Educational Games in Geriatric Medicine Education: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the medical literature to assess the effect of geriatric educational games on the satisfaction, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of health care professionals. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review following the Cochrane Collaboration methodology including an electronic search of 10 electronic databases. We included randomized controlled trials (RCT) and controlled clinical trials (CCT) and excluded single arm studies. Population of interests included members (practitioners or students) of the health care professions. Outcomes of interests were participants' satisfaction, knowledge, beliefs, attitude, and behaviors. RESULTS: We included 8 studies evaluating 5 geriatric role playing games, all conducted in United States. All studies suffered from one or more methodological limitations but the overall quality of evidence was acceptable. None of the studies assessed the effects of the games on beliefs or behaviors. None of the 8 studies reported a statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in terms of change in attitude. One study assessed the impact on knowledge and found non-statistically significant difference between the 2 groups. Two studies found levels of satisfaction among participants to be high. We did not conduct a planned meta-analysis because the included studies either reported no statistical data or reported different summary statistics. CONCLUSION: The available evidence does not support the use of role playing interventions in geriatric medical education with the aim of improving the attitudes towards the elderly.Society of General Internal Medicin

A Lightweight Multilevel Markup Language for Connecting Software Requirements and Simulations

[Context] Simulation is a powerful tool to validate specified requirements especially for complex systems that constantly monitor and react to characteristics of their environment. The simulators for such systems are complex themselves as they simulate multiple actors with multiple interacting functions in a number of different scenarios. To validate requirements in such simulations, the requirements must be related to the simulation runs. [Problem] In practice, engineers are reluctant to state their requirements in terms of structured languages or models that would allow for a straightforward relation of requirements to simulation runs. Instead, the requirements are expressed as unstructured natural language text that is hard to assess in a set of complex simulation runs. Therefore, the feedback loop between requirements and simulation is very long or non-existent at all. [Principal idea] We aim to close the gap between requirements specifications and simulation by proposing a lightweight markup language for requirements. Our markup language provides a set of annotations on different levels that can be applied to natural language requirements. The annotations are mapped to simulation events. As a result, meaningful information from a set of simulation runs is shown directly in the requirements specification. [Contribution] Instead of forcing the engineer to write requirements in a specific way just for the purpose of relating them to a simulator, the markup language allows annotating the already specified requirements up to a level that is interesting for the engineer. We evaluate our approach by analyzing 8 original requirements of an automotive system in a set of 100 simulation runs

Cooperación Interregional e Interregionalismo: Una Aproximación Socialconstructivista

In the wider context of the post cold war era, regions have emerged as actors in the international society, thus assuming more pronounced and diverse identities. Through their external relations and mutual interactions they have opened new spaces as agents within the international system. Interregional cooperation is a process which should be studied in its own right. It is important to identify the process of cooperation as a constitutive element of the regions that engage in it, as well as for the nature of the emerging interregionalism that follows. Likewise, it is worthwhile to analyse the potential impact of interregionalism in terms of a social institution on global governance and the genesis of a new world order. The theoretical perspective of Social Constructivism allows to take these dimensions of interregional cooperation and interregionalism into consideration

Cold inelastic collisions between lithium and cesium in a two-species magneto-optical trap

We investigate collisional properties of lithium and cesium which are simultaneously confined in a combined magneto-optical trap. Trap-loss collisions between the two species are comprehensively studied. Different inelastic collision channels are identified, and inter-species rate coefficients as well as cross sections are determined. It is found that loss rates are independent of the optical excitation of Li, as a consequence of the repulsive Li$^*$-Cs interaction. Li and Cs loss by inelastic inter-species collisions can completely be attributed to processes involving optically excited cesium (fine-structure changing collisions and radiative escape). By lowering the trap depth for Li, an additional loss channel of Li is observed which results from ground-state Li-Cs collisions changing the hyperfine state of cesium.Comment: submitted to Euro. Phys. J. D, special issue on Laser Cooling and Trappin

The Effect of Culture on Female Leadership: Towards Equality Everywhere?

Treballs Finals del Màster en Oficial en Empresa Internacional / International Business, Facultat d'Economia i Empresa, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2019-2020, Tutor: Dra. Patricia ElgoibarIn the last decades, female leadership and female representation in top management positions received increasing attention and got more visible. There is a trend towards gender diversity in upper management, voluntarily or forced by regulations, as the society moves towards gender equality, also at leadership positions. Thus, traditional barriers tend to decrease slightly. Nevertheless, this trend is only developing slowly and has been noticed primarily by enterprises in the developed western world. Due to this discrepancy between different countries, culture can be understood as a key influencing factor in supporting women as leaders. This thesis aims to contribute to a deeper knowledge about female leadership and women’s opportunities in management. The relationship between women in leadership and culture will be highlighted. Additionally, key influencing factors of culture impacting women’s opportunities in ascending the career ladder will be researched within a content analysis

