A Systematic Review of Internet-Based Worksite Wellness Approaches for Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management: Outcomes, Challenges & Opportunities

Context The internet is gaining popularity as a means of delivering employee-based cardiovascular (CV) wellness interventions though little is known about the cardiovascular health outcomes of these programs. In this review, we examined the effectiveness of internet-based employee cardiovascular wellness and prevention programs. Evidence Acquisition We conducted a systematic review by searching PubMed, Web of Science and Cochrane library for all published studies on internet-based programs aimed at improving CV health among employees up to November 2012. We grouped the outcomes according to the American Heart Association (AHA) indicators of cardiovascular wellbeing – weight, BP, lipids, smoking, physical activity, diet, and blood glucose. Evidence Synthesis A total of 18 randomized trials and 11 follow-up studies met our inclusion/exclusion criteria. Follow-up duration ranged from 6 – 24 months. There were significant differences in intervention types and number of components in each intervention. Modest improvements were observed in more than half of the studies with weight related outcomes while no improvement was seen in virtually all the studies with physical activity outcome. In general, internet-based programs were more successful if the interventions also included some physical contact and environmental modification, and if they were targeted at specific disease entities such as hypertension. Only a few of the studies were conducted in persons at-risk for CVD, none in blue-collar workers or low-income earners. Conclusion Internet based programs hold promise for improving the cardiovascular wellness among employees however much work is required to fully understand its utility and long term impact especially in special/at-risk populations.

Investigating the Effects of Cognitive Apprenticeship-Based Instructional Coaching on Science Teaching Efficacy Beliefs

The overall purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to examine the utility of a cognitive apprenticeship-based instructional coaching (CAIC) model for improving the science teaching efficacy beliefs (STEB) of preservice and inservice elementary teachers. Many of these teachers perceive science as a difficult subject and feel inadequately prepared to teach it. However, teacher efficacy beliefs have been noted as the strongest indicator of teacher quality, the variable most highly correlated with student achievement outcomes. The literature is scarce on strong, evidence-based theoretical models for improving STEB. This dissertation is comprised of two studies. STUDY #1 was a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study investigating the impact of a reformed CAIC elementary science methods course on the STEB of 26 preservice teachers. Data were collected using the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) and from six post-course interviews. A statistically significant increase in STEB was observed in the quantitative strand. The qualitative data suggested that the preservice teachers perceived all of the CAIC methods as influential, but the significance of each method depended on their unique needs and abilities. STUDY #2 was a participatory action research case study exploring the utility of a CAIC professional development program for improving the STEB of five Bahamian inservice teachers and their competency in implementing an inquiry-based curriculum. Data were collected from pre- and post-interviews and two focus group interviews. Overall, the inservice teachers perceived the intervention as highly effective. The scaffolding and coaching were the CAIC methods portrayed as most influential in developing their STEB, highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationship aspects in successful instructional coaching programs. The teachers also described the CAIC approach as integral in supporting their learning to implement the new inquiry-based curriculum. The overall findings hold important implications for science education reform, including its potential to influence how preservice teacher training and inservice teacher professional development in science are perceived and implemented. Additionally, given the noteworthy results obtained over the relatively short durations, CAIC interventions may also provide an effective means of achieving improvements in preservice and inservice teachers’ STEB more expeditiously than traditional approaches.

A Study of the Relationship between Employee Virtuality and Technology Deviance as Mediated by Leadership and Employee Perceptions

Recent studies found that organizations have been investing significant capital in developing teams and employees in geographic areas where labor and resources are considerably cheaper. Furthermore, organizations are moving core operational activities such as research and development and back-office processes to globally distributed teams. However, several factors that are inherent to these virtual teams can have a negative impact on employee perceptions and engagement; specifically, the physical and temporal differences between employees and their supervisors, the lack of meaningful social interaction intrinsic to working relationships, and cultural biases that can be fostered when close, daily interactions is not there to help bridge the dissimilarity. When strategies are not in place to mitigate these deficiencies, it can cause virtual employees to disengage emotionally and intellectually from the organization, or lead them to feel justified in working against the best interest of the company. Past research indicates that although deviant behavior in the workplace is not new, transgressions committed by employees have been increasing significantly every year. Beyond the focus of why employees are motivated to act against the organization, to what extent do the recent changes to the organization’s structure influence this type of behavior through their actions at the macro (organizational) and micro level (leadership). In addition, there is a related phenomenon that has aided the transformation of the workplace – namely, the ubiquity of technology. In the context of workplace deviance, established research has documented an increasing trend of employees utilizing company technology as a medium and amplifier when harming the organization. It is important to understand whether technology has facilitated or hindered workplace deviance by virtue of the technology itself (as a means), and as part of the new employee roles created by the evolving technology (i.e, virtual employees). Therefore, it is important to identify how individual attitudes and behaviors can be affected by an employee’s degree of virtuality. This study will add to the understanding of how social interaction and physical proximity, leadership and other perception factors contribute to the changes organizations are experiencing as their structure evolves and adapts to compete in the new global environment.

