Resiliency of secondary principals in Southern California: a phenomenological study

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was two-fold: (a) investigate the lived experiences of secondary principals with more than 5 years’ tenure in high performing public schools in Southern California as they relate to resiliency, and (b) explore their lived experiences as they relate to stress and coping. Studies show that secondary principals rarely stay at the same school site for longer than 3-5 years. Since known research on principal resiliency concerns primarily high poverty or low performing schools, a need was found to examine why secondary principals in high performing public schools stay longer than 5 years. Interviews with the 5 principals who qualified for this study revealed experiences that they felt strengthened their resiliency. Common themes included managing the workload, applying personal experiences, dealing with difficult staff, and interacting with challenging parents. Stressors identified by participants in this study included negotiating district office mandates, ameliorating parent concerns, fighting personal breaking points, and handling personnel issues. Coping traits identified in this study included having a supportive significant other, engaging in activities or hobbies, interacting with peers, and laughing with coworkers. Conclusions from this study confirm that principals who are able to prioritize conflicting job responsibilities, use personal experiences with adversity to handle stressful situations, and keep a healthy balance between their personal and professional lives demonstrate resilient characteristics and are likely to maintain an extended tenure

Dynamic Dialogue in Interpreter Education via VoiceThread

This paper provides a glimpse into the use of interactive dialogue to increase and improve interactivity among interpreter education students via Voicethread. The focus of the paper is primarily drawn from experiences in the education of signed language interpreting students, however, it is also relevant to spoken language interpreting students. While this article aims to explore the use of Voicethread (also known as MyThread) as a dynamic digital tool to enhance dialogue, the concepts highlighted go beyond tools to demonstrate how improved connectivity and dialogue can serve as a strong foundation for community building in eLearning environments. Both theory and application of the ways in which dynamic dialogue can be integrated will be addressed throughout the paper. Exemplars are provided to guide educators through use and implementation of Voicethread to improve dialogue in the classroom

Dynamic Dialogue in Interpreter Education via Voicethread

This paper provides a glimpse into the use of interactive dialogue to increase and improve interactivity among interpreter education students via Voicethread. The focus of the paper is primarily drawn from experiences in the education of signed language interpreting students, however, it is also relevant to spoken language interpreting students. While this article aims to explore the use of Voicethread (also known as MyThread) as a dynamic digital tool to enhance dialogue, the concepts highlighted go beyond tools to demonstrate how improved connectivity and dialogue can serve as a strong foundation for community building in eLearning environments. Both theory and application of the ways in which dynamic dialogue can be integrated will be addressed throughout the paper. Exemplars are provided to guide educators through use and implementation of Voicethread to improve dialogue in the classroom

Estimating Project-Specific Absorption

In performing an absorption analysis for a real estate investment, conventional appraisal approaches assume that space will be absorbed evenly across the market and evenly across the absorption period. These approaches fail to provide an accurate period-by-period absorption schedule for a specific property that reflects the supply and demand conditions of the market as well as specific characteristics of the subject property. The approach proposed in this study provides a simple and explainable model that permits the appraiser to estimate absorption with more accuracy through traditional market comparison techniques and to integrate the analysis of market supply and demand conditions on a period-by-period basis.

The association between hysterectomy and ovarian cancer risk: A population-based record-linkage study

Background: Recent studies have called into question the long-held belief that hysterectomy without oophorectomy protects against ovarian cancer. This population-based longitudinal record-linkage study aimed to explore this relationship, overall and by age at hysterectomy, time period, surgery type, and indication for hysterectomy. Methods: We followed the female adult Western Australian population (837 942 women) across a 27-year period using linked electoral, hospital, births, deaths, and cancer records. Surgery dates were determined from hospital records, and ovarian cancer diagnoses (n¼1640) were ascertained from cancer registry records.We used Cox regression to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between hysterectomy and ovarian cancer incidence. Results: Hysterectomy without oophorectomy (n¼78 594) was not associated with risk of invasive ovarian cancer overall (HR ¼ 0.98, 95% CI ¼ 0.85 to 1.11) or with the most common serous subtype (HR ¼ 1.05, 95% CI ¼ 0.89 to 1.23). Estimates did not vary statistically significantly by age at procedure, time period, or surgical approach. However, among women with endometriosis (5.8%) or with fibroids (5.7%), hysterectomy was associated with substantially decreased ovarian cancer risk overall (HR ¼ 0.17, 95% CI ¼ 0.12 to 0.24, and HR ¼ 0.27, 95% CI ¼ 0.20 to 0.36, respectively) and across all subtypes. Conclusions: Our results suggest that for most women, having a hysterectomy with ovarian conservation is not likely to substantially alter their risk of developing ovarian cancer. However, our results, if confirmed, suggest that ovarian cancer risk reduction could be considered as a possible benefit of hysterectomy when making decisions about surgical management of endometriosis or fibroids

Strategic Approaches to Curriculum Integration for Pre-doctoral Dental Education in an Iranian Research-intensive University Context

