Short-term Experience Research Articles

How can short-term experiences in global health shape dental students' professional identity?

How can short-term experiences in global health shape dental students' professional identity?

Cemented Calcar-Guided Short-Stem Prostheses in Geriatric Patients: Short-Term Results from a Prospective Observational Study.

Both cementless and cemented stems have exhibited favorable long-term outcomes in total hip arthroplasty. Nonetheless, in elderly patients, cemented hips offer an advantage due to their reduced risk of periprosthetic fractures. This study aimed to assess the initial outcomes of 28 patients who underwent unilateral cemented total hip arthroplasty utilizing a calcar-guided A2 stem (ARTIQO GmbH, Lüdinghausen, Germany). Various types of antibiotic-loaded bone cement were employed. During follow-up, we recorded demographic data and comorbidities and employed standardized clinical assessment tools, including the Harris Hip Score. Radiographic assessments included preoperative, postoperative, and follow-up imaging to evaluate subsidence, osteolysis, and bone resorption. The results indicated that among the 28 patients, 5 withdrew consent and 2 patients passed away from unrelated causes. Additionally, one prosthesis was explanted due to the undersizing of the cement stopper, which resulted in an inadequate cement mantle. As a result, 20 patients underwent a 1-year follow-up, revealing noteworthy enhancements in clinical scores, with no instances of radiolucent lines or osteolysis. No infections were detected. In summary, our short-term experience with this particular cemented short-stem design yielded promising results, exhibiting excellent functional outcomes, no aseptic loosening attributable to the stem, and no infections. Further clinical studies and registry data are essential to corroborate these findings.

Evolution of environmental chemistry study program curricula in tertiary education: a case study and general implications.

Societal and scientific progress has led to the formation of new study programs, often with multidisciplinary curricula. Guarantors and teachers of such programs must be prepared to quickly adapt to the needs and demands of students, society, the job market, and the commercial sphere since many issues start surfacing during the first years of the programs' life. Here we share our experience with such a process in the study program "Environment and Health" taught since 2019 at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. Feedback from students and alumni allows for improvement of the curriculum and organization of the program. We show feedback loops from three perspectives: Feedback from immediate short-term experience can be incorporated within a year, medium-term feedback loops can manifest after several years, and long-term ones even decades. While current students usually perceive only short- or medium-term issues, the philosophy and structure of the program must be built by predicting societal and commercial needs in the following decades. Such long-term aspects are often counterintuitive to students' vision, but still have to be considered for the program to remain attractive to new applicants. Balancing the original vision, preparing and applying changes, and dealing with feedback on all levels are key managerial challenges of successful study programs.

Vengeance Aesthetics: Type in Records of the Japanese Army's Atrocities (1938)

Photographs from the 1938 photobook Rikou Baoxing Shilu (Records of the Japanese Army's Atrocities) made their way to postwar viewing contexts as iconic visual evidence of war crimes committed in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). Instead of narrating histories of violence as long-term memory, this article shifts focus to wartime audiences’ short-term experience of violence by shedding light on the photobook's wartime role as high-profile, government-sponsored propaganda, edited by artist Ye Qianyu. It examines this photobook as a praxis that helps readers make sense of war and further questions the politics of making China legible. My analysis focuses on the aspect of type—printed letters and photographic stereotypes. It argues that the typographic-photographic paradigms in Records configured new categories of modern Chinese victimhood characterized by Chinese reader-subjects’ ability to feel pain and vengeance. This affective readership was transnational by design, demonstrating the world war as a relational learning process.

Perceptie van een anderstalig accent: Een experimentele studie naar de perceptieve aanpassing aan een exogeen geaccentueerd Nederlands klinkercontrast

This study examines whether Dutch L1 listeners adapt to Italian accented Dutch vowels, and how short-term experience with one L2 speaker’s accent might help these listeners to understand novel words and other L2 speakers with a similar accent. 100 Belgian Dutch L1 listeners were exposed to 40 Dutch target words, in which the front vowel had been replaced by an ambiguous sound in between /ɪ/ and /i/. These stimuli were produced by a female Italian speaker of Dutch. To assess perceptual adaptation and generalization, participants were asked to identify the vowel in five Dutch /ɪ/-/i/ minimal pairs across two speaker conditions: stimuli were either produced by the same female speaker or by a digitally generated male-sounding speaker. For neither speaker did we find perceptual adaptation, hence no generalization to novel situations could be observed. The results highlight the importance of stimulus selection and the need for a detailed background questionnaire for listeners, including information on their familiarity with L2 accents.

