Physiotherapy students’ perceptions of ageing – Playing narratives as a pedagogical innovation

Introduction and objectivesThere is a considerable lack of structure in training health professionals in geriatrics. The narratives can promote a collaborative reflection on different topics and might be used as a pedagogic strategy for undergraduate health students. This study aimed to explore the adoption of new perspectives on ageing after the implementation of dynamic narratives in the first graduate year for physiotherapy students.Materials and methodsAn exploratory qualitative study was performed. Participants were included if they were: ≥18 years old, physiotherapy students and agreed to participate. Physiotherapy students (n = 44) were recruited from the School of Health Sciences, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria. Two gaming sessions were performed to help students, as narrators, express their visions and ways to deal with the geriatrics field. Students’ perspectives about ageing at baseline (T1) and after the narratives experience (T2) were collected by answering the following question: What is your perception regarding ageing? Two evaluators were involved in qualitative data analysis by performing: (i) an individual analysis of themes/subthemes and a discussion meeting to evaluate discrepancies and to reach a consensus.ResultsNegative perceptions about ageing were referred 39 times at T1 (most of them related to restriction; deterioration subthemes). There were no negative perceptions registered at T2. Positive perceptions increased at T2, from n = 39 to n = 52, and three new subthemes emerged (beginning of something, fighting ageism, challenge).ConclusionThis study demonstrated the potential of narrative-based experiences as a desirable pedagogic methodology (board games-oriented) for geriatric education in undergraduate health students.     

Biopolitics: the newest synthesis?

On first impression, the disciplines of genetics and political science would appear to be unrelated. And yet, commencing more than 30 years ago, the interdisciplinary field known as Biopolitics has now taken hold. This essay traces the central thrust of the biopolitical research agenda. It describes, analyzes, and assesses how political scientists have sought to show connections between our species' genetic constitution and our species' political behavior. Important bridges between the two are the neurophysiology of the human brain and the role of evolutionary theory in charting man's adaptational political profile. The parameters of the emerging biopolitical literature raise profound policy questions, some of which are also characterized. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

View on donated life: Construction of philosophical ethics on human organ donation

With the emergence of organ donation and donation technology, the previous indivisibility of the human body becomes divisible, and different human organs form a new life subject. With reference to specific case studies in China, a new life, consisting of donated organs from different bodies by donation, can be called “donated life.” Donated life is a win-win action between altruism and egoism, that is, to save the lives of others and to regenerate the organs of donors or their relatives. Due to the emergence of this kind of life, traditional social ethics theories based on the marriage-related family find it difficult to difficult to explain the new realities. Thus, new thinking about social ethics is necessary.     

转变教育理念，强化实践环节，提高微生物学教学质量

微生物学是一门研究微生物的生命活动规律及其应用技术的学科。为了使不同学科背景和不同发展愿景的学生在有限的课时内能深入领会微生物学知识、掌握实验技能、增加对社会热点问题的理解,浙江大学从2013年开始对微生物学课程进行了改革。通过转变教学理念、融入课程思政、强化实验技能、重视评价导向等手段,使微生物学课程的教学质量有了明显的提升。     

互联网教育对超声住培教学的影响及思考

目的分析互联网教育对超声专业住培医师教学的影响。方法将我科接受超声专业住院医师规范化培训的50名住培医师为研究对象,其中以2019年1~4月的住培医师为对照组,以2020年1~4月的住培医师为实验组。对照组以传统教学方式教学,实验组以互联网教学为主要教学方式,两组住培医师通过考试成绩(笔试及技能)及问卷调查方法评估不同时期超声规范化培训的教学效果结果实验组的笔试和技能考核成绩低于对照组(P<0.05),考试通过率低于对照组(P<0.05)。从两组的问卷调查结果显示,实验组的住培医师认为在激发学习兴趣、提升交流能力、提高技能操作、满意带教老师、师生互动良好5个方面的肯定评价低于对照组(P<0.05);两组住培医师在关注人文关怀、临床思维培养2个方面比较,差异无统计学意义(P>0.05);两组在培养自学能力方面的肯定评价比较,实验组明显高于对照组(P<0.05)。与对照组比较,教师对实验组的教学气氛活跃、住培医师态度积极性及检查操作规范、报告书写规范4个方面的评价较低(P<0.05);教师对两组的课程安排与进度合理性的评价无差异性(P>0.05)。结论短期研究结果显示,以互联网教学为主的教学方式对超声住培教学质量造成一定负面影响,需加以教育经验总结,为今后教学工作的改进奠定基础。     

The language of systematics,and the philosophy of ‘total evidence’

