Research and evaluation of the behaviour improvement programme

A significant body of research has highlighted problematic behaviour as a major source of discontent among teachers creating difficulties for teaching and learning in some schools. Improving behaviour in school depends on addressing a range of inter-related issues a the whole-school level, in the classroom, and in relation to individual pupils. Evidence suggests that schools with high levels of communal organisation, adopting a whole-school approach, show more orderly behaviour. It is also important for schools to nurture a sense of rights and responsibilities in school cultures. In the longer term, students need to internalise the need for responsible behaviour and value it for the benefits which accrue to themselves as well as others

Boiling and Microwaving Effects on Hydrophilic Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity of Frozen Vegetables

Decreased risks of chronic illnesses, such as cancer, occur with increased consumption of dietary antioxidants. Vegetables are a particularly rich source of dietary antioxidants but these are primarily water soluble compounds. This research determined effects of microwaving or boiling on the antioxidant capacities of commercially frozen vegetables. Hydrophilic components were extracted by Acetone/Deionized water/Acetic Acid (700:295:50, v/v) from commercially frozen broccoli, carrots, sweet corn, and sweet peas before and after microwaving for 5 min or boiling for 10 min. The Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assay was employed to determine the antioxidant capacity. Additionally, color and texture analyses were performed. ORAC values from uncooked, microwaved or boiled broccoli were 11.33, 8.04 and 5.72 μmol TE/g; ORAC values for peas were 10.2, 5.14 and 2.43 μmol TE/g; ORAC values for corn were 6.32, 8.12 and 4.45 μmol TE/g; and ORAC values for carrots were 2.95, 4.00, and 2.39 μmol TE/g. No significant ORAC and texture correlations were determined. The only significant color and ORAC correlation was for the a* value of peas (p\u3c0.05). A negative moderate correlation existed; therefore, greener peas had greater ORAC values. These results demonstrate that boiling vegetables for 10 min results in lower ORAC values and boiled broccoli, peas and corn contained significantly lower values (p\u3c0.05) than uncooked broccoli or peas and microwaved corn. Boiled vegetables have been found to contain significantly lower water soluble nutrients due to loss into the cooking water. ORAC analysis of cooking water from each of the four vegetables verified the loss of antioxidant constituents since the water was found to contain increased antioxidant capacity. The greatest ORAC values were found in the water after boiling broccoli and the lowest ORAC values were found in the water after cooking carrots. Addition of antioxidant capacities of cooked vegetables in nutritional databases would be useful to consumers wanting to increase consumption of antioxidants

Claiming the law: an ethnography of Bolivian women's access to justice and legal consciousness

There have been a number of legal reforms in Bolivia since the first indigenous president, Evo Morales, came to power in 2006. In 2009 a New Constitution was enacted which included rights for women and expanded legal recognition of indigenous groups. In 2013, in order to address rising rates of violence against women, Law 348 to Guarantee Women a Life Free from Violence was established. Yet what meaning these legal changes have for Bolivian women is still unknown. This thesis explores Bolivian women’s legal consciousness and subjectivities in the context of these changes, particularly in relation to law concerning violence. Twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork was conducted in the city of La Paz, Bolivia, between October 2014 and October 2015. Participant observation in a women’s centre was the main field site, which offered the opportunities to gather women’s life stories and explore women’s narratives of the law. This was further supplemented with interviews with Civil Society Organisations and government in order to add different perspectives and further map the social structures of society that both constrain and enable meaning-making. This socio-legal ethnography presents women’s engagements with the law, and offers insights into women’s lived experiences of accessing justice and claiming rights, both directly and indirectly, as well as the influence that legality has on women’s legal subjectivity and their sense of self. Doing so provides a narrative of Bolivian women’s legal consciousness and reveals the meaning that law has for women in their everyday lives. Law works to shape the way they view themselves and their experiences as they engage with the processes of accessing justice. It can be concluded that law is a meaningful yet often contradictory presence in Bolivian women's everyday lives

Evaluation Champions: A Literature Review

Background: Numerous studies call for the identification and engagement of evaluation champions in the implementation of an evaluation initiative. However, no agreed definition of an evaluation champion exists in the extant literature. Published studies on evaluation champions are limited and motivations of evaluation champions are not well understood. Understanding of how evaluation champions interact with their colleagues to generate momentum for change is lacking. Purpose: This article explores champions in organizational settings and highlights the need for an increased understanding of evaluation champions. The research question posed is, ‘What does the literature tell us about evaluation champions in organizational settings?’ Setting: Not Applicable. Intervention: Not Applicable. Research Design: Relevant articles were identified through systematic searches of selected databases and reference reviews of retrieved articles from the evaluation and organizational development bodies of evidence. Theories that could assist with understanding the role of evaluation champions were also drawn upon. Data Collection and Analysis: Not Applicable. Findings: The analysis indicates evaluators and organizations value champions because they work to bring evaluative thinking into their practice and positively promote evaluation among their colleagues. A list of activities that may be indicative of the behaviours of champions has been compiled to contribute to the evidence base. Keywords: evaluation champions; social interdependence theory; evaluation use; evaluation capacity building

