Obstacles i facilitadors organitzacionals: Elaboració d’un qüestionari per a empleats del sector turístic de Nicaragua

Vuitenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2002-2003)Amb aquest treball pretenem mesurar la presencia dels principals facilitadors i obstacles organitzacionals amb els que es troben els empleats del sector turístic de Nicaragua, per a la qual cosa s’elaborarà un qüestionari. Els obstacles organitzacionals es defineixen com aquells factors tangibles de l’ambient de treball que afecten a les emocions en el treball i tenen la capacitat de restringir l’actuació laboral (Brown i Mitchell, 1993: 726; Grau, Agut, Burriel i Salanova, 2001; Grau, Salanova, Agut i Burriel, 2001). La majoria d’aquests obstacles inclouen avaries o limitacions de la tecnologia, altres es basen en les interaccions amb els companys. En general, la investigació mostra que quan es presenten aquests obstacles (tècnics o socials) en l’ambient de treball, es produeix un efecte negatiu sobre les emocions en el treball i l’actuació laboral dels treballadors (Brown i Mitchell, 1993: 746; Grau, Agut, Burriel i Salanova, 2001; Grau, Salanova, Agut i Burriel, 2001). Al contrari, els facilitadors son aquells factors de l’ambient de treball que contribueixen a l’eliminació o reducció dels obstacles. Els obstacles i els facilitadors es van mesurar mitjançant una adaptació del Mètode d’Incidents Crítics (Flanagan, 1954 en Grau, Salanova, Agut i Burriel, 2001). El procediment va consistir en realitzar entrevistes semiestructurades a 30 empleats de contacte amb els clients d’hotels i restaurants de Nicaragua. Es va demanar als empleats que informaren dels principals obstacles i facilitadors presents en el seu ambient de treball. Per acord entre jutges es van analitzar les respostes dels empleats mitjançant un anàlisi de contingut, i agrupant-les a continuació en items referits a obstacles i facilitadors. Com a resultat es va obtindre una escala d’obstacles composada per 24 items i una altra escala de facilitadors amb 13 items. Aquesta investigació es va dur a terme en el marc del Projecte de Desenvolupament Turístic Integrat per a la Regió Nord de Nicaragua (Estelí - Nueva Segovia), (López, Arnanz i Burriel 2003)

El papel de las variables relacionadas con las expectativas y la satisfacción en la eficacia del tratamiento de los trastornos adaptativos.

Introducción: En la actualidad, los trastornos adaptativos (ta) constituyen uno de los problemas psicológicos más frecuentes en atención primaria y hospitalaria. No obstante, existen pocos estudios sobre su tratamiento y las variables que influyen en la eficacia del mismo. El objetivo de este trabajo es explorar el papel de las expectativas y la satisfacción en la eficacia del tratamiento de los ta. Método: La muestra incluyó 46 participantes con ta (34 mujeres y 12 hombres). La edad media fue de 33,28 años (d. t.=8,47). Todos ellos recibieron un tratamiento cognitivo-conductual de 6-8 sesiones en 2 formatos (tradicional: n=22 y realidad virtual: n=24) y cumplimentaron las escalas de expectativas y satisfacción adaptadas de Borkovec y Nau (1972). Como medidas de eficacia se calcularon los índices de cambio fiable obtenidos tras el tratamiento y seguimiento a los 3 meses en el Inventario de Crecimiento Postraumático, el Inventario de Estrés y Pérdida (iep) y la escala de afecto negativo del panas. Resultados: En el post-tratamiento, el cambio estuvo relacionado con la satisfacción de los pacientes con el tratamiento recibido, concretamente con los aspectos relacionados con su utilidad y lógica. En el seguimiento, además de la satisfacción, las expectativas resultaron ser también una variable importante cuando se utilizó el iep como medida de cambio terapéutico. Conclusiones: Los resultados obtenidos ponen de manifiesto el papel que juegan las expectativas y satisfacción con el tratamiento en la eficacia terapéutica y, en consecuencia, la importancia de diseñar tratamientos psicológicos que sean no solamente eficaces, sino también bien aceptados por los pacientes.Introduction: Nowadays, ad are one of the most prevalent psychological problems in primary care and hospital settings. However, few studies about its treatment and the variables that influence its efficacy are available. The aim of the present work is to explore the role of expectations and satisfaction in treatment efficacy of ad. Method: The sample included 46 participants with ta (34 women and 12 men). The mean age was 33.28 years (sd = 8.47). All they received 6-8 cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions in 2 formats (traditional: n=22 and virtual reality: n=24) and filled out the expectations and satisfaction scales adapted Borkovec and Nau (1972). As measures of treatment outcome reliable change indexes were obtained after treatment and at 3-month follow-up for the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Inventory of Stress and Loss (ies) and the panas negative affect scale. Results: At post-treatment, change was associated with participants’ satisfaction with the received treatment, specifically with aspects related to its utility and logic. At follow-up, in addition to satisfaction, expectations turned out to be also an important variable when the iel was used as therapeutic change measure. Conclusions: Results highlight the role of expectations and satisfaction with treatment in the therapeutic efficacy and, therefore, the importance of designing psychological treatments that are not only efficacious but also to be well accepted by patients

