Equal Difficulty Research Articles

Face identification proficiency test designed using item response theory.

Measures of face-identification proficiency are essential to ensure accurate and consistent performance by professional forensic face examiners and others who perform face-identification tasks in applied scenarios. Current proficiency tests rely on static sets of stimulus items and so cannot be administered validly to the same individual multiple times. To create a proficiency test, a large number of items of "known" difficulty must be assembled. Multiple tests of equal difficulty can be constructed then using subsets of items. We introduce the Triad Identity Matching (TIM) test and evaluate it using item response theory (IRT). Participants view face-image "triads" (N = 225) (two images of one identity, one image of a different identity) and select the different identity. In Experiment3, university students (N = 197) showed wide-ranging accuracy on the TIM test, and IRT modeling demonstrated that the TIM items span various difficulty levels. In Experiment3, we used IRT-based item metrics to partition the test into subsets of specific difficulties. Simulations showed that subsets of the TIM items yielded reliable estimates of subject ability. In Experiments3a and b, we found that the student-derived IRT model reliably evaluated the ability of non-student participants and that ability generalized across different test sessions. In Experiment3c, we show that TIM test performance correlates with other common face-recognition tests. In summary, the TIM test provides a starting point for developing a framework that is flexible and calibrated to measure proficiency across various ability levels (e.g., professionals or populations with face-processing deficits).

What Affects the Quality of Score Transformations? Potential Issues in True-Score Equating Using the Partial Credit Model.

This simulation study investigated to what extent departures from construct similarity as well as differences in the difficulty and targeting of scales impact the score transformation when scales are equated by means of concurrent calibration using the partial credit model with a common person design. Practical implications of the simulation results are discussed with a focus on scale equating in health-related research settings. The study simulated data for two scales, varying the number of items and the sample sizes. The factor correlation between scales was used to operationalize construct similarity. Targeting of the scales was operationalized through increasing departure from equal difficulty and by varying the dispersion of the item and person parameters in each scale. The results show that low similarity between scales goes along with lower transformation precision. In cases with equal levels of similarity, precision improves in settings where the range of the item parameters is encompassing the person parameters range. With decreasing similarity, score transformation precision benefits more from good targeting. Difficulty shifts up to two logits somewhat increased the estimation bias but without affecting the transformation precision. The observed robustness against difficulty shifts supports the advantage of applying a true-score equating methods over identity equating, which was used as a naive baseline method for comparison. Finally, larger sample size did not improve the transformation precision in this study, longer scales improved only marginally the quality of the equating. The insights from the simulation study are used in a real-data example.

The final step effect

Abstract Suppose you need to complete a task of 5 steps, each of which has equal difficulty and pass rate. You somehow have a privilege that can ensure you pass one of the steps, but you need to decide which step to be privileged before you start the task. Which step do you want to privilege? Mathematically speaking, the effect of each step on the final outcome is identical, and so there seems to be no prima facie reason for a preference. Five studies were conducted to explore this issue. In Study 1, participants could place the privilege on any of steps 1–5. Participants were most inclined to privilege step 5. In Study 2, participants needed to pay some money to purchase the privilege for steps 1–5, respectively. Participants would pay most money for step 5. Study 3 directly reminded participants that the probability of success of the whole task is mathematically the same, no matter on which step the privilege is placed, but most of the participants still prefer to privilege the final step. Study 4 supposed that the outcomes of all steps were not announced until all steps were finished, and asked how painful participants would feel if they passed all steps but one. People thought they would feel most painful when they failed at the final step. In Study 5, an implicit association test showed that people associated the first step with easy and the final step with hard. These results demonstrated the phenomenon of the final step effect and suggested that both anticipated painfulness and stereotype may play a role in this phenomenon.

