A Leitura nas Aulas de Inglês: Problematizações Por Meio do Teatro Lido

Nas escolas públicas, de um modo geral, percebemos que os alunos carecem de eventos e práticas de letramento que os beneficiem como leitores da língua inglesa. Juntamente com outros métodos pedagógicos, há uma necessidade de práticas motivadoras e lúdicas que possam levar os alunos ao entendimento do texto e o articulem criticamente à situação social e política na qual se encontram. Este estudo vem ao encontro de tais necessidades. É uma pesquisa-ação que envolve o uso do Teatro Lido (Readers Theater) como prática multiletrada. Tem por objetivo gerar reflexões sobre eventos de letramento, evidenciando como as práticas de leitura podem ser benéficas para os alunos. Como uma pesquisa-ação, o todo abrange duas partes: o projeto pedagógico e o projeto de pesquisa no qual os resultados obtidos são analisados e discutidos. O projeto pedagógico foi implementado em uma Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental e Médio (localizada no município de Cariacica, ES), e proporcionou o envolvimento dos alunos do 2º ano do Ensino Médio em práticas oralizadas de leitura. Aspectos segmentais e suprassegmentais da oralidade (aspectos prosódicos) foram apresentados aos alunos durante a fase de ensaios para orientá-los quanto à leitura em voz alta dos textos. Contudo, os aspectos mais importantes disseram respeito às vivências singulares dos alunos e alunas envolvidos no projeto, bem como as relações dialógicas constituídas a partir das práticas multiletradas em torno do Teatro Lido. Para mitigar a limitação das poucas horas de instrução, o projeto contemplou a criação de um grupo fechado em uma rede social que proporcionou aos alunos autonomia nas práticas extras-classe e permitiu o acesso a vídeos, scripts e orientações postadas pelo professor. O projeto pedagógico seguiu também uma perspectiva crítica de educação problematizando as relações de poder presentes nas falas e nas atitudes dos personagens das peças. Por outro lado, o projeto de pesquisa, com base nos dados colhidos, procurou investigar, seguindo parâmetros qualitativos, os aspectos mais relevantes observados nas práticas de letramento do Teatro Lido em inglês, especialmente para os alunos que ainda não conseguem se enxergar como leitores na língua adicional. Palavras Chave: Ensino de Língua Inglesa; Teatro Lido; Leitura em língua Adiciona

The TeleTAnDem intervention - Study protocol for a psychotherapeutic intervention for family caregivers of people with dementia

Soellner R, Reder M, Machmer A, Holle R, Wilz G. The TeleTAnDem intervention - Study protocol for a psychotherapeutic intervention for family caregivers of people with dementia. BMC Nursing. 2015;14(11): 11

Assessing variations of extreme indices inducing weather-hazards on critical infrastructures over Europe?the INTACT framework

Extreme weather events are projected to be more frequent and severe across the globe because of global warming. This poses challenging problems for critical infrastructures, which could be dramatically affected (or disrupted), and may require adaptation plans to the changing climate conditions. The INTACT FP7-European project evaluated the resilience and vulnerability of critical infrastructures to extreme weather events in a climate change scenario. To identify changes in the hazard induced by climate change, appropriate extreme weather indicators (EWIs), as proxies of the main atmospheric features triggering events with high impact on the infrastructures, were defined for a number of case studies and different approaches were analyzed to obtain local climate projections. We considered the influence of weighting and bias correction schemes on the delta approach followed to obtain the resulting projections, considering data from the Euro-CORDEX ensemble of regional future climate scenarios over Europe. The aim is to provide practitioners, decision-makers, and administrators with appropriate methods to obtain actionable and plausible results on local/regional future climate scenarios. Our results show a small sensitivity to the weighting approach and a large sensitivity to bias correcting the future projections.This work has been carried out within the activities of INTACT project, receiving funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° FP7-SEC-2013-1-606799. The information and views set out in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme's Working Group on Regional Climate, and the Working Group on Coupled Modelling, former coordinating body of CORDEX and responsible panel for CMIP5

Analysis of clinical outcomes according to original treatment groups 16 years after the pivotal IFNB-1b trial

BACKGROUND: Evidence for efficacy of disease-modifying drugs in multiple sclerosis (MS) comes from trials of short duration. We report results from a 16 y, retrospective follow-up of the pivotal interferon beta-1b (IFNB-1b) study. METHODS: The 372 trial patients were randomly assigned to placebo (n=123), IFNB-1b 50 microg (n=125) or IFNB-1b 250 microg (n=124) subcutaneously every other day for at least 2 y. Some remained randomised for up to 5 y but, subsequently, patients received treatment according to physicians' discretion. Patients were re-contacted and asked to participate. Efficacy related measures included MRI parameters, relapse rate, the Expanded Disability Status Scale, the Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite Measure and conversion to secondary progressive MS. RESULTS: Of the 88.2% (328/372) of patients who were identified, 69.9% (260/372) had available case report forms. No differences in outcome between original randomisation groups could be discerned using standard disability and MRI measures. However, mortality rates among patients originally treated with IFNB-1b were lower than in the original placebo group (18.3% (20/109) for placebo versus 8.3% (9/108) for IFNB-1b 50 microg and 5.4% (6/111) for IFNB-1b 250 microg). CONCLUSIONS: The original treatment assignment could not be shown to influence standard assessments of long-term efficacy. On-study behaviour of patients was influenced by factors that could not be controlled with the sacrifice of randomisation and blinding. Mortality was higher in patients originally assigned to placebo than those who had received IFNB-1b 50 microg or 250 microg. The dataset provides important resources to explore early predictors of long-term outcome

