A method of evaluating psychomotor tooth preparation skills in preclinical dental programs

Preclinical and clinical tooth important and significant aspect of preparation is an a dental student's education. The associated procedures rely heavily on the development of particular psychomotor skills. The most common format of instruction and evaluation in tooth preparation at many Dental Faculties, emphasizes the product (tooth preparation) and associates performance with characteristics of this product. This integrated study examines which skills should be developed and how a course of instruction can best be structured to develop the necessary skills. The skills which are identified are those necessary for tooth preparation are selected from a psychomotor taxonomy. The purpose of evaluating these skills is identified. Behavioral objectives are set for student performance and the advisability of establishing standards of performance is examined. After reviewing studies related to learning strategy for dental psychomotor the most suitable tasks as well as articles on instructor effectiveness a model is proposed. A pilot project at the University of Toronto, based on this proposed model is described. The paper concludes wi th a discussion of the implications of this proposed model.

Methods and Tools for Objective Assessment of Psychomotor Skills in Laparoscopic Surgery

Training and assessment paradigms for laparoscopic surgical skills are evolving from traditional mentor–trainee tutorship towards structured, more objective and safer programs. Accreditation of surgeons requires reaching a consensus on metrics and tasks used to assess surgeons’ psychomotor skills. Ongoing development of tracking systems and software solutions has allowed for the expansion of novel training and assessment means in laparoscopy. The current challenge is to adapt and include these systems within training programs, and to exploit their possibilities for evaluation purposes. This paper describes the state of the art in research on measuring and assessing psychomotor laparoscopic skills. It gives an overview on tracking systems as well as on metrics and advanced statistical and machine learning techniques employed for evaluation purposes. The later ones have a potential to be used as an aid in deciding on the surgical competence level, which is an important aspect when accreditation of the surgeons in particular, and patient safety in general, are considered. The prospective of these methods and tools make them complementary means for surgical assessment of motor skills, especially in the early stages of training. Successful examples such as the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery should help drive a paradigm change to structured curricula based on objective parameters. These may improve the accreditation of new surgeons, as well as optimize their already overloaded training schedules.

Research on vehicle-based driver status/performance monitoring; development, validation, and refinement of algorithms for detection of driver drowsiness.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Sobering agent: effectiveness measurement and development. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Development and field test of psychophysical tests for DWI arrest. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Visual detection of driving while intoxicated. Project interim report: identification of visual cues and development of detection methods.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

Development of a visibility research capability. Final report.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C.

An investigation of the factor-analytic approach to the determination of abilities involved in psychomotor learning

This research began with an attempt to solve a practical problem, namely, the prediction of the rate at which an operator will learn a task. From a review of the literature, communications with researchers in this area and the study of psychomotor learning in factories it was concluded that a more fundamental approach was required which included the development of a task taxonomy. This latter objective had been researched for over twenty years by E. A. Fleishman and his approach was adopted. Three studies were carried out to develop and extend Fleishman's approach to the industrial area. However, the results of these studies were not in accord with FIeishman's conclusions and suggested that a critical re-assessment was required of the arguments, methods and procedures used by Fleishman and his co-workers. It was concluded that Fleishman's findings were to some extent an artifact of the approximate methods and procedures which he used in the original factor analyses and that using the more modern computerised factor analytic methods a reliable ability taxonomy could be developed to describe the abilities involved in the learning of psychomotor tasks. The implications for a changing-task or changing-subject model were drawn and it was concluded that a changing task and subject model needs to be developed.

[the Use Of Fish On Buccal Smear To Investigate Mosaicism With A 45,x Cell Line: Study On Healthy Men And Patients With Disorders Of Sex Development].

To verify whether fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of cells from the buccal epithelium could be employed to detect cryptomosaicism with a 45,X lineage in 46,XY patients. Samples of nineteen 46,XY healthy young men and five patients with disorders of sex development (DSD), four 45,X/46,XY and one 46,XY were used. FISH analysis with X and Y specific probes on interphase nuclei from blood lymphocytes and buccal epithelium were analyzed to investigate the proportion of nuclei containing only the signal of the X chromosome. The frequency of nuclei containing only the X signal in the two tissues of healthy men did not differ (p = 0.69). In all patients with DSD this frequency was significantly higher, and there was no difference between the two tissues (p = 0.38), either. Investigation of mosaicism with a 45,X cell line in patients with 46,XY DSD or sterility can be done by FISH directly using cells from the buccal epithelium.

The Influence Of The Environment On The Development Of Thyroid Tumors: A New Appraisal.

Most epidemiological studies concerning differentiated thyroid cancers (DTC) indicate an increasing incidence over the last two decades. This increase might be partially explained by the better access to health services worldwide, but clinicopathological analyses do not fully support this hypothesis, indicating that there are carcinogenetic factors behind this noticeable increasing incidence. Although we have undoubtedly understood the biology and molecular pathways underlying thyroid carcinogenesis in a better way, we have made very little progresses in identifying a risk profile for DTC, and our knowledge of risk factors is very similar to what we knew 30-40 years ago. In addition to ionizing radiation exposure, the most documented and established risk factor for DTC, we also investigated the role of other factors, including eating habits, tobacco smoking, living in a volcanic area, xenobiotics, and viruses, which could be involved in thyroid carcinogenesis, thus, contributing to the increase in DTC incidence rates observed.

Development And Shelf-life Determination Of Pasteurized, Microfiltered, Lactose Hydrolyzed Skim Milk.

