Effects of company visits on Dutch primary school children's attitudes toward technical professions

Technology-oriented company visits could potentially provide children with a stimulating ‘real-world’ setting to develop more broad and positive images of and attitudes toward technology and technical professions. The present study was the first to explore whether children’s images of and attitudes toward technology, technical competencies and technical professions could be affected by technology-oriented company visits, as they are presently carried out in the Netherlands. A previously validated measurement instrument was used to measure children’s images and attitudes prior to and after the visits and results were compared to similar measurements among children who did not take part in the visits. In addition, based on recent review studies about school visits to science centers, we derived several key theoretical guidelines for organizing effective school visits. Based on these guidelines, structured interviews were carried out with all teachers prior to the company visits. Results indicated that children’s images and attitudes remained mostly unaffected by the company visits, a finding that could be explained by the fact that the level of in-school preparation, follow-up activities and teachers’ level of involvement during the visits was generally low. In addition, observations during the visits showed that the activities at the technical companies were mostly ‘hands-on’ and stereotypical (e.g., working with machines). Based on these findings, we formulate a set of new guidelines for technology-oriented company visits that could improve the desired attitudinal effects

An assessment of a days off decomposition approach to personnel scheduling

This paper studies a two-phase decomposition approach to solve the personnel scheduling problem. The first phase creates a days off schedule, indicating working days and days off for each employee. The second phase assigns shifts to the working days in the days off schedule. This decomposition is motivated by the fact that personnel scheduling constraints are often divided in two categories: one specifies constraints on working days and days off, while the other specifies constraints on shift assignments. To assess the consequences of the decomposition approach, we apply it to public benchmark instances, and compare this to solving the personnel scheduling problem directly. In all steps we use mathematical programming. We also study the extension that includes night shifts in thefirst phase of the decomposition. We present a detailed results analysis, and analyze the effect of various instance parameters on the decompositions' results. In general, we observe that the decompositions significantly reduce the computation time, and that they produce good solutions for most instances

Naar een raamwerk voor talentontwikkeling

In het voortgezet onderwijs is de laatste jaren veel verbeterd in de voorlichting en advisering aan leerlingen met behulp van het bèta mentality model. Dit model beschrijft vier typen motivatieprofielen waardoor scholen beter in staat zijn te differentiëren en leerlingen te motiveren op het gebied van bèta profielen. Afgelopen jaar is aan dit mentality model een nieuw model toegevoegd dat zich richt op de houding en motivatie van leerlingen uit het voortgezet onderwijs ten opzichte van hun eigen talenten en de wens om te excelleren (het zgn. Excellentie Model). Wat er in die keten van mentaliteits-voorlichting nog ontbreekt is de schakel naar het basisonderwijs. Internationaal onderzoek laat zien dat in het reguliere basisonderwijs minder dan 20% van de talentvolle leerlingen wordt uitgedaagd en dat leerkrachten vaak niet weten hoe zij dit moeten doen. Wanneer leerlingen aan het einde van het basisonderwijs niet al voldoende positieve kennis en houding hebben opgebouwd over hun eigen talentontwikkeling, wordt het moeilijker om deze beeldvorming in het voortgezet onderwijs nog bij te sturen. Ook kan een betere voorlichting en een positievere attitude ten opzichte van het eigen talent zorgen voor een betere en gerichtere doorstroom naar de verschillende typen voortgezet onderwijs. Vanuit de gedachte van beeldvorming en bewustwording ligt hier dus een sleutelrol voor het basisonderwijs en voor basisschoolleerkrachten

Prevalence and Determinants of Pain in Spinal Cord Injury During Initial Inpatient Rehabilitation:Data From the Dutch Spinal Cord Injury Database

