Meeting the Needs of Rural Caregivers: The Development and Evaluation of an Alzheimer\u27s Caregiving Series

Caregiving for a chronically ill person is challenging. On a daily basis, managing chronic illness requires balancing illness needs with day-to-day tasks. Informal caregivers such as friends and family members often disregard their own health needs, focusing on the loved one for whom they are caring. Additionally, caregivers generally begin caregiving without any information or training. To meet the needs of caregivers of Alzheimer\u27s patients, Family and Consumer Science specialists developed a 5-week caregiving series. Evaluation data found that the caregivers gained more knowledge about caregiving and felt more comfortable in their caregiving roles after participating in the series

Preventing Domestic Abuse for Children and Young People (PEACH): A Mixed Knowledge Scoping Review

Background: A range of interventions that aim to prevent domestic abuse has been developed for children and young people in the general population. While these have been widely implemented, few have been rigorously evaluated. This study aimed to discover what was known about these interventions for children and what worked for whom in which settings. Review methods: This mixed knowledge review was informed by realist principles and comprised four overlapping phases: an online mapping survey to identify current provision; a systematic review of the existing literature; a review of the UK ‘grey’ literature; and consultation with young people and experts. Information from these four sources of evidence informed analysis of costs and benefits. Results: The evidence for interventions achieving changes in knowledge and attitudes was stronger than that for behavioural change. Shifting social norms in the peer group emerged as a key mechanism of change. Media campaigns act to influence the wider social climate within which more targeted interventions are received, and they are also a source for programme materials. While most interventions are delivered in secondary schools, they are increasingly targeted at younger children. The review emphasised the importance of a school’s ‘readiness’ to introduce preventative interventions which need to be supported across all aspects of school life. Involving young people in the design and delivery of programmes increases authenticity and this emerged as a key ingredient in achieving impact. Longer interventions delivered by appropriately trained staff appeared likely to be more effective. Teachers emerged as well placed to embed interventions in schools but they require training and support from those with specialist knowledge in domestic abuse. There was evidence that small groups of students who were at higher risk might have accounted for some results regarding effectiveness and that programme effectiveness may vary for certain subgroups. Increasingly, boys are being identified as a target for change. The study identified a need for interventions for disabled children and children and young people from black, Asian, minority ethnic and refugee groups and a particular lack of materials designed for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender young people. Limitations: Very little evidence was identified on costs and cost-effectiveness. Few studies showed an effect at the level of significance set for the review. Where it did exist, the effect size was small, except in respect of improved knowledge. The inability to calculate a response rate for the mapping survey, which used a snowballing approach, limits the ability to generalise from it. Conclusions: While it is appropriate to continue to deliver interventions to whole populations of children and young people, effectiveness appeared to be influenced by high-risk children and young people, who should be directed to additional support. Programmes also need to make provision to manage any resulting disclosures. Interventions appear to be context specific, and so those already being widely delivered in the UK and which are likely to be acceptable should be robustly tested. Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme

MOOCs Meet Measurement Theory: A Topic-Modelling Approach

This paper adapts topic models to the psychometric testing of MOOC students based on their online forum postings. Measurement theory from education and psychology provides statistical models for quantifying a person's attainment of intangible attributes such as attitudes, abilities or intelligence. Such models infer latent skill levels by relating them to individuals' observed responses on a series of items such as quiz questions. The set of items can be used to measure a latent skill if individuals' responses on them conform to a Guttman scale. Such well-scaled items differentiate between individuals and inferred levels span the entire range from most basic to the advanced. In practice, education researchers manually devise items (quiz questions) while optimising well-scaled conformance. Due to the costly nature and expert requirements of this process, psychometric testing has found limited use in everyday teaching. We aim to develop usable measurement models for highly-instrumented MOOC delivery platforms, by using participation in automatically-extracted online forum topics as items. The challenge is to formalise the Guttman scale educational constraint and incorporate it into topic models. To favour topics that automatically conform to a Guttman scale, we introduce a novel regularisation into non-negative matrix factorisation-based topic modelling. We demonstrate the suitability of our approach with both quantitative experiments on three Coursera MOOCs, and with a qualitative survey of topic interpretability on two MOOCs by domain expert interviews.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures; accepted into AAAI'201

A Framework for Introducing Program Evaluation to Extension Faculty and Staff

There is an increasing requirement for Cooperative Extension to demonstrate that programs are making an impact on the populations served, yet many staffs have little background in evaluation. This article presents a framework found to be useful in introducing the basics of evaluation to Extension staff. The authors draw upon Jacobs\u27 (1988) Five-Tiered approach to program evaluation and the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (1994) as a base. This foundation allows staff a better understanding of the processes involved in conducting evaluations

4-H Youth Development Apprenticeship Program: A Pilot of a New Certification in Youth Development

The field of youth development is expanding, requiring 4-H Extension staff to gain expertise in the field without leaving their jobs to return to school. To address this need, the 4-H Youth Development Practitioner Apprenticeship (YDPA) program was developed under the guidance of the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents and the National 4-H Council through funding from the U. S. Department of Labor. An evaluation of the pilot of YDPA found that staff gained numerous skills needed to effectively serve youth. Suggestions for program continuation are discussed

Interventions to Reduce Risk of Perineal Tearing

Perineal tearing is one of the most common injuries that can be sustained during vaginal delivery, it can be physically and mentally debilitating for the mother to endure. Preventing this injury can lead to an easier healing process for the mother, allowing her to have a more impactful postpartum journey. There is debate as to whether warm compresses, perineal massage, and alternative birthing positions decrease the incidence of perineal tearing. This review of literature focuses on how these interventions work and if they are effective at decreasing the risk for perineal tearing during vaginal delivery

One lens three views

This document explores the complexity of the Zulu Reed Dance in the context of creating a photographic record of the event in various narrative styles within the genre of documentary photography. The author­photographer acknowledges their subjective contribution in the image making process, and uses this understanding to demonstrate a continuum of subjectivity that operates depending on the visual narrative being constructed. To contextualise the photographers approach, the document explores the social, political and economic landscape, and the dominant visual record produced by media. A qualitative review of six national newspapers demonstrates that the media view is relatively generic and does not attempt to engage with alternative perspectives. The document also explores critical theory on the subject of the qualification of a photographer to provide an accurate record outside of their cultural status. The author considers the validity of image production and the reception of the work as indicative of a continuum of subjectivity. To demonstrate this fluidity, the photographer produces three photo essays, all made at the same event at the same time with very different narrative outcomes. These photo essays can be found the accompanying book titled 'One lens three views'

Estimability of variance components when all model matrices commute

This work was partially supported by national funds of FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under UID/MAT/00212/2013.This paper deals with estimability of variance components in mixed models when all model matrices commute. In this situation, it is well known that the best linear unbiased estimators of fixed effects are the ordinary least squares estimators. If, in addition, the family of possible variance-covariance matrices forms an orthogonal block structure, then there are the same number of variance components as strata, and the variance components are all estimable if and only if there are non-zero residual degrees of freedom in each stratum. We investigate the case where the family of possible variance-covariance matrices, while still commutative, no longer forms an orthogonal block structure. Now the variance components may or may not all be estimable, but there is no clear link with residual degrees of freedom. Whether or not they are all estimable, there may or may not be uniformly best unbiased quadratic estimators of those that are estimable. Examples are given to demonstrate all four possibilities.PostprintPeer reviewe

Family literacy programs : can they make a difference in parenting?

Parenting education is a process of providing information to parents on the challenges of parenting, services available for families, and ideas on how to interact with children. The federal Even Start family literacy program, designed to increase the educational opportunities of parents and children, has a strong parenting education component. Parenting information is offered through formal classes, support groups, home visits and by involving parents in their child's classroom. Using the life course and family system's perspective, this study examined the impact of participation in the Even Start program on parents' knowledge of parenting and their parenting practices. The study employed a pretest-posttest design and utilized quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection. In all, 74 Even Start and 26 comparison group parents participated. Four hypotheses were tested: (a) Even Start parents would make greater gains in parenting knowledge and practices than would comparison group parents; (b) parents who made gains in parenting knowledge and practices would have different demographic characteristics than those who did not make gains; (c) parents with lower depression, higher self-esteem, and greater social support would make greater gains in parenting knowledge and practices; and (d) programs offering more hours of parenting education would have parents making greater gains in parenting knowledge and practices. Quantitative results indicate that there are demographic differences at pretest and posttest in parents' scores on parenting knowledge and practices although there is no significant difference in score gains as the result of program participation. More positive parenting practices were associated at pretest and posttest with lower levels of depression. Qualitative results found increases in parenting knowledge, parenting practices, and self-esteem. No differences were found in programs who offered greater number of hours of parenting education than those that did not