University of the Aegean

About: University of the Aegean is a education organization based out in Mytilene, Greece. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Tourism. The organization has 2818 authors who have published 8100 publications receiving 179275 citations. The organization is also known as: UAEG.

An Experimental Study of the Effects of Improvisation on the Development of Children's Creative Thinking in Music.

Abstract: This article reports a quasi-experimental study of the effects of improvisation on the development of children's creative thinking in music. The study was conducted in a primary school classroom with two matched groups of 6-year-old children over a period of six months. The music lessons for the experimental group were enriched with a variety of improvisatory activities, while those in the control group did not include any improvisation, but instead were didactic and teacher-centred. Children in the experimental group were offered several opportunities to experience improvisation through their voices, their bodies, and musical instruments. Webster's Measure of Creative Thinking in Music - MCTM II (Webster, 1987, 1994) was administered before and after the six-month teaching programmes (i.e., pre-test and post-test) to assess children's creative thinking in terms of four musical parameters: extensiveness, flexibility, originality, and syntax. Analysis revealed that improvisation affects significantly the development of creative thinking; in particular, it promotes musical flexibility, originality, and syntax in children's music-making.

Clinical Value of Nutritional Status in Cancer: What is its Impact and how it Affects Disease Progression and Prognosis?

Abstract: Malnutrition is a common finding in cancer patients, which can affect disease progression and survival. This review aims to critically summarize the prognostic role of nutritional status, from Body Mass Index (BMI) and weight loss to nutrition screening tools and biochemical indices, in cancer patients. According to the currently available data, Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) was a significant prognostic factor of patients' survival, both in univariate and multivariate analyses. Pre-operative albumin was also correlated with worse outcomes, being an independent prognostic factor of survival in several studies. BMI was also well-studied, with contradictory results. Although, lower BMI was found to be an independent prognostic factor of shorter survival in some studies, in others it did not have an impact on survival. In this aspect, this review highlights the significant prognostic role of nutritional status in the disease progression and survival of cancer patients. Further, good-quality prospective studies are needed in order to draw precise conclusions on the prognostic role of specific nutritional assessment tools, and biochemical indices associated with the nutritional status in more cancer types, such as liver, breast and prostate cancer, and hematological malignancies.