Yes / Introduction: Evidence based practice relies on availability of research evidence mostly through peer-reviewed journal publications. No consensus currently exists on the best hierarchy of research evidence, often categorised by the adopted research designs. Analysing the prevalent research designs in radiography professional journals is one vital step in considering an evidence hierarchy specific to the radiography profession and this forms the aim of this study. Methods: Bibliometric data of publications in three Radiography professional journals within a 10-year period were extracted. The Digital Object Identifier were used to locate papers on publishers' websites and obtain relevant data for analysis. Descriptive analysis using frequencies and percentages were used to represent data while Chi-square was used to analyse relationship between categorical variables. Results: 1830 articles met the pre-set inclusion criteria. Quantitative descriptive studies were the most published design (26.6%) followed by non-RCT experimental studies (18.7%), while Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) were the least published (1.0%). Systematic reviews (42.9%) showed the highest average percentage increase within the 10-year period, however RCTs showed no net increase. Single-centre studies predominated among experimental studies (RCT = 88.9%; Non-RCT = 95%). Author collaboration across all study designs was notable, with RCTs showing the most (100%). Quantitative and qualitative studies comparatively had similar number of citations when publication numbers were matched. Quantitative descriptive studies had the highest cumulative citations while RCTs had the least. Conclusion: There is a case to advocate for more study designs towards the peak of evidence hierarchies such as systematic reviews and RCT. Radiography research should be primarily designed to answer pertinent questions and improve the validity of the profession's evidence base. Implication for practice The evidence presented can encourage the adoption of the research designs that enhances radiography profession's evidence base. / The full-text of this article will be released for public view at the end of the publisher embargo on 20 June 2025.

Over one billion of the world’s population are smokers, with increasing tobacco use in low-and middle-income countries. However, information about the methodology of studies on tobacco control is limited. We conducted a literature search to examine and evaluate the methodological designs of published tobacco research in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) over the past 50 years. The first phase was completed in 2015 using PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. An additional search was completed in February 2017 using PubMed. Only tobacco/smoking research in SSA countries with human subjects and published in English was selected. Out of 1796 articles, 447 met the inclusion criteria and were from 26 countries, 11 of which had one study each. Over half of the publications were from South Africa and Nigeria. The earliest publication was in 1968 and the highest number of publications was in 2014 (n = 46). The majority of publications used quantitative methods (91.28%) and were cross-sectional (80.98%). The commonest data collection methods were self-administered questionnaires (38.53%), interviews (32.57%), and observation (20.41%). Around half of the studies were among adults and in urban settings. We conclud that SSA remains a “research desert” and needs more investment in tobacco control research and training.

Forskning visar att en sjuttonåring som regelbundet har läst och/eller lyssnat till texter har ca 50 000-70 000 ord i sitt ordförråd medan en sjuttonåring som inte har läst och/eller lyssnat till texter har ett ordförråd på ca 15 000-17 000 ord (Dole, Duffy, Roehler, & Pearson, 1991). Syftet med studien är att skapa större kunskap kring högläsning i förskolan. Högläsning och samtal kring litteratur framkommer även i den reviderade versionen av Läroplanen för förskolan (18, rev 2019 s. 8) vilken träder kraft i juli 2019. Detta är ytterligare en anledning till att förskollärare ska förespråka högläsning av litteratur i verksamheten, det ingår i deras uppdrag. Vi vill undersöka hur förskollärare beskriver att de använder sig av barnlitteratur som ett pedagogiskt verktyg i verksamheten, hur de resonerar kring delaktighet och hur de upplever att barnen har inflytande under högläsningen. Forskningen grundas på en kvalitativ metod genom intervjuer. Intervjuerna innefattar åtta förskollärare på fyra olika förskolor. Resultatet visar att förskollärarna