University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences electronic health record and medical informatics training for undergraduate health professionals

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) is planning interprofessional training in electronic health records (EHRs) and medical informatics. Training will be integrated throughout the curricula and will include seminars on broad concepts supplemented with online modules, didactic lectures, and hands-on experiences. Training will prepare future health professionals to use EHRs, evidence-based medicine, medical decision support, and point-of-care tools to reduce errors, improve standards of care, address Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements and accreditation standards, and promote appropriate documentation to enable data retrieval for clinical research. UAMS will ensure that graduates are ready for the rapidly evolving practice environment created by the HITECH Act.     

Networked Services of NIT libraries in India: A study

The main purpose of the paper is to find out the provision of providing Networked Services (NSs) among National Institute of Technology (NIT) libraries in India. Methodology used for collecting data was questionnaire. The survey findings indicate that the majority of libraries prefer to provide communication network services (telephone, Internet, e-mail, facsimile etc), online journals (90%), automated catalog system (85%), multimedia databases (85%) and support (70%) services rather than the other services. Concerning the zone wise performance, south zone (80%) libraries are more potential than the other zone libraries in providing NSs.     

Collection development and access to serials in the Central Library of IITs in India

The vital task of the libraries attached to the educational institutions of higher learning is the collection development of information resources as per the requirements of the users. The Central Library of IITs have long been recognized their responsibility to support the study and research of their parent institutions with the rich collection development of information resources both in print as well as electronic format to cater the needs of the academic communities as per the multi-disciplinary and diverse academic program of the respective institutions where greater emphasis on collection of serials, the essential and integral component of updated scholarly communication. The study provides a vivid picture about the current status of serials collection in the libraries attached to the Premier Institutions of India in the field of science and technology to boost up the academic performances.     

Independent force and position control for cooperating manipulators

The problem of independent force and position control of multitask cooperating manipulators is studied. Each manipulator is in a non-singular configuration and the object can be driven by the contact forces exerted by the end effectors of the manipulators. The design requirement is to control each coordinate of the position of the object as well as each component of the “rest” forces, except the moving forces that are determined uniquely from the object's position. The present design requirement has been proved to be always satisfied together with asymptotic and BIBO stability. A class of controllers solving the above simultaneous problem is analytically determined. The proposed state feedback controller does not depend upon the specific object dynamics and thus the resulting closed-loop multimanipulator system performs as required, not only when handling various objects but also when the dynamics of the objects are unknown or hard to compute or disturbed by external forces.     

Antoine Béchamp: pere de la biologie. Oui ou non?

There is an alternative medicine lobby that, in conjunction with antivivisectionists, believes Louis Pasteur to have been a fraud [R. Bottomley's You Don't Have to Feel Unwell! (Newleaf, 1994) is a recent example]. They frame their accusations around a rivalry between Pasteur and a contemporary, Antoine Béchamp, from whom they suggest Pasteur stole his ideas and then distorted them for his own purposes. This article explores some aspects of the controversies between Béchamp and Pasteur.     

‘Kubla Khan’ and its Narratives of Possible Worlds

This essay argues that Coleridge’s ‘Kubla Khan’ is a poem about narrative and specifically focuses on the narrative construction of possible worlds, or even utopian worlds. It notes two pairs of narratives. In pair one the utopian narrative of the monarch’s decree which seeks to build a space of pure pleasure is in opposition to the narrative of a prophesy of war. In the second pair the Abyssinian maid’s lyric is undermined by the narrative of amnesia where the speaker is unable to recall the lyric. The poem concludes, the essay suggests, with the idea that a possible world can be created only if we can recall the narrative foundations of this world.     

International perspectives on student awareness,experiences and perceptions of research: implications for academic developers in implementing research‐based teaching and learning

This paper explores the implications of the effective integration of research, teaching and learning for academic development through the lens of an international multi‐institutional comparison of student perceptions of research and its impact on their learning environment. The study, with a sample of over 500 final‐year undergraduate students across three institutions in the UK and Canada, represents a spectrum of research and teaching intensive universities and is one of the largest exploring undergraduate student perceptions of research in the linking teaching and research literature. The results indicate a complex relationship between student perceptions and experiences of research and the type of institution, as well as the individual, institutional and national context. They also inform the discussion of particular issues that academic developers face and the strategies they use to improve the integration of research and teaching to benefit the undergraduate learning experience in their institution.

Cet article explore les implications, pour le développement pédagogique, de l’intégration effective de la recherche, de l’enseignement et de l’apprentissage à l’aide de la lentille d’une comparaison internationale multi institutionnelle des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche et de leur impact sur l’environnement d’apprentissage. L’étude, reposant sur un échantillon de plus de 500 étudiants en dernière année de 1^er cycle, provenant de trois institutions au Royaume‐Uni et au Canada, représente un spectre d’universités centrées sur l’enseignement ou sur la recherche. L’étude constitue une des recherches les plus importantes au sujet des perceptions étudiantes à l’égard de la recherche dans la littérature portant sur le lien entre l’enseignement et la recherche. Les résultats indiquent une relation complexe entre les perceptions et les expériences des étudiants, et le type d’institution, de même qu’avec les contextes individuel, institutionnel et national. Les résultats contribuent aussi à la discussion de questions particulières auxquelles les conseillers pédagogiques font face ainsi que les stratégies que ceux‐ci utilisent en vue d’améliorer l’intégration de la recherche et de l’enseignement de façon à en faire bénéficier l’expérience d’apprentissage au 1^er cycle au sein de leur institution.     

Relation of gender,course enrollment,and grades to distinct forms of academic dishonesty

A thorough understanding of academic dishonesty and the students who engage in it is necessary to develop appropriate policies and educational interventions to discourage such actions. The present study examines the frequency of academic dishonesty and the characteristics (i.e. gender, course enrollment, and grades) of students who engage in distinct forms of the behavior by surveying undergraduates at a large public university in the USA. Of 292 students, 57.19% reported some form of academic dishonesty in the previous six months, with cheating on a test being the most frequent form (51.71%). Men and students in a study strategies course had a significantly higher report rate for both plagiarism and making false excuses in comparison to women and students in a science course, respectively. Low grades corresponded with high rates of academic dishonesty, specifically in terms of having provided false excuses. Implications for college teaching settings are discussed.     

Coherence in professional education: does it foster dedication and identification?

This article examines the impact of professional education on students' dedication to and identification with a profession. The premise is that professional education is not only about knowledge acquisition and reasoning but also about attitudes and aspirations. In fostering dedication and identification, students' experiences of relevance seem to be important. The concept of coherence seen as an expression of relevance is introduced and measured by four kinds of interactions: Theory–practice interaction, teacher–student interaction, peer interaction and supervisor–student interaction. Analysis indicates that coherence, particularly as theory–practice interaction, peer interaction and supervisor–student interaction, has a significant impact on dedication to and identification with a profession. Longitudinal survey data – collected from students in colleges for teaching, nursing and social work – are analysed.     

Development of self-belief for employability in higher education: ability,efficacy and control in context

Self-belief is argued here to be a key aspect of employability development that has been largely under conceptualisation in terms of what the construct may mean and how it may be developed through higher education (HE) study. This paper proposes three fundamental beliefs that need to be fostered in order to develop student self-belief: (1) that ability can be improved; (2) that one has the ability to achieve one's goals; and (3) that the environment will allow for goal attainment. Self-belief needs to be developed within the HE curriculum in the context of disciplinary knowledge and skills. The factors that may influence the development of these beliefs within the curriculum will be explored along with implications for practice that may support the development of self-belief and contribute to the production of employable graduates from HE.