135,897 research outputs found

    Creative Connections: Teaching and Learning in Museums and Galleries

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    Feasibility study of early outpatient review and early cardiac rehabilitation after cardiac surgery: mixed-methods research design-a study protocol.

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    INTRODUCTION: Following cardiac surgery, patients currently attend an outpatient review 6 weeks after hospital discharge, where recovery is assessed and suitability to commence cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is determined. CR is then started from 8 weeks. Following a median sternotomy, cardiac surgery patients are required to refrain from upper body exercises, lifting of heavy objects and other strenuous activities for 12 weeks. A delay in starting CR can prolong the recovery process, increase dependence on family/carers and can cause frustration. However, current guidelines for activity and exercise after median sternotomy have been described as restrictive, anecdotal and increasingly at odds with modern clinical guidance for CR. This study aims to examine the feasibility of bringing forward outpatient review and starting CR earlier. METHODS AND ANALYSES: This is a multicentre, randomised controlled, open feasibility trial comparing postoperative outpatient review 6 weeks after hospital discharge, followed by CR commencement from 8 weeks (control arm) versus, postoperative outpatient review 3 weeks after hospital discharge, followed by commencement of CR from 4 weeks (intervention arm). The study aims to recruit 100 eligible patients, aged 18-80 years who have undergone elective or urgent cardiac surgery involving a full median sternotomy, over a 7-month period across two centres. Feasibility will be measured by consent, recruitment, retention rates and attendance at appointments and CR sessions. Qualitative interviews with trial participants and staff will explore issues around study processes and acceptability of the intervention and the findings integrated with the feasibility trial outcomes to inform the design of a future full-scale randomised controlled trial. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was granted by East Midlands-Derby Research Ethics Committee on 10 January 2019. The findings will be presented at relevant conferences disseminated via peer-reviewed research publications, and to relevant stakeholders. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN80441309

    The effectiveness of origami on overall hand function after injury: A pilot controlled trial

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    This pilot study measured the effectiveness of using origami to improve the overall hand function of outpatients attending an NHS hand injury unit. The initiative came from one of the authors who had used origami informally in the clinical setting and observed beneficial effects. These observed effects were tested experimentally. The design was a pilot non-randomised controlled trial with 13 participants. Allocation of the seven control group members was based on patient preference. The experimental group members attended a weekly hour of origami for six weeks, in addition to their conventional rehabilitation. Hand function of all participants was measured using the Jebsen-Taylor Hand Function Test before and after the six-week period, and additional qualitative data were gathered in the form of written evaluations from patients. The quantitative data were analysed using the Mann Whitney U test or Fisher’s exact test. Themes were highlighted from the qualitative data. The results show that there was a greater difference in the total score of the experimental group using the impaired hand between pre- and post-intervention of 11.8 seconds, compared with 4.3 seconds in the control group, but this was not statistically significant at the 5% level (p=0.06). Additionally, differences in the sub-test scores show a markedly larger improvement in the experimental group. Qualitative data indicate that the experimental group experienced the origami sessions as being enjoyable and beneficial. Further research with a larger sample and randomised group allocation is recommended to verify and expand these preliminary findings

    Products of reflection: a practice that discloses the design potential of circumstantial phenomena

