Search results for: pre-service training

Authors: Cassandra Branham, Danielle Farrar

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As writing instructors and writing center administrators at a large research university with a significant population of English language learners (ELLs), we are interested in how peer feedback pedagogy can be effectively translated for writing center purposes, as well as how various modes of peer feedback can enrich the learning experiences of L1 and L2 writers in these spaces. Although peer feedback is widely used in classrooms and centers, instructor, student, and researcher opinions vary in respect to its effectiveness. We argue that peer feedback - traditional and digital, synchronous and asynchronous - is an indispensable element for both classrooms and centers and emphasize that it should occur with both L1 and L2 students to further develop an array of reading and writing skills. We also believe that further understanding of the best practices of peer feedback in such cross-cultural spaces, like the classroom and center, can optimize the benefits of peer feedback. After a critical review of the literature, we implemented an embedded tutoring program in our university’s writing center in collaboration with its First-Year Composition (FYC) program and Language Institute. The embedded tutoring program matches a graduate writing consultant with L1 and L2 writers enrolled in controlled-matriculation composition courses where ELLs make up at least 50% of each class. Furthermore, this program is informed by what we argue to be some best practices of peer feedback for both classroom and center purposes, including expectation-based training through rubrics, modeling effective feedback, hybridizing traditional and digital modes of feedback, recognizing the significance the body in composition (what we call writer embodiment), and maximizing digital technologies to exploit extended cognition. After conducting surveys and follow-up interviews with students, instructors, and writing consultants in the embedded tutoring program, we found that not only did students see an increased value in peer feedback, but also instructors saw an improvement in both writing style and critical thinking skills. Our L2 participants noted improvements in language acquisition while our L1 students recognized a broadening of their worldviews. We believe that both L1 and L2 students developed self-efficacy and agency in their identities as writers because they gained confidence in their abilities to offer feedback, as well as in the legitimacy of feedback they received from peers. We also argue that these best practices situate novice writers as experts, as writers become a valued and integral part of the revision process with their own and their peers’ papers. Finally, the use of iPads in embedded tutoring recovered the importance of the body and its senses in writing; the highly sensory feedback from these multi-modal sessions that offer audio and visual input underscores the significant role both the body and mind play in compositional practices. After beginning with a brief review of the literature that sparked this research, this paper will discuss the embedded tutoring program in detail, report on the results of the pilot program, and will conclude with a discussion of the pedagogical implications that arise from this research for both classroom and center.

Keywords: English language learners, peer feedback, writing center, writing classroom

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Authors: Ting-I Lin

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Objective: This article explores the nursing care experience of a 51-year-old terminal lung cancer patient admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) following an upper right lobectomy. The patient initially sought emergency treatment due to worsening cough and dyspnea, which led to the placement of an endotracheal tube following sudden deterioration. Subsequent CT scans and chest X-rays revealed a tumor in the upper right lung with metastases to the lungs, liver, bones, and adrenal glands. The patient underwent a right upper lobectomy and a wedge resection of the right middle lobe. Pathology staging: T4N3M1c and the patient was diagnosed with advanced cancer postoperatively. Method: During the care period, nursing staff continuously monitored the patient’s physiological data through observations, direct care, interviews, physical assessments, and review of the patient’s medical records. The nursing team collaborated with the critical care team and the palliative care team, using Gordon's Eleven Functional Health Patterns to conduct a comprehensive assessment. The key health problems identified included pain related to postoperative cancer resection and invasive devices, fear of death due to rapid disease progression, and altered tissue perfusion associated with hemodynamic instability. Results: Postoperatively, the patient experienced pain from the surgical wound and dyspnea due to extensive metastasis, often leading to confusion. Through the adjustment of pain medication, the patient’s discomfort was alleviated, using Morphine 8 mg in 0.9% normal saline 60 ml IV drip q6h prn, and Ultracet 37.5 mg/325 mg 1# PO q6h. Additionally, lavender essential oil inhalation and limb massage were provided for 15 minutes four times a day. The patient’s FLACC pain score decreased from 7 to below 3. After respiratory training, the endotracheal tube was successfully removed, and the patient was weaned off the ventilator. Triflow exercises were used to promote alveolar expansion, with the goal of achieving 2 balls for 10 seconds, 5 repetitions per session, 6-8 times a day. The patient’s breathing stabilized at 16-18 breaths per minute, body temperature remained between 35.8°C and 36.1°C, and the mean arterial pressure was maintained between 60-80 mmHg. Conclusion: The critical care team and the palliative care team held a family meeting to discuss not only the patient’s care but also the emotional well-being of the family. Visiting hours were increased to two times per day, one hour each time, allowing the patient and family to express love and gratitude, which strengthened their emotional connection and reduced the patient’s anxiety from severe to mild. The family expressed that they had no regrets. After the patient was transferred to the general ward, the nursing team continued to provide end-of-life care with genuine empathy, compassion, and religious support, helping both the patient and family through the final stage of life.

Keywords: multiple metastases, lung cancer, palliative care, nursing experience

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Authors: Liya Abraham

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Eritrea is located along the Red Sea, north of the Horn of Africa, between Djibouti and Sudan and has a population of about 3.2 million as of 2010. It has six administrative regions; Anseba, Debub, Debubawi K’eyih Bahri, Gash-Barka, Ma'akel, and Semenawi K’eyih Bahri. Eritrea has got its independence in 1991 after 30 years war of liberation. The country is blessed with various medicinal flora and fauna, and marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Traditional Medicine (TM) has been an integral part of the Eritrean culture for centuries. So far, more than 19 TM modalities have been recognized, and are broadly categorized as; herbal, procedure-based and spiritual. Despite the availability of modern medicine to the majority of the population, TM is still widely practiced. The rationale behind widespread use is accessibility, affordability and cultural acceptability. Hence, TM is of great contribution to the Eritrean health care system. As a matter of fact, harnessing the potential contribution of effective and safe TM in order to attain Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has been emphasized in the WHO TM strategy 2014-2023. The Eritrean TM, however, was operating without regulation and reliable scientific justification behind its safety and efficacy. Thus, the Ministry of Health (MoH), in recognition of the role of TM in primary healthcare and safeguard public health, established a regulatory body for TM so-called as Traditional Medicine Unit (TMU) in 2012. The mission of the unit is to ensure rational TM use through an integrated health service delivery system and contribute to the country’s economic and social development. The unit has established its national TM policy in 2017. The activities of the unit are guided by the National TM Advisory Committee (TMAC), responsible for the provision of technical assistance and advisory role. Moreover, the Legal Framework and Code of Ethics and Practice which provide a legal basis for the regulation of TM have also been drafted. In recognition of the importance of TM research and development, the unit launched a nationwide TM survey in 2017 and had surveyed two zones (Gash-Barka and Debub). The findings of the survey were subjected to a research dissemination workshop and publication in international journals. Furthermore, TM-related adverse events reporting tool (Green Form) aiming to guide regulatory interventions and researches have been established by the unit, and ever since reports are flowing. The unit has also been offering training to THPs, pharmacy students and health care professionals regarding TM and its regulatory activities. In addition, as part of the establishment of the national medicinal plants' database and herbal monograph, more than 329 and 30 medicinal plants, have been compiled respectively. In conclusion, TM is still widely accepted and practiced in Eritrea. The TMU ever since its establishment is endeavoring to ensure the safety and efficacy of the TM, and its integration in the mainstream health service delivery system.

Keywords: efficacy, regulation, safety, traditional medicine, traditional medicine unit, universal health coverage

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Authors: Tarmi A'Vard

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This paper discusses the transformative learning experience for students participating in the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program (Inside-out) and explores the value this pedagogical approach may have in youth justice centers. Inside-Out is a semester-long university course which is unique as it takes 15 university students, with their textbook and theory-based knowledge, behind the walls to study alongside 15 incarcerated students, who have the lived experience of the criminal justice system. Inside-out is currently offered in three Victorian prisons, expanding to five in 2020. The Inside-out pedagogy which is based on transformative dialogic learning is reliant upon the participants sharing knowledge and experiences to develop an understanding and appreciation of the diversity and uniqueness of one another. Inside-out offers the class an opportunity to create its own guidelines for dialogue, which can lead to the student’s sense of equality, which is fundamental in the success of this program. Dialogue allows active participation by all parties in reconciling differences, collaborating ideas, critiquing and developing hypotheses and public policies, and encouraging self-reflection and exploration. The structure of the program incorporates the implementation of circular seating (where the students alternate between inside and outside), activities, individual reflective tasks, group work, and theory analysis. In this circle everyone is equal, this includes the educator, who serves as a facilitator more so than the traditional teacher role. A significant function of the circle is to develop a group consciousness, allowing the whole class to see itself as a collective, and no one person holds a superior role. This also encourages participants to be responsible and accountable for their behavior and contributions. Research indicates completing academic courses, like Inside-Out, contributes positively to reducing recidivism. Inside-Out’s benefits and success in many adult correctional institutions have been outlined in evaluation reports and scholarly articles. The key findings incorporate the learning experiences for the students in both an academic capability and professional practice and development. Furthermore, stereotypes and pre-determined ideas are challenged, and there is a promotion of critical thinking and evidence of self-discovery and growth. There is empirical data supporting positive outcomes of education in youth justice centers in reducing recidivism and increasing the likelihood of returning to education upon release. Hence, this research could provide the opportunity to increase young people’s engagement in education which is a known protective factor for assisting young people to move away from criminal behavior. In 2016, Tarmi completed the Inside-Out educator training in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and has developed an interest in exploring the pedagogy of Inside-Out, specifically targeting young offenders in a Youth Justice Centre.

