When do gestures communicate? A meta-analysis.

Editorial: Writing for CORR ® (Revisited).

Hypothesis Testing

Proposal for Life Course Intervention Researcher Core Competencies.

A review of research and evaluation studies into IT in education shows us strengths and weaknesses. Both quantitative and qualitative studies conducted in the past have often been based on inadequate design, limited discussion of settings or measurement development and analysis. The limited consideration of different educational settings and the small sample sizes in many studies result in difficulties in generalizing the results. Few studies have been linked to specific learning activities using specific IT tools, further compromising generalisability of factors impacting innovation and implementation activities have seldom been addressed, making studies less than useful to a wider audience. Failure to acknowledge that some research questions, those based on Logo use, for example, are best answered by employing qualitative methods, has limited our understanding of IT’s impact on pupils’ learning. Similarly, the basic differences in epistemological theory and the consequent difference in research design and analysis have seldom been addressed by the research community.Suggestions are offered for improving the quality and applicability of future IT research studies.

Multilingualism and multiculturalism are increasing around the world, and as a result, classrooms are becoming more linguistically and culturally diverse. This dissertation examines how young plurilingual children communicate in one Francophone preschool in British Columbia, Canada. In this province of Canada, French is a minority language with most people speaking English. There are also many other languages present, such as Mandarin, German, Punjabi, and Tagalog. Speakers of these languages are often higher in number than French home language speakers (Statistics Canada, 2016). Therefore, the children at the Francophone preschool are in contact with multiple, diverse languages. The diversity present in this preschool classroom raises questions about how the linguistic resources available to children influence their classroom interactions. The aim of this study was to identify the linguistic resources demonstrated by the children and determine how they utilised these resources to negotiate meaning in classroom interactions – specifically, interactions during child-initiated play. Research has shown that participation in social interactions is necessary for children to develop language and social skills. In addition, play is an important context in which young children communicate and negotiate meaning. Many studies on classroom interactions have focused on educator-child interactions. In contrast, there are limited studies on peer interactions despite research advocating their benefits in children’s development. In a multilingual classroom, children have a choice of language which often depends on the interactants. Despite educators attempting to separate languages, children usually code-switch and draw upon a range of linguistic resources to communicate. These linguistic resources include the use of multimodal language such as gestures, a recent focus of study in the field of second language acquisition. Considering the diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds of children in preschool classrooms, it is vital to understand how they incorporate multiple linguistic resources in their communications. By understanding children’s use of linguistic resources, we can further understandings of their language learning processes in the classroom. A conceptual framework drawing on sociocultural and interactionist theories was used to explore how young plurilingual children communicate. Within these two theories, language is a social action in which an interaction is co-constructed by the participants. The two concepts of plurilingualism and multimodal language were part of this framework. From this perspective, each child in the study were considered to possess a unique linguistic repertoire consisting of verbal and nonverbal resources. As a participant-observer, I collected data in one preschool classroom over a 3-month period. The primary data source was video recordings from two cameras – a camcorder and a GoPro camera. In addition, I collected field notes, school-related documents, and a questionnaire completed by the children’s parents/guardians. These data contributed background information on the preschool and participants. Interactions occurring during child-initiated play were analysed in order to answer the research questions. I used a computer software program, ATLAS.ti, to assist with the data analysis. The analysed interactions involved 13 children (3- and 4-year-olds), the classroom teacher, the teaching assistant, and me (as the participant-researcher). The findings of the study showed that the children employed multiple resources in their play interactions. They used French spoken resources, English spoken resources and non-verbal actions, as well as translanguaging (French and English) and non-verbal actions combined with spoken language. The children’s choice of linguistic resources related to the interactant, the purpose of the interaction, and their own motivations to exercise agency. Through the use of various linguistic resources, the children practised their interactional and social skills, organised and advanced their own learning through translanguaging and peer teaching, and enacted agency. The children’s use of multiple linguistic resources in play interactions demonstrated their emerging plurilingual competencies. This study has highlighted the importance of educators and researchers considering individual children’s linguistic resources in a holistic manner. By adopting a holistic approach, educators can understand how children’s use of multiple linguistic resources is beneficial to their learning. Researchers can increase understandings of children and their learning processes by considering how children employ their multiple linguistic resources. The findings of this study demonstrate that young children are resourceful, engaged, creative, and agentive in their use of linguistic resources during play interactions. These skills should be considered as plurilingual assets and educators should provide opportunities for children to practise and develop these skills in the classroom.

