Practical tips for teaching academic integrity in the digital age

Background: Medical education, as with other areas of healthcare education, is susceptible to cheating, with national and international examples cited in the literature. There are documented examples in the lay press, but limited scholarly activity in the field, which can be a challenging area to research and tackle. We have begun to explicitly address academic integrity within our undergraduate curriculum, including a focus on plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and covert sharing of questions. We believe this is an important curricular topic as exhibiting unprofessional behaviours can correlate with professional practice and can potentially have implications for practitioners and patients. Aim: To present 12 tips on teaching academic integrity in the digital age to medical students. Method: The tips presented are based on our experiences of teaching academic digital integrity to medical students, primarily in the form of a scenario based quiz. We do also extrapolate from content on academic integrity elsewhere within our professionalism syllabus. Results: The tips suggest that early, contemporary and contextualised material that is co-produced with students may offer a useful prophylactic approach to teaching about academic integrity. Conclusions: The principles presented could be adapted to other healthcare students and settings, including postgraduate education

A piecewise-linear reduced-order model of squeeze-film damping for deformable structures including large displacement effects

This paper presents a reduced-order model for the Reynolds equation for deformable structure and large displacements. It is based on the model established in [11] which is piece-wise linearized using two different methods. The advantages and drawbacks of each method are pointed out. The pull-in time of a microswitch is determined and compared to experimental and other simulation data.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

The benefit of high-resolution operational weather forecasts for flash flood warning

International audienceIn Mediterranean Europe, flash flooding is one of the most devastating hazards in terms of human life loss and infrastructures. Over the last two decades, flash floods brought losses of a billion Euros of damage in France alone. One of the problems of flash floods is that warning times are very short, leaving typically only a few hours for civil protection services to act. This study investigates if operationally available shortrange numerical weather forecasts together with a rainfall-runoff model can be used as early indication for the occurrence of flash floods. One of the challenges in flash flood forecasting is that the watersheds are typically small and good observational networks of both rainfall and discharge are rare. Therefore, hydrological models are difficult to calibrate and the simulated river discharges cannot always be compared with ground "truth". The lack of observations in most flash flood prone basins, therefore, lead to develop a method where the excess of the simulated discharge above a critical threshold can provide the forecaster with an indication of potential flood hazard in the area with leadtimes of the order of the weather forecasts. This study is focused on the Cévennes-Vivarais region in the Southeast of the Massif Central in France, a region known for devastating flash floods. The critical aspects of using numerical weather forecasting for flash flood forecasting are being described together with a threshold – exceedance. As case study the severe flash flood event which took place on 8–9 September 2002 has been chosen. The short-range weather forecasts, from the Lokalmodell of the German national weather service, are driving the LISFLOOD model, a hybrid between conceptual and physically based rainfall-runoff model. Results of the study indicate that high resolution operational weather forecasting combined with a rainfall-runoff model could be useful to determine flash floods more than 24 hours in advance

Calcium-sensing receptor activation increases cell-cell adhesion and ß-cell function

Background/Aims: The extracellular calcium-sensing receptor (CaR) is expressed in pancreatic β-cells where it is thought to facilitate cell-to-cell communication and augment insulin secretion. However, it is unknown how CaR activation improves β-cell function. Methods: Immunocytochemistry and western blotting confirmed the expression of CaR in MIN6 β-cell line. The calcimimetic R568 (1µM) was used to increase the affinity of the CaR and specifically activate the receptor at a physiologically appropriate extracellular calcium concentration. Incorporation of 5-bromo-2’-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was used to measure cell proliferation, whilst changes in non-nutrient-evoked cytosolic calcium were assessed using fura-2-microfluorimetry. AFM-single-cell-force spectroscopy related CaR-evoked changes in epithelial (E)-cadherin expression to improved functional tethering between coupled cells. Results: Activation of the CaR over 48hr doubled the expression of E-cadherin (206±41%) and increased L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel expression by 70% compared to control. These changes produced a 30% increase in cell-cell tethering and elevated the basal-to-peak amplitude of ATP (50µM) and tolbutamide (100µM)-evoked changes in cytosolic calcium. Activation of the receptor also increased PD98059 (1-100µM) and SU1498 (1-100µM)-dependent β-cell proliferation. Conclusion: Our data suggest that activation of the CaR increases E-cadherin mediated functional tethering between β-cells and increases expression of L-type VDCC and secretagogue-evoked changes in [Ca2+]i. These findings could explain how local changes in calcium, co-released with insulin, activate the CaR on neighbouring cells to help ensure efficient and appropriate secretory function

Generalization of Tichonov and Hausdorff ‎Separation Axiomes in Intuitionistic Fuzzy ‎Special Topological Spaces

هدفنا من هذا البحث هو تعميم تعريف بديهية فصل تيكنوف وبديهية الفصل هاوسدورف  في الفضاءات التبولوجية  الحدسية الخاصة ودراسة العلاقات بين هذه الفضاءات مع الفضاءات التبولوجية الحدسية الخاصة  من نوع  (X, τ2) و (X, τ1) من جهة والفضاءات التبولوجية الحدسية الخاصة  من نوع (X, τ 0,2)و  (X, τ0,1)  من جهة اخرىOur goal in this paper is to give definitions of generalized of Tichonov and Hausdorff separation axioms in intuitionistic fuzzy special topological spaces, and study relationships between these spaces with the intuitionistic special topological spaces (X, τ0,1) and (X, τ 0,2) on one hand and intuitionistic fuzzy special topological spaces (X, τ1) and (X, τ2) on the other han

Historical Building Monitoring Using an Energy-Efficient Scalable Wireless Sensor Network Architecture

We present a set of novel low power wireless sensor nodes designed for monitoring wooden masterpieces and historical buildings, in order to perform an early detection of pests. Although our previous star-based system configuration has been in operation for more than 13 years, it does not scale well for sensorization of large buildings or when deploying hundreds of nodes. In this paper we demonstrate the feasibility of a cluster-based dynamic-tree hierarchical Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architecture where realistic assumptions of radio frequency data transmission are applied to cluster construction, and a mix of heterogeneous nodes are used to minimize economic cost of the whole system and maximize power saving of the leaf nodes. Simulation results show that the specialization of a fraction of the nodes by providing better antennas and some energy harvesting techniques can dramatically extend the life of the entire WSN and reduce the cost of the whole system. A demonstration of the proposed architecture with a new routing protocol and applied to termite pest detection has been implemented on a set of new nodes and should last for about 10 years, but it provides better scalability, reliability and deployment properties

DNA Polymorphism of Gaucher Disease in Iraqi Patients

Gaucher disease is the autosomally recessively inherited deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase. Increasing storage of glucocerebrosides leads to a multisystem disease, the prevalence of which is about 1 : 40,000 in central Europe and up to 1 : 2,000 in some other countries (e. g. Israel). The acute and chronic neuronopathic forms of the disease (formerly defined as Gaucher types 2 and 3) account for only 5 to 10% of all Gaucher patients in Central Europe and Germany and are thus less frequent than the nonneuronopathic disease (formerly defined as Gaucher type 1). Gaucher's disease is usually associated with splenoand hepatomegaly, fatigue, skeletal complications, and several corresponding hematological and laboratory abnormalities. In 5 to 10% of the patients there are also central nervous symptoms such as myoclonic seizures, oculomotoric apraxia and a slight mental retardation. Recent epidemiological data indicate that only 10 to 20% of all Gaucher patients are correctly diagnosed (and treated) in Germany. The diagnosis today can be done in all patients by noninvasive methods, i. e. determination of the glucocerebrosidase activity in peripheral leukocytes and of the genetic defect, in this research the PCR technique was used to analyze the mutation in glucocerebrosidases gene (G ---C). Key words: Gaucher disease (GD), lysosomal storage disorder (LSD),lysosomal enzyme glucocerebrosidase, PCR, Mutation

Technical Analysis: Exploring MACD in the Lebanese Stock Market

The stock markets have shown a great growth in the financial world that required traders to deal with many quantitative methods to analyze markets in order to predict commodities’ future prices. This study assesses the effect of technical analysis on the Lebanese stock markets by using a tool known as the Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) oscillator that explores how MACD can be utilized to optimize profits in the Lebanese stock exchange, during the trading process. The study is performed on closing prices of shares of six Lebanese banks and a real estate company, over a time period extending from the beginning of the year 2004 till the end of the year 2014. Results are meant to indicate whether MACD is able to optimize profits and forecast the Lebanese stock prices. It is concluded that the application of MACD in the decision making process for investing in the Lebanese stock market does not significantly contribute to the maximization of profitability on investments

“You’ve been living here for as long as you can remember”: trauma in OMORI's environmental design

Developed by Omocat and released in December 2020, OMORI is a surreal psychological horror role-playing game. The game follows the titular protagonist Omori as it examines such sensitive topics as suicide, grief, death, and depression. Such traumatic events are triggered in several planes of existence—White Space, Headspace, and Black Space—leading to anxiety, regression, and resurfacing trauma. In our article, we examine such representations of trauma with particular attention to the role of environmental design. The planes represent different approaches to memory, trauma, and repression, which Omori and the player navigate in non-linear, recursive paths. We analyze how each space seeks to illuminate and explore aspects of trauma in its respective atmosphere. Through environmental design, OMORI provides players with three distinct experiences with escapism and trauma that are representative of the experiences of trauma victims, ultimately elucidating the psychological phenomenon on a larger scale to de-stigmatize trauma

Farmers' perceptions of climate change and its impact on gum Talha (Acacia seyal var. seyal) production in Bahar Alarab locality, East Darfur State, Sudan

Acacia seyal var. seyal is an essential source of income to farmers in the Bahar Alarab locality in Sudan. Farmers’ perceptions of current climate conditions and their subsequent repercussions on Gum Talha (Acacia seyal var. seyal) production remains poorly investigated and understood. To fill this gap, a survey was carried out within six villages at Bahar Alarab locality in East Darfur State, Sudan, and a total of 391 randomly selected farmers were included in the study. Moreover, rainfall and temperature data over 30 years (1988 – 2020) were analysed. The results revealed that climate change signs were perceived by farmers based on the size of gum production (27.4%), early falling of leaves (26.1%), decline in production (24.3%), and persistent insect attack (22.3%). Moreover, farmers also reported increases (65%) and decreases (19%) in temperature. In contrast, 46.5% of farmers reported that rainfall deficiency was a decreasing factor of production. Accordingly, 69% of respondents perceived an increase in temperature, whereas 49.4% reported a decrease in rainfall frequency. Additionally, the results showed that there was long-term variability in temperature over the past three decades. The results of multinomial logistic regression highlighted that household size is an important factor contributing to the increasing trend of temperature. In addition, the growth and productivity of acacia trees were found to be determinants of farmers’ perception of temperature and precipitation change over the past 30 years. The study suggests a tailored policy that could reduce climate-induced impacts on gum Talha productivity and increase farmers’ gain to avoid poverty in this locality