Keywords: dialogic transformative learning, inside-out prison exchange program, prison education, youth justice

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Authors: Sarah Faulkner, Patrick Faulkner, Caroline Ellison

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Improved mental and physical health, community connection, and increased life satisfaction has been strongly associated with bike riding for those with and without a disability. However, much evidence suggests that people living with a disability face increased barriers to engaging in cycling compared to members of the general population. People with an intellectual disability often live more sedentary and socially isolated lives that negatively impact their mental and physical health, as well as life satisfaction. This paper is based on preliminary findings from a three-year intervention cycling project funded by the South Australian Government. The cycling project was developed in partnership with community stakeholders that provided weekly instruction, training, and support to individuals living with intellectual disabilities to increase their capacity in cycling. This project aimed to support people living with intellectual disabilities to foster and facilitate improved physical and mental health, confidence, and independence and enhance social networking through their engagement in community cycling. The program applied principles of social role valorisation (SRV) theory as its guiding framework. Preliminary data collected is based on qualitative interviews with over 50 program participants, results from two participant wellness questionnaires, as well as a perceptually regulated exercise test administered throughout the project implementation. Preliminary findings are further supplemented with ethnographic analyses by the researchers who took a phenology of life experience approach. Preliminary findings of the program suggest a variety of social motivations behind participants' desire to learn cycling that acknowledges previous barriers to engagement and cycling’s role to address feelings of loneliness and social isolation. Meaningful health benefits can be achieved as demonstrated by increases in predicted V02 max measures, suggesting that physical intervention can not only improve physical health outcomes but also provide a variety of other social benefits. Initial engagement in the project has demonstrated an increase in participants' sense of confidence, well-being, and physical fitness. Implementation of the project in partnership with a variety of community stakeholders has identified a number of critical factors and processes necessary for future service replication, sustainability, and success. Findings from this intervention study contribute to the development of a knowledge base on how best to support individuals living with an intellectual disability to partake in bike riding and increase positive outcomes associated with their capacity building, social interaction, increased physical activity, physical health, and mental well-being. The initial findings of this study provide critical academic insights into the social and physical benefits of cycling for people living with a disability, as well as practical advice for future human service applications.

Keywords: cycling, disability, social inclusion, capacity building

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Authors: Nicola Milani, Carla Bellissimo, Davide Pogliana, Davide Panzin, Luca Garlaschelli, Giulia Facchinetti, Claudia Casson, Luca Marazzina, Andrea Sartori, Simone Rivaroli, Jeff Konin

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The patient is a 26 year-old male amateur football player from Milan, Italy; (81kg; 185cm; BMI 23.6 kg/m²). He sustained a non-contact anterior cruciate ligament tear to his right knee in June 2021. In September 2021, his right knee ligament was reconstructed using a semitendinosus graft. The injury occurred during a football match on natural grass with typical shoes on a warm day (32 degrees celsius). Playing as a defender he sustained the injury during a change of direction, where the foot was fixated on the grass. He felt pain and was unable to continue playing the match. The surgeon approved his rehabilitation to begin two weeks post-operative. The initial physiotherapist assessment determined performing two training sessions per day within the first three months. In the first three weeks, the pain was 4/10 on Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), no swelling, a range of motion was 0-110°, with difficulty fully extending his knee and minimal quadriceps activation. Crutches were discontinued at four weeks with improved walking. Active exercise, electrostimulator, physical therapy, massages, osteopathy, and passive motion were initiated. At week 6, he completed his first functional movement screen; the score was 16/21 with no pain and no swelling. At week 8, the isokinetic test showed a 23% differential deficit between the two legs in maximum strength (at 90°/s). At week 10, he improved to 15% of injury-induced deficit which suggested he was ready to start running. At week 12, the athlete sustained his first threshold test. At week 16, he performed his first return to sports movement assessment, which revealed a 10% stronger difference between the legs. At week 16, he had his second threshold test. At week 17, his first on-field test revealed a 5% differential deficit between the two legs in the hop test. At week 18, isokinetic test demonstrates that the uninjured leg was 7% stronger than the recovering leg in maximum strength (at 90°/s). At week 20, his second on-field test revealed a 2% difference in hop test; at week 21, his third isokinetic test demonstrated a difference of 5% in maximum strength (at 90°/s). At week 21, he performed his second return to sports movement assessment which revealed a 2% difference between the limbs. Since it was the end of the championship, the team asked him to partake in the playoffs; moreover the player was very motivated to participate in the playoffs also because he was the captain of the team. Together with the player and the team, we decided to let him play even though we were aware of a heightened risk of injury than what is reported in the literature because of two factors: biological recovery times and the results of the tests we performed. In the decision making process about the athlete’s recovery time, it is important to balance the information available from the literature with the desires of the patient to avoid frustration.

Keywords: ACL, football, rehabilitation, return to play

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Authors: Madina Tynybayeva, Sanya Zhumazhanova, Saltanat Kozhakhmetova, Merey Mussabayeva

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One of the leading indicators of the education quality is the level of students’ educational achievements. The processes of modernization of Kazakhstani education system have predetermined the need to improve the national system by assessing the quality of education. The results of assessment greatly contribute to addressing questions about the current state of the educational system in the country. The monitoring of students’ educational achievements (MEAS) is the systematic measurement of the quality of education for compliance with the state obligatory standard of Kazakhstan. This systematic measurement is independent of educational organizations and approved by the order of the Minister of Education and Scienceof Kazakhstan. The MEAS was conducted in the regions of Kazakhstanfor the first time in 2022 by the National Testing Centre. The measurement does not have legal consequences either for students or for educational organizations. Students’ achievements were measured in three subject areas: reading, mathematics and science literacy. MEAS was held for the first time in April this year, 105 thousand students from 1436 schools of Kazakhstan took part in the testing. The monitoring was accompanied by a survey of students, teachers, and school leaders. The goal is to identify which contextual factors affect learning outcomes. The testing was carried out in a computer format. The test tasks of MEAS are ranked according to the three levels of difficulty: basic, medium, and high. Fourth graders are asked to complete 30 closed-type tasks. The average score of the results is 21 points out of 30, which means 70% of tasks were successfully completed. The total number of test tasks for 9th grade students – 75 questions. The results of ninth graders are comparatively lower, the success rate of completing tasks is 63%. MEAS participants did not reveal a statistically significant gap in results in terms of the language of instruction, territorial status, and type of school. The trend of reducing the gap in these indicators is also noted in the framework of recent international studies conducted across the country, in particular PISA for schools in Kazakhstan. However, there is a regional gap in MOES performance. The difference in the values of the indicators of the highest and lowest scores of the regions was 11% of the success of completing tasks in the 4th grade, 14% in the 9thgrade. The results of the 4th grade students in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are: 71.5%, 70%, and 66.9%, respectively. The results of ninth-graders in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are 69.6%, 54%, and 60.8%, respectively. From the surveys, it was revealed that the educational achievements of students are considerably influenced by such factors as the subject competences of teachers, as well as the school climate and motivation of students. Thus, the results of MEAS indicate the need for an integrated approach to improving the quality of education. In particular, the combination of improving the content of curricula and textbooks, internal and external assessment of the educational achievements of students, educational programs of pedagogical specialties, and advanced training courses is required.

Keywords: assessment, secondary school, monitoring, functional literacy, kazakhstan

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Authors: Giulia Colonna, Jocelyn Hoye, Bart de Laat, Gelsina Stanley, Jose Key, Alaaddin Ibrahimy, Sule Tinaz, Evan D. Morris

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Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and affects approximately 1% of the world’s population. Increasing evidence suggests that aerobic physical exercise can be beneficial in mitigating both motor and non-motor symptoms of the disease. In a recent pilot study of the role of exercise on PD, we sought to confirm exercise intensity by monitoring heart rate (HR). For this purpose, we asked participants to wear a chest strap heart rate monitor (Polar Electro Oy, Kempele). The device sometimes proved uncomfortable. Looking forward to larger clinical trials, it would be convenient to employ a more comfortable and user friendly device. The Fitbit Charge 4 (Fitbit Inc) is a potentially comfortable, user-friendly solution since it is a wrist-worn heart rate monitor. Polar H10 has been used in large trials, and for our purposes, we treated it as the gold standard for the beat-to-beat period (R-R interval) assessment. In previous literature, it has been shown that Fitbit Charge 4 has comparable accuracy to Polar H10 in healthy subjects. It has yet to be determined if the Fitbit is as accurate as the Polar H10 in subjects with PD or in clinical populations, generally. Goal: To compare the Fitbit Charge 4 to the Polar H10 for monitoring HR in PD subjects engaging in an intensive exercise program. Methods: A total of 596 exercise sessions from 11 subjects (6 males) were collected simultaneously by both devices. Subjects with early-stage PD (Hoehn & Yahr <=2) were enrolled in a 6 months exercise training program designed for PD patients. Subjects participated in 3 one-hour exercise sessions per week. They wore both Fitbit and Polar H10 during each session. Sessions included rest, warm-up, intensive exercise, and cool-down periods. We calculated the bias in the HR via Fitbit under rest (5min) and intensive exercise (20min) by comparing the mean HR during each of the periods to the respective means measured by the Polar (HRFitbit – HRPolar). We also measured the sensitivity and specificity of Fitbit for detecting HRs that exceed the threshold for intensive exercise, defined as 70% of an individual’s theoretical maximum HR. Different types of correlation between the two devices were investigated. Results: The mean bias was 1.68 bpm at rest and 6.29 bpm during high intensity exercise, with an overestimation by Fitbit in both conditions. The mean bias of Fitbit across both rest and intensive exercise periods was 3.98 bpm. The sensitivity of the device in identifying high intensity exercise sessions was 97.14 %. The correlation between the two devices was non-linear, suggesting a saturation tendency of Fitbit to saturate at high values of HR. Conclusion: The performance of Fitbit Charge 4 is comparable to Polar H10 for assessing exercise intensity in a cohort of PD subjects. The device should be considered a reasonable replacement for the more cumbersome chest strap technology in future similar studies of clinical populations.

Keywords: fitbit, heart rate measurements, parkinson’s disease, wrist-wearable devices

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Authors: Alua Massalimova

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Situation analysis of Blood Service revealed that the strengths dominated over the weak 1.4 times. The possibilities dominate over the threats by 1.1 times. It follows that by using timely the possibility the Service, it is possible to strengthen its strengths and avoid threats. Priority directions of the resulting analysis are the use of subjective factors, such as personal management capacity managers of the Blood Center in the field of possibilities of legal activity of administrative decisions and the mobilization of stable staff in general market conditions. We have studied for the period 2011-2015 retrospectively indicators of Blood Service of Kazakhstan. Strengths of Blood Service of RK(Ps4,5): 1) indicators of donations for 1000 people is higher than in some countries of the CIS (in Russia 14, Kazakhstan - 17); 2) the functioning science centre of transfusiology; 3) the legal possibility of additional financing blood centers in the form of paid services; 4) the absence of competitors; 5) training on specialty Transfusiology; 6) the stable management staff of blood centers, a high level of competence; 7) increase in the incidence requiring transfusion therapy (oncohematology); 8) equipment upgrades; 9) the opening of a reference laboratory; 10) growth of the proportion of issued high-quality blood components; 11) governmental organization 'Drop of Life'; 12) the functioning bone marrow register; 13) equipped with modern equipment HLA-laboratory; 14) High categorization of average medical workers; 15) availability of own specialized scientific journal; 16) vivarium. The weaknesses (Ps = 3.5): 1) the incomplete equipping of blood centers and blood transfusion cabinets according to standards; 2) low specific weight of paid services of the CC; 3) low categorization of doctors; 4) high staff turnover; 5) the low scientific potential of industrial and clinical of transfusiology; 6) the low wages paid; 7) slight growth of harvested donor blood; 8) the weak continuity with offices blood transfusion; 9) lack of agitation work; 10) the formally functioning of Transfusion Association; 11) the absence of scientific laboratories; 12) high standard deviation from the average for donations in the republic. The possibilities (Ps = 2,7): 1): international grants; 2) organization of international seminars on clinical of transfusiology; 3) cross-sectoral cooperation; 4) to increase scientific research in the field of clinical of transfusiology; 5) reduce the share of donation unsuitable for transfusion and processing; 6) strengthening marketing management in the development of fee-based services; 7) advertising paid services; 8) strengthening the publishing of teaching aids; 9) team-building staff. The threats (Ps = 2.1): 1) an increase of staff turnover; 2) the risk of litigation; 3) reduction gemoprodukts based on evidence-based medicine; 4) regression of scientific capacity; 5) organization of marketing; 6) transfusiologist marketing; 7) reduction in the quality of the evidence base transfusions.

Keywords: blood service, healthcare, Kazakhstan, quantative swot analysis

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Authors: Dmitriy Babenko, Sergey Yegorov, Ilya Korshukov, Aidana Sultanbekova, Valentina Barkhanskaya, Tatiana Bashirova, Yerzhan Zhunusov, Yevgeniya Li, Viktoriya Parakhina, Svetlana Kolesnichenko, Yeldar Baiken, Aruzhan Pralieva, Zhibek Zhumadilova, Matthew S. Miller, Gonzalo H. Hortelano, Anar Turmuhambetova, Antonella E. Chesca, Irina Kadyrova

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Introduction: The rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, along with the re-emergence of pathogens causing acute respiratory infections (ARI), has necessitated the development of novel diagnostic tools to differentiate various causes of ARI. MALDI-MS, due to its wide usage and affordability, has been proposed as a potential instrument for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 versus non-SARS-CoV-2 ARI. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of MALDI-MS in conjunction with a machine learning model to accurately distinguish between symptomatic infections caused by SARS-CoV-2 and non-SARS-CoV-2 during both the early and later phases of the pandemic. Furthermore, this study aimed to analyze mass spectrometry (MS) data obtained from nasal swabs of healthy individuals. Methods: We gathered mass spectra from 252 samples, comprising 108 SARS-CoV-2-positive samples obtained in 2020 (Covid 2020), 7 SARS-CoV- 2-positive samples obtained in 2023 (Covid 2023), 71 samples from symptomatic individuals without SARS-CoV-2 (Control non-Covid ARVI), and 66 samples from healthy individuals (Control healthy). All the samples were subjected to RT-PCR testing. For data analysis, we employed the caret R package to train and test seven machine-learning algorithms: C5.0, KNN, NB, RF, SVM-L, SVM-R, and XGBoost. We conducted a training process using a five-fold (outer) nested repeated (five times) ten-fold (inner) cross-validation with a randomized stratified splitting approach. Results: In this study, we utilized the Covid 2020 dataset as a case group and the non-Covid ARVI dataset as a control group to train and test various machine learning (ML) models. Among these models, XGBoost and SVM-R demonstrated the highest performance, with accuracy values of 0.97 [0.93, 0.97] and 0.95 [0.95; 0.97], specificity values of 0.86 [0.71; 0.93] and 0.86 [0.79; 0.87], and sensitivity values of 0.984 [0.984; 1.000] and 1.000 [0.968; 1.000], respectively. When examining the Covid 2023 dataset, the Naive Bayes model achieved the highest classification accuracy of 43%, while XGBoost and SVM-R achieved accuracies of 14%. For the healthy control dataset, the accuracy of the models ranged from 0.27 [0.24; 0.32] for k-nearest neighbors to 0.44 [0.41; 0.45] for the Support Vector Machine with a radial basis function kernel. Conclusion: Therefore, ML models trained on MALDI MS of nasopharyngeal swabs obtained from patients with Covid during the initial phase of the pandemic, as well as symptomatic non-Covid individuals, showed excellent classification performance, which aligns with the results of previous studies. However, when applied to swabs from healthy individuals and a limited sample of patients with Covid in the late phase of the pandemic, ML models exhibited lower classification accuracy.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2, MALDI-TOF MS, ML models, nasopharyngeal swabs, classification

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Authors: Ramalan Musa Yerima

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The paper titled “loading by number” explained a strategy developed recently by Zonal Commanding Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria, covering Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States of Northern Nigeria. The strategy is aimed at reducing competition, which will invariably leads to the reduction in speed, reduction in dangerous driving, reduction in crash rate, reduction in injuries, reduction in property damages and reduction in death through road traffic crashes (RTC). This research paper presents a study focused on enhancing the safety of commercial vehicles. The background of this study highlights the alarming statistics related to commercial vehicle crashes in Nigeria with focus on Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, which often result in significant damage to property, loss of lives, and economic costs. The significance and aims is to investigate and propose effective strategy to enhance the safety of commercial vehicles. The study recognizes the pressing need for heightened safety measures in commercial transportation, as it impacts not only the well-being of drivers and passengers but also the overall public safety. To achieve the objectives, an examination of accident data, including causes and contributing factors, was performed to identify critical areas for improvement. The major finding of the study reveals that when competition comes into play within the realm of commercial driving, it has detrimental effects on road safety and resource management. Commercial drivers are pushed to complete their routes quickly, deliver goods on time or they pushed themselves to arrive quickly for more passengers and new contracts. This competitive environment, fuelled by internal and external pressures such as tight deadlines, poverty and greed, often leads to sad endings. The study recommend that if a strategy called loading by number is integrated with other multiple safety measures such as driver training programs, regulatory enforcement, and infrastructure improvements, commercial vehicle safety can be significantly enhanced. "Loading by Number” approach is design to ensure that the sequence of departure of drivers from motor park ‘A’ would be communicated to motor park officials of park ‘B’, which would be considered sequentially when giving them returning passengers, regardless of the first to arrive. In conclusion, this paper underscores the significance of improving the safety measures of commercial vehicles, as they are often larger and heavier than other vehicles on the road. Whenever they are involved in accidents, the consequences can be more severe. Commercial vehicles are also frequently involved in long-haul or interstate transportation, which means they cover longer distances and spend more time on the road. This increased exposure to driving conditions increases the probability of accidents occurring. By implementing the suggested measures, policymakers, transportation authorities, and industry stakeholders can work collectively towards ensuring a safer commercial transportation system.

Keywords: commercial, safety, strategy, transportation

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Authors: Naiara Ozamiz Etcebarria, Sonia Ruiz De Azua Garcia, Agurtzane Ortiz Jauregi, Virginia Guillen Cañas

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Introduction: The most relevant competencies of a health professional are an adequate communication capacity, which will influence the satisfaction of professionals and patients, therapeutic compliance, conflict prevention, clinical outcomes´ improvement and efficiency of health services. The ability of Active listening , empathy, assertiveness and social skills, are important abilities to develop in all professions in which there is a relationship with other people. In the field of health, it is even more important to have adequate qualities so that the treatment with the patient will be adequate and satisfactory. We conducted a research with students of third year in the Degree of Medicine with the objectives: - to know how the active listening, empathy, assertiveness and social skills of students are. - to know if there are differences according to different demographic variables, such as sex, language, age, number of siblings and interest in the subject. Material and Methods: The students of the Third year in the Degree of Medicine (N = 212) participated voluntarily. Sociodemographic data were collected. Descriptive and comparative analysis of the averages of the students with respect to active listening, empathy, assertiveness and social skills were performed. Once the questionnaires were collected, they were entered into the SPSS 21 database. Four communicational aspects were evaluated: The active listening questionnaire, the TECA empathy questionnaire, the ACDA questionnaire and the EHS questionnaire Social Skills Scale. The active listening questionnaire assesses these factors: Listening without interruption and less contradiction, Listening with 100% attention, Listening beyond words, Listening encouraging the other to go deeper. The TECA questionnaire of cognitive and affective empathy evaluates: Adoption of perspectives, Emotional Comprehension, Emphasizing stress, Empathic joy. The EHS questionnaire Social Skills Scale: Self-expression in social situations, Defending one's own rights as a consumer, Expressing anger or dissatisfaction, Refusing to do and cutting interactions off, Making requests, Initiating positive interactions with the other sex. The ACDA questionnaire Assertiveness Assessment Scale evaluates self-assertiveness and heteroaservitivity. Applicability: To train these skills is so important for clinical practice of medical students and these capabilities that can be measured in a longitudinal way time. Ethical-legal aspects: The data were anonymous. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee. Results: The students of the Third year in the Degree of Medicine (34.4% Basque speakers and 65.6% Spanish speakers) with average age 20.93, (27.8% men and 72.2% women). There are no differences in social skills between men and women. The Basque speaker students of are more heteroactive (ACDA) than Spanish students. Active listening has a high correlation with social skills, especially with self-expression in social situations. Listening without interruption has a high correlation with self-expression in social situations and initiating positive interactions with the opposite sex. Adoption of perspectives presents a high correlation with auto- assertiveness. Emotional understanding presents a high correlation with positive interactions with the opposite sex. Empathic joy correlates with self-assertiveness, self-expression in social situations, and initiating positive interactions with the opposite sex.

Keywords: active listening, assertiveness, communicational skills, empathy, students of medicine

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Authors: Sigal Portnoy, Jason Friedman, Eitan Raveh

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Introduction: Sensory substitution is possible due to the capacity of our brain to adapt to information transmitted by a synthetic receptor via an alternative sensory system. Practical sensory substitution systems are being developed in order to increase the functionality of individuals with sensory loss, e.g. amputees. For upper limb prosthetic-users the loss of tactile feedback compels them to allocate visual attention to their prosthesis. The effect of adding vibrotactile feedback (VTF) to the applied force has been studied, however its effect on the allocation if visual attention during dual-tasking and the response during misleading visual feedback have not been studied. We hypothesized that VTF will improve the performance and reduce visual attention during dual-task assignments in healthy individuals using a robotic hand and improve the performance in a standardized functional test, despite the presence of misleading visual feedback. Methods: For the dual-task paradigm, twenty healthy subjects were instructed to toggle two keyboard arrow keys with the left hand to retain a moving virtual car on a road on a screen. During the game, instructions for various activities, e.g. mix the sugar in the glass with a spoon, appeared on the screen. The subject performed these tasks with a robotic hand, attached to the right hand. The robotic hand was controlled by the activity of the flexors and extensors of the right wrist, recorded using surface EMG electrodes. Pressure sensors were attached at the tips of the robotic hand and induced VTF using vibrotactile actuators attached to the right arm of the subject. An eye-tracking system tracked to visual attention of the subject during the trials. The trials were repeated twice, with and without the VTF. Additionally, the subjects performed the modified box and blocks, hidden from eyesight, in a motion laboratory. A virtual presentation of a misleading visual feedback was be presented on a screen so that twice during the trial, the virtual block fell while the physical block was still held by the subject. Results: This is an ongoing study, which current results are detailed below. We are continuing these trials with transradial myoelectric prosthesis-users. In the healthy group, the VTF did not reduce the visual attention or improve performance during dual-tasking for the tasks that were typed transfer-to-target, e.g. place the eraser on the shelf. An improvement was observed for other tasks. For example, the average±standard deviation of time to complete the sugar-mixing task was 13.7±17.2s and 19.3±9.1s with and without the VTF, respectively. Also, the number of gaze shifts from the screen to the hand during this task were 15.5±23.7 and 20.0±11.6, with and without the VTF, respectively. The response of the subjects to the misleading visual feedback did not differ between the two conditions, i.e. with and without VTF. Conclusions: Our interim results suggest that the performance of certain activities of daily living may be improved by VTF. The substitution of visual sensory input by tactile feedback might require a long training period so that brain plasticity can occur and allow adaptation to the new condition.

Keywords: prosthetics, rehabilitation, sensory substitution, upper limb amputation

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Authors: Stavros T. Ponis, George D. Plakas-Koumadorakis, Sotiris P. Gayialis

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Augmented Reality (AR) can be defined as a technology, which takes the capabilities of computer-generated display, sound, text and effects to enhance the user's real-world experience by overlaying virtual objects into the real world. By doing that, AR is capable of providing a vast array of work support tools, which can significantly increase employee productivity, enhance existing job training programs by making them more realistic and in some cases introduce completely new forms of work and task executions. One of the most promising AR industrial applications, as literature shows, is the use of Head Worn, monocular or binocular Displays (HWD) to support logistics and production operations, such as order picking, part assembly and maintenance. This paper presents the initial results of an ongoing research project for the introduction of a dedicated AR-HWD solution to the picking process of a Distribution Center (DC) in Greece operated by a large Telecommunication Service Provider (TSP). In that context, the proposed research aims to determine whether gamification elements should be integrated in the functional requirements of the AR solution, such as providing points for reaching objectives and creating leaderboards and awards (e.g. badges) for general achievements. Up to now, there is a an ambiguity on the impact of gamification in logistics operations since gamification literature mostly focuses on non-industrial organizational contexts such as education and customer/citizen facing applications, such as tourism and health. To the contrary, the gamification efforts described in this study focus in one of the most labor- intensive and workflow dependent logistics processes, i.e. Customer Order Picking (COP). Although introducing AR in COP, undoubtedly, creates significant opportunities for workload reduction and increased process performance the added value of gamification is far from certain. This paper aims to provide insights on the suitability and usefulness of AR-enhanced gamification in the hard and very demanding environment of a logistics center. In doing so, it will utilize a review of the current state-of-the art regarding gamification of production and logistics processes coupled with the results of questionnaire guided interviews with industry experts, i.e. logisticians, warehouse workers (pickers) and AR software developers. The findings of the proposed research aim to contribute towards a better understanding of AR-enhanced gamification, the organizational change it entails and the consequences it potentially has for all implicated entities in the often highly standardized and structured work required in the logistics setting. The interpretation of these findings will support the decision of logisticians regarding the introduction of gamification in their logistics processes by providing them useful insights and guidelines originating from a real life case study of a large DC operating more than 300 retail outlets in Greece.

Keywords: augmented reality, technology acceptance, warehouse management, vision picking, new forms of work, gamification

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Authors: Beth Jacobs

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The landmark movement of Western clinical psychology in the 20th century was the development of psychotherapy. The landmark movement of clinical psychology in the 21st century will be the absorption of meditation practices from Buddhist psychology. While millions of people explore meditation and related philosophy, very few people are exposed to the materials of original Buddhism on this topic, especially to the Theravadan Abhidharma. The Abhidharma is an intricate system of lists and matrixes that were used to understand and remember Buddha’s teaching. The Abhidharma delineates the first psychological system of Buddhism, how the mind works in the universe of reality and why meditation training strengthens and purifies the experience of life. Its lists outline the psychology of mental constructions, perception, emotion and cosmological causation. While the Abhidharma is technical, elaborate and complex, its essential purpose relates to the central purpose of clinical psychology: to relieve human suffering. Like Western depth psychology, the methodology rests on understanding underlying processes of consciousness and perception. What clinical psychologists might describe as therapeutic improvement, the Abhidharma delineates as a specific pathway of purified actions of consciousness. This paper discusses the concept of 'path' as presented in aspects of the Theravadan Abhidharma and relates this to current clinical psychological views of therapy outcomes and gains. The core path in Buddhism is the Eight-Fold Path, which is the fourth noble truth and the launching of activity toward liberation. The path is not composed of eight ordinal steps; it’s eight-fold and is described as opening the way, not funneling choices. The specific path in the Abhidharma is described in many steps of development of consciousness activities. The path is not something a human moves on, but something that moments of consciousness develop within. 'Cittas' are extensively described in the Abhidharma as the atomic-level unit of a raw action of consciousness touching upon an object in a field, and there are 121 types of cittas categorized. The cittas are embedded in the mental factors, which could be described as the psychological packaging elements of our experiences of consciousness. Based on these constellations of infinitesimal, linked occurrences of consciousness, citta are categorized by dimensions of purification. A path is a chain of citta developing through causes and conditions. There are no selves, no pronouns in the Abhidharma. Instead of me walking a path, this is about a person working with conditions to cultivate a stream of consciousness that is pure, immediate, direct and generous. The same effort, in very different terms, informs the work of most psychotherapies. Depth psychology seeks to release the bound, unconscious elements of mental process into the clarity of realization. Cognitive and behavioral psychologies work on breaking down automatic thought valuations and actions, changing schemas and interpersonal dynamics. Understanding how the original Buddhist concept of positive human development relates to the clinical psychological concept of therapy weaves together two brilliant systems of thought on the development of human well being.

