The Experiences Of Self-Managing Perceived Blood Pressure Changes In Women With Hypertension

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the experiences of women with HTN self-managing their perceived BP changes. van Manen\u27s phenomenology methodology and method guided the inquiry, and also guided the existential reflection of the impact of perceived BP changes on the participants\u27 lifeworlds (e.g, lived space, lived body, lived time, and lived relations). Seven African American and six European American women with HTN who were able to tell if their BP changed based on their symptoms were recruited from community settings and were interviewed once with a semi-structured guide. Participants were middle-aged (M=50.5 years, SD=9.62), experienced in living with HTN (M=10.76 years, SD=9.50), had at least a high school education, and a limited annual income (93% \u3c than $24,000). Interviews were digitally recorded and professionally transcribed. Textual data was analyzed using thematic analysis to identify major themes. Participants experienced distressful BP changes indicated by body changes and sensations (e.g., headaches, visual disturbances, flushing, and fatigue). One central theme ( getting to normal ) and four subthemes (i.e., I can tell , tending to it , the wakeup call , and doing it right ) were discovered in the data. The themes depict a process of episodic symptom-driven and day-to-day actions that the participants used to return their BP to normal. The study is significant as new knowledge was discovered about how women perceive their BP changes and use them to guide self-management. This knowledge builds nursing science by explicating the concept of self-care operations within the theory of self-care, and contributes to clinical practice through suggestions for improving patient assessments. Results serve as a foundation for further research of the self-management of BP changes and the development of belief-based interventions with the potential to improve BP control

The Monstrous Birth of Alexander the Great: Thomas of Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie and Twelfth-Century Natural Science

Alone among the French romances of Alexander the Great penned in the twelfth century, Thomas of Kent’s Roman de toute chevalerie reproduces the story of Alexander’s illegitimate birth from the principal Latin source. According to this account, Alexander’s father was Nectanabus, a mage and astrologer who seduced queen Olympias with an astronomy lesson, deceived her by using animal pelts to disguise himself as a god, and then used his magic arts to retard the child’s birth when his astrological calculations indicated the child would be born a hybrid man-beast. Thomas wrote his romance at the very moment when both astrology and paradoxography (the writing of marvels) were being reevaluated as means of understanding the world, and so Alexander’s odd birth offers a reflection—shaped by the romance genre—on the limitations and ethical implications of medieval natural science

Test anxiety levels of board exam going students in Tamil Nadu, India

The latest report by the National Crime Records Bureau has positioned Tamil Nadu as the Indian state with highest suicide rate. At least in part, this is happening due to exam pressure among adolescents, emphasizing the imperative need to understand the pattern of anxiety and various factors contributing to it among students. The present study was conducted to analyze the level of state anxiety among board exam attending school students in Tamil Nadu, India. A group of 100 students containing 50 boys and 50 girls from 10th and 12th grades participated in the study and their state anxiety before board exams was measured by Westside Test Anxiety Scale. We found that all board exam going students had increased level of anxiety, which was particularly higher among boys and 12th standard board exam going students. Analysis of various demographic variables showed that students from nuclear families presented higher anxiety levels compared to their desired competitive group. Overall, our results showing the prevalence of state anxiety among board exam going students in Tamil Nadu, India, support the recent attempt taken by Tamil Nadu government to improve student's academic performance in a healthier manner by appointing psychologists in all government schools

Qualitative Measures of Equity in Small Groups

We investigate the utility of two qualitative measures of equity. Our data are videos of groups of first-generation and Deaf or hard-of-hearing students in a pre-matriculation university program designed to help them persist in STEM fields by developing their metacognitive practices. We analyze video data of students in small groups trying to accomplish various tasks. We analyze how groups engage with proposed ideas (inchargeness) and create a space of open sharing (civility). By capturing different aspects of each group, these measures combine to help our understanding of what an equitable group could look like.Comment: Accepted to International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) 201

Using Social Network Analysis on classroom video data

We propose a novel application of Social Network Analysis (SNA) using classroom video data as a means of quantitatively and visually exploring the collaborations between students. The context for our study was a summer program that works with first generation students and deaf/hard-of-hearing students to engage in authentic science practice and develop a supportive community. We applied SNA to data from one activity during the two-week program to test our approach and as a means to begin to assess whether the goals of the program are being met. We used SNA to identify groups that were interacting in unexpected ways and then to highlight how individuals were contributing to the overall group behavior. We plan to expand our new use of SNA to video data on a larger scale

Revisiting associations between student performance outcomes and formative assessment opportunities: is there any impact on student learning?

This project developed as a result of some inconclusive data from an investigation of whether a relationship existed between the use of formative assessment opportunities and performance, as measured by final grade. We were expecting to show our colleagues and students that use of formative assessment resources had the potential to improve performance. This first study, done in semester 1 2002, indicated that there was no apparent relationship even though the students reported how useful they found the resources. This led us to ask if there was a transition effectsuch that students were not yet working in an independent way and making full use of the resources, and/or whether in order to see an effect we needed to persuade non-users of the resources to become users before investigating if use can be correlated with improvement in performance. With the 2002-3 NextEd ASCILITE Research Grant we set out to repeat our project and to look at use and usefulness of resources in both first and second semester, to encourage non-users to become users and to investigate use with performance. Now our story has a different ending.<br /

Delivery as nanoparticles reduces imatinib mesylate-induced cardiotoxicity and improves anticancer activity

Clinical effectiveness of imatinib mesylate in cancer treatment is compromised by its off-target cardiotoxicity. In the present study, we have developed physically stable imatinib mesylate-loaded poly(lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticles (INPs) that could sustainably release the drug, and studied its efficacy by in vitro anticancer and in vivo cardiotoxicity assays. MTT (methylthiazolyldiphenyl-tetrazolium bromide) assay revealed that INPs are more cytotoxic to MCF-7 breast cancer cells compared to the equivalent concentration of free imatinib mesylate. Wistar rats orally administered with 50 mg/kg INPs for 28 days showed no significant cardiotoxicity or associated changes. Whereas, increased alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase levels, and reduced white blood cell, red blood cell, and hemoglobin content were observed in the animals administered with free drug. While the histological sections from hearts of animals that received INPs did not show any significant cardiotoxic symptoms, loss of normal architecture and increased cytoplasmic vacuolization were observed in the heart sections of animals administered with free imatinib mesylate. Based on these results, we conclude that nano-encapsulation of imatinib mesylate increases its efficacy against cancer cells, with almost no cardiotoxicity