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    This research project elaborates my creative interest in circumstantial phenomenal form generated through the design and use of objects. These phenomena are extraneous or incidental qualities generated in an object or product's interaction with its circumstance; they don't appear to belong or align to the object. Such circumstantial phenomena are frequently extraordinary in their form and complexity, but their subtle and contingent character push them to the periphery of awareness and design consideration. If acknowledged, they are deemed inconsequential, either out of practical necessity or due to (pre)conceptions of what constitutes and distinguishes the designed object. The project sets aside assumptions of extraneity and treats circumstantial phenomena as objects of investigation and design. It addresses the question of how consideration of these phenomena might expand a design practice. It speculates that unrealized creative dimensions can be derived from attending to circumstantial effects: unacknowledged dimensions of the objects that populate the designed environment, and unrealized capacities of a design practice that is drawn to these phenomena. The research examines and elaborates form produced by refraction and reflection phenomena. These are explored in a process of making and generative experimentation, which increasingly pursues subsequent circumstantial results. The experiments comprise a series of installation works and design propositions that use reflection effects as a medium of design and construction. Together, they reveal the phenomenal form-making potential of mirror polished materials, objects, and products. An alternative way of interpreting and expanding my design practice develops. Circumstance emerges as an autopoietic resource. Circumstantial phenomena, rather than extraneous and inconsequential, are revealed as expressing immanent capacities of objects in their engagement with their surrounds and other objects. They thereby offer new perspectives on the products of experimentation and design intentions. Consideration of these phenomena extends an inclination in my design practice to activate new possibilities with materials at-hand, by including the circumstantial phenomena at-hand. Acknowledging and activating circumstantial phenomena provides a means to generate unanticipated and innovative outcomes

    The Impact of the PROGRESA/Oportunidades Conditional Cash Transfer Program on Health and Related Outcomes for the Aging in Mexico

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    Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs link public transfers to human capital investment in hopes of alleviating current poverty and reducing its intergenerational transmission. Whereas nearly all studies of their impacts have focused on youth, these CCT programs may also have an impact on aging adults, by increasing household resources or inducing changes in allocations of time of various household members, that may be of substantial interest, particularly given the rapid aging of most populations. This paper contributes to this under-researched area by examining health and work impacts on the aging for the best known and most influential of these programs, the Mexican PROGRESA/Oportunidades program. For a number of health indicators, the program appears to significantly improve health, with impacts that are larger with a greater time receiving the program. However, most of these health impacts are concentrated on women.conditional cash transfers, aging, health, Mexico

    Impact of California's Transitional Kindergarten Program, 2013-14

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    Transitional kindergarten (TK)—the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for California children who turn 5 between September 2 and December 2—is intended to better prepare young five-year-olds for kindergarten and ensure a strong start to their educational career. To determine whether this goal is being achieved, American Institutes for Research (AIR) is conducting an evaluation of the impact of TK in California. The goal of this study is to measure the success of the program by determining the impact of TK on students' readiness for kindergarten in several areas. Using a rigorous regression discontinuity (RD) research design,1 we compared language, literacy, mathematics, executive function, and social-emotional skills at kindergarten entry for students who attended TK and for students who did not attend TK. Overall, we found that TK had a positive impact on students' kindergarten readiness in several domains, controlling for students' age differences. These effects are over and above the experiences children in the comparison group had the year before kindergarten, which for more than 80 percent was some type of preschool program

    Creating Joyful Atmosphere In Mathematics Learning For Elementary School Students By Implementing Kopermatik Aids

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    The goal of the present study is to create joyful atmosphere in mathematics learning by implementing Kopermatik (the Box Games Realistic Mathematics), a set of mathematical teaching aids that are equipped with realistic mathematics worksheets and they are designed in the form of the game. Kopermatik development is an attempt to enrich the variety of aids and math games, for which its implementation in schools is to create a joyful atmosphere. The population of this research is students of SDN 44 Ampenan the academic year 2009/2010 (high grade classes) and 2010/2011 (low grade classes). The classroom setting uses cooperative model, four students in one group, who learn while playing Kopermatik aids and fill in worksheets that contain developing concepts and realistic problems. Based on a questionnaire filled out by teachers who are involved in the study, all teachers feel good, easy and helpful to learn to use Kopermatik aids. Students have good attitude and appreciation by learning using Kopermatik, where 97.1% students enjoy learning with Kopermatik, 93.1% enjoy learning in groups, and 81.2% of students feel confident to be in front of the class. The effectiveness of learning with Kopermatik is high, i.e the understanding of the concept of learning outcomes achieved a score of 82.5, while the ability to solve realistic problems reaches a score of 76.4. These results indicate that the implementation of Kopermatik for all grades of students in SDN 44 Ampenan can make students more active, creative and joyful in mathematics learning. Keywords: Kopermatik aids, understanding concepts, realistic problems, joyful atmosphere, elementary schoo
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