Monitoring and evaluation of the activities of trainees in the ‘training of trainers’ workshop at Ibadan,south-west Nigeria

Background Like most low- and middle-income countries, Nigeria has a huge treatment gap for mental disorders. The World Health Organization has proposed the integration of mental health care into primary health service delivery as one of the ways to bridge this treatment gap. Studies have shown an immediate positive impact of mental health training for primary care workers. We evaluated the impact of training on the tutors of primary care workers approximately 12 months after the training.Method An intensive five-day training workshop for college teachers of mental health in community health officer (CHO) training institutions in south-west Nigeria was conducted in January 2009. Four of the 24 participants were randomly selected for evaluation of the impact of training on their activities approximately 12 months after the workshop. Qualitative methods were used, namely in-depth interviews, direct observation of classroom teaching by the participants and focus group discussion with their students.Results The participants interviewed reported a positive impact of the ‘training of trainers’ (TOT) workshop on their mental health course teaching. Direct observation of four participants revealed that three of them exhibited a high fidelity with the TOT course material and imbibed the teaching techniques advocated. The tutors'' students also reported an improvement in the quality of their mental health classes.Conclusion The training had an overall positive impact on the activities of the trainees approximately one year after the workshop.     

Training the next generation of protein scientists

Carl Brändén made significant contributions in areas of protein X‐ray crystallography and science education. As the 2011 recipient of the Protein Society award honoring Carl's contributions, I had the opportunity to reflect on the undergraduate educational activities that have been practiced in my own laboratory over the past 24 years at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, an institution that emphasizes both research and undergraduate education. A system has been developed that attempts to minimize the tension that can exist between conflicting graduate research and undergraduate mentoring goals. The outcomes, as measured not only by subsequent activities of the participating undergraduates, but also by the activities of the graduate students and postdocs that worked with the undergraduates, indicate a general overall benefit for all participants, particularly for women and underrepresented minorities who are traditionally poorly retained in the sciences. Greater participation of undergraduates in research activities of active scientists who often focus primarily on graduate and postdoctoral training could have a positive impact on the leaky undergraduate science pipeline.     

Impact of Three Years Training on Operations Capacities of Research Ethics Committees in Nigeria

This paper describes a three‐year project designed to build the capacity of members of research ethics committes to perform their roles and responsibilities efficiently and effectively. The project participants were made up of a cross‐section of the membership of 13 Research Ethics Committees (RECs) functioning in Nigeria. They received training to develop their capacity to evaluate research protocols, monitor trial implementation, provide constructive input to trial staff, and assess the trial's success in promoting community engagement in the research. Following the training, technical assistance was provided to participants on an ongoing basis and the project's impacts were assessed quantitatively and qualitatively. Results indicate that sustained investment in capacity building efforts (including training, ongoing technical assistance, and the provision of multiple tools) improved the participants’ knowledge of both the ethical principles relevant to biomedical research and how effective REC should function. Such investment was also shown to have a positive impact on the knowledge levels of other RECs members (those who did not receive training) and the overall operations of the RECs to which the participants belonged. Building the capacity of REC members to fulfill their roles effectively requires sustained effort and investment and pays off by enabling RECs to fulfill their essential mission of ensuring that trials are conducted safely and ethically.     

Short-term compassion training increases prosocial behavior in a newly developed prosocial game

Compassion has been suggested to be a strong motivator for prosocial behavior. While research has demonstrated that compassion training has positive effects on mood and health, we do not know whether it also leads to increases in prosocial behavior. We addressed this question in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we introduce a new prosocial game, the Zurich Prosocial Game (ZPG), which allows for repeated, ecologically valid assessment of prosocial behavior and is sensitive to the influence of reciprocity, helping cost, and distress cues on helping behavior. Experiment 2 shows that helping behavior in the ZPG increased in participants who had received short-term compassion training, but not in participants who had received short-term memory training. Interindividual differences in practice duration were specifically related to changes in the amount of helping under no-reciprocity conditions. Our results provide first evidence for the positive impact of short-term compassion training on prosocial behavior towards strangers in a training-unrelated task.     

