Nobel Prize for physics — 2003

A brief review of the work of the three Nobel Laureates — Alexei A Abrikosov, Vitaly L Ginzburg and Anthony J Leggett is presented. Their work forms the basis for understanding the phenomena of superfluidity and superconductivity.     

Culturally Responsive Early Intervention Programs: issues in India

The influence of economic factors on socio‐cultural aspects in traditional, industrial, and “transitional” societies is explored through an examination of the socio‐economic structure and organisation in these societies. Transitional societies are defined as those that are moving from a traditional nature to an industrial one. India is used as an example of a transitional society. Links between the socio‐economic contexts of the three societies, their child rearing goals and practices, and features of early intervention programs are established. Key aspects of effective intervention identified in the United States are analysed with respect to their appropriateness for Indian society. It is proposed that the diverse child rearing goals and practices of the Indian culture are not compatible with Western conceptualisations of effective early intervention. In conclusion, issues and questions for research that would lay the foundations for developing culturally responsive early intervention programs in transitional societies are identified.     

PBL教学法与CBL教学法的比较 ——基于两种教学法的转换在临床课程学习上的效果分析

本文通过调查加州大学洛杉矶分校(UCLA)和加州大学戴维斯分校(UCD)学生和教师对以问题为基础的学习(PBL)和以案例为基础的学习(CBL)的认知和感受,结果发现,89%的学生和84%的教师更倾向于CBL教学法,两校教师和学生都认为CBL的引导式探究优于PBL的开放式探究.     

Return to Babel: Emergent Diversity, Digital Resources, and Local Knowledge

Information system research that recognizes, supports, and enables access of diverse knowledge communities online has become a major concern. Of particular concern is how these digital resources can support and preserve local identities and promote grass-roots involvement in creating the infrastructure of devolved governance. The aim of this article is to expose some of the conceptual obstacles to programs of devolved and local knowledge resources, and to provide an account of agency that recognizes that online communities, and community identity, are essential for eliciting, managing, and sharing local knowledges. Further, this article demonstrates how the implications of these issues impact institutions for managing knowledge that may be extended to all sorts of knowledge communities.     

Children's developing ability to adjust their beliefs reasonably in light of disagreement

Two preregistered experiments (N = 218) investigated children's developing ability to respond reasonably to disagreement. U.S. children aged 4–9, and adults (50% female, mostly white) formed an initial belief, and were confronted with the belief of a disagreeing other, whose evidence was weaker, stronger than, or equal to participants' evidence. With age, participants were increasingly likely to maintain their initial belief when their own evidence was stronger, adopt the other's belief when their evidence was weaker, and suspend judgment when both had equally strong evidence. Interestingly, 4- to 6-year-olds only suspended judgment reliably when this was assessed via the search for additional information (Experiment 2). Together, our experiments suggest that the ability to respond reasonably to disagreement develops over the preschool years.     

A randomized trial comparing cadaveric dissection and examination of prosections as applied surgical anatomy teaching pedagogies

Anatomy is an important component in the vertical integration of basic science and clinical practice. Two common pedagogies are cadaveric dissection and examination of prosected specimens. Comparative studies mostly evaluate their immediate effectiveness. A randomized controlled trial design was employed to compare both the immediate and long-term effectiveness of dissection and prosection. Eighty third-year medical students undergoing their surgical rotation from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine were randomized into two groups: dissection and prosection. Each participated in a one-day hands-on course following a similar outline that demonstrated surgical anatomy in the context of its clinical relevance. A pre-course test was conducted to establish baseline knowledge. A post-course test was conducted immediately after and at a one-year interval to evaluate learner outcome and knowledge retention. A post-course survey was conducted to assess participant perception. Thirty-nine and thirty-eight participants for the dissection and prosection groups, respectively, were included for analysis. There was no significant difference between mean pre-course test scores between the dissection and prosection groups [12.6 (3.47) vs. 12.7 (3.16), P > 0.05]. Both the mean immediate [27.9 (4.30) vs. 24.9 (4.25), P < 0.05] and 1 year [23.9 (4.15) vs. 19.9 (4.05), P < 0.05] post-course test scores were significantly higher in the dissection group. However, when adjusted for course duration [dissection group took longer than prosection group (mean 411 vs. 265 min)], these findings were negated. There is no conclusive evidence of either pedagogy being superior in teaching surgical anatomy. Based on learner surveys, dissection provides a greater learner experience.     

Evaluation of Preanalytical Quality Indicators by Six Sigma and Pareto`s Principle

Preanalytical steps are the major sources of error in clinical laboratory. The analytical errors can be corrected by quality control procedures but there is a need for stringent quality checks in preanalytical area as these processes are done outside the laboratory. Sigma value depicts the performance of laboratory and its quality measures. Hence in the present study six sigma and Pareto principle was applied to preanalytical quality indicators to evaluate the clinical biochemistry laboratory performance. This observational study was carried out for a period of 1 year from November 2015–2016. A total of 1,44,208 samples and 54,265 test requisition forms were screened for preanalytical errors like missing patient information, sample collection details in forms and hemolysed, lipemic, inappropriate, insufficient samples and total number of errors were calculated and converted into defects per million and sigma scale. Pareto`s chart was drawn using total number of errors and cumulative percentage. In 75% test requisition forms diagnosis was not mentioned and sigma value of 0.9 was obtained and for other errors like sample receiving time, stat and type of sample sigma values were 2.9, 2.6, and 2.8 respectively. For insufficient sample and improper ratio of blood to anticoagulant sigma value was 4.3. Pareto`s chart depicts out of 80% of errors in requisition forms, 20% is contributed by missing information like diagnosis. The development of quality indicators, application of six sigma and Pareto`s principle are quality measures by which not only preanalytical, the total testing process can be improved.