Four-year Course Research Articles

From electrical engineering to psychology of music: Autobiographical reflections on my research and collaboration in the Japanese context.

ABSTRACT - A passion for radio engineering and an interest in music led the author to studies in electrical engineering followed by research positions in audio engineering at NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation. NHK afforded him the rare opportunity of investigating single-cell recording from auditory neurons of the cat. The experience inspired his development of models of hearing. Later he played a primary role in the invention of the 3-1 multi-channel sound standard for HDTV in Japan. His theoretical and applied background provided a strong foundation for an academic position in the Department of Music at Kyoto City University of Arts. Here, he supervised around 100 graduate theses on a wide variety of topics in music psychology. With Japanese colleagues, he also promoted the field of music psychology both in Japan and internationally, through translation into Japanese of several key books on music psychology, organizing conferences, and establishing the Japanese Society for Music Perception and Cognition. BACKGROUND AND CAREER PATH Ohgushi was born in 1938 in Nagasaki prefecture which is located in the southern part of Japan. At that time, his father worked as a physician at the Navy hospital in Sasebo city in Nagasaki prefecture. The next year, his father changed his residence to China with his family, but they returned to Japan after the end of the Second World War. After the war, most Japanese people were very poor. Ohgushi always felt hungry as many Japanese children did. Yet, as an elementary school student, he received piano lessons from his mother using a piano of his elementary school. In those days, very few families had a piano at home. He was also interested in playing baseball and collecting postage stamps. Later, as a high school student (12-18 years old), he was very much interested in building radio receiver sets with vacuum tubes, playing baseball and listening to music through radio sets of his own making. He was especially eager to design and build new radio sets. When he was 16 years old, he made up his mind to go on to university to study the theory of radio engineering in detail. In 1957, he took the entrance examination of Kyoto University, one of the traditional National Seven Universities in Japan. Fortunately, he passed the entrance examination for the department of electric engineering. He was especially interested in studies of electronic wireless communication and electronic circuit theory. After a four-year undergraduate course, in 1961, he presented a graduation thesis on a microwave parametric (variable reactance) amplifier for wireless space communication. In Japanese universities, there were extracurricular activities such as the baseball club, basketball club, orchestra, chorus, piano club and so on. Ohgushi belonged to the piano club and took some piano lessons from a professional pianist. At the concert of the piano club members, he enjoyed performing several challenging pieces. These musical adventures included performances of Haydn's Piano Concerto in D Major (the second piano part was played by a friend) and Mozart's Violin Sonata K.2g6, in C Major (the violin was played by another friend, one of the members of the student orchestra). In those days, most university students entered Japanese companies just after completion of a fouryear university course. In 1961, Ohgushi joined NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) which had excellent technical research laboratories for radio and TV research in Tokyo. The laboratories had about 10 research divisions and a research staff of about 250 persons. He wished to work in the technical research laboratories. However, newcomers were, as a general rule, assigned to a local broadcasting station and were required to work there for no less than three years. At first, he was assigned to Matsuyama broadcasting station far from Tokyo. He worked mainly as a sound engineer. He gained experience in recording of sound for music, drama, and outdoor events of broadcasting programs. …

Techniques for assessing skills and knowledge in a business strategy classroom

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. The first is to present the structure of an undergraduate course entitled Business Policy and Strategic Management taught at the DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University. The second is to answer four research questions that are of interest to instructors developing and delivering similar courses. After analysing the performance of 1551 students in a fourth-year course, several insights are offered, including the suggested use of Multiple-Choice Tests (MCTs) as the most accurate measure of student achievement.

