Me write pretty one day: how to write a good scientific paper

The scientific literature is exploding in quantity even as it stands still in literary quality. In this brief guide, I suggest a few small steps that the individual can take to make his or her writing clear, straightforward, and digestible.     

Resources and practices to help graduate students and postdoctoral fellows write statements of teaching philosophy

Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows currently encounter requests for a statement of teaching philosophy in at least half of academic job announcements in the United States. A systematic process for the development of a teaching statement is required that integrates multiple sources of support, informs writers of the document's purpose and audience, helps writers produce thoughtful statements, and encourages meaningful reflection on teaching and learning. This article for faculty mentors and instructional consultants synthesizes practices for mentoring graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members as they prepare statements of teaching philosophy. We review background information on purposes and audiences, provide writing resources, and synthesize empirical research on the use of teaching statements in academic job searches. In addition, we integrate these resources into mentoring processes that have helped graduate students in a Health Sciences Pedagogy course to collaboratively and critically examine and write about their teaching. This summary is intended for faculty mentors and instructional consultants who want to refine current resources or establish new mentoring programs. This guide also may be useful to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty members, especially those who lack mentoring or who seek additional resources, as they consider the many facets of effective teaching.     

以思辨训练为目标的教学策略在微生物学教学中的应用

本科阶段的微生物学教学不但要让学生掌握基本的微生物学知识,更重要的是让学生学会运用所学到的知识解释和解决实际生活中碰到的相关问题,具备理性思考和辨析能力。本文以我校微生物学教学改革为例,介绍了如何通过教案设计、教学案例筛选和教学方法整合等方式提高学生的思辨能力。通过不同教学策略的使用,有效提高了学生对知识点的掌握与理解,极大提升了学生的知识运用能力和理性辨析能力。     

Printed information for the lay public on cardiovascular disease.

Booklets from several countries on various aspects of cardiovascular disease, intended for distribution to the public and to patients, could be classified into three categories dealing with primary prevention, secondary prevention, and management. Much material was duplicated, whereas some diseases were completely ignored. Only two types of booklets should be available. One would deal with preventive measures for all cardiovascular diseases, while the other would be a series of booklets on individual conditions, combining information on secondary prevention and on management.     

Teaching medical students how to break bad news

PROGRAM OBJECTIVE: To teach medical students to break bad news to patients and their families empathically and competently. SETTING: Seven teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto since 1987. PARTICIPANTS: All medical students in their third preclinical year. PROGRAM: The course presents a 6-point protocol to guide students in breaking bad news and comprises 2 half-day (3-hour) teaching sessions. Each session incorporates a video presentation, a discussion period and small-group teaching, consisting of exercises followed by 4 different role-playing scenarios conducted with the use of standardized patients. The course was evaluated through 2 questionnaires, 1 administered before and 1 after the course, which measured changes in the students'' attitude and strategy. Questionnaires were administered during 5 of the years since the course was started. A total of 914 precourse and 503 postcourse questionnaires were completed, of which 359 matched pairs of precourse and postcourse questionnaires were analysed to study any changes due to the course. OUTCOMES: Precourse questionnaires showed that 68% of the students had thought about the task of breaking bad news often or very often. Of the 56% of students who had seen clinicians performing this task, 75% felt that they had seen good examples. The proportion of the students who had a plan for how to conduct such an interview rose from 49% before the course to 92% after it, and the proportion who felt they might be reasonably competent in breaking bad news rose from 23% before the course to 74% after it. CONCLUSIONS: The subject of breaking bad news is important to medical students, and it is practicable to design a course to teach the basic techniques involved. Most students perceive such a course as enjoyable and useful and find that it increases their sense of competence and their ability to formulate a strategy for such situations.     

Children with septo-optic dysplasia - how to improve and sharpen the diagnosis

The data in this article are based on investigations performed in 25 children with suspected septo-optic dysplasia (SOD). There are many signs and methods that help in the diagnosis of SOD. In particular, the ocular fundus, abnormalities of the hypothalamo-pituitary axis and other midline brain structures should be described. In order to achieve a more holistic and functional diagnosis, the degree of neurological, neuropsychiatric and psychological involvement should also be stated. It has been suggested that SOD is associated with autosomal recessive inheritance, and it can be speculated that it is the result of genetic and environmental influences early in gestation. An early diagnosis can favourably influence the outcome of the affected child.     

