A national survey of medical education fellowships

Purpose: The purpose of our study was to determine the prevalence, focus, time commitment, graduation requirements and programme evaluation methods of medical education fellowships throughout the United States. Medical education fellowships are defined as a single cohort of medical teaching faculty who participate in an extended faculty development programme. Methods: A 26-item online questionnaire was distributed to all US medical schools (n=127) in 2005 and 2006. The questionnaire asked each school if it had a medical education fellowship and the characteristics of the fellowship programme. Results: Almost half (n=55) of the participating schools (n=120, response rate 94.5 %) reported having fellowships. Duration (10–584 hours) and length (<1 month–48 months) varied; most focused on teaching skills, scholarly dissemination and curriculum design, and required the completion of a scholarly project. A majority collected participant satisfaction; few used other programme evaluation strategies. Conclusions: The number of medical education fellowships increased rapidly during the 1990s and 2000s. Across the US, programmes are similar in participant characteristics and curricular focus but unique in completion requirements. Fellowships collect limited programme evaluation data, indicating a need for better outcome data. These results provide benchmark data for those implementing or revising existing medical education fellowships

RAId_aPS: MS/MS analysis with multiple scoring functions and spectrum-specific statistics

Statistically meaningful comparison/combination of peptide identification results from various search methods is impeded by the lack of a universal statistical standard. Providing an E-value calibration protocol, we demonstrated earlier the feasibility of translating either the score or heuristic E-value reported by any method into the textbook-defined E-value, which may serve as the universal statistical standard. This protocol, although robust, may lose spectrum-specific statistics and might require a new calibration when changes in experimental setup occur. To mitigate these issues, we developed a new MS/MS search tool, RAId_aPS, that is able to provide spectrum-specific E-values for additive scoring functions. Given a selection of scoring functions out of RAId score, K-score, Hyperscore and XCorr, RAId_aPS generates the corresponding score histograms of all possible peptides using dynamic programming. Using these score histograms to assign E-values enables a calibration-free protocol for accurate significance assignment for each scoring function. RAId_aPS features four different modes: (i) compute the total number of possible peptides for a given molecular mass range, (ii) generate the score histogram given a MS/MS spectrum and a scoring function, (iii) reassign E-values for a list of candidate peptides given a MS/MS spectrum and the scoring functions chosen, and (iv) perform database searches using selected scoring functions. In modes (iii) and (iv), RAId_aPS is also capable of combining results from different scoring functions using spectrum-specific statistics. The web link is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/CBBresearch/Yu/raid_aps/index.html. Relevant binaries for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X are available from the same page.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, 1 supplementary information file (RAId_aPS_support.pdf). To view the supplementary file, please download and extract the gzipped tar source file listed under "Other formats

Secular Evolution of Galaxy Morphologies

Today we have numerous evidences that spirals evolve dynamically through various secular or episodic processes, such as bar formation and destruction, bulge growth and mergers, sometimes over much shorter periods than the standard galaxy age of 10-15 Gyr. This, coupled to the known properties of the Hubble sequence, leads to a unique sense of evolution: from Sm to Sa. Linking this to the known mass components provides new indications on the nature of dark matter in galaxies. The existence of large amounts of yet undetected dark gas appears as the most natural option. Bounds on the amount of dark stars can be given since their formation is mostly irreversible and requires obviously a same amount of gas.Comment: 8 pages, Latex2e, crckapb.sty macros, 1 Postscript figure, replaced with TeX source; To be published in the proceeedings of the "Dust-Morphology" conference, Johannesburg, 22-26 January, 1996, D. Block (ed.), (Kluwer Dordrecht

Identification of alternative splice variants in Aspergillus flavus through comparison of multiple tandem MS search algorithms

