A meta -analysis of empirical research studies on resilience among students at -risk for school failure

Being at-risk is a growing problem in the U.S. because of disturbing societal trends such as unemployment, divorce, substance abuse, child abuse and neglect, and the new threat of terrorist violence. Resilience characterizes individuals who rebound from or adapt to adversities such as these, and academic resilience distinguishes at-risk students who succeed in school despite hardships. ^ The purpose of this research was to perform a meta-analysis to examine the power of resilience and to suggest ways educators might improve academic resilience, which was operationalized by satisfactory test scores and grades. In order to find all studies that were relevant to academic resilience in at-risk kindergarten through 12th-grade students, extensive electronic and hardcopy searches were conducted, and these resulted in a database of 421 articles. Two hundred eighty seven of these were rejected quickly, because they were not empirical research. Upon further examination, another 106 were rejected for not meeting study protocol criteria. Ultimately, 28 studies were coded for study level descriptors and effect size variables. ^ Protective factors for resilience were found to originate in physical, psychological, and behavioral domains on proximal/intraindividual, transitional/intrafamilial, or distal/extrafamilial levels. Effect sizes (ESs) for these were weighted and the means for each level or category were interpreted by commonly accepted benchmarks. Mean effect sizes for proximal (M = .27) and for transitional (M = .15) were small but significant. The mean effect size for the distal level was insignificant. This supported the hypotheses that the proximal level was the source of most protective factors for academic resilience in at-risk students followed by the transitional level. The distal effect size warranted further research particularly in light of the small number of studies (n = 11) contributing effect sizes to that category. A homogeneity test indicated a search for moderators, i.e., study variables affecting outcomes, was justified. “Category” was the largest moderator. Graphs of weighted mean effect sizes in the physical, psychological, and behavioral domains were plotted for each level to better illustrate the findings of the meta-analysis. Suggestions were made for combining resilience development with aspects of positive psychology to promote resilience in the schools. ^

Development, validation and uncertainty analysis of quantitative structure and activity relationship models for Log P of disinfection by -products

Hydrophobicity as measured by Log P is an important molecular property related to toxicity and carcinogenicity. With increasing public health concerns for the effects of Disinfection By-Products (DBPs), there are considerable benefits in developing Quantitative Structure and Activity Relationship (QSAR) models capable of accurately predicting Log P. In this research, Log P values of 173 DBP compounds in 6 functional classes were used to develop QSAR models, by applying 3 molecular descriptors, namely, Energy of the Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (ELUMO), Number of Chlorine (NCl) and Number of Carbon (NC) by Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) analysis. The QSAR models developed were validated based on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) principles. The model Applicability Domain (AD) and mechanistic interpretation were explored. Considering the very complex nature of DBPs, the established QSAR models performed very well with respect to goodness-of-fit, robustness and predictability. The predicted values of Log P of DBPs by the QSAR models were found to be significant with a correlation coefficient R2 from 81% to 98%. The Leverage Approach by Williams Plot was applied to detect and remove outliers, consequently increasing R 2 by approximately 2% to 13% for different DBP classes. The developed QSAR models were statistically validated for their predictive power by the Leave-One-Out (LOO) and Leave-Many-Out (LMO) cross validation methods. Finally, Monte Carlo simulation was used to assess the variations and inherent uncertainties in the QSAR models of Log P and determine the most influential parameters in connection with Log P prediction. The developed QSAR models in this dissertation will have a broad applicability domain because the research data set covered six out of eight common DBP classes, including halogenated alkane, halogenated alkene, halogenated aromatic, halogenated aldehyde, halogenated ketone, and halogenated carboxylic acid, which have been brought to the attention of regulatory agencies in recent years. Furthermore, the QSAR models are suitable to be used for prediction of similar DBP compounds within the same applicability domain. The selection and integration of various methodologies developed in this research may also benefit future research in similar fields.

