Theory of Mind Deficits in Children With Intellectual Disabilities : A Test of Specificity and Uniqueness Hypotheses

This study was designed to determine (a) whether children with intellectual disabilities have a theory of mind deficit relative to younger children of the same verbal mental age and (b) whether theory of mind in children with intellectual disabilities is domain-specific or related to other general cognitive functions. A group of 15 children with intellectual disabilities (mean age= 10;0), 15 children of average intelligence (mean age= 10;0) and 15 children of average intelligence (mean age= 6:0) matched on verbal mental age with the children with intellectual disabilities. The children were given a series of theory of mind tasks. The children with intellectual disabilities were significantly lower on theory of mind performance from the children of average intelligence of the same age, but not from the younger children of average intelligence matched for verbal mental age. This indicates that the children with intellectual disabilities do not exhibit a theory of mind deficit relative to other children of the same verbal mental age. General cognitive functioning accounted for the difference between the groups and was significantly correlated with theory of mind performance in the group with intellectual disabilities. It is concluded that children with intellectual disabilities do not have a deficit in theory of mind relative to younger children of the same verbal mental age, and that theory of mind in children with intellectual disabilities is not domain-specific, but is related to verbal skills and general cognitive functioning

A Phenomenological Study: The Lived Experience of Jamaican Immigrant Teachers Practicing in Northeastern North Carolina

Public school districts across the United States (U.S.) have struggled with the hemorrhaging of teachers for many years and have become creative in staffing classrooms, which includes hiring overseas teachers. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Jamaican exchange visitor program (EVP) teachers practicing in northeastern North Carolina K-12 public and charter schools. An amalgamation of Milton Gordon’s (1964) assimilation and John Berry’s (1977) acculturation theories guided the research. Semi-structured interviews were used to capture and examine the Jamaican EVP teachers\u27 stories of success, challenges, and resilience. The study capitalizes on the power of Jamaican EVP teachers’ stories to amplify and document their multicultural experiences. Findings from the stories revealed six dominant themes in narratives and hold significant insights into how sponsors (teacher recruitment agencies), school district leaders, and local school leaders could improve the experiences of immigrant EVP teachers. Implications for practice include implementing practices beyond relocation assistance, assisting participants in finding housing, reliable transportation, and financial aid, all essential factors that could help ease transitions. Other implications for practice include providing immigrant teachers with high-quality personalized predeparture professional development and mentorship sessions through online learning platforms orienting them to the American culture and teaching in multicultural society classrooms. Further study recommendations include conducting studies to compare the phenomenon of assimilation and acculturation of Jamaican EVP teachers with EVP teachers from other nations and geographical settings within the U.S

Telehealth methods to deliver multifactorial dietary interventions in adults with chronic disease: A systematic review protocol

Background: The long-term management of chronic diseases requires adoption of complex dietary recommendations, which can be facilitated by regular coaching to support sustained behaviour change. Telehealth interventions can overcome patient-centred barriers to accessing face-to-face programs and provide feasible delivery methods, ubiquitous and accessible regardless of geographic location. The protocol for this systematic review explains the methods that will be utilised to answer the review question of whether telehealth interventions are effective at promoting change in dietary intake and improving diet quality in people with chronic disease. Methods/design: A structured search of Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and PsychINFO, from their inception, will be conducted. We will consider randomised controlled trials which evaluate complex dietary interventions in adults with chronic disease. Studies must provide diet education in an intervention longer than 4 weeks in duration, and at least half of the intervention contact must be delivered via telehealth. Comparisons will be made against usual care or a non-telehealth intervention. The primary outcome of interest is dietary change with secondary outcomes relating to clinical markers pre-specified in the methodology. The process for selecting studies, extracting data, and resolving conflicts will follow a set protocol. Two authors will independently appraise the studies and extract the data, using specified methods. Meta-analyses will be conducted where appropriate, with parameters for determining statistical heterogeneity pre-specified. The GRADE tool will be used for determining the quality of evidence for analysed outcomes. Discussion: To date, there has been a considerable variability in the strategies used to deliver dietary education, and the overall effectiveness of telehealth dietary interventions for facilitating dietary change has not been reviewed systematically in adults with chronic disease. A systematic synthesis of telehealth strategies will inform the development of evidence-based telehealth programs that can be tailored to deliver dietary interventions specific to chronic disease conditions. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42015026398

The Black Box: Unraveling Family Business Succession

Using the family business succession, resource-based view of firms, familiness, and organizational clan literatures, this article develops a model based on the ability of the family business to use familiness, a specific bundle of attributes deriving from a family’s culture, as a competitive advantage for the family firm. In particular, this resource-based framework of family business shows how familiness can distinguish between family firms that succeed beyond the second generation and those that do not. Implications for future research are discussed

Reviews

Reviews of Wage-fixing (Stagflation Volume 1), Is Knowledge Power?, Trade Unions: The Logic of Collective Action, Strikes in Australia: A Sociological Analysis of Industrial Conflict, No Free Lunc

Patient Experiences of Dietary Management in Chronic Kidney Disease: A Focus Group Study

Objective: People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) contend with complex dietary recommendations. The challenge in practice is for clinicians to provide individualized support with the frequency and consistency required to sustain dietary changes. This study aimed to describe the experiences of patients with managing dietary recommendations, including their perspectives on the potential to use telehealth to support dietary management in CKD. Design: Focus group study. Subjects: Twenty-one adult patients with CKD (nondialysis) and 3 caregivers (total N = 24) purposively sampled to achieve diverse demographic and clinical characteristics, from two nephrology units in Queensland, Australia. Methods: Five focus groups were conducted, audio recorded, and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis drawing on the principles of grounded theory. Main Outcome Measure: Themes aligned with the research question. Results: We identified five themes: exasperating stagnancy (patronized by redundant advice, confused and unprepared for dietary change, inevitability of failure, and barriers to accessing dietetic services); supporting and sustaining change (receiving regular feedback, incremental and comprehendible modification, practical guidance on food, flexibility in monitoring schedule, and valuing peer advice); fostering ownership (seeking kidney diet information, enacting behavior change, making reminders, and tracking progress against targets); motivators and positive learning instruction (relying on reassurance, positive reinforcement, focusing on allowable foods, and involving family); threats and ambiguities of risk (sugar as the culprit, ubiquity of salt, illegible food labeling, avoiding processed foods, and questioning credibility of sources). Conclusions: Patients with CKD desire a preventative approach to CKD progression and maintaining their health, however, are stymied by dietary restrictions and a lack of reliable dietetic advice. Easy-to-use telehealth options have the potential to overcome the shortcomings in current health service delivery which may be limiting factors to providing these approaches. They provide patients with pragmatic tools, comprehensible and consistent information which fosters ownership and self-monitoring

Sulfide saturation in evolving porphyry systems: El Abra porphyry Cu deposit, northern Chile, and the Grasberg-Ertsberg porphyry-skarn Cu-Au district, Papua, Indonesia

Sulfide saturation during the magmatic evolution of porphyry systems is emerging as an important control on chalcophile element fertility. Platinum group elements (PGE) have extreme sulfide melt-silicate melt partition coefficients that make them sensitive indicators of the timing of sulfide saturation in an evolving magmatic system. We report PGE and Re concentrations of intrusions from the Grasberg-Ertsberg porphyry-skarn Cu-Au district, Papua, Indonesia. Unaltered to weakly altered samples contain up to 0.023 ppb Rh, 5.5 ppb Pt, 11.6 ppb Pd and 162 ppb Re. The most altered and/or mineralized samples typically contain greater concentrations; up to 0.065 ppb Rh, 17.6 ppb Pt, 95 ppb Pd and 218 ppb Re. The results suggest that sulfide saturation did not occur during magmatic evolution of the intrusions, and so Cu, Au, and PGE were concentrated by fractional crystallization and partitioned into the mineralizing fluid. These findings contrast with the intrusions of the El Abra-Pajonal suite and porphyry Cu deposit, Chile, where a rapid drop in Pt and Pd abundance indicates that sulfide saturation started before ore-fluid saturation. However, at El Abra, a porphyry Cu deposit was still able to form because the amount of sulfide melt that formed was small, stripping the magma of most of its Au and PGE but little Cu. Sulfide saturation therefore has a governing control over both the availability of the chalcophile elements to partition into the hydrothermal ore-fluid phase and the type of porphyry mineralization that can form, i.e. Cu, Cu-Au, or Cu-Au-(Pd)

Feasibility and acceptability of telehealth coaching to promote healthy eating in chronic kidney disease: A mixed-methods process evaluation

Objective To evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a personalised telehealth intervention to support dietary self-management in adults with stage 3-4 chronic kidney disease (CKD). Design Mixed-methods process evaluation embedded in a randomised controlled trial. Participants People with stage 3-4 CKD (estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]15-60 mL/min/1.73 m 2). Setting Participants were recruited from three hospitals in Australia and completed the intervention in ambulatory community settings. Intervention The intervention group received one telephone call per fortnight and 2-8 tailored text messages for 3 months, and then 4-12 tailored text messages for 3 months without telephone calls. The control group received usual care for 3 months then non-tailored education-only text messages for 3 months. Main outcome measures Feasibility (recruitment, non-participation and retention rates, intervention fidelity and participant adherence) and acceptability (questionnaire and semistructured interviews). Statistical analyses performed Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis. Results Overall, 80/230 (35%) eligible patients who were approached consented to participate (mean±SD age 61.5±12.6 years). Retention was 93% and 98% in the intervention and control groups, respectively, and 96% of all planned intervention calls were completed. All participants in the intervention arm identified the tailored text messages as useful in supporting dietary self-management. In the control group, 27 (69%) reported the non-tailored text messages were useful in supporting change. Intervention group participants reported that the telehealth programme delivery methods were practical and able to be integrated into their lifestyle. Participants viewed the intervention as an acceptable, personalised alternative to face-face clinic consultations, and were satisfied with the frequency of contact. Conclusions This telehealth-delivered dietary coaching programme is an acceptable intervention which appears feasible for supporting dietary self-management in stage 3-4 CKD. A larger-scale randomised controlled trial is needed to evaluate the efficacy of the coaching programme on clinical and patient-reported outcomes. Trial registration number ACTRN12616001212448; Results