Iowa Statewide Directory on Women's Issues

Iowa Statewide Directory on Women's Issues by the Iowa Commission on the Status of Women

Position statement--altitude training for improving team-sport players' performance: current knowledge and unresolved issues.

Despite the limited research on the effects of altitude (or hypoxic) training interventions on team-sport performance, players from all around the world engaged in these sports are now using altitude training more than ever before. In March 2013, an Altitude Training and Team Sports conference was held in Doha, Qatar, to establish a forum of research and practical insights into this rapidly growing field. A round-table meeting in which the panellists engaged in focused discussions concluded this conference. This has resulted in the present position statement, designed to highlight some key issues raised during the debates and to integrate the ideas into a shared conceptual framework. The present signposting document has been developed for use by support teams (coaches, performance scientists, physicians, strength and conditioning staff) and other professionals who have an interest in the practical application of altitude training for team sports. After more than four decades of research, there is still no consensus on the optimal strategies to elicit the best results from altitude training in a team-sport population. However, there are some recommended strategies discussed in this position statement to adopt for improving the acclimatisation process when training/competing at altitude and for potentially enhancing sea-level performance. It is our hope that this information will be intriguing, balanced and, more importantly, stimulating to the point that it promotes constructive discussion and serves as a guide for future research aimed at advancing the bourgeoning body of knowledge in the area of altitude training for team sports.

Creative accounting: Some ethical issues of macro- and micro-manipulation

This paper examines two principal categories of manipulative behaviour. The term'macro-manipulation' is used to describe the lobbying of regulators to persuadethem to produce regulation that is more favourable to the interests of preparers.'Micro-manipulation' describes the management of accounting figures to produce abiased view at the entity level. Both categories of manipulation can be viewed asattempts at creativity by financial statement preparers. The paper analyses twocases of manipulation which are considered in an ethical context. The paperconcludes that the manipulations described in it can be regarded as morallyreprehensible. They are not fair to users, they involve an unjust exercise ofpower, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators.

Introducing a first AIDS vaccine in Switzerland: a Policy Delphi analysis.

This preliminary exploration was limited by a number of factors. The format of the study has necessarily induced some form of selection bias of the panelists, because of the complexity of some questions, and the time required to complete the questionnaires. Several issues have not been addressed. One example could be the response to HIV infection occurring in a vaccinee. The study also did not address the difficulties related to the licensing of the vaccine. Indeed, the proposed scenario assumed that the vaccine had been registered as a starting point for the analysis. Finally, it has not been possible to conduct a sensitivity analysis, in order to evaluate how the responses would have been modified if some important characteristics of the vaccine had been modified.Very diverse evaluations were given in response to questions related with attitudes and perception of AIDS and AIDS vaccine. The possibility that vaccine availability or usage can be associated with an increased frequency in risky behaviors was spontaneously mentioned by half of the panelists. The estimation of the proportion of persons at highest risk who would choose to use this vaccine also indicated a high degree of uncertainty. This study offers important lessons. According to a broad and diverse panel of individuals, an incompletely effective AIDS vaccine would result in an additional level of complexity for the AIDS prevention strategy, rather than a simplification. The use of such a vaccine would have to be coupled with counselling. This implies a sustained emphasis on the recommendations which have been central to the STOP AIDS campaigns until now. In addition, consensual issues, as well as other issues more likely to be controversial have been identified. This should greatly help focusing the work of any committee designated to develop and implement a vaccination policy if an AIDS vaccine became available. Finally, our experience with the Policy Delphi indicates that this mode of structured communication could be usefully applied to other public health issues presenting a high visibility as well as a complex relationship with public perception.

O Erro, uma Análise Necessária: sua Implicação no Ensino da Língua Portuguesa em Cabo Verde

