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
Oral tablets containing solubilized drug in the presence of appropriate excipients may give us an immediate release of the drug. Phospholipid solid dispersion (PSD) is a branch of solid dispersion in which phospholipid acts as a hydrophilic polymer in the presence of a suitable adsorbent to enhance the solubility of poorly soluble drugs. The anti-hyperlipidemic drug Atorvastatin (ATR) is an example of such drug, as it belongs to the class II group according to the biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS) with low bioavailability due to its low solubility. Phosphatidylcholine in combination with magnesium aluminum silicate as an adsorbent in a ratio of ATR: PC: MAS 1:3:4 was used to prepare ATR PSD by the solvent evaporation method, the
... Show MoreThe main aim of this study is to evaluate the remaining oil in previously produced zones, locate the water productive zone and look for any bypassed oil behind casing in not previously perforated intervals. Initial water saturation was calculated from digitized open hole logs using a cut-off value of 10% for irreducible water saturation. The integrated analysis of the thermal capture cross section, Sigma and Carbon/oxygen ratio was conducted and summarized under well shut-in and flowing conditions. The logging pass zone run through sandstone Zubair formation at north Rumaila oil field. The zones where both the Sigma and the C/O analysis show high remaining oil saturation similar to the open hole oil saturation, could be good oil zones that
... Show MoreThis study aims to suggest an alternative to the use of quality agricultural soil in the brick industry (Iraq). The Late Miocene claystone bed in the Injana Formation in central Iraq was targeted through the study of 18 exposed sections that were sampled by using the trench sampling method. The claystones are characterized by quartz (36.4%) followed by calcite (32.8%), quartz (36.4%) feldspar (2.6%), gypsum (1.3%) and dolomite (0.7%), kaolinite (10.5%), illite (7.7%), chlorite (6.7%), palygorskite (6.0%) and montmorillonite (0.7%). New thermal mineral phases were formed at 950°C, including diopside (62.9%), quartz (18.4%), wollastonite (8.28%), akermanite (7.6%), Anorthite (6.25%), Nosean (4.9%), gehlenite (3.75%) and Lazurite (3.1
... Show MoreThe distress of moisture induced damage in flexible pavement received tremendous attention over the past decades. The harmful effects of this distress expand the deterioration of other known distresses such as rutting and fatigue cracking. This paper focused on the efficiency of using the waste material of demolished concrete to prepare asphalt mixtures that can withstand the effect of moisture in the pavement. For this purpose, different percentages of waste demolished concrete (0, 10, 20, 30, 50, 70 and 100) were embedded as a replacement for coarse aggregate to construct the base course. The optimum asphalt contents were determined depending on the Marshall method. Then after, two parameters were founded to evaluate the moisture
... Show MoreIn recent decades, there has been increasing interest in wastewater treatment because of its direct impact on the environment and public health. Over time, other forms of treatment have been developed and modified, including extended aeration. This process is included in the suspended growth system. In this paper, a comparative study was conducted between the efficiency of the extended aeration plant and that of the trickling filter plant in removal of BOD and COD. The method of comparison was done by knowing the value of the pollutant before and after the treatment and then extract the removal ratio of each pollutant within each plant. The results showed that the percentage of removal of BOD in the trickling filte
... Show MoreThis study aims to encapsulate atenolol within floating alginate-ethylcellulose beads as an oral controlled-release delivery system using aqueous colloidal polymer dispersion (ACPD) method.To optimize drug entrapment efficiency and dissolution behavior of the prepared beads, different parameters of drug: polymer ratio, polymer mixture ratio, and gelling agent concentration were involved.The prepared beads were investigated with respect to their buoyancy, encapsulation efficiency, and dissolution behavior in the media: 0.1 N HCl (pH 1.2), acetate buffer (pH 4.6) and phosphate buffer (pH 6.8). The release kinetics and mechanism of the drug from the prepared beads was investigated.All prepared atenolol beads remained f
... Show MoreThis paper reports an experimental study of welding of dissimilar materials between transparent Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and stainless steel 304 sheets using a pulsed mode Nd:YAG laser. The process was carried out for two cases; laser transmission joining (LTJ) and conduction joining (CJ). The former is achieved when the joint is irradiated from the polymer side and the latter when the joint is irradiated from the opposite side (metal side). The light and process parameters represented by the peak power (Pp), pulse duration (τ), pulse repetition rate (PRR), scanning speed (ν) and pulse shape have a significant effect on the joint strength (Fb), joint bead width (b), joint quality and appearance. The optimum parameters were determined
... Show MoreThe thermal performance of indirect expansion solar assisted heat pump, IX-SAHP, was investigated experimentally under Iraqi climate. An Indirect-Solar Assisted Heat Pump system was designed, built, instrumented and tested. Experimental tests were conducted by varying the controlling parameters to investigate their effects on the thermal performance of the IX-SAHP such as cooling water flow rate, heating water flow rate, ambient temperature and solar radiation intensity. The investigation covered values of cooling water flow rate of (2, 3, 4, 5 l/min) and heating water flow rate of (2, 3, 4, 5 l/min) under meteorological condition of Baghdad from November 2014 to January 2015.
The results indicated that the performance of the IX-
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