Acceptability and feasibility of a virtual community of practice to primary care professionals regarding patient empowerment : A qualitative pilot study

Background: Virtual communities of practice (vCoPs) facilitate online learning via the exchange of experiences and knowledge between interested participants. Compared to other communities, vCoPs need to overcome technological structures and specific barriers. Our objective was to pilot the acceptability and feasibility of a vCoP aimed at improving the attitudes of primary care professionals to the empowerment of patients with chronic conditions. Methods: We used a qualitative approach based on 2 focus groups: one composed of 6 general practitioners and the other of 6 practice nurses. Discussion guidelines on the topics to be investigated were provided to the moderator. Sessions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis was performed using the ATLAS-ti software. Results: The available operating systems and browsers and the lack of suitable spaces and time were reported as the main difficulties with the vCoP. The vCoP was perceived to be a flexible learning mode that provided up-to-date resources applicable to routine practice and offered a space for the exchange of experiences and approaches. Conclusions: The results from this pilot study show that the vCoP was considered useful for learning how to empower patients. However, while vCoPs have the potential to facilitate learning and as shown create professional awareness regarding patient empowerment, attention needs to be paid to technological and access issues and the time demands on professionals. We collected relevant inputs to improve the features, content and educational methods to be included in further vCoP implementation. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02757781. Registered on 25 April 2016

Measurement of radon-induced backgrounds in the NEXT double beta decay experiment

The measurement of the internal 222Rn activity in the NEXT-White detector during the so-called Run-II period with 136Xe-depleted xenon is discussed in detail, together with its implications for double beta decay searches in NEXT. The activity is measured through the alpha production rate induced in the fiducial volume by 222Rn and its alpha-emitting progeny. The specific activity is measured to be (38.1 ± 2.2 (stat.) ± 5.9 (syst.)) mBq/m3. Radon-induced electrons have also been characterized from the decay of the 214Bi daughter ions plating out on the cathode of the time projection chamber. From our studies, we conclude that radon-induced backgrounds are sufficiently low to enable a successful NEXT-100 physics program, as the projected rate contribution should not exceed 0.1 counts/yr in the neutrinoless double beta decay sample

