Fostering autonomous learning by using a workbook to improve reading and writing skills in students of basic level at ASE

Tesis (Licenciado en Lenguas Castellana, Inglés y Francés).--Universidad de La Salle. Facultad de Ciencias de La Educación. Licenciatura en Lengua Castellana, Inglés y Francés, 2014

Learning by failure in entrepreneurship - Case study of selling Xylitol to Poland

My thesis aim is to find out what factors that can explain the entrepreneurial failure in my own entrepreneurial venture to sell Finnish xylitol product to Poland. In addition I seek to answer to the question of why Finnish xylitol products are not sold in Poland. This area has not been studied prior to my thesis. The study method is case study. Data collection is based on auto-ethnographic method where field notes and documents generated from my business venture were used. I discovered that Polish consumers are not exposed to consumer education of xylitol health benefits. The underlying potential in xylitol products expansion from Finland to foreign countries is still mostly unleveraged. My business venture failed because I was not able to convince Finnish confectionery companies Fazer and Cloetta to give enough support for my project. Polish dentists were also opposed having a competitor from Finland to Wrighley company which dominates the Polish confectionery markets.

Access, attitudes and training in information technologies and evidence-based medicine among medical students at University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences.

Background: The Medical Education Partnership Initiative, has helped to mitigate the digital divide in Africa. The aim of the study was to assess the level of access, attitude, and training concerning meaningful use of electronic resources and EBM among medical students at an African medical school. Methods: The study involved medical students at the University of Zimbabwe College of Health Sciences, Harare. The needs assessment tool consisted of a 21-question, paper-based, voluntary and anonymous survey. Results: A total of 61/67 (91%), responded to the survey. 60% of the medical students were ‘third-year medical students’. Among medical students, 85% of responders had access to digital medical resources, but 54% still preferred printed medical textbooks. Although 25% of responders had received training in EBM, but only 7% found it adequate. 98% of the participants did not receive formal training in journal club presentation or analytical reading of medical literature, but 77 % of them showed interest in learning these skills. Conclusion: Lack of training in EBM, journal club presentation and analytical reading skills have limited the impact of upgraded technology in enhancing the level of knowledge. This impact can be boosted by developing a curriculum with skills necessary in using EBM.

Perceived benefits, motivations and preferences for foreign language learning by older adults. Insights from an initiative in Cuenca, Ecuador

El presente estudio analiza las percepciones y actitudes que tienen los adultos mayores de la ciudad de Cuenca, Ecuador hacia el aprendizaje del inglés. Un total de 151 adultos mayores (con edad promedio de 70.3 años) respondió a un cuestionario con 50 ítems. Se llevó a cabo análisis factoriales, de regresión múltiple y cluster con el propósito de definir las dimensiones subyacentes en las percepciones, motivaciones y ambiciones de los adultos mayores para aprender un idioma extranjero, y su relación con las características sociodemográficas de los participantes. Los resultados señalan que el interés por estudiar un idioma extranjero está basado en la percepción de que aquello mejora la interacción social de las personas, su desarrollo personal, el funcionamiento y mantenimiento de la mente y memoria, y que activa y vuelve su vida más dinámica. Los resultados además revelaron que la principal motivación de los participantes para tomar un curso de inglés está relacionada con el potencial de usar este idioma en la vida diaria y el de leer profusamente en esa lengua extranjera. La duración del curso y la obtención de un certificado fueron factores determinantes que permitieron agrupar a los participantes en función de sus preferencias en lo que respecta al diseño práctico de un curso de inglés. Adicionalmente, la edad y el nivel de instrucción fueron variables determinantes de motivación que influyeron en la mayor parte de las respuestas dadas por los participantes.

