Sexuality and human reproduction: a study of scientific knowledge,behaviours and beliefs of Portuguese future elementary school teachers

Sex education in Portugal has become a right and an obligation starting in the first years of school. However, despite being required by legislation, this is not easy to achieve, partly because of weaknesses in the training of teachers, which need to be identified. In this study, data were collected about the knowledge, behaviours and beliefs of 148 teacher trainees of elementary education (6–10 years old) from two Portuguese public higher education institutions. The topic of sexuality and human reproduction had been covered by almost all of them during their initial training and was considered important by most of them. Nevertheless, about 85% asserted they are not confident enough to teach this topic to small children in a classroom and committed scientific errors about physiological‐anatomical aspects of the human body. All subjects felt that there is a lack of specific didactic materials, which does not help to overcome those obstacles. It was also possible to identify in these future teachers risky sexual practices resulting, in part, from their beliefs, which could have implications about the way the topic will be approached in the classroom. These findings show how essential it is for training institutions to pay greater attention to the education of future elementary school teachers in this area.     

Information literacy in managers’ education

This research reflects on information literacy (IL) when taking business decisions and, on the education of future managers. We focus on two aspects; characterizing IL skills and their link to academic performance. This research provides interesting conclusions. First, IL may be broken down into various dimensions – access, evaluation and use – and these skills are not independent: our research shows how persons skilled at applying information will lose their advantage if they are not skilled at interpreting or at prior selection. Second, our study also shows how the IL skills have differing effects on the different components of the academic performance.     

Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy

Few studies have evaluated resilience in an academic environment as it relates to academic success or failure. This work sought to assess resilience in regular and remedial students of gross anatomy during the first and second semesters of medical school and to correlate this personal trait with academic performance. Two groups of students were compared: the first group included first‐year medical students in the regular course, and the second group included first‐year medical students who did not pass the regular anatomy course and so were enrolled in the remedial course. Both groups completed anonymous surveys designed to gather demographic data and establish scores on the Connor‐Davidson resilience scale, which includes 25 statements rated zero to four on a Likert scale (maximum score 100). The average resilience score was the same for both groups, 80 ± 9. The average anatomy grades differed significantly between regular students (67± 15.0) and remedial students (61 ± 12.0). While there was no overall correlation between resilience score and anatomy grade, regular students with resilience scores of 75 or greater showed slightly better academic performance than their classmates. Similarly, remedial students with resilience scores of 87 or greater faired better academically. Resilience does not predict academic performance in gross anatomy, and further work is necessary to identify those intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence students' achievements. Anat Sci Educ. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Teaching skills to promote clinical reasoning in early basic science courses

Basic and superior reasoning skills are woven into the clinical reasoning process just as they are used to solve any problem. As clinical reasoning is the central competence of medical education, development of these reasoning skills should occur throughout the undergraduate medical curriculum. The authors describe here a method of teaching reasoning skills in a clinical context during a human anatomy course. Anat Sci Educ 3:267–271, 2010. © 2010 American Association of Anatomists.     

Development and validation of a theoretically based,multidimensional questionnaire of student evaluation of university teaching

The authors describe the development and validation of a multidimensional instrument of students’ evaluation of university teaching (the Pedagogical Questionnaire of the University of Porto). The goal was to develop an instrument based on a sound psychometric analysis and simultaneously supported by the learning theory. Based on the data from 4875 questionnaires, the present study examined the fit of the proposed multidimensional model of university teaching to the whole sample and to various specific university programmes of study using confirmatory factor analysis (AMOS 5.0). Results clearly supported the applicability of the proposed model for the whole university and across programmes of study, demonstrating the validity and reliability of the instrument in evaluating several distinct dimensions of the quality of university teaching.     

Output-feedback binary adaptive control of MIMO systems using monitoring function

The problem of adaptive control design for multivariable linear time-invariant plants with unknown control direction is considered. A solution is proposed based on the SDU factorization of the high frequency gain matrix (HFG) and the monitoring function approach. The adaptation scheme is the binary model reference adaptive control (BMRAC) which utilizes parameter projection and sufficiently high adaptation gains. The signs of the leading principal minors of the HFG define the control directions, and the lack of knowledge of which is a major challenge in the multivariable framework. The role of the monitoring function is to monitor the output error transient and then provide the necessary changes of the adaptation gain signs to guarantee a stable adaptive control. In addition to proving the signal boundedness of the resulting closed-loop system, the output tracking error is shown to be asymptotically as well as exponentially practically stable, i.e., exponentially stable with respect to a small residual compact set of size inversely proportional to the BMRAC adaptation gain. The latter implies good transient properties of the output tracking error in contrast to conventional adaptive laws which only guarantee asymptotic stability but can lead to extremely slow error convergence. The extension of the proposed approach to matched disturbances is also briefly discussed following the classical paradigm of disturbance estimators. Numerical results with a visual servoing application illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.     

Leg preference and interlateral asymmetry of balance stability in soccer players

To examine the effect of long lasting practice on pedal behavior in sport, we compared experienced adult soccer players and nonsoccer players on leg preference in motor tasks requiring general mobilization, soccer related mobilization, and body balance stabilization. We also evaluated performance asymmetry between the right and left legs in static and dynamic unipedal body balance, based on center of pressure displacement, and correlated that with leg preference in balance stabilization tasks. Results revealed (a) a distinct leg preference between mobilization and stabilization tasks, which were significantly different between players and nonplayers, (b) similar balance stability between the right and left legs, (c) greater stability of experienced players compared with nonplayers in static and dynamic balance, and (d) absence of a significant leg preference correlation with interlateral balance asymmetry. These results suggest an effect of extensive soccer skill practice on establishing leg preference for specific mobilization tasks and overall balance control.     

Human capital intensity in technology-based firms located in Portugal: Does foreign ownership matter?

This paper contributes to the scarce empirical literature on the impact of foreign ownership on human capital intensity. New evidence is provided, based on a comprehensive, large-scale survey of technology-based firms located in Portugal. The key findings are that: (1) foreign ownership directly (and significantly) impacts a firm's general human capital (education); (2) foreign ownership indirectly (and significantly) impacts a firm's specific human capital (skills); (3) the total impact of foreign ownership on a firm's human capital intensity is higher for education- (general) than for skills- (specific) related human capital intensity. Giving the critical importance of both FDI and human capital development for an ‘intermediate’ economy like Portugal (lagging behind in terms of human capital stock, and seeming to have lost part of its attractiveness as an FDI location), the paper discusses related policy implications. It is believed that our results and conclusions may be useful for other countries facing similar challenges.     

Elongated unique DNA strand deposition on microstructured substrate by receding meniscus assembly and capillary force

Ordered deposition of elongated DNA molecules was achieved by the forced dewetting of a DNA solution droplet over a microstructured substrate. This technique allows trapping, uncoiling, and deposition of DNA fragments without the need of a physicochemical anchoring of the molecule and results in the combing of double stranded DNA from the edge of microwells on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate. The technique involves scanning a droplet of DNA solution caught between a movable blade and a PDMS substrate containing an array of microwells. The deposition and elongation appears when the receding meniscus dewets microwells, the latter acting here as a perturbation in the dewetting line forcing the water film to break locally. Thus, DNA molecules can be deposited in an ordered manner and elongated conformation based solely on a physical phenomenon, allowing uncoiled DNA molecules to be observed in all their length. However, the exact mechanism that governs the deposition of DNA strands is not well understood. This paper is an analysis of the physical phenomenon occurring in the deposition process and is based on observations made with the use of high frame/second rate video microscopy.