Electron drift properties in high pressure gaseous xenon

[EN] Gaseous time projection chambers (TPC) are a very attractive detector technology for particle tracking. Characterization of both drift velocity and di¿usion is of great importance to correctly assess their tracking capabilities. NEXT-White is a High Pressure Xenon gas TPC with electroluminescent ampli¿cation, a 1:2 scale model of the future NEXT-100detector, which will be dedicated to neutrinoless double beta decay searches. NEXT-White has been operating at Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) since December2016. The drift parameters have been measured using 83mKr for a range of reduced drift ¿elds at two di¿erent pressure regimes, namely 7.2 bar and 9.1 bar. Theresults have been compared with Magboltz simulations. Agreement at the 5% level or better has been found for drift velocity, longitudinal di¿usion and transverse di¿usion.The NEXT Collaboration acknowledges support from the following agencies and institutions: the European Research Council (ERC) under the Advanced Grant 339787-NEXT; the European Union's Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (2014-2020) under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreements No. 674896, 690575 and 740055; the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain under grants FIS2014-53371-C04, the Severo Ochoa Program SEV-2014-0398 and the Maria de Maetzu Program MDM-2016-0692; the GVA of Spain under grants PROMETEO/2016/120 and SEJI/2017/011; the Portuguese FCT and FEDER through the program COMPETE, projects PTDC/FIS-NUC/2525/2014 and UID/FIS/04559/2013; the U.S. Department of Energy under contracts number DE-AC02-07CH11359 (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory), DE-FG02-13ER42020 (Texas A&M) and de-sc0017721 (University of Texas at Arlington); and the University of Texas at Arlington. We also warmly acknowledge the Laboratorio Nazionale di Gran Sasso (LNGS) and the Dark Side collaboration for their help with TPB coating of various parts of the NEXT-White TPC. Finally, we are grateful to the Laboratorio Subterraneo de Canfranc for hosting and supporting the NEXT experiment.Simon, A.; Felkai, R.; Martinez-Lema, G.; Monrabal, F.; Gonzalez-Diaz, D.; Sorel, M.; Hernando Morata, JA.... (2018). Electron drift properties in high pressure gaseous xenon. Journal of Instrumentation. 13. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/13/07/P07013S13Nygren, D. (2009). High-pressure xenon gas electroluminescent TPC for 0-ν ββ-decay search. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 603(3), 337-348. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2009.01.222Gómez Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G., Cárcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrián, S., … Dias, T. H. V. T. (2014). Present Status and Future Perspectives of the NEXT Experiment. Advances in High Energy Physics, 2014, 1-22. doi:10.1155/2014/907067Martín-Albo, J., Muñoz Vidal, J., Ferrario, P., Nebot-Guinot, M., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., … Cárcel, S. (2016). Sensitivity of NEXT-100 to neutrinoless double beta decay. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016(5). doi:10.1007/jhep05(2016)159Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G., Cárcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., … Díaz, J. (2013). Initial results of NEXT-DEMO, a large-scale prototype of the NEXT-100 experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 8(04), P04002-P04002. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/04/p04002Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G., Cárcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., … Díaz, J. (2013). Operation and first results of the NEXT-DEMO prototype using a silicon photomultiplier tracking array. Journal of Instrumentation, 8(09), P09011-P09011. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/09/p09011Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G. M., Cárcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., … Díaz, J. (2013). Near-intrinsic energy resolution for 30–662keV gamma rays in a high pressure xenon electroluminescent TPC. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 708, 101-114. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2012.12.123Ferrario, P., Laing, A., López-March, N., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., … Cebrián, S. (2016). First proof of topological signature in the high pressure xenon gas TPC with electroluminescence amplification for the NEXT experiment. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016(1). doi:10.1007/jhep01(2016)104Pack, J. L., Voshall, R. E., & Phelps, A. V. (1962). Drift Velocities of Slow Electrons in Krypton, Xenon, Deuterium, Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Water Vapor, Nitrous Oxide, and Ammonia. Physical Review, 127(6), 2084-2089. doi:10.1103/physrev.127.2084Pack, J. L., Voshall, R. E., Phelps, A. V., & Kline, L. E. (1992). Longitudinal electron diffusion coefficients in gases: Noble gases. Journal of Applied Physics, 71(11), 5363-5371. doi:10.1063/1.350555Bowe, J. C. (1960). Drift Velocity of Electrons in Nitrogen, Helium, Neon, Argon, Krypton, and Xenon. Physical Review, 117(6), 1411-1415. doi:10.1103/physrev.117.1411Patrick, E. L., Andrews, M. L., & Garscadden, A. (1991). Electron drift velocities in xenon and xenon‐nitrogen gas mixtures. Applied Physics Letters, 59(25), 3239-3240. doi:10.1063/1.105744English, W. N., & Hanna, G. C. (1953). GRID IONIZATION CHAMBER MEASUREMENTS OF ELECTRON DRIFT VELOCITIES IN GAS MIXTURES. Canadian Journal of Physics, 31(5), 768-797. doi:10.1139/p53-070Hunter, S. R., Carter, J. G., & Christophorou, L. G. (1988). Low-energy electron drift and scattering in krypton and xenon. Physical Review A, 38(11), 5539-5551. doi:10.1103/physreva.38.5539Kobayashi, S., Hasebe, N., Hosojima, T., Ishizaki, T., Iwamatsu, K., Mimura, M., … Ishizuka, A. (2006). Ratio of Transverse Diffusion Coefficient to Mobility of Electrons in High-Pressure Xenon and Xenon Doped with Hydrogen. Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 45(10A), 7894-7900. doi:10.1143/jjap.45.7894Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G., Cárcel, S., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., Conde, C. A. N., … Esteve, R. (2013). Ionization and scintillation response of high-pressure xenon gas to alpha particles. Journal of Instrumentation, 8(05), P05025-P05025. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/05/p05025Lorca, D., Martín-Albo, J., Laing, A., Ferrario, P., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., Álvarez, V., … Cebrián, S. (2014). Characterisation of NEXT-DEMO using xenon KαX-rays. Journal of Instrumentation, 9(10), P10007-P10007. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/9/10/p10007Kusano, H., Lopes, J. A. M., Miyajima, M., & Hasebe, N. (2013). Longitudinal and transverse diffusion of electrons in high-pressure xenon. Journal of Instrumentation, 8(01), C01028-C01028. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/8/01/c01028Henriques, C. A. O., Freitas, E. D. C., Azevedo, C. D. R., González-Díaz, D., Mano, R. D. P., Jorge, M. R., … Álvarez, V. (2017). Secondary scintillation yield of xenon with sub-percent levels of CO2 additive for rare-event detection. Physics Letters B, 773, 663-671. doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2017.09.017Obert, E. F. (1948). Compressibility Chart and the Ideal Reduced Volume. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, 40(11), 2185-2186. doi:10.1021/ie50467a036Agostinelli, S., Allison, J., Amako, K., Apostolakis, J., Araujo, H., Arce, P., … Barrand, G. (2003). Geant4—a simulation toolkit. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 506(3), 250-303. doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(03)01368-8González-Díaz, D., Monrabal, F., & Murphy, S. (2018). Gaseous and dual-phase time projection chambers for imaging rare processes. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 878, 200-255. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2017.09.024Álvarez, V., Borges, F. I. G. M., Cárcel, S., Castel, J., Cebrián, S., Cervera, A., … Díaz, J. (2014). Characterization of a medium size Xe/TMA TPC instrumented with microbulk Micromegas, using low-energy γ-rays. Journal of Instrumentation, 9(04), C04015-C04015. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/9/04/c0401

