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To compare the diagnostic accuracy and predictive value of aneurysm sac volume measurement versus maximum diameter measurement of abdominal aortic aneurysm sac after endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in patients with type II endoleak.

Today, nuclear power produces 11% of the world's electricity. Nuclear power plants produce virtually no greenhouse gases or air pollutants during their operation. Emissions over their entire life cycle are very low. Nuclear energy's potential is essential to achieving a deeply decarbonized energy future in many regions of the world as of today and for decades to come, the main value of nuclear energy lies in its potential contribution to decarbonizing the power sector. Nuclear energy's future role, however, is highly uncertain for several reasons: chiefly, escalating costs and, the persistence of historical challenges such as spent fuel and radioactive waste management. Advanced nuclear fuel recycling technologies can enable full use of natural energy resources while minimizing proliferation concerns as well as the volume and longevity of nuclear waste. Partitioning and Transmutation (P&T) has been pointed out in numerous studies as the strategy that can relax constraints on geological disposal, e.g. by reducing the waste radiotoxicity and the footprint of the underground facility. Therefore, a special effort has been made to investigate the potential role of P&T and the related options for waste management all along the fuel cycle. Transmutation based on critical or sub-critical fast spectrum transmuters should be evaluated in order to assess its technical and economic feasibility and capacity, which could ease deep geological disposal implementation.

Abstract Introduction Simulation training is an important component of medical education. In former studies, diagnostic simulation training for direct and indirect funduscopy was already proven to be an effective training method. In this prospective controlled trial, we investigated the effect of simulator-based fundus biomicroscopy training. Methods After completing a 1-week ophthalmology clerkship, medical students at Saarland University Medical Center (n = 30) were block-randomized into two groups: The traditional group received supervised training examining the fundus of classmates using a slit lamp; the simulator group was trained using the Slit Lamp Simulator. All participants had to pass an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE); two masked ophthalmological faculty trainers graded the students’ skills when examining patient’s fundus using a slit lamp. A subjective assessment form and post-assessment surveys were obtained. Data were described using median (interquartile range [IQR]). Results Twenty-five students (n = 14 in the simulator group, n = 11 in the traditional group) (n = 11) were eligible for statistical analysis. Interrater reliability was verified as significant for the overall score as well as for all subtasks (≤ 0.002) except subtask 1 (p = 0.12). The overall performance of medical students in the fundus biomicroscopy OSCE was statistically ranked significantly higher in the simulator group (27.0 [5.25]/28.0 [3.0] vs. 20.0 [7.5]/16.0 [10.0]) by both observers with an interrater reliability of IRR

Teaching point: Meningovascular neurosyphilis is a cause of stroke in the young, and the diagnosis could be aided by black-blood MRI sequences.

Teaching point: A longitudinal intramural fistula is a rare complication of diverticulitis that can be visualised by computed tomography (CT).

Teaching point: Twiddler’s syndrome is a very rare but potentially disastrous complication after implantation of a neurostimulator or pacemaker, caused by twisting of the generator within the subcutaneous pocket, resulting in dislodgement and/or interruption of the electrodes that should be reported on x-ray.

This paper assesses the effect of need-based grants on the performance of university students in Italy. We performed a series of between-universities and within-universities propensity score matching analyses to evaluate the effect of grants on several student performance indicators, such as dropout rate, first year credits and efficiency of study. Our findings suggest that financial aid has a positive, substantial and statistically robust effect on university students' performance and on if and when they complete their undergraduate degree courses. The positive impact is heterogeneous across universities, while few differences were detected for subgroups of students. Reinforcing financial aid policies can simultaneously help disadvantaged students and improve overall academic performance in Italian universities.

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are playing a significant role in several industrial sectors such as construction and machine building industries, involving a wide variety of metallic materials. Among these, the AM of aluminium alloys has developed significantly over the last decade, mainly through Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and Directed Energy Deposition (DED) processes. Despite the many advantages of AM technology, some large or complex products cannot be produced entirely without the use of conventional manufacturing and joining processes, generally for financial or operational reasons. In this way, the ability to join conventionally and additively manufactured components or parts represents a crucial step towards their future use and the consolidation of conventional and additive manufacturing technologies. Despite the growing interest in AM technologies, there is still a significant lack of information on the joining of conventionally and additively manufactured components. The present work proposes a first review of the literature evaluating the weldability of AM aluminium alloys. The focus is on the use of fusion and solid-state welding processes and analysing the achieved microstructural evolution and mechanical properties. A clear relationship is observed between the AM technology used to produce the part, and the physical principles of the joining process. In addition, the gaps in the literature are highlighted to enable focused future work.

To advance the understanding about primary school teachers' allocation process of pupils during the transition to secondary education, this study aims to investigate the influencing teacher expectations of teacher track recommendations. Using a qualitative research design consisting of an inductive approach, interview data were gathered from 15 Flemish sixth-grade teachers. The results indicate that foremost teacher expectations of pupils, more specifically of pupils' perceived motivation or interests and learning attitude, were considered by teachers as influencing their track recommendations. Although empirical evidence was also found for the impact of expectations held by teachers about pupils' parents and about themselves as teachers, as well as about teaching, teachers' awareness of the impact of one's own expectations was limited.

In less meritocratic educational systems, teachers' decision-making processes and their perceptions of pupils are essential for the practice of pupils' allocation at transitory moments. The present study investigated how perceptions held by teachers impact upon teacher track recommendations regarding pupils' enrolment in secondary education in Flanders. By means of structural equation modelling, we studied the hypothesised impact of pupils' cognitive (i.e. maths skills, language skills and technical skills) and non-cognitive (i.e. school-appropriate behaviours and personal-social behaviours) attributes and of teacher-pupil relationships, as perceived by the teachers. Additionally, we addressed the hypothesised (mediated) impact of perceived parental involvement in education and parents' socio-economic status (SES) and ethnicity, as social and cultural parental background characteristics. Results show that teacher track recommendations are best directly predicted by pupils' perceived maths skills. Also pupils' perceived school-appropriate behaviours and parents' SES substantially and directly predict teacher track recommendations. Teacher track recommendations are further indirectly affected by perceived parental involvement in education, parents' SES and parents' ethnicity.

This article provides a meta-analysis on the effect of academic probation, student-faculty mentoring and need-based grants on various student outcomes. Using 25 (quasi-) experimental studies, we find that academic probation has a significant negative effect on retention (d = -0.17), while it does not have an effect on graduation. Student-faculty mentoring, however, has a positive significant effect on both retention (d = 0.15) and graduation (d = 0.10). Need-based grants are proven to have a positive significant effect on enrollment (d = 0.05), retention (d = 0.05) and graduation (d = 0.05). Based on the general effect sizes of each intervention, student-faculty mentoring has the largest influence on student outcomes. The latter intervention improves retention and graduation of the treatment group by, respectively, 8% and 5% compared to the control group.

This paper examines the effect of the introduction of an academic dismissal (AD) policy (i.e. an intervention, which can lead to compulsory student withdrawal) on student dropout, student graduation rates and satisfaction with the study program. Using a difference-in-differences type of estimator, we compare programs that introduced an AD policy with a control group of programs which did not employ an AD policy. The robustness of the results is tested by a propensity score matching. The outcomes suggest that the implementation of an AD policy results in a higher first-year dropout rate and a higher student graduation rate. The results also indicate that, on average, student satisfaction decreases due to the introduction of an AD policy, while student satisfaction regarding program feasibility increases when an AD policy is employed.