Mapping teaching, learning and assessment in the MPharm in UK schools of pharmacy

Aim To undertake a national study of teaching, learning and assessment in UK schools of pharmacy. Design Triangulation of course documentation, 24 semi-structured interviews undertaken with 29 representatives from the schools and a survey of all final year students (n=1,847) in the 15 schools within the UK during 2003–04. Subjects and setting All established UK pharmacy schools and final year MPharm students. Outcome measures Data were combined and analysed under the topics of curriculum, teaching and learning, assessment, multi-professional teaching and learning, placement education and research projects. Results Professional accreditation was the main driver for curriculum design but links to preregistration training were poor. Curricula were consistent but offered little student choice. On average half the curriculum was science-based. Staff supported the science content but students less so. Courses were didactic but schools were experimenting with new methods of learning. Examinations were the principal form of assessment but the contribution of practice to the final degree ranged considerably (21–63%). Most students considered the assessment load to be about right but with too much emphasis upon knowledge. Assessment of professional competence was focused upon dispensing and pharmacy law. All schools undertook placement teaching in hospitals but there was little in community/primary care. There was little inter-professional education. Resources and logistics were the major limiters. Conclusions There is a need for an integrated review of the accreditation process for the MPharm and preregistration training and redefinition of professional competence at an undergraduate level.

The role of macular pigment assessment in clinical practice:a review

This review compares the results of studies that have investigated the impact of lutein and zeaxanthin supplementation on macular pigment optical density (MPOD) with those that have investigated the reliability of techniques used to measure macular pigment optical density. The review will focus on studies that have used heterochromatic flicker photometry for measurement of macular pigment optical density, as this is the only technique that is currently available commercially to clinicians. We identified articles that reported on supplementation with lutein and/or zeaxanthin and/or meso-zeaxanthin on macular pigment optical density measurement techniques published in peer-reviewed journals, through a multi-staged, systematic approach. Twenty-four studies have investigated the repeatability of MPOD measurements using heterochromatic flicker photometry. Of these, 10 studies provided a coefficient of repeatability or data from which the coefficient could be calculated, with a range in values of 0.06 to 0.58. The lowest coefficient of repeatability assessed on naïve subjects alone was 0.08. These values tell us that, at best, changes greater than 0.08 can be considered clinically significant and at worst, only changes greater than 0.58 can be considered clinically significant. Six studies assessed the effect of supplementation with up to 20 mg/day lutein on macular pigment optical density measured using heterochromatic flicker photometry and the mean increase in macular pigment optical density ranged from 0.025 to 0.09. It seems reasonable to conclude that the chance of eliciting an increase in macular pigment optical density during six months of daily supplementation with between 10 and 20 mg lutein that is of sufficient magnitude to be detected by using heterochromatic flicker photometry on an individual basis is small. Commercially available heterochromatic flicker photometers for macular pigment optical density assessment in the clinical environment appear to demonstrate particularly poor coefficient of repeatability values. Clinicians should exercise caution when considering the purchase of these instruments for potential monitoring of macular pigment optical density in response to supplementation in individual patients.

An expert system for the development of a health and safety policy/risk assessment in the plastics industry

Health and safety policies may be regarded as the cornerstone for positive prevention of occupational accidents and diseases. The Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974 makes it a legal duty for employers to prepare and revise a written statement of a general policy with respect to the health and safety at work of employees as well as the organisation and arrangements for carrying out that policy. Despite their importance and the legal equipment to prepare them, health and safety policies have been found, in a large number of plastics processing companies (particularly small companies), to be poorly prepared, inadequately implemented and monitored. An important cause of these inadequacies is the lack of necessary health and safety knowledge and expertise to prepare, implement and monitor policies. One possible way of remedying this problem is to investigate the feasibility of using computers to develop expert system programs to simulate the health and safety (HS) experts' task of preparing the policies and assisting companies implement and monitor them. Such programs use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to solve this sort of problems which are heuristic in nature and require symbolic reasoning. Expert systems have been used successfully in a variety of fields such as medicine and engineering. An important phase in the feasibility of development of such systems is the engineering of knowledge which consists of identifying the knowledge required, eliciting, structuring and representing it in an appropriate computer programming language.

