Identifying key Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) dimensions associated with academic success amongst postgraduate medical students

Many elements have been identified as contributors of academic success amongst medical students but to group these components in order to develop guidelines for intervention strategies is atypical. One such tool which could allow this possibility is the Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory (ELLI) developed by the University of Bristol. ELLI is an online self-assessment instrument which identifies and measures the dimensions of learner development. It comprises of 90 key questions used to measure the seven dimensions of learning power: changing and learning; meaning making; critical curiosity; creativity; learning relationships; strategic awareness and resilience. This study used ELLI to explore learning dimensions as potential drivers for academic success. A small cohort of thirty-three first year postgraduate medical students consented and completed the first ELLI before starting formal classes. Only eighteen of these completed it a second time, 45 days later. The data from the ELLI questionnaires were analysed both for the whole cohort and separately for each academic performance group (defined using grade point averages). The results showed that the students obtained the highest scores for the meaning making or changing and learning dimensions, and the lowest scores for creativity or resilience. After a period of postgraduate study, only the successful students displayed significant improvements in the mean ELLI scores, with increases for all ELLI dimensions apart from resilience. Those who were less successful made declines in more than one dimension. It was concluded that ELLI is an effective instrument for identifying key learning dispositions and it is proposed that an intervention could be developed in the future to improve academic achievement

Earnings functions, labour market discrimination and quality of education in South Africa

Education is a key determinant of earnings, as several South African studies have confirmed. Years of schooling completed, however, provides an imperfect approximation of the effective level of education achieved, mainly due to variations in the quality of education received. This study addresses this issue by, for the first time in South Africa, incorporating quality of education in the modelling of earnings. Differences in quality of education are viewed as a form of pre-labour market discrimination. By decomposing the wage gap before and after controlling for educational quality, more accurate estimates of the true levels of labour market discrimination are obtained. The main hypothesis tested is that controlling for quality will reduce the component of the wage gap ascribed to labour market discrimination. The results show a systematic decrease in the labour market discrimination component with increased adjustments for quality of education. Almost half of the previous labour market discrimination can be explained by differences in quality, yet the proportion of racial wage differentials ascribed to labour market discrimination is still found to be significant. The clear implication is that current estimates of labour market discrimination are exaggerated and a more careful analysis of earnings is required to re-assess the levels of discrimination in the South African labour market.earnings functions, labour market, discrimination, education, South Africa

Damage assessment and refurbishment of steam turbine blade/rotor attachment holes

This paper presents a case study dealing with the assessment of cracking observed at steam turbine blade attachment holes, and subsequent use of an innovative repair solution based on a friction processing technique, friction hydro-pillar processing (FHPP). This was performed with a bespoke welding platform developed specifically for repair of radially cracked or incorrectly drilled blade attachment holes in LP turbine rotors. The paper initially outlines a fracture mechanics analysis of observed in-service cracking aimed at assessing critical defect sizes to support repair or replacement scenarios. It then briefly discusses development of the FHPP process before focusing on characterisation of the residual stresses resulting from the welding process and their amelioration by heat treatment; a necessary part of the procedure approval for turbine refurbishment

Microscale patchiness of virioplankton

The microscale spatial distributions of viruses were investigated in three contrasting environments including oligotrophic open ocean, eutrophic coastal and estuarine habitats. The abundances of two discrete populations of both viruses and heterotrophic bacteria were measured at spatial resolutions of between 1 and 5 cm using purpose-designed microscale sampling equipment and flow cytometric sample analysis. Within open water samples, virus distributions were characterized by non-normal distributions and by 'hotspots' in abundance where concentrations varied by up to 17-fold. In contrast to patterns generally observed at larger spatiotemporal scales, there was no correlation between bacterial and viral abundance or correspondence between bacteria and virus hotspots within these samples. Consequently, strong hotspots and gradients in the virus:bacteria ratio (VBR) were also apparent within samples. Within vertical profiles taken from above the sediment-water interface within a temperate mangrove estuary, distributions of planktonic viruses were characterized by gradients in abundance, with highest concentrations observed within the 1-2 cm immediately above the sediment surface, and virus distributions were correlated to bacterial abundance (P<0.01). The patterns observed in these contrasting habitats indicate that microscale patchiness of virus abundance may be a common feature of the marine environment. This form of heterogeneity may have important implications for virus-host dynamics and subsequently influence microbial trophodynamics and nutrient cycling in the ocean

Residual stresses in condition monitoring and repair of thermal power generation components