medvetet läser med syftet att högläsning ska leda till språkutveckling och andra kognitiva lärprocesser. Det är något som förväntas av dem idag. Att endast ha syftet ”varva ner” med hjälp av högläsning anses enligt förskollärarna vara mindre legitimt, de menar att något mer syfte måste ingå i en högläsningssituation. Andra syften som förskollärarna belyser under högläsning är socialt lärande samt fysiskt lärande. Resultatet visar även att barns inflytande förekommer men varierar beroende på barngruppens storlek vid en högläsningssituation. När färre barn deltar får de själva välja böcker samt diskutera boken som blir läst. Vid helgrupp tystar förskollärarna barnen mer under högläsningssituationer på grund av att det blir för stökigt att låta en stor grupp diskutera fritt under högläsningen. Avslutningsvis leder mindre barngrupper i förskolan till mer inflytande för varje individuellt barn före, under och efter en högläsnings situation

179 f. / Submitted by JAQUELINE NASCIMENTO (jaquedourado@gmail.com) on 2013-08-15T19:58:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação UMA ANÁLISE DO PROCESSO DE AVALIAÇÃO DO PROJETO DE ECONOMIA SOLIDÁRIA E EDUCAÇÃO DE JOVENS E ADULTOS.pdf: 1288351 bytes, checksum: 2d1d3f3d174c241c6a467c92e917267d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora Lopes(silopes@ufba.br) on 2013-08-22T17:37:33Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação UMA ANÁLISE DO PROCESSO DE AVALIAÇÃO DO PROJETO DE ECONOMIA SOLIDÁRIA E EDUCAÇÃO DE JOVENS E ADULTOS.pdf: 1288351 bytes, checksum: 2d1d3f3d174c241c6a467c92e917267d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T17:37:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação UMA ANÁLISE DO PROCESSO DE AVALIAÇÃO DO PROJETO DE ECONOMIA SOLIDÁRIA E EDUCAÇÃO DE JOVENS E ADULTOS.pdf: 1288351 bytes, checksum: 2d1d3f3d174c241c6a467c92e917267d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Este trabalho tem como foco o estudo do uso da avaliação em projetos socioeducativos, uma atividade considerada repleta de grandes desafios, uma vez que requer, além do suporte legal, instrumentos, critérios, diagnósticos e mudanças no processo de implementação de programas e projetos. A pesquisa teve como objetivo central analisar o processo de avaliação do Projeto de Economia Solidária e Educação de Jovens e Adultos (ECOSOL-EJA) da Incubadora Tecnológica de Economia Solidária e Gestão do Desenvolvimento Territorial da Universidade Federal da Bahia (ITES/UFBA). Para a realização da pesquisa, utilizou-se a abordagem qualitativa com o método de estudo de caso avaliativo devido à possibilidade de se ter um estudo detalhado, bem como as múltiplas percepções do cotidiano investigado. A população participante desta pesquisa foi composta por integrantes da equipe do Projeto ECOSOL-EJA. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas e documentos usados pelo Projeto ECOSOL-EJA. Utilizaram-se como referência para a análise as dimensões da avaliação, quais sejam: diagnóstica, tomada de decisão e melhoria do processo. A partir da análise da dimensão diagnóstica, observou-se que foram elaborados diversos instrumentos para avaliar o desenvolvimento das atividades do Projeto com relação à formação de profissionais da EJA e educadores populares e à elaboração do material didático-formativo. Verificou-se que não houve um planejamento estruturado - este ocorreu durante a execução do Projeto - e nem um plano de análise dos dados. Compreendemos que a realização de uma avaliação de maneira sistematizada, com planejamento estruturado, questões de avaliação e planos de análise, facilitará o trabalho de implementação de uma avaliação dentro de um programa e/ou projeto, possibilitando a construção e/ou adequação dos instrumentos de avaliação ao contexto investigado, como também a realização de pré-testes. No projeto em questão, os instrumentos de avaliação foram construídos de acordo com a necessidade do projeto, porém, nem todos foram aplicados e tiveram seus dados tabulados e analisados, o que permite indagarmos sobre a real necessidade de se ter instrumentos, quando estes não são utilizados de maneira adequada. Numa perspectiva mais técnica, a avaliação deverá considerar os princípios da praticidade, utilidade e oportunidade. Quanto à dimensão tomada de decisão, são consideradas as questões relacionadas às estratégias, aos critérios de julgamento e ao processo de negociação para a tomada de decisão, ou seja, é o aspecto político da avaliação. Foi possível perceber que as decisões ocorreram de maneira coletiva, buscando consensos para a tomada de decisão e construção de planos de ação e sua execução. Já a dimensão melhoria do