An iterative-style approach to constructing intelligent tutoring systems in mathematics

Mathematics is highly structured and also underpins most of science and engineering. For this reason, it has proved a very suitable domain for Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) research, with the result that probably more tutoring systems have been constructed for the domain than any other. However, the literature reveals that there still exists no consensus on a credible approach or approaches for the design of such systems, despite numerous documented efforts. Current approaches to the construction of ITSs leave much to be desired. Consequently, existing ITSs in the domain suffer from a considerable number of shortcomings which render them 'unintelligent'. The thesis examines some of the reasons why this is the case. Following a critical review of existing ITSs in the domain, and some pilot studies, an alternative approach to their construction is proposed (the 'iterative-style' approach); this supports an iterative style, and also improves on at least some of the shortcomings of existing approaches. The thesis also presents an ITS for fractions which has been developed using this approach, and which has been evaluated in various ways. It has, demonstrably, improved on many of the limitations of existing ITSs; furthermore, it has been shown to be largely 'intelligent', at least more so than current tutors for the domain. Perhaps more significantly, the tutor has also been evaluated against real students with, so far, very encouraging results. The thesis thus concludes that the novel iterative-style approach is a more credible approach to the construction of ITSs in mathematics than existing techniques.

Functional near vision assessment in presbyopia

The aim of this thesis was to develop standards of best practice for the subjective assessment of near visual function in presbyopia. Near visual acuity (VA) is a quick and simple measure but an assessment of the maximum reading speed and the smallest print size that can maintain this are equally important, to gain a better reflection of real world visual function. These metrics are dependent on the amplitude of accommodation (AoA) and often this must be evaluated using subjective techniques. Defocus curves are less susceptible than the push-up/push-down test to the influence of blur tolerance but their implementation must be standardised such that letter sequences and the order of lens presentation are randomised, to avoid memory effects, whilst the AoA should be quantified as the range of defocus for which only the best VA is maintained. In addition to such clinical assessments, subjective questionnaire evaluations are also important, to determine whether at least an individual’s needs are met. The Near Activity Visual Questionnaire (NAVQ) developed in this thesis can be used for this. Using these standardised near vision metrics it is shown that visual performance with monovision and multifocal contact lenses is comparable whilst initial outcomes of single optic ‘accommodating’ intraocular lens implantation are unlikely to be sustained in the long-term.

How green is green? A framework for environmental performance assessment in operations

This paper presents a framework based upon a relationship between environmental benefits and the investments and costs needed to implement and run company operations. As the results of environmental management become more evident it is proposed that the benefits rather than the environmental impacts are measured in the analysis of environmental performance. Four categories, or stages, are defined in this paper: “creative-green”, “expensive-green”, “inefficient-green or beginner”, and finally, the “complacent” stage. The paper describes the characteristics of each category and provides examples of indicators that could be used to measure environmental benefits. Qualitative and quantitative methods are necessary to classify companies according to the framework. It is believed that this paper can assist companies and public organisations to assess operations and projects considering their level of sustainability. The proposed framework can impact FDI and environmental policies in the public arena, and foster innovation on environmental practices within the private sector.

Activity and affect:repeated within-participant assessment in people after joint replacement surgery

Objective: Between-participant research has shown that high negative affectivity predicts greater activity limitations and vice versa. This study examined both between- and within-participant associations of negative and positive affectivity with activity levels using ecological momentary assessment. Method: Participants were 25 people who had undergone joint replacement surgery 12 months previously. Participants made multiple reports of their activity and positive and negative affectivity over a single day using, a computerized diary. Activity was also objectively recorded using an activity monitor. The following day, participants made a self-report of their activity over the measurement day and general positive and negative affectivity levels were recorded. Results: Higher self-reported walking time over the whole measurement day was associated with higher general positive affectivity but not negative affectivity. However, using ecological momentary assessment, higher diary reports of negative affectivity predicted increased activity levels while positive affectivity neither predicted nor was predicted by activity. Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the importance of within-participant methodology in detecting subtle and immediate effects of individuals' mood on behavior that may differ from findings investigating between-participant effects over longer time periods.

