Creació d'un entorn web de treball per a una biblioteca : Fent ús de Struts, Tiles i Hibernate

El següent projecte final de carrera vol assolir assolir la creació d'un entorn web de treball per a una Biblioteca. L'aplicació al món real es base en un mòdul administratiu, que podrà ser utilitzat pels treballadors de la pròpia Biblioteca i un mòdul que servirà de consulta als socis.

Plaisir et souffrance au travail : une lecture psychodynamique au sein d'un office régional de placement suisse

En Suisse, comme dans la plupart des pays industrialisés, le stress au travail et l'épuisement qui en découle sont devenus, au cours des dernières décennies, une réalité qui ne cesse de s'accentuer. Différentes disciplines scientifiques ont tenté de rendre compte, depuis le milieu du siècle dernier, des difficultés rencontrées par les individus dans le cadre de leur travail, avec une prédominance marquée pour des analyses de type causaliste. Dans le cadre de cette étude doctorale, nous nous sommes penché sur le cas d'un office régional de placement, mais avec une perspective sensiblement différente. La grille de lecture psychodynamique utilisée permet en effet de donner accès au sens des situations de travail et d'ouvrir sur une compréhension originale des mécanismes à l'origine des problèmes de santé mentale au travail. Cette approche permet ainsi de comprendre les rapports complexes que les individus entretiennent avec leur travail tel que structuré et organisé, et d'analyser leur expérience en termes de plaisir, de souffrance, de défenses face à la souffrance et de répercussions sur la santé. Dans ce but, nous avons utilisé une méthodologie basée sur des entrevues collectives, afin de stimuler l'expression libre des travailleurs. L'enquête s'est déroulée en deux temps : une première série d'entretiens de groupe a permis la récolte des données empiriques, puis une seconde série, appelée entretiens de restitution, a donné la possibilité aux participants de réagir sur l'interprétation de leur parole faite par le chercheur, et de valider l'analyse. Nos résultats mettent alors en évidence que le travail, tel qu'organisé au sein de cette institution de service public, apparaît considérablement pathogène, mais heureusement compensé par le pouvoir structurant de la relation d'aide aux assurés. Ils montrent également que l'expérience subjective de travail des participants a pour principales sources de souffrance la perception désagréable d'un manque de reconnaissance, d'autonomie et de pouvoir sur leurs actes. - In Switzerland and in other industrialized countries, work-related stress and resulting burn-out has become an ever increasing problem in recent decades. Many researchers Jrom many different fields have made efforts to understand the difficulties employees encounter at work since the middle of the last century. Most of this research is based on a cause and effect analysis approach. For this doctoral research project, we have analyzed cases handled by an unemployment office in Switzerland. We have taken a novel approach by using a number of psychodynamic criteria which permitted us to interpret situations at work and to open up a new way of understanding the mechanisms at work which lead to mental health problems. This approach allows us to understand account the complex relationship people have towards structured and organized work as well as to take into account and to analyze their experience in terms of pleasure, suffering, defense mechanisms against suffering and the consequences on their mental health. In order to achieve this goal we performed collective interviews in order to encourage workers to express themselves freely. The interviews were divided into two series. The first series of group interviews allowed us to collect empirical statistics and the second series gave the workers an opportunity to react to the researchers ' analysis of their answers and to validate the researchers ' interpretation of their answers. Our results show that work has considerable negative effects on mental health. Fortunately, these negative effects are counterbalanced by the psychological support system offered by the unemployment office. Our project also shows that the subjective negative experiences of workers are caused by their perceptions of being under-appreciated, lack of autonomy and having no power over their acts.

Fluid flow regulates stromal cell organization and CCL21 expression in a tissue-engineered lymph node microenvironment.

In the paracortex of the lymph node (LN), T zone fibroblastic reticular cells (TRCs) orchestrate an immune response by guiding lymphocyte migration both physically, by creating three-dimensional (3D) cell networks, and chemically, by secreting the chemokines CCL19 and CCL21 that direct interactions between CCR7-expressing cells, including mature dendritic cells and naive T cells. TRCs also enwrap matrix-based conduits that transport fluid from the subcapsular sinus to high endothelial venules, and fluid flow through the draining LN rapidly increases upon tissue injury or inflammation. To determine whether fluid flow affects TRC organization or function within a 3D network, we regenerated the 3D LN T zone stromal network by culturing murine TRC clones within a macroporous polyurethane scaffold containing type I collagen and Matrigel and applying slow interstitial flow (1-23 microm/min). We show that the 3D environment and slow interstitial flow are important regulators of TRC morphology, organization, and CCL21 secretion. Without flow, CCL21 expression could not be detected. Furthermore, when flow through the LN was blocked in mice in vivo, CCL21 gene expression was down-regulated within 2 h. These results highlight the importance of lymph flow as a homeostatic regulator of constitutive TRC activity and introduce the concept that increased lymph flow may act as an early inflammatory cue to enhance CCL21 expression by TRCs, thereby ensuring efficient immune cell trafficking, lymph sampling, and immune response induction.