First evidence on the growth of hatchery-reared juvenile meagre Argyrosomus regius released in the Balearic Islands coastal region

The success of restocking (releasing hatchery-reared juveniles in the wild) depends on the capacity of phenotypes that are already adapted to captivity to readapt to the natural environment. Changes in growth rate after release can be monitored to determine whether released fish are adapting well to the natural environment or failing to adjust to wild conditions. Nevertheless, it is not known whether released individual fish experience a shift in growth rate. Alternatively, the fish showing long-term survival could be those that were already larger before release. This question is relevant for the maximization of stocking success because certain phenotypes (those with a better probability of readapting) could be selected for release. This study compared the somatic growth of released and recaptured meagre, Argyrosomus regius, with control (captive) meagre belonging to the same cohort. Recaptures that had spent less than 3. months at liberty showed the same length-at-age as the control fish, but the length-at-age of many recaptured fish that had spent more than 3. months at liberty was greater than expected. The otolith radius of the growth mark corresponding to the first year of life (i.e., when all fish were still in captivity) was significantly greater for fish that had spent more than 3. months at liberty, indicating that these meagre were larger and had a higher growth rate when they were released. Moreover, the analysis of daily otolith growth before and after release showed that most of the recaptured meagre that had spent less than 3. months at liberty grew an equal or lesser amount in the wild than before release. In contrast, most of the recaptures that had spent more than 3. months at liberty showed a higher growth rate after release. Therefore, results are discussed in light of the combined effect of differential survival and increased growth, although the low sample size requires interpreting the results carefully. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.This work was financially supported by INIA projects RTA-2007 00033-C02-01 and RTA-2011 00056-C02-00Peer Reviewe

Soft Optomechanical Systems for Sensing, Modulation, and Actuation

Altres ajuts: CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya ; the Government of Catalonia's Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIÓ) (TECSPR19-1-0021)Soft optomechanical systems have the ability to reversibly respond to optical and mechanical external stimuli by changing their own properties (e.g., shape, size, viscosity, stiffness, color or transmittance). These systems typically combine the optical properties of plasmonic, dielectric or carbon-based nanomaterials with the high elasticity and deformability of soft polymers, thus opening the path for the development of new mechanically tunable optical systems, sensors, and actuators for a wide range of applications. This review focuses on the recent progresses in soft optomechanical systems, which are here classified according to their applications and mechanisms of optomechanical response. The first part summarizes the soft optomechanical systems for mechanical sensing and optical modulation based on the variation of their optical response under external mechanical stimuli, thereby inducing mechanochromic or intensity modulation effects. The second part describes the soft optomechanical systems for the development of light induced mechanical actuators based on different actuation mechanisms, such as photothermal effects and phase transitions, among others. The final section provides a critical analysis of the main limitations of current soft optomechanical systems and the progress that is required for future devices

Comparación de diferentes estrategias de marcaje: Efectos en la tasa de retención, tasa de mortalidad y crecimiento de marcas alojadas en juveniles de corvina Argyrosomus regius (Pisces: Sciaenidae) criados en cautividad

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of different tags (T-bar anchor tags, internal anchor tags and visible implant elastomers) implanted into juvenile meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801) for a restocking programme conducted in the Balearic Islands. Effectiveness was assessed in terms of tag loss, fish survival and fish growth by means of a tank experiment. The internal anchor tags showed the highest retention rate (100%), but the tagging mortality was also high (40%). The tagging mortality of T-bar tags was negligible. However, another tank experiment with different food rates showed the tag retention rate of the T-bar tag to be highly variable, ranging from 35% to 95%. In contrast with other reported results, the retention rate of visible implant elastomers was low (48%). Finally, none of the tested tags affected growth. In summary, the T-bar anchor tags showed the best trade-off between short-term tag retention and fish mortality, and seem to be the most suitable tagging method for meagre juveniles.El objetivo de este estudio fue comparar la efectividad de diferentes marcas (marca con anclaje en T, marca con anclaje abdominal y marcaje con elastómero visible, VIE) implantadas en corvinas juveniles (Argyrosomus regius Asso, 1801) para un programa de repoblación llevado a cabo en las Islas Baleares. La efectividad fue evaluada en función de la pérdida de marcas, la supervivencia y el crecimiento de los peces mediante un experimento en tanque. Las marcas con anclaje abdominal presentaron la tasa de retención más alta (100%), pero también presentaron la mayor tasa de mortalidad (40%). La tasa de mortalidad de las marcas con anclaje en T fue despreciable. Sin embargo, otro experimento con diferentes tasas de alimentación mostró que la tasa de retención de las marcas T fue muy variable, oscilando entre un 35% y un 95%. En contraste con otros resultados publicados, la tasa de retención de los VIE fue baja (48%). Finalmente, ninguna de las marcas testadas afectó al crecimiento. En resumen, las marcas con anclaje en T mostraron el mejor compromiso entre la tasa de retención a corto plazo y la tasa de mortalidad de los peces, y parece ser el método de marcaje más adecuado para los juveniles de corvina

