Identifying the communication activities of older people with aphasia: Evidence from naturalistic observation

Background: Increasingly there is a call from clinicians and researchers for measures that document the impact of aphasia on a person's everyday communication. Do existing assessments of communication disability adequately sample communication activities relevant to our clients? Communication skills and networks change with age. A need exists to determine the everyday communication activities of older people and in particular those with aphasia. Aims: The primary aim of this study was to describe and compare the everyday communication activities of older people with aphasia and healthy older people who are living in the community. A secondary aim was to investigate the content validity of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association Functional Assessment of Communication Skills for Adults (ASHA FACS, 1997) for older Australians. Methods & Procedures: Naturalistic observation was the method of choice for detailing the everyday communication of 15 older people with chronic aphasia following stroke and a matched group of 15 healthy older people who were living in the community. Researchers, in the role of participant observer, took field notes for 8 hours, over three occasions within a week. A total of 240 hours of observation have been coded in terms of communication activity, topic, communication partners, and place of communication. A brief 5-day diary served to check the representativeness of the observational data. After each hour of observation, the researcher checked which ASHA FACS items had been observed. Outcomes & Results: Naturalistic observation provided a rich, rigorous, and systematic methodology for detailing the dynamics and complexities of authentic communication. The most common communication activities for both groups were conversations at home and in social groups. Real-life communication was revealed to serve the dual purposes of transaction and interaction. Results indicate that older people with aphasia engage in similar communication activities to healthy older people although differences were evident in the frequency of communication and in specific activities such as story telling, writing, commenting, and acknowledging. ASHA FACS items were generally relevant to older Australians living in the community. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that communication activity is multifaceted in terms of the type of communication and contextual factors. The observational data describe the effects of aphasia on a person's everyday communication activity and reveal the impact of aphasia on the social functions of communication including sharing information, maintaining and establishing relationships, and telling one's story. Functional communication assessment requires a greater focus on the interactional and uniquely interpersonal aspects of social communication.

Is maximizing resilience compatible with established ecological goal functions?

Cropp and Gabric [Ecosystem adaptation: do ecosystems maximise resilience? Ecology. In press] used a simple phytoplanktonzooplankton-nutrient model and a genetic algorithm to determine the parameter values that would maximize the value of certain goal functions. These goal functions were to maximize biomass, maximize flux, maximize flux to biomass ratio, and maximize resilience. It was found that maximizing goal functions maximized resilience. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the Cropp and Gabric [Ecosystem adaptation: do ecosystems maximise resilience? Ecology. In press] result was indicative of a general ecosystem principle, or peculiar to the model and parameter ranges used. This study successfully replicated the Cropp and Gabric [Ecosystem adaptation: do ecosystems maximise resilience? Ecology. In press] experiment for a number of different model types, however, a different interpretation of the results is made. A new metric, concordance, was devised to describe the agreement between goal functions. It was found that resilience has the highest concordance of all goal functions trialled. for most model types. This implies that resilience offers a compromise between the established ecological goal functions. The parameter value range used is found to affect the parameter versus goal function relationships. Local maxima and minima affected the relationship between parameters and goal functions, and between goal functions. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Unsaturated diffusivity functions for concrete derived from NMR images

Deterioration of concrete or reinforcing steel through excessive contaminant concentration is often the result of repeated wetting and drying cycles. At each cycle, the absorption of water carries new contaminants into the unsaturated concrete. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) is used with large concrete samples to observe the shape of the wetting profile during a simple one-dimensional wetting process. The absorption of water by dry concrete is modelled by a nonlinear diffusion equation with the unsaturated hydraulic diffusivity being a strongly nonlinear function of the moisture content. Exponential and power functions are used for the hydraulic diffusivity and corresponding solutions of the diffusion equation adequately predict the shape of the experimental wetting profile. The shape parameters, describing the wetting profile, vary little between different blends and are relatively insensitive to subsequent re-wetting experiments allowing universal parameters to be suggested for these concretes.

Mapping the royal road and other hierarchical functions

In this paper we present a technique for visualising hierarchical and symmetric, multimodal fitness functions that have been investigated in the evolutionary computation literature. The focus of this technique is on landscapes in moderate-dimensional, binary spaces (i.e., fitness functions defined over {0, 1}(n), for n less than or equal to 16). The visualisation approach involves an unfolding of the hyperspace into a two-dimensional graph, whose layout represents the topology of the space using a recursive relationship, and whose shading defines the shape of the cost surface defined on the space. Using this technique we present case-study explorations of three fitness functions: royal road, hierarchical-if-and-only-if (H-IFF), and hierarchically decomposable functions (HDF). The visualisation approach provides an insight into the properties of these functions, particularly with respect to the size and shape of the basins of attraction around each of the local optima.

A reforma administrativa da Nova Zel??ndia nos anos 80-90: controle estrat??gico, efici??ncia gerencial e accountability

O artigo discute o processo de reforma administrativa implementada na Nova Zel??ndia a partir de 1984, com a chegada do Partido Trabalhista ao poder, abordando seus principais desdobramentos nos anos 90. Parte de uma apresenta????o do modelo administrativo em vigor na Nova Zel??ndia antes das reformas empreendidas em 1984, delimitando dessa forma o quadro referencial para comparar a situa????o anterior com a atual, de maneira que proporcione uma avalia????o sobre os impactos das medidas empreendidas. Em seguida, apresenta uma descri????o dos objetivos e princ??pios norteadores da reforma tais como, separa????o das fun????es comerciais das n??o-comerciais; separa????o entre as fun????es administrativas e de assessoria; princ??pio do ???quem usa paga???, user pays; transpar??ncia na concess??o de subs??dios; neutralidade competitiva, descentraliza????o e aumento do poder discricion??rio do administrador; melhoramento da accountability, entre outros. A seguir, s??o apresentadas as principais medidas empreendidas pelo governo trabalhista entre 1984 e 1990, dando ??nfase ?? metodologia adotada para a implementa????o e accountability dos contratos de gest??o firmados entre os executivos- chefe e os ministros. Posteriormente, o autor apresenta as modifica????es introduzidas nas regras de contrata????o de pessoal no servi??o p??blico neozeland??s e, de um modo mais geral, na pol??tica de recursos humanos. Finalmente, ?? tra??ado um perfil da situa????o atual da Nova Zel??ndia, bem como ?? feita a apresenta????o sucinta daqueles que o autor considera como sendo os ???suportes conceituais da reforma???: o movimento gerencialista, a teoria do Public Choice e a teoria Principal-Agente.

Fatores que inibem a institucionalização do orçamento como ferramenta de controle gerencial em uma IFES

Este estudo aborda o tema orçamento como ferramenta de controle gerencial em uma Instituição Federal de Ensino Superior (IFES), cujo objetivo da pesquisa foi investigar, descrever e analisar os fatores que inibem a institucionalização do orçamento como ferramenta de controle gerencial em uma IFES. A questão de pesquisa é quais os fatores que inibem a institucionalização do orçamento como ferramenta de controle gerencial em uma IFES? Desta forma, a compreensão do problema norteou a opção por um estudo de caso, com uma abordagem qualitativa, com objetivos descritivo e exploratório, utilizando como procedimentos técnicos de coleta de dados a observação não participante, entrevista semi estruturada e analise documental. O levantamento dos dados deu-se nos meses de dezembro de 2013 a março de 2014. Como técnica de análise de dados foi utilizada a técnica de Análise de Conteúdo de Bardin (1977, 2004) desenvolvida nos meses abril a junho de 2014. A pesquisa teve como referenciais teóricos, a literatura de Orçamento com trabalhos de Frezatti et al., (2008) e Covaleski et al., (2003) e a Teoria Institucional com a contribuição de trabalhos de autores como Burns e Scapens (2000) e Dimaggio e Powell, (1983, 2007). Entretanto, cabe destacar que a literatura principal utilizada foi a de Frezatti et al., (2011) onde foram analisadas oito categorias impactantes ao processo orçamentário. Na análise dos dados, foi analisado o processo orçamentário nos planos teórico e real, foi verificado os estágios de institucionalização das etapas e funções do processo orçamentário e foi observado oito categorias de análise com 27 fatores impactantes a institucionalização do orçamento. Como conclusão, foi verificado 16 fatores inibidores, tais como: Comunicação Top Down, Dados Históricos, Impessoalidade e que o orçamento na IFES ainda não foi institucionalizado como ferramenta de controle gerencial. É apenas um “critério cerimonial de valor” que estabiliza e legitima a gestão da universidade frente à comunidade acadêmica e aos órgãos de controle externo.

Dilemma of choice: China's response to climate change

In recent years, erratic global climate conditions have generated an incessant series of natural disasters in China. This article seeks to explore China's climate change policies. This article addresses the impacts of climate change on China's environment and China's perception, principle, objective and policy actions in response to climate change.

Budgeting and resource allocation in universities: a public choice approach

The calls for colleges and universities to improve their productivity are coming thick and fast in Brazil. Many studies are suggesting evaluation systems and external criteria to control the quality of teaching and research in universities. Since universities and colleges are not profit-oriented organizations (considering only the legitimate and serious research and teaching organizations, of course), the traditional microeconomics and administrative variables used to measure efficiency do not have any direct function. An alternative would be to create an "as if" market control system to evaluate performance in universities and colleges. Internal budget and resources allocation mechanism can be used as incentive instruments to improve quality and productivity. It will be the main issue of this article.

Genetic Jacobinism in the republic of choice

Revista de Filosofia da Unidade de Investigação em Ciência, Tecnologia e Sociedade da Universidade Lusófona

Health education: the role and functions of the specialist and the generalist

Education for health is a process in which all public health and medical care personnel are involved. People learn both formally (planned learning experiences) and informally (unplanned learning experiences). Since the patient, the client, the consummer and the community expect public health and medical care personnel to assist them with health and disease issues and problems, the response of the professional "educates" the customer whether the professional intends to educate or not. Therefore, it is incumbent on all public health and medical care professionals to understand their educational functions and their role in health education. It is also important that the role of the specialist in education be clear. The specialist, as to all other specialists, has an in-depth knowledge of his area of expertise, i.e., the teaching/learning process; s/he may function as a consultant to others to enhance the educational potential of their role or s/he may work with a team or with communities or groups of patients. Specific competencies and knowledge are required of the health education specialist; and there is a body of learning and social change theory which provides a frame of reference for planning, implementing and evaluating educational programs. Working with others to enhance their potential to learn and to make informed decisions about health/disease issues is the hallmark of the health education specialist.

Equilibrium self-assembly of colloids with distinct interaction sites: Thermodynamics, percolation, and cluster distribution functions

We calculate the equilibrium thermodynamic properties, percolation threshold, and cluster distribution functions for a model of associating colloids, which consists of hard spherical particles having on their surfaces three short-ranged attractive sites (sticky spots) of two different types, A and B. The thermodynamic properties are calculated using Wertheim's perturbation theory of associating fluids. This also allows us to find the onset of self-assembly, which can be quantified by the maxima of the specific heat at constant volume. The percolation threshold is derived, under the no-loop assumption, for the correlated bond model: In all cases it is two percolated phases that become identical at a critical point, when one exists. Finally, the cluster size distributions are calculated by mapping the model onto an effective model, characterized by a-state-dependent-functionality (f) over bar and unique bonding probability (p) over bar. The mapping is based on the asymptotic limit of the cluster distributions functions of the generic model and the effective parameters are defined through the requirement that the equilibrium cluster distributions of the true and effective models have the same number-averaged and weight-averaged sizes at all densities and temperatures. We also study the model numerically in the case where BB interactions are missing. In this limit, AB bonds either provide branching between A-chains (Y-junctions) if epsilon(AB)/epsilon(AA) is small, or drive the formation of a hyperbranched polymer if epsilon(AB)/epsilon(AA) is large. We find that the theoretical predictions describe quite accurately the numerical data, especially in the region where Y-junctions are present. There is fairly good agreement between theoretical and numerical results both for the thermodynamic (number of bonds and phase coexistence) and the connectivity properties of the model (cluster size distributions and percolation locus).

On differentiability and analyticity of positive definite functions

We derive a set of differential inequalities for positive definite functions based on previous results derived for positive definite kernels by purely algebraic methods. Our main results show that the global behavior of a smooth positive definite function is, to a large extent, determined solely by the sequence of even-order derivatives at the origin: if a single one of these vanishes then the function is constant; if they are all non-zero and satisfy a natural growth condition, the function is real-analytic and consequently extends holomorphically to a maximal horizontal strip of the complex plane.

Stratification of the earth beneath the Azores from P and S receiver functions

Seismic recordings of IRIS/IDA/GSN station CMLA and of several temporary stations in the Azores archipelago are processed with P and S receiver function (PRF and SRF) techniques. Contrary to regional seismic tomography these methods provide estimates of the absolute velocities and of the Vp/Vs ratio up to a depth of similar to 300 km. Joint inversion of PRFs and SRFs for a few data sets consistently reveals a division of the subsurface medium into four zones with a distinctly different Vp/Vs ratio: the crust similar to 20 km thick with a ratio of similar to 1.9 in the lower crust, the high-Vs mantle lid with a strongly reduced VpNs velocity ratio relative to the standard 1.8, the low-velocity zone (LVZ) with a velocity ratio of similar to 2.0, and the underlying upper-mantle layer with a standard velocity ratio. Our estimates of crustal thickness greatly exceed previous estimates (similar to 10 km). The base of the high-Vs lid (the Gutenberg discontinuity) is at a depth of-SO km. The LVZ with a reduction of S velocity of similar to 15% relative to the standard (IASP91) model is terminated at a depth of similar to 200 km. The average thickness of the mantle transition zone (TZ) is evaluated from the time difference between the S410p and SKS660p, seismic phases that are robustly detected in the S and SKS receiver functions. This thickness is practically similar to the standard IASP91 value of 250 km. and is characteristic of a large region of the North Atlantic outside the Azores plateau. Our data are indicative of a reduction of the S-wave velocity of several percent relative to the standard velocity in a depth interval from 460 to 500 km. This reduction is found in the nearest vicinities of the Azores, in the region sampled by the PRFs, but, as evidenced by SRFs, it is missing at a distance of a few hundred kilometers from the islands. We speculate that this anomaly may correspond to the source of a plume which generated the Azores hotspot. Previously, a low S velocity in this depth range was found with SRF techniques beneath a few other hotspots.