中医院校计算机课程的教学方法改革与实践研究

计算机课程是中医药院校学生的必修课程,为了使课程内容与时俱进,也为了使计算机课程与中医药专业紧密相连,所以进行了一系列的教学改革。在计算机基础课程中采用了小组协作教学法和任务包驱动法,在程序设计课程中采用大案例教学法,在选修课中采用课程超市教学方法等,以提高计算机课程的教学质量。     

Effectiveness of training on the community skills of children with intellectual disabilities

Background: Children with intellectual disabilities often have difficulties in daily tasks, requiring training to increase functional independence. This study measured the effectiveness of community skills training in a telephone task and a shopping task, and examined if community-based training was more effective than classroom-based training. Material and methods: A randomized control trial with 40 children aged 9–11years was completed. Intervention groups attended an eight-week training programme; the control group received no treatment. One intervention group practised skills in local shops. All participants were assessed before and after treatment in a shopping task and telephone task, using task analysis methodology. Results: Data showed a highly statistically significant difference between intervention and control groups in the shopping task (p=0.007); however, there was no significant difference between classroom and classroom supplemented by community-based learning in the shopping task. There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in the telephone task. Conclusion: Results suggested that skills training was effective in one of the skill areas with this client group. Further research is required to determine if community-based training is more effective than classroom-based learning.     

Effect of computer-based instruction on students' self-perception and functional task performance

Purpose.?This study was designed to investigate the effects of computer-based instruction (CBI) on the academic self-perception and functional ability of high school students with learning difficulties.

Method.?Fifty high school students were assigned to one of two groups: (1) CBI or (2) a regular English language arts classroom, the comparison group. Students in the CBI group used the assistive reading software, Kurzweil 3000 (K-3000), intensively for 10 weeks. This specific CBI tool provides reading and auditory presentation of text and study-skills tools. Before and after the intervention period, standardised measurements such as self-perception profile for learning disabled students (SPPLD), the self-perception profile for adolescents and self-developed questionnaires such as a job application form were used to probe students' academic self-perception and functional task performance.

Results.?Repeated measure analyses of SPPLD revealed that the CBI group made more progress than comparison group on the reading competence subscale and general competence subscale. Repeated measure analyses of the job application form demonstrated similar results that the CBI group made more progress in filling out the education information section and the work experience information section.

Conclusion.?The results suggest that the K-3000 software program improves academic self-perception and functional task performance of high school students with learning difficulties.     

Respiratory Symptoms and Respiratory-Related Absence from Work among Health Care Workers in Sweden

Objective. To investigate respiratory symptoms and respiratory-related absence from work among Swedish health care workers (HCWs). Methods. From a postal questionnaire study among a general Swedish working population (n = 12,186), we identified 2156 HCW (555 assistant nurses, 377 nurses, 109 physicians, and 1115 others), including 429 with mainly cleaning tasks (HCW-cleaning). The remaining respondents were classified as non-HCW. Multiple logistic regressions with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare respiratory symptoms and respiratory-related absence from work between HCW and non-HCW, adjusting for potential confounders. Results. The prevalence of adult onset asthma was 4.3% in HCW and 3.0% in non-HCW (p = .003). Asthmatic symptoms during the past year were reported mainly by HCW-cleaning, 14.7%, in comparison to 8.3% among non-HCW (p < .0001). HCW had an increased odds ratio (OR) for asthmatic symptoms during the past year (OR 1.3, 95% CI (1.1–1.5)) and more prominent among assistant nurses (OR 1.5, 95% CI (1.1–2.0)) and HCW-cleaning (OR 1.9, 95% CI (1.4–2.5)). Respiratory-related absence from work in the past year was reported by 1.4% of non-HCW, 3.0% of HCW-cleaning, 2.9% of nurses, and 1.6% of assistant nurses. Taking smoking and age into account, there was still significantly increased respiratory-related absence from work in nurses (OR 2.0, 95% CI (1.1–3.8)) and in HCW-cleaning (OR 2.1, 95% CI (1.2–3.7)). Conclusions. HCW in Sweden, especially those with cleaning tasks, reported more respiratory symptoms and respiratory-related absence from work than the general working population. There is a need for longitudinal studies with detailed information on both occupational exposures and socioeconomic factors to explore what influences respiratory-related absence from work among HCW.     