Children are part of the world population and the future of a Nation. Being weak and vulnerable subjects, children deserve full protection from all angles. Adequate protection of children population may guarantee potential and quality leaders for the global world in future. In Malaysia, children form part of the whole Malaysian population. Many children are parentless and having no guardian. These children are in need of protection in all forms. It is obvious that one of the means to protect parentless children is by safeguarding their welfare and benefit through charitable endowment (waqf) provision. This paper seeks primarily to examine charitable endowment (waqf) as a means of safeguarding parentless children's welfare and benefit. Examination focuses on theoretical framework of Islamic law relating to waqf in Malaysia as well as the concept and scope of parentless children. The research is a library research as it is a preliminary stage to provide a sound framework for a further study on instrument of waqf as administered by the States’ Islamic Religious Council for parentless children's benefit in Malaysia. It is believed that the finding of this research will provide further avenue for future research on administration of waqf for the benefit of parentless children in Malaysia.

Review question/objective The objective of this systematic review is to provide a narrative summary synthesis of the quality of existing Husserlian phenomenological research studies in the health sciences. As a methodological systematic review, only studies that focus on adult patients’ experiences of preventive, screening, diagnosis, treatment or rehabilitation interventions/procedures will be considered to serve as a paradigm “case” of the use of the Husserlian phenomenological approach within the broad field of health. The review question is: What is the quality of existing Husserlian phenomenological research studies in the health sciences? The motivation for this systematic review is not to fault authors of existing Husserlian phenomenological research, but to explore the problems encountered in existing research literature, if any, and to provide guidance to authors for future health research guided by this specific philosophical perspective. In order to avoid repetition, the term ‘Husserlian phenomenological approach’ as used in the text refers to the approach described by Edmund Husserl in English translations of his own published work; or as described in English language commentaries by internationally recognized scholars; or from Husserlian phenomenological scholars including the structured framework presented by Spiegelberg. Each time the ‘content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies’ is used in the text it should be understood to mean ‘content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies as reflected in the stated philosophical perspective, research methodology, data collection methods, data analysis methods, presentation and interpretation of the results, and the conclusions’. Definition of terms: 1. Husserlian phenomenological research studies refers to primary qualitative research studies that are explicitly grounded in the work of Husserl reflected in explicit statements or descriptions by the authors. 2. Quality refers to the extent to which there is congruence between the Husserlian phenomenological approach and the content of Husserlian phenomenological research studies. These stipulative definitions are intended to preclude the need to cite the scientific literature as there is no need to demonstrate their ‘validity’ or ‘acceptability’ by the communities of scholars. TRUNCATED AT 350 WORDS.

