Yoxas/statistical_literacy huggingface dataset:
STEM education interrelates science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, ensuring that all interrelated contents are taught in coherence instead of in isolation. This promotes collaboration, critical thinking, and active engagement among students. The study ascertained the factors that compromise the implementation of STEM practices in the Bono East Region of Ghana to gain a moderately broad and deep understanding, allowing for a critical analysis of outcomes. It adopted a descriptive survey design to explore information concerning STEM education as it existed from May to October 2022. The study was carried out in Public Senior High and Vocational-Technical Schools in the Bono East Region of Ghana. The schools were split into STEM-related schools and non-STEM-related schools using a stratified sampling technique. Ten STEM-related schools were chosen using a purposive sampling method. 271 instructors from the departments of Science, Mathematics, and Information Communication Technology made up the study's population. A survey using a well-structured closed-ended questionnaire was administered online and the response obtained was transformed into frequencies and percentages in tabular forms using Microsoft Excel version 2016 (Microsoft, USA). Software Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 (IBM, USA) was used to perform a chi-square test to determine differences between responses obtained at the test significance of 5%. The study revealed that the general implementation of STEM practices throughout the studied Senior High Schools was below the mark. Inadequate STEM teaching-learning materials, limited certified STEM teachers, lack of STEM-dedicated infrastructure, inadequate professional development opportunities, absence of STEM documented standards and curriculum, limited access to technology, and limited time for teaching STEM-related subjects were some of the major factors contributing to the unsuccessful implementation of STEM practices in studied Public Senior High and Vocational-Technical Schools. Be that as it may, the study, therefore, recommended some measures including comprehensive STEM policies, adoptions of systematic STEM framework, and rigorous curriculum overhaul to be considered by the various stakeholders of education to realize the aspirations of inclusive STEM education.
STEM undergraduates navigate lengthy sequences of prerequisite courses covering volumes of science content. Given that these courses may contribute to attrition and equity gaps in STEM, research is needed to test the assumption that prerequisite content benefits students in their future studies and careers. We investigated the relevance of prerequisite course content for students' careers through semistructured interviews with practicing nurses regarding their undergraduate anatomy and physiology (A&P) courses. Nurses reported that A&P content does not align with the skills and knowledge needed in the nursing profession. Interviewees averaged 39% on a brief A&P assessment, suggesting A&P prerequisites failed to impart a high degree of long-term A&P knowledge among nurses. Further, practicing nurses perceived overcommitment to A&P content coverage as an exclusionary practice that eliminates capable individuals from the prenursing pathway. These findings challenge assumptions surrounding the justification for prerequisite course content and raise questions of whether content expectations actively exclude individuals from STEM or healthcare careers. We aspire for this study to stimulate conversation and research about the goals of prerequisite content, who is best positioned to articulate prerequisite content objectives, and the influence of content coverage on equity and justice in undergraduate STEM education.
Stereology is a collection of methods which makes it possible to produce interpretations about actual three-dimensional features of objects based on data obtained from their two-dimensional sections or images. Quantitative morphological studies of the central nervous system have undergone significant development. In particular, new approaches known as design-based methods have been successfully applied to neuromorphological research. The morphology of macroscopic and microscopic structures, numbers of cells in organs and structures, and geometrical features such as length, volume, surface area and volume components of the organ concerned can be estimated in an unbiased manner using stereological techniques. The most practical and simplest stereological method is the fractionator technique, one of the most widely used methods for total particle number estimation. This review summarizes fractionator methods in theory and in practice. The most important feature of the methods is the simplicity of its application and underlying reasoning. Although there are three different types of the fractionator method, physical, optical and isotropic (biochemical), the logic underlying its applications remains the same. The fractionator method is one of the strongest and best options among available methods for estimation of the total number of cells in a given structure or organ. The second part of this review focuses on recent developments in stereology, including how to deal with lost caps, with tissue section deformation and shrinkage, and discusses issues of calibration, particle identification, and the role of stereology in the era of a non-histological alternative to counting of cells, the isotropic fractionator (brain soup technique).
