Constructing a DC Brushless Motor- an Experiential Engineering Clinic Activity for Mechanical Students

The Engineering Ideas Clinic initiative at the University of Waterloo focuses on designing, developing and implementing learning activities provide students with authentic, applied and hands-on experiences which integrate their learning, and expose them to genuine applications in support of their engineering science content.This paper focuses on “Constructing a Brushless DC Motor” activity which was piloted for second year Mechanical students in their “Electromechanical Devices & Power Processing” course. The main motivation behind designing this activity is the fact that the principles of electromagnetism are often taught in an abstract way, and students can struggle to link the concepts with real life applications. Hence the authors have developed this activity to materialize these abstract concepts to the students.Students in teams of three constructed a brushless DC motor, verify its construction and test its operation. In this activity students applied the principles in an experiential fun activity, compared the performance of their motors and worked collaboratively in teams.In this paper, the authors will share their experience in developing and running this activity. They will also share their observations on the students’ reaction and learning experience, as well as some comments from colleagues

Improving surveillance of sexually transmitted infections using mandatory electronic clinical reporting: the genitourinary medicine clinic activity dataset, England, 2009 to 2013

A new electronic surveillance system for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) was introduced in England in 2009. The genitourinary medicine clinic activity dataset (GUMCAD) is a mandatory, disaggregated, pseudo-anonymised data return submitted by all STI clinics across England. The dataset includes information on all STI diagnoses made and services provided alongside demographic characteristics for every patient attendance at a clinic. The new system enables the timely analysis and publication of routine STI data, detailed analyses of risk groups and longitudinal analyses of clinic attendees. The system offers flexibility so new codes can be introduced to help monitor outbreaks or unusual STI activity. From January 2009 to December 2013 inclusive, over twenty-five million records from a total of 6,668,648 patients of STI clinics have been submitted. This article describes the successful implementation of this new surveillance system and the types of epidemiological outputs and analyses that GUMCAD enables. The challenges faced are discussed and forthcoming developments in STI surveillance in England are described.

Models of Clinic and Their Value to Students, Universities and the Community in the post-2012 Fees Era

<p>The number of clinics in existence within higher education institutions has continued to proliferate in recent years. The 2011 LawWorks1 report examining the pro bono work undertaken within Universities in the United Kingdom found that at least 61 per cent of all Law schools now offer pro bono activities to their students,2 with 40 respondents offering clinic. This compares with 53 per cent of respondents offering pro bono activity and 11 respondents offering clinical activities in 2006. This evidence suggests that an increasing number of Law Schools recognise the benefits of clinic to students. However, the arrival of a new era in higher education funding arguably requires some reflection on (and perhaps greater articulation of) those benefits and the priorities of clinic activity overall, in order to ensure that the expectations of the key clinic stakeholders (the hosting institution, student volunteers and participating members of the public) are met. Concerns that the significant reduction in state funding for higher education will impact adversely on institutional resources is well-documented and at an institutional level there is likely to be increased scrutiny of the efficiency of devoting scarce resources to clinic activity in a climate of lower (or potentially lower) income streams and leaner budgets. Similarly, some students are likelyto exhibit a heightened sense of wanting value for money in their expectations of clinical education and may well demand greater input in the design of clinic activity. Against this, there has been a general and significant reduction in funding for the provision of free legal advice and an associated increased demand amongst the general public for quality free legal advice and access to justice. Therefore, for new and established clinicians alike, the post-2012 era provides the opportunity for, if not necessitates, reflection on the expectations and ambitions of the three key clinic stakeholders (the host institution, the student volunteers and the general public) and, particularly, the question of whether they are sufficiently aligned with each other and the priorities of the clinic activity in place. Arguably, the possibility of conflicting priorities for clinic originating from these key stakeholders and methods of resolving them has featured little in the academic commentary. This paper seeks to contribute to such a debate by offering some insights into resolving these tensions. Taking the interests of each stakeholder in turn, this paper discusses methods of maximising the efficiency of administering the clinic and managing student expectations.</p>

Professional Constructs of Future Teachers in Special Education within the Context of Remedial Guidance for Adults with Minimal Schooling

The role of teachers today in special education requires extensive background knowledge about various types of learners, their specific needs and the particularities of the stakeholders with whom the teacher is called to collaborate. The knowledge constructed by future teachers is acquired not only in the formal context of initial training, but also in the field, in contexts other than the purely academic milieu. In this frame, the implementation of practical activities involving the application of diverse knowledge has its place in a training curriculum. This is the case of the clinic activity referred to in this article.

Society of Physicians at Kazan University

Prof. A. I. Timofeev and Dr. V. V. Diakonov: Materials for the Study of Postpartum Infection. The authors have developed materials of the Obstetric Clinic of Kaz. State University for the period from 1900/01 up to 1925/26 inclusive and material of the Obstetrical Clinic of the State Institute for Advanced Training of Physicians for the period from 1920 to 1926 to find out the number of puerperal diseases during various periods of clinic activity. All material was divided into two groups: the first group covers the period from 1900 to 1919, the second from 1920 to the present.