Orientador: Maria Helena Baena de Moraes Lopes / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Ciencias Medicas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-06T19:23:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Quelhas_MariaCristinaFerreira_M.pdf: 39126503 bytes, checksum: 55e67dd9b4a09a1e65c2e4fb99c30285 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Este estudo teve como objetivos descrever as etapas de desenvolvimento de um curso de educação a distância (EAD) sobre Processos de Esterilização de Materiais, com o uso da Internet; avaliar o curso por intermédio de especialistas em processos de esterilização e em EAD; descrever o perfil dos alunos e avaliadores; avaliar a participação dos alunos e sua opinião sobre o curso. Tratou-se de uma pesquisa metodológica A população alvo foi constituída por enfermeiros da Região Metropolitana de Campinas e de diferentes cidades do Estado de São Paulo. Foram convidados 58 enfermeiros através de "e-mail" ou telefone. Destes, 14 (24,1%) se inscreveram e 11 finalizaram o curso (11/14 ou 78,6%). Os enfermeiros que concluíram o curso eram todos do sexo feminino, com idade média de 40 anos, e tempo médio de formação igual a 17 anos. O curso foi apresentado em dois módulos, distribuídos em quatro semanas (26 horas). A Aprendizagem Baseada em Casos foi escolhida como metodologia de ensino com o objetivo de promover um processo educativo ativo e permitir a interação entre os alunos, de forma a construir o conhecimento com compromisso, envolvimento e responsabilidade. O ambiente escolhido para criação, participação e administração do curso foi o TelEduc. Antes de iniciar-se o curso foi realizada uma avaliação do primeiro módulo do curso por três especialistas em processos de esterilização e por dois especialistas em EAD. Os três juizes especialistas em esterilização eram do sexo feminino, com idade média de 48 anos, o tempo de experiência na área era em média de 15 anos. Quanto aos dois especialistas em EAD um era do sexo feminino e outro, do sexo masculino, tinham 54 e 34 anos respectivamente, e o tempo de experiência em EAD era de 7 e 3 anos. respectivamente. Ao final do curso, os juízes realizaram nova avaliação Os especialistas em esterilização consideraram o curso adequado nos quesitos Autoria. Apresentação das Informações e Projeto Educacional, e adequado, mas precisando de pequenas reformulações nos quesitos Conteúdo Geral das Informações e Confiabilidade das Informações. Já os especialistas em EAD consideraram o curso adequado nos quesitos Autoria, Conteúdo Geral das Informações e Projeto Educacional. No quesito Apresentação das Informações, o curso foi considerado adequado, mas precisando de pequenas reformulações. Foi utilizado o teste de Friedman para verificar a concordância entre os três juizes de esterilização. Foi encontrada discordância significativa entre o juiz 1 e o juiz 2. Os alunos foram avaliados de forma processual e por auto-avaliação. Para avaliar a opinião dos alunos quanto ao curso foi utilizado um questionário do tipo Likert com enunciados positivos e negativos. O coeficiente Alfa de Cronbach foi utilizado para calcular a consistência interna do instrumento e encontrado o valor de 0,77, o que representa boa consistência. Os resultados demonstraram opinião favorável em relação ao curso. Conclui-se que os objetivos propostos foram atingidos e o curso precisa de pequenas reformulações. A metodologia de ensino utilizada, aprendizagem baseada em casos foi adequada e o ambiente TelEduc favoreceu o desenvolvimento desta metodologia / Abstract: This study was a applied research, which had the following objectives: a) to describe the steps of the development of a long-distance educational course (LDEC) on Surgical Material Sterilization Processes to be given by Internet; b) to evaluate the course through specialists in sterilization processes and in LDEC; c) to describe students and evaluators profile; d) to evaluate students' participation and their opinion about the course. It was about a methodological research The studied population was made of nurses from Campinas Metropolitan Area and from different cities of Sao Paulo State. Fifty-eight nurses were invited through e-mail or telephone; fourteen (24,1%) subscribed and 11 completed the course (11/14 or 78,6%). All nurses who concluded the course were females, with an average age of 40 years, and graduation time of 17 years. The course was presented in two modules, distributed in four weeks (26 hours).The chosen teaching method was the Case-based Learning, with the objectives of promoting an active educative process and allowing interaction among students, in order to build knowledge with commitment, evolvement and responsibility. The course environment chosen for its creation, participation and administration was the TelEduc. Before its beginning, the course's first module was evaluated by three specialists in sterilization processes and by two specialists in LDEC. The judges specialists em sterilization were females, with median age of 48 years, and median time of experience on the area of about 15 years. As for the specialists em LDEC. one was male, the other female, had 34 and 54 years respectively; their experience time in LDEC was de three and seven