O trabalho de investigação que ora se apresenta entronca nas preocupações do dia a dia enquanto profissional e dirigente da educação que tem experimentado e acompanhado de perto a prática pedagógica e docente. Por esses imperativos, senti-me na obrigação de procurar uma resposta, refletir sobre as dificuldades do ensino da língua portuguesa e perceber melhor esses obstáculos, nomeadamente o erro linguístico nas práticas letivas, as causas subjacentes e, eventualmente, a quota-parte de responsabilidades dos outros intervenientes no processo, nomeadamente, dos professores de língua portuguesa e do próprio sistema. Nesta sequência, o presente estudo aborda o erro como conceito, marcado pela polissemia da sua definição, abordado pelas múltiplas metodologias de ensino, mas também como elemento central no ensino e aprendizagem de uma língua segunda, no ensino básico, em contextos de coabitação de línguas muito próximas como o português e a língua cabo-verdiana; pretendemos também elencar os procedimentos e atitudes dos atores no processo, bem como os meios didático-pedagógicos essenciais com vista a sua deteção, análise e tratamento do mesmo. A aprendizagem de uma língua segunda como o português, num contexto como o de Cabo Verde, constitui uma tarefa complexa e por vezes demorada, que não pode ser resumida a atos corriqueiros e previsíveis de sala de aula, ignorando as necessidades, disposições e interesses dos aprendentes que são colocados perante uma encruzilhada, o de aprender uma língua que não é sua, mas que não pode recusar. A aparente aproximação entre as duas línguas constitui um obstáculo acrescido, por propiciar a interferência, principal causa do erro, apesar do avanço verificado no desenvolvimento de metodologias e materiais de apoio que auxiliam e tornam mais eficiente o processo de aquisição de uma língua segunda. Para operacionalização do assunto foi elaborado um estudo com recurso à análise de erros, em quarenta e um (41) textos produzidos por alunos do 6.º ano de escolaridade de cinco escolas do ensino básico do Tarrafal, Cabo Verde, com o intuito de recolher informações, analisá-las e, após uma reflexão sobre os resultados, concluir sobre as suas implicações no ensino aprendizagem da língua portuguesa.

Finance versus costs for teaching hospitals in Spain

In this paper we analyse the observed systematic differences incosts for teaching hospitals (THhenceforth) in Spain. Concernhas been voiced regarding the existence of a bias in thefinancing of TH s has been raised once prospective budgets arein the arena for hospital finance, and claims for adjusting totake into account the legitimate extra costs of teaching onhospital expenditure are well grounded. We focus on theestimation of the impact of teaching status on average cost. Weused a version of a multiproduct hospital cost function takinginto account some relevant factors from which to derive theobserved differences. We assume that the relationship betweenthe explanatory and the dependent variables follows a flexibleform for each of the explanatory variables. We also model theunderlying covariance structure of the data. We assumed twoqualitatively different sources of variation: random effects andserial correlation. Random variation refers to both general levelvariation (through the random intercept) and the variationspecifically related to teaching status. We postulate that theimpact of the random effects is predominant over the impact ofthe serial correlation effects. The model is estimated byrestricted maximum likelihood. Our results show that costs are 9%higher (15% in the case of median costs) in teaching than innon-teaching hospitals. That is, teaching status legitimatelyexplains no more than half of the observed difference in actualcosts. The impact on costs of the teaching factor depends on thenumber of residents, with an increase of 51.11% per resident forhospitals with fewer than 204 residents (third quartile of thenumber of residents) and 41.84% for hospitals with more than 204residents. In addition, the estimated dispersion is higher amongteaching hospitals. As a result, due to the considerable observedheterogeneity, results should be interpreted with caution. From apolicy making point of view, we conclude that since a higherrelative burden for medical training is under public hospitalcommand, an explicit adjustment to the extra costs that theteaching factor imposes on hospital finance is needed, beforehospital competition for inpatient services takes place.

English as a world language: its role as a lingua francaa sociolinguistic profile of students of secondary schools in Santiago Island, in the Archipelago of Cape Verde

Esta tese centra-se em aspectos relevantes do inglês como uma língua universal, no actual contexto globalizado e examina possíveis mudanças relacionadas com o seu uso, em especial no continente africano, particularmente no caso de Cabo Verde, no sentido de ponderar eventuais alternativas nas pedagogias linguísticas no ensino desta língua que impliquem uma adaptação à realidade contemporânea. Uma vez que, nos nossos tempos, o inglês é a língua de eleição para a comunicação intercultural entre povos com várias experiências culturais e linguísticas, o conhecimento deste idioma torna-se, a cada dia que passa, impreterível e indispensável, na interacção intercultural. Em África, as funções desempenhadas pelo inglês são complexas; além da língua inglesa ser usada para comunicação entre etnias, com o estatuto de língua franca, também tem o papel de preservar a identidade nacional e de estabelecer a unidade entre os povos da mesma nação. Por conseguinte, é de considerar talvez ainda com mais pertinência, a adopção de uma nova filosofia de pedagogia de ensino que permita dotar os seus cidadãos de capacidades que lhes possibilitem comunicar de forma inteligível com povos de outras culturas e línguas. O primeiro capítulo aborda aspectos teóricos relacionados com a expansão, comunicação e mudança associadas à língua inglesa e suas implicações no ensino em países onde esta não é língua nativa (L1). O segundo capítulo reflecte, em primeiro lugar, sobre a situação linguística em África e as línguas francas predominantes no continente, incluindo a língua inglesa. Considera também questões relacionadas com o multilinguismo e a identidade, bem como assuntos relacionados com as implicações da diversidade linguística para a educação dos povos africanos.

