Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Concept Mapping as a Mindtool for Critical Thinking

Abstract Concept mapping is a mindtool (cognitive tool) that can enhance the interdependence of declarative and procedural knowledge to produce yet another form of knowledge representation known as structural knowledge (Jonassen, 1996). Structural knowledge is best described as knowing why something is the case. It helps learners integrate and interrelate declarative and procedural knowledge by activating the perceived static nature of declarative knowledge and by increasing the awareness of why one knows how to do something. By using computer-based concept mapping tools as a cognitive or learning strategy, learners can sharpen inference-making and critical thinking skills and can avoid the acquisition and accumulation of inert (unusable) knowledge. This article discusses the use and application of two computer-based concept mapping tools, Inspiration® and Semnet®, in educational contexts to foster meaningful learning and understanding. Inspiration® and Semnet® are visual thinking environments that allow users to create concept maps, semantic networks, outlines, graphic organizers and other comprehension monitoring activities. The article addresses the use of computer-based concept mapping as a learning strategy, an instructional strategy, and as a collaborative thinking tool, offering guidelines for educators on how to implement these uses in the classroom.
Effects on quality of care and health care worker satisfaction of language training for health care workers in South Africa

Introduction Most research into medical communication has been in a Western setting. Communication between non language concordant Health Care Workers (HCWs and patients adversely effects patient and staff satisfaction. To the best of our knowledge, no intervention studies have been conducted in Africa. Objective To determine whether teaching Xhosa language skills and cultural understanding to HCWs effects patient satisfaction, HCWs ability to communicate effectively with Xhosa-speaking patients and HCWs job satisfaction levels. Design and setting A before and after interventional study was performed at two Community Health Centers and a district hospital in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Participants Fifty four randomly selected patients (27 pre and 27 post intervention) assessed communication with HCWs and rated their satisfaction. Six non-Xhosa-speaking HCW participants completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Intervention HCWs completed a ten week basic language course comprising ten 120 minute interactive contact sessions developing basic Xhosa speaking and listening skills and cultural competence. Outcome measures Questionnaires used a Likert scale to rate degrees of agreement or disagreement with statements. Patients assessed communication with HCWs, quality of care and rated their satisfaction. HCW questions were grouped according to themes, including ability to communicate, job satisfaction and staff interpersonal relationships. Results Patient satisfaction showed significant improvements. Patients perceived HCWs to be more understanding, respectful and concerned, and to show better listening skills, after the intervention. Patients were better able to understand HCWs and their instructions. HCWs ability to communicate improved and HCWs experienced decreased frustration levels. Conclusions Teaching language skills and cultural sensitivity to non Xhosa-speaking HCWs in South Africa improves ability to communicate, increases patient satisfaction and decreases misunderstandings and frustration.
Maintenance of High Blood Pressure and Early Establishment of Pulsatile Blood Flow to the Spinal Cord during Thoracoabdominal Aortic Repair

Objectives: Despite continuous advancements in the surgical treatments for thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysms (TAAA), paraplegia remains a devastating treatment-related complication. We aimed to summarize our experience with a novel surgical strategy involving maintenance of high blood pressure and early establishment of pulsatile blood flow to the spinal cord. Materials and Methods: Between August 2011 and October 2017, 29 patients (age, 67 ± 12 years) underwent open surgery for TAAA. According to the Crawford classification, two aneurysms were type I, eight were type II, 12 were type III, and seven were type IV. We used partial cardiopulmonary bypass under mild hypothermia in all patients except one. By maintaining distal aortic perfusion pressure at 60 - 80 mmHg and creating the distal aortic anastomosis before visceral branch reconstruction, we established early perfusion of the hypogastric arteries with native pulsatile flow. Intraoperative spinal monitoring and cerebrospinal fluid drainage were performed in 26 (90%) and 23 (79%) patients, respectively. Nineteen patients (66%) underwent reconstruction of the intercostal arteries. During perioperative management, the mean arterial pressure was kept >80 mmHg. Results: No in-hospital deaths or acute neurological complications occurred. One patient (3.4%) experienced delayed temporal paraplegia. During follow-up, aorta-related death occurred in only one patient, who developed prosthetic vascular graft infection but did not undergo repeat graft replacement. The 3-year freedom from aortic-related death was 95%. Conclusion: Our surgical strategy involving maintenance of high blood pressure and early establishment of pulsatile flow to the spinal cord was effective in preventing spinal cord injury following open surgery for TAAA.
NIVEL DE CONOCIMIENTO RESPECTO A LA PLANIFICACIÓN FAMILIAR EN GESTANTES QUE ACUDIERON AL HOSPITAL UNIVERSITARIO SAN JOSÉ, POPAYÁN, COLOMBIA, 2014-2015

