bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Simulation Techniques to Bridge the Gap Between Novice and Competent Healthcare Professionals
Authors: Galloway Susan
Published: February 2022

Simulation techniques are being used today in a variety of programs designed to enhance the skills of healthcare providers. The aim of this article is to describe simulation techniques currently being used in healthcare education and identify future directions for the use of simulation in healthcare. The author will describe various types of simulators and simulated experiences, including role playing, standardized patients, partial task trainers, complex task trainers, integrated simulators, and full mission simulation. Next, the use of simulation in undergraduate nursing programs, continuing education programs, interdisciplinary team training, and competency assessment will be presented. Resources for simulation faculty and costs associated with simulation will be discussed. The author will conclude by noting that next steps in using simulation to strengthen the provision of healthcare include providing healthcare educators with the motivation and competencies needed to create and use meaningful simulation learning experiences and initiating more research regarding the benefits of simulation in healthcare education.
Basic Genetics and Genomics: A Primer for Nurses
Authors: Lea Dale
Published: February 2022

The completion of the Human Genome Project is leading to a new type of medicine, called personalized medicine. The goal of personalized medicine is to create a healthcare plan that encompasses not only traditional factors, such as patient preferences and cholesterol levels, but also a person’s genetic and genomic information. This approach should allow providers to prescribe more specific and individualized treatment and to avoid adverse drug and treatment reactions. A basic knowledge of genetic terms and concepts and an understanding of genomics can provide nurses with a foundation that will enable them to provide competent, personalized healthcare. This article will review the basic genetic structures and functions, explain cellular and genetic changes, discuss genetic inheritance, describe chromosomal variations, and share applications of genetics and genomics for nursing practice.
Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy
Authors: Cornett Sandy
Published: February 2022

The ability to communicate effectively with patients who have low health literacy depends on our ability to recognize this problem and to create a patient-centered and shame-free healthcare environment. Because of the shame and embarrassment these patients experience, they often use their well-developed coping skills to mask their limited literacy. Although a number of reading- and comprehension-assessment tools are available, there is debate whether or not these tools should be used clinically. This article provides guidance in regard to establishing an environment that promotes health literacy, assessing health literacy levels, utilizing strategies to increase health literacy, evaluating the learning that has occurred, and incorporating health literacy concepts into the nursing curriculum.
Advocating for the Prevention of Childhood Obesity: A Call to Action for Nursing
Authors: Berkowitz Bobbie , Borchard Marleyse
Published: February 2022

In this article the authors provide a background for the discussion of childhood obesity, examine factors contributing to overweight and obesity in children, review the literature describing interventions and prevention strategies for childhood overweight, and describe nursing skills to prevent childhood obesity. The literature supports a family-focused approach to influencing dietary habits of very young children, prevention interventions that start early in childhood prior to established poor dietary patterns, and the need for community support and involvement. Given these findings, nurses are encouraged to develop skills, such as advocacy, collaborative leadership, and social marketing skills, that will contribute to the prevention of childhood obesity.
Obesity in Older Adults
Authors: Newman Ann
Published: February 2022

The prevalence of obesity in the United States is increasing in all age groups. During the past 30 years, the proportion of older adults who are obese has doubled. In this article the author describes the prevalence and causes of obesity among older adults as well as the consequences of obesity in older adults. Recommendations for interventions to address obesity are also provided. Differences between the two groups of older adults, those 50 to 65 years of age, and those over 65 years of age, will be addressed. The goal of the article is to raise nurses’ awareness of the challenges of obesity in older adults.
Sorcières
Authors: Guaresi Magali , Scrimieri Maria Grazia
Published: February 2022

L’article explore la revue française Sorcières (1975-1982) dans une double perspective, à la fois textometrique et littéraire. Dans une première partie, « L’architecture thématique de la revue Sorcières  », nous nous proposons de décrire le projet éditorial, littéraire et politique de Sorcières par une analyse assistée par ordinateur des thèmes de la revue : dans cette méthode, les proximités entre les mots sont observées de façon à élaborer des classes de vocabulaire, qui suggèrent les thématiques principales de la revue. Dans une deuxième partie « Le numéro 1 : de l’alimentation aliénante à la nourriture libératrice » nous voulons nous pencher plus précisément sur le numéro 1 de la collection, considéré comme un manifeste pour l’expression et la création féminines et consacré à la nourriture. Par l’analyse littéraire et critiques des textes des contributrices, l’image de la nourriture, dans ce premier dossier, n’apparaît jamais comme un élément de contrainte pour les femmes mais se révèle être à la fois moyen de connaissance et un lien avec leurs corps.
Femmes, éducation et politique
Authors: Rodríguez Serrador Sofía , Charbin Coline
Published: February 2022