Unethical Behaviour Witnessed by Medical Students During Their Medical Studies

Background: We sought to determine students' perception of ethical behaviour of their peers and instructors during their course of studies, both in the preclinical and clinical years. To this end, we administered a questionnaire to senior medical students in order to assess whether they witnessed unethical behaviour during their four-year course of studies. Methods: A two-part questionnaire was distributed to all members of the graduating class of 2007. The first part of the questionnaire asked whether students ever witnessed unethical behaviour; whether it occurred during the preclinical or clinical years of study; whether the unethical behaviour witnessed was performed by a student, resident, senior physician, nurse or other; whether the student reported the unethical behaviour to anyone; and finally, if they discussed the event with their classmates. The second part of the questionnaire was based on one designed and utilized by (3). Results: Forty of the 56 students responded to the questionnaire. Twenty-one students (52.5%) responded that they wit- nessed unethical behaviour during their course of studies. Three (14.3%) observed the behaviour during their preclinical years, 10 (47%) in their clinical years of study and 8 (31.8%) during both the preclinical and clinical years. Thus, 11/21 (52.3%) students reported witnessing unethical behav- iour during their preclinical training and 18/21 students (85.7%) during their clinical training. The eleven students who witnessed unethical behaviour during their preclinical training reported that six episodes (52.5%) were by students and five (45.4%) by faculty. The eighteen students who reported unethical behaviour during their clinical years reported 2 episodes by students (11%), 4 by residents (22%) and 12 by faculty (67%). The most common unethical behaviour observed was treating patients dif- ferently because of their background/race/beliefs (44.4% of episodes), followed by describing patients or their families in a derogatory manner and discussing confidential information in an inappropriate setting (38.8% for both). Conclusions: It is obvious from these findings that many students have the perception that they are witnessing unethical behaviour during their studies. Medical educators must move beyond the formal curriculum in order to reconstruct the overall learning environment of medical education so that students will be exposed to professional behaviour throughout their studies.

Pi] π Backbonding in Carbonyl Complexes and Carbon–Oxygen Stretching Frequencies: A Molecular Modeling Exercise

An exercise in molecular modeling, suitable for a third- or fourth-year course in organometallic or inorganic chemistry, is presented in which the effects of the metal center, the metal charge, and the electron-withdrawing properties of co-ligands upon the degree of π backbonding to carbonyl ligands are demonstrated. The ν CO values are calculated, along with C–O bond orders for a series of model compounds to demonstrate each effect. The calculated values are also compared with experimental ones.

Strategies to improve the performance of learners in a nursing college Part I: Issues pertaining to nursing education

The aim of this contextual, exploratory, descriptive and qualitative study was to describe strategies to improve the performance of learners in a nursing college. The article seeks to deal with factors relating to nursing education that contribute to the poor performance of learners and to outline related strategies to improve the situation. Three focus group interviews were conducted. One group was formed by seven tutors, and the other two groups were formed by fourth-year learners following a four-year comprehensive diploma course. All participants voluntarily took part in the study. Data was analyzed using the descriptive method of open coding by Tesch (in Creswell, 1994:154-156). Trustworthiness was ensured in accordance with Lincoln and Guba's (1985:290-326) principles of credibility, conformability, transferability and dependability. The findings were categorized into issues pertaining to nursing education as follows: curriculum overload; lack of theory and practice integration; teaching and assessment methods that do not promote critical thinking; tutors' lack of skills and experience; inadequate preparation of tutors for lectures; insufficient knowledge of tutors regarding outcomes-based education approach to teaching and learning; inadequate process of remedial teaching; discrepancies between tutors' marking; lack of clinical role-models and high expectations from the affiliated university as regards standards of nursing development programme by the staff development committee of the nursing college under study for implementation. Future research should focus on the effectiveness of the described strategies to improve the learners' performance. It is also recommended that similar studies be conducted or replicated in other nursing colleges to address the problem of poor performance of learners engaged in a four-year comprehensive diploma course.

