A Qualitative Exploration of Candidates’ Expectations and Preparations for Weight Loss Surgery in the NHS

Introduction: Weight loss surgery is the primary intervention offered by the NHS for patients with morbid obesity and associated health conditions (Welbourn, Fiennes & Kinsman, 2014). There are relatively few studies looking at candidates’ experiences of this and only one since the implementation of NHS commissioning guidance (2013) for weight loss surgery pathways. This study therefore sought to explore this. It focused specifically on candidates’ experiences of pre-surgical assessment, their hopes for life after surgery and how they have prepared for this. Method: The study followed a qualitative design using a mixed inductive and deductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006 & Boyatzis, 1998). Participants (N=11) were adults aged 18 or over, who were accessing weight loss surgery in a specialist NHS obesity service in the south of England. Semi-structured interviews were completed with participants to explore their experiences of their weight loss surgery journey so far. Results: Six overarching themes were identified capturing what participants’ decisions to pursue weight loss surgery were grounded in, their experiences of specialist obesity services, their conceptualization of weight loss surgery, their hopes and expectations for life after surgery, the roles of family and friends within their weight loss surgery journey, and finally, participants’ plans and preparations for life thereafter. Discussion: The results highlighted the additional hopes which candidates hold for weight loss surgery, beyond weight loss and improvements in physical health. The complex nature of participants’ relationship with themselves, eating and weight was illustrated and how this impacts expectations and subsequent preparation for surgery. The clinical and theoretical implications are discussed, as well as future directions for research in this area

Changing Diversity in U.S. Schools: The Impact on Elementary Student Performance and Achievement

Schools in the United States have experienced changes in their demographic profile during the last half century. During this changing time, schools have experienced court involved desegregation and have experienced fluctuations in their populations with regard to both race and socioeconomic status. Existing studies on segregation have focused primarily on Black and White students, neglecting the increasing Hispanic population of U.S. schools. This study provides more data to the expanding research on the impact of diversity on student performance. The study examined whether diversity and teacher quality of a school can predict academic performance on state-mandated tests, while controlling for school level poverty. In this quantitative study, the researcher also analyzed whether a difference existed between the predictability of pass rates and advanced pass rates for African American, Hispanic, and White students in Virginia\u27s elementary schools. Overall, the study found the selected schools to differ from the national trends actually showing an increase in diversity, largely due to an increase in Hispanic students and a decrease in White students. The data revealed that the impact of poverty is difficult to disentangle from the issues of diversity and teacher quality. Finally, the data revealed that the effects of poverty, diversity, and teacher quality are more significant for Reading than for Math and have more of an effect on some racial groups than on others

Noodlenomics: Using Pool Noodles to Teach Supply and Demand

Supply and demand is a fundamental part of economics at the junior high school, high school and college level. Although it is very important for students to understand and apply this analytical tool, many are turned off by the graph as well as the labels needed. This paper offers techniques for making supply and demand easier for students to comprehend. The classroom activities are mainly designed for teachers of middle school and high school economics, but can also be used as a fun and easy introduction to the concept in a college classroom as well

Opportunities and Access: Exploring How School District Leaders Make Meaning of Equity in Practice through Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to explore how PBIS and equity interacted according to school and district leaders.Research methods/approach: This study examined how five schools made meaning of the implementation process, ongoing efforts, and structures created. Through a case study including interviews, focus groups, and observations, the primary research question was explored: How do school leaders and teachers make meaning of implementing and assessing PBIS in their schools as a component of a journey toward equity?Findings: While the five schools had unique aspects, four common themes emerged across schools, including the benefits of PBIS, the power of relationships, the importance of communication and leadership, and PBIS challenges

Common grackle anting with lime fruit and its effect on ectoparasites

Journal ArticleAnting is stereotyped behavior in which birds ex- pose themselves to fluid-secreting ants or other pun- gent substances. During "active" anting a bird crush- es an ant in the bill and rubs it frenetically through its plumage (Rothschild and Clay 1952). During "passive" anting a bird entices ants to crawl through its plumage by crouching or lying on an ant hill with spread wings and tail

