Assessment of Preschool Education Component of ICDS Scheme in Jammu District

Non formal Preschool education is an important component of Integrated Child Development Services scheme currently operational in more than 6506 projects in India The present research paper is based on an investigation of this component in ICDS centres of Jammu district of Jammu and Kashmir state A random sample of 60 Anganwadi centres AWCs was selected for this study Using observation and interview schedule the infrastructural facilities available and the conduct of preschool education activities were evaluated The results indicate lack of adequate facilities in terms of space both indoor and outdoor quality of accommodation drinking water and toilet facilities furniture and fixtures and teaching learning material in AWCs Preschool education activities were being planned and conducted by the AWWs on a routine basis but the activities were mostly repetitive and lacked novelty Non availability of adequate infrastructure was found to be an active deterrent in conduct of activities It is thus suggested that better infrastructural facilities be made available to bring about qualitative change in the ICDS programm

Reliability of Self-Assessment among Medical Students at Walailak University

Background and Objective: Owning to self-assessment limitations, reflective practice and feedback is one of the methods help improving self-assessment accuracy. So far, there is little evidence in its practicability in Thai medical students. The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the effectiveness of the reflective practice and feedback on improving self-assessment accuracy and learning outcomes in medical students at Walailak University; (2) to explore participants’ perspectives on the reflective practice and feedback.Methods: This prospective uncontrolled study was conducted in the academic year 2017 at Walailak University. Third-year students voluntarily enrolled into the study. Surveys were contributed before the two examinations that consisted of one-hundred multiple choice questions. Reflective practice and feedback session was held after the first examination. Baseline characteristics, self-estimated scores, declared strengths and weaknesses, and actual scores were used for data analysis.Results: We had 38 volunteers (77.6%) with male predominance (57.9%) in participants. The mean age was 20.6 ± 0.6 years. After the reflective practice and feedback, the difference between the median of self-estimation score and the median of actual score decreased significantly (p < 0.05). The actual scores increased by 20.7 percent (95%CI 15.3-26.0) significantly (p < 0.001). Majority of participants (57.9%) agreed that the reflective practice and feedback was helpful.Conclusions: Reflective practice and feedback improve self-assessment accuracy and learning outcome in Thai medical students. Further work needs to be carried out to investigate whether the results are transferable to other Thai medical schools or not

Effect of a Mobile Phone Intervention on Quitting Smoking in a Young Adult Population of Smokers: Randomized Controlled Trial

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in JMIR mhealth and uhealth, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://mhealth.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included.Background: Digital mobile technology presents a promising medium for reaching young adults with smoking cessation interventions because they are the heaviest users of this technology. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of an evidence-informed smartphone app for smoking cessation, Crush the Crave (CTC), on reducing smoking prevalence among young adult smokers in comparison with an evidence-informed self-help guide, On the Road to Quitting (OnRQ). Methods: A parallel, double-blind, randomized controlled trial with 2 arms was conducted in Canada to evaluate CTC. In total, 1599 young adult smokers (aged 19 to 29 years) intending to quit smoking in the next 30 days were recruited online and randomized to receive CTC or the control condition OnRQ for a period of 6 months. The primary outcome measure was self-reported continuous abstinence at the 6-month follow-up. Results: Overall follow-up rates were 57.41% (918/1599) and 60.48% (967/1599) at 3 and 6 months, respectively. Moreover, 45.34% (725/1599) of participants completed baseline, 3-, and 6-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis (last observation carried forward) showed that continuous abstinence (N=1599) at 6 months was not significantly different at 7.8% (64/820) for CTC versus 9.2% (72/779) for OnRQ (odds ratio; OR 0.83, 95% CI 0.59-1.18). Similarly, 30-day point prevalence abstinence at 6 months was not significantly different at 14.4% (118/820) and 16.9% (132/779) for CTC and OnRQ, respectively (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.63-1.08). However, these rates of abstinence were favorable compared with unassisted 30-day quit rates of 11.5% among young adults. Secondary measures of quit attempts and the number of cigarettes smoked per day at 6-month follow-up did not reveal any significant differences between groups. For those who completed the 6-month follow-up, 85.1% (359/422) of young adult smokers downloaded CTC as compared with 81.8% (346/423) of OnRQ, χ21(N=845)=1.6, P=.23. Furthermore, OnRQ participants reported significantly higher levels of overall satisfaction (mean 3.3 [SD 1.1] vs mean 2.6 [SD 1.3]; t644=6.87, P<.001), perceived helpfulness (mean 5.8 [SD 2.4] vs mean 4.3 [SD 2.6], t657=8.0, P<.001), and frequency of use (mean 3.6 [SD 1.2] vs mean 3.2 [SD 1.1], t683=5.7, P<.001) compared with CTC participants. Conclusions: CTC was feasible for delivering cessation support but was not superior to a self-help guide in helping motivated young adults to quit smoking. CTC will benefit from further formative research to address satisfaction and usage. As smartphone apps may not serve as useful alternatives to printed self-help guides, there is a need to conduct further research to understand how digital mobile technology smoking cessation interventions for smoking cessation can be improved. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01983150; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01983150 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6VGyc0W0i)This work was supported by a grant from Health Canada, Federal Tobacco Control Strategy (Agreement #: 6549-15-2011/8300125) and a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Grant #: MOP-130303). NBB received salary support from the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute (Grant #: 2011-701019 & Grant# 2017-704507)

