Studenters opplevelse og evaluering av undervisning og læringsmiljø : presentasjon av course experience questionnaire (CEQ) - og validering av tre norske versjoner, erfaringer med studiet (EMS)

Course Experience Questionnare (CEQ) er et standardisert spørreskjema for studentevaluering av undervisning og læringsmiljø. I løpet av 1520 år er det blitt et in¬ternasjonalt kjent og anerkjent instrument for kart¬leg¬ging av opplevd undervisningskvalitet. CEQ er i bruk ved en rekke universitetet og høgskoler verden over; i Australia inngår det også i det nasjonale kvalitetssystemet. Course Experience Questionnaire er utviklet innenfor et universitets- og høg¬skolepedagogisk perspektiv omtalt som Student approaches to learning, i kort¬form SALtradi¬sjonen. Rapporten gir et innblikk i utviklingen av CEQ og SAL–tradisjonens perspektiv på forholdet mellom undervisning, studenters læring og studentevaluering av undervisning. Her framheves særlig CEQs rolle som verktøy i forhold til læreres/lærergruppers utviklings¬orienterte evaluering av egen undervisning og egne kurs. I norsk oversettelse omtales CEQ som Erfaringer med studier (EMS). Rappor¬tens empiriske del presenterer valideringsdata fra tre studier med ulike versjoner av EMS. Studiene omfatter ca. 2.800 studenter og viser at de norske versjonene av CEQ (EMS) har rimelig robuste psykometriske kvaliteter. De er dermed godt egnet til kartlegging av studenters opplevelse av undervis¬ningskvalitet og erfa¬ringer med læringsmiljøer i norske utdanningskontekster. Rapporten redegjør også kort for administrering, skåring og tolkning av EMS-/ CEQ-data; komplette spørreskjemaer for de ulike EMS–versjonene finnes i rap¬portens vedlegg

Central Venous Catheter-Associated Pericardial Tamponade in a 6-Day Old: A Case Report

Introduction. Pericardial effusion (PCE) and tamponade can cause significant morbidity and mortality in neonates. Such cases have been reported in the literature in various contexts. Case Presentation. A 6-day old neonate with meconium aspiration syndrome and persistent pulmonary hypertension of newborn on high frequency oscillator ventilation and inhaled nitric oxide was referred to our hospital with a large pericardial effusion causing hemodynamic compromise. Prompt pericardiocentesis led to significant improvement in the cardio-respiratory status and removal of the central line prevented the fluid from reaccumulating. Cellular and biochemical analysis aided in the diagnosis of catheter related etiology with possibility of infusate diffusion into the pericardial space. Conclusion. We present this paper to emphasize the importance of recognizing this uncommon but serious complication of central venous catheters in intensive care units. We also discuss the proposed hypothesis for the mechanism of production of PCE

Tools for integrated sequence-structure analysis with UCSF Chimera

BACKGROUND: Comparing related structures and viewing the structures in the context of sequence alignments are important tasks in protein structure-function research. While many programs exist for individual aspects of such work, there is a need for interactive visualization tools that: (a) provide a deep integration of sequence and structure, far beyond mapping where a sequence region falls in the structure and vice versa; (b) facilitate changing data of one type based on the other (for example, using only sequence-conserved residues to match structures, or adjusting a sequence alignment based on spatial fit); (c) can be used with a researcher's own data, including arbitrary sequence alignments and annotations, closely or distantly related sets of proteins, etc.; and (d) interoperate with each other and with a full complement of molecular graphics features. We describe enhancements to UCSF Chimera to achieve these goals. RESULTS: The molecular graphics program UCSF Chimera includes a suite of tools for interactive analyses of sequences and structures. Structures automatically associate with sequences in imported alignments, allowing many kinds of crosstalk. A novel method is provided to superimpose structures in the absence of a pre-existing sequence alignment. The method uses both sequence and secondary structure, and can match even structures with very low sequence identity. Another tool constructs structure-based sequence alignments from superpositions of two or more proteins. Chimera is designed to be extensible, and mechanisms for incorporating user-specific data without Chimera code development are also provided. CONCLUSION: The tools described here apply to many problems involving comparison and analysis of protein structures and their sequences. Chimera includes complete documentation and is intended for use by a wide range of scientists, not just those in the computational disciplines. UCSF Chimera is free for non-commercial use and is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS X, Linux, and other platforms from

Undervisning basert på det fremste innen forskning, faglig og kunstnerisk virksomhet og erfaringsbasert kunnskap ved Høgskolen i Østfold : rapport fra fagdagen, desember 2006

I desember 2006 arrangerte HiØ en fagdag i regi av PULS (Program for under¬visning, læring og studiekvalitet) for lærerne ved høgskolen. Hensikten var å sette søkelyset på prinsippet om at all undervisning i høgere utdan¬ning skal være forskningsbasert, og hvordan vi ønsker å realisere dette prinsippet ved ulike av¬delinger, studier og fag ved HiØ. Foreliggende rapport innholder bidrag fra så vel interne som inviterte, eksterne bidragsytere som har ar¬beidet med spørsmålet om forskningsbasert undervis¬ning, eller evidence-based pratice, både regionalt, nasjonalt og internasjonalt. Innleggene i rapporten problematiserer en rekke spørsmål som melder seg når vi søker å legge et konkret, kvalifisert innhold i prinsippet om forskningsbasert undervisning – blant annet: • Hvor¬dan defineres og praktiseres forskningsbasert undervisning innenfor ulike utdanninger, ulike fag og ulike studienivå – hva er fellestrekkene, og hva er forskjellene? • Hva betyr kravet om forskningsbasert undervisning for forholdet mellom FoU–virksomhet, kompetanseutvikling og undervisning? • Hvordan dokumenterer vi at undervisningen er forsknings¬basert? • Hvordan dokumentere at forskningsbaserte undervisningsstrategier har effekt og gjør en forskjell når det gjelder studenters læring? Vi håper at rapporten kan bidra til å belyse og gi konkret innhold til prinsip-pet om at all høyere utdanning skal være ’basert på det fremste innen forskning, kunstnerisk utviklingsarbeid og erfaringskunnskap’

Proton tracking in a high-granularity Digital Tracking Calorimeter for proton CT purposes

Radiation therapy with protons as of today utilizes information from x-ray CT in order to estimate the proton stopping power of the traversed tissue in a patient. The conversion from x-ray attenuation to proton stopping power in tissue introduces range uncertainties of the order of 2-3% of the range, uncertainties that are contributing to an increase of the necessary planning margins added to the target volume in a patient. Imaging methods and modalities, such as Dual Energy CT and proton CT, have come into consideration in the pursuit of obtaining an as good as possible estimate of the proton stopping power. In this study, a Digital Tracking Calorimeter is benchmarked for proof-of-concept for proton CT purposes. The Digital Tracking Calorimeteris applied for reconstruction of the tracks and energies of individual high energy protons. The presented prototype forms the basis for a proton CT system using a single technology for tracking and calorimetry. This advantage simplifies the setup and reduces the cost of a proton CT system assembly, and it is a unique feature of the Digital Tracking Calorimeter. Data from the AGORFIRM beamline at KVI-CART in Groningen in the Netherlands and Monte Carlo simulation results are used to in order to develop a tracking algorithm for the estimation of the residual ranges of a high number of concurrent proton tracks. The range of the individual protons can at present be estimated with a resolution of 4%. The readout system for this prototype is able to handle an effective proton frequency of 1 MHz by using 500 concurrent proton tracks in each readout frame, which is at the high end range of present similar prototypes. A future further optimized prototype will enable a high-speed and more accurate determination of the ranges of individual protons in a therapeutic beam.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Glucose enhancement of memory is modulated by trait anxiety in healthy adolescent males

Glucose administration is associated with memory enhancement in healthy young individuals under conditions of divided attention at encoding. While the specific neurocognitive mechanisms underlying this ‘glucose memory facilitation effect’ are currently uncertain, it is thought that individual differences in glucoregulatory efficiency may alter an individual’s sensitivity to the glucose memory facilitation effect. In the present study, we sought to investigate whether basal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function (itself a modulator of glucoregulatory efficiency), baseline self-reported stress and trait anxiety influence the glucose memory facilitation effect. Adolescent males (age range = 14–17 years) were administered glucose and placebo prior to completing a verbal episodic memory task on two separate testing days in a counter-balanced, within-subjects design. Glucose ingestion improved verbal episodic memory performance when memory recall was tested (i) within an hour of glucose ingestion and encoding, and (ii) one week subsequent to glucose ingestion and encoding. Basal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis function did not appear to influence the glucose memory facilitation effect; however, glucose ingestion only improved memory in participants reporting relatively higher trait anxiety. These findings suggest that the glucose memory facilitation effect may be mediated by biological mechanisms associated with trait anxiety

Cavitation induced by explosion in a model of ideal fluid

We discuss the problem of an explosion in the cubic-quintic superfluid model, in relation to some experimental observations. We show numerically that an explosion in such a model might induce a cavitation bubble for large enough energy. This gives a consistent view for rebound bubbles in superfluid and we indentify the loss of energy between the successive rebounds as radiated waves. We compute self-similar solution of the explosion for the early stage, when no bubbles have been nucleated. The solution also gives the wave number of the excitations emitted through the shock wave.Comment: 21 pages,13 figures, other comment