites took 13 months to resolve before recruitment commenced. Due to the initial difficulty in recruitment, a substantial amendment was approved to modify inclusion criteria, allowing patients with atrial fibrillation and/or taking anticoagulant therapy to participate in the study. Conclusions: It is possible to identify, recruit and follow up patients with suspected TIA in the EMS setting. Training large numbers of EMS staff is required as exposure to TIA patients is infrequent. Significant insight was gained into the complexity of NHS research governance mechanisms in the UK. This knowledge will facilitate the planning of a future adequately powered study to validate the ABCD2 tool in a pre-hospital setting

Sequential Effects in Judgements of Attractiveness: The Influences of Face Race and Sex

In perceptual decision-making, a person’s response on a given trial is influenced by their response on the immediately preceding trial. This sequential effect was initially demonstrated in psychophysical tasks, but has now been found in more complex, real-world judgements. The similarity of the current and previous stimuli determines the nature of the effect, with more similar items producing assimilation in judgements, while less similarity can cause a contrast effect. Previous research found assimilation in ratings of facial attractiveness, and here, we investigated whether this effect is influenced by the social categories of the faces presented. Over three experiments, participants rated the attractiveness of own- (White) and other-race (Chinese) faces of both sexes that appeared successively. Through blocking trials by race (Experiment 1), sex (Experiment 2), or both dimensions (Experiment 3), we could examine how sequential judgements were altered by the salience of different social categories in face sequences. For sequences that varied in sex alone, own-race faces showed significantly less opposite-sex assimilation (male and female faces perceived as dissimilar), while other-race faces showed equal assimilation for opposite- and same-sex sequences (male and female faces were not differentiated). For sequences that varied in race alone, categorisation by race resulted in no opposite-race assimilation for either sex of face (White and Chinese faces perceived as dissimilar). For sequences that varied in both race and sex, same-category assimilation was significantly greater than opposite-category. Our results suggest that the race of a face represents a superordinate category relative to sex. These findings demonstrate the importance of social categories when considering sequential judgements of faces, and also highlight a novel approach for investigating how multiple social dimensions interact during decision-making

Two Earth-sized planets orbiting Kepler-20

Since the discovery of the first extrasolar giant planets around Sun-like stars, evolving observational capabilities have brought us closer to the detection of true Earth analogues. The size of an exoplanet can be determined when it periodically passes in front of (transits) its parent star, causing a decrease in starlight proportional to its radius. The smallest exoplanet hitherto discovered has a radius 1.42 times that of the Earth's radius (R Earth), and hence has 2.9 times its volume. Here we report the discovery of two planets, one Earth-sized (1.03R Earth) and the other smaller than the Earth (0.87R Earth), orbiting the star Kepler-20, which is already known to host three other, larger, transiting planets. The gravitational pull of the new planets on the parent star is too small to measure with current instrumentation. We apply a statistical method to show that the likelihood of the planetary interpretation of the transit signals is more than three orders of magnitude larger than that of the alternative hypothesis that the signals result from an eclipsing binary star. Theoretical considerations imply that these planets are rocky, with a composition of iron and silicate. The outer planet could have developed a thick water vapour atmosphere.Comment: Letter to Nature; Received 8 November; accepted 13 December 2011; Published online 20 December 201

Quail Genomics: a knowledgebase for Northern bobwhite

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Quail Genomics knowledgebase (<url>http://www.quailgenomics.info</url>) has been initiated to share and develop functional genomic data for Northern bobwhite (<it>Colinus virginianus</it>). This web-based platform has been designed to allow researchers to perform analysis and curate genomic information for this non-model species that has little supporting information in GenBank.</p> <p>Description</p> <p>A multi-tissue, normalized cDNA library generated for Northern bobwhite was sequenced using 454 Life Sciences next generation sequencing. The Quail Genomics knowledgebase represents the 478,142 raw ESTs generated from the sequencing effort in addition to assembled nucleotide and protein sequences including 21,980 unigenes annotated with meta-data. A normalized MySQL relational database was established to provide comprehensive search parameters where meta-data can be retrieved using functional and structural information annotation such as gene name, pathways and protein domain. Additionally, blast hit cutoff levels and microarray expression data are available for batch searches. A Gene Ontology (GO) browser from Amigo is locally hosted providing 8,825 unigenes that are putative orthologs to chicken genes. In an effort to address over abundance of Northern bobwhite unigenes (71,384) caused by non-overlapping contigs and singletons, we have built a pipeline that generates scaffolds/supercontigs by aligning partial sequence fragments against the indexed protein database of chicken to build longer sequences that can be visualized in a web browser. </p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our effort provides a central repository for storage and a platform for functional interrogation of the Northern bobwhite sequences providing comprehensive GO annotations, meta-data and a scaffold building pipeline. The Quail Genomics knowledgebase will be integrated with Japanese quail (<it>Coturnix coturnix</it>) data in future builds and incorporate a broader platform for these avian species. </p