A study on Iraqi images in Malaysia mainstream English language newspapers

Media and image have become important research areas in international relations and media studies. The occupation of Iraq by the United States has created many images of Iraq among other countries. Although there has been quite an extensive research on Iraq, especially during the period of occupation, reviews of literature reveal that there are still certain gaps on understanding its image from the Eastern media perspective. Thus, the main purpose of the study is to investigate the image of Iraq through the publication of news stories and articles in Malaysia that is considered as Islamic country with multiethnic community. The study also aims to reveal the image of Iraq by focusing on two Malaysian English newspapers - the New Straits Times press (NSTP) and the Star by applying both Framing Theory and Agenda Setting Theory. This study examines a longitudinal content analysis of 535 articles and news stories through three periods (before, during and after the occupation of Iraq). Descriptive statistics, Crosstab, Binomial test, Chi-square and Cramer‟s V are used to analyze the data. The result of this study shows that NSTP gave more emphasis to the issue of the policy of unipolar for the United States and framed it to focus on responsibility and reflected a neutral image of Iraq, while the Star gave more emphasis to the issue of Iraqi suffering and framed it through human interest with a negative image. Furthermore, the agenda setting issues in the NSTP has a bigger association on the image of Iraq while the Star proves the framing categories have a bigger association on the image of Iraq. Thus, this study can shed some light on how Eastern country views Iraq and this perhaps could help Iraq reform its image by expanding the scope of diplomatic, business and cultural actions. This study provides support to the theoretical proposition that the media are not successful in telling the audience what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling the audience what to think about (first level of Agenda Setting). This study also provides support to the theoretical proposition that differences in media organizations have profound impact on how the important issues are frame

An Exploration of the Experience of Adults with Learning Disabilities Through Art

This study employed arts-based research with phenomenological, qualitative inquiry to understand and explore the perspectives of adults with learning disabilities and their sense of self and support in inclusive and special education classrooms in Israel during their school years. In this study, the researcher attempted to take Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory (1979) one step further by examining the participants’ feelings and relationships with the people in their daily lives during childhood. The researcher met with 12 participants ages 18-31 diagnosed with learning disabilities between third and eleventh grade. Participants created drawings illustrating how they felt about teachers, parents, friends and themselves, allowing the researcher to understand the participants’ experiences and surroundings during their school years. Outcomes pointed to the need to be heard, and the potential for art assessment throughout the school year to allow students to convey issues they are facing in and out of school. Other outcomes suggest that participants from the inclusive education group have a better school experience socially, while students from special education classrooms struggle socially. Multiple participants from both special education and inclusive education spoke about feeling alone, sad, proud, ambitious or like a failure. By asking adults to reflect on their childhood experiences as a student with LD, the goal of this research was to elevate the LD experience by advocating for the feelings that individuals with LD share

A comparative look at the coverage of the Sichuan earthquake in Chinese and American newspapers

The study explores the differences in the news frames used by two Chinese newspapers (the People\u27s Daily and the West China City Daily) as well as two American newspapers (the Washington Post and the New York Times) in covering the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It also examines how the frames applied by the newspapers in the two countries differed as the coverage evolved. A content analysis of Chinese and American newspapers over a three-month period was conducted. The results indicate that the government policies, actions and response frame dominated the Chinese newspapers. The relief effort frame was also used substantially. However, the American newspapers exhibited highly affective frames, notably the human mortality and damage frames. The reconstruction frame was more frequently used by the Chinese papers at the later part of the coverage; the human mortality, government, and survivor frames were more noticeable in the first month of the American newspapers\u27 coverage

One bug, two drugs : A mathematical model of resistance dynamics in the ICU.

Antibiotic resistance is a problem causing growing concern in the medical community, leading some to speculate that a return to the preantibiotic era is imminent. The problem of antibiotic resistance is particularly significant in the intensive care unit (ICU), due to the weakened immune responses of the patients and quantity of antibiotics administered. One theory proposes that the policy of cycling, or rotating, the antibiotics used in the ICU may minimize the development of resistance. Few clinical trials investigating the effects of cycling have been conducted, and many questions concerning the impact of cycling policies are unanswered at this point. In this thesis, we develop and analyze a mathematical model designed to examine resistance dynamics in the ICU in response to a cycling policy. The uncertainty analysis performed on the model evaluates the variability of the model outcome due to the uncertainty in estimating input values. The chosen method of analysis is Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS). This uncertainty analysis is extended with the Latin Hypercube Sampling/Partial Rank Correlation (LHS/PRC) sensitivity analysis technique, which identifies the input variables that have the greatest effect on the model outcome. The analysis results show that the prediction imprecision of the model is quite high, leading us to conclude that the model\u27s potential as an investigative tool cannot be fully realized until input values can be estimated with greater certainty