Total femoral spanning for distal femur "fragility" fractures utilising nail-plate fixation "short-term experience of a district general hospital".

Our primary objective was to investigate the time to radiological union following linked nail-plate fixation of distal femur "fragility" fractures. Secondary objectives were to evaluate all-cause reoperations, 90-day mortality, rate of blood transfusion and the impact on quality of life. In this retrospective study of all adults (≥ 65years) with native or periprosthetic distal femur fragility fractures, underwent a linked nail-plate fixation, data were retrieved on fracture classifications, clinical frailty score, blood transfusion, length of hospital stay, 90-day mortality, time to radiological union, overall complication rates and EuroQoL-5D. In total, 18 out of 23 patients completed sequential follow-up. Radiological union was observed in 14 patients (median 143days; range 42-414). Three patients underwent reoperations. There were no implant failures or a subsequent periprosthetic fractures. Ninety-day mortality was 17.4%. Eighteen patients required blood transfusion. The QoL was significantly lower after index surgery (0.875 vs. 0.684; p < 0.01). Based on our observation, with short-term follow-up, the linked nail-plate yields optimal stability to allow immediate weight bearing, in a cohort with moderate frailty. It is reproducible,with variable radiological union rates. The concept of "total femoral spanning" reduces the risk of subsequent periprosthetic fractures. The additional intervention has increased the rates of allogenic blood transfusion. There is significant impact on overall QoL, with almost 50% being more dependent in self-care.

Conflicts between short- and long-term experiences affect visual perception through modulating sensory or motor response systems: Evidence from Bayesian inference models

The independent effects of short- and long-term experiences on visual perception have been discussed for decades. However, no study has investigated whether and how these experiences simultaneously affect our visual perception. To address this question, we asked participants to estimate their self-motion directions (i.e., headings) simulated from optic flow, in which a long-term experience learned in everyday life (i.e., straight-forward motion being more common than lateral motion) plays an important role. The headings were selected from three distributions that resembled a peak, a hill, and a flat line, creating different short-term experiences. Importantly, the proportions of headings deviating from the straight-forward motion gradually increased in the peak, hill, and flat distributions, leading to a greater conflict between long- and short-term experiences. The results showed that participants biased their heading estimates towards the straight-ahead direction and previously seen headings, which increased with the growing experience conflict. This suggests that both long- and short-term experiences simultaneously affect visual perception. Finally, we developed two Bayesian models (Model 1 vs. Model 2) based on two assumptions that the experience conflict altered the likelihood distribution of sensory representation or the motor response system. The results showed that both models accurately predicted participants' estimation biases. However, Model 1 predicted a higher variance of serial dependence compared to Model 2, while Model 2 predicted a higher variance of the bias towards the straight-ahead direction compared to Model 1. This suggests that the experience conflict can influence visual perception by affecting both sensory and motor response systems. Taken together, the current study systematically revealed the effects of long- and short-term experiences on visual perception and the underlying Bayesian processing mechanisms.

Building a More Diverse Public Health Informatics Workforce: Preliminary Results.

The US public health infrastructure has been historically underfunded, a condition that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This was especially noted in the area of public health informatics. It was also acknowledged that the lack of a diverse public health workforce made it more difficult to address biases and disparities effectively. In 2021 the Office of the National Coordinator awarded $73 million to 10 awardees to develop public health informatics and technology (PHIT) workforce training. The Gaining Equity in Training for Public Health Informatics and Technology (GET PHIT) award utilizes various methods to train and engage minority and underserved populations in the field of public health informatics. Evaluations of the bootcamps and internships to date have shown generally positive results, both in terms of skills acquired and overall experiences. These results indicate that integrating the fields of public health and data science in non-degree, short-term experiences can have positive outcomes.

Climate change education through drama and social learning: Playful inquiry for building extreme weather events adaptation scenarios

Considering the projected impacts of climate change in upcoming decades, innovative educational approaches should encourage inventive problem-solving techniques and societal change, fostering transformative climate adaptation. The value of drama in climate adaptation education remains a novel area in the environmental education research literature and requires further exploration of its potential benefits to Climate Change Education (CCE). This article presents a proposal for CCE to include various elements in a drama workshop by evaluating a methodological framework. Participants in the workshop studied the vulnerabilities that arose from flooding and droughts while dramatizing different social conflicts to develop building adaptation scenarios. Through the exploration of problems via playful activities, participants collaboratively construct narratives and texts rich with meaning, based on a critical and creative perception of themes, needs, desires, and overlapping ideologies. This short-term experience manifests efficacy in elucidating the underpinnings of social systems structures, human values, and motivations. This article analyzes workshop results, providing a pedagogical structure and theoretical foundation, contributing to a better comprehension of drama in education and the creation of capacities towards CCE.

Specific rules for time and space of multisensory plasticity in the superior colliculus

Cat superior colliculus (SC) neurons commonly combine information from different senses, which facilitates event detection and localization. Integration in SC multisensory neurons depends on the spatial and temporal relationships between cross-modal cues. Here, we revealed the parallel process of short-term plasticity in the temporal/spatial integration process during adulthood that adapts multisensory integration to reliable changes in environmental conditions. Short-term experience alters the temporal preferences of SC multisensory neurons, and this short-term plasticity in the temporal/spatial integration process is limited to changes in cross-modal timing (a factor commonly induced by events at different distances from the receiver). However, this plasticity was not evident in response to changes in the cross-modal spatial configuration.

Short Term Experiences in Global Health (STEGH)

Short Term Experiences in Global Health (STEGH) are becoming increasingly prevalent, where students and volunteers predominately from high income countries travel to lower income countries to work with local community organizations. Although the benefits of STEGHs have been touted, they have also been increasingly criticized as representing a new form of colonialism and have been shown to harm host communities in a number of ways. Can the enterprise of STEGHs be ethically justified? We argue that STEGHs must incorporate principles of bi-directionality, continuity, cultural humility and decolonization in order to be equitable and sustainable.

Ethics and benefits of family participation in global surgery: a review of the One World Surgery experience

Short-term experiences in global health (STEGHs) provide the opportunity to improve individual patient care and build systemic capacity in under-resourced communities. While most STEGHs are conducted by teams of clinical practitioners and/or trainees, there are some organizations in which nonclinical family members of medical/surgical volunteers participate. One World Surgery is an example of an organization that encourages family member participation in its short-term volunteer trips to Honduras. Through careful pretrip orientation, on-site supervision, and consistent educational programs, One World Surgery has developed a program which promotes safe and effective participation of family members. A recent survey of preprofessional volunteers confirmed that participants felt appropriately supervised and well prepared for their STEGH duties; as a testament to their experience, 100% of these volunteers indicated they would like to return for another One World Surgery experience. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the benefits of family member participation in STEGHs and share the experience of one organization in which family member participation has been developed to provide ethical, beneficial, and sustainable care.

Exploring the subjective experience of rave party participants in Israel who consume psychedelic drugs: a qualitative inquiry

BackgroundRave music parties (RMP) are a world-wide socio-cultural phenomenon, where people listen to rave music while frequently consuming psychedelic drugs. Epidemiological studies have emphasized the hazardous consequences following the consumption of psychedelic drugs at RMP, and qualitative studies have shown social and psycho-spiritual experiences. Yet, phenomenological inquiry into subjective experiences of attendees is scant. This study aimed to examine physical, emotional, perceptual and social experiences of RMP participants in Israel, and their view on Israel’s policy toward rave events. In addition, the study aimed to contribute useful information for policymakers and society on rave music and psychedelic drugs experiences at RMP.MethodInterpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze transcriptions of semi-structured interviews with 27 individuals attending RMP regularly and consume psychedelic drugs.ResultsAnalysis revealed four significant themes: the first theme, the impact of Israel’s drug policy on participants’ sense of safety, relates to participants’ sense of insecurity and anxiety at Israeli RMP due to government drug ban policy. The second theme, the stigma on rave culture, relates to participants’ perception regarding the stigma on rave culture in law enforcement agencies and in society in general. The third theme, negative experiences, describes short-term experiences after consuming psychedelics at RMP, including hallucinations and disorientation. The fourth theme, positive experiences, describes positive sensory, emotional and self/world attitudinal aspects after consuming psychedelics at RMP. Sensory experiences included intensified auditory, visual and tactile experiences; emotional experiences included positive feelings toward others, reduced stress and ability to vent difficult emotions; self/world attitudinal aspects included self-acceptance, higher appreciation of life and connectedness to nature.ConclusionsThe study highlights RMP participants’ sense of insecurity due to Israel’s strict drug policy and absence of harm reduction strategies at rave scenes. The study also notes participants’ experience of stigmatization as drug addicts by society and law enforcement agencies. Reducing police presence and adopting harm reduction policies at rave scenes in Israel may increase participants’ sense of security, reduce stigmatization and decrease overdose risk. Hence, the findings may contribute to new knowledge useful for policymakers and society concerning RMP and the use of psychedelics.

