PURPOSE: No study had been conducted to assess the hospitals' environment for learning purposes in multicenter sites in Saudi Arabia. It aims to evaluate the environment of hospitals for learning purposes of pediatric residents. METHODS: We applied Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) to measure the learning environment at six teaching hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia from September to December 2013. RESULTS: The number of respondents was 104 (86.7%) out of 120 residents and 37 females and 67 male residents have responded. The residents' response scored 100 out of 160 maximum score in rating of PHEEM that showed overall learning environment is favorable for training. There were some items in the social support domain suggesting improvements. There was no significant difference between male and female residents. There was a difference among the participant teaching hospitals (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: The result pointed an overall positive rating. Individual item scores suggested that their social life during residency could be uninspiring. They have the low satisfactory level and they feel racism, and sexual discrimination. Therefore, there is still a room for improvement.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Female ; Hospitals, Teaching ; Humans ; Internship and Residency* ; Learning ; Male ; Pediatrics ; Racism ; Saudi Arabia*

We attempted to investigate the reason why the students got a worse grade in gross anatomy and the way how we can improve upon the teaching method since there were gaps between teaching and learning under recently changed integration curriculum. General characteristics of students and exploratory factors to testify the validity were compared between year 2011 and 2012. Students were asked to complete a short survey with a Likert scale. The results were as follows: although the percentage of acceptable items was similar between professors, professor C preferred questions with adequate item discrimination and inappropriate item difficulty whereas professor Y preferred adequate item discrimination and appropriate item difficulty with statistical significance (P<0.01). The survey revealed that 26.5% of total students gave up the exam on gross anatomy of professor Y irrespective of years. These results suggested that students were affected by the corrected item difficulty rather than item discrimination in order to obtain academic achievement. Therefore, professors in a team-teaching subject should reach a consensus on an item difficulty with proper teaching methods.
Consensus ; Curriculum ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Learning ; Schools, Medical* ; Self-Assessment* ; Teaching

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to explain the experiences of Iranian nursing students regarding their clinical learning environment (CLE). METHODS: Twenty-one nursing students participated in this qualitative study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis. RESULTS: Analysis of interviews identified six categories: educational confusion, absence of evaluation procedures, limited educational opportunities, inappropriate interactions with nursing staff, bullying culture, and discrimination. Systematic and consistent methods were not used in clinical education and evaluation of nursing students. In addition, there were inadequate interactions between nursing students and health-care staff, and most students experienced discrimination and bullying in clinical settings. CONCLUSION: Findings showed that the CLE of Iranian nursing students may be inadequate for high-level learning and safe and effective teaching. Addressing these challenges will require academic and practice partnerships to examine the systems affecting the CLE, and areas to be addressed are described in the six themes identified.
Bullying ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Education, Nursing ; Humans ; Iran ; Learning* ; Nursing Staff ; Nursing* ; Qualitative Research ; Students, Nursing*

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study is to 1) conduct a discrimination analysis of schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder using MMPI profile through artificial neural network analysis and logistic regression analysis, 2) to make a comparison between advantages and disadvantages of the two methods, and 3) to demonstrate the usefulness of artificial neural network analysis of psychiatric data. PROCEDURE: The MMPI profiles for 181 schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder patients were selected. Of these profiles, 50 were randomly placed in the learning group and the remaining 131 were placed in the validation group. The artificial neural network was trained using the profiles of the learning group and the 131 profiles of the validation group were analyzed. A logistic regression analysis was then conducted in a similar manner. The results of the two analyses were compared and contrasted using sensitivity, specificity, ROC curves, and kappa index. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis and artificial neural network analysis both exhibited satisfactory discriminating ability at Kappa index of greater than 0.4. The comparison of the two methods revealed artificial neural network analysis is superior to logistic regression analysis in its discriminating capacity, displaying higher values of Kappa index, specificity, and AUC(Area Under the Curve) of ROC curve than those of logistic regression analysis. CONCLUSION: Artificial neural network analysis is a new tool whose frequency of use has been increasing for its superiority in nonlinear applications. However, it does possess insufficiencies such as difficulties in understanding the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Nevertheless, when used in conjunction with other analysis tools which supplement it, such as the logistic regression analysis, it may serve as a powerful tool for psychiatric data analysis.
Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Learning ; Logistic Models* ; MMPI* ; Mood Disorders ; ROC Curve ; Schizophrenia ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Statistics as Topic