While the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health (“a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”) is globally accepted, few health service evaluation systems include the voice of patients, despite the purported objectives of health service providers. The overall purpose of this thesis was to evaluate patients’ experiences of health services in Saudi Arabia (SA). Key performance indicators (KPIs) were used to explore the relationships between the structural characteristics of hospitals, the processes inside hospitals, and the outcomes of health care among patients attending accredited (ACCH) and non-accredited (NACCH) public hospitals. This thesis also identifies the reasons why patient well-being has not been included in the conceptualisation and routine measurement of hospital quality. Not having patient well-being outcome measures in health service evaluation in SA, as suggested by the WHO definition of health, is problematic and leads to lost opportunities to improve the quality of hospitals and the quality of care for patients. For the primary research question, this study included the feasibility for SA patients to provide feedback about their Quality of Life (QoL) impact in a structured survey. For the secondary research questions, the study assessed patients’ QoL, measured by WHOQOL-Bref instrument and Quality of Care (QoC), evaluated by a self-administered questionnaire, in ACCHs and NACCHs. In many health research outcomes, research studies have indicated a gap between patients’ experiences and their health outcomes. Using a formative evaluation approach, this thesis presents the results of a study that measured QoC, QoL, and demonstrated that it is both feasible and desirable to include these measures in outcome and hospital quality improvement studies. Patients’ perceptions of QoC and QoL were measured using standardised tools and were based on experiences during a single care episode that was tracked from admission to discharge. The conceptual framework for the public health system developed by Donabedian (1980) and House’s model (1978) for health evaluation were used in this thesis. The study particularly used the WHOQOL-Bref tool to measure health and well-being outcomes against access and effectiveness domains of QoC. The health measures applied in this study involve the structure, the process, and the outcomes. Structural measures were assessed by assessing key features of the delivery organisations. These include widely available access to tertiary health care and the policy environment in which health care is delivered. Process measures were evaluated by providing patients’ reports and experience about the treatment effectiveness and how hospitals maintain high standards, outcomes measures were monitored by applying QoL. The main study involved patients about to be discharged from four public ACCHs and four NACCHs in the Riyadh region of Saudi Arabia. Patients were randomly sampled using quotas based on hospital characteristics. Of 1200 patients invited to participate in the study, 1059 responses were received, a response rate of 88%. Cronbach’s Alpha analyses of the measurement tools employed in the study showed that the psychometric properties of the tools were satisfactory, with Alpha ranging from 0.600 to 0.858. As hypothesised, there were some statistically significant variations in the performance of both ACCHs and NACCHs in terms of the QoC and QoL domains. The median score of accessing the hospitals was 3.23 in NACCHs and 2.92 for ACCHs (p < .001). Statistical modelling using multiple linear regression based on ordinary least squares showed that access and effective treatment were identified as the predictors of health and well-being. For the patients attending ACCHs and NACCHs, the model explained 19.3% and 13.5%, respectively, of the variance in QoL, implying that the models have only moderate practical and theoretical significance. The key results in this study suggest that respondents were willing and had the desire to reveal their health status and were able to reflect upon the performance of the hospitals they attended. In this study, there was no clear evidence that good QoL was associated with whether the hospital had been accredited. Surprisingly, for some respondents, healthy behaviours were found not to be a significant predictor of QoL. It is argued that there is a need for further research studies about the effects of accreditation and the need to consider patient well-being when setting hospital standards. This thesis has argued that the dimensions of patient well-being that are specified in the WHO definition of health could feasibly and should be included in hospital quality improvement activities and studies. The major recommendation of the present study was to include the dimensions of health (physical, mental, social, and environmental) and well-being in the SA health system especially in hospital accreditation processes. Furthermore, quality of care improvement should measure access to health care and treatment effectiveness using standardised and psychometrically robust tools in conjunction with the existing KPIs in the Saudi health accreditation system. Future research could profitably include the investigation and identification of health access and effective outcome factors, and the development of KPIs that positively impact patients’ well-being on personal, organisational and academic levels.

There are many challenges and criticisms attached to the conduct of research, none the least of which is a notion that much of the research undertaken in professional disciplines such as nursing may not have clinical and/or practical relevance. While there are a plethora of qualitative research methods that individuals must consider when designing research studies, one method stands out - Grounded Theory (GT). Grounded theory was developed in the early 1960’s by Glaser and Strauss. With its theoretical orientation based in sociology, GT strives to understand and explain human behavior through inductive reasoning processes (Elliott & Lazenbatt, 2005). Because of its emphasis on the utilization of a variety of data sources that are grounded in particular contexts, GT provides a natural theoretical fit when designing nursing research studies. In this article, the authors provide an overview of GT and then describe the appropriateness, advantages, and disadvantages of applying it as part of the research design process. Additionally, the authors highlight the importance of taking a reflexive position to stay engaged while interacting with the data, and explore how to apply GT theory to particular research questions and studies. Finally, the strengths and limitations of this method of inquiry as applied to nursing research using a brief case study approach is presented.

To achieve promotion and tenure, university faculty are expected to implement a program of research and have a series of data-based articles published in peerreviewed journals. They must demonstrate contributions to disciplinary knowledge regarding research phenomena. It is not surprising then that a question arose at a recent meeting of new faculty and doctoral students regarding this matter. How many data-based articles can be extracted from one qualitative or quantitative research study, without the author’s being guilty of duplicate publication? This is an important question to which there is no simple answer. The term databased generally refers to information that is expressed in digital format or descriptive language that surfaces with statistical analyses or participants’ descriptions and creative conceptualizations from quantitative and qualitative research studies. What data-based actually means in a particular university may vary; however, the definition of duplicate publication does not vary. The central guideline in regard to duplicate publication with data-based articles is that the same content must not be published under the guise of new material; all material under review by a journal or previously published must be referenced as such. For the scholar’s own benefit and to mark how the scholar wants to be known, a report of the entire research study should be published first in a peer-reviewed research journal. The report should give the reader a full picture of the research study, including the following: a brief introduction (describing the phenomenon under study), the research question, the theoretical frame of reference, a brief section on related literature, the methodology (data gathering and data analysis processes), the findings, and conclusions with recommendations for theory development, future research, and practice.

