Interplay Between Ni and Brønsted and Lewis Acid Sites in the Hydrodesulfurization of Dibenzothiophene.

Ni-MoS2/γ-Al2O3 catalysts are commonly used in hydrotreating to enhance fossil fuel quality. The extensive research on these catalysts reveals a gap in understanding the role of Ni, often underestimated as an inactive sulfide phase or just a MoS2 promoter. In this work, we focused on analyzing whether well-dispersed supported nickel nanoparticles can be active in the hydrodesulfurization of dibenzothiophene. We dispersed Ni by Strong Electrostatic Adsorption (SEA) method across four supports with different types of acidity: silica (~ neutral acidity), γ-Al2O3 (Lewis acidity), H+-Y zeolite, and microporous-mesoporous H+-Y zeolite (both with Brønsted-Lewis acidity). Our findings reveal that Ni is indeed active in dibenzothiophene hydrodesulfurization, even with alumina and silica as supports, although their catalytic activity declines abruptly in the first hours. Contrastingly, the acid nature of zeolites imparts sustained stability and performance, attributed to robust metal-support interactions. The efficacy of the SEA method and the added mesoporosity in zeolites further amplify catalytic efficiency. Overall, we demonstrate that Ni nanoparticles may perform as a hydrogenating metal in the same manner as noble metals such as Pt and Pd perform in hydrodesulfurization. We discuss some of the probable reasons for such performance and remark on the role of Ni in hydrotreatment.

Gender-biased evaluation or actual differences? Fairness in the evaluation of faculty teaching.

How do we know if a faculty teaching evaluation is biased? Biasing factors studies are an influential source of evidence for arguing about biased teaching evaluations. These studies examine existing evaluation data and compare the results by gender, race, or ethnicity, interpreting a significant difference between subgroups as evidence of bias. However, only a difference explained by irrelevant aspects embedded in the evaluation would compromise its fairness. The study aims to amend how practitioners and researchers address gender bias concerns in faculty teaching evaluations by defining fairness, disparate impact, and statistical bias from an educational measurement standpoint. The study illustrates the use of differential item functioning (DIF) analysis, a strategy to examine whether the meaning of an item changes depending on the gender of the instructor. The study examines instructor's gender bias using responses to a course evaluation questionnaire from education graduate students from two academic departments within the same institution. In one of the departments, the analysis suggested a fair evaluation and no gender gap. In the other department, four of the eight items in the rating scale were easier for women than men with similar teaching ability, and women achieved better evaluations than men. The discussion addresses the conceptual and methodological advantages of adopting an educational measurement perspective on fairness in faculty teaching evaluation. Findings encourage practitioners and administrators to use the best available tools to strengthen the credibility of faculty teaching evaluations and prevent unfair personnel decisions affecting underrepresented subgroups in academia by gender, race, or ethnicity.

Medical education reform in Tajikistan: comparison of the conventional one-year family medicine residency program and the new two-year residency program for postgraduate medical education.

INTRODUCTION: The last two decades have seen a shift in former Soviet countries from highly specialized to more family medicine-focused systems. Medical education has slowly adjusted to these reforms, although the region is still at risk to have a chronic shortage of family doctors. This paper presents the evaluation of a new post-graduate family medicine program in Tajikistan, focused on competency-based training. The findings are relevant for policy makers, international organizations and practitioners participating in similar medical education reform programs. METHODS: We employed a quasi-experimental control group design and compared intervention residents, control group residents with traditional training, and 1st year residents with no training in two outcomes, clinical knowledge and competencies. We employed two objective measures, a written multiple-choice question test (MCQT) and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), respectively. We report reliability and validity of the measures along with ANOVA, planned contrasts and effect size estimates to examine differences across groups. RESULTS: We found statistically significant differences in both clinical knowledge and competencies between intervention and control groups. We also detected a large intervention effect size. Participants in the intervention outperformed control group participants in the two measures. Our analysis suggests that intervention and control group participants are comparable in terms of initial knowledge and competencies, strengthening the argument that the intervention caused the improvement in the program outcomes. DISCUSSION: Receiving tailored training and structured opportunities to practice knowledge and competencies in clinical settings have a positive effect on the education of family medicine doctors in Tajikistan. Our results support curriculum reform and investment in medical education in the form of longer and supervised on-the-job preparation designed to be more in line with international standards. We discuss suggestions for future studies and potential requirements to inform replicability in other countries. CONCLUSION: Family medicine is well recognized as central to health systems throughout the world, but high quality residency training lags behind in some countries. Our study showed that investing in family medicine residency programs and structured training is effective in increasing critical clinical competencies. We encourage promoting comprehensive post graduate family medicine doctor training so that the goals of a family medicine centered health system are attainable.

Análisis funcional de la oclusión en los tratamientos de pacientes ortodónticos (reporte de casos) / Functional analysis of the occlusion in the treatment of orthodontic patients

En esta investigación se tomaron 10 pacientes de la Clínica de Postgrado de la Universidad Javeriana, cuyo tratamiento de ortodoncia le faltaba aproximadamente un mes para finalizar. Al iniciar, presentaban una clasificación de Angle I o II, sus edades oscilaban entre 14 y 30 años y no fueron sometidos a ningún tratamiento quirúrgico previo. Se tomaron registros de relación céntrica, lateralidades, relación bicóndilo e impresiones y se realizó un montaje en articulador semiajustable con modelos sólidos, de control y Kennedy. Posteriormente, se realizó un análisis funcional de oclusión para detectar los problemas oclusales a nivel intraarco, interarco, las interferencias y los contactos prematuros, además, la angulación de los dientes anteriores superiores e inferiores y la factibilidad de acople de éstos en oclusión habitual. Se encontraron como resultados que la mayoría de los pacientes presentaban procedimientos previos de operatoria. Las desarmonías oclusales principales fueron inclinaciones, rotacioens, dientes ausentes y diastemas. Todos los pacientes se encontraban en una clase Angle I y/o II molar y canina, presentaban sobremordidas horizontales aumentadas y las verticales generalmente estaban normales. Con respecto a la relación transversal presentaban, en su gran mayoría, desviaciones de la línea media dental. Existía la presencia generalizada de deflexión mandibular, contacto prematuros e interferencias en movimientos de trabajo, no trabajo y la ausencia de acople de dientes anteriores en oclusión habitual. Se concluyó que es necesario realizar un completo análsis funcional de la oclusión en pacientes tratados ortodónticamente para evitar todo este tipo de desarmonías y llegar a tener una adecuada función oclusal, articular y muscular