processo foi identificada, nas práticas do Projeto ECOSOL-EJA, quando relacionada ao redimensionamento das ações para elaboração do material didático-formativo. As melhorias aconteceram durante o próprio processo de implementação do projeto, sendo benéfico ao Projeto ECOSOL-EJA, já que evidencia que os resultados oriundos da avaliação realizada contribuíram para o processo de tomada de decisão. A análise do processo avaliativo do Projeto ECOSOL-EJA traz como contribuição a exequibilidade de avaliações realizadas por avaliadores internos, sendo possível ter mudanças na prática avaliativa de programas e projetos socioeducativos. Como desafio, espera-se que ações como esta influencie no desenvolvimento de uma cultura avaliativa dentro dos programas e projetos. / Salvador

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:33:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Leite da Silva.pdf: 5873206 bytes, checksum: 41b5b0b338aa31938fedaed40f1af226 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-25 / Aim: This study, situated in the studies of the Portuguese language, aims to contribute to studies dealing with the textual construction of belief in (1) essay in academic and scientific texts and popular science, (2) text news journalistic and (3) chronicles of everyday life. Methodology: The research follows a theoretical-analytical, in which we adopted the theoretical postulations of Text Linguistics, complemented by Critical Discourse Analysis, with socio-cognitive aspects. Justification/ Hypothesis: Although the essay is the focus of constant interest to scholars of the text, treat it as a class opinionated, grouping types of texts opinionated modified by genres, though, is a spongy ground. There is, by definition that the textual construction of belief, it changes depending on the gender discourse in the category of explanation, the schema of textual argument. Results: The analysis indicates that the essay is a text in class opinionated, which changes depending on the conditions of discursive production, in a textual outline of a thesis and two theses. In both modifications, the legitimacy of the arguments is attributed to Marco of Social Cognitions and it is from, which are built to strengthen the arguments. The arguments used travel necessity, possibility and probability. The text presents a journalistic news organization opinionated, based on the interests of the newspaper company, from small text (headline, hairline, eye and lead). And the chronicles of everyday life, are guided by the focusing of the chronicler, in assessing the Mark of the Social Cognitions / Objetivo: Este trabalho, situado no âmbito dos estudos da Língua Portuguesa, tem por objetivo contribuir com os estudos que tratam da construção textual da opinião, em (1) em textos dissertativos acadêmico-científicos e de divulgação científica; (2) textos de notícia jornalística e (3) crônicas do cotidiano. Metodologia: A investigação realizada segue um procedimento teóricoanalítico, em que adotamos as postulações teóricas da Linguística de Texto, sendo complementada pela Análise Crítica do Discurso, com vertente sóciocognitiva. Justificativa / Hipótese: Embora, o dissertativo seja foco de interesse constante para os estudiosos do texto, tratá-lo como uma classe opinativa, que agrupa tipos de textos opinativos modificados por gêneros discursivos, ainda, é um terreno lacunoso. Tem-se, por hipótese que a construção textual da opinião, modifica-se dependendo do gênero discursivo, na categoria justificativa, do esquema textual da argumentação. Resultados Obtidos: As análises indicam que o dissertativo é um texto da classe opinativa, que se modifica dependendo das condições de produção discursiva, em um esquema textual de uma tese e de duas teses. Em ambas as modificações, a legitimidade dos argumentos é atribuída ao Marco das Cognições Sociais e é a partir dele, que são construídos os argumentos de reforço. Os argumentos utilizados percorrem a necessidade, a possibilidade e a probabilidade. O texto de jornalístico de notícia apresenta a organização opinativa, baseados em interesses da empresa-jornal, desde o texto reduzido (manchete, linha fina, olho e lead). E as crônicas do cotidiano, são guiadas pela focalização do cronista, em que avalia o Marco das Cognições Sociais

