Yoxas/statistical_literacy huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the demographic and academic characteristics of current neurosurgery residents may provide prospective students with insight into factors that affect research output. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the research output among neurosurgery residents. US neurosurgery residency programs were abstracted from the American Association of Neurological Surgeons website. Demographic data on 1690 current residents across 119 programs were collected using publicly available institutional websites, Doximity, and LinkedIn. The h-index of each resident was recorded using Scopus and exported into the NIH iCite tool to determine the weighted relative citation ratio (w-RCR) and mean relative citation ratio (m-RCR). The total number of publications, h-index, and w-RCR were used as a proxy for research output, while m-RCR was used to measure research impact. One-way ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis H-tests were used to assess the statistical significance of relationships between demographic data and measures of research activity. A total of 1690 residents (25.4% female), representing 119 programs, were evaluated. Neurosurgery residents had an average of 17 publications, h-index of 5.5, m-RCR of 1.4, and w-RCR of 16.9, with an upward trend of research activity by postgraduate year (PGY) class. Male residents on average had a greater total number of publications (p < 0.001), higher h-index (p < 0.001), and higher w-RCR (p = 0.002) compared with their female peers. Significant differences in research activity were also observed by degree (Doctor of Medicine [MD], Doctor of Osteopathy [DO], or other), where those with MD and other degrees had higher metrics than those with DO degrees. International medical graduates (IMGs) also had higher research output than American medical graduates (AMGs) (p < 0.001). Differences in all measures of research activity except impact were also observed in research activity when pre-residency medical school ranks were compared. The authors observed overall high research activity among neurosurgery residents. Factors such as gender, degree, PGY, IMG/AMG status, and medical school rank may therefore be related to the success of matching within neurological surgery. Although large disparities in gender representation have been identified in neurosurgery, newer classes are trending toward shrinking the gap. These data may be used by prospective residents to gauge changes and progress occurring in the neurosurgery match.
Evaluation of visual pedagogy teaching method for improving oral hygiene practice in children with Autism: An interventional study: Visual pedagogy is a relatively newer approach to improve dental care in autistic children. The present study aimed to evaluate visual pedagogy in the practice of oral hygiene in autistic children. This interventional and prospective study was conducted in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry. Required approval was obtained from Institutional Ethical Board. Written informed consent was obtained from parents/caregivers. The age range was 5-12 years which included 100 participants (40 males and 60 females). Improvement of oral hygiene was evaluated by recording the tooth brushing technique and ability to follow instructions as presented in the educational video shown on smartphones with Wi-Fi/mobile data. Inclusion criteria: (1) Accessibility and (2) Age range between 5 to 12 years. Exclusion criteria: (1) Non-cooperative children, (2) Children receiving medicines that influence oral health, and (3) Inability to follow-ups. Fones technique was used for brushing teeth in video recording demonstrating it in simple structured steps. Statistical analysis was performed using Chi-square and Independent t tests. Statistically significant improvement was observed in oral hygiene (plaque index) after training patients with visual pedagogy. In the present study, the use of visual pedagogy showed improvement in the oral hygiene scores of autistic children.
Evaluations of Intimate Partner Abuse training for general practitioners is limited. The Women's Evaluation of Abuse and Violence Care study trialled in Australia was a primary care intervention that included delivering the Health Relationships training, a program that educates practitioners on how to provide supportive counselling and assistance to women afraid of an intimate partner. We report on effectiveness of the Healthy Relationships training program within a cluster-randomised controlled trial. General practitioners filled out a baseline survey and surveys before and after training, including quantitative and open-text questions on barriers and enablers to supporting victim-survivors. The Physician Readiness to Manage Intimate Partner Violence Survey (PREMIS) tool, a validated measure, was included to assess practitioner knowledge, skills, confidence, and attitudes. General linear model repeated analysis of variance tested the difference between trial groups over time. Fifty-two general practitioners completed the baseline demographic survey, with 65% (19 intervention, 18 comparison) completing both pre-and-post-training surveys. There were no between-group differences in baseline characteristics. Post-training, the intervention group had significantly higher average scores than the comparison on perceived preparation to address abuse (p = .000), perceived knowledge (p = .000), actual knowledge (p = .03), and greater awareness of practice-related issues (p = .000). There were no between-group differences in PREMIS opinion domain scores on workplace issues, self-efficacy and understanding of victims. Post-training, the qualitative data indicated that the intervention practitioners (n = 24) reported increased knowledge, awareness, and confidence, while time pressures and lack of referral options impeded addressing abuse. The Healthy Relationships Training program for general practitioners increased aspects of practitioner knowledge, skills, and confidence. However, more support is needed to change opinions and support victim-survivors sustainably. The WEAVE trial was registered on 21/01/2008 with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry, number ACTRN12608000032358.
