The Case for Heterodoxy

Despite being originally designed to educate men, honors programs are not very attractive to male students in general and to male students of color in particular. Because access to honors programs is limited by a credentialing process that favors white men, many members of minority groups find them inhospitable and are significantly underrepresented. This essay suggests three concepts to be used to reimagine honors programs to be more welcoming of minority students: radical hospitality, asset-based thinking, and heterodoxy

Full-Cycle Assessment of Critical Thinking in an Ethics and Science Course

Enhancing critical thinking skills for undergraduate students is important across the curriculum and between disciplines. We report on a method of improving critical thinking skills, which was studied through an Ethics and Science First-Year Seminar course. We used full cycle assessment over a three-year period to assess students’ development and to modify the course teaching and assignments with the goal of increasing student development of critical thinking skills. Data were obtained from student writing throughout the semester during each offering. Modest, but significant, overall gains of ~0.7 on a 4 point scale are reported between early and midterm assignments in the course using a seven trait assessment rubric. Key factors that contribute to the increase in critical thinking skills are identified including peer review, scaffolded assignments, and the use of a grading rubric for each assignment

When Operating on Dead People Saves Lives: Benefits of Surgical Organ Donor Intensivists

Solid organ transplantation has emerged as a life-saving treatment for many patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. Organs have been successfully recovered after a variety of aggressive interventions. We propose that decompressive laparotomy, when clinically indicated, should be considered in the aggressive resuscitation of potential organ donors. A thorough literature review examining aggressive interventions on potential organ donors was conducted after experience with a unique case at this institution. Articles were reviewed for the types of interventions performed as well as the time frame in relation to organ donation. In our case, several ethical issues were raised when considering decompressive laparotomy in a patient pronounced dead by neurologic criteria. We propose that having a surgical intensivist involved in the management of potential donors will further increase the salvage rate, as more invasive resuscitation options are possible

Temperature dependent photoluminescence of single CdS nanowires

Temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) is used to study the electronic properties of single CdS nanowires. At low temperatures, both near-band edge (NBE) photoluminescence (PL) and spatially-localized defect-related PL are observed in many nanowires. The intensity of the defect states is a sensitive tool to judge the character and structural uniformity of nanowires. As the temperature is raised, the defect states rapidly quench at varying rates leaving the NBE PL which dominates up to room temperature. All PL lines from nanowires follow closely the temperature-dependent band edge, similar to that observed in bulk CdS.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

When Operating on Dead People Saves Lives: Benefits of Surgical Organ Donor Intensivists

Solid organ transplantation has emerged as a life-saving treatment for many patients suffering from end-stage organ failure. Organs have been successfully recovered after a variety of aggressive interventions. We propose that decompressive laparotomy, when clinically indicated, should be considered in the aggressive resuscitation of potential organ donors. A thorough literature review examining aggressive interventions on potential organ donors was conducted after experience with a unique case at this institution. Articles were reviewed for the types of interventions performed as well as the time frame in relation to organ donation. In our case, several ethical issues were raised when considering decompressive laparotomy in a patient pronounced dead by neurologic criteria. We propose that having a surgical intensivist involved in the management of potential donors will further increase the salvage rate, as more invasive resuscitation options are possible

Low temperature photoluminescence imaging and time-resolved spectroscopy of single CdS nanowires

Time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) and micro-PL imaging were used to study single CdS nanowires at 10 K. The low-temperature PL of all CdS nanowires exhibit spectral features near energies associated with free and bound exciton transitions, with the transition energies and emission intensities varying along the length of the nanowire. In addition, several nanowires show spatially localized PL at lower energies which are associated with morphological irregularities in the nanowires. Time-resolved PL measurements indicate that exciton recombination in all CdS nanowires is dominated by non-radiative recombination at the surface of the nanowires.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Applied Physics Letter

Distributive justice and patient selection

There are not always enough medical resources to go around and pluralist theories of decision making generally do not explain the principle of justice in a way that provides action-guidance. I adopt a modified and expanded form of the claims-based approach of Rescher and Broome as the framework for a substantive and action-guiding theory of distributive justice. The resulting theory is that limited resources should be distributed according to the strength of a person's entitlement to a resource. In order to determine a person's entitlement, one must determine what context-relevant rights the person has and the strength of his or her claim to the resource, which is determined by a weighing up of context-relevant considerations, which are facts about a person's condition or situation within a certain context that ceteris paribus generate some kind of duty that they be given (or denied, depending on the consideration) the resource. Since both of these are context dependent, I discuss patients' entitlements in terms of limited medical resources

Polarization and temperature dependence of photoluminescence from zincblende and wurtzite InP nanowires

We use polarization-resolved and temperature-dependent photoluminescence of single zincblende (ZB) (cubic) and wurtzite (WZ) (hexagonal) InPnanowires to probe differences in selection rules and bandgaps between these two semiconductor nanostructures. The WZ nanowires exhibit a bandgap80meV higher in energy than the ZB nanowires. The temperature dependence of the PL is similar but not identical for the WZ and ZB nanowires. We find that ZB nanowires exhibit strong polarization parallel to the nanowire axis, while the WZ nanowires exhibit polarized emission perpendicular to the nanowire axis. This behavior is interpreted in terms of the different selection rules for WZ and ZB crystal structures.A.M., L.V.T., T.B.H., H.E.J., L.M.S., and J.M.Y.-R. acknowledge support from the Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology of the University of Cincinnati and the National Science Foundation through Grant Nos. EEC/NUE 0532495 and ECCS 0701703. The Australian authors acknowledge support from the Australian Research Council. Y.K. acknowledges support by the Korean Science and Engineering Foundation KOSEF through Grant No. F01- 2007-000-10087-0