Development of Cognitive Learning Scale to Test the Knowledge Level of Veterinary Students on ICT

In the present study, to test the knowledge level of veterinary students on ICT, one hundred and seventy-one items were initially constructed on the basis of promoting thinking rather than rote memorization. It was designed in a manner that could differentiate the well-informed veterinary students from less informed ones. The scores of the respondents were subjects to item analysis to find the item difficulty index and item discrimination index. In the final selection, a total of 34 items with difficulty index between 30 and 80 and discrimination index ranging from 0.30 to 0.55 were selected. The reliability of the knowledge test developed was tested using split half technique. The coefficient of correlation value in split half test was 0.89, which was found to be significant at 1 per cent level of significance. It was found that, the developed knowledge test scale of Veterinary students on ICT was highly stable and can be used for measurement.

Comparison of the statistics and item analysis of multiple-choice questions between free and tuition-paying admission

Background: The purpose of this pilot was to compare the multiple-choice test statistics of medical and dental students' exams between free and tuition-paying.Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted at Golestan University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 2020. The study population included students of medicine and dentistry. A total of 56 exams were selected in two student groups of free and tuition-paying admission in the physiology course. The results of quantitative evaluation of tests were used as the data of this study. The variables included difficulty index, discrimination index, the degree of difficulty, score variance, and Kuder-Richardson correlation coefficient. Results: There were 32 medical and 24 dentistry exams. The cumulative total number of questions in these exams was 437 and 330 multiple choice questions, respectively. The number of medical students participating in the free-tuition and paying-tuition admissions was 1336 and 1076, and for dental students, these numbers were 395 and 235, respectively. There were no significant differences in normalized adjusted exams scores between two admission groups in both medical and dentistry tests. The mean of discrimination index in the free-tuition group was higher than in the paying-tuition group. The interaction between the type of admission and the field of study was significant for the discrimination index. This difference was more in tuition-free dental students than tuition-free medical students and tuition-paying dental students. Conclusion: The type of student admission has no significant effect on student assessments in multiple-choice exams in matched educational conditions.

Automatic modal parameters identification and uncertainty quantification based on block-bootstrap and multi-stage clustering under ambient excitation

This study proposes an algorithm for autonomous modal estimation to automatically eliminate false modes and quantify the uncertainty caused by the clustering algorithm and ambient factors. This algorithm belongs to the stochastic subspace identification (SSI) techniques and is based on the Block-Bootstrap and multi-stage clustering analysis. First, the Block-Bootstrap is introduced to decompose the response signal of the structure into M blocks of data. The covariance-driven stochastic subspace identification (SSI-Cov) method is used to process a random sample of data and obtain the corresponding M stabilization diagrams. In addition, the hierarchical clustering method is adopted to carry out the secondary clustering of the picked stable axis according to the defined distance threshold. Then, false modes are eliminated according to the proposed true and false modal discrimination index ( MDI). Finally, the above steps are repeated B times, and MDI is used to modify the initial modal parameters of group B. The mean value of elements in the cluster is taken as the recognition result of modal parameters, and the standard deviation is used to measure the accuracy of the recognition result. The numerical simulation results and the modal parameter identification of the Jing-yuan Yellow River Bridge show that, for identifying true and false modals, the proposed modal discrimination index is more effective than the threshold value of the traditional index. Also, it was found that the proposed method can eliminate the uncertainty introduced in the clustering process. In addition, this method can remove the influence of ambient noises, and it can improve the identification accuracy. It will be shown that this method has better anti-noise performance.

Comparison of the Statistics and Item Analysis of Multiple-Choice Questions of Medical and Dental Students' Tests Between Free Admission and Tuition-Paying Admission.

Background: The type of student admission may affect their educational performance. The purpose of this pilot was to compare the multiple-choice test statistics of medical and dental students' tests between free admission and tuition-paying admission under maximum matched conditions.Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted at Golestan University of Medical Sciences in Iran in 2020. The study population included students of medicine and dentistry. A total of 56 tests were selected in two student groups of free admission and tuition-paying admission in basic sciences stages in the physiology course. The matched factors included test features consist of the number of questions, date of the test, test time, the volume of content, topics, and resources, and the instructors. The results of quantitative evaluation of tests were used as the data of this study. There were 21 items for each test including difficulty index, discrimination index, the degree of difficulty, score variance, and Kuder-Richardson correlation coefficient. Results: There were 16 medical and 14 dentistry tests with 437 and 330 questions respectively. The number of medical students participating in the free-tuition and paying-tuition admissions was 1336 and 1076, and for dental students, these numbers were 395 and 235 respectively. There were no significant differences in normalized adjusted test scores between two admission groups in both medical and dentistry tests. The discrimination index of tests was fair or good, and there were no cases of the negative or poor index. The mean of discrimination index in the free-tuition group was higher than in the paying-tuition group (p = 0.048). The interaction between the type of admission and the field was significant for the discrimination index (p = 0.0001). This difference was more in tuition-free dental students than tuition-free medical students and tuition-paying dental students. The mean difficulty index and the Kuder-Richardson correlation coefficient had no differences in the two groups. Conclusions: The type of student admission has no significant effect on students’ assessments in multiple choice tests in matched educational conditions.

Validity and reliability of a questionnaire on knowledge, attitude, practice and perception (KAP2) towards food poisoning and its prevention during dining out among consumers in Terengganu

Having adequate knowledge, attitude, practice, and realistic perception (KAP2) of food poisoning prevention will minimize the risk of food poisoning while dining out. However, there is no validated KAP2 questionnaire on the prevention of food poisoning during dining out, notably among consumers. Throughout the current research, a validated KAP2 questionnaire on food poisoning and prevention during dining was developed. A crosssectional pilot survey was conducted among 30 selected consumers in Kuala Nerus, Terengganu. Convenience sampling was applied to the recruitment of consumers based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The KAP2 questionnaire comprised the knowledge section (42 questions), attitude (15 questions), practice (13 questions) and the perception (15 questions). Knowledge questions were analysed using difficulty and discrimination index, while attitude, practice, and perception were analysed by construct validity and reliability analysis. The difficulty index with less than 0.3 is considered as difficult, between 0.30-0.70 as an acceptable value, and more than 0.70 as easy. The discrimination index below than 0.2 is considered poor, between 0.2-0.24 as good, more than 0.35 as excellent items. The construct validity was conducted by referring to the value of Cronbach's alpha, inter-item correlation (˃ 0.30), item-total correlation (˃ 0.30), and Cronbach's alpha if item deleted. The results were found from 42 knowledge items, 29 easy items, ten acceptable items and three difficult questions. The discrimination index revealed that 25 items were poor, 11 items were excellent, three items had a good discrimination index and three items needed to be revised. Based on construct validity, five attitude’s items, three practice’s items and ten perception’s items were removed due to inter-item correlation and item-total correlation value < 0.30. The reliability analysis of the attitude portion was 0.848 which is a good reliability, 0.780 practice, and 0.611 perceptions to be found an acceptable value of reliability. Overall, the developed KAP2 questionnaire is a valid and reliable questionnaire that can serve as an evaluation tool for measuring knowledge, attitudes, practice and perception in the prevention of food poisoning during dining out among consumers.

Prognostic Utility of Risk Enhancers and Coronary Artery Calcium Score Recommended in the 2018 ACC/AHA Multisociety Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines Over the Pooled Cohort Equation: Insights From 3 Large Prospective Cohorts

Background Limited data exist on the incremental value of the risk enhancers recommended in the 2018 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology (ACC/AHA) cholesterol treatment guidelines in addition to the pooled cohort equation. Methods and Results Using pooled individual‐level data from 3 epidemiological cohorts involving 22 942 participants (56% women, mean age 59 years), we evaluated the predictive ability of the risk enhancers and coronary artery calcium (CAC) score for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, and determined their incremental utility using the C statistic, net reclassification index, and integrated discrimination index. A total of 1960 (8.5%) atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease events were accrued over 10 years. Of the 10 risk enhancers evaluated, only 6 predicted atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease independent of the pooled cohort equation. However, the individual enhancers demonstrated little or no incremental benefit. There was more incremental value from combining the 6 enhancers into an aggregate score (hazard ratio [HR], 1.21; 95% CI, 1.08–1.37 for each additional enhancer), and having ≥3 enhancers represents an optimum threshold for incremental prediction (C statistic, 0.766; net reclassification index, 0.041; integrated discrimination index, 0.010; P ≤0.007). On the other hand, CAC was superior to individual enhancers (C statistic, 0.774; net reclassification index, 0.073; integrated discrimination index, 0.010; P <0.001), reliably reclassifies intermediate‐risk participants with <3 risk enhancers (event rate, 3.5% if no CAC and 9.8% if positive CAC), but offered no reclassification among participants with ≥3 enhancers. Conclusions The individual risk enhancers evaluated in this study provided no or only marginal incremental information added to the pooled cohort equation. However, the presence of ≥3 risk enhancers reliably identified intermediate‐risk patients that will benefit from statin therapy, and further CAC testing may be considered among those with <3 risk enhancers.

Evaluation of undergraduate students’ nursing assessment and communication skills through an objective structured clinical examination within a high-fidelity simulation using a student-simulated patient†

Objective To evaluate nursing students’ assessment and communication skills through an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) within a high-fidelity simulation using a student-simulated patient (SSP) and analyze the validity, reliability, degree of difficulty, and discriminability of the OSCE. Methods A descriptive study was conducted at one nursing school in Macao. All scenarios were designed using a high-fidelity simulator combined with SSPs. A convenience sample of 54 baccalaureate nursing students completed the OSCE. The nursing assessment OSCE checklist (NAOC) and the communication evaluation rubric (CER) were used as observational measurements with three-point Likert scales (2 = Achieved, 1 = Partly achieved, 0 = Not completed/Incorrect). Results Difficulty coefficients of the exam were 0.63 for nursing assessment skills and 0.56 for communication skills. The discrimination index of the majority items of the NAOC (86.4%) was >0.20, showing a better to good discriminability. The items of the CER had satisfactory indexes of item discrimination (from 0.38 to 0.84). Students received high scores in conducting blood oxygen saturation and cardiac and lung auscultation but low scores in vomiting and diarrhea assessment. Students presented good communication skills in eye contacting and listening, but culture assessment needs to be improved. The students with experiences in simulation or simulated patient (SP) interactions had better assessment and communication skills than students without those experiences. There was a positive relationship between nursing assessment and communication skills (r = 0.67, P = 0.000). Conclusions SSPs were involved in enhancing the realism of interactions in simulated scenarios. Nursing students can conduct nursing assessments specific to patient conditions, explain the conditions to the patient, and ensure that the patient remains informed at all times of the precautions to be taken. However, students’ cultural awareness and some communication skills need further training. With moderate difficulty and high discrimination index, OSCE showed satisfactory reliability and validity.