The roles of basic psychological needs,self-compassion,and self-efficacy in the development of mastery goals among medical students

Abstract

Aim: Competency-based medical education aims to foster mastery goals in learners. We examined medical students’ mastery approach (beneficial) and mastery avoidance (maladaptive) goals and their associations with students’ basic psychological needs, self-compassion, and self-efficacy.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study employing an online questionnaire. Two hundred medical students in all four years of the medical program completed the questionnaire, containing measures of mastery goals, basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, relatedness), self-compassion, and self-efficacy. Regression analyses were performed.

Results: Of the three basic psychological needs, the need for competence was significant in explaining both types of mastery goals. Self-efficacy and self-compassion were significant in explaining mastery approach and mastery avoidance goals, respectively.

Conclusions: Creating learning environments that are supportive of students’ need for competence, raising students’ awareness of the value of learning from mistakes in competency acquisition, and providing opportunities for students to experience self-efficacy may foster beneficial mastery approach goals in medical students.     

Quantitation of T2′ anisotropic effects on magnetic resonance bone mineral density measurement

In this paper, the authors quantitate the anisotropy of susceptibility effects in an uniaxial trabecular bone model and show its relevance to clinical MR bone mineral density measurements. A physical model is described that quantitates the anisotropic MR behavior of uniaxial trabecular bone. To test the model, a phantom of parallel polyethylene filaments was scanned every 15° between 0° and 90° with respect to the system's main magnetic field (B₀). The distal radial metaphysis of a healthy female volunteer was scanned in orthogonal projections. The signal from each phantom image and each radial image was separated in a pixel-wise fashion into R₂ and R₂′ maps. As predicted, R₂′ relaxation showed anisotropic behavior and changed according to sin² (?), confirming that columnar structures parallel with B₀ will cause no MR susceptibility effects. Scans of the distal radius showed that R₂′ relaxation was twice as great with the forearm perpendicular to B₀ as when it was parallel to it, demonstrating different contributions from struts and columns. For both phantom and radial bone scans, R₂ relaxation was isotropic and did not change with object orientation.     

Thermal contribution of compact bone to intervening tissue-like media exposed to planar ultrasound

The presence of bone in the ultrasound beam path raises concerns, both in diagnostic and therapeutic applications, because significant temperature elevations may be induced at nearby soft tissue-bone interfaces due the facts that ultrasound is (i) highly absorbed in bone and (ii) reflected at soft tissue-bone interfaces in various degrees depending on angle of incidence. Consequently, in ultrasonic thermal therapy, the presence of bone in the ultrasound beam path is considered a major disadvantage and it is usually avoided. However, based on clinical experience and previous theoretical studies, we hypothesized that the presence of bone in superficial unfocused ultrasound hyperthermia can actually be exploited to induce more uniform and enhanced (with respect to the no-bone situation) temperature distributions in superficial target volumes. In particular, we hypothesize that the presence of underlying bone in superficial target volume enhances temperature elevation not only by additional direct power deposition from acoustic reflection, but also from thermal diffusion from the underlying bone. Here we report laboratory results that corroborate previous computational studies and strengthen the above-stated hypothesis. Three different temperature measurement techniques, namely, thermometric (using fibre-optic temperature probes), thermographic (using an infrared camera) and magnetic resonance imaging (using proton resonance frequency shifts), were used in high-power short-exposure, and in low-power extended-exposure, experiments using a 19 mm diameter planar transducer operating at 1.0 and 3.3 MHz (frequencies of clinical relevance). The measurements were performed on three technique-specific phantoms (with and without bone inclusions) and experimental set-ups that resembled possible superficial ultrasound hyperthermia clinical situations. Results from all three techniques were in general agreement and clearly showed that significantly higher heating rates (greater than fourfold) were induced in soft tissue-like phantom materials adjacent (within approximately 5 mm) to a bovine bone as compared to similar experiments without bone inclusions. For low-power long-exposure experiments, where thermal conduction effects are significant, the thermal impact of bone reached at distances > 10 mm from the bone surface (upstream of the bone). Therefore, we hypothesize that underlying bone exposed to planar ultrasound hyperthermia creates a high-temperature thermal boundary at depth that compensates for beam attenuation, thus producing more uniform temperature distribution in the intervening tissue layers. With appropriate technology, this finding may lead to improved thermal doses in superficial treatment sites such as the chest wall and the head/neck.     