Stigma related to lower-limb lymphoedema poses a major psychosocial burden to affected persons and acts as a barrier to them accessing morbidity management and disability prevention (MMDP) services. Community Conversation (CC), which actively engages community members and disseminates health information amongst them, is believed to break the vicious cycle of stigma by enhancing disease-related health literacy at the community level. A quasi-experimental study was conducted in Northern Ethiopia to assess the role of the CC intervention in reducing stigma. In two control districts, a comprehensive and holistic MMDP care package was implemented that included physical health, mental health and psychosocial interventions, whilst in the intervention district the CC intervention was added to the MMDP care package. A total of 289 persons affected by lymphoedema and 1659 community members without lymphoedema were included in the study. Over the course of the intervention, in all sites, community members' knowledge about the causes of lymphoedema increased, and perceived social distance and stigmatizing attitudes towards people with lymphoedema decreased in the community, whilst experienced and internalized stigma decreased amongst affected persons. There were no significant changes for perceived social support. However, the changes were greater in the control sites overall, i.e. those districts in which the holistic care package was implemented without CC. The findings suggest that the CC intervention provides no additional stigma reduction when used alongside a holistic MMDP care package. Provision of comprehensive and holistic MMDP services may be adequate and appropriate to tackle stigma related to lower-limb lymphoedema in a resource-constrained setting like Ethiopia.
Still life paintings comprise a wealth of data on visual perception. Prior work has shown that the color statistics of objects show a marked bias for warm colors. Here, we ask about the relative chromatic contrast of these object-associated colors compared with background colors in still life paintings. We reasoned that, owing to the memory color effect, where the color of familiar objects is perceived more saturated, warm colors will be relatively more saturated than cool colors in still life paintings as compared with photographs. We analyzed color in 108 slides of still life paintings of fruit from the teaching slide collection of the Fogg University Art Museum and 41 color-calibrated photographs of fruit from the McGill data set. The results show that the relatively higher chromatic contrast of warm colors was greater for paintings compared with photographs, consistent with the hypothesis.
Stillbirths are indicators of the quality of obstetrics care in health systems. Stillbirth rates and their associating factors vary by socio-economic and geographical settings. Published data on stillbirths and their associating factors in the Volta Region of Ghana are limited. This limits understanding of local factors that must be considered in designing appropriate interventions to mitigate the occurrence of stillbirths. This study determined the incidence of stillbirths and associated factors among deliveries at Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH) and contributes to understanding the consistent high stillbirths in the country and potentially in other low-resourced settings in sub-Saharan Africa. This was a prospective cohort study involving pregnant women admitted for delivery at HTH between October 2019 and March 2020. Data on socio-demographic characteristics such as age and employment, obstetric factors including gestational age at delivery and delivery outcomes like birthweight were collected using a pretested structured questionnaire. The primary outcome was the incidence of stillbirths at the facility. Summary statistics were reported as frequencies, percentages and means. Logistic regression methods were used to assess for association between stillbirths and independent variables including age and birthweight. Odds ratios were reported with 95% confidence intervals and associations with p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. A total of 687 women and their 702 newborns contributed data for analysis. The mean age (SD) was 29.3 (6.3) years and close to two-thirds had had at least one delivery previously. Overall stillbirth incidence was 31.3 per 1000 births. Of the 22 stillbirths, 17 were antepartum. Pre-eclampsia was the most common hypertensive disorder of pregnancy observed (49.3%, 33/67). Among others, less than 3 antenatal visits and low birthweight increased the odds of stillbirths in the bivariate analysis. In the final multivariate model, pregnancy and delivery at 28-34 weeks gestation [AOR 9.37(95% CI 1.18-74.53); p = 0.034] and induction of labour [AOR 11.06 (95% CI 3.10-39.42); p < 0.001] remained significantly associated with stillbirths. Stillbirth incidence was 31.3 per 1000 births with more than half being antepartum stillbirths. Pregnancy/delivery at 28-34 weeks' gestation increased the odds of a stillbirth. Improving the quality of antenatal services, ensuring adherence to evidence-based protocols, accurate and prompt diagnosis and timely interventions of medical conditions in pregnancy particularly at 28-34 weeks' gestation could reduce incidence of stillbirths.
Stimulating interest in science at an early age is important for STEM education. This work details an educational activity utilizing the anthocyanins found in the butterfly pea flower (Clitoria ternatea). This activity was developed for use in official classroom settings, online, and/or at-home with parental or educator guidance. Primary and high school students aged 7 to 14 performed a straightforward extraction of anthocyanin pH indicators from Clitoria ternatea with hot water. Students were able to use this indicator and its vast range of colors to compare the acidity and basicity of different household solutions. Most responses recorded show that students used reasoning from the indicator and a subsequent chemical reaction to correctly differentiate acids from bases and compare their strengths. Overall, this activity's application of non-toxic and easily accessible indicators from the butterfly pea flower assisted in introducing young students to various concepts in acid-base chemistry, including acid/base strength and pH, solute dissolution, neutralization reactions, and qualitative analysis.