Produção do mestrado profissional em ensino de ciências naturais e matemática da UFRN (física e química/2005-2012): papel dos documentos oficiais e características dos produtos educacionais

The importance of the Professionals Master in the field of science education is revealed by the recognition that they provide, to practicing teachers, in particular, training spaces for reflection and application of knowledge. This work appears in the context of the project "Research and training in teaching science and mathematics: a cutout of academic production in the northeast and overview of formative action in basic education" on the Centre for Education program, which main objective was to conduct studies description, analysis and evaluation of the academic production of Postgraduate Programs in Science Teaching of UFRPE, UFRN and UEPB and investigate the contribution of continuing education in stricto sensu level, of graduated teachers to improve the quality of basic education . We sought to examine a cut of academic production PPGECNM / UFRN, taking as reference dissertations of Natural Sciences, finished between the years 2005 and 2012, which have developed and applied educational products for high school students. More specifically we sought to conduct a general characterization of the dissertations analyzed for basic descriptors, to understand if and how the official documents governing the Brazilian education, especially science education, subsidized development of dissertations and identify current trends for science teaching are addressed and which ones are used in preparing the product of dissertations. The survey was based on documentary analysis, a type of qualitative approach in which the documents are objects of study in themselves. The results revealed that most of the work was developed in public schools, on subjects of physics and chemistry. During analytical reading of the text of the dissertations was observed that, in its construction, most of them addressed somehow, official documents governing the Brazilian educational system, that the products are basically teaching units and teaching approaches that are more focused on Experimentation and History and Philosophy of Science

Análise de conceito do diagnóstico de enfermagem autocontrole ineficaz da saúde em pacientes submetidos à hemodiálise

The concept analysis process carefully examines the description and uses of a word or term, enabling the standardization of language, in addition to providing representation to the profession, and facilitate the work of taxonomies. The aim of the study was to analyze the concept of nursing diagnosis ineffective self-health in patients undergoing hemodialysis. Study concept analysis, based on Walker and Avant model and operationalized through integrative literature review. The databases searched were: SCOPUS, CINAHL, PUBMED, LILACS and COCHRANE, with descriptors: Selfmanagement, Adherence and Hemodialysis. The inclusion criteria were: articles published in the last five years, complete articles are available free in selected databases; articles available in Portuguese, English or Spanish; and articles that address the self-concept of health, the antecedents and the consequent. And Exclusion: editorials, letters to the editor, theses and dissertations. The survey of the articles occurred in the months from January to March 2014. The initial sample of 16785 articles, with 11748 in PUBMED, 4767 in Scopus, 174 in CINAHL, the Cochrane 70 and 26 in LILACS. After applying the criteria, 76 articles were selected, 19 in CINAHL, 18 in PUBMED, 30 in Scopus, and 9 in LILACS. In analyzing the data, given that the concept was sought in the literature was self-health, was held interpretation to ineffective self-health diagnosis through the transposition in the denial of the attributes, antecedents and consequences identified. It is noteworthy that the terms identified in the literature as defining characteristics and related factors of the diagnosis under study were added to the survey, not even the transposition into opposite term is possible. The results show that the concept developed for the inefficient self-health diagnosis was: the patient's inability to control habits and achieve the negotiated with professionals therapeutic targets, resulting in health complications. 33 antecedents relating to social, psychological and therapeutic aspects and 16 consequential, involving physiological, social, psychological and therapeutic aspects were identified. Thus, it is concluded that the ineffective self-health concept is broad and involves individual patient factors and the therapeutic relationship between patient and professionals. It is believed that the study contributed to the improvement of diagnosis in renal clientele, besides being an important base for the growth of the scientific body of nursing, subsidizing the development of own technology area

Técnica para segmentação automática de imagens microscópicas de componentes sanguíneos e classificação diferencial de leucócitos baseada em lógica fuzzy

Automatic detection of blood components is an important topic in the field of hematology. The segmentation is an important stage because it allows components to be grouped into common areas and processed separately and leukocyte differential classification enables them to be analyzed separately. With the auto-segmentation and differential classification, this work is contributing to the analysis process of blood components by providing tools that reduce the manual labor and increasing its accuracy and efficiency. Using techniques of digital image processing associated with a generic and automatic fuzzy approach, this work proposes two Fuzzy Inference Systems, defined as I and II, for autosegmentation of blood components and leukocyte differential classification, respectively, in microscopic images smears. Using the Fuzzy Inference System I, the proposed technique performs the segmentation of the image in four regions: the leukocyte’s nucleus and cytoplasm, erythrocyte and plasma area and using the Fuzzy Inference System II and the segmented leukocyte (nucleus and cytoplasm) classify them differentially in five types: basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, monocytes and neutrophils. Were used for testing 530 images containing microscopic samples of blood smears with different methods. The images were processed and its accuracy indices and Gold Standards were calculated and compared with the manual results and other results found at literature for the same problems. Regarding segmentation, a technique developed showed percentages of accuracy of 97.31% for leukocytes, 95.39% to erythrocytes and 95.06% for blood plasma. As for the differential classification, the percentage varied between 92.98% and 98.39% for the different leukocyte types. In addition to promoting auto-segmentation and differential classification, the proposed technique also contributes to the definition of new descriptors and the construction of an image database using various processes hematological staining

Segmentação fuzzy de objetos tridimensionais com propriedades texturais

Digital image segmentation is the process of assigning distinct labels to different objects in a digital image, and the fuzzy segmentation algorithm has been used successfully in the segmentation of images from several modalities. However, the traditional fuzzy segmentation algorithm fails to segment objects that are characterized by textures whose patterns cannot be successfully described by simple statistics computed over a very restricted area. In this paper we present an extension of the fuzzy segmentation algorithm that achieves the segmentation of textures by employing adaptive affinity functions as long as we extend the algorithm to tridimensional images. The adaptive affinity functions change the size of the area where they compute the texture descriptors, according to the characteristics of the texture being processed, while three dimensional images can be described as a finite set of two-dimensional images. The algorithm then segments the volume image with an appropriate calculation area for each texture, making it possible to produce good estimates of actual volumes of the target structures of the segmentation process. We will perform experiments with synthetic and real data in applications such as segmentation of medical imaging obtained from magnetic rosonance

A formação do nutricionista para atuação no SUS: um olhar sobre a produção científica obrigatória dos cursos do Rio Grande do Norte

The National Curricular Guidelines for nutrition course predict training directed to the work in the Unified Health System (SUS) and the mandatory completion of course work. The aim of this study was to analyze the formation of dieticians in Rio Grande do Norte state/Brazil to work in the SUS, from the compulsory scientific production provided for training. This is a bibliometric study, quantitative approach, performed with completion of course works of five nutrition undergraduate courses in Rio Grande do Norte state in the years 2013/2013. From the reading of the works, the following variables were collected: nature of the institution, institution administrative category, location, work title, number of authors, work format, titration of the teacher advisor, study type, area of interest, scenery of accomplishment, submission to the ethics committee, suitability of descriptors and, as pertaining to the field of public health, the subfield of public health and the theme. The pedagogical projects of the courses were read and were identified opportunities to develop research in the graduation. For detection of significant categories we applied the Pearson chisquare test. We analyzed 195 works, coming mostly belonging to universities courses (79.0%) and private institutions (56.4%). A higher frequency of articles (68.2%), developed by one student (65.6%), guided by master teachers (57.9%), with cross-sectional study design (49.2%), conducted in laboratory (25%) and without submission to the ethics committee in research (49.2%) was find. The median adequacy of descriptors was 50%. As for the interest of the study, there was a higher frequency of work in the field of public health (p <0.001), within this subfield highlighting the nutritional epidemiology (63.0%) (p <0.001) and the subject nutrition assessment (57, 4%) (p <0.001). In cut on three major areas of dietician performance, was significant performing work in the field of public health in public institutions (p <0.05). The presence of complementary activities was unanimous in the pedagogical projects of the courses. The results of the study showed some methodological weaknesses in the research approaches, as well as a hegemonic positivist training. Despite the emphasis on public health, it was noticed little approximation of policies and nutrition programs in the context of the mandatory recearch of Rio Grande do Norte state nutrition courses.