years, respectively. By the end of the course, the judges performed a new evaluation. The specialists em sterilization considered the course adequate on the items Authorship, Presentation of Information and Educational Project, but needing slight reformulation on General Content of Information and Reliability of Information. On the other hand, the specialists in LDEC considered the course adequate in Authorship, General Content of Information and Educational Project. Regarding the item Presentation of Information, the course was considered adequate, but needing slight reformulation. The test of Friedman was used to verify the agreement enters the three judges of sterilization. Significant discord between the judge 1 and judge 2 was found. Students were evaluated in a processing way as well as through self-evaluation. In order to evaluate students' opinion about the course, a questionnaire Likert-type was used containing positive and negative statements. The Alpha coefficient of Cronbach was used to calculate the internal consistency of the instrument and found the value of 0,77, what it represents good consistency. Results showed a favorable opinion of the course. As conclusion, the proposed objectives of the course were met, although it needs small reformulation. The teaching methodology used - case-based learning - was adequate, and the environment TelEduc favored its development / Mestrado / Enfermagem e Trabalho / Mestre em Enfermagem

Estudos empíricos [1],[2] demonstraram que o trafego das redes Internet Protocol (IP) possui propriedades fractais tais como impulsividade, auto-similaridade e dependência de longa duração em diversas escalas de agregação temporal, na faixa de milissegundos a minutos. Essas características tem motivado o desenvolvimento de novos modelos fractais de teletráfego e de novos algoritmos de controle de trafego em redes convergentes. Este trabalho propõe um novo modelo de trafego no espaço de estados baseado numa aproximação finito-dimensional do processo AutoRegressive Fractionally Integrated Moving Average (ARFIMA). A modelagem por meio de processos auto-regressivos (AR) também é investigada. A analise estatística de series simuladas e de series reais de trafego mostra que a aplicação de modelos AR de ordem alta em esquemas de previsão de teletráfego é fortemente prejudicada pelo problema da identificação da ordem do modelo. Também demonstra-se que a modelagem da memória longa pode ser obtida as custas do posicionamento de um ou mais pólos nas proximidades do circulo de raio unitário. Portanto, a implementação do modelo AR ajustado pode ser instável devido a efeitos de quantização dos coeficientes do filtro digital. O modelo de memória longa proposto oferece as seguintes vantagens: a) possibilidade de implementação pratica, pois não requer memória infinita, b) modelagem (explícita) da região das baixas freqüências do espectro e c) viabilização da utilização do filtro de Kalman. O estudo de caso apresentado demonstra que é possível aplicar o modelo de memória longa proposto em trechos estacionários de sinais de teletráfego fractal. Os resultados obtidos mostram que a dinâmica do parâmetro de Hurst de sinais de teletráfego pode ser bastante lenta na pratica. Sendo assim, o novo modelo proposto é adequado para esquemas de previsão de trafego, tais como Controle de Admissão de Conexões (CAC) e alocação dinâmica de banda, dado que o parâmetro de Hurst pode ser estimado em tempo real por meio da aplicação da transformada wavelet discreta (Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT)). / Empirical studies [1],[2] demonstrated that heterogeneous IP traffic has fractal properties such as impulsiveness, self-similarity, and long-range dependence over several time scales, from miliseconds to minutes. These features have motivated the development of new traffic models and traffic control algorithms. This work presents a new state-space model for teletraffic which is based on a finite-dimensional representation of the ARFIMA random process. The modeling via AutoRegressive (AR) processes is also investigated. The statistical analysis of simulated time series and real traffic traces show that the application of high-order AR models in schemes of teletraffic prediction can be highly impaired by the model identification problem. It is also demonstrated that the modeling of the long memory can be obtained at the cost of positioning one or more poles near the unit circle. Therefore, the implementation of the adjusted AR model can be unstable due to the quantization of the digital filter coefficients. The proposed long memory model has the following advantages: a) possibility of practical implementation, inasmuch it does not require infinite memory, b) explicit modeling of the low frequency region of the power spectrum, and c) forecasts can be performed via the Kalman predictor. The presented case study suggests one can apply the proposed model in periods where stationarity can be safely assumed. The results indicate that the dynamics of the Hurst parameter can be very slow in practice. Hence, the new proposed model is suitable for teletraffic prediction schemes, such as CAC and dynamic bandwidth allocation, given that the Hurst parameter can be estimated on-line via DWT.

Evidências sugerem que somente cerca de 2% do genoma codifica proteínas, mas que a maior parte dos 80% restante possui atividade transcricional. Por não ser codificadora de proteínas, essa fração do genoma foi considerada como \'DNA lixo\'. Entretanto, estudos mais recentes e análises pós-ENCODE vem demonstrando que parte significativa destes RNAs não-codificantes desempenham papéis importantes em processos biológicos essenciais e também em doenças. Os RNAs longos não codificadores (lncRNAs) embora tradicionalmente conhecidos pelo imprintinggenômico, vem demonstrando diversos mecanismos de regulação da expressão gênica, principalmente emnível pós transcricional. Um destes lncRNAs que está envolvido principalmente com a metastase em câncer é o HOTAIR. O melanoma tem sido utilizado como modelo de progressao do câncer por suas etapas bem definidas e por isso já tem apresentado alguns lncRNAs envolvidos na melanomagenese e progressão do melanoma, tal como o HOTAIR. Assim, neste trabalho foi analisado a expressão de lncRNAs de amostras de melanócito e melanoma, sendo que as amostras malignas representam as principais fases de progressão deste tipo de câncer. Foram analisados os níveis de expressão relativa. Além disso, foi realizado a expressão diferencial dos grupos representativos do melanoma. Foram encontrados lncRNAs com valores de expressão e significância (p-ajustado <0,01 e fold change >1) que podem ser indicativos de expressão associada a progressão do melanoma. Os lncRNAs mais diferencialmente expressos foram avaliados quanto a sua capacidade de interação proteína-RNA e literatura científica disponível e então foram selecionados para posteriores ensaios funcionais. / Evidence suggests that only about 2% of the genome encodes protein, but most remaining 80% has transcriptional activity. Since they do not coding for proteins, this fraction of the genome was considered \'junk DNA\', However, recent studies and post-ENCODE analisys has shown that significant part of these non-coding RNAs play important roles in essential biological processes and in disease. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) although traditionally known for genomic imprinting, has demonstrated several mechanisms of regulation of gene expression, especially at the post transcriptional level. One of these lncRNAs that is involved primarily with metastasis in câncer is HOTAIR. Melanoma has been used as a model of câncer progression by its well-defined steps, and so it has been presented some lncRNAs involved in melanoma progression and melanomagenese, as HOTAIR was demonstrated. In this work it was analyzed the expression of lncRNAs of melanocyte and melanoma samples, and malignant samples represent the main stages of progression of this type of câncer. Relative expression levels were analyzed. Furthermore, it was performed differential expression of representative melanoma groups. lncRNAs found with expression values and significance (p-adjusted <0.01 and fold change> 1) may be indicative of expression associated with melanoma progression. The lncRNAs more differentially expressed were evaluated for their ability to interact protein-RNA and available scientific literature and then were selected for further functional assays.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar as Representações Sociais de pacientes psiquiátricos, sobre suas situações de vida após convívio com a loucura, a internação e o sofrer psíquico. A partir de uma abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, utilizei a técnica de História de Vida para entrevistar individualmente quatro pacientes (mulheres) internadas no hospital psiquiátrico. Construí os procedimentos teórico-metodológicos desta pesquisa, através da observação, da realização de entrevistas abertas não diretivas, enriquecidas com o uso de Técnica Projetiva (o desenho-estória livre e com tema) e de consulta feita nos prontuários. Utilizei a Análise Temática para analisar os dados, constatando que as pacientes constroem conhecimentos acerca da loucura. Deste modo, pude identificar as Representações Sociais que se constituem em sistemas de pensamentos organizados em verdadeiras teorias psicopatológicas, que se articulam ao redor de concepções sobre a loucura e suas conseqüências. As pacientes, através de vivências concretas, elaboraram teorias que denotam seus difíceis percursos de vida os quais conduziram-nas à condição de doentes mentais. A expressão a triste passagem, a triste paisagem, utilizada por uma paciente, sujeito da pesquisa, traduz o drama daqueles que passaram pela sofrida experiência da loucura, que foram submetidos ao tratamento psiquiátrico e que, conseqüentemente, tiveram longas internações. / This study aimed to identify the Social Representations of psychiatric patients on their circumstances of life after being familiar with insanity, internment and psyche suffering. From a qualitative approach of research, i applied the technique of Life History to interview four female patients interned in a Psychiatric Hospital separately. I made the methodologicaltheoretical procedures of this research through observation, non-directive open interviews enriched with the application of prospective techique (free historydrawing and thematic drawing) and consultation in the reports. I applied the thematic analysys to analyze the data confirming that the patients build up certain knowledge about their insanity. In this way, I could identify the Social Representations which are made in methods of thinking organized in true psycho-pathological theories which are combined with conceptions about insanity and its consequences. Through real grasp of life experience the patients developed theories denoting their difficult ways of life which led them to the status of mentally sick people. The saying the sad journey, the sad scenery used by a patient in this study puts in lay terms the tragedy of those who went through the hard experience of insanity, who underwent psychiatric treatment and therefore had lengthy internments.

