Assisting Students with Post-Secondary Aspirations: How High School Counselors Help Different Student Groups with Post-Secondary Professional and Vocational Pathways

Abstract High school counselors support students across three areas or domains: academic, socio-emotional, and college and career development. Growing confusion and tensions around the time and responsibilities of school counselors have accompanied ever-evolving changes with their roles and coincided with continual efforts to address the K-12 and potential postsecondary educational opportunities, especially those from lower socioeconomic and particular racial and ethnic groups. The global health pandemic exacerbated challenges these student populations faced and greatly impacted the work of counselors. This qualitative multi-site case study draws on the triangulation of one-on-one interviews with twelve high school counselors across six school sites, in Southern California, with website and demographic analysis, and analytical memos, to identify institutional and personal influences on counselors’ views and perspectives around education and work, and in turn, how counselors assist different student groups with their post-secondary aspirations. Findings indicate that counselors’ views of education and work in light of the transition to adulthood; institutional structures and resources (e.g., distributed counseling) between charter and non-charter schools, and institutional aims (e.g., increase college going culture), and perceptions of students and communities, influence how counselors work with students and which pathways they (dis)encourage. Much of their efforts take place considering their views about students embarking on adulthood and what they feel they will be tasked with after high school. This influences the type of information they offer students, which promotes values around living meaningful, successful, and independent lives, as well as prioritizing college over career and technical education pathways. Keywords: Counselors, post-secondary advisement, vocation, career and technical education (CTE

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Minoritized Communities, Urban School Reform, School Policies, and Mayoral Control

The purpose of this study is to explore a federal turnaround policy under a mayoral-controlled Northeastern school district that began in 2013. The study utilizes discourse and document analysis and interviews, as well as a life history methodology to explore the perspectives of educators, local politicians, and community activists from Black and Latinx communities, as well as other minoritized populations, within the jurisdiction of the school district. The framework for this study draws on a critical analysis of educational policy studies and utilizes Sandra Stein’s (2004) Culture of Education Policy framework to highlight discourses and language used to frame individuals and groups. This study analyzes a forced leadership change and focuses on a particular elementary school as a result of the implementation of a turnaround policy, and offers some implications for educational policy, reform, and leadership practices

The Customer Quality of Delivered Care to Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease in Tabriz City, Iran, 2012

Abstract Background and purpose: Customer quality (CQ) refers to knowledge, attitude, and skills of service-user in treatment process and this study aims to assess it in delivered care to patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Tabriz city, Iran, 2012. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional investigation in which the target population includes 94 patients with IBD, who had medical care files in Imam Reza Hospital and Tabriz Golgasht Specialized Clinic. A 19-question inventory is the tool for data collection that its validity was approve by 10 experts and its reliability was examined and verified by conducting a pilot study and with calculation of internal consistency (α = 0.78). SPSS software was employed to analyze data. Results: The mean score of the variable of CQ was derived (70.63 ± 9.67) in patients with IBD disease. All participants had acquired the scores of self-management at the first phase. However, at last 11.7% of them had reported the highest scores in variable of CQ and they could continue their own medical care trend under variable conditions like stress and financial problems. Similarly, there was a significant relationship among CQ with an educational degree in the participants (P = 0.050) so that as the educational level was higher, the score of CQ was also increased. Conclusion: The acquired results signify that CQ is relatively acceptable in the studied population but major problems are visible in some areas, and this may imply the necessity for consideration by healthcare directors

Clinical governance; How been understood, what is needed? Nurses' perspective

Introduction: Clinical Governance (CG) is an overarching concept, using organizational capacity, safeguards high standards of the health services and provides a safe care for patients.  The aim of this research was to study nurses’ perception about Clinical Governance. Materials and Methods: A qualitative study was done with Focus Group Discussions (FGD). Purposeful Sampling was used to select the objectives including 65 participants. Actually 7 FGD’s were held. Content analysis was used to extract the meaningful themes. Results:Nurses believed that patient centeredness and evidence based practice is the core of the CG concept. Also they mentioned that cultural change, staffs training, adequate financial and human resources are required to successfully implementation of CG in hospitals.  Conclusion: Spreading up a shared vision about CG and providing the required infrastructures in hospitals would be facilitate CG initiatives. Proper commitment of the managers and staff participation could lead an effective CG implementation

Folic acid intake and folate status and colorectal cancer risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background & aims: To evaluate the controversies among the studies assessing the association between folic acid intake or folate status and colorectal cancer risk. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane library and references of related articles were searched from January 2000 to September 2016. Studies on folic acid intake or folate status and colorectal cancer or adenoma risk were included. Full text review was conducted for potentially eligible studies. Quality assessment was performed. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate risk ratio and 95% Confidence Intervals. Analysis was conducted by Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. Results: Folic acid supplement intake showed no significant effect on colorectal cancer risk in meta analysis of randomized controlled trials, RR: 1.07 (95% CI: 0.86-1.43). The effect on risk was not significant in cohort studies either; RR = 0.96 (95% CI: 0.76-1.21). However, there was significant reduced colorectal cancer risk in total folate intake in cohort studies; 0.71 (95% CI: 0.59-0.86). Odds Ratio was also significantly reduced in case control studies; 0.77 (95% CI: 0.62-0.95). Nevertheless once folate status was measured as Red Blood Cell folate content, no significant effect on colorectal cancer risk was observed; 1.05 (95% CI: 0.85-1.30). Conclusion: The differences in bioavailability and metabolism of synthetic folic acid and natural dietary folate as well as variation in the baseline characteristics of subjects and various methods of folate status assessment might be the main reasons for these controversies. Findings of present study highlight the importance of individualized folic acid supplement intake given the fact that the beneficiary effects of long term folic acid supplementation is not confirmed. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism. All rights reserved

Placental Kisspeptins Differentially Modulate Vital Parameters of Estrogen Receptor-Positive and -Negative Breast Cancer Cells.

Kisspeptins (KPs) are major regulators of trophoblast and cancer invasion. Thus far, limited and conflicting data are available on KP-mediated modulation of breast cancer (BC) metastasis; mostly based on synthetic KP-10, the most active fragment of KP. Here, we report for the first time comprehensive functional effects of term placental KPs on proliferation, adhesion, Matrigel invasion, motility, MMP activity and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in MDA-MB-231 (estrogen receptor-negative) and MCF-7 (estrogen receptor-positive). KPs were expressed at high level by term placental syncytiotrophoblasts and released in soluble form. Placental explant conditioned medium containing KPs (CM) significantly reduced proliferation of both cell types compared to CM without (w/o) KP (CM-w/o KP) in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In MDA-MB-231 cells, placental KPs significantly reduced adhesive properties, while increased MMP9 and MMP2 activity and stimulated invasion. Increased invasiveness of MDA-MB-231 cells after CM treatment was inhibited by KP receptor antagonist, P-234. CM significantly reduced motility of MCF-7 cells at all time points (2-30 hr), while it stimulated motility of MDA-MB-231 cells. These effects were reversed by P-234. Co-treatment with selective ER modulators, Tamoxifen and Raloxifene, inhibited the effect of CM on motility of MCF-7 cells. The level of IL-6 in supernatant of MCF-7 cells treated with CM was higher compared to those treated with CM-w/o KP. Both cell types produced more IL-8 after treatment with CM compared to those treated with CM-w/o KP. Taken together, our observations suggest that placental KPs differentially modulate vital parameters of estrogen receptor-positive and -negative BC cells possibly through modulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine production

Effect of term placental kisspeptins on proliferation of MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

<p>MDA-MB-231 (A) and MCF7 (B) cells were treated with different media as indicated in the figure for 24, 48 and 72 hr. All treatments were performed in six replicas. The extent of proliferation was measured by Propidium Iodide (PI) fluorometric assay. Significant differences were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test with a Dunnett’s posthoc test. Different dilutions from 1:2 to 1:8 were tested. CM: Term placenta conditioned medium containing KP, CM-w/o KP: KP-free CM, anti-KP: anti-Kp-54/Kp-145 antibody, Rb Ig: Rabbit immunoglobulin, Medium: Culture medium alone, KP: Kisspeptin. Results are representative of 7 term placentas. * CM <i>vs</i>. CM-w/o KP(p<0.05–0.01 for MDA-MB-231 and p<0.05–0.001 for MCF-7), φ CM <i>vs</i>. medium (p<0.01–0.001 for MDA-MB-231 and p<0.05–0.01 for MCF-7), β CM <i>vs</i>. CM+anti-KP-10 (p<0.05–0.01 for MDA-MB-231 and p<0.05 for MCF-7), Φ CM-w/o KP <i>vs</i>. medium (p<0.05–0.001 for MDA-MB-231 and p<0.05 for MCF-7), ψ KP-10 <i>vs</i>. medium (p<0.05–0.01 for MDA-MB-231 and p<0.05–0.01 for MCF-7).</p