Lost in transition : a grade nine transition program using articulation activities.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a set of structured articulation activities on the transition of students from grade eight to grade nine. Data were collected by retrieval from the state data collection system. This study was time-interrupted series with a treatment (implementation) group and two comparison groups analyzed using the MANCOVA approach. The study relied on the literature review of three vital concepts: organizational learning; high reliability organizations; and effective schools. Descriptive data were gathered through the state-wide Infinite Campus program. The study is quasi-experimental design with a quantitative analysis. The outcome data were analyzed using two-way ANOVA (analysis of variance) and MANCOVA (multivariate analysis of variance). The results of the study indicated statistical significance in the areas of GPAs, final mathematics grades for a given year, student behavior, and results on standardized tests. The results have potential implications for educators. There are policy implications for increasing the cooperation between middle and high schools

Measure of Intention to Provide Patient-centered Care to People Experiencing Opioid Addiction and Overdose Among EMS Providers in the State of Maine

The current opioid epidemic is devastating our communities. The American Medical Association’s Task Force on opioid addiction has identified stigma as a primary target of intervention for mitigating this epidemic. Stigma is a mark of disgrace or being objectionable. Experiences of stigma and resulting shame serve only to fuel health inequities experienced by people with opioid addiction. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) have an important role to play in mitigating this epidemic as entry-level providers in the healthcare system. The quality of that patient-provider encounter had the potential to shift intrinsic motivation to seek and maintain addiction treatment. Patient-centered care is identified as supporting therapeutic communication and is well-suited for rural EMS operations in Maine. The purpose of this research was to examine predictors of intention to provide patient-centered care to people experiencing opioid addiction and overdose (OAO) among EMS providers in the state of Maine. A cross-sectional online survey of currently licensed EMS providers offered a direct measure of intention to give patient-centered care to people experiencing OAO. Multiple regression analysis identified four predictor variables for intention: job satisfaction, exploring patient perspective, sharing information and power, and dealing with communicative challenges. The fitted model resulted in a significant R2 = .529, (F (4, 734) = 226.381, p < .001) exceeding the critical F statistic (F (4,739) = 2.384, p = .05), thus confirming the predictive value of the coefficients. Results suggested that EMS providers at all license levels will benefit from interventions that expand their knowledge of the medical definition of addiction and patient-centered care. EMS providers will also benefit from adopting approaches that support exploring the patient perspective and sharing information and power such as Motivational Interviewing and human performance strategies to develop awareness of socially conditioned biases that moderate provider attitudes. These evidence-based interventions could elevate the standard of care provided by EMS and reduce experiences of stigma in the patient-provider encounter. Reductions in stigma increase self-worth and prime motivation to seek and maintain treatment, thereby closing the treatment gap that exists for those experiencing opioid addiction in the state of Maine

Technology adoption in accounting: The role of staff perceptions and organisational context

Technology is widely recognised to be revolutionising the accounting profession, allowing accountants to focus on professional skills and technical knowledge that deliver value for organisational success. Despite the known benefits, it is reported that accountants are not fully leveraging the potential value of certain technologies. To understand why, this study draws on the Technology Adoption Model (TAM) and investigates accounting professionals’ perceptions towards technology, and how these may influence adoption at work. The study gathered online survey data from 585 accounting managers from organisations of varying size and in different sectors in Australia and parts of Southeast Asia. Qualitative data were thematically analysed, and quantitative data were analysed using both descriptive and multivariate techniques. The study highlighted the pivotal role of staff perceptions on the importance and ease of using technology on uptake and successful usage. Findings emphasised important opportunities for organisations to educate accounting staff on the value of technology and optimise their confidence and skills through training and support initiatives, particularly smaller businesses. Marked differences in the orientation towards technology among Australia and Southeast Asian participants illuminate how national work culture and practice can influence technology adoption. The study makes a practical contribution by advancing our understanding of the relative importance and value of certain technologies in different regions and organisation types in the accounting profession. It extends our theoretical understanding of the role of TAM’s core elements to the accounting context, exploring staff’s notions of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use from the manager’s perspective

