Interest-Major Fit and Satisfaction: Extending Theories of Occupational Fit to Predict Academic Outcomes

According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2008), only 58% of students enrolled in a four-year bachelor’s degree program between 1995 and 1996 had successfully completed their degree by 2001 (Allen & Robbins, 2010). Some studies examining the frequency with which students change their major during their undergraduate education also offer insight into the potential reasons underlying the delayed graduation rates observed in Allen and Robbins’ (2010) study; for instance, a study by the U.S. Department of Education (2017) found that within three years of enrollment, about 30% of students pursuing a bachelor’s or associate’s degree had changed their major. At first glance, these statistics documenting untimely graduation and low rates of major stability might seem mundane, or appear to be phenomena for which students alone can devise a solution; they may also seem to explain themselves to some extent, in the sense that a student’s decision to change their major might be a factor in delayed graduation rates. However, research on student major selection suggests that these trends reflect certain deeper psychological constructs and external circumstances that may be related to academic outcomes among undergraduates in important ways. What follows is an original instance of scholarship that applies Holland’s theory of vocational preferences (1997) to understand the relationship between major-interest fit, academic outcomes, and covariates of this relationship. Although the findings of the present study generally challenged Holland’s theory (1997), these inconsistencies are parsed and their implications for future research/practitioners are discussed

DOES PROVIDING FREE ANTI-RETROVIRAL THERAPY ENSURE OPTIMAL ADHERENCE AMONG PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV / AIDS?

AbstractIntroduction/Back ground: Availability of Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) has revolutionalised the management of Human Immunodeficiency Virus /Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and improved the survival of those infected with the virus. However, adherence to therapy is a prerequisite for treatment success and preventing drug resistance. Aim: The present study was carried out with the aim of determining the level of adherence and factors affecting it among patients receiving free ART. Methods: A cross sectional study design was adopted and 320 HIV positive patients receiving free ART from a district hospital in Udupi were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. Adherence to ART >95% of the prescribed medication was used as the cut off for deciding on the treatment adherence. Results: An encouragingly high 96.9% of the individuals were adherent to the medication over the past month. However, 41.8% of the participants reported to have ever missed doses of ART. On univariate analysis, having ever consumed alcohol, absence of side effects such as fatigue and tingling/numbness, having a feeling of sadness and sleep disturbances, being on Efavirenz based regimen, non-disclosure HIV status, being unsure of continuing lifelong treatment were significantly associated with non-adherence (p<0.05).Conclusion: Although non adherence was of concern among a small proportion of participants, a large number of them reported to have ever missed doses of ART.  This finding suggests that adherence rate may be lower over longer periods of time. Hence, periodic assessments may address patient specific barriers and help to improve the adherence rate among this population.Â

Demand-Private Coded Caching and the Exact Trade-off for N=K=2

The distributed coded caching problem has been studied extensively in the recent past. While the known coded caching schemes achieve an improved transmission rate, they violate the privacy of the users since in these schemes the demand of one user is revealed to others in the delivery phase. In this paper, we consider the coded caching problem under the constraint that the demands of the other users remain information theoretically secret from each user. We first show that the memory-rate pair $(M,\min \{N,K\}(1-M/N))$ is achievable under information theoretic demand privacy, while using broadcast transmissions. We then show that a demand-private scheme for $N$ files and $K$ users can be obtained from a non-private scheme that satisfies only a restricted subset of demands of $NK$ users for $N$ files. We then focus on the demand-private coded caching problem for $K=2$ users, $N=2$ files. We characterize the exact memory-rate trade-off for this case. To show the achievability, we use our first result to construct a demand-private scheme from a non-private scheme satisfying a restricted demand subset that is known from an earlier work by Tian. Further, by giving a converse based on the extra requirement of privacy, we show that the obtained achievable region is the exact memory-rate trade-off.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

Descriptive analysis of sleep quality and its determinants among rural population of coastal Karnataka

Background: A good quality of sleep helps to maintain mood, memory and cognitive performance. Aim & Objective: To assess quality of sleep and its determinants among rural adults. Settings and Design: A community based cross sectional study was carried out in rural field practice area of a medical college Methods and Material: Pittsburg sleep quality index scale was used to assess quality of sleep. Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information from participants. Anthropometric and blood pressure measurements were taken. Statistical analysis used: Chi-square test was used to find out association between poor sleep and specific morbidities. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was done to assess predictors of poor sleep. Results: Among the 614 study subjects, 60.3% had good sleep. Presence of morbidity was significantly associated with poor sleep [AOR=1.48; 95%CI=1.05-2.08]. Presence of a dark room, taking a bath or having milk before bed time were top reasons cited to be facilitating good sleep. Presence of mosquitoes, having young children or adolescent at home and vital events in last one year were reported to hinder good sleep. Conclusions: A sizeable proportion of rural adults have poor sleep. Presence of morbidity was a significant predictor of poor sleep

