Exploring effective academic advising for mature women : autobiography and personal vignettes based on interviews with seven mature female students and two academic advisors at a university in Montreal

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the academic advising available to mature immigrant women over 45 years of age who return to university studies. In addition to my autobiographical account, I interviewed seven mature immigrant women enrolled in graduate studies and asked them about the role of academic advising in their choice of the university program to follow. I also interviewed two professional academic advisors in order to gain insight into their practice to meet the needs of this particular student group. The following themes emerged from the analysis of the data: Academic achievement was a product of very strong inner motivation combined with the support of families and friends. In turn, academic achievement helped women in improving their self-esteem and self-confidence which enabled them to achieve an important degree of satisfaction and self-realization. The results indicated that the majority of the women interviewed did not receive adequate academic advising and upon graduation they were not able to find jobs in the areas of their specialization. They also pointed to the importance of a humane, warm and friendly relationship with the academic advisor in order to disclose personal issues and get the needed help. Each one of the two academic advisors had a different approach to their practice. Nevertheless both advisors underlined the lack of university resources for in service education and upgrading of credentials. The results of this exploratory study point to the following recommendations: (a) The importance of providing career advising parallel to academic advising in order to help the students make choices which will lead to job opportunities upon graduation; (b) setting evening office hours for students who are employed full time during the day; (c) making available on the job education and training to academic advisors and faculty advisors in order to update their skills and knowledge to better advise mature immigrant women returning to university education

The prevalence of stillbirths: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Stillbirth rate is an important indicator of access to and quality of antenatal and delivery care. Obtaining overall estimates across various regions of the world is not straightforward due to variation in definitions, data collection methods and reporting. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review of a range of pregnancy-related conditions including stillbirths and performed meta-analysis of the subset of studies reporting stillbirth rates. We examined variation across rates and used meta-regression techniques to explain observed variation. RESULTS: We identified 389 articles on stillbirth prevalence among the 2580 included in the systematic review. We included 70 providing 80 data sets from 50 countries in the meta-analysis. Pooled prevalence rates show variation across various subgroup categories. Rates per 100 births are higher in studies conducted in less developed country settings as compared to more developed (1.17 versus 0.50), of inadequate quality as compared to adequate (1.12 versus 0.66), using sub-national sample as compared to national (1.38 versus 0.68), reporting all stillbirths as compared to late stillbirths (0.95 versus 0.63), published in non-English as compared to English (0.91 versus 0.59) and as journal articles as compared to non-journal (1.37 versus 0.67). The results of the meta-regression show the significance of two predictor variables – development status of the setting and study quality – on stillbirth prevalence. CONCLUSION: Stillbirth prevalence at the community level is typically less than 1% in more developed parts of the world and could exceed 3% in less developed regions. Regular reviews of stillbirth rates in appropriately designed and reported studies are useful in monitoring the adequacy of care. Systematic reviews of prevalence studies are helpful in explaining sources of variation across rates. Exploring these methodological issues will lead to improved standards for assessing the burden of reproductive ill-health

Evaluation of the DHEA-S test at an index of fetoplacental insufficiency

Peer Reviewe

Examination of the effect exerted on the material in intensified submerged arc welding methods

15.00; Translated from Czech (Zvaranie 1986 v. 35(2) p. 41-44)SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:9023.19(VR--3183)T / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo