Specific Instructions Research Articles

Retrospective evaluation of enteral nutrition supplementation in 295 hospitalized dogs and cats (2014-2023).

The goal of this study was to describe clinical and hospital-related factors associated with time to feeding tube placement in hospitalized dogs and cats. This was a retrospective study from January 2014 through December 2023. Medical records at an academic veterinary teaching hospital were reviewed for small animal patients in the ICU with nasogastric or esophageal feeding tube placement for enteral nutrition due to inadequate food intake during hospitalization. Patients with feeding tubes placed prophylactically at hospital admission for surgery or physical inability to eat were excluded. Factors associated with placement including species, disease, inappetence, nutritional plans, and medical record recording of caloric intake were reviewed. 295 patients (89 cats and 206 dogs) were included. Median duration of hospitalization prior to feeding tube placement was 2 days (0 to 17 days) and was shorter in cats. Weekend admission and initial placement of an esophageal tube were associated with increased time to placement. Adequate feeding instructions were provided for only 53 of 295 patients (18%) and associated with both higher likelihood of having caloric intake recorded (OR, 10.30) and earlier feeding tube placement. Provision of enteral nutrition occurred later than recommended by nutritional guidelines in many hospitalized patients. Clinician inclusion of specific diet instructions, weekday admission, and initial nasogastric tube placement reduced this duration. Multiple factors may impact timely provision of nutrition in hospitalized dogs and cats. Close attention to energy requirements and exact food intake should be considered to optimize patient nutritional care.

THE REPRESENTATION OF DIDACTIC MUSICAL GAMES IN THE CURRICULA AND TEXTBOOKS OF MUSICAL CULTURE IN CLASSROOM TEACHING

The representation of didactic musical games in current classroom teaching curricula and Musical Culture textbooks is the focus of this research. Didactic musical games are activities with specific rules and defined educational goal. Through these games, students unconsciously master various melodic and rhythmic concepts while developing their musical abilities. Due to their educational potential, these games are valuable tools for acquiring knowledge and developing skills in the teaching of Musical Culture. In this regard, the goals and tasks of this research are to determine the extent to which didactic musical games are included in the curricula and Musical Culture textbooks. The results indicate that these games are sufficiently represented in relation to the content of the Musical Culture subject. However, it is necessary to more precisely categorize certain musical games, such as singing games, those with instrumental accompaniment, musical dramatizations and didactic musical games. Additionally, we find it essential to provide specific didactic-methodical instructions for implementing these games in the curricula.

Art as a Window to Emotions: A Study on the Impact of Conflict on Children's Drawings

This research investigates how students from two different backgrounds in a conflict-affected area—one group being internally displaced (IDP) and the other residing in permanent homes—express their emotions through art. The study aims to understand the emotional experiences of these students and explore the potential therapeutic benefits of art for children in conflict-affected areas. Two experiments were conducted: in the first, students drew freely without specific instructions; in the second, they were asked to express their emotions through their drawings and provide reasons for their choices. In the first experiment, students mostly used dark and dull colors, suggesting feelings of sadness and anxiety. In the second experiment, IDP students used vibrant colors reflecting resilience, while town students used monochromatic shades likely due to their recent experiences with conflict. Living conditions and recent traumatic events significantly influence the emotional expressions in students' artwork. Art-based interventions can be tailored to address their unique emotional needs.

Harnessing the power of ChatGPT to develop effective MCQ-based clinical pharmacy exams

AI has the potential to revolutionize learning and assessments. This research explored ChatGPT’s potential in creating MCQ-based clinical pharmacy exam papers at the Pharm-D level and compared their quality to human-made exams. In this study, three different MCQ-based papers (2 by ChatGPT; AIeasy & AIhard, and 1 by instructor; HUMAN) were set to have 10 MCQs each. We asked ChatGPT to set one exam with a low level of difficulty (AIeasy) and a second exam with specific instructions to achieve a more difficult exam (AIhard). Students attempted these exams as part of their regular assessment and rated them from 1 to 5 for various parameters such as critical thinking involved, difficulty level, and overall experience. Our study shows that students obtained higher marks for AIeasy (7.67 ± 3.92) than for AIhard (7.06 ± 1.32) and HUMAN (5.02 ± 1.70), making the HUMAN exam the most difficult one. Students rated the AIhard and HUMAN exams higher for critical thinking than for AIeasy. The students rated highest for AIeasy for overall experience. Interestingly, most of the students (n = 52, 83%) could not correctly identify the exam set by the instructor. Therefore, with clear instructions, ChatGPT can create content-relevant, good-quality exam papers with varying difficulty levels. This is especially useful for students who need to self-study and be ready for several exams to gauge their knowledge.

