Case Concentration: An Academic Arcade Game for Physical Therapist Education

Case Physical Therapy is the study of patient/client cases to augment a practitioner’s clinical thinking, reasoning, and decision-making skills. Game-based learning, as part of an academic arcade, can add enjoyment and competition to an otherwise mundane process of acquiring knowledge and understanding and may serve to incentivize the student. The development of a case-related match game to teach physical therapy (PT) students about patient/client focused examination and interventional relationships is at the very heart of the design of Physical Therapy Case Concentration. Based in part on the successful, long-running (1958-1991) NBC game show, Physical Therapy Case Concentration features a computerized board consisting of 30 trilons (3 sided rotating boxes) with numbers, physical therapy related case content, and rebus text/graphics. The rebus is intended to convey a relevant lesson to the student that corresponds to the unique features of the selected PT patient/client case. The Undergraduate Summer Research Award (USRA) was used to initiate the development of the coding component of this endeavor. Coding in C# with Unity was employed to create a user interface and subsequent scripting of smaller game elements. The Game Manager scripting is currently underway. With completion of the script, the first clinical case sample content will be added and beta testing will commence.https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2018/1049/thumbnail.jp

Exploring the Role of Psychological Capital and Academic Hope in High School Students: How they interact With Their Cognitive Strategies to Influence Learning Outcomes?

High school students who possess and exhibit psychological capital (PsyCap) evaluate their goal determining behaviours and cognitive strategies through displaying self-efficacy, hope, optimism and academic resilience to attain higher learning outcomes. In the first study, the factorial structure of PsyCap as second order construct with 4 first order sub-facets was examined. In addition, in a time-lag research, the direct and indirect effect of instrumentality of learning on performance via PsyCap and deep cognitive strategies was also examined by using Structural Equation Modeling. Three hundred and four (N=304) high school students participated in the study. The results indicated that psychological capital and deep cognitive strategies were significantly correlated. Also, the outcome of Study 1 concluded that psychological capital partially mediated the relationship between the perceived instrumentality of a learning activity and academic performance whereas deep cognitive strategies did not predict achievement outcome and consequently did not have mediational effect. Moreover, when individual subscales of PsyCap were regressed separately, only academic hope and optimism emerged as significant predictors of achievement outcome controlled for self-efficacy and resilience. In a follow-up experimental study, the moderating effect of academic hope in explaining the generation and utilization of deep cognitive strategies was observed in an academic failing condition versus a neutral condition. The participants (N=131) were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and read accounts of two conditions: failing versus non-failing conditions. Later they were requested to generate and rate the likelihood of using cognitive strategies in admission exam. The results of the moderation analysis indicated that when faced with failing learning condition students were more likely to generate quantitatively more cognitive yet not deep strategies compared to their counterparts in an academic neutral condition. However, when faced with the experimental condition, students higher on hope were more likely to utilize deep cognitive strategies. Thus, academic hope moderated the effect of the experimental condition on the utilisation of deep strategies. The results of the 2 studies is discussed in the light of Conservation of Resources theory, Expectancy-Value and Hope theory

Estudio micropaleontológico del Neógeno de Huesa (Jaén) Alicun de Ortega (Granada)

Tesis Univ. Complutense. Madrid.Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y PaleontologíaFac. de Ciencias GeológicasTRUEProQuestpu

Accelerated forgetting in healthy older samples: Implications for methodology, future ageing studies, and early identification of risk of dementia

