Qualitative Assessments used in Art Therapy Programs with Cancer Patients in a Medical Settings

This document reviews qualitative assessments used to explore the impact on art therapy interventions with patients in cancer treatment. The study explored the use of qualitative assessment in evaluating patient perspective on receiving art therapy adjunctly with cancer treatment. In addition, the research aimed to determine if art therapy interventions are perceived as effective in helping cancer patients reduce stress, cope, improve quality of life, express emotions, and reduce cancer-related symptoms during and after cancer treatment through qualitative assessment. Approximately 300 cancer patient experiences were reviewed through surveying qualitative studies that explored the effects of art making in cancer treatment through qualitative assessment such as interviews, questionnaires, observations, and open-ended questions. This archival research used a thematic approach to identify emergent themes in format, administration techniques, and impact in qualitative assessments to learn about the patient art therapy experience. The emergent themes were discovered while surveying information regarding types of formats and administration procedures used in qualitative cancer research. These findings suggest that qualitative assessments used in art therapy programs are a useful tool to determine how art interventions may help address patient\u27s psychosocial needs, provide coping skills, and relieve cancer–related symptoms

New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization: Second in a Series of Reports on the California Votes Initiative

During the first phase of the California Votes Initiative, spanning elections from June 2006 to March 2007, participating community-based organizations personally contacted over 82,000 low-propensity voters, through strategies such as door-to-door outreach and phone calls, plus reached an additional 100,000 voters through less direct methods, such as voter forums and messages to congregations. This outreach inspired many to participate in the electoral process for the first time. The initiative evaluation team worked with the community organizations to imbed field experiments into their outreach efforts, comparing turnout among those targeted for contact and those assigned to control groups. This resulted in strong empirical support for a series of best practices that were detailed in a September 2007 report.1 A second phase of the initiative has continued this path-breaking research with further field experiments in the February and June 2008 elections, with more planned for November 2008. This report briefly reviews the results from the first phase of the initiative, adds findings from February 2008 and June 2008 as available,2 and outlines the follow-up studies planned for November 2008. Many findings from the first phase were confirmed, and the two rounds of experiments conducted so far this year provide valuable refinements to the list of best practices established in that earlier report. 1 Michelson, Melissa R., Lisa Garcia Bedolla and Donald P. Green. 2007. "New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization: A Report on the California Votes Initiative" (San Francisco, CA: The James Irvine Foundation). Available at www.irvine.org. 2 In many counties, particularly large ones such as Los Angeles, voting information is not released until several months after an election

New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization: A Report on the California Votes Initiative

Evaluates the effectiveness of efforts in California to mobilize voters in communities with significant low-income and minority populations

New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization: Third and Final Report on the California Votes Initiative

This report offers new insights about voter mobilization strategies used in our California Votes Initiative. Launched in 2006, the initiative supported nine nonprofit organizations as they reached out to infrequent voters in low-income and ethnic communities in the San Joaquin Valley and parts of Southern California. This publication, the third and final report on the initiative, summarizes findings from the entirety of the project's experiments. It examines the long-term effects of voter mobilization and the effects of specific approaches, such as canvassing and phone calls, on voter attitudes toward politics and political engagement. Qualitative analyses explore the components of a successful get-out-the-vote campaign and identify five practices organizations of many types may use to increase turnout

Internal and External Influences on Individual Journalists

This research paper is based on a study of the internal and external influences that affect an individual journalist and their produced work. There have been studies that research how media organizations influence the general public but there are many factors that come into play when creating the news. A journalist is influenced by their morals, beliefs and opinions or internal factors when making news decisions. Journalists are influenced by external influences as well, such as their news organization, guidelines and universal ethics. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the process that a journalist must go through when creating and curating the news

Quality characterization of cholesterol-free mayonnaise-type spreads containing rice bran oil

Traditional mayonnaise is manufactured with soybean oil (SBO) and egg-yolk containing ingredients. About 1/4 of American consumers have some forms of cardiovascular disease, accounting for \u3e40% of all deaths in USA. Rice bran oil (RBO), a healthy lipid source, has cholesterol-lowering effects, and could be used to replace SBO in mayonnaise preparation. To take advantage of the health benefits associated with RBO, food products containing RBO need to be developed and characterized. Cholesterol-free mayonnaise-type spreads containing RBO were developed using a constrained mixture design. Two studies were performed to determine sensory attributes driving acceptance and purchase intent and to optimize the formulation. In the first study, following a Balanced Incomplete Block design, consumers evaluated the products. The attributes that differentiated the formulations were color, odor, spreadability and mouthfeel. Taste, mouthfeel, and overall liking were identified as the attributes influencing purchase intent. Purchase intent increased after consumers were informed of RBO health benefits. The overall liking odds ratio decreased, meaning that consumers were willing to sacrifice product liking in favor of RBO health benefits. Combinations of 37-42% RBO, 53-57% water, and 1-6% SPC, were determined as yielding optimum formulations. For advanced product refinement taste and mouthfeel must be focused. In study two, three flavored products were developed based on Formulation E: Sour Cream & Onion, Cheddar & Sour Cream, and Monterrey Jack. Consumers evaluated all flavored samples and a control based on preference ranking. There were significant differences among flavored spreads and control. Consumers were able to correctly differentiate between the flavored samples and the control. These differences were present among all flavors except among Sour Cream & Onion and Monterrey Jack. All flavored products were found acceptable and there was an increase in purchase intent after consumers were aware of the potential health benefits associated with product consumption. The quality of the spreads was characterized through the development of sensory descriptors and determination of several physicochemical properties. Colorimetry, pH, and viscosity measurements showed no differences among the formulations over time. Oryzanol concentration increased with increased RBO content of the formulations

