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This study aims to explore medical students’ attitudes to electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The authors sought to determine correlates of baseline attitudes to ECT and whether specific forms of ECT teaching improved attitudes to ECT during students’ psychiatry placement.

At the beginning of their placement, fourth-year medical students completed a questionnaire capturing background information and baseline attitudes. A second questionnaire, in the second half of the placement, recorded educational and clinical experience gained on ECT during placement, in addition to attitudes at this timepoint. The authors measured attitude using a five-point Likert scale and defined a positive shift in attitude as an improvement of ≥ 1 point between the two time points.

At Timepoint 1, 66% reported a positive attitude to ECT. This was associated with having attended a lecture and with having read a professional article on ECT at some time before the psychiatry placement. Attitudes significantly improved during the placement (66% vs 95% positive). Students who attended a lecture on ECT were more likely to have a positive shift in attitude, as were students who experienced three or more teaching modalities.

Personal, social and medical problems arise from treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders. ECT is a safe and effective treatment for such disorders.

It is hoped that this study will contribute to the development of medical education, so that lectures on ECT, and three or more teaching modalities, are incorporated into the undergraduate medical curriculum.

As one of the tomographic imaging techniques, electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) is widely used in many industrial applications. While most ECT sensors have electrodes placed around a cylindrical chamber, the planar ECT sensor has been investigated for depth and defect detection. However, the planar ECT sensor has limited height and depth sensing capability due to its single-sided assessment with the use of only a single-plane design. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a dual-plane miniature planar 3D ECT sensor design using the 3 × 3 matrix electrode array.

The sensitivity map of dual-plane miniature planar 3D ECT sensor was analysed using 3D visualisation, the singular value decomposition and the axial resolution analysis. Then, the sensor was fabricated for performance analysis based on 3D imaging experiments.

The sensitivity map analysis showed that the dual-plane miniature planar 3D ECT sensor has enhanced the height sensing capability, and it is less ill-posed in 3D image reconstruction. The dual-plane miniature planar 3D ECT sensor showed a 28% improvement in reconstructed 3D image quality as compared to the single-plane sensor set-up.

The 3 × 3 matrix electrode array has been proposed to use only the necessary electrode pair combinations for image reconstruction. Besides, the increase in number of electrodes from the dual-plane sensor setup improved the height reconstruction of the test sample.

This paper aims to consider the practices and experiences of the new school-based mentors for Early Career Teachers (ECT's), emerging from the UK Government's new early career framework (ECF) policy (DfE, 2019a). The paper uses Lipsky's (2010) framing of professionals as “street level bureaucrats” to consider the extent to which the ECT mentors, as new policy actors, exercise professional discretion (Lipsky, 2010) in negotiating and aligning the new ECF policy with existing practice.

To research the mentor's interpretation and enactment of the new ECF policy, semi structured interviews were undertaken with an initial sample of nine mentors and four induction tutors who were also mentors. Online semi structured interviews were held, lasting around 50 min. This method was largely pragmatic as the study started during a period when schools were still cautious of face-to-face visitors in terms of COVID-19. Although the benefits for the interviewer experiencing the culture and context in which the ECT mentor was situated were lost, offering online interviews was critical in securing mentors' time.

Findings suggest a disconnect between the intentions of the policy and the reality of its enactment at a local level. The ECT mentors have limited professional discretion, but some are exercising this in relation to their own professional development and the training they are providing for their ECTs. Most of the mentors are adapting the ECT's professional development journey whilst mindful of the programme requirements. The degree to which the ECT mentors used professional discretion was linked and limited largely by their own levels of confidence and experience of mentoring, and to a lesser extent the culture of their schools.

The ECF policy represents an important step in acknowledging the need to professionally develop mentors for the work they undertake supporting beginning teachers. However, the time and the content of the mentor training have not been given sufficient attention and remains a hugely missed opportunity. It does not appear to be recognised by the government policy makers but more significantly and concerning in this research sample it is not being recognised sufficiently by those mentoring the ECTs themselves.

There is an urgent need by the UK government and school leaders to understand the link between the quality of mentor preparation and the quality of the ECTs who will be entering the profession and influencing the quality of education in future years. More time and resourcing need to be focussed on the professional development of mentors enabling them to exercise professional discretion in increasingly sophisticated ways in relation to the implementation of the ECF policy.

The ECF policy is the latest English government response to international concerns around the recruitment and retention of teachers. The policy mandates for a new policy actor: the ECT mentor, responsible for the support and professional development of beginning teachers. The nature of the mentor's role in relation to the policy is emerging and provides an interesting case study in the disconnect between the intentions of a policy and its initial enactment on the ground. The mentors may be viewed as street level bureaucrats exercising degrees of professional discretion as they interpret the policy in their own school context.

