Perspective of pediatricians and adolescent patients on the transition process in a university hospital

ABSTRACT Objective: To map the transition process from the perspective of pediatricians and their adolescent patients, and to suggest a transition protocol. Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted in a pediatric outpatient clinic of a public tertiary hospital. Pediatricians answered a questionnaire about the transition process, and that was evaluated in a descriptive manner. The Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ) on health autonomy was answered by the adolescents and the analysis was performed using the χ2 and Mann-Whitney tests. p<0.05 were considered significant. Results: 31 pediatricians (16 residents, 15 supervisors) were enrolled, with a mean age of 40.1 (±16.9), 87% women, with years working in Pediatrics ranging from 2 to 45 years (median of 5 years). Most doctors agreed that there was no transition plan, but they stimulated the patient’s autonomy and talked to the patient and family members about any existing chronic diseases. A total of 102 adolescent patients participated, with a median age of 15; 56% were female. The TRAQ median was 58, with similar scores between females and males, and higher scores in those older than 16 years of age (Mann-Whitney U test, p=0.01). The patients reported ease in face-to-face communication with their doctors, but great difficulty in talking about health issues over the phone. Conclusions: Even without a transition protocol, adolescents developed several self-care skills as they aged. The lack of a transitional protocol led to conflicting opinions, which reinforces the need for improvement. We suggest a flowchart and transition protocol.

Gain, Fear and Glory

This paper analyses the three causes of war identified by Thucydides and his most eminent translator, Thomas Hobbes. Looking beyond the circumstantial occasions through which wars begin, the chief motives of belligerents have been to pursue material gains, to respond to fears, and to obtain glory and prestige for a doctrine. Wight calls ‘simple Thucydidean fear … the prime motive in international politics’ because it involves ‘a rational apprehension of contingent evil’, not simply ‘some unreasoning emotion’. Wight discusses how fear may be a cause of preventive war, and he labels the great difficulty of building trust between former adversaries ‘the Hobbesian predicament’. Wight defines this predicament as follows: ‘communities of honest and decent men, when they have suffered a long series of mutual injuries, and have a rational apprehension each that its own existence is at stake, and when moreover they live in inescapable juxtaposition, cannot transpose themselves into an attitude of mutual trust’. He also explores the tension between freedom and necessity: the circumstances at hand may seem to be tractable, with choices available between possible decisions and their likely consequences; yet the factors leading to war may prove inescapable.

Formation of project management units in the federal authorities of Russia in 2016-2021

The article reveals the process of formation and functioning of structural divisions of project management bodies in the federal authorities of the Russian Federation. In the 2010s, experiments were carried out to introduce project management technologies in individual ministries and regions. Project management standards have been developed. Since 2014, a series of regulations has been adopted that introduced project management into the system of government bodies. The new system, borrowed from developed countries, takes root with great difficulty. Since 2016, the development of project management has moved into the campaign stage. The leadership of the Russian state attaches great importance to the introduction of modern management technologies in the state system, including Project management. Therefore, despite the periodic slowdown of the campaign, the implementation of project management methods in the state administration continues.

Reliability Modeling and Analysis of Multi-Degradation of Momentum Wheel Based on Copula Function

The momentum wheel is a key component of the satellite attitude control system and has a direct impact on the reliability and overall life of the satellite. The momentum wheel has the characteristics of a high reliability, long life, and complex failure mechanics, which leads to expensive maintenance and a low reliability of the test sample. Therefore, it is challenge to implement an accelerated life test. The traditional life data statistical method has great difficulty in solving the reliability analysis of the momentum wheel. A reliability calculation method based on copula function for multi-degradation is proposed. Firstly, the key factors affecting the reliability of the momentum wheel are analyzed, and the lubricant residual quantity and current are selected as the degradation quantity. Secondly, the wiener process is used to model the degradation of a single degradation quantity, and the edge distribution function of the momentum wheel reliability is obtained. Considering that the correlation between multiple degradation quantities has a non-negligible influence on the reliability analysis result, the copula function is introduced to describe the correlation, and the edge distributions are fused to obtain the joint distribution function of the momentum wheel reliability.

“Avatar to Person” (ATP) Virtual Human Social Ability Enhanced System for Disabled People

How to make communication more effective has been underlined unprecedentedly in the artificial intelligence (AI) era. Nowadays, with the improvement of affective computing and big data, people have generally adapted to construct social networks relying on social robots and smartphones. Although the technologies above have been widely discussed and used, researches on disabled people in the social field are still very limited. In particular, facial disabled people, deaf-mutes, and autistic patients are still meeting great difficulty when interacting with strangers using online video technology. This project creates a virtual human social system called “Avatar to Person” (ATP) based on artificial intelligence and three-dimensional (3D) simulation technology, with which disabled people can complete tasks such as “virtual face repair” and “simulated voice generation,” in order to conduct face-to-face video communication freely and confidently. The system has been proven effective in the enhancement of the sense of online social participation for people with disabilities through user tests. ATP is certain to be a unique area of inquiry and design for disabled people that is categorically different from other types of human-robot interaction.

Treatment of Wastewater by Nanofiltration

In recent years, some countries have implemented regulations governing aqueous discharges. With a view to sustainable development, manufacturers are looking for wastewater treatment technologies to control their discharges. Nanofiltration seems particularly suitable for the separation characteristics that it allows with regard to the size of the target molecules. Pollution by rare earths and heavy metals affects groundwater and surface water. This changed the quality of the water and made it unsafe to use. Water pollution is a big problem, given the diversity of sources and characteristics of polluting species, the main ones being industrial, urban and agricultural discharges, generated by human activity. The great difficulty being that heavy metals are not biodegradable and tend to accumulate in living organisms (fish, mollusks, vegetables, etc.) consumed by humans. For these concerns, environmental laws have become more severe. For this, the treatment of aqueous effluents has become important. It can be concluded that separation and purification chemistry is an area of topical research. The discharges coming from the industry contain heavy metals (chromium, copper, zinc, nickel, iron, cobalt, cadmium, lead, …) which are harmful for the human health, the fauna and flora. It is necessary to be well controlled. This chapter presents a study of nanofiltration for industrial wastewater treatment.