Safe, simple, and valid position for obtaining flexion-extension radiographs to assess instability in patients with lumbar spondylolisthesis: one specific instruction can make a difference.

In lumbar spondylolisthesis, conventional standing flexion-extension radiography can yield varying results depending on the patient's effort and cooperation. Previous research suggested that assisted flexion radiography provides larger flexion with a significantly greater change in lumbar lordosis (ΔLL) and increased sagittal translation (ST), posterior opening (PO), segmental angulation (SA), and instability detection rates. In this study, the authors aimed to identify a safe, simple, and valid position for obtaining functional radiographs to evaluate abnormal instability in lumbar spondylolisthesis. Consecutive patients diagnosed with L4-5 degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis were included. The patients underwent upright and extension radiography and three different flexion radiography positions: conventional flexion (CF), hand-knee (HK), and hand-ankle (HA). Measurements included ΔLL, ST, PO, and SA, with instability rates compared between the three flexion techniques. This study included 117 patients (81 women, mean age of the study sample 76.8 years). The median ΔLL values were 10.8° (interquartile range [IQR] 5.2°-18.2°) in the CF position, 30.0° (IQR 21.0°-41.1°) in the HK position, and 32.1° (IQR 23.0°-42.4°) in the HA position, with significant differences noted (p < 0.05). For PO and SA, significant differences were observed between the techniques (p < 0.05). ST medians were CF 5.5% (IQR 3.6%-8.1%), HK 9.5% (IQR 7.7%-11.1%), and HA 9.7% (IQR 7.4%-11.4%), with HK and HA positions differing significantly from the CF position (p < 0.001), but not the HK from the HA position (p = 0.15). Instability detection rates were 29.1% in the CF position, 76.1% in the HK position, and 76.9% in the HA position, with significant differences between the HK, HA, and CF positions (p < 0.001), but not between the HK and HA positions (p > 0.99). The study showed that HK and HA flexion radiographs provided greater ΔLL, ST, PO, SA, and better instability detection than the CF position. Given its safety and simplicity, the HK position is suitable for detecting abnormal lumbar mobility in degenerative lumbar spondylolisthesis.

Introducing Our Custom GPT: An Example of the Potential Impact of Personalized GPT Builders on Scientific Writing

The rapid progression of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, has contributed to increase its utility and popularity in various fields. Discourse about AI's potential role in different aspects of scientific literature such as writing, data analysis, and literature review, is growing as the programs continue to improve their capabilities. This study utilizes a recently released ChatGPT tool that allows users to create customized GPTs to highlight the potential of customizable GPTs tailored to prepare and write research manuscripts. We developed our 2 GPTs, Neurosurgical Research Paper Writer and Medi Research Assistant, through iterative refinement of ChatGPT 4.0's tool, GPT Builder. This process included providing specific and thorough instructions along with repetitive testing and feedback-driven adjustments to finalize a version of the model that fit our needs. The GPT models that we created were able to efficiently and consistently produce accurate outputs from inputted prompts based on their specific configurations. It effectively analyzed existing literature that it found and synthesized information in ways that were reliable and written in ways comparable to manuscripts authored by scientific professionals. While the ability of modern AI to generate scientific manuscripts has shown significant progress, the persistence of fallacies and miscalculations suggest that the development of GPTs requires extensive calibration before achieving greater reliability and consistency. Nevertheless, the prospective horizon of AI-driven research holds promise in streamlining the publication workflow and increasing accessibility to novel research.

