Trends in physiotherapy education: retrospective analysis of ECPE congress abstracts

Relevance: The last decade both physiotherapy and education faced many demands. Educators are challenged to show evidence and report their best practices. An overview of what has been the focus in the European Congress of Physiotherapy Education (ECPE) and the main areas of interest and developments in the European Higher Education area could provide the opportunity to benchmark towards the policy statement of education of the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (WCPT), facilitating consistency and perhaps assisting in formulating a relevant research agenda for the future. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to give an overview of the trends in physiotherapy education of the last decennium as it is presented at the conferences of the European Region of the World Confederation of Physical Therapy (ER-WCPT). Methods/analysis: A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out and qualitative and quantitative analysis was made on the basis of content and study design/methodology, by three independent reviewers of all abstracts presented at each of the three previous ECPE conferences of 2004 (Estoril – Portugal), 2008 (Stockholm – Sweden), 2012 (Vienna – Austria). Categories for content analyses were developed based on the distribution and main themes used in the conference. Results: A total of n = 350 abstracts were classified. The main topics were divided between ICT – Information Communication Technology, Education and Employment, Continuous Professional Development, Teaching and Learning, Clinical Education, Evidence Based Practice: Teaching and Learning, Clinical Reasoning, Innovation and Curriculum Development, Teaching in Specific Areas, Interdisciplinary. And considering different methodological approaches: Descriptive Studies; Analytical Observational and Experimental Studies; Reviews and Mixed Methods. Discussion and conclusions: This analysis was constrained by lack of transparency on the description of methodologies in the abstracts and also by the different organization of the abstract books. We needed to create a category “Information available doesn’t allow a classification” and make our decisions based on the rather classic distinction of qualitative and quantitative study types and methodology. From the results we can find an increase of total presentations from the first to the last conference. In all conference there is a clear preference for poster presentations and the qualitative studies are more favored. There is an overall increase in research and implementation research from the first conference to the last. Impact and implications: The next step could be a comparison with WCPT congress education related abstracts and the proceedings of educational networks like COHEHRE and ENPHE. This kind of reflection could help researchers and educators create a research agenda and build upon earlier work. It gives an incentive to the development of high quality methodologies. An overview of reports gives the opportunity to compare with published results and could challenge publishing criteria.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improved radial heat sink for led lamp cooling

This paper presents a numerical study concerning an improved heat sink for a light emitting diodes (LED) lamp operating under natural convection conditions. Basic geometry of the heat sink is of cylindrical nature, to be obtained from cutting an aluminum extruded bar comprising a cylindrical central core and a number of uniformly distributed radial fins. Minimum diameter of the central core is fixed and the parameters to be explored are the number of fins, their thickness, length (radial dimension) and height. Although not included in the numerical simulations, the thermal resistance due to the use of a thin thermal interface material (TIM) layer between the LED lamp back and the heat sink is taken into account in the analysis. The main objective of the heat sink is to cool the LED lamp so that the lamp maximum temperature at the contact region with the heat sink is maintained below the critical temperature given by the manufacturer. This is a crucial aspect in what concerns the expected lifetime of the LED lamp and should be achieved at the expenses of as low as possible aluminum mass. Taking these criteria in mind, a design procedure is proposed and followed in the search for the improved heat sink to cool a particular LED lamp. Results obtained with the commercial code ANSYS-CFX clearly show the relative importance of the different governing parameters on the heat sink performance and allow the choice of the better solution within the frame of dimensional constrains. Although the present results concern a particular LED lamp, the proposed methodology can be extended to other types of heat sinks for general light and/or electronic components

Gait Selection for Quadruped Legged Robots

This paper studies periodic gaits of quadruped locomotion systems. The purpose is to determine the best set of gait and locomotion variables for different robot velocities based on the system dynamics during walking. In this perspective, several performance measures are formulated and a set of experiments reveals the influence of the gait and locomotion variables upon those proposed indices. The results show that the locomotion parameters (β, LS and HB) should be adapted to the walking velocity in order to optimize the robot performance. Furthermore, for the case of a quadruped robot, we concluded that the gait should be adapted to VF

Gait Analysis of Natural and Artificial Walking Systems

This paper studies periodic gaits of multi-legged locomotion systems based on dynamic models. The purpose is to determine the system performance during walking and the best set of locomotion variables. For that objective the prescribed motion of the robot is completely characterized in terms of several locomotion variables such as gait, duty factor, body height, step length, stroke pitch, foot clearance, legs link lengths, foot-hip offset, body and legs mass and cycle time. In this perspective, we formulate three performance measures of the walking robot namely, the mean absolute energy, the mean power dispersion and the mean power lost in the joint actuators per walking distance. A set of model-based experiments reveals the influence of the locomotion variables in the proposed indices

Factores de risco psicossociais e lombalgia em empregados de escritório: estudo epidemiológico e exploratório na região da Grande Lisboa

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Electronic doping of graphene by deposited transition metal atoms

We perform a phenomenological analysis of the problem of the electronic doping of a graphene sheet by deposited transition metal atoms, which aggregate in clusters. The sample is placed in a capacitor device such that the electronic doping of graphene can be varied by the application of a gate voltage and such that transport measurements can be performed via the application of a (much smaller) voltage along the graphene sample, as reported in the work of Pi et al. [Phys. Rev. B 80, 075406 (2009)]. The analysis allows us to explain the thermodynamic properties of the device, such as the level of doping of graphene and the ionisation potential of the metal clusters in terms of the chemical interaction between graphene and the clusters. We are also able, by modelling the metallic clusters as perfect conducting spheres, to determine the scattering potential due to these clusters on the electronic carriers of graphene and hence the contribution of these clusters to the resistivity of the sample. The model presented is able to explain the measurements performed by Pi et al. on Pt-covered graphene samples at the lowest metallic coverages measured and we also present a theoretical argument based on the above model that explains why significant deviations from such a theory are observed at higher levels of coverage.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figure

Enzymatic determination of L(+) lactic and L(-) malic acids in wines by flow-injection spectrophotometry

A flow-injection system for the enzymatic determination of L( ) lactic acid and L(ÿ) malic acid in wines with spectrophotometric detection is described. The samples are dialysed in-line, and the enzymes in solution (malate dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase) are injected as a train of plugs in the acceptor stream of the dialysis unit, yielding two peaks corresponding to the NADH formed for each determination. This methodology enables the determination of both acids with a single detector with a sampling rate of 20 h ÿ1 (0.4±3 g l ÿ1). The results are comparable to those obtained by the reference procedure, the repeatability is better than 5% (rsd), with low enzyme consumption (1.3 ml of suspension per sample)