The integration and evaluation of a social-media facilitated journal club to enhance the student learning experience of evidence-based practice: A case study

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd Introduction Nurses are required to interpret and apply knowledge so communities will receive care based on best available evidence, as opposed to care that is simply based on tradition or authority. Fostering nursing students' critical appraisal skills will assist in their capacity to engage with, interpret and use best evidence. Journal clubs are frequently used approach to engage learners with research and develop critical appraisal skills. Given new flipped and blended approaches to teaching and learning there is need to rejuvenate how research is utilised and integrated within journal clubs to maximise engagement and translation of evidence. Purpose This paper provides a case study of a single site Australian university experience of transitioning a traditional physical journal club, to a social media-facilitated club within a postgraduate health subject to stimulate and facilitate engagement with the chosen manuscripts. Data Sources This case study is based on our own experiences, supported by literature and includes qualitative comments obtained via student feedback surveys during November 2015. Design Case study. Implications for Nursing and Conclusion Social media-facilitated journal clubs offer an efficient way to continue developing critical appraisal skills in nursing students. The integration of a social media-facilitated journal clubs increased student attention, engagement with presented activities and overall student satisfaction within this evidence-based practice subject. Future rigorously-designed, large-scale studies are required to evaluate the impact of online journal clubs on the uptake of evidence-based practice, including those resulting in improved patient outcomes

Care-seeking decisions for worsening symptoms in heart failure: a qualitative metasynthesis

Purpose: Over 50% of heart failure (HF) patients delay seeking help for worsening symptoms until these reach acute levels and require emergency hospitalisation. This metasynthesis aimed to identify and explore factors influencing timely care-seeking in patients with HF. Methods: Electronic databases searched were Medline, EMBASE and CINAHL. Studies were included if they were peer reviewed journal articles written in English, and reported perspectives of HF patients following qualitative data collection and analysis. Forty articles underwent analysis following the approach of Thomas and Harden. Leventhal's self-regulatory model (SRM) was used to organise the literature. Results: Much of the literature fit within the SRM, however this model did not account for all factors that influence patients’ care-seeking for worsening symptoms. Factors not accounted for included patients’ appraisals of previous care-seeking experiences, perceived system and provider barriers to accessing care, and the influence of external appraisals. When added to factors already represented in the model, such as misattribution of symptoms, not identifying with HF diagnosis, cognitive status, lack of understanding information provided, adaptation to symptoms, and emotional responses, a more comprehensive account of patients’ decision-making was revealed. Implications: This metasynthesis identified factors, as yet unaccounted for, in a prominent model, and has suggested a more comprehensive framework for addressing care-seeking in HF patients. This information can be used to tailor education, communication, and service initiatives to improve HF patients’ responses to worsening symptoms

Health-Seeking Behaviors of Filipino Migrants in Australia: The Influence of Persisting Acculturative Stress and Depression

© 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York. This study examined the relationships among the constructs of acculturative stress, depression, English language use, health literacy, and social support and the influence of these factors on health-seeking behaviors of Filipino Australians. Using a self-administered questionnaire, 552 respondents were recruited from November 2010 to June 2011. Structural equation modelling was used to examine relationships. A direct and negative relationship between health-seeking behaviors and depression, and an indirect relationship with acculturative stress, was observed mediated through depression. Social support had an important moderating influence on these effects. Although there was an inverse relationship between age and English language usage and depression, age was positively related to health-seeking behavior. Despite their long duration of stay, Filipino Australian migrants continue to experience acculturative stress and depression leading to lower health-seeking behaviors. This study highlights the importance of screening for acculturative stress and depression in migrants and fostering social support

The Instanton Density at Finite Temperatures

For {\it low} T new strict results for the instanton density n(T) are reported. Using the PCAC methods, we express n(T) in terms of {\it vacuum} average values of certain operators, times their {\it calculated} T-dependence. At high T, we discuss the {\it applicability} limits of the perturbative results. We further speculate about possible behaviour of n(T) at $T\sim T_c$

Observing Long Colour Flux Tubes in SU(2) Lattice Gauge Theory

We present results of a high statistics study of the chromo field distribution between static quarks in SU(2) gauge theory on lattices of volumes 16^4, 32^4, and 48^3*64, with physical extent ranging from 1.3 fm up to 2.7 fm at beta=2.5, beta=2.635, and beta=2.74. We establish string formation over physical distances as large as 2 fm. The results are tested against Michael's sum rules. A detailed investigation of the transverse action and energy flux tube profiles is provided. As a by-product, we obtain the static lattice potential in unpreceded accuracy.Comment: 66 pages, 29 figures, uuencoded latex file with epsfigures (450 K), supplementary full colour figures are available via ftp, CERN-TH.7413/94 (extended version

Dual Superconductor Scenario of Confinement: A Systematic Study of Gribov Copy Effects

