The Effect of Early Contextual Learning on Student Physical Therapists’ Self-perceived Level of Clinical Preparedness

Context: Students in health care often describe their feelings of self-inadequacy in clinical skills and report these feelings abate with experience. Objective: To determine whether early contextual learning experiences can improve entry-level student physical therapists’ self-perceived level of clinical preparedness. Design: A pair-wise comparison of pre vs. post intervention. Survey of students self-perceived level of clinical preparedness before and after a series of three planned small group contextual learning experiences involving the assessment of actual hospital patients. Setting: Academic institution and associated medical center Participants: Thirty-nine first-year student cohort in the 10th month of a 36-month entry-level Doctor of Physical Therapy program who had not yet received clinical experience utilizing subjects other than classmates or program associated faculty. Results: Thirty-three (33) subjects completed the pre and post-survey (33/39) for a response rate of 84.6%. Subjects rated both their own personal abilities (p\u3c .001) and the clinical abilities of their classmates (p\u3c.001) as higher following the intervention, indicating that students in an entry-level DPT program have improved perception of their own and of their classmates’ clinical preparedness when employing hospital patients prior to their first clinical affiliation. Conclusions: Early curriculum contextual learning in physical therapist education is valuable in improving student ratings of clinical self-preparedness and of fellow classmates’ readiness to enter the clinic. Additionally, students recognize the benefits provided by contextual learning

Aftermath of an Officer Involved Shooting: Formal Education, Continuing Education, and Responsibility

This is a policy review presentation that shows there are areas for improvement and recommendations to implement in the professional and academic sides of law enforcement using the lens of a current officer involved shooting that generated a lot of publicity. The recommendations would require a partnership between formal education providers, continuing education providers and practitioners

Factores que inciden en el cumplimiento de las metas de colocación de créditos agrícolas en el Banco LAFISE BANCENTRO en el municipio de Jalapa durante el año 2014

La presente investigación pretende abordar el tema de los factores que inciden en el cumplimiento de las metas de colocación de los créditos agrícolas en el municipio de Jalapa, departamento de Nueva Segovia, específicamente en la institución financiera Banco LAFISE BANCENTRO. Cuando el acceso al financiamiento es limitado, también se restringen las posibilidades de crecimiento de una economía. En los países en desarrollo una gran parte de la población no tiene acceso al crédito, esto debido a muchos factores que influyen o impiden que las personas no puedan acceder a un crédito, en Nicaragua especialmente en las zonas rurales es donde el crédito es una fuente importante de financiamiento que les permite crecer social y económicamente y es ahí donde surgen factores que limitan la colocación de los mismos. Las metas de colocación las establecen los bancos para poder tener un control y registro acerca de su rendimiento en comparación con los rendimientos de los años anteriores y los de la competencia, para ello se establecen metas que se deben cumplir de acuerdo al servicio financiero que ofrecen y la situación financiera de la empresa. La concepción básica del negocio bancario es buscar un margen financiero adecuado, el cual es la diferencia entre el costo de las captaciones y el rendimiento de las colocaciones. Las captaciones consisten en obtener recursos diferentes al capital del Banco que le permitan brindar servicios adecuados a sus clientes. Las colocaciones son los préstamos o créditos que el Banco otorga a sus clientes en condiciones competitivas. Cada entidad financiera desarrolla estrategias de promoción de sus servicios, para seleccionar clientes que le garanticen el retorno del financiamiento a otorgar en las condiciones de riesgo previstas. Para tal efecto, los Bancos orientan su organización a la evaluación de negocios y análisis de riesgo, en términos de personas y pequeños negocios, dando lugar a la Banca de Consumo; asimismo, se orientan a medianos y grandes negocios, los que requieren un trato especializado y con los cuales incluso se realizan negocios compartidos con otros bancos, es el caso de la Banca Corporativa. Algunos Bancos desarrollan labores de Banca de Inversión, es decir de asesoría especializada en la promoción de inversiones y en la estructuración de financiamientos alternativos

Dynamics of Circumstellar Disks II: Heating and Cooling

We present a series of 2-d ($r,\phi$) hydrodynamic simulations of marginally self gravitating disks around protostars using an SPH code. We implement simple dynamical heating and we cool each location as a black body, using a photosphere temperature obtained from the local vertical structure. We synthesize SEDs from our simulations and compare them to fiducial SEDs derived from observed systems. These simulations produce less distinct spiral structure than isothermally evolved systems, especially in the inner third of the disk. Pattern are similar further from the star but do not collapse into condensed objects. The photosphere temperature is well fit to a power law in radius with index $q\sim1.1$, which is very steep. Far from the star, internal heating ($PdV$ work and shocks) are not responsible for generating a large fraction of the thermal energy contained in the disk matter. Gravitational torques responsible for such shocks cannot transport mass and angular momentum efficiently in the outer disk. Within $\sim$5--10 AU of the star, rapid break up and reformation of spiral structure causes shocks, which provide sufficient dissipation to power a larger fraction of the near IR energy output. The spatial and size distribution of grains can have marked consequences on the observed near IR SED and can lead to increased emission and variability on $\lesssim 10$ year time scales. When grains are vaporized they do not reform into a size distribution similar to that from which most opacity calculations are based. With rapid grain reformation into the original size distribution, the disk does not emit near infrared photons. With a plausible modification to the opacity, it contributes much more.Comment: Accepted by ApJ, 60pg incl 24 figure

