Evaluation of a flipped examination model implemented in a final-year undergraduate pharmacotherapeutics course

© 2019, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. Objective. To assess final-year pharmacy students’ performance on and evaluate their experience with a “flipped examination” vs a traditional examination for an advanced clinical pharmacy course. Methods. Students devised multiple-choice questions for the flipped examination. The Biggs revised 2-factor Study Process Questionnaire was administered before and after the examination to assess any possible changes in the students’ perceptions of their level of engagement in the learning process. Focus group discussions also were conducted to further gauge the students’ feedback and insights into the flipped examination experience. Results. Changes in mean total study process scores at the deep and surface levels of learning were significant. The flipped examination experience was enjoyable, facilitated a less-stressful learning environment, and improved the students’ learning satisfaction, knowledge, and assessment grades. Conclusion. The flipped examination model is an innovative instructional approach that can bring about significant educational gains if designed well pedagogically

General analysis and optimization of the four-detector photopolarimeter

The four-detector photopolarimeter (FDP) is analyzed for an arbitrary spatial configuration and any reflection characteristics (ri, ψi, Δi) of the first three detectors. The instrument matrix A, which relates the output signal vector I to the input Stokes vector S by I = AS, and its determinant are derived explicitly. The essential condition that A be nonsingular (det A ≠ 0) is satisfied in general with uncoated absorbing detector surfaces, assuming that the plane of incidence (POI) is rotated between successive reflections by other than 90°. Therefore no special coatings on the detectors are required, and a thin dielectric (e.g., thermal oxide) layer would suffice. The differential reflection phase shift Δ is unrestricted for the first and 0third detectors and has optimum values of ±90° for the second. The optimum rotation angles of the POI are ±45° and ±135°. The optimum values of the surface parameter ψ are 27.37°, 22.5° or 67.5°, and 0 or 90° for the first, second, and third reflections, respectively. The following topics are also considered: (1) the partition of energy among detectors, (2) the effect of tilting the last detector, (3) operation of the FDP over a broadband spectral range, (4) choice of the light-beam path, and (5) calibration

Follicular thyroid carcinoma: Differences in clinical relevance between minimally invasive and widely invasive tumors

Evidence on the biological behavior and clinical courses of minimally invasive and widely invasive follicular thyroid carcinoma (MI-FTC, WI-FTC) is still debatable. The current study was conducted to identify differences between MI and WI tumors and those prognostic parameters influencing late outcome such as local recurrence and survival

Toxicity and field persistence of thiamethoxam and dinotefuran against cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassica L. (Homoptera: Aphididae) under laboratory and field conditions

Cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassica L. is one of the most destructive and economically important insect pests of canola (Brassica napus L.) worldwide including Egypt. Few information is available on the effect of neonicotinoid insecticides (thiamethoxam and dinotefuran) against cabbage aphid on canola fields in Egypt, particularly in Assiut Governorate. Thus, this study was carried out to evaluate the toxicity and field persistence of thiamethoxam and dinotefuran against cabbage aphid under laboratory and field conditions. Under laboratory condition, thiamethoxam was showed high toxic effect against adult field strain of cabbage aphid with LC50 values, 84.10, 6.60 and 3.21 mg/L after 24, 48 and 72 hrs post treatment, respectively.  In addition, dinotefuran also exhibited toxic effect against this pest but less than thiamethoxam where the LC50 values were 300.50, 43.85 and 6.74 mgL-1, respectively after the periods of exposure. Based on the relative potency values, thiamethoxam was more effective than dinotefuran with 3.6, 6.6 and 2.1 fold after the periods of exposure. Under field condition, both thiamethoxam and dinotefuran exhibited efficiency against cabbage aphid population on canola plants after one, three, seven, fifteen and twenty-one days of treatments but thiamethoxam was more efficient than dinotefuran. Cabbage aphid reduction percent were 62.07, 89.80, 96.02, 96.59 and 94.55% for thiamethoxam and 8.58, 65.63, 86.77, 93.92 and 71.18% for dinotefuran after periods of exposure. The obtained data from this study indicated that thiamethoxam have a high toxicity effect against cabbage aphid under laboratory and field conditions. Based on our results, we suggest using thiamethoxam for cabbage aphid control in canola fields in Assiut Governorate, however more trails are needed about which in other Egyptian Governorates

Gyroid Optical Metamaterials: Calculating the Effective Permittivity of Multidomain Samples

Gold gyroid optical metamaterials are known to possess a reduced plasma frequency and linear dichroism imparted by their intricate subwavelength single gyroid morphology. The anisotropic optical properties are, however, only evident when a large individual gyroid domain is investigated. Multidomain gyroid metamaterials, fabricated using a polyisoprene-$b$-polystyrene-$b$-poly(ethylene oxide) triblock terpolymer and consisting of multiple small gyroid domains with random orientation and handedness, instead exhibit isotropic optical properties. Comparing three effective medium models, we here show that the specular reflectance spectra of such multidomain gyroid optical metamaterials can be accurately modeled over a broad range of incident angles by a Bruggeman effective medium consisting of a random wire array. This model accurately reproduces previously published results tracking the variation in normal incidence reflectance spectra of gold gyroid optical metamaterials as a function of host refractive index and volume fill fraction of gold. The effective permittivity derived from this theory confirms the change in sign of the real part of the permittivity in the visible spectral region (so, that gold gyroid metamaterials exhibit both dielectric and metallic behavior at optical wavelengths). That a Bruggeman effective medium can accurately model the experimental reflectance spectra implies that small multidomain gold gyroid optical metamaterials behave both qualitatively and quantitatively as an amorphous composite of gold and air (i.e., nanoporous gold) and that coherent electromagnetic contributions arising from the subwavelength gyroid symmetry are not dominant.This research was supported through the Swiss National Science Foundation through the National Center of Competence in Research Bio-Inspired Materials and grant numbers 200021_163220 (to U.S.) and PZ00P2_168223 (to B.D.W.), the Adolphe Merkle Foundation, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the Cambridge NanoDTC EP/G037221/1, EP/L027151/1, and EP/ G060649/1, and ERC LINASS 320503 and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 706329 (to I.G.). Y.G. and U.W. thank the National Science Foundation (DMR-1409105) for financial support