Elder malnutrition: A meta analysis of studies using the nutrition screening initiative determine checklist

To demonstrate the extent of elder malnutrition risk in this country, a meta analysis of 30 studies that used the Nutrition Screening Initiative's "DETERMINE Your Nutritional Health Checklist" was conducted. The studies were divided into three categories: Elder Populations in Healthcare Related Systems (HS), Elder Meal Program Participants (MP), and General Community Residing Elder Population (GC). HS was sub-divided into Hospital Inpatient/Clinic Outpatient and Long Term Care/Home Care. The MP population were identified as Congregate or Home Delivered meal participants. Overall, results indicate that 63% of elders are at moderate (32%) or high (31 %) risk of malnutrition. Home Delivered Meal Participants and Hospital Inpatient/Clinic Outpatients are most likely to be at high risk of malnutrition (49.5% and 49.1%, respectively). Individuals least likely to be at high malnutrition risk are the General Community Residing Elder Population (17.5%) and Congregate Meal Participants (22.5%).

2003 Habitat Maps derived from Grey Nurse Shark (GNS) Project of Wolf Rock, Double Island Point, Queensland, Australia

Surveying habitats critical to the survival of grey nurse sharks in South-East Queensland has mapped critical habitats, gathered species inventories and developed protocols for ecological monitoring of critical habitats in southern Queensland. This information has assisted stakeholders with habitat definition and effective management. In 2002 members of UniDive applied successfully for World Wide Fund for Nature, Threatened Species Network funds to map the critical Grey Nurse Shark Habitats in south east Queensland. UniDive members used the funding to survey, from the boats of local dive operators, Wolf Rock at Double Island Point, Gotham, Cherub's Cave, Henderson's Rock and China Wall at North Moreton and Flat Rock at Point Look Out during 2002 and 2003. These sites are situated along the south east Queensland coast and are known to be key Grey Nurse Shark aggregation sites. During the project UniDive members were trained in mapping and survey techniques that include identification of fish, invertebrates and substrate types. Training was conducted by experts from the University of Queensland (Centre of Marine Studies, Biophysical Remote Sensing) and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service who are also UniDive members. The monitoring methods (see methods) are based upon results of the UniDive Coastcare project from 2002, the international established Reef Check program and research conducted by Biophysical Remote Sensing and the Centre of Marine Studies. Habitats were mapped using a combination of towed GPS photo transects, aerial photography, bathymetry surveys and expert knowledge. This data provides georeferenced information regarding the major features of each of Sites mapped including Wolf Rock

Examining current provision, practice and experience of initial teacher training providers in Ireland preparing pre service teachers for the inclusion of students with special education needs in physical education classes.

Research from an international perspective in relation to the preparation of pre service teachers in physical education and special educational needs indicates that initial teacher training providers are inconsistent in the amount of time spent addressing the issue and the nature of curricular content (Vickerman, 2007). In Ireland, research of Meegan and MacPhail (2005) and Crawford (2011) indicates that physical education teachers do not feel adequately prepared to accommodate students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) in physical education classes. This study examined initial teacher training provision in Ireland in the training of pre service physical education teachers in SEN. The methodology used was qualitative and included questionnaires and interviews (n=4). Findings indicated that time allocation (semester long modules), working with children with disabilities in mainstream settings (school or leisure centre based), lack of collaboration with other PETE providers (n=4) and a need for continued professional development were themes in need of address. Using a combined approach where the recently designed European Inclusive Physical Education Training (Kudlácěk, Jesina, & Flanagan, 2010) model is infused through the undergraduate degree programme is proposed. Further, the accommodation of hands on experience for undergraduates in mainstream settings and the establishment of inter institutional communities of practice, with a national disability research initiative, is essential to ensure quality adapted physical activity training can be accommodated throughout Ireland.

Embodied Prayer: the practice of prayer as Christian theology

This dissertation attempts to retrieve the integration of prayer and theology in the life of the church. Prayer is a spiritual and bodily theological activity that forms Christian identity and virtuous character. The bodily dimension of Christian prayer plays an essential role in theological understanding and moral formation. However, the embodiment of prayer has been mostly neglected in modern academic theology. This study highlights the significance of the body at prayer in theological studies and spiritual formation.