Enablers, barriers and strategies for adopting new technology in accounting

Although the benefits of technological innovation are widely recognised, the accounting profession continues to undervalue and inadequately leverage technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and blockchain. This study builds on earlier work on the antecedents and barriers to technology adoption and considers the role of technological, organisational and environmental factors in the accounting context. The mixed methods design involved surveying 585 accounting managers in Australia and parts of South-East Asia and interviewing 20 Australian accounting managers. Using the Technology–Organisation–Environment model, the study explored differences in the importance of factors by region and organisational type and investigated manager perspectives on strategies to support adoption. Findings indicated that security and privacy concerns are paramount to decision-making, while environment-related factors were of less importance. Prioritised strategies included staying informed of technological innovation, encouraging staff engagement and support, and implementing effective project management. The study illuminates the critical role of professional associations and industry bodies in providing tailored support for members to foster greater technological orientation and advance in the accounting profession, including advocating for high-level, technology-related strategies to drive organisational transformation

Attitudes and practices of corporal punishment with ethnicity and religiosity as predictive variables

This study explores the relationship between ethnicity and level of religiosity, and parental or caregiver practices of physical punishment as a discipline style

Use of Case Studies to Promote Critical Thinking in Occupational Therapy Students

Critical thinking is a necessary component of clinical reasoning that should be addressed as part of the graduate curriculum for occupational therapists. For students to apply critical thinking in practice they must also have confidence and minimal anxiety about their abilities. Case-based learning was chosen to address critical thinking skill development, increase confidence, and decrease anxiety. The purpose of this mixed methods pilot study was to evaluate progressively independent engagement with case-based learning on student performance, confidence, and anxiety in applying critical thinking skills in the clinical setting. Critical thinking was measured using a rubric to assess students’ performance in analyzing the case studies with decreasing levels of instructor guidance over the semester. Confidence and anxiety levels were measured using a Likert confidence and anxiety scale at the start and end of the semester. Qualitative data was collected through telephone interviews to determine ways in which classroom activities translated to a clinical setting and to elicit student feedback about the lesson design and what they felt they learned in class after the first Level II fieldwork. All three areas of critical thinking, confidence, and anxiety improved, demonstrating a significance of

Rods are less fragile than spheres: Structural relaxation in dense liquids composed of anisotropic particles

We perform extensive molecular dynamics simulations of dense liquids composed of bidisperse dimer- and ellipse-shaped particles in 2D that interact via repulsive contact forces. We measure the structural relaxation times obtained from the long-time decay of the self-part of the intermediate scattering function for the translational and rotational degrees of freedom (DOF) as a function of packing fraction \phi, temperature T, and aspect ratio \alpha. We are able to collapse the \phi and T-dependent structural relaxation times for disks, and dimers and ellipses over a wide range of \alpha, onto a universal scaling function {\cal F}_{\pm}(|\phi-\phi_0|,T,\alpha), which is similar to that employed in previous studies of dense liquids composed of purely repulsive spherical particles in 3D. {\cal F_{\pm}} for both the translational and rotational DOF are characterized by the \alpha-dependent scaling exponents \mu and \delta and packing fraction \phi_0(\alpha) that signals the crossover in the scaling form {\cal F}_{\pm} from hard-particle dynamics to super-Arrhenius behavior for each aspect ratio. We find that the fragility at \phi_0, m(\phi_0), decreases monotonically with increasing aspect ratio for both ellipses and dimers. Moreover, the results for the slow dynamics of dense liquids composed of dimer- and ellipse-shaped particles are qualitatively the same, despite the fact that zero-temperature static packings of dimers are isostatic, while static packings of ellipses are hypostatic.Comment: 10 pages, 17 figures, and 1 tabl