This thesis examines the discipline of English studies in South Africa through a review of articles published in 11 academic journals over the period 1958-2004. The aims are to gain a better understanding of the functions of peer-reviewed journals, to reveal the presence of rules governing discursive production, and to uncover the historical shifts in approach and choice of disciplinary objects. The Foucauldian typology of procedures determining discursive production, that is: exclusionary, internal and restrictive procedures, is applied to the discipline of English studies in order to elucidate the existence of such procedures in the discipline. Each journal is reviewed individually and comparatively. Static and chronological statistical analyses are undertaken on the articles in the 11 journals in order to provide empirical evidence to subvert the contention that the discipline is unruly and its choice of objects random. The cumulative results of this analysis are used to describe the major shifts primarily in ranges of disciplinary objects, but also in metadiscursive and thematic debates. Each of the journals is characterised in relation to what the overall analysis reveals about the mainstream developments. The two main findings are that, during the period under review, South African imaginative written artefacts have moved from a marginal position to the centre of focus of the discipline; and that the conception of what constitutes the `literary' has returned to a pre-Practical criticism definition, broadly inclusive of a variety of types of artefact including imaginative writing, such as autobiography, letters, journals and orature. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

This thesis examines the discipline of English studies in South Africa through a review of articles published in 11 academic journals over the period 1958-2004. The aims are to gain a better understanding of the functions of peer-reviewed journals, to reveal the presence of rules governing discursive production, and to uncover the historical shifts in approach and choice of disciplinary objects. The Foucauldian typology of procedures determining discursive production, that is: exclusionary, internal and restrictive procedures, is applied to the discipline of English studies in order to elucidate the existence of such procedures in the discipline. Each journal is reviewed individually and comparatively. Static and chronological statistical analyses are undertaken on the articles in the 11 journals in order to provide empirical evidence to subvert the contention that the discipline is unruly and its choice of objects random. The cumulative results of this analysis are used to describe the major shifts primarily in ranges of disciplinary objects, but also in metadiscursive and thematic debates. Each of the journals is characterised in relation to what the overall analysis reveals about the mainstream developments. The two main findings are that, during the period under review, South African imaginative written artefacts have moved from a marginal position to the centre of focus of the discipline; and that the conception of what constitutes the `literary' has returned to a pre-Practical criticism definition, broadly inclusive of a variety of types of artefact including imaginative writing, such as autobiography, letters, journals and orature. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

This paper attempts to develop a mathematically rigid and unified framework for neural spatial interaction modeling. Families of classical neural network models, but also less classical ones such as product unit neural network ones are considered for the cases of unconstrained and singly constrained spatial interaction flows. Current practice appears to suffer from least squares and normality assumptions that ignore the true integer nature of the flows and approximate a discrete-valued process by an almost certainly misrepresentative continuous distribution. To overcome this deficiency we suggest a more suitable estimation approach, maximum likelihood estimation under more realistic distributional assumptions of Poisson processes, and utilize a global search procedure, called Alopex, to solve the maximum likelihood estimation problem. To identify the transition from underfitting to overfitting we split the data into training, internal validation and test sets. The bootstrapping pairs approach with replacement is adopted to combine the purity of data splitting with the power of a resampling procedure to overcome the generally neglected issue of fixed data splitting and the problem of scarce data. In addition, the approach has power to provide a better statistical picture of the prediction variability, Finally, a benchmark comparison against the classical gravity models illustrates the superiority of both, the unconstrained and the origin constrained neural network model versions in terms of generalization performance measured by Kullback and Leibler's information criterion.

