19 research outputs found
Evolution of a Course in Veterinary Clinical Pathology: The Application of Case-Based Writing Assignments to Focus on Skill Development and Facilitation of Learning
No full text Rationale for study – To encourage application and critical thinking, case-based writing assignments and grading rubrics were developed for use in a second-year core clinical pathology course. Objectives were to describe how this teaching technique was adapted to a large-class setting and how student perceptions of the learning experience guided modifications of this teaching technique over two presentations of the course and plans for a third presentation. Our goal was to enhance learning by encouraging application of course material to clinical situations and thereby improve students’ ability to organize and communicate information. Furthermore, we evaluated the influence of instructor feedback on the learning process. Methods – With assistance from the University of Minnesota Center for Writing, assignments and grading rubrics were developed. Students completed course evaluation surveys designed to elicit feedback on the impact of the assignments. Results – Increased learner confidence was reflected in larger self-reported increases in understanding of the material and ability to apply information and in increased feelings of preparedness for class and examinations. A large majority of students advocated the use of such assignments in the course in future years, and modifications to make grading and evaluation of assignments more efficient are underway. Conclusions – Investment of faculty and student time in case-based writing assignments in the veterinary clinical pathology curriculum appears to increase student engagement with material and learner confidence. Future studies should address the impact of this type of assignment more specifically on clinical reasoning and communication skills and on long-term retention of material. </jats:p
What is your diagnosis? Increased total CO2 concentration and negative anion gap in a foal
No full textStudy of a Night Sky Radiator Cooling System Utilizing Direct Fluid Radiation Emission and Varying Cover Materials
Get PDFabstract: As the demand for power increases in populated areas, so will the demand for water. Current power plant technology relies heavily on the Rankine cycle in coal, nuclear and solar thermal power systems which ultimately use condensers to cool the steam in the system. In dry climates, the amount of water to cool off the condenser can be extremely large. Current wet cooling technologies such as cooling towers lose water from evaporation. One alternative to prevent this would be to implement a radiative cooling system. More specifically, a system that utilizes the volumetric radiation emission from water to the night sky could be implemented. This thesis analyzes the validity of a radiative cooling system that uses direct radiant emission to cool water. A brief study on potential infrared transparent cover materials such as polyethylene (PE) and polyvinyl carbonate (PVC) was performed. Also, two different experiments to determine the cooling power from radiation were developed and run. The results showed a minimum cooling power of 33.7 W/m2 for a vacuum insulated glass system and 37.57 W/m2 for a tray system with a maximum of 98.61 Wm-2 at a point when conduction and convection heat fluxes were considered to be zero. The results also showed that PE proved to be the best cover material. The minimum numerical results compared well with other studies performed in the field using similar techniques and materials. The results show that a radiative cooling system for a power plant could be feasible given that the cover material selection is narrowed down, an ample amount of land is available and an economic analysis is performed proving it to be cost competitive with conventional systems.Dissertation/ThesisExcel Data with generated plots and some calcsRaw DataFTIR csv files for materialsFTIR generated imagesIR camera imagesExperimental setup imagesM.S. Mechanical Engineering 201
Production of the Bioactive Compounds Violacein and Indolmycin Is Conditional in a maeA Mutant of Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea S4054 Lacking the Malic Enzyme
Get PDFCopyright © 2016 Thøgersen, Delpin, Melchiorsen, Kilstrup, Månsson, Bunk, Spröer, Overmann, Nielsen and Gram. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.It has previously been reported that some strains of the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas luteoviolacea produce the purple bioactive pigment violacein as well as the antibiotic compound indolmycin, hitherto only found in Streptomyces. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative role of each of these two compounds as antibacterial compounds in P. luteoviolacea S4054. Using Tn10 transposon mutagenesis, a mutant strain that was significantly reduced in violacein production in mannose-containing substrates was created. Full genome analyses revealed that the vio-biosynthetic gene cluster was not interrupted by the transposon; instead the insertion was located to the maeA gene encoding the malic enzyme. Supernatant of the mutant strain inhibited Vibrio anguillarum and Staphylococcus aureus in well diffusion assays and in MIC assays at the same level as the wild type strain. The mutant strain killed V. anguillarum in co-culture experiments as efficiently as the wild type. Using UHPLC-UV/Vis analyses, we quantified violacein and indolmycin, and the mutant strain only produced 7–10% the amount of violacein compared to the wild type strain. In contrast, the amount of indolmycin produced by the mutant strain was about 300% that of the wild type. Since inhibition of V. anguillarum and S. aureus by the mutant strain was similar to that of the wild type, it is concluded that violacein is not the major antibacterial compound in P. luteoviolacea. We furthermore propose that production of violacein and indolmycin may be metabolically linked and that yet unidentified antibacterial compound(s) may be play a role in the antibacterial activity of P. luteoviolacea
