特別支援教育専攻学生を対象とした障害理解のための教材開発(2)―糖尿病・血友病等の「自己注射」場面を中心にした教材―

　特別支援教育専攻学生の指導では、対象とする障害児・者が活用する機器・道具を提示し、その使用法の解説がなされてきた。これは感覚・情報系障害領域では指導上意義がある。また肢体不自由・運動障害系では、車イスや生活補助具、障害体験グッズなどが障害理解教材として活用されてきた。しかし病弱教育領域では、子どもの困難理解につながる「病気体験」は、健常学生にはできない。そこで教員は、病院見学、療養生活の映像資料等を活用し、病気の影響や困難をイメージさせる方法をとることが多い。本研究では糖尿病および血友病を例にとり、病気による「困難」を体験・体感させる教材について検討した。糖尿病・血友病の自己注射モデルを提示し、その作製・改善とそれを使用した授業経過を分析対象とした。学生による試作及び改良モデルは、自己注射実施時の困難・不安・躊躇を「体感」させることを目的としているが、作製過程そのものが、学生による困難・不安・躊躇といった自己注射実施を必要とする疾患のもつ障害特性の理解を促進することが推察された

Accreditation in general practice in Denmark:study protocol for a cluster-randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Accreditation is used increasingly in health systems worldwide. However, there is a lack of evidence on the effects of accreditation, particularly in general practice. In 2016 a mandatory accreditation scheme was initiated in Denmark, and during a 3-year period all practices, as default, should undergo accreditation according to the Danish Healthcare Quality Program. The aim of this study is primarily to evaluate the effects of a mandatory accreditation scheme. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is conducted as a cluster-randomized controlled trial among 1252 practices (clusters) with 2211 general practitioners in Denmark. Practices allocated to accreditation in 2016 serve as the intervention group, and practices allocated to accreditation in 2018 serve as controls. The selected outcomes should meet the following criteria: (1) a high degree of clinical relevance; (2) the possibility to assess changes due to accreditation; (3) availability of data from registers with no self-reporting data. The primary outcome is the number of prescribed drugs in patients older than 65 years. Secondary outcomes are changes in outcomes related to other perspectives of safe medication, good clinical practice and mortality. All outcomes relate to quality indicators included in the Danish Healthcare Quality Program, which is based on general principles for accreditation. DISCUSSION: The consequences of accreditation and standard-setting processes are generally under-researched, particularly in general practice. This is the largest study in general practice with a randomized implementation approach to evaluate the clinical effects of a nation-wide mandatory accreditation scheme in general practice. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02762240. Registered on 24 May 2016. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13063-017-1818-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Using fluorescence excitation-emission matrices to predict bitterness and pungency of virgin olive oil: A feasibility study

Unlike other food products, virgin olive oil must undergo an organoleptic assessment that is currently based on a trained human panel, which presents drawbacks that might affect the efficiency and robustness. Therefore, disposing of instrumental methods that could serve as screening tools to support sensory panels is of paramount importance. The present work aimed to explore excitation-emission fluorescence spectroscopy (EEFS) to predict bitterness and pungency, since both attributes are related with fluorophore compounds, such as polar phenols. Bitterness and pungency intensities of 250 samples were provided by an official sensory panel and used to build and compare partial least squares regressions (PLSR) with the excitation-emission matrix. Both PARAFAC scores and two-way unfolded data led to successful PLSR. The most relevant PARAFAC scores agreed with virgin olive oil phenolic spectra, evidencing that EEFS would be the fit-for-purpose screening tool to support the sensory panel

The macroscopic pancake bounce

We demonstrate that the so-called pancake bounce of millimetric water droplets on surfaces patterned with hydrophobic posts [Nat. Phys. 10, 515 (2014)] can be reproduced on larger scales. In our experiment, a bed of nails plays the role of the structured surface and a water balloon models the water droplet. The macroscopic version largely reproduces the features of the microscopic experiment, including the Weber number dependence and the reduced contact time for pancake bouncing. The scalability of the experiment confirms the mechanisms of pancake bouncing, and allows us to measure the force exerted on the surface during the bounce. The experiment is simple and inexpensive and is an example where front-line research is accessible to student projects.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Education in the working-class home: modes of learning as revealed by nineteenth-century criminal records

The transmission of knowledge and skills within the working-class household greatly troubled social commentators and social policy experts during the first half of the nineteenth century. To prove theories which related criminality to failures in working-class up-bringing, experts and officials embarked upon an ambitious collection of data on incarcerated criminals at various penal institutions. One such institution was the County Gaol at Ipswich. The exceptionally detailed information that survives on families, literacy, education and apprenticeships of the men, women and children imprisoned there has the potential to transform our understanding of the nature of home schooling (broadly interpreted) amongst the working classes in nineteenth-century England. This article uses data sets from prison registers to chart both the incidence and ‘success’ of instruction in reading and writing within the domestic environment. In the process, it highlights the importance of schooling in working-class families, but also the potentially growing significance of the family in occupational training