This paper describes the problem-solving studio (PSS) learning environment. PSS was designed to teach students how to solve difficult analytical engineering problems without resorting to rote memorization of algorithms, while at the same time developing their deep conceptual understanding of the course topics. There are several key features of…

Ongoing technological progress in measurement systems triggered the development of an in­novative, hands-on teaching program to help students toward a fuller understanding of recent changes in the field. This paper presents a lab project that links theoretical principles with the practical issues of signal conditioning systems. This is…

In 2008, the Indiana University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the School of Education, admitted its first student to a newly approved PhD program in Anatomy and Cell Biology focusing on educational research rather than biomedical research. The goal of the program is twofold: (1) to provide students with extensive training in all of the…

The prevalence of the EMR in biomedical research is growing, the EMR being regarded as a source of contextually rich, longitudinal data for computation and statistical/trend analysis. However, models trained with data abstracted from the EMR often (1) do not capture all features needed to accurately predict the patient's future state and to…

People suffering from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) hypermobility type present a severe ligament laxity that results in difficulties in muscle force transmission. The same condition is present in people suffering from Down syndrome (DS) even if their clumsy movements are due to cerebral and cognitive impairments. The aim of this study was to…

Family Medicine first formally confronted systems thinking with the adoption of the biopsychosocial model for understanding disease in a holistic manner; this is a description of a natural system. More recently, Family Medicine has been consciously engaged in developing itself as a system for delivering health care, an artificial system. We make…

Epigenetics is emerging as one of the most dynamic and vibrant biomedical areas. Multiple lines of evidence confirm that inherited genetic changes alone cannot fully explain all phenotypic characteristics of live organisms, and additional factors, which are not encoded in the DNA sequence, are involved. The contribution of non-genetic factors is…

The rationale for this mandatory, guided online e-journal exercise is to foster the ability of students to independently read medical and scientific literature in a critical manner and to integrate journal reading with their basic science knowledge. After a lecture on oxidative phosphorylation, students were assigned to read an article on brown…

Many biomedical PhD trainees lack exposure to business principles, which limits their competitiveness and effectiveness in academic and industry careers. To fill this training gap, we developed Business and Management Principles for Scientists, a semester-long program that combined didactic exposure to business fundamentals with practical…

Little attention has been paid to the scholarship of doctoral education in the biomedical sciences, hindering the formulation of research-informed improvements to this important area of higher education. We present an analysis of interview data from Australian PhD students and suggest that relationships between students and their…

Biochemistry occupies a unique place in the medical school curricula, but the teaching of biochemistry presents certain challenges. One of these challenges is facilitating students' interest in and mastery of metabolism. The many pathways and modes of regulation can be overwhelming for students to learn and difficult for professors to teach in an…

The scalability of CMOS technology has driven computation into a diverse range of applications across the power consumption, performance and size spectra. Communication is a necessary adjunct to computation, and whether this is to push data from node-to-node in a high-performance computing cluster or from the receiver of wireless link to a neural…

Reflection plays a critical role in moving learning to the next level of inquiry. Stony Brook University has adopted an approach to using ePortfolios within the curriculum that emphasizes reflection. Stony Brook University successfully piloted ePortfolios in the Fall 2010 Semester and discovered their use facilitated the inquiry process for the…

In the present article, a novel model of artificial membranes that provides efficient assistance in teaching the origins of diffusion potentials is proposed. These membranes are made of polycarbonate filters fixed to 12-mm plastic rings and then saturated with a mixture of creosol and "n"-decane. The electrical resistance and potential…

An enduring controversy over the nature of ADHD complicates parents' decisions regarding children likely to be diagnosed with the condition. Using a fallibilist perspective, this review examines how researchers construe ADHD and acknowledge the controversy. From a systematic literature search of empirical reports using parents of ADHD-diagnosed…