Flying aptitude tests for surgeons

Aims: To test whether the Flying Aptitude Test, the Royal Air Force’s selection aptitude test, can be used for surgical skills testing by correlating it to both open and minimally invasive surgical simulated tests. The introduction of such test at the onset of post graduate training could offer guidance and encouragement on a career in surgery. Methods: The Flying Aptitude Test used for the selection of British Military Pilots was undertaken by 243 medical participants. The aptitude domains tested included: Psychomotor, Verbal, Attentional, Spatial aptitudes & Short-Term Memory. Results were correlated with performance of open Basic Surgical Skills (BSS) and Laparoscopic Simulator (Lap Sim) skills in simulated environments. Medical students (n=211) encompassed 86.6% of those recruited and the remainder were doctors in training. Correlation analyses were carried out on the undergraduate participants only to maintain a completely uniform group of novices from both surgical and military aptitude experience. Data on demographics, use of computer games, self-rating scores and feedback form were also analysed. Results: n= 243 (52.3% female). Mean age 24 years (range18-39). 230 participants undertook the computer based Flying Aptitude Test of which 199 were medical students with a mean score of 51.64% (16-96% SD=14.27). Total mean Lap Sim time was 737 seconds (259-2290sec SD=313). Twenty-six participated in the BSS with a mean score of 74% (16-97%, SD=23). There was statistically significant correlation between the Flying Aptitude Test and the Lap Sim data (undergraduates n=153 Pearson r=-0.275; p<0.001) with the highest correlation in the Psychomotor domain (r=-0.300; p<0.001). There was even greater correlation between the Flying Aptitude Test and BSS tests (undergraduates n=20 Spearman’s r=0.464, p=0.04) with the Spatial Reasoning aptitude having the highest correlation (r=0.540, p=0.014). Lap Sim & Flying Aptitude Test data correlation was greater in females but for the BSS data, the correlation was greater in male, but this difference between the genders was not statistically significant. Positive correlation was seen in the use of computer games and the Flying Aptitude Test, which was higher in males. There was a marked difference in the self-rating results between the genders, with female participants reporting an unfounded lower expectation of their own performance. Conclusions: This study shows a statistically significant correlation between the validated Flying Aptitude Test scores in both open and laparoscopic simulation tests. This study has shown an equally good performance from female medical students compared to their male peers in the Flying Aptitude Test as well as the Laparoscopic and Basic Surgical Skills Tests in this study. A surgical aptitude test such as the Flying Aptitude Test could be potentially incorporated into early post graduate training to inspire graduates into a career in surgery. Such aptitude test may encourage self-actualisation and empowerment of female trainees into believing in their own potential technical ability and challenge the gender gap in the speciality

Corporate Image and Reputation in the Shipping Industry in Four Asian Countries: Republic of Korea, China, Japan, and Thailand

This study aims to analyze the perceptions regarding shipping companies corporate image and reputation in Republic of Korea, China, Japan, and Thailand. For this study, the shipping industry is confined to the bulk and container shipping sectors to prevent confusion arising from the different sectors. An international questionnaire survey was administered in each country. The participants were asked to report their perceptions on eight indicators of corporate image and seven indicators of corporate reputation relating to the shipping companies. Descriptive analyses and a one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted using SPSS 20. Findings show that there are significant differences in perceptions concerning corporate image and reputation among four countries. Some cases show significant differences in the analyses in line with demographic characteristics. While China shows the highest scores in most variables, Korea is revealed to have the lowest scores. The results indicate the need to develop programs for improving the external positive perceptions of the shipping companies, as well as to broaden the scope of marketing activities targeting the general public. This study is of critical importance as it discusses relatively ignored but important issues by conducting comparative research in four major Asian countries comprehensively, particularly targeting samples rarely considered in the empirical shipping-related studies despite their significance to academic development. Further research is required to demonstrate the effectiveness of the findings by applying the measures in different national contexts with a more diverse group of samples

Tracing high redshift cosmic web with quasar systems

We trace the cosmic web at redshifts 1.0 <= z <= 1.8 using the quasar data from the SDSS DR7 QSO catalogue (Schneider et al. 2010). We apply a friend-of-friend (FoF) algorithm to the quasar and random catalogues to determine systems at a series of linking lengths, and analyse richness and sizes of these systems. At the linking lengths l <= 30 Mpc/h the number of quasar systems is larger than the number of systems detected in random catalogues, and systems themselves have smaller diameters than random systems. The diameters of quasar systems are comparable to the sizes of poor galaxy superclusters in the local Universe, the richest quasar systems have four members. The mean space density of quasar systems is close to the mean space density of local rich superclusters. At intermediate linking lengths (40 <= l <= 70 Mpc/h) the richness and length of quasar systems are similar to those derived from random catalogues. Quasar system diameters are similar to the sizes of rich superclusters and supercluster chains in the local Universe. At the linking length 70 Mpc/h the richest systems of quasars have diameters exceeding 500 Mpc/h. The percolating system which penetrate the whole sample volume appears in quasar sample at smaller linking length than in random samples (85 Mpc/h). Quasar luminosities in systems are not correlated with the system richness. Quasar system catalogues at our web pages http://www.aai.ee/~maret/QSOsystems.html serve as a database to search for superclusters of galaxies and to trace the cosmic web at high redshifts.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic