Stress management for teachers in vocational education and training sector

Much of the stress of teaching is related to problem behaviour in the classrooms. The most effective way of managing behavioural problems is to prevent them from arising, and to minimize their occurrence. The focus is the teacher\u27s ability and willingness to create a successful learning situation appropriate to the student\u27s needs. Essentially, stress can be a challenging, exciting stimulus to personal growth, whilst excessive stress can prove damaging to psychological and physical health because it often triggers emotional and physical strain that may be harmful. So, people are motivated to cope with stress. However, the reactions to stress and its adaptive value vary from one person to the next and from time to time for the same person. Decisions about how to cope can consequently be complex. Thus, this paper will highlight some of the more adaptive stress coping strategies, with examples and cases drawn from the authour\u27s experiences in teaching as well as from research towards secondary school teachers in Hong Kon

Agent Transparency for Intelligent Target Identification in the Maritime Domain, and its impact on Operator Performance, Workload and Trust

This item is only available electronically.Objective: To examine how increasing the transparency of an intelligent maritime target identification system impacts on operator performance, workload and trust in the intelligent agent. Background: Previous research has shown that operator accuracy improves with increased transparency of an intelligent agent’s decisions and recommendations. This can be at the cost of increased workload and response time, although this has not been found by all studies. Prior studies have predominately focussed on route planning and navigation, and it is unclear if the benefits of agent transparency would apply to other tasks such as target identification. Method: Twenty seven participants were required to identify a number of tracks based on a set of identification criteria and the recommendation of an intelligent agent at three transparency levels in a repeated-measures design. The intelligent agent generated an identification recommendation for each track with different levels of transparency information displayed and participants were required to determine the identity of the track. For each transparency level, 70% of the recommendations made by the intelligent agent were correct, with incorrect recommendation due to additional information that the agent was not aware of, such as information from the ship’s radar. Participants’ identification accuracy and identification time were measured, and surveys on operator subjective workload and subjective trust in the intelligent agent were collected for each transparency level. Results: The results indicated that increased transparency information improved the operators’ sensitivity to the accuracy of the agent’s decisions and produced a greater tendency Agent Transparency for Intelligent Target Identification 33 to accept the agent’s decision. Increased agent transparency facilitated human-agent teaming without increasing workload or response time when correctly accepting the intelligent agent’s decision, but increased the response time when rejecting incorrect intelligent agent’s decisions. Participants also reported a higher level of trust when the intelligent agent was more transparent. Conclusion: This study shows the ability of agent transparency to improve performance without increasing workload. Greater agent transparency is also beneficial in building operator trust in the agent. Application: The current study can inform the design and use of uninhabited vehicles and intelligent agents in the maritime context for target identification. It also demonstrates that providing greater transparency of intelligent agents can improve human-agent teaming performance for a previously unstudied task and domain, and hence suggests broader applicability for the design of intelligent agents.Thesis (M.Psych(Organisational & Human Factors)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Chemoprevention of breast cancer for women at hgh risk

Breast cancer remains the second most common cause of cancer death in the United States. Several studies have identified cohorts of women at higher than average risk to develop this disease. These are women who are exposed to high levels of endogenous or exogenous estrogens, those with a family history of breast cancer, and those who harbor benign breast disease or genetic mutations that predispose to breast cancer. In this population group, adapting a chemoprevention strategy to decrease the risk of developing overt disease is a strong consideration. To this end, tamoxifen is the most accepted agent to date. This article will describe high risk categories that predict future development of invasive breast cancer, will summarize the current available data to support the use of tamoxifen for chemoprevention, and will further discuss adverse effects of tamoxifen as well as measures to anticipate and monitor for possible adverse outcomes

Explaining Information Systems Adoption and Post-Adoption: Toward an Integrative Model

This study develops and tests an integrated model that explains information systems usage at adoption and post-adoption stages. Integrating the theory of planned behavior with the IS continuance model, this research provides insights into the complementary nature of the two theories in explaining IS usage over time. In addition, the integrated model takes into consideration the “habit” construct in order to better explain the automatic nature of IS continuance. The integrated model is tested in a longitudinal setting. Results present strong support for the existing theoretical links of the theory of planned behavior and IS continuance model, as well as for those newly hypothesized in this study. Initial usage indicates significant affect IS continuance usage, and habit posits a significant moderating impact on the relationship between IS continuance intention and IS continuance usage. The dynamic interrelationship between acceptance and continuance decision and the variability of determinants of IS usage across different adoption stages are demonstrated. The implications are noteworthy for both researchers and practitioners

The Effect of Employment on Delinquent Behavior Among Youth in Hidden Situation

This study examines the effect of employment on delinquent behavior among young people in “hidden situations”. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used, and 588 young people in these hidden situations were investigated. Results showed that some of them had employment; their employment status constituted a mediating effect on preventing them from being involved in delinquent behavior. Also, participants who had work explained the reasons for not being involved in delinquent behavior. These results reflect that whether young people in hidden situation involve in delinquent behavior depends on their employment rather than their hidden behavior itself. The implication is that practitioners should respect the youths’ self-preferred choice of employment and even advocate a revision of the definition of employment in Hong Kong

Mental Health Intervention Strategies for Youth in Rural Northeast TN

Title: MENTAL HEALTH INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR YOUTH IN RURAL NORTHEAST TN Introduction: A major need in Hawkins County entails lack of access to mental health resources. As a rural Appalachian county, this scarcity is especially felt by the area’s youth, who are subject to peer pressure, higher ACE scores, and may lack the autonomy to seek out professional help. Methods: The community-based intervention spanned in three consecutive weekly small-group sessions. Eligible participants were recruited from the afterschool program at the Boys and Girls Club of Hawkins County and must have been in the 5th to 8th grade (middle school) during the course of the study (n=13). Each participant completed a pre-­intervention assessment, a series of short weekly surveys (one per session) and a post-­intervention assessment to determine effectiveness and retention of the material presented. Statistical significance was determined using a paired T-Test. Results: Results did not provide any statistically significant relationships but trends were observed in perceived stress which decreased overall from pre-survey to post-survey (p=0.716), as did the self-reported use of negative coping strategies in the group (p=0.193). There was also a slight increase (p=0.653) in self-reported use of positive coping skills. A trend for greater change in the male participants was also observed. The mindfulness activity was perceived with a higher affinity than the baseline knowledge (Unpacking Mental Health) session (p=0.017). Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that short 1-hour interventions per week, especially those incorporating mindfulness strategies, can influence attitudes and coping strategies in rural adolescent children compared to mental health knowledge sessions alone (p=0.017). Trends in gender differences could underlie cultural and societal norms. Due to the limited number of mental health providers, evaluating behaviors were considered but not utilized. These trends, especially in mindfulness activities, could help further guide community partner mental health strategies for youth in rural Appalachia. Overall, these initial trends warrant further work in a much larger sample size and power of the study to draw definitive results

Accredited qualifications for capacity development in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation

Increasingly practitioners and policy makers working across the globe are recognising the importance of bringing together disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. From studies across 15 Pacific island nations, a key barrier to improving national resilience to disaster risks and climate change impacts has been identified as a lack of capacity and expertise resulting from the absence of sustainable accredited and quality assured formal training programmes in the disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation sectors. In the 2016 UNISDR Science and Technology Conference on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, it was raised that most of the training material available are not reviewed either through a peer-to-peer mechanism or by the scientific community and are, thus, not following quality assurance standards. In response to these identified barriers, this paper focuses on a call for accredited formal qualifications for capacity development identified in the 2015 United Nations landmark agreements in DRR and CCA and uses the Pacific Islands Region of where this is now being implemented with the launch of the Pacific Regional Federation of Resilience Professionals, for DRR and CCA. A key issue is providing an accreditation and quality assurance mechanism that is shared across boundaries. This paper argues that by using the United Nations landmark agreements of 2015, support for a regionally accredited capacity development that ensures all countries can produce, access and effectively use scientific information for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The newly launched Pacific Regional Federation of Resilience Professionals who work in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation may offer a model that can be used more widely