À partir des années vingt, les femmes espagnoles ont participé de façon de plus en plus active dans la sphère publique du fait d’un processus d’acquisition d’un niveau culturel plus élevé et de changements dans la mentalité de la société, passant à revendiquer une série de droits politiques et sociaux : accès à l’éducation, au vote, au divorce… Lors de ces premières décennies, les espaces culturels clairement féminins qui ont été créés ont favorisé ces débats et ont consolidé des liens de sororité, comme la Residencia de Señoritas ou le Lyceum Club . À leur tour, ces femmes ont aidé à consolider des nouveaux modèles de genre alternatifs voire même opposés au rôle féminin traditionnel. Cependant, les « femmes modernes » ont rencontré des forts noyaux de résistance, non seulement parmi les éléments les plus conservateurs de la société, mais aussi parmi les intellectuels. Dans cet article nous étudierons la façon dont les revues féministes / féminines ont abordé ces changements et la reconnaissance des droits de la femme.
Arrêt du tabac : une personnalisation nécessaire des programmes de sevrage
Authors: Gallopel-Morvan Karine , Alla François , Bonnay-Hamon Alice , Brousse Philippine , Gonneau Audrey , Castera Philippe
Published: February 2022

Objectif : Avec 13 millions de fumeurs en France en 2019, le tabagisme reste un enjeu majeur de santé. Le projet « Lieux d’accompagnement à la santé sans tabac » (LAST) mis en place en Nouvelle-Aquitaine a pour but d’inciter les fumeurs à se faire aider pour arrêter le tabac. Méthode : Afin d’identifier les freins au sevrage tabagique et les leviers à mobiliser pour favoriser la demande d’aide de la part des fumeurs puis construire avec eux leur programme de sevrage « idéal », une étude qualitative individuelle à partir d’entretiens semi-directifs a été menée en mai 2019 auprès de 19 fumeurs en contemplation ou préparation (modèle transthéorique). Résultats : Les aides disponibles pour l’arrêt du tabac sont mal connues des fumeurs et par conséquent peu utilisées. Les raisons sont le manque d’information sur leur efficacité, le coût perçu et la peur de développer une autre forme de dépendance. Concernant le programme idéal des fumeurs interrogés, le recours à un professionnel de santé est cité par la majorité d’entre eux, suivi de l’activité physique (pour éviter la prise de poids), des substituts nicotiniques et des autres traitements médicamenteux. La nécessité de combiner les dispositifs et de personnaliser l’offre de sevrage est une demande forte. Conclusion : L’élaboration du programme d’aide à l’arrêt « idéal » et personnalisé semble constituer, pour chaque fumeur, une opportunité pour choisir les aides les plus conformes à ses besoins et valeurs. Les professionnels de premier recours, du fait de leur proximité, apparaissent une entrée clef pour accompagner les tentatives d’arrêt.
Emotion recognition in talking-face videos using persistent entropy and neural networks
Authors: Paluzo-Hidalgo Eduardo , Gonzalez-Diaz Rocio , Aguirre-Carrazana Guillermo
Published: February 2022

The automatic recognition of a person's emotional state has become a very active research field that involves scientists specialized in different areas such as artificial intelligence, computer vision, or psychology, among others. Our main objective in this work is to develop a novel approach, using persistent entropy and neural networks as main tools, to recognise and classify emotions from talking-face videos. Specifically, we combine audio-signal and image-sequence information to compute a topology signature (a 9-dimensional vector) for each video. We prove that small changes in the video produce small changes in the signature, ensuring the stability of the method. These topological signatures are used to feed a neural network to distinguish between the following emotions: calm, happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgust, and surprised. The results reached are promising and competitive, beating the performances achieved in other state-of-the-art works found in the literature.
Liftings of metallic structures to tangent bundles of order $ r $
Authors: Khan Mohammad Nazrul Islam ,   Department of Computer Engineering, College of Computer, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia, De Uday Chand ,   Department of Pure Mathematics, University of Calcutta 35, Ballygaunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, West Bengal, India
Published: February 2022

It is well known that the prolongation of an almost complex structure from a manifold $ M $ to the tangent bundle of order $ r $ on $ M $ is also an almost complex structure if it is integrable. The general quadratic structure $ F^2 = \alpha F+\beta I $ is a generalization of an almost complex structure where $ \alpha = 0, \; \beta = -1. $ The purpose of this paper is to characterize a metallic structure defined by the general quadratic structure $ F^2 = \alpha F+\beta I, \; \alpha, \beta\in \mathbb{N} $, where $ \mathbb{N} $ is the set of natural numbers. We show that the $ r $-lift of the metallic structure $ F $ in the tangent bundle of order $ r $ is also a metallic structure. Furthermore, we deduce a theorem on the projection tensor in the tangent bundle of order $ r $. Moreover, prolongations of $ G $-structures immersed in the metallic structure to the tangent bundle of order $ r $ and 2 are discussed. Finally, we construct examples of metallic structures that admit an almost para contact structure on the tangent bundle of order 3 and 4.
The defect detection for X-ray images based on a new lightweight semantic segmentation network
Authors: Yi Xin ,   School of Mechatronic Engineering and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China, Peng Chen , Zhang Zhen , Xiao Liang
Published: February 2022