El bienestar del cirujano ginecológico mejora con la cirugía asistida por robot

Objectives: To demonstrate that robotic surgery benefits the ergonomics of the surgeon and his assistant compared to conventional laparoscopy through an ergonomics and satisfaction survey. Methods: Cross-sectional observational study of consecutive gynecological surgeries, which involve at least one hysterectomy, performed with robotic assistance (Da Vinci System) or with conventional laparoscopy at the Hospital Clínico San Carlos during the years 2008 and 2021. A questionnaire was administered to the main surgeon and the assistant in order to know their subjective impressions regarding comfort, ergonomics, and satisfaction with the da Vinci robotic system or laparoscopy. The responses were collected using a visual analog scale that scored from 1 (worst condition) to 10 (best condition). The comparison of the variables was made using the Student’s t test or the Mann-Whitney U test for independent samples. Significance was considered with a value of p<0.05. Results: A complete response to the questionnaire was obtained in 384 out of 451 cases (242 robotic and 142 laparoscopic). With equal difficulty perceived by the main surgeon, robotic surgery was rated as less tiring, more comfortable, and with less limb and back pain than laparoscopic surgery (p<0.001). The surgeon considered that the 3D vision, the articulation of the instrument and the ergonomics offered by robotics were relevant, as well as that robotics, was an advance over laparoscopy and open surgery regardless of the level of experience or the complexity of the procedure. No differences were found between robotic and laparoscopic surgery in the assistant assessment, except when the assistant was a senior surgeon, who found a better degree of comfort and less limb pain in the robotic approach (p<0.05). Conclusions: Robotic surgery has clear advantages for the surgeon, since it increases the degree of satisfaction and comfort, reducing fatigue and discomfort due to the position compared to conventional laparoscopy regardless surgeon’s experience and complexity of the intervention.

Effectiveness of project-based learning in pharmacology as a teaching learning tool for second MBBS students in a medical college in South India

Background: Being a vast, volatile and dynamic subject, innovative teaching learning methods are required to generate student’s interest in learning Pharmacology. Aims and Objectives: The aim of the study was to study the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL) program (preparation of a poster or building a model) in improving learning in Pharmacology and to obtain student feedback on the program. Materials and Methods: Twenty-one topics with equal difficulty level were selected from the “must know” portions in Pharmacology. 97 students of second professional MBBS were divided into 12 groups for building a model and nine groups for preparing a poster. Groups for preparing a model had minimum five members and groups for preparing a poster had minimum four members in each group. They were asked to prepare the project based on the topic in 1 month as group task. On the day of the submission, one of the group members presented the model/poster and all other students attended the presentation. A test of ten questions (section A) was done on the students before the presentation which was entirely based on their own project. On the same day, pre-test (section B) having 20 questions, one from each topic was done before the presentation. Post-test was done for all the students immediately after the presentations and also after 1 week. Feedback forms were given to the students after the presentation. Data collected from both the projects were analyzed separately. Results: The improvement in immediate post-test was significant in students involved in both the projects compared to the pretest results. In the individual project assessment, ≥50% marks were scored by 89.8% of the students involved in model building and 87.9% of the students involved in poster preparation. 46 students (78%) involved in model building and 24 students(72.7%)involved in the poster preparation opined that the overall process of preparing and presenting the poster/model was extremely enjoyable. 49 students (83.05%) involved in model building and 28 students (84.8%) involved in poster preparation opined that the project work was extremely helpful in understanding the topic. Conclusion: PBL can be incorporated as a novel teaching learning tool in Pharmacology.

Comparing Presence, Workload, and Performance in Desktop and Virtual Reality Flight Simulations

Virtual reality (VR) offers a training environment that promotes increased learning and performance. However, to what extent VR flight simulations offer increased performance compared to less-immersive simulators is not clear, and neither are their underlying cognitive aspects. In a within-subject experiment, we compared fight performance and subjective measures of workload, presence, and engagement in two flight training environments (Desktop and VR) on two flight tasks of equal difficulty (changing speed and performing turns). No differences were observed in the flight performance between these conditions. However, participants reported higher presence and engagement in the VR training environment. Additionally, we found a correlation between subjective workload and flight performance in the Desktop condition, but not in VR. We conclude that VR is promising for basic flight training tasks and encourage future work to explore this further by investigating neurophysiological indices of workload and engagement and establishing relationships between presence, workload, and flight performance.

