Foundational Topics Research Articles

City and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Urbanization and Social Response in the Making of the Hellenistic Kingdoms by Ryan Boehm

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 407 (based on vision and presence) that characterizes the metaphorical usage. At the end of the chapter, O’Connell points to an interesting contrast in the use of the same metaphorical language in medical and funerary epideictic oratory. Although both epideictic and forensic oratory (mis)represent “saying” as “showing” and “hearing” as “seeing,” the former aims to communicate timeless, universal truths, while the latter treats particular, contingent ones. Part Three, “Imaginary Sight,” focuses on the jury’s faculty of imagination, which speakers could exploit through vivid imagery. O’Connell astutely compares the truthvalue of these attempts at enargeia to that of eikos-arguments. Through verbs of seeing, picturesque details (or, contrarily, archetypal generality), and deictic markers, speakers encouraged their audience to imagine scenes important to the case and experience them as if they were really there. Chapter Five, “Visualizing Civic Suffering,” contains three case-studies of an apparently common ekphrasis: a city being plunged into disorder, destroyed, or standing in ruins. Chapter Six, “Shared Spectatorship,” examines the way in which orators manipulate the jury’s imagination in order to bridge the gap between the here-and-now of the courtroom and an important event in the past. In his Conclusion, O’Connell stresses that the three visual phenomena he has been examining are more properly understood as belonging to a single, overarching rhetorical strategy prioritizing the sense of sight. He reminds us that everything in these speeches was designed with an eye towards the jury’s vote. Their frequent instrumentalizing of the visual was no exception. Admirably, the book will be easily accessible to a general audience due to the author’s scrupulous explanations of topics already familiar to the cognoscenti. O’Connell always takes the time to explain the significance of the Greek text (and his rendering of it) in terms any reader will understand. He brings in many comparanda from modern courtrooms, which are both enlightening and may make the ancient material easier to comprehend. The book also serves as a solid introduction to the subfield of Attic forensic oratory as a whole, covering foundational topics such as jury selection, the suspicion of legal experts, and witness testimony. Finally, it is full of helpful resources, including an index of ancient texts and a general index, as well as an appendix of speeches, which briefly summarizes each case and its context. University of Toronto Ted Parker City and Empire in the Age of the Successors: Urbanization and Social Response in the Making of the Hellenistic Kingdoms. By Ryan Boehm. Oakland: University of California Press. 2018. Pp. xiv, 300. This book investigates—true to its subtitle—the relationship between the large-scale and small-scale synoikisms of the early Hellenistic period and the emergence of the Successor Kingdoms, the cities’ new lives and economies, and the early Hellenistic kings’ interactions with these cities. As an important contribution that fills a significant gap in the existing scholarship on the structure of Hellenistic empires, it deserves wide readership . The “Introduction” (1–25) elegantly sets out the topic of the book, focusing on a core set of cities and the chronological framework of this study (ca 316–280 b.c.). Boehm carefully argues that it is not only imperial agents but also local actors who actively 408 PHOENIX shaped the Hellenistic empires. For the author, the—often royally—planned synoikisms of the early Successor period are a dynamic, constantly evolving defining marker not only of Hellenistic polis life, but also of the Hellenistic empires per se, offering, he argues, a “distinctive form” of imperial rule (12). The first part of the book (consisting of Chapters One and Two) investigates the role of urbanization through synoikism in the overall structure of the “imperial systems of the early Hellenistic kings” (5), while the second (Chapters Three and Four) views this same process from the vantage point of the local communities, assessing the impact of large-scale synoikism on these former and new poleis. In the first chapter, “Imperial Geographies: City, Settlement, and Ideology in the Formation of the Hellenistic Kingdoms” (29–88), the author offers a well-written political narrative of the Successors’ actions and their key synoikisms (Kassandreia, Thessalonike , Herakleia...

Complex Systems Research in Educational Psychology: Aligning Theory and Method

The purpose of this work is to provide an overview of complex systems research for educational psychologists. We outline a philosophically and theoretically sourced definition of complex systems research organized around complex, dynamic, and emergent ontological characteristics that is useful and appropriate for educational psychology. A complex systems approach is positioned as a means to align underexplored elements of existing theory with appropriate interaction dominant theoretical models, research methods, and equation-based analytic techniques. We conclude with a brief discussion of several foundational topics for complex systems research in educational psychology.

Understanding Influence of Marketing Thought on Practice: an Analysis of Business Journals Using Textual and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) Analysis

Several calls have been made to understand the influence of marketing thought on practice (Rust et al. J Mark 68:76–89, 11). Practice includes practitioners who mostly use concepts and frameworks (general practice) and who mostly use quantitative models (quantitative practice). This paper compares the relative influence of marketing thought compared to other disciplines and uncovers seminal marketing thoughts that have influenced both general and quantitative practice. Using topic modeling procedures on 94 years of Harvard Business Review, 46 years of Sloan Management Review, and 47 years of Management Science, this paper illuminates the evolution of the influence of marketing thought over time. Despite marketing’s slow start, it has an increasing influence on both general and quantitative practice. Foundational topics in marketing such as product, promotion, place, consumers, and marketing research methods have influenced both general and quantitative practice. Surprisingly, price has not influenced practice. Marketing Communications is increasingly influential while Channel Management, Product/Service Management, and surprisingly Customer Relationships have lost their early influence to practice. General practitioners find Marketing Environment and Business Models increasingly influential while quantitative practitioners find Social Influence and Metrics increasingly influential. Quantitative practice has kept up to speed with marketing thought that influence general practice.

An Evidence-based, Longitudinal Curriculum for Resident Physician Wellness: The 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit.

IntroductionPhysicians are at much higher risk for burnout, depression, and suicide than their non-medical peers. One of the working groups from the May 2017 Resident Wellness Consensus Summit (RWCS) addressed this issue through the development of a longitudinal residency curriculum to address resident wellness and burnout.MethodsA 30-person (27 residents, three attending physicians) Wellness Curriculum Development workgroup developed the curriculum in two phases. In the first phase, the workgroup worked asynchronously in the Wellness Think Tank – an online resident community – conducting a literature review to identify 10 core topics. In the second phase, the workgroup expanded to include residents outside the Wellness Think Tank at the live RWCS event to identify gaps in the curriculum. This resulted in an additional seven core topics.ResultsSeventeen foundational topics served as the framework for the longitudinal resident wellness curriculum. The curriculum includes a two-module introduction to wellness; a seven-module “Self-Care Series” focusing on the appropriate structure of wellness activities and everyday necessities that promote physician wellness; a two-module section on physician suicide and self-help; a four-module “Clinical Care Series” focusing on delivering bad news, navigating difficult patient encounters, dealing with difficult consultants and staff members, and debriefing traumatic events in the emergency department; wellness in the workplace; and dealing with medical errors and shame.ConclusionThe resident wellness curriculum, derived from an evidence-based approach and input of residents from the Wellness Think Tank and the RWCS event, provides a guiding framework for residency programs in emergency medicine and potentially other specialties to improve physician wellness and promote a culture of wellness.

Leader Influence and Reputation Formation in World Politics

AbstractThe study of reputation is one of the foundational topics of modern international relations. However, fundamental questions remain, including the question of to whom reputations adhere: states, leaders, or both? We offer a theory ofinfluence‐specificreputations (ISR) that unifies competing accounts of reputation formation. We theorize that reputations will adhere more to actors who are more influential in the relevant decision‐making process. We employ two survey experiments, one abstract and one richly detailed involving a U.S.‐Iran conflict, to evaluate ISR. We find evidence of large country‐specific reputations and moderately sized leader‐specific reputations. Consistent with the theory of influence‐specific reputations, leader‐specific reputations are more important when leaders are more influential.

Understanding Influence of Marketing Thought on Practice: An Analysis of Business Journals Using Textual and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) Analysis

Several calls have made to understand the influence of marketing thought on practice. Practice includes practitioners who mostly use concepts and frameworks (general practice) and who mostly use quantitative models (quantitative practice). This paper compares the relative influence of marketing thought compared to other disciplines and uncovers seminal marketing thoughts that have influenced both general and quantitative practice. Using topic modeling procedures on 94 years of Harvard Business Review, 46 years of Sloan Management Review, and 47 years of Management Science, this paper illuminates the evolution of the influence of marketing thought over time. Despite marketing’s slow start, it has an increasing influence on both general and quantitative practice. Foundational topics in marketing such as product, promotion, place, consumers, and marketing research methods have influenced both general and quantitative practice. Surprisingly, price has not influenced practice. Marketing Communications is increasingly influential while Channel Management, Product/Service Management, and surprisingly Customer Relationships have lost their early influence to practice. General practitioners find Marketing Environment and Business Models increasingly influential while quantitative practitioners find Social Influence and Metrics increasingly influential. Quantitative practice has kept up to speed with marketing thought that influence general practice.

WE‐D‐204‐04: Learning the Ropes: Clinical Immersion in the First Month of Residency

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site‐specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices. Learning Objectives: To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

WE‐D‐204‐00: Session in Memory of Franca Kuchnir: Excellence in Medical Physics Residency Education

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site‐specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices. Learning Objectives: To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

WE‐D‐204‐02: Errors and Process Improvements in Radiation Therapy

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site‐specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices. Learning Objectives: To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

WE‐D‐204‐03: CAMPEP Residencies in a Canadian Context: Comprehensive Cancer Centers and Integrated Learning Environments

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site‐specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices. Learning Objectives: To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

WE‐D‐204‐01: Site‐Specific Clinical Rotation: Into the Minds of the Radiation Oncologists

Speakers in this session will present overview and details of a specific rotation or feature of their Medical Physics Residency Program that is particularly exceptional and noteworthy. The featured rotations include foundational topics executed with exceptional acumen and innovative educational rotations perhaps not commonly found in Medical Physics Residency Programs. A site‐specific clinical rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident follows the physician and medical resident for two weeks into patient consultations, simulation sessions, target contouring sessions, planning meetings with dosimetry, patient follow up visits, and tumor boards, to gain insight into the thought processes of the radiation oncologist. An incident learning rotation will be described where the residents learns about and practices evaluating clinical errors and investigates process improvements for the clinic. The residency environment at a Canadian medical physics residency program will be described, where the training and interactions with radiation oncology residents is integrated. And the first month rotation will be described, where the medical physics resident rotates through the clinical areas including simulation, dosimetry, and treatment units, gaining an overview of the clinical flow and meeting all the clinical staff to begin the residency program. This session will be of particular interest to residency programs who are interested in adopting or adapting these curricular ideas into their programs and to residency candidates who want to learn about programs already employing innovative practices. Learning Objectives: To learn about exceptional and innovative clinical rotations or program features within existing Medical Physics Residency Programs. To understand how to adopt/adapt innovative curricular designs into your own Medical Physics Residency Program, if appropriate.

Using Serious Game to Enhance Learning and Teaching Algorithmic

Data structures and algorithms are important foundation topics in computer science education. However, they are considered to be hard to teach and learn because usually model complicated concepts, refer to abstract mathematical notions, or describe complex dynamic changes in data structures. Many students in programming courses have difficulties to master all required competencies and skills especially at introductory level. There are different approaches to improve the dropout rate at programming courses. Recently, games are increasingly being used for education in various fields. We hypothesize that games have the potential to be an important teaching tool for their interactive, engaging and immersive activities. So they can improve student engagement, motivation, and consequently learning. To this end, we are developing a game to teach basic algorithmic concepts and algorithms. We aim to initially investigate the educational games developed for and used in the computer programming domain and review to which level they address the aforementioned difficulties. Then, we propose a new role playing game AlgoGame that contains some of the positive features identified in existing solutions and incorporates missing elements.

Finding the connections between native-speakerism and authenticity

AbstractNative-speakerism and authenticity are two subjects that have been written on extensively in the field of English language teaching, but the links between the two have yet to be explored in any great depth. This paper extensively reviews the literature on native-speakerism and authenticity and outlines where the connections between these two concepts, both practical and theoretical, may lie. Native-speakerism and authenticity are first briefly introduced and contextualised separately, and a theoretical framework is then presented to explain the connections between them based on the key foundational topics of authority, culturism, and cultural capital. Following this, the paper moves on to explain how these connections manifest in the ELT industry to influence the lives of ‘non-native speaker’ teachers in terms of student perceptions, self-perceptions, and professional discrimination, and how these are both influential on, and propagated by, the sales rhetoric of the ELT industry. Finally some suggestions are given for possible avenues of future research.

Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes

Reviewed by: Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes James Parr Cervantes, Miguel de. Don Quijote de la Mancha + volumen complementario. 2 vols. Ed. Francisco Rico et al. Madrid: RAE, 2015. Pp. 1644 + 1668. ISBN 978-8-46726-353-4. This deluxe edition consists of two hefty hardbound tomes, accentuated by deep cerulean blue dust jackets and coordinated slipcase. It is a revision and update of previous editions, going back to 1998. Beyond the text and notes, the most valuable part of the first volume is the collection of ten probing analyses of foundational topics (1.1349–1642). These alone justify the price of admission. They range widely, from the books of chivalry and the composition of the text to literary theory of that day and even “the narrator” (although the editorial voice is arguably the authoritative presence that staked a claim in 1.8, not the caricature in 1.9). Be that as it may, it is heartening to see the diegetic make modest inroads into the predilection for the mimetic. Anyone who has edited the Quijote turns immediately to problematic passages. We can consider only three, followed by some editorial desiderata. 1) “En un lugar de la Mancha, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme. . . .” Rico concurs with Gaos, Riquer, and others, going back to Cortejón in the early 1900s, that quiero is a null or an auxiliary here, but he maintains that the counterpart in the denouement, “cuyo lugar no quiso poner Cide Hamete puntualmente” (2.74), shows volition: “C[ervantes] recupera el sentido propio del verbo.” This sort of linkage is reminiscent of his treatment of the caso in the Lazarillo. The egregious misattribution to Cide Hamete is ignored, although it casts fresh doubt on the credibility of our editor. Earlier he had stepped out of character, abandoning distance and control, by extravagantly praising Cide Hamete, Don Quijote, Sancho, and Dulcinea (2.40). Two points: 1) Fracturing the frame to introduce Cervantes as agent, rather than focusing on the diegetic puppets he has created and set in motion, creates confusion; and 2) Each pseudoauthor, narrator, or scribbler has an identity pattern. Close reading will clarify who is where at what point and also how individual and collective discrediting occurs, undermining narrative authority. Critical rigor requires that Miguel de Cervantes remain outside the text but also welcomes his occasional autonomous transgressions. He is not a narrator, not a character, but he is the true hero of the work. Don Quijote is a mock hero. 2) “Dicen que en el propio original desta historia se lee que llegando Cide Hamete a escribir este capítulo no le tradujo su intérprete como él le había escrito . . . .” Homage is paid yet again to Diego Clemencín’s edition of the early 1830s, where he called this beginning “una algarabía que no se entiende.” We can understand the passage better today because we have better tools. It is indeed ambiguous but clearly it has to do with orality (dicen que) and literacy (se lee que) and it presents the paradox of having the durable (writing) seek grounding in the ephemeral [End Page 702] (speaking), with hearsay as ultimate authority. This propio original is apparently a source text by another hand that is being brought forward, further complicating the chain of transmission and thereby casting renewed doubt on the entire process. There is ample precedent: 1) the “autores hay que dicen” and “otros hay” (1.2); 2) Cide Hamete’s found manuscript (1.9); and 3) the decaying parchment in the lead box (1.52). Following that pattern, the passage further illustrates the futility of seeking grounding by questing after origins, sources, and firsts. It is not an incoherent anomaly but an ingenious recapitulation of significant leitmotifs centering on origins and the interdependence of orality and literacy, highlighted by a rare proleptic analepsis and a potential mise en abîme. For elaboration, see On Cervantes: Essays for L. A. Murillo. A section of the complementary volume (37–290) offers readings of chapters, including 3) the highly problematic 1.8–9. Claudio Guillén (8) levitates above the narrative level, while Luis Iglesias Feijoo (9) rewrites it. Both...

Tensiones constitucionales En torno a los perfiles legales para aspirantes al Congreso de la República

El presente artículo pretende demostrar, que el actual marco constitucional y legal, concerniente a los perfiles de los aspirantes al Honorable Congreso de la República de Colombia, se queda corto, en exigencias de tipo ético y moral, para la configuración de los requisitos para acceder, a la Rama Legislativa del poder público. Lo que significa que en tal Corporación, vive de manera permanente la democracia colombiana, ya que sus delegatarios representan al pueblo, en la toma de decisiones trascendentales con implicaciones de toda índole, política, social, económica, cultural, fiscal, financiera, etc. La tesis que defenderemos se construirá a partir de los postulados del Estado Social de Derecho, como un Estado don- de el principal protagonista es el ciudadano del común, el ciudadano de a pie, que en términos de Ferrajoli, correspondería a la protección de los derechos fundamentales como ley del más débil. Para este estudio, nos apoyaremos en tres tópicos fundantes, a saber: (i) la idoneidad del ordenamiento concerniente a perfiles lega- les para aspirantes al Honorable Congreso de la República de Colombia en el Estado Social de Derecho, (ii) la incidencia en la democracia participativa frente al ejercicio político de ele- gibilidad parlamentaria en torno a los perfiles de los aspirantes, (iii) realidad social y partici- pación democrática: en búsqueda de un ejerci- cio político en pro de los ciudadanos.

Mathematical Content Understanding for Teaching: A Study of Undergraduate STEM Majors

This paper investigates the nature of mathematical understanding that is needed to teach three foundational early algebra topics. These three topics include dividing fractions, linear equation in two variables and its graph, and quadratic function and its graph. Data from a sample of undergraduate STEM majors in a major research university affirm the importance of developing what Shulman (1999) calls “far more effective mathematics courses in U.S. undergraduate program” in order to equip future mathematics teachers with profound mathematical content understanding for teaching fundamental mathematics (Ma, 1999).

Encyclopedia of business and finance

How is social responsibility viewed by U.S. based companies? How do stocks and bonds differ? Can a corporation be ethical? How has crowdfunding changed the nature of entrepreneurship? Undergraduate business school enrollment for both traditional and non-traditional students is increasing each year, while at the same time more high schools are building economic and business literacy into their curricula. Encyclopedia of Business and Finance, 3rd Edition, is designed to meet both the specific research and general inquiry needs of all of these students by providing easy to understand essays covering all of the foundational topics, themes, and theories that will be covered in their business degree curricula. Macmillan s Encyclopedia of Business and Finance is a two volume set that is organized A-Z. Each signed entry was written by a subject expert and peer reviewed. Entries come equipped with bibliographies and See Also references to facilitate further research. Designed for the non-specialist, the Encyclopedia Of Business And Finance is a two-volume complete reference covering five general areas: finance and banking; accounting; marketing; management; and information systems. Drawing on practical professional expertise as well as that of noted scholars, the contributors include academics and business scholars from leading business programs. The new completely revised second edition includes 315 signed essays. Fully indexed and numerous cross references to make information accessible quickly and efficiently.

Teaching foundational topics and scientific skills in biochemistry within the conceptual framework of HIV protease

HIV protease has served as a model protein for understanding protein structure, enzyme kinetics, structure-based drug design, and protein evolution. Inhibitors of HIV protease are also an essential part of effective HIV/AIDS treatment and have provided great societal benefits. The broad applications for HIV protease and its inhibitors make it a perfect framework for integrating foundational topics in biochemistry around a big picture scientific and societal issue. Herein, I describe a series of classroom exercises that integrate foundational topics in biochemistry around the structure, biology, and therapeutic inhibition of HIV protease. These exercises center on foundational topics in biochemistry including thermodynamics, acid/base properties, protein structure, ligand binding, and enzymatic catalysis. The exercises also incorporate regular student practice of scientific skills including analysis of primary literature, evaluation of scientific data, and presentation of technical scientific arguments. Through the exercises, students also gain experience accessing computational biochemical resources such as the protein data bank, Proteopedia, and protein visualization software. As these HIV centered exercises cover foundational topics common to all first semester biochemistry courses, these exercises should appeal to a broad audience of undergraduate students and should be readily integrated into a variety of teaching styles and classroom sizes.

Psychometric analysis of the thermochemistry concept inventory

Assessing conceptual understanding of foundational topics before instruction on higher-order concepts can provide chemical educators with information to aid instructional design. This study provides an instrument that can be used to identify students' alternative conceptions regarding thermochemistry concepts. The Thermochemistry Concept Inventory (TCI) has been developed for use in formative and summative assessments. Items on the TCI were developed and refined through qualitative evaluation as well as β and pilot tests. Data for the psychometric analysis of the TCI was gathered during a large data collection (N= 1330) and was analyzed using the Rasch model. Supporting evidence for response process validity, structural validity, and reliability were collected. Testing data shows that the TCI is unidimensional and has acceptable fit to the Rasch model. In support of prior qualitative studies, option probability curves support the response process validity and reliability of the items. With exception of one item, when used in summative testing, all items displayed good item functioning. Test-level analysis indicated that the TCI was well targeted to the ability of students in our testing samples. Performance data from different groups shows that the TCI is a measure of overall student ability, providing evidence of concurrent validity.

Description of a Medical Writing Rotation for a Postgraduate Pharmacy Residency Program

Purpose: To provide a description of a pharmacy residency rotation dedicated to medical writing developed at a tertiary care academic medical center. Summary: Contribution to the medical literature is an important component of professional pharmacy practice, and there are many benefits seen by practitioners actively involved in scholarly activities. Residency programs have an opportunity to expand beyond the standard roles of postgraduate pharmacist training but rarely is there formal instruction on medical writing skills or are scholarship opportunities provided to residents. In order to address this deficiency, a residency program may consider the implementation of a formal Medical Writing rotation. This rotation is designed to introduce the resident to medical writing through active discussion on medical writing foundational topics, engage the resident in a collaborative review of a manuscript submitted to a peer-reviewed professional journal, and support the resident in the design and composition of manuscript of publishable quality. Conclusion: A structured Medical Writing rotation during a pharmacy resident’s training can help develop the skills necessary to promote scholarly activities and foster resident interest in future pursuit of professional medical writing.