Developing a Conceptual Framework for Occupational Therapy Fellowship Programs: A Qualitative Content Analysis Study

Today’s health care environment calls for quality-care, the efficiency of services, a decrease in waste, and an increase in desired outcomes. This necessitates that occupational therapy (OT) practitioners engage in continuous professional development activities (i.e., continuing education, post-professional training) and lifelong learning to enhance their critical thinking and clinical reasoning. One way that OT practitioners can advance their clinical practice skills is through participating in OT fellowship programs, which are post-professional training programs aimed to advance one’s knowledge and skills in focused areas of practice. Using theory to guide practice is also essential for OT practitioners as they make evidence-based decisions throughout the OT practice process. Grounded theory and qualitative content analysis (QCA) emerge as practical methods to uncover the constructs of competency domains of participants in OT fellowship programs. The themes emerging from the QCA process employed in this study resulted in the development of a preliminary conceptual framework for OT fellowship programs. The creation of the framework intends to help guide the development of evidence-based curricula and learning activities of OT fellowship programs. Furthermore, the use of the framework may act as a way to measure the advancement in clinical reasoning skills and the enhancement of professional development of OT practitioners seeking to acquire advanced knowledge and skills in OT practice beyond the novice level

Substitutability and Protectionism: Latin America’s Trade Policy and Imports from China and India

This paper examines the trade policy response of Latin American governments to the rapid growth of China and India in world markets. To explain higher protection in sectors where a large share is imported from these countries, we extend the ‘protection for sale’ model to allow for different degrees of substitutability between domestically produced and imported varieties. The extension suggests that higher levels of protection towards Chinese goods can be explained by high substitutability between domestically produced goods and Chinese goods, whereas lower levels of protection towards goods imported from India can be explained by low substitutability with domestically produced goods. The data supports the extension to the ‘protection for sale’ model, which performs better than the original specification in terms of explaining Latin America's structure of protection.Latin America, protectionism

The antinociceptive effect of electroacupuncture at different depths of acupoints and under the needling surface

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The stimulation of acupoints along the meridians, but not the non-acupoints outside of the meridians, produces analgesia. Although the acupoint is defined at the body surface, the exact location of the acupoints is not known. This study aims to examine whether the intensity and duration of the analgesic effect of electroacupuncture (EA) at the <it>Zusanli </it>(ST36) and <it>Sanynjiao </it>acupoints (SP6) change according to the depth of the stimulation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Ninety-six male Wistar rats classified as responders were arbitrarily allocated into 16 groups of six rats each. Six groups received EA with uninsulated acupuncture needles (type I) or needles that were immersed in varnish and had the varnish circularly peeled 0.2 mm from the tip (type II), 0.2 mm at 3 mm (type III) or 5 mm (type IV) from the tip, or 0.2 mm at 5 and 1 mm from the tip (type V), or EA sham for 20 min. Five groups received injection of formalin into the acupoint bilaterally at 5 mm or 1 mm deep into ST36, 5 mm below ST36 but inserting the needle at 45° to the skin surface, or 5 mm deep into non-acupoints. The remaining groups received intraplantar injection of saline, 1% or 2.5% formalin. The analgesic effects were measured by the rat tail-flick test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The bilateral stimulation of ST36 and SP6 by uninsulated or insulated needles produced analgesia in the rat tail-flick test. The stronger and longer lasting effects occurred after EA with the types I and V needles, or injection of formalin 5 mm deep into ST36. The remaining needles produced weaker and shorter lasting effects. Slow analgesic effect also occurred after formalin injection at 1 mm or 5 mm below ST36 by inserting the needle at 45° to the skin surface.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The experimental results suggest that the efficacy of the EA stimulation depends on the spatial distribution of the current density under the needling surface rather than only the acupoint or the depth of needling.</p

Metales pesados en suelos de la planicie costera del Río de la Plata, partidos de Ensenada y Berisso