Primary visual cortex is a classic model to study experience-dependent brain plasticity. In early life, if one eye is deprived of normal vision, there can be a dramatic change in the ocular dominance of the striate cortex such that the large majority of neurons lose responsiveness to the deprived eye and, consequently, the ocular dominance distribution shifts in favor of the open eye. Interestingly, the visual experience dependent plasticity following monocular deprivation (MD) occurs during a transient developmental period, which is called the critical period. MD hardly induces ocular dominance plasticity beyond critical period. The mechanisms underlying ocular dominance plasticity during the critical period are not fully understood. It has been proposed that long-term depression (LTD) may underlie the loss of cortical neuronal responsiveness to the deprived eye. However, discordant results have been reported in terms of the role of LTD and LTP in visual plasticity due to the lack of specific blockers. Here we report the prevention of the normally-occurring ocular dominance (OD) shift to the open eye following MD by using a specific long-term depression (LTD) blocking peptide derived from the GluR2 subunit of the a-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-isoxazole-4-propionic acid receptor (AMPAR). We were able to prevent the shift of OD to the open eye with systemic or local administration of the GluR2 peptide. Both electrophysiological and anatomical approaches were taken to demonstrate the peptide effect. Moreover, enhancing LTD with D-serine, a NMDA receptor co-agonist, brought back the ocular dominance plasticity in adult mice subject to four-day MD and, therefore, reopened the critical period. Our data indicate that LTD plays an essential role in visual plasticity during the critical period and the developmental regulation of LTD may account for the closure of critical period in adult. In an additional study, we have found anisomycin, a protein synthesis inhibitor, produces a time-dependent decline in the magnitude of the field EPSP (fEPSP) in mouse primary visual cortex and that this anisomycin-mediated fEPSP depression occludes NMDA receptor dependent LTD. In contrast, another two protein synthesis inhibitors, emetine and cycloheximide, have no effect either on baseline synaptic transmission and or on LTD. We propose that anisomycin-LTD might be mediated by p38 MAP kinase since anisomycin is also a potent activator of the P38/JNK MAPK pathway. In agreement with notion, the decline of the fEPSP caused by anisomycin can be rescued by the application of the P38 inhibitor SB203580, but not by the JNK inhibitor SP600125. The occlusion of LFS-LTD by anisomycin-induced fEPSP decline suggests that common mechanisms may be shared between the two forms of synaptic depression. Consistent with this view, bath application of the membrane permeant peptide discussed above, which specifically blocks regulated AMPA receptor endocytosis, thereby preventing the expression of LFS-LTD, prior to anisomycin treatment significantly reduced the anisomycin-induced decline of the fEPSP. In conclusion, this study indicates that anisomycin produces long-lasting depression of AMPA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission by activating P38 MAPK-mediated endocytosis of AMPA receptors in neonatal mouse visual cortex. / Medicine, Faculty of / Graduate

Då webben nu består av dynamiska hemsidor och kraftfulla applikation blir ävenkraven på kommunikationshastigheter större. Detta arbe har tittat på den äldre ochpoppulära tekniken Long Polling och ställt den i förhållande till HTML5s nyawebsocket API. Igenom att bygga ett multiplayer spel för webbläsaren utan någrapluggins ställdes teknikerna mot varandra för att se vilken som presterade bäst ochvisade sig mest effektiv för användning i den typen av applikation. WebSockets visadesig klara av alla tester med marginal mot de värden relaterad forskning visat på ärminimum kraven för att kunna realisera realtidsapplikationer. Long Polling föll kortoch visade sig vara svagare på alla punkter i förhållande till WebSockets.