The tire factory mainly inspects tire quality through X-ray images. In this paper, an end-to-end lightweight semantic segmentation network is proposed to realize the error detection of bead toe. In the network, firstly, the texture feature of different regions of tire is extracted by an encoder. Then, we introduce a decoder to fuse the output feature of the encoder. As the dimension of the feature maps is reduced, the positions of bead toe in the X-ray image have been recorded. When evaluating the final segmentation effect, we propose a local mIoU(L-mIoU) index. The segmentation accuracy and reasoning speed of the network are verified on the tire X-ray image set. Specifically, for 512 $ \times $ 512 input images, we achieve 97.1% mIoU and 92.4% L-mIoU. Alternatively, the bead toe coordinates are calculated using only 1.0 s.
Zero trust in edge computing environment: a blockchain based practical scheme
Authors: Li Dawei ,   School of Computing Engineering, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China, Zhang Enzhun , Lei Ming , Song Chunxiao ,   Energy Research Institute, Nanjing Institute of Technology, Nanjing 211167, China,   NARI Group Corporation (State Grid Electric Power Research Institute), Nanjing 211106, China
Published: February 2022

Edge computing offloads the data processing capacity to the user side, provides flexible and efficient computing services for the development of smart city, and brings many security challenges. Aiming at the problems of fuzzy boundary security protection and dynamic identity authentication in the edge computing environment in smart city, the zero trust architecture based on blockchain is studied, and a digital identity model and dynamic authentication scheme of edge computing nodes based on distributed ledger are proposed. Firstly, a digital identity model of two-way authentication between edge computing node and sensing terminal is established to realize fine-grained authorization and access control in edge computing. Secondly, based on the identity data and behavior log bookkeeping on the chain, the quantification of trust value, trust transmission and update are realized, and the traceability of security events is improved. Finally, based on the improved RAFT consensus algorithm, the multi-party consensus and consistency accounting in the authentication process are realized. Simulation results show that this scheme can meet the requirements of zero trust verification in edge computing environment, and has good efficiency and robustness.
Online Learning and COVID-19 in Higher Education: The Value of IT Models in Assessing Students’ Satisfaction
Authors: Azizan Siti Norbaya , Lee Angela Siew Hoong , Crosling Glenda , Atherton Graeme , Arulanandam Benedict Valentine , Lee Cheng Ean (Catherine) , Abdul Rahim Razwana Begum
Published: February 2022

This study of the COVID-19 online learning experiences of students in a Singaporean higher education institution (HEI) assesses the students’ ‘fit’ (ie, their satisfaction) with online learning, as gauged through the Information Technology (IT) models of Task-Technology Fit (TTF) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). While current studies have found that curriculum, instructor and learner factors have impacted on students and online learning during COVID-19, it has been observed that there is insufficient understanding of factors that predict students’ online learning satisfaction [24]. This study thus contributes where there are few, if any studies that assess students’ online learning satisfaction through technological models. Furthermore, the study’s finding are that the students’ perception of, general attitude to, and intention to use the online learning shaped their satisfaction, thus pointing to the value of such technological models in understanding student learning at a deeper level. Students’ experiential comments from the study also form recommendations for effective online teaching practice which apply to Singapore, and broadly for higher education (HE) online learning design. Significantly, the information technology (IT) models are shown as valuable in assessing HE students’ online learning satisfaction.
A Comparative Study of Gamified and Conventional Online Quizzes
Authors: O Kyung-Mi
Published: February 2022

This study explored students' perceptions about using gamified e-quizzes and conventional online quizzes for their class engagement. The participants were 130 female university students in Seoul with various majors. As a quasi-experimental study, this study compared the attitudes of a gamified e-quiz group (n=92) and a conventional online quiz group (n=38) after experiencing their respective quiz in-tervention of either nine gamified e-quizzes or nine online quizzes over a 15-week semester. Each group responded to a survey at the end of the semester. The quan-titative analyses of the surveys indicated that the perception of the two groups did not display statistically significant differences, each displaying positive views to-ward their quiz interventions for emotional, behavioral, and cognitive engage-ment. In addition, the two groups demonstrated neutral to positive attitudes for each quiz intervention for agentic engagement. Among many reported benefits, the students in both groups expressed that the quiz experiences facilitated them to understand the content knowledge and enjoy the assessment activities. These two advantages of the two quiz modes were seen to be related to close student-teacher interaction.
Gamification Strategy to Support Self-Directed Learning in an Online Learning Environment
Authors: Palaniappan Kavitha , Md Noor Norah
Published: February 2022