SMT efficiency in supervised ML methods: a throughput and interference analysis

The microarchitecture of general-purpose processors is continuously evolving to adapt to the new computation and memory demands of incoming workloads. In this regard, new circuitry is added to execute specific instructions like vector multiplication or string operations. These enhancements and the support of multiple threads per core make simultaneous multithreading (SMT) processors dominate the market for data center processors. Regarding emerging workloads, machine learning is taking an important role in many research domains like biomedicine, economics, and social sciences. This paper analyzes the efficiency of machine learning workloads running in SMT mode (two threads per core) versus running them in ST mode (single-threaded) with twice the number of cores. Experimental results in an Intel Xeon Skylake-X processor show an SMT efficiency falling between 80% and 100% across the studied workloads. These results prove two main findings: i) last-generation SMT processors are excellent candidates to execute ML workloads as they achieve a high SMT efficiency, and ii) if the performance of two major resources (i.e., FP double operator and core’s caches) was boosted, all the workloads would achieve an almost perfect SMT efficiency. Moreover, results show that there is still room to support more threads without adding extra hardware. The discussed findings are aimed at providing insights to design future processors for ML workloads.

Non-sentential responses to requests for information.

When faced with requests for information ("Where did you go last night?"), why do speakers make non-sentential replies ("The movies") rather than full sentence replies ("I went to the movies")? We examine the role that pragmatic factors (politeness and formality) and memory factors (the speaker's ability to retrieve the answer to the question) play in determining whether speakers generate a non-sentential reply. Participants answered a series of questions about their lives. Pragmatic factors affected the participants' responses. Speakers instructed to be polite or formal made fewer non-sentential replies than speakers who did not receive specific instructions. Memory retrieval (indexed both by the time required for the participant to begin their response and by the presence of disfluencies at the beginning of the response) did not have a straightforward relationship to the production of non-sentential replies. The effect of response latency and disfluencies depended on whether the participants were told to be polite or formal (or if they were given no instruction at all).

Influence of video instruction on soccer kick velocity in young players

Soccer is a sport that necessitates proficiency in motor control and cognitive abilities, with kicking serving as a fundamental action. Improving kicking performance is vital for player advancement, leading to the inquiry: “How can video instruction promptly optimize kicking technique in young players?”. This research aimed to investigate the immediate effects of an instructional video on the kinematic variables of kicking to induce an acute alteration in the movement pattern. A cohort of 26 male youths, aged between 10 and 15 years, partook in the study and were segregated into an instruction group (IG) and a control group (CG). The IG received exposure to a video containing specific kicking instructions, while the CG viewed a video lacking such guidance. Both groups were recorded performing penalty kicks before and after viewing the video. Kinematic analysis was carried out utilizing the OpenPose artificial intelligence neural network for pose detection and subsequent 3D reconstruction. The primary discovery was that the length of the last stride (LS) notably increased in the IG following the instructional video. This outcome indicates that video instructions hold promise in promptly enhancing particular aspects of kicking technique in young soccer players.

Comparing the effects of a specific task instruction and prompts on pre-service teachers’ noticing of classroom management situations

AbstractAttending to relevant information in complex classroom situations can be a challenging task for pre-service teachers which is why teacher education programs often use authentic classroom videos to scaffold pre-service teachers’ professional vision. However, to date, it remains unclear which instructions can guide pre-service teachers’ attention toward classroom management situations to promote the early development of teacher professional vision. This mixed-methods study (n = 85 pre-service teachers) compared effects of (a) a specific task instruction before watching a classroom video and (b) prompts during the classroom video on noticing—indicated by the number, velocity, and relevance of identified classroom management situations. Controlling for mental effort and pedagogical-psychological knowledge, t-Tests showed both types of instruction to have a similar attention-guiding effect. Qualitative analyses of retrospective interviews revealed that pre-service teachers identified verbal reactive classroom management strategies more easily than nonverbal strategies when observing experienced teachers in the classroom videos. We discuss specific task instructions as an economic alternative to the use of prompts in video-based teacher education and—based on our qualitative findings—provide directions for future research.

О возможности признания публично-правовых образований и лиц, выступающих по их специальному поручению, контролирующими должника и привлечении их к субсидиарной ответственности

One of the central legal concepts of insolvency (bankruptcy) as a complex branch of legislation in Russia is the so-called “controlling debtor”, which appears in disputes on bringing to subsidiary liability in bankruptcy proceedings. Traditionally, legal science and judicial practice consider as such individuals and legal entities that may determine the debtor’s behavior by virtue of legal or actual affiliation with the debtor. However, public-law entities and persons acting on their special instructions in the debtor’s management bodies escape from the field of view of doctrine and practice. In this connection, the authors in this article analyze the possibility of bringing public-law entities and persons acting on their special instructions to subsidiary liability within the framework of the Federal Law “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)”. In the course of the study, the authors come to the conclusion that it is necessary to distinguish between subsidiary liability of public legal entities and persons acting on special instructions in the debtor’s management bodies. on special assignment in the debtor’s management bodies. In addition, the authors give a negative assessment of the possibility of bringing to subsidiary liability persons acting in the management bodies of the debtor by special order and on behalf of publiclaw entities, since there is no guilt - one of the mandatory elements of the offense. The relevance of the article consists in revealing the peculiarities of bringing to subsidiary liability of persons acting on special assignment on behalf of public-law entities.

ICT in biology education: teachers’ readiness and implementation challenges in the context of Bangladesh

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is commonly employed in biology classes to facilitate students' comprehensive comprehension of biological processes and enable them to see living phenomena. The purpose of the study was to explore the use of ICT in enhancing the teaching and learning process of biology in the secondary schools of Bangladesh. In our study, sequential explanatory mixed method design has been followed. Data was collected from purposively selected ten secondary schools of Dhaka city. The study reveals that teachers have a positive attitude towards incorporating ICT in biology lessons and possess operational understanding of data processing tools and online browsing. Nevertheless, it also emphasizes the fact that teachers are devoid of personal computers in their houses and have restricted availability to school computers. Furthermore, the existing curriculum and teachers' guides lack adequate instructions for integrating ICT into biology lectures. The study also suggests that the process of developing ICT-based curriculum is complicated, which deters teachers from incorporating ICT into their classes. Furthermore, there is a limited availability of educational materials related to ICT in the Bangla language. This study recommends continuous in-servicing training on ICT to teachers, interest free loan to teachers for purchasing laptops, developing interactive biology educational ICT contents in Bangla and include specific instructions in the curriculum and teachers’ guide on how to use ICT in biology classes. These findings have important implications for policy makers, educators, and researchers who are dedicated to expanding the use of ICT in education.

No significant difference in skin contamination during anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction with and without preoperative skin cleaning.

This prospective study aimed to assess whether preoperative antiseptic skin cleansing reduces bacterial contamination and surgical site infections (SSI) following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). We hypothesized that antiseptic cleaning would lower bacterial load, reducing contamination and early infections. One hundred and nineteen patients scheduled for ACLR were included in this prospective, nonrandomized study. Individuals were divided into two groups. Patients in the intervention group applied octenisan® wash lotion daily for three days before surgery and used the wash solution instead of their usual shower gel. Additionally, they swiped their leg with octenisan® soaked gloves on the morning of the operation. The control group followed their usual wash routine with no specific instructions. Fluid samples were taken before surgery from the irrigation bag and at 15-min intervals from the reservoir of the sterile surgical drape during the procedure. Suture material used for the ACL graft and meniscus repair were also collected for testing. The samples were subjected to a 14-day incubation period. Follow-up included outpatient visits at 6 weeks, 12 weeks and 6 months with a final evaluation at 12 months. Contamination rates showed no significant difference between the control and intervention groups. The mean contamination rate in the control group was 6.4% (n = 22) and 6.6% (n = 24) in the intervention group (p = 0.28). At 12-month follow-up, 110 out of 119 participants were included (52 control, 58 intervention). T tests for age (p = 0.19), BMI (p = 0.66), and surgery duration (p = 0.38) showed no significant differences. No early SSI were observed in either group postoperatively. Our results indicate that the use of antiseptic wash lotion and gloves does not influence the risk of bacterial contamination during surgery. Level III.

Binaural fusion: Complexities in definition and measurement.

