2,697 research outputs found
The Munich-Evaluation-of-Mentoring-Questionnaire (MEMeQ) - a novel instrument for evaluating protégés' satisfaction with mentoring relationships in medical education
Background
Despite the widespread recognition of the importance of mentoring in medical education, valid and reliable instruments for evaluating the relationship of mentors and protégés are lacking. The aim of this study was to develop a feasible instrument to measure the satisfaction with mentoring relationships.
Methods
Based on two existing questionnaires, the authors developed an instrument to evaluate the weighted satisfaction of mentoring relationships, emphasizing the protégés' individual expectations and needs. Protégés first define individual areas of interest in their mentoring relationship, then assign relative levels of personal importance to them and finally rate their individual level of satisfaction with their mentors' support in each area of interest. In order to evaluate psychometric properties as well as acceptance and feasibility the investigators conducted a multi-method-study.
Results
134 protégés were included in the study. The instrument was neither perceived as distressing nor time-consuming. The two scores of the questionnaire correlated closely with the overall satisfaction regarding mentoring relationships (OSM, Rho: 0.66, p <.001 and Rho: 0.53, p < .001).
Conclusions
The authors propose MEMeQ as a reliable, valid and flexible instrument for measuring the weighted satisfaction of protégés with their individual mentoring relationship in medical education. Further research is needed to evaluate the generalizability of MEMeQ across other institutions and mentoring programs to add to its validity
Rickets: An Overview and Future Directions, with Special Reference to Bangladesh: A Summary of the Rickets Convergence Group Meeting, Dhaka, 26–27 January 2006
Rickets has emerged as a public-health problem in Bangladesh during the past two decades, with up to 8% of children clinically affected in some areas. Insufficiency of dietary calcium is thought to be the underlying cause, and treatment with calcium (350–1,000 mg elemental calcium daily) is curative. Despite this apparently simple treatment, little is known about the most appropriate management of bone deformities of affected children, and further studies are needed to determine the details of dosing and duration of calcium therapy, the role of bracing, and specific indications for surgical intervention. Effective preventive measures that can feasibly reach entire communities are needed, and these may differ between various affected regions
Asteroseismology of the Transiting Exoplanet Host HD 17156 with HST FGS
Observations conducted with the Fine Guidance Sensor on Hubble Space
Telescope (HST) providing high cadence and precision time-series photometry
were obtained over 10 consecutive days in December 2008 on the host star of the
transiting exoplanet HD 17156b. During this time 10^12 photons (corrected for
detector deadtime) were collected in which a noise level of 163 parts per
million per 30 second sum resulted, thus providing excellent sensitivity to
detection of the analog of the solar 5-minute p-mode oscillations. For HD 17156
robust detection of p-modes supports determination of the stellar mean density
of 0.5301 +/- 0.0044 g/cm^3 from a detailed fit to the observed frequencies of
modes of degree l = 0, 1, and 2. This is the first star for which direct
determination of the mean stellar density has been possible using both
asteroseismology and detailed analysis of a transiting planet light curve.
Using the density constraint from asteroseismology, and stellar evolution
modeling results in M_star = 1.285 +/- 0.026 solar, R_star = 1.507 +/- 0.012
solar, and a stellar age of 3.2 +/- 0.3 Gyr.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 16 pages, 18 figure
The Role of Bilayer Tilt Difference in Equilibrium Membrane Shapes
Lipid bilayer membranes below their main transition have two tilt order
parameters, corresponding to the two monolayers. These two tilts may be
strongly coupled to membrane shape but only weakly coupled to each other. We
discuss some implications of this observation for rippled and saddle phases,
bilayer tubules, and bicontinuous phases. Tilt difference introduces a length
scale into the elastic theory of tilted fluid membranes. It can drive an
instability of the flat phase; it also provides a simple mechanism for the
spontaneous breaking of inversion symmetry seen in some recent experiments.Comment: Latex file; .ps available at
http://dept.physics.upenn.edu/~nelson/saddle.p
A Novel Large-scale Mentoring Program for Medical Students based on a Quantitative and Qualitative Needs Analysis
Purpose: Mentoring plays an important role in students' performance and career. The authors of this study assessed the need for mentoring among medical students and established a novel large-scale mentoring program at Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) Munich School of Medicine
Landau theory of bi-criticality in a random quantum rotor system
We consider here a generalization of the random quantum rotor model in which
each rotor is characterized by an M-component vector spin. We focus entirely on
the case not considered previously, namely when the distribution of exchange
interactions has non-zero mean. Inclusion of non-zero mean permits