Three Continents, one Language: Studying English in a Portuguese Landscape (Brazil, Cape Verde and Portugal)

Unlike other languages, English has spread to all continents and become a truly global language, a process observable in countries, like Brazil, Cape Verde, and Portugal, located in three different continents, and sharing a common official language: Portuguese. This relatively recent development has contributed to the wide exposure to English and the growing influence of the language in their societies, being used with lingua franca communicative purposes, which raises pedagogical issues. Our aim is to map the exposure and use of English as a Lingua Franca in these Portuguese speaking countries through a comparative study of the results from three case studies (Berto 2009, Cavalheiro 2008 and Nunes 2010). By taking into consideration the findings from questionnaires answered by students and teachers of English, it compares and contrasts the respondents’ opinions on the profile of English teachers — native vs. non-native —, the varieties of English to be taught, and the language teaching resources available. In addition, it explores the learners’ interests, motives and purposes in relation to English and the potential communicative interactions between all speakers, so as to better understand ELF in English language education, and how these factors affect or should affect pedagogical practices in a Portuguese environment.

Maladie d'Alzheimer: de la pathogénie aux perspectives cliniques [Alzheimer disease: from pathogenetic issues to clinical perspectives].

The aim of this article is a critical review of the main pathogenetic issues debated in Alzheimer disease, with a focus on the clinical perspectives that could derive from. The pertinence of the amyloid cascade hypothesis as a unique and causal explanation of cognitive deterioration is challenged in the light of recent therapeutic failures of clinical trials and increasing role of tau protein in clinical expression. The detection of very early and possibly preclinical stages of the disease emerges as a necessary condition for the efficacy of future amyloid or tau-oriented curative strategies. In this respect, the possibility of finding individual vulnerability markers--in the group of patients with "mild cognitive impairment" or even in cognitively intact subjects--represents a major challenge of the clinical research in this field.

Enseignement de recommandations pour la pratique: la prévention et le dépistage [Teaching practice recommendations: prevention and screening].

The aim of this article is to provide guidance to family doctors on how to tutor students about effective screening and primary prevention. Family doctors know their patients and adapt national and international guidelines to their specific context, risk profile, sex and age as well as to the prevalence of the disorders under consideration. Three cases are presented to illustrate guideline use according to the level of evidence (for a 19-year-old man, a 60-year-old woman, and an 80-year-old man). A particular strength of family medicine is that doctors see their patients over the years. Thus they can progressively go through the various prevention strategies, screening, counselling and immunisation, accompanying their patients with precious advice for their health throughout their lifetime.

Tying up the loose ends in simple correspondence analysis

Although correspondence analysis is now widely available in statistical software packages and applied in a variety of contexts, notably the social and environmental sciences, there are still some misconceptions about this method as well as unresolved issues which remain controversial to this day. In this paper we hope to settle these matters, namely (i) the way CA measures variance in a two-way table and how to compare variances between tables of different sizes, (ii) the influence, or rather lack of influence, of outliers in the usual CA maps, (iii) the scaling issue and the biplot interpretation of maps,(iv) whether or not to rotate a solution, and (v) statistical significance of results.

Creative accounting: Nature, incidence and ethical issues

This paper explores the nature and incidence of creative accounting practiceswithin the context of ethical considerations.It explores several definitionsof creative accounting and the potential and the range of reasons for acompany's directors to engage in creative accounting. Later the paperconsiders the various ways in which creative accounting can be undertaken andsummarizes some empirical research on the nature and incidence of creativeaccounting. The ethical dimension of creative accounting is discussed, drawingevidence from several empirical studies. The paper concludes with the analysisof possible solutions for the creative accounting problem.