Using dBASE to write PENNAME, a computer key to common Penicillium species

dBASE III Plus™ computer software includes a high level computer language as well as a database management program. dBASE possesses advantages for key construction, including simple entry of raw data, effective user interaction in the selection of outputs, and ready comparison of included species with unknowns. This paper describes the use of dBASE in the construction of PENNAME, a new computer key to common Penicillium species.     

The quality circle: how to improve the outcome of paediatric diabetes care

Most multicentre studies demonstrate that the outcome of diabetes therapy falls below the targets set up in recent guidelines. Applying quality control methodology may provide one means better to achieve such targets. Before setting up a quality circle, objective, standardized documentation of relevant quality indicators is necessary. Based on internal (for example longitudinal changes over time) and external quality control (comparison with other institutions), both favourable and unfavourable results achieved by each institution are identified. Such data provide the basis for intensive discussion among the members of diabetes care teams on how to remedy such deficits. In Germany, the working group on paediatric diabetology set up a system for external quality assessment in 1995: For 6 continuous years, quality indicators are compared twice yearly, and regional quality circles for more open discussions have been established, in addition to yearly nationwide meetings among all participants.     

Using context to improve protein domain identification

Background  

Identifying domains in protein sequences is an important step in protein structural and functional annotation. Existing domain recognition methods typically evaluate each domain prediction independently of the rest. However, the majority of proteins are multidomain, and pairwise domain co-occurrences are highly specific and non-transitive.     

关于生物学研究模型教学的一点思考

如何利用现有的资源提高生物学教学效果.应该补充现代生物学发展历史和生物研究多样化模型两方面的知识.提供了学生应该掌握的研究历史和研究模型方面的基本脉络.     

The selection of introduced sounds to improve the soundscape in the public spaces

The purpose of introducing sounds is to afford a comfortable acoustic environment and to design good soundscapes. This study aims at rating the preference of subjects for the introduced sounds suitable to the public spaces and also investigates the methodology to select the sounds by subjective and objective procedures. Seventeen kinds of the introduced sounds were evaluated with nine adjectives in the presence of visual location information. Also, adequate sound levels were calculated by adjusting the volume of introduced sounds in the presence of the actual background sounds of locations and visual information. The concept of harmony with the surroundings was reviewed by analyzing the correlation among 9 adjectives which express introduced sounds. And the effectiveness of existed sound quality index was analyzed so as to select the introduced sounds quantitatively. By the evaluation of the adequate level of the introduced sounds, it is proposed that the lower introduced sound level would be better for the noisy circumstances.     

Mobile learning applications to improve invertebrate zoology online teaching

The use of new technologies including personal mobile devices has become an indispensable tool in our daily lives, and thus its presence in education is becoming ever more ubiquitous. In the current scenario imposed by the COVID‐19 pandemic, in which in‐person presence in classrooms has been enormously reduced at all educational levels, the use of mobile learning and cutting‐edge methods can greatly improve the way students learn and enhance their online‐learning experience. Mobile applications, combined with extended reality technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are powerful tools that connect real and virtual environments and allow higher interaction for the user. We have leveraged the advantages of mobile learning and extended reality technologies to develop a series of mobile applications and associated educational activities for university‐level courses involving invertebrate zoology field work. In particular, we have developed (a) a VR SCUBA diving video to explore the diversity of a marine protected area; (b) an AR mobile app to visualize 3D models of marine invertebrates; and (c) a mobile‐based catalogue to explore the terrestrial biodiversity of one of the most diverse regions of Spain. Here we provide detailed information describing the design and creation of these tools, as well as their application in class, to facilitate and encourage their use in higher education. Despite the relatively recent application of these technologies in education, they have an enormous potential: they improve student motivation and learning, can be adapted to different learning styles, reduce social inequalities, and facilitate inclusiveness and diversity practices in the classroom.