Continuing Education Workshops in Bioinformatics Positively Impact Research and Careers

Bioinformatics.ca has been hosting continuing education programs in introductory and advanced bioinformatics topics in Canada since 1999 and has trained more than 2,000 participants to date. These workshops have been adapted over the years to keep pace with advances in both science and technology as well as the changing landscape in available learning modalities and the bioinformatics training needs of our audience. Post-workshop surveys have been a mandatory component of each workshop and are used to ensure appropriate adjustments are made to workshops to maximize learning. However, neither bioinformatics.ca nor others offering similar training programs have explored the long-term impact of bioinformatics continuing education training. Bioinformatics.ca recently initiated a look back on the impact its workshops have had on the career trajectories, research outcomes, publications, and collaborations of its participants. Using an anonymous online survey, bioinformatics.ca analyzed responses from those surveyed and discovered its workshops have had a positive impact on collaborations, research, publications, and career progression.B. F. Francis Ouellette is an Education Editor for PLOS Computational Biology     

Participant understanding and recall of informed consent for induced pluripotent stem cell biobanking

The ability to generate human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has opened new avenues for human disease modelling and therapy. The aim of our study was to determine research participants’ understanding of the information given when donating skin biopsies for the generation of patient-specific iPSCs. A customised 35-item questionnaire based on previous iPSC consent guidelines was sent to participants who had previously donated samples for iPSC research. The questionnaire asked pertinent demographic details, participants' motivation to take part in iPSC research and their attitudes towards related ethical issues. 234 participants were contacted with 141 (60.3 %) complete responses received. The median duration between recruitment and follow-up questioning was 313 days (range 10–573 days). The majority of participants (n = 129, 91.5 %) believed they understood what a stem cell was; however, only 22 (16.1 %) correctly answered questions related to basic stem cell properties. We found no statistically significant difference in responses from participants with different levels of education, or those with a health sciences background. The poor understanding amongst participants of iPSC research is unlikely to be unique to our study and may impact future research if not improved. As such, there is a need to develop an easily understood yet comprehensive consent process to ensure ongoing ethical progress of iPSC biobanking.     

Influence of the "Rijeka model" of bioethics education on attitudes of medical students towards death and dying--a cross sectional study

The aim of this study was to assess attitude towards euthanasia, and the influence of socio-demographic data and death education carried out through the "Rijeka model" of bioethics education for the first-year medical students of the School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Croatia. The cross-sectional study was conducted in the academic year 20031 2004. 124 (61% female) participants were surveyed by using an anonymous questionnaire before and after training. Catholics (p = 0.003) and students from areas with populations of less than 50,000 inhabitants (p = 0.001) had significantly negative attitude towards euthanasia than others before the course, yet no differences were found following this training. Attitude towards euthanasia was significantly positive after the course (p = 0.005). All items in the questionnaire, except "Croatia should legalise euthanasia", received more positive scores after the course. Death education carried through the "Rijeka model" of bioethics education has changed attitudes of medical students towards a more positive perception of euthanasia.     

A comparative study between outcomes of an in‐person versus online introductory field course

The COVID‐19 pandemic has disrupted many standard approaches to STEM education. Particularly impacted were field courses, which rely on specific natural spaces often accessed through shared vehicles. As in‐person field courses have been found to be particularly impactful for undergraduate student success in the sciences, we aimed to compare and understand what factors may have been lost or gained during the conversion of an introductory field course to an online format. Using a mixed methods approach comparing data from online and in‐person field‐course offerings, we found that while community building was lost in the online format, online participants reported increased self‐efficacy in research and observation skills and connection to their local space. The online field course additionally provided positive mental health breaks for students who described the time outside as a much‐needed respite. We maintain that through intentional design, online field courses can provide participants with similar outcomes to in‐person field courses.     