Keywords: Abhidharma, Buddhist path, clinical psychology, psychotherapeutic outcome

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Authors: Ian O'Loughlin

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Memory networks aim to integrate some of the recent successes in machine learning with a dynamic memory base that can be updated and deployed in artificial reasoning tasks. These models involve training networks to identify, update, and operate over stored elements in a large memory array in order, for example, to ably perform question and answer tasks parsing real-world and simulated discourses. This family of approaches still faces numerous challenges: the performance of these network models in simulated domains remains considerably better than in open, real-world domains, wide-context cues remain elusive in parsing words and sentences, and even moderately complex sentence structures remain problematic. This innovation, employing an array of stored and updatable ‘memory’ elements over which the system operates as it parses text input and develops responses to questions, is a compelling one for at least two reasons: first, it addresses one of the difficulties that standard machine learning techniques face, by providing a way to store a large bank of facts, offering a way forward for the kinds of long-term reasoning that, for example, recurrent neural networks trained on a corpus have difficulty performing. Second, the addition of a stored long-term memory component in artificial reasoning seems psychologically plausible; human reasoning appears replete with invocations of long-term memory, and the stored but dynamic elements in the arrays of memory networks are deeply reminiscent of the way that human memory is readily and often characterized. However, this apparent psychological plausibility is belied by a recent turn in the study of human memory in cognitive science. In recent years, the very notion that there is a stored element which enables remembering, however dynamic or reconstructive it may be, has come under deep suspicion. In the wake of constructive memory studies, amnesia and impairment studies, and studies of implicit memory—as well as following considerations from the cognitive neuroscience of memory and conceptual analyses from the philosophy of mind and cognitive science—researchers are now rejecting storage and retrieval, even in principle, and instead seeking and developing models of human memory wherein plasticity and dynamics are the rule rather than the exception. In these models, storage is entirely avoided by modeling memory using a recurrent neural network designed to fit a preconceived energy function that attains zero values only for desired memory patterns, so that these patterns are the sole stable equilibrium points in the attractor network. So although the array of long-term memory elements in memory networks seem psychologically appropriate for reasoning systems, they may actually be incurring difficulties that are theoretically analogous to those that older, storage-based models of human memory have demonstrated. The kind of emergent stability found in the attractor network models more closely fits our best understanding of human long-term memory than do the memory network arrays, despite appearances to the contrary.

Keywords: artificial reasoning, human memory, machine learning, neural networks

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Authors: Ramalan Musa Yerima

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The paper titled “Loading by number” explained a strategy developed recently by the Zonal Commanding Officer of the Federal Road Safety Corps of Nigeria, covering Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States of Northern Nigeria. The strategy is aimed at reducing competition, which will invariably lead to a reduction in speed, reduction in dangerous driving, reduction in crash rate, reduction in injuries, reduction in property damages and reduction in death through road traffic crashes (RTC). This research paper presents a study focused on enhancing the safety of commercial vehicles. The background of this study highlights the alarming statistics related to commercial vehicle crashes in Nigeria with a focus on Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, which often result in significant damage to property, loss of lives, and economic costs. The significance and aims is to investigate and propose an effective strategy to enhance the safety of commercial vehicles. The study recognizes the pressing need for heightened safety measures in commercial transportation, as it impacts not only the well-being of drivers and passengers but also the overall public safety. To achieve the objectives, an examination of accident data, including causes and contributing factors, was performed to identify critical areas for improvement. The major finding of the study reveals that when competition comes into play within the realm of commercial driving, it has detrimental effects on road safety and resource management. Commercial drivers are pushed to complete their routes quickly and deliver goods on time, or they push themselves to arrive quickly for more passengers and new contracts. This competitive environment, fuelled by internal and external pressures such as tight deadlines, poverty and greed, often leads to sad endings. The study recommends that if a strategy called loading by number is integrated with other multiple safety measures, such as driver training programs, regulatory enforcement, and infrastructure improvements, commercial vehicle safety can be significantly enhanced. "Loading by Number” approach is designed to ensure that the sequence of departure of drivers from the motor park ‘A’ would be communicated to motor park officials of park ‘B’, which would be considered sequentially when giving them returning passengers, regardless of the first to arrive. In conclusion, this paper underscores the significance of improving the safety measures of commercial vehicles, as they are often larger and heavier than other vehicles on the road. Whenever they are involved in accidents, the consequences can be more severe. Commercial vehicles are also frequently involved in long-haul or interstate transportation, which means they cover longer distances and spend more time on the road. This increased exposure to driving conditions increases the probability of accidents occurring. By implementing the suggested measures, policymakers, transportation authorities, and industry stakeholders can work collectively toward ensuring a safer commercial transportation system.

Keywords: commercial, safety, strategy, transport

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Authors: Valeria Cotza

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School drop-out is a multifactorial phenomenon that in Italy concerns all those underage students who, at different school stages (up to 16 years old) or training (up to 18 years old), manifest educational difficulties from dropping out of compulsory education without obtaining a qualification to repetition rates and absenteeism. From the 1980s to the 2000s, there was a progressive attenuation of the economic and social model towards a multifactorial reading of the phenomenon, and the European Commission noted the importance of learning about the phenomenon through approaches able to integrate large-scale quantitative surveys with qualitative analyses. It is not a matter of identifying the contextual factors affecting the phenomenon but problematising them by means of systemic and comprehensive in-depth analysis. So, a privileged point of observation and field of intervention are those schools that propose alternative models of teaching and learning to the traditional ones, such as popular and second-chance schools. Alternative schools and interventions grew in these years in Europe as well as in the US and Latin America, working in the direction of greater equity to create the conditions (often absent in conventional schools) for everyone to achieve educational goals. Against extensive Anglo-Saxon and US literature on this topic, there is yet no unambiguous definition of alternative education, especially in Europe, where second-chance education has been most studied. There is little literature on a second chance in Italy and almost none on alternative education (with the exception of method schools, to which in Italy the concept of “alternative” is linked). This research aims to fill the gap by systematically surveying the alternative interventions in the area and beginning to explore some models of popular and second-chance schools and experiences through a mixed methods approach. So, the main research objectives concern the spread of alternative education in the Lombardy region, the main characteristics of these schools and interventions, and their effectiveness in terms of students’ well-being and school results. This paper seeks to answer the first point by presenting the preliminary results of the first phase of the project dedicated to mapping. Through the Google Forms platform, a questionnaire is being distributed to all schools in Lombardy and some schools in the rest of Italy to map the presence of alternative schools and interventions and their main characteristics. The distribution is also taking place thanks to the support of the Milan Territorial and Lombardy Regional School Offices. Moreover, other social realities outside the school system (such as cooperatives and cultural associations) can be questioned. The schools and other realities to be questioned outside Lombardy will also be identified with the support of INDIRE (Istituto Nazionale per Documentazione, Innovazione e Ricerca Educativa, “National Institute for Documentation, Innovation and Educational Research”) and based on existing literature and the indicators of “Futura” Plan of the PNRR (Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, “National Recovery and Resilience Plan”). Mapping will be crucial and functional for the subsequent qualitative and quantitative phase, which will make use of statistical analysis and constructivist grounded theory.

Keywords: school drop-out, alternative education, popular and second-chance schools, map

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Authors: Stephane Maingard, Babu Paturi, Maura Daly, Finnola Armstrong

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Background: Perinatal optimization involves the implementation of twelve intervention bundles of care at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, reliably delivering evidence-based interventions in the antenatal, intrapartum, and neonatal period to improve preterm outcomes. These key interventions (e.g. Antenatal steroids, Antenatal counselling, Optimal cord management, Respiratory management etc.) are based on WHO (World Health Organization, BAPM (British Association of Perinatal Medicine), and the latest 2022 European Consensus guidelines recommendations. Methodology: In February 2023, a quality improvement project team (pediatricians, neonatologists, obstetricians, clinical skills managers) was established, and a project implementation plan was developed. The Program Study Act implemented the following: 1. Antenatal consultation pathway, 2. Creation and implementation of a perinatal checklist for preterm births less than 34 weeks of gestation, 3. Process changes to ensure the checklist is completed, 4. Completion of parent and staff surveys, 5. Ongoing training. We collected and compared a range of data before and after implementation. Results: Preliminary analysis so far at 1 month demonstrates improvement in the following areas: 50% increase in antenatal counselling. Right place of birth increased from 85% to 100%. Magnesium sulphate increased from 56% to 100%. No change was observed in buccal colostrum administration (28%), delayed cord clamping (75%), caffeine administration (100%), blood glucose level at one hour of life > 2,6mmol (85%). There was also no change noted in respiratory support at resuscitation, CPAP only (47%), IPPV with CPAP (45%), IPPV with intubation (20%), and surfactant administration (28%). A slight decrease in figures was noted in the following: steroid administration from 80% to 75% and thermal care obtaining optimal temperature on admission (65% to 50%). Discussion: Even though the findings are preliminary, the directional improvement shows promise. Improved communication has been achieved between all stakeholders, including our patients, who are key team members. Adherence to the bundles of care will help to improve survival and neurodevelopmental outcomes as well as reduce the length of stay, thereby overall reducing the financial cost, considering the lifetime cost of cerebral palsy is estimated at €800,000 and reducing the length of stay can result in savings of up to €206,000. Conclusion: Preliminary results demonstrate improvements across a range of patient, process, staff, and financial outcomes. Our future goal is a seamless pathway of patient centered care for babies and their families. This project is an interdisciplinary collaboration to implement best practices for a vulnerable patient cohort. Our two main challenges are changing our organization’s culture as well as ensuring the sustainability of the project.

Keywords: perinatal, optimization, antenatal, counselling, IPPV

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Authors: Budur Alsulami

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One of the aims of the recently implemented Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 strategy is focused on strengthening education, entertainment, and tourism to attract international visitors to the country. To promote and increase the tourism sector, tourism translation can serve the tourism industry by translating various materials that promote the country’s tourism such as brochures, catalogues, and websites. In order to achieve the goal of enhancing tourism in Saudi Arabia, promotional texts related to tourism and Saudi culture will need to be translated into English and addressed to non-Arabic-speaking potential tourists. This research aims to measure student readiness to be professional translators who can introduce and promote Saudi Arabia to non-Arabic-speaking tourists. The study will also evaluate students' abilities to promote and convey Saudi culture to non-Arabic tourists by translating tourism texts. Translating tourism materials demands considerable effort and specific translation skills to capture tourists' interest and encourage visits. Numerous scholars have explored challenges in translating tourism promotional materials, focusing on translation methods, cultural issues, course design, and necessary knowledge for tourism translation. Based on these insights, experts recommend that translators prioritize audience expectations, cultural appropriateness, and linguistic conventions while revising course syllabi to include practical skills. This research aims to assess students' readiness to become professional translators aligned with Vision 2030 tourism goals. To accomplish this, in the first stage of the project, twenty students from two Saudi Arabian Universities who have completed at least two years of Translation Studies were invited to translate two tourism texts of 300 words each. These tourism texts contain information about famous tourist sights and traditional food in Saudi Arabia and contained cultural terms and heritage information. The students then completed a questionnaire about the challenges of the text and the process of their translation, and then participated in a semi-structured interview. In the second stage of the project, the students’ translations will be evaluated by a qualified National Accreditation Authority of Translators and Interpreters (NAATI) examiner applying the NAATI rubrics. Finally, these translations will be read and assessed by fifteen to twenty native and near-native readers of English, who will evaluate the quality of the translations based on their understanding and perception of these texts. Results analysed to date suggest that a number of student translators faced challenges such as choosing a suitable translation method, omitting some key terms or words during the translation process, and managing their time, all of which may indicate a lack of practice in translating texts of this nature and lack of awareness regarding translation strategies most suitable for the genre.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia Vision 2030, translation, tourism, reader reception, culture, heritage, translator training/competencies

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Authors: Jane E. Hill

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Sexual, physical, or emotional abuses are behaviors used by one person in a relationship or within a family unit to control the other person. Physical abuse can consist of, but not limited to hitting, pushing, and shoving. Sexual abuse is unwanted or forced sexual activity on a person without their consent. Abusive behaviors include intimidation, manipulation, humiliation, isolation, frightening, terrorizing, coercing, threatening, blaming, hurting, injuring, or wounding another individual. Although emotional, psychological and financial abuses are not criminal behaviors, they are forms of abuse and can leave emotional scars on their victim. The purpose of this literature review research was to examine characteristics of female offenders, past abuse, and pathways to offending. The question that guided this research: does past abuse influence recidivism? The theoretical foundation used was relational theory by Jean Baker Miller. One common feature of female offenders is abuse (sexual, physical, or verbal). Abuse can cause mental illnesses and substance abuse. The abuse does not directly affect the women's recidivism. However, results indicated the psychological and maladaptive behaviors as a result of the abuse did contribute to indirect pathways to continue offending. The female offenders’ symptoms of ongoing depression, anxiety, and engaging in substance abuse (self medicating) did lead to the women's incarceration. Using the childhood victimization model as the treatment approach for women's mental illness and substance abuse disorders that were a result from history of child abuse have shown success. With that in mind, if issues surrounding early victimization are not addressed, then the women offenders may not recover from their mental illness or addiction and are at a higher risk of reoffending. However, if the women are not emotionally ready to engage in the treatment process, then it should not be forced onto them because it may cause harm (targeting prior traumatic experiences). Social capital is family support and sources that assist in helping the individual with education, employment opportunities that can lead to success. Human capital refers to internal knowledge, skills, and capacities that help the individual act in new and appropriate ways. The lack of human and social capital is common among female offenders, which leads to extreme poverty and economic marginalization, more often in frequent numbers than men. In addition, the changes in welfare reform have exacerbated women’s difficulties in gaining adequate-paying jobs to support themselves and their children that have contributed to female offenders reoffending. With that in mind, one way to lower the risk factor of female offenders from reoffending is to provide them with educational and vocational training, enhance their self-efficacy, and teach them appropriate coping skills and life skills. Furthermore, it is important to strengthen family bonds and support. Having a supportive family relationship was a statistically significant protective factor for women offenders.

Keywords: characteristics, childhood victimization model, female offenders, treatment

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Authors: Suyeon Bae, Abimbola Asojo, Denise Guerin, Caren Martin

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Post-occupancy evaluations (POEs) have been recognized for documenting occupant well-being and responses to indoor environmental quality (IEQ) factors such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic conditions. Sustainable Post-Occupancy evaluation survey (SPOES) developed by an interdisciplinary team at a Midwest University provides an evidence-based quantitative analysis of occupants’ satisfaction in office, classroom, and residential spaces to help direct attention to successful areas and areas that need improvement in buildings. SPOES is a self-administered and Internet-based questionnaire completed by building occupants. In this study, employees in three different office buildings rated their satisfaction on a Likert-type scale about 12 IEQ criteria including thermal condition, indoor air quality, acoustic quality, daylighting, electric lighting, privacy, view conditions, furnishings, appearance, cleaning and maintenance, vibration and movement, and technology. Employees rated their level of satisfaction on a Likert-type scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 7 (very satisfied). They also rate the influence of their physical environment on their perception of their work performance and the impact of their primary workspaces on their health on a scale from 1 (hinders) to 7 (enhances). Building A is a three-story building that includes private and group offices, classrooms, and conference rooms and amounted to 55,000 square-feet for primary workplace (N=75). Building B, a six-story building, consisted of private offices, shared enclosed office, workstations, and open desk areas for employees and amounted to 14,193 square-feet (N=75). Building C is a three-story 56,000 square-feet building that included classrooms, therapy rooms, an outdoor playground, gym, restrooms, and training rooms for clinicians (N=76). The results indicated that 10 IEQs for Building A except acoustic quality and privacy showed statistically significant correlations on the impact of the primary workspace on health. In Building B, 11 IEQs except technology showed statistically significant correlations on the impact of the primary workspace on health. Building C had statistically significant correlations between all 12 IEQ and the employees’ perception of the impact of their primary workspace on their health in two-tailed correlations (P ≤ 0.05). Out of 33 statistically significant correlations, 25 correlations (76%) showed at least moderate relationship (r ≥ 0.35). For the three buildings, daylighting, furnishings, and indoor air quality IEQs ranked highest on the impact on health. IEQs about vibration and movement, view condition, and electric lighting ranked second, followed by IEQs about cleaning and maintenance and appearance. These results imply that 12 IEQs developed in SPOES are highly related to employees’ perception of how their primary workplaces impact their health. The IEQs in this study offer an opportunity for improving occupants’ well-being and the built environment.

Keywords: post-occupancy evaluation, built environment, sustainability, well-being, indoor air quality

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Authors: Yael Neumann

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Attention deficits are common in people with aphasia (PWA). Two treatment approaches address these deficits: domain-general methods like Play Attention, which focus on cognitive functioning, and domain-specific methods like Language-Specific Attention Treatment (L-SAT), which use linguistically based tasks. Research indicates that L-SAT can improve both attentional deficits and functional language skills, while Play Attention has shown success in enhancing attentional capabilities among school-aged children with attention issues compared to standard cognitive training. This study employed a randomized controlled cross-over single-subject design to evaluate the effectiveness of these two attention treatments over 25 weeks. Four PWA participated, undergoing a battery of eight standardized tests measuring language and cognitive skills. The treatments were counterbalanced. Play Attention used EEG sensors to detect brainwaves, enabling participants to manipulate items in a computer game while learning to suppress theta activity and increase beta activity. An algorithm tracked changes in the theta-to-beta ratio, allowing points to be earned during the games. L-SAT, on the other hand, involved hierarchical language tasks that increased in complexity, requiring greater attention from participants. Results showed that for language tests, Participant 1 (moderate aphasia) aligned with existing literature, showing L-SAT was more effective than Play Attention. However, Participants 2 (very severe) and 3 and 4 (mild) did not conform to this pattern; both treatments yielded similar outcomes. This may be due to the extremes of aphasia severity: the very severe participant faced significant overall deficits, making both approaches equally challenging, while the mild participant performed well initially, leaving limited room for improvement. In attention tests, Participants 1 and 4 exhibited results consistent with prior research, indicating Play Attention was superior to L-SAT. Participant 2, however, showed no significant improvement with either program, although L-SAT had a slight edge on the Visual Elevator task, measuring switching and mental flexibility. This advantage was not sustained at the one-month follow-up, likely due to the participant’s struggles with complex attention tasks. Participant 3's results similarly did not align with prior studies, revealing no difference between the two treatments, possibly due to the challenging nature of the attention measures used. Regarding participation and ecological tests, all participants showed similar mild improvements with both treatments. This limited progress could stem from the short study duration, with only five weeks allocated for each treatment, which may not have been enough time to achieve meaningful changes affecting life participation. In conclusion, the performance of participants appeared influenced by their level of aphasia severity. The moderate PWA’s results were most aligned with existing literature, indicating better attention improvement from the domain-general approach (Play Attention) and better language improvement from the domain-specific approach (L-SAT).

Keywords: attention, language, cognitive rehabilitation, neurofeedback

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Authors: Cameron Wilson, Megan Hanrahan, Katie Brittain, Riona McArdle, Alison Keogh, Lynn Rochester

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Background: The loss of mobility and functional dependence is a significant marker in the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Pharmacological, surgical, and therapeutic treatments are available that can help in the management and amelioration of PD symptoms; however, these only prolong more severe symptoms. Accordingly, ensuring people with PD can maintain independence and a healthy wellbeing are essential in establishing an effective treatment option for those afflicted. Existing literature reviews have examined experiences in engaging with PD treatment options and the impact of PD on independence and wellbeing. Although, the literature fails to explore the influence of treatment options on independence and wellbeing and therefore misses what people value in their treatment. This review is the first that synthesises the impact of mobility-related treatments on independence and wellbeing in people with PD and their carers, offering recommendations to clinical practice and provides a conceptual framework (in development) for future research and practice. Objectives: To explore the impact of mobility-related treatment (both pharmacological and non-pharmacological) on the independence and wellbeing of people with PD and their carers. To propose a conceptual framework to patients, carers and clinicians which captures the qualities people with PD value as part of their treatment. Methods: We performed a critical interpretive synthesis of qualitative evidence, searching six databases for reports that explored the impact of mobility-related treatments (both drug and non-pharmacological) on independence and wellbeing in Parkinson’s Disease. The types of treatments included medication (Levodopa and Amantadine), dance classes, Deep-Brain Stimulation, aquatic therapies, physical rehabilitation, balance training and foetal transplantation. Data was extracted, and quality was assessed using an adapted version of the NICE Quality Appraisal Tool Appendix H before being synthesised according to the critical interpretive synthesis framework and meta-ethnography process. Results: From 2301 records, 28 were eligible. Experiences and impact of treatment pathway on independence and wellbeing was similar across all types of treatments and are described by five inter-related themes: (i) desire to maintain independence, (ii) treatment as a social experience during and after, (iii) medication to strengthen emotional health, (iv) recognising physical capacity and (v) emphasising the personal journey of Parkinson’s treatments. Conclusion: There is a complex and inter-related experience and effect of PD treatments common across all types of treatment. The proposed conceptual framework (in development) provides patients, carers, and clinicians recommendations to personalise the delivery of PD treatment, thereby potentially improving adherence and effectiveness. This work is vital to disseminate as PD treatment transitions from subjective and clinically captured assessments to a more personalised process supplemented using wearable technology.

Keywords: parkinson's disease, medication, treatment, dance, review, healthcare, delivery, levodopa, social, emotional, psychological, personalised healthcare

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Authors: Areej Al-Hamad, Yasin Yasin, Kateryna Metersky

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This mixed-method systematic review and meta-analysis provide an encompassing understanding of the barriers, facilitators, and predictors of refugee women's employment and economic inclusion. The study sheds light on the complex interplay of sociocultural, personal, political, and environmental factors influencing these outcomes, underlining the urgent need for a multifaceted, tailored approach to devising strategies, policies, and interventions aimed at boosting refugee women's economic empowerment. Our findings suggest that sociocultural factors, including gender norms, societal attitudes, language proficiency, and social networks, profoundly shape refugee women's access to and participation in the labor market. Personal factors such as age, educational attainment, health status, skills, and previous work experience also play significant roles. Political factors like immigration policies, regulations, and rights to work, alongside environmental factors like labor market conditions, availability of employment opportunities, and access to resources and support services, further contribute to the complex dynamics influencing refugee women's economic inclusion. The significant variability observed in the impacts of these factors across different contexts underscores the necessity of adopting population and region-specific strategies. A one-size-fits-all approach may prove to be ineffective due to the diversity and unique circumstances of refugee women across different geographical, cultural, and political contexts. The study's findings have profound implications for policy-making, practice, education, and research. The insights garnered a call for coordinated efforts across these domains to bolster refugee women's economic participation. In policy-making, the findings necessitate a reassessment of current immigration and labor market policies to ensure they adequately support refugee women's employment and economic integration. In practice, they highlight the need for comprehensive, tailored employment services and interventions that address the specific barriers and leverage the facilitators identified. In education, they underline the importance of language and skills training programs that cater to the unique needs and circumstances of refugee women. Lastly, in research, they emphasize the need for ongoing investigations into the multifaceted factors influencing refugee women's employment experiences, allowing for continuous refinement of our understanding and interventions. Through this comprehensive exploration, the study contributes to ongoing efforts aimed at creating more inclusive, equitable societies. By continually refining our understanding of the complex factors influencing refugee women's employment experiences, we can pave the way toward enhanced economic empowerment for this vulnerable population.

Keywords: refugee women, employment barriers, systematic review, employment facilitators

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Authors: Nikitha Francis, Anjana Hoode, Vinitha George, Jayashree S. Bhat

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The interaction between cognition and language, referred as cognitive-communication, is very intricate, involving several mental processes such as perception, memory, attention, lexical retrieval, decision making, motor planning, self-monitoring and knowledge. Cognitive-communication disorders are difficulties in communicative competencies that result from underlying cognitive impairments of attention, memory, organization, information processing, problem solving, and executive functions. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acquired, non - progressive condition, resulting in distinct deficits of cognitive communication abilities such as naming, word-finding, self-monitoring, auditory recognition, attention, perception and memory. Cognitive-communication intervention in TBI is individualized, in order to enhance the person’s ability to process and interpret information for better functioning in their family and community life. The present case report illustrates the cognitive-communicative behaviors and the intervention outcomes of an adult with TBI, who was brought to the Department of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, with cognitive and communicative disturbances, consequent to road traffic accident. On a detailed assessment, she showed naming deficits along with perseverations and had severe difficulty in recalling the details of the accident, her house address, places she had visited earlier, names of people known to her, as well as the activities she did each day, leading to severe breakdowns in her communicative abilities. She had difficulty in initiating, maintaining and following a conversation. She also lacked orientation to time and place. On administration of the Manipal Manual of Cognitive Linguistic Abilities (MMCLA), she exhibited poor performance on tasks related to visual and auditory perception, short term memory, working memory and executive functions. She attended 20 sessions of cognitive-communication intervention which followed a domain-general, adaptive training paradigm, with tasks relevant to everyday cognitive-communication skills. Compensatory strategies such as maintaining a dairy with reminders of her daily routine, names of people, date, time and place was also recommended. MMCLA was re-administered and her performance in the tasks showed significant improvements. Occurrence of perseverations and word retrieval difficulties reduced. She developed interests to initiate her day-to-day activities at home independently, as well as involve herself in conversations with her family members. Though she lacked awareness about her deficits, she actively involved herself in all the therapy activities. Rehabilitation of moderate to severe head injury patients can be done effectively through a holistic cognitive retraining with a focus on different cognitive-linguistic domains. Selection of goals and activities should have relevance to the functional needs of each individual with TBI, as highlighted in the present case report.