Despite the growing interest in studying binaural fusion, there is little consensus over its definition or how it is best measured. This review seeks to describe the complexities of binaural fusion, highlight measurement challenges, provide guidelines for rigorous perceptual measurements, and provide a working definition that encompasses this information. First, it is argued that binaural fusion may be multidimensional and might occur in one domain but not others, such as fusion in the spatial but not the spectral domain or vice versa. Second, binaural fusion may occur on a continuous scale rather than on a binary one. Third, binaural fusion responses are highly idiosyncratic, which could be a result of methodology, such as the specific experimental instructions, suggesting a need to explicitly report the instructions given. Fourth, it is possible that direct ("Did you hear one sound or two?") and indirect ("Where did the sound come from?" or "What was the pitch of the sound?") measurements of fusion will produce different results. In conclusion, explicit consideration of these attributes and reporting of methodology are needed for rigorous interpretation and comparison across studies and listener populations.

Medication Counselling on Unlicensed Medicines Should Be Improved - Results from a Finnish Survey for Patients and Pharmacy Staff.

Finnish authorities have published specific instructions for prescribing, handling, and dispensing unlicensed medicines and for the associated communication with patients. However, there is a clear research gap concerning the quality of medication counselling given by doctors and especially pharmacists to patients who are prescribed unlicensed medicines. The success of such counselling was studied with a survey for both pharmacy staff and patients. The survey was conducted in 2022 with two electronic semi-structured questionnaires, one for patients (or caregivers of underaged patients) purchasing medicines with special or fixed-term special permits from community pharmacies in Finland and one for the pharmacy staff dispensing such medication. In all, 49% of the 389 pharmacists did not know if the prescribing doctor had given any counselling to the patient, and 52% of the pharmacists had not given any counselling to the patient themselves. Still, 51% of the pharmacists considered that the patient had received sufficient medication counselling. Almost every one of the 36 patients expressed that they had received medication counselling, 61% of them from the prescribing doctor and 53% from a pharmacist. Medication counselling on unlicensed medicines should be improved to ensure their safe and effective use. This survey revealed that many patients did not receive any such medication counselling as required by the Finnish Medicines Decree.

Judicial review as a quasi-administrative jurisdiction

This article challenges the idea that judicial review is purely judicial and adversarial in nature. Instead, I argue that recent doctrinal and remedial changes to judicial review suggest that courts hold a quasi-administrative jurisdiction. By a quasi-administrative jurisdiction, I mean one that prospectively, and retrospectively, aids and advises on the execution of public administration. For example, the Federal Court in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration) v Mason suggested that federal tribunals should start using the advisory reference procedure found in section 18.3(1) of the 1985 Federal Courts Act to resolve ‘dueling administrative interpretations’ of their home statutes. Canadian courts have also started to remit cases back to administrative decision makers with specific instructions explaining how they are to proceed upon redetermination, thereby structuring and advising on the proper exercise of discretion. The existence of these quasi-administrative remedies requires us to rethink Lon Fuller’s contention that the form of adjudication is inherently bilateral, adversarial, and retrospective. Fuller’s contention was based on the claim that arguments in court are ordinarily presented in the form of claims of right in the disputant’s favour. However, I argue that, in public law adjudication, arguments are presented in the form of claims of legitimate authority in the public interest. This establishes judicial review on what I term a multilateral, collaborative, and prospective form of adjudication. This form suggests that the court is in fact suited to exercising quasi-administrative functions.

Effectiveness of Editing and Proofreading Skills in Improving Academic Writing of Law Students

Writing skills are the most difficult language skills for students, especially those students with English as a Second Language (ESL) and as an English Foreign Language (EFL) in various academic institutions. This situation has made most college students fail to write effective academic works. This study assessed the effectiveness of the Editing and Proofreading Skills Course in improving the academic writing of law students in Tanzania. Specifically, the study assessed the common errors made by law students in academic writing. The study involved the action research design consisting of pre- and post-interventions. Data were collected through observations and questionnaire methods. Data were analysed statistically through the Wilcoxon Signed-rank test and the McNemar exact test at 95% confidence intervals to analyse the before and after intervention data. The study found that law students had a limited basic understanding of the editing and proofreading techniques before the intervention. After the intervention, there was a significant improvement in students’ writing skills as the results showed an exact p-value of 0.000. It recommends the inclusion of specific instructions on Editing and Proofreading Skills Courses as part of the Legal Education Curriculum in Tanzania.

