“It’s as political a choice as you’ll ever make”: A Qualitative Case Study of Middle-Class, White Parents Navigating School Choice

For the better part of three decades, charter schools have been seen as a successful bipartisan solution to the difficulties plaguing the American education system. While much of the political rhetoric surrounding school choice suggests an overwhelming influence on public education and that it has either been a resounding success or a total failure, the reality is slightly more muddled. In order to see that muddled reality more clearly, in this dissertation I utilize qualitative case study methodology to investigate the ways in which neoliberal language manifests itself in the way three white, middle-class families in Tennessee perceive public and charter school quality, as well as discuss their overall opinions of American education. It was my hope that by studying the perceptions of parents regarding school quality and any neoliberal rhetoric that might affect these perceptions, I could begin to understand the politically charged rhetoric in support of and against school choice in comparison to what is actually important to the families dealing most with its existence. These three parents utilized three different methods of school choice in an effort to achieve the best possible public education for their children. These parents enrolled their child[ren] in a charter school, relocated to a new school zone, and/or utilized within district transfers. Overall, the parents held a high esteem for public education, in some cases working for years to find a high quality traditional public school for their children. Parents also displayed significant skepticism of charter schools and school choice reforms on a national level, but trusted these institutions and procedures when they had a proven, local record of success. That being said, these parents affirmed that their first choice for education would be a strong and robust traditional public school system, even if they were reticent to outright state an opposition to school choice. These findings suggest that parents would prefer more funding and effort be put in to fixing traditional public schools than enforcing and expanding school choice reforms informed by neoliberal economic theory

Lexical change in the parliamentary contributions of UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers, 1989-2015: a corpus linguistic analysis

This thesis explores lexical change in the parliamentary contributions of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office ministers between 1989 and 2015. It focuses on words and phrases that display large changes in frequency during that period, suggests factors driving those changes and considers what they indicate regarding the evolving scope of the UK’s foreign policy. The source material for this thesis is a corpus of 16.5 million words drawn from the ‘Hansard’ transcripts of the UK parliament. Methodologically, the research is highly data-driven and descriptive. It may be considered an example of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies. To avoid the limitations of existing interfaces and tools, the corpus was assembled and analysed using scripts written specifically for the purpose. The analysis focuses on 47 words, each of which displays a particularly large rise, fall or spike in frequency. Nine of these are grammatical words; the remainder relate to the content of foreign policy discourse and their grouping into themes is informed by data on their co-occurrence in the same parliamentary contributions. The changing context of each word’s use is analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. This analysis shows a net increase in the scale and scope of the UK’s foreign policy discourse, with particular growth in discussion of human rights; matters of security and intelligence; and Europe. Ministers increasingly discuss matters affecting women and this change is accompanied by a rise in the use of feminine pronouns. The frequency of modal verbs and words of negation declines. A range of factors are identified as drivers of these changes. In addition to the priorities of ministers, the discourse is shown to be strongly driven by world events, the influence of opposition and backbench members and changes in how the government structures and organises its work. The thesis proposes a framework for categorising such influences which could be applied to the study of other types of parliamentary discourse

Registration evaluation of dynamic breast MR images

The interpretation of dynamic contrast-enhanced breast MR images is predicated on the assumption of minimal voxel movement during the time course of the image acquisition. Misalignment of the dynamic image sequence as a result of movement during image acquisition can lead to potentially misleading diagnostic conclusions. In this paper a new methodology is presented for assessing the degree of in-plane (intra-slice) movement in a dynamic image sequence. The method is demonstrated on data from six subjects. The conclusion is that the method makes it possible to quantitatively qualify the accuracy of computed enhancement curves and more importantly to identify unacceptably poor registration