Radiopurity assessment of the energy readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment

[EN] The "Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber" (NEXT) experiment intends to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, and therefore requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds. An extensive material screening and selection process was undertaken to quantify the radioactivity of the materials used in the experiment. Separate energy and tracking readout planes using different sensors allow us to combine the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. The design of radiopure readout planes, in direct contact with the gas detector medium, was especially challenging since the required components typically have activities too large for experiments demanding ultra-low background conditions. After studying the tracking plane, here the radiopurity control of the energy plane is presented, mainly based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (Spain). All the available units of the selected model of photomultiplier have been screened together with most of the components for the bases, enclosures and windows. According to these results for the activity of the relevant radioisotopes, the selected components of the energy plane would give a contribution to the overall background level in the region of interest of at most 2.4 × 10¿4 counts per keV, kg and year, satisfying the sensitivity requirements of the NEXT experiment.Special thanks are due to LSC directorate and staff for their strong support for performing the measurements at the LSC Radiopurity Service. We are really grateful to Grzegorz Zuzel for the radon emanation measurements. The NEXT Collaboration acknowledges support from the following agencies and institutions: the European Research Council (ERC) under the Advanced Grant 339787-NEXT; the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain under grants FIS2014-53371-C04 and the Severo Ochoa Program SEV-2014-0398; the GVA of Spain under grant PROMETEO/2016/120; the Portuguese FCT and FEDER through the program COMPETE, project PTDC/FIS/103860/2008; the U.S. Department of Energy under contracts number DE-AC02-07CH11359 (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) and DE-FG02-13ER42020 (Texas A & and the University of Texas at Arlington.Cebrian, S.; Perez, J.; Bandac, I.; Labarga, L.; Álvarez-Puerta, V.; Azevedo, CDR.; Benlloch-Rodriguez, JM.... (2017). Radiopurity assessment of the energy readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment. Journal of Instrumentation. 12. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/12/08/T08003S12Avignone, F. T., Elliott, S. R., & Engel, J. (2008). Double beta decay, Majorana neutrinos, and neutrino mass. Reviews of Modern Physics, 80(2), 481-516. doi:10.1103/revmodphys.80.481Martín-Albo, J., Muñoz Vidal, J., Ferrario, P., Nebot-Guinot, M., Gómez-Cadenas, J. J., … Cárcel, S. (2016). Sensitivity of NEXT-100 to neutrinoless double beta decay. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2016(5). doi:10.1007/jhep05(2016)159Renner, J., Farbin, A., Vidal, J. M., Benlloch-Rodríguez, J. M., Botas, A., Ferrario, P., … Borges, F. I. G. (2017). Background rejection in NEXT using deep neural networks. Journal of Instrumentation, 12(01), T01004-T01004. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/01/t01004Dafni, T., Álvarez, V., Bandac, I., Bettini, A., Borges, F. I. G. M., Camargo, M., … Conde, C. A. N. (2016). Results of the material screening program of the NEXT experiment. Nuclear and Particle Physics Proceedings, 273-275, 2666-2668. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2015.10.024Cebrián, S., Pérez, J., Bandac, I., Labarga, L., Álvarez, V., Barrado, A. I., … Cárcel, S. (2015). Radiopurity assessment of the tracking readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 10(05), P05006-P05006. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/10/05/p05006Wang, X., Chen, X., Fu, C., Ji, X., Liu, X., Mao, Y., … Zhang, T. (2016). Material screening with HPGe counting station for PandaX experiment. Journal of Instrumentation, 11(12), T12002-T12002. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/11/12/t12002Barrow, P., Baudis, L., Cichon, D., Danisch, M., Franco, D., Kaether, F., … Wulf, J. (2017). Qualification tests of the R11410-21 photomultiplier tubes for the XENON1T detector. Journal of Instrumentation, 12(01), P01024-P01024. doi:10.1088/1748-0221/12/01/p01024Busto, J., Gonin, Y., Hubert, F., Hubert, P., & Vuilleumier, J.-M. (2002). Radioactivity measurements of a large number of adhesives. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 492(1-2), 35-42. doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(02)01280-9Nisi, S., Di Vacri, A., Di Vacri, M. L., Stramenga, A., & Laubenstein, M. (2009). Comparison of inductively coupled mass spectrometry and ultra low-level gamma-ray spectroscopy for ultra low background material selection. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, 67(5), 828-832. doi:10.1016/j.apradiso.2009.01.02

