A Scoping Review of Differential Attainment in Undergraduate Medicine

Differential attainment exists in all professions and is a manifestation of systemic factors creating an unequal environment where individual careers and aspirations may be thwarted. Although this inequality which affects some groups of students unfairly, has been recognised over the last 2 decades, it remains a significant issue. This scoping review explores the causes and contributors in relation to undergraduate medical education. Using thematic analysis, the authors present the case for tackling the disparity in education and training. There are evidence-based solutions for individuals, organisations and at a societal level. The recommendations from this review will be discussed and debated in the series of workshops, as part of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ series from the Alliance for Tackling Inequalities in Health, chaired by the British Association of Physicians of Indian origin. The output of the consensus-building workshops and thematic synthesis with the accompanying qualitative research will be presented in the final report due in 2021.

Closing the Wearable Gap-Part VII: A Retrospective of Stretch Sensor Tool Kit Development for Benchmark Testing

This paper presents a retrospective of the benchmark testing methodologies developed and accumulated into the stretch sensor tool kit (SSTK) by the research team during the Closing the Wearable Gap series of studies. The techniques developed to validate stretchable soft robotic sensors (SRS) as a means for collecting human kinetic and kinematic data at the foot-ankle complex and at the wrist are reviewed. Lessons learned from past experiments are addressed, as well as what comprises the current SSTK based on what the researchers learned over the course of multiple studies. Three core components of the SSTK are featured: (a) material testing tools, (b) data analysis software, and (c) data collection devices. Results collected indicate that the stretch sensors are a viable means for predicting kinematic data based on the most recent gait analysis study conducted by the researchers (average root mean squared error or RMSE = 3.63°). With the aid of SSTK defined in this study summary and shared with the academic community on GitHub, researchers will be able to undergo more rigorous validation methodologies of SRS validation. A summary of the current state of the SSTK is detailed and includes insight into upcoming experiments that will utilize more sophisticated techniques for fatigue testing and gait analysis, utilizing SRS as the data collection solution.

Protocol for Thematic Synthesis of Differential Attainment in the Medical Profession - ‘Bridging the Gap’ Series

Differential Attainment is a phenomenon, recognised globally, where certain cohorts of people tend to have poorer career outcomes based on factors other than capability, academic effort, or motivation. Although by no means unique to or exclusive to, it is indeed well described and monitored in the health education/ training, and affects professionals throughout their entire career journey from admission to retirement. It is a marker of an unfair system and affects individuals as well as organisations adversely. It is the responsibility of all organisations, policymakers and regulators to urgently understand the causes, find solutions, and support those that are disadvantaged as a result of this inequality. The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin addressing its declared mission of achieving excellence through promoting equality and diversity, along with its collaborative partners and a panel of international experts has created an Alliance for Equality in Health Professions. This Alliance will spearhead a thematic analysis of the entire spectrum of differential attainment in medical professions. This paper describes the protocol for the thematic synthesis of evidence, the priority setting partnerships for undertaking a critical integrative analysis, and the process for combining evidence from experts with lived experiences of grassroots professionals to produce meaningful solutions, actions, and policy enablers. The output will be published as a series of papers in Sushruta and culminate in a seminal report in 2021 when BAPIO turns 25.

Bridging the Gap: Why Strength and Conditioning Practitioners and Researchers should Collaborate

Leading up to the launch of the International Universities Strength and Conditioning Association Journal (IUSCA Journal) the Editorial team are publishing a ‘bridging the gap’ series of articles about how to bridge the gap between strength and conditioning (S&C) research and practice. We will be looking at how we can better work together as coaches and academics and we will be taking a closer look at the values of science and how we can apply them in practice. By drawing on the wisdom of experienced coaches and researchers, we will look at what this gap is and how we can help bridge it through increased collaboration and the removal of barriers to publication. In this first ‘Bridging the Gap’ article, we briefly discuss (1) what this gap is; (2) why it exists; and (3) potential solutions.

Combined effects of carriers charge mobility and electrodes work function on the performances of polymer/fullerene P3HT:PCBM based organic photovoltaic solar cell

This paper reports a study on the effect of different parameters such as charge carriers mobility, electrodes work function, energy gap, series as well as shunt resistances on the performances of an organic photovoltaic cell based on polymer/fullerene P3HT: PCBM. Thus, numerical simulations have been investigated on ITO/PEDOT:PSS/P3HT: PCBM/LiF/Al structure with Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures the simulation one dimension (AMPS-1D) and General-Purpose Photovoltaic Device Model (GPVDM) softwares. The results show that the optimum efficiency is obtained for electron and hole motility values of 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1and 2 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively. Moreover, we reported that the ohmic contact for both anode and cathode electrodes of the investigated device remains very important to get the maximum efficiency. Furthermore, when the gap energy increases, the efficiency is considerably improved, and reach's a value of about 5.421%. In addition, in this present work, the complimentary between the both softwares AMPS and GPVDM is also well illustrated as an original modeling approach to investigate the performances of organic photovoltaic cells.

Regime switching with structural breaks in output convergence

In this paper, we examine empirically GDP per capita convergence using an approach that explicitly allows for regime switching in the long memory parameterdwithin the context of a Markov Switching (MS)–ARFIMA framework. As existing methods used in the estimation of standard MS models, such as the EM algorithm are no longer appropriate, we will make use of the Viterbi algorithm to estimate the long memory MS model used by Tsay and Härdle (Tsay, W.-J., and W. K. Härdle. 2009. “A Generalized Arfima Process with Markov-Switching Fractional Differencing Parameter.”Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation79: 731–745.). We will classify the output gap series into two regimes, a highdand a lowdregime, where a highdclose to unity would imply persistence and lack of convergence. By examining the path ofdparameter over time which enables us to observe non-convergent behavior in more detail, we find that converging behavior is diminishing over time and divergence is the dominant force.

Faber Polynomial Coefficients of Classes of Meromorphic Bistarlike Functions

Applying the Faber polynomial coefficient expansions to certain classes of meromorphic bistarlike functions, we demonstrate the unpredictability of their early coefficients and also obtain general coefficient estimates for such functions subject to a given gap series condition. Our results improve some of the coefficient bounds published earlier.