Even in the digital age, learning mathematics at an academic level still requires much reading of mathematical text. Research has shown that reading mathematical text requires readers to engage with all the structures of the book and with its pedagogical voice, making connections, and plausible reasoning. Specific practices and strategies that support the close reading of mathematical text have been suggested; however, descriptions and empirical evaluations of materials designed to support these activities are rare. We present the design and first evaluation cycle of materials developed in a design research project that aims to scaffold close reading of mathematical text. The materials were designed and evaluated in a German university course on elementary geometry for first-year teacher education students who study mathematics to become primary teachers. The reading strategies were explained and modeled for students in reading-strategy videos. Additionally, close reading of mathematical text was scaffolded by close-reading tasks and homework tasks and problems that build on the reading strategies and were specifically designed to foster understanding of the mathematical text. Survey data were collected from 296 students to evaluate their use of and attitude toward the different materials. The quantitative results indicate that students used the materials and were generally able to learn the course content by themselves. From all provided materials, they found the close-reading tasks most helpful. A qualitative analysis of answers to open questions revealed issues with different materials, particularly with the script, and requests for additional materials. The issues with the script were categorized inductively. The categories are presented as a qualitative result of the study and discussed. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10763-022-10309-y.
Even though it is widely held that the theory of evolution is one of the pillars of the biological sciences, as we begin the third decade of the twenty-first century, it is alarming how little we know about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution in countries such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Greece, to name a few. The situation is even more complicated if we acknowledge that contemporary educational approaches (e.g., student-centered learning) mean that students' misconceptions are one of the multiple aspects that influence the construction of meaningful learning. Here, we present a picture of Colombian STEM/non-STEM majors' misconceptions about evolution. Participants were 547 students from different STEM/non-STEM majors (278 females and 269 males, 16-24 years old). During 5 years (10 academic semesters), data were collected from students' responses to an 11-item questionnaire administered in a Colombian university. We hypothesized that the academic semester within these 5 years in which each student completed the instrument as well as respondents' age, gender, and/or major may influence their misconceptions about evolution. Results reveal that participants had a moderate understanding of evolution. Also, we found a limited understanding of microevolution among participants. Furthermore, cross-sectional analyses of differences in undergraduates' responses across demographic variables showed that despite apparent differences, these were not reliable since the differences were not statistically significant. Implications for evolution education are discussed.
Even though trust is placed at the central point in ensuring proper functioning of the health systems, studies remain scant on how it affects both the implementation and uptake of COVID-19 response measures in low- and middle-income countries such as Tanzania. This study, therefore, explored the role of trust in the implementation and uptake of recommended COVID-19 response measures including vaccines from the perspective of health professionals in Tanzania. This cross-sectional qualitative study was implemented in four of Tanzania's thirty-one regions. Qualitative data was collected through 26 in-depth interviews held with regional and district disease outbreak response teams, district cold chain co-ordinators and health facility in-charges. In addition, five focus group discussions and seven group interviews were conducted with healthcare workers from the lower-level health facilities. Thematic analysis was conducted and applied the trust constructs. Interpersonal trust and health system trust emerged as two major themes in the study. Interpersonal trust was reported to stem from lack of transparency that instigated fear, worries, and confusion regarding the implementation and uptake of the recommended response measures. The distrust was mainly between health professionals in health facilities and those assigned to isolation centres as well as between patients and community members. On the other hand, the health system trust was shaped by mixed feelings regarding COVID-19 vaccine national decisions, and conflicting messages from national officials, politicians and religious leaders on COVID-19 responses, safety, and effectiveness of the vaccines. Questions surrounding the short duration of clinical trials, indeterminate post-vaccination protection duration, impotence-linked beliefs, freemasonry notion and unclear vaccinated cards information are other reported contributory factors to mistrust in the health system. However, after a comprehensive health education and experience in COVID-19 vaccination administration most professionals affirmed the effectiveness of the vaccines in limiting infections and its severe consequences. Participants indicated limited trust at both interpersonal and health system levels aggravated by lack of transparency, unclear and conflicting messages on COVID-19 infections and response measures. Enforced transparency on pandemics alongside standardised messages from the reliable sources is crucial in enhancing trust in implementation and uptake of the recommended response measures.