Boosting background suppression in the NEXT experiment through Richardson-Lucy deconvolution

Next-generation neutrinoless double beta decay experiments aim for half-life sensitivities of ~ 1027 yr, requiring suppressing backgrounds to < 1 count/tonne/yr. For this, any extra background rejection handle, beyond excellent energy resolution and the use of extremely radiopure materials, is of utmost importance. The NEXT experiment exploits differences in the spatial ionization patterns of double beta decay and single-electron events to discriminate signal from background. While the former display two Bragg peak dense ionization regions at the opposite ends of the track, the latter typically have only one such feature. Thus, comparing the energies at the track extremes provides an additional rejection tool. The unique combination of the topology-based background discrimination and excellent energy resolution (1% FWHM at the Q-value of the decay) is the distinguishing feature of NEXT. Previous studies demonstrated a topological background rejection factor of ~ 5 when reconstructing electron-positron pairs in the 208Tl 1.6 MeV double escape peak (with Compton events as background), recorded in the NEXT-White demonstrator at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc, with 72% signal efficiency. This was recently improved through the use of a deep convolutional neural network to yield a background rejection factor of ~ 10 with 65% signal efficiency. Here, we present a new reconstruction method, based on the Richardson-Lucy deconvolution algorithm, which allows reversing the blurring induced by electron diffusion and electroluminescence light production in the NEXT TPC. The new method yields highly refined 3D images of reconstructed events, and, as a result, significantly improves the topological background discrimination. When applied to real-data 1.6 MeV e-e+ pairs, it leads to a background rejection factor of 27 at 57% signal efficiency. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]. © 2021, The Author(s)

Microscopic simulation of xenon-based optical TPCs in the presence of molecular additives