This contribution analyses the primacy of classification over generalization, and the philosophy of total evidence that emerges from the relation of homology to character statements. Primary conjectures of homology are basic character statements, i.e. statements that predicate properties of organisms, properties that are instantiated by those organisms and/or their parts. Secondary conjectures of homology are embedded in a second‐level (metalinguistic) discourse that turns on the coherence or incoherence of those basic character statements relative to a hierarchy. The coherence or incoherence of character statements is a logical relation between statements, not a causal (historical) relation between organisms. The choice of the hypothesis of relationships that is supported by the largest set of coherent basic character statements is based on the empirical presupposition that the properties referred to by the set of coherent character statements are grounded in causally efficacious relations of inheritance and ontogeny, and co‐instantiated because they are inherited through common ancestry (Hennig's auxiliary principle). Unless that empirical presupposition is causally grounded, phylogeny reconstruction is of an inherently probabilistic nature, whether under parsimony or other models of analysis. The causal grounding of a coherent set of character statements typically seeks a link between character statements and causally efficacious generative mechanisms for morphological characters (as is defeasibly indicated by topology and connectivity), or secondary structure information for molecular characters.     

Distinguishing ecological from evolutionary approaches to transposable elements

Considerable variation exists not only in the kinds of transposable elements (TEs) occurring within the genomes of different species, but also in their abundance and distribution. Noting a similarity to the assortment of organisms among ecosystems, some researchers have called for an ecological approach to the study of transposon dynamics. However, there are several ways to adopt such an approach, and it is sometimes unclear what an ecological perspective will add to the existing co‐evolutionary framework for explaining transposon‐host interactions. This review aims to clarify the conceptual foundations of transposon ecology in order to evaluate its explanatory prospects. We begin by identifying three unanswered questions regarding the abundance and distribution of TEs that potentially call for an ecological explanation. We then offer an operational distinction between evolutionary and ecological approaches to these questions. By determining the amount of variance in transposon abundance and distribution that is explained by ecological and evolutionary factors, respectively, it is possible empirically to assess the prospects for each of these explanatory frameworks. To illustrate how this methodology applies to a concrete example, we analyzed whole‐genome data for one set of distantly related mammals and another more closely related group of arthropods. Our expectation was that ecological factors are most informative for explaining differences among individual TE lineages, rather than TE families, and for explaining their distribution among closely related as opposed to distantly related host genomes. We found that, in these data sets, ecological factors do in fact explain most of the variation in TE abundance and distribution among TE lineages across less distantly related host organisms. Evolutionary factors were not significant at these levels. However, the explanatory roles of evolution and ecology become inverted at the level of TE families or among more distantly related genomes. Not only does this example demonstrate the utility of our distinction between ecological and evolutionary perspectives, it further suggests an appropriate explanatory domain for the burgeoning discipline of transposon ecology. The fact that ecological processes appear to be impacting TE lineages over relatively short time scales further raises the possibility that transposons might serve as useful model systems for testing more general hypotheses in ecology.     

在住院处深入开展以人为本与和谐共存服务理念的探讨

目的：为构建和谐的医患关系,为病人提供优质服务,结合住院处的实际情况,探讨在医院住院处深入开展以人为本与和谐共存服务理念的重要性和必要性。方法：详细介绍以人为本与和谐共存服务理念,简要概括医院住院处的工作职责及其在医院系统中的作用和地位,将以人为本与和谐共存服务理念与医院住院处的职责相结合,探讨该理念在提升住院处的工作职能、促进与患者的沟通交流、提升医院信誉、维护医院形象中的作用。结果：以人为本与和谐共存服务理念在指导住院处各项工作中确实有一定的引导作用。结论：将以人为本与和谐共存服务理念在提升住院处的工作职能相结合,可以很好地促进医务人员与患者的沟通交流,提升医院信誉,提高医院竞争力。     

项目式“微生物学实验”教学模式的构建与实践

微生物学实验是生物类各专业的一门重要的专业基础课程,微生物学实验技术是学生认识微生物、改造微生物和利用微生物的重要方法。课程组结合优质教学资源,以及先进仪器设备和网络技术的助力加持,构建了项目式"微生物学实验"教学模式。通过项目实验的科学设计、实施和评价,对实验教学进行了一系列的改革实践与探索,提高了实验教学效果和效率,使学生对微生物学研究有了更系统的认识,对培养学生的综合实践能力和科学研究思维起到了积极有效的促进作用。     

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情对高校微生物学教学带来的挑战与发展机遇

突如其来的新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情使得网上在线教学成为这段时间的唯一教学方式。这一方面给高校的广大师生提出了新的挑战,但同时也给近年来一直进行的高等教育开放式教育教学改革发展潮流按下了加速键。《微生物学通报》以"第十七届全国微生物学教学和科研及成果产业化研讨会"为契机邀稿组织出版的这期"高等院校教学主题刊",很好地反映了近年来在开放式教育形势下我国微生物学教学改革与人才培养的最新进展和发展态势,其中也有文章介绍了疫情期间选择和使用线上教学技术的经验。期望该主题刊的出版有助于进一步促进广大微生物学教师强化互联网意识,打造"互联网+"思维,重塑课堂教学形态,通过广大教师间的教改经验交流与合作,进一步促进我国微生物学课程建设水平与教学质量的全面提升。