P-264 ICM segmentation is impacted by several factors for humans as well for AI models but AI models show consistency

Abstract Study question Challenges associated with segmenting Inner Cell Mass (ICM): which factors affect efficacy and/or cause variation for humans and AI? Summary answer Efficacy of humans and AI is similarly impacted by four factors (ICM position in embryo, ICM cell numbers, compaction, focus) but AI is more consistent. What is known already Traditional embryo evaluation methods are based on visual quality assessment by qualified embryologists. The morphological analysis of a blastocyst on a static image is subjective and time consuming and depends strongly on embryologist knowledge and experience. Although grading systems, like Gardner system, aim to standardize quality assessment and AI models improve objectivity by agreeing with consensus, there are still disparities. Blastocyst quality assessment is generally based on three morphological components: ICM, Trophectoderm and expansion. Difficulties to properly detect one or the other can lead to different evaluations. In this study, we focus on the detection of ICM. Study design, size, duration The comparative observational study was conducted on 201 images retrospectively extracted from embryo timelapse at blastocyst stage from a French clinic collected in 2018 and 2019. Three qualified embryologists (E1, E2, E3) annotated the dataset, by drawing the ICM area on the image with the open-source CVAT annotation tool (https://openvinotoolkit.github.io/cvat/) to generate the ICM masks. E1 added to the B1 annotations information concerning ICM positioning relative to embryo, focus, compaction, ICM cell number. Participants/materials, setting, methods The dataset was split into two batches : B1 containing 60 embryos annotated twice by the embryologists (B11, B12) and B2 containing 141 embryos annotated once. A Deeplab model with Resnet101 backbone model was trained to detect the ICM on 102 images B2 annotated by E1 augmented up to 3672 images by rotating each image by 10 degrees to cover 360 degrees and optimized on 29 left images. It generated prediction masks on unseen B1. Main results and the role of chance Inter-operator variation is high in ICM detection on batch 1, embryologists don’t agree with each other according average Intersection over Union (IoU): E1vsE2: 0,52+/-0,3; E2vsE3: 0,46+/-0,4; E1vsE3: 0,51+/-0,3. In the same way, AI raises similar IoU results: AIvsE1: 0,54+/-0,3; AIvsE2: 0,47+/-0,3; AIvsE3: 0,54+/-0,3. Variation between AI and humans (AIvsH) is impacted by the studied factors in the same way than variation between humans (HvsH): Position of the ICM relative to the embryo (IoU middle/side: HvsH: 0,41/0,65, AIvsH: 0,46/0,59); ICM Cell Number (Lots/In between/Few: HvsH: 0,70/0,49/0,48 AIvsH: 0,67/0,49/0,48); Compaction (Compacted/Mostly compacted/Mostly dispersed: HvsH: 0,69/0,58/0,46, AIvsH: 0,70/0,56/0,45); Focus (In Focus/Partially/Not in focus: HvsH: 0,68/0,58/0,39, AIvsH: 0,64/0,58/0,41). Even though AI has equal difficulties as humans to detect ICM at least the AI models are consistent. Intra-operator variations on B1 are: E1: 0,70; E2: 0,69; E3: 0,86; AI:1. Limitations, reasons for caution On the human side, the annotators were trained at different clinics before annotating the images. On the AI side, the results could be improved by using a larger volume of images. Both sides are impacted by the lack of context: one static image from one focal. Wider implications of the findings These four factors should be taken into account when training embryologists or models to detect ICM in a blastocyst image. Using videos or several focals may reduce variations but then human analysis becomes time-consuming and sensitive to other factors (fatigue, repetitiveness), then using AI can become essential and more consistent. Trial registration number not applicable

Inquiry learning-An effective E learning approach for knowledge retention

Background: COVID-19 pandemic has given pace to the existing E-learning methods in medical education. Prerecorded video lectures (LL) and online inquiry learning (IL) are two online teaching learning methods. In online recorded classes, more of a teacher centric learning happens. Inquiry learning, a problem based learning method, the learning process is student centric. It is important to find out which one of these virtual approaches to teaching and learning is having a better outcome to plan the delivery of academic contents more effectively.Aim and Objective: To determine whether online inquiry based learning or lecture based learning is more effective education method in Phase 1 MBBS students. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in 100 students from phase 1 MBBS who gave written informed consent. They had undergone LL and IL for three sets of topics in Physiology of equal difficulty level each. Knowledge acquisition and retention of knowledge by each method were assessed by multiple choice tests conducted soon after intervention and two weeks later and the marks were analyzed using independent student T test.