Language and zoo biology training outcomes: A cautionary note

The Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust (JWPT)/University of Kent Diploma in Endangered Species Management (DESMAN) was initiated in 1985 to provide an academically recognized qualification to trainees attending the JWPT's International Training Centre (ITC). Since its inception, 59 of 118 trainees enrolled were awarded the diploma. Examination and practical work performance of 141 trainees from 1994 to 1998 showed a significant variance in grades. DESMAN participants were by far the highest achievers with high mean examination grades and high practical work grades. More than one third (38%) of trainees, all of whom were DESMAN participants, obtained above median grades in practical work and the examination. Another third of all trainees attained below median grades in both examination and practical work. Given that most course participants (93%) had a strong academic background in biology or the veterinary sciences, low course performance could have been related to the inability of some trainees to fully understand the language used. Before the start of a course, trainees are requested to produce evidence of English language proficiency, at least level 7 of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). When individual trainee language skills were tested in Jersey, through a self‐assessment exercise (named English Language Proficiency or ELP), a significant variation in language skills was found. These ELP scores positively correlated with the trainees' mean and median examination performance. Thus, entrance into the DESMAN seems to be affected by trainee's fluency in English. Since most trainees are graduates or have some form of tertiary education, the perceived influence of language proficiency on the attainment of a university‐accredited qualification such as the DESMAN needs to be taken most seriously. Zoo Biol 18:71–76, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Impact of a one-week intensive ‘training of trainers’ workshop for community health workers in south-west Nigeria

Background There is a huge unmet need for mental health services in low- and middle-in-come countries such as Nigeria. It has been suggested that one way of bridging the service gap is to plan for the effective integration of mental health services into primary care. We present the impact of a one-week training workshop on attitudes to and knowledge of mental health issues among the tutors of community health workers.Method An intensive one-week training workshop was organised for 24 trainers of community health officers from eight Nigerian states. The package was designed for the training of primary care workers in low-income countries by one of the authors (RJ). Participants completed a questionnaire designed to assess knowledge of and attitudes to mental health issues before and on completion of the training.Results There were 24 participants with a mean age of 47 years (SD ± 4.89). Eighteen (75%) of the participants were female. The overall assessment of knowledge of mental health issues increased from a mean score of 60.4% before training to a mean score of 73.7% after the training (t-test = 4.48, P = 0.001).Conclusion We reported a significant improvement in the knowledge and attitudes of tutors of community health workers following an intensive one-week training workshop. This, we believe, should improve the quality of pre-service mental health training for community health workers and hopefully impact on mental health service delivery at the primary healthcare level.     

International scientific meetings: relation between structure and function.

Increasing pressure is being placed on the scientific community to evaluate research activities. Scientific meetings consume a small but important fraction of the research budget. Audit of a well established series of scientific meetings showed that they met their immediate objectives in that they were international and multidisciplinary and provided a forum in which all participants actively contributed to discussion. The meetings had a positive outcome for the participants, leading in many cases to the subsequent exchange of research material (60% of participants) and to the establishment of collaborative research projects (31%). The impact of the meetings on the scientific community at large was assessed by citation analysis, which showed that the proceedings were cited early, often, and over a substantial period.     

Invertebrate prey availability limits reproductive success but not breeding population size in suburban House Sparrows Passer domesticus

Factors affecting avian demography and abundance in urban landscapes are poorly understood and this hinders attempts to manage urban bird communities. Several recent studies indicate that lack of invertebrate prey in urban landscapes may constrain avian productivity and fitness relative to that in other habitats. House Sparrow Passer domesticus populations have undergone large declines in many European urban centres and inadequate reproductive success linked to invertebrate availability has been postulated as a potential cause of these declines. We conducted a replicated supplementary feeding experiment to test whether the availability of invertebrate prey limits the breeding success and adult abundance (colony size) of House Sparrows in suburban London, where House Sparrow populations declined by 60% during the decade preceding our study. Daily mealworm provision over two successive breeding seasons, sufficient to provide 82% of chick energy requirements of House Sparrow pairs nesting within 50 m of feeders, had a large positive impact on the abundance of recently fledged birds (+62%), but only a small positive impact, limited mainly to small colonies, on the overall abundance of territorial males. Colony growth was only weakly related to fledgling abundance in the previous year and did not appear to be constrained by nest‐site availability. Conservation interventions that enhance invertebrate availability for suburban House Sparrows may increase reproductive success but are unlikely, on their own, to lead to population growth or recovery.     