This study examined the relationship between early career teachers' (ECTs') perceived professional competence (PC) and teacher buoyancy (TB) and the contribution of such dynamic interaction between ECTs' perceived PC and TB to their thriving in the face of everyday teaching challenges.

The study adopted a concurrent mixed-methods research design. A total of 218 ECTs taking a postgraduate, part-time initial teacher education programme completed two quantitative measures: Professional Competence Questionnaire and Teacher Buoyancy Scale – Extended Version. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between PC and TB. Qualitative data via semi-structured interviews were collected from 14 survey respondents and were interpreted through a case study approach.

The quantitative findings showed: (1) Competence in classroom teaching predicts the personal and contextual dimensions of teacher buoyancy; and (2) Competence to work in schools predicts the personal dimension of teacher buoyancy. The qualitative findings showed two cases that exemplified how the dynamic interaction between ECTs' perceived PC and the personal and contextual dimensions of TB supported their development of teaching expertise.

The paper provides empirical findings on the relationship between PC and TB. It highlights ECTs' perceived Competence to work in schools as goal alignment and engagement with school policy as a crucial facilitating condition that develops ECTs' capacity to face daily challenges and engenders their thriving in terms of development of teaching expertise.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the changes of brain functional network after electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD).

In this study, resting electroencephalography (EEG) is used to explore the changes in spectral power density, functional connectivity and network topology elicited by an acute open-label course of ECT in a group of 19 MDD subjects. The brain functional network based on Pearson correlation is constructed in a continuous threshold space (0.38–0.59). Complex network theory is used to analyze the network characteristic such as the length of the characteristic path, clustering coefficient, degree, betweenness centrality, global efficiency and small-world architecture.

The results show that ECT increased the spectral power density of Delta, Theta and Alpha1 bands and the full frequency. ECT increases the functional connectivity in Delta and full frequency and reduces the functional connectivity in Alpha2 band. In the selected threshold space, the clustering coefficient, global efficiency and small-world attributes of the network are changed significantly after ECT.

The findings indicate that resting EEG could effectively characterize the changes of brain functional networks following ECT in MDD. The results provide a theoretical basis to explore the neurophysiological mechanism of ECT in the field of MDD treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to understand blog continuance. Specifically, this paper aims to compare two theoretical models and an integrated model to identify which theoretical models best predicts blog continuance intention.

An empirical study was conducted through an online survey. Data collected from six famous blogs in Taiwan (n=361) were analyzed using structural equation modeling and pairwise nested F‐tests.

Results show that the ECT‐IS model and the integrated model have greater explanatory power of blog continuance intention than the technology acceptance model (TAM). The results of pairwise nested F‐tests show that the ECT‐IS model exhibits statistically significant R² improvement compared to TAM. However, the R² improvement in the integrated model is not statistically different from that in the ECT‐IS model. The ECT‐IS model is also more parsimonious than the integrated model. Thus, the ECT‐IS is a preferable model. Confirmation and satisfaction are salient factors influencing this intention.

The results of this study provide useful information for blogging service providers (BSPs) to enhance and develop useful blog functions for user satisfaction. By revealing the differences and comparisons among these three models, this study can help BSPs promote the benefits of their blogs to strengthen the continuance intentions of their customers.

This paper is one of the first studies to examine of influence change of variables and compare the relative ability of two competing theories, ECT‐IS and TAM, and an integrated model in explaining blog continuance intention. The results confirm that the ECT‐IS is a better model than the other two for explaining blog continuance intention.

The study aims to investigate how modern methods of communication within the construction industry have brought forth a new cognitive process that participants in this industry should undertake when communicating.

To achieve the objectives of the study, a literature review was compiled on the legal status of electronic communication and what the impact of the Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act, Act 25 of 2002, has had on electronic communication. A questionnaire was also distributed to quantity surveyors to ascertain the level of knowledge with regard to the application of the ECT Act.

The study found that participants are not familiar with the ECT Act and that it is highly advisable that parties to the agreement be made fully aware of how communications should be dealt with during the duration of the contract.

The study is restricted to the South African construction industry and construction contracts and a small target population of professional quantity surveyors practicing in the Gauteng Province. The results of the research will be taken as representative of the entire country.

In the modern era, notifications are increasingly being communicated electronically, e.g. by electronic mail, linked computer networks, the Internet and cellular phones with appropriate media capabilities. Participants in the built environment must know how to correctly, effectively and legally, deal with this information revolution.

Modern means of communication, including in particular electronic emailing, demand that users properly appreciate whether the chosen method of communication has a contractually binding and legally enforceable effect. Thus, in an ever-changing built environment, participants should not only dedicate more time to ensure that information conveyed does not have legal implications, except if so intended, but that the information conveyed is unambiguous, grammatically correct and formulated professionally. This article has value as it investigates how industry stakeholders perceive the legal status of electronic communication and recommends how it should be dealt with during the execution of the contract.

Depression is a usual comorbidity in patients with Parkinson's disease. It has been known for more than 50 years that electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) has a positive effect on the muscular symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Many countries do not allow giving ECT for this indication. We have recently treated a resident patient in an acute psychiatric facility referred to the hospital with moderate depressive symptoms and strong suicidal ideation. Before and after a series of ECT he filled out the Beck Depression Inventory and the Antonovsky Sense of Coherence test. The scores before ECT were 20 and 2.69, respectively, and after 12 treatments 14 and 3.38. Both test results indicate improvement regarding level of depression and coping in life. The physiotherapists treating him observed that his rigidity was reduced and his gait improved. Muscular tonus was reduced and increased his tendency of falling as he had less tonus in muscles close to joints. Self help efficiency in daily tasks improved. He got cognitive impairment during and in the weeks after ECT. Electroconvulsive treatment should be offered to more patients with Parkinson disease and depression in order to lessen the burden of both depression and Parkinson symptoms.

There are demands from the industry to have a modern application of Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) system which is mobile and agile. One of the factors why such system is needed in the industry is because of the requirement to install the measurement sensors in a hostile and harsh environment which demands a special kind of ECT system. This paper will discuss the features of mobile or portable ECT which is more practical to be implemented in the harsh environment. Besides, the implementation of cloud computing and wireless technology in the portable ECT systems is also discussed. This review outlines some key features of portable or in another word mobile ECT as a complete system.

There are demands from the industry to have a modern application of ECT system which is mobile and agile. One of the factors why such system is needed in the industry is due to the requirement to install the measurement sensors in hostile and harsh environment which demands a special kind of ECT systems. This paper will discuss the features of mobile or portable ECT which is more practical to be implemented in the harsh environment. Besides, the implementation of cloud computing and wireless technology in the portable ECT systems is also being discussed. This review outlines some key features of portable or in another word mobile ECT as a complete system.

This review outlines some key features of portable or in another word mobile ECT as a complete system. A lot of improvement can be done to realize a reliable and stable ECT system. It is seems that in the near future, machine to machine communication will become the main stream.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study improvement that can be done to develop a portable ECT system which is reliable and stable. Besides, the implementation of cloud computing and wireless technology in the portable ECT systems is also discussed.

This paper aims to present and evaluate a web‐based tool, namely ASK‐CDM‐ECTS, which facilitates authoring and publishing on the web descriptions of (open) academic courses in machine‐readable format using an application profile of the Course Description Metadata (CDM) specification, namely CDM‐ECTS.

The paper examines existing open academic courses initiatives and presents a conceptual model for describing an academic course. Next, the elements of the conceptual model are mapped to the CDM specification, as well as to the CDM‐ECTS application profile for describing (open) academic courses with ECTS compatible information. Finally, the ASK‐CDM‐ECTS tool is presented, which allows authoring of (open) academic courses descriptions based on the proposed conceptual model and by following the CDM‐ECTS application profile.

Based on the evaluation results, it is evident that ASK‐CDM‐ECTS can clearly support the process of describing academic courses offered by European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with ECTS compatible information following the CDM‐ECTS application profile; and the process of searching and retrieving academic courses offered by European HEIs.

The evaluation scenarios were executed with users’ representatives from only one HEI. Future work intends to conduct further experiments involving users’ representatives from different HEIs for evaluating the proposed tool.

OpenCourseWare has become a social movement aiming to equal opportunities in education. This paper presents the ASK‐CDM‐ECTS tool, which can be exploited for setting‐up European Open Courses Initiatives that will facilitate open access to education and learning for the societies of the EU Member States.

Despite the development of the CDM specification for describing (open) academic courses, and of its application profile CDM‐ECTS, it appears that there exists no software tool that allows authoring and publishing on the web descriptions of (open) academic courses following CDM‐ECTS. Thus, in this paper, the authors address this issue by introducing the ASK‐CDM‐ECTS tool, aiming at describing (open) academic courses following the CDM‐ECTS application profile.