Objectives: To determine the level of basic acceptable knowledge on contraception among obstetric patients coming to the Hospital Universitario San Jose (HUSJ) in Popayan. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study in pregnant women coming to a Level III referral public university hospital in Southwestern Colombia during 2014 and 2015. Patients with inconsistent information, or who could not complete the survey because of their mental or physical conditions, or those who did not sign inform consent, were excluded. Basic level of knowledge was defined as more than 90 % correct items on the questionnaire. A systematic random sampling was performed, and the biological, social and demographic variables were analysed. In terms of knowledge of the contraception method, there were questions regarding use, adverse reactions and risk of failure. A descriptive analysis was performed. Results: Of a total of 361 women included in the assessment, 94.46 % reported having knowledge of at least one contraception method. Of the pregnancies, 70.09 % were unplanned. Close to one-fourth of the patients were using some form of contraception at the time of pregnancy. A basic level of knowledge of 90 % was found in 26.23 % of the patients, the lowest level being related to the knowledge about oral contraceptives (11,85%). Conclusions: Despite the fact that 94% of the pregnant women interviewed knew of the existence of contraception methods, only 26% of them were found to have a level of knowledge greater than 90% concerning their use and associated adverse reactions.
Escorpiones de El Salvador : resultado del viaje de exploración

Durante su viaje de exploracion a El Salvador, el Dr.A. Zilch, reunio un material grande de escorpiones(86 ejemplares), el cual fue completado por colecciones (36 ejemplares), de la determinacion resulto que se trata de representantes de solamente 2 especies: Centruroides, margaritatus, esta ampliamente distribuida en America Central y ya conocida de El Salvador. La otra: Didymocentrus antillanus, pertenece a un genero limitado a las Islas Antillas y evidentemente, fue introducida en El Salvador. De la primera especie se puede decir que los pedipalpos son sutiles, pero vellosos de manera bastante densa. El tronco es sumamente granoso. El quinto segmento de la cola es granoso mas o menos obviamente, tambien en los lados y hasta el lado dorsal, la espina debajo del aguijon es una pequena tuberosidad acortada. En cuanto a la especie Didymocentrus antillanus, las caracteristicas del genero; ojos laterales, margen del frente con un recodo profundo en la parte mediana,quinto segmento de la cola con una depresion ventral, limitada por una serie de granulaciones en forma semicircular, lobulos en la terminacion del tarso con un angulo distal de manera que la serie ventral de espinas es recta. Los pedipalpos, el tronco y la cola, estan punteados finamente,la quilla en el margen externo de la mano remata hasta el centro entre los condilos del dedo movil de la mano. El ultimo segmento de la cola es raso.
Non-clinical demands are pushing experienced UK surgeons out of the NHS†

Abstract Introduction: Early retirement of surgeons represents lost assets to a health service. The validated retirement decision inventory (RDI) ‘Push Pull Anti-Push Anti-Pull’ characterizes why and when individuals enter retirement, using four subscales to balance the perceived benefits and costs of continuing to work versus those of retirement. We used this RDI to examine what influences surgeons to retire from the UK health service. Material and methods: A 16-item self-report questionnaire was distributed to UK surgical consultants, examining the four domains of practice: clinical knowledge, judgement, technical skills, and professional/personal demands. Four subscales of pros and cons of work and retirement were rated on a Likert-type scale in each domain. Item scoring then derived a score for each subscale and domain. Results: A total of 141 participants completed the survey: 81% were currently employed in and 19% were retired from regular practice. Professional/personal demands consistently scored as the dominant domain: it was rated as significant in pushing surgeons out of work and failed to provide benefit to continue working. Relinquishing these demands was a significant attraction to retirement without any perceived cost. Conclusions: Non-clinical demands are a key to surgeon exit from the UK health service – it pushes them out and makes it attractive to enter retirement. By contrast, knowledge, judgement, and operative factors all made surgeons content to continue working and were not a pressure to leave practice. We would recommend a debate on how to mitigate non-clinical pressures on experienced surgeons to prolong their careers.
Surface play: rewriting black interiorities through camouflage and abstraction in Mickalene Thomas's oeuvre

This essay examines the use of camouflage, artifice, and abstraction – as strategies of surface-play – by Mickalene Thomas, a contemporary painter. Many scholars have focused on Thomas's use of painting materials (e.g. enamel, rhinestones, glitter) that locate her work within discourses of consumer culture and beauty in hip-hop aesthetics. While providing a different orientation to the look through the black queer gaze, the author argues that Thomas's method (e.g. photography, collage-painting, installation) and use of materials signify the surface of her work as a corporeal topography of black interiorities. Camouflage, artifice, and abstraction reveal interiorities hidden in plain sight. The first part of this article examines camouflage and artifice as porous surface-play, while the second part turns to a discussion of abstraction in Thomas's work as a method that pushes the boundaries of representation and abstractionism.
Neurolinguistics: An Introduction to Spoken Language Processing and its Disorders

