Charged Particle Radiation Damage in Semiconductors, I- Experimental Proton Irradiation of Solar Cells

Proton irradiation of solar cell

Student Leadership Development: A Focus on Experiential Leadership Orientation Within Higher Education

Higher education is a fertile learning environment for student leaders. Theorists have asserted the worth of student leadership education as a core developmental component within the four-year undergraduate experience (Astin, 1993; Komives et al., 2011; Komives & Wagner, 2009; Kouzes and Posner, 2008; Roberts, 2007). This study utilized a pre-test, post-test design incorporating the Student Leadership Practice Inventory (SLPI) to assess a student life orientation program (N=38) and to evaluate the change in student leadership skills due to the experiential orientation intervention at a small, private, Christian university on the west coast. Some components of the intervention included journaling quiet times (self), dramatic crisis role-play situations (group), and leadership skill teaching (community). Dependent t-tests of the research results revealed significant improvements in three leadership practices: Model the Way, Challenge the Process, and Enable Others to Act, while Inspire a Shared Vision and Encourage the Heart did not change. Based on the study’s findings, a one-week experiential orientation can improve student leadership, particularly when using experiential components that focus on basic understanding, reflection, critical thinking, and experimentation in experiences that focus on self, group, and community. However, these experiential foci may be less modifiable, given the structure of some orientation programs. In the future, program designers should focus specifically on grounding programs in theory of experiential learning and leadership theory. This will make programs theory based, well thought, and intentional, aiding student leaders in their leadership development

Address by Judge Charles R. Denney, President of the Superior Court Judges Association

I hope you will excuse me after these very brief remarks are made for it is my pleasure to escort Judge Medina to the judges\u27 meeting, and after all, we are the only people who are here at taxpayers\u27 expense, so we have to justify the money we receive from the taxpayers, by at least meeting occasionally

Cross-comparison of MRCGP & MRCP(UK) in a database linkage study of 2,284 candidates taking both examinations: assessment of validity and differential performance by ethnicity.

MRCGP and MRCP(UK) are the main entry qualifications for UK doctors entering general [family] practice or hospital [internal] medicine. The performance of MRCP(UK) candidates who subsequently take MRCGP allows validation of each assessment. In the UK, underperformance of ethnic minority doctors taking MRCGP has had a high political profile, with a Judicial Review in the High Court in April 2014 for alleged racial discrimination. Although the legal challenge was dismissed, substantial performance differences between white and BME (Black and Minority Ethnic) doctors undoubtedly exist. Understanding ethnic differences can be helped by comparing the performance of doctors who take both MRCGP and MRCP(UK)

The Importance of Broad Emission-Line Widths in Single Epoch Black Hole Mass Estimates

Estimates of the mass of super-massive black holes (BHs) in distant active galactic nuclei (AGNs) can be obtained efficiently only through single-epoch spectra, using a combination of their broad emission-line widths and continuum luminosities. Yet the reliability and accuracy of the method, and the resulting mass estimates, M_BH, remain uncertain. A recent study by Croom using a sample of SDSS, 2QZ and 2SLAQ quasars suggests that line widths contribute little information about the BH mass in these single-epoch estimates and can be replaced by a constant value without significant loss of accuracy. In this Letter, we use a sample of nearby reverberation-mapped AGNs to show that this conclusion is not universally applicable. We use the bulge luminosity (L_Bulge) of these local objects to test how well the known M_BH - L_Bulge correlation is recovered when using randomly assigned line widths instead of the measured ones to estimate M_BH. We find that line widths provide significant information about M_BH, and that for this sample, the line width information is just as significant as that provided by the continuum luminosities. We discuss the effects of observational biases upon the analysis of Croom and suggest that the results can probably be explained as a bias of flux-limited, shallow quasar samples.Comment: 10 text pages + 4 Figures + 1 Table. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Dilemmas and solutions- experiences of a national Family Medicine applied knowledge licensing test during a pandemic

ABSTRACT: Background: The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic brought significant challenges to all of medicine, including primary care training and examinations. The MRCGP AKT is high-stakes licensing 200-item MCQ for UK trainee family physicians and is part of an assessment tripos that, up to the onset of the pandemic, included a Clinical Skills Assessment using Simulated Patients and workplace based assessment. The AKT is blueprinted onto a curriculum content specification and computer delivered three times a year at test centres across the UK. It tests the knowledge base underpinning independent general practice within the context of the UK National Health Service. We report on the challenges and dilemmas faced during the pandemic, decisions taken, and lessons learned. Rapid exam changes needed to be made, and communicated effectively to candidates, whilst maintaining standards and fairness to candidates. Summary of Work: Challenges included lockdown travel restrictions, reduced capacity, social distancing and shielding candidates being unable to leave home. The April 2020 AKT was cancelled and prioritisation measures implemented to ensure candidates at the end of their training could enter the (stressed) workforce. We engaged with a wide range of stakeholders, carefully looked at remote testing, made contingency plans prioritised for those unable to sit exams and changed exam regulations to ensure fairness to candidates. In this emergency, we delivered a previously published exam which some candidates were unaware they had sat previously, and assessed how these candidates performed. We compared cohort performance before and during the pandemic. Summary of Results: We summarise why we did not remote test, how we obtained key worker status, and adapted contingency plans. Analysis of candidates who had previously sat the same exam showed they performed less well. Despite wide-ranging changes in training and workplace experience, there was no significant difference in cohort performance overall pre-and peri-pandemic. Discussion and Conclusions: COVID-19 constraints changed trainees clinical exposure, restricted training and supervisor support. However, exam preparedness did not appear adversely affected when measured by overall pass rates. Unexpectedly, candidates who sat an identical exam did not benefit from previous exposure. Take-home Messages: Involving stakeholders in key decisions and regular communications are essential. Test security and standards were not compromised

Examining the Influence of Behavioral Factors on Compliance and Persistence with Glatiramer Acetate Injection for Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis

Objective: To evaluate the relationship between compliance and persistence with glatiramer acetate (GA) and the behavioral variables in the transtheoretical model of change. Methods: Patients diagnosed with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis and being treated with GA for the first time, whether treatment-naïve (TN) or treatment-experienced (TE), were eligible for this prospective, observational, 12-week study. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for each of 32 US study sites, and written informed consent was obtained for all patients prior to study procedures. Four office visits were required. Study procedures included baseline self-injection training and patient-reported behavioral variable surveys. Injection competence and medication compliance and persistence were assessed at weeks 4 and 12. Results: A total of 257 patients were enrolled; 80.9% were female, 81.6% white, and 60.0% TN. The evaluable population included 146 TN patients and 88 TE patients having discontinued beta-interferons. TE patients were at a significantly higher readiness stage, were less concerned about the negative aspects of self-injection, but had lower levels of MS self-efficacy than TN patients. While compliance and persistence rates did not differ between TN and TE groups, there were differences in outcome predictors. For the TN patients both higher self-injection competence at baseline and improvement in self-injection competence over the first month of therapy were predictive of better compliance and persistence with GA. Separate from injection competence, higher levels of functional self-efficacy were directly associated with better persistence in TN patients. None of the behavioral variables appeared to predict compliance or persistence for the TE patients. Conclusion: Among the TN, injection competency at baseline and improvement over the first month of use were significant predictors of compliance and persistence to GA at 12 weeks.Improving self-injection competence should be a priority when planning interventions for TN patients. Behavioral factors predicting compliance and persistence among TE patients require further study. ClinicalTrials.gov (number NCT00238654

Infant Feeding Websites and Apps: A Systematic Assessment of Quality and Content

Background: Internet websites and smartphone apps have become a popular resource to guide parents in their children’s feeding and nutrition. Given the diverse range of websites and apps on infant feeding, the quality of information in these resources should be assessed to identify whether consumers have access to credible and reliable information.Objective: This systematic analysis provides perspectives on the information available about infant feeding on websites and smartphone apps.Methods: A systematic analysis was conducted to assess the quality, comprehensibility, suitability, and readability of websites and apps on infant feeding using a developed tool. Google and Bing were used to search for websites from Australia, while the App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android were used to search for apps. Specified key words including baby feeding, breast feeding, formula feeding and introducing solids were used to assess websites and apps addressing feeding advice. Criteria for assessing the accuracy of the content were developed using the Australian Infant Feeding Guidelines.Results: A total of 600 websites and 2884 apps were screened, and 44 websites and 46 apps met the selection criteria and were analyzed. Most of the websites (26/44) and apps (43/46) were noncommercial, some websites (10/44) and 1 app were commercial and there were 8 government websites; 2 apps had university endorsement. The majority of the websites and apps were rated poor quality. There were two websites that had 100% coverage of information compared to those rated as fair or poor that had low coverage. Two-thirds of the websites (65%) and almost half of the apps (47%) had a readability level above the 8th grade level.Conclusions: The findings of this unique analysis highlight the potential for website and app developers to merge user requirements with evidence-based content to ensure that information on infant feeding is of high quality. There are currently no apps available to consumers that address a variety of infant feeding topics. To keep up with the rapid turnover of the evolving technology, health professionals need to consider developing an app that will provide consumers with a credible and reliable source of information about infant feeding, using quality assessment tools and evidence-based content

Reverberation Mapping Results from MDM Observatory

We present results from a multi-month reverberation mapping campaign undertaken primarily at MDM Observatory with supporting observations from around the world. We measure broad line region (BLR) radii and black hole masses for six objects. A velocity-resolved analysis of the H_beta response shows the presence of diverse kinematic signatures in the BLR.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium No. 267: Co-Evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies, Rio de Janeiro, 200

Photometric AGN reverberation mapping - an efficient tool for BLR sizes, black hole masses and host-subtracted AGN luminosities

Photometric reverberation mapping employs a wide bandpass to measure the AGN continuum variations and a suitable band, usually a narrow band (NB), to trace the echo of an emission line in the broad line region (BLR). The narrow band catches both the emission line and the underlying continuum, and one needs to extract the pure emission line light curve. We performed a test on two local AGNs, PG0003+199 (=Mrk335) and Ark120, observing well-sampled broad- (B, V) and narrow-band light curves with the robotic 15cm telescope VYSOS-6 on Cerro Armazones, Chile. In PG0003+199, H_alpha dominates the flux in the NB by 85%, allowing us to measure the time lag of H_alpha against B without the need to correct for the continuum contribution. In Ark120, H_beta contributes only 50% to the flux in the NB. The cross correlation of the B and NB light curves shows two distinct peaks of similar strength, one at lag zero from the autocorrelated continuum and one from the emission line at tau_cent = 47.5 +/- 3.4 days. We constructed a synthetic H_beta light curve, by subtracting a scaled V light curve, which traces the continuum, from the NB light curve. The cross correlation of this synthetic H_beta light curve with the B light curve shows only one major peak at tau_cent = 48.0 +/- 3.3 days, while the peak from the autocorrelated continuum at lag zero is absent. We conclude that, as long as the emission line contributes at least 50% to the bandpass, the pure emission line light curve can be reconstructed from photometric monitoring data so that the time lag can be measured. For both objects the lags we find are consistent with spectroscopic reverberation results. While the dense sampling (median 2 days) enables us to determine tau_cent with small (10%) formal errors, we caution that gaps in the light curves may lead to much larger systematic uncertainties. (Abstract shortened, see the manuscript.)Comment: 12 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic