Mucosal Lesions Related to Toombak Dipping in the Sudanese

Background: Mucosal changes related to smokeless tobacco dipping appear to be influenced by many factors; including duration of dipping, frequency of dipping, chemical ingredients of the dipped stuff, in addition to possible genetic and racial factors. In the Sudan the habit of using smokeless tobacco (Toombak) is very common, and it is associated with pathological mucosal changes classified into five distinct clinical presentations: Presentation I; wrinkling with slight discoloration, Presentation II; Café au lait discoloration (Brownish discoloration), Presentation III; smoke-white discoloration, Presentation IV; grizzle discoloration, and Presentation V; cotton-white discoloration. Material and Methods: In this observational prospective study, a survey of oral cancer across 16 different localities was held in the Sudan. A total of 285 Toombak dippers agreed to be examined and of them 161 patients were found to have Toombak dipper-lesions. The clinical presentations of these lesions were identified and recorded into 5 different presentation categories. Furthermore, 64 specimens were cut and stained with Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E). Microscopic diagnosis was obtained using both WHO-5-Point grading classification and the binary system. The history of the time span was matched with the related clinical and microscopic findings. Results: Regarding the 161 cases; the lower vestibule was the preferred dipping site in 75(46.6%) cases. The average Age of Commencement (AoC) was 24.5 years. The average Estimated Contact Hours (ECH) was 22,338 ± 40,824 hours; equal to 2.55 contact years in lifetime. The dominant mucosal clinical presentation was wrinkling with/without slight discolouration; found in 54 cases, and accounting for 33.6% of the sample. Of the 64 specimens, 51 cases showed hyperkeratosis, 11 cases showed mild dysplasia and the remaining three cases showed severe dysplasia; two cases were cotton- white presentations, and one case was a grizzle presentation. Conclusion: Twenty per cent of Toombak dippers-lesions showed dysplastic cells. The grizzle and the cotton- white clinical presentations are associated with high-risk dysplasia. A significant relationship was found between the clinical presentation and the AoC. No significant relationship was found between the clinical presentation and the Impact of Time Duration (TD), in terms of life-time duration of dipping, number of dippings/day, dip-duration and the Estimated Contact Hours (ECH).

The Resource Costs of Maintaining Learner Utilization of a Simulation Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background Despite advances in online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, its impact on surgical simulation remains unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the costs and resources required to maintain simulation training in the pandemic and to evaluate how it affected exposure of medical students to simulation during their surgical clerkship. Methods The number of learners, contact hours, staff hours, and costs were collected from a multi-departmental simulation center of a single academic institution in a retrospective fashion. Utilization and expenditure metrics were compared between the first quarter of academic years 2018-2020. Statistical analysis was performed to evaluate potential differences between overall resource utilization before and during the pandemic, and subgroup analysis was performed for the resources required for the training of the third-year medical students. Results The overall number of learners and contact hours decreased during the first quarter of the academic year 2020 in comparison with 2019 and 2018. However, the staff hours increased. In addition, the costs for PPE increased for the same periods of time. In the subgroup analysis of the third-year medical students, there was an increase in the number of learners, as well as in the staff hours and in the space required to perform the simulation training. Discussion Despite an increase in costs and resources spent on surgical simulation during the pandemic, the utilization by academic entities has remained unaffected. Further studies are required to identify potential solutions to lower simulation resources without a negative impact on the quality of surgical simulation.

Post-Editing as the Means to Activate Students’ Thinking and Analytical Process: Psycholinguistic Aspects

The aim of the research is looking for the ways to intensify the future translators’ analytical and thinking activity during their independent work in online teaching. The author strives to achieve it through the combination of post-editing machine-translated texts and the Think-aloud protocol procedure. It is also assumed that this combination reduces the students’ dependence on the MT target text structure, as well as improves their competence in translating specialized texts. The methodology of research involved experimental post-editing-based online teaching (28 contact hours and 92 hours of independent work) of an elective university course ‘Specifics of translating English-language discourse in the domain of Psychology’ to the first-year MA students (majoring in English and Translation) whose command of English ranged from C1 to C2 levels in the CEFR classification. The parameters of analysis included the percentage of the students’ uploaded home tasks, the degree of the subjects’ post-editing intensity in their weekly homework, the students’ independence in the interim and final tests, as well as the marks in the Final test. The results of the analysis demonstrated a substantial difference between various groups of the subjects by all indicators. The amount of home tasks uploaded by the subjects in groups A and B (with more intensive analytical and thinking activity) exceeds the similar parameter in groups C and D (with less intensive activity) more than twofold. There is a considerable advantage of the groups A and B (and even C) subjects’ post-editing intensity in their weekly homework as compared to group D. The intensity of the students’ analytical and thinking activity decreased from the highest (group A) to moderately high (group B) to average (group C) and to low (group D). The degree of the students’ independence in the interim and final tests decreased from 85.0% (group A) to 35.0% in group D, with the remaining groups’ indicators in between – 59.0% (group B) and 46.0% (group C). These indicators clearly correlate with the average marks in the final test, which amounted to 93.80, 63 and 53 points (out of 100) in groups А, В, C and D respectively. Conclusions. Post-editing, in combination with the modified TAP procedure, contributes to the efficient development of the specialized texts translation competence due to the intensification of the students’ analytical and thinking activity, reduces their dependence on the MT target text structure and correlates with the improvement of the overall quality of their translation.

Extracurricular activities – the determinant segment in strengthening key-competences

Extracurricular activities do not represent a segment of the curriculum domain, but involve purposes aimed at skills development promoted through educational programs, thus confirming the complementary nature of teaching activities carried out during direct contact hours. Education exceeds the limits of curricular requirements, the role of extracurricular activities becoming paramount in the personality formation who tends to knowledge, performance, result and progress.

Front-loading of anatomy content has no effect on long-term anatomy knowledge retention among physical therapy students: a prospective cohort study

Background Information learned over a longer period of time has been shown to result in better long-term knowledge retention than information learned over a shorter period of time. In order to address multiple curricular goals, the timing and spacing of anatomy content within the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) program at our institution recently changed from a very spaced to a very compressed format. The purpose of the present study was to assess differences in anatomy knowledge retention that might have been impacted by this change. The research hypothesis was that students receiving spaced instruction would have significantly better anatomy knowledge retention than students receiving massed instruction. Methods Participants consisted of two cohorts of DPT students that both received 45 contact hours of anatomy lecture and 90 contact hours of anatomy lab. The LONG cohort experienced anatomy through a lecture and lab taught over a 30-week, 2 semester period as separate courses. In contrast, the SHORT cohort took their anatomy lecture and lab concurrently over one 10-week semester. A pre-test was administered on the first day of their anatomy lecture course, and a post-test was administered to each cohort 18 months after completion of their last anatomy exam. Results After controlling for age-related differences in the two groups, no significant differences in mean pre-test, post-test, or percentage improvement were found between cohorts (p = 0.516; 0.203; and 0.152, respectively). Conclusion These findings refute the hypothesis and show that both spaced and massed instruction in these cohorts resulted in the same level of long-term anatomy knowledge retention.