Los datos de metales pesados determinados en diferentes horizontes de suelo de la Planicie Costera del Gran La Plata, no muestran, en términos generales, gran dispersión ni concentraciones mayores a los valores de referencia regionales aportados por otros autores. Las concentraciones máximas consideradas ecotóxicas en suelos de la región Pampeana brindan valores de 50 mg kg-1 para cobre, 100 mg kg-1 para plomo y 150 mg kg-1 para cinc. Si consideramos los promedios para la totalidad de los horizontes superficiales y subsuperficiales estudiados, se verifican valores de Cu: 45,73 mg kg-1, Zn: 105, 8 mg kg-1 y Pb. 34,38 mg kg-1, con valores decrecientes de desviación standard de Zn-Pb-Cu de 130,81- 51,12- 24,75. Las escasas excepciones se encuentran en sectores cercanos a áreas urbanas y de intensa actividad industrial como por ejemplo en la zona de influencia del Arroyo Doña Flora de la localidad de Ensenada con valores notablemente superiores de Cu: 155 mg kg-1, Zn: 283 mg kg-1 y Pb. 134 mg kg-1. Los suelos de la Planicie Costera presentan dos clases texturales, suelos arenosos en la Llanura Aluvional, cercanos a la línea de costa y suelos ricos en arcillas esmectíticas en la Llanura de Fango. En ambas unidades, los perfiles de suelos, no presentan variaciones verticales importantes de estos elementos. En el primer caso, este hecho se explica por la homogeneidad arenosa de sus materiales y su relativa juventud, siendo la retención de metales baja. En el segundo caso, se atribuye a los materiales arcillosos homogéneos en todo el perfil de suelo que conjuntamente con la materia orgánica generan una alta retención de metales.Fil: Manassero, Marcelo Jorge. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina; Consejo Nacional de Invest.cientif.y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnol.conicet - la Plata. Centro de Invest.geologicas (i); Argentina;Fil: Da Silva, Mario Marcelo. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales y Museo. Instituto de Geomorfologia y Suelos; Argentina;Fil: Boff, Laura Daniela. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Cs.naturales y Museo. Instituto de Geomorfologia y Suelos; Argentina;Fil: Hurtado, Martín A.

Critical exponents from parallel plate geometries subject to periodic and antiperiodic boundary conditions

We introduce a renormalized 1PI vertex part scalar field theory setting in momentum space to computing the critical exponents $\nu$ and $\eta$, at least at two-loop order, for a layered parallel plate geometry separated by a distance L, with periodic as well as antiperiodic boundary conditions on the plates. We utilize massive and massless fields in order to extract the exponents in independent ultraviolet and infrared scaling analysis, respectively, which are required in a complete description of the scaling regions for finite size systems. We prove that fixed points and other critical amounts either in the ultraviolet or in the infrared regime dependent on the plates boundary condition are a general feature of normalization conditions. We introduce a new description of typical crossover regimes occurring in finite size systems. Avoiding these crossovers, the three regions of finite size scaling present for each of these boundary conditions are shown to be indistinguishable in the results of the exponents in periodic and antiperiodic conditions, which coincide with those from the (bulk) infinite system.Comment: Modified introduction and some references; new crossover regimes discussion improved; Appendixes expanded. 48 pages, no figure

Factorial and response surface designs robust to missing observations

Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T17:35:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2017-09-01Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Compound optimum design criteria which allow pure error degrees of freedom may produce designs that break down when even a single run is missing, if the number of experimental units is small. The inclusion, in the compound criteria, of a measure of leverage uniformity is proposed in order to produce designs that are more robust to missing observations. By appropriately choosing the weights of each part of the criterion, robust designs are obtained that are also highly efficient in terms of other properties. Applications to various experimental setups show the advantages of the new methods. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.USP UFSCar, Programa Interinst Posgrad Estat, Sao Carlos, SP, BrazilKings Coll London, Dept Math, London, EnglandUniv Estadual Paulista, Dept Bioestat, IB, Botucatu, SP, BrazilUniv Estadual Paulista, Dept Bioestat, IB, Botucatu, SP, BrazilFAPESP: 2014/01818-

O núcleo normativo e operacional de uma abordagem institucional a partir das obras de Nancy Fraser e Mangabeira Unger

O clamor pela reforma das instituições ocupa grande parte do debate acerca do espaço público em nosso tempo. Este clamor se manifesta em diversas formas, seja na teoria da justiça, nos debates sobre relações étnicas e de gênero, ou naqueles sobre como superar a estagnação da forma atual da social democracia, ou mesmo naqueles sobre redistribuição e reconhecimento. Ao mesmo tempo também se faz presente de forma contínua, embora mais específica, a crítica a abordagem neoinstitucionalista das formas organizacionais e institucionais que dispomos hoje. Neste contexto, o presente texto tem por objetivo sugerir que podemos relacionar a insatisfação com as formas institucionais atuais, com uma crítica à própria teoria que informa as reformas desenvolvidas nas últimas décadas. Apresentando por fim, o argumento de que há razões para o vislumbre de uma nova abordagem institucionalista