What biological factors make human communication possible? How do we process and understand language? How does brain damage affect these mechanisms, and what can this tell us about how language is organized in the brain? The field of neurolinguistics seeks to answer these questions, which are crucial to linguistics, psychology and speech pathology alike. This textbook, first published in 2007, introduces the central topics in neurolinguistics: speech recognition, word and sentence structure, meaning, and discourse - in both 'normal' speakers and those with language disorders. It moves on to provide a balanced discussion of key areas of debate such as modularity and the 'language areas' of the brain, 'connectionist' versus 'symbolic' modelling of language processing, and the nature of linguistic and mental representations. Making accessible over half a century of scientific and linguistic research, and containing extensive study questions, it will be welcomed by all those interested in the relationship between language and the brain.
Towards Ontology-Based Modelling Master's Thesis

For decades, the concept of roles has frequently been discussed in the literature of various fields of computer science, such as conceptual modelling and knowledge representation, but an integrative definition of the concept has not yet been accomplished. On the basis of an extensive literature review, a general approach to roles is elaborated, which includes a system of classification. The motivation of this analysis comprises the integration of a well-founded concept of roles into the ontology-based knowledge representation language GOL (General Ontological Language). The evaluation of the literature reveals two recurring concepts in connection with roles, called player and context. For instance, a student could be a role whose player is some human and whose context is determined by a relation to some university. The basis of the role approach being developed is formed by the hypothesis that roles characterise their player, while they themselves are determined by contexts. The GOL categories relator, process and substance can be identified as those ontological categories which cover all contexts in the literature reviewed. A distinct role type is postulated for each of these categories, which is then examined and formalised in particular with regard to the relation to the corresponding contexts. Discussions of problems as well as of properties of the representation based on these role types supplement these examinations. The extraction of common properties of all roles from the particular role types completes the approach. In addition, the proposed role concept is compared to other ontological notions. A reinterpretation of some works selected from the reviewed literature shall demonstrate the expressiveness of the role approach. Referring to the motivation of this thesis, the axioms presented are proposed for integration into GOL. Further, an adaptation of the GOL representation of material facts is suggested in order to avoid problems which were previously shown to be solvable in terms of roles. Finally, a sample model from the domain of clinical trials shall clarify the application of the concepts developed. Moreover, it illustrates the potential precision of modelling based on these concepts. Altogether, this thesis is intended as a contribution to knowledge representation on a clear ontological basis, paving the way for application-independent reuse of knowledge and other benefits. 1In May 2003, this report was submitted as a Master’s Thesis to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Leipzig, Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science. University of Leipzig 1 / 123
Effect of Beta Carotene from Dehydrated Drumstick Leaf Powder on the Haematological Indices of Non Pregnant Non-Lactating Young Women Aged 18 25 Yrs Preliminary Trials

Low bioavailability of iron is the primary cause of anemia in Indian diets which are chiefly vegetarian and are comprised of inhibitors such as phytates and polyphenols. Several in vitro studies have demonstrated good antioxidant potential in green leafy vegetables which are rich sources of β–carotene, iron and other micronutrients. Aim: T Methods: Twenty unmarried MIG women (18-25 y), consuming a typical Gujarati meal were purposively selected for the study and randomly divided into control and the experimental group (n=10 in each group). The later group received DDL powder (4g/day, 692 mcg beta carotene) for 25 days. Data on their SES, dietary habits, anthropometry, reproductive health and hematological indices were elicited. Results: Reveal a o investigate the efficiency of beta carotene from shade dehydrated drumstick leaf (DDL) powder on the hematological indices of young women. positive shift of anemic girls to the non- anemic category, a mild increase in Hemoglobin, a favorable change in the hematological indices and an increase in the normocytic normochromic cells. Conclusions: The study indicates that vitamin A/ beta carotene from DDL had a protective effect on iron availability from a typical Gujarati diet containing iron inhibitors. Further studies on effect on vitamin A and beta-carotene on anemic and non-anemic women for a longer duration are warranted.
Development and Testing of Metacognitive Therapy for Prolonged Grief Disorder: A Randomised Controlled Trial

The death of a significant other is an emotionally distressing event that for the majority of people lessens as the loss is accommodated into their lives. However, some people, about 7-10% of the bereaved population, experience a more complicated form of grief called Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD), involving fixed patterns of yearning and dwelling on the loss that causes extreme disruption to daily functioning. Despite the prevalence of this disorder, studies of psychotherapy for people suffering from PGD are scarce. Thus far, the most effective interventions for PGD have used components of cognitive behavioural therapy such as restructuring the content of maladaptive thoughts, behavioural activation for symptoms of depression or exposure therapy for symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. Although these intervention studies have recently started to produce large effect sizes, a substantial proportion of participants do not achieve clinically significant recovery. Additionally, recent research has identified rumination and worry may be risk factors for PGD and yet existing interventions do not involve techniques that target these coping processes directly. Research on depression and anxiety has shown that rumination and worry are driven by an individual’s metacognitive beliefs about the function these coping processes serve. However, no research has been conducted to identify the metacognitive beliefs involved in PGD, despite the potential role of metacognitions in the maintenance of the disorder. This research project investigated the efficacy of Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) for bereaved individuals with prolonged grief symptomatology. Rather than focusing on challenging the content of thoughts, MCT supports a person to switch focus and detach from emotionally-laden thoughts by modifying and regulating unhelpful coping processes such as rumination and worry. MCT was adapted specifically for PGD to reduce the psychological distress and impaired function resulting from bereavement. The overall purpose of this research project was to test the feasibility, acceptability and efficacy of Metacognitive Grief Therapy (MCGT) for PGD, which was achieved in three phases. Phase one comprised a review of the literature and semi-structured interviews with key members of the target population (bereavement specialists and bereaved people with elevated levels of PGD) to inform the development of MCGT. The aim
A hierarchical access control scheme based on Lagrange interpolation for mobile agents

The mobile agent is functioning as an information exchanger with hosts. In order to reduce the communication time that the host sent to the members of a large system. This article proposes to use a function defined by Lagrange polynomial to compute decryption key. Each host will be given a decryption key to access the confidential document by inputting a secret key into an interpolation function which is generated from Lagrange interpolation. Since tasks are done by the mobile agent, the whole process will be performed within a short time period because there is no physical connection between the end devices. The information exchange occurs at the end hosts.
Expert Review of Pharmacoeconomics & Outcomes Research

Aims: To assess the costs associated with sleep symptoms among patients with fibromyalgia (FM). Patients & methods: Patients reporting physician-diagnosed FM from the National Health and Wellness Survey were categorized into three groups based on the number of sleep symptoms reported: two or more sleep symptoms (n = 1353), one sleep symptom (n = 574) and no sleep symptoms (n = 269). Annual direct and indirect costs were compared among the groups controlling for relevant confounders. Results: After adjusting for demographic and health characteristics, patients with FM with one, two or more sleep symptoms had higher annual physician costs (US$12,328 and US$12,261, respectively) and higher annual emergency room visit costs (US$846 and US$729, respectively) than patients with FM without any sleep symptoms (physician visit costs: US$9845; emergency room visit costs: US$527; all p < 0.05). Similarly, both patients with one (US$18,100) and two or more sleep symptoms (US$18,428) reported higher total indirect costs compared with those without any sleep symptoms (US$14,711; p < 0.05). Conclusions: Among the FM population, sleep symptoms were prevalent and associated with higher direct and indirect costs, suggesting improved management may have long-term cost savings. The costs associated with sleep symptoms among patients with fibromyalgia
A Comprehensive Criterion-Referenced Language Testing Project

The English Language Institute (ELl) at the University of Hawai'i regularly offers seven courses in academic listenin~ readin~ and writing. The curriculum for each course has been extensively revised including thorough needs analysis, development of objectives, criterion-referenced tests, and materials, as well as improvements in teaching practices and regularly conducted formative evaluation procedures. This paper reports on the criterion-referenced test development portion of the curriculum. Each of the seven ELI courses has two forms of a criterion-referenced test designed expressly to measure the objectives of that course. The two forms are administered at the beginning and end of instruction in a counterbalanced design. Hence this testing project is large in scale including 14 different tests administered before and after instruction for about 500-600 students per year. While the objectives and resulting tests differ in organization and form across the seven courses, the processes involved in putting the tests in place are quite similar. The initial item development, piloting and revision processes are described in general terms. Details are provided about the results of the administrations of these CRTs during fall 1989. Descriptive and item statistics are presented (including the difference index, item cjl, B-index, and item agreement index) for each test. Dependability estimates [phi and phi(lambda)] are given, and evidence for the content and construct validity of the tests is also provided. The discussion centers on the problems encountered in developing such a comprehensive testing program, then turns to the benefits which CRTs can provide for overall curriculum development.