Representing the assessment process for psychodynamic psychotherapy within a computerized model of human classification

This research describes a computerized model of human classification which has been constructed to represent the process by which assessments are made for psychodynamic psychotherapy. The model assigns membership grades (MGs) to clients so that the most suitable ones have high values in the therapy category. Categories consist of a hierarchy of components, one of which, ego strength, is analysed in detail to demonstrate the way it has captured the psychotherapist's knowledge. The bottom of the hierarchy represents the measurable factors being assessed during an interview. A questionnaire was created to gather the identified information and was completed by the psychotherapist after each assessment. The results were fed into the computerized model, demonstrating a high correlation between the model MGs and the suitability ratings of the psychotherapist (r = .825 for 24 clients). The model has successfully identified the relevant data involved in assessment and simulated the decision-making process of the expert. Its cognitive validity enables decisions to be explained, which means that it has potential for therapist training and also for enhancing the referral process, with benefits in cost effectiveness as well as in the reduction of trauma to clients. An adapted version measuring client improvement would give quantitative evidence for the benefit of therapy, thereby supporting auditing and accountability. © 1997 The British Psychological Society.

Számítógép-használat otthon és a munkahelyen - a digitális kompetencia és a számítógépes munkakörnyezet ergonómiájának empirikus vizsgálata (Using of computers at home and on the workplace – an empirical study of the ergonomy of digital competency and the computerized working environment)

A számítógépes munkavégzés elterjedése számos szempontból és módszerrel vizsgálható. A szerző kutatásai során az ember-gép-környezet összhang megteremtésének igényéből kiindulva arra keresi a választ, hogy milyen tényezők befolyásolják a számítógéppel végzett tevékenységek megszervezésének és végrehajtásának hatékonyságát. Tanulmányában a kutatás indítófázisának főbb eredményeiről, a számítógép-használati szokásokról ad áttekintést, ami elengedhetetlen az irodai-adminisztratív jellegű tevékenységekhez kötődő kritikus tényezők feltárásához, továbbá a mérési és fejlesztési feladatok megalapozásához. A szűkebb értelemben vett ergonómiai szempontok mellett a digitális kompetenciák kérdéskörét vonta be a munkába, amit releváns kérdésnek tart a hatékonyság mérése szempontjából, mivel a számítógép megválasztása és a munkahely kialakítása nem értékelhető az emberi tényező alkalmassága és az elvégzendő feladat tartalma nélkül. __________ Office and administrative work, business corres-pondence, private contacts and learning are increasingly supported by computers. Moreover the technical possibilities of correspondence are wider than using a PC. It is accessible on the go by a cell phone. The author analysed the characteristics of the used devices, the working environment, satisfaction factors in connection with computer work and the digital competence by a survey. In his opinion development in an ergonomic approach is important not only to establish the technological novelties but to utilize the present possibilities of hardware and environment. The reason for this is that many people can not (or do not want) to follow the dynamic technological development of computers with buying the newest devices. The study compares the results of home and work characteristic of computer work. This research was carried out as part of the “TAMOP-4.2.1.B-10/2/ KONV-2010-0001” project with support by the European Union, co-financed by the European Social Fund.

An investigation into the comparable effectiveness of two tests of writing administered to college-level English as a Second Language students: The Computerized Placement Test and holistically scored essay exams