EEG Neurofeedback Is Under Strong Control of Psychosocial Factors

Recently, a deep impact of psychosocial effects on the outcomes of neurofeedback training was suggested. Previous findings point out an association between locus of control in dealing with technology and the individual ability to up-regulate the sensorimotor rhythm (12–15 Hz) in the EEG. Since the antecedents of locus of control in dealing with technology differ between males and females, we have investigated the effect of sex of participant and experimenter on the outcomes of neurofeedback training. Mindfulness and SMR baseline power also were assessed as possible confounding variables. Undergraduate psychology students (n?=?142) took part in a single session of neurofeedback training conducted by either male or female experimenters. Male participants as well as those female participants instructed by male experimenters were able to upregulate SMR, while female participants trained by female experimenters were not. A strong positive correlation between training outcomes and locus of control in dealing with technology was observed only in the female participants trained by female experimenters. These results are suggestive about the impact of psychosocial factors—particularly gender-related effects—on neurofeedback training outcomes and the urgent need to document it in neurofeedback studies.     

Optimising the monitoring of tropical aquatic resources through the development of Indigenous scientific capability

Involving Indigenous community members to assist with the monitoring of harvested populations can greatly assist with the sustainable use of these resources. The benefits of training Indigenous community members in western scientific methods include: increased capability development, increased employment opportunities and more cost effective monitoring output than could be undertaken by government agencies. The aim of this project was to develop a training course to provide elementary scientific skills to Indigenous participants from communities throughout the Northern Territory of Australia. The short term goals of the training were: (1) to increase the capacity of Indigenous communities to conduct monitoring activities and collect biological and physical samples, (2) to increase the employment opportunities for Indigenous community members by providing them with additional skills and a recognised qualification and (3) To provide a cost effective way of conducting monitoring activities in remote areas by using local capability rather than incurring the expense of sending a research team to these locations. The longer term goal of the training is to facilitate the development of research partnerships between Indigenous community members and management agencies as a first step in the move to co-management of aquatic resources. The key components for successfully developing the course were; consistent engagement with Indigenous communities to build relationships and identify priorities for both the community and government agency, the course content involved participation from community members and government scientists, the training addressed the needs of students with English as a second language, the course content was heavily practical and pictorial, assessments were verbal and/or practical and students were housed in accommodation that allowed them to conduct the course to the best of their ability. The research that has been conducted by the participants, as well as three students gaining employment in government research agencies since the completion of the course, suggest that the training has been successful in achieving its short term goals. The research partnerships that have been developed between the government agency and Indigenous community members are still in their infancy, so the move to co-management between these groups is still several years away. However, this training has provided an initial step in this process by increasing the monitoring capability within a substantial number of coastal Indigenous communities that allows them to participate in research programs that underpin the management of their aquatic resources.     

The Impact of Therapeutic Riding for People with Disabilities on Variables Related to Mental Health

