Background: The efficacy of educational strategies is crucial for nursing students to competently perform pediatric procedures like nasogastric tube insertion. Specific Background: This study evaluates the effectiveness of simulation, blended, and self-directed learning strategies in enhancing these skills among nursing students. Knowledge Gap: Previous research lacks a comprehensive comparison of these strategies' impacts on skill development in pediatric nursing contexts. Aims: The study aims to assess the effectiveness of different educational strategies on nursing students' ability to perform pediatric nasogastric tube insertions. Methods: A pre-experimental design was employed at the College of Nursing, University of Baghdad, involving 60 students divided into three groups. Data were collected via an observational checklist from October to December 2023 and analyzed using SPSS. Results: Significant improvements in students' skills were observed across all groups. Simulation strategy showed highly significant differences with p-values of .001 and large effect sizes (Partial Eta Squared: .887, .902, .582). Blended strategy also demonstrated significant results with p-values of .001 and large effect sizes (Partial Eta Squared: .813, .936, .883). The self-directed strategy was similarly effective, with p-values of .001 and large effect sizes (Partial Eta Squared: .871, .739, .667). Descriptive statistics revealed a notable increase in mean scores in post-tests, indicating the effectiveness of these strategies. Novelty: This study uniquely compares the effectiveness of simulation, blended, and self-directed learning strategies, providing comprehensive insights into their impacts on pediatric nursing education. Implications: The findings underscore the importance of incorporating diverse learning strategies in nursing curricula to enhance practical skills, suggesting that a combination of these methods could be most beneficial for student learning and competence in clinical settings. Highlights: Effective Strategies: Simulation, blended, and self-directed learning enhance pediatric nursing skills. Significant Improvement: All methods showed highly significant skill development with large effect sizes. Unique Comparison: The study provides valuable insights for nursing education curricula. Keywords: Nursing education, pediatric skills, nasogastric tube insertion, simulation learning, blended learning
Machine Learning (ML) algorithms are increasingly being utilized in the medical field to manage and diagnose diseases, leading to improved patient treatment and disease management. Several recent studies have found that Covid-19 patients have a higher incidence of blood clots, and understanding the pathological pathways that lead to blood clot formation (thrombogenesis) is critical. Current methods of reporting thrombogenesis-related fluid dynamic metrics for patient-specific anatomies are based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis, which can take weeks to months for a single patient. In this paper, we propose a ML-based method for rapid thrombogenesis prediction in the carotid artery of Covid-19 patients. Our proposed system aims
... Show MoreGeneral Background: Deep image matting is a fundamental task in computer vision, enabling precise foreground extraction from complex backgrounds, with applications in augmented reality, computer graphics, and video processing. Specific Background: Despite advancements in deep learning-based methods, preserving fine details such as hair and transparency remains a challenge. Knowledge Gap: Existing approaches struggle with accuracy and efficiency, necessitating novel techniques to enhance matting precision. Aims: This study integrates deep learning with fusion techniques to improve alpha matte estimation, proposing a lightweight U-Net model incorporating color-space fusion and preprocessing. Results: Experiments using the AdobeComposition-1k
... Show MoreHM Al-Dabbas, RA Azeez, AE Ali, IRAQI JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS, COMMUNICATIONS, CONTROL AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING, 2023
Currently, one of the topical areas of application of machine learning methods is the prediction of material characteristics. The aim of this work is to develop machine learning models for determining the rheological properties of polymers from experimental stress relaxation curves. The paper presents an overview of the main directions of metaheuristic approaches (local search, evolutionary algorithms) to solving combinatorial optimization problems. Metaheuristic algorithms for solving some important combinatorial optimization problems are described, with special emphasis on the construction of decision trees. A comparative analysis of algorithms for solving the regression problem in CatBoost Regressor has been carried out. The object of
... Show MoreHierarchical temporal memory (HTM) is a biomimetic sequence memory algorithm that holds promise for invariant representations of spatial and spatio-temporal inputs. This article presents a comprehensive neuromemristive crossbar architecture for the spatial pooler (SP) and the sparse distributed representation classifier, which are fundamental to the algorithm. There are several unique features in the proposed architecture that tightly link with the HTM algorithm. A memristor that is suitable for emulating the HTM synapses is identified and a new Z-window function is proposed. The architecture exploits the concept of synthetic synapses to enable potential synapses in the HTM. The crossbar for the SP avoids dark spots caused by unutil
... Show MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated new methods for controlling the spread of the virus, and machine learning (ML) holds promise in this regard. Our study aims to explore the latest ML algorithms utilized for COVID-19 prediction, with a focus on their potential to optimize decision-making and resource allocation during peak periods of the pandemic. Our review stands out from others as it concentrates primarily on ML methods for disease prediction.To conduct this scoping review, we performed a Google Scholar literature search using "COVID-19," "prediction," and "machine learning" as keywords, with a custom range from 2020 to 2022. Of the 99 articles that were screened for eligibility, we selected 20 for the final review.Our system
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