Developing undergraduates' awareness of metacognitive knowledge in writing through problem - based learning

Metacognitive awareness can improve students’ writing proficiency. Engaging and supporting students in the writing process can increase their metacognitive awareness. This study investigates the effects of a problem-based learning approach on the awareness of metacognitive knowledge of Nigerian undergraduates in writing. An intact class of second-year students in an English composition course participated in the study. The study was conducted over a period of 12 weeks. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used in data collection. A metacognitive questionnaire was administered before and after the PBL treatment. Semi-structured interview was also carried out at the end of the treatment. The results showed significant effects of the PBL approach on the participants’ awareness of metacognitive knowledge of task requirements, personal learning process, strategy use, text and accuracy, problem solving and discourse features. The findings from the interview revealed that the nature of the ill-structured problem, which is related to their real life, and the interactions during the PBL process increased the participants’ awareness of metacognitive knowledge. The findings further showed that PBL approach could be adopted by ESL instructors and teachers to increase students’ awareness of metacognitive knowledge which in turn can enhance their writing proficiency

Synthesis and antitrypanosomal activities of novel pyridylchalcones

Collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.A library of novel pyridylchalcones were synthesised and screened against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense. Eight were shown to have good activity with the most potent 8 having an IC50 value of 0.29 M. Cytotoxicity testing with human KB cells showed a good selectivity profile for this compound with a selectivity index of 47. Little activity was seen when the library was tested against Leishmania donovani. In conclusion, pyridylchalcones are promising leads in the development of novel compounds for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT)

A Pilot Study on Nurse-Led Rounds: Preliminary Data on Patient Contact Time

IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY. Ward rounding has been a historical clinical method of inter-professional collaboration to support inpatient care through the sharing of mental models by exchanging information and discussing plans of care, treatment goals, and discharge plans for the patient. The extant literature reports that rounds are frequently led by doctors with infrequent nurse-physician collaboration and patients’ interactions with doctors during ward rounds tend to be brief. OBJECTIVE. To explore the effects of nurse-led morning ward rounds on patient contact time. DESIGN. An ethnographic prospective observational study comparing nurse-led and physician-led rounds. SETTING. A General Medicine ward at the National University Hospital in Singapore. INTERVENTION. A pilot intervention of nurse-led ward rounds for one week in June 2014. In the pilot intervention, nurses used the SPICES mnemonic to present their patients’ conditions to the clinical teams during morning rounds. MEASURES AND ANALYSES. Two observers shadowed the clinical teams for 57 patients. The amount of time that the clinical teams spent at the bedside of each patient was recorded. RESULTS. The results showed that the average time spent with patients at the bedside was significantly longer for nurse-led rounds compared to physician-led rounds. Also, the average time spent with patients at the bedside trended down toward the end of the 2-hour morning round time for resident-led ward rounds but it remained relatively consistent with an upward trend near the end of the 2-hour morning round for nurse-led rounds. CONCLUSION. The preliminary data suggests that quality time spent with patients at the bedside during morning rounds may be improved by nurse-led rounds

Factors Associated With Prolonged Length of Stay for Elective Hepatobiliary and Neurosurgery Patients: A Retrospective Medical Record Review

Background: Patients with prolonged length of hospital stay (LOS) not only increase their risks of nosocomial infections but also deny other patients access to inpatient care. Hepatobiliary (HPB) malignancies have some of highest incidences in East and Southeast Asia and the management of patients undergoing HPB surgeries have yet to be standardized. With improved neurosurgery techniques for intracranial aneurysms and tumors, neurosurgeries (NS) can be expected to increase. Elective surgeries account for far more operations than emergencies surgeries. Thus, with potentially increased numbers of elective HPB and NS, this study seeks to explore perioperative factors associated with prolonged LOS for these patients to improve safety and quality of practice. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional medical record review study from January 2014 to January 2015 was conducted at a 1250-bed tertiary academic hospital in Singapore. All elective HPB and NS patients over 18　years old were included in the study except day and emergency surgeries, resulting in 150 and 166 patients respectively. Prolonged LOS was defined as above median LOS based on the complexity of the surgical procedure. The predictor variables were preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors. Student\u27s t-test and stepwise logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine which factors were associated with prolonged LOS. Results: Factors associated with prolonged LOS for the HPB sample were age and admission after 5　pm but for the NS sample, they were functional status, referral to occupational therapy, and the number of hospital-acquired infections. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that preoperative factors had the greatest association with prolonged LOS for HPB and NS elective surgeries even after adjusting for surgical complexity, suggesting that patient safety and quality of care may be improved with better pre-surgery patient preparation and admission practices

Decreased health-related quality of life in disease-free survivors of differentiated thyroid cancer in Korea