The role of sex-specific selection in genome evolution

In this thesis, I use transcriptomic and genomic data from multiple bird species to investigate the genetic architecture of sexual dimorphism and to understand how sex-specific selection shapes genome evolution. I consider two routes to sexual dimorphism. Firstly, due to their unequal pattern of inheritance, sex chromosomes are hypothesised to facilitate the evolution of sexual dimorphisms by navigating functional constraints that shared regions of the genome are subject to. However, the sex chromosomes have differences in mutation rate, effective population size and recombination rate relative to the autosomes, which may act to reduce the efficacy of selection acting on them. Consistent with this, in Chapter 2, I show that the avian Z chromosome is not a hotspot of sexual conflict relative to the autosomes. Additionally, in Chapter 3, I reveal that a combination of adaptive and purifying selection are the dominant modes of evolution of the avian W chromosome. Secondly, I examine the role of differential regulation of the parts of the genome that are shared equally between males and females in the evolution of phenotypic dimorphisms. In Chapter 4, I discover an abundance of autosomal genes with sex differences in expression level and alterative splicing and suggest that differential alternative splicing evolves under sex-specific selection and facilitates sex-specific adaptation when differential expression level is limited by pleiotropic constraints. Together, my findings shed light on the role of sex-specific selection on the sex chromosomes and the autosomes in the evolution of intraspecific genetic diversity

A Procedure for Determining the Relative Volume of Mitochondria in Hepatic Cells

About forty years ago Cowdry\u27s monograph on mitochondria appeared evaluating the work of previous investigators, indicating synonymy and, in a sense, bringing the first exploratory phase of the study of these cellular constituents to a close (1). Reasonably specific methods for their demonstration had been devised, and it was possible to have some confidence in the conclusions that the so-called mitochondria of different kinds of cells, despite dissimilarities in size or shape, were comparable cellular parts

Competitive champions versus cooperative advocates: Understanding advocates for evaluation

Abstract Background: Evaluation offers non-profit organizations an opportunity to improve their services, demonstrate achievements, and be accountable. The extant literature identifies individuals who can enhance the uptake of evaluation as evaluation champions. However, a paucity of detail is available regarding how to identify them and the support they require. Purpose: This research investigated the characteristics and motivations of evaluation champions and examined how they promoted and embedded evaluation in an organizational system. Setting: Australian human and social service non-profit organizations. Research design: Drawing upon the literature and social interdependence theory, the research took an interpretivist perspective to collaboratively generate knowledge about evaluation champions. The aim was to understand and develop a reconstruction of the characteristics of individuals. This article constitutes a component of a larger research project. Data Collection and Analysis: This research used purposive sampling to recruit champions working in Australian non-profit organizations, who were identified via descriptive criteria gleaned from a literature review. The research involved interviewing 17 champions, four of whom also participated in organizational case studies. Analysis of the semi-structured interviews and case studies generated information about the activities, strategies, motivations, and attributes of individuals who championed and advocated for evaluation. Findings: This article argues that evaluation advocates is a preferable descriptor when attempting to embed evaluation by cultivating mutually beneficial interactions and cooperative working relationships. This research defines evaluation advocates as individuals who motivate others and provide energy, interest, and enthusiasm by connecting evaluation with colleagues’ personal aspirations and the organizational goals to make judgements about effectiveness. This article includes a field guide to facilitate evaluation advocates’ identification, recruitment, support, and development

Decisions to Prosecute Battered Women\u27s Homicide Cases: An Exploratory Study

Discretionary decisions to prosecute cases in which a battered woman kills her partner were investigated using several research strategies and targeting a range of case elements. Law students presented with case elements reported they would consider legal elements over nonlegal (or ‘supplemental’) elements when making a decision to prosecute. In contrast, law students assessed through an open-ended format as to important case factors for deciding to prosecute spontaneously generated high proportions of supplemental case elements compared with legal factors. Vignette comparisons of 42 case elements on participants’ likelihood to prosecute identified salient factors including legal and supplemental variables. Themes from the open-ended responses are discussed, as well as the extent to which supplemental factors were more likely to be considered in prosecution decisions when assessed through different methodological strategies

Attitudes to Three Weight Maintenance Strategies:A Qualitative Study

Weight loss maintenance can be difficult and ultimately unsuccessful, due to psychological, behavioural, social, and physiological influences. The present study investigated three strategies with the potential to improve weight maintenance success: daily weighing, missing an occasional meal, habitually changing high energy foods. The principal aim was to gain an understanding of attitudes to these strategies in participants who had recent experience of weight loss attempts, with or without maintenance. This was a qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews, with 20 participants aged 18–67 (twelve females), analysed using thematic analysis. Most participants disliked daily weighing and missing an occasional meal for long-term maintenance and were concerned about potential negative effects on mental health. All participants had experience of habitual changes to high energy foods and regarded this strategy as obvious and straightforward. Replacement of high energy foods was favoured over elimination. Participants preferred strategies that felt flexible, “normal” and intuitive and disliked those that were thought to have a negative impact on mental health. Further investigation is needed on whether concerns regarding mental health are well founded and, if not, how the strategies can be made more acceptable and useful