BACKGROUND: The Seoul Verbal Learning Test (SVLT) is a relatively brief test of verbal learning and memory, which is used to examine dementia patients when a more comprehensive memory assessment is not feasible or when serial testing is desired. The aim of this study was to investigate the pattern of the SVLT performance and its usefulness in making a differential diagnosis between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical vascular dementia (SVD). METHODS: The SVLT was administered to 15 younger controls, 12 elderly controls, 84 probable AD and 53 SVD patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for dementia. In order to determine the difference of the SVLT parameters between AD and SVD according to the disease severity, the subjects were first grouped into mild dementia (CDR 1 or less) and advanced dementia (CDR2), then the parameters were compared. RESULTS: Pattern analysis of the SVLT performance in subjects with AD and SVD revealed that the mild AD subjects recalled fewer words in trial 2, had a lower discrimination index, a lower combination memory score and more recognition of semantically-unrelated distracter items. In advanced cases, with the exception of combination memory score, there were no differences between the groups in terms of the overall learning or the discrimination index. CONCLUSIONS: Although SVLT has limited differential diagnostic value in advanced cases, in mild cases, pattern analysis of the SVLT performance is a useful tool for discriminating mild AD from SVD. Therefore, a further clinical study should be promising.
Aged ; Alzheimer Disease* ; Dementia ; Dementia, Vascular* ; Diagnosis, Differential* ; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Learning ; Memory ; Seoul* ; Verbal Learning*

Caveolin-1 (Cav-1) is a marker protein for caveolae, and acts as scaffolding protein to regulate the activities of signaling molecules. Previous studies indicate that Cav-1 mainly locates at the base of axonal and dendritic terminals of mouse primary hippocampal neurons and plays an active role in the regulation of injury-induced synaptic and terminal remodeling in central nervous system. The aim of this study was to identify the expression profile of Cav-1 protein in the brains of rats at different ages and to investigate the role of Cav-1 in Y-maze bright-dark discrimination learning (BDL). Firstly, the expressions of Cav-1 in the brains of young (1-month), adult (3-month) and aged (22-month) rats were observed by Western blot. Higher expression in the hippocampus and lower expression in the cortex were shown in the adult rats. It was also found that the score of BDL was related with the expression level of Cav-1. Secondly, using open-field test for spontaneous locomotor activities (SLA) and BDL, the role of Cav-1 in the learning and memory was observed. Compared with that in the control adult group, the Cav-1 protein expression in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex of Y-maze trained adult rats significantly increased, while no marked changes in the cerebellum. These results suggest that Cav-1 protein is involved in BDL and plays an important role in the plasticity of central nervous system.
Age Factors ; Animals ; Brain Chemistry ; Caveolin 1 ; analysis ; physiology ; Discrimination Learning ; GAP-43 Protein ; analysis ; Male ; Maze Learning ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Synaptophysin ; analysis

Biofeedback therapy is an instrument-based learning process centered on operant conditioning. The goal of biofeedback therapy in defecatory disorders is to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, retrain rectal sensation and coordinate pelvic floor muscles during evacuation. Biofeedback therapy, in a broader sense, includes education, counseling, and diaphragmatic muscle training as well as exercise, sensory, and coordination training. For dyssynergic defecation, biofeedback therapy is a well-known and useful treatment option that had response rates of approximately 70-80% in randomized controlled trials. Biofeedback therapy for dyssynergic defecation consists of improving the abdominal push effort together with biofeedback technique-guided pelvic floor relaxation followed by simulated defecation and/or sensory training. For fecal incontinence, the results of a randomized controlled trial, which had a response rate of 76%, indicated that biofeedback therapy is useful in selected patients who fail to respond to conservative treatment and that training to enhance rectal discrimination of sensation may be helpful in reducing fecal incontinence. The focus of biofeedback therapy for fecal incontinence is on exercising external sphincter contractions under instant feedback, either alone or synchronously with rectal distension and/or sensory training. Biofeedback therapy is a safe treatment that may produce durable improvement beyond the active treatment period; however, a well-designed study to establish a standard protocol for biofeedback therapy is needed. This review discusses the technique of biofeedback therapy to achieve the goal and clinical outcomes for constipation and fecal incontinence.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Conditioning, Operant ; Constipation* ; Counseling ; Defecation ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Fecal Incontinence* ; Humans ; Learning ; Muscles ; Pelvic Floor ; Relaxation ; Sensation ; Treatment Outcome