Contradictions and Complexities in an Indigenous Medical Service

New awareness of needs and opportunities led to an expansion of medical work in South Pacific territories during the inter-war period. The Rockefeller Foundation's Pacific-based representative Dr Sylvester Lambert perceived an indigenous intermediary medical corps as critical to establishing an economical, appropriate health service, one that would encourage Islanders to accept modern medicine. He focused regional interest in a Central Medical School, which opened in Suva in 1929 to provide a professional four-year course in western medical science for students from the British and New Zealand dependencies. The programme expressed colonial attitudes about indigenous ability and attempted to negotiate proper relations between ‘traditional’ and ‘europeanised’ behaviour. The tensions and complex expectations inherent in the Native Medical Practitioner (NMP) role are graphically demonstrated in the experiences of Fijian NMP Mesulame Taveta, a volunteer to the politically fraught Anglo-French New Hebrides Condominium, 1932–35. *An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Pacific History Association Conference in Nouméa, Dec. 2004. I am grateful to the Rockefeller Foundation and the University of Canterbury for financial assistance with the original research.

Teaching Non-Technical (Professional) Competence in a Veterinary School Curriculum

Data from focused studies and comprehensive surveys suggest that developing or enhancing non-technical (professional) skills will result in a more satisfied and successful veterinary student or veterinary graduate. The College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University has devoted considerable time, effort, and resources to augmenting the non-technical aspects of its curriculum while maintaining the traditional strengths of its DVM program. Here we summarize pertinent research and best-practice recommendations from a variety of sources and outline the steps that have been taken, with the underlying rationales, to integrate the teaching and modeling of non-technical (professional) competence throughout a four-year course of veterinary study.

Psychiatry in Medicine: Five Years of Experience With an Innovative Required Fourth-Year Medical School Course

The author reports on a required fourth-year course, Psychiatry in Medicine, which was started in 1999 at Stony Brook Medical School. The aim was to address two important concerns in medical education at Stony Brook and throughout the United States: 1) the failure to recognize psychiatric pathology in outpatient medical settings and 2) the lack of education about psychosomatic medicine. Details about the creation, implementation, and content of the course are presented, along with student evaluations and assessment after 5 years. Eighty five percent of students felt the course would benefit their careers, and they indicated that their clinical behavior would be changed by the course. Findings indicate that it is both viable and valuable for medical schools to create courses similar to Psychiatry in Medicine. It is argued that the fourth year is especially fertile ground for such a course.

Introducing a Senior Course on Catastrophe Preparedness into the Dental School Curriculum

This article describes an integrated fourth‐year course in catastrophe preparedness for students at the New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD). The curriculum is built around the competencies proposed in “Predoctoral Dental School Curriculum for Catastrophe Preparedness,” published in the August 2004 Journal of Dental Education. We highlight our experience developing the program and offer suggestions to other dental schools considering adding bioterrorism studies to their curriculum.

Current Status of Clinical Practice Education in Maternity Nursing in Korea - four-year course nursing schools centered -

Purpose: This study was performed to provide data for improvement in clinical practice education through analyzing the status of clinical practice education in maternity nursing in four year course nursing schools in Korea. Method: Analyzed subjects were 43 schools out of 53 four year course nursing schools in Korea. Result: Credits in theory and clinical practice are on the decline. The relationship between goals and areas of clinical practice was not sufficient. The department was not efficient in meeting the demands between theory and practice. The number of students in a group according to clinical areas were thoughtfully assigned, and clinical practice was performed based on real situations. Instructors for clinical practice used practice lecturers, part-time lecturers, preceptors, and assistant instructors including faculty. Methods of practice education and evaluation were varied. Conclusion: A suitable philosophy and goals of clinical practice education maternity nursing should be established at this point in time. Furthermore, a study should be performed to analyze the relationship between goals and contents of clinical practice for maternity nursing. In addition, a standardized tool should be developed to evaluate clinical practice.