Students With Special Needs, Reading Education, and Principals: Bridging the Divide Through Instructional Leadership

Principals are held accountable for achievement results of students on state-mandated assessments. Special needs students who struggle with literacy can impact the pass rates on these assessments. This study identifies how reading is taught to special needs students in both self-contained and inclusion settings at the secondary level in one school district determines how school leaders may or may not be facilitating this process and identifies ways school leaders can more effectively facilitate special education reading programs and processes

The School Leadership Program Communication Hub: Building Actionable Knowledge about Improving Leadership Preparation

Recent critics of university-based educational leadership preparations programs have alleged that the programs are out of touch with the contemporary practices of PK-12 school leaders. These complaints about preparation programs have resulted in new and innovative ways to prepare leaders, including the federally funded United States Department of Education School Leadership Program. This manuscript documents the development of a Communication Hub , which serves as a vehicle to disseminate lessons learned about the United States Department of Education School Leadership Program. While the Communication Hub is still in its early phases of development and finding the best paths to serve the community of SLP grantees, the evidence thus far demonstrates the need for a means of communicating and sharing. The study data suggest the participants see the Communication Hub as adding value to their individual projects as well as having the potential to better disseminate these important lessons learned and helping to increase the quality of educational leadership preparation programs. (Contains 2 tables and 4 footnotes.

Impact of explainable artificial intelligence assistance on clinical decision-making of novice dental clinicians

OBJECTIVE: Despite artificial intelligence (AI) being used increasingly in healthcare, implementation challenges exist leading to potential biases during the clinical decision process of the practitioner. The interaction of AI with novice clinicians was investigated through an identification task, an important component of diagnosis, in dental radiography. The study evaluated the performance, efficiency, and confidence level of dental students on radiographic identification of furcation involvement (FI), with and without AI assistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-two third- and 19 fourth-year dental students (DS3 and DS4, respectively) completed remotely administered surveys to identify FI lesions on a series of dental radiographs. The control group received radiographs without AI assistance while the test group received the same radiographs and AI-labeled radiographs. Data were appropriately analyzed using the Chi-square, Fischer\u27s exact, analysis of variance, or Kruskal-Wallis tests. RESULTS: Performance between groups with and without AI assistance was not statistically significant except for 1 question where tendency was to err with AI-generated answer ( DISCUSSION: Dental students detecting FI in radiographs with AI assistance had a tendency towards over-reliance on AI. CONCLUSION: AI input impacts clinical decision-making, which might be particularly exaggerated in novice clinicians. As it is integrated into routine clinical practice, caution must be taken to prevent overreliance on AI-generated information

Data Discovery and Anomaly Detection Using Atypicality: Theory

A central question in the era of 'big data' is what to do with the enormous amount of information. One possibility is to characterize it through statistics, e.g., averages, or classify it using machine learning, in order to understand the general structure of the overall data. The perspective in this paper is the opposite, namely that most of the value in the information in some applications is in the parts that deviate from the average, that are unusual, atypical. We define what we mean by 'atypical' in an axiomatic way as data that can be encoded with fewer bits in itself rather than using the code for the typical data. We show that this definition has good theoretical properties. We then develop an implementation based on universal source coding, and apply this to a number of real world data sets.Comment: 40 page

Record of a Sixteen-year-old White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in Carbondale, Illinois: a Brief Note.

In May 2004, a dead white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) radiocollared in 1991 was found in Carbondale, Illinois, and was aged at 16 years old via cementum annuli analysis. She was a member of an unharvested, free-ranging population and likely died of natural causes. Given the average longevity of deer in unharvested populations at about 8 years of age, our finding is quite rare. Increased longevity of deer can heighten lifetime reproductive output, which may contribute to elevated deer abundance and concentrated herbivory in urban settings