What is the Evidence of the Experience of Having a Fall across the Life Course? A Qualitative Synthesis

Background: Alleviating the economic and human impacts of falls and fear of falling are critical health and social care issues. Despite some proven effectiveness of a number of falls prevention intervention programmes, uptake remains low and attrition high. There is a need for greater understanding of social, cultural and individual, life course positioning of falling, actual or perceived. Objective: To address the question: what is the evidence of the experience of having a fall across the life course? Method: A qualitative evidence synthesis with key electronic databases searched from 1990-2011 using terms related to the experience of falls and falling. Selected papers presented data from the perspective of the person who had fallen. Synthesis included collaborative coding of ‘incidents’ related to falling, theoretical sampling of studies to challenge emerging theories, and constant comparison of categories to generate explanations. Results: The initial focus was to access and assess the evidence for the experiences of a fall across the life course but the authors’ systematic search revealed that the vast majority of the published literature focuses on the experience of a fall in later life. Only 2 of the 16 studies included, provided perspectives of falling from a life stage other than that of older adults. However older adults’ perceptions of their falls experiences are likely to be influenced by lifelong attitudes and beliefs about falling and older age. Synthesis identified that a falls incident or fear of falling induces explicit or implicit ‘Fear’. Consequences are related to notions of ‘Control’ and ‘Social standing’. Recovery work involves ‘Adaptation’, ‘Implications’ ‘Social standing’ and ‘Control’. ‘Explanation’ is sought. Conclusions: How and why people make sense of falling across the life course should have positive impacts on developing falls intervention programmes that people will want to engage with and adhere to

Women and Wasta: The Use of Focus Groups for Understanding Social Capital and Middle Eastern Women

Social capital is the use of informal networking to secure access to resources and opportunities. Often identified as an asset for offsetting deficiencies in societies, research on the phenomena is limited. This paper describes a qualitative study using focus groups with young adult Emeriti women representing three social-economic groups who were interviewed by the author in order to explore the topic of social capital, specifically a form of social capital defined by the Arabic term “wasta”. The women discussed their experiences of how wasta persists regardless of social and religious laws forbidding its practice and how they might use it in their own futures. The focus groups had notable differences in their perceptions of wasta, but as women, they did not see themselves as having access to this form of social capital. The study findings indicate that for these participants wasta is perceived as a cultural paradox that intersects with gender and class as a social construction that reinforces patriarchal and class privilege

The Work of Art

One of the most integral art forms central to musical expression is the visual and aural art of luthiery—a term which refers to the intricate craft, repair and restoration of stringed instruments. In May 2007, the Missouri Arts Council in partnership with the Missouri Folk Arts Program opens a traveling exhibition entitled Work is Art and Art is Work: The Art of Hand-crafted Instruments, an American Masterpieces project funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. American Masterpieces is the Endowment's coordinated effort to present “acknowledged masterpieces selected from a wide variety of art forms” in all fifty states. With assistance from ExhibitsUSA, seven venues in rural Missouri will host the exhibition and coordinate illuminating performances and school programs. The West Plains Council on the Arts will kick off the exhibit tour on May 11, 2007, as a central feature of its 13th Annual Old Time Music and Ozark Heritage Festival

Invertebrate glycoprotein-induced inflammation in rats

The present program of research, therefore, was designed to attempt to gain new insights into the possible etiology of inflammatory states - for when new information concerning the etiology of these diseases states becomes available, more meaningful screening procedures for anti-inflammatory drugs will certainly be devised. Two preliminary studies have been published

Traditional Versus Internet Instruction

This study compares student learning outcomes for traditional and Internet classroom contexts for the same course, same instructor. Interpretation of quantitative measures (quiz scores, assignments and overall final point total) suggested no overall difference between course contexts. The evaluation of student papers using qualitative criteria (i.e. critical reasoning and critical reflection) were interpreted to suggest that on-line students evidenced a higher level of critical reflection than did the traditional students. However, it is noted that the majority of all students, traditional and on-line, were clustered at the “problem posing” end of the critical reflection process. Discussed are the critical reasoning criteria, and the implications of Internet instruction and student learning for the family sciences

Personal Meaning Mapping as a Tool to Uncover Learning from an Out-of-doors Free-choice Learning Garden

Garden-based learning (GBL), a form of outdoor education contextualized and framed within unpredictable and real-world learning environments, is ideally suited to the teaching of science. However, the vast majority of GBL educational research has utilized a cognitive and positivist research paradigm, one that artificially restricts the investigative lens. The goal of the larger project from which this paper was drawn was to develop a better understanding of how youth perceived a garden experience. This paper shares the affordances and constraints of the constructivist framework utilized and the primary measurement tool, Person Meaning Mapping (PMM). Despite some inherent limitations, the PMM methodology enabled important insights that enhanced understandings of the effects of GBL

Email from Deborah Bailey Regarding AIG Update

Email (9/14/2008 6:47 pm)From: Deborah Bailey To: Ben Bernanke, Donald Kohn, Randall Kroszner, Elizabeth Duke, Kevin Warsh, Brian Madigan, Scott Alvarez, cc: Roger Cole re: Fw: AIG updat