Return to Physical Activity Following Flatfoot Reconstruction.

Progressive collapsing foot deformity (PCFD) is a debilitating condition encompassing several interrelated, progressive deformities requiring a combination of reconstructive procedures. Few studies investigate returns to activity following flatfoot reconstruction, and existing studies only examine 1 or 2 of the numerous procedures employed. This study aims to provide the first generalizable assessment of returns to sports and physical activity following reconstruction surgery in patients with flexible flatfoot deformity. Patients aged 18-60 years who underwent reconstructive surgery between February 16 and May 19 for symptomatic flexible-stage flatfoot deformity were identified by registry review. Eighty-two of 113 eligible patients (73%) were reached at a mean 2.9 years (range, 2.0-5.4) of follow-up with mean age at surgery of 48.9 years (range, 18-59). Returns to physical activity were evaluated with a sports-specific survey. Clinical outcomes were evaluated with Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) scores. Patients reported participation in 21 specific sports and activities. One-fourth (25.6%) of patients (21/82) reported increased difficulty with physical activities postoperatively, 15.9% reported equal difficulty, and 58.5% (48/82) reported decreased difficulty. Median return times were 9-12 months for participation and 12-18 months to reach maximum preoperative participation levels. Improvements in Physical Function (P= .001), Pain Interference (P < .001), Pain Intensity (P <.001), and Global Physical Health (P = .004) were associated with increased satisfaction with respect to sports and physical activities. This study investigated participation in specific sports and physical activities following flatfoot reconstruction. Our findings suggest mixed outcomes, where many patients reported life-changing improvements but many also experienced prolonged pain and difficulty after surgery. Some patients reported increased difficulty or inability to return to their preoperative maximum level of participation, indicating that flatfoot reconstructions can lead to athletic limitations. Although flatfoot reconstruction can be a powerful tool to increase patients' capacity to engage in physical activity, in our cohort many patients had reduced physical activity outcomes. Level IV, retrospective case series.

Longitudinal measurement of growth in vocabulary size using Rasch-based test equating

The purpose of this study is to equate and further validate three forms of the vocabulary size test (VST) created by Aizawa and Mochizuki (2010). These three forms, VST 1, 2, and 3, were administered to a cohort of 189 high school students ranging in age from 16 to 18 in April of their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year of high school. Although these alternate forms were designed to be of equal difficulty, formal equating of the three forms was never carried out. In order to verify whether gains in test scores were due to growth in vocabulary size or differences in difficulty among the three forms, a fourth form comprised of items selected from VST 1–3 was created and administered in December of year 3. The four test forms were then equated using Rasch analysis, placing persons and items on a single, uniform logit scale. The results indicated that (1) the three original forms of the VST all showed good fit to the Rasch model, (2) differences in test difficulty among the original three forms were minor, and (3) the four VST forms, linked via a single Rasch analysis, can be appropriately used for estimating gains in students’ VS across their high school career. In addition, follow-up analyses indicated considerable overlap in item difficulty among word frequency bands, suggesting that word frequency was not the sole indicator of difficulty of vocabulary items, and that learner progress in vocabulary learning tended to be uniform and parallel across all frequency bands. Overall, the study illustrates a method for creating a valid and reliable measure of growth in VS over an extended period of time and provides insight into the relationships among word frequency, word difficulty, and progress in vocabulary learning.

Effectiveness of Knotless Barbed Sutures for Intraoral Closure after Impacted Mandibular Third Molar Surgery: A Split Mouth Randomized Clinical Trial

