Background: Scientific education aims to be inclusive and to improve students learning achievements, through appropriate teaching and learning. Problem Based Learning (PBL) system, a student centered method, started in the second half of the previous century and is expanding progressively, organizes learning around problems and students learn about a subject through the experience of solving these problems.Objectives:To assess the opinions of undergraduate medical students regarding learning outcomes of PBL in small group teaching and to explore their views about the role of tutors and methods of evaluation. Type of the study: A cross-sectional study.Methods: This study was conducted in Kerbala Medical Colleges among second year students. A self-administered questionnaire was prepared to evaluate the newly applied teaching system. The study analysis included simple descriptive analysis and determining association through t-test, chi square test and regression analysis and using structural equation models to determine simultaneous association between different students’ demographic characteristics and potential predictors using SPSS-20 and Amos software at a significance level of < 0.05.Results:A total of 131 undergraduate medical students participated in the study with a response rate of 94%. The majority (93%) have indicated that PBL strategy contributed effectively to their knowledge development with a similar majority (92%) considering PBL successful new teaching method. About 86% reported that would choose PBL rather than conventional method and also 86% would advise PBL for others. Similarly, high majority indicated that various PBL activities are essential. Regarding the tutors’ role in PBL, the majority (92%) indicated that this role was positive and fundamental. According to two thirds (68%) of participants PBL application in Kerbala Medical college was very good application while a higher majority described various PBL sessions as successful and positive and fundamental role of tutors was stressed by most students.Conclusions: This study highlighted the benefits of soliciting student impressions of effective small group teaching. The students’ emphasized group atmosphere and facilitation skills of tutor in learning.Key words: Problem Based Learning, Medical Education, Small Group Teaching, Team Based Learning, Kerbala Medical College
With the development of computer architecture and its technologies in recent years, applications like e-commerce, e-government, e-governance and e-finance are widely used, and they act as active research areas. In addition, in order to increase the quality and quantity of the ordinary everyday transactions, it is desired to migrate from the paper-based environment to a digital-based computerized environment. Such migration increases efficiency, saves time, eliminates paperwork, increases safety and reduces the cost in an organization. Digital signatures are playing an essential role in many electronic and automatic based systems and facilitate this migration. The digital signatures are used to provide many services and s
... Show MoreThe development of Web 2.0 has improved people's ability to share their opinions. These opinions serve as an important piece of knowledge for other reviewers. To figure out what the opinions is all about, an automatic system of analysis is needed. Aspect-based sentiment analysis is the most important research topic conducted to extract reviewers-opinions about certain attribute, for instance opinion-target (aspect). In aspect-based tasks, the identification of the implicit aspect such as aspects implicitly implied in a review, is the most challenging task to accomplish. However, this paper strives to identify the implicit aspects based on hierarchical algorithm incorporated with common-sense knowledge by means of dimensionality reduction.
One of the important objectives of the varistor is for a sustainable environment and reduce the pollution resulting from the frequent damage of the electrical devices and power station waste. In present work, the influence of Al2O3 additives on the non –linear electrical features of SnO2 varistors, has been investigated, where SnO2 ceramic powder doped with Al2O3 in three rates (0.005, 0.01, and 0.05), the XRD test improved that SnO2 is the primary phase, while CoCr2O4, and Al2O3 represent the secondary phases. The electrical tests of all prepared samples confirmed that the increasing of Al2O3 rates and sintering temperature improves and increase the electrical features, where the best results obtained at Al2O3 (0.05) and 1000℃, the non
... Show MoreResearchers employ behavior based malware detection models that depend on API tracking and analyzing features to identify suspected PE applications. Those malware behavior models become more efficient than the signature based malware detection systems for detecting unknown malwares. This is because a simple polymorphic or metamorphic malware can defeat signature based detection systems easily. The growing number of computer malwares and the detection of malware have been the concern for security researchers for a large period of time. The use of logic formulae to model the malware behaviors is one of the most encouraging recent developments in malware research, which provides alternatives to classic virus detection methods. To address the l
... Show MoreRock mechanical properties are critical parameters for many development techniques related to tight reservoirs, such as hydraulic fracturing design and detecting failure criteria in wellbore instability assessment. When direct measurements of mechanical properties are not available, it is helpful to find sufficient correlations to estimate these parameters. This study summarized experimentally derived correlations for estimating the shear velocity, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and compressive strength. Also, a useful correlation is introduced to convert dynamic elastic properties from log data to static elastic properties. Most of the derived equations in this paper show good fitting to measured data, while some equations show scatters
... Show MoreFinger vein recognition and user identification is a relatively recent biometric recognition technology with a broad variety of applications, and biometric authentication is extensively employed in the information age. As one of the most essential authentication technologies available today, finger vein recognition captures our attention owing to its high level of security, dependability, and track record of performance. Embedded convolutional neural networks are based on the early or intermediate fusing of input. In early fusion, pictures are categorized according to their location in the input space. In this study, we employ a highly optimized network and late fusion rather than early fusion to create a Fusion convolutional neural network
... Show MoreThe refractive index sensors based on tapered optical fiber are attractive for many industries due to sensing capability in a variety of application. In this paper, we proposed a refractive index sensor based on multicore fiber (MCF) sandwiched between two standard single mode fibers (SMF). The sensor consisting of three sections, SMF- MCF-SMF is structurally simple and can be easily produced by joining these parts. The MFC contains seven cores and these cores are surrounded by a single cladding. The sensing region is obtained by tapering the MCF section where the evanescent field is generated. The single mode propagating along the SMF is stimulated at the first joint and is coupled to the cladding modes. These modes interfere with the core
... Show MoreIn this paper, the behavior of structural concrete linear bar members was studied using numerical model implemented in a computer program written in MATLAB. The numerical model is based on the modified version of the procedure developed by Oukaili. The model is based on real stress-strain diagrams of concrete and steel and their secant modulus of elasticity at different loading stages. The behavior presented by normal force-axial strain and bending moment-curvature relationships is studied by calculating the secant sectional stiffness of the member. Based on secant methods, this methodology can be easily implemented using an iterative procedure to solve non-linear equations. A compari
The researchers of the present study have conducted a genre analysis of two political debates between American presidential nominees in the 2016 and 2020 elections. The current study seeks to analyze the cognitive construction of political debates to evaluate the typical moves and strategies politicians use to express their communicative intentions and to reveal the language manifestations of those moves and strategies. To achieve the study’s aims, the researchers adopt Bhatia’s (1993) framework of cognitive construction supported by van Emeren’s (2010) pragma-dialectic framework. The study demonstrates that both presidents adhere to this genre structuring to further their political agendas. For a positive and promising image
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