Accelerated long-term forgetting (ALF) has been reported in healthy older individuals, and is a possible early marker for risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The Verbal Associative Learning & Memory Test (VALMT; McGibbon & Jansari, 2013) addresses methodological weaknesses in existing clinical tests and has detected ALF in epilepsy within an hour. We used VALMT to investigate learning and forgetting in healthy older participants. Older (60-69yrs) and Younger (19-31yrs) participants were compared. Using VALMT, unrelated word-pairs were learnt to criterion, then cued-recall tested at delays of 5, 30 and 55 minutes. Unique pairs were tested at each delay. Subjective memory complaints data was gathered, and the Wechsler Memory Scale Logical Memory test (WMS-LM; a standard clinical measure) was administered. VALMT identified a significant difference in delayed recall between Younger and Older groups by 55 minutes (d = 1.32). While ‘fast-learning’ Older participants scored similarly to Younger participants, ‘slow-learning’ Older participants were impaired at all delays. Forgetting rates suggested degradation of memory starts during early synaptic consolidation rather than later system-level consolidation. Increased subjective memory complaints were associated with reduced VALMT scores. By contrast, WMS-LM failed to identify significant differences between any groups, and did not correlate with memory complaints. We conclude VALMT may be better able than WMS-LM to identify subtle impairments in healthy older adults within a single clinical visit, and VALMT results better reflect subjective experience. Older slow-learners forget faster and report more subjective memory complaints, which may indicate a group at risk of developing AD

Bias and accuracy of age estimation using developing teeth in 946 children

Developing teeth are used to assess maturity and estimate age in several disciplines. The aim of the study was to determine which of the most well known dental age estimation methods was best at estimating age. The target sample of dental radiographs ( N = 946, ages 3–16) was described by Maber et al. (Forensic Sci Int 159 ( 2006 ) S68–S73). Seven mandibular permanent teeth (I 1 –M 2 ) were assessed, and dental age was calculated using four dental maturity scales and fifteen methods that use data for individual teeth. The mean difference between dental age and real age was calculated (bias) as well as several other measures of accuracy (mean/median absolute difference, percentage aged to within six months and to within 10% of real age). Most methods estimated age with significant bias and standard deviation of bias ranged from 0.86 to 1.03 years. Analysis by age group showed most methods over-aged younger children, and considerably under-aged older children. The method that performed best was the dental maturity scale of Willems et al. (J Forensic Sci 46 ( 2001 ) 893–895) with bias of −0.14 ± 0.86 years ( N = 827), mean absolute difference of 0.66 years, 71% aged to 10% or less of age, and 49% aged to within six months. Two individual teeth, P 2 and M 2 , estimated age with bias not significantly different to zero for most formation stages using methods based on a large reference sample (L9a Demirjian stages) and a uniform age distribution (N25a Moorrees stages). Standard deviation of bias was least for early crown stages and most for late root stages. Methods that average ages for individual teeth improve if schedules for ‘mean age entering a stage’ are adjusted for prediction. Methods that directly calculate ‘mean age within stage’ can be improved by drawing from a uniform age distribution. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78321/1/21349_ftp.pd

Tooth development standards for South Australia

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Background: Chronological age, as recorded by registration of birth date, is referred to throughout an individual's life. This information is relevant in medical and dental practice for evaluating developmental progress, for educational purposes, and in legal matters, particularly in the application of criminal law. The absence of birth date information raises particular concerns, and estimates of chronological age are often required. Standards of dental maturation may be used to estimate age, but they have been shown to be gender and population sensitive. Methods: The revised Demirjian' system of dental age estimation was applied to a sample of 615 South Australian children in order to assess its accuracy. Results: The results of our study have shown that the Demirjian system is of limited accuracy when used to estimate the age of South Australian children. Conclusions: Generation of new standard curves, specific to the Australian population, is indicated.CJ McKenna, H James, JA Taylor, GC Townsen

Gd-EOB-DTPA-Enhanced MRI for Detection of Liver Metastases from Colorectal Cancer: A Surgeon’s Perspective!

Colorectal cancer affects over one million people worldwide annually, with the liver being the most common site of metastatic spread. Adequate resection of hepatic metastases is the only chance for a cure in a subset of patients, and five-year survival increases to 35% with complete resection. Traditionally, computed tomographic imaging (CT) was utilized for staging and to evaluate metastases in the liver. Recently, the introduction of hepatobiliary contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents including gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Eovist in the United States, Primovist in Europe, or Gd-EOB-DTPA) has proved to be a sensitive method for detection of hepatic metastases. Accurate detection of liver metastases is critical for staging of colorectal cancer as well as preoperative planning