The use of digital educational resources : the contribution of research in the supervised teaching practice in basic education

This article aims to reflect on the impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the educational context, focusing on the potential contributions of the use of Digital Educational Resources (RED) in the process of teaching and learning. For this purpose, the results of the use of the RED will be presented:. Digital Classroom - The World's 1st Year Carochinha The study was accomplished in a class of the 1st grade of the 1st CEB, composed of 27 students, aged 6-7 years in Castelo Branco City Schools Group within the Supervised Teaching Practice. The results obtained after the analysis and processing of the data showed that when using this RED students show they have acquired the content covered by the fact that they enhanced levels of greater interest, commitment, motivation, commitment and initiative in the course of activities proposals. But, perhaps because they are students of 1st year of the 1st CEB, do not neglect the presence and monitoring of the teacher and the use of paper-based resources. This means that there should be a complementarity that reconciles the human factor (teacher), with the use of digital media resources and paper support resources (Manual).

How to Achieve Professional Skills in Higher Education?

During the last decade, higher education has tried to focus education on the achievement of professional skills. It is interesting to see how the learning strategies implemented may facilitate or make more difficult the achievement of competencies. By dealing with the challenge of a competency-based education approach, higher education points out the need of knowing how to build such competencies, i.e. how to design a learning strategy. Not much importance has been given to this issue, probably because the competencies can be confused with abilities, skills and attitudes and, therefore, the model can be associated to in- or out-of-classroom activities without a strategy to articulate the knowledge acquired with the cultural, social and economic contexts of the community and labor spheres, i.e., as a whole (Tobón, 2005). This paper analyzes the epistemological development of the competency-based approach in higher education, focusing on the implementation of professional competencies in the Sociology degree “Licenciatura en Sociología”, in two campuses of the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California: Ensenada and Mexicali. This paper describes how competencies are built and explores different theoretical trends, their conceptualization and formation, based on in-depth interviews applied to students and teachers. It provides a mixed study to understand, based on the student’s point of view, the achievements of this study program in terms of professional competencies.

Scaling up: Achieving a breakthrough in adult learning with technology

The first report commissioned by Ufi Charitable Trust. It investigates opportunities for and barriers to the application of digital technology to adult learning. It focuses on possible ways to transform the UK’s vocational education and training system, identifying three main priorities for funding by the Ufi Charitable Trust: * increasing the capability of those involved in running the vocational learning system * exploiting networks to bring together learners, learning content and learning professionals * harnessing computers to support individualised and differentiated learning.

Multi-Principal Agency and the Compliance with Professional Guidelines in Health Systems: Economic and Regulatory Perspectives

Amid the trend of rising health expenditure in developed economies, changing the healthcare delivery models is an important point of action for service regulators to contain this trend. Such a change is mostly induced by either financial incentives or regulatory tools issued by the regulators and targeting service providers and patients. This creates a tripartite interaction between service regulators, professionals, and patients that manifests a multi-principal agent relationship, in which professionals are agents to two principals: regulators and patients. This thesis is concerned with such a multi-principal agent relationship in healthcare and attempts to investigate the determinants of the (non-)compliance to regulatory tools in light of this tripartite relationship. In addition, the thesis provides insights into the different institutional, economic, and regulatory settings, which govern the multi-principal agent relationship in healthcare in different countries. Furthermore, the thesis provides and empirically tests a conceptual framework of the possible determinants of (non-)compliance by physicians to regulatory tools issued by the regulator. The main findings of the thesis are first, in a multi-principal agent setting, the utilization of financial incentives to align the objectives of professionals and the regulator is important but not the only solution. This finding is based on the heterogeneity in the financial incentives provided to professionals in different health markets, which does not provide a one-size-fits-all model of financial incentives to influence clinical decisions. Second, soft law tools as clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are important tools to mitigate the problems of the multi-principal agent setting in health markets as they reduce information asymmetries while preserving the autonomy of professionals. Third, CPGs are complex and heterogeneous and so are the determinants of (non-)compliance to them. Fourth, CPGs work but under conditions. Factors such as intra-professional competition between service providers or practitioners might lead to non-compliance to CPGs – if CPGs are likely to reduce the professional’s utility. Finally, different degrees of soft law mandate have different effects on providers’ compliance. Generally, the stronger the mandate, the stronger the compliance, however, even with a strong mandate, drivers such as intra-professional competition and co-management of patients by different professionals affected the (non-)compliance.

A reorganização da formação profissional em educação fisica no Brasil : aspectos historicos significativos

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Contribuições dos programas de pos-graduação stricto sensu na formação e atuação dos docentes de ensino superior : o caso da educação fisica

Universidade Estadual de Campinas . Faculdade de Educação Física

Change in central kinin B2 receptor density after exercise training in rats

Cardiovascular responses elicited by the stimulation of kinin B2 receptors in the IV cerebral ventricle paratrigeminal nucleus or in the thoracic spinal cord are similar to those observed during an exercise bout Considering that the kalikrein-kinin system (KKS) could act on the cardiovascular modulation during behavioral responses as physical exercise or stress this study evaluated the central B2 receptor densities of Wistar (W) and spontani ously hypertensive rats (SHR) after chronic moderate exercise Animals we re exercise-trained for ten weeks on a treadmill Afterwards systolic blood pressure decreased in both trained strains Animals were killed and the medulla and spinal cord extracted for B2 receptor autoradiography Trained animals were compared to their sedentary controls Sedentary groups showed specific binding sites for Hoe-140 (fmol/mg of tissue) in laminas 1 and 2 of the spinal cord nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) area postrema (AP) spinal trigeminal tract (sp5) and paratrigeminal nucleus (Pa5) In trained W a significant increase (p<0 05) in specific binding was observed in the Pa5 (31 3%) and NTS (28 2%) Trained SHR showed a significant decrease in n ceptor density in lamina 2 (21 9%) of the thoracic spinal cord and an increase in specific binding in Pa5 (36 1%) We suggest that in the medulla chronic exercise could hyper stimulate the KKS enhancing their efficiency through the increase of B2 receptor density involving this receptor in central cardiovascular control during exercise or stress In the lamina 2 B2 receptor might be involved in the exercise-induced hypotension (C) 2010 Elsevier BV All rights reserved

Adaptations in autonomic function during exercise training in heart failure

Although neurohumoral excitation is the hallmark of heart failure (HF), the mechanisms underlying this alteration are not entirely known. Abnormalities in several systems contribute to neurohumoral excitation in HF, including arterial and cardiopulmonary baroreceptors, central and peripheral chemoreceptors, cardiac chemoreceptors, and central nervous system abnormalities. Exercise intolerance is characteristic of chronic HF, and growing evidence strongly suggests that exercise limitation in patients with chronic HF is not due to elevated filling pressures or inadequate cardiac output during exercise, but instead due to skeletal myopathy. Several lines of evidence suggest that sympathetic excitation contributes to the skeletal myopathy of HF, since sympathetic activity mediates vasoconstriction at rest and during exercise likely restrains muscle blood flow, arteriolar dilatation, and capillary recruitment, leading to underperfused areas of working muscle, and areas of muscle ischemia, release of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and inflammation. Although controversial, either unmyelinated, metabolite-sensitive afferent fibers, and/or myelinated, mechanosensitive afferent fibers in skeletal muscle underlie the exaggerated sympathetic activity in HF. Exercise training has emerged as a unique non-pharmacological strategy for the treatment of HF. Regular exercise improves functional capacity and quality of life, and perhaps prognosis in chronic HF patients. Recent studies have provided convincing evidence that these benefits in chronic HF patients are mediated by significant reduction in central sympathetic outflow as a consequence of improvement in arterial and chemoreflex controls, and correction of central nervous system abnormalities, and increase in peripheral blood flow with reduction in cytokines and increase in mass muscle.