Sensory Discrimination Testing with Children

Literature concerning children’s performance in sensory discrimination methods is not as extensively published as performance with adults. Therefore, in this dissertation children’s performance in discrimination methods was investigated. First, performance in the triangle and 3-AFC methods was explored with children 6 to 12 years old. The paradox of discriminatory non-discriminators states that the proportion of correct responses in the 3-AFC method will be higher than that of the triangle. However, Thurstonian theory predicts that despite the difference in proportions of correct responses the degree of difference between the stimuli will be similar. The paradox and the Thurstonian predictions were challenged for sweetness discrimination with three different sets of stimuli: easily discriminable (100% vs. 60% apple juice), confusable (100% vs. 75% apple juice) and hardly discriminable (carbonated beverages with different sweeteners). For easily and hardly discriminable stimuli the paradox and Thurstonian predictions were not fully confirmed. With confusable stimuli the paradox (3-AFC Pc = 0.62; triangle Pc = 0.43) and Thurstonian predictions (3-AFC d\u27 = 0.97; triangle d\u27 = 1.09, p = 0.48) were confirmed. It is not known if the same results would be observed when the number of samples increases. Secondly, Thurstonian predictions regarding the variants of the method of tetrads were challenged using confusable stimuli. Results show that the number of correct responses and degree of difference among the stimuli for the unspecified and specified method of tetrads were similar. Finally, children’s performance in different discrimination methods was compared. Performance in the unspecified methods (tetrads and triangle) was as predicted by Thurstonian theory. For the specified methods the 2-AFC resulted in the highest proportion of correct responses, followed by the 3-AFC and the tetrads, respectively, as previously observed with adults as subjects. Results from this investigation give further support to the Thurstonian predictions discussed above, which had been tested only with adult subjects. In conclusion, under the circumstances of this study, children between 6 to 12 years of age were capable of performing sensory discrimination methods for sweetness perception and they utilized the same decision rules as adults

Migrant Minds: A Proposed Explorative Survey Examining Cultural Barriers and Mental Health Aid in Mexican Immigrant Women

Women on the Move (WOM) are an at-risk population of women who leave their home countries with the hope of a better quality of life (QOL). WOM is a wide umbrella term and for this paper, it encompasses documented, undocumented, migrating, immigrating, and emigrating women. This proposal focuses on Mexican WOM and their mental health; to better understand their experiences with professional mental health in the United States and any barriers they face. This topic is under-researched, and the quantitative studies on the topic are prone to “frequently inconsistent and contradictory” generalizations. This exploratory study will collect qualitative data. By using Braun & Clark\u27s (2006) thematic approach to data analysis, we will be able to formulate themes that start to answer the question: How do Mexican migrant women make decisions about professional mental health seeking, and what barriers do they experience in seeking mental health help? My proposed study will add to the limited literature based on Mexican women migrants and their mental health. This proposal strives to offer insight, from first-hand sources, to help better accommodate immigrants, and thus help formulate recommendations for mental health professionals to design more effective depression treatments that are better informed

Implementing Emergency Bedside Backpacks in the NICU to Improve Patient Outcomes

Abstract Planning for a disaster, by implementing a unit specific disaster plan, has become an essential recommendation for Neonatal Intensive Care Units. Emergent situations have resulted from past natural disasters proving the need for additional planning when it comes to units with fragile populations. Research has shown instituting a specialized disaster plan, increases patient safety resulting in improved patient outcomes. This prospectus aims to implement emergency bedside backpacks as the first step in the development of a NICU specific disaster plan. These backpacks are meant to be an addition to the current hospital emergency plan, with the goal being to have similar success as other facilities that already have them in use. Our unit’s past experience with an evacuation demonstrated the need for additional disaster planning to improve our patient’s safety, staff coordination, and communication. Data was conducted via a SWOT analysis, and a fishbone diagram was created to determine what steps needed improvement. A Gantt chart was formulated to provide an anticipated time guideline, and process mapping was then completed to act as another planning guideline. A survey of the staff showed conflicting knowledge of what the current emergency protocol entails indicating a need for further disaster training. The prospected outcome is that this will be a successful, cost-effective project that will garner approval from all of the required hospital administration members, and become a standardized protocol