Multi functional health monitoring wearable devices are quite prominent these days. Usually these devices are battery-operated and consequently are limited by their battery life (from few hours to a few weeks depending on the application). Of late, it was realized that these devices, which are currently being operated at fixed voltage and frequency, are capable of operating at multiple voltages and frequencies. By switching these voltages and frequencies to lower values based upon power requirements, these devices can achieve tremendous benefits in the form of energy savings. Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) techniques have proven to be handy in this situation for an efficient trade-off between energy and timely behavior. Within imec, wearable devices make use of the indigenously developed MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). This system is optimized for efficient and accurate collection, processing, and transfer of data from multiple (health) sensors. MUSEIC v2 has limited means in controlling the voltage and frequency dynamically. In this thesis we explore how traditional DVFS techniques can be applied to the MUSEIC v2. Experiments were conducted to find out the optimum power modes to efficiently operate and also to scale up-down the supply voltage and frequency. Considering the overhead caused when switching voltage and frequency, transition analysis was also done. Real-time and non real-time benchmarks were implemented based on these techniques and their performance results were obtained and analyzed. In this process, several state of the art scheduling algorithms and scaling techniques were reviewed in identifying a suitable technique. Using our proposed scaling technique implementation, we have achieved 86.95% power reduction in average, in contrast to the conventional way of the MUSEIC v2 chip’s processor operating at a fixed voltage and frequency. Techniques that include light sleep and deep sleep mode were also studied and implemented, which tested the system’s capability in accommodating Dynamic Power Management (DPM) techniques that can achieve greater benefits. A novel approach for implementing the deep sleep mechanism was also proposed and found that it can obtain up to 71.54% power savings, when compared to a traditional way of executing deep sleep mode. / Nuförtiden så har multifunktionella bärbara hälsoenheter fått en betydande roll. Dessa enheter drivs vanligtvis av batterier och är därför begränsade av batteritiden (från ett par timmar till ett par veckor beroende på tillämpningen). På senaste tiden har det framkommit att dessa enheter som används vid en fast spänning och frekvens kan användas vid flera spänningar och frekvenser. Genom att byta till lägre spänning och frekvens på grund av effektbehov så kan enheterna få enorma fördelar när det kommer till energibesparing. Dynamisk skalning av spänning och frekvens-tekniker (såkallad Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, DVFS) har visat sig vara användbara i detta sammanhang för en effektiv avvägning mellan energi och beteende. Hos Imec så använder sig bärbara enheter av den internt utvecklade MUSEIC v2 (Multi Sensor Integrated circuit version 2.0). Systemet är optimerat för effektiv och korrekt insamling, bearbetning och överföring av data från flera (hälso) sensorer. MUSEIC v2 har begränsad möjlighet att styra spänningen och frekvensen dynamiskt. I detta examensarbete undersöker vi hur traditionella DVFS-tekniker kan appliceras på MUSEIC v2. Experiment utfördes för att ta reda på de optimala effektlägena och för att effektivt kunna styra och även skala upp matningsspänningen och frekvensen. Eftersom att ”overhead” skapades vid växling av spänning och frekvens gjordes också en övergångsanalys. Realtidsoch icke-realtidskalkyler genomfördes baserat på dessa tekniker och resultaten sammanställdes och analyserades. I denna process granskades flera toppmoderna schemaläggningsalgoritmer och skalningstekniker för att hitta en lämplig teknik. Genom att använda vår föreslagna skalningsteknikimplementering har vi uppnått 86,95% effektreduktion i jämförelse med det konventionella sättet att MUSEIC v2-chipets processor arbetar med en fast spänning och frekvens. Tekniker som inkluderar lätt sömn och djupt sömnläge studerades och implementerades, vilket testade systemets förmåga att tillgodose DPM-tekniker (Dynamic Power Management) som kan uppnå ännu större fördelar. En ny metod för att genomföra den djupa sömnmekanismen föreslogs också och enligt erhållna resultat så kan den ge upp till 71,54% lägre energiförbrukning jämfört med det traditionella sättet att implementera djupt sömnläge.