5,624 research outputs found
Analysis of the discrimination index of final biology examinations in Malta
Item analysis is a range of statistics that helps to determine the effectiveness of each item in an examination. It plays an important role in contributing to the fairness of the examination as well as helps to identify content areas that may be problematic for students. The validity and reliability of an examination finally depend on the characteristics of the items. Item analysis permits a high reliability and validity to be built into a test in advance. Discrimination index (D) is part of item analysis that measures the difference in item difficulty between groups of students with high and low marks. The index varies between -1 and 1 where the item ideally should be between +0.3 and +1.0. A highly discriminating item is indicative of students who gained high tests scores got the item correct whereas those who had low test scores got the item incorrect. The objective of our study was to calculate the discrimination indices of Advanced level Biology final examinations at a public post-secondary institution in Malta. The final scores obtained by first-year students over a five-year period (n = 1315), 2014-2018, in Papers 1 (short-type items) and 2 (comprehension, structured and unstructured essays) were used to calculate the discrimination index for each item. Results are encouraging since negative discrimination, indicative of a defective item, were not observed in any of the items. Paper 1 is better at discriminating between high and low achievers since over the study period, 93% of the items had acceptable (D between 0.2-0.29) or good discrimination (D between 0.3-0.39) while less, 54%, in Paper 2. Also, fewer (5%) of the items in Paper 1 had poor discrimination (D < 0-0.19) but 46% in Paper 2. Results show that comprehension items are better than the essay type to discriminate between high and low achievers. This finding may be used to start a discussion at the institution to consider the validity of the essay-type of items in final Biology examinations.peer-reviewe
A possibly Christian burial of the late Roman period discovered in a quarry at Ta' Sannat, Gozo
According to the Museum Annual Report
for the years 1928-9, the Police Occurrences
Register for the period 20/12/1928- 9/4/1929,
and Public Works correspondence for the
period 5/9/1928 - 3/4/1929, a burial was
discovered in a quarry at Ta' Sannat on 7th
January 1929. The report of the discovery
was initially received by Mr Edward Borg
Cardona, the District Engineer Public Works
Department (Gozo). Together with Supt. E.
Galea, he immediately visited the site and gave
instructions to halt works and for the site to
also submitted to the Director of Museums.
The burial yielded a small jar, an oenochoe
(wine-jug), and a red clay lamp close to a heap
of human bones. This is probably what was
seen by Prof. Terni Zammit, the Archaeology
section curator, when six days later (on 13th
January), accompanied by Mr Edward Borg
Cardona, he examined the site and the finds that
had been lifted from the tomb.peer-reviewe
Religious identity and perceptions of afterlife gleaned from a funerary monument to a young girl from (late) Roman Melite
Possibly late during the Roman occupation of Malta, a young deceased girl had a funerary
monument set up in her memory by her loving mother. Analysis of both epigraphic content
and iconographic elements on this monument would show that the mother; at least, is likely to
have been originally a public slave but later achieved manumission, a status which remained
to be enjoyed by herself and by her daughter. Moreover, they seem to have adhered to the then
commonly held beliefs regarding the nature of death and afterlife. Yet, identifying their beliefs
on the nature of death and afterlife did not prove sufficient to determine their religious identity
as such beliefs were evidently shared by different religious groups.peer-reviewe
The great pretender : Autoimmune Pancreatitis
Autoimmune pancreatitis is a benign disorder which frequently presents with symptoms and imaging suggestive of pancreatic malignancy. Up to 21% of pancreatoduodenectomies performed for suspected pancreatic cancer are found to have benign disease. Autoimmune pancreatitis responds rapidly to corticosteroids and may be associated with extra- pancreatic manifestations. Type 1 forms part of the IgG4-related disease while type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis is less likely to have elevated levels of IgG4. This review discusses the characteristics of the two types of autoimmune pancreatitis and highlights the management and prognosis of this condition.peer-reviewe
History of the development of general anaesthesia in Malta
Anaestheisa (an meaning absence and aesthesia meaning sensation) was a new word coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes, the same doctor who wrote the stories of the detective Sherlock Holmes The science of anaesthesia means the inducement of a state of reversible unconsciousness and analgesia by means of drugs thus enabling the performance of surgery. Before the introduction of the science of anaesthesia the only surgery possible was that which could be done in a few minutes with the patient suffering intense pain and needing physical force to be kept lying down on the operating table. After the start of the anaesthetic process, surgery advanced by leaps and bounds during the last one hundred and sixty years. Really the new science enhanced the full development of surgery.peer-reviewe
Dietary supplements : sorting fact from fiction
Early scientific research into food and nutrition was directed towards identifying the essential nutrients1. Indeed, several of the Nobel prizes in Physiology and Medicine at the beginning of the last decade were awarded for work on discoveries related to vitamins and the recognition of their ability to cure deficiency diseases. The public and medical enthusiasm which resulted is reflected even today in the ‘magic bullet’ image of nutrition. It is also reflected in the consumption of ‘vitamin products’ in the belief that these provide essential or desirable supplementation even to a healthy diet.peer-reviewe
Cystic Lesions of the Pancreas
With the increasing use of abdominal imaging, cystic lesions of the pancreas are being more frequently detected. These lesions may carry a significant premalignant potential. Current guidelines recommend that mucinous cystic neoplasms, solid pseudopapillary neoplasms, main duct-intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms and branch duct-intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (DB-IPMN) with "high-risk stigmata" for malignancy should be resected while asymptomatic BD-IPMN without mural nodules, no main duct involvement, and a size less than 30 mm can be followed up. Serous cystadenomas carry a very small malignant risk and are usually resected only if they cause symptoms. This review article highlights the common characteristics and recommended management of these cystic lesions of the pancreas.peer-reviewe
Neonatal intensive care and its application in Malta
The introduction of neonatal techniques has proved vital in the reduction of infant mortality rates. This article describes 4 important and basic techniques in neonatal intensive care; ventilation, nutrition, monitoring and cerebral assessment. The article concludes with an overview of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Malta.peer-reviewe
Cremation burials in early Bronze Age Malta : evidence from Tarxien and Ggantija
A common way of disposing of the dead
across the entire Mediterranean (and even
beyond) from prehistoric down to late Roman
times was to bury the corpse - or the burnt
remains, if cremated - in a built chamber or
in a floor cavity and then cover it up under
a mound of stones and/or earth, usually
encircled by a kerb or retaining stone wall.
Sizes varied and larger ones might even
have a passage providing access to the burial
chamber. In many cases, these burial mounds
or tumuli used to be circular, having an overall
appearance of a cone, hut, or hill.
It is worth investigating whether the
resemblance of burial mounds to huts was
intentional or merely accidental (something
which I do not intend to do in this contribution).
If it was intentional, was it meant to convey
an idea of the tomb as a house of the dead? In this contribution, I shall be dealing
with cremation burials on the Maltese islands
in the early Bronze Age (Tarxien Cemetery
phase: 2400-1500 B.C.), focusing, towards
the end, on a type of clay figurine associated
- as yet, exclusively - with this early Bronze
Age practice. Some new interpretations
are attempted in respect of both the burials themselves as well as the mentioned
figurines. To this end, I shall be resorting
to evidence from two temple sites: those at
Tarxien and Ggantija, with the richer corpus
of evidence coming from the former. To begin
with, I derive insights for my interpretations
by initially resorting to the earliest literary
evidence we have and which concerns the
Aegean region where it comes from. But I also
draw on comparisons with some other sites
and/or materials outside the Maltese islands. It
is mainly this comparative approach that, for
the greater part, provides the backbone of my
arguments.peer-reviewe
Endoscopic ultrasound in the staging of gastrointestinal luminal malignancies
Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is an important tool in the staging of gastrointestinal cancers. This review highlights the use of EUS in the staging of gastrointestinal luminal malignancies and compares the performance of EUS with other imaging modalities (CT, MRI and PET-CT) in the staging of these malignancies. Management algorithms in the staging of these malignancies are also presented.peer-reviewe
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