Literacy Education in the Post-Truth Era: The Pedagogical Potential of Multiliteracies

Current literacy curriculum often reflects an emphasis on traditions of print literacy. This focus is a concern in the post-truth era, as youth engage in diverse meaning-making practices that shape their habits as consumers and producers of information. This in-depth case study investigated the in-class and at-home online behaviors of high school students. We find that even when explicit learning about ‘research’ occurred in class, students are lacking sense-making strategies in their personal online engagements. We also find that curriculum relies on tradition with very little recognition of (multi)literacies as socially constructed and that teachers desire more professional development and guidance about how to engage these literacies more holistically

The needs of widowed parents in assisting their children in the grieving process

The goal of the study was to explore the needs of widowed parents in assisting their children in the grieving process. The researcher chose this specific research topic for a number reasons, primarily based on her own observations and contact of her external world as the researcher had either come into direct contact with, or become aware of families in her community where one of the parents in families with children in early and/or middle childhood had passed away. Loosing a parent through death is a very traumatic experience for a child. How the child reacts to and deals with this trauma in the long-term, is greatly influenced by how the remaining parent reacts to and deals with the death him or herself, as well how he or she assists the child in the grieving process. Secondly, the research topic fits within the social work context as bereaved families may turn to the social work profession for guidance and assistance in understanding and resolving their loss. Therefore, the researcher was of the opinion that it would be of value to gain knowledge of the specific needs of the widowed parents in helping their children during the grieving process in order to offer these families more direct, focused and valuable assistance. The researcher made use of a qualitative approach in order to explore and gain an understanding of the needs of widowed parents' experiences in assisting their children in the grieving process. The researcher used applied research for her study, as it was hoped that the information gained would provide further knowledge to help the social work profession in assisting widowed parents and their children in the grieving process. Seven respondents were identified and chosen primarily through a non-probability sampling technique of purposive sampling. As the initial number of respondents were limited, the researcher also made use of the snowball sampling technique to further increase her sample. Data for the study was gathered by means of semi-structured one-to-one interviews, with the use of an interview schedule in order to gain a detailed picture of the widowed parents' perceptions and experiences of helping their children come to terms with the death of their parents. In studying the literature the researcher focused on two main aspects. Firstly, the children's grieving process, including their understanding of death, reaction to the death of a parent, as well as the actual grieving process of parentally bereaved children. Secondly, the researcher focused on the needs of widowed parents in assisting their children in the grieving process, including the important role they play in this process, their own emotions, challenges they are faced with in this process, the impact the death has on the family's functioning in relation to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and finally the availability and use of support systems for widowed parents. The findings of the study showed that all the respondents were aware of the impact the death had on their children, especially as most of the deaths were sudden and unexpected. Many needs were experienced, including telling the children about the death, loneliness, and perhaps the most difficult of all, finding a balance between expressing their own grief so that their children felt free to grieve but at the same time not falling apart completely, thereby overwhelming their children. Overall the researcher found that it appeared more important to the widowed parents that their children's needs be taken care of above their own. In concluding the study the researcher was of the opinion that grieving the loss of a loved one involves much more than just a process of steps. It encompasses a wide range of tasks, emotions, thoughts and behaviours. Therefore, in terms of helping to meet the needs of widowed parents in assisting their children in the grieving process, one cannot just make assumptions and based on this follow a set formula. Families, with children in early and middle childhood, who have lost a parent through death, find themselves in a very vulnerable and fragile state. The way they deal with the loss and the support they are given both informal and formal, can have a very significant impact on the future functioning of the remaining family members both individually and as a whole. Therefore, it is imperative that those assisting the family through the loss have knowledge of their needs so that they can assist them in a way that can bring about healing and restoration.Dissertation (MSD (Play Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2008.Social Work and CriminologyMSDunrestricte

Patterns of Red and Processed Meat Consumption Across North America: A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Comparison of Dietary Recalls from Canada, Mexico, and the United States

Close economic ties encourage production and trade of meat between Canada, Mexico, and the US. Understanding the patterns of red and processed meat consumption in North America may inform policies designed to reduce meat consumption and bolster environmental and public health efforts across the continent. We used nationally-representative cross-sectional survey data to analyze consumption of unprocessed red meat; processed meat; and total red and processed meat. Generalized linear models were used to separately estimate probability of consumption and adjusted mean intake. Prevalence of total meat consumers was higher in the US (73.6, 95% CI: 72.3–74.8%) than in Canada (65.6, 63.9–67.2%) or Mexico (62.7, 58.1–67.2%). Men were more likely to consume unprocessed red, processed, and total meat, and had larger estimated intakes. In Mexico, high wealth individuals were more likely to consume all three categories of meat. In the US and Canada, those with high education were less likely to consume total and processed meat. Estimated mean intake of unprocessed red, processed, and total meat did not differ across sociodemographic strata. Overall consumption of red and processed meat remains high in North America. Policies to reduce meat consumption are appropriate for all three countries

Spatial correlation increase in single-sensor satellite data reveals loss of Amazon rainforest resilience

