Communication skills in diagnostic pathology.

Communication is an essential element of good medical practice also in pathology. In contrast to technical or diagnostic skills, communication skills are not easy to define, teach, or assess. Rules almost do not exist. In this paper, which has a rather personal character and cannot be taken as a set of guidelines, important aspects of communication in pathology are explored. This includes what should be communicated to the pathologist on the pathology request form, communication between pathologists during internal (interpathologist) consultation, communication around frozen section diagnoses, modalities of communication of a final diagnosis, with whom and how critical and unexpected findings should be communicated, (in-)adequate routes of communication for pathology diagnoses, who will (or might) receive pathology reports, and what should be communicated and how in case of an error or a technical problem. An earlier more formal description of what the responsibilities are of a pathologist as communicator and as collaborator in a medical team is added in separate tables. The intention of the paper is to stimulate reflection and discussion rather than to formulate strict rules.

The impact of adopting a CLIL approach on EFL learners reading skills in Catalonia school

En els últims anys, un gran nombre de docents i escoles han estat introduint programes AICLE a les escoles catalanes. A la majoria d’escoles, però, només s'ensenya anglès com a llengua estrangera, la qual cosa, limita les oportunitats d'estar en contacte amb la llengua estrangera en un context diferent. L’objectiu d'aquest estudi és analitzar si els infants milloren en les seves habilitats lectores i comprovar si existeix un avantatge significatiu respecte els alumnes que només estudien anglès com a llengua estrangera. L’estudi empíric que us presento a continuació, compara els resultats obtinguts en dues proves de comprensió lectora. A les proves hi van participar dos grups d’alumnes de cinquè de d’Educació Primària. Un dels grups seguia un programa AICLE (1 hora a la setmana i , a més aprenia anglès coma llengua estrangera); l’altre grup només estudiava anglès com a llengua estrangera. L'objectiu principal d'aquest projecte d'investigació és esbrinar si els programes AICLE tenen un impacte en les habilitats lectores en llengua anglesa dels alumnes. Així doncs, humilment intentaré contribuir a la literatura existent sobre els beneficis de l’AICLE.

La influència dels jocs cooperatius en la millora de les relacions interpersonals i la cohesió d'un grup

Actualment la tasca que desenvolupa l’escola és procurar que tots els infants es desenvolupin integralment, independentment de les característiques. En aquest marc sorgeix l’escola inclusiva, la qual ha d’estar preparada per atendre a tots i fer que aprenguin alumnes diferents al màxim de les seves possibilitats. Perquè això sigui real, l’escola ha de buscar noves maneres per a què els alumnes puguin aprendre no tan sols contingut sinó també valors, habilitats socials, cognitives, lingüístiques, entre moltes altres. Es per aquest motiu que la recerca vol portar a la pràctica i comprovar si mitjançant una eina lúdica, com són els jocs cooperatius, es milloren algunes habilitats socials i la cohesió d’un grup classe, en el qual també es té en compte la integració social d’una nena diagnosticada amb Trastorns Generalitzats del Desenvolupament (TGD) i, concretament, presenta trets autistes. Aquesta activitat educativa proporciona contextos nous on interactuar i desenvolupar bones pautes de relació per a tots així com també afavoreix la cohesió de grup, les relacions interpersonals i la integració d’infants amb dificultats en la interacció social.

Brain Connections Associated With Socio-Cognitive Skills in Preterm and Low Birth Weight School Age Children

Identification of neuroimaging biomarkers following extreme prematurity (EP) and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) is crucial for understanding their cognitive and behavioral impairments at school age

Mentoring in the acquisition of professional skills through practices in companies by degree students

Abstract This work has had as objective to analyze the skills acquired through internships in business companies by students of the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University Pompeu Fabra. The internship is a basic item in order to obtain a hard connection between the University and social-economic world where University and Enterprises develop their activity. In this study we want to know about two aspects. The first one, we want to know the profit that is obtained from the Student as a consequence of internship and mentoring. Also, we want to study about the importance of mentoring as a principal element that establishes the relationship between the Student and the Company. Moreover, it has sought to analyze if certain factors such as the size of the company where the practices has been performed, the study rank level that was achieved or the fact of being a man or a woman, were among the determining factors at the time of acquiring the skills. The results presented here indicate that the size of the company that have been making the practices and the gender of the student are related to the acquisition of certain skills. There was not a statistically significant relationship related to the rank level have by the students in the practice. In the future we are going to study if the labor market Integration is easier if the Student has performed work placement. Keywords Skills; employability; internship; meatoring.