Stochastic resetting can be naturally understood as a renewal process governing the evolution of an underlying stochastic process. In this work, we formally derive well-known results of diffusion with resets from a renewal theory perspective. Parallel to the concepts from renewal theory, we introduce the conditioned backward B and forward F times being the times since the last and until the next reset, respectively, given that the current state of the system X(t) is known. These magnitudes are introduced with the paradigmatic case of diffusion under resetting, for which the backward and forward times are conditioned to the position of the walker. We find analytical expressions for the conditioned backward and forward time probability density functions (PDFs), and we compare them with numerical simulations. The general expressions allow us to study particular scenarios. For instance, for power-law reset time PDFs such that φ(t)∼t^{-1-α}, significant changes in the properties of the conditioned backward and forward times happen at half-integer values of α due to the composition between the long-time scaling of diffusion P(x,t)∼1/sqrt[t] and the reset time PDF.
Stock market analysis is helpful for investors to make reasonable decisions and maintain market stability, and it usually involves not only quantitative data but also qualitative information, so the analysis method needs to have the ability to deal with both types of information comprehensively. In addition, due to the inherent risk of stock investment, it is necessary to ensure that the analysis results can be traced and interpreted. To solve the above problems, a stock market analysis method based on evidential reasoning (ER) and hierarchical belief rule base (HBRB) is proposed in this paper. First, an evaluation model is constructed based on expert knowledge and ER to evaluate stock market sentiment. Then, a stock market decision model based on HBRB is constructed to support investment decision making, such as buying and selling stocks and holding positions. Finally, the Shanghai Stock Index from 2010 to 2019 is used as an example to verify the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed stock market analysis method for investment decision support. Experimental research demonstrates that the proposed method can help analyze the stock market comprehensively and support investors to make investment decisions effectively.
Stop the Bleed® is an emergency response course that offers a certificate of completion but no ending assessment. The purpose of this educational study was to develop and test the Response Readiness Tool (RRT) that measures learning of participants after taking Stop the Bleed®. The study used a pre-/post-test design to measure knowledge and attitudes, and a post-test only for skills. Participants were recruited from existing Stop the Bleed® courses. Knowledge was measured with a 10-item questionnaire, attitude was measured with five Likert-style questions, and skills were measured by observing simulated tourniquet placement. Ninety-five participants were recruited over two semesters. There was a significant difference in the knowledge and attitude scores indicating participants' improvement in learning and attitude toward responding. Internal consistency reliability of scores showed moderate reliability with Cronbach's Alpha of 0.73 and McDonald's Omega of 0.75. A positive correlation was found between expected proficiency and pre-test indicating the tool had construct validity. RRT provides Stop the Bleed® instructors with an instrument to measure knowledge, skills, and attitude of participants after taking Stop the Bleed®. Statistics show moderate reliability and validity; however, larger samples are needed for full psychometric testing. This publication presents the revised tool after the completion of this study.
Storytelling has been infrequently used in dental education to link clinical knowledge and practice. Our study aimed to explore dental students' views of instructor storytelling with an emphasis on clinical reasoning within a case-based oral pathology seminar. Qualitative description guided the study design. Participants were third- and fourth-year undergraduate dental students who participated in the seminar. Data were collected through semi-structured, one-on-one interviews. Data analysis was approached using inductive, manifest thematic analysis. Verification strategies were employed to ensure methodological rigor throughout the analysis. In total, 21 students participated in the study ranging in age from 22 to 29 years. Three interrelated themes were identified, which were related to storytelling authenticity, benefits, and recommendations for improvement. Specifically, students reported that instructor stories effectively conveyed genuine cases and clinical reasoning; were beneficial in terms of engagement, awareness, knowledge acquisition, and skill development; and needed to be educationally and clinically relevant to bridge the knowledge-practice gap. Instructor storytelling was regarded by dental students as both positive and beneficial. Research is needed to further demonstrate the effectiveness of instructor storytelling in fostering clinical learning and reasoning using indirect and direct outcome measures.
