Quality of supervision: postgraduate dental research trainees' perspectives.

INTRODUCTION: Supervision is a pillar in enhancing the student's learning environment throughout her/his higher education. Multiple studies qualify graduate supervision among the most important contributors to the successful completion of a higher education degree and to graduate students' positive academic experience. The aim of this study was to assess the views of graduate students enrolled in the Dental Sciences and Craniofacial Research Graduate Programs at McGill University (n = 64) regarding the quality of supervision they are receiving. METHODS AND MATERIALS: An online questionnaire composed of 22 open and closed-ended format items was used and covered five domains: student profile, supervisory relationship, conflict resolution, student progress/thesis writing and career development. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests and interpretative qualitative analysis were used to evaluate students' perspectives. RESULTS: Fifty-nine students completed the survey (92.2%). The distribution of sample in regard to the graduate student level was almost identical (M.Sc. level n = 28, Ph.D. n = 31). Overall, most graduate students appeared satisfied with the supervision they received and had similar perspectives about the surveyed domains. There was one statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) between MSc and PhD students when asked if their supervisors aided them in career development outside the supervisory relationship, where 77.4% (n = 24) of doctoral students agreed as opposed to 21.4% (n = 12) of Masters' students. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed that McGill graduate students appeared to be overall satisfied with the supervision they received. The main elements contributing to a positive supervision experience were support, guidance, availability and good communication between supervisees and supervisors.

Attentional dysfunction, impulsivity, and resistance to change in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome.

On a series of attention tasks, male mice with a mutation targeted to the fragile X mental retardation 1 (Fmrl) gene (Fmrl knockout [KO] mice) committed a higher rate of premature responses than wild-type littermates, with the largest differences seen when task contingencies changed. This finding indicates impaired inhibitory control, particularly during times of stress or arousal. The KO mice also committed a higher rate of inaccurate responses than controls, particularly during the final third of each daily test session, indicating impaired sustained attention. In the selective attention task, the unpredictable presentation of potent olfactory distractors produced a generalized disruption in the performance of the KO mice, whereas for controls, the disruption produced by the distractors was temporally limited. Finally, the attentional disruption seen following an error was more pronounced for the KO mice than for controls, further implicating impaired regulation of arousal and/or negative affect. The present study provides the first evidence that the Fmrl KO mouse is impaired in inhibitory control, attention, and arousal regulation, hallmark areas of dysfunction in fragile X syndrome. The resistance to change also seen in these mice provides a behavioral index for studying the autistic features of this disorder.