A preliminary evaluation of the validity of at-risk criteria for bipolar disorders in help-seeking adolescents and young adults.

INTRODUCTION: We have developed ultra-high risk criteria for bipolar affective disorder (bipolar at-risk - BAR) which include general criteria such as being in the peak age range of the onset of the disorder and a combination of specific criteria including sub-threshold mania, depressive symptoms, cyclothymic features and genetic risk. In the current study, the predictive validity of these criteria were tested in help-seeking adolescents and young adults. METHOD: This medical file-audit study was conducted at ORYGEN Youth Health (OYH), a public mental health program for young people aged between 15 and 24years and living in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. BAR criteria were applied to the intake assessments of all non-psychotic patients who were being treated in OYH on 31 January, 2008. All entries were then checked for conversion criteria. Hypomania/mania related additions or alterations to existing treatments or initiation of new treatment by the treating psychiatrist served as conversion criteria to mania. RESULTS: The BAR criteria were applied to 173 intake assessments. Of these, 22 patients (12.7%) met BAR criteria. The follow-up period of the sample was 265.5days on average (SD 214.7). There were significantly more cases in the BAR group (22.7%, n=5) than in the non-BAR group (0.7%, n=1) who met conversion criteria (p<.001). CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the notion that people who develop a first episode of mania can be identified during the prodromal phase. The proposed criteria need further evaluation in prospective clinical trials.

Psychological challenges for the oncology clinician who has to break bad news

Work-related stress of the oncology clinician is not only due to heavy clinical and administrative duties, but also arises when breaking bad news. However, there is important interindividual variation in stress levels during patient encounters, mainly due to the significance the situation represents for the oncologist. A reflection on his own development, his professional identity, and ways of dealing with the patient's suffering can reduce his levels of stress and distress and prevent burnout and other psychiatric disturbances. This chapter summarizes the psychological challenges the oncology clinician is facing when he announces the diagnosis of cancer, deals with the deception of relapse, discusses the transition to palliative care, copes with progression of the disease and uncertainty, and cares for the dying who is facing the unknown. Ways of refiecting on and dealing with these situations from a psychological and communicational perspective are described and illustrated by case vignettes.

Beverage preferences and associated drinking patterns, consequences and other substance use behaviours.

BACKGROUND: Studies about beverage preferences in a country in which wine drinking is relatively widespread (like Switzerland) are scarce. Therefore, the main aims of the present study were to examine the associations between beverage preferences and drinking patterns, alcohol-related consequences and the use of other substances among Swiss young men. METHODS: The analytical sample consisted of 5399 Swiss men who participated in the Cohort Study on Substance Use Risk Factors (C-SURF) and had been drinking alcohol over the preceding 12 months. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the associations between preference for a particular beverage and (i) drinking patterns, (ii) negative alcohol-related consequences and (iii) the (at-risk) use of cigarettes, cannabis and other illicit drugs. RESULTS: Preference for beer was associated with risky drinking patterns and, comparable with a preference for strong alcohol, with the use of illicit substances (cannabis and other illicit drugs). In contrast, a preference for wine was associated with low-risk alcohol consumption and a reduced likelihood of experiencing at least four negative alcohol-related consequences or of daily cigarette smoking. Furthermore, the likelihood of negative outcomes (alcohol-related consequences; use of other substances) increased among people with risky drinking behaviours, independent of beverage preference. CONCLUSIONS: In our survey, beer preference was associated with risky drinking patterns and illicit drug use. Alcohol polices to prevent large quantities of alcohol consumption, especially of cheaper spirits like beer, should be considered to reduce total alcohol consumption and the negative consequences associated with these beverage types.

Quality of life after pulmonary embolism: validation of the French version of the PEmb-QoL questionnaire.

Background The PEmb-QoL is a validated 40-item questionnaire to quantify health-related quality of life in patients having experienced pulmonary embolism (PE). It covers six health dimensions: frequency of complaints, activities of daily living limitations, work-related problems, social limitations, intensity of complaints, and emotional complaints. Originally developed in Dutch and English, we sought to prospectively validate the psychometric properties of a French version of the PEmb-QoL.MethodsWe performed a forward and backward translation of the English version of the PEmb-QoL into French. French-speaking consecutive adult patients with an acute, objectively confirmed PE admitted to the emergency department of a Swiss university hospital between 08/2009 and 09/2011 were recruited telephonically. We used standard psychometric tests and criteria to evaluate the acceptability, reliability, and validity of the French version of the PEmb-QoL. We also performed an exploratory factor analysis.ResultsOverall, 102 patients were enrolled in the study. The French version of the PEmb-QoL showed good reliability (internal consistency, item¿total and inter-item correlations), reproducibility (test-retest reliability), and validity (convergent, discriminant) in French-speaking patients with PE. The exploratory factor analysis suggested three underlying dimensions: limitations in daily activity (items 4b-m, 5a-d), symptoms (items 1a-h and 7), and emotional complaints (items 9a-f and j).ConclusionWe successfully validated the French version of the PEmb-QoL questionnaire in patients with PE. Our results show that the PEmb-QoL is a valuable tool for assessing health-related quality of life after PE in French-speaking patients.

Spatio-temporal differentiation and sociality in spiders.

Species that differ in their social system, and thus in traits such as group size and dispersal timing, may differ in their use of resources along spatial, temporal, or dietary dimensions. The role of sociality in creating differences in habitat use is best explored by studying closely related species or socially polymorphic species that differ in their social system, but share a common environment. Here we investigate whether five sympatric Anelosimus spider species that range from nearly solitary to highly social differ in their use of space and in their phenology as a function of their social system. By studying these species in Serra do Japi, Brazil, we find that the more social species, which form larger, longer-lived colonies, tend to live inside the forest, where sturdier, longer lasting vegetation is likely to offer better support for their nests. The less social species, which form single-family groups, in contrast, tend to occur on the forest edge where the vegetation is less robust. Within these two microhabitats, species with longer-lived colonies tend to occupy the potentially more stable positions closer to the core of the plants, while those with smaller and shorter-lived colonies build their nests towards the branch tips. The species further separate in their use of common habitat due to differences in the timing of their reproductive season. These patterns of habitat use suggest that the degree of sociality can enable otherwise similar species to differ from one another in ways that may facilitate their co-occurrence in a shared environment, a possibility that deserves further consideration.

Collage, a Collaborative Learning Design Editor Based on Patterns

This paper introduces Collage, a high-level IMS-LD compliant authoring tool that is specialized for CSCL (Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning). Nowadays CSCL is a key trend in elearning since it highlights the importance of social interactions as an essential element of learning. CSCL is an interdisciplinary domain, which demands participatory design techniques that allow teachers to get directly involved in design activities. Developing CSCL designs using LD is a difficult task for teachers since LD is a complex technical specification and modelling collaborative characteristics can be tricky. Collage helps teachers in the process of creating their own potentially effective collaborative Learning Designs by reusing and customizing patterns, according to the requirements of a particular learning situation. These patterns, called Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns (CLFPs), represent best practices that are repetitively used by practitioners when structuring the flow of (collaborative) learning activities. An example of an LD that can be created using Collage is illustrated in the paper. Preliminary evaluation results show that teachers, with experience in CL but without LD knowledge, can successfully design real collaborative learning experiences using Collage.

Computational Representation of Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns Using IMS Learning Design

The identification and integration of reusable and customizable CSCL (Computer Supported Collaborative Learning) may benefit from the capture of best practices in collaborative learning structuring. The authors have proposed CLFPs (Collaborative Learning Flow Patterns) as a way of collecting these best practices. To facilitate the process of CLFPs by software systems, the paper proposes to specify these patterns using IMS Learning Design (IMS-LD). Thus, teachers without technical knowledge can particularize and integrate CSCL tools. Nevertheless, the support of IMS-LD for describing collaborative learning activities has some deficiencies: the collaborative tools that can be defined in these activities are limited. Thus, this paper proposes and discusses an extension to IMS-LD that enables to specify several characteristics of the use of tools that mediate collaboration. In order to obtain a Unit of Learning based on a CLFP, a three stage process is also proposed. A CLFP-based Unit of Learning example is used to illustrate the process and the need of the proposed extension.

Oxytocin selectively gates fear responses through distinct outputs from the central amygdala.

