Evidence for person-centeredness in telehealth research

This paper describes person-centred care and distinguishes it from person-centred medicine and patient-centred care. Three characteristics of person-centeredness are drawn from human subjects research principles: respect, benefit and justice. Using reports of telehealth research involving people with diabetes, an exploratory assessment of the methods was done to look for descriptors and processes that would contribute to evidence for the identified characteristics of person-centeredness. Reports from fourteen studies were explored. The study methods and results had great variability; four of the 14 studies used a descriptive design and five studies used a design that included randomization. From a person-centred perspective, respect of study participants could be seen in their willingness to aid, when asked, in the development of intervention approaches and they were grateful for personal attention. Benefit could be seen in that participants responded positively to the offer of improved diabetic self-management and overall better health. As evidence of justice or fairness, telehealth researchers described using various and wide-ranging methods for inviting people comprising populations to become research participants. The triad of concepts may provide guidance for the improvement of research involving people with diabetes

Telehealth Nursing Research: Adding to the Evidence-base for Healthcare

This paper reviews recent, nurse-led telehealth research with the goal of describing research findings that provide evidence for practice. Methods: Using an iterative search method, of eight electronic databases, 84 nurse-led research papers were separated into intervention research, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and descriptive research. The main emphasis was on full text analysis of the intervention research. Results: Fifteen intervention research papers reported findings related to cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, older age, young adults, early adolescents, children with special health care needs, people with a stoma, post-partum mothers and nurses. Also reviewed for useable evidence for practice were 10 systematic reviews, two meta-analyses and two papers that described reviews plus meta-analyses. Resuts: Fifty-five papers with descriptive designs are briefly described. Nurse-led intervention research is increasing knowledge about the use of telehealth technology and applications in care delivery. People with healthcare needs do better with individual attention and increased follow-up. People have a tolerance for technology used with them to advance their quality of life and healing but there is a point at which too much technology is overwhelming. Clinical research is a challenge due to the number of extraneous variables that are difficult to control and that can affect a person’s response to the research intervention. Conclusion: Continuation of nurse-led telehealth intervention research will help to ensure that technology used to support and advance care delivery will be evidence-based

Using earthworms as bioindicators of quality in no-till systems.

No Brasil, o plantio direto é o sistema de manejo do solo mais praticado. Dentre os diversos benefícios, o plantio direto promove as funções dos organismos, especialmente as minhocas, sobre a fertilidade do solo. Portanto, o presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar as populações de minhocas, visando uma classificação da densidade e diversidade de minhocas em áreas sob plantio direto. As coletadas foram realizadas em fevereiro/março de 2010 e 2011, num total de 34 e 25 propriedades respectivamente em seis municípios da Bacia do Paraná 3, parte da bacia do lago de Itaipu. As minhocas foram amostradas no final da estação chuvosa, utilizando uma adaptação do Método para Biologia e Fertilidade em Solos Tropicais (TSBF), consistindo na coleta de 5 monolitos de 20 x 20 por 20 cm de profundidade, espaçados por mínimo 20 m um do outro, em um transecto linear. Foi realizada triagem manual no campo e as minhocas foram estocadas em sacos plásticos contendo solução de formaldeído 5%. As minhocas foram contadas e identificadas em nível de família, gênero e espécies. A simplificação da metodologia de amostragem objetivou possibilitar que os próprios agricultores avaliem as populações de minhocas em suas propriedades. A abundância de minhocas variou de 5 a 600 ind m-2 e 5 a 1150 ind m-2, respectivamente nas épocas de coletas em 2010 e 2011, enquanto o número de espécies variou de uma a seis em 2010 e de uma a sete em 2011 nas áreas sob plantio direto. Baseado neste estudo e em resultados de outros estudos anteriores, uma classificação para abundância e diversidade de minhocas em áreas sob plantio direto é proposta aqui, para Latossolos Vermelhos e regiões de clima quente do Paraná (Cfa Koeppen) : pobre >25 ind m-2 and 1 sp.; moderado ? 25 to 6 sp.Disponível online

The Evaluation of Stylized Facial Expressions

Stylized rendering aims to abstract information in an image making it useful not only for artistic but also for visualization purposes. Recent advances in computer graphics techniques have made it possible to render many varieties of stylized imagery efficiently. So far, however, few attempts have been made to characterize the perceptual impact and effectiveness of stylization. In this paper, we report several experiments that evaluate three different stylization techniques in the context of dynamic facial expressions. Going beyond the usual questionnaire approach, the experiments compare the techniques according to several criteria ranging from introspective measures (subjective preference) to task-dependent measures (recognizability, intensity). Our results shed light on how stylization of image contents affects the perception and subjective evaluation of facial expressions

Earthworms in horticultural systems in Paraná State, Brazil.

ISEE 10

Are earthworm populations maintained in public parks in cities? The case of Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.

ISEE 10