Representações sociais de familiares sobre o atendimento das emergências psiquiátricas

The reformist movements in the field of mental health have pointed battle flags, among which the prioritization of production of mental health care out of the asylum environment should be highlighted, aiming the reduction of psychiatric beds, greater control over the hospitalization, family co-participation and the rescue of the citizenship of the social players involved. With the progressive reduction of asylum beds, associated with a lot of structural problems in the health services, the occurrence of crises outside the hospital environment has been increasingly frequent, thus giving the family an important therapeutic role. In face of this scenario, there is an urgent need to understand the social construction of the care for psychiatric emergencies, identifying the meanings assigned by family members to their constituent aspects. This study seeks to answer the following research question: what are the social representations of family members about the care of psychiatric emergencies in the city of Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte? Therefore, the aim is to analyze the social representations of family members about the care of psychiatric emergencies in the city of Mossoró, Rio Grande do Norte. This is an exploratory and descriptive study, with a mixed approach, making use of multimethods: for collection, the semi-structured interview and the Technique of Free Association of Words; for data analysis, the Thematic Analysis of Bardin and its steps was used, with the informational support of the softwares ALCESTE (Analyse Lexicale par Contexte d'un Ensemble de Segments de Texte) and Iramuteq (Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires); and the theoretical support of social representations. The study participants totaled 72, and they were selected from the following criteria: older than18 years, with degree of kinship with users suffering from some mental and behavioral disorder, and who have already witnessed a situation of crisis, rescued by the SAMU or other means and taken to the psychiatric hospital or general emergency room. Preliminary results point out: 1.Previous note of the research project with the aim to disseminate it in the scientific community and ensure the intellectual property of the work; 2.The contextual analysis of the care for emergencies in the study place. Reflection about the phenomenon provide a name to the care for the psychiatric emergencies, which is called immediate context; the technical and operational aspects that influence the care, as a specific/ general context; and mental health policies in Brazil are identified as metacontext; 3. The systematic review from randomized clinical trials in the databases PubMed, COCHRANE, LILACS, SciELO and SCIRUS, with the use of the descriptors: ‘Physical restraint’, ‘Psychiatric emergency services’, ‘Restraint’, ‘Physical and Emergency Services’, ‘Psychiatric’. Only one work met the search protocol criteria: a short-term essay that records limited results about the proportion of people who are in restraint and seclusion. It does not show statistically significant results in relation to indications, contraindications and risks of the use of physical restraint; 4. The social representations of the care for psychiatric emergencies. The study results point to the presence of five thematic categories: 1. feeling in the face of the crisis/care; 2. thoughts and perspectives about the crisis/care; 3. centrality of care in the medical- medication-hospitalization triad; 4. the thinking/acting in the face of the use of physical restraint and police force; 5. periodicity of crises. The central core of the representation is in the first category, whilst the peripheral elements are in the third and fifth categories. The contrast zone is in the second and fourth categories. The sadness is the most prominent element of the structure. The social representations about the care for psychiatric crises are at a time of transition between the hegemonic and reformist models, with the traditional aspects being predominant, but already showing peripheral and contrast elements that point to a possible change in the representational field.

Uso de correntropia na generalização de funções cicloestacionárias e aplicações para a extração de características de sinais modulados

Information extraction is a frequent and relevant problem in digital signal processing. In the past few years, different methods have been utilized for the parameterization of signals and the achievement of efficient descriptors. When the signals possess statistical cyclostationary properties, the Cyclic Autocorrelation Function (CAF) and the Spectral Cyclic Density (SCD) can be used to extract second-order cyclostationary information. However, second-order cyclostationary information is poor in nongaussian signals, as the cyclostationary analysis in this case should comprise higher-order statistical information. This paper proposes a new mathematical tool for the higher-order cyclostationary analysis based on the correntropy function. Specifically, the cyclostationary analysis is revisited focusing on the information theory, while the Cyclic Correntropy Function (CCF) and Cyclic Correntropy Spectral Density (CCSD) are also defined. Besides, it is analytically proven that the CCF contains information regarding second- and higher-order cyclostationary moments, being a generalization of the CAF. The performance of the aforementioned new functions in the extraction of higher-order cyclostationary characteristics is analyzed in a wireless communication system where nongaussian noise exists.

