Examining Student Gendered Experiences with Parent Involvement in The Bahamas

Within English-speaking Caribbean K-12 schooling systems, there has been a consistent trend of boys performing at a lower academic standard than girls. Caribbean scholars suggest approaching gendered achievement patterns from multiple perspectives, dimensions, and methodologies to help clarify the inequities that are prevalent in Caribbean schooling. To address this call, I narrow attention onto the Bahamian family context and raise the question as to whether parent involvement with schooling in The Bahamas differs for boys versus girls. Survey data (parents, n = 377) came from a comprehensive study on parent involvement with schooling that took place in Grand Bahama during summer of 2018. Multivariate analysis of factor scores using two scales, Basic Needs Involvement (11-item scale) and Academic Involvement (3-item scale), showed that parental involvement was similar for boys and girls. Like previous findings in The Bahamas, there were more girls enrolled in private schools than boys. Findings are discussed in terms of societal perceptions about whose education is valued, mandates for gender parity, the impact global trends have on local trends, and moving towards empirical-based theories for gendered achievement patterns within Caribbean societies

Facebook surveillance of former romantic partners: Associations with post-breakup recovery and personal growth

Copyright @ 2012 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Previous research has found that continuing offline contact with an ex-romantic partner following a breakup may disrupt emotional recovery. The present study examined whether continuing online contact with an ex-partner through remaining Facebook friends and/or engaging in surveillance of the ex-partner's Facebook page inhibited postbreakup adjustment and growth above and beyond offline contact. Analysis of the data provided by 464 participants revealed that Facebook surveillance was associated with greater current distress over the breakup, more negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the ex-partner, and lower personal growth. Participants who remained Facebook friends with the ex-partner, relative to those who did not remain Facebook friends, reported less negative feelings, sexual desire, and longing for the former partner, but lower personal growth. All of these results emerged after controlling for offline contact, personality traits, and characteristics of the former relationship and breakup that tend to predict postbreakup adjustment. Overall, these findings suggest that exposure to an ex-partner through Facebook may obstruct the process of healing and moving on from a past relationship

Role of the Paraprofessional in Inner City Services to Deaf People

Non

A Comparison of Six Personality Factors Between Professional, College, and High School Basketball Players

This investigation was concerned with comparing six personality factors among professional, college, and high school basketball players. The different factors measured include competitive trait anxiety, trait self-confidence, concentration, mental preparation skills, achievement motivation levels, and leadership skills. A self-evaluation questionnaire was administered to five basketball teams (two high school, two college, and one professional). Each subject\u27s questionnaire was scored and a Mental Toughness Profile for each athlete was developed. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there is a difference in personality factors among basketball players at the professional, collegiate, and high school levels. An Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine differences in each of the six personality factors between each of three groups. Also used was a Multiple Comparison Test for the ANOVA. The statistical significance of the results was determined using the .05 level. The results of this investigation indicated that there are personality differences between professional, college, and high school basketball players. A significant difference was demonstrated between all three groups in all the factors except leadership skills. The Multiple Comparison Test revealed that high school and professional basketball players differed significantly in all of the categories except leadership skills. The high school and college players differed significantly only in concentration skills and average scores for the combination of all six subscales. College and professional players differed significantly only in trait self-confidence. One conclusion in this investigation was that the Mental Toughness Profile used was a strong predictor of skill level when comparing professional and high school basketball players

Bahamian Fathers' Involvement with Their Child’s Schooling: To What Extent does Family Structure Matter?

This study examined characteristics of Bahamian fathers’ involvement with schooling using data from a comprehensive study on parent involvement within one Bahamian community. We triangulated data from parent survey (N = 91 males, N = 278 females) and community interview data (N = 33 community members) to compare fathers to mothers, examine whether fathers living in the same home as their child had an impact on their involvement with schooling, and pinpoint beliefs regarding family structure and gender norms. Chi-square analyses demonstrate that Bahamian fathers engaged with schools in very similar ways to mothers on over half the involvement indicators, with slight differences on the remaining indicators. Mean difference analyses of factor scores showed slight differences between mothers and fathers on academic involvement and more pronounced differences on involvement concerning basic needs. Interestingly, despite beliefs about family structure voiced by some participants, living in the same home as their child did not play a role in fathers’ involvement. We discuss our findings within the social context of The Bahamas, raise questions about the real impact of family structure on involvement, and call for more exploration on the impact of class and socioeconomic status on involvement with schools

A Faster Implementation of Online Run-Length Burrows-Wheeler Transform

Run-length encoding Burrows-Wheeler Transformed strings, resulting in Run-Length BWT (RLBWT), is a powerful tool for processing highly repetitive strings. We propose a new algorithm for online RLBWT working in run-compressed space, which runs in $O(n\lg r)$ time and $O(r\lg n)$ bits of space, where $n$ is the length of input string $S$ received so far and $r$ is the number of runs in the BWT of the reversed $S$. We improve the state-of-the-art algorithm for online RLBWT in terms of empirical construction time. Adopting the dynamic list for maintaining a total order, we can replace rank queries in a dynamic wavelet tree on a run-length compressed string by the direct comparison of labels in a dynamic list. The empirical result for various benchmarks show the efficiency of our algorithm, especially for highly repetitive strings.Comment: In Proc. IWOCA201

Barriers to the Full Employment of Deaf People in Federal Government

Non

Predictors and Missed Opportunities for Blood Glucose Screening among African Americans: Implications for Church-based Populations

African Americans (AAs) are disproportionately diagnosed with prediabetes, diabetes, and related complications. Guidelines for prediabetes/diabetes screening emphasize reaching at-risk adults. The AA church has potential to increase reach of BGS with AA church members and community members. The current study identified predictors of blood glucose screening (BGS) and individuals with missed opportunities for BGS among church-affiliated AA adults. Participants were drawn from a previous pilot study (Project Faith Influencing Transformation) conducted in six AA churches over eight months. Eligibility criteria included self-identifying as AA and being aged 18 or older. Participants who had previously been diagnosed with diabetes were excluded, resulting in a final sample of N = 274. Participants were primarily female (68%), with an average age of 52 years. Slightly more than half of participants (54%) had obtained BGS in the past year. Logistic regression revealed that BGS was less likely among participants who had less routine doctor visits. Among church members, likelihood of BGS increased with number of years as a member. Participants who were older and uninsured were more likely to have a missed opportunity for BGS. Implications for diabetes prevention efforts, particularly faith-based diabetes prevention interventions for AAs, are discussed

Cadmium Impairs p53 Activity in HepG2 Cells

Cadmium and cadmium compounds are contaminants of the environment, food, and drinking water and are important constituents of cigarette smoke. Cd exposure has also been associated with airborne particulate CdO and with Cd-containing quantum dots in medical therapy. Adverse cadmium effects reported in the literature have stimulated during recent years an ongoing discussion to better elucidate cadmium outcomes at cell and molecular level. The present work is designed to gain an insight into the mechanism of p53 impairment at gene and protein level to understand Cd-induced resistance to apoptosis. We used a hepatoma cell line (HepG2) derived from liver, known to be metal responsive. At genotoxic cadmium concentrations no cell cycle arrest was observed. The p53 at gene and protein level was not regulated. Fluorescence images showed that p53 was correctly translocated into the nucleus but that the , a downstream protein of p53 network involved in cell cycle regulation, was not activated at the highest cadmium concentrations used. The miRNAs analysis revealed an upregulation of mir-372, an miRNA able to affect expression and promote cell cycle progression and proliferation. The role of metallothioneins and possible conformational changes of p53 are discussed