Computer-based support for curriculum designers: A case of developmental research

In this article, we explore the potential of the computer to support curriculum materials development within the context of secondary level science and mathematics education in southern Africa. During the four-year course of the study, a computer program was developed named CASCADE-SEA, which stands for Computer Assisted Curriculum Analysis, Design and Evaluation for Science (and mathematics) Education in Africa. By carefully documenting the iterative process of analysis, prototype design, evaluation, and revision, we sought insight into the characteristics of a valid and practical computer-based tool that possesses the potential to affect the performance of its users. The results of this study include the CASCADE-SEA program itself, which assists users in producing better quality materials than they otherwise might, while they also learn from the development process. Further, this research has contributed to the articulation of design principles and related developmental research methods. This article highlights the research and development that took place, and only briefly addresses the tool itself.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.

Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.

Nursing practice issues in Jordan: student-suggested causes and solutions.

The causes of the worldwide shortage of registered nurses are complex and require a multifaceted approach to the solution. It is imperative that issues of the practice environment are addressed because creating quality practice environments is essential to provide high-quality care and to persuade nurses to remain in practice. The aims of this paper are to describe an international collaborative relationship, and to identify, describe and suggest solutions to three nursing practice issues relevant to Jordanian nursing. Two faculty members, one from Jordan and one from Canada, collaborated via e-mail to develop a fourth-year course on nursing leadership and management, which was then jointly taught by them. A student assignment required students, working in groups, to identify a nursing practice issue in Jordan and suggest contributing causes and solutions. The issues identified by the students were: unclear role expectations, burnout and turnover, all of which were viewed as contributing to problematic practice settings. The students suggested possible solutions to the practice environment issues.

Malaysia mental health country profile

Malaysia is a tropical country in the heart of south east Asia with a population of 24 million people of diverse ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds living in harmony in 330,000 km2 of land on the Asian mainland and Borneo. Malaysia, which lies on the crossroads of trade between east and west Asia, has an ancient history as a centre of trading attracting commerce between Europe, west Asia, India and China. It has had influences from major powers that dominated the region throughout its history. Today the country, after independence in 1957, has embarked on an ambitious development project to make it a developed country by 2020. In this effort the economy has changed from one producing raw material to one manufacturing consumer goods and services and the colonial health system has been overhauled and social systems strengthened to provide better services for its people. The per capita income, which was under US$1000 at independence, has now passed US$4000 and continues to grow, with the economy largely based on strong exports that amount to over US$100 billion. The mental health system that was based on institutional care in four mental hospitals at independence from British colonial rule in 1957 with no Malaysian psychiatrists is today largely based on over 30 general hospital psychiatric units spread throughout the country. With three local postgraduate training programmes in psychiatry and 12 undergraduate departments of psychiatry in the country—all started after independence—there is now a healthy development of mental health services. This is being supplemented by a newly established primary care mental health service that covers community mental health by integrating mental health into primary health care. Mental health care at the level of psychiatrists rests with about 140 psychiatrists most of whom had undertaken a four-year masters course in postgraduate psychiatry in Malaysia since 1973. However, there continues to be severe shortages of other professionals such as clinical psychologists and social workers in mental health services. There are a few specialists, and specialized services in child, adolescent, forensic, rehabilitative, liaison or research fields of mental health. In the area of services for women and children, as well as the disabled in the community, there are strong efforts to improve the care and provide services that are in keeping with a caring society. New legislation on these are being passed every year and the setting up of a Ministry for Women's Affairs is one such move in recent years. Mental health in Malaysia has been slow in developing but has in the past decade seen important strides to bring it on par with other branches of medicine.

The Medical Humanities at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine: historical, theoretical, and curricular perspectives.

The Human Values in Medicine Program (HVM) at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine is composed of 120 required hours in medical humanities, social sciences, and behavioral sciences. In addition to a required HVM month in the fourth year when the bulk of the course work is completed, students can also choose from lectures, seminars, and short courses during the first, second, and third years. The broad goal of the HVM program as originally conceived was for students to use the content and skills of the humanities disciplines to reflect on their own and others' values, and to appraise their role in the patient-physician relationship, both in the community and in the larger culture. During the past several years, a cultural studies orientation has also been included, particularly the practice of critical analysis aimed at identifying the inequities and injustices within the doctor-patient relationship, in medical training, and in health care access and delivery in the U.S. and beyond. Current program development includes standardizing a bioethics curriculum for all students and developing a required fourth-year course that all students take during their HVM elective month.

