Status Quo of Progress Testing in Veterinary Medical Education and Lessons Learned

Progress testing is an assessment tool for longitudinal measurement of increase in knowledge of a specific group, e.g., students, which is well-known in medical education. This article gives an overview of progress testing in veterinary education with a focus on the progress test of the German-speaking countries. The "progress test veterinary medicine" (PTT) was developed in 2013 as part of a project by the Competence Centre for E-Learning, Didactics and Educational Research in Veterinary Medicine-a project cooperation of all German-speaking institutes for veterinary medicine in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. After the end of the project, the PTT was still continued at six locations, at each of the five German schools for veterinary medicine and additionally in Austria. Further changes to the PTT platform and the analysis were carried out to optimize the PTT for continuing to offer the test from 2017 to 2019. The PTT is an interdisciplinary, formative electronic online test. It is taken annually and is composed of 136 multiple-choice single best answer questions. In addition, a "don't know" option is given. The content of the PTT refers to the day 1 competencies described by the European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education. The platform Q-Exam (R) Institutions (IQuL GmbH, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany) is used for creating and administrating the PTT questions, the review processes and organizing of the online question database. After compiling the test by means of a blueprint, the PTT file is made available at every location. After the last PTT in 2018, the link to an evaluation was sent to the students from four out of these six partner Universities. The 450 analyzed questionnaires showed that the students mainly use the PTT to compare their individual results with those of fellow students in the respective semester. To conclude our study, a checklist with our main findings for implementing progress testing was created

Teaching small animal reproduction via virtual patients

Virtual patients have become an interesting alternative in medical education. Due to increasing demands regarding theoretical and clinical teaching and to improve an interdisciplinary approach, a new blended learning concept including virtual patients was developed and implemented in the veterinary curriculum of the Freie Universität Berlin. In the presented project, three virtual patients from the field of canine reproduction were developed. They focus on pregnancy diagnosis with suspected luteal insufficiency, pyometra and benign prostatic hyperplasia, respectively. The results of an evaluation by veterinary students of the 7th semester showed a high acceptance of virtual patients in a blended learning reproduction module in the interdisciplinary lectures. Students especially preferred videos, such as video lectures, hands‐on videos and animations as well as a glossary for background information, to successfully and autonomously work on a virtual case. The content covered by the new modules that were developed in the context of this project is part of a spiral curriculum; they will be revised and enhanced during the clinical year

Workplace risk factors for cancer in the German rubber industry: Part 1. Mortality from respiratory cancers

OBJECTIVES: To determine the cancer specific mortality by work area among active and retired male workers in the German rubber industry. METHODS: A cohort of 11,663 male German workers was followed up for mortality from 1 January 1981 to 31 December 1991. Cohort members were classified as active (n = 7536) or retired (n = 4127) as of 1 January 1981 and had been employed for at least one year in one of five study plants producing tyres or technical rubber goods. Work histories were reconstructed with routinely documented "cost centre codes" which were classified into six categories: I preparation of materials; II production of technical rubber goods; III production of tyres; IV storage and dispatch; V maintenance; and VI others. Standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) adjusted for age and calendar year and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs), stratified by work area (employment in respective work area for at least one year) and time related variables (year of hire, lagged years of employment in work area), were calculated from national reference rates. RESULTS: SMRs for laryngeal cancer were highest in work area I (SMR 253; 95% CI 93 to 551) and were significant among workers who were employed for > 10 years in this work area (SMR 330; 95% CI 107 to 779). Increased mortality rates from lung cancer were identified in work areas I (SMR 162; 95% CI 129 to 202), II (SMR 134; 95% CI 109 to 163), and V (SMR 131; 95% CI 102 to 167). Mortality from pleural cancer was increased in all six work areas, and significant excesses were found in work areas I (SMR 448; 95% CI 122 to 1146), II (SMR 505; 95% CI 202 to 1040), and V (SMR 554; 95% CI 179 to 1290). CONCLUSION: A causal relation between the excess of pleural cancer and exposure to asbestos among rubber workers is plausible and likely. In this study, the pattern of excess of lung cancer parallels the pattern of excess of pleural cancer. This points to asbestos as one risk factor for the excess deaths from lung cancer among rubber workers. The study provides further evidence for an increased mortality from laryngeal cancer among workers in the rubber industry, particularly in work area I

Medical physics and imaging-a timely perspective

Radiolog

Avoiding Chatter by Means of Active Damping Systems for Machine Tools

Chatter in machining processes is strong dependent on the dynamic compliance behaviour of the machine tool and workpiece. The critical cutting depth where chatter occurs is in inverse proportion to the absolute value of the negative real part of the complex dynamic compliance response function of the machine tool. Therefore, while designing a machine tool, its dynamic behaviour should be investigated and optimized, e.g. by using the finite element method. If further design optimization are not possible, active damping system might help avoiding chatter of the machine tool. Active damping systems can compensate the dynamic displacements between tool centre point of the machine tool and workpiece by applying dynamically correlated external energ (e.g. compensation forces) onto the machine structure. Next to an explanation of the general idea and systemizatio of active damping systems, this paper gives examples of recent research activities in the field of active damping systems for machine tools of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of Aachen University, Germany. The main challenges while designing active damping systems for machine tools are carved out