Achievement Barriers Perceived and Overcome by Successful High-School Students Participating in Upward Bound Programs in Indiana

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine how academically successful Upward Bound students overcome the barriers to high-school graduation. While Upward Bound students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, similar to those of many students who fail to graduate from high school, 90% of them graduate. Method The research design for this study was Padilla‘s Student Success Model (SSM). Student Success Model (SSM) is a qualitative technique to portray successful student methods by capturing the perceived reality of the particular students being studied. Results In response to the first research question—What do students and staff perceive to be the barriers to successful completion of high school?—the primary barriers identified by the Upward Bound students and staff from all three programs were lack of motivation, peer pressure, and family responsibilities. In response to the second research question—What do the student and staff identify as the knowledge and actions for overcoming the barriers that successful students encounter?—the primary knowledge the students and staff identified were a sense of self and high standards; the primary actions they identified were initiative and priorities. Conclusion Upward Bound students and staff agree that successful students are able to overcome barriers they encounter because they have a strong sense of self and high standards. They combat the barriers they encounter using their ability to take initiative and to prioritize their educational responsibilities. These characteristics and abilities depicted in this study are influenced by the social and cultural capital the students acquire through their participation in Upward Bound‘s programs and use of the services provided by the staff. In addition, acquirement of those two forms of capital also builds within the Upward Bound students the ability to be resilient against the various barriers they encounter during their high-school years

Progression to unscheduled hospital admissions in people with diabetes: a qualitative interview study

Background: People with diabetes often have difficulty maintaining optimal blood glucose levels, risking progressive complications that can lead to unscheduled care. Unscheduled care can include attending emergency departments, ambulance callouts, out-of-hours care, and non-elective hospital admissions. A large proportion of non-elective hospital admissions involve people with diabetes, with significant health and economic burden. Aim: To identify precipitating factors influencing diabetes-related unscheduled hospital admissions, exploring potential preventive strategies to reduce admissions. Design & setting: Thirty-six people with type 1 (n = 11) or type 2 (n = 25) diabetes were interviewed. They were admitted to hospital for unscheduled diabetes-related care across three hospitals in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland. Participants were admitted for peripheral limb complications (n = 17), hypoglycaemia (n = 5), hyperglycaemia (n = 6), or for comorbidities presenting with erratic blood glucose levels (n = 8). Method: Factors precipitating admissions were examined using framework analysis. Results: Three aspects of care influenced unscheduled admissions: perceived inadequate knowledge of diabetes complications; restricted provision of care; and complexities in engagement with self-care and help-seeking. Limited specialist professional knowledge of diabetes by staff in primary and community care, alongside inadequate patient self-management knowledge, led to inappropriate treatment and significant delays. This was compounded by restricted provision of care, characterised by poor access to services — in time and proximity — and poor continuity of care. Complexities in patient engagement, help-seeking, and illness beliefs further complicated the progression to unscheduled admissions. Conclusion: Dedicated investment in primary care is needed to enhance provision of and access to services. There should be increased promotion and earlier diabetes specialist team involvement, alongside training and use of technology and telemedicine, to enhance existing care

Developing Cultural Competence in a Highly Interactive Service Social Media Environment

Social media is an important tool in relationship building and communication with customers (Kumar et al. 2016). A particular challenge remaining is how to achieve a holistic understanding of the contemporary consumer across online and offline environments. Both Kumar et al (2016) and Lamberton and Stephen (2016) emphasise the benefits of longitudinal research to understand the time required for social media to influence customer behaviour. Castronova (2002) first suggested that virtual worlds could be used as ‘petri-dishes’ to study populations. This research is focused on the individual rather than communities and therefore a multimodal longitudinal case study methodology was developed, which includes a Subjective Personal Introspection (SPI) to examine in detail the user/avatar relationship of one of the authors over five years. After a hermeneutic analysis process the authors identified extant acculturation and consumer acculturation theories as the overarching theme. Using these as a lens then reveal a virtual acculturation process within which there was a cultural competence development process (Padilla & Perez, 2008?). The antecedents to this process are identified and the role of self-discrepancy theory explained. This paper extends contemporary migratory consumptionscapes (Askegaard & Özçaglar-Toulouse, 2011) by applying an acculturation lens to the cybermarketspace crossing conceptual boundaries

Conversational Grammar- Feminine Grammar? A Sociopragmatic Corpus Study

One area in language and gender research that has so far received only little attention is the extent to which the sexes make use of what recent corpus research has termed “conversational grammar.” The author’s initial findings have suggested that the majority of features distinctive of conversational grammar may be used predominantly by female speakers. This article reports on a study designed to test the hypothesis that conversational grammar is “feminine grammar” in the sense that women’s conversational language is more adapted to the conversational situation than men’s. Based on data from the conversational subcorpus of the British National Corpus and following the situational framework for the description of conversational features elaborated in the author’s previous research, features distinctive of conversational grammar are grouped into five functional categories and their normed frequencies compared across the sexes. The functional categories distinguish features that can be seen as adaptations to constraints set by the situational factors of (1) Shared Context, (2) Co-Construction, (3) Real-Time Processing, (4) Discourse Management, and (5) Relation Management. The study’s results, described in detail in relation to the biological category of speaker sex and cultural notions of gender, suggest that the feminine grammar hypothesis is valid

Does gender matter? A cross-national investigation of primary class-room discipline.

© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupFewer than 15% of primary school teachers in both Germany and the UK are male. With the on-going international debate about educational performance highlighting the widening gender achievement gap between girl and boy pupils, the demand for more male teachers has become prevalent in educational discourse. Concerns have frequently been raised about the underachievement of boys, with claims that the lack of male ‘role models’ in schools has an adverse effect on boys’ academic motivation and engagement. Although previous research has examined ‘teaching’ as institutional talk, men’s linguistic behaviour in the classroom remains largely ignored, especially in regard to enacting discipline. Using empirical spoken data collected from four primary school classrooms in both the UK and in Germany, this paper examines the linguistic discipline strategies of eight male and eight female teachers using Interactional Sociolinguistics to address the question, does teacher gender matter?Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Effect of 12 weeks high oleic peanut consumption on cardio-metabolic risk factors and body composition

Epidemiological evidence indicates an inverse association between nut consumption and obesity, inflammation, hyperlipidaemia and glucose intolerance. We investigated effects of high oleic peanut consumption vs. a nut free diet on adiposity and cardio-metabolic risk markers. In a randomised cross-over design, 61 healthy subjects (65 ± 7 years, body mass index (BMI) 31 ± 4 kg/m2) alternated either high oleic peanuts (15%–20% of energy) or a nut free diet for 12 weeks. Body composition and mass, waist circumference, C-reactive protein (CRP), lipids, glucose and insulin were assessed at baseline and after each phase. Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) compared the two diets. Consistent with other nut studies, there were no differences in lipids, CRP, glucose and insulin with peanut consumption. In contrast, some reports have demonstrated benefits, likely due to differences in the study cohort. Energy intake was 10% higher (853 kJ, p < 0.05), following peanut consumption vs. control, attributed to a 30% increase in fat intake (p < 0.001), predominantly monounsaturated (increase 22 g, p < 0.05). Despite greater energy intake during the peanut phase, there were no differences in body composition, and less than predicted increase (0.5 kg) in body weight for this additional energy intake, possibly due to incomplete nutrient absorption and energy utilisation

Increases in plasma lutein through supplementation are correlated with increases in physical activity and reductions in sedentary time in older adults

Cross-sectional studies have reported positive relationships between serum lutein concentrations and higher physical activity levels. The purpose of the study was to determine whether increasing plasma lutein levels increases physical activity. Forty-four older adults (BMI, 25.3 ± 2.6 kg/m2; age, 68.8 ± 6.4 year) not meeting Australian physical activity guidelines (150 min/week of moderate to vigorous activity) were randomized to consume capsules containing 21 mg of lutein or placebo with 250 mL of full-cream milk per day for 4 weeks and encouraged to increase physical activity. Physical activity was assessed by self-report, pedometry and accelerometry (daily activity counts and sedentary time). Exercise self-efficacy was assessed by questionnaire. Thirty-nine participants competed the study (Lutein = 19, Placebo = 20). Lutein increased plasma lutein concentrations compared with placebo (p < 0.001). Absolute and percentage changes in plasma lutein were inversely associated with absolute (r = -0.36, p = 0.03) and percentage changes (r = -0.39, p = 0.02) in sedentary time. Percentage change in plasma lutein was positively associated with the percentage change in average daily activity counts (r = 0.36, p = 0.03). Exercise self-efficacy did not change (p = 0.16). Lutein increased plasma lutein, which was associated with increased physical activity and reduced sedentary time in older adults. Larger trials should evaluate whether Lutein can provide health benefits over the longer term

Long-term dietary intervention trials: critical issues and challenges

Background: There are many challenges involved in running randomised controlled dietary intervention trials that investigate health outcomes. The aim of this paper was to evaluate the recruitment process, retention of participants and challenges faced in our dairy intervention trial, and to provide strategies to combat the difficulties of running long-term dietary intervention trials.Methods: A 12-month, randomised, two-way crossover study was conducted in overweight adults with habitually low dairy food consumption to assess the effects of a high dairy intake (4 servings of reduced-fat dairy per day) compared with a low dairy intake (1 serving of reduced-fat dairy per day) on measures of cardiometabolic and cognitive health. On completion of the high dairy intake phase, each participant was interviewed about their experience in the trial and responses were used to evaluate the key issues for study participants.Results: Although the recruitment target was achieved, high rates of attrition (49.3%) and difficulties maintaining participant compliance (reported by 37.8% of participants) were major threats to the viability of the study. Factors that contributed to the high attrition included inability to comply with the dietary requirements of the study protocol (27.0%), health problems or medication changes (24.3%) and time commitment (10.8%).Conclusion: Attrition and adherence to study requirements present challenges to trials requiring longer-term dietary change. Including a run-in period to further assess the motivation, commitment and availability of participants, maintaining regular contact with participants during control phases, minimising time commitment, providing flexibility with dietary requirements, facilitating positive experiences, and stringent monitoring of diet are some key recommendations for future dietary intervention trials.Trial registration: Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN 12608000538347)