Ensino remoto emergencial na pandemia

Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar percepções de estudantes e professores do Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais (IFMG) sobre a experiência com o ensino remoto emergencial (ERE), motivado pela pandemia de COVID-19, bem como identificar as principais dificuldades no processo de adaptação dos cursos técnicos integrados, organizados para oferta presencial. A pesquisa teve cunho exploratório, abordagem quali-quantitativa e foi desenvolvida entre os meses de junho e outubro de 2020, obtendo a participação de 156 docentes e 739 discentes de diversos campi do IFMG, por meio de formulários eletrônicos de participação voluntária. A análise dos dados possibilitou a caracterização de importantes fatores para se discutir o ensino remoto, como disponibilidade de internet e de dispositivos eletrônicos, além da identificação das principais dificuldades associadas ao ERE no IFMG. Dentre os principais problemas encontrados pelos estudantes, destacaram-se a dificuldade em estudar autonomamente e de manter uma rotina diária de estudos. O acesso à internet, equipamentos eletrônicos, materiais de estudo e uso de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem não se destacaram como fatores de grande dificuldade. Os próprios discentes avaliaram haver diferenças entre sua aprendizagem no ensino remoto quando comparada com o presencial. Na análise dos docentes, destacou-se a importância dada à necessidade de qualificação e disponibilidade de ferramentas apropriadas para o ensino remoto. Pode-se concluir, a partir dos dados recolhidos e analisados, que os maiores problemas para o ensino na modalidade remota emergencial ocorrem pelo próprio formato do ERE, dificuldades estas, possivelmente, agravadas pelo impedimento de interação social e educacional presencial entre colegas e professores. Palavras-chave: Ensino remoto emergencial. COVID-19. Pandemia. IFMG. Emergency remote teaching during the pandemic: diagnosis of difficulties faced by students and teachers of technical education in the IFMG Abstract This article aims to present the perceptions of students and teachers of the Federal Institute of Minas Gerais (IFMG) about their experiences with emergency remote teaching (ERT), motivated by the pandemic of COVID-19, as well as to identify the main difficulties when adapting the teaching method of technical education courses, originally organized to face-to-face format. The research had an exploratory nature, a quali-quantitative approach and was developed between the months of June and October of 2020. It had the participation of 156 teachers and 739 students from several campuses, through electronic forms of voluntary participation. Data analysis enabled the characterization of important factors to remote education, such as availability of internet and electronic devices, in addition to identification of main difficulties associated with ERT. Among the main problems encountered by students, the difficulty to study autonomously and to maintain a daily study routine stood out. On the other hand, access to the internet, to electronic equipment, study materials and use of virtual learning environments did not stand out as factors of great difficulty. The students themselves assessed that there are differences between their learning in remote education when compared to face-to-face. When assessing the teachers, the importance given to the need for qualification and availability of appropriate tools for remote teaching was highlighted. From the data collected in this research, it can be concluded that the biggest problems for teaching in this emergency mode occurs due to the ERT format itself. Those difficulties are possibly aggravated by the impediment of in-person social and educational interaction between colleagues and teachers. Keywords: Emergency Remote Teaching. COVID-19. Pandemic. IFMG.

{0,1}-Brauer Configuration Algebras and Their Applications in Graph Energy Theory

The energy E(G) of a graph G is the sum of the absolute values of its adjacency matrix. In contrast, the trace norm of a digraph Q, which is the sum of the singular values of the corresponding adjacency matrix, is the oriented version of the energy of a graph. It is worth pointing out that one of the main problems in this theory consists of determining appropriated bounds of these types of energies for significant classes of graphs, digraphs and matrices, provided that, in general, finding out their exact values is a problem of great difficulty. In this paper, the trace norm of a {0,1}-Brauer configuration is introduced. It is estimated and computed by associating suitable families of graphs and posets to Brauer configuration algebras.

Trends in nursing burnout management in foreign studies (literature review)

This review provides a general foreign overview of the current understanding and prevalence of professional burnout among medical workers and summarizes the emerging trends in the management of the organization of work of nurses, preventing burnout, and an analysis of practices aimed at preventing burnout. Burnout negatively affects both mental and physical health, as well as increases economic losses and employee turnover.Burnout depends on factors such as job satisfaction, professional rank, hospital level, gender, professional values, negative emotions, and core competencies.Burnout syndrome is closely related to compassion fatigue syndrome, compassionate gratification and is part of the broader concept of professional quality of life. Compassion refers to recognition, understanding, emotional resonance, empathic concern and tolerance for the suffering of others, and motivation and action in relationships to help others.The analysis of foreign literature has shown the relevance of this problem and, first of all, for nurses. The peculiarities of the work of nurses lead to the fact that their burnout is higher than among other medical workers. Various approaches to the management of professional burnout have been proposed. Burnout management can focus on the organization, the individual, or a combination of interventions.When people have a positive belief system, work involvement, and access to many personal resources, they are less likely to experience stress and burnout.Nursing burnout has worsened during the COVID-19 period and has exposed new pressing health issues. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown a shortage of nurses and has become a major problem in many countries.The attitude of the community, the importance and the need for specialized and professional care, especially in situations of great difficulty and suffering, is important for medical personnel. Public sincere gratitude for the work of healthcare professionals will help build compassion for professionals who risk their lives to help people.