The role of risk assessment in supporting a positive organisational safety culture

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Investigating mental health risk assessment in primary care and the potential role of a structured decision support tool, GRiST

Aim: To explore current risk assessment processes in general practice and Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services, and to consider whether the Galatean Risk and Safety Tool (GRiST) can help support improved patient care. Background: Much has been written about risk assessment practice in secondary mental health care, but little is known about how it is undertaken at the beginning of patients' care pathways, within general practice and IAPT services. Methods: Interviews with eight general practice and eight IAPT clinicians from two primary care trusts in the West Midlands, UK, and eight service users from the same region. Interviews explored current practice and participants' views and experiences of mental health risk assessment. Two focus groups were also carried out, one with general practice and one with IAPT clinicians, to review interview findings and to elicit views about GRiST from a demonstration of its functionality. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings Variable approaches to mental health risk assessment were observed. Clinicians were anxious that important risk information was being missed, and risk communication was undermined. Patients felt uninvolved in the process, and both clinicians and patients expressed anxiety about risk assessment skills. Clinicians were positive about the potential for GRiST to provide solutions to these problems. Conclusions: A more structured and systematic approach to risk assessment in general practice and IAPT services is needed, to ensure important risk information is captured and communicated across the care pathway. GRiST has the functionality to support this aspect of practice.

New lecturers' beliefs about learning, teaching and assessment in higher education:the role of the PGCLTHE programme

This study was carried out with new lecturers on a two year Post Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education programme in a UK university. The aim was to establish their beliefs about how studying on the programme aligned with their teaching and learning philosophy and what, if anything, had changed or constrained those beliefs. Ten lecturers took part in an in-depth semi-structured interview. Content analysis of the transcripts suggested positive reactions to the programme but lecturers’ new insights were sometimes constrained by departments and university bureaucracy, particularly in the area of assessment. The conflicting roles of research and teaching were also a major issue facing these new professionals.

No-reference image quality assessment in contourlet domain

The target of no-reference (NR) image quality assessment (IQA) is to establish a computational model to predict the visual quality of an image. The existing prominent method is based on natural scene statistics (NSS). It uses the joint and marginal distributions of wavelet coefficients for IQA. However, this method is only applicable to JPEG2000 compressed images. Since the wavelet transform fails to capture the directional information of images, an improved NSS model is established by contourlets. In this paper, the contourlet transform is utilized to NSS of images, and then the relationship of contourlet coefficients is represented by the joint distribution. The statistics of contourlet coefficients are applicable to indicate variation of image quality. In addition, an image-dependent threshold is adopted to reduce the effect of content to the statistical model. Finally, image quality can be evaluated by combining the extracted features in each subband nonlinearly. Our algorithm is trained and tested on the LIVE database II. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to the conventional NSS model and can be applied to different distortions. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Life cycle assessment in the food supply chain:a case study

This research aims at assessing the environmental impact of the poultry supply chain from cradle to grave using case study research and also life cycle assessment (LCA). While a limited number of generic poultry production LCA studies have been published, fewer yet assess the whole process of a specific organisation, none comparing the increased impact of further processing. Our results show that irrespectively of the impact assessment method utilised, the process of producing portions is considerably higher in total environmental impact due to the extra raw material required to produce the same mass into retail. Our research contributes to the growing number of LCA studies and could be used by practitioners for comparison against national and international averages. From a theoretical point of view, this research provides new insights into the relationship between vertically integrated supply chains and environmental performance which has not been examined in the past.

Applicability of non-modular assessment in construction management and allied undergraduate programmes:perspective of the academics involved

Undergraduate programmes on construction management and other closely related built environment disciplines are currently taught and assessed on a modular basis. This is the case in the UK and in many other countries globally. However, it can be argued that professionally oriented programmes like these are better assessed on a non-modular basis, in order to produce graduates who can apply knowledge on different subject contents in cohesion to solve complex practical scenarios in their work environments. The examples of medical programmes where students are assessed on a non-modular basis can be cited as areas where this is already being done. A preliminary study was undertaken to explore the applicability of non-modular assessment within construction management undergraduate education. A selected sample of university academics was interviewed to gather their perspectives on applicability of non-modular assessment. General acceptance was observed among the academics involved that integrating non-modular assessment is applicable and will be beneficial. All academics stated that at least some form of non-modular assessment as being currently used in their programmes. Examples where cross-modular knowledge is assessed included comprehensive/multi-disciplinary project modules and creating larger modules to amalgamate a number of related subject areas. As opposed to a complete shift from modular to non-modular, an approach where non-modular assessment is integrated and its use further expanded within the current system is therefore suggested. This is due to the potential benefits associated with this form of assessment to professionally aligned built environment programmes

Innovation in education. Commentary:teaching statistics using dance and movement and a case for neuroscience in mathematics education

Review: A commentary on Teaching statistics using dance and movement by Irving, L.T. (2015). Front. Psychol. 6:50. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00050 A case for neuroscience in mathematics education by Susac, A., and Braeutigam, S. (2014). Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:314. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00314