Ready for the world? Measuring the (trans-)national quality of political issue publics on twitter

This article presents a multi-method research design for measuring the (trans-)national quality of issue publics on Twitter. Online communication is widely perceived as having the potential to overcome nationally bound public spheres. Social media, in particular, are seen as platforms and drivers of transnational communication through which users can easily connect across borders. Transnational interactivity can be expected in particular for policy fields of global concern and elite or activist communication as practiced on Twitter. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of evidence for the enduring national structuration of political communication and publics as it results from a shared language (mostly), culturally defined media markets, established routines of social and political communication, and sociocultural stocks of knowledge. The study goes beyond measuring user interaction and also includes indicators of cross-referential cohesion. It applies a set of computational methods in network and discourse analysis and presents empirical evidence for Twitter communication on climate change being a prime issue of global concern and a globalized policy agenda. For empirical analysis, the study relies on a large Twitter dataset (N ≈ 6m tweets) with tweet messages and metadata collected between 2015 and 2018. Based on basic measurements such as geolocation and language use, the metrics allowed measurement of cross-national user interactions, user centrality in communicative networks, linking behaviour, and hashtag co-occurrences. The findings of the exploratory study suggest that a combined perspective on indicators of user interaction and cross-referential cohesion helps to develop a better and more nuanced understanding of online issue publics

