Theory of Planned Behavior: Examining Breastfeeding Intentions and Behaviors

Breastfeeding is the gold standard for infant nutrition, providing benefits to both infants and mothers. According to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), a mother’s breastfeeding intention is directly related to the following antecedents: attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. The purpose of this descriptive, prospective study was to examine the relationship between antecedents and breastfeeding intentions and behavior at 60 days postpartum utilizing three online questionnaires administered prior to birth and at 10 and 60 days postpartum. The baseline questionnaire measured participants’ attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control toward breastfeeding intentions, while day 10 and day 60 questionnaires measured breastfeeding behaviors. Participants included 52 women residing in West Michigan who were English literate, 21+ years, at least 37 weeks pregnant, and intending to breastfeed. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 21. Participants were a mean age of 31 years, 96% (n=50) married, 80% (n=42) insured privately, and 78% (n=41) multipara. There was a significant positive correlation among maternal attitudes (r(52)=.452, p\u3c.05) and perceived behavioral control (r(52)=.330, p\u3c.05) and maternal intention to exclusively breastfeed at 3 months. Subjective norms and maternal intention to exclusively breastfeed at 3 months were not significantly correlated (r(52)=.242, p=.09). There was no significant association between maternal intention to exclusively breastfeed at 3 months and breastfeeding behavior at day 60 postpartum (x2=2.70, p=.23). Limitations included a small convenience sample of predominantly married, affluent, White women. Nursing interventions should foster positive breastfeeding attitudes and establish supportive measures to promote perceived behavioral control among breastfeeding mothers

ASEAN 4 KIDS: AN INTERACTIVE APPLICATION FOR LEARNING ASEAN CULTURE

With three years to the implementation of ASEAN Community in 2015, knowledge about ASEAN is the basic fundamental building block to the success of the ASEAN Community. A research has revealed that currently there is still a significant knowledge gap about ASEAN among young generation. Therefore, this project aims to fulfill this gap by designing and developing an interactive application for learning ASEAN culture named “ASEAN 4 KIDS”. Objective of this project are to develop an interactive application that encourages young children especially primary school students to learn some basic knowledge about ASEAN and culture of each member countries. The project also aims to raise awareness and understanding of ASEAN, its people and cultures to the target users through ICT. Additionally, the objectives are to explore the use of game-based approach in promoting culture learning as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the application in learning ASEAN culture. Currently in the market, there are limited numbers of culture teaching applications that integrate various aspects of culture. Furthermore, the products that actually focus on teaching ASEAN Culture are very scarce. Using Flash and Augmented Reality, the system exposes the young children to the technology while they learn from the animation lessons and play the interactive games which are the mechanism to teach about ASEAN and deliver the educational content. Besides, the proposed system, this project also involves the study of how culture is being taught in school and the study of young children nature. As a result, the lessons and games are age-appropriate and match the abilities of the children. As a consequence the system is not only creating a joyful learning for the children but also help create awareness and understanding about ASEAN among them. The prototype system was tested with 5 primary school children aged between nine to twelve years old under the instruction of the developer and parents. The result of the testing showed the excitement of the children towards the system which is a good sign for the implementation in the real learning environment later on

The phenomenon of citizen journalists in contemporary armed conflicts

Muchas veces, las noticias difundidas por los llamados periodistas ciudadanos logran un enorme impacto en la opinión pública, hasta el punto de que las grandes empresas informativas ayudan a su difusión, especialmente en los conflictos armados. El auge de este fenómeno se debe a las facilidades que brindan las nuevas tecnologías digitales a los usuarios no especializados, que con sólo un teléfono con conexión a Internet gozan de un acceso inusitado tanto a la emisión como a la recepción de mensajes a escala mundial. Los tribunales de justicia han comenzado a otorgar a los ciudadanos la misma protección que a los profesionales, cuando se trata de la defensa del derecho a la libertad de expresión, y las Organizaciones Internacionales ya equiparan a ambos en derechos y obligaciones. Las nuevas tecnologías no sólo han cambiado el perfil de los conflictos armados; también obligan a replantearse quién es periodista, qué es el periodismo.News published by so-called citizen journalists increasingly create such an impact on public opinion, that media companies take them as valid sources of information, especially in armed conflicts. The rise of this phenomenon derives from the easy access to new digital technologies on the part of non-specialist users, who only need a phone with Internet access to reach a worldwide audience. The courts of justice have started to grant citizens the same protection as journalists, when it comes to defending the right to freedom of expression, and international organizations equate both professionals and non-professionals in terms of rights and obligations. New technologies have not only changed the profile of armed conflict; they have also forced us to rethink who is a journalist, and indeed what journalism is

La Costa del Sol: habitar entre líneas Una mirada a ras del suelo

"HABITAR ENTRE LÍNEAS" es una investigación abierta alrededor de las perspectivas de desarrollo de la Costa del Sol Occidental. En base a la relectura de sus transformaciones a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XX y del estudio cercano de su realidad construida, "HABITAR ENTRE LÍNEAS" trata de componer un marco contextual atento a la vida urbana y la identidad social de la zona en el presente. Para ello, "HABITAR ENTRE LÍNEAS" pone la mirada a la altura de la vista de quienes habitan la Costa, desvelando múltiples modos de interpretación individual al margen del proyecto oficial para así reivindicar la pronunciada y potencial diversidad de un territorio aparentemente sometido por el capitalismo global

“Polaroids from Heaven”: Collaboration Between the Marian Library and the Course, Alternative Photography

This presentation covers a collaborative project between the Marian Library and the Department of Art and Design at the University of Dayton