Towards Integrating Virtual Reality into Medical Curricula : A Single Center Student Survey

Digital learning plays an increasing role in medical education. Virtual Reality (VR) has a high potential for acquiring clinical competencies in a safe and immersive environment. With this survey, we assessed the level of acceptance and potential for VR in medical education among students. From January to April 2022, we provided an anonymous online survey at Saarland University. Besides demographic data, items covered previous VR experience, expectations of including VR in medical curricula, and estimated advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, ideas for VR scenarios could be submitted. Two hundred fifty-two medical students completed the survey. Of these, 54.4% were 21–25 years old, with 34.5% males, 50.4% being preclinical students, and 67.5% never had contact with VR. Males and preclinical students were more likely to be VR experienced. While almost all students approved the integration of VR into their curriculum, most use cases have been allocated to anatomy and surgery. Technical requirements and competencies were the main selected disadvantages. Most medical students can imagine VR being integrated into medical curricula. The implementation of immersive VR technology into medical curricula will allow students to train in practical, procedural, and soft skills repeatedly to acquire highly relevant clinical decision-making competencies with great benefit to public health

Reviewing the current state of virtual reality integration in medical education : a scoping review protocol

Background Due to an increasing focus of medical curricula on clinical decision-making skills, new learning tools are constantly developed. Virtual reality (VR) is one of the emerging technologies with the potential to improve health professionals’ education. Highly realistic learning experiences with repeatable training scenarios can be created within a protected environment that is independent from real patients’ presence. Our project “medical tr.AI.ning” is following this approach aiming to simulate immersive virtual frst-person scenarios with intelligent, interactable virtual patients. So far, VR has been mainly used in surgical training, but there is evidence for efectiveness in training diferent procedural skills, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, knowledge acquisition, and improvement of reasoning and creativity, while still being cost-efective. The objective of this scoping review is to explore the usage and identify key areas of VR applications in the feld of medical education. Furthermore, the corresponding requirements, evaluation methods and outcomes, advantages, and disadvantages will be covered. Methods This scoping review protocol implements the updated JBI Scoping Review Methodology. In March 2022, a preliminary literature research in PubMed was performed by two independent reviewers to refne search terms and strategy as well as inclusion criteria of the protocol, accounting for actuality and scientifc relevance. The fnal search will be conducted using PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, Web of Science Core Collection, and JBI Evidence Synthesis. Search, study screening, and data extraction will be done in parallel and independently by two reviewers. Discrepancies will be handled by consensus or consulting a third review author. Discussion With this scoping review, we anticipate collating the range of application of VR in medical education while using a transparent and reproducible search strategy. This may contribute to the design and development of novel educational VR platforms and their integration into medical curricula while pointing out previous omissions and pitfalls

Identification, simulation and optimal control of heat transfer in cooling line of hot strip rolling mill

The numerical simulation of mechanical properties of hot-rolled products has a major significance for material characterisation as well as material development. The basis for these is the knowledge about the material-specific phase transformations in combination with the initial microstructure from the deformation steps before entering into the cooling line. Additionally, the technological conditions in the run-out table (ROT) are essentially for transformation kinetics. In order to simulate these processes, the plant-specific heat transfer coefficient must be measured. Therefore, steel samples with thermocouples inside are transported with defined velocities through the cooling line of the continuous pilot plant at the Institute of Metal Forming in Freiberg. Furthermore, the material and its movement must be taken into account as characteristics of the ROT (e.g. amount and distribution of the cooling medium, the streaming situation in several segments, the nozzle geometry and, as a consequence, the water jet shape, and the impact pressure of the cooling medium on the surface of the rolled material) as influencing parameters. This paper describes the possibilities for determining and simulating the heat transfer in the cooling line with industrial conditions. Moreover, this paper discusses the optimal control of the cooling line to achieve the desired temperature and phase distribution on the run-out table. The resulting information contributes to new technology and material developments at the pilot plant, as well as for the transfer of results into the industry

Emotion Regulation Flexibility and Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes : A Framework for Understanding Symptoms and Affect Dynamics in Pediatric Psycho-Oncology

Emotion dysregulation is regarded as a driving mechanism for the development of mental health problems and psychopathology. The role of emotion regulation (ER) in the management of cancer distress and quality of life (QoL) has recently been recognized in psycho-oncology. The latest technological advances afford ways to assess ER, affective experiences and QoL in child, adolescent and young adult (CAYA) cancer patients through electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePRO) in their daily environment in real-time. Such tools facilitate ways to study the dynamics of affect and the flexibility of ER. However, technological advancement is not risk-free. We critically review the literature on ePRO in cancer existing models of ER in pediatric psycho-oncology and analyze strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of ePRO with a focus on CAYA cancer research and care. Supported by personal study-based experiences, this narrative review serves as a foundation to propose a novel methodological and metatheoretical framework based on: (a) an extended notion of ER, which includes its dynamic, adaptive and flexible nature and focuses on processes and conditions rather than fixed categorical strategies; (b) ePRO as a means to measure emotion regulation flexibility and affect dynamics; (c) identifying early warning signals for symptom change via ePRO and building forecasting models using dynamical systems theory

Meta-analysis Reveals Genome-Wide Significance at 15q13 for Nonsyndromic Clefting of Both the Lip and the Palate, and Functional Analyses Implicate GREM1 As a Plausible Causative Gene

