Virtual and Augmented Reality Enhancements to Medical and Science Student Physiology and Anatomy Test Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Virtual and augmented reality have seen increasing employment for teaching within medical and health sciences programs. For disciplines such as physiology and anatomy, these technologies may disrupt the traditional modes of teaching and content delivery. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the impact of virtual reality or augmented reality on knowledge acquisition for students studying preclinical physiology and anatomy. The protocol was submitted to Prospero and literature search undertaken in PubMed, Embase, ERIC, and other databases. Citations were reviewed and articles published in full assessing learning or knowledge acquisition in preclinical physiology and anatomy from virtual or augmented reality were included. Of the 919 records found, 58 eligible articles were reviewed in full-text, with 8 studies meeting full eligibility requirements. There was no significant difference in knowledge scores from combining the eight studies (626 participants), with the pooled difference being a non-significant increase of 2.9 percentage points (95% CI [−2.9; 8.6]). For the four studies comparing virtual reality to traditional teaching, the pooled treatment effect difference was 5.8 percentage points (95% CI [−4.1; 15.7]). For the five studies comparing augmented reality to traditional teaching, the pooled treatment effect difference was 0.07 (95% CI [−7.0; 7.2]). Upon review of the literature, it is apparent that educators could benefit from adopting assessment processes that evaluate three-dimensional spatial understanding as a priority in physiology and anatomy. The overall evidence suggests that although test performance is not significantly enhanced with either mode, both virtual and augmented reality are viable alternatives to traditional methods of education in health sciences and medical courses.     

Relationship of negative contrast to animal models of fear and anxiety

The relatedness of behavior elicited by reward reduction (successive negative contrast procedure) and behaviors produced by three animal models of anxiety (open-field emergence, elevated plus-maze, and context-shock fear conditioning) was examined by correlational and factor analytic procedures. Factor analysis (oblique rotation) indicated substantial independence among the tests: Trials 1 and 2 of the plus-maze loaded on two different factors unaccompanied by any other test; open-field emergence and context-shock fear loaded on the same factor; and negative contrast loaded on a fourth factor. However, negative contrast proved to be a dynamic process, with factor loadings changing across a 4-day postshift period—moving from an independent loading on the 1st postshift day to being clustered with context-shock fear and open-field emergence on the 2nd and 3rd postshift days to being clustered with just context-shock fear on the last postshift day. These latter data support a multistage theory of successive negative contrast.     

Perceptions of Reform-Based Teaching and Learning in a College Mathematics Class

This study investigated, from the students',professor's, and researchers' perspectives, the effects of a reform-based introductory undergraduate mathematics course, and the efforts of a mathematics professor to teach such a course. The class had been designed for teacher candidates of middle school mathematics and science (Grades 4 to 8) but was open to all qualified students. We addressed the following research question: What perceptions about learning and teaching mathematics emerged through the participants' experiences in a reform-based mathematics course? Results of the analysis of the data suggested that the teacher candidates and the professor took an important first step toward enculturation into a reform-based vision of mathematics learning and teaching. Implications for mathematics faculty and teacher education faculty interested in promoting reform-based mathematics are presented.     

Day-level sedentary pattern estimates derived from hip-worn accelerometer cut-points in 8–12-year-olds: Do they reflect postural transitions?

Improving sedentary measurement is critical to understanding sedentary-health associations in youth. This study assessed agreement between the thigh-worn activPAL and commonly used hip-worn ActiGraph accelerometer methods for assessing sedentary patterns in children. Both devices were worn by 8–12-year-olds (N = 195) for 4.6 ± 1.9 days. Two ActiGraph cut-points were applied to two epoch durations: ≤25 counts (c)/15 s, ≤75c/15s, ≤100c/60s, and ≤300c/60s. Bias, mean absolute deviation (MAD), and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) tested agreement between devices for total sedentary time and 11 sedentary pattern variables (usual bout duration, sedentary time accumulated in various bout durations, breaks/day, break rate, and alpha). For most sedentary pattern variables, ActiGraph 25c/15s, 75c/15s, and 100c/60s had poor ICCs, with bias and MAD >20%. ActiGraph 300c/60s had a better agreement than the other cut-points, but all ICCs were <0.587. ActiGraph underestimated sedentary time in longer bouts and usual bout duration, and overestimated sedentary time in shorter bouts, breaks/day, and alpha. For total sedentary time, ActiGraph 25c/15s, 300c/60s, and 75c/15s had good/fair ICCs, with bias and MAD <20%. Sedentary patterns derived from two commonly used ActiGraph cut-points did not appear to reflect postural changes. These differences between measurement devices should be considered when interpreting findings from sedentary pattern studies.     

