A Comparison of Resident-Completed and Preceptor-Completed Formative Workplace-Based Assessments in a Competency-Based Medical Education Program.

Background And Objectives: In competency-based medical education (CBME), should resident self-assessments be included in the array of evidence upon which summative progress decisions are made? We examined the congruence between self-assessments and preceptor assessments of residents using assessment data collected in a 2-year Canadian family medicine residency program that uses programmatic assessment as part of their approach to CBME.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study using a learning analytics approach. The data source was archived formative workplace-based assessment forms (fieldnotes) stored in an online portfolio by family medicine residents and preceptors.

Diminishing glutathione availability and age-associated decline in neuronal excitability.

Oxidative stress is frequently implicated in diminished electrical excitability of aging neurons yet the foundations of this phenomenon are poorly understood. This study explored links between alterations in cellular thiol-redox state and age-associated decline in electrical excitability in identified neurons (right pedal dorsal 1 [RPeD1]) of the gastropod Lymnaea stagnalis. Intracellular thiol redox state was modulated with either dithiothreitol or membrane permeable ethyl ester of the antioxidant glutathione (et-GSH).