Nonsyndromic orofacial clefts are common birth defects with multifactorial etiology. The most common type is cleft lip, which occurs with or without cleft palate (nsCLP and nsCLO, respectively). Although genetic components play an important role in nsCLP, the genetic factors that predispose to palate involvement are largely unknown. In this study, we carried out a meta-analysis on genetic and clinical data from three large cohorts and identified strong association between a region on chromosome 15q13 and nsCLP (P = 8.13×10−14 for rs1258763; relative risk (RR): 1.46, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.32–1.61)) but not nsCLO (P = 0.27; RR: 1.09 (0.94–1.27)). The 5 kb region of strongest association maps downstream of Gremlin-1 (GREM1), which encodes a secreted antagonist of the BMP4 pathway. We show during mouse embryogenesis, Grem1 is expressed in the developing lip and soft palate but not in the hard palate. This is consistent with genotype-phenotype correlations between rs1258763 and a specific nsCLP subphenotype, since a more than two-fold increase in risk was observed in patients displaying clefts of both the lip and soft palate but who had an intact hard palate (RR: 3.76, CI: 1.47–9.61, Pdiff<0.05). While we did not find lip or palate defects in Grem1-deficient mice, wild type embryonic palatal shelves developed divergent shapes when cultured in the presence of ectopic Grem1 protein (P = 0.0014). The present study identified a non-coding region at 15q13 as the second, genome-wide significant locus specific for nsCLP, after 13q31. Moreover, our data suggest that the closely located GREM1 gene contributes to a rare clinical nsCLP entity. This entity specifically involves abnormalities of the lip and soft palate, which develop at different time-points and in separate anatomical regions.Clefts of the lip and palate are common birth defects, and require long-term multidisciplinary management. Their etiology involves genetic factors and environmental influences and/or a combination of both, however, these interactions are poorly defined. Moreover, although clefts of the lip may or may not involve the palate, the determinants predisposing to specific subphenotypes are largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that variations in the non-coding region near the GREM1 gene show a highly significant association with a particular phenotype in which cleft lip and cleft palate co-occ

Debris-flow monitoring and warning: review and examples

Debris flows represent one of the most dangerous types of mass movements, because of their high velocities, large impact forces and long runout distances. This review describes the available debris-flow monitoring techniques and proposes recommendations to inform the design of future monitoring and warning/alarm systems. The selection and application of these techniques is highly dependent on site and hazard characterization, which is illustrated through detailed descriptions of nine monitoring sites: five in Europe, three in Asia and one in the USA. Most of these monitored catchments cover less than ~10 km2 and are topographically rugged with Melton Indices greater than 0.5. Hourly rainfall intensities between 5 and 15 mm/h are sufficient to trigger debris flows at many of the sites, and observed debris-flow volumes range from a few hundred up to almost one million cubic meters. The sensors found in these monitoring systems can be separated into two classes: a class measuring the initiation mechanisms, and another class measuring the flow dynamics. The first class principally includes rain gauges, but also contains of soil moisture and pore-water pressure sensors. The second class involves a large variety of sensors focusing on flow stage or ground vibrations and commonly includes video cameras to validate and aid in the data interpretation. Given the sporadic nature of debris flows, an essential characteristic of the monitoring systems is the differentiation between a continuous mode that samples at low frequency (“non-event mode”) and another mode that records the measurements at high frequency (“event mode”). The event detection algorithm, used to switch into the “event mode” depends on a threshold that is typically based on rainfall or ground vibration. Identifying the correct definition of these thresholds is a fundamental task not only for monitoring purposes, but also for the implementation of warning and alarm systemsPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Application of numerical simulation for lightweight design / Marcel Graf ... [et al.]

Due to the increasing lightweight construction efforts to reduce component weight and thus minimize the energy demand for mobilisation of moving masses, light metals or even plastic applications are growing in importance. In order to realise the process development with consideration of the material, its behaviour must be known. This paper aims to show the importance of numerical process design and how it can be validated with experiments. For the thermo-mechanical simulation to generate results with high accuracy, the use of real material data is necessary. Depending on the investigated process, different characterisation possibilities are available. Here, the compression test was carried out, for example, to determine the forming behaviour of aluminium (EN AW-6060) and magnesium alloys (AZ31) and for a polyamide without and with glass fibre reinforced (PA 6 and PA6-GF30) on elevated temperatures and strain rates of hot bulk forming processes. In this case, the sample position, especially in the case of the polyamide, received increased attention. Thus, it was found that glass fibre reinforced plastics (PA-GF30) can be compressed differently in the longitudinal direction than perpendicular to the extrusion direction. Furthermore, an enhancement of the forming limit and a reduction of the forming force with increasing temperature could be observed for all investigated materials. In addition to the forming behaviour, the thermo-dynamic material properties are at least just as important for the purposed thermo-mechanical process simulations. These were also determined by experimental simulation for the analysed materials in order to regard the internal microstructure. Then, the implementation of all these material data into the FE software simufact.forming V15 and MSC Marc/Mentat was carried out in order to predict a forging process as well as an additive manufacturing process for the semi-finished products. Finally, the calibration of the FE models took place to verify their accuracy. This is the first study undertaken to characterise the forming behaviour of plastics and to study the production of layered magnesium components for further forming processes