Social Contexts in Ethnic Identity Development: How Does it Affect Bicultural Stress Between Generations?

Bicultural stress is the unique stress which occurs when a bicultural individual tries to navigate between two different cultures, namely their heritage culture and mainstream culture. This study investigated bicultural stress using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems model. This study posits that family, peers, community, and media interact to influence feelings of bicultural stress. A sample of 147 undergraduate visible minority Canadians at the University of Windsor was recruited for this study. They completed an online survey comprising standardized self-report measures and open-ended questions. Results were analyzed using statistical analyses and a thematic analysis. Findings from this study provided a detailed and complex illustration of the bicultural experience. It was found that second-generation Canadians experienced more bicultural stress compared to their third-generation peers. Also, regression analysis indicated that ethnic identity, family cultural socialization towards heritage culture, perceived discrimination, and generational status contributed to feelings of bicultural stress. Results from the thematic analysis indicated that bicultural Canadians have a shared bicultural experience. Participants described when they first realized their bicultural identity, and their responses revealed the different ways they used to navigate their bicultural identity. Lastly, this study investigated the effects of first name on bicultural stress. Participants revealed their experiences of name-based microaggression and the solutions they developed to make things easier for other people. Findings from this study revealed personal and intimate experiences with which bicultural Canadians have struggled in different social environments of their lives. This study can open avenues of research on microaggressions experienced by bicultural Canadians in school and workplace settings

Associations of Perceived Overall Health, Psychological Distress, Functional Impairment, and Alcohol Use among Older Adults of Sexual Minority Status and Heterosexual Peers

Background: Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults, 50 and older, are likely to have experienced mistreatment and discrimination, contributing to poor physical and mental health and risky behaviors, such as alcohol misuse. Few studies have examined the relationships between perceived health, psychological distress, functional impairment, and alcohol use of older LGB adults and heterosexuals. Specific Aims: The specific aims were: (1) to determine if perceived overall health status is associated with psychological distress and functional impairment in sexual minority older adults compared to heterosexual older adults, and (2) to determine if sexual minority status moderates the relationship between psychological distress and alcohol misuse. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of a retrospective cross-sectional design using data from the 2017-2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH). Health outcomes among LGB older adults (n=462) 50 years or older were compared with heterosexual (n=16,855) peers using univariate analyses and logistic regressions. Interaction terms evaluated the influence of sexual orientation on psychological distress and alcohol consumption. Outcomes included perceived overall health, functional impairment, psychological distress, and alcohol misuse. Results: There was no statistical difference in perceived health status between older LGB adults and older heterosexual adults. After adjusting for confounders, the findings support that older LGB adults are more likely to experience functional impairment than their heterosexual cohorts (B = -.125, SE = .038, p = .001, 95% CI [-.200, -.050]). The study did not show that older LGB adults had worse health status and psychological distress compared to older heterosexual adults. Older heterosexual adults were less likely to consume alcohol than older LGB adults. Sexual orientation did not moderate the relationship between psychological distress and the different alcohol use patterns. Conclusion: Future research should examine the underlying causes of impaired health in the older LGB population and utilize those findings to conduct research to prevent and minimize psychological distress and functional impairment. Older LGB adults should be screened for functional impairment and mental health issues, including alcohol so that appropriate referrals and/or treatments can be initiated

Efficiency of the teaching-industry linkage in the Australian vocational education and training

The vocational education and training (VET) sector plays a crucial role in Australia’s education system. Associated closely between the VET provision and industry, VET training quality is continually at the heart of debates in the process of implementing the Australian VET reform agenda. In response of key themes of this reform process, investigating the training efficiency of VET through the linked efficiency between teaching and industry responsiveness is imperative. The paper aims to address this objective by using the dynamic network data envelopment analysis in a balanced panel data for 2008–2012. This advanced model allows to assess simultaneously the efficiency of two nodes, teaching and industry responsiveness, and the overall dynamic training efficiency of VET based on fields of education in a network structure. We found that the overall training efficiency of VET is, on average, 0.835 while the mean divisional efficiencies of the teaching efficiency and industry responsiveness are 0.763 and 0.908, respectively. Sensitivity analysis is conducted to examine dynamic changes of the efficiency of the teaching and industry linkage following various period weights. Policy implications are drawn for the Australian VET sector