High prevalence of high risk human papillomavirus-capsid antibodies in human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive men: a serological study

BACKGROUND: Serological study of human papillomavirus (HPV)-antibodies in order to estimate the HPV-prevalence as risk factor for the development of HPV-associated malignancies in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive men. METHODS: Sera from 168 HIV-positive men and 330 HIV-negative individuals (including 198 controls) were tested using a direct HPV-ELISA specific to HPV-6, -11, -16, -18, -31 and bovine PV-1 L1-virus-like particles. Serological results were correlated with the presence of HPV-associated lesions, the history of other sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and HIV classification groups. RESULTS: In HIV-negative men low risk HPV-antibodies were prevailing and associated with condylomatous warts (25.4%). Strikingly, HIV-positive men were more likely to have antibodies to the high-risk HPV types -16, -18, -31, and low risk antibodies were not increased in a comparable range. Even those HIV-positive heterosexual individuals without any HPV-associated lesions exhibited preferentially antibody responses to the oncogenic HPV-types (cumulative 31.1%). The highest antibody detection rate (88,8%) was observed within the subgroup of nine HIV-positive homosexual men with anogenital warts. Three HIV-positive patients had HPV-associated carcinomas, in all of them HPV-16 antibodies were detected. Drug use and mean CD4-cell counts on the day of serologic testing had no influence on HPV-IgG antibody prevalence, as had prior antiretroviral therapy or clinical category of HIV-disease. CONCLUSION: High risk HPV-antibodies in HIV-infected and homosexual men suggest a continuous exposure to HPV-proteins throughout the course of their HIV infection, reflecting the known increased risk for anogenital malignancies in these populations. The extensive increase of high risk antibodies (compared to low risk antibodies) in HIV-positive patients cannot be explained by differences in exposure history alone, but suggests defects of the immunological control of oncogenic HPV-types. HPV-serology is economic and can detect past or present HPV-infection, independently of an anatomical region. Therefore HPV-serology could help to better understand the natural history of anogenital HPV-infection in HIV-positive men in the era of antiretroviral therapy

Hyperon Photoproduction in the Nucleon Resonance Region

Cross-sections and recoil polarizations for the reactions gamma + p --> K^+ + Lambda and gamma + p --> K^+ + Sigma^0 have been measured with high statistics and with good angular coverage for center-of-mass energies between 1.6 and 2.3 GeV. In the K^+Lambda channel we confirm a structure near W=1.9 GeV at backward kaon angles, but our data shows a more complex s- and u- channel resonance structure than previously seen. This structure is present at forward and backward angles but not central angles, and its position and width change with angle, indicating that more than one resonance is playing a role. Rising back-angle cross sections at higher energies and large positive polarization at backward angles are consistent with sizable s- or u-channel contributions. None of the model calculations we present can consistently explain these aspects of the data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

First Measurement of Beam-Recoil Observables Cx and Cz in Hyperon Photoproduction

Spin transfer from circularly polarized real photons to recoiling hyperons has been measured for the reactions $\vec\gamma + p \to K^+ + \vec\Lambda$ and $\vec\gamma + p \to K^+ + \vec\Sigma^0$. The data were obtained using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab for center-of-mass energies $W$ between 1.6 and 2.53 GeV, and for $-0.85<\cos\theta_{K^+}^{c.m.}< +0.95$. For the $\Lambda$, the polarization transfer coefficient along the photon momentum axis, $C_z$, was found to be near unity for a wide range of energy and kaon production angles. The associated transverse polarization coefficient, $C_x$, is smaller than $C_z$ by a roughly constant difference of unity. Most significantly, the {\it total} $\Lambda$ polarization vector, including the induced polarization $P$, has magnitude consistent with unity at all measured energies and production angles when the beam is fully polarized. For the $\Sigma^0$ this simple phenomenology does not hold. All existing hadrodynamic models are in poor agreement with these results.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figures, Submitted to Physical Review