Does the Sequence of Instruction Matter During Simulation?

Introduction: Instructional strategies must be balanced when subjecting students to full-immersion simulation so as not to discourage learning and increase cognitive overload. The purpose of this study was to determine if participating in a simulation exercise before lecture yielded better performance outcomes among novice learners. Methods: Twenty-nine participants were divided into 2 groups as follows: group 1 participated in simulation exercises followed by a didactic lecture and group 2 participated in the same learning activities presented in the opposite order. Participants were administered a multiple-choice cognitive assessment upon completion of a workshop. Results: Learners who participated in the simulated exercises followed by the didactic lecture performed better on post assessments as compared with those who participated in the simulation after the lecture. A repeated-measures or nested analysis of variance generated statistically significant results in terms of model fit F (α = 0.05; 4.54) = 176.07 with a P \u3c 0.0001. Despite their higher levels of increased performance, 76% of those who participated in simulation activities first indicated that they would have preferred to participate in a lecture first. Conclusions: The findings of this study suggest that differences occur among learners when the sequencing of instructional components is altered. Learners who participated in simulation before lecture demonstrated increased knowledge compared with learners who participated in simulation after a lecture

Bounds on R-parity Violation from Resonant Slepton Production at the LHC

We consider the ATLAS and CMS searches for dijet resonances, as well as the ATLAS search for like-sign dimuon pairs at the LHC with 7 TeV center of mass energy. We interpret their exclusions in terms of bounds on the supersymmetric R-parity violating parameter space. For this we focus on resonant slepton production followed by the corresponding decay.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures, 3 table

Medical, health and wellness tourism research – a review of the literature (1970-2020) and research agenda

Medical, health and wellness tourism and travel represent a dynamic and rapidly growing mul-ti-disciplinary economic activity and field of knowledge. This research responds to earlier calls to integrate research on travel medicine and tourism. This research critically reviews the literature published on these topics over a 50-year period (1970 to 2020) using CiteSpace software. Some 802 articles were gathered and analyzed from major databases including the Web of Science and Scopus. Markets (demand and behavior), destinations (development and promotion), and de-velopment environments (policies and impacts) emerged as the main three research themes in medical-health-wellness tourism. Medical-health-wellness tourism will integrate with other care sectors and become more embedded in policy-making related to sustainable development, espe-cially with regards to quality of life initiatives. A future research agenda for medi-cal-health-tourism is discussed

libpspm: A feature-rich numerical package for solving physiologically structured population models

For a vast majority of organisms, life-history processes depend on their physiological state, such as body size, as well as on their environment. Size-structured population models, or more generally, physiologically structured population models (PSPMs), have emerged as powerful tools for modelling the population dynamics of organisms, as they account for the dependences of growth, mortality, and fecundity rates on an organism’s physiological state and capture feedbacks between a population’s structure and its environment, including all types of density regulation. However, despite their widespread appeal across biological disciplines, few numerical packages exist for solving PSPMs in an accessible and computationally efficient way. The main reason for this is that PSPMs typically involve solving partial differential equations (PDEs), and no single numerical method works universally best, or even at all, for all PDEs. Here, we present libpspm, a general-purpose numerical library for solving user-defined PSPMs. libpspm provides eight different methods for solving the PDEs underlying PSPMs, including four semi-implicit solvers that can be used for solving stiff problems. Users can choose the desired method without changing the code specifying the PSPM. libpspm allows for predicting the dynamics of multiple physiologically structured or unstructured species, each of which can have its own distinct set of physiological states and demographic functions. By separating model definition from model solution, libpspm can make PSPM-based modelling accessible to non-specialists and thus promote the widespread adoption of PSPMs

Report on the 2013 Rapid Assessment Survey of Marine Species at New England Bays and Harbors