Background: Individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) are experiencing longer life expectancies with the majority requiring the ongoing support of family caregivers into adulthood. Medicaid is the primary funding source for supports and services for adults with IDD. Growing Medicaid expenditures and goals to improve quality of care are driving more states to move their Medicaid fee-for-service programs into a managed care model. The stated goals of Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) are to improve care coordination and access to care while controlling costs, but the evidence regarding these outcomes is limited and mixed. Given the level of uncertainty about MLTSS for adults with IDD and their family caregivers, best practices recommendations have been produced by the federal government and advocacy agencies to help guide future MLTSS implementation efforts. These best practice recommendations combined with the continued expansion of MLTSS in the states, provided an opportunity to further explore implementation of MLTSS to inform both policy and practice. One state which recently reformed their Medicaid program to MLTSS and which has been referred to as a bellwether state is Kansas. The MLTSS program in Kansas, titled “KanCare”, is the first for adults with IDD to integrate across health, behavioral health, and LTSS while also contracting through three private-for-profit managed care organizations (MCOs). Aims: The objective of this study was to describe the current implementation of MLTSS for adults with IDD and their family caregivers in one state, Kansas. Study aims were as follows: 1) To understand the rationale behind and what actually happened with MLTSS implementation for adults with IDD in Kansas; 2) To understand how service coordination providers and family caregivers perceived care coordination and access to services for adults with IDD in MLTSS; 3) To understand how family caregivers and their roles were recognized in MLTSS for adults with IDD. Methods: A single case embedded design case study approach was used with in-depth semi-structured interviews completed with state/regional level representatives (N=13), MLTSS service coordination providers (N=7), and family caregivers of adults with IDD (N=11). Data collection and analysis were guided by the unified theory of family quality of life (FQOL) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. The framework method was used to structure the data analysis process. Member checking was completed to ensure accuracy of results. Findings: Regarding aim one, respondents identified reducing costs and improving care quality as the rationale behind MLTSS, but these were outcomes not yet realized given the early stages of implementation. At the time of this study, the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) were continuing to work on expanding provider networks and to provide additional services to address health disparities amongst individuals with IDD. Study participants identified the importance of adequate planning and stakeholder engagement to reduce confusion and fear when transitioning into MLTSS. Addressing aim two, timely and accessible consumer education, clear care coordination processes, and provider network adequacy were identified as important to influence the challenges experienced to date in care coordination and access to services. Regarding aim three, participants acknowledged the important role of family caregivers. At the current stage of the KanCare implementation, participants reported lack of formal processes for family caregiver assessment and a need for more proactive family support services planning. Conclusion: Lessons learned from this implementation experience include the importance of having long planning timelines and including stakeholder feedback into the design of MLTSS programs. Care coordination holds promise to better integrate care, but more research is needed to understand best practices for the provision of care coordination in MLTSS. In order to address access to services, MLTSS programs will need to work and build provider capacity and provider networks. MLTSS programs will also need to formally recognize the role of family caregivers by incorporating the use of family caregiver assessments to proactively plan for support needs.