Chapter 1 presents Karl Barth’s theology of prayer as a model of the integration of prayer, theology, and Christian life (lex orandi, lex credendi, lex agendi). However, Barth’s attempt to overcome the dichotomy between theory and practice in theology did not pay much attention to embodiment of prayer. Through ritual studies and phenomenology (Marcel Mauss, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Pierre Bourdieu), chapter 2 shows why the bodily dimension of the practice of prayer should be recovered in theology and ministry; then it explains how Christians in the early and medieval church actually prayed with the body, how their bodily actions were understood in their theological paradigms, and how their actions contributed to the formation of Christian character. Chapter 3 narrows the focus to the formation of the heart in the making of Christian character. The practice of prayer has been emphasized not only as an expression of the inner heart of pray-ers but also as a channel of grace that shapes their affections as enduring dispositions of the heart. Furthermore, historically the bodily practice of prayer gave theological authority to the devout Christians who were marginalized in academic theology or ecclesiastical hierarchy, and Chapter 4 presents the lex orandi of praying women who gained their theological knowledge, wisdom, and authority through their exemplary practices of prayer (Catherine of Siena, Mechthild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and Teresa of Avila). These historical examples reveal how Christian communities appreciated and celebrated the theological voices from the margins, which developed from theological embodiments in prayer.

This dissertation concludes that academic theology needs to heed these diverse theological voices, which are nurtured through everyday practice, as an integral part of theological studies. Therefore, it calls for a new paradigm for understanding the relationship between theory and practice in theological education. The integration between theory and bodily practice is necessary for both academic theology and spiritual formation. A more holistic understanding of Christian practices will not only enhance the training of scholars and clergy but also give the laity their own theological voices that will enrich academic theology.

An Examination of Lotka’s law in the Field of Library and Information Studies

The purpose of this study was to test Lotka’s law of scientific publication productivity using the methodology outlined by Pao (1985), in the field of Library and Information Studies (LIS). Lotka’s law has been sporadically tested in the field over the past 30+ years, but the results of these studies are inconclusive due to the varying methods employed by the researchers. A data set of 1,856 citations that were found using the ISI Web of Knowledge databases were studied. The values of n and c were calculated to be 2.1 and 0.6418 (64.18%) respectively. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) one sample goodness-of-fit test was conducted at the 0.10 level of significance. The Dmax value is 0.022758 and the calculated critical value is 0.026562. It was determined that the null hypothesis stating that there is no difference in the observed distribution of publications and the distribution obtained using Lotka’s and Pao’s procedure could not be rejected. This study finds that literature in the field of library and Information Studies does conform to Lotka’s law with reliable results. As result, Lotka’s law can be used in LIS as a standardized means of measuring author publication productivity which will lead to findings that are comparable on many levels (e.g., department, institution, national). Lotka’s law can be employed as an empirically proven analytical tool to establish publication productivity benchmarks for faculty and faculty librarians. Recommendations for further study include (a) exploring the characteristics of the high and low producers; (b) finding a way to successfully account for collaborative contributions in the formula; and, (c) a detailed study of institutional policies concerning publication productivity and its impact on the appointment, tenure and promotion process of academic librarians.

Understandings of transnational families in debates on Migration and development

International migration sets in motion a range of significant transnational processes that connect countries and people. How migration interacts with development and how policies might promote and enhance such interactions have, since the turn of the millennium, gained attention on the international agenda. The recognition that transnational practices connect migrants and their families across sending and receiving societies forms part of this debate. The ways in which policy debate employs and understands transnational family ties nevertheless remain underexplored. This article sets out to discern the understandings of the family in two (often intermingled) debates concerned with transnational interactions: The largely state and policydriven discourse on the potential benefits of migration on economic development, and the largely academic transnational family literature focusing on issues of care and the micro-politics of gender and generation. Emphasizing the relation between diverse migration-development dynamics and specific family positions, we ask whether an analytical point of departure in respective transnational motherhood, fatherhood or childhood is linked to emphasizing certain outcomes. We conclude by sketching important strands of inclusions and exclusions of family matters in policy discourse and suggest ways to better integrate a transnational family perspective in global migration-development policy.

Risk Consumption: Children and Online Gaming. The Problem of “Responsible Gambling”

Online gambling is a popular activity among adolescents. However, there has been a notable increase in the number of young people who suffer or are on the verge of pathological gambling. We review the impact of online gambling on young people and discuss the desiderability of the concept of “gambling responsibly” in order to alert of their risks and effectively prevent access to minors. The main factors associated with pathological gambling are the age of start, the family environment, the infl uence of advertising, the consumption of stimulants, and the attitudes of the peer group. Both the government and the gaming industry itself should consider these factors and develop comprehensive plans that ensure a safe and controlled model game. In this context, advertising must take into account criteria of consumer protection knowing that even if they are not allowed, children can easily have access to online gambling. All agents involved, including public and social agents, must provide mechanisms for prevention and awareness of a problem that arouses little social consciousness and excessive carelessness.