We perform a study of the effects from maximal abelian gauge Gribov copies in the context of the dual superconductor scenario of confinement, on the basis of a novel approach for estimation of systematic uncertainties from incomplete gauge fixing. We present numerical results, in SU(2) lattice gauge theory, using the overrelaxed simulated annealing gauge fixing algorithm. We find abelian and non-abelian string tensions to differ significantly, their ratio being 0.92(4) at BETA = 2.5115. An approximate factorization of the abelian potential into monopole and photon contributions has been confirmed, the former giving rise to the abelian string tension.Comment: 35 pages uucompressed LaTeX with 10 encapsuled postscript figure

Recentering Civics: A Framework for Building Civic Dispositions and Action Opportunities

Many civic education initiatives have developed across the United States in order to help prepare students for civic engagement in school-based settings. At the same time, research shows that quality of school-based civic learning opportunities remains insufficient, inconsistent, and inequitable. In this article, we propose a framework of civic learning dispositions based upon current social studies curricular resources from C3 Teachers. Based on a thematic review of civic dispositions embedded within this C3 Framework-aligned curriculum, we offer a framework to demonstrate how civic dispositions and the application of social studies learning (i.e., civic action) can be used in curriculum design to support a reinvigorated application of social studies learning. The framework, then, provides a theoretically informed, practical heuristic for teachers, researchers and curricular designers to both better understand and subsequently support their students’ high-quality civic learning in the context of social studies teaching and learning

Relativistic Heavy--Ion Collisions in the Dynamical String--Parton Model

We develop and extend the dynamical string parton model. This model, which is based on the salient features of QCD, uses classical Nambu-Got\=o strings with the endpoints identified as partons, an invariant string breaking model of the hadronization process, and interactions described as quark-quark interactions. In this work, the original model is extended to include a phenomenological quantization of the mass of the strings, an analytical technique for treating the incident nucleons as a distribution of string configurations determined by the experimentally measured structure function, the inclusion of the gluonic content of the nucleon through the introduction of purely gluonic strings, and the use of a hard parton-parton interaction taken from perturbative QCD combined with a phenomenological soft interaction. The limited number of parameters in the model are adjusted to $e^+e^-$ and $p$--$p$ data. Utilizing these parameters, the first calculations of the model for $p$--$A$ and $A$--$A$ collisions are presented and found to be in reasonable agreement with a broad set of data.Comment: 26 pages of text with 23 Postscript figures placed in tex

Exploring the Impact of Ungrading on Student Learning

In most academic disciplines and schooling contexts, grading practices tend to vary by individual instructor preferences and habits. The field of Library and Information Science (LIS) is no different, with grading practices and norms varying even within a particular program. Despite these variations in assessment, a unifying factor across all fields is the understanding of learning itself, and there is a great deal known about how people learn, regardless of discipline/course/program (Bransford et al., 2000). Bringing insights from the Learning Sciences, this study aims to investigate the impact of ungrading on student learning. Specifically, we primarily employ a qualitative approach informed by a sociocultural perspective of learning and human development. Our in-progress research aims to understand how ungrading, which involves eliminating or minimizing grades in the assessment process, affects students\u27 learning and their learning experiences in the context of two IT-focused asynchronous courses in a library and information science program master’s program in the southeast of the United States. To gather insights about students’ learning experiences, data collection methods will include semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and participant observation, with a particular focus on how students’ perceptions and experiences of ungrading impact how they learn. Pre- and post-hoc tests will be used to study learning mastery of course content. The findings will offer implications for research and practice related to how to best support LIS student learning, especially within the context of online, asynchronous, higher education courses

The United States' Next Generation of Atmospheric Composition and Coastal Ecosystem Measurements: NASA's Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) Mission

The Geostationary Coastal and Air Pollution Events (GEO-CAPE) mission was recommended by the National Research Council's (NRC's) Earth Science Decadal Survey to measure tropospheric trace gases and aerosols and coastal ocean phytoplankton, water quality, and biogeochemistry from geostationary orbit, providing continuous observations within the field of view. To fulfill the mandate and address the challenge put forth by the NRC, two GEO-CAPE Science Working Groups (SWGs), representing the atmospheric composition and ocean color disciplines, have developed realistic science objectives using input drawn from several community workshops. The GEO-CAPE mission will take advantage of this revolutionary advance in temporal frequency for both of these disciplines. Multiple observations per day are required to explore the physical, chemical, and dynamical processes that determine tropospheric composition and air quality over spatial scales ranging from urban to continental, and over temporal scales ranging from diurnal to seasonal. Likewise, high-frequency satellite observations are critical to studying and quantifying biological, chemical, and physical processes within the coastal ocean. These observations are to be achieved from a vantage point near 95°–100°W, providing a complete view of North America as well as the adjacent oceans. The SWGs have also endorsed the concept of phased implementation using commercial satellites to reduce mission risk and cost. GEO-CAPE will join the global constellation of geostationary atmospheric chemistry and coastal ocean color sensors planned to be in orbit in the 2020 time frame.Earth and Planetary SciencesEngineering and Applied Science