Psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Éxamen Geronto-Psychomoteur (P-EGP)

ABSTRACT

Aging involves concomitant and interrelated changes in sensory, motor, and cognitive function. There is a decrease in psychomotor skills—such as balance, spatial orientation, mobility, and motor coordination—visible in increased difficulties performing daily instrumental activities (e.g., self care and domestic activities). The absence of valid psychomotor instruments for the elderly population to be used by psychomotor therapists can be identified as one of the reasons why there is a scarce research in this area. Currently, in Portugal, psychomotor therapists do not have any specific, validated scale within the psychomotor domain built and/or adapted to guide psychomotor interventions with the elderly population. Therefore, the aim of this study was the translation, adaptation, and validation of the Portuguese version of the Éxamen Geronto-Psychomoteur (P-EGP) in a population of 497 elders, aged between 60 and 99 years, with and without dementia. Results of the study are presented and discussed in terms of the reliability and validity of P-EGP. The results demonstrate that P-EGP appears to be a valid and reliable assessment of psychomotor skills for the elderly population in Portugal. Practical implications and future directions of research are also discussed.     

Medical Simulation in the Community College Health Science Curriculum: A Matrix for Future Implementation

As the nation's healthcare education system struggles to keep pace with the demand for its services, educators are seeking creative and innovative solutions to meet the needs of a growing number of students. The integration of medical simulation technology into the community college health science curriculum is a creative solution that can meet the needs of healthcare educators and the students they serve, as well as of the healthcare community. This article provides a comprehensive overview of medical simulation, beginning with a review of literature regarding its history and efficacy, continuing with the current state of medical simulation usage, and concluding with implications for practice by offering a matrix for simulation integration and implementation. While Iowa's community colleges are the focus of the current state of usage, the implications for practice are useful to all comprehensive community colleges offering health science education programs.     

Documenting and Assessing the Role of Community Colleges in Developing Human Capital

The 21st century community college is an institution that espouses the values of open-access and high quality education. The literature is filled with research that documents the extent to which these institutions contribute to society and to human capital development. The purpose of this article is three-fold: First, to apply a human capital framework to the community college context; second, to describe efforts by several states to document and assess their community colleges' contributions to human capital development; and third, to raise research and policy issues related to improving assessment of that role. The article concludes by addressing future research and policy implications.     

Mimicking Web search engines for expert search

Many enterprise employees may publish content outside their corporate intranet, making the Web a valuable source for identifying company experts. In this article, we thoroughly investigate the usefulness of Web search engines (WSEs) for expert search. In particular, we claim that the ranking of documentary expertise evidence provided by a WSE should also give an indication of the importance of such evidence. To investigate this, we mimic the rankings of seven different WSEs by trying to reproduce their underlying ranking mechanisms in order to search for candidate experts in the TREC CERC collection. Experimental results show that our approach is effective for expert search, and can significantly improve an intranet-based expert search engine. Moreover, when the mimicking of WSEs is further improved by training, expert search performance is also generally enhanced. Finally, we show that WSEs can be mimicked as effectively using only titles and snippets instead of the full content of WSEs’ results, while drastically reducing network costs.     

Is bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy accurate in estimating changes in fat-free mass in judo athletes?

Abstract

Bioelectrical impedance spectroscopy (BIS) provides an affordable and practical assessment of fat-free mass (FFM). However, little information is available on the assessment of changes in fat-free mass in top-level athletes using BIS. The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of BIS in tracking changes in fat-free mass of elite male judo athletes from a period of weight stability to just before competition, using the four-compartment model (4C model) as reference method. In total, 27 elite male judo athletes (age 22.2 ± 2.8 years) were evaluated. Measures of body volume assessed by air displacement plethysmography, bone mineral content by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and total-body water assessed with deuterium dilution were used in a 4C model. Fat-free mass was also assessed by BIS (FFM_BIS). Changes in FFM_BIS were not significantly different from measured by the reference method (P = 0.000). Furthermore, the r ² was 0.62 and the standard error of the estimate was 1.03 kg. The limits of agreement ranged from ?3.36 to 2.59 kg with no bias observed. These findings demonstrate the viability of BIS as a valid tool for tracking fat-free mass in elite male judo athletes. However, based on the wide limits of agreement observed, BIS is less valid at an individual level for tracking fat-free mass in these athletes.     

Growth and body composition in Brazilian female rhythmic gymnastics athletes

Abstract

The aim was to analyse the physical growth and body composition of rhythmic gymnastics athletes relative to their level of somatic maturation. This was a cross-sectional study of 136 athletes on 23 teams from Brazil. Mass, standing height and sitting height were measured. Fat-free and fat masses, body fat percentages and ages of the predicted peak height velocity (PHV) were calculated. The z scores for mass were negative during all ages according to both WHO and Brazilian references, and that for standing height were also negative for all ages according to WHO reference but only until 12 years old according to Brazilian reference. The mean age of the predicted PHV was 12.1 years. The mean mass, standing and sitting heights, body fat percentage, fat-free mass and fat mass increased significantly until 4 to 5 years after the age of the PHV. Menarche was reached in only 26% of these athletes and mean age was 13.2 years. The mass was below the national reference standards, and the standing height was below only for the international reference, but they also had late recovery of mass and standing height during puberty. In conclusion, these athletes had a potential to gain mass and standing height several years after PHV, indicating late maturation.     

Reification and recognition in teenage years in the contemporary world: An interpretation based on a critical look at Axel Honneth's theses

Abstract

This article seeks to explore the theoretical contributions of Axel Honneth, particularly in his works, The Struggle for Recognition and Reification, aiming at diving deep into the debate on the contemporary ideological expressions and their incidence in the process of subjective constitution in teenage years. This particular interest springs from the need to interweave the concepts of reification, forgetfulness and recognition within a fruitful theoretical field in order to interpret a project work called Hip-Hop: cultures and identities, developed with teenagers in a public school in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. From our point of view, the concepts of reification and forgetfulness are fundamental to identify how the conservative ideological expressions are present in the imaginary of adolescents in the contemporary world. Although rereading the concepts of reification and forgetfulness, as proposed by the author, is regarded as essential for understanding the ideological expressions that are based on and guided by consumption. However, even though we acknowledge Honneth's efforts toward moving forward with the concept of reification, it is crucial to emphasize the mediation concept Lukács explored in his work, History and Class Consciousness, so as to elucidate how the forgetfulness of the primary recognition relations is processed.     

Him Too? Cristiano Ronaldo and the News Coverage of a Rape Case Allegation

ABSTRACT

This paper uses critical thematic analysis to explore the news media coverage of a rape allegation case against the football player Cristiano Ronaldo. After providing the context of the case, we examine the literature on how rape cases are represented by the news media. We then proceed to a critical thematic analysis of a purposive sample of Portuguese national newspapers, first identifying ten sub-themes in a total of 140 news stories and opinion columns and then considering the patterns of three critical themes that tended to dismiss the allegations, highlight the seriousness of the allegations and neutralize sexual victimization. Each of these considers prevailing ideologies, news values and journalistic practices.     

The point of view of firms in Minas Gerais about the contribution of universities and research institutes to R&D activities

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the interactions between firms, universities and research institutes based in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The theoretical standpoint is the innovation system of developing countries. Multivariate cluster analysis is used, more specifically, the Grade of Membership method, to group firms with similar characteristics and evaluate their pattern of interaction with universities and research institutes. The main results show that the highest rates of interaction are found among firms that manufacture chemical products, cellulose, paper and paper products, followed by those engaged in the extraction of metallic and non-metallic minerals.