Central amygdala (CeA) projections to hypothalamic and brain stem nuclei regulate the behavioral and physiological expression of fear, but it is unknown whether these different aspects of the fear response can be separately regulated by the CeA. We combined fluorescent retrograde tracing of CeA projections to nuclei that modulate fear-related freezing or cardiovascular responses with in vitro electrophysiological recordings and with in vivo monitoring of related behavioral and physiological parameters. CeA projections emerged from separate neuronal populations with different electrophysiological characteristics and different response properties to oxytocin. In vivo, oxytocin decreased freezing responses in fear-conditioned rats without affecting the cardiovascular response. Thus, neuropeptidergic signaling can modulate the CeA outputs through separate neuronal circuits and thereby individually steer the various aspects of the fear response.

Factors influencing adherence to standard precautions among nursing professionals in psychiatric hospitals

OBJECTIVE Evaluate and correlate individual, work-related and organizational factors that influence adherence to standard precautions among nursing professionals of psychiatric hospitals in São Paulo. METHOD An exploratory cross-sectional study conducted with 35 nursing professionals, using the assessment tool for adherence to standard precautions through the Likert scale, ranging from 1 to 5. RESULTS Knowledge of the precautions received a high score (4.69); adherence received (3.86) and obstacles (3.78), while intermediaries and the scales of organizational factors received low scores (2.61). There was a strong correlation between the magnitude adherence scale and the personal protective equipment availability (r = 0.643; p = 0.000). The training scale for prevention of HIV exposure (p = 0.007) was statistically different between the nurses and nursing assistants. CONCLUSION The organizational factors negatively contributed to adherence to standard precautions, indicating that psychiatric institutions lack safe working conditions, ongoing training and management actions to control infections.

Understanding the Use of the Students’ Common Language (Creole/Portuguese) in the 7th Grade Capeverdean English Classroom

This thesis is a pedagogical and methodological work related to the Teacher’s use of the students’ common language in 7th grade (beginners-level 1) Capeverdean English classroom. It discusses the importance of a limited and judicious use of the students’ common language (Creole/Portuguese) as a teaching technique to assist in the teaching and learning process. This thesis contains four chapters. The first chapter defines and shows the difference between mother tongue, second language and foreign language, talks about the methods and approaches (classroom procedures) to teach English as a foreign language, the different opinions about the teacher’s use of the students’ first language in the EFL classroom, and presents two studies already conducted on the use of the students’ mother tongue in the English classroom in two different EFL context. The second Chapter describes the methodology of research to conduct a study on the use of the students’ common language (Creole/Portuguese) in the EFL Capeverdean context with 7th grade students. The third chapter is the presentation of the Results and Analyses of the field research. And finally the fourth chapter is the recommendations and conclusions.

A role for the endocrine and pro-inflammatory mediator MIF in the control of insulin secretion during stress.

The systemic response to injury or infection is often accompanied by significant alterations in host metabolism and glucose homeostasis. Within the liver, these changes include a decrease in glycogenesis and an increase in gluconeogenesis, and in peripheral tissues, the development of insulin resistance and the increased utilization of glucose by non-insulin-dependent pathways. Depending on the severity and the duration of the response, both hyper- and hypoglycemia can ensue and each can become a clinically important manifestation of the systemic inflammatory response. The protein known as macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) has been identified recently to play a central role in host immunity and to regulate glucocorticoid effects on the immune and inflammatory systems. MIF is released in vivo from activated immune cells as well as by the anterior pituitary gland upon stimulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. MIF also has been found to be secreted together with insulin from the pancreatic beta-cells and to act as an autocrine factor to stimulate insulin release. Since circulating MIF levels are elevated during stress or systemic inflammatory processes, this protein may play a central role in the control of insulin secretion during various disease states.

A festschrift for Roland L. Weinsier: nutrition scientist, educator, and clinician.

Roland L. Weinsier, M.D., Dr.P.H., devoted himself to the fields of nutrition and obesity for more than 35 years. He contributed outstanding work related to the treatment of obesity through dietary and lifestyle change; metabolic/energetic influences on obesity, weight loss, and weight regain; body composition changes accompanying weight loss and regain; the health benefits and risks of weight loss; nutrition education for physicians; and nutrition support of sick patients. He served on the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) National Task Force on Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, as Chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Department of Nutrition Sciences, and as Founder and Director of its NIDDK-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Center. He was a long-time and active member of NAASO, serving in the roles of Councilor, Publications Committee Chair, Continuing Medical Education Course Director, Public Relations Committee Chair, and Membership Committee Co-Chair, to name just a few. He was well respected as a staunch defender of NAASO's scientific integrity in these roles. Sadly, Roland Weinsier died on November 27, 2002. He will be missed and remembered by many as a revered and beloved teacher, mentor, healer, and scholar.