Conserved upstream open reading frames in higher plants

Background Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) can down-regulate the translation of the main open reading frame (mORF) through two broad mechanisms: ribosomal stalling and reducing reinitiation efficiency. In distantly related plants, such as rice and Arabidopsis, it has been found that conserved uORFs are rare in these transcriptomes with approximately 100 loci. It is unclear how prevalent conserved uORFs are in closely related plants. Results We used a homology-based approach to identify conserved uORFs in five cereals (monocots) that could potentially regulate translation. Our approach used a modified reciprocal best hit method to identify putative orthologous sequences that were then analysed by a comparative R-nomics program called uORFSCAN to find conserved uORFs. Conclusion This research identified new genes that may be controlled at the level of translation by conserved uORFs. We report that conserved uORFs are rare (<150 loci contain them) in cereal transcriptomes, are generally short (less than 100 nt), highly conserved (50% median amino acid sequence similarity), position independent in their 5'-UTRs, and their start codon context and the usage of rare codons for translation does not appear to be important.Michael K Tran, Carolyn J Schultz and Ute Bauman

Ensuring Rights: Improving Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services for Female International Students in Australia

Drawing on the research and advocacy work being conducted by the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH), a national community-based organization in Victoria, Australia, the paper analyzes female international students’ experiences with accessing sexual and reproductive health information and services. Accessibility of sexual and reproductive health services is one of a number of areas identified by MCWH in which international students experience unequal treatment. The limitations of international students’ mandatory health insurance is of particular concern because it appears to conflict with Australia’s human rights obligations to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination and to ensure appropriate services in connection with pregnancy. Given the social, cultural and economic benefits international students bring to the country in which they choose to study, state action on equitable health access for international students is urgently called for

Technical efficiency heterogeneity of tertiary institutions in Viet Nam: A metafrontier directional technology approach

The higher education system of Viet Nam has been undergoing reform process with the aim of seeking a position in the world's education market. However, recent changes in the system have made the operational efficiency of the system less stable, thus making it more challenging to improve the country's universities world rankings. In this paper, we investigate the performance of tertiary education institutions in Viet Nam and evaluate the efficiency gap between colleges and universities. Using the metafrontier directional technology approach, we estimate both the group frontier and metafrontier efficiencies for 112 universities and 141 colleges using data for 2011-2013 and compute their differences imposed by the technology associated with different levels of ownership and locations. The findings showed that the performance of universities were better than that of colleges, at 0.837 0.774, respectively. However, under an unrestricted metafrontier framework, the metatechnology ratios suggest that universities and colleges were operated comparatively well by potentially increasing their performance by 7.8 and 5.0 per cent, respectively. Both urban universities and colleges are found to be more efficient than their rural counterparts, but the effects of ownerships showed mixed results on the performance of universities and colleges. Our results highlight the need for appropriate policies and enabling environment that will enhance the performance of each institution. It is imperative to re-evaluate the specific role and individual contributions of colleges and universities in the national education system and assist rural universities and colleges to explore their full potential to enhance their performance

Technical efficiency heterogeneity of tertiary institutions in Viet Nam: a metafrontier directional technology approach

The higher education system of Viet Nam has been undergoing reform process with the aim of seeking a position in the world’s education market. However, recent changes in the system have made the operational efficiency of the system less stable, thus making it more challenging to improve the country’s universities world rankings. In this paper, we investigate the performance of tertiary education institutions in Viet Nam and evaluate the efficiency gap between colleges and universities. Using the metafrontier directional technology approach, we estimate both the group frontier and metafrontier efficiencies for 112 universities and 141 colleges using data for 2011–2013 and compute their differences imposed by the technology associated with different levels of ownership and locations. The findings showed that the performance of universities were better than that of colleges, at 0.837 0.774, respectively. However, under an unrestricted metafrontier framework, the metatechnology ratios suggest that universities and colleges were operated comparatively well by potentially increasing their performance by 7.8 and 5.0 per cent, respectively. Both urban universities and colleges are found to be more efficient than their rural counterparts, but the effects of ownerships showed mixed results on the performance of universities and colleges. Our results highlight the need for appropriate policies and enabling environment that will enhance the performance of each institution. It is imperative to re-evaluate the specific role and individual contributions of colleges and universities in the national education system and assist rural universities and colleges to explore their full potential to enhance their performance. First published online 17 September 201

Navigation/Prop Software Suite

Navigation (Nav)/Prop software is used to support shuttle mission analysis, production, and some operations tasks. The Nav/Prop suite containing configuration items (CIs) resides on IPS/Linux workstations. It features lifecycle documents, and data files used for shuttle navigation and propellant analysis for all flight segments. This suite also includes trajectory server, archive server, and RAT software residing on MCC/Linux workstations. Navigation/Prop represents tool versions established during or after IPS Equipment Rehost-3 or after the MCC Rehost

Evaluation of the economic impact of classical and African swine fever epidemics using OutCosT, a new spreadsheet-based tool

Acord transformatiu CRUE-CSI