The Amazon rainforest (ARF) is threatened by deforestation and climate change, which could trigger a regime shift to a savanna-like state. Previous work suggesting declining resilience in recent decades was based only on local resilience indicators. Moreover, previous results are potentially biased by the employed multi-sensor and optical satellite data and undetected anthropogenic land-use change. Here, we show that the spatial correlation provides a more robust resilience indicator than local estimators and employ it to measure resilience changes in the ARF, based on single-sensor Vegetation Optical Depth data under conservative exclusion of human activity. Our results show an overall loss of resilience until around 2019, which is especially pronounced in the southwestern and northern Amazon for the time period from 2002 to 2011. The demonstrated reliability of spatial correlation in coupled systems suggests that in particular the southwest of the ARF has experienced pronounced resilience loss over the last two decades

Effects of Exercise and Sertraline on Measures of Coronary Heart Disease Risk in Patients With Major Depression: Results From the SMILE-II Randomized Clinical Trial

To assess the effects of supervised and home-based aerobic exercise training, and antidepressant pharmacotherapy (sertraline) on coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in a sample of participants with major depressive disorder (MDD)

Impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children and young people: an umbrella review

Background: Over the past 3 years, a multitude of studies have highlighted the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and young people (CYP). In this umbrella review, we synthesise global evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of CYP from existing systematic reviews with and/or without meta-analysis. Methods: Adopting the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we evaluated 349 citations and identified 24 eligible reviews with medium to high methodological quality to be reviewed narratively. Results: Most of the reviews reported a high prevalence of anxiety disorders, depression, suicidal behaviour, eating disorders and other mental health problems. Most studies that used data at multiple time points indicate a significant increase in mental health problems in CYP, particularly in females and older adolescents. Conclusions: Multipronged psychosocial care services, policies and programmes are needed to alleviate the burden of mental health problems in CYP as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated global health measures. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021276312

UUnderstanding Program Engagement and Attrition in Child Abuse Prevention

Engaging and retaining families is a common challenge when serving families at high risk. McCurdy and Daro’s (2001) Integrated Theory of Parental Involvement (ITPI) proposes factors that impact engagement and retention in services. While several studies have found varying family demographic and risk factors to be associated with family engagement in home-based services, (withheld citation for purpose of review) identified program and provider characteristics that predicted engagement and retention (withheld citation for purpose of review). Specifically, SafeCare (SC) had greater enrollment (4 times) and retention (8.5 times) rates than services as usual (SAU), likely due to SC’s skill-based approach targeting desired topics. As a follow-up to this quantitative study, we conducted separate focus groups with parents who engaged and who failed to engage in SC (N= 16) and SAU (N=18). Provider characteristics (e.g., caring, experienced with children, nonjudgmental) was the strongest themes for engagement across groups. Program and provider flexibility and providers’ persistent support for parents despite life chaos facilitated retention. Results suggest that provider characteristics and program approach are key in engagement of families in home-based services. These results suggest expansion of the ITPI to address social context. Results suggestfocusing on specific provider characteristics and program approach for work force and program development to increase program engagement and decrease attrition

Enhancing Cardiac Rehabilitation With Stress Management Training

BACKGROUND: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is the standard of care for patients with coronary heart disease. Despite considerable epidemiological evidence that high stress is associated with worse health outcomes, stress management training (SMT) is not included routinely as a component of CR. METHODS AND RESULTS: One hundred fifty-one outpatients with coronary heart disease who were 36 to 84 years of age were randomized to 12 weeks of comprehensive CR or comprehensive CR combined with SMT (CR+SMT), with assessments of stress and coronary heart disease biomarkers obtained before and after treatment. A matched sample of CR-eligible patients who did not receive CR made up the no-CR comparison group. All participants were followed up for up to 5.3 years (median, 3.2 years) for clinical events. Patients randomized to CR+SMT exhibited greater reductions in composite stress levels compared with those randomized to CR alone (P=0.022), an effect that was driven primarily by improvements in anxiety, distress, and perceived stress. Both CR groups achieved significant, and comparable, improvements in coronary heart disease biomarkers. Participants in the CR+SMT group exhibited lower rates of clinical events compared with those in the CR-alone group (18% versus 33%; hazard ratio=0.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.25-0.95; P=0.035), and both CR groups had lower event rates compared with the no-CR group (47%; hazard ratio=0.44; 95% confidence interval, 0.27-0.71; P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: CR enhanced by SMT produced significant reductions in stress and greater improvements in medical outcomes compared with standard CR. Our findings indicate that SMT may provide incremental benefit when combined with comprehensive CR and suggest that SMT should be incorporated routinely into CR. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00981253

Multiple measurements by a pendulum test improve the spasticity assessment in SCI subjects

We present the variability of the spasticity scores during three consecutive days using the case series clinical study data with spinal cord injured (SCI) subjects. We assessed the spasticity by the Pendulum Test (PT) and Ashworth Scale (AS) scores. We measured the spasticity on the three consecutive days before and after the period of the treatment. Three subjects with SCI participated in the study. We found large variability from day to day. The PT score had more significant variability compared with the AS. The results suggest that the three consecutive testing by using the pendulum test and PT score on different days provide a better assessment of spasticity being essential in evaluating the treatment protoco