Drawing on the scholarship of educational leadership (SoEL), this paper examines strategic approaches to curriculum integration in a pre-doctoral dental program at Guilan University of Medical Sciences (GUMS), Iran. Appreciative inquiry methodology was employed to assess broad contextual factors, best practices and strategic institutional supports within a diverse disciplinary setting. Data suggest that strategically aligned promotion, tenure and reappointment criteria, as well as customised professional development initiatives are contributors to facilitate faculty engagement in effective learning-centred curriculum practices in the pre-doctoral dental program. Furthermore, a networked improvement community grounded in curriculum inquiry is to enhancing and sustaining curriculum integration in this research-intensive university context. Key institutional supports, challenges and strategic applications of curriculum integration are discussed

2020 Media Futures

What will our media and entertainment be like in 2020

Educating for Indigenous health equity: An international consensus statement

The determinants of health inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations include factors amenable to medical education’s influence, for example, the competence of the medical workforce to provide effective and equitable care to Indigenous populations. Medical education institutions have an important role to play in eliminating these inequities. However, there is evidence that medical education is not adequately fulfilling this role, and in fact may be complicit in perpetuating inequities. This article seeks to examine the factors underpinning medical education’s role in Indigenous health inequity, in order to inform interventions to address these factors. The authors developed a consensus statement that synthesizes evidence from research, evaluation, and the collective experience of an international research collaboration including experts in Indigenous medical education. The statement describes foundational processes that limit Indigenous health development in medical education and articulates key principles that can be applied at multiple levels to advance Indigenous health equity. The authors recognize colonization, racism, and privilege as fundamental determinants of Indigenous health that are also deeply embedded in Western medical education. In order to contribute effectively to Indigenous health development, medical education institutions must engage in decolonization processes and address racism and privilege at curricular and institutional levels. Indigenous health curricula must be formalized and comprehensive, and must be consistently reinforced in all educational environments. Institutions’ responsibilities extend to advocacy for health system and broader societal reform to reduce and eliminate health inequities. These activities must be adequately resourced and underpinned by investment in infrastructure and Indigenous leadership

Psychosocial factors impacting community-based pressure ulcer prevention: a systematic review

Background: Pressure ulcers are a major health concern. They have a significant impact on the healthcare system and individuals, reducing quality of life across several domains. In community settings, self-management behaviours are central to their prevention. However, adherence with pressure ulcer prevention guidelines remains low, with little evidence guiding the relationship between patients and healthcare professionals to establish a concordant partnership. Objective: To synthesise evidence on factors contributing to community-based pressure ulcer prevention using the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model of behaviour. Design: Mixed methods systematic review and narrative synthesis. Method: Systematic searches were conducted in the CINAHL, Cochrane, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases on 14th December 2022. Studies were eligible if they contained data on the factors associated with adherence and concordance with pressure ulcer prevention guidelines in the community for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Methodological quality was assessed using the Hawker tool. Findings were synthesised using the Theoretical Domains Framework. The resulting themes were mapped onto the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, Behaviour (COM-B) model. Results: Thirty studies were included in the review, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research. The synthesis identified 12 of the 14 Theoretical Domains Framework domains, with knowledge, social influences, beliefs about consequences, and beliefs about capabilities the most prevalent. Although knowledge appears to be an important contributor to adherence with prevention guidelines, knowledge alone does not appear sufficient to achieve concordance. A concordant relationship was facilitated by healthcare professionals' knowledge, motivation to work alongside patients and their priorities, and interpersonal skills to build rapport and trust, whilst barriers included lack of healthcare professional skills to navigate sensitive issues, paternalistic views of patient compliance and organisational processes that impact building rapport. Conclusions: Several psychosocial factors may affect the ability to achieve concordance between individuals, caregivers and healthcare professionals with pressure ulcer prevention guidelines in the community. However, data regarding the efficacy of behaviour change interventions targeting these constructs is limited, with further research required to guide intervention development in this area

Can bio-inspired information processing steps be realized as synthetic biochemical processes?

We consider possible designs and experimental realiza-tions in synthesized rather than naturally occurring bio-chemical systems of a selection of basic bio-inspired information processing steps. These include feed-forward loops, which have been identified as the most common information processing motifs in many natural pathways in cellular functioning, and memory-involving processes, specifically, associative memory. Such systems should not be designed to literally mimic nature. Rather, we can be guided by nature's mechanisms for experimenting with new information/signal processing steps which are based on coupled biochemical reactions, but are vastly simpler than natural processes, and which will provide tools for the long-term goal of understanding and harnessing nature's information processing paradigm. Our biochemical processes of choice are enzymatic cascades because of their compatibility with physiological processes in vivo and with electronics (e.g., electrodes) in vitro allowing for networking and interfacing of enzyme-catalyzed processes with other chemical and biochemical reactions. In addition to designing and realizing feed-forward loops and other processes, one has to develop approaches to probe their response to external control of the time-dependence of the input(s), by measuring the resulting time-dependence of the output. The goal will be to demonstrate the expected features, for example, the delayed response and stabilizing effect of the feed-forward loops