Children’s Subjective Understanding of Conative Mental States

Die Handlungen anderer Menschen nachzuvollziehen und vorherzusehen ist von zentraler Bedeutung für unser tägliches Leben. Wir beschreiben und erklären uns die Handlungen anderer Akteur:innen, indem wir ihnen kognitive mentale Zustände, (z.B. Überzeugungen und Wissen) und konative mentale Zustände (z.B. Wünsche und Intentionen) zuschreiben (Davidson, 1963). Die Fähigkeit mentale Zustände zuzuschreiben wird als Theory of Mind bezeichnet (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). Mentale Zustände sind Repräsentationen der Realität aus der Perspektive der Akteur:innen. Um diese mentalen Zustände korrekt zuzuschreiben, muss der:die Zuschreibende folglich die subjektive Perspektive der Akteur:innen einnehmen. Aus Entwicklungsperspektive ist deshalb eine zentrale Frage, wann und wie sich ein subjektives Verständnis von kognitiven und konativen Zuständen entwickelt. Es existiert umfassende empirische Evidenz, wie sich ein subjektives Verständnis kognitiver Zustände entwickelt. Aufbauend auf dieser Evidenz existieren auch viele ausdifferenzierte theoretische Überlegungen zu diesem Entwicklungsprozess (für eine Übersicht siehe Rakoczy, 2017a). Das subjektive Verständnis konativer Zustände ist deutlich weniger genau untersucht. Dies liegt vermutlich zum Teil daran, dass es deutlich weniger offensichtlich ist, wie ein subjektives Verständnis konativer Zustände erfasst werden kann. Diese Dissertation zeigt Möglichkeiten auf, ein solches Verständnis dennoch zu erfassen. Die Dissertation basiert auf zwei Projekten, in denen diese Ansätze umgesetzt wurden. Im ersten Projekt wurde das subjektive Verständnis von Wünschen untersucht. Wünsche sind unter anderem subjektiv, weil sie Normen und Werten widersprechen können (z.B. der Wunsch etwas zu zerstören). Objektiv ist ein solcher Wunsch nicht wünschenswert. Ein solcher Wunsch ist folglich nur aus der subjektiven Perspektive des Akteurs nachvollziehbar. In dieser Studie wurde das Verständnis zwei- bis vier-jähriger Kinder von subjektiven bösen Wünschen verglichen mit ihrem Verständnis objektiv nachvollziehbarer neutraler Wünsche und subjektiver (falscher) Überzeugungen. Jüngere Kinder zeigten ein besseres Verständnis für subjektive Wünsche als für subjektive Überzeugungen. Außerdem fiel es ihnen nicht schwerer die subjektiven Wünsche nachzuvollziehen als die neutralen Wünsche. Ein subjektives Verständnis von Wünschen scheint sich folglich schon früher zu entwickeln als ein subjektives Verständnis von Überzeugungen. Das zweite Projekt dieser Dissertation untersuchte das subjektive Verständnis von Intentionen in zwei Studien. Dass Intentionen subjektiv sind, bildet sich unter anderem in ihrer Aspekthaftigkeit ab (Searle, 1983): Wenn Akteur:innen eine Beschreibung (Aspekt) einer Handlung nicht repräsentieren, dann ist die Handlung unter dieser Beschreibung auch nicht absichtlich. In der ersten Studie von Projekt 2 glaubte der:die Akteur:in zum Beispiel fälschlicherweise, dass in einer Box nur ein Ball nicht aber ein Stift sei. Wenn der:die Akteur:in diese Box nahm, dann war diese Handlung absichtlich unter der Beschreibung „einen Ball nehmen“ aber nicht unter der Beschreibung „einen Stift nehmen“. Kinder berücksichtigten erst ab einem Alter von sechs Jahren, dass die Handlung nur unter der ersten Beschreibung absichtlich ist. Die zweite Studie untersuchte, inwieweit die Schwierigkeiten jüngerer Kinder in der vorherigen Studie nur eine Performanz- nicht aber eine Kompetenzlimitierung darstellen. Möglicherweise war jüngeren Kindern nicht bewusst, dass sie die Aspekthaftigkeit der Intention berücksichtigen mussten, obwohl sie dazu in der Lage gewesen wären. Aus diesem Grund wurde die Aufgabe in der zweiten Studie in einen moralisch relevanten Kontext eingebettet. Dieser stellte deutlich heraus, dass die subjektive Perspektive der Akteur:innen berücksichtigt werden musste. In dieser Adaption fügte der:die Akteur:in unabsichtlich einer anderen Person einen Schaden zu. In diesem relevanten Kontext berücksichtigten schon Fünfjährige die Aspekthaftigkeit der Intention der Akteurin/ des Akteurs. Ein subjektives Verständnis von Intentionen scheint sich also in Vergleich zu Überzeugungen erst etwa ein Jahr später zu entwickeln. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation tragen zu einem umfassenden Verständnis bei, wie sich Theory of Mind entwickelt. Sie unterstützen die Annahme unterschiedlich verlaufender Entwicklungen eines subjektiven Verständnisses der unterschiedlichen mentalen Zustände. Basierend auf existierenden Befunden und den Ergebnissen dieser Dissertation ergibt sich folgendes Bild: Kinder entwickeln zunächst ein subjektives Verständnis von Wünschen bevor sie ein solches Verständnis von Überzeugungen entwickeln. Erst danach entwickelt sich ein subjektives Verständnis von Intentionen.In our everyday lives, one substantial factor is to make sense of other agents’ actions. We describe and explain these actions by referring to the agents’ cognitive states, such as knowledge and beliefs, and their conative states, such as their desires and intentions (Davidson, 1963). The ability to ascribe these mental states to other agents is referred to as theory of mind (Premack & Woodruff, 1978). Mental states represent reality from the agent’s perspective. Accordingly, one fundamental property of cognitive and conative states is that they are subjective. To correctly ascribe these states to an agent, the ascriber has to relativize to the agent’s subjective standpoint. From an ontogenetic perspective, a central question is when and how children develop a subjective conception of other agents’ mental states. For cognitive states, there is extensive empirical work which has provided the basis for differentiated and detailed theoretical work (for an overview, see Rakoczy, 2017a). In contrast, much less work exists on the development of children’s subjective understanding of conative states. One reason for this might be that, compared to cognitive states, testing for a subjective conception of conative states is less straightforward. This dissertation presents ways to test for a subjective conception of desires and intentions. It is based on two projects in which these approaches were implemented. The first project tested for children’s subjective understanding of desires. One way in which desires are subjective is that they can be incompatible with norms and values (e.g., the desire to destroy something). Such desires are strongly subjective because, objectively, their outcome is undesirable. I compared 2- to 4-year-olds’ capacity to reason about such subjective wicked desires to their capacity to reason about objectively reasonable neutral desires and subjective (false) beliefs. Younger children were better in reasoning about subjective desires than about subjective beliefs. Also, they did not face more difficulties to reason about subjective desires than about neutral desires. This suggests that children develop a subjective understanding of desires before they develop a subjective understanding of beliefs. The second project of this dissertation addressed children’s subjective understanding of intentions in two studies. One way in which intentions are subjective is that they are aspectual (Searle, 1983): Actions are unintentional under descriptions or aspects the agent does not represent. In the first study, children observed an agent who falsely believed that a box contained only a ball but not a pen. Thus, when the agent took this box, her action was intentional under the description “take the ball” but unintentional under the description “take the pen”. However, children younger than six falsely claimed that she intentionally took the pen. The second study addressed whether younger children’s difficulties to consider the aspectuality of intentions might have reflected performance limitations rather than competence limitations. Possibly, even younger children would have been able to consider the agent’s subjective perspective but simply failed to recognize that this was necessary to solve this task. For this reason, the second study transferred the task into a morally relevant context that emphasized the necessity to relativize to the agent’s standpoint. In this task version, the agent unintentionally performed actions that were harmful towards another agent. In this relevant context, children already appreciated the aspectuality of the agent’s intentions by the age of five. This suggests that a subjective understanding of intentions develops around one year later than a subjective understanding of beliefs. The findings of this dissertation contribute to a comprehensive understanding of how theory of mind develops ontogenetically. They support a developmental trajectory in which the development of a subjective conception follows different courses for different mental states. In combination with existing evidence, this dissertation suggests that children first develop a subjective conception of desires before developing a subjective conception of beliefs. Only after these have developed, do children develop a subjective conception of intentions.2021-07-0