Music-supported training is more efficient than functional motor training for recovery of fine motor skills in stroke patients

MOTOR IMPAIRMENTS ARE COMMON AFTER STROKE but efficacious therapies for these dysfunctions are scarce. Extending an earlier study on the effects of music-supported training (MST), behavioral indices of motor function were obtained before and after a series of training sessions to assess whether this new treatment leads to improved motor functions. Furthermore, music-supported training was contrasted to functional motor training according to the principles of constraint-induced therapy (CIT). In addition to conventional physiotherapy, 32 stroke patients with moderately impaired motor function and no previous musical experience received 15 sessions of MST over a period of three weeks, using a manualized, step-bystep approach. A control group consisting of 15 patients received 15 sessions of CIT in addition to conventional physiotherapy. A third group of 30 patients received exclusively conventional physiotherapy and served as a control group for the other three groups. Fine as well as gross motor skills were trained by using either a MIDI-piano or electronic drum pads programmed to emit piano tones. Motor functions were assessed by an extensive test battery. MST yielded significant improvement in fine as well as gross motor skills with respect to speed, precision, and smoothness of movements. These improvements were greater than after CIT or conventional physiotherapy. In conclusion, with equal treatment intensity, MST leads to more pronounced improvements of motor functions after stroke than CIT.

The Connectivity of Musical Aptitude and Foreign Language Learning Skills: Neural and Behavioural Evidence

Given the structural and acoustical similarities between speech and music, and possible overlapping cerebral structures in speech and music processing, a possible relationship between musical aptitude and linguistic abilities, especially in terms of second language pronunciation skills, was investigated. Moreover, the laterality effect of the mother tongue was examined with both adults and children by means of dichotic listening scores. Finally, two event-related potential studies sought to reveal whether children with advanced second language pronunciation skills and higher general musical aptitude differed from children with less-advanced pronunciation skills and less musical aptitude in accuracy when preattentively processing mistuned triads and music / speech sound durations. The results showed a significant relationship between musical aptitude, English language pronunciation skills, chord discrimination ability, and sound-change-evoked brain activation in response to musical stimuli (durational differences and triad contrasts). Regular music practice may also have a modulatory effect on the brain’s linguistic organization and cause altered hemispheric functioning in those who have regularly practised music for years. Based on the present results, it is proposed that language skills, both in production and discrimination, are interconnected with perceptual musical skills.

'No country for old men?' Analyzing older people s attitudes toward mobile communication

Mobile technology plays an increasing role in interpersonal communication,representing a useful resource for different age cohorts. While the usage ofmobile communication by younger people has received a wide attention fromcommunication scholars, its usage by older people is less explored. Thegoal of our research project is to analyse the usage of mobile phones by theelderly in Italy. We conducted 51 semi-structured interviews in Rome and in amid-range town located in Umbria, between October 2013 and February 2014.Our study explores older users¿ motivations and usage practices, their perceptions of mobile phones, theiradoption and domestication of mobile phones, their usage skills. More specifically,our analysis focuses on: - personal characteristics - personal networks (personalnetwork composition, self-perceived social life, communication channels) -adoption of mobile telephone - consumption patterns of mobile devices - usedmobile services - location and mobility of mobile telephone - current mobilecharacteristics - attitude and opinions towards mobile technology Our preliminaryresults show major differences in users¿ behaviours and perceptions, that canbe related to age cohorts (younger olds vs older olds); socio-cultural levels;vital trajectories (in terms of professional and familiar status); and gender.

Habilitats comunicatives per a l’aprenentatge en l’entorn virtual = Communicative skills for learning in a virtual environment

The virtual learning environments are an option in permanent training with great possibilities for adults who look for studies that are compatible with their jobs and with their family life. So as to participate in determined learning as much in attitudes as knowledge and skills. The article is dedicated to analysing the necessary linguistic habits for moving within an environment of this type and offers didactic proposals that can facilitate the active participation in a virtual course and widen the perspectives of the control of new channels of communication with objectives that are different to learning

Las habilidades motrices básicas en educación primaria: aspectos de su desarrollo = Key motor skills in primary education: developmental aspects

The physical education curriculum stresses the importance of improving students’ key motor skills. This idea agrees with the contributions of research into motor development concerning the important role these skills play in child development. In order to facilitate this improvement is essential to know the different basic aspects of how these key motor skills evolve as well as the essential factors related to the characteristics and conditions of educational practice

The effectiveness of short-term literacy skills intervention on children at risk of reading and writing difficulties in Tanzania : a study of grade one children with dynamic assessment approach