Even with the ubiquitous sensing data in intelligent transportation systems, such as the mobile sensing of vehicle trajectories, traffic estimation is still faced with the data missing problem due to the detector faults or limited number of probe vehicles as mobile sensors. Such data missing issue poses an obstacle for many further explorations, e.g., the link-based traffic status modeling. Although many studies have focused on tackling this kind of problem, existing studies mainly focus on the situation in which data are missing at random and ignore the distinction between links of missing data. In the practical scenario, traffic speed data are always missing not at random (MNAR). The distinction for recovering missing data on different links has not been studied yet. In this paper, we propose a general linear model based on probabilistic principal component analysis (PPCA) for solving MNAR traffic speed data imputation. Furthermore, we propose a metric, i.e., Pearson score (p-score), for distinguishing links and investigate how the model performs on links with different p-score values. Experimental results show that the new model outperforms the typically used PPCA model, and missing data on links with higher p-score values can be better recovered.
Every medical decision is based on balancing medical knowledge, ethical considerations, and patient preferences. Previous surveys have mainly covered the ethical knowledge of medical staff. The aim of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of an innovative concept regarding how ethical criteria are applied to clinical decision-making during critical illness. An online survey including a short case vignette was carried out at a university hospital among physicians specialising in intensive care medicine in Germany. After free text responses regarding further required case information, the participants were asked to rank decision criteria during the course of the case vignette. A qualitative evaluation was performed by two independent investigators, based on a transcription into categories. This was followed by a quantitative analysis of ranked criteria. Our analysis has shown that doctors are initially inclined to consider medical information when making treatment decisions. When complications occur, ethical values are more often included in the decision-making. The qualitative evaluation reveiled that the patient's will was consistently regarded as the leading criterion for decision-making. In the quantitative evaluation, patient's well-being, quality of life, and patient autonomy were rated as the most important decision criteria. Economic factors were ranked least important. A mixed methods approach is able to reflect the complexity of ethical reasoning within the medical decision-making process, suggesting the feasibility of this concept. The study was registered under DRKS-ID: DKRS00011905 (April 2017).
Every year 1.5 million new cancer cases are diagnosed in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Of these, about 40 % could be prevented. Health illiteracy has been identified as a main barrier for cancer prevention. Primary healthcare professionals (HCP) are key in cancer prevention as they are the first entry point of the population into the healthcare system. The LAC Code Against Cancer 1st edition aims to improve health literacy and awareness of cancer prevention in the LAC population, through building capacity of primary HCP. The definition and development of the learning objectives, curriculum, structure, and evaluation of an online learning program for primary HCP was led by a dedicated group of experts from the LAC Code Against Cancer project. A pedagogical guideline and a template to ensure harmonization across topics were produced to guide the program development. Two rounds of internal revisions and an editorial process were performed. An online competency-based microlearning program for primary HCP was produced, taking the LAC Code Against Cancer as a basis. The competences addressed in the curriculum are core knowledge, communication skills, decision-making and applying knowledge to real-world situations. A comprehensive evaluation to assess acquisition of these competences, based on the Miller's Pyramid, was designed with three data collection points: a) immediately before, to assess baseline knowledge and skills; b) immediately after, to determine acquired competences; and c) at 3-6 months follow-up, to assess performance in daily practice. The e-learning will be freely available in the Virtual Campus for Public Health of the Pan American Health Organization in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. Primary HCP, perceived as trustworthy sources of information, are key actors to increase the population's awareness and literacy on cancer prevention. Building capacity of these professionals has the potential to increase dissemination and impact of the LAC Code Against Cancer by prompting communication with the public and offering personalized actionable preventive messages through counselling.