Strand, Deary, and Smith (2006) reported an analysis of sex differences on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CAT) for over 320,000 UK students 11-12 years old. Although mean differences were small, males were overrepresented at the upper and lower extremes of the score distributions on the quantitative and non-verbal batteries and at the lower extreme of the verbal battery. We investigate whether these results were unique to the UK or whether they would be seen in other countries, at other grades, cohorts, or forms of the test. The sample consisted of three nationally representative cohorts of US students in grades 3 through 11 (total N=318,599) for the 1984, 1992, and 2000 standardizations of the US version of the CAT. We replicated and extended the Strand et al. (2006) results by comparing the proportions of males and females at each score level across countries (UK vs. US), grades (3-11), and cohorts/test forms (Forms 4, 5, and 6 standardized in 1984, 1992, and 2000, respectively). The results showed an astonishing consistency in sex differences across countries, grades, cohorts, and test forms. Implications for the current debate about sex differences in quantitative reasoning abilities are discussed.
Stratified or personalised medicine targets treatments for groups of individuals with a disorder based on individual heterogeneity and shared factors that influence the likelihood of response. Psychiatry has traditionally defined diagnoses by constellations of co-occurring signs and symptoms that are assigned a categorical label (e.g. schizophrenia). Trial methodology in psychiatry has evaluated interventions targeted at these categorical entities, with diagnoses being equated to disorders. Recent insights into both the nosology and neurobiology of psychiatric disorder reveal that traditional categorical diagnoses cannot be equated with disorders. We argue that current quantitative methodology (1) inherits these categorical assumptions, (2) allows only for the discovery of average treatment response, (3) relies on composite outcome measures and (4) sacrifices valuable predictive information for stratified and personalised treatment in psychiatry. To achieve a truly 'stratified psychiatry' we propose and then operationalise two necessary steps: first, a formal multi-dimensional representation of disorder definition and clinical state, and second, the similar redefinition of outcomes as multidimensional constructs that can expose within- and between-patient differences in response. We use the categorical diagnosis of schizophrenia-conceptualised as a label for heterogeneous disorders-as a means of introducing operational definitions of stratified psychiatry using principles from multivariate analysis. We demonstrate this framework by application to the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness dataset, showing heterogeneity in both patient clinical states and their trajectories after treatment that are lost in the traditional categorical approach with composite outcomes. We then systematically review a decade of registered clinical trials for cognitive deficits in schizophrenia highlighting existing assumptions of categorical diagnoses and aggregate outcomes while identifying a small number of trials that could be reanalysed using our proposal. We describe quantitative methods for the development of a multi-dimensional model of clinical state, disorders and trajectories which practically realises stratified psychiatry. We highlight the potential for recovering existing trial data, the implications for stratified psychiatry in trial design and clinical treatment and finally, describe different kinds of probabilistic reasoning tools necessary to implement stratification.
Street food is a vital component of cities and towns in developing countries. However, food poisoning has been associated with inadequate knowledge of food safety practices and inappropriate food handling. We examined the knowledge, attitude, and practices of street food sellers in the Takoradi Submetropolis, Ghana, on food safety and hygienic practice. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 406 street food vendors were recruited based on a simple random sampling technique from the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis, Ghana, using a structured questionnaire. Data collected were analyzed with the chi-square test and binary logistic regression using Stata (version 16) software. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. The level of knowledge was low among 70.4% of the food vendors, and 51% had negative attitudes towards food safety and hygiene. Food hygiene practices were also poor among 52.3% of the participants. The predictors of low knowledge level were senior high (aOR = 0.37, 95% CI (0.19-0.70), p = 0.002) and junior high education (aOR = 0.52, 95% CI (0.27-0.99), p = 0.047). Having senior high education (aOR = 0.37, 95% CI (0.17-0.82), p = 0.014), prior training on food safety and hygiene (aOR = 0.50, 95% CI (0.29-0.84), p = 0.010), and having high level of knowledge (aOR = 0.33, 95% CI (0.20-0.54), p = 0.001) were associated with lower likelihood of negative attitude towards food safety and hygiene. Moreover, having junior high education (aOR = 6.20, 95% CI (2.78-13.87), p = 0.001), high level of knowledge (aOR = 4.70, 95% CI (2.77-7.98), p = 0.001), and positive attitude towards food safety and hygiene (aOR = 1.76, 95% CI (1.08-2.87), p = 0.023) were associated higher odds of good food practice. Knowledge and attitude regarding food safety and hygienic practices was poor among street food vendors. Future initiatives should focus on establishing training programs for food vendors within the metropolitan assembly to improve their knowledge on food safety and hygienic practices.