Ten-year evaluation of an immersive global health medical school course using a four-principle equity framework

IntroductionResponding to a growing need for health care professionals equipped with global expertise in local and international settings, an innovative global health medical school course was developed that combines rigorous didactics, mentorship, cross-cultural training, and international experiences to build students’ cultural humility and clinical skills.MethodsRecognizing that global health service trips and courses can unintentionally exacerbate inequities and power imbalances, this course was evaluated using the four principles of Melby et al.’s Guidelines for Implementing Short-term Experiences in Global Health. These principles include skill building in cross-cultural effectiveness and cultural humility, bidirectional participatory relationships, local capacity building, and long-term sustainability.ResultsThe course was developed with long-standing global partners and includes a capstone project that is intended to strengthen local capacity with benefits to the site and student. Student course evaluations, supervisors’ observations of students, and supervisor feedback forms indicate that this course achieves these principles. Furthermore, there is evidence that students developed cultural humility, acquired foundational science knowledge and relevant skills, and changed their medical practice.DiscussionThis approach could serve as a model for institutions seeking to enhance training in global health for medical students.

Exploring the Impact of Virtual Student Exchange Program on Personal and Speaking Proficiency Development of Indonesian EFL Students

Previous studies have shown that studying abroad such as participating in a student exchange program affects the second language (L2) learning outcomes. However, it has yet to be proven whether a short-term experience, such as participation in a virtual student exchange program has a measurable impact on L2 or foreign language development. The present study examines the improvement of English learners speaking skills after participating in a six-week international virtual student exchange program on Asian culture. It is a collaboration among health education institutions in Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, and The Philippines. This study employed quantitative and qualitative methods. Ten Indonesian EFL students were involved in this study and their speaking proficiency was measured before and after participating in the virtual program. A structured interview was also conducted to yield more information on their experience in the program. Statistic findings indicated a significant difference between the students’ speaking proficiency before and after the program (Sig. = 0.004 &lt; 0.05), which meant that their English-speaking proficiency improved over six weeks. The statistical findings are consistent with the student's report stating that they felt more confident and comfortable speaking in English upon participation in the program. These findings extend our understanding that a short-term virtual student exchange experience significantly impacts the speaking proficiency and personal development of Indonesian EFL students. The results of this study imply that efforts to support such international virtual programs should continue.

Effects of an open-label placebo intervention on reactions to social exclusion in healthy adults: a randomized controlled trial

Social exclusion, that is being left out by others, can have adverse consequences for individuals’ psychological well-being. Even short-term experiences of social exclusion strongly threaten basic psychological needs and cause so-called social pain. Prior research suggests an overlap between the experience of social and physical pain that, amongst others, is reflected by the effectiveness of physical pain treatments in alleviating social pain. Drawing upon these prior findings, we here explore whether open-label placebos, which have previously been found to be effective in reducing physical pain, can alleviate social pain following social exclusion. Seventy-four healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 × 2 between-subjects design: First, they either received an open-label placebo intervention or no treatment. Second, they either experienced inclusion or exclusion by their co-players in the interactive ball-tossing game Cyberball. We find that excluded participants in the open-label placebo condition experienced significantly less hurt feelings compared to those in the control condition (Cohen’s d = 0.77). There was no effect of treatment for need threat. The findings suggest new possibilities to alleviate social pain, which is of particular interest in the context of preventing destructive and maladaptive behaviors in situations where functional coping strategies are unavailable.

Applying the Brocher Declaration to short-term experiences in global health in dental education

Participating in Short-Term Experiences in Global Health (STEGHs) has become an increasingly popular way for dental students to learn about the global burden of disease and health inequalities by traveling to a low-income community. However, there is little information available in the dental education literature providing guidelines on best practices for STEGHs. Often little is known about the local dental practice laws and ethics guidelines. One useful resource is the Brocher Declaration. The Brocher Declaration, created by the Advocacy for Global Health Partnerships (AGHP), is a comprehensive document outlining best practices for developing ethical and sustainable global health partnerships. The six guiding principles are: (1) mutual partnership with bidirectional input and learning, (2) empowered host country and community-defined needs and activities, (3) sustainable programs and capacity building, (4) compliance with applicable laws, ethical standards, and code of conduct, (5) humility, cultural sensitivity, and respect for all involved, and (6) accountability for actions. The principles of the Brocher declaration can serve as a foundation for ethics and sustainability and can be easily applied to STEGHs in dental education. The authors present a set of recommendations specific to each principle to guide dental schools in offering STEGHs to their students. Participating in STEGHs represents a unique opportunity for students to learn about the global burden of oral disease, its risk factors, and the population and public health strategies to reduce oral disease in diverse populations. When done ethically, they may serve as a spark for students to become future leaders in global health.

