Viewpoint 66: What is the Housing with Care ‘Offer’ and who is it for?

Published to coincide with the International Day of Older Persons, this viewpoint explores some of the findings from Adult Social Services Environments and Settings(ASSET), a research project that was funded by the NIHR School for Social Care Research from February 2012 to April 2014. The project explored how adult social care services are commissioned and delivered in extra care housing and retirement villages. It is a timely paper, coming hot off the heels of the recent Commission on Residential Care, chaired by former Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow MP. This recommended greater clarification on what constitutes housing with care.

Water Summary Update, August 4, 2016, No. 66

A snapshot of water resource trends prepared by the Iowa DNR in collaboration with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the U.S. Geological Survey, and The Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department.

As versões portuguesas da GMFM-66 B&C e da GMFM-66 IS

A Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM) é a medida de ouro para avaliar alterações na função motora ao longo do tempo ou em resposta a uma intervenção em crianças com Paralisia Cerebral (PC) (Russell D. , Rosenbaum, Avery, & Lane, 2002). Uma das barreiras à utilização mais frequente da GMFM é o seu tempo de administração, que dura entre 40 a 60 minutos. Para responder à necessidade de versões mais reduzidas da GMFM mas sem perder o seu carácter discriminativo e altamente sensível à mudança, foram publicadas as versões Gross Motor Function Measure- Item Sets (GMFM-66 IS) e a Gross Motor Function Measure Basal and Ceiling (GMFM-66-B&C), tornando a avaliação da função motora menos morosa, e assim melhorando a sua aplicabilidade. A GMFM-66 IS baseia-se num algoritmo para determinar quais os itens a serem avaliados e a GMFM-66 B&C tem como abordagem os efeitos de chão e teto de acordo com as idades e níveis do Sistema de Classificação da Função Motora Grosseira (SCFMG) (Brutton & Bartlett, 2011). O objetivo deste estudo foi criar as versões portuguesas da GMFM-IS e GMFM-B&C. Tratou-se de um estudo de natureza metodológica, descritivo, longitudinal em crianças com PC, dividido em duas fases: 1. Tradução e adaptação cultural e linguística da GMFM-66 IS e da GMFM-66 B&C; 2. Estudo de validação com análise da fiabilidade (coerência interna, reprodutibilidade e fiabilidade inter-observador), validade e poder de resposta. A amostra em estudo foi constituída por 100 crianças com PC com idades compreendidas entre os 2 e os 12 anos, representativa de todos os 5 níveis do Sistema de Classificação da Função Motora Global. As versões portuguesas da GMFM-66-IS e da GMFM-66-B&C apresentam equivalência conceptual e semântica com as versões originais revelando fácil aplicabilidade. Demonstrou-se que as versões reduzidas portuguesas da GMFM apresentam muito boa consistência interna, com valores globais do Alfa de Cronbach de 0,998, muito boa concordância entre os avaliadores (ICC de 0,998 para a GMFM-66-B&C e de 0,999 para a GMFM-66-IS), e com valores de fiabilidade intra-observador excelentes (ICC de 0,999 para a GMFM-66-B&C e de 1,000 para a GMFM-66-IS). Quanto ao poder de resposta os resultados não foram tão expressivos, provavelmente comprometidos por uma amostra demasiado pequena. As versões portuguesas da GMFM-66-IS e da GMFM-66-B&C revelaram ter características psicométricas adequadas à sua aplicação em PC, necessitando, no entanto, de mais investigação relativamente à sua capacidade de detetar mudança como resultado de intervenções.

Practice links [Issue 66, February 2016]

Practice Links is a free e-publication for practitioners working in Irish social services, voluntary and nongovernmental sectors. Practice Links was created to enable practitioners to keep up-to-date with new publications, electronic resources and conference opportunities.

“The Landscape of wheat - A landscape of power” pp: 66-70

Portugal in the end of the 19 th century was characterized by a huge economic and political instability. This situation led to the publication of the Hunger Law (1899), which is identified as the critical breaking point since it imposed a political ideology over a vernacular landscape. The Alentejo (south of Portugal), between (1889-1929) emerges as a paradigmatic landscapes where an abrupt transformation take place: an ancient landscape with the loss of their ecological memory was lost and a false identities was created. The diversity and ecological richness of the vernacular landscape gave way to the monotony of the cereal and the ecological and social system that for centuries had built up and evolved was abruptly compromised. To analyze and understand the important transformation that happened in the ancestral countryside of Alentejo, the research was based on the concept of landscape as a system, and that the landscape represents the relationship between the natural system and the cultural.

Raman spectroscopy of the molybdate minerals chillagite (tungsteinian wulfenite-I4), stolzite, scheelite, wolframite and wulfenite

Raman spectra of chillagite, wulfenite, stolzite, scheelite and wolframite were obtained at 298 and 77 K using a Raman microprobe in combination with a thermal stage. Chillagite is a solid solution of wulfenite and stolzite. The spectra of these molybdate minerals are orientation dependent. The band at 695 cm-1 is interpreted as an antisymmetric bridging mode associated with the tungstate chain. The bands at 790 and 881 cm-1 are associated with the antisymmetric and symmetric Ag modes of terminal WO2 whereas the origin of the 806 cm-1 band remains unclear. The 4(Eg) band was absent for scheelite. The bands at 353 and 401 cm-1 are assigned as either deformation modes or as r(Bg) and (Ag) modes of terminal WO2. The band at 462 cm-1 has an equivalent band in the infrared at 455 cm-1 assigned as as(Au) of the (W2O4)n chain. The band at 508 cm-1 is assigned as sym(Bg) of the (W2O4)n chain.

The Scored Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and its Association with Quality of Life in Ambulatory Patients Receiving Radiotherapy

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the scored Patient-generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) tool as an outcome measure in clinical nutrition practice and determine its association with quality of life (QoL). DESIGN: A prospective 4 week study assessing the nutritional status and QoL of ambulatory patients receiving radiation therapy to the head, neck, rectal or abdominal area. SETTING: Australian radiation oncology facilities. SUBJECTS: Sixty cancer patients aged 24-85 y. INTERVENTION: Scored PG-SGA questionnaire, subjective global assessment (SGA), QoL (EORTC QLQ-C30 version 3). RESULTS: According to SGA, 65.0% (39) of subjects were well-nourished, 28.3% (17) moderately or suspected of being malnourished and 6.7% (4) severely malnourished. PG-SGA score and global QoL were correlated (r=-0.66, P<0.001) at baseline. There was a decrease in nutritional status according to PG-SGA score (P<0.001) and SGA (P<0.001); and a decrease in global QoL (P<0.001) after 4 weeks of radiotherapy. There was a linear trend for change in PG-SGA score (P<0.001) and change in global QoL (P=0.003) between those patients who improved (5%) maintained (56.7%) or deteriorated (33.3%) in nutritional status according to SGA. There was a correlation between change in PG-SGA score and change in QoL after 4 weeks of radiotherapy (r=-0.55, P<0.001). Regression analysis determined that 26% of the variation of change in QoL was explained by change in PG-SGA (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: The scored PG-SGA is a nutrition assessment tool that identifies malnutrition in ambulatory oncology patients receiving radiotherapy and can be used to predict the magnitude of change in QoL.