Introduced species (i.e., non-native species that have become established in a new location) have increasingly been recognized as a concern as they have become more prevalent in marine and terrestrial environments (Mooney and Cleland 2001; Simberloff et al. 2005). The ability of introduced species to alter population, community, and ecosystem structure and function, as well as cause significant economic damage is well documented (Carlton 1989, 1996b, 2000; Cohen and Carlton 1995; Cohen et al. 1995; Elton 1958; Meinesz et al. 1993; Occhipinti-Ambrogi and Sheppard 2007; Pimentel et al. 2005; Thresher 2000). The annual economic costs incurred from managing the approximately 50,000 introduced species in the United States alone are estimated to be over $120 billion (Pimentel et al. 2005). Having a monitoring network in place to track new introductions and distributional changes of introduced species is critical for effective management, as these efforts may be more successful when species are detected before they have the chance to become established. A rapid assessment survey is one such method for early detection of introduced species. With rapid assessment surveys, a team of taxonomic experts record and monitor marine species–providing a baseline inventory of native, introduced, and cryptogenic (i.e., unknown origin) species (as defined by Carlton 1996a)–and document range expansions of previously identified species. Since 2000, five rapid assessment surveys have been conducted in New England. These surveys focus on recording species at marinas, which often are in close proximity to transportation vectors (i.e., recreational boats). Species are collected from floating docks and piers because these structures are accessible regardless of the tidal cycle. Another reason for sampling floating docks and other floating structures is that marine introduced species are often found to be more prevalent on artificial surfaces than natural surfaces (Glasby and Connell 2001; Paulay et al. 2002). The primary objectives of these surveys are to: (1) identify native, introduced, and cryptogenic marine species, (2) expand on data collected in past surveys, (3) assess the introduction status and range extensions of documented introduced species, and (4) detect new introductions. This report presents the introduced, cryptogenic, and native species recorded during the 2013 survey

Changes in fatty acids in plasma and association with the inflammatory response in dairy cows abomasally infused with essential fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid during late and early lactation.

Dairy cows are exposed to increased inflammatory processes in the transition period from late pregnancy to early lactation. Essential fatty acids (EFA) and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) are thought to modulate the inflammatory response in dairy cows. The present study investigated the effects of a combined EFA and CLA infusion on the fatty acid (FA) status in plasma lipids, and whether changes in the FA pattern were associated with the acute phase and inflammatory response during late pregnancy and early lactation. Rumen-cannulated Holstein cows (n = 40) were assigned from wk 9 antepartum to wk 9 postpartum to 1 of 4 treatment groups. Cows were abomasally supplemented with coconut oil (CTRL, 76 g/d), linseed and safflower oil (EFA, 78 g/d of linseed oil and 4 g/d of safflower oil; ratio of oils = 19.5:1; n-6:n-3 FA ratio = 1:3), Lutalin (CLA, 38 g/d; isomers cis-9,trans-11 and trans-10,cis-12; each 10 g/d), or both (EFA+CLA). Blood samples were taken to measure changes in FA in blood plasma on d -63, -42, 1, 28, and 56, and in plasma lipid fractions (cholesterol esters, free fatty acids, phospholipids, and triglycerides) on d -42, 1, and 56 relative to calving, and in erythrocyte membrane (EM) on d 56 after calving. Traits related to the acute phase response and inflammation were measured in blood throughout the study. Liver samples were obtained for biopsy on d -63, -21, 1, 28, and 63 relative to calving to measure the mRNA abundance of genes related to the inflammatory response. The concentrations of α-linolenic acid and n-3 FA metabolites increased in lipid fractions (especially phospholipids) and EM due to EFA supplementation with higher α-linolenic acid but lower n-3 metabolite concentrations in EFA+CLA than in EFA treatment only. Concentration of linoleic acid decreased in plasma fat toward calving and increased during early lactation in all groups. Concentration of plasma arachidonic acid was lower in EFA- than in non-EFA-treated groups in lipid fractions and EM. The cis-9,trans-11 CLA increased in all lipid fractions and EM after both CLA treatments. Plasma haptoglobin was lowered by EFA treatment before calving. Plasma bilirubin was lower in EFA and CLA than in CTRL at calving. Plasma concentration of IL-1β was higher in EFA than in CTRL and EFA+CLA at certain time points before and after calving. Plasma fibrinogen dropped faster in CLA than in EFA and EFA+CLA on d 14 postpartum. Plasma paraoxonase tended to be elevated by EFA treatment, and was higher in EFA+CLA than in CTRL on d 49. Hepatic mRNA abundance revealed time changes but no treatment effects with respect to the inflammatory response. Our data confirmed the enrichment of n-3 FA in EM by EFA treatment and the inhibition of n-3 FA desaturation by CLA treatment. The elevated n-3 FA status and reduced n-6:n-3 ratio by EFA treatment indicated a more distinct effect on the inflammatory response during the transition period than the single CLA treatment, and the combined EFA+CLA treatment caused minor additional changes on the anti-inflammatory response