A descriptive study of management in selected nonprofit organizations.

Finally, the findings indicate support for a number of notions cited in the literature; specifically cited, issues of professionalism, finance, governance, measurement of organizational performance, and personnel. It was suggested that institutions of higher education give consideration to developing a curriculum for potential administrators of nonprofit organizations. It is believed that this type of effort would be beneficial by providing a forum for exchange, providing opportunities for research and development in the field, and fostering a future of collegial relationships thereby providing a foundation upon which associates in the Third Sector could build.The organizational administrator's educational profile is dominated by the Master's degree. The curriculum most frequently cited as having been studied was business administration. The administrators reported attending more than ten training courses in the last three years, and were most often attending service-specific training.This study seeks to answer a fundamental question, "What is management like in nonprofit organizations?" In an attempt to answer this question the author developed five research questions which focus on organizational character, management functions, management concerns, and administrative profiles. A questionnaire was administered to twelve organizational administrators.Personnel issues ranked as most important to the administrators. They also indicated the strongest concern for these issues. The importance of issues related to professionalism ranked as second, followed by issues related to finances. Environmental and finance issues both ranked as third in eliciting concern.Administrators perceived the informational roles as less important than interpersonal and decisional roles. They perceived their performance to be more competent in the interpersonal and decisional roles. However they acknowledged the frequency of occurrence of the informational role as the greatest.Reporting of the findings includes a description of the Oklahoma County environment, a clinical summary of each of the twelve sample organizations, and a general statistical summary of the entire sample

Implementation of a Positioning and Telemetry Buoy to Determine Chart Datum for Hydrographic Survey Applications

The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) and the U. S. Navy’s Fleet Survey Team (FST) conduct worldwide hydrographic surveys in accordance with International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) S-44 standards. The current concept of operations (CONOPS) requires that tide gauges be installed in-shore to define the local vertical chart datum. This requires clearances and permissions from national and local authorities as well as landowners in order to establish and access these shore stations. Substantial effort to establish and maintain security for shore parties and equipment left behind is also required. The recent implementation of real-time Global Differential GPS (GDGPS) point positioning technology presents an opportunity to change and greatly simplify the current CONOPS. Reprinted with permission from The Institute of Navigation (http://ion.org/) and The Proceedings of the 18th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation, (pp. 801-804). Fairfax, VA: The Institute of Navigation

Is kinesiophobia and pain catastrophising at baseline associated with chronic pain and disability in whiplash-associated disorders?:A systematic review

Kinesiophobia and pain catastrophising may be associated with patients' transition from having acute to chronic pain following a whiplash injury. To systematically review and critically appraise the literature to determine whether kinesiophobia and pain catastrophising are associated with greater likelihood of patients developing chronic pain and disability following a whiplash injury. A systematic review of the literature DATA SOURCES: Electronic searches of PubMed, AMED, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and PubPsych, and grey literature were undertaken from inception to September 2017. Study selection was based on longitudinal studies evaluating how kinesiophobia and/or pain catastrophising at baseline are associated with pain intensity, disability or both after a whiplash injury. We included 14 longitudinal studies that described 12 independent cohorts with a total sample of 2733 participants with whiplash-associated disorder. Kinesiophobia at baseline was not associated with pain intensity over time (three studies). Whether kinesiophobia at baseline was associated with disability was unclear as results were conflicting (six studies). There were also conflicting results when we examined the association between pain catastrophising and both pain intensity (five studies) and disability (eight studies). Kinesiophobia at baseline was not associated with pain intensity over time. There were conflicting results for the remaining analyses. The size of the associations was small. The overall quality of the evidence was very low. CRD42016053864

Do measures of physical function enhance the prediction of persistent pain and disability following a whiplash injury?:Protocol for a prospective observational study in Spain

