Oral Communication Needs of New Korean Students in a US Busincess Communication Classroom

In order for MBA programs in the US to prepare Korean students for international business, an international and interactive learning environment is required. This article examines the role of the interactive lecturing style in a US MBA program in influencing the oral classroom participation of five Korean students in the program. Data for this study come from formal and informal interviews and class observations over the course of one semester. Participants were three male and two female students, enrolled in one core course: business communication. The study shows that several factors informed the Korean students’ oral participation in the classroom. Their English language proficiency, individual characteristics, Korean socio-cultural values, unfamiliar educational practices, and the classroom context were all interrelated factors. While the participants had cultural similarities with other Asian students in the class, the study also shows that there were unique Korean cultural features in play. Disregarding their length of stay in the US, a common thread among the Korean participants was that they felt it more of a challenge to speak in whole-class discussions than in small-group discussions. The findings suggest pedagogical implications for promoting oral participation of Asian international students, particularly Korean students

Changing medical student attitudes to patient safety: A multicentre study

Background: Although patient safety is becoming widely taught in medical schools, its effect has been less rigorously evaluated. We describe a multicentre study to evaluate student changes in patient safety attitudes using a standardized instrument, the Attitudes to Patient Safety Questionnaire3 (APSQ3). Methods: A patient safety training package designed for medical students was delivered in the first year and second year in four Australian medical schools. It comprises eight face-to-face modules, each of two hours. Seminars start with an interactive introduction using questions, video and role play, followed by small group break-outs to discuss a relevant case study. Groups are led by medical school tutors with no prior training in patient safety. Students and tutors then reassemble to give feedback and reinforce key concepts. Knowledge and attitudes to patient safety were measured using the APSQ3, delivered prior to safety teaching, at the end of the first and second years and 12 months after teaching ceased. Results: A significant improvement in attitude over time was demonstrated for four of nine key items measured by the APSQ3: value of patient safety teaching; danger of long working hours, value of team work and the contribution patients can make in reducing error. Informal feedback from students was very positive. Conclusion: We showed persistent, positive learning from a patient safety education intervention 12 months after teaching finished. Building on the introduction of patient safety teaching into medical schools, pathways for motivated students such as appropriate electives, option terms and team-based research projects would be of value

Differential Proteomic Analysis of Human Saliva using Tandem Mass Tags Quantification for Gastric Cancer Detection.

Novel biomarkers and non-invasive diagnostic methods are urgently needed for the screening of gastric cancer to reduce its high mortality. We employed quantitative proteomics approach to develop discriminatory biomarker signatures from human saliva for the detection of gastric cancer. Salivary proteins were analyzed and compared between gastric cancer patients and matched control subjects by using tandem mass tags (TMT) technology. More than 500 proteins were identified with quantification, and 48 of them showed significant difference expression (p < 0.05) between normal controls and gastric cancer patients, including 7 up-regulated proteins and 41 down-regulated proteins. Five proteins were selected for initial verification by ELISA and three were successfully verified, namely cystatin B (CSTB), triosephosphate isomerase (TPI1), and deleted in malignant brain tumors 1 protein (DMBT1). All three proteins could differentiate gastric cancer patients from normal control subjects, dramatically (p < 0.05). The combination of these three biomarkers could reach 85% sensitivity and 80% specificity for the detection of gastric cancer with accuracy of 0.93. This study provides the proof of concept of salivary biomarkers for the non-invasive detection of gastric cancer. It is highly encouraging to turn these biomarkers into an applicable clinical test after large scale validation

Unpacking the Role of Early Learning in Student Learning Outcomes: Evidence from National Reform of Pre-primary Education in Ethiopia