Keywords: cognitive-communication, executive functions, memory, traumatic brain injury

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Authors: Nickolas A. Stewart, Donald C. Hefelfinger, Garrett V. Brittain, Timothy C. Frommeyer, Adrienne Stolfi

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Orthopedic surgery is currently considered one of the most competitive specialties that medical students can apply to for residency training. As evidenced by increasing United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) scores, overall grades, and publication, presentation, and abstract numbers, this specialty is getting increasingly competitive. The recent change of USMLE Step 1 scores to pass/fail has resulted in additional challenges for medical students planning to apply for orthopedic residency. Until now, these scores have been a tool used by residency programs to screen applicants as an initial factor to determine the strength of their application. With USMLE STEP 1 converting to a pass/fail grading criterion, the question remains as to what will take its place on the ERAS application. The primary objective of this study is to determine the trends in the number of research projects, abstracts, presentations, and publications among orthopedic residency applicants. Secondly, this study seeks to determine if there is a relationship between the number of research projects, abstracts, presentations, and publications, and match rates. The researchers utilized the National Resident Matching Program's Charting Outcomes in the Match between 2007 and 2022 to identify mean publications and research project numbers by allopathic and osteopathic US orthopedic surgery senior applicants. A paired t test was performed between the mean number of publications and research projects by matched and unmatched applicants. Additionally, simple linear regressions within matched and unmatched applicants were used to determine the association between year and number of abstracts, presentations, and publications, and a number of research projects. For determining whether the increase in the number of abstracts, presentations, and publications, and a number of research projects is significantly different between matched and unmatched applicants, an analysis of covariance is used with an interaction term added to the model, which represents the test for the difference between the slopes of each group. The data shows that from 2007 to 2022, the average number of research publications increased from 3 to 16.5 for matched orthopedic surgery applicants. The paired t-test had a significant p-value of 0.006 for the number of research publications between matched and unmatched applicants. In conclusion, the average number of publications for orthopedic surgery applicants has significantly increased for matched and unmatched applicants from 2007 to 2022. Moreover, this increase has accelerated in recent years, as evidenced by an increase of only 1.5 publications from 2007 to 2001 versus 5.0 publications from 2018 to 2022. The number of abstracts, presentations, and publications is a significant factor regarding an applicant's likelihood to successfully match into an orthopedic residency program. With USMLE Step 1 being converted to pass/fail, the researchers expect students and program directors will place increased importance on additional factors that can help them stand out. This study demonstrates that research will be a primary component in stratifying future orthopedic surgery applicants. In addition, this suggests the average number of research publications will continue to accelerate. Further study is required to determine whether this growth is sustainable.

Keywords: publications, orthopedic surgery, research, residency applications

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Authors: Sidra Jawed

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The accessibility constructs and the body privilege discourse has been a major problem while dealing with health inequities and inaccessibility. The inherent problem in this arbitrary view of disability is that disability would never be the productive way of living. For past thirty years, disability activists have been working to differentiate ‘impairment’ from ‘disability’ and probing for more understanding of limitation imposed by society, this notion is ultimately known as the Social Model of Disability. The vulnerable population as disability community remains marginalized and seen relentlessly fighting to highlight the importance of social factors. It does not only constitute physical architectural barriers and famous blue symbol of access to the healthcare but also invisible, intangible barriers as attitudes and behaviours. Conventionally the idea of ‘disability’ has been laden with prejudiced perception amalgamating with biased attitude. Equity in contemporary setup necessitates the restructuring of organizational structure. Apparently simple, the complex interplay of disability and contemporary healthcare set up often ends up at negotiating vital components of basic healthcare needs. The role of society is indispensable when it comes to people with disability (PWD), everything from the access to healthcare to timely interventions are strongly related to the set up in place and the attitude of healthcare providers. It is vital to understand the association between assumptions and the quality of healthcare PWD receives in our global healthcare setup. Most of time the crucial physician-patient relationship with PWD is governed by the negative assumptions of the physicians. The multifaceted, troubled patient-physicians’ relationship has been neglected in past. To compound it, insufficient work has been done to explore physicians’ perspective about the disability and access to healthcare PWD have currently. This research project is directed towards physicians’ perspective on the intersection of health and access of healthcare for PWD. The principal aim of the study is to explore the perception of disability in family medicine physicians, highlighting the underpinning of medical perspective in healthcare institution. In the quest of removing barriers, the first step must be to identify the barriers and formulate a plan for future policies, involving all the stakeholders. There would be semi-structured interviews to explore themes as accessibility, medical training, construct of social model and medical model of disability, time limitations, financial constraints. The main research interest is to identify the obstacles to inclusion and marginalization continuing from the basic living necessities to wide health inequity in present society. Physicians point of view is largely missing from the research landscape and the current forum of knowledge with regards to physicians’ standpoint. This research will provide policy makers with a starting point and comprehensive background knowledge that can be a stepping stone for future researches and furthering the knowledge translation process to strengthen healthcare. Additionally, it would facilitate the process of knowledge translation between the much needed medical and disability community.

Keywords: disability, physicians, social model, accessibility

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Authors: Jolanta Jonak, Sylvia Tolczyk

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Educational systems are tasked with preparing students for future success in academic or work environments. Schools strive to achieve this goal, but often it is challenging as conventional teaching approaches are often ineffective in increasingly diverse educational systems. In today’s ever-increasing global society, educational systems become increasingly diverse in terms of cultural and linguistic differences, learning preferences and styles, ability and disability. Through increased understanding of disabilities and improved identification processes, students having some form of disabilities tend to be identified earlier than in the past, meaning that more students with identified disabilities are being supported in our classrooms. Also, a large majority of students with disabilities are educated in general education environments. Due to cognitive makeup and life experiences, students have varying learning styles and preferences impacting how they receive and express what they are learning. Many students come from bi or multilingual households and with varying proficiencies in the English language, further impacting their learning. All these factors need to be seriously considered when developing learning opportunities for student's. Educators try to adjust their teaching practices as they discover that conventional methods are often ineffective in reaching each student’s potential. Many teachers do not have the necessary educational background or training to know how to teach students whose learning needs are more unique and may vary from the norm. This is further complicated by the fact that many classrooms lack consistent access to interventionists/coaches that are adequately trained in evidence-based approaches to meet the needs of all students, regardless of what their academic needs may be. One evidence-based way for providing successful education for all students is by incorporating cognitive approaches and strategies that tap into affective, recognition, and strategic networks in the student's brain. This can be done through Differentiated Instruction (DI). Differentiated Instruction is increasingly recognized model that is established on the basic principles of Universal Design for Learning. This form of support ensures that regardless of the students’ learning preferences and cognitive learning profiles, they have opportunities to learn through approaches that are suitable to their needs. This approach improves the educational outcomes of students with special needs and it benefits other students as it accommodates learning styles as well as the scope of unique learning needs that are evident in the typical classroom setting. Differentiated Instruction also is recognized as an evidence-based best practice in education and is highly effective when it is implemented within the tiered system of the Response to Intervention (RTI) model. Recognition of DI becomes more common; however, there is still limited understanding of the effective implementation and use of strategies that can create unique learning environments for each student within the same setting. Through employing knowledge of a variety of instructional strategies, general and special education teachers can facilitate optimal learning for all students, with and without a disability. A desired byproduct of DI is that it can eliminate inaccurate perceptions about the students’ learning abilities, unnecessary referrals for special education evaluations, and inaccurate decisions about the presence of a disability.

Keywords: differentiated instruction, universal design for learning, special education, diversity

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Authors: O. J. Akinsola, Yinan Zheng, Rose Anorlu, F. T. Ogunsola, Lifang Hou, Robert Leo-Murphy

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Cervical Cancer (CC) is the 2nd most common cancer among women living in low and middle-income countries, with no associated symptoms during formative periods. With the advancement and innovative medical research, there are numerous preventive measures being utilized, but the incidence of cervical cancer cannot be truncated with the application of only screening tests. The mortality associated with this invasive cervical cancer can be nipped in the bud through the important role of early-stage detection. This study research selected an array of different top features selection techniques which was aimed at developing a model that could validly diagnose the risk factors of cervical cancer. A retrospective clinic-based cohort study was conducted on 178 HIV-associated cervical cancer patients in Lagos University teaching Hospital, Nigeria (U54 data repository) in April 2022. The outcome measure was the automated prediction of the HIV-associated cervical cancer cases, while the predictor variables include: demographic information, reproductive history, birth control, sexual history, cervical cancer screening history for invasive cervical cancer. The proposed technique was assessed with R and Python programming software to produce the model by utilizing the classification algorithms for the detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer disease. Four machine learning classification algorithms used are: the machine learning model was split into training and testing dataset into ratio 80:20. The numerical features were also standardized while hyperparameter tuning was carried out on the machine learning to train and test the data. Logistic Regression (LR), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN). Some fitting features were selected for the detection and diagnosis of cervical cancer diseases from selected characteristics in the dataset using the contribution of various selection methods for the classification cervical cancer into healthy or diseased status. The mean age of patients was 49.7±12.1 years, mean age at pregnancy was 23.3±5.5 years, mean age at first sexual experience was 19.4±3.2 years, while the mean BMI was 27.1±5.6 kg/m2. A larger percentage of the patients are Married (62.9%), while most of them have at least two sexual partners (72.5%). Age of patients (OR=1.065, p<0.001**), marital status (OR=0.375, p=0.011**), number of pregnancy live-births (OR=1.317, p=0.007**), and use of birth control pills (OR=0.291, p=0.015**) were found to be significantly associated with HIV-associated cervical cancer. On top ten 10 features (variables) considered in the analysis, RF claims the overall model performance, which include: accuracy of (72.0%), the precision of (84.6%), a recall of (84.6%) and F1-score of (74.0%) while LR has: an accuracy of (74.0%), precision of (70.0%), recall of (70.0%) and F1-score of (70.0%). The RF model identified 10 features predictive of developing cervical cancer. The age of patients was considered as the most important risk factor, followed by the number of pregnancy livebirths, marital status, and use of birth control pills, The study shows that data mining techniques could be used to identify women living with HIV at high risk of developing cervical cancer in Nigeria and other sub-Saharan African countries.

Keywords: associated cervical cancer, data mining, random forest, logistic regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 83