This research measures the effect of gamification on learners’ academic performance, investigate their self-directed learning level within an online gamification learning environment and identify the relationship between learners self-directed learning level and their gamification learning experience. Pre-experimental research (single group) was carried out for a duration of 5 weeks among a group of 29 undergraduate year 2 learners from a non-major computer science course undertaking basic programming language subject. The learners SDL and knowledge on the subject was measured with a questionnaire and assessment test before and after the gamification learning intervention. A gamification experience questionnaire was used to evaluate their gamification learning experience after the intervention. The learning environment was infused with gamification in the form of competition to earn points, leaderboard ranks and python programmer badge. The learner’s academic performance has significantly improved (p=0.000 < 0.05) after the gamification injection. Leaners self-directed learning level also increased and there is a significant difference before (M=3.59) and after (M=4.22) the gamification strategy (p=0.000 < 0.05) imposed. Self-management, motivation and self-monitoring were all at high level with significance before and after (p=0.000 < 0.05) the gamified learning activities. Overall, the gamification strategy used in the online learning environment shows a positive influence to support learner’s self-directed learning.
Teaching Reform and Practice Using the Concept of Outcome-Based Education
Authors: Yang Peiyi , Lai Siyu , Guan Hongwei , Wang Juan
Published: February 2022

Foundation and Application of Microcontroller (FAoM), a theoretically and practically important specialized course for automation majors, is interdisciplinary and has a wide range of instructional content. Conventional teaching methods center on the needs of teachers but do not prioritize fostering practical skills and innovation capacity. This split focus tends to neglect the achievement of learning outcomes and causes deficiency in practice ability. Therefore, instructional reform oriented toward outcome-based education (OBE) was proposed in this study to promote endogenous motivation to learn and enhance effectiveness and flexibility in practical teaching by subdividing instructional objectives, rearranging instructional contents, conducting modularized teaching, and formulating typical tasks. To evaluate the performance of the instructional reform based on OBE, students were engaged to develop a temperature measurement system with knowledge they learned by using software Keil, Proteus, and Altium. Statistics show that the proposed methodology exceeds the traditional method of teaching in all six evaluation indexes, achieving the student-centered curriculum objective. The implementation of the reform on FAoM is of considerable importance for students. They benefit from immersive teaching, broadening their minds and cultivating their capacity to address practical engineering problems.
Design of an E-Learning Resource Allocation Model from the Perspective of Educational Equity
Authors: Caiyan Jiang
Published: February 2022

Nowadays, e-learning and ubiquitous learning have been very common learning methods. Considering the increasing importance of e-learning in public education, it is very necessary to analyze and study the current situation of e-learning resource allocation, as it will provide useful reference for the promotion of educational equity and rational allocation of educational resources across China. However, there have only been a few quantitative and practical studies on the balanced allocation of e-learning resources. To this end, taking English education as an example, this paper designed an e-learning resource allocation model from the perspective of education equity. First, a resource allocation model of e-learning resources was constructed, and the e-learning resource access request allocation and e-learning resource allocation methods were described in detail. Then, the e-learning resource allocation framework was constructed, and the e-learning resource allocation strategy was given from the perspective of education equity. The experimental results prove that the proposed e-learning resource allocation model can effectively avoid wasting resources and realize rational distribution of, efficient access to and extensive sharing of resources.
Introduction: Mental Health among Marginalized Communities
Authors: Chavous Tabbye Maria , Molock Sherry D. , Sanchez-Parkinson Laura
Published: February 2022

 
Un passé ravivé. La Commune dans les engagements du présent
Authors: Bantigny Ludivine
Published: February 2022

Cet article explore l’actualité de la Commune, plus précisément les formes de son actualisation, les manières dont elle est rendue vivante dans un certain nombre d’expériences contemporaines : sa présence au présent. Il s’agit ici de retracer l’histoire de certains courants politiques et de mouvements sociaux qui ne cessent de faire référence à la révolution populaire de 1871. Que retiennent-ils de la Commune ? Comment les enjeux liés à la propriété et aux usages, aux biens communs, à la démocratie, à la justice sociale et à l’égalité puisent-ils dans cet héritage historique ? Sont ici analysés le situationnisme et l’autonomie politique, les Zones à défendre et le soulèvement populaire des Gilets jaunes. Chacun de ces mouvements, mobilisations, organisations indique que la Commune de Paris, anti-autoritaire, fédéraliste, populaire, participative et égalitaire, a encore de quoi inspirer. Ce dont donc les formes de cette inspiration que l’article explore à partir de documents variés.
Nouvelles pratiques de l’affichage commercial et recomposition de la culture urbaine parisienne à la fin du xixe siècle
Authors: Bonnardel-Mira Roxane
Published: February 2022

À la fin du xixe siècle, l’affichage commercial entre dans une période d’expansion. Le cadre légal conçu pour ordonner l’affichage est débordé par les innovations du secteur de l’affichage. Cet article présente les nouvelles pratiques d’affichage et la manière dont elles recomposent la culture urbaine en participant à l’évènementialisation de la rue. L’étude des usages des murs affichés envisage l’ambivalente diffusion d’une culture publicitaire populaire.
RETRACTED: Safety of Minors on Social Media Websites
Authors: Dibenedetto Stefania , Saxena Deepak
Published: February 2022