Omega-3 fatty acids for depression in adults

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is highly debilitating, difficult to treat, has a high rate of recurrence, and negatively impacts the individual and society as a whole. One emerging potential treatment for MDD is n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3PUFAs), also known as omega-3 oils, naturally found in fatty fish, some other seafood, and some nuts and seeds. Various lines of evidence suggest a role for n-3PUFAs in MDD, but the evidence is far from conclusive. Reviews and meta-analyses clearly demonstrate heterogeneity between studies. Investigations of heterogeneity suggest differential effects of n-3PUFAs, depending on severity of depressive symptoms, where no effects of n-3PUFAs are found in studies of individuals with mild depressive symptomology, but possible benefit may be suggested in studies of individuals with more severe depressive symptomology.OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (also known as omega-3 fatty acids) versus a comparator (e.g. placebo, anti-depressant treatment, standard care, no treatment, wait-list control) for major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Review Group's Specialised Registers (CCDANCTR) and International Trial Registries over all years to May 2015. We searched the database CINAHL over all years of records to September 2013.SELECTION CRITERIA: We included studies in the review if they: were a randomised controlled trial; provided n-3PUFAs as an intervention; used a comparator; measured depressive symptomology as an outcome; and were conducted in adults with MDD. Primary outcomes were depressive symptomology (continuous data collected using a validated rating scale) and adverse events. Secondary outcomes were depressive symptomology (dichotomous data on remission and response), quality of life, and failure to complete studies.DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard methodological procedures as expected by Cochrane.MAIN RESULTS: We found 26 relevant studies: 25 studies involving a total of 1438 participants investigated the impact of n-3PUFA supplementation compared to placebo, and one study involving 40 participants investigated the impact of n-3PUFA supplementation compared to antidepressant treatment.For the placebo comparison, n-3PUFA supplementation results in a small to modest benefit for depressive symptomology, compared to placebo: standardised mean difference (SMD) -0.32 (95% confidence interval (CI) -0.12 to -0.52; 25 studies, 1373 participants, very low quality evidence), but this effect is unlikely to be clinically meaningful (an SMD of 0.32 represents a difference between groups in scores on the HDRS (17-item) of approximately 2.2 points (95% CI 0.8 to 3.6)). The confidence intervals include both a possible clinically important effect and a possible negligible effect, and there is considerable heterogeneity between the studies. Although the numbers of individuals experiencing adverse events were similar in intervention and placebo groups (odds ratio (OR) 1.24, 95% CI 0.95 to 1.62; 19 studies, 1207 participants; very low-quality evidence), the confidence intervals include a significant increase in adverse events with n-3PUFAs as well as a small possible decrease. Rates of remission and response, quality of life, and rates of failure to complete studies were also similar between groups, but confidence intervals are again wide.The evidence on which these results are based is very limited. All studies contributing to our analyses were of direct relevance to our research question, but we rated the quality of the evidence for all outcomes as low to very low. The number of studies and number of participants contributing to all analyses were low, and the majority of studies were small and judged to be at high risk of bias on several measures. Our analyses were also likely to be highly influenced by three large trials. Although we judge these trials to be at low risk of bias, they contribute 26.9% to 82% of data. Our effect size estimates are also imprecise. Funnel plot asymmetry and sensitivity analyses (using fixed-effect models, and only studies judged to be at low risk of selection bias, performance bias or attrition bias) also suggest a likely bias towards a positive finding for n-3PUFAs. There was substantial heterogeneity in analyses of our primary outcome of depressive symptomology. This heterogeneity was not explained by the presence or absence of comorbidities or by the presence or absence of adjunctive therapy.Only one study was available for the antidepressant comparison, involving 40 participants. This study found no differences between treatment with n-3PUFAs and treatment with antidepressants in depressive symptomology (mean difference (MD) -0.70 (95% CI -5.88 to 4.48)), rates of response to treatment or failure to complete. Adverse events were not reported in a manner suitable for analysis, and rates of depression remission and quality of life were not reported.AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: At present, we do not have sufficient high quality evidence to determine the effects of n-3PUFAs as a treatment for MDD. Our primary analyses suggest a small-to-modest, non-clinically beneficial effect of n-3PUFAs on depressive symptomology compared to placebo; however the estimate is imprecise, and we judged the quality of the evidence on which this result is based to be low/very low. Sensitivity analyses, funnel plot inspection and comparison of our results with those of large well-conducted trials also suggest that this effect estimate is likely to be biased towards a positive finding for n-3PUFAs, and that the true effect is likely to be smaller. Our data, however, also suggest similar rates of adverse events and numbers failing to complete trials in n-3PUFA and placebo groups, but again our estimates are very imprecise. The one study that directly compares n-3PUFAs and antidepressants in our review finds comparable benefit. More evidence, and more complete evidence, are required, particularly regarding both the potential positive and negative effects of n-3PUFAs for MDD.</p

Perfectionism and Burnout in Canoe Polo and Kayak Slalom Athletes: The Mediating Influence of Validation and Growth-seeking

Research has implicated perfectionism in the development of athlete burnout (Gould et al., 1996). One potential explanation for this relationship is that some forms of perfectionism are associated with a desire for validation and psychological over-investment in participation. The present investigation examined the relationship between self-oriented and socially prescribed perfectionism and burnout in canoe polo and kayak slalom athletes, and whether these relationships are mediated by validation and growth-seeking. One-hundred and fifty canoe polo and kayak slalom athletes (M age = 26.05 years, SD = 9.57 years) recruited from the top two divisions in the UK completed Flett and Hewitt’s (1991) Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Dykman’s (1998) Goal Orientation Inventory, and Raedeke and Smith’s (2001) Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. Analyses supported the mediating role of validation-seeking in the relationship between socially prescribed perfectionism and burnout. However, while bivariate correlations indicated that self-oriented perfectionism was positively related to both validation and growth-seeking, neither mediated the selforiented perfectionism-burnout relationship. Based on these findings, validation-seeking may be an important psychological process in the development of burnout for athletes exhibiting the characteristics of socially prescribed perfectionism. Furthermore, the association between self-oriented perfectionism and growth-seeking may explain why this form of perfectionism may be unrelated, or inversely related, to athlete burnout