Sistema inteligente para o processamento de imagens digitais intrabucais oclusais

Several are the areas in which digital images are used in solving day-to-day problems. In medicine the use of computer systems have improved the diagnosis and medical interpretations. In dentistry it’s not different, increasingly procedures assisted by computers have support dentists in their tasks. Set in this context, an area of dentistry known as public oral health is responsible for diagnosis and oral health treatment of a population. To this end, oral visual inspections are held in order to obtain oral health status information of a given population. From this collection of information, also known as epidemiological survey, the dentist can plan and evaluate taken actions for the different problems identified. This procedure has limiting factors, such as a limited number of qualified professionals to perform these tasks, different diagnoses interpretations among other factors. Given this context came the ideia of using intelligent systems techniques in supporting carrying out these tasks. Thus, it was proposed in this paper the development of an intelligent system able to segment, count and classify teeth from occlusal intraoral digital photographic images. The proposed system makes combined use of machine learning techniques and digital image processing. We first carried out a color-based segmentation on regions of interest, teeth and non teeth, in the images through the use of Support Vector Machine. After identifying these regions were used techniques based on morphological operators such as erosion and transformed watershed for counting and detecting the boundaries of the teeth, respectively. With the border detection of teeth was possible to calculate the Fourier descriptors for their shape and the position descriptors. Then the teeth were classified according to their types through the use of the SVM from the method one-against-all used in multiclass problem. The multiclass classification problem has been approached in two different ways. In the first approach we have considered three class types: molar, premolar and non teeth, while the second approach were considered five class types: molar, premolar, canine, incisor and non teeth. The system presented a satisfactory performance in the segmenting, counting and classification of teeth present in the images.

Sistema inteligente para o processamento de imagens digitais intrabucais oclusais

Several are the areas in which digital images are used in solving day-to-day problems. In medicine the use of computer systems have improved the diagnosis and medical interpretations. In dentistry it’s not different, increasingly procedures assisted by computers have support dentists in their tasks. Set in this context, an area of dentistry known as public oral health is responsible for diagnosis and oral health treatment of a population. To this end, oral visual inspections are held in order to obtain oral health status information of a given population. From this collection of information, also known as epidemiological survey, the dentist can plan and evaluate taken actions for the different problems identified. This procedure has limiting factors, such as a limited number of qualified professionals to perform these tasks, different diagnoses interpretations among other factors. Given this context came the ideia of using intelligent systems techniques in supporting carrying out these tasks. Thus, it was proposed in this paper the development of an intelligent system able to segment, count and classify teeth from occlusal intraoral digital photographic images. The proposed system makes combined use of machine learning techniques and digital image processing. We first carried out a color-based segmentation on regions of interest, teeth and non teeth, in the images through the use of Support Vector Machine. After identifying these regions were used techniques based on morphological operators such as erosion and transformed watershed for counting and detecting the boundaries of the teeth, respectively. With the border detection of teeth was possible to calculate the Fourier descriptors for their shape and the position descriptors. Then the teeth were classified according to their types through the use of the SVM from the method one-against-all used in multiclass problem. The multiclass classification problem has been approached in two different ways. In the first approach we have considered three class types: molar, premolar and non teeth, while the second approach were considered five class types: molar, premolar, canine, incisor and non teeth. The system presented a satisfactory performance in the segmenting, counting and classification of teeth present in the images.