This dissertation examines the role early childhood education (ECE) plays in shaping children’s educational trajectories by focusing on one country that is experiencing the most rapid and massive expansion of preschool access in sub-Saharan Africa: Ethiopia. This thesis consists of three distinctive but interconnected papers. The first paper assesses changes in the relationship between preschool attendance and students’ early grade reading achievement during the large-scale expansion of public preschool (O-Class) in Ethiopia. It leverages two Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) datasets that straddle the reform period from 2010 to 2016, during which pre-primary enrolment rates soared by nearly ten times. The results suggest that the large-scale preschool expansion strengthened the role of preschool attendance in predicting second- and third-grade students’ reading performance. The second paper further examines the differential influence of preschool by various child, family, and school characteristics. Despite the benefit of increased access to preschool on average, the results show that the preschool benefits were greater for affluent children, which suggest that the largescale expansion of preschool may come at the expense of equitable gains between advantaged and disadvantaged children. The third paper investigates how the relation between preschool attendance and student outcomes evolves from early childhood to adolescence. The results indicate that preschool attendance led to significant improvement in academic achievement in receptive vocabulary and language and increased educational attainment by age 15, the age at which most students are transitioning to secondary school. Moreover, the results highlight the importance of quality of preschool, as well as subsequent school experiences. These quality dimensions have the potential not only to determine the preservation of preschool benefits but to facilitate students’ positive academic trajectories from early childhood through adolescence. Directions for future research and policy implications related to ECE in Ethiopia are discussed

Developing a cultural competence assessment tool for people in recovery from racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds: the journey, challenges and lessons learned.

In 1997, Maryland implemented a new managed care mental health system. Consumer satisfaction, evaluation and cultural competency were considered high priorities for the new system. While standardized tools for measuring consumer satisfaction were readily available, no validated, reliable and standardized tool existed to measure the perception of people from minority groups receiving mental health services. The MHA*/MHP* Cultural Competency Advisory Group (CCAG) accepted the challenge of developing a consumer assessment tool for cultural competency. The CCAG, composed of people in recovery, clinicians and administrators used their collective knowledge and experiences to develop a 52-item tool that met standards for validity and reliability. Consultation from a researcher helped to further develop the tool into one possessing tremendous potential for statewide implementation within Maryland's Public Mental Health System. Recognizing the limitations of the study and the need for further research, this instrument is a work in progress. Strategies to improve the instrument are currently underway with the Mental Hygiene Administration's Systems Evaluation Center of the University of Maryland and several national researchers

Reversible Inactivation of the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis Blocks Reinstatement But Not Renewal of Extinguished Fear

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) is thought to be involved in the expression of fear to shock-associated contexts, but not to discrete conditional stimuli (CSs) paired with shock. Because context plays an important role in the extinction and relapse of fear, we sought to examine the contribution of the BNST to two different relapse phenomena: renewal and reinstatement. In the renewal experiment, male Long-Evans rats received 5 tone-shock trials for conditioning in “context A”; 24 hours later they received 45 tone–alone (extinction) trials in either “context B” or “context C”. Ten minutes prior to a retrieval test (5 tone-alone trials), rats were infused with either selective agonist for GABAA receptors, muscimol or vehicle in the BNST. In the reinstatement experiment, rats underwent a similar procedure, but were presented with an unsignaled ‘reminder’ shock in the extinction context to reinstate fear. As before, we examined the influence of muscimol inactivation of the BNST during a retrieval testing 24-hours after the reinstatement shock. In the reinstatement test, rats with muscimol infusion showed significantly less freezing than did rats with vehicle infusion. In contrast, BNST inactivation did not attenuate the renewal of fear to an extinguished CS outside the extinction context. These data indicate that the BNST is involved in forms of fear relapse that depend on direct associations of the test context with an aversive US

Preschool participation and students’ learning outcomes in primary school: Evidence from national reform of pre-primary education in Ethiopia

This study examines whether a large expansion of pre-primary education in Ethiopia affected subsequent students’ learning outcomes during the national reform of pre-primary education. The study utilizes two comparable, representative early grade reading assessment data that straddle the reform period from 2010 to 2016, during which enrolment rates in pre-primary education soared by nearly ten times nationwide. We find that associations between preschool participation and literacy outcomes were positive and significant after the expansion, yet no such relationships were observed before the reform. However, there was little heterogeneity in the gains of the preschool participation by gender, urbanity, and parental literacy. We discuss implications for ongoing reform, including strategic and inclusive policy designed to close the learning gap between children from advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds

Data Assimilation for Wildland Fires: Ensemble Kalman filters in coupled atmosphere-surface models

Two wildland fire models are described, one based on reaction-diffusion-convection partial differential equations, and one based on semi-empirical fire spread by the level let method. The level set method model is coupled with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) atmospheric model. The regularized and the morphing ensemble Kalman filter are used for data assimilation.Comment: Minor revision, except description of the model expanded. 29 pages, 9 figures, 53 reference

In adult patients with unilateral stroke, is distributed constraint-induced therapy or bilateral arm training more effective in improving upper extremity motor and functional outcomes compared with a routine approach?

Stroke survivors may experience deficits and impairments of upper extremity (UE) function that limit their engagement in meaningful everyday occupations. It is important for occupational therapists to identify and test the effectiveness of interventions targeted to decrease UE learned nonuse, improve functional performance, and increase participation in one’s daily occupations. This study compared the efficacy of distributed constraint-induced therapy (dCIT) and bilateral arm training (BAT) in improving movement strategies and functional abilities of the UE in stroke survivors. Each intervention group participated in the intervention 2 hr/day, five times per week for 3 consecutive weeks. Participants in the dCIT group focused on practicing use of the affected UE during occupational therapy, plus additional functional use of the affected UE in daily activities by restricting the unaffected UE for six hours daily. Participants in the BAT group focused on concurrent movements using both UEs in functional tasks during occupational therapy only. On the basis of the results of the study, both dCIT and BAT may help decrease UE learned nonuse in patients with stroke. Both interventions may facilitate the use of the affected UE, thereby improving the quality of motor control and movement and increasing stroke patients’ self-efficacy and safety during functional activities such as cooking, shaving, and eating. Although BAT may result in greater improvement of force generation during movement initiation, dCIT may result in increased functional ability, including longer time using the affected UE and enhanced quality of movement. Thus, occupational therapists working with patients who have had strokes may use dCIT to increase the quality of functional performance and use BAT to improve force generation in movement With the additional 6 hours/day forced use of the affected arm in the dCIT group, this group had more intervention time than the BAT group. To achieve equality in comparison, future research may focus on providing the participants with the same amount of intervention for both the dCIT and the BAT groups to integrate use of affected UE in daily activities. Furthermore, additional research may place an emphasis on whether the effects after dCIT or BAT can be generalized to daily functional tasks and maintained beyond therapy

2000-2020 NHIS Studies: Factors affecting medication adherence rate in the pediatric population with medical complexity

Introduction Children with medical complexity belong to a vulnerable patient population group that is defined by the interplay of chronic health conditions, high healthcare utilization, and severe limitations in cognitive and/or physical functioning. Members of this patient population often require a complex management and/or treatment regimen with the use of more than one medication. Pediatric nonadherence in medication can lead to increases in microbial resistance, adverse drug reactions, morbidity, and mortality. The consequences of this medication nonadherence may also cause slower recovery times, increased number of emergency department visits, and hospitalizations, which subsequently substantiates higher medical costs for families along with the healthcare system. General factors for pediatric medical adherence include age, culture, family structure, socioeconomic status, schedule of medication therapy, and taste/formulation of therapy. Continual studies on these medical adherence factors are of the utmost importance to mitigate nonadherence improving quality of life and reducing medical costs. This study examines the variables and confounding factors that may be responsible for the prevalence of nonadherence in this patient population. Methods Twelve primary articles using data collected through the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) – focused on medication adherence secondary to medication therapy management (MTM) in the pediatric population across various chronic disease states –were examined and analyzed to collect the variables and factors of interest. Each article in the review was chosen to analyze a national representation of U.S. children between the years 2000-2020. The age perimeter was between ages zero (infants) to eighteen. Results Among the fifteen NHIS papers measuring medication adherence outcomes, three addressed financial and family disparities, three focused on the racial disparities’ association, and the remaining nine papers address other confounding factors (including but not limited to geographic location, patient education, and healthcare access). Results from the analysis confirmed the influence that racial/ethnic and/or socioeconomic disparities have on the medication adherence rate of the US pediatric population with medical complexity. Conclusion The medication adherence rate is affected by racial and ethnic disparities, financial hardships, socioeconomic status, family background education, poverty status, children’s health status, quality of patient education, and religious beliefs. This calls for more public health policies to alleviate the financial burden of medication costs, as well as efforts to improve medication education for the caregivers of children with medical complexity population in the U.S. The data-collecting phase of this research reveals the scarcity of studies on this topic – as reflected in the small number of articles found and reviewed. For a better understanding of the medication adherence rate among the medically complex pediatric population of the U.S., further research on this topic should be conducted