This thesis reports the calibration, imaging and analysis of one epoch of VLBA observations of the 1612 MHz OH maser emission from the protoplanetary nebula OH 0.9+1.3. These are the first polarisation VLBI observations of this source and the spatial morphology of the OH emission is resolved on this scale. Proto-planetary nebulae represent the transition phase in the evolution of stars between the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase and their emergence as planetary nebulae. A long-standing astronomical question is how the predominantly spherical circumstellar envelopes of AGB stars evolve into the bipolar and axisymmetric structures that are commonly observed in planetary nebula. Proto-planetary nebulae offer a unique opportunity to study this transformation process. The high-resolution VLBI maps produced in this thesis were used to investigate the morphology and kinematics of OH 0.9+1.3 with a view to gaining insight into the development of asymmetries in the circumstellar material. The OH maser emission of OH 0.9+1.3 has a double-peaked profile with one peak blue-shifted and the other red-shifted with respect to the stellar velocity. The total intensity maser maps demonstrate a considerable degree of asymmetry with the blue- and red-shifted emission located in spatially distinct regions of the envelope. The blue-shifted emission is distributed preferentially along an axis at a projected position angle of » 135± ( North through East). The morphology of this source is not consistent with the standard symmetric thin-shell model and an attempt to fit the traditional OH/IR kinematic model of a simple expanding shell to the maser components was found to be unsatisfactory. No definitive evidence of a bipolar outflow was observed either. The high degree of asymmetry observed in the source is consistent with its status as a proto-planetary nebula. The source was imaged in all four Stokes parameters and the fractional linear and circular polarisations of the maser components were derived from the Stokes parameter maps. In all except one of the components the total fractional polarisation was found to be low ( < 15%). The mean fractional linear and circular polarisation were calculated to be 5.54% and 7.11% respectively. The absence of an identifiable Zeeman pair in the Stokes V map prohibited the estimation of the magnetic field in the circumstellar envelope of this source.

This thesis reports the results of an investigation into techniques for the calibration and imaging of spectral line polarization observations in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). A review is given of the instrumental and propagation effects which need to be removed in the course of calibrating such obervations, with particular reference to their polarization dependence. The removal of amplitude and phase errors and the determination of the instrumental feed response is described. The polarization imaging of such data is discussed with particular reference to the case of poorly sampled cross-polarization data. The software implementation of the algorithms within the Astronomical Image Processing System (AlPS) is discussed and the specific case of spectral line polarization reduction for data observed using the MK3 VLBI system is considered in detail. VLBI observations at two separate epochs of the 1612 MHz OH masers towards the source IRC+ 10420 are reduced as part of this work. Spectral line polarization maps of the source structure are presented, including a discussion of source morphology and variability. The source is sigmficantly circularly polarized at VLBI resolution, but does not display appreciable linear polarization. A proper motion study of the circumstellar envelope is presented, which supports an ellipsoidal kinematic model with anisotropic radial outflow. Kinematic modelling of the measured proper motions suggests a distance to the source of ~ 3 kpc. The cirumstellar magnetic field strength in the masing regions is determined as 1-3 mG, assuming Zeeman splitting as the polarization mechanism.

The aim of this thesis is to perform observational tests of SiO maser polarisation and excitation models, using component-level comparisons of multiple SiO maser transitions in the 43 GHz and 86 GHz bands at milliarcsecond resolution. These observations reqwre very long baseline interferometric imaging with very accurate polarimetric calibration. The supergiant star VY CMa was chosen as the object of this study due to its high SiO maser luminosity, many detected SiO maser lines, and intrinsic scientific interest. Two epochs of full-polarisation VLBA observations of VY CMa were performed. The Epoch 2 observations were reduced using several new data reduction methods developed as part of this work, and designed specifically to improve the accuracy of circular polarisation calibration of spectral-line VLBI observations at millimetre wavelengths. The accuracy is estimated to be better than 1% using these methods. The Epoch 2 images show a concentration of v= l and v=2 J= 1-0 SiO masers to the east and northeast of the assumed stellar position. The v=l J=2-1 masers were more evenly distributed around the star, with a notable lack of emission in the northeast. There is appreciable spatial overlap between these three lines. The nature of the overlap is generally consistent with the predictions of hydrodynamical circumstellar SiO maser simulations. Where the v=l J = 1-0 and J =2-1 features overlap, the v=l J = 2-1 emission is usually considerably weaker. This is not predicted by current hydrodynamical models, but can be explained in the context of collisional pumping in a low density environment. Six observational tests of weak-splitting maser polarisation models were performed, including intercomparisons of linear polarisation in the v=l J=1-0 and J=2-1lines, linear polarisation versus saturation level, linear polarisation versus distance from the star, circular polarisation in the v= l J = 1-0 and J=2-1 lines, circular versus linear polarisation and modeling of ~ 900 electric-vector position angle rotations. The polarisation model tests generally do not support non-Zeeman circular polarisation mechanisms. For the linear polarisation tests, the results are more consistent with models that predict similar linear polarisation across transitions. The scientific importance of these tests is described in detail and avenues for future work are described.