Early Educational Intervention, Early Cumulative Risk, and the Early Home Environment as Predictors of Young Adult Outcomes Within a High-Risk Sample

The extent to which early educational intervention, early cumulative risk, and the early home environment were associated with young adult outcomes was investigated in a sample of 139 young adults (age 21) from high-risk families enrolled in randomized trials of early intervention. Positive effects of treatment were found for education attainment, attending college, and skilled employment; negative effects of risk were found for education attainment, graduating high school, being employed, and avoiding teen parenthood. The home mediated the effects of risk for graduating high school, but not being employed for teen parenthood. Evidence for moderated mediation was found for educational attainment; the home mediated the association between risk and educational attainment for the control group, but not the treated group.     

Using color and grayscale images to teach histology to color‐deficient medical students

Examination of histologic and histopathologic microscopic sections relies upon differential colors provided by staining techniques, such as hematoxylin and eosin, to delineate normal tissue components and to identify pathologic alterations in these components. Given the prevalence of color deficiency (commonly called “color blindness”) in the general population, it is likely that this reliance upon color differentiation poses a significant obstacle for several medical students beginning a course of study that includes examination of histologic slides. In the past, first‐year medical students at Michigan State University who identified themselves as color deficient were encouraged to use color transparency overlays or tinted contact lenses to filter out problematic colors. Recently, however, we have offered such students a computer monitor adjusted to grayscale for in‐lab work, as well as grayscale copies of color photomicrographs for examination purposes. Grayscale images emphasize the texture of tissues and the contrasts between tissues as the students learn histologic architecture. Using this approach, color‐deficient students have quickly learned to compensate for their deficiency by focusing on cell and tissue structure rather than on color variation. Based upon our experience with color‐deficient students, we believe that grayscale photomicrographs may also prove instructional for students with normal (trichromatic) color vision, by encouraging them to consider structural characteristics of cells and tissues that may otherwise be overshadowed by stain colors. Anat Sci Ed 2:84–88, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Development of a clinical information tool for the electronic medical record: a case study

Question:

What is the process of developing a clinical information tool to be embedded in the electronic health record of a very large and diverse academic medical center?

Setting:

The development took place at the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Library System.

Method:

The clinical information tool developed is a search box with subject tabs to provide quick access to designated full-text information resources. Each subject tab offers a federated search of a different pool of resources. Search results are organized “on the fly” into meaningful categories using clustering technology and are directly accessible from the results page.

Results:

After more than a year of discussion and planning, a clinical information tool was embedded in the academic medical center''s electronic health record.

Conclusion:

The library successfully developed a clinical information tool, called Clinical-e, for use at the point of care. Future development will refine the tool and evaluate its impact and effectiveness.     

Retrieval comparison of EndNote to search MEDLINE (Ovid and PubMed) versus searching them directly

Using EndNote version 7.0, the authors tested the search capabilities of the EndNote search engine for retrieving citations from MEDLINE for importation into EndNote, a citation management software package. Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed were selected for the comparison. Several searches were performed on Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed using EndNote as the search engine, and the same searches were run on both Ovid and PubMed directly. Findings indicate that it is preferable to search MEDLINE directly rather than using EndNote. The publishers of EndNote do warn its users about the limitations of their product as a search engine when searching external databases. In this article, the limitations of EndNote as a search engine for searching MEDLINE were explored as related to MeSH, non-MeSH, citation verification, and author searching.     

Science teaching techniques associated with higher-order thinking skills

Science teachers are encouraged to emphasize higher-order thinking skills, but little is known about the use and relationships of teaching techniques related to these skills. This study reports on a recent survey in Minnesota designed to provide a picture of the instructional styles that are used by seventh and eighth grade science teachers. Further, the data were factor analyzed to identify underlying structure and the resulting factors were correlated to examine the relationships between the factors. Although relationships do exist, it appears that seventh and eighth grade science teachers are individualistic and diverse in their reported teaching technique preferences.     

A Clinical Librarian Embedded in Medical Education: Patient-Centered Encounters for Preclinical Medical Students

Adding patient encounters and simulation to the preclinical years of medical school is becoming increasingly popular. This article describes the creation of active learning opportunities by a clinical librarian that are aimed at training preclinical students through the use of simulated patient scenarios. Scenarios for second-year students walk them through the evidence-based resources needed in clinical years and beyond through a standardized patient encounter. Scenarios for first-year students involve role-play of cases where the patient and physician bring contrasting ideas to the outpatient interaction. All scenarios are carried out under the guidance of a clinician and librarian.     

The learning and study strategies of college students with ADHD

This study compared learning and study strategies of students with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to two groups: college students with learning disabilities (LD) and college students without disabilities. In addition, strengths and weaknesses within the ADHD group were examined on the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, 2nd edition (LASSI; C.E. Weinstein & D.R. Palmer, 2002). The LASSI was also evaluated as a predictive measure for academic achievement for college students with ADHD compared to other students. Results indicate that several important differences may exist in the learning and study strategies of students with ADHD versus students with LD and students without disabilities. However, the LASSI may not be a useful tool for predicting academic achievement for college students with ADHD. Interventions for working with students with ADHD are given. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Geography Teacher Education

The authors offer a conceptual framework for establishing an inter‐relationship of theory and practice. Experience is seen as playing a key role, antecedent to both, and the article describes in operational terms ways in which the training of Geography students at the University of London Institute of Education has attempted to draw on experience to inform theory and practice.     

Regularisation of nonwords in dyslexia: contributions of visual orthographic and phonological onsets

This study investigated the contributions of visual orthographic (analogy) and phonological processes in mediating nonword reading in children with dyslexia. Three groups of primary school age children (n=15 in each group) were recruited. The first group were children with dyslexia (mean age 11 years 3 months, mean reading age 8 years 3 months), the second group were chronological age controls (mean age 11 years 3 months, mean reading age 11 years 8 months) and the third group were reading age matched controls (mean age 7 years 11 months, mean reading age 8 years 3 months). All participants were required to read aloud a list of nonwords. Nonwords in the list were derived from paired regular and irregular keywords in which onsets were manipulated to be either phonologically or visually similar to keyword onsets. ANOVAs revealed firstly that children with dyslexia were the least likely to regularise nonword pronunciation and secondly, that all groups displayed an overall preference for words that were phonologically manipulated. These findings have been interpreted within the context of dual‐route theory.