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Concern regarding the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of long-term survivors of thyroid cancer has risen due to the rapid increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer, which generally has an excellent prognosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the status of HRQOL in disease-free survivors of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) and to evaluate the important determinants of HRQOL.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This was a cross-sectional study in which we interviewed consecutive disease-free survivors of DTC. Three different validated questionnaires ("EORTC QLQ-C30" for various functional domains, the "brief fatigue inventory (BFI)" and the "hospital anxiety and depression scale" (HADS)) were used. Data from a large, population based survey of 1,000 people were used as a control.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The response rate for the questionnaires was 78.9% (316/401). Disease-free survivors of DTC showed a decreased HRQOL in all five functional domains (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social) on the EORTC QLQ-C30 compared with controls (<it>P </it>< 0.01). BFI and HADS-anxiety scores also showed greater distress in disease-free survivors of DTC than in controls (<it>P </it>< 0.05). A multiple regression analysis for the determinants of HRQOL showed that the HADS-anxiety, HADS-depression, and BFI scores were the most significant components of decreased HRQOL.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Although disease-free survivors of DTC are expected to have disease-specific survival comparable to the general population, they experience a significantly decreased HRQOL. Anxiety, depression, and fatigue were the major determinants of the decreased HRQOL. Supportive psychological care should be integrated into the management of long-term survivors of DTC.</p

Quantitative Excited State Spectroscopy of a Single InGaAs Quantum Dot Molecule through Multi-million Atom Electronic Structure Calculations

Atomistic electronic structure calculations are performed to study the coherent inter-dot couplings of the electronic states in a single InGaAs quantum dot molecule. The experimentally observed excitonic spectrum [12] is quantitatively reproduced, and the correct energy states are identified based on a previously validated atomistic tight binding model. The extended devices are represented explicitly in space with 15 million atom structures. An excited state spectroscopy technique is presented in which the externally applied electric field is swept to probe the ladder of the electronic energy levels (electron or hole) of one quantum dot through anti-crossings with the energy levels of the other quantum dot in a two quantum dot molecule. This technique can be applied to estimate the spatial electron-hole spacing inside the quantum dot molecule as well as to reverse engineer quantum dot geometry parameters such as the quantum dot separation. Crystal deformation induced piezoelectric effects have been discussed in the literature as minor perturbations lifting degeneracies of the electron excited (P and D) states, thus affecting polarization alignment of wave function lobes for III-V Heterostructures such as single InAs/GaAs quantum dots. In contrast this work demonstrates the crucial importance of piezoelectricity to resolve the symmetries and energies of the excited states through matching the experimentally measured spectrum in an InGaAs quantum dot molecule under the influence of an electric field. Both linear and quadratic piezoelectric effects are studied for the first time for a quantum dot molecule and demonstrated to be indeed important. The net piezoelectric contribution is found to be critical in determining the correct energy spectrum, which is in contrast to recent studies reporting vanishing net piezoelectric contributions.Comment: Accepted for publication in IOP Nanotechnology Journa

Shallow Iodine Defects Accelerate the Degradation of α-Phase Formamidinium Perovskite

Shallow defects are mostly benign in covalent semiconductors, such as silicon, given that they do not constitute non-radiative recombination sites. In contrast, the existence of shallow defects in ionic perovskite crystals might have significant repercussions on the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because of the metastability of the ubiquitous formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI₃) perovskite and the migration of charged point defects. Here, we show that shallow iodine interstitial defects (I_i) can be generated unintentionally during commonly used post-fabrication treatments, which can lower the cubic-to-hexagonal transformation barrier of FAPbI3-based perovskites to accelerate its phase degradation. We demonstrate that concurrently avoiding the generation of I_i and the more effective passivation of iodine vacancies (V_ī) can improve the thermodynamic stability of the films and operational stability of the PSCs. Our most stable PSC retained 92.1 % of its initial performance after nearly 1,000 h of continuous illumination operational stability testing

Shallow Iodine Defects Accelerate the Degradation of α-Phase Formamidinium Perovskite

Shallow defects are mostly benign in covalent semiconductors, such as silicon, given that they do not constitute non-radiative recombination sites. In contrast, the existence of shallow defects in ionic perovskite crystals might have significant repercussions on the long-term stability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) because of the metastability of the ubiquitous formamidinium lead triiodide (FAPbI₃) perovskite and the migration of charged point defects. Here, we show that shallow iodine interstitial defects (I_i) can be generated unintentionally during commonly used post-fabrication treatments, which can lower the cubic-to-hexagonal transformation barrier of FAPbI3-based perovskites to accelerate its phase degradation. We demonstrate that concurrently avoiding the generation of I_i and the more effective passivation of iodine vacancies (V_ī) can improve the thermodynamic stability of the films and operational stability of the PSCs. Our most stable PSC retained 92.1 % of its initial performance after nearly 1,000 h of continuous illumination operational stability testing

Reading your Counterpart: The Benefit of Emotion Recognition Accuracy for Effectiveness in Negotiation

Abstract Using meta-analysis, we find a consistent positive correlation between emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) and goal-oriented performance. However, this existing research relies primarily on subjective perceptions of performance. The current study tested the impact of ERA on objective performance in a mixed-motive buyer-seller negotiation exercise. Greater recognition of posed facial expressions predicted better objective outcomes for participants from Singapore playing the role of seller, both in terms of creating value and claiming a greater share for themselves. The present study is distinct from past research on the effects of individual differences on negotiation outcomes in that it uses a performance-based test rather than self-reported measure. These results add to evidence for the predictive validity of emotion recognition measures on practical outcomes