Safety of minors is one of the foci of parents and social media companies. Companies strive to design and improve safety policies to combat online abuse involving minors. However, parents play a much more critical role in the online safety of their children. The study explores parents' perceptions of social media risks and their level of awareness about minor safety on these platforms based on qualitative interviews conducted with 25 Italian parents. The results indicate that mothers are keener to use restrictions compared to fathers, and most educated parents display more awareness as well as more trust in institutions and schools, whilst older parents are less likely to use risk mitigation strategies, admitting their lack of ability to approach new technologies. For this reason, more support should be provided by institutions or social media platforms to parents less technologically savvy who do feel left behind with the new technological trends.
Effects of Diagnostic Tests on Self-Directed Language Learning Development
Authors: Yeh Helen W. M.
Published: February 2022

This study aims at investigating the language strengths and weaknesses of Hong Kong self-directed learners, their learning needs and their self-directed learning experiences with the use of diagnostic language test and examining whether the test can help the learners to self-direct their own learning. The test results showed that less than half of the participants reached the satisfactory level of the diagnostic tests in the areas of listening, vocabulary, reading and grammar, and their weakest competence was vocabulary. The findings also revealed that the learners wanted to improve their communication skills, vocabulary, as well as speaking and listening skills, and that they had a need to learn a series of specific sub-skills regarding the four areas. The results yielded that the diagnostic test provided valuable information on the self-directed language learning, and suggested that teacher intervention, learning strategies and self-evaluation skills are required for the initial development of self-directed language learning.
Effectiveness of Using Digital Feedback on EFL Student Writing Skills
Authors: Hojeij Zeina , Ayber Pinar Ozdemir
Published: February 2022

This research study investigated the effects of digital feedback on EFL students’ writings in ubiquitous learning. Feedback on students’ writings, especially at university level, must be constructive to enhance their overall academic writing skills and requires purposeful planning. . In this study, teachers created digital screen-recorded feedback to deliver individualized oral feedback to the students. Findings of this study explore the impact of digital feedback on improving the quality of academic writing for EFL undergraduate female learners. Data collected showed that using digital feedback created a positive and active learning environment and promoted learner autonomy. This digital platform also allowed learning to be continuous and ubiquitous. The results present several practical pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research.
“We Are Responsive on Zoom, but…”
Authors: Qiu Xuyan , Bui Gavin
Published: February 2022

This study explored forty-eight English as a second language learners’ perceptions of and attitudes towards pre-task planning in synchronous video-based computer-mediated (SvCMC) and real-time face-to-face (F2F) communication. The participants, randomly divided into SvCMC and F2F groups, performed a planned and unplanned task in SvCMC/F2F conditions. Interviews were conducted immediately after task performance to capture their perceptions of and attitudes towards pre-task planning and the communication modes. The findings revealed that over half of them perceived the usefulness of pre-task planning and favoured F2F to SvCMC. The participants’ opinions for pre-task planning were elaborated regarding the differences between the ±planning conditions concerning multitasking, organization planning, content preparation, real-world relevance, and responsiveness among non-planners. Their attitudes towards SvCMC and F2F were explained by the different natures of the communication modes and pair/group dynamics. The findings shed light on teaching L2 speaking in physical and virtual settings.
A New Hybrid Model of Deep Learning ResNeXt-SVM for Weed Detection
Authors: Jabir Brahim , Falih Noureddine
Published: February 2022

A set of experiments has shown that deep learning as well as traditional learning can be used in the weed detection process and perform well, although sometimes these models cannot fully exploit and utilize the long-term dependency relationship between some key features of images and image labels. To remedy this known problem in the field of image classification, the authors have introduced a classifier known as the linear support vector machine (SVM). Specifically, they have combined a ResNeXt and SVM network to provide the ResNeXt-SVM framework that can deepen the exploitation of the structured features of images and the understanding of their content. The experimental results show that compared to other algorithm models such as ResNet, ResNeXt, and VGG, the proposed solution is more precise and efficient in classifying weeds.
Improving Hamming-Distance Computation for Adaptive Similarity Search Approach
Authors: Singh Vikram , Kumar Chandradeep
Published: February 2022

In the modern context, the similarity is determined by content-preserving stimuli, retrieval of relevant ‘nearest neighbor' objects, and the way similar objects are pursued. Current similarity search in hamming-space-based strategies finds all the data objects within a threshold hamming-distance for a user query, though the number of computations for distance and candidate generation are key concerns from the many years. The hamming-space paradigm extends the range of alternatives for an optimized search experience. A novel counting-based similarity search strategy is proposed with an improved hamming-space (e.g., optimized candidate generation and verification function). The strategy adapts towards the lesser set of user query dimensions and subsequently constrains the hamming-space computations with each data object driven by generated statistics. The extensive evaluation asserts that the proposed counting-based approach can be combined with any pigeonhole principle-based similarity search to further improve its performance.
Decoding Customer Opinion for Products or Brands Using Social Media Analytics
Authors: Yadav Madan Lal , Dugar Anurag , Baishya Kuldeep
Published: February 2022