Contributing to an integrated profession: a model-based examination of the A-ONE

Yerxa’s [1] model of an integrated profession depicts a circular scholarly process whereby ideas formed in practice are subjected to research and then returned to practice through education. This knowledge-generating cycle supports occupational science and the development of our professional identity. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how Yerxa’s model was used to evaluate if three developmental cycles of the ADL-Focused Occupation-Based Neurobehavioral Evaluation (A-ONE) sufficiently represented all necessary model components required for implementation into practice. The three cycles were historical, educational and measurement. The necessary components included: (a) dilemmas in practice, (b) new ideas that emerged from those practice issues, (c) research to test those ideas and (d) education designed to integrate new knowledge into practice. The results of this analysis of the A-ONE supported adequate research related to ideas from practice being implemented back into practice. Through using the model of an integrated profession to reflect on ideas ignited within practice, and then implementing research to explore the potential contribution of those ideas to knowledge generation, we gain the power to influence the future development of occupational science and the profession.     

Oral Fine Motor Control of Teeth Treated with Endodontic Microsurgery: A Single-Blinded Case-control Study

IntroductionPeriodontal mechanoreceptors (PMRs) are refined neural receptors present in abundance at the root apex and have a pivotal role in oral fine motor control. This case-control study aimed to evaluate the oral fine motor control of teeth treated with endodontic microsurgery (EMS) in comparison with the control teeth using a standardized behavioral biting task.MethodsFourteen eligible participants performed 5 trials of an oral fine motor control task that involved holding and splitting half of a peanut positioned on a force transducer with their EMS treated tooth and its contralateral control incisor tooth (28 teeth in total). The outcome variables were the mean food holding force, intra- and intertrial variability of the holding force, food splitting force, splitting duration, and the frequency of the stepwise splitting phase. The data were analyzed with parametric and nonparametric tests.ResultsThe results showed no statistically significant differences in the holding force, inter- and intratrial variability of the holding force, splitting force, or splitting duration between the teeth treated with EMS and the control (P > .05). However, there was a significantly higher frequency of stepwise ramp increase during the splitting phase with EMS treated teeth compared with the control (48% and 37%, respectively; P < .05).ConclusionsEMS treated teeth showed similar force regulation and oral fine motor control as the contralateral control. The findings of this study suggest that EMS treatment does not perturb the sensory information of PMRs and maintains the force regulation and oral fine motor control of the teeth.     

Memory and Dissociative Tendencies

Abstract

Con cep tual and meth od olog i cal ap proaches from cog nitive sci ence have in creas ingly been ap plied to re search ex am in ing the rela tion be tween trauma, dis so ci a tion and ba sic cog ni tive func tion ing. The cur rent study rep li cates and ex tends re cent re search that ex am ined perfor mance in a di rected for get ting task us ing PTSD and trauma his tory as the group ing vari ables (McNally, Metzger, Lasko, Clancy, & Pitman, 1998) to col lege stu dents who were clas si fied as high or low dissociators based on their per for mance on the Dissociative Ex pe ri ences Scale (DES: Bernstein & Putnam, 1986). High and low DES par tic i pants' per formance was ex am ined un der two attentional con texts: a se lec tive at ten tion con di tion and two new di vided at ten tion con di tions (based on DePrince & Freyd, 1999). Dif fer ences be tween the groups were re vealed when a di vided at ten tion ver sion of the task was em ployed. Con sis tent with DePrince and Freyd (1999), when di vided at ten tion was re quired, high DES par tic i pants re called fewer trauma and more neu tral w o r d s than did low DES par tic i pants, who showed the op po site pat tern.     