ANALYSIS OF I-BEAM WITH CORRUGATED WEB AND TECHNOLOGICAL PERFORATIONS UNDER STATIC LOAD

The article is aimed at studying the operation of welded I-beams with corrugated web and technological perforations under static loading. The relevance of the study is due to the lack of specific instructions on the pitch, diameter and methods of strengthening technological perforations in the Republic of Kazakhstan and other countries. In this study the method of computer modeling with the help of the program complex LIRA-SAPR-2022 was used. The study was carried out for the beam, taking into account different sizes of perforations in the beam web, distances between the perforations, with and without perforation. The beam deformability and the beam stability with and without perforations under static concentrated load was analyzed. Twenty-nine beam models were analyzed, three circular perforations with diameters of 0,25 , 0,5 , 0,75 were formed in the webs of the beam models, where is the height of the corrugated web. The center of the perforations was located in the middle of the web height. The distance between the centers of the perforations were taken 2d, 3d and 4d, where d is the diameter of the perforation. Analysis of the performance of beam models with perforations under load showed that the bearing capacity of the beam decreases with increasing perforation pitch and perforation diameter. The most optimum perforation diameter for design may be perforation diameter 0,25 and 0,5 with perforation pitch 2d.

A Systematic Review Of Medication Knowledge In Older Adults

Abstract Background Medication knowledge, as defined by six aspects, is the person's awareness of their medication name, dose, purpose, adverse drug reaction (ADR), administration schedule and special instructions, is essential in the older patient's treatment journey. This review aimed to assess medication knowledge in older adults. Methods A systematic search of six electronic databases, grey literature and citation indexes included studies conducted in any setting or any country on those 65 or older, published over the last ten years, reporting primary data with full-text access, and assessing patients' six aspects of medication knowledge. Joanna Briggs Institute Critical appraisal tool was used to evaluate quality of studies. Results Of the 67871 articles searched, only 10 cross-sectional studies were included. Medication knowledge data was collected from pharmacies, community, general practices and outpatient clinics. Surveys used face-to-face interviews and electronic, written, and mail questionnaires. Five studies assessed knowledge on single medications. None assessed all six aspects of medication knowledge. One study assessed five aspects, while the rest assessed fewer aspects. The percentage of those who knew their medication names ranged from 41.9% to 97%, dose 19.4%, purpose 15% to 90%, administration schedule 65% to 92.6%, ADR 42% to 80% and special instructions 32.4% to 94.8%. Data lacked the source of medication knowledge or evidence of a patient-centred care approach. There were repeated calls for further education and research. Conclusion Research indicates that older adults have a mixed knowledge of their medications, with some areas well grasped and others lacking. Additionally, it appears that medication knowledge is not thoroughly evaluated initially. Despite ongoing advice to employ all six aspects of medication knowledge for assessment and education enhancement, no progress is seen in older adults' medication knowledge. Therefore, there's a need for better research that anticipates the application of these six aspects, concentrating on education for older adults or their caregivers through patient-centred methods.

Human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons encode the temporal structure of experience.

Extracting the underlying temporal structure of experience is a fundamental aspect of learning and memory that allows us to predict what is likely to happen next. Current knowledge about the neural underpinnings of this cognitive process in humans stems from functional neuroimaging research1-5. As these methods lack direct access to the neuronal level, it remains unknown how this process is computed by neurons in the human brain. Here we record from single neurons in individuals who have been implanted with intracranial electrodes for clinical reasons, and show that human hippocampal and entorhinal neurons gradually modify their activity to encode the temporal structure of a complex image presentation sequence. This representation was formed rapidly, without providing specific instructions to the participants, and persisted when the prescribed experience was no longer present. Furthermore, the structure recovered from the population activity of hippocampal-entorhinal neurons closely resembled the structural graph defining the sequence, but at the same time, also reflected the probability of upcoming stimuli. Finally, learning of the sequence graph was related to spontaneous, time-compressed replay of individual neurons' activity corresponding to previously experienced graph trajectories. These findings demonstrate that neurons in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex integrate the 'what' and 'when' information to extract durable and predictive representations of the temporal structure of human experience.