The dusty AGB star RS CrB: first mid-infrared interferometric observations with the Keck Telescopes

We report interferometric observations of the semi-regular variable star RS CrB, a red giant with strong silicate emission features. The data were among the first long baseline mid-infrared stellar fringes obtained between the Keck telescopes, using parts of the new nulling beam combiner. The light was dispersed by a low-resolution spectrometer, allowing simultaneous measurement of the source visibility and intensity spectra from 8 to 12 microns. The interferometric observations allow a non-ambiguous determination of the dust shell spatial scale and relative flux contribution. Using a simple spherically-symmetric model, in which a geometrically thin shell surrounds the stellar photosphere, we find that ~30% to ~70% of the overall mid-infrared flux - depending on the wavelength - originates from 7-8 stellar radii. The derived shell opacity profile shows a broad peak around 11 microns (tau ~ 0.06), characteristic of Mg-rich silicate dust particles.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Implementing goals of care conversations with veterans in VA long-term care setting: a mixed methods protocol

Abstract Background The program “Implementing Goals of Care Conversations with Veterans in VA LTC Settings” is proposed in partnership with the US Veterans Health Administration (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care and the Geriatrics and Extended Care Program Offices, together with the VA Office of Nursing Services. The three projects in this program are designed to support a new system-wide mandate requiring providers to conduct and systematically record conversations with veterans about their preferences for care, particularly life-sustaining treatments. These treatments include cardiac resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, and other forms of life support. However, veteran preferences for care go beyond whether or not they receive life-sustaining treatments to include issues such as whether or not they want to be hospitalized if they are acutely ill, and what kinds of comfort care they would like to receive. Methods Three projects, all focused on improving the provision of veteran-centered care, are proposed. The projects will be conducted in Community Living Centers (VA-owned nursing homes) and VA Home-Based Primary Care programs in five regional networks in the Veterans Health Administration. In all the projects, we will use data from context and barrier and facilitator assessments to design feedback reports for staff to help them understand how well they are meeting the requirement to have conversations with veterans about their preferences and to document them appropriately. We will also use learning collaboratives—meetings in which staff teams come together and problem-solve issues they encounter in how to get veterans’ preferences expressed and documented, and acted on—to support action planning to improve performance. Discussion We will use data over time to track implementation success, measured as the proportions of veterans in Community Living Centers (CLCs) and Home-Based Primary Care (HBPC) who have a documented goals of care conversation soon after admission. We will work with our operational partners to spread approaches that work throughout the Veterans Health Administration.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/134645/1/13012_2016_Article_497.pd

Survival in MS: a randomized cohort study 21 years after the start of the pivotal IFNB-1b trial

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of interferon beta (IFNβ)-1b on all-cause mortality over 21 years in the cohort of 372 patients who participated in the pivotal randomized clinical trial (RCT), retaining (in the analysis) the original randomized treatment-assignments. METHODS: For this randomized long-term cohort study, the primary outcome, defined before data collection, was the comparison of all-cause mortality between the IFNβ-1b 250 μg and placebo groups from the time of randomization through the entire 21-year follow-up interval (intention-to-treat, log-rank test for Kaplan-Meier survival curves). All other survival outcomes were secondary. RESULTS: After a median of 21.1 years from RCT enrollment, 98.4%(366 of 372) of patients were identified, and, of these, 81 deaths were recorded (22.1% [81 of 366]). Patients originally randomly assigned to IFNβ-1b 250 μg showed a significant reduction in all-cause mortality over the 21-year period compared with placebo (p = 0.0173), with a hazard ratio of 0.532 (95% confidence interval 0.314-0.902). The hazard rate of death at long-term follow-up by Kaplan-Meier estimates was reduced by 46.8% among IFNβ-1b 250 μg-treated patients (46.0% among IFNβ-1b 50 μg-treated patients) compared with placebo. Baseline variables did not influence the observed treatment effect. CONCLUSIONS: There was a significant survival advantage in this cohort of patients receiving early IFNβ-1b treatment at either dose compared with placebo. Near-complete ascertainment, together with confirmatory findings from both active treatment groups, strengthens the evidence for an IFNβ-1b benefit on all-cause mortality. CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class III evidence that early treatment with IFNβ-1b is associated with prolonged survival in initially treatment-naive patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis