Numerical investigation of nanostructured silica PCFs for sensing applications.

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) developed using nanostructured composite materials provide special optical properties. PCF light propagation and modal characteristics can be tailored by modifying their structural and material parameters. Structuring and infusion of liquid crystal materials enhances the capabilities of all silica PCFs, facilitating their operation in different spectral regimes. The wavelength tunability feature of nanostructured PCFs can be utilized for many advanced sensing applications. This paper discusses a new approach to modify the optical properties of PCFs by periodic nanostructuring and composite material (liquid crystal-silica) infiltration. PCF characteristics like confinement wavelength, confinement loss, mode field diameter (MFD) and bandwidth are investigated by varying the structural parameters and material infiltrations. Theoretical study revealed that composite material infusion resulted in a spectral band shift accompanied by an improvement in PCF bandwidth. Moreover, nanostructured PCFs also achieved reduced confinement losses and improved MFD which is very important in long-distance remote sensing applications

Improving the teaching skills of residents as tutors/facilitators and addressing the shortage of faculty facilitators for PBL modules

BACKGROUND: Residents play an important role in teaching of medical undergraduate students. Despite their importance in teaching undergraduates they are not involved in any formal training in teaching and leadership skills. We aimed to compare the teaching skills of residents with faculty in facilitating small group Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions. METHODS: This quasi experimental descriptive comparative research involved 5 postgraduate year 4 residents and five senior faculty members. The study was conducted with all phase III (Final year) students rotating in Gastroenterology. The residents and faculty members received brief training of one month in facilitation and core principles of adult education. Different aspects of teaching skills of residents and faculty were evaluated by students on a questionnaire (graded on Likert Scale from 1 to 10) assessing i) Knowledge Base-content Learning (KBL), ii) PBL, iii) Student Centered Learning (SCL) and iv) Group Skills (GS). RESULTS: There were 33 PBL teaching sessions in which 120 evaluation forms were filled; out of these 53% forms were filled for residents and 47% for faculty group. The faculty showed a statistically greater rating in KBL (faculty 8.37 Vs resident 7.94; p-value 0.02), GS (faculty 8.06 vs. residents 7.68; p-value 0.04). Differences in faculty and resident scores in the PBL and SCL were not significant. The overall score of faculty facilitators, however, was statistically significant for resident facilitators. (p = .05). CONCLUSION: 1) Residents are an effective supplement to faculty members for PBL; 2) Additional facilitators for PBL sessions can be identified in an institution by involvement of residents in teacher training workshop

Evaluation of pharmaceutical industry - Sponsored educational events attended by physicians in Pakistan

The objectives of this study were to identify and document various medical educational events attended by physicians in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study using a structured questionnaire was undertaken with a representative sample of physicians in four major cities: Bahawalpur and Lahore in Punjab province and Loralai and Quetta in Balochistan province. All the data were analyzed using SPSS version 15. Frequencies and percentages were used to summarize the data, and Chi-squared tests, Fisher Exact tests, and Spearman rho were used whenever appropriate. The main study finding indicated that most of the physicians (i.e. general practitioners (GP), GP/specialists and specialists) had attended industry-sponsored educational events. It was found that 173 (69.2%) of 250 respondents attended 727 educational events during the last 1 year. Of these 727 events, 222 (30.54%) were lectures, 207 (29.47%) were scientific conferences, 112 (15.41%) were drug launching ceremonies, 58 (7.98%) were seminars, 38 (5.23%) were training courses and 29 (3.99%) were discussion forums. Out of 173, most of the doctors attended educational events organized by professional organizations of the medical community and sponsored/co-organized by the pharmaceutical industry (n = 115, 67.3%; p = 0.001). Some of them (n = 27, 15.8%) attended the events which were organized by pharmaceutical companies independently, without involvement of professional organizations. The pharmaceutical industry was the largest sponsor source for physicians (n = 123, 71.9%) to attend educational events. The type of expenses paid for attending the educational events included meals (n = 162, 94.7%), accommodations (n = 118, 96%; p < 0.001), airfare (n = 96, 56%; p < 0.001), registration fees (n = 96, 56%; p < 0.001), taxi fare (n = 75, 43.9%; p = 0.012), and participation fees (n = 14, 8.2%). Educational events are extensively being used as a promotional tool for pharmaceutical products. The findings of the current study reflect the significant role of the pharmaceutical industry in the organization of doctor-led educational events.Imran Masood, Mohamed Izham Mohamed Ibrahim, Mohamed Azmi Ahmad Hassali, Mahmood Ahmad and Peter R Mansfiel