Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 2

Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education Project Report Number 2: Perspectives on Multiculturalism is the second report of Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education (RMRME), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project between the University of Western Sydney (UWS), the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) and the Board of Studies, Teaching and Educational Standards (BOSTES) incorporating the former NSW Institute of Teachers (NSWIT) and the Board of Studies. It follows an earlier report, Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education Project Report Number 1: Surveying NSW Public School Teachers and will be followed by a final report Rethinking Multiculturalism/Reassessing Multicultural Education Project Report Number 3: Knowledge Translation and Action Research. This second report provides an analysis of 42 focus groups involving a total of 222 parents, teachers and students in the 14 targeted schools. These included primary and secondary schools from a range of contexts: urban and rural, high and low socio-economic status (SES), and high and low levels of cultural diversity (see Table 1, p.9). The views recounted here are not intended to be representative of the schools themselves (which remain anonymous) nor of teachers, parents and students in NSW as a whole. Nevertheless, they provide a useful record of diverse perspectives to be found across NSW schools regarding multiculturalism and multicultural education. The report documents the complex array of cultural backgrounds and forms of identification amongst students, parents and teachers in NSW public schools, which challenges conventional wisdom about the nature of cultural diversity. It finds, however, that there is something of a mismatch between this complexity and teachers’ experience and expertise in multicultural education

Reassessing Bodies

A review of Chris Shilling's The Body in Culture, Technology and Society (Sage Publications, London, 2005)

Modeling Consumer Behavior For High Risk Foods

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one in six Americans become ill or die from foodborne contaminations (CDC, 2011). Contamination (intentional or unintentional) can occur at any point in the food supply chain. Flaws in security, quality control, or transportation are some examples of how food is susceptible to intentional acts of sabotage. Certain foods are more susceptible to contamination such as meats, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and eggs. In order to build a secure and resilient food supply chain network, food producers and manufacturers need to have the ability to assess contamination risks resulting from manufacturing processes. This research quantifies risk as a function of purchasing and consumption frequency of food susceptible to recalls. A survey is constructed and administered to identify consumption and purchasing behavior of high risk foods. Using the data from the survey, a logistic regression model is developed to determine the likelihood of purchasing high risk food items based on shopping behavior and demographic information. Subsequently, a Poisson regression model is developed to predict consumers’ consumption frequency. The results of the research will lead to a better understanding of consumer behavior in relation to food choices. Furthermore, understanding purchasing and consumption behavior will enable food producers to design better policies for securing the nation’s food supply

Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 1

This report provides insights into the current practices of multicultural education and the opinions and understandings of New South Wales (NSW) public school teachers around increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in schools and the broader Australian community. The report is the outcome of the first stage of the Rethinking Multiculturalism/ Reassessing Multicultural Education (RMRME) Project, a three-year Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project between the University of Western Sydney, the NSW Department of Education and Communities (DEC) and the NSW Institute of Teachers. Surveying teachers about these and related matters seemed a useful first step in considering the state of multicultural education some forty years after its inception (Inglis, 2009). The project as a whole involved a state-wide survey – the focus of this report – as well as focus groups with teachers, parents and students in 14 schools in urban and regional NSW, and a professional learning program informing the implementation of action research projects in each school. Read also: Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 2: http://apo.org.au/node/42670 Rethinking multiculturalism, reassessing multicultural education report 3: http://apo.org.au/node/42671 &nbsp

Multiple small monthly doses of dicyandiamide (DCD) did not reduce denitrification in Waikato dairy pasture

The effectiveness of multiple small doses of the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD) to decrease denitrification under warm moist conditions was tested in a 1-year field trial on a grazed dairy pasture. DCD was applied approximately every 4 weeks as an aqueous spray onto ten replicate plots 3 days after rotational grazing by dairy cows. Each application was at the rate of 3 kg DCD ha⁻¹, with a total annual application of 33 kg ha⁻¹. Denitrification was assessed 5 days after each DCD application using the acetylene block method. At the end of the trial, the rate of degradation of DCD under summer conditions was measured. DCD significantly decreased the mean annual nitrate concentration by about 17%. Denitrification and denitrification enzyme activity were highly variable and no significant effect of DCD in decreasing denitrification was detected. In the summer month of December, DCD degraded rapidly with an estimated half-life of 5 ± 3 days (mean and standard deviation)

Assessing Barriers to Health Care Access for New Americans

Introduction. Healthcare within the United States has been at the forefront of public discussion and political representation in recent years, particularly as it relates to healthcare access and barriers to said access. Focus has been placed on low-income groups that most generally represent the face of the average American, but this leaves the question: How are new Americans faring, and do their struggles match those faced by the rest of the country? The new Americans of Burlington, Vermont serve as a small window into a unique refugee population’s experiences with healthcare in the United States. Methods. A focus group consisting of 8 women was hosted on-site at the Burlington Housing Authority Franklin Square apartments. Questions were designed to determine demographic data as well facilitate subjective discussion on participants’ healthcare experiences. Translation services were provided by the resident manager. Results. Languages spoken were Mai Mai, Swahili, and English. Five major themes for healthcare access barriers were identified: language barriers, having children, transportation barriers, financial barriers, and a lack of preventative care. Sub- themes were also identified, which formed a taxonomy of barriers to healthcare access among the representative population. Discussion/Conclusions. The difficulties faced by new Americans are numerous and interrelated, leading to a perpetual cycle of insufficient healthcare. Throughout the discussion, the financial burden of healthcare was regularly raised as one of the most prominent issues faced. This concern matches with those found in similar, previous studies, that have analyzed the difficulties faced by the rest of America.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1254/thumbnail.jp

Validity and Reliability of Surface Electromyography Measurements from a Wearable Athlete Performance System

The Athos ® wearable system integrates surface electromyography (sEMG ) electrodes into the construction of compression athletic apparel. The Athos system reduces the complexity and increases the portability of collecting EMG data and provides processed data to the end user. The objective of the study was to determine the reliability and validity of Athos as compared with a research grade sEMG system. Twelve healthy subjects performed 7 trials on separate days (1 baseline trial and 6 repeated trials). In each trial subjects wore the wearable sEMG system and had a research grade sEMG system’s electrodes placed just distal on the same muscle, as close as possible to the wearable system’s electrodes. The muscles tested were the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), and biceps femoris (BF). All testing was done on an isokinetic dynamometer. Baseline testing involved performing isometric 1 repetition maximum tests for the knee extensors and flexors and three repetitions of concentric-concentric knee flexion and extension at MVC for each testing speed: 60, 180, and 300 deg/sec. Repeated trials 2-7 each comprised 9 sets where each set included three repetitions of concentric-concentric knee flexion-extension. Each repeated trial (2-7) comprised one set at each speed and percent MVC (50%, 75%, 100%) combination. The wearable system and research grade sEMG data were processed using the same methods and aligned in time. The amplitude metrics calculated from the sEMG for each repetition were the peak amplitude, sum of the linear envelope, and 95th percentile. Validity results comprise two main findings. First, there is not a significant effect of system (Athos or research grade system) on the repetition amplitude metrics (95%, peak, or sum). Second, the relationship between torque and sEMG is not significantly different between Athos and the research grade system. For reliability testing, the variation across trials and averaged across speeds was 0.8%, 7.3%, and 0.2% higher for Athos from BF, VL and VM, respectively. Also, using the standard deviation of the MVC normalized repetition amplitude, the research grade system showed 10.7% variability while Athos showed 12%. The wearable technology (Athos) provides sEMG measures that are consistent with controlled, research grade technologies and data collection procedures

Health state utilities for non small cell lung cancer

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licens

Beyond the sentence: Shared reading within a high secure hospital.

Ashworth Hospital provides care for inpatients detained under the Mental Health Acts who present a danger to themselves or others. Rehabilitative interventions can help support the best outcomes for patients, their families, care providers, and society. The efficacy of weekly Shared Reading sessions for four patients with experience of psychosis and a history of self-harm was investigated using a 12-month longitudinal case series design. Session data were subjected to psychological discourse analysis to identify discursive strategies employed to accomplish social action and change over the duration of the intervention. Archetypes of interactional achievement across sessions emerged. Broadening of capacity to consider was demonstrated through increased hedging and less declarative language. Increased assertiveness was achieved through reduced generalisation marked by a transition from second-person plural pronouns to more first-person singular pronouns. Avoidance of expression and disagreement strategies diminished over time. In addition, heightened engagement was accomplished through the increased tendency to employ functionally related and preferred responses within adjacency pairs, which mirrored non-verbal communicative strategies. Shared Reading shows promise for promoting the interactional accomplishment for individuals within high secure settings, who are ready to undertake a recovery-related activity. Pathways of interaction should continue to be explored, with consideration to the current study's strengths and limitations. This study contributes to the understanding of efficacious reading study design and the interactional outcomes of therapeutic reading