Percepção de estudantes de psicologia sobre a informática em sua formação profissional

Neste artigo analisa-se uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa, cujo objetivo era explorar a percepção de 45 alunos de psicologia de diferentes universidades da cidade de Santiago do Chile, sobre a incorporação da informática como apoio para a aprendizagem em sua formação profissional. A informação foi coletada através de entrevistas semiestruturadas e analisou-se mediante o processo de codificação da Teoría Fundamentada. Os resultados mostram como categorias principais, o conhecimento da informática, a valoração da informática, e os fatores que obstaculizam o uso desta. Da codificação seletiva se desprende uma alta valoração da informática como ferramenta econômica e cômoda, mas também se observa uma alta reticência dos alunos diante de sua utilização no trabalho profissional tradicional do psicólogo. Encontraram-se fatores pessoais e institucionais nos que se baseia a valoração, a motivação e o nível de conhecimento dos estudantes diante do uso de ferramentas informáticas.This paper analyses a qualitative research aimed to exploring the perception of 45 psychology students from different universities in Santiago de Chile, about incorporating information systems to support learning in their professional training. Data were collected through semi structured interviews and their analysis was based on Grounded Theory's coding process. Results show that the major categories are computer knowledge, appreciation of computers and factors that hinder their use. From the selective coding a positive evaluation emerges of information systems as an economic and useful tool. However, there is also a high reluctance on the part of the students regarding the use of such tools in the psychologist' traditional professional work. Personal and organizational factors were found as bases for students' assessment, motivation and level of knowledge facing the use of these tools.En este artículo se analiza una investigación de naturaleza cualitativa, cuyo objetivo era explorar la percepción de 45 alumnos de psicología de diferentes universidades de la ciudad de Santiago de Chile, sobre la incorporación de la informática como apoyo para el aprendizaje en su formación profesional. La información se recolectó a través de entrevistas semiestructuradas y se analizó mediante el proceso de codificación de la Teoría Fundamentada. Los resultados muestran como categorías principales, el conocimiento de la informática, la valoración de la informática, y los factores que obstaculizan el uso de ésta. De la codificación selectiva se desprende una alta valoración de la informática como herramienta económica y cómoda, pero también se observa una alta reticencia de los alumnos frente a su utilización en el trabajo profesional tradicional del psicólogo. Se encontraron factores personales e institucionales en los cuales se fundamenta la valoración, la motivación y el nivel de conocimiento de los estudiantes frente al uso de herramientas informáticas

Behavioral states may be associated with distinct spatial patterns in electrocorticogram

To determine if behavioral states are associated with unique spatial electrocorticographic (ECoG) patterns, we obtained recordings with a microgrid electrode array applied to the cortical surface of a human subject. The array was constructed with the intent of extracting maximal spatial information by optimizing interelectrode distances. A 34-year-old patient with intractable epilepsy underwent intracranial ECoG monitoring after standard methods failed to reveal localization of seizures. During the 8-day period of invasive recording, in addition to standard clinical electrodes a square 1 × 1 cm microgrid array with 64 electrodes (1.25 mm separation) was placed on the right inferior temporal gyrus. Careful review of video recordings identified four extended naturalistic behaviors: reading, conversing on the telephone, looking at photographs, and face-to-face interactions. ECoG activity recorded with the microgrid that corresponded to these behaviors was collected and ECoG spatial patterns were analyzed. During periods of ECoG selected for analysis, no electrographic seizures or epileptiform patterns were present. Moments of maximal spatial variance are shown to cluster by behavior. Comparisons between conditions using a permutation test reveal significantly different spatial patterns for each behavior. We conclude that ECoG recordings obtained on the cortical surface with optimal high spatial frequency resolution reveal distinct local spatial patterns that reflect different behavioral states, and we predict that similar patterns will be found in many if not most cortical areas on which a microgrid is placed

Mutations in SLC25A22: hyperprolinaemia, vacuolated fibroblasts and presentation with developmental delay

Mutations in SLC25A22 are known to cause neonatal epileptic encephalopathy and migrating partial seizures in infancy. Using whole exome sequencing we identified four novel SLC25A22 mutations in six children from three families. Five patients presented clinical features similar to those in the literature including hypotonia, refractory neonatal‐onset seizures and developmental delay. However, the sixth patients presented atypically with isolated developmental delay, developing late‐onset (absence) seizures only at 7 years of age. Abnormal metabolite levels have not been documented in the nine patients described previously. One patient in our series was referred to the metabolic clinic because of persistent hyperprolinaemia and another three had raised plasma proline when tested. Analysis of the post‐prandial plasma amino acid response in one patient showed abnormally high concentrations of several amino acids. This suggested that, in the fed state, when amino acids are the preferred fuel for the liver, trans‐deamination of amino acids requires transportation of glutamate into liver mitochondria by SLC25A22 for deamination by glutamate dehydrogenase; SLC25A22 is an important mitochondrial glutamate transporter in liver as well as in brain. Electron microscopy of patient fibroblasts demonstrated widespread vacuolation containing neutral and phospho‐lipids as demonstrated by Oil Red O and Sudan Black tinctorial staining; this might be explained by impaired activity of the proline/pyrroline‐5‐carboxylate (P5C) shuttle if SLC25A22 transports pyrroline‐5‐carboxylate/glutamate‐γ‐semialdehyde as well as glutamate

Tunable isolated attosecond x-ray pulses with Gigawatt peak power from a free-electron laser

The quantum mechanical motion of electrons in molecules and solids occurs on the sub-femtosecond timescale. Consequently, the study of ultrafast electronic phenomena requires thegeneration of laser pulses shorter than 1 fs and of sufficient intensity to interact with their targetwith high probability. Probing these dynamics with atomic-site specificity requires the extensionof sub-femtosecond pulses to the soft X-ray spectral region. Here we report the generation of iso-lated soft X-ray attosecond pulses with an X-ray free-electron laser. Our source has a pulse energythat is a million times larger than any other source of isolated attosecond pulses in the soft X-rayspectral region, with a peak power exceeding 100 GW. This unique combination of high intensity,high photon energy and short pulse duration enables the investigation of electron dynamics withX-ray non-linear spectroscopy and single-particle imaging, unlocking a path towards a new era ofattosecond science

Can Plan Recommendations Improve the Coverage Decisions of Vulnerable Populations in Health Insurance Marketplaces?

