Ed's Big Plans

Brief: I got my TA evaluations from BIOL 208 back last week (which I taught with Ariana in fall 2009) and it looks the students liked my instruction. The overall positive response is encouraging but I’m concerned that they’ve actually been too kind. The whole thing was something of a learning experience for me as I’ve never given tutorials before. The written remarks were very informative too. There are two big things the students wanted more of: first, I should increase the depth of my background in the course; second, I should ensure there’s time to take up quiz and workbook questions. The first item is a bit difficult to do actively mostly because it’s hard to proactively decide on what kinds of questions a student will have cooked up based on the readings available for a given week. It looks like it’s a self-repairing problem however — I simply have to TA more in and around the same topic area until the background information is second hand (or at least until all the keywords are loaded into my brain along with hints toward appropriate literature). The second point is important. The amount of time needed to take up questions can be built into the lesson plan — I think the best way to approach this is to reduce the amount that we try to cover in the tutorial slide show. Besides, there’s little advantage to repeating all of the same things as the instructor (particularly if we might say it differently, or explain it in a way that’s even more confusing or worse, disagree with the instructor). It’s thus better to focus on giving the background for the workbook questions. I figure that an average of 25% to 33% less material covered will enable us to focus in on the workbook and allow us to discuss quiz questions (and spurious questions) etc. with sufficient time.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable and instructional experience .

Brief: I will be indisposed until May 17.

I discovered this ancient report in my repository about three months ago– I’ve finally decided to put it up because it made my day reading the abstract again. This is definitely one of my prouder albeit sillier projects from the days of my undergrad.

Independent Research Project Acute centripetal acceleration is correlated with increased heart rate and R-wave amplitude

Matthew Boyle, Bryan Chung, Eddie Ma

Abstract

In the present study, we set out to discover the correlation between the exposure of acute centripetal acceleration in human subjects and cardiovascular function across the following three dimensions: Heart rate, R-wave amplitude and QRS interval. This was accomplished by measuring the above properties via Lead II Bipolar ECG trace, after having spun the subject at 0.8 revolutions per second in an office chair for successively, 30, 60 and 90 seconds. It was determined that heart rate showed strong positive correlation (n = 3, average increase between trials of increasing duration, 3.2 beats per minute, s = 1.8). R-wave amplitude showed positive correlation in all subjects up until and including the 60 second trial. There was no systemic correlation between duration of spin and the length of the QRS interval in any of the subjects. The heart is therefore an important effector in response to centripetal acceleration in the human model.

Key Words: electrocardiogram, QRS interval, centripetal force, R-wave amplitude, spinning office chair.

[ Download this | PDF ].

Thumbnails of pages 5, 7 and 11.

This is a more balanced article about the issue found in The Hamilton Spectator.

“Disclosure of pelvic exams in question” (Joanna Frketich); found at the following address.

http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/714924

Summary, origin of the phenomenon, contrasts with previously posted article:

• A study was published (found here, “Education” — http://www.sogc.org/jogc/currentissue_e.aspx – accessed Jan 2010)
• Pelvic exams are integral to some surgeries, part of determining proper treatment
• A pelvic exam is performed three times, once by each a doctor, a resident, a medical student
• Contrast to Mr. Picard’s article posted previously indicating a ‘parade’ of students
• The actual problem is whether or not the single student on the team has been given direct consent
• Whereas what is thought of as implied is that the team is given consent as a whole (opinions, practices will change)
• Article goes on to indicate that this consent for each individual should be (will become) the norm

Thoughts, Conclusion:

Med students should be taught to practice — My feeling is that communication is the primary problem: the ratio of women polled that were asked explicit consent for medical students to perform the pelvic exam should have been greater.

The latter article by Frketich revisits the problem but discusses it far more calmly (so as to not break the brains of her readers). It even cites several women healthcare professionals for the inside scoop– something we didn’t get with the former article. We end up with a picture that states what we have always taken for granted in Canada– that when a problem is discovered, it is fixed– in this case, it’s communication between healthcare professionals and patients.

As mentioned in my previous post– it is an object of pride that Canada has excellent healthcare– which is the reason for the dismay, my personal dismay at even the subtle hint let alone a full blown implication of “something this wrong” with the system. If you become a surgery patient at any point, keep informed and ask the right questions: “Who’s going to be operating on me?”, “Who’s going to do the pelvic examination?”. This is the solution that taps the original problem stated: that women just didn’t know what happened for lack of communication.

Notes:

• Former article by Andre Picard titled “Time to end pelvic exams done without consent” found in the following.
• http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/time-to-end-pelvic-exams-done-without-consent/article1447337/

BCC’d to the same individuals contacted yesterday.

Update: Please see this post written the next day.

Update: Continuing to research issue– see a list of teaching hospitals in Canada: http://www.caho-hospitals.com/member_hospitals.aspx — I need to find out more: Is it true? How widespread is the problem; etc.

Sent from me to many friends via e-mail with BCC earlier today.

Hi All,

This story is deeply disturbing. Women who are under general
anesthetic in hospital recovery rooms can be subject to routine
examination by med students without consent in Canada. This is a
strict violation of everything a scientist would believe with respect
to human health and dignity.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/time-to-end-pelvic-exams-done-without-consent/article1447337/

Please have a look and figure out if what action you’d like to take.
Spreading the word, figuring out who knows what and the extent of the
problem are good steps (self-education, personal preventative measures
etc.).

Conversely, if you can verify that this is a myth– that can also be
good (puts minds at ease).

At the very least, bringing up a petition or a stronger public
presence of the problem are both possible.

Thanks,
Eddie Ma

Brief: I’m taking a hiatus from blogging for a month. I can get more done this way I bet. See you in January!

link (science.uwaterloo.ca) | link (eddiema.ca)

Watching one of my labmates painstakingly move two index fingers across two printed pages scanning letter by letter for a single point mutation in a nucleotide sequence motivated me to produce this very simple software. It’s 100% Javascript and runs client side.

It basically does what he did… scans two strings (contrast: not sequences) letter by letter, looking for single point mutations.

No alignments are done, and nothing more sophisticated. Just … single … point … mutations … only.

Licensing information: Do anything you want, it’s just a loop.

So last week, Cara and I joined a gym– I’ve determined previously that keeping the body healthy gives the brain an opportunity to stay fit as well– thoughts process faster, reasoning and judgment improve– characteristic improvements due to better homeostatic management. I managed to let myself slide this summer, but I hope to be restoring some fitness into this vessel.

We’re starting on an assortment of easy routines; visit the gym 3 to 4 times a week, and spend two hours there. Do an hour or half of cardio, and break it up with the circuit of weight and strength training machines. Join a 50 minute class. That kind of thing– not looking for an overhaul, just enough to improve health and to possess reliable bodies.

Hopefully this will improve our general health enough that we can spend a larger margin of time socializing too.

Time will tell.

So, we’re back from the honeymoon– and everything was a real blast…

Spinoffs from this site might be a good way for me to start documenting oddball items that don’t really fit into this blog, and persistent project pages… I’ll have to see.

Brief: Cara and I are going on our honeymoon for a week. Thanks for all the warm wishes!