Konzeption und Herstellung von kunststoffbasierten Mikrotastern

Zunehmende Miniaturisierung für die Mikro- und Nanotechnik stellt immer höhere Anforderungen an die dimensionelle Messtechnik. Koordinatenmessgeräte (KMG) sind wesentlicher Bestandteil der Qualitätssicherung der Fertigungsprozesse, z. B. im Automobilbau, Maschinenbau oder in der Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik. Häufig handelt es sich bei KMGs um taktil arbeitende Messgeräte. Die zum Einsatz kommenden Taster ermöglichen eine kraft- oder auslenkungsgeregelte Positionserfassung. Die Taster zur Erfassung von Mikrostrukturen werden Mikrotaster genannt und bestehen aus einem Kraftsensor und einem meist vertikal ausgerichteten Taststift. Am Institut für Mikrotechnik der TU Braunschweig (IMT) wurde ein so genannter „Bosstaster“ – ein monolithischer dreidimensionaler Mikrotaster auf der Basis der Silizium-Technologie – entwickelt und gefertigt. Das bisherige Taststift-System zeichnet sich durch eine sehr hohen Fertigungsaufwand aus, da die Stifte einzeln im Funkenerodierverfahren gefertigt werden. Anschließend folgen zwei Fügeschritte: zum einen zum eigentlichen Tastelement (Rubinkugel Ø 300 μm), zum anderen zur Messmembran. Durch den Einsatz des Kunststoffverarbeitungsverfahrens Mikrospritzguss kann eine wirtschaftlichere Fertigung mit einer deutlichen Zunahme der Gestaltungsfreiheit der Taststifte realisiert werden. Neben der Materialentwicklung sowie der Charakterisierung liegt ein Fokus auf dem Werkzeugkonzept, welches eine präzise Fertigung ermöglicht. Ferner wird die Funktionsfähigkeit des Systems nachgewiesen

SDSS J092712.65+294344.0: Recoiling Black Hole or A Sub-parsec Binary Candidate?

A search for recoiling supermassive black hole candidates recently yielded the best candidate thus far, SDSS J092712.65+294344.0 reported by Komossa et al. Here we propose the alternative hypothesis that this object is a supermassive black hole binary. From the velocity shift imprinted in the emission-line spectrum we infer an orbital period of ~190 years for a binary mass ratio of 0.1, a secondary black hole mass of 100 million solar masses, and assuming inclination and orbital phase angles of 45 degrees. In this model the origin of the blueshifted narrow emission lines is naturally explained in the context of an accretion flow within the inner rim of the circumbinary disk. We attribute the blueshifted broad emission lines to gas associated with a disk around the accreting secondary black hole. We show that, within the uncertainties, this binary system can be long lived and thus, is not observed in a special moment in time. The orbital motion of the binary can potentially be observed with the VLBA if at least the secondary black hole is a radio emitter. In addition, for the parameters quoted above, the orbital motion will result in a ~100 km/s velocity shift of the emission lines on a time scale of about a year, providing a direct observational test for the binary hypothesis.Comment: revised version accepted to Ap

The Impact of Nutrition and Health Claims on Consumer Perceptions and Portion Size Selection: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey

Nutrition and health claims on foods can help consumers make healthier food choices. However, claims may have a ‘halo’ effect, influencing consumer perceptions of foods and increasing consumption. Evidence for these effects are typically demonstrated in experiments with small samples, limiting generalisability. The current study aimed to overcome this limitation through the use of a nationally representative survey. In a cross-sectional survey of 1039 adults across the island of Ireland, respondents were presented with three different claims (nutrition claim = “Low in fat”; health claim = “With plant sterols. Proven to lower cholesterol”; satiety claim = “Fuller for longer”) on four different foods (cereal, soup, lasagne, and yoghurt). Participants answered questions on perceived healthiness, tastiness, and fillingness of the products with different claims and also selected a portion size they would consume. Claims influenced fillingness perceptions of some of the foods. However, there was little influence of claims on tastiness or healthiness perceptions or the portion size selected. Psychological factors such as consumers’ familiarity with foods carrying claims and belief in the claims were the most consistent predictors of perceptions and portion size selection. Future research should identify additional consumer factors that may moderate the relationships between claims, perceptions, and consumption

New insights on the role of connexins and Gap Junctions Channels in adipose tissue and Obesity

Due to the inability to curb the excessive increase in the prevalence of obesity and overweight, it is necessary to comprehend in more detail the factors involved in the pathophysiology and to appreciate more clearly the biochemical and molecular mechanisms of obesity. Thus, understanding the biological regulation of adipose tissue is of fundamental relevance. Connexin, a protein that forms intercellular membrane channels of gap junctions and unopposed hemichannels, plays a key role in adipogenesis and in the maintenance of adipose tissue homeostasis. The expression and function of Connexin 43 (Cx43) during the different stages of the adipogenesis are differentially regulated. Moreover, it has been shown that cell–cell communication decreases dramatically upon differentiation into adipocytes. Furthermore, inhibition of Cx43 degradation or constitutive overexpression of Cx43 blocks adipocyte differentiation. In the first events of adipogenesis, the connexin is highly phosphorylated, which is likely associated with enhanced Gap Junction (GJ) communication. In an intermediate state of adipocyte differentiation, Cx43 phosphorylation decreases, as it is displaced from the membrane and degraded through the proteasome; thus, Cx43 total protein is reduced. Cx is involved in cardiac disease as well as in obesity-related cardiovascular diseases. Different studies suggest that obesity together with a high-fat diet are related to the production of remodeling factors associated with expression and distribution of Cx43 in the atrium