Objective: To describe the prevalence and characteristics of spinal cord injury (SCI)-related pain during initial inpatient rehabilitation and to investigate relationships with demographic and lesion characteristics. Design: Cohort during inpatient rehabilitation. Setting: Eight specialized SCI rehabilitation centers in the Netherlands. Participants: Patients with newly acquired SCI admitted for inpatient rehabilitation between November 2013 and August 2019 (N=1432). Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Presence of pain at admission and discharge. Logistic regression analyses were used to study the prevalence of pain related to sex, age, etiology, completeness, and level of injury. Results: Data from 1432 patients were available. Of these patients 64.6% were male, mean age was 56.8 years, 59.9% had a nontraumatic SCI, 63.9% were classified as American Spinal Cord Injury Association Impairment Scale (AIS) D and 56.5% had paraplegia. Prevalence of pain was 61.2% at admission (40.6% nociceptive pain [NocP], 30.2% neuropathic pain [NeuP], 5.4% other pain) and 51.5% at discharge (26.0% NocP, 31.4% NeuP, 5.7% other pain). Having NocP at admission was associated with traumatic SCI. AIS B had a lower risk of NocP than AIS D at admission. Having NocP at discharge was associated with female sex and traumatic SCI. AIS C had a lower risk of NocP at discharge than AIS D. Having NeuP at admission was associated with female sex. Having NeuP at discharge was associated with female sex, age younger than 65 years vs age older than 75 years and tetraplegia. Conclusions: SCI-related pain is highly prevalent during inpatient rehabilitation. Prevalence of NocP decreased during inpatient rehabilitation, and prevalence of NeuP stayed the same. Different patient and lesion characteristics were related to the presence of SCI-related pain. Healthcare professionals should be aware of these differences in screening patients on presence and development of pain during inpatient rehabilitation

Cardiac magnetic resonance findings predicting mortality in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives: To provide a comprehensive overview of all reported cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) findings that predict clinical deterioration in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Methods: MEDLINE and EMBASE electronic databases were systematically searched for longitudinal studies published by April 2015 that reported associations between CMR findings and adverse clinical outcome in PAH. Studies were appraised using previously developed criteria for prognostic studies. Meta-analysis using random effect models was performed for CMR findings investigated by three or more studies. Results: Eight papers (539 patients) investigating 21 different CMR findings were included. Meta-analysis showed that right ventricular (RV) ejection fraction was the strongest predictor of mortality in PAH (pooled HR 1.23 [95 % CI 1.07–1.41], p = 0.003) per 5 % decrease. In addition, RV end-diastolic volume index (po

Plasma Thallium Concentration, Kidney Function, Nephrotoxicity and Graft Failure in Kidney Transplant Recipients

The nephrotoxic effects of heavy metals have gained increasing scientific attention in the past years. Recent studies suggest that heavy metals, including cadmium, lead, and arsenic, are detrimental to kidney transplant recipients (KTR) even at circulating concentrations within the normal range, posing an increased risk for graft failure. Thallium is another highly toxic heavy metal, yet the potential consequences of the circulating thallium concentrations in KTR are unclear. We measured plasma thallium concentrations in 672 stable KTR enrolled in the prospective TransplantLines Food and Nutrition Biobank and Cohort Study using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. In cross-sectional analyses, plasma thallium concentrations were positively associated with kidney function measures and hemoglobin. We observed no associations of thallium concentration with proteinuria or markers of tubular damage. In prospective analyses, we observed no association of plasma thallium with graft failure and mortality during a median follow-up of 5.4 [interquartile range: 4.8 to 6.1] years. In conclusion, in contrast with other heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and arsenic, there is no evidence of tubular damage or thallium nephrotoxicity for the range of circulating thallium concentrations observed in this study. This is further evidenced by the absence of associations of plasma thallium with graft failure and mortality in KTR

Associations Between Self-Efficacy and Secondary Health Conditions in People Living With Spinal Cord Injury:A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objective: To describe the association between self-efficacy and secondary health conditions (SHCs) in people living with spinal cord injury (SCI). Data Sources: PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and CINAHL were systematically searched from database inception to September 2016. Study Selection: Studies describing patients living with SCI in which self-efficacy was measured by a standardized questionnaire and an association was made with somatic or psychological SHCs. Data Extraction: An independent extraction by multiple observers was performed based on the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology statements checklist. A meta-analysis concerning the association between self-efficacy and SHCs in people with SCI was performed if a minimum of 4 comparable studies were available. Data Synthesis: Of 670 unique articles screened, 22 met the inclusion criteria. Seven of these 22 studies investigated associations between self-efficacy and somatic SHCs. Only a trend toward an association between higher self-efficacy and less pain, fatigue, number of SHCs, and limitations caused by SHCs was found. Twenty-one studies described the association between self-efficacy and psychological SHCs. All correlations of higher self-efficacy with fewer depressive (18 studies) and anxiety symptoms (7 studies) were significant, and meta-analysis showed a strong negative correlation of .536 (.584 to.484) and .493 (.577 to .399), respectively. A small number of studies (2) showed a trend toward a positive correlation between self-efficacy and quality of life. Conclusions: Self-efficacy is negatively associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms in SCI. Therefore, self-efficacy seems an important target in the rehabilitation of patients living with SCI. More research is necessary to clarify the associations between self-efficacy and somatic SHCs. Future research should also focus on different types of self-efficacy and their association with SHCs