Monitoring stress tolerance and occurrences of upper respiratory illness in basketball players by means of psychometric tools and salivary biomarkers

The aim of the study was to evaluate the possible relationships between stress tolerance, training load, banal infections and salivary parameters during 4 weeks of regular training in fifteen basketball players. The Daily Analysis of Life Demands for Athletes` questionnaire (sources and symptoms of stress) and the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey were used on a weekly basis. Salivary cortisol and salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA) were collected at the beginning (before) and after the study, and measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Ratings of perceived exertion (training load) were also obtained. The results from ANOVA with repeated measures showed greater training loads, number of upper respiratory tract infection episodes and negative sensation to both symptoms and sources of stress, at week 2 (p < 0.05). Significant increases in cortisol levels and decreases in SIgA secretion rate were noted (before to after). Negative sensations to symptoms of stress at week 4 were inversely and significantly correlated with SIgA secretion rate. A positive and significant relationship between sources and symptoms of stress at week 4 and cortisol levels were verified. In summary, an approach incorporating in conjunction psychometric tools and salivary biomarkers could be an efficient means of monitoring reaction to stress in sport. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Number of options in a movement sequence affects learners' behavior in a self-controlled practice condition

Self controlling practice implies a process of decision making which suggests that the options in a self controlled practice condition could affect learners The number of task components with no fixed position in a movement sequence may affect the (Nay learners self control their practice A 200 cm coincident timing track with 90 light emitting diodes (LEDs)-the first and the last LEDs being the warning and the target lights respectively was set so that the apparent speed of the light along the track was 1 33 m/sec Participants were required to touch six sensors sequentially the last one coincidently with the lighting of the tar get light (timing task) Group 1 (n=55) had only one constraint and were instructed to touch the sensors in any order except for the last sensor which had to be the one positioned close to the target light Group 2 (n=53) had three constraints the first two and the last sensor to be touched Both groups practiced the task until timing error was less than 30 msec on three consecutive trials There were no statistically significant differences between groups in the number of trials needed to reach the performance criterion but (a) participants in Group 2 created fewer sequences corn pared to Group 1 and (b) were more likely to use the same sequence throughout the learning process The number of options for a movement sequence affected the way learners self-controlled their practice but had no effect on the amount of practice to reach criterion performance.

Efficacy and safety of concurrent training in systemic sclerosis

Pinto, ALS, Oliveira, NC, Gualano, B, Christmann, RB, Painelli, VS, Artioli, GG, Prado, DML, and Lima, FR. Efficacy and safety of concurrent training in systemic sclerosis. J Strength Cond Res 25(5): 1423-1428, 2011-The optimal training model for patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) is unknown. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of a 12-week combined resistance and aerobic training program (concurrent training) in SSc patients. Eleven patients with no evidence of pulmonary involvement were recruited for the exercise program. Lower and upper limb dynamic strengths (assessed by 1 repetition maximum [1RM] of a leg press and bench press, respectively), isometric strength (assessed by back pull and handgrip tests), balance and mobility (assessed by the timed up-and-go test), muscle function (assessed by the timed-stands test), Rodnan score, digital ulcers, Rayland`s phenomenon, and blood markers of muscle inflammation (creatine kinase and aldolase) were assessed at baseline and after the 12-week program. Exercise training significantly enhanced the 1RM leg press (41%) and 1RM bench press (13%) values and back pull (24%) and handgrip strength (11%). Muscle function was also improved (15%), but balance and mobility were not significantly changed. The time-to-exhaustion was increased (46.5%, p = 0.0004), the heart rate at rest condition was significantly reduced, and the workload and time of exercise at ventilatory thresholds and peak of exercise were increased. However, maximal and submaximal (V)over dotO(2) were unaltered (p > 0.05). The Rodnan score was unchanged, and muscle enzymes remained within normal levels. No change was observed in digital ulcers and Raynaud`s phenomenon. This is the first study to demonstrate that a 12-week concurrent training program is safe and substantially improves muscle strength, function, and aerobic capacity in SSc patients.