1,721,016 research outputs found
Development and Evaluation of a Virtual Slaughterhouse Simulator for Training and Educating Veterinary Students
No full textVeterinary surgeons working on farms and food-processing establishments play a fundamental role in safeguarding both public health and the welfare of animals under their care. An essential part of veterinary public health (VPH) undergraduate training in the UK involves students undertaking placements within abattoirs, a practice that remains vital to the educational experience of future veterinary professionals. However, several issues have adversely affected the ability of students to gain such extramural placements. For this reason, the Virtual Slaughterhouse Simulator (VSS) was developed to strengthen and enhance undergraduate VPH teaching at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, enabling students to explore a realistic abattoir work environment with embedded educational activities. The aim of this research project was to evaluate the VSS as a teaching and learning tool for training and educating veterinary students. Ninety-eight final-year veterinary students engaged with the prototype VSS, followed by assessment of their knowledge and behavior when faced with a "real-life" abattoir situation. Further evaluation of their experiences with the VSS was carried out using questionnaires and focus groups. The results of this investigation show that there is the potential for the VSS to enhance the student learning experience in basic abattoir procedures. This innovative tool provides a visually based learning resource that can support traditional lectures and practical classes and can also be used to stimulate interactive problem-solving activities embedded in the relevant context
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Exploring spatial ability in veterinary students and the relationship to teaching methods
Full text linkAnatomy is the foundation to most medical disciplines, and a sound understanding is
required to underpin many aspects ranging from routine physical examination to
complex surgical procedures. For qualified veterinary surgeons, anatomy knowledge
is pivotal. The vast number of species dealt with, along with the fact that
immediately after graduation veterinary graduates are permitted as a ‘Day One’
competency to perform surgical procedures further emphasises the necessity for
strong anatomy knowledge. Anatomy by its very nature is a spatial subject; the
human or animal body lives in a three-dimensional space and is, in itself, three-dimensional.
It requires the mental manipulation of complex structures and an
understanding of their topographical relationships. This spatially demanding aspect
of anatomy is challenging to veterinary students, yet, despite the importance of the
subject and the known challenges of learning anatomy, limited studies have
researched the possible relationship of spatial ability to anatomy learning in
veterinary medical students. The overall aim of this project was to investigate the
possible relationship of spatial ability to the learning of anatomy, and the influence
of different teaching methods on this learning in first-year veterinary medical
students.
Three well-validated tests of spatial ability (Card Rotation Test, Mental Rotation
Test, and Surface Development Test) were given to four cohorts of undergraduate
first-year students. Of the four cohorts, two cohorts were first-year veterinary
medical students from the same academic institution but different academic year
(University of Edinburgh first-year veterinary medical students cohort 1 (UoE Vet 1)
and cohort 2 (UoE Vet 2)), one cohort of first-year veterinary medical students from
a different academic institution to allow for between academic institution
comparisons (University of Bristol first-year veterinary medical students (UoB Vet)),
and lastly, one control cohort of first-year students studying psychology (University
of Edinburgh first-year psychology students (UoE Psych)) to account for the re-test
effect. All four cohorts were given the exact same spatial ability tests at the start of
the academic year and 15-16 weeks later. The cohorts UoE Vet 1 and UoE Vet 2
additionally received a two-dimensional teaching method and a novel three-dimensional
spatial teaching method respectively, and scores on an in-course spatial
MCQ assessment and their end-of-course examinations were collected for
comparison.
The first study of this project aimed to investigate the baseline spatial ability of
veterinary students to assess how consistent this ability is within one academic
institution (UoE Vet 1 and UoE Vet 2), across institutions (UoB Vet), and to a
control cohort of students who do not learn anatomy (UoE Psych). The second study
compared a two-dimensional teaching method (UoE Vet 1) to a novel teaching
method purposefully designed to teach anatomy spatially (UoE Vet 2), with the aim
of improving anatomy knowledge and understanding. The third study involved the
design and validation of a multiple choice question (MCQ) assessment to examine
anatomy knowledge spatially and non-spatially and examined whether teaching
spatially impacted on performance on the MCQ (UoE Vet 1 and UoE Vet 2). The
fourth study investigated whether spatial ability improved in students who learn
anatomy from two academic institutions (UoE Vet 1, UoE Vet 2, and UoB Vet) to a
control cohort of psychology students (UoE Psych) who do not learn anatomy to
account for the re-test effect observed with spatial ability tests. The fourth study also
investigated whether the novel spatial teaching method had any additional significant
impact on spatial ability improvement. The fifth study of this project qualitatively
analysed student views and experiences of anatomy learning, the MCQ assessment,
and spatial ability to provide a more in-depth qualitative insight (UoE Vet 1 and UoE
Vet 2).
The novel results of this project are as follows. An understanding that spatial ability
appears to be relatively consistent across first-year veterinary medical students from
the same academic institution and two different institutions (UoE Vet 1, UoE Vet 2,
and UoB Vet) (p > 0.05). Comparison of spatial ability test scores of veterinary
students to a control group of psychology students showed veterinary students scored
higher on the Surface Development Test and exhibited a ceiling effect (OR = 1.85 –
1.69, p £ 0.004). The Mental Rotation Test exhibited gender differences with males
scoring higher than females (p < 0.01) except for the UoB Vet cohort. The UoE
Psych cohort exhibited a gender difference for all three spatial ability tests (p < 0.05).
No statistical differences were observed for the demographic parameters handedness
or age for each cohort.
The successful design and delivery of a novel spatial teaching method resulted in
improved student experience and improved anatomy test scores for short answer
questions (OR = 1.18, p = 0.040) and an in-course oral exam (OR = 1.26, p = 0.005)
compared to a two-dimensional teaching method. While the two-dimensional
teaching method showed improved scores for interpretation style questions (OR =
1.35, p < 0.001) and in-course workbooks documenting dissection practicals (OR =
1.44, p < 0.001). The successful design of a novel MCQ containing items testing
anatomy spatially, with the MCQ significantly predicting student performances on
end-of-course examinations (OR 0.86 – 1.09, p < 0.05), and thus providing useful
formative information to students on their progress.
Student spatial ability scores for cohorts UoE Vet 2 and UoB Vet improved for the
Card Rotation Test (RR = 1.05, p = 0.049 and RR = 1.06, p = 0.047, respectively).
No improvement in spatial ability test scores was identified with the Mental Rotation
Test for all four cohorts (p > 0.389). While cohorts UoE Vet 1 and 2 exhibited
improvement for the Surface Development Test (OR = 1.46, p = 0.014 and OR =
1.86, p < 0.001, respectively). Overall indicating the 3D spatial teaching method
improved spatial ability more than the 2D teaching method for the Card Rotation
Test and Surface Development Test. However, post-hoc Tukey analysis directly
comparing the post test scores of the two teaching methods identified no statistically
significant differences. Further research should be carried out to investigate the 3D
spatial teaching methods effect to improve spatial ability. The last novel finding of
this project is the first identification and proposal, through student views and
experiences, that spatial thinking is a threshold concept for anatomy learning.
Overall, this research makes a novel contribution to veterinary anatomy education by
exploring spatial ability in first-year veterinary medical students and relating it to
their learning of anatomy both quantitatively and qualitatively. As one of the first
detailed investigations into this aspect of cognitive ability in the context of
Veterinary Medical Education, this work highlights the potential for this area of
research to provide valuable insights into veterinary students learning and
furthermore to inform curriculum and assessment development accordingly
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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