The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale

Death anxiety has been previously investigated by many means including questionnaires and physiological and behavioral measures. Prior research indicated that paper and pencil scales of death anxiety correlated with physiological measures of anxiety. The present study was an attempt to construct and validate a large paper and pencil scale to measure death anxiety by using physiological measures of anxiety as external validation criteria. Sixty-six white female students were randomly selected from a pool of 80 volunteers obtained from introductory Psychology classes at Eastern Illinois University. The physiological measure, changes in Galvanic Skin Response upon the presentation of 10 death-related and 20 neutral words, was recorded for each volunteer. Mean percent change in GSR, logarithm of mean percent change in GSR, and square root of mean percent change in GSR were computed for all 10 stimulus words for each student. A 102-item questionnaire was administered to each student and the above measures were correlated with each item of the questionnaire. This process yielded 16, 15, and 6 items respectively. A Kuder-Richardson measure of internal consistency indicated 44 items to be internally consistent. Twenty students were randomly selected to return and take the paper and pencil test in four weeks. A correlation of .8886, p .001 was obtained, an indication of a very high temporal reliability for the scale. It appears that death anxiety scales have high levels of internal consistency and temporal reliability but correlate very poorly with physiological indicators of anxiety

The Construction and Validation of a Death Anxiety Scale

Death anxiety has been previously investigated by many means including questionnaires and physiological and behavioral measures. Prior research indicated that paper and pencil scales of death anxiety correlated with physiological measures of anxiety. The present study was an attempt to construct and validate a large paper and pencil scale to measure death anxiety by using physiological measures of anxiety as external validation criteria. Sixty-six white female students were randomly selected from a pool of 80 volunteers obtained from introductory Psychology classes at Eastern Illinois University. The physiological measure, changes in Galvanic Skin Response upon the presentation of 10 death-related and 20 neutral words, was recorded for each volunteer. Mean percent change in GSR, logarithm of mean percent change in GSR, and square root of mean percent change in GSR were computed for all 10 stimulus words for each student. A 102-item questionnaire was administered to each student and the above measures were correlated with each item of the questionnaire. This process yielded 16, 15, and 6 items respectively. A Kuder-Richardson measure of internal consistency indicated 44 items to be internally consistent. Twenty students were randomly selected to return and take the paper and pencil test in four weeks. A correlation of .8886, p .001 was obtained, an indication of a very high temporal reliability for the scale. It appears that death anxiety scales have high levels of internal consistency and temporal reliability but correlate very poorly with physiological indicators of anxiety

Does the Foundational Model of Anatomy Ontology Provide a Knowledge Base for Learning and Assessment in Anatomy Education?

Throughout the development of the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) ontology, one of the use cases put forth has been anatomy education. In this work, we examine which types of knowledge taught to anatomy students can be supported by the FMA knowledge base. We first categorize types of anatomical knowledge, then express these patterns in the form “Given ____, state ____”. Each of the 33 patterns was evaluated for whether this type of knowledge is compatible with the modeling and scope of the FMA

Content-specific auditing of a large scale anatomy ontology

Biomedical ontologies are envisioned to be usable in a range of research and clinical applications. The requirements for such uses include formal consistency, adequacy of coverage, and possibly other domain specific constraints. In this report we describe a case study that illustrates how application specific requirements may be used to identify modeling problems as well as data entry errors in ontology building and evolution. We have begun a project to use the UW Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) in a clinical application in radiation therapy planning. This application focuses mainly (but not exclusively) on the representation of the lymphatic system in the FMA, in order to predict the spread of tumor cells to regional metastatic sites. This application requires that the downstream relations associated with lymphatic system components must only be to other lymphatic chains or vessels, must be at the appropriate level of granularity, and that every path through the lymphatic system must terminate at one of the two well known trunks of the lymphatic system. It is possible through a programmable query interface to the FMA to write small programs that systematically audit the FMA for compliance with these constraints. We report on the design of some of these programs, and the results we obtained by applying them to the lymphatic system. The algorithms and approach are generalizable to other network organ systems in the FMA such as arteries and veins. In addition to illustrating exact constraint checking methods, this work illustrates how the details of an application may reflect back a requirement to revise the design of the ontology itself

Fcc-bcc transition for Yukawa interactions determined by applied strain deformation

Calculations of the work required to transform between bcc and fcc phases yield a high-precision bcc-fcc transition line for monodisperse point Yukawa (screened-Couloumb) systems. Our results agree qualitatively but not quantitatively with previously published simulations and phenomenological criteria for the bcc-fcc transition. In particular, the bcc-fcc-fluid triple point lies at a higher inverse screening length than previously reported.Comment: RevTex4, 9 pages, 6 figures. Discussion of phase coexistence extended, a few other minor clarifications added, referencing improved. Accepted for publication by Physical Review