This study uses aspect-level sentiment analysis using lexicon-based approach to analyse online reviews of an Indian brand called Patanjali, which sells many FMCG products under its name. These reviews have been collected from the microblogging site Twitter from where a total of 4961 tweets about 10 Patanjali branded products have been extracted and analysed. Along with the aspect-level sentiment analysis, an opinion-tagged corpora has also been developed. Machine learning approaches—support vector machine (SVM), decision tree, and naïve bayes—have also been used to perform the sentiment analysis and to figure out the appropriate classifiers suitable for such product reviews analysis. The authors first identify customer preferences and/or opinions about a product or brand by analyisng online customer reviews as they express them on the social media platform Twitter by using aspect-level sentiment analysis. The authors also address the limitations of scarcity of opinion tagged data required to train supervised classifiers to perform sentiment analysis by developing tagged corpora.
Educational Response to COVID- 19: Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka (FMAS, RUSL)
Authors: Jayarathne Y. G. S. W. , Pilapitiya S. D.
Published: February 2022

It is vital that the higher education institutes maintain their ability to train undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several novel measures were incorporated. The purpose of this article is to share the systematic approach that was taken by FMAS, RUSL during this pandemic. We used a systematic approach for teaching/learning, assessment and faculty development under main categories of1. Leadership/Management of MBBS curriculum: Headed by the Dean of the faculty with support from the Medical Education Unit plays a pivotal role for planning, maintaining and evaluating online education. 2. Teaching/learning: An online teaching guide was developed taking into account the best evidences and contextual constrains. LMS was updated more student friendly 3. Assessment: emphasis on formative assessments 4. Physical and human resources: Focused on competence in using LMS by the staff, online instructional design and providing physical resources. All activities were implemented through a team effort and ongoing evaluations are being done to assess usefulness of these measures. We hope this approach would be a useful reference for similar crisis events in the future.
Establishing a Simulation Centre in an Indian Medical College – the St. John’s Experience
Authors: Shankar N. , Lagoo J. , Stephen J. , Nithyanandam S. , Lewin S.
Published: February 2022

As part of the new competency-based curriculum, it has now become mandatory for all medical colleges in India to set up simulation centres for training undergraduate medical students. This article describes the establishment of a simulation centre at St. John’s Medical College in India. The important considerations that enabled the success of this process included having a clear vision and mission, identifying and deploying resources effectively, having a transparent, well-defined leadership and administrative structure, conducting timely faculty development programs and the deliberate incorporation of simulation training into the curriculum. The major challenges encountered included the difficulty in involving all faculty due to considerations of time and the development of a viable self-sustaining financial model. Incorporating digital solutions to meet the challenges of tracking student learning as part of the CBC, decentralization of simulation training at the departmental level and establishing the second phase of the centre for speciality and super-specialty training are potential areas that need to be addressed in the future. It is hoped that these experiences will provide some insight to other medical colleges in India and countries with similar contexts as they establish their simulation centres.
Enhancement of Professionalism during Postgraduate Training in Pediatrics
Authors: Shaw S. C. , Salagre S. B. , Mukherjee S. , Adhikari K. M.
Published: February 2022

No abstract available
Factors Affecting Radiographers in the Clinical Supervision of Radiography Students in a Limited Resource Setting: A Survey in Zambia
Authors: Bwanga O. , Sichone J. M. , Kaonga P.
Published: February 2022

Background and Purpose: Clinical teaching and learning are an important aspect of radiography programmes. It enables radiography students to acquire knowledge, attitudes, skills, and competence under the clinical supervision of designated radiographers. However, there is a paucity of research on radiography clinical training and the factors that impact on it. This study aimed to evaluate factors that affect supervising radiographers in the clinical supervision of radiography students in Zambia. Methods: A cross-sectional design was utilised in this study. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from supervising radiographers (N=120) working in public hospitals affiliated with the schools of radiography and located in the Lusaka and Copperbelt provinces of Zambia. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Results: The response rate was 75% (N=120/160). Supervising radiographers rated the current system of clinical supervision as being unsatisfactory. Factors that facilitated the clinical supervision process were an adequate supply of X-ray films, students sharing their learning problems and radiology department management support. On the other hand, factors that inhibited the clinical supervision process were a lack of guidelines, lack of theory amongst students, combined supervision of diploma and degree students, student overcrowding, lack of educational audits, unjustified imaging requests, insufficient clinical teaching knowledge, and inadequate faculty and hospital management supports. Conclusion: Supervising radiographers encounter both facilitating and inhibiting factors in the facilitation of practice-based learning for radiography students. More collaboration amongst key stakeholders and supports are necessary to overcome the challenges identified in this study.
Postphalloplasty urinary function test: an observational study of novel outcome instrument to capture urinary dysfunction and quality of life after phalloplasty
Authors: Liu James L , Eisenbeis Lauren , Preston Stephanie , Burnett Arthur L , DiCarlo Heather N , Coon Devin
Published: February 2022

