Medical Students' Perception of the Usage of Lecture Recording Software.

BACKGROUND: Lecture recording software is a useful reference tool that allows students to revisit lectures and understand complicated concepts in higher education. It is also a useful tool for students with learning difficulties, allowing them to reference and learn the material at their own pace. A significant advantage of this tool is the accessibility of course material to the students off campus. This study attempted to learn the students' perception of the purpose, use, and benefit of lecture recording software at a medical school. METHODS: The study was conducted using a structured questionnaire delivered, via an Internet-based survey application in the Fall semester of 2017, to 105 students attending the basic sciences courses. A web link was generated after the 18-point questionnaire was uploaded to an online survey software. The link was communicated electronically to each student along with the date and time of the survey. The survey was anonymous. The results of the survey were summarized using descriptive statistics and graphical methods. Students were asked to submit voluntary, informed consent to participate in the study before attempting to answer the questionnaire. The institutional review board approved the research. RESULTS: The results showed 77% students used this resource to understand points they missed in the class, 75% of them relearned complex ideas/concepts, and 62% of them used it to rewrite class notes. Reportedly, the software was used by students (78%) who missed a class due to an illness or while attending clinical shadowing. Of the students, 87% agreed that the software is helpful because of its off-campus availability while 84% of the students liked the service, as it allowed them to listen to the lectures at their own pace. Many students (65%) felt that the service helped them score better in the exams, whereas 38% did not think the recordings was helpful to get the desired grade and 50% student felt it was time-consuming. CONCLUSION: Despite the time-consuming listening process, students expressed a positive opinion about the usefulness of this software. Recording and archiving class lectures could be a useful academic resource. Students could learn from these archived lectures before the class and engage in the discussion later, enhancing active learning. The result suggests that students should also use other study resources and methods to achieve the desired grades. The induction of this student service into a professional curriculum would enhance the students' satisfaction, effectiveness, and outcomes.

Altitude and growth among the sherpas of the eastern Himalayas.

The results of the anthropometric survey of Sherpa children of both sexes (n = 478) from high- and low-altitude areas in the eastern Himalayas are presented. The study reveals that growth is slower both more prolonged in the high-altitude Sherpas compared with growth at low altitude and that Sherpa children are the smallest of all the high-altitude populations considered here. Sexual dimorphism is not well defined during the earlier age periods. Our skinfold thickness data from the low-altitude Sherpas corroborate the centripetal distribution of fat found elsewhere.

Oncocytic lesion of parotid gland: A dilemma for cytopathologists.

Oncocytes are epithelial cells with abundant, granular, eosinophilic cytoplasm due to presence of numerous large mitochondria of varied sizes. The presence of oncocytes in salivary glands can occur in a variety of conditions. Here, we present a rare case of a 68 year old male patient who presented with a 6 cm diameter swelling in the right parotid region. A fine needle aspiration cytology done from the lesion showed a cellular oncocytic lesion. A possibility of oncocytoma was entertained. Histopathology of the mass showed a rare entity called diffuse hyperplastic oncocytosis. Originally believed to be a metaplastic process, oncocytes can occur in various lesions ranging from hyperplastic conditions to malignant neoplasms. However, diagnosis on cytological smears can be very challenging for the cytopathologist.

Use and validation of epithelial recognition and fields of view algorithms on virtual slides to guide TMA construction.

While tissue microarrays (TMAs) are a form of high-throughput screening, they presently still require manual construction and interpretation. Because of predicted increasing demand for TMAs, we investigated whether their construction could be automated. We created both epithelial recognition algorithms (ERAs) and field of view (FOV) algorithms that could analyze virtual slides and select the areas of highest cancer cell density in the tissue block for coring (algorithmic TMA) and compared these to the cores manually selected (manual TMA) from the same tissue blocks. We also constructed TMAs with TMAker, a robot guided by these algorithms (robotic TMA). We compared each of these TMAs to each other. Our imaging algorithms produced a grid of hundreds of FOVs, identified cancer cells in a stroma background and calculated the epithelial percentage (cancer cell density) in each FOV. Those with the highest percentages guided core selection and TMA construction. Algorithmic TMA and robotic TMA were overall approximately 50% greater in cancer cell density compared with Manual TMA. These observations held for breast, colon, and lung cancer TMAs. Our digital image algorithms were effective in automating TMA construction.

Semi-automated imaging system to quantitate Her-2/neu membrane receptor immunoreactivity in human breast cancer.

BACKGROUND: Immunocytochemical methods for quantitating Her-2/neu immunoreactivity rest on subjective semi-quantitative interpretations with resulting interobserver, intraobserver, and fatigue variability. METHODS: To standardize and quantitate measurements of Her-2/neu immunoreactivity, we created epithelial-recognition and specific membrane-recognition algorithms, which could image breast cancer cells against a background of stroma, compartmentalize the cancer cell into nucleus, cytoplasm and membrane, and quantitate the degree of Her-2/neu membrane immunoreactivity based on both gray scale intensity and RGB colorimetric determinations. Image acquisition utilized either scanner or microscope with attached camera with a resolution of 20 pixels/10 microm. Areas of 150 whole slides were screened and the regions of interest manually selected for image processing. Three hundred TMA cores were directly processed. Images were acquired by jpg conversion of svs virtual slides or direct jpg photomicrograph capture. Images were then assessed for quality and processed. RESULTS: The digital algorithms successfully created a semi-automated imaging system whose algorithm-based ordinal values for Her-2/neu both strongly correlated with the subjective measurements (intraclass correlation: 0.84; 95% confidence interval: 0.79-0.89) yet exhibited no run variability. In addition, the algorithms generated immunocytochemical measurements of Her-2/neu on an expanded continuous scale, which more reliably distinguished true Her-2/neu positivity from true Her-2/neu negativity (determined by FISH) than subjective or algorithmic ordinal scale measurements. Furthermore, the continuous scale measurements could better resolve different levels of Her-2/neu overexpression than either subjective or algorithmic ordinal interpretation. Other semi-automated analysis systems have been used to measure Her-2/neu and other cellular immunoreactivities, but these either have required proprietary hardware or have been based on luminosity differences alone. In contrast, our algorithms are independent of proprietary hardware and are based on not just luminosity but also many other imaging properties including epithelial recognition and membrane morphology. CONCLUSION: These features provide a more accurate, versatile, and robust imaging analysis platform.

Solid and cystic tumor arising from an extrapancreatic site--a case report.

A case of solid and cystic tumor arising in the lesser Omentum of a 53 year old woman is presented. A well defined, encapsulated tumor measuring 7.5 x 6.5 x 6 cms, weight 170 grams was histologically characterized by a combination of solid and pseudo papillary growth patterns of tumor cells with pale to eosinophilic cytoplasm. No pancreatic tissue was seen with or adjacent to the tumor. The patient was well with out recurrence 7 months after the diagnosis. It is important to include pseudo papillary solid cystic tumor in the differential diagnosis of omental tumors. The tumor is presented because of its rarity.