A model for community physiotherapy from the perspective of newly graduated physiotherapists as a guide to curriculum revision

Background. Limitations in physiotherapy curricula have been reported. Work-based experiences, especially during compulsory community service, could inform curricula. Objective. To develop a model of community service physiotherapy to guide curriculum reform. Methods. In this appreciative inquiry, trained physiotherapy students conducted tele-interviews with newly graduated physiotherapists. Twelve recently graduated community-service physiotherapists – heterogeneous in gender, mother tongue, university attended and work setting – were purposively recruited. Two coders applied Tesch’s coding technique to the transcripts; one did paper-based work and the other used AtlasTi software. Consensus was reached and a member check done. Results. Four themes identified were: (i) the essence of community physiotherapy; (ii) the collaborative nature of community physiotherapy; (iii) prerequisites for a positive practice environment; and (iv) community physiotherapy as a gateway to personal growth and professional development. Physiotherapists consult clients from varied cultural backgrounds, ages and health and disease profiles. Health education is a key intervention, but clients emphasised therapeutic touch. Team work enhances services, especially within a context of poverty, and prevents isolation. New graduates have to deal with inefficient management, lack of transport, inadequate equipment and needs resilience. They want discipline-specific supervision. Conclusion. Community physiotherapy makes specific demands, especially for novice therapists. Service-learning in authentic diverse contexts would foster professional development and cultural competence. Clinical competency should remain the backbone of the curriculum, complemented by competency in health education. Different ways of reflection would facilitate lifelong learning and growth in attributes such as resilience, which is necessary for dealing with sub-optimal practice environments

Intracrystalline site preference of oxygen isotopes in goethite: A single-mineral paleothermometer

The crystal structure of goethite, FeO(OH), has two distinct oxygen sites, one with exclusively Fe-O bonds, the other with bonds to both iron and hydrogen. We developed a method to assess the oxygen isotope contrast between these sites by measuring both the bulk goethite and the oxygen released in the conversion of goethite to hematite. The method involves collecting the water released by dehydroxylation, fluorinating that population of extracted atoms, and measuring the resulting oxygen isotope composition (extracted δO¹⁸). Then, on a separate aliquot, all structural oxygen is fluorinated and measured (bulk δO¹⁸). Using synthetic goethite precipitates grown under controlled environmental conditions, we found significant temperature-dependent fractionation, ε_(bulk-extracted)=(5.51±0.26)×(10⁶/T²)−(44.5±2.8); T in Kelvin). This intracrystalline fractionation forms the basis of a single-phase paleothermometer with an estimated uncertainty of ∼2-3°C. The temperature dependence appears to be independent of the isotopic composition of the parent fluid from which the goethite formed and the pH of that fluid. This intracrystalline thermometer can be used to simultaneously determine the formation temperature of a goethite and the isotopic composition of the water from which it formed. Natural goethites analyzed with this technique yield geologically reasonable formation temperatures of between 15 and 41°C

Patients' and public views and attitudes towards the sharing of health data for research: a narrative review of the empirical evidence.

INTRODUCTION: International sharing of health data opens the door to the study of the so-called 'Big Data', which holds great promise for improving patient-centred care. Failure of recent data sharing initiatives indicates an urgent need to invest in societal trust in researchers and institutions. Key to an informed understanding of such a 'social license' is identifying the views patients and the public may hold with regard to data sharing for health research. METHODS: We performed a narrative review of the empirical evidence addressing patients' and public views and attitudes towards the use of health data for research purposes. The literature databases PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched in April 2019 to identify relevant publications. Patients' and public attitudes were extracted from selected references and thematically categorised. RESULTS: Twenty-seven papers were included for review, including both qualitative and quantitative studies and systematic reviews. Results suggest widespread-though conditional-support among patients and the public for data sharing for health research. Despite the fact that participants recognise actual or potential benefits of data research, they expressed concerns about breaches of confidentiality and potential abuses of the data. Studies showed agreement on the following conditions: value, privacy, risk minimisation, data security, transparency, control, information, trust, responsibility and accountability. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that a social license for data-intensive health research cannot simply be presumed. To strengthen the social license, identified conditions ought to be operationalised in a governance framework that incorporates the diverse patient and public values, needs and interests

Preschool/Kindergarten teachers' conceptions of standardised testing

Standardised tests play an important role in early childhood (EC) education in many countries. Although teachers' conceptions largely determine whether and how these instruments are used, research on this topic is scarce. As a result, factors that influence conceptions of standardised testing have remained largely unexplored. To examine teachers' conceptions of standardised testing and aspects that may influence these conceptions, Brown's CoA-III-A questionnaire was distributed to 97 EC educators. Based on their responses, a selection of six preschool/kindergarten teachers participated in a series of semi-structured interviews. Analyses of the questionnaire and the interviews indicated that the teachers did not see these tests solely as instruments for accountability or improvement. While some perceived the test as pleasant confirmation, others perceived the results as negative opposition to their own observations. The teachers' conceptions were influenced by classroom population, management team, and the ascribed purpose of the test

An all-solid-state biocompatible ion-to-electron transducer for bioelectronics

Reported here is an all-solid-state organic electrochemical transistor based on the biopolymer melanin. The underlying mechanism is demonstrated using a unique hydration dependence protocol and explained using an adapted double capacitor model. The demonstration of an all-solid-state bioelectronic prototype is critical for the development of miniaturised bioelectronic logic

Cohomogeneity one manifolds and selfmaps of nontrivial degree

We construct natural selfmaps of compact cohomgeneity one manifolds with finite Weyl group and compute their degrees and Lefschetz numbers. On manifolds with simple cohomology rings this yields in certain cases relations between the order of the Weyl group and the Euler characteristic of a principal orbit. We apply our construction to the compact Lie group SU(3) where we extend identity and transposition to an infinite family of selfmaps of every odd degree. The compositions of these selfmaps with the power maps realize all possible degrees of selfmaps of SU(3).Comment: v2, v3: minor improvement

Adaptive Comparative Judgement: A Tool to Support Students’ Assessment Literacy

Comparative judgment in assessment is a process whereby repeated comparison of two items (e.g., assessment answers) can allow an accurate ranking of all the submissions to be achieved. In adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), technology is used to automate the process and present pairs of pieces of work over iterative cycles. An online ACJ system was used to present students with work prepared by a previous cohort at the same stage of their studies. Objective marks given to the work by experienced faculty were compared to the rankings given to the work by a cohort of veterinary students (n=154). Each student was required to review and judge 20 answers provided by the previous cohort to a free-text short answer question. The time that students spent on the judgment tasks was recorded, and students were asked to reflect on their experiences after engaging with the task. There was a strong positive correlation between student ranking and faculty marking. A weak positive correlation was found between the time students spent on the judgments and their performance on the part of their own examination that contained questions in the same format. Slightly less than half of the students agreed that the exercise was a good use of their time, but 78% agreed that they had learned from the process. Qualitative data highlighted different levels of benefit from the simplest aspect of learning more about the topic to an appreciation of the more generic lessons to be learned