Fragilariopsis kerguelensis images from sediment core PS1768-8

Background: Light microscopic analysis of diatom frustules is widely used both in basic and applied research, notably taxonomy, morphometrics, water quality monitoring and paleo-environmental studies. In these applications, usually large numbers of frustules need to be identified and / or measured. Although there is a need for automation in these applications, and image processing and analysis methods supporting these tasks have previously been developed, they did not become widespread in diatom analysis. While methodological reports for a wide variety of methods for image segmentation, diatom identification and feature extraction are available, no single implementation combining a subset of these into a readily applicable workflow accessible to diatomists exists. Results: The newly developed tool SHERPA offers a versatile image processing workflow focused on the identification and measurement of object outlines, handling all steps from image segmentation over object identification to feature extraction, and providing interactive functions for reviewing and revising results. Special attention was given to ease of use, applicability to a broad range of data and problems, and supporting high throughput analyses with minimal manual intervention. Conclusions: Tested with several diatom datasets from different sources and of various compositions, SHERPA proved its ability to successfully analyze large amounts of diatom micrographs depicting a broad range of species. SHERPA is unique in combining the following features: application of multiple segmentation methods and selection of the one giving the best result for each individual object; identification of shapes of interest based on outline matching against a template library; quality scoring and ranking of resulting outlines supporting quick quality checking; extraction of a wide range of outline shape descriptors widely used in diatom studies and elsewhere; minimizing the need for, but enabling manual quality control and corrections. Although primarily developed for analyzing images of diatom valves originating from automated microscopy, SHERPA can also be useful for other object detection, segmentation and outline-based identification problems.

Representing clinical documents to support automatic retrieval of evidence from the Cochrane Library

The overall aim of our research is to develop a clinical information retrieval system that retrieves systematic reviews and underlying clinical studies from the Cochrane Library to support physician decision making. We believe that in order to accomplish this goal we need to develop a mechanism for effectively representing documents that will be retrieved by the application. Therefore, as a first step in developing the retrieval application we have developed a methodology that semi-automatically generates high quality indices and applies them as descriptors to documents from The Cochrane Library. In this paper we present a description and implementation of the automatic indexing methodology and an evaluation that demonstrates that enhanced document representation results in the retrieval of relevant documents for clinical queries. We argue that the evaluation of information retrieval applications should also include an evaluation of the quality of the representation of documents that may be retrieved. ©2010 IEEE.

RELIBILITY ANALYSIS OF SIMPLE SLOPES AND SOIL-STRUCTURES WITH LINEAR LIMIT STATES

The first objective of this research was to develop closed-form and numerical probabilistic methods of analysis that can be applied to otherwise conventional methods of unreinforced and geosynthetic reinforced slopes and walls. These probabilistic methods explicitly include random variability of soil and reinforcement, spatial variability of the soil, and cross-correlation between soil input parameters on probability of failure. The quantitative impact of simultaneously considering the influence of random and/or spatial variability in soil properties in combination with cross-correlation in soil properties is investigated for the first time in the research literature. Depending on the magnitude of these statistical descriptors, margins of safety based on conventional notions of safety may be very different from margins of safety expressed in terms of probability of failure (or reliability index). The thesis work also shows that intuitive notions of margin of safety using conventional factor of safety and probability of failure can be brought into alignment when cross-correlation between soil properties is considered in a rigorous manner. The second objective of this thesis work was to develop a general closed-form solution to compute the true probability of failure (or reliability index) of a simple linear limit state function with one load term and one resistance term expressed first in general probabilistic terms and then migrated to a LRFD format for the purpose of LRFD calibration. The formulation considers contributions to probability of failure due to model type, uncertainty in bias values, bias dependencies, uncertainty in estimates of nominal values for correlated and uncorrelated load and resistance terms, and average margin of safety expressed as the operational factor of safety (OFS). Bias is defined as the ratio of measured to predicted value. Parametric analyses were carried out to show that ignoring possible correlations between random variables can lead to conservative (safe) values of resistance factor in some cases and in other cases to non-conservative (unsafe) values. Example LRFD calibrations were carried out using different load and resistance models for the pullout internal stability limit state of steel strip and geosynthetic reinforced soil walls together with matching bias data reported in the literature.

College radio as coaching professional. Analysis of the relationship between the degrees and Spanish university radio

College radio is subject to constant transformation. The rise of information and communications technologies has allowed its development and modernization as well as the proliferation of new professional profiles. This research aims to analyze the connection of the Spanish university stations with the relevant qualifications. To do this, we use a comparative methodology based on examination of descriptors and specific principal subjects of degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism, although we will be using other degrees that are acquiring more responsibilities in a radio station, such as the degree in Information and Documentation. In conclusion, structural weaknesses in the university environment are observed, but future possibilities are detected as well: A college radio station is a place of convergence between the training of students from different degrees and reality itself, a versatile medium that provides the relevance of being the first professional contact of college students with the labor market.