Coining Offences in England and Wales,c. 1675–1750: The Practical and the Personal

This article argues for a departure from previous conceptual frameworks that have categorised early modern coining offences as ‘social crimes’ similar to poaching, smuggling and riot. It seeks instead to complement the work undertaken by Malcolm Gaskill, Carl Wennerlind and Nicholas Tosney by contributing to their holistic interpretations of the offences from a variety of legal, economic and cultural perspectives. Through an analysis of elite views, cheap print, and the textual content of Mint depositions and trial summaries, this article argues that the ways in which contemporaries understood the practicalities of clipping, counterfeiting, and uttering as illicit depended largely on individual factors. These included the morality of work and labour, and specific roles and relationships of coiners.     

Sex differences in injury rates in team-sport athletes: A systematic review and meta-regression analysis

Background:Team-sport players have a particularly high injury risk.Although female sex is considered a risk factor,it is still unknown whether female and male team-sport players,in fact,differ in their injury rates.We aimed to compare injury rates between female and male players by systematically reviewing and meta-analyzing injury surveillance studies of both sexes in order to evaluate sex-specific differences in team-sport injuries.Methods:Studies that prospectively collected injury data for high-level female and male players(age≥16 years)in basketball,field hockey,football(soccer),handball,rugby(union and sevens),and volleyball were included.Two reviewers(AZ and ALR)independently assessed study quality and extracted data for overall,match,training,and severe injuries(>28 days’time loss)as well as data regarding injury locations and types.Incidence rate ratios(IRRs)were pooled in a meta-analysis,and meta-regression analysis was performed when 10 or more studies were available.Results:Of 20 studies,9 studies reported injury data from football,3 studies from rugby,3 studies from handball,1 study from basketball,1 study from field hockey,2 studies from volleyball,and 1 study from basketball and field hockey.For overall injuries,the pooled IRR=0.86(95%confidence interval(95%CI):0.76-0.98)indicated significantly more injuries in male than in female players.For injury location,the pooled IRR showed higher injury rates in male athletes than in female athletes for upper extremity,hip/groin,thigh,ande foot injuries.Female players had a significantly higher rate of anterior cruciate ligament injuries(IRR=2.15,95%CI:1.27-3.62)than male players.No significant sex-specific differences in IRR were found for match,training,severe injuries,concussions,or ankle sprains.Conclusion:Our meta-analysis provides evidence for sex-specific differences in the injury rates in team sports.Further epidemiological studies including both sexes in sports other than football are needed in order to strengthen the evidence.     

Carrying out research across the arts and humanities and social sciences: developing the methodology for Dementia and Imagination

This paper analyses how the methodological approach for a major Arts and Humanities Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council-funded project entitled Dementia and Imagination ¹1. http://dementiaandimagination.org.uk/View all notes was formulated. This multidisciplinary project brings together the arts and humanities with the social sciences with their different epistemological philosophies and subsequent understandings of research methods. The main objective was to determine how visual arts activities may change, sustain and catalyse community cultures, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours to create dementia-friendly communities. This project involves 6 different UK universities, 14 researchers, 10 formal partners, 7 project artists, 3 research artists and a large number of civil society organisations. The analysis presents a series of themes that have been identified as influencing the approach taken to develop methods which aimed to speak to different audiences in the social sciences, arts and humanities, policy/practice and public domains. It is concluded that a research project of this type needs to embrace a wide variety of epistemological positions if it is to successfully achieve its objectives. This paper contributes to knowledge about how the methodology of large-scale multidisciplinary projects may be constructed which will be of value to those building research consortia across different universities and between universities and community partners.     

Networks of value in electronic music: SoundCloud,London, and the importance of place

While recent debate has often focused on a reified “cultural value” (whether opposed to or aligned with monetary value), this article treats “value” as a verb and investigates the acts of valuing in which people engage. Through ethnographic research in London's electronic music scene and social network analysis of the SoundCloud audio sharing website (which is dominated by electronic dance music and, to a lesser extent, hip hop), it uncovers substantial patterns of geographical inequality. London is found at the very centre of a network of valuing relationships, in which New York and Los Angeles occupy the next most privileged locations, followed by Berlin, Paris, and Chicago. Cities outside Western Europe and the Anglophone world tend to occupy peripheral positions in the network. This finding suggests that location plays a major role in the circulation of value, even when we might expect that role to have been curtailed by an ostensibly “placeless” medium for the distribution and valuing of music. While there are reasons for the metropolitan emplacedness of dance music – given the importance of the relationship between production, consumption, and live DJing – the privileging of particular cities also mirrors patterns of inequality in the wider cultural economy. That London should appear so supremely privileged reflects both the exporting strength of British creative industries and the imbalanced nature of the UK's cultural economy.     

Zhouqu： a Paradise on the Earth

<正>Zhouqu, meaning "white dragon river" in the Tibetan language, is located in the southern part of northwest Gansu province. The county nestles in a mountainous area neighboring