This dissertation describes the findings and implications of a correlational analysis. Scores earned on the Computerized Placement Test (CPT), sentence skills, were compared to essay scores of advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) students. As the CPT is designed for native speakers of English, it was hypothesized that it could be an invalid or unreliable instrument for non-native speakers. Florida community college students are mandated to take the CPT to determine preparedness, as are students at many other U.S. and Canadian colleges. If incoming students score low on the CPT, they may be required to take up to three semesters of remedial coursework. It is essential that scores earned by non-native speakers of English accurately reflect their ability level. They constitute a large and growing body of non-traditional students enrolled at community colleges.^ The study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus, fall 1997. Participants included 106 advanced ESL students who took both the CPT sentence skills test and wrote final essay exams. The essay exams were holistically scored by trained readers. Also, the participants took the Placement Articulation Software Service (PASS) exam, an alternative form of the CPT. Scores on the CPT and essays were compared by means of a Pearson product-moment correlation to validate the CPT. Scores on the CPT and the PASS exam were compared in the same manner to verify reliability. A percentage of appropriate placements was determined by comparing essay scores to CPT cutoff score ranges. Finally, the instruments were evaluated by means of independent-samples t-tests for performance differences between gender, age, and first language groups.^ The results indicate that the CPT sentence skills test is a valid and reliable placement instrument for advanced- level ESL students who intend to pursue community college degrees. The correlations demonstrated a substantial relationship between CPT and essay scores and a marked relationship between CPT and PASS scores. Appropriate placements were made in 86% of the cases. Furthermore, the CPT was found to discriminate equally among the gender, age, and first language groups included in this study. ^

Airline Deregulation, Computerized Reservation Systems, and Travel Agents

With the beginning of airline deregulations in 1978, U.S. domestic operations were in for a period of turmoil, adjustment, vibrancy, entrepreneurship, and change. A great deal has been written about the effects of deregulation on airlines and their personnel, and on the public at large. Less attention has been paid to the effects on travel agents and on the seminal role of computerized reservations systems (CRSs) in the flowering of travel agencies. This article examines both of these phenomena.

Painful Symptomatology Reported by Dentistry Students at a Brazilian University

Objectives: Identification of the level of knowledge on ergonomics principles, and application of these by dentistry students to investigate whether painful symptomatology was experienced. An-other objective is the expansion of discussions on occupational health in academic settings. Study Design and Settings: Dentistry students of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil (n = 148) were surveyed using the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire to determine the severity of musculoskeletal symptoms experienced. Data were analyzed through EpiInfo 7.0 to measure central trends and variability 5for quantitative variables, absolute and relative frequencies for categorical variables, and significance between groups (confidence intervals and chisquare). Association analysis (Pearson) was also carried out. Results: Ergonomic measures were not reported by students. Within the musculoskeletal symptoms described, females were the most affected, independent of academic level. Conclusions: Positive correlations were verified between all categories and all anatomic regions (e.g., neck, lower back, wrists, hands, and shoulders). Data suggest progressive worsening of symptoms, which will eventually result in leaves of absence.

Content and methodology of predoctoral Geriatric Dentistry teaching in Europe

Objectives: To explore the content and methodology of predoctoral Geriatric Dentistry teaching amongst European dental schools.
Methods: The study was conducted by the European College of Gerodontology (ECG) Education Committee. Αn electronic questionnaire has been developed with close and open-ended items, including information on the prevalence and institutional anchorage of Gerodontology programs, the educators, the content and the methodology of teaching. An electronic mail, including a hyperlink to the questionnaire, was sent to 216 dental schools in 39 European countries (Winter/ Spring 2016). The Deans were asked to either answer themselves, or forward the link to faculty members with knowledge on Gerodontology teaching at their respective schools. Repeated reminders or telephone calls were used for non-respondents and personal networks were exploited to identify potential contact persons.
Results: Until August 2016, 121 dental schools from 29 countries responded to the survey (response rate 56%, EU response rate: 60%). Gerodontology was included in the predoctoral curricula of 86% of the respondents and was compulsory in 68%. The course was mainly offered in senior students and was interdisciplinary in 30% of the schools, delivered mainly by dentists (79%), physicians (21%), psychologists (10%), and nurses (5%). It was conducted as an independent lecture series in 40% of the schools and a course director was assigned in 44% of the respondents. When embedded in other disciplines, these were mainly Prosthodontics (31%). The content included a large number of items, such as epidemiology of oral health, medical problems in old age, prosthodontic management, xerostomia, and caries risk assessment. Lectures were the most common teaching format (69%), followed by small group seminars (27%). The most common types of educational material used were scientific articles (48%), printed textbooks (44%), lecture notes (40%) and e-learning material (21%). Clinical training was offered by 64% of the respondents, within the dental school clinics (49%) and/or in outreach locations (40%).
Conclusion: Amongst the respondent European dental schools (66%) there is an increasing number that teach Gerodontology at a pre-doctoral level with significant variations in content and methodology. Official guidelines and the dissemination of the ECG pre-doctoral curriculum guidelines might help to increase the prevalence and improve the status of Gerodontology teaching in Europe.