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Database searching is the most frequently used approach for automated peptide assignment and protein inference of tandem mass spectra. The results, however, depend on the sequences in target databases and on search algorithms. Recently by using an alternative splicing database, we identified more proteins than with the annotated proteins in <it>Aspergillus flavus</it>. In this study, we aimed at finding a greater number of eligible splice variants based on newly available transcript sequences and the latest genome annotation. The improved database was then used to compare four search algorithms: Mascot, OMSSA, X! Tandem, and InsPecT.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The updated alternative splicing database predicted 15833 putative protein variants, 61% more than the previous results. There was transcript evidence for 50% of the updated genes compared to the previous 35% coverage. Database searches were conducted using the same set of spectral data, search parameters, and protein database but with different algorithms. The false discovery rates of the peptide-spectrum matches were estimated < 2%. The numbers of the total identified proteins varied from 765 to 867 between algorithms. Whereas 42% (1651/3891) of peptide assignments were unanimous, the comparison showed that 51% (568/1114) of the RefSeq proteins and 15% (11/72) of the putative splice variants were inferred by all algorithms. 12 plausible isoforms were discovered by focusing on the consensus peptides which were detected by at least three different algorithms. The analysis found different conserved domains in two putative isoforms of UDP-galactose 4-epimerase.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We were able to detect dozens of new peptides using the improved alternative splicing database with the recently updated annotation of the <it>A. flavus </it>genome. Unlike the identifications of the peptides and the RefSeq proteins, large variations existed between the putative splice variants identified by different algorithms. 12 candidates of putative isoforms were reported based on the consensus peptide-spectrum matches. This suggests that applications of multiple search engines effectively reduced the possible false positive results and validated the protein identifications from tandem mass spectra using an alternative splicing database.</p

A microsatellite study in the Łęgucki Młyn/Popielno hybrid zone reveals no genetic differentiation between two chromosome races of the common shrew (Sorex araneus)

This study investigated a chromosome hybrid zone between two chromosomal races of the common shrew (Sorex araneus). Gene flow and genetic structure of the hybrid zone, located in the northeast of Poland, were studied using seven polymorphic autosomal microsatellite loci (L9, L14, L33, L45, L67, L68, L97) and a Y-linked microsatellite locus (L8Y). Seventy-five animals (46 of the Łęgucki Młyn race and 29 of the Popielno race) from nine different localities were examined and the data were analyzed using hierarchical AMOVA and F-statistic. The studied microsatellite loci and races (divided into nine geographical populations) were characterized by observed heterozygosity (HO), expected heterozygosities within (HS), and between (HT) populations, inbreeding coefficient (FIS), fixation index (FST), and average allelic richness (A). We found that genetic structuring within and between the two chromosome races were weak and non-significant. This finding and unconstrained gene flow between the races indicates a high level of migration within the Łęgucki Młyn/Popielno hybrid zone, suggesting that evolutionarily important genetic structuring does not occur in interracial zones where races which are not genetically distinct come into contact

Search for Gravitational Waves from Primordial Black Hole Binary Coalescences in the Galactic Halo

We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole (PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$. The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50 kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev.

A controlled study of team-based learning for undergraduate clinical neurology education

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Team-based learning (TBL), a new active learning method, has not been reported for neurology education. We aimed to determine if TBL was more effective than passive learning (PL) in improving knowledge outcomes in two key neurology topics - neurological localization and neurological emergencies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We conducted a modified crossover study during a nine-week internal medicine posting involving 49 third-year medical undergraduates, using TBL as the active intervention, compared against self-reading as a PL control, for teaching the two topics. Primary outcome was the mean percentage change in test scores immediately after (post-test 1) and 48 hours after TBL (post-test 2), compared to a baseline pre-test. Student engagement was the secondary outcome.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean percentage change in scores was greater in the TBL versus the PL group in post-test 1 (8.8% vs 4.3%, p = 0.023) and post-test 2 (11.4% vs 3.4%, p = 0.001). After adjustment for gender and second year examination grades, mean percentage change in scores remained greater in the TBL versus the PL group for post-test 1 (10.3% vs 5.8%, mean difference 4.5%,95% CI 0.7 - 8.3%, p = 0.021) and post-test 2 (13.0% vs 4.9%, mean difference 8.1%,95% CI 3.7 - 12.5%, p = 0.001), indicating further score improvement 48 hours post-TBL. Academically weaker students, identified by poorer examination grades, showed a greater increase in scores with TBL versus strong students (p < 0.02). Measures of engagement were high in the TBL group, suggesting that continued improvements in scores 48 hours post-TBL may result from self-directed learning.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Compared to PL, TBL showed greater improvement in knowledge scores, with continued improvement up to 48 hours later. This effect is larger in academically weaker students. TBL is an effective method for improving knowledge in neurological localization and neurological emergencies in undergraduates.</p