The segment of the world population showing permanent or temporary lactose intolerance is quite significant. Because milk is a widely consumed food with an high nutritional value, technological alternatives have been sought to overcome this dilemma. Microfiltration combined with pasteurization can not only extend the shelf life of milk but can also maintain the sensory, functional, and nutritional properties of the product. This studied developed a pasteurized, microfiltered, lactose hydrolyzed (delactosed) skim milk (PMLHSM). Hydrolysis was performed using β-galactosidase at a concentration of 0.4mL/L and incubation for approximately 21h at 10±1°C. During these procedures, the degree of hydrolysis obtained (>90%) was accompanied by evaluation of freezing point depression, and the remaining quantity of lactose was confirmed by HPLC. Milk was processed using a microfiltration pilot unit equipped with uniform transmembrane pressure (UTP) ceramic membranes with a mean pore size of 1.4 μm and UTP of 60 kPa. The product was submitted to physicochemical, microbiological, and sensory evaluations, and its shelf life was estimated. Microfiltration reduced the aerobic mesophilic count by more than 4 log cycles. We were able to produce high-quality PMLHSM with a shelf life of 21 to 27d when stored at 5±1°C in terms of sensory analysis and proteolysis index and a shelf life of 50d in regard to total aerobic mesophile count and titratable acidity.

De Novo Assembly And Transcriptome Analysis Of The Rubber Tree (hevea Brasiliensis) And Snp Markers Development For Rubber Biosynthesis Pathways.

Hevea brasiliensis (Willd. Ex Adr. Juss.) Muell.-Arg. is the primary source of natural rubber that is native to the Amazon rainforest. The singular properties of natural rubber make it superior to and competitive with synthetic rubber for use in several applications. Here, we performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) of H. brasiliensis bark on the Illumina GAIIx platform, which generated 179,326,804 raw reads on the Illumina GAIIx platform. A total of 50,384 contigs that were over 400 bp in size were obtained and subjected to further analyses. A similarity search against the non-redundant (nr) protein database returned 32,018 (63%) positive BLASTx hits. The transcriptome analysis was annotated using the clusters of orthologous groups (COG), gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and Pfam databases. A search for putative molecular marker was performed to identify simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). In total, 17,927 SSRs and 404,114 SNPs were detected. Finally, we selected sequences that were identified as belonging to the mevalonate (MVA) and 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathways, which are involved in rubber biosynthesis, to validate the SNP markers. A total of 78 SNPs were validated in 36 genotypes of H. brasiliensis. This new dataset represents a powerful information source for rubber tree bark genes and will be an important tool for the development of microsatellites and SNP markers for use in future genetic analyses such as genetic linkage mapping, quantitative trait loci identification, investigations of linkage disequilibrium and marker-assisted selection.

Neurodevelopment Of Small-for-gestational Age Infants: Behavioral Aspects In First Year.

The purpose of this study was to compare the behavior of full-term small-for-gestational age (SGA) with full-term appropriate-for gestational age (AGA) infants in the first year of life. We prospectively evaluated 68 infants in the 2nd month, 67 in the 6th month and 69 in the 12th month. The Bayley Scales of Infant Development-II were used, with emphasis on the Behavior Rating Scale (BRS). The groups were similar concerning the item interest in test materials and stimuli; there was a trend toward differences in the items negative affect, hypersensitivity to test materials and adaptation to change in test materials. The mean of Raw Score was significantly lower for the SGA group in the items predominant state, liability of state of arousal, positive affect, soothability when upset, energy, exploration of objects and surroundings, orientation toward examiner. A lower BRS score was associated with the SGA group in the 2nd month.

Development And Characterization Of Microsatellite Loci For Ocotea Species (lauraceae) Threatened With Extinction.

The Atlantic rainforest species Ocotea catharinensis, Ocotea odorifera, and Ocotea porosa have been extensively harvested in the past for timber and oil extraction and are currently listed as threatened due to overexploitation. To investigate the genetic diversity and population structure of these species, we developed 8 polymorphic microsatellite markers for O. odorifera from an enriched microsatellite library by using 2 dinucleotide repeats. The microsatellite markers were tested for cross-amplification in O. catharinensis and O. porosa. The average number of alleles per locus was 10.2, considering all loci over 2 populations of O. odorifera. Observed and expected heterozygosities for O. odorifera ranged from 0.39 to 0.93 and 0.41 to 0.92 across populations, respectively. Cross-amplification of all loci was successfully observed in O. catharinensis and O. porosa except 1 locus that was found to lack polymorphism in O. porosa. Combined probabilities of identity in the studied Ocotea species were very low ranging from 1.0 x 10-24 to 7.7 x 10-24. The probability of exclusion over all loci estimated for O. odorifera indicated a 99.9% chance of correctly excluding a random nonparent individual. The microsatellite markers described in this study have high information content and will be useful for further investigations on genetic diversity within these species and for subsequent conservation purposes.

Development And Characterization Of Microsatellite Loci For Tabebuia Cassinoides (bignoniaceae).

Tabebuia cassinoides (Lam.) DC., popularly known as caxeta, is a tree species that belongs to the plant family Bignoniaceae. This species is endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Forest and is widely exploited commercially. To date, little is known about its genetic structure, preventing the establishment of adequate management plans for this taxon. The objective of this study was to construct a microsatellite-enriched genomic library for T. cassinoides to select polymorphic loci, and standardize polymerase chain reaction amplification conditions. Of the 15 loci examined, 5 were polymorphic. The number of alleles per locus ranged from 2 to 8, with a mean of 4.4. The microsatellite loci described here represent the basis for detailed population genetic studies of this species, which will greatly contribute for the development of better conservation strategies for this taxon.