Impact of Stress and Decision Fatigue on Parenting Practices Related to Food and Physical Activity During COVID‐19

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in substantial disruptions to daily functioning and lifestyle behaviours, with negative health consequences for youth. Parents play a large role in their children\u27s health behaviour; yet changes to parenting behaviours during the pandemic related to food and physical activity remain relatively unexplored. The present study is the first to our knowledge to examine specific changes in American parents\u27 parenting behaviours related to food and physical activity during COVID-19, and potential correlates of such changes, including perceived stress and decision fatigue. Methods A total of 140 parents (88.57% female; 88.41% White; 87.59% married; with one to five children) from middle to upper income households completed an online survey assessing demographics, perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale), decision fatigue (Decision Fatigue Scale) and food and activity parenting behaviour changes during COVID-19. Results Overall, a greater proportion of parents engaged primarily in positive (57.14%) than negative (22.86%) parenting practices related to food and physical activity during the pandemic. Moderation analyses showed that the negative relation between perceived stress and positive parental behaviour changes was stronger at higher perceived increases in decision fatigue during the pandemic. Conclusions In the face of a major public health crisis, adaptive parental responses may emerge, but perceived stress may inhibit such behaviour change. Perceived stress and decision fatigue may represent important explanatory factors in parental health promoting behaviours during times of uncertainty and change

Clinico-epidemiological profile of malaria: Analysis from a primary health centre in Karnataka, Southern India

Malaria continues to be a major public health problem in India and worldwide. The present study was based on records from a primary health centre in Karnataka. Morbidity patterns and important features of malaria transmission specific to Udupi district were investigated. The incidence of malaria and various morbidity patterns during 2010 and 2011 were compared and analyzed. Factors such as rapid urbanization, increased construction activities and influx of migratory workers were highlighted as the leading causes for the advent of malaria in the area. Recommendations have been provided for implementation in the near future

Water T2 as an early, global and practical biomarker for metabolic syndrome: an observational cross-sectional study

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a highly prevalent condition that identifies individuals at risk for type 2 diabetes mellitus and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Prevention of these diseases relies on early detection and intervention in order to preserve pancreatic β-cells and arterial wall integrity. Yet, the clinical criteria for MetS are insensitive to the early-stage insulin resistance, inflammation, cholesterol and clotting factor abnormalities that char- acterize the progression toward type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis. Here we report the discovery and initial charac- terization of an atypical new biomarker that detects these early conditions with just one measurement. Methods: Water T2, measured in a few minutes using benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry, is exqui- sitely sensitive to metabolic shifts in the blood proteome. In an observational cross-sectional study of 72 non-diabetic human subjects, the association of plasma and serum water T2 values with over 130 blood biomarkers was analyzed using bivariate, multivariate and logistic regression. Results: Plasma and serum water T2 exhibited strong bivariate correlations with markers of insulin, lipids, inflamma- tion, coagulation and electrolyte balance. After correcting for confounders, low water T2 values were independently and additively associated with fasting hyperinsulinemia, dyslipidemia and subclinical inflammation. Plasma water T2 exhibited 100% sensitivity and 87% specificity for detecting early insulin resistance in normoglycemic subjects, as defined by the McAuley Index. Sixteen normoglycemic subjects with early metabolic abnormalities (22% of the study population) were identified by low water T2 values. Thirteen of the 16 did not meet the harmonized clinical criteria for metabolic syndrome and would have been missed by conventional screening for diabetes risk. Low water T2 values were associated with increases in the mean concentrations of 6 of the 16 most abundant acute phase proteins and lipoproteins in plasma. Conclusions: Water T2 detects a constellation of early abnormalities associated with metabolic syndrome, provid- ing a global view of an individual’s metabolic health. It circumvents the pitfalls associated with fasting glucose and hemoglobin A1c and the limitations of the current clinical criteria for metabolic syndrome. Water T2 shows promise as an early, global and practical screening tool for the identification of individuals at risk for diabetes and atherosclerosis