INTRODUCTION: Not all factors that predict persistent pain and disability following whiplash injury are known. In particular, few physical factors, such as changes in movement and muscle behaviour, have been investigated. The aim of this study is to identify predictive factors that are associated with the development of persistent pain and disability following a whiplash injury by combining contemporary measures of physical function together with established psychological and pain-related predictive factors.METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A prospective observational study will recruit 150 consecutive eligible patients experiencing whiplash-related symptoms, admitted to a private physiotherapy clinic in Spain within 15 days of their whiplash injury. Poor outcome will be measured using the Neck Disability Index (NDI), defined as an NDI score of 30% or greater at 6 months post injury. Candidate predictors, including demographic characteristics, injury characteristics, pain characteristics, self-reported psychosocial factors and physical factors, will be collected at baseline (within 15 days of inception). Regression analyses will be performed to identify factors that are associated with persistent neck pain and disability over the study period.ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The project has been approved by the Ethics Committee of the province of Malaga, Spain (#30052019). The results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed journals.</p

Fragmentación primaria en la combustión en lecho fluidizado de pellets de serrín

Parece ser que La combustión en lecho fluidizado tiene buenas perspectivas dentro de las opciones tecnológicas para la generación de energía a partir de un combustible, dada su flexibilidad respecto a los combustibles a emplear como sus posibilidades de operación limpia y eficiente, junto a la posibilidad de cambio de escala. En este artículo se exponen los resultados alcanzados a escala de planta piloto en el funcionamiento de un reactor de lecho fluidizado en la combustión de pellets de serrín con vistas a su aplicación en el aprovechamiento de los residuos sólidos en el proceso de producción de bioetanol de lignocelulósicos

Role of kinesiophobia on pain, disability and quality of life in people suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain::a systematic review

(1) To explore the level of association between kinesiophobia and pain, disability and quality of life in people with chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) detected via cross-sectional analysis and (2) to analyse the prognostic value of kinesiophobia on pain, disability and quality of life in this population detected via longitudinal analyses. A systematic review of the literature including an appraisal of the risk of bias using the adapted Newcastle Ottawa Scale. A synthesis of the evidence was carried out. An electronic search of PubMed, AMED, CINAHL, PsycINFO, PubPsych and grey literature was undertaken from inception to July 2017. Observational studies exploring the role of kinesiophobia (measured with the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia) on pain, disability and quality of life in people with CMP. Sixty-three articles (mostly cross-sectional) (total sample=10 726) were included. We found strong evidence for an association between a greater degree of kinesiophobia and greater levels of pain intensity and disability and moderate evidence between a greater degree of kinesiophobia and higher levels of pain severity and low quality of life. A greater degree of kinesiophobia predicts the progression of disability overtime, with moderate evidence. A greater degree of kinesiophobia also predicts greater levels of pain severity and low levels of quality of life at 6 months, but with limited evidence. Kinesiophobia does not predict changes in pain intensity. The results of this review encourage clinicians to consider kinesiophobia in their preliminary assessment. More longitudinal studies are needed, as most of the included studies were cross-sectional in nature. CRD42016042641

Radiation therapy alone versus radiation therapy plus radiofrequency ablation/vertebral augmentation for spine metastasis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Background: Spine metastasis is a common occurrence in cancer patients and results in pain, neurologic deficits, decline in performance status, disability, inferior quality of life (QOL), and reduction in ability to receive cancer-directed therapies. Conventional external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is associated with modest rates of pain relief, high rates of disease recurrence, low response rates for those with radioresistant histologies, and limited improvement in neurologic deficits. The addition of radiofrequency ablation/percutaneous vertebral augmentation (RFA/PVA) to index sites together with EBRT may improve pain response rates and corresponding quality of life. Methods/design: This is a single-center, prospective, randomized, controlled trial in patients with spine metastasis from T5-L5, stratified according to tumor type (radioresistant vs. radiosensitive) in which patients in each stratum will be randomized in a 2:1 ratio to either RFA/PVA and EBRT or EBRT alone. All patients will be treated with EBRT to a dose of 20-30 Gy in 5-10 fractions. The target parameters will be measured and recorded at the baseline clinic visit, and daily at home with collection of weekly measurements at 1, 2, and 3 weeks after treatment, and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months following treatment with imaging and QOL assessments. Discussion: The primary objective of this randomized trial is to determine whether RFA/PVA in addition to EBRT improves pain control compared to palliative EBRT alone for patients with spine metastasis, defined as complete or partial pain relief (measured using the Numerical Rating Pain Scale [NRPS]) at 3 months. Secondary objectives include determining whether combined modality treatment improves the rapidity of pain response, duration of pain response, patient reported pain impact, health utility, and overall QOL. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04375891 . Registered on 5 May 2020. Keywords: Bone metastasis; Radiation therapy; Radiofrequency ablation; Randomized controlled trial; Spine; Vertebrae; Vertebral augmentation

Associations between parenting strategies and BMI percentile among Latino children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Introduction: Maintaining healthy weight is a challenge for all children, and particularly for children with IDD compared to nondisabled children and for Latino children compared to non-Latino White children. Parenting practices related to food intake and physical activity have been found to be important in maintaining children\u27s weight. In this study, we describe the prevalence of overweight and obesity status among Latino children with IDD and their maternal caregivers and determine the relationship between food and physical activity parenting practices and childhood obesity among Latino children with IDD. Methods: We interviewed 94 Latino parent/child dyads and collected information about parenting practices, home environment, and parent and child height and weight using standardized measures. Parent body mass index (BMI) and child BMI percentile were calculated from height and weight. Results: The combined overweight/obesity status for children in our sample was high (60.3%) compared to national rates among nondisabled Latino children (56%) and non-Latino White children with autism (37%). Contrary to research on nondisabled children, we found that greater parental use of controlling dietary strategies was associated with lower BMI percentile in Latino children with IDD. These findings may be indicative of the fact that children with IDD tend to have unique dietary behaviors that warrant more disability and culturally sensitive strategies. Discussion: Our findings suggest that overweight and obesity is especially prevalent for Latino children with IDD and that more research is needed on family factors that promote health in Latino families of children with IDD

Diversity Summit 2008: Challenges in the Recruitment and Retention of Ethnic Minorities in Neuropsychology

The 2008 Diversity Summit recognized the many advantages of increasing the number of neuropsychologists from ethnically diverse backgrounds. The Summit addressed the aspiration of creating a more ethnically diverse body of neuropsychologists by increasing the recruitment of ethnic minority students to neuropsychology training programs. Challenges to successful recruitment and retention of ethnic minority students were discussion points at the Summit. This paper summarizes and expands these points and also suggests solutions to these challenges with the aim of stimulating innovative approaches to increasing the representation of ethnic minorities in neuropsychology. © 2010 Psychology Press

OpenCog Hyperon: A Framework for AGI at the Human Level and Beyond

An introduction to the OpenCog Hyperon framework for Artificiai General Intelligence is presented. Hyperon is a new, mostly from-the-ground-up rewrite/redesign of the OpenCog AGI framework, based on similar conceptual and cognitive principles to the previous OpenCog version, but incorporating a variety of new ideas at the mathematical, software architecture and AI-algorithm level. This review lightly summarizes: 1) some of the history behind OpenCog and Hyperon, 2) the core structures and processes underlying Hyperon as a software system, 3) the integration of this software system with the SingularityNET ecosystem's decentralized infrastructure, 4) the cognitive model(s) being experimentally pursued within Hyperon on the hopeful path to advanced AGI, 5) the prospects seen for advanced aspects like reflective self-modification and self-improvement of the codebase, 6) the tentative development roadmap and various challenges expected to be faced, 7) the thinking of the Hyperon team regarding how to guide this sort of work in a beneficial direction ... and gives links and references for readers who wish to delve further into any of these aspects