Residual stresses have a significant impact on fatigue and fracture of engineering components and structures, with an effect that is largely dependent on the sign of the residual stress relative to that of the applied stress, i.e. on whether they add to, or subtract from, the applied stress. The present paper will emphasise the importance of detailed knowledge of residual stresses to applications in thermal power generation. The context of the examples is condition monitoring and repair procedures where assessment of the influence of residual stress fields is important to both fatigue and fracture performance, and to certification of the repair procedure itself. The main conclusion in the paper is that the innovative use of solid-state friction taper hydro-pillar processes can offer additional capability in condition monitoring of through-thickness creep damage in thermal power plant, as well as provide cost-effective local repair of creep or fatigue damage in, for example, thick-walled steam pipe and blade-disc attachment holes

Weld residual stresses near the bimetallic interface in clad RPV steel: A comparison between deep-hole drilling and neutron diffraction data

The inner surface of ferritic steel reactor pressure vessels (RPV) is clad with strip welded austenitic stainless steel primarily to increase the long-term corrosion resistance of the ferritic vessel. The strip welding process used in the cladding operation induces significant residual stresses in the clad layer and in the RPV steel substrate, arising both from the thermal cycle and from the very different thermal and mechanical properties of the austenitic clad layer and the ferritic RPV steel. This work measures residual stresses using the deep hole drilling (DHD) and neutron diffraction (ND) techniques and compares residual stress data obtained by the two methods in a stainless clad coupon of A533B Class 2 steel. The results give confidence that both techniques are capable of assessing the trends in residual stresses, and their magnitudes. Significant differences are that the ND data shows greater values of the tensile stress peaks (∼100 MPa) than the DHD data but has a higher systematic error associated with it. The stress peaks are sharper with the ND technique and also differ in spatial position by around 1 mm compared with the DHD technique. © 2014 Elsevier B.V

The management of tuberculous pericardial effusion : experience in 233 consecutive patients

The original publication is available at http://www.cvja.co.za/Aim: We report on the 30-day and one-year outcome of consecutive effusive pericarditis patients, including those with tuberculous pericarditis, over a six-year-period. Methods and Results: Patients with large pericardial effusions requiring pericardiocentesis were included in the study after having given written informed consent. Clinical and radiological evaluations were followed by echo-guided pericardiocentesis, and extended daily intermittent drainage via an indwelling pigtail catheter. A standard short-course anti-tuberculous regimen was initiated. A total of 233 patients was included. One hundred and sixty-two patients had pericardial tuberculosis (TB), including 118 (73%) with microbiological and/ or histological evidence of TB and 44 (27%) diagnosed on clinical and supportive laboratory data. Over the six-year period, two patients developed fibrous constrictive pericarditis after receiving adjuvant corticosteroid therapy. The 30-day mortality (8.0%) was statistically higher for HIV-positive patients (corresponding mortality 9.9%) than for HIV-negative patients (6.2%; p=0.04). The oneyear all-cause mortality was 17.3%. It was also higher for HIV-positive (22.2%) than for HIV-negative patients (12.3%; p=0.03). Cardiac mortality was equal for HIVpositive and -negative patients. Conclusion: Tuberculous pericardial effusions responded well to closed pericardiocentesis and a six-month treatment of antituberculous chemotherapy. The former was effective and safe irrespective of HIV status.Publishers' versio

Has preventive medicine entered the realm of the interventional cardiologist?

The result of the Preventive Angioplasty in Acute Myocardial Infarction (PRAMI) trial(1) released at the recent ESC meeting held in Amsterdam has attracted enormous interest and rightly so: if the conclusions drawn by the researchers prove correct, the management of patients presenting with a ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) is about to undergo a major change. The authors provide evidence to support “preventive PCI” in non-infarct related coronary arteries in patients with multivessel disease undergoing angiography with the objective of opening the infarct related coronary artery. These findings challenge the long-held view, reflected in international guidelines, that PCI in this setting should be aimed only at the so-called culprit lesion. It also challenges the view that the likelihood of atheromatousplaque rupture is primarily related to the properties of the plaque (degree of inflammation, cap thickness, cholesterol content) and not the degree of stenosis

Training the next generation of South African cardiologists – Are we on the right track?

The training of cardiologists in South Africa has changed markedly over the last 20 years. Training centres across the country have accepted the challenge and continue to produce cardiologists of a high standard. Testament to this fact are the many South African trained cardiologists who have made their mark as leaders in the field of cardiology in the USA, UK and Europe as well as the number of applicants from other countries seeking to be trained at South African institutions. However, we should remember the advice of our colleague from endocrinology and we should embrace the belief that everything can improve