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the association between basic neurocognitive functions and emotional recognition in chronic schizophrenia. Furthermore, to Investigate cognitive variable related to emotion recognition in Schizophrenia. METHODS: Forty eight patients from the Yongin Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center were evaluated for neurocognitive function, and Emotional Recognition Test which has four subscales finding emotional clue, discriminating emotions, understanding emotional context and emotional capacity. Measures of neurocognitive functioning were selected based on hypothesized relationships to perception of emotion. These measures included:1) Letter Number Sequencing Test, a measure of working memory;2) Word Fluency and Block Design, a measure of executive function;3) Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Korean version, a measure of verbal memory;4) Digit Span, a measure of immediate memory;5) Span of Apprehension Task, a measure of early visual processing, visual scanning;6) Continuous Performance Test, a measure of sustained attention functioning. Correlation analyses between specific neurocognitive measures and emotional recognition test were made. To examine the degree to which neurocognitive performance predicting emotional recognition, hierarchical regression analyses were also made. RESULTS: Working memory, and verbal memory were closely related with emotional discrimination. Working memory, Span of Apprehension and Digit Span were closely related with contextual recognition. Among cognitive measures, Span of Apprehension, Working memory, Digit Span were most important variables in predicting emotional capacity. CONCLUSION: These results are relevant considering that emotional information processing depends, in part, on the abilities to scan the context and to use immediate working memory. These results indicated that multifaceted cognitive training program added with Emotional Recognition Task(Cognitive Behavioral Rehabilitation Therapy added with Emotional Management Program) are promising.
Automatic Data Processing ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Memory ; Memory, Short-Term ; Rehabilitation ; Rehabilitation Centers ; Schizophrenia ; Verbal Learning

Rehabilitation of young children with hearing impairment can be defined as a teaching/learning process where the role of the clinician is to facilitate the acquisition of listening, speech and language in a normal developmental order. The young children with hearing impairment are helped by hearing aids and cochlear implants to learn language. Auditory (re)habilitation in young children with hearing impairment is to acquire auditory skills at four stages : sound detection, sound identification through imitation, sound discrimination, and comprehension. Without appropriate auditory training and early intervention, children with hearing impairment cannot develop spoken language. Speech acquisition is a perceptual as well as an oral process. To maximize the speech acquisition in children with hearing impairment, indepth understanding of the characteristics of the children, the parents' motivation and cooperation, a well-designed educational program, and the high competence of the health care professionals are important. Therefore, listening is not an isolated skill, and the auditory development in children with hearing impairment should be achieved in a comprehensive approach. Young children with hearing impairment need supports and guidance from health care professionals whose holistic approach balances auditory learning with the parallel development of the children's other learning processes.
Child* ; Cochlear Implants ; Comprehension ; Correction of Hearing Impairment* ; Delivery of Health Care ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Early Intervention (Education) ; Hearing Aids ; Hearing Loss* ; Humans ; Learning ; Mental Competency ; Motivation ; Rehabilitation ; Speech Perception*

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and plays a key role in cognitive dysfunction. Perilla frutescens var. japonica extract (PFE) and its major compound, rosmarinic acid (RA), have shown antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. We investigated whether administration of PFE and RA contributes to cognitive improvement in an Aβ25-35-injected mouse model. MATERIALS/METHODS: Male ICR mice were intracerebroventricularly injected with aggregated Aβ25-35 to induce AD. Aβ25-35-injected mice were fed PFE (50 mg/kg/day) or RA (0.25 mg/kg/day) for 14 days and examined for learning and memory ability through the T-maze, object recognition, and Morris water maze test. RESULTS: Our present study demonstrated that PFE and RA administration significantly enhanced cognition function and object discrimination, which were impaired by Aβ25-35, in the T-maze and object recognition tests, respectively. In addition, oral administration of PFE and RA decreased the time to reach the platform and increased the number of crossings over the removed platform when compared with the Aβ25-35-induced control group in the Morris water maze test. Furthermore, PFE and RA significantly decreased the levels of nitric oxide (NO) and malondialdehyde (MDA) in the brain, kidney, and liver. In particular, PFE markedly attenuated oxidative stress by inhibiting production of NO and MDA in the Aβ25-35-injected mouse brain. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that PFE and its active compound RA have beneficial effects on cognitive improvement and may help prevent AD induced by Aβ.
Administration, Oral ; Alzheimer Disease ; Animals ; Brain ; Cognition* ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Humans ; Kidney ; Learning ; Liver ; Male ; Malondialdehyde ; Memory* ; Mice ; Mice, Inbred ICR ; Nitric Oxide ; Oxidative Stress ; Perilla frutescens* ; Perilla* ; Water