Review: Towards an integrated concept of animal welfare.

Animal welfare is an important field of study due to animal sentience, yet there is to date no consensus on the definition of animal welfare. There have been four key developments in the field of animal welfare science since its birth: the theoretical and empirical study of affective states, and hence our understanding thereof, has increased; there has been a shift from a primary focus on unpleasant experiences towards an inclusion of pleasant experiences; there has been an increasing mention and investigation of the notion of cumulation of experiences in time, and with this, the importance of the time component of both affective states and animal welfare has come forward. Following others, we define welfare as a balance or cumulation of pleasant and unpleasant experiences over time. The time period of welfare depends on when welfare considerations are necessary, and may range from the duration of single and relatively short-term experiences to the entire life of an animal. We further propose that animal welfare conceptualised in this way can be assessed at three levels: level 1 represents the assessment of the environment and 'internal factors' such as health and personality, which interact in their impact on the affective experiences of animals; level 2 represents the assessment of affective states; and level 3 represents the assessment of the balance or cumulation of these affective states in time. The advancement of research necessitates studies to be more or less comparable, and this would be facilitated by researchers mentioning which concept of animal welfare they are basing their work on, at which level of assessment they are working, which assumptions they might be drawing from to infer welfare and which time period of interest they are focusing on, even if this is not mirrored by the timing of the assessment in practice. Assessment at levels 2 and 3 still needs much study, at both the theoretical and empirical levels, including agreements on validation tools.

How Do Urban Walking Environments Impact Pedestrians’ Experience and Psychological Health? A Systematic Review

Daily walks are recommended for health gains, and walkable urban environments are recommended as one strategy to combat climate change. Evidence of the relationship between physical environments and psychological health is increasing. The aim of this study was to systematically review and compile evidence regarding micro-scale characteristics in urban outdoor environments that impacted pedestrian short-term experience and/or long-term psychological health. The databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, PsychInfo, and Google Scholar were used. To explore the area, a large heterogeneity in publications was allowed; therefore, it was not possible to conduct a meta-analysis. From 63 publications, data items were extracted from full text and categorized according to the main study characteristics. Environmental characteristics impacting pedestrians psychologically were identified and categorized into themes: grey, green, blue, and white areas, and weather, temporalities, topography, person factors, and safety. Environmental factors were analyzed from the perspective of the circumplex model of human affect (negative/positive dimensions and activation/deactivation). The findings included the fact that urban pedestrians need both positively activating and deactivating (restorative) areas during walkabouts. Perceived safety is essential for experiencing the positive aspects of urban environments. Some characteristics interact differently or have different importance for health in different groups. To further develop research on pedestrian environments, psychological experiences should be included.

The impact of heatwaves on human perceived thermal comfort and thermal resilience potential in urban public open spaces

Climate change increases the likelihood of heatwave events, causing human thermal discomfort and even mortality. However, it is not clear to what extent humans with long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure can adapt to thermal comfort in urban public open spaces when both experience their heatwave periods. Therefore, this study aims to investigate outdoor perceived thermal comfort in urban public open spaces during heatwave periods between two groups of people who have long-term and short-term experience of hot-summer exposure. Field surveys were conducted in public squares and parks during the heatwaves in Chongqing, China and Reading, the UK. Chongqing is known as a ‘furnace city’ and people have been living in a hot summer for a long time, while in Reading the summer is warm and people unusually experience the heatwave. The main results show that Chongqing respondents living in a hot climate for a longer period can endure more heat than Reading respondents during the heatwaves, indicating that Chongqing respondents have more thermal resilience. Besides, different behavioural adaptation measures show that people are active participants to choose their thermal preferences, rather than passive recipients of the thermal environments. The research implication contributes that protective measures against heatwaves need to be taken for pedestrians, including more shaded places with efficient ventilation design for sheltering and handy facilities such as drinking fountains and water spray. The research has novelty in deepening the dynamic theory of human thermal comfort and providing empirical evidence of thermal adaptation in extreme-high temperature events.