The formation of Encke meteoroids and dust trail

We observed comet 2P/Encke with the Infrared Space Observatory ISOCAM on July 14, 1997 from a particularly favorable viewing geometry above the comet's orbital plane and at a distance of 0.25 AU. A structured coma was observed, along with a long, straight dust trail. For the first time, we are able to observe the path of particles as they evolve from the nucleus to the trail. The particles that produce the infrared coma are large, with a radiation to gravitational force ratio betamm-sized particles). The dust trail follows the orbit of the comet across our image, with a central core that is 20,000 km wide, composed of particles with beta<1e-5 (size $\sim 5$ cm) from previous apparitions. The abundant large particles near the comet pose a significant hazard to spacecraft. There is no evidence of a classical cometary dust tail due to small particles with beta>0.001, in marked contrast to other comets like P/Halley or C/Hale-Bopp. The structure of the coma requires anisotropic emission and that the spin axis of the nucleus to be nearly parallel to the orbital plane, resulting in strong seasonal variations of the particle emission. While most of the infrared coma emission is due to dust produced during the 1997 apparition, the core of the dust trail requires emissions from previous apparitions. The total mass lost during the 1997 apparition is estimated to be 2-6e13 g. Comparing to the gas mass loss from ultraviolet observations, the dust-to-gas mass ratio is 10-30, much higher than has ever been suggested from visual light observations. Using the recently-measured nuclear diameter, we find that Encke can only last 3000-10,000 rhoN yr (where rhoN is the nuclear density in g/cc) at its present mass loss rate.Comment: manuscript in TeX, 10 figures (6 ps, 4 jpg); accepted by Icarus July 3, 200

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance

The all sky surveys done by the Palomar Observatory Schmidt, the European Southern Observatory Schmidt, and the United Kingdom Schmidt, the InfraRed Astronomical Satellite and the 2 Micron All Sky Survey have proven to be extremely useful tools for astronomy with value that lasts for decades. The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer is mapping the whole sky following its launch on 14 December 2009. WISE began surveying the sky on 14 Jan 2010 and completed its first full coverage of the sky on July 17. The survey will continue to cover the sky a second time until the cryogen is exhausted (anticipated in November 2010). WISE is achieving 5 sigma point source sensitivities better than 0.08, 0.11, 1 and 6 mJy in unconfused regions on the ecliptic in bands centered at wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns. Sensitivity improves toward the ecliptic poles due to denser coverage and lower zodiacal background. The angular resolution is 6.1, 6.4, 6.5 and 12.0 arc-seconds at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 microns, and the astrometric precision for high SNR sources is better than 0.15 arc-seconds.Comment: 22 pages with 19 included figures. Updated to better match the accepted version in the A

A Novel Curriculum for Medical Student Training in LGBTQ Healthcare: A Regional Pathway Experience.

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals face considerable health disparities, often due to a lack of LGBTQ-competent care. Such disparities and lack of access to informed care are even more staggering in rural settings. As the state medical school for the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) region, the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) is in a unique position to train future physicians to provide healthcare that meets the needs of LGBTQ patients both regionally and nationally. Objective: To describe our methodology of developing a student-driven longitudinal, region-wide curriculum to train medical students to provide high-quality care to LGBTQ patients. Methods: A 4-year LGBTQ Health Pathway was developed and implemented as a student-led initiative at the UWSOM. First- and second-year medical students at sites across the WWAMI region are eligible to apply. Accepted Pathway students complete a diverse set of pre-clinical and clinical components: online modules, didactic courses, longitudinal community service/advocacy work, a scholarly project, and a novel clinical clerkship in LGBTQ health developed specifically for this Pathway experience. Students who complete all requirements receive a certification of Pathway completion. This is incorporated into the Medical Student Performance Evaluation as part of residency applications. Results: The LGBTQ Health Pathway is currently in its fourth year. A total of 43 total students have enrolled, of whom 37.3% are based in the WWAMI region outside of Seattle. Pathway students have completed a variety of scholarly projects on LGBTQ topics, and over 1000 hours of community service/advocacy. The first cohort of 8 students graduated with a certificate of Pathway completion in spring 2020. Conclusions: The LGBTQ Health Pathway at UWSOM is a novel education program for motivated medical students across the 5-state WWAMI region. The diverse milestones, longitudinal nature of the program, focus on rural communities, and opportunities for student leadership are all strengths and unique aspects of this program. The Pathway curriculum and methodology described here serve as a model for student involvement and leadership in medical education. This program enables medical students to enhance their training in the care of LGBTQ patients and provides a unique educational opportunity for future physicians who strive to better serve LGBTQ populations