Objectives: The purpose of this clinical trial is to assess the efficiency of 3-0 knotless barbed suture (polydioxanone) with 4-0 polyglactin 910 (vicryl) in wound closure following impacted mandibular third molar surgery.&#x0D; Methods: The split-mouth study involved 20 patients who were referred to the Oral Surgery Clinic at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery for bilateral mandibular third molar impaction with equal difficulty index. Simple randomization was used to distribute the samples. Following extraction, the wounds were closed with 3-0 knotless sutures for the study group and 4-0 polyglactin 910 (vicryl) for the control group. Following surgical extraction in relation to infected mandibular molars under local anesthesia, the clinical outcome parameters that were measured were (1) time taken to achieve wound closure and hemostasis, and (2) post-operative wound healing using "Landry's wound healing index" on the 1st, 3rd, and 7th post-operative days.&#x0D; Results: In this study, we discovered that the average time taken to approximate a wound was 2.69 minutes for the study group and 4.27 minutes for the control group. The research and control groups had a statistically significant difference in suturing time (p-value&lt; 0.05). On all postoperative review days, wound healing in the study group was shown to be better and statistically significant than in the control group (p-value &lt;0.05).&#x0D; Conclusion: Within the limitations of the present study, knotless barbed suture is a promising alternative to conventional sutures for intra-oral wound closure as it reduces suturing time and facilitates effective wound closure following surgical removal of impacted mandibular third molars.

BICYCLE TOURING EXPERIENCES AS A SOCIALINCLUSION ACTIVITY FOR VISUALLY DISABLED INDIVIDUALS

Purpose - This study is aimed towards examining the experiences of visually impaired people participating in tourism and recreational activities with tandem bicycles and to explain the social integration function of cycling. Design - The research was conducted using qualitative research methods in an exploratory study. Methodology - Data were collected through in-depth interviews with a total of six visually impaired touring cyclists in Turkey. Approach - An inductive approach was used in the study. Findings – After the analysis, four themes were identified: ‘embodied experiences,’ ‘equal difficulties,’ ‘friendships’ and ‘social inclusion.’ First, the analysis revealed that participants embodied experiences of nature, socialisation, freedom, entertainment, and exploration through body performance in a multisensory manner. Second, disabled people have similar challenges as non-disabled people. Third, friendships rather than acquaintances developed between tandem partners with and without visual impairments, which contributed to long-term social inclusion. Finally, cycling tours play an important role in the social inclusion of people with disabilities by facilitating access to the social environment and raising disability awareness Originality of the research - This study contributes to the expansion of theoretical and practical knowledge about the cycling experiences of disabled individuals in tourism and leisure.

Expected passes

Passes are by far football’s (soccer) most frequent event, yet surprisingly little meaningful research has been devoted to quantify them. With the increase in availability of so-called positional data, describing the positioning of players and ball at every moment of the game, our work aims to determine the difficulty of every pass by calculating its success probability based on its surrounding circumstances. As most experts will agree, not all passes are of equal difficulty, however, most traditional metrics count them as such. With our work we can quantify how well players can execute passes, assess their risk profile, and even compute completion probabilities for hypothetical passes by combining physical and machine learning models. Our model uses the first 0.4 seconds of a ball trajectory and the movement vectors of all players to predict the intended target of a pass with an accuracy of 93.0% for successful and 72.0% for unsuccessful passes much higher than any previously published work. Our extreme gradient boosting model can then quantify the likelihood of a successful pass completion towards the identified target with an area under the curve (AUC) of 93.4%. Finally, we discuss several potential applications, like player scouting or evaluating pass decisions.

Word Fluency Test Performance in Primary Progressive Aphasia and Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech.

Purpose This study compared performance on three-word fluency measures among individuals with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) and primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS), and examined the relationship between word fluency and other measures of language and speech. Method This study included 106 adults with PPA and 30 adults with PPAOS. PPA participants were divided into three clinical subgroups: semantic (svPPA), logopenic (lvPPA), and nonfluent/agrammatic with or without apraxia of speech (nfPPA). Category fluency, letter fluency, and action/verb fluency tasks were administered to all participants. Results The four clinical groups performed abnormally on the word fluency measures, although not to a degree that represented high sensitivity to their PPA or PPAOS diagnosis. All PPA subgroups produced fewer words compared to individuals with PPAOS on all word fluency measures. Moderate correlations were found between word fluency and aphasia severity and naming performance in some of the clinical groups. Conclusions Word fluency measures are often challenging for individuals with PPA and PPAOS, but they are not of equal difficulty, with letter fluency being the most difficult. Differences among word fluency tests also vary to some degree as a function of the clinical group in question, with least impairment in PPAOS. However, the findings of this study do not support statistically significant differences in word fluency task performance among the PPA subgroups. Correlations suggest that word fluency performance in PPA is at least partly related to aphasia severity.