OBJECTIVE: The Affordable Care Act's marketplaces present an important opportunity for expanding coverage but consumers face enormous challenges in navigating through enrollment and re-enrollment. We tested the effectiveness of a behaviorally informed policy tool--plan recommendations--in improving marketplace decisions. STUDY SETTING: Data were gathered from a community sample of 656 lower-income, minority, rural residents of Virginia. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted an incentive-compatible, computer-based experiment using a hypothetical marketplace like the one consumers face in the federally-facilitated marketplaces, and examined their decision quality. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or three types of plan recommendations: social normative, physician, and government. For participants randomized to a plan recommendation condition, the plan that maximized expected earnings, and minimized total expected annual health care costs, was recommended. DATA COLLECTION: Primary data were gathered using an online choice experiment and questionnaire. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Plan recommendations resulted in a 21 percentage point increase in the probability of choosing the earnings maximizing plan, after controlling for participant characteristics. Two conditions, government or providers recommending the lowest cost plan, resulted in plan choices that lowered annual costs compared to marketplaces where no recommendations were made. CONCLUSIONS: As millions of adults grapple with choosing plans in marketplaces and whether to switch plans during open enrollment, it is time to consider marketplace redesigns and leverage insights from the behavioral sciences to facilitate consumers' decisions

Understanding the implementation and effectiveness of a group-based early parenting intervention : a process evaluation protocol

BACKGROUND: Group-based early parenting interventions delivered through community-based services may be a potentially effective means of promoting infant and family health and wellbeing. Process evaluations of these complex interventions provide vital information on how they work, as well as the conditions which shape and influence outcomes. This information is critical to decision makers and service providers who wish to embed prevention and early interventions in usual care settings. In this paper, a process evaluation protocol for an early years parenting intervention, the Parent and Infant (PIN) program, is described. This program combines a range of developmentally-appropriate supports, delivered in a single intervention process, for parents and infants (0–2 years) and aimed at enhancing parental competence, strengthening parent-infant relationships and improving infant wellbeing and adjustment. METHODS: The process evaluation is embedded within a controlled trial and accompanying cost-effectiveness evaluation. Building from extant frameworks and evaluation methods, this paper presents a systematic approach to the process evaluation of the PIN program and its underlying change principles, the implementation of the program, the context of implementation and the change mechanisms which influence and shape parent and infant outcomes. We will use a multi-method strategy, including semi-structured interviews and group discussions with key stakeholders, documentary analysis and survey methodology. DISCUSSION: The integration of innovations into existing early years systems and services is a challenging multifaceted undertaking. This process evaluation will make an important contribution to knowledge about the implementation of such programs, while also providing an example of how theory-based research can be embedded within the evaluation of community-based interventions. We discuss the strengths of the research, such as the adoption of a collaborative approach to data collection, while we also identify potential challenges, including capturing and assessing complex aspects of the intervention. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN17488830 (Date of registration: 27/11/15). This trial was retrospectively registered. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1737-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Tourism and water inequity in Bali: A social-ecological systems analysis

This paper is a social-ecological systems (SES) analysis of tourism and water inequity in Bali. It uses Elinor Ostrom’s SES model to look at the particular niche of Bali’s tourism and water nexus. Re-analysis of previous qualitative research revealed that the vulnerability of the SES was due to numerous characteristics. In particular, user groups are highly diverse, transient and stratified, thereby inhibiting communication and knowledge sharing. This, in combination with weak governance systems and the economic power of the tourism industry, interact to affect declining water resources and the iniquitous impact of this. Whilst there are obvious indications that Bali’s water resources are over stretched, there is no feedback loop to the institutional structures that would help enable appropriate responses from the user groups or governance system

Correction: Spore development and nuclear inheritance in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A conventional tenet of classical genetics is that progeny inherit half their genome from each parent in sexual reproduction instead of the complete genome transferred to each daughter during asexual reproduction. The transmission of hereditary characteristics from parents to their offspring is therefore predictable, although several exceptions are known. Heredity in microorganisms, however, can be very complex, and even unknown as is the case for coenocytic organisms such as Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). This group of fungi are plant-root symbionts, ubiquitous in most ecosystems, which reproduce asexually via multinucleate spores for which sexuality has not yet been observed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We examined the number of nuclei per spore of four AMF taxa using high Z-resolution live confocal microscopy and found that the number of nuclei was correlated with spore diameter. We show that AMF have the ability, through the establishment of new symbioses, to pass hundreds of nuclei to subsequent generations of multinucleated spores. More importantly, we observed surprising heterogeneity in the number of nuclei among sister spores and show that massive nuclear migration and mitosis are the mechanisms by which AMF spores are formed. We followed spore development of <it>Glomus irregulare </it>from hyphal swelling to spore maturity and found that the spores reached mature size within 30 to 60 days, and that the number of nuclei per spores increased over time.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that the spores used for dispersal of AMF contain nuclei with two origins, those that migrate into the spore and those that arise by mitosis in the spore. Therefore, these spores do not represent a stage in the life cycle with a single nucleus, raising the possibility that AMF, unlike all other known eukaryotic organisms, lack the genetic bottleneck of a single-nucleus stage.</p