[EN] We introduce a simulation framework for the transport of high and low energy electrons in xenon-based optical time projection chambers (OTPCs). The simulation relies on elementary cross sections (electron-atom and electron-molecule) and incorporates, in order to compute the gas scintillation, the reaction/quenching rates (atom-atom and atom-molecule) of the first 41 excited states of xenon and the relevant associated excimers, together with their radiative cascade. The results compare positively with observations made in pure xenon and its mixtures with CO2 and CF4 in a range of pressures from 0.1 to 10 bar. This work sheds some light on the elementary processes responsible for the primary and secondary xenon-scintillation mechanisms in the presence of additives, that are of interest to the OTPC technology.DGD is supported by the Ramon y Cajal program (Spain) under contract number RYC-2015-18820. The authors want to acknowledge the RD51 collaboration for encouragement and support during the elaboration of this work, and in particular discussions with F. Resnati, A. Milov, V. Peskov, M. Suzuki and A. F. Borghesani. The NEXT Collaboration acknowledges support from the following agencies and institutions: the European Research Council (ERC) under the Advanced Grant 339787-NEXT; the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain under grants FIS2014-53371-C04 and the Severo Ochoa Program SEV-2014-0398; the GVA of Spain under grant PROM-ETEO/2016/120; the Portuguese FCT and FEDER through the program COMPETE, project PTDC/FIS-NUC/2525/2014 and UID/FIS/04559/2013; the U.S. Department of Energy under contracts number DE-AC02-07CH11359 (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) and DE-FG02-13ER42020 (Texas A& and the University of Texas at Arlington.Azevedo, C.; Gonzalez-Diaz, D.; Biagi, SF.; Oliveira, CAB.; Henriques, CAO.; Escada, J.; Monrabal, F.... (2018). Microscopic simulation of xenon-based optical TPCs in the presence of molecular additives. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A Accelerators Spectrometers Detectors and Associated Equipment. 877:157-172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2017.08.049S15717287

Effectiveness of an mHealth intervention combining a smartphone app and smart band on body composition in an overweight and obese population: Randomized controlled trial (EVIDENT 3 study)

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) is currently among the supporting elements that may contribute to an improvement in health markers by helping people adopt healthier lifestyles. mHealth interventions have been widely reported to achieve greater weight loss than other approaches, but their effect on body composition remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to assess the short-term (3 months) effectiveness of a mobile app and a smart band for losing weight and changing body composition in sedentary Spanish adults who are overweight or obese. Methods: A randomized controlled, multicenter clinical trial was conducted involving the participation of 440 subjects from primary care centers, with 231 subjects in the intervention group (IG; counselling with smartphone app and smart band) and 209 in the control group (CG; counselling only). Both groups were counselled about healthy diet and physical activity. For the 3-month intervention period, the IG was trained to use a smartphone app that involved self-monitoring and tailored feedback, as well as a smart band that recorded daily physical activity (Mi Band 2, Xiaomi). Body composition was measured using the InBody 230 bioimpedance device (InBody Co., Ltd), and physical activity was measured using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Results: The mHealth intervention produced a greater loss of body weight (–1.97 kg, 95% CI –2.39 to –1.54) relative to standard counselling at 3 months (–1.13 kg, 95% CI –1.56 to –0.69). Comparing groups, the IG achieved a weight loss of 0.84 kg more than the CG at 3 months. The IG showed a decrease in body fat mass (BFM; –1.84 kg, 95% CI –2.48 to –1.20), percentage of body fat (PBF; –1.22%, 95% CI –1.82% to 0.62%), and BMI (–0.77 kg/m2, 95% CI –0.96 to 0.57). No significant changes were observed in any of these parameters in men; among women, there was a significant decrease in BMI in the IG compared with the CG. When subjects were grouped according to baseline BMI, the overweight group experienced a change in BFM of –1.18 kg (95% CI –2.30 to –0.06) and BMI of –0.47 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.80 to –0.13), whereas the obese group only experienced a change in BMI of –0.53 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.86 to –0.19). When the data were analyzed according to physical activity, the moderate-vigorous physical activity group showed significant changes in BFM of –1.03 kg (95% CI –1.74 to –0.33), PBF of –0.76% (95% CI –1.32% to –0.20%), and BMI of –0.5 kg/m2 (95% CI –0.83 to –0.19). Conclusions: The results from this multicenter, randomized controlled clinical trial study show that compared with standard counselling alone, adding a self-reported app and a smart band obtained beneficial results in terms of weight loss and a reduction in BFM and PBF in female subjects with a BMI less than 30 kg/m2 and a moderate-vigorous physical activity level. Nevertheless, further studies are needed to ensure that this profile benefits more than others from this intervention and to investigate modifications of this intervention to achieve a global effect

Radiopurity assessment of the tracking readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment

The Neutrino Experiment with a Xenon Time-Projection Chamber (NEXT) is intended to investigate the neutrinoless double beta decay of 136Xe, which requires a severe suppression of potential backgrounds; therefore, an extensive screening and selection process is underway to control the radio-purity levels of the materials to be used in the experimental set-up of NEXT. The detector design combines the measurement of the topological signature of the event for background discrimination with the energy resolution optimization. Separate energy and tracking readout planes are based on different sensors: photomultiplier tubes for calorimetry and silicon multi-pixel photon counters for tracking. The design of a radio pure tracking plane, in direct contact with the gas detector medium, was a challenge since the needed components have typically activities too large for experiments requiring ultra-low background conditions. Here, the radiopurity assessment of tracking readout components based on gamma-ray spectroscopy using ultra-low background germanium detectors at the Laboratorio Subterráneo de Canfranc (Spain) is described. According to the obtained results, radiopure enough printed circuit boards made of kapton and copper and silicon photomultipliers.We deeply acknowledge John Murphy and Carl Jackson from SensL Technologies Ltd for their efficient collaboration in the analysis of SiPMs. We very much thank also Vicenzo Mancini from SOMACIS company for the care in the development of radiopure kapton PCBs. Special thanks are due to LSC directorate and staff for their strong support for performing the measurements at the LSC Radiopurity Service. The NEXT Collaboration acknowledges funding support from the following agencies and institutions: the European Research Council under the Advanced Grant 339787-NEXT and the T-REX Starting Grant ref. ERC-2009-StG-240054 of the IDEAS program of the 7th EU Framework Program; the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad under grants CONSOLIDER-Ingenio 2010 CSD2008-0037 (CUP), FPA2009-13697-C04-04, and FIS2012-37947-C04; the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences of the US DoE under Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231; and the Portuguese FCT and FEDER through the program COMPETE, Projects PTDC/FIS/103860/2008 and PTDC/FIS/112272/2009.Cebrian, S.; Perez, J.; Bandac, I.; Labarga, L.; Alvarez, V.; Barrado, AI.; Bettini, A.... (2015). Radiopurity assessment of the tracking readout for the NEXT double beta decay experiment. Journal of Instrumentation. 10:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-0221/10/05/P05006S1141

School organizational culture: The peak of research in the context of neoliberal policies

Inscrita numa matriz teórica multirreferencial, a problemática da cultura organizacional tem sido objecto de múltiplos desenvolvimentos conceptuais e diversificadas apropriações políticas e ideológicas. No campo da educação e no contexto mais específico das organizações escolares, as abordagens culturais e simbólicas sofreram algumas inflexões teóricas apenas compreensíveis quando contextualizadas no quadro mais global das políticas internacionais de cariz neoliberal e neoconservador. Neste trabalho, procura-se reflectir criticamente sobre a forma como a problemática da cultura organizacional em contexto escolar passa a ser (re)perspectivada numa altura em que se expandem alguns objectivos e valores políticos associados às ideologias da modernização e da racionalização. Num segundo momento, tomando como ponto de partida a análise de um vasto número de investigações integradas em quatro bases de dados electrónicas de âmbito internacional, debatemos as principais tendências teóricas, conceptuais e metodológicas deste campo de estudo, fazendo sobressair o lugar e o estatuto da escola enquanto contexto privilegiado de investigação, designadamente nos domínios crítico-reflexivos.Within a multi-referential theoretical framework, the issue of organizational culture has been a subject for multiple conceptual developments and different ideological and political appropriations. In the field of education and in the specific context of school organizations, the cultural and symbolic approaches were subjected to some theoretical inflections. These can only be understood in the global framework of international policies of neoliberal and neoconservative nature. First, this paper critically discusses how the issue of organizational culture in school context was put in perspectives at a time when some political-ideological objectives and values were associated to modernization and rationalization ideologies. Based on the analysis of a great number of researches included in four electronic databases with an international scope, it then discusses the main theoretical, conceptual and methodological trends of this field of study, stressing the place and statute of school as a privileged research context, namely in the reflexive and critical domain.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio