Guava extract （Psidium guajava） alters the labelling of blood constituents with technetium-99m

Psidium guajava （guava） leaf is a phytotherapic used in folk medicine to treat gastrointestinal and respiratory disturbances and is used as anti-inflammatory medicine. In nuclear medicine, blood constituents （BC） are labelled with technetium-99m （^99mTc） and used to image procedures. However, data have demonstrated that synthetic or natural drugs could modify the labelling of BC with ^99mTC. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effects of aqueous extract of guava leaves on the labelling of BC with ^99mTc. Blood samples of Wistar rats were incubated with different concentrations of guava extract and labelled with ^99mTc after the percentage of incorporated radioactivity （%ATI） in BC was determined. The results suggest that aqueous guava extract could present antioxidant action and/or alters the membrane structures involved in ion transport into cells, thus decreasing the radiolabelling of BC with ^99mTc. The data showed significant （P〈0.05） alteration of ATI in BC from blood incubated with guava extract.     

E-Mail as Spectroscopy: Automated Discovery of Community Structure within Organizations

We describe a method for the automatic identification of communities of practice from e-mail logs within an organization. We use a betweenness centrality algorithm that can rapidly find communities within a graph representing information flows. We apply this algorithm to an initial e-mail corpus of nearly 1 million messages collected over a 2-month span, and show that the method is effective at identifying true communities, both formal and informal, within these scale-free graphs. This approach also enables the identification of leadership roles within the communities. These studies are complemented by a qualitative evaluation of the results in the field.     

On Defining and Developing Literacy across Communities

International Review of Education - The paper attempts to raise a few issues relating to the task of defining and operationalizing literacy and literacy development across communities with diverse...     

Argumentation in Science Teacher Education: The simulated jury as a resource for teaching and learning

In this article, we focus on the contributions that a simulated jury-based activity might have for pre-service teachers, especially for their active participation and learning in teacher education. We observed a teacher educator using a series of simulated juries as teaching resources to help pre-service teachers develop their pedagogical knowledge and their argumentation abilities in a physics teacher methods course. For the purposes of this article, we have selected one simulated jury-based activity, comprising two opposed groups of pre-service teachers that presented aspects that hinder the teachers' development of professional knowledge (against group) and aspects that allow this development (favor group). After the groups’ presentations, a group of judges was formed to evaluate the discussion. We applied a multi-level method for discourse analysis and the results showed that (1) the simulated jury afforded the pre-service teachers to position themselves as active knowledge producers; (2) the teacher acted as ‘animator' of the pre-service teachers' actions, showing responsiveness to the emergence of circumstantial teaching and learning opportunities and (3) the simulated jury culminated in the judges’ identification of the pattern ‘concrete/obstacles–ideological/possibilities' in the groups’ responses, which was elaborated by the teacher for the whole class. Implications from this study include using simulated juries for teaching and learning and for the development of the pre-service teachers’ argumentative abilities. The potential of simulated juries to improve teaching and learning needs to be further explored in order to inform the uses and reflections of this resource in science education.     

Echoes of the Tragedy: The Sport Memoir and the Representation of the 1950 World Cup

This article delves into the meaning of the 1950 World Cup, held in Brazil after a 12-year hiatus due to the Second World War and two decades after a South American country (Uruguay) had hosted the tournament. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the role of sport memoirs in the cementing of a collective imagination on the Brazilian National Team's defeat in 1950. Anchored on a triple dimension – organisational, tactical and technical – the analysis explores the way in which the loss of the title to the Uruguayan team was experienced by a number of actors – among them players, management personnel and fans – and set in writing by many generations of sports writers. Through the diachronic choice of works published by journalists (which include memoirs, news stories, biographies and autobiographies), the objective is to point to the congealing of a rhetoric made up of negative remarks associated to the football event, such as ‘trauma’, ‘drama’, ‘tragedy’ and even ‘catastrophe’. Contemporary historical perspective, which questions the deep-rooted opposition between memory and history will be turned so as to support the consideration of whether the former can in fact direct, or even shape, the latter's features.     

Del estudio del caso al análisis de la situación: evolución histórica del diagnóstico psicoeducativo

Resumen

Se analizan diversos factores socioeducativos y, especialmente, teórico-profesionales, que han moldeado la función evaluativa del psicólogo escolar, determinando sus características actuales y anticipando su futuro inmediato. Este desarrollo se interpreta como un progresivo desplazamiento desde los resultados del alumno hacia el conjunto del proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, posibilitado por los avances conceptuales de la psicología instructional, la psicología social de la educatión, los modelos ecológicos del comportamiento y el movimiento de escuelas eficaces. Esta evolución implica: a) recuperar la noción de diagnóstico multifacético; b) evaluar ambientes de aprendizaje, programas y organizaciones escolares; y c) complementar, cuando no sustituir, las labores clasificatorias con las funciones intervencionistas.     

Facilitating integrated agricultural technology development through participatory research

Purpose: In this paper, we discuss the role of participatory research in integrated agricultural technology development using the example of a solar fruit drying project in Mozambique.

Design/methodology/approach: We engage in seven participatory exercises with groups of farmers from two farmers’ associations in Inharrime district in Mozambique to identify their needs for solar fruit drying that are crucial for solar dryer technology design. We focus in the analysis on three of these exercises including a daily schedule exercise, SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) analysis and technology requirement exercise.

Findings: Participatory research takes a dual function for integrated agricultural technology development. First, it can help to identify the technology needs of farmers and second it can enable the exchange and creation of different sets of knowledge for agricultural technology development between multiple stakeholders.

Practical implications: Participatory research provides a tool for joint knowledge exchange and creation, which allows the identified technology requirements to be translated into practical technology design.

Theoretical implications: This paper extends the concept of integrated research to integrated agricultural technology development and shows how participatory research is a tool that enables transdisciplinarity, which presents the most desired form of integrated research.

Originality: This research is highly relevant for researchers working in an interdisciplinary environment with agricultural technology development in cross-cultural contexts. From a meta-level perspective, it provides insights for joint and integrated technology development.     

Subjective Well-Being of Filipino Women who Experienced Intimate Partner Violence: A Person-Centered Analysis

The study inquired into characteristics associated with the subjective well-being of Filipino women who had experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Using a person-centered analysis, three groups of Filipino women who had experienced IPV were identified in terms of their reported levels of subjective well-being (high, moderate, low). The three groups were compared in terms of several relationship characteristics and also personal internal qualities. Results indicated that the women in the high and moderate subjective well-being groups were more likely to have left their abusive relationship and to report higher levels of optimism, self-esteem, and behavioral intentions that reflected self-mastery. Women in the low-wellbeing group were more likely to still be in their abusive relationship and report lower positive personal resources. The results are discussed in terms of how internal resources might allow women to deal with varied types of experiences in their abusive relationship. Implications for screening and counseling of abused Filipino women are discussed.