Deficits in go/no-go task performance in male undergraduate high-risk alcohol users are driven by speeded responding to go stimuli

Background: Response disinhibition plays an important role in addictive behaviors. However, results of studies on the performance on response inhibition tasks of individuals evidencing potentially problematic levels of alcohol drinking are mixed. Objectives: We assessed conditions under which persons with a relatively high risk of alcohol dependence show inhibition deficits in such tasks and investigated the nature of those deficits. Methods: Fifty-eight male undergraduate students, 27 of which were high-risk drinkers according to the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test, performed a go/no-go inhibition task with differing percentages of no-go trials (50% vs. 25%), stimulus presentation times (600 vs. 200 ms), and types of go and no-go stimuli (alcohol related vs. -unrelated). Response inhibition was indexed by response time (RT) to go trials and response accuracy on go and no-go trials. Results: There were no differences between low- and high-risk drinkers on any of the three outcome measures under the 600-ms stimulus presentation condition. Under the 200-ms condition, the high-risk drinkers showed faster RTs to go stimuli, and more errors on both go- and no-go trials than the low-risk drinkers, irrespective of type and percentage of no-go stimuli. However, the accuracy differences between the two groups disappeared after controlling for the RT on go trials, suggesting a speed-accuracy trade-off. Conclusion: High-risk drinkers’ response inhibition deficits are not restricted to alcohol-related cues and are especially likely to occur under conditions prompting fast responding. These findings could be used to inform treatment, suggesting the promotion of strategies aimed at preventing high-risk alcohol users from making quick decisions.     

Transcranial direct current stimulation of prefrontal cortex: An auditory event-related potential and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a non-invasive intervention altering neural plasticity by modulating neuronal excitability of pre- and postsynaptic neuron populations, which has been shown to improve depression symptoms and cognition. We investigated the effects of a single session of 20 min of 2 mA left-prefrontal anodal versus sham stimulation on auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) in 11 male and 5 female healthy subjects (mean age of 28.6 [SD 6.2] years) by employing a randomized single-blind crossover design. Stimulation effects on cortical glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Glx) levels were subsequently measured in 12 of the 16 healthy subjects in a 3 T proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy scan. tDCS was associated with a significant increase of N1 amplitudes while smaller P3b amplitudes correlated with higher cortical Glu and Glx levels in the stimulated brain area when performing an auditory go/no-go discrimination task. tDCS did not change mismatch negativity, nor task performance or cortical Glu/Glx levels which, together with N1 amplitudes, depended on stimulation order (“sham” versus “active”). Increased N1 amplitudes are consistent with higher levels of cortical excitability following prefrontal anodal tDCS. The failure to replicate Glu/Glx changes with tDCS may have been masked by between-session carry-over effects while ceiling effects may have masked tDCS effects on task performance.     

Assessing the benefits of napping and short rest breaks on processing speed in sleep‐restricted adolescents

Achievement‐oriented adolescents often study long hours under conditions of chronic sleep restriction, adversely affecting cognitive function. Here, we studied how napping and rest breaks (interleaved off‐task periods) might ameliorate the negative effects of sleep restriction on processing speed. Fifty‐seven healthy adolescents (26 female, age = 15–19 years) participated in a 15‐day live‐in protocol. All participants underwent sleep restriction (5 h time‐in‐bed), but were then randomized into two groups: one of these groups received a daily 1‐h nap opportunity. Data from seven of the study days (sleep restriction days 1–5, and recovery days 1–2) are reported here. The Blocked Symbol Decoding Test, administered once a day, was used to assess time‐on‐task effects and the effects of rest breaks on processing speed. Controlling for baseline differences, participants who took a nap demonstrated faster speed of processing and greater benefit across testing sessions from practice. These participants were also affected significantly less by time‐on‐task effects. In contrast, participants who did not receive a nap benefited more from the rest breaks that were permitted between blocks of the test. Our results indicate that napping partially reverses the detrimental effects of sleep restriction on processing speed. However, rest breaks have a greater effect as a countermeasure against poor performance when sleep pressure is higher. These data add to the growing body of evidence showing the importance of sleep for good cognitive functioning in adolescents, and suggest that more frequent rest breaks might be important in situations where sleep loss is unavoidable.