An analysis of socio-cultural congruence and its impact on diverse student cohorts in an engineering context

Increasing numbers of ‘non-traditional’ students are enrolling in engineering. They include students from low socio economic status backgrounds or a rural upbringing, those who are mature age or first in their family to attend university, and those studying part-time and from a distance. They have varying levels of academic preparation and study skills, often coupled with significant additional personal and work commitments and pressures to be balanced with their studies. It is often assumed that if students have the ability, motivation and determination then they should be able to succeed at university regardless of their demographic backgrounds. However emerging data suggest that students must also master the academic culture; the norms, discourses and tacit expectations of academia. Academic success at university depends on the student understanding these unspoken requirements and being able to respond to them appropriately. Unlike most traditional students, many non-traditional students do not have the socio-cultural background to navigate their way through their studies adequately, and so they struggle. This social-constructivist research investigated the experiences of successful non-traditional engineering students. The dual aim of this research was to identify dispositions that enable these students to understand quickly and respond appropriately to academic culture in order to succeed in their studies and to identify institutional contexts which enable these dispositions to be successfully leveraged for academic success. A conceptual framework developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, using his concepts of habitus, field and capital, was applied within a case study methodology. A series of interviews triangulated with observations and survey data was employed in the investigation of the localised case. Nationally published qualitative and quantitative data were also collected and analysed in order to situate the case in the context of higher education is Australia. The resulting qualitative data was subjected to a thematic analysis using the constant comparative method and descriptive statistics were used for the analysis of the quantitative data. Improving our understanding of the key issues that influence positive and negative outcomes at university will inform the development of appropriate systems, programs and pedagogies to support more diverse, non-traditional student cohorts. The research concluded that consistent, high quality teaching and student support embedded throughout the curriculum of an engineering program is essential to optimising student academic performance. An institutional culture that is supportive of learning and teaching by disciplinary experts who have a student focus is essential to the implementation of effective student support strategies within the curriculum

Cell vs. bacterial viability in the presence of host defence peptides and RGD

yesMore than 2 million people/year suffer a bone fracture in the UK1. Reconstruction of bone defects represents a major clinical challenge and is addressed using a number of medical devices. Although medical device compositions and applications may differ widely, all attract microorganisms and represent niches for medical device associated infections. For open fractures, the risk of infection can be 55%2. These infections are often resistant to many of the currently available antibiotics and represent a huge and growing financial and healthcare burden. The aim of this study was a fundamental understanding of how the presence of host defence peptides (HDPs)3 and/or RGD can influence the outcome of cell vs. bacterial viability and proliferation.Presented at the conference: eCM XVI - Bone and Implant Infection June 24-26, 2015, Convention Centre, Davos Platz, Switzerland

What drives food insecurity in Western Australia? How the perceptions of people at risk differ to those of stakeholders

Food insecurity is considered a “wicked” problem due to the highly complex and at times undefined casual factors. Although many stakeholders are working to address the problem, a possible divergence exists between their views on food insecurity and those of the people who are actually experiencing the problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a difference between the opinions of those “at risk” and stakeholders. A total of seven focus groups (two stakeholder groups n = 10, five “at-risk” groups n = 34) and three interviews (stakeholders n = 3) were conducted to ascertain perceptions. Thematic analysis generated 329 (209 “at-risk” and 120 stakeholder) coded statements related to food insecurity drivers. Respondents were in agreement for the majority of factors, and limited income was considered the primary driver of food insecurity. However, there were notable deviations in the perceived importance of certain drivers, particularly around the price of food and the lack of food literacy. Differences in the perception of causes of food insecurity may in part be attributed to the varied role each group plays in working towards the resolution of the problem, either at the household or system level

What drives food insecurity in Western Australia? How the perceptions of people at risk differ to those of stakeholders

Food insecurity is considered a “wicked” problem due to the highly complex and at times undefined casual factors. Although many stakeholders are working to address the problem, a possible divergence exists between their views on food insecurity and those of the people who are actually experiencing the problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there was a difference between the opinions of those “at risk” and stakeholders. A total of seven focus groups (two stakeholder groups n = 10, five “at-risk” groups n = 34) and three interviews (stakeholders n = 3) were conducted to ascertain perceptions. Thematic analysis generated 329 (209 “at-risk” and 120 stakeholder) coded statements related to food insecurity drivers. Respondents were in agreement for the majority of factors, and limited income was considered the primary driver of food insecurity. However, there were notable deviations in the perceived importance of certain drivers, particularly around the price of food and the lack of food literacy. Differences in the perception of causes of food insecurity may in part be attributed to the varied role each group plays in working towards the resolution of the problem, either at the household or system level

Maths anxiety in primary and secondary school students: Gender differences, developmental changes and anxiety specificity

Maths anxiety (MA) is a debilitating negative emotional reaction towardsmathematics.However,MA research in primary and early secondary school is surprisingly sparse and inconsistent. Here we tested primary and secondary students' maths and reading performance and their maths and general anxiety (GA). We examined gender differences, developmental changes regarding the MA/maths performance link and investigated whether MA is linked to other academic domains (reading) and/or to other anxiety-types (GA). Results revealed that girls exhibited higherMA than boys at both educational levels.Whilst there was a reliable negative correlation between MA and secondary students' arithmetic performance, no such relationship was revealed in primary students. Finally, MA was moderately correlated with GA and, when GA was partialled out, MA remained significantly correlated with secondary students' arithmetic performance. MA was not related to reading performance when GA was controlled. It was concluded that the negative MA/maths performance link surfaces later in the educational timeline and MA appears to be both exclusively related to maths and independent of GA

DESAIN MOTIF TEKSTIL DENGAN INSPIRASI SULAM USUS

Seiring berkembangnya jaman, kain tradisional Indonesia mulai banyak dikembangkan dengan harga yang lebih terjangkau sehingga dapat dikenakan masyarakat luas. Salah satu teknik kain tradisional tersebut adalah Sulam Usus. Sekarang, baju dengan teknik sulam usus banyak digunakan oleh pejabat negara hingga artis untuk menghadiri acara. Hal tersebut membuat penulis tertarik untuk mengulik lebih lanjut tentang detail Sulam Usus dan pengaplikasiannya di masa kini. Sulam Usus merupakan teknik sulam atau tenun khas daerah Lampung yang memiliki bentuk menyerupai usus ayam dan diperkirakan telah ada sejak abad ke-16 (Nurrohman, 2021). Teknik Sulam usus berasal dari daerah Lampung dan digunakan oleh orang-orang dengan status sosial tinggi seperti bangsawan. Kain dengan teknik Sulam Usus juga digunakan oleh pengantin wanita sebagai penutup dada (bebe) sesuai adat Lampung. Penelitian mengenai kain sulam usus ini dilakukan untuk menambah wawasan mengenai keindahan, sejarah, hingga larangan dalam kain sulam usus. Diharapkan dengan adanya penelitian tentang kain sulam usus, informasi mengenai kain sulam usus dapat tersebar dan dipergunakan oleh generasi muda dan berikutnya. Untuk mengetahui lebih dalam mengenai kain sulam usus, akan dilakukan penelitian secara kualitatif melalui wawancara dan riset. Penelitian kain sulam usus menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif, yaitu melakukan observasi secara mendalam seperti wawancara langsung dan observasi digital, guna mendapatkan hasil kajian yang lebih mendalam. Melalui penelitian ini, penulis mendapat kesimpulan bahwa sulam usus memiliki harga dan minat yang tinggi karena teknik pengerjaan yang susah serta gaya yang dapat mengikuti tuntutan zaman

To dine in or not to dine in: A comparison of food selection and preparation behaviours in those with and without food security