Substantial anecdotal evidence and some research indicate that therapeutic riding for people with disabilities has a positive impact on mental health. There is similar evidence showing that equine programs that include a psychotherapeutic component also have a positive impact. However, much of the existing research has many methodological problems, the most common being the absence of a comparison or control group. Therefore the present study investigated the mental health benefits of therapeutic riding for people with disabilities in comparison to therapeutic skiing for people with disabilities. The age range of participants was 16 to 70 years. They had a wide range of physical disabilities. In a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test design, all participants completed The Beck Depression Inventory, The Beck Anxiety Inventory, and The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. They also completed an adjective checklist, consisting of 26 items that focused on mood, emotion, and sense of self. Open-ended interviews were conducted with a subset of riders. In addition, the riders completed the Pet Attitude Scale (PAS-M). Scores on the PAS-M were not related to the three psychometric measures. Both groups improved on the three psychometric measures during the course of their respective programs. Although the improvement was statistically significant, it was not clinically significant. Contrary to the hypothesis, there was no difference in improvement between riders and skiers on these measures. However, on the adjective checklist riders felt more positive regarding 21 of the 26 items, and of those 21, eight were statistically significant. The interview data suggest that the riding program improves motivation, relationship building, and self-esteem. Although these results must be interpreted with caution, due to the exploratory nature of the checklist and the interviews, they suggest that equine activities have a positive impact for people with disabilities and may have a greater impact than other activities for some aspects of mental health. However, the positive impact may be related to general wellbeing rather than psychopathology per se.     

Scientific publications of Costa Rica in Science Citation Index bibliometric analysis of the period 1999-2001

This study analyzed the publications of authors from Costa Rican institutions that were included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) during 1999-2001. Out of the 722 references detected, distributed in 328 journals, 90.7% corresponded to original research articles. The total productivity figures showed a moderately increasing trend, both in absolute and population-adjusted terms, in concordance with previous data recorded for the period 1980-1998. The contribution of Revista de Biología Tropical to these figures corresponded to 10.0%, 8.9%, and 19.1%, for the years 1999, 2000, and 2001, respectively. The subject distribution of articles followed a similar pattern to that described for 1980-1998, with a predominance of biomedical (33.3%) and biological (27.5%) sciences, followed by agronomical (15.5%) sciences, chemistry (13.6%), physics (5.0%), geological sciences (3.6%), and mathematics (1.5%). Citation analyses for individual publications (up to July 15, 2002) revealed that only 45.2% of the articles had been cited at least once. The ten most cited references were analyzed, varying from 26 to 114 citations. The average citation per article was 2.60, and the average number of authors per article was 2.92. In agreement with data from 1980-1998, the University of Costa Rica appeared as the institution with highest productivity of SCI publications during 1999-2001, with a contribution of 50.0%. The percentage of publications performed without the participation of foreign co-authors showed a change in its decreasing trend of 1980-1998, stabilizing near the range of 25-30% during the period 1999-2001.     

Time Trends in Population Prevalence of Eating Disorder Behaviors and Their Relationship to Quality of Life

Objective

To examine temporal trends in the burden of eating disorder (ED) features, as estimated by the composite of their prevalence and impact upon quality of life (QoL) over a period of 10 years.

Methodology

Representative samples of 3010 participants in 1998 and 3034 participants in 2008 from the South Australian adult population were assessed for endorsement of ED features (objective binge eating, extreme dieting, and purging were assessed in both years; subjective binge eating and extreme weight/shape concerns were also assessed in 2008) and QoL using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36).

Principal Findings

From 1998 to 2008 significant increases in the prevalence of objective binge eating (2.7% to 4.9%, p<0.01) and extreme dieting (1.5% to 3.3%, p<0.01), but not purging, were observed. Lower scores on the SF-36 were significantly associated with endorsement of any of these behaviors in both 1998 and 2008 (all p<0.001). No significant difference was observed in the effect of the endorsement of these ED behaviors on QoL between 1998 and 2008 (all p>0.05). Multiple linear regressions found that in 1998 only objective binge eating significantly predicted scores on the mental health summary scale of the SF-36; however, in 2008 extreme weight/shape concerns, extreme dieting, and subjective binge eating were also significant predictors. Objective binge eating and extreme dieting were significant predictors of scores on the physical health summary scale of the SF-36 in both 1998 and 2008.

Conclusions and Significance

The prevalence of ED behaviors increased between 1998 and 2008, while their impact on QoL remained stable. This suggests an overall increase in the burden of disordered eating from 1998 to 2008. Given that binge eating and extreme dieting predict impairment in QoL, the necessity of interventions to prevent both under- and over-eating is reinforced.