The aim of the study was to create and evaluate an intervention programme for Tanzanian children from a low-income area who are at risk of reading and writing difficulties. The learning difficulties, including reading and writing difficulties, are likely to be behind many of the common school problems in Tanzania, but they are not well understood, and research is needed. The design of the study included an identification and intervention phase with follow-up. A group based dynamic assessment approach was used in identifying children at risk of difficulties in reading and writing. The same approach was used in the intervention. The study was a randomized experiment with one experimental and two control groups. For the experimental and the control groups, a total of 96 (46 girls and 50 boys) children from grade one were screened out of 301 children from two schools in a low income urban area of Dar-es-Salaam. One third of the children, the experimental group, participated in an intensive training programme in literacy skills for five weeks, six hours per week, aimed at promoting reading and writing ability, while the children in the control groups had a mathematics and art programme. Follow-up was performed five months after the intervention. The intervention programme and the tests were based on the Zambian BASAT (Basic Skill Assessment Tool, Ketonen & Mulenga, 2003), but the content was drawn from the Kiswahili school curriculum in Tanzania. The main components of the training and testing programme were the same, only differing in content. The training process was different from traditional training in Tanzanian schools in that principles of teaching and training in dynamic assessment were followed. Feedback was the cornerstone of the training and the focus was on supporting the children in exploring knowledge and strategies in performing the tasks. The experimental group improved significantly more (p = .000) than the control groups during the intervention from pre-test to follow-up (repeated measures ANOVA). No differences between the control groups were noticed. The effect was significant on all the measures: phonological awareness, reading skills, writing skills and overall literacy skills. A transfer effect on school marks in Kiswahili and English was found. Following a discussion of the results, suggestions for further research and adaptation of the programme are presented.

Nurse-led interpersonal counselling for depressive symptoms in patients with myocardial infarction

The broad interest of this intervention study is in two worldwide remarkable diseases, myocardial infarction and depression. The purpose of the 18-month follow-up study was to evaluate the outcomes of interpersonal counselling implemented by a psychiatric nurse, and to examine the recovery experienced by the patients after myocardial infarction. The interpersonal counseling consisted of a short-term (max 6 sessions) depression-focused intervention modified for myocardial infarction patients. The main principle of interpersonal counselling is that depressive symptoms relate to interpersonal relations. The measured outcomes of the intervention consisted of changes in depressive symptoms and distress, health-related quality of life and the use of health care services. The data consisted of 103 patients with acute myocardial infarction and with sufficient knowledge of Finnish language, and they were randomized into intervention group (n=51) and control group (n=52) with standard care. Depressive symptoms were measured using Beck Depression Inventory, and distress using Symptom Checklist-25. The instrument to measure health-related quality of life was EuroQol-5 Dimensions. All instruments were used at three measurements: in hospital, at 6 months and at 18 months after hospital discharge. The Use of Health Care Services questionnaire was used during the 6- and 18-month period after hospital discharge. In addition, satisfaction with the intervention and with information received from the health-care professional was evaluated during the follow-up. To examine recovery, the patients kept diaries during a 6-month period and they were interviewed at 18 months after myocardial infarction. The number of patients with depressive symptoms decreased significantly more in the intervention group compared with the control group during 18 months of follow-up. Distress decreased significantly more among patients under 60 years in the intervention group than in the control group, but the difference was not significant between the groups. No differences in the changes of health-related quality of life were found between the groups during follow-up. However, in the group of patients under 60 years, the improvement of health-related quality of life in the intervention was significantly better in the intervention group compared with the control group during the follow-up. During the follow-up period, there was even a decline in the use of somatic specialized health care services in the intervention group and among intervention patients who had no other long-term disease. Considering recovery experienced by the patients, main categories including many supporting and inhibiting factors and subcategories were identified: clinical and physical, psychological, social, functional and professional category. No differences between the groups were found in satisfaction with information received from the professionals. The brief and easy-to-learn intervention, with which the patients were satisfied, seems to decrease depressive symptoms after myocardial infarction. Interpersonal counselling seems to be beneficial especially with younger patients. These results justify adopting depression screening and interpersonal counselling as part of routine care after myocardial infarction. The first stage evaluation of the use of health care services is interesting, and calls for more studies. From the perspective of individual patients, recovery after myocardial infarction seems to consist of many supporting and inhibiting factors. This is something that is important to take into account in developing nursing practice. The results indicate a need for further studies in outcomes of interpersonal counselling and recovery experienced by the patients after myocardial infarction. In addition, the results encourage widening the research perspective to nursing administration and educational level.

Customer-related skills and capabilities in knowledge-intensive business services

The roles of knowledge and customer involvement form distinct features in providing knowledge-intensive business services. The objective of this study was to investigate the customer-related skills and capabilities of knowledge-intensive business services. The research was carried out as case study, involving two polar cases. The other case represented customized services, and the other standardized services. The research method was qualitative, and included focus group workshops, individual interviews and a survey. The capabilities of business services have been mainly studied on organizational level. This study provides valuable insight into the role of individual skills as a part of capabilities of knowledge-intensive business services. According to this study, the most important capabilities are related to acquiring and integrating of knowledge, resource management, managing the customer’s role as a co-producer of the service, and active and effective communication. The study indicates that the level of tacit knowledge is high in the needed individual skills. Based on the study, the needed capabilities and skills are affected by the level of customization of the service, the demand for customer knowledge, the demand for consultation and the stage of the service providing.