Inclusive education: pedagogical approach to online versus face-to-face teaching

In today’s educational landscape, active learning is often overlooked during lectures, seminars, and tutorials. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of online and face-to-face lecture formats and their impact on the learning experiences of undergraduate dental students in Years 3–5. This qualitative study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of different lecture formats at the Institute of Dentistry for undergraduate dental students in Years 3–5. There were two specific questions asked to dental undergraduate students with additional free-text questions. In total, 120 of 221 undergraduate students participated in this study between October 2019 and February 2020, and only 42 participants included the free-text comments. Three core themes related to the blended learning approach were identified: (1) scheduled versus recorded lectures, (2) duration of academic lectures, and (3) neurodiversity and learning experiences. The results showed that the learners perceived the traditional didactic lectures as the least effective format. There is not a “one fits all” lecture format that would accommodate a neurodiversity-based approach that focuses on the strengths, abilities, and interests of students. Hybrid lecture formats in combination with online teaching coupled with small group tutorials could be suggested. There is a unique challenge in the post-COVID-19 era for both educators and learners due to the lack of clinical practice and heavy reliance on online methods of teaching in Dentistry. Therefore, the implication of these results on the planning and financing of programmes could be discussed in Higher Education

The strong emergence of molecular structure

One of the most plausible and widely discussed examples of strong emergence is molecular structure. The only detailed account of it, which has been very influential, is due to Robin Hendry and is formulated in terms of downward causation. This paper explains Hendry’s account of the strong emergence of molecular structure and argues that it is coherent only if one assumes a diachronic reflexive notion of downward causation. However, in the context of this notion of downward causation, the strong emergence of molecular structure faces three challenges that have not been met and which have so far remained unnoticed. First, the putative empirical evidence presented for the strong emergence of molecular structure equally undermines supervenience, which is one of the main tenets of strong emergence. Secondly, it is ambiguous how the assumption of determinate nuclear positions is invoked for the support of strong emergence, as the role of this assumption in Hendry’s argument can be interpreted in more than one way. Lastly, there are understandings of causation which render the postulation of a downward causal relation between a molecule’s structure and its quantum mechanical entities, untenable

Are propositional attitudes mental states?

I present an argument that propositional attitudes are not mental states. In a nutshell, the argument is that if propositional attitudes are mental states, then only minded beings could have them; but there are reasons to think that some non-minded beings could bear propositional attitudes. To illustrate this, I appeal to cases of genuine group intentionality. I argue that these are cases in which some group entities bear propositional attitudes, but they are not subjects of mental states. Although propositional attitudes are not mental states, I propose that they are typically co-instantiated with mental states. In an attempt to explain this co-instantiation, I suggest that propositional attitudes of minded beings are typically realized by mental states

Mental Causation and Ontology, edited by S. C. Gibb, E. J. Lowe, and R. D. Ingthorsson.

No abstract available

Investigation of drying conditions to valorize 2-phase olive pomace in further processing

Pre-dried 2-phase olive pomace was dried until 8% moisture content of it by tray dryer. The effect of tray dryer’s process conditions in terms of drying temperature (70–90 °C), air velocity (0.5–1.8 m/s), and sample thickness (0.5–1.5) on the quality of olive pomace and system energy efficiency were investigated. Moreover, tray dryer process parameters were optimized considering of minimum drying time, minimum quality loss of olive pomace, and maximum system energy efficiency. The optimum tray dryer conditions were 85.2 °C of drying temperature, 1.72 m/s of air velocity, and 0.5 cm of sample thickness as specified by using the Design Expert packaged software. The effects of drying temperature, air velocity, and sample thickness on the physical and chemical properties of dried 2-phase olive pomace (free fatty acid and specific absorption value [K232, K270]) and the system’s energy efficiency (in terms of the moisture extraction rate and specific energy consumption) were examined. © 2020 Taylor ; Francis Group, LLC.The authors acknowledge Ege University, Council of Scientific Research Projects (Project Number: 16-MUH-024) for financial support.16-MUH-024; Ege Üniversites

Is late antibiotic prophylaxis effective in the prevention of secondary pancreatic infection?

Background: Secondary infection of the inflamed pancreas is the principal cause of death after severe acute pancreatitis (AP). Although patients are not always managed early in the course of AP in clinical practice, prophylactic antibiotics that were used in experimental studies in rats were always initiated early after induction of pancreatitis. The effectiveness of antibiotics initiated later is unknown. Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of ciprofloxacin and meropenem initiated early versus later in the course of acute necrotizing pancreatitis (ANP) in rats. Methods: 100 Sprague-Dawley rats were studied. ANP was induced in rats by intraductal injection of 3% taurocholate. Rats were divided randomly into five groups: group I rats received normal saline as a placebo, group II and IV rats received three times daily meropenem 60 mg/kg i.p. at 2 and 24 h, respectively and group III and V rats received twice daily ciprofloxacin 50 mg/kg i.p. at 2 and 24 h, respectively, after induction. At 96 h, all rats were killed for quantitative bacteriologic study. A point-scoring system of histological features was used to evaluate the severity of pancreatitis. Results: Meropenem and ciprofloxacin initiated 2 h after induction of pancreatitis significantly reduced the prevalence of pancreatic infection (p 0.05). Although the rats treated early infected less frequently than the rats treated later, the comparison reached statistical significance only in the meropenem group (p < 0.02). Conclusion: Early antibiotic treatment reduces pancreatic infection more efficiently than late antibiotic treatment in ANP in rats. Copyright (C) 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel and IAP

Violence experienced by nurses at six university hospitals in Turkey

WOS: 000330107200004PubMed ID: 23216948This research was conducted to analyse the violence experienced by nurses employed at six university hospitals. A descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted. The research sample consisted of 441 nurses who worked in the emergency, intensive care and psychiatry units of six university hospitals in Turkey between June 2008 and June 2009 and who voluntarily agreed to participate. It was found that 60.8% of the nurses were subjected to verbal violence and/or physical violence from patients, visitors or health staff. Of the nurses who were subjected to workplace violence, 42.9% stated that their experience of verbal and/or physical violence had a negative impact on their physical and/or psychological health, and 42.9% stated that their work performance was negatively affected. Of these nurses, 1.8% stated that they received professional help, 13.6% stated that a report was made and 9.5% stated that they contacted the hospital police in some way. According to the findings of this research, similar to the situation worldwide, nurses in Turkey are subjected to verbal and/or physical violence from patients, visitors and health staff