© 2020 The Authors. Health Promotion Journal of Australia published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd on behalf of Australian Health Promotion Association Issue addressed: Vulnerable populations are disproportionately affected by food insecurity, resulting in heightened risk of suboptimal dietary intake. Food insecure people appear to implement several coping strategies and dietary compromises to avoid hunger. Less explored in the literature is how these strategies impact consumption of food inside and outside of the home. Methods: An online survey was completed by adults (n = 1292) residing in one of five Australian states. The questionnaire comprised of the six-item US Household Food Security Survey Module, 12 socio-demographic variables and 32 questions related to elements of food literacy. Results: Food insecure respondents were more likely to frequent fast food vs (P =.002), takeaway (P \u3c .001) and food courts (P \u3c .001) than their food secure counterparts. Food secure respondents reported greater use of raw (P =.043) and fresh, pre-prepared produce (P =.002) when cooking, whereas food insecure respondents were more likely to prepare food using only frozen, pre-packaged products (P \u3c .001). No significant differences were found between food security status and the enjoyment and social bonding derived from cooking. Conclusions: Food insecure respondents appeared to be accessing a poorer quality of food through greater consumption of takeaway and fast food. These dietary compromises are most likely related to perceived financial, time or cooking facility constraints and to a lesser extent food literacy skills. So what?: This study highlights some of the health and social inequities apparent within food insecure populations. Food insecure households should be supported to access healthy fresh food and in-home cooking practices. While a multi strategy approach is required, healthy food environment policy, particularly in disadvantaged areas, should be considered to guarantee that all Australians have dignified access to nutritious food

Australian consumers are willing to pay for the health star rating front-of-pack nutrition label

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. The Australia and New Zealand Ministerial Forum on Food Regulation has supported the recommendations set out in the 2019 Health Star Rating System Five Year Review Report. Specifically, the forum supported, in principle, Recommendation 9, to mandate the Health Star Rating if clear uptake targets were not achieved while the system is voluntary. Given that mandatory labelling is being considered, it is important to investigate how much consumers value the Health Star Rating in order to understand potential consumer uptake and inform industry. The aim of this study was to assess consumers’ valuation of the Health Star Rating system by analysing their willingness to pay for a packaged food product with the Health Star Rating label, utilising a double-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation approach. The results indicate that almost two-thirds of Australian household grocery shoppers were willing to pay more for a product with the Health Star Rating, on average up to an additional 3.7% of the price of the product. However, public health nutrition benefits associated with consumers’ willingness to pay more for products with the Health Star Rating is currently limited by the lack of guarantee of the systems’ accuracy. Given consumer support, a well validated and comprehensive Health Star Rating labelling system can potentially improve health outcomes, cost effectiveness and reduce environmental impacts

Multiscale, multimodal analysis of tumor heterogeneity in IDH1 mutant vs wild-type diffuse gliomas.

Glioma is recognized to be a highly heterogeneous CNS malignancy, whose diverse cellular composition and cellular interactions have not been well characterized. To gain new clinical- and biological-insights into the genetically-bifurcated IDH1 mutant (mt) vs wildtype (wt) forms of glioma, we integrated data from protein, genomic and MR imaging from 20 treatment-naïve glioma cases and 16 recurrent GBM cases. Multiplexed immunofluorescence (MxIF) was used to generate single cell data for 43 protein markers representing all cancer hallmarks, Genomic sequencing (exome and RNA (normal and tumor) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) quantitative features (protocols were T1-post, FLAIR and ADC) from whole tumor, peritumoral edema and enhancing core vs equivalent normal region were also collected from patients. Based on MxIF analysis, 85,767 cells (glioma cases) and 56,304 cells (GBM cases) were used to generate cell-level data for 24 biomarkers. K-means clustering was used to generate 7 distinct groups of cells with divergent biomarker profiles and deconvolution was used to assign RNA data into three classes. Spatial and molecular heterogeneity metrics were generated for the cell data. All features were compared between IDH mt and IDHwt patients and were finally combined to provide a holistic/integrated comparison. Protein expression by hallmark was generally lower in the IDHmt vs wt patients. Molecular and spatial heterogeneity scores for angiogenesis and cell invasion also differed between IDHmt and wt gliomas irrespective of prior treatment and tumor grade; these differences also persisted in the MR imaging features of peritumoral edema and contrast enhancement volumes. A coherent picture of enhanced angiogenesis in IDHwt tumors was derived from multiple platforms (genomic, proteomic and imaging) and scales from individual proteins to cell clusters and heterogeneity, as well as bulk tumor RNA and imaging features. Longer overall survival for IDH1mt glioma patients may reflect mutation-driven alterations in cellular, molecular, and spatial heterogeneity which manifest in discernable radiological manifestations