Everyday discrimination-experiences of being treated unfairly based on background characteristics like race-is linked to poor physical and mental health throughout the lifespan. Whether more experiences of discrimination are associated with higher odds of being hospitalized in older African Americans has not been explored. Community-dwelling participants from 3 longitudinal cohort studies (N = 446, age 65+ years) with discrimination scores and ≥12 months of linked Medicare claims were included. Hospitalizations were identified using Medicare fee-for-service claims, available for an average of 6.2 (SD: 3.7) years of follow-up after baseline. In mixed-effects ordinal logistic regression models (outcomes of 0, 1, or 2+ hospitalizations per year) adjusted for age, sex, education, and income, higher discrimination was associated with higher odds of total annual hospitalizations (odds ratio [OR] per point higher = 1.09, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]: 1.02-1.17). Results were similar when accounting for depressive symptoms. Higher exposure to everyday discrimination is associated with higher odds of hospitalization among older African Americans. Mechanisms underlying associations should be explored further to understand how hospitalizations may be reduced in older African Americans.
Evidence consistently demonstrated that bullying victimization was associated with problematic behaviors among adolescents. However, scant attention has been given to simultaneous comparisons of the impacts of two distinct forms of victimization, traditional bullying victimization and cyberbullying victimization. In addition, the mechanisms underlying the relationship between bullying victimization and problem behavior remain inadequately explored. This study aimed to examine the correlation between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors, as well as the mediating roles of intrapersonal emotional competence and interpersonal social competence. A sample of 26,450 adolescents with a mean age of 15.44 (SD = 0.56) across nine countries was derived from the Study on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES). Data analysis was conducted using structural equation modeling, comprising three key components: the measurement model, the structural model, and the bootstrapping analysis for mediating effects. Both traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization exhibited positive correlations with problematic behaviors, with cyberbullying victimization demonstrating a stronger effect. The mediating effects of intrapersonal emotional competence and interpersonal social competence were observed in the correlation between bullying victimization and problematic behaviors. This study not only contributed to our comprehension of the underlying mechanisms connecting bullying victimization and adolescent problematic behaviors, but also holds significance for policy development and practice.
Evidence from the research literature indicates that both audience response systems (ARS) and guided inquiry worksheets (GIW) can lead to greater student engagement, learning, and equity in the STEM classroom. We compare the use of these two tools in large enrollment STEM courses delivered in different contexts, one in biology and one in engineering. Typically, the research literature contains studies that compare student performance for a group where the given active learning tool is used to a control group where it is not used. While such studies are valuable, they do not necessarily provide thick descriptions that allow instructors to understand how to effectively use the tool in their instructional practice. Investigations on the intended student thinking processes using these tools are largely missing. In the present article, we fill this gap by foregrounding the intended student thinking and sense-making processes of such active learning tools by comparing their enactment in two large-enrollment courses in different contexts. The instructors studied utilized each of the active learning tools differently. In the biology course, ARS questions were used mainly to "check in" with students and assess if they were correctly interpreting and understanding worksheet questions. The engineering course presented ARS questions that afforded students the opportunity to apply learned concepts to new scenarios towards improving students' conceptual understanding. In the biology course, the GIWs were primarily used in stand-alone activities, and most of the information necessary for students to answer the questions was contained within the worksheet in a context that aligned with a disciplinary model. In the engineering course, the instructor intended for students to reference their lecture notes and rely on their conceptual knowledge of fundamental principles from the previous ARS class session in order to successfully answer the GIW questions. However, while their specific implementation structures and practices differed, both instructors used these tools to build towards the same basic disciplinary thinking and sense-making processes of conceptual reasoning, quantitative reasoning, and metacognitive thinking. This study led to four specific recommendations for post-secondary instructors seeking to integrate active learning tools into STEM courses.
Evidence indicates that students who participate in scientific research during their undergraduate experience are more likely to pursue careers in the STEM disciplines and to develop increased scientific reasoning and literacy skills. One avenue to increase student engagement in research is via their enrollment in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), where they are able to conduct authentic research as part of the laboratory curriculum. The information presented herein provides an example of a CURE which was developed and implemented in an introductory cell and molecular biology course at the University of Northern Colorado. In addition to describing the Tigriopus CURE curriculum itself, we also present evidence regarding the effectiveness of the CURE in promoting students' development of confidence in science process skills, quantitative reasoning skills, and written communication skills. The curricular details of the Tigriopus CURE are provided in this article to provide instructors who are interested in CUREs the opportunity to implement this specific CURE in their own course.