Implementation of a computerized assessment system by using backpropagation neural networks with R and shiny

Las dificultades a las que los estudiantes se enfrentan y su lucha por dominar los temas, podría aumentar como consecuencia de la inadecuada utilización de materiales de evaluación. Generalmente se encuentran en el aula alumnos que hacen buen uso del material de los cursos y de una manera rápida, mientras que otros presentan dificultades con el aprendizaje del material. Esta situación es fácilmente visto en los resultados de los exámenes, un grupo de estudiantes podrían obtener buenas calificaciones animándoles, mientras que otros obtendrían la mala percepción de que los temas son difíciles, y en algunos casos, obligándolos a abandonar el curso o en otros casos a cambiar de carrera. Creemos que mediante el uso de técnicas de aprendizaje automático, y en nuestro caso la utilización de redes neuronales, sería factible crear un entorno de evaluación que podrían ajustarse a las necesidades de cada estudiante. Esto último disminuiría la sensación de insatisfacción de los alumnos y el abandono de los cursos.

Computerized Medical Diagnosis of Melanocytic Lesions based on the ABCD approach

Melanoma is a type of skin cancer and is caused by the uncontrolled growth of atypical melanocytes. In recent decades, computer aided diagnosis is used to support medical professionals; however, there is still no globally accepted tool. In this context, similar to state-of-the-art we propose a system that receives a dermatoscopy image and provides a diagnostic if the lesion is benign or malignant. This tool is composed with next modules: Preprocessing, Segmentation, Feature Extraction, and Classification. Preprocessing involves the removal of hairs. Segmentation is to isolate the lesion. Feature extraction is considering the ABCD dermoscopy rule. The classification is performed by the Support Vector Machine. Experimental evidence indicates that the proposal has 90.63 % accuracy, 95 % sensitivity, and 83.33 % specificity on a data-set of 104 dermatoscopy images. These results are favorable considering the performance of diagnosis by traditional progress in the area of dermatology

The role of forensic dentistry for identification of a criminal sexual assault: a casework report

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Response times in computerized adaptive testing: a method for cheating detection

In the field of educational and psychological measurement, the shift from paper-based to computerized tests has become a prominent trend in recent years. Computerized tests allow for more complex and personalized test administration procedures, like Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT). CAT, following the Item Response Theory (IRT) models, dynamically generates tests based on test-taker responses, driven by complex statistical algorithms. Even if CAT structures are complex, they are flexible and convenient, but concerns about test security should be addressed. Frequent item administration can lead to item exposure and cheating, necessitating preventive and diagnostic measures. In this thesis a method called "CHeater identification using Interim Person fit Statistic" (CHIPS) is developed, designed to identify and limit cheaters in real-time during test administration. CHIPS utilizes response times (RTs) to calculate an Interim Person fit Statistic (IPS), allowing for on-the-fly intervention using a more secret item bank. Also, a slight modification is proposed to overcome situations with constant speed, called Modified-CHIPS (M-CHIPS). A simulation study assesses CHIPS, highlighting its effectiveness in identifying and controlling cheaters. However, it reveals limitations when cheaters possess all correct answers. The M-CHIPS overcame this limitation. Furthermore, the method has shown not to be influenced by the cheaters’ ability distribution or the level of correlation between ability and speed of test-takers. Finally, the method has demonstrated flexibility for the choice of significance level and the transition from fixed-length tests to variable-length ones. The thesis discusses potential applications, including the suitability of the method for multiple-choice tests, assumptions about RT distribution and level of item pre-knowledge. Also limitations are discussed to explore future developments such as different RT distributions, unusual honest respondent behaviors, and field testing in real-world scenarios. In summary, CHIPS and M-CHIPS offer real-time cheating detection in CAT, enhancing test security and ability estimation while not penalizing test respondents.