Due to growing social acceptance, there has been an increasing number of gender-affirmation surgeries performed in North America. Most research in this patient population focuses on surgical outcomes and advancing techniques. However, little work has been done to study functional outcomes. To better evaluate urinary dysfunction in the postphalloplasty trans men patient population, our group developed a novel patient-reported outcome instrument – the postphalloplasty urinary function test (PP UFT) and protocol to measure postvoid urethral volume (PVUR), and we present our preliminary results. We conducted a cross-sectional pilot study in a cohort of 15 adult trans men who had undergone phalloplasty with urethral lengthening surgery between 2018 and 2021. Patients had stable urinary function via the neophallus at the time of survey. Patients filled out the PP UFT and were asked to record their PVUR as per our protocol. The average PP UFT score was 8.9 out of 40 and the average quality-of-life (QOL) score was 2.6. Postvoid dribbling constituted the major complaint and on average comprised 63.2% of the reported PP UFT score. The average PVUR was 2.2 ml (range: 0.5–5.6 ml). There was a positive correlation between higher PP UFT and worse-reported quality of life (P < 0.01; R
2 = 0.4). Current questionnaires accepted in cis-male urology have limitations for accurately capturing urinary dysfunction in this specific patient group. The combination of PP UFT and PVUR measurement offers potential for quantifying urinary function and quality of life in patients who undergo phalloplasty. Future studies will validate these instruments.
Relationship of neck circumference to some cardiometabolic risk parameters
Authors: Fathalla Reem , Lachine Nagwa , Badbess Mohamed , Tahoun Mona , Zeitoun Mohamed
Published: February 2022

Background

Neck circumference (NC) is an easy and reliable anthropometric measurement. The use of NC as an indicator of obesity among Egyptians was previously established. However, the relationship between NC and different cardiometabolic risk (CMR) parameters was not previously studied in the Egyptian population.

Objective

The aim of this work was to study the relationship between NC and some CMR parameters in obese adult Egyptian individuals.

Participants and methods

This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 apparently healthy obese adult Egyptian participants (BMI ≥30 kg/m2), above the age of 18 years, 50% of them were males and the other 50% were females. NC and other traditional anthropometric measurements were evaluated. Blood samples were assayed for glycosylated hemoglobin, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), non-HDL-C, and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.

Results

There were significant positive correlations between NC and each of systolic and diastolic blood pressure [(r=0.527, P<0.001), (r=0.430, P<0.001), respectively], waist circumference (r=0.538, P<0.001), BMI (r=0.403, P<0.001), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (r=0.304, P=0.002). While a significant negative correlation was found between NC and HDL-C. Multivariate regression analysis revealed an independent association of NC with waist circumference in males and with systolic blood pressure in females.

Conclusion

This study does not only confirm the association of NC with anthropometric measurements in the Egyptian population, but it also establishes the NC association with CMR factors that support the possibility of using NC as a CMR marker among Egyptians.
A novel technique of reconstruction of vermilion by pedicled myomucosal labial vestibular flap in traumatic defect of lower lip
Authors: Sahai Rahul , Singh Sudhir , Singh Akhilesh Kumar
Published: February 2022

We present a new technique of reconstruction of a partial defect of vermilion in a case of post traumatic defect of lower lip. The vermilion defect was reconstructed by the myomucosal flap taken from the labial side of lip posterior and below the anterior lip defect. The lower rounded part of this 3 cm × 2 cm rectangular flap was brought on the outer anterior lip defect through a hole made by splitting the orbicularis oris muscle below the vermilion and its lower end was rotated upward to reconstruct the defect in the anterior and inferior part of vermilion. The secondary defect on the inner lip was closed by mobilization of mucosa. The triangular-shaped skin loss of anterior lower lip and its underlying muscle was closed in anatomic layers meticulously after mobilization of muscle and skin on both sides. The orocutaneous communication created was closed after 3 weeks by a minor operation under local anesthesia. The mouth opening remained normal between the period of lip repair and closure of iatrogenic orocutaneous communication. Good shape with normal color of vermilion and length having proper lip fullness was achieved without any microstomia. The surface of vermilion was smooth without any irregularity. The single scar of lower lip was supple and mobile over the underlying muscle. There was no deglutition, chewing, labial phonation, or any drooling saliva problems. The procedure provided functionally and esthetically satisfying result. We authors have not found a similar technique of lip reconstruction in the literature.
Computing harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds
Authors: Gaster Jonah , Loustau Brice , Monsaingeon Léonard
Published: February 2022

In our previous paper (Gaster et al., 2018, arXiv:1810.11932), we showed that the theory of harmonic maps between Riemannian manifolds, especially hyperbolic surfaces, may be discretized by introducing a triangulation of the domain manifold with independent vertex and edge weights. In the present paper, we study convergence of the discrete theory back to the smooth theory when taking finer and finer triangulations, in the general Riemannian setting. We present suitable conditions on the weighted triangulations that ensure convergence of discrete harmonic maps to smooth harmonic maps, introducing the notion of (almost) asymptotically Laplacian weights, and we offer a systematic method to construct such weighted triangulations in the two-dimensional case. Our computer software Harmony successfully implements these methods to compute equivariant harmonic maps in the hyperbolic plane.
Randomly initialized EM algorithm for two-component Gaussian mixture achieves near optimality in $O(\sqrt{n})$ iterations
Authors: Wu Yihong , Zhou Harrison H.
Published: February 2022

We analyze the classical EM algorithm for parameter estimation in the symmetric two-component Gaussian mixtures in

d

dimensions. We show that, even in the absence of any separation between components, provided that the sample size satisfies

n=\Omega(d \log^4 d)

, the randomly initialized EM algorithm converges to an estimate in at most

O(\sqrt{n})

iterations with high probability, which is at most

O((d / n)^{1/4} \log n)

in Euclidean distance from the true parameter and within logarithmic factors of the minimax rate of

(d / n)^{1/4}

. Both the nonparametric statistical rate and the sublinear convergence rate are direct consequences of the zero Fisher information in the worst case. Refined pointwise guarantees beyond worst-case analysis and convergence to the MLE are also shown under mild conditions.

This improves the previous result of Balakrishnan, Wainwright, and Yu (2017), which requires strong conditions on both the separation of the components and the quality of the initialization, and that of Daskalakis, Tzamos, and Zampetakis (2017), which requires sample splitting and restarting the EM iteration.
Rhinology on the move despite Covid-19!
Authors: Hellings P.W.
Published: February 2022

The October 2020 issue of Rhinology is a very interesting edition as it illustrates how world-wide colleagues pave the way for a better future of patients affected by nose and sinus diseases. After the successful launch of EPOS2020 in Spring 2020, the editorial team of Rhinology is proud to present to you the latest and most exciting data in Rhinology research. Getting insight into the complexity and relevance of proteomics in CRS, epithelial-mesenchymal contribution to CRS, zinc levels in nasal and systemic compartment of CRS, nasal biomarkers of CRSwNP that predict recurrence of disease after sinus surgery, and the odor identification test for children, called "U-Sniff", and FID scores (Frequency, Intensity and Duration) scores for epistaxis are all in the 2020 October issue and highly relevant for Rhinology practice. These studies build further on the solid grounds of previous Rhinology research meeting the unmets needs in the field.
How I changed my practice in the last five years and what is likely to change in the next five years
Authors: Fokkens Wytske J.
Published: February 2022

The fast development of our field in the last decades has had significant impact on the way we practice our profession. This year my editorials will focus on the impact of these developments on my own daily practice.
Review of studies published on the medicinal importance of different parts of Citrullus lanatus in the last ten years
Authors: Akintunde Olukayode Gbolahan , Thomas Funmilola Clara
Published: February 2022

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), (CL) is an edible fruit of Cucurbitaceae family. It is cultivated worldwide for it is nutritive and medicinal values. The records of online scientific publications on CL were accessed using Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, science.gov, Scopus, and Worldwide science as search engines, were collected from January 2010 to April 2021 and analyzed using descriptive statis tics. Emphasis was placed on phytochemical, proximate, antioxidant, and pharmacological published articles on different parts of CL during this period. A total of 121 published articles that focused on different parts of CL in the last ten years were retrieved with phytochemicals 17.4% (21), proximate 7.4% (9), antioxidants 6.6% (8), pharmacology 68.6% (83). The pharmacology field was subdivided into antimicrobial 14.9% (18), cardioprotective 10.2% (13), reproduction 9.2% (12), toxicology and hepatoprotective 6.6% (8) each, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory 5.8%, neuroprotective 3.3% (4), anthelmintics (0.8%). Considering publications on different parts of CL, the seed received the highest attention with 42.1% (51) followed by fruits 35.5% (43), rind 18.1% (22), leaf 2.5% (3) while the least was whole fruit 1.7% (2). It was observed in this review on published articles that the CL fruits received the highest level of attention considering the phytochemicals, proximate, and antioxidant components to exhibit good antimicrobial potentials. While the CL leaf receivedlittle attention on antimicrobial ability. Also, different parts exhibited cardioprotective, reproduction, toxicology, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory activities, anti-ulcerative efficacy due to phytochemicals, antioxidant, and proximate constituents in different parts of CL. It is worth noting that neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and anthelmintics effects of different parts of CL received little attention. While there is still dearth of information on use of different parts of CL on cancer investigations and use. This scientific review on different parts of CL had highlighted knowledge gap that still exists on different parts of CL.