La logoaudiometría en Gallego

Se presenta el material fonético necesario para la determinación del umbral de recepción verbal y la discriminación en adultos y listas de palabras infantiles para la discriminación en niños, recopilado en disco compacto digital para la realización de la logoaudiometría. Material y método.- Seguimos los criterios expuestos en 1952 por Hirsch, Davis y Silverman (6): igual dificultad entre una palabra y otra en el material para umbral de recepción verbal y para el material de discriminación, composición fonética de cada lista, curvas y parámetros de referencia preliminares, grabación correcta del material seleccionado, método de calibraje de la grabación; y los criterios recogidos por Mª Rosa de Cárdenas y Victoria Marrero (4) para confeccionar y grabar las listas de palabras (polisí- labas para el umbral y ponderadas para discriminación) en castellano y en disco digital. Para el idioma Gallego seguimos las listas de la Dra Isabel Alvaro (5) en su tesis doctoral, modificadas y ampliadas por nosotros. Utilizamos un audiómetro Belton 2000 de dos canales y un reproductor de discos compactos, aplicando las normativas IEC de 1979 y la ISO 8253-3 de 1992. Resultados.- Presentamos en DC las listas de palabras en Gallego de la siguiente forma: Pista 1 de calibrado, pistas 2 y 3 listas de palabras para la determinación del umbral de recepción verbal, pistas 4 a 13 listas de palabras para la discriminación, pistas 14 al 19 listas de palabras infantiles para la discriminación. Conclusiones.- Presentamos un material fonético en Gallego no existente hasta la actualidad editado en disco compacto para la realización de la logoaudiometría de forma estable, reproducible y con la ventaja de ser una grabación digital.

The Evolution of Suffering, Epiphenomenalism, and the Phenomena of Life: Evidential Problems for Naturalists

Paul Draper argues that the central issue in the debate over the problem of suffering is not whether the theist can offer a probable explanation of suffering, but whether theism or naturalism can give a better explanation for the facts regarding the distribution of pain as we find them. He likewise maintains a comparison of relative probabilities considering the facts of suffering; atheological naturalism is to be preferred. This essay proceeds in two phases: (a) It will be argued that mainstream positions in naturalistic philosophy of mind make it difficult to take pain as anything but epiphenomenal and therefore not subject to evolutionary explanation. While the distribution of suffering is a difficulty for the theist, the naturalist has equal difficulty explaining the fact that there is any suffering at all in the first place. Thus, the facts of suffering offer no advantage to the atheist. (b) Phenomenologists suggest that there is an intrinsic connection between animal life, pain, and normativity (including a summum bonum). The mere occurrence of life and normativity are, at least prima facie, more likely on the assumption of theism than atheism, so the theist may have a probabilistic advantage relative to the atheist. Phases (a) and (b) together support the overall conclusion that the facts of pain as we find them in the world (including that there is any pain at all) are at least as great, if not greater, a challenge for the atheist as they are the theist.

Development and Validation of Tulu Sentence Lists to Test Speech Recognition Threshold in Noise

Introduction We aimed to develop sentence lists in Tulu language to measure speech recognition thresholds (SRTs) in noise and verify the equivalence of the developed lists in noise among individuals with normal hearing. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in three phases; first, the developmental phase, collection, and development of the sentence material in the Tulu language were carried out. Sentences rated highly familiar/familiar and highly natural/natural by 80% of the raters were considered for the next phase. In the second phase, 22 sentence lists were prepared, with each list containing ten sentences of equal difficulty level in noise. The difficulty level was matched mainly based on the similarity (±1 standard deviation [SD]) of signal-to-noise ratio 50 (SNR-50), the slope of the sentences, the number of content words, and phonemes. The third phase evaluated the equivalency of developed sentence lists. Sixty-two native Tulu speakers with normal hearing sensitivity, aged between 18 and 39 years, participated. Of these 62 participants, twelve were recruited for the first phase, 20 individuals participated in the second phase, and 30 participated in the third phase. Results Thirteen sentence lists were equivalent and were a reliable measure of SNR-50 in native speakers of Tulu who have hearing sensitivity within normal limits. Using the sentence scoring method, the average SNR-50 of these sentence lists was − 4.19 dB with a SD of 0.21 dB. The developed sentences also had less within-subject variability than between-subject variability. Conclusions These 13 equivalent sentence lists provide a valid and reliable tool to measure the SRT in noise in native Tulu speakers with hearing sensitivity within normal limits.