BURROUGHS, W. J. 2001. Climate Change. A Multidisciplinary Approach. xv + 298 pp. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price £52.50, US $85.00 (hard covers); £18.95, US $29.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 56125 6; 0 521 56771 8 (pb). RUDDIMAN, W. F. 2001. Earth's Climate. Past and Future. xxii + 465 pp. New York: W. H. Freeman & Company.

BURROUGHS, W. J. 2001. Climate Change. A Multidisciplinary Approach. xv + 298 pp. Cambridge, New York, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press. Price £52.50, US 29.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 521 56125 6; 0 521 56771 8 (pb). RUDDIMAN, W. F. 2001. Earth's Climate. Past and Future. xxii + 465 pp. New York: W. H. Freeman & Company. Price £45.99 (paperback). ISBN 0 7167 3741 8 - Volume 140 Issue 4

Fourth‐Year Clinical Scenarios at Harvard School of Dental Medicine

T he following scenarios were developed as part of an eight-week, fourth-year predoctoral course at Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) named “Advanced Dentistry RotationCore,” taught by Dr. Franson Tom. As the course title implies, students actively participated in weekly seminars on advanced dentistry topics. The seminars required prior preparation of student OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations), so that discussion could be student-driven about either first-hand clinical experiences or equivalent published situations.

School Experience and the Issue of Gender

This study used an interpretive paradigm to understand the world of the student teacher through their own experience. The purpose of the study was to investigate whether there were any areas of concern involving gender issues that manifested themselves during their school experience (SE). A sample of students was interviewed following their last SE. These students were in their last year of a four-year Bachelor of Education degree at a university in southern England. The interviews were semi-structured and focused on categories that originated from inspection of weekly reflection sheets written by the participants while on student teaching. It became clear during the data analysis of the transcripts that there were gender issues that had not previously been recorded in the reflection sheets or in the literature. First, the student teachers still held firm perceptions of what activities were gender appropriate, e.g. rugby for boys, hockey for girls, in spite of the influence of their four-year course. Second, the student teachers much preferred to be placed in schools in mixed pairs, thus providing each other with mutual support. Even so, some males felt that they were the ones who supported the females instead of the support being mutual. Third, there was a definite feeling that physical education departments, and schools in general, had a strong male orientation in terms of responsibility and authority. The course these students had followed was particularly careful to identify gender equity as a factor in the effective teaching of physical education. These findings indicate that in spite of this attempt to promote gender equity, there are powerful socialising forces at work that mitigate against such an egalitarian approach.

Effects of Phragmites australis removal on marsh nutrient cycling

In the northeast US removal of exotic and invasive plant species is a common wetland restoration activity and the invasive common reed (Phragmites australis) is often the target of control efforts. We examined effects of reed removal on sediment nutrient pools and denitrification potential in a tidal freshwater marsh on the Connecticut River. In the first year after herbicide application and cutting of a reed stand, porewater ammonium concentrations in the removal area were about 4× higher relative to extant reed or cattail. Denitrification potentials were 50% lower than in a reference stand of reed. Denitrification activity had “recovered” by the second growing season after reed removal but porewater ammonium continued to accumulate. By the third growing season following reed removal, plant regrowth had occurred over approximately half the experimental plot and porewater ammonium had declined to pre-manipulation levels. Sediment organic content, moisture and porewater phosphate showed no significant response to reed removal over the four-year course of this study. Reed removal allowed regrowth of a more diverse plant community thereby achieving one of the goals of this restoration effort but patterns in ammonium accumulation and denitrification suggest a reduction in the capacity of this site to act as a sink for nitrogen.