Features of family caregivers of people with dementia attended at a neurology consultation

Providing care to someone with dementia is a complex task, that requires a set of speci*c skills and knowledge that family caregivers often lack. Training family caregivers of people with dementia is paramount, and the *rst step towards such purpose should be the identi*cation of their features and the evaluation of their needs. The main aim of this study is to identify the major characteristics of family caregivers of people with dementia in early or moderate stage living at home, who attend the dementia consultation at a hospital in the north of Portugal, through a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study. This study is a section from a previous randomized controlled trial, performed to assess the short-term e+cacy of a training programme for family caregivers of people with dementia (the programme “Living together with Dementia”). Regarding the *ndings, we realized that the average age of family caregivers is 52, and these are mostly women, married, with basic education levels and employed. They display intense overload and di+- culties levels, but also high degrees of satisfaction. They mostly resort to mixed coping/ problem resolution strategies and their main needs are expressed as follows: managing emotions and feelings associated with the caring process; developing strategies to preserve physical and mental health; developing knowledge about dementia and its stages and *nally, seeking support from formal institutionsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Information needs of family caregivers of dependent individuals

The increase in the number of dependent individuals means that more and more families find themselves in the situation of caregivers, with all the consequences that performing this role entails. Based on this reality, we considered it to be completely relevant to systematize knowledge in this area. This study aimed to identify the information needs of the family caregiver-dependent individuals in the available scientific literature, having performed an integrative review of the literature. The main results and conclusions indicate that the information needs of family caregivers can be grouped into three main themes: 1) caregiver knowledge and skills, 2) potential resources for the caregiver and 3) caregiver coping strategies and well-being. The comprehensive nature of the integrative review as the chosen method allowed us to get a good understanding of the information needs of family caregivers of dependent individuals. The relevance of this study to clinical practice is that, although it is still necessary to expand and enhance the scope of research in this area, we consider this information essential for all health professionals seeking to provide effective support to family caregivers, as well as to serve as support for the development of intervention projects and health servicesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ultrabroadband light absorbing Fe/polymer flexible metamaterial for soft opto-mechanical devices

Altres ajuts: ICN2 is funded by the CERCA programme/Generalitat de Catalunya.Ultrabroadband light absorbers are attracting increasing interest for applications in energy harvesting, photodetection, self-regulated devices or soft robotics. However, current absorbers show detrimental insufficient absorption spectral range, or light angle and polarization dependence. Here we show that the unexplored optical properties of highly-damped plasmonic materials combined with the infrared absorption of thin polymer films enable developing ultrabroadband light-absorbing soft metamaterials. The developed metamaterial, composed of a nanostructured Fe layer mechanically coupled to a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film, shows unprecedented ultrabroadband and angle-independent optical absorption (averaging 84% within 300-18000 nm). The excellent photothermal efficiency and large thermal-expansion mismatch of the metamaterial is efficiently transformed into large mechanical deflections, which we exploit to show an artificial iris that self-regulates the transmitted light power from the ultraviolet to the long-wave infrared, an untethered light-controlled mechanical gripper and a light-triggered electrical switch

An end-to-end framework for intima media measurement and atherosclerotic plaque detection in the carotid artery

Background and objectives: The detection and delineation of atherosclerotic plaque are usually manually performed by medical experts on the carotid artery. Evidence suggests that this manual process is subject to errors and has a large variability between experts, equipment, and datasets. This paper proposes a robust end-to-end framework for automatic atherosclerotic plaque detection. Methods: The proposed framework is composed of: (1) a semantic segmentation model based on U-Net, with EfficientNet as the backbone, that obtains a segmentation mask with the carotid intima-media region; and (2) a convolutional neural network designed using Bayesian optimization that simultaneously performs a regression to get the average and maximum carotid intima media thickness, and a classification to determine the presence of plaque. Results: Our approach improves the state-of-the-art in both co and bulb territories in the REGICOR database, with more than 8000 images, while providing predictions in real-time. The correlation coefficient was 0.89 in the common carotid artery and 0.74 for bulb region, and the F1 score for atherosclerotic plaque detecting was 0.60 and 0.59, respectively. The experimentation carried out includes a comparison with other fully automatic methods for carotid intima media thickness estimation found in the literature. Additionally, we present an extensive experimental study to evaluate the robustness of our proposal, as well as its suitability and efficiency compared to different versions of the framework. Conclusions: The proposed end-to-end framework significantly improves the automatic characterization of atherosclerotic plaque. The generation of the segmented mask can be helpful for practitioners since it allows them to evaluate and interpret the model's results by visual inspection. Furthermore, the proposed framework overcomes the limitations of previous research based on ad-hoc post-processing, which could lead to overestimations in the case of oblique forms of the carotid artery