Neural coding of spatial phase in V1 of the macaque monkey

We examine the responses of single neurons and pairs of neurons, simultaneously recorded with a single tetrode in the primary visual cortex of the anesthetized macaque monkey, to transient presentations of stationary gratings of varying spatial phase. Such simultaneously recorded neurons tended to have similar tuning to the phase of the grating. To determine the response features that reliably discriminate these stimuli, we use the metric-space approach extended to pairs of neurons. We find that paying attention to the times of individual spikes, at a resolution of approximately 30 ms, and keeping track of which neuron fires which spike rather than just the summed local activity contribute substantially to phase coding. The contribution is both quantitative (increasing the fidelity of phase coding) and qualitative (enabling a 2-dimensional "response space" that corresponds to the spatial phase cycle). We use a novel approach, the extraction of "temporal profiles" from the metric space analysis, to interpret and compare temporal coding across neurons. Temporal profiles were remarkably consistent across a large subset of neurons. This consistency indicates that simple mechanisms (e.g., comparing the size of the transient and sustained components of the response) allow the temporal contribution to phase coding to be decoded.     

Phenotypic expansion of Bosch–Boonstra–Schaaf optic atrophy syndrome and further evidence for genotype–phenotype correlations

Bosch–Boonstra–Schaaf Optic Atrophy Syndrome (BBSOAS) is an autosomal dominant neurodevelopmental disorder caused by loss‐of‐function variants in NR2F1 and characterized by visual impairment, developmental delay, and intellectual disability. Here we report 18 new cases, provide additional clinical information for 9 previously reported individuals, and review an additional 27 published cases to present a total of 54 patients. Among these are 22 individuals with point mutations or in‐frame deletions in the DNA‐binding domain (DBD), and 32 individuals with other types of variants including whole‐gene deletions, nonsense and frameshift variants, and point mutations outside the DBD. We corroborate previously described clinical characteristics including developmental delay, intellectual disability, autism spectrum disorder diagnoses/features thereof, cognitive/behavioral anomalies, hypotonia, feeding difficulties, abnormal brain MRI findings, and seizures. We also confirm a vision phenotype that includes optic nerve hypoplasia, optic atrophy, and cortical visual impairment. Additionally, we expand the vision phenotype to include alacrima and manifest latent nystagmus (fusional maldevelopment), and we broaden the behavioral phenotypic spectrum to include a love of music, an unusually good long‐term memory, sleep difficulties, a high pain tolerance, and touch sensitivity. Furthermore, we provide additional evidence for genotype–phenotype correlations, specifically supporting a more severe phenotype associated with DBD variants.     

Kinetic analysis of interactions between bispecific monoclonal antibodies and immobilized antigens using a resonant mirror biosensor

A resonant mirror biosensor (IAsys) protocol is described for the comparative kinetic analysis of the ability of monoclonal antibodies (Mabs) and bispecific antibodies (Babs) to bind immobilized antigens. The protocol has been optimized and validated using the panel of affinity-purified antibodies, including two parental Mabs, one specific to human immunoglobulin G (hIgG) and another specific to horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and a Bab derived thereof by cell fusion (anti-hIgG/HRP Bab). The real-time kinetic analysis of antigen–antibody interactions using this protocol allows to demonstrate the differences in the avidity of bivalently binding Mabs and monovalent Babs. As shown in our previous study [J. Immunol. Methods 261 (2002) 103], the observed equilibrium association constants (K_ass) determined by IAsys using this protocol yield figures almost overlapping with those obtained by solid-phase radioimmunoassay (RIA). The described protocol is suited for the investigation of the effects of valency on the binding properties of antibodies. It also may be applied for the selection of Mabs and Babs with desired features, for different fields of application.     

Effects of thyroxine and 1-methyl, 2-mercaptoimidazol on phosphoinositides synthesis in rat liver

Background  

Phosphoinositides mediate one of the intracellular signal transduction pathways and produce a class of second messengers that are involved in the action of hormones and neurotransmitters on target cells. Thyroid hormones are well known regulators of lipid metabolism and modulators of signal transduction in cells. However, little is known about phosphoinositides cycle regulation by thyroid hormones. The present paper deals with phosphoinositides synthesis de novo and acylation in liver at different thyroid status of rats.