ferromagnetic and superconducting phases for M=1 and M=2, respectively. We find
that quite generally, the Landau theory for this system can be recast as a
zero-mean problem in the presence of a magnetic field. Naturally then, we find
that a Gabay-Toulouse line exists for when the distribution of exchange
interactions has non-zero mean. The solution to the saddle point equations is
presented in the vicinity of the bi-critical point characterized by the
intersection of the ferromagnetic (M=1) or superconducting (M=2) phase with the
paramagnetic and spin glass phases. All transitions are observed to be second
order. At zero temperature, we find that the ferromagnetic order parameter is
non-analytic in the parameter that controls the paramagnet/ferromagnet
transition in the absence of disorder. Also for M=1, we find that replica
symmetry breaking is present but vanishes at low temperatures. In addition, at
finite temperature, we find that the qualitative features of the phase diagram,
for M=1, are {\it identical} to what is observed experimentally in the random
magnetic alloy .Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure
Precise Estimates of the Physical Parameters for the Exoplanet System HD-17156 Enabled by HST FGS Transit and Asteroseismic Observations
We present observations of three distinct transits of HD 17156b obtained with
the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope} (HST). We
analyzed both the transit photometry and previously published radial velocities
to find the planet-star radius ratio R_p/R_s = 0.07454 +/- 0.00035, inclination
i=86.49 +0.24/-0.20 deg, and scaled semi-major axis a/R = 23.19 +0.32/-0.27.
This last value translates directly to a mean stellar density determination of
0.522 +0.021/-0.018 g cm^-3. Analysis of asteroseismology observations by the
companion paper of Gilliland et al. (2009) provides a consistent but
significantly refined measurement of the stellar mean density. We compare
stellar isochrones to this density estimate and find M_s = 1.275 +/- 0.018
M_sun and a stellar age of $3.37 +0.20/-0.47 Gyr. Using this estimate of M_s
and incorporating the density constraint from asteroseismology, we model both
the photometry and published radial velocities to estimate the planet radius
R_p= 1.0870 +/- 0.0066 Jupiter radii and the stellar radius R_s = 1.5007 +/-
0.0076 R_sun. The planet radius is larger than that found in previous studies
and consistent with theoretical models of a solar-composition gas giant of the
same mass and equilibrium temperature. For the three transits, we determine the
times of mid-transit to a precision of 6.2 s, 7.6 s, and 6.9 s, and the transit
times for HD 17156 do not show any significant departures from a constant
period. The joint analysis of transit photometry and asteroseismology presages
similar studies that will be enabled by the NASA Kepler Mission.Comment: Accepted for publication to Ap
Emulating global climate change impacts on crop yields
The potential effects of climate change on the environment and society are many. In order to effectively quantify the uncertainty associated with these effects, highly complex simulation models are run with detailed representations of ecosystem processes. These models are computationally expensive and can involve a computer run of several days. Computationally cheaper models can be obtained from large ensembles of simulations using statistical emulation. The purpose of this paper is to construct a cheaper computational model (emulator) from simulations of the Lund- Potsdam-Jena managed Land (LPJmL), which is a dynamic global vegetation and crop model. This paper focuses on statistical emulation of potential crop yields from LPJmL and an emulator is constructed using a combination of ordinary least squares, principal component analysis and weighted least squares methods. For five climate models, under cross-validation the percentage of variance explained ranges from 60- 88% for the rainfed crops and 62-93% for the irrigated crops. The emulator can be used to predict potential crop yield change under any future climate scenarios and management options
Adenoma development in familial adenomatous polyposis andMUTYH-associated polyposis: somatic landscape and driver genes
Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) and MUTYH‐associated polyposis (MAP) are inherited disorders associated with multiple colorectal adenomas that lead to a very high risk of colorectal cancer. The somatic mutations that drive adenoma development in these conditions have not been investigated comprehensively. In this study we performed analysis of paired colorectal adenoma and normal tissue DNA from individuals with FAP or MAP, sequencing 14 adenoma whole exomes (eight MAP, six FAP), 55 adenoma targeted exomes (33 MAP, 22 FAP) and germline DNA from each patient, and a further 63 adenomas by capillary sequencing (41 FAP, 22 MAP). With these data we examined the profile of mutated genes, the mutational signatures and the somatic mutation rates, observing significant diversity in the constellations of mutated driver genes in different adenomas, and loss‐of‐function mutations in WTX (9%; p < 9.99e‐06), a gene implicated in regulation of the WNT pathway and p53 acetylation. These data extend our understanding of the early events in colorectal tumourigenesis in the polyposis syndromes. © 2015 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland
- …