Functional Measurement of Special Education Teachers' and Students' Expectations Toward Job Training for Persons with Intellectual Disability

Persons with intellectual disability (PWID) have fewer opportunities for enrolment in school programs and post-school employment than do their peers with typical development. Evidence suggests that attitude toward PWID is a main factor in either promoting or limiting better life conditions for this population. In this paper, the goal was to determine the cognitive information integration rules underlying the expectations of 174 special education teachers and students with regard to job training for PWID. In order to accomplish this goal, four factors (Gender, Severity of disability, Type of task, and Emotional traits) were orthogonally combined to implement a cognitive algebra study design. We obtained 48 experimental conditions, with each one presented as a scenario describing a PWID in a work training situation. Participants read these scenarios and were asked to judge the probability of the success of PWID with regard to learning the skills needed to complete the required work. Patterns of response allowed us to identify low, moderate, and high viewpoints with regard to participants' judgments of predicted success. Personal factors (Emotional traits and Severity of disability) and the Type of task factor were considered the most important in influencing the participants' judgment. These factors seemed to be integrated in a complex systematic cognitive pattern. Implications from this type of result with regard to PWID and work training are discussed in this paper

Narrar la propia biografía después de un divorcio : notas de un estudio cualitativo de interés para la demografía

En este artículo se discuten algunos resultados de un estudio cualitativo sobre las trayectorias familiares que siguen hombres y mujeres que han vivido una ruptura de una unión en la que hubo hijos. Primero se presenta el diseño de la metodología cualitativa y luego se ofrecen algunos resultados del trabajo de campo realizado en áreas metropolitanas de España donde el divorcio tiene una intensidad mayor. Las narraciones de nuestros biógrafos y biógrafas permiten discutir a fondo el significado mutante de la familia y los vínculos afectivos en la llamada moderna sociedad líquida, y revisar de forma crítica tres conceptos básicos del análisis demográfico de las biografías de rupturas de unión: familia, la datación de los acontecimientos y los llamados factores determinantes.In this article some outcomes of a qualitative study on the familiar trajectories that follow men and women who have experienced a break-up of union in which there were children are discussed. The design of the qualitative methodology is first presented before showing some results of the fieldwork done in metropolitan areas of Spain where the divorce has a greater intensity. The narrations of our biographers allow us to discuss the meaning of the family and the affective ties in the so-called liquid modern society and to review three basic concepts of the demographic analysis of the biographies of union ruptures: family, timing of the events and the determinant factors.Dans cet article on discute quelques résultats d'une étude qualitative sur les trajectoires familiales qu'ils suivent des hommes et des femmes qui ont vécu une rupture d'une union dans laquelle il y a eu des enfants. On présente d'abord la conception de la méthodologie qualitative et on offre ensuite quelques résultats de la recherche effectué dans des secteurs métropolitains de l'Espagne où le divorce a une intensité plus grande. Les narrations de nos biographes permettent d'examiner en profondeur la signification mutant de la famille et les liens affectifs dans la moderne société liquide, et de réviser de manière critique trois concepts de base de l'analyse démographique des biographies de ruptures d'union: famille, datation des événements et facteurs déterminants

ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECT OF VANCOMYCIN ELECTRO-TRANSFERRED WATER AGAINST METHICILLIN-RESISTANT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS VARIANT

Background: There is a number of alternative and complementary therapeutics that are unproven or have not been properly tested. For past twenty years, the transfer of bio-energetic information has been recognized as a novel scientific approach capable of contributing to improved therapy in the management of several diseases through the so-called bio-resonance therapy (BRT). Although BRT was discovered in the late 1980s, it is still poorly studied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial effect of water samples transferred with electronic information of vancomycin, a well known drug against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), by using a BRT device on bacterial cultures. Material and Methods: MRSA cultures were treated with vancomycin electro-transferred water samples, vancomycin (4.0 and 8.0 µg/mL), sham electro-transferred (water to water) and non-transferred water samples (medium alone). Growth inhibition was evaluated in liquid and solid culture medium, spectrophotometrically and by CFU determination respectively. Results: The obtained data showed that by transferring vancomycin (4.0 and 8.0 µg/mL) information to water samples, the growth of cultured MRSA was significantly (p< 0.05) inhibited (up to 35%), compared with those cultures treated with electro-transferred water to water or cultured in medium alone (0% growth inhibition). Conclusion: This in vitro study suggests that water samples that are electronically transferred with vibration sustained information of vancomycin are capable of inhibiting growth of axenically cultured methicillin resistant S. aureus

The behavior of larval zebrafish reveals stressor-mediated anorexia during early vertebrate development

The relationship between stress and food consumption has been well documented in adults but less so in developing vertebrates. Here we demonstrate that an encounter with a stressor can suppress food consumption in larval zebrafish. Furthermore, we provide indication that food intake suppression cannot be accounted for by changes in locomotion, oxygen consumption and visual responses, as they remain unaffected after exposure to a potent stressor. We also show that feeding reoccurs when basal levels of cortisol (stress hormone in humans and teleosts) are re-established. The results present evidence that the onset of stress can switch off the drive for feeding very early in vertebrate development, and add a novel endpoint for analyses of metabolic and behavioral disorders in an organism suitable for high-throughput genetics and non-invasive brain imaging

Politics and the Adoption of Legislative Television: An Analysis of the U.S. House Vote on C-SPAN

legislative television, voting models, public choice, logit,

Aftershocks of Chile’s Earthquake for an Ongoing, Large-Scale Experimental Evaluation

Evaluation designs for social programs are developed assuming minimal or no disruption from external shocks, such as natural disasters. This is because extremely rare shocks may not make it worthwhile to account for them in the design. Among extreme shocks is the 2010 Chile earthquake. Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), an ongoing early childhood program in Chile, was directly affected by the earthquake. This article discusses (a) the factors the UBC team considered for deciding whether to put on hold or continue implementation and data collection for this experimental study; and (b) how the team reached consensus on those decisions. A lesson learned is that the use of an experimental design for UBC insured that the evaluation’s internal validity was not compromised by the earthquake’s consequences, although cohort comparisons were compromised. Other lessons can be transferred to other contexts where external shocks affect an ongoing experimental or quasi-experimental impact evaluation.impact evaluation; human development; external shocks; institutional factors; Latin America and the Caribbean

DYNAMICS OF CARBON SEQUESTRATION IN ABANDONED GRASSLANDS OF NORTHEASTERN MEXICO

Livestock activities due to the improper handling of the load capacity, suffer from low productivity in their grasslands, which are abandoned giving rise to the appearance of species considered invasive and undesirable for producers, without knowing the qualities of these as mitigating of climate change. The objective of the present study was to estimate the carbon content in tamaulipan thornscrub and three abandoned grasslands with a time of abandonment of 10, 20 and 30 years. For the estimation of the carbon content was used a systematic sampling design, in each area were established four sampling sites of 1,600 m2. The primary scrub is the system that resulted in the largest value of carbon content of 14.25 Mg ha-1, followed by the grasslands of 30, 20 and 10 years with 8.03, 7.33 and 4.13 Mg ha-1 respectively. It was concluded that recovering the initial state of the primary scrub take many years, as can be seen in the grasslands system 30 years reaching only 56% of what it had in reserves of primary scrub

STAND STRUCTURE OF Pinus hartwegii AFFECTED BY FIRE USING NEIGHBOURHOOD PARAMETERS IN THE SIERRA MADRE ORIENTAL, MEXICO.

The objective of this research was to characterize the pattern of spatial structure of a Pinus hartwegii forest in the Sierra Madre Oriental, affected by a fire in 1998. Sampling was stratified by fire severity. Three fire severity classes were defined based on the degree of crown consumption (low, medium and high). Three sample plots of 40m x 40m were established for each severity. The variables obtained for all trees with a diameter at breast height (DBH) ≥ 5 cm in each plot were: DBH to 1.30 m (cm), height (m), spatial location by recording the azimuth (°) and distance (m) from center of the plot to each tree. To describe the stand structure three groups of indices were employed: “contagion†and “distances†(Wi and Di), “dominance†(Ui), and “size differentiation†(TDi and THi) for DBH and height respectively. An analysis of variance was performed to detect differences between dasometrics parameters by fire severity. Statistical analysis shows significant differences (p>0.001) in the parameters such as basal area, diameter, and height, along the low, medium, and high fire severities. The characterization of the Pinus hartwegii spatial structure suggests that, with increasing degree of fire severity, the stands showed an increase on the aggregation index, however, the dimensional differentiation and dominance indices decreases as the fire severity increases

Ultrasonido head-to-toe en el paciente politraumatizado

La evaluación por ecografía focalizada en trauma (FAST, Focused Abdominal Sonography for Trauma) se ha convertido en una técnica muy útil, que no toma más de 4 minutos en su completa realización, en la búsqueda de líquido libre abdominal que aparece en cualquiera de las ventanas como una imagen anecoica. Determinar, mediante información previamente publicada, la manera más efectiva de realizar la inspección del paciente politraumatizado mediante ultrasonido para una mayor eficacia de la valoración. La información se obtuvo de artículos indexados en PubMed, un motor de búsqueda de libre acceso que permite consultar principalmente los contenidos de la base de datos MEDLINE, así como una variedad de revistas científicas de similar calidad que no forman parte de MEDLINE. Los avances en la ecografía de urgencia ha mejorado significativamente los estándares de atención de los pacientes lesionados durante los últimos años. Los médicos de trauma deben conocer los beneficios del diagnóstico y la orientación de la ecografía, y deben recibir la capacitación adecuada para el manejo óptimo de sus pacientes. Actualmente, el ultrasonido se puede utilizar de manera segura y eficaz para la evaluación y el diagnóstico de lesiones de órganos al lado de la cama de los pacientes traumatizados por médicos capacitados en ultrasonografía