College radio as coaching professional. Analysis of the relationship between the degrees and Spanish university radio

College radio is subject to constant transformation. The rise of information and communications technologies has allowed its development and modernization as well as the proliferation of new professional profiles. This research aims to analyze the connection of the Spanish university stations with the relevant qualifications. To do this, we use a comparative methodology based on examination of descriptors and specific principal subjects of degrees such as Audiovisual Communication and Journalism, although we will be using other degrees that are acquiring more responsibilities in a radio station, such as the degree in Information and Documentation. In conclusion, structural weaknesses in the university environment are observed, but future possibilities are detected as well: A college radio station is a place of convergence between the training of students from different degrees and reality itself, a versatile medium that provides the relevance of being the first professional contact of college students with the labor market.

La carpeta de aprendizaje y la evaluación entre iguales de los estudiantes. Resultados de una innovación docente en los estudios universitarios de las artes

Students reflect more on their learning in course subjects when they participate in managing their teaching–learning environment. As a form of guided participation, peer assessment serves the following purposes: (a) it improves the student’s understanding of previously established learning objectives; (b) it is a powerful metacognitive tool; (c) it transfers to the student part of the responsibility for assessing learning, which means deciding which learning activities are important and choosing the degree of effort a course subject will require; (d) it emphasizes the collective aspect of the nature of knowledge; and (e) the educational benefits derived from peer assessment clearly justify the efforts required to implement activities. This paper reports on the relative merits of a learning portfolio compiled during fine arts-related studies in which peer assessment played an important role. The researchers analyzed the student work load and the final marks students received for compulsory art subjects. They conclude that the use of a closed learning portfolio with a well-structured, sequential and analytical design can have a positive effect on student learning and that, although implementing peer assessment may be complex and students need to become familiar with it, its use is not only feasible but recommendable.

Who is in charge? An L2 Discourse Intonation Study on Four Prosodic Parameters to Exert the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in the Context of L2 Non-specialist Public Speaking

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.

Airborne Laser Scanning and the Archaeological Interpretation of Ireland’s First World War Landscape”:The Case Study of Randalstown Training Camp

The training of Irish soldiers for service in the British Army during the First World War required the establishment of training camps across the island, such as at Shane’s Castle Estate, close to Randalstown in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The camp saw active use from 1914 to 1918 but after the war it was demilitarised and returned to use as farmland. Archaeological investigations have revealed that earthwork traces of the camp can still be identified in the modern landscape. Comparison of a map of the camp from 1915, Airborne Laser Scanning data and aerial photographs has enabled the footprint of the camp to be re-established, while also helping to identify the location of specific elements such as the remains of barrack huts, stores, mess halls and officers’ quarters.

Healthcare Staffs’ Experiences and Perceptions of Caring for People with Dementia in the Acute Setting: Qualitative Evidence Synthesis

Background Dementia is a global issue, with increasing prevalence rates impacting on health services internationally. People with dementia are frequently admitted to hospital, an environment that may not be suited to their needs. While many initiatives have been developed to improve their care in the acute setting, there is a lack of cohesive understanding of how staff experience and perceive the care they give to people with dementia in the acute setting. Objectives The aim of this qualitative synthesis was to explore health care staffs’ experiences and perceptions of caring for people with dementia in the acute setting. Qualitative synthesis can bring together isolated findings in a meaningful way that can inform policy development. Settings A screening process, using inclusion/exclusion criteria, identified qualitative studies that focused on health care staff caring for people with dementia in acute settings. Participants Twelve reports of nine studies were included for synthesis. Data extraction was conducted on each report by two researchers. Methods Framework synthesis was employed using VIPS framework, using Values, Individualised, Perspective and Social and psychological as concepts to guide synthesis. The VIPS framework has previously been used for exploring approaches to caring for people with dementia. Quality appraisal was conducted using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) and NVivo facilitated sensitivity analysis to ensure confidence in the findings. Results Key themes, derived from VIPS, included a number of specific subthemes that examined: infrastructure and care pathways, person-centred approaches to care, how the person interacts with their environment and other patients, and family involvement in care decisions. The synthesis identified barriers to appropriate care for the person with dementia. These include ineffective pathways of care, unsuitable environments, inadequate resources and staffing levels and lack of emphasis on education and training for staff caring for people with dementia. Conclusions This review has identified key issues in the care of people with dementia in the acute setting: improving pathways of care, creating suitable environments, addressing resources and staffing levels and placing emphasis on the education for staff caring for people with dementia. Recommendations are made for practice consideration, policy development and future research. Leadership is required to instil the values needed to care for this client group in an effective and personcentred way. Qualitative evidence synthesis can inform policy and in this case, recommends VIPS as a suitable framework for guiding decisions around care for people with dementia in acute settings.