Fostering Transformative Learning, Self-reflexivity and Medical Citizenship Through Guided Tours of Disadvantaged Neighborhoods

Background and objectives: Medical school curricula increasingly seek to promote medical students’ commitment to redressing health disparities, but traditional pedagogical approaches have fallen short of this goal. The objective of this work was to assess the value of using community-based guided tours of disadvantaged neighborhoods to fill this gap. Methods: A total of 50 second-year medical students participated in a guided tour of disadvantaged public housing neighborhoods in Richmond, Virginia. Students completed self-reflexive writing exercises during a post-tour debriefing session. Student writings were analyzed to assess the tour’s effect on their awareness of poverty’s impact on vulnerable populations’ health and wellbeing, and their personal reactions to the tour. Results: Student writings indicated that the activity fostered transformative learning experiences around the issue of poverty and its effects on health and stimulated a personal commitment to working with underserved populations. Themes from qualitative analysis included: increased awareness of the extent of poverty, enhanced self-reflexive attitude towards personal feelings, biases and misperceptions concerning the poor, increased intentional awareness of the effects of poverty on patient health and well-being, and, encouragement to pursue careers of medical service. Conclusions: This pilot demonstrated that incorporating self-reflexive learning exercises into a brief community-based guided tour can enhance the social consciousness of medical students by deepening understandings of health disparities and promoting transformative learning experiences

Selective Population of Edge States in a 2D Topological Band System

We consider a system of interacting spin-one atoms in a hexagonal lattice under the presence of a synthetic gauge field. Quenching the quadratic Zeeman field is shown to lead to a dynamical instability of the edge modes. This, in turn, leads to a spin current along the boundary of the system which grows exponentially fast in time following the quench. Tuning the magnitude of the quench can be used to selectively populate edge modes of different momenta. Implications of the intrinsic symmetries of Hamiltonian on the dynamics are discussed. The results hold for atoms with both antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic interactions.Comment: 7 pages (expanded Supplemental Material

Spectroscopic Constants and Vibrational Frequencies for l-C3H+ and Isotopologues from Highly-Accurate Quartic Force Fields: The Detection of l-C3H+ in the Horsehead Nebula PDR Questioned

Very recently, molecular rotational transitions observed in the photon-dominated region of the Horsehead nebula have been attributed to l-C3H+. In an effort to corroborate this finding, we employed state-of-the art and proven high-accuracy quantum chemical techniques to compute spectroscopic constants for this cation and its isotopologues. Even though the B rotational constant from the fit of the observed spectrum and our computations agree to within 20 MHz, a typical level of accuracy, the D rotational constant differs by more than 40%, while the H rotational constant differs by three orders of magnitude. With the likely errors in the rotational transition energies resulting from this difference in D on the order of 1 MHz for the lowest observed transition (J = 4 <- 3) and growing as J increases, the assignment of the observed rotational lines from the Horsehead nebula to l-C3H+ is questionable

From Linked Data to Relevant Data -- Time is the Essence

The Semantic Web initiative puts emphasis not primarily on putting data on the Web, but rather on creating links in a way that both humans and machines can explore the Web of data. When such users access the Web, they leave a trail as Web servers maintain a history of requests. Web usage mining approaches have been studied since the beginning of the Web given the log's huge potential for purposes such as resource annotation, personalization, forecasting etc. However, the impact of any such efforts has not really gone beyond generating statistics detailing who, when, and how Web pages maintained by a Web server were visited.Comment: 1st International Workshop on Usage Analysis and the Web of Data (USEWOD2011) in the 20th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2011), Hyderabad, India, March 28th, 201

The Possible Interstellar Anion CH2CN-: Spectroscopic Constants, Vibrational Frequencies, and Other Considerations

It is hypothesized that the A ^1B_1 <- X ^1A' excitation into the dipole-bound state of the cyanomethyl anion (CH2CN-) is proposed as the carrier for one diffuse interstellar band. However, this particular molecular system has not been detected in the interstellar medium even though the related cyanomethyl radical and the isoelectronic ketenimine molecule have been found. In this study we are employing the use of proven quartic force fields and second-order vibrational perturbation theory to compute accurate spectroscopic constants and fundamental vibrational frequencies for ^1A' CH2CN- in order to assist in laboratory studies and astronomical observations

Integrated Navigation System: Not a Sum of Its Parts

Similar to the evolutionary process for living organisms, marine navigation systems are becoming increasingly complex and sophisticated. Both by design and function, shipboard and shore-based navigation systems are no longer individual equipment components operating independently. Instead, the trend is toward integration, data fusion and synergy. One example of this are new Performance Standards being considered by IMO to achieve a “harmonized” presentation of all navigation-related information on the display of an integrated navigation system (INS). Unlike a dedicated display for ECDIS or radar, the new INS displays will be a task-oriented composite presentations that enable the mariner to configure the display for an operational situation by selecting specific chart, radar, radar plotting aids (ARPA) and AIS information that is required for the task-at-hand. This paper gives a brief overview of the trend toward the development of INS. In addition to a brief summary of IMO performance standards for navigation equipment/systems, specific mention is made about a BSH (Germany) report on the “Functional Scope and Model of INS.” A discussion is provided about the challenges of providing navigation safety information that goes beyond traditional boundaries of products and services. Currently, many agencies continue to produce individual products and services on a component basis. Hydrographic offices grapple with trying to provide multiple products and services for paper charts, raster navigational charts (RNCs) and electronic navigational charts (ENCs) while a same time, Coast Guard and Maritime Safety agencies focus on improving Aids-to-Navigation (AtoN), Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), AIS networks -- and more recently, port security. In some respects, the continued concentration on separate products and services represents an organizational reluctance to change. This in turn, results in a fragmented, sub-optimal approach to the safety-of-navigation caused by the inability to provide mariners with “seamless” information at reasonable cost. In particular, hydrographic offices must be willing to recognize that chart information can no longer be considered to be separate, individual products. When it comes to the provision and use of chart-related information for use in an INS, the focus needs to shift to what information is actually desired, how it will be provided, what other information it will be used with, and whether it is truly up-todate