The Contribution of Nitric Oxide to the Skin Blood Flow Response to Exercise in Boys and Men

In response to heat stress, children sweat less than adults. However, little is known about their skin blood flow (SkBF) response. We investigated child-adult differences in SkBF during exercise (30 min at 60% VO2max) and local heating (44℃) in 12 boys (9.71.2 y) and 12 men (22.22.0 y) using laser-Doppler flowmetry and L-NAME to inhibit nitric oxide (NO). The exercise-induced SkBF increase was greater in boys versus men (p=0.03). L-NAME blunted SkBF response during exercise in boys and men (p<0.01) (758±201 to 429±229 percent change from baseline vs. 541.6±167 to 352±109 percent change from baseline, respectively). Boys had a shorter time delay between the onset of exercise and onset of SkBF response compared with men (p<0.01) and L-NAME increased the time delay in boys and men (205±48 to 268±90 s vs. 309±71 to 376±116 s, respectively) (p=0.01). During local heating, SkBF increases were greater in boys versus men (p<0.01) and L-NAME blunted the SkBF response in boys and men (2594±939 to 1630±791 percent change from baseline vs. 1600±605 to 1046±345 percent change from baseline, respectively) (p<0.01). These data suggest that boys experience greater and faster increases in SkBF during exercise and local skin heating compared with men. NO influence on microvasculature and thermoregulatory function was not different between boys and men

Cool Tools 2022 Spotlight: Airtable

Picture this: I’m opening up an Excel spreadsheet. Contained within are the citations for faculty publications that have been held up from being added to our institutional repository (IR). The reason for the delay? All of them need to have permissions requested from a publisher before we can load a PDF. I’m new to the Scholarly Publishing Librarian position and curious about what this part of the workflow might look like. And then I see that there are over 750 records-in-waiting. My next thought was: how the heck am I going to keep track of what I do to clear these out? There are so many of them! Thankfully, I found a way, and that way was building a lightweight database using Airtable. If you’re dealing with a complicated repository workflow, or do scholarly communications work, this post might be for you. I presented at AALL 2022 about using Airtable for project management, and I’d like to thank LIT-SIS for letting me share a summary here about this cool tool! Not doing IR work? That’s okay too; I believe if you have any workflow where a sequence of steps is relatively predictable but the timeline on which each step can be completed is not, you could build a similar project tracker

Faculty Workshop: Making SSRN Go Further and Going Further Than SSRN

This workshop was hosted by the University of Michigan Law Library and created by Sarah Woloschuk, Scholarly Publishing Librarian. It was presented on June 28 2023. This workshop is primarily intended for faculty who have their works included in the Faculty Publications listing and who would like to: Increase their awareness of how to optimize SSRN metadata and become more visible to potential readers Learn the benefits of including their works in SSRN and the institutional repository Learn what metrics information is available from each platform Provided here is a recording of the workshop presentation, as well as the slide deck with notes and a copy of the handout provided for the interactive component of the workshop.https://repository.law.umich.edu/presentations/1000/thumbnail.jp

A new soil survey report format for Saskatchewan

Non-Peer Reviewe

Going Global: GIS Day(s) 2020

GIS Day, a traditional drop-in and interactive event to promote and celebrate geospatial technology, is recognized by most if not all OCUL institutions. This year, the event went digital, thanks to Western University Library and several OCUL institututions, organizations, and over 30 volunteers, and 47 presenters.&nbsp; This article summarizes the planning, delivery and execution of this event.&nbsp; &nbsp

Implications of not matching to a first-choice discipline: a family medicine perspective

Background: Family medicine is often selected as an alternate career choice by medical students who do not match to their first choice discipline. Consequently, family medicine residency programs accept and train some residents who prepared for and intended a career in another specialty. The implications of this warrant investigation.Methods: Graduates (2006-2011) of Albertan family medicine residency programs were surveyed to examine differences between physicians who indicated family medicine was their first choice discipline and those who indicated that it was not their first choice. Survey questions targeted practice location, preparedness for practice, perceptions of family medicine, lifestyle satisfaction, and well-being. Principal components analysis was used to examine the factor structure of our survey items and ANOVA and Chi square were used to compare mean scores and proportions, respectively.Results: The overall response rate was 47.2% (307/651). Most (263) respondents reported that family medicine was their first choice discipline (yes-group); 42 respondents indicated that it was not (no-group) and two did not answer. The two groups were similar demographically. The no-group reported significantly lower mean scores on perceptions of family medicine. There were no significant differences between the two groups in their preparedness for practice and measures of lifestyle satisfaction and well-being.Conclusion: Irrespective of their perceptions of the discipline, the respondents who did not match to their first choice discipline found family medicine to be a viable career option

Comparison of Student Performance on Internally Prepared Clerkship Examinations and NBME Subject Examinations

Background: This pilot study compared performance of University of Calgary students on internal clerkship examinations with corresponding National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) subject examinations.Methods: Between April and October 2007, students completed internal and NBME subject examinations following six mandatory rotations. Local faculty within each discipline set the minimum performance level (MPL) for internal examinations. Two methods of standard setting were considered for NBME exams and a sensitivity analysis was performed. Corresponding internal and NBME examination scores were compared using McNemar’s discordant pair analysis.Results: A significant and unexpected difference in failure rate between internal and external examinations was found in all clerkships. 1.4% of students were below the MPL for internal examinations and 27.3% (modified Angoff) or 25.9% (mean Hofstee compromise) (p&lt;0.0001 for both) for the NBME. The proportion of students below MPL for internal examinations was also below the lower limit of the Hofstee compromise (14.4%).Conclusion: Possible explanations include leniency bias in internal standard setting, discrepant content validity between local curriculum and NBME examinations, difference in student perception of examinations, and performance bias due to unfamiliar units

The influence of objectives, learning experiences and examination blueprint on medical students' examination preparation

BACKGROUND: The influence of intended and informal curricula on examination preparation has not been extensively studied. This study aims to firstly describe how students utilized components of intended and informal curricula to guide examination preparation, and secondly to study the relationship between examination preparation and performance. METHODS: Students received a pre-examination questionnaire to identify components from the intended curriculum (objectives and examination blueprint), and informal curriculum (content emphasised during lectures and small groups), used during examination preparation. Multiple logistic regression was used to study the relationship between these variables and student performance (above versus at or below average). RESULTS: Eighty-one students participated. There was no difference in the proportions using the examination blueprint, content emphasised during lectures, and content emphasised during small groups (87 – 93%) but fewer students used objectives (35%, p < 0.001). Objectives use was associated with reduced odds of above average examination performance (adjusted odds ratio 0.27 [0.07, 0.97], p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: When preparing for the renal course examination, students were influenced at least as much by the informal as the intended curriculum. Of the two intended curriculum components, the examination blueprint appeared to be more widely used than the course objectives. This decreased use of objectives on examination preparation did not appear to have a detrimental effect on student performance

Peut-on prédire l'échec aux examens d’aptitude à partir des résultats scolaires des étudiants en médecine?

Background: In 2015, the Medical Council of Canada increased the minimum pass level for the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination Part I, and students had a higher rate of failure than in previous years. The purpose of this study was to predict students at an increased odds of examination failure to allow for early, targeted interventions.   Methods: We divided our dataset into a derivation cohort and two validation cohorts and used multiple logistic regression to predict licensing examination failure. We then performed receiver operating characteristics and a sensitivity analysis using different cutoffs for explanatory variables to identify the cutoff threshold with the best predictive value at identifying students at increased odds of failure. Results: After multivariate analysis, only pre-clerkship GPA was a significant independent predictor of failure (OR 0.76, 95% CI [0.66, 0.88], p &lt; 0.001). The probability of failure increased steeply when the pre-clerkship GPA fell below 80% and 76% was found to be the most efficient cutoff for predicting failure (OR 9.37, 95% CI [3.08, 38.41]). Conclusions: Pre-clerkship performance can predict students at increased odds of licensing examination failure. Further studies are needed to explore whether early interventions for at-risk students alter their examination performance.Contexte : En 2015, le Conseil médical du Canada a resserré les exigences de réussite à l’examen d’aptitude du Conseil médical du Canada, partie I, entraînant un taux d’échec plus élevé que les années précédentes. L’objectif de cette étude était de détecter les étudiants ayant de plus grande probabilité d’échec à l’examen afin de permettre des interventions ciblées en temps utile. Méthodes : Nous avons comparé les données d’une cohorte de dérivation et deux cohortes de validation et nous avons utilisé la régression logistique multiple pour prédire l’échec à l’examen d’aptitude. Nous avons ensuite effectué une analyse de la fonction d’efficacité du récepteur et une analyse de sensibilité en utilisant différents seuils pour les variables explicatives afin de déterminer la meilleure valeur prédictive seuil pour cibler une forte possibilité d’échec chez les étudiants. Résultats : L’analyse multivariée a révélé que seule la moyenne générale des étudiants était un prédicteur indépendant significatif de l’échec (OR 0.76, 95 % CI [0.66, 0.88], p &lt; 0.001). La probabilité d'échec augmentait fortement lorsque l'indice de moyenne générale tombait en dessous de 80 %. Le seuil le plus efficace pour prédire l’échec s'est avéré être 76 % (OR 9,37, 95 % CI [3,08, 38,41]). Conclusions : Les résultats scolaires des étudiants en médecine constituent un indicateur de risque d’échec à l’examen d’aptitude. Des études supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour vérifier si une intervention précoce auprès des étudiants à risque peut améliorer leurs résultats à l’examen

The influence of objectives, learning experiences and examination blueprint on medical students' examination preparation

BACKGROUND: The influence of intended and informal curricula on examination preparation has not been extensively studied. This study aims to firstly describe how students utilized components of intended and informal curricula to guide examination preparation, and secondly to study the relationship between examination preparation and performance. METHODS: Students received a pre-examination questionnaire to identify components from the intended curriculum (objectives and examination blueprint), and informal curriculum (content emphasised during lectures and small groups), used during examination preparation. Multiple logistic regression was used to study the relationship between these variables and student performance (above versus at or below average). RESULTS: Eighty-one students participated. There was no difference in the proportions using the examination blueprint, content emphasised during lectures, and content emphasised during small groups (87 – 93%) but fewer students used objectives (35%, p < 0.001). Objectives use was associated with reduced odds of above average examination performance (adjusted odds ratio 0.27 [0.07, 0.97], p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: When preparing for the renal course examination, students were influenced at least as much by the informal as the intended curriculum. Of the two intended curriculum components, the examination blueprint appeared to be more widely used than the course objectives. This decreased use of objectives on examination preparation did not appear to have a detrimental effect on student performance