EFFECT OF WEARING DIFFERENT TYPES OF FACE MASKS FOR PROLONGED PERIOD OF TIME ON BREATHLESSNESS &amp; PERCEPTION IN HEALTH CARE WORKERS - AN OBSERVATIONAL STUDY

Background- The coronavirus disease, which originated in the city of Wuhan, China, has quickly spread to various countries, with many cases having been reported worldwide. As of May 8th, 2020, in India, 56,342 positive cases have been reported. Masks can help prevent the spread of the virus from the person wearing the mask to others. HCWs need to wear the mask for prolonged period of time as they come in contact with various people and so there are many adverse effects of the mask on the body such as breathlessness etc. Masks include mainly 3 types: N-95 respirators, surgical masks, cloth masks. Methods-The study was conducted at vikhe patil medical hospital and college of Physiotherapy, Ahmednagar.Pre and Post experiences of breathlessness and perception were compared. Result- We have analyzed that N-95 Respirators cause maximum Breathlessness compared to Surgical and cloth masks. In case of feeling stress, N-95 Respirators were the major reason, followed by Surgical Masks.Surgical and N95 Respirators create equal difficulties in communication.Causing pain on posterior aspect of the ear, as well as headache is seen more in N-95 respirators. But while using masks, N-95 has created less agitation compared to Surgical and Cloth Masks. Conclusion- We can conclude that even N-95 is major cause of difficulties, Other masks are creating near about same difficulties but N-95 gives maximum safety. So,preferring N-95 Respirators is a good choice even after having more difficulties.

GFMT2: A psychometric measure of face matching ability.

We present an expanded version of a widely used measure of unfamiliar face matching ability, the Glasgow Face Matching Test (GFMT). The GFMT2 is created using the same source database as the original test but makes five key improvements. First, the test items include variation in head angle, pose, expression and subject-to-camera distance, making the new test more difficult and more representative of challenges in everyday face identification tasks. Second, short and long versions of the test each contain two forms that are calibrated to be of equal difficulty, allowing repeat tests to be performed to examine effects of training interventions. Third, the short-form tests contain no repeating face identities, thereby removing any confounding effects of familiarity that may have been present in the original test. Fourth, separate short versions are created to target exceptionally high performing or exceptionally low performing individuals using established psychometric principles. Fifth, all tests are implemented in an executable program, allowing them to be administered automatically. All tests are available free for scientific use via www.gfmt2.org .

Role of Learning Approach in Determining Learning Outcome During Active and Passive Learning Sessions in Pharmacology

Abstract: Objectives: The objective of the study is to estimate the difference in knowledge gain between the students of varied learning approaches during didactic lectures and concept mapping lectures. Materials and Methods: The study participants included 118 secondyear medical undergraduate students. The learning approaches of the participants were assessed using the ASSIST questionnaire on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Two lectures in pharmacology subject were taken using the concept mapping technique and two lectures were taken in didactic format with an equal difficulty level. The students’ prior knowledge was assessed using 40 MCQ’s that were given 4 days before the commencement of the lectures with 10 MCQs from each topic. The same questions were given to the students 3 weeks after the completion of the each lecture. Results: The score improvement of the three categories of learners was significantly higher for concept mapping session when compared to the didactic lectures. There was no significant difference in the score improvement between the surface, strategic and deep learners in both didactic and concept mapping sessions. Conclusion: The learning approach did not influence the long-term knowledge retention following didactic and concept mapping sessions. Learners study strategy and the mode of assessment could play a role in determining the knowledge outcome. Keywords: Learning approach, Deep learners, Surface learners, Strategic learners, Learning outcome.