Effect of nutrition education and dairy group membership on nutrition knowledge, practices and diet quality for rural Kenyan farm women

The typical high-starch, low diversity diet in developing countries is associated withundernutrition, morbidity and mortality. Previous research with households inMukurwe-ini Division (Central Kenya) found that members of a community-baseddairy development group were more food secure and had higher intake of certainmicronutrients compared with non-members; however, the prevalence of inadequateintake of multiple micronutrients was high among all women. A nutrition educationintervention was developed to enhance women’s nutrition knowledge and food skills toultimately improve diet quality and micronutrient intakes for women and their families.In addition, it was proposed that the intervention effects would be greater for dairygroup members. The Mukurwe-ini study group consisted of 88 women in four dairymembership-duration categories (n=4 x 22) and non-member women (n=23). The studygroup was previously selected using chain referral sampling. For the intervention,women from each duration-group and non-member women were randomly allocated tointervention (n=55) and control (n=56) groups. Nutrition knowledge and dietary intake(24-hour recall) data were collected from all women over three weeks immediatelyprior to the intervention (baseline) and again, six months post-intervention, inindividual face-to-face interviews. The intervention encouraged food-based strategiesto improve intake of vitamin A, iron and zinc and was developed and delivered incollaboration with a Kenyan dietitian. WFood2 was used to compute food and nutrientintakes, dietary diversity and the phytate:zinc molar ratio. Descriptive statistics andlinear and logistic regressions analyses were performed using Stata10. Independent ofdairy-group membership, a larger proportion of intervention group women, comparedto control group women, had the targeted nutrition knowledge and practiced thestrategies to improve intake of vitamin A (76% vs 67%, respectively) and zinc and iron(soaked beans and maize 80% vs 13%; avoided tea with meals 67 % vs 5%,respectively). A positive effect of the intervention on dietary diversity was dependenton dairy-group membership status. Positive intervention effects on intake of vitamin Aand C were found for non-member women. This study provided evidence that certainintervention effects were dependent on poverty reduction and that all women were ableto make positive dietary changes when informed. There is a need to examine longertermimpacts of nutrition education interventions and to explore effective methods todisseminate nutrition information and food-based strategies.Key words: nutrition intervention, micronutrients, food-based strategy, rural, women,dairy, smallholder farme

Flexible access to conformationally-locked bicyclic morpholines

A preparatively accessible route to a series of conformationally-locked bicyclic morpholines has been developed. This flexible approach allows for diversification in order for a small array of lead-like scaffolds to be synthesised from readily available key building blocks

Experienced tutors' deployment of thinking skills and what might be entailed in enhancing such skills

In the context of research that reports weaknesses in adults' critical thinking skills, the primary aim was to examine adults' use of critical thinking skills that are described in taxonomies and to identify areas for development. Position papers written by an opportunity sample of 32 experienced adult educators formed the data for a descriptive sample survey design intended to reveal participants' use of critical thinking skills. Each 6000-word paper was written during a development programme that supported such skills. A content analysis of the papers revealed that when participants drew on personal and published ideas about learning to derive their proposals for change, they accepted the ideas uncritically, thereby implying that they might find it difficult to help learners to examine ideas critically. The evidence supports research that implies that critical thinking skills are unlikely to develop unless overall course design privileges the development of epistemological understanding (King and Kitchener 1994, Kuhn 1999). A fundamental assumption underlying the study is that this understanding influences effective citizenship and personal development, as well as employability. A proposition that merits attention in future research is that the development of epistemological understanding is largely neglected in current curricula in formal post-16 education

Di[2,6-bis(5-phenylpyrazol-3-yl)pyridine]Co(II): an old coordination mode fora novel supramolecular assembly

CoCl2 was treated with 1, 2, and 6 eq. of 2,6-bis(5-phenylpyrazol-3-yl)pyridine (H2L) yielding respectively the monosubstituted [Co(H2L)Cl2], the disubstituted [Co(H2L)2][PF6]2, and a supramolecular assembly formed by a central disubstituted octahedral complex and four more hydrogen bonded peripheral ligands, [{Co(H2L)2}(H2L)4][PF6]2, as illustrated by X-ray crystal structure analysis

Do students value feedback? Student perceptions of tutors' written responses

The topic of feedback to students is an under-researched area, and there has been little empirical research published which focuses on student perceptions. This study explores student perceptions of written feedback and examines whether feedback received demonstrated a student-centred approach to learning. A multi-method approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis was used to survey 44 students in the faculties of Business and Art & Design. Student responses show feedback is valued, but believed tutor comments could be more helpful. Survey results indicate that students may need advice on understanding and using feedback before they can engage with it. Content analysis of feedback samples and student responses uncovered four main themes of feedback considered unhelpful to improve learning: comments which were too general or vague, lacked guidance, focused on the negative, or were unrelated to assessment criteria. It is suggested that by focusing on messages conveyed by their writing, providing feedback set in the context of assessment criteria and learning outcomes, and by ensuring that it is timely, tutors could greatly improve the value of feedback

Academic achievement : the role of praise in motivating students

The motivation of students is an important issue in higher education, particularly in the context of the increasing diversity of student populations. A social-cognitive perspective assumes motivation to be dynamic, context-sensitive and changeable, thereby rendering it to be a much more differentiated construct than previously understood. This complexity may be perplexing to tutors who are keen to develop applications to improve academic achievement. One application that is within the control of the tutor, at least to some extent, is the use of praise. Using psychological literature the article argues that in motivating students, the tutor is not well served by relying on simplistic and common sense understandings of the construct of praise and that effective applications of praise are mediated by students' goal orientations, which of themselves may be either additive or interactive composites of different objectives and different contexts