7,321 research outputs found
Widening access in selection using situational judgement tests: evidence from the UKCAT
CONTEXT Widening access promotes student diversity and the appropriate representation of all demographic groups. This study aims to examine diversity-related benefits of the use of situational judgement tests (SJTs) in the UK Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT) in terms of three demographic variables: (i) socioeconomic status (SES); (ii) ethnicity, and (iii) gender.
METHODS Outcomes in medical and dental school applicant cohorts for the years 2012 (n = 15 581) and 2013 (n = 15 454) were studied. Applicants' scores on cognitive tests and an SJT were linked to SES (parents' occupational status), ethnicity (White versus Black and other minority ethnic candidates), and gender.
RESULTS Firstly, the effect size for SES was lower for the SJT (d = 0.13-0.20 in favour of the higher SES group) than it was for the cognitive tests (d = 0.38-0.35). Secondly, effect sizes for ethnicity of the SJT and cognitive tests were similar (d = similar to 0.50 in favour of White candidates). Thirdly, males outperformed females on cognitive tests, whereas the reverse was true for SJTs. When equal weight was given to the SJT and the cognitive tests in the admission decision and when the selection ratio was stringent, simulated scenarios showed that using an SJT in addition to cognitive tests might enable admissions boards to select more students from lower SES backgrounds and more female students.
CONCLUSIONS The SJT has the potential to appropriately complement cognitive tests in the selection of doctors and dentists. It may also put candidates of lower SES backgrounds at less of a disadvantage and may potentially diversify the student intake. However, use of the SJT applied in this study did not diminish the role of ethnicity. Future research should examine these findings with other SJTs and other tests internationally and scrutinise the causes underlying the role of ethnicity
Segregation in noninteracting binary mixture
Process of stripe formation is analyzed numerically in a binary mixture. The
system consists of particles of two sizes, without any direct mutual
interactions. Overlapping of large particles, surrounded by a dense system of
smaller particles induces indirect entropy driven interactions between large
particles. Under an influence of an external driving force the system orders
and stripes are formed. Mean width of stripes grows logarithmically with time,
in contrast to a typical power law temporal increase observed for driven
interacting lattice gas systems. We describe the mechanism responsible for this
behavior and attribute the logarithmic growth to a random walk of large
particles in a random potential due to the small ones.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Development of a container for handling, testing, and storing discrete microelectronic components
A container has been developed for handling, testing, burning-in, and storing discrete microelectronic components without removal from the protective package. The package was designed to accommodate the leadless inverted device and other carrier-mounted active devices and chip-type discrete resistors and capacitors. Before the indicated development, components were handled and tested in various ways, some of which resulted in damage or contamination. The basic design of the container utilizes precision machined printed circuit boards and chemically milled (photoetched) contact springs. Included in this design for protection is an O-ring-sealed cover. Methods of fabrication and limitations of the current hardware are presented. Current applications of and possible extensions to the technology are discussed
TBC of the thoracic wall with fistulisation through the breast
A 53-year-old North African woman presented with a longstanding history of ulcerations of the right breast. Physical examination showed (Fig. 1 subfigure) an ulcer of 1.5 cm in the outer inferior quadrant, another smaller areolar ulcer and a discharging sinus tract in the inframammary sulcus. Apart from female genital mutilation, her past medical history was negative. Laboratory work up was essentially normal, culture of the ulcers were taken. Mammography showed infra-areolar skin retraction, associated with irregular, high density distortion of the breast tissue. Ultrasound (Fig. 1) revealed communicating sinus tracts coming from an intercostal mass with central necrosis. Mobile internal echoes were suggestive for abscess formation and a truecut biopsy was taken. An important granulomatous inflammatory pattern and fibrosis were found. Axillary lymphadenopathy was present
Complete elimination of information leakage in continuous-variable quantum communication channels
In all lossy communication channels realized to date, information is
inevitably leaked to a potential eavesdropper. Here we present a communication
protocol that does not allow for any information leakage to a potential
eavesdropper in a purely lossy channel. By encoding information into a
restricted Gaussian alphabet of squeezed states we show, both theoretically and
experimentally, that the Holevo information between the eavesdropper and the
intended recipient can be exactly zero in a purely lossy channel while
minimized in a noisy channel. This result is of fundamental interest, but might
also have practical implications in extending the distance of secure quantum
key distribution.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure
Bootstrapping 3D Fermions with Global Symmetries
We study the conformal bootstrap for 4-point functions of fermions in parity-preserving 3d CFTs, where
transforms as a vector under an global symmetry. We compute
bounds on scaling dimensions and central charges, finding features in our
bounds that appear to coincide with the symmetric Gross-Neveu-Yukawa
fixed points. Our computations are in perfect agreement with the
expansion at large and allow us to make nontrivial predictions at small
. For values of for which the Gross-Neveu-Yukawa universality classes
are relevant to condensed-matter systems, we compare our results to previous
analytic and numerical results.Comment: 29 pages, 7 figure
Proactive resource allocation heuristics for robust project scheduling.
The well-known deterministic resource-constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) involves the determination of apredictive schedule (baseline schedule or pre-schedule)of the project activities that satisfies the finish-start precedence relations and the renewable resource constraints under the objective of minimizing the project duration. This pre-schedule serves as a baseline for the execution of the project. During execution, however, the project can be subject to several types of disruptions that may disturb the baseline schedule. Management must then rely on a reactive scheduling procedure for revising or reoptimizing the pre-schedule. The objective of our research is to develop procedures for allocating resources to the activities of a given baseline schedule in order to maximize its stability in the presence of activity duration variability. We propose three integer programming based heuristics and one constructive procedure for resource allocation. We derive lower bounds for schedule stability and report on computational results obtained on a set of benchmark problems.Research; Resource allocation; Project scheduling; Heuristics; Scheduling;
How quantum correlations enhance prediction of complementary measurements
If there are correlations between two qubits then the results of the
measurement on one of them can help to predict measurement results on the other
one. It is an interesting question what can be predicted about the results of
two complementary projective measurements on the first qubit. To quantify these
predictions the complementary \emph{knowledge excesses} are used. A non-trivial
constraint restricting them is derived. For any mixed state and for arbitrary
measurements the knowledge excesses are bounded by a factor depending only on
the maximal violation of Bell's inequalities. This result is experimentally
verified on two-photon Werner states prepared by means of spontaneous
parametric down-conversion.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A graph-based disambiguation approach for construction of an expert repository from public online sources
Spin injection and spin accumulation in permalloy-copper mesoscopic spin valves
We study the electrical injection and detection of spin currents in a lateral
spin valve device, using permalloy (Py) as ferromagnetic injecting and
detecting electrodes and copper (Cu) as non-magnetic metal. Our multi-terminal
geometry allows us to experimentally distinguish different magneto resistance
signals, being 1) the spin valve effect, 2) the anomalous magneto resistance
(AMR) effect and 3) Hall effects. We find that the AMR contribution of the Py
contacts can be much bigger than the amplitude of the spin valve effect, making
it impossible to observe the spin valve effect in a 'conventional' measurement
geometry. However, these 'contact' magneto resistance signals can be used to
monitor the magnetization reversal process, making it possible to determine the
magnetic switching fields of the Py contacts of the spin valve device. In a
'non local' spin valve measurement we are able to completely isolate the spin
valve signal and observe clear spin accumulation signals at T=4.2 K as well as
at room temperature. We obtain spin diffusion lengths in copper of 1 micrometer
and 350 nm at T=4.2 K and room temperature respectively.Comment: 8 pages (incl. figures), 7 figures, RevTex, conferenc
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