One of the researcher of this study who is also a medical doctor with experience of 18 years have suspected that there are season and temperature variations in India on the number of adolescent/adult mortality due to Heart disease / Hypertension. During regular duties at various Government hospitals, the researcher felt some trends in the title-mentioned research question. Hence the researcher decided to investigate the query mentioned in the title with proper evidence and accredited data. The key purpose is to alert the policy-makers, caregivers, medical doctors, patients, decision-makers, researchers, and citizens of India, etc through evidence-based study to take proper care during the seasonal and temperature variations which may harm persons with Heart disease / Hypertension. There are several research studies done on the impact of season and temperature on hypertension and related mortality which established that a relationship exists between them. Despite being the secondmost populous country of the world with wide variations of seasons/temperature, the researcher has not found any adequate broad country-based study conducted in India for evaluating the impact of temperature / seasonal variation on the number of adolescent/adult mortality due to Heart disease / Hypertension in the general population. CVDs (Heart Diseases) are the most important cause of death accounting for 17.9 million people's mortality globally in 2019, representing 32% of all global mortalities; of which 85% were caused by heart attack and stroke. Hypertension is a serious medical condition of elevated blood pressure that increases the risks of heart diseases; 1.28 billion adults globally have HTN and two-thirds (66%) of these are living in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) like India. This is a novel cross-sectional research study with the key objective to analyze the impact of season and temperature variations on the mortality trends of adolescents/adults due to Heart disease / Hypertension with the utilization of time-bound accredited data. The title mentioned research question is not well understood to date and this research study tries to find an answer through one factor only i.e. mortality data. This research study was a Country / HMIS (MoHFW) accredited data-based retrospective cross-sectional study conducted across all HMIS registered public/private/rural and urban health facilities of 36 states and UTs (union territories). The study population for this novel research study consisted of any adolescent (10 to 19) / adult (19 and above) of both sexes. The three years of study when combined shows that the Heart disease / Hypertension mortalities were highest in January with 89417 mortalities ([95% CONF. INTERVAL] 84795.48 - 94038.52 ; STD. ERR.-1074.109; MEAN-29805.67; STD. DEV.-620.1374; MIN29346; MAX-30511 followed by September-85633 (95% CONF. INTERVAL- 57391.89 - 113874.1)and December-83682 (95%CONF. INTERVAL -73045.63 - 94318.37) while lowest mortalities were found in April – 66116 (95% CONF. INTERVAL- 49641.4 - 82590.6 ). The mean seasonal mortality for Heart disease / Hypertension mortalities was highest in the Winter Season JanFeb (mean temperature 20.91 C) having mean mortality of 28322.33 followed by post-monsoon (mean temperature 23.59 C) with mean mortality of 27458.33, monsoon (mean temperature 28.44 C) with mean mortality 26197.83 and pre-monsoon (mean temperature 27.91 C) having lowest mean mortality 23302.22.

The aim of the present study was to explore how physicists start their research studies, how they identify their research questions and what factors influence their involvement in studying a specific research problem. The grounded theory methodology was adopted in the study by considering the qualitative nature of the research questions. The study was completed in two stages. At the initial stage of the study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with physicists to elicit the diversity of their views about the research inception process. At the second stage, an empirically-based multiple-choice survey was prepared on the basis of the themes generated from the responses of the interviewees. 140 physicists working in several Turkish universities completed the survey to reveal how common the diverse views, which were extracted from the interviews, among other physicists. The study results indicated that although physicists started their research studies mostly with a problem, they did not necessarily look actively for a problem when starting a new research study because new problems had already been identified during their previous research. According to the participant physicists, the research inception process was affected by a number of factors related with the available resources and the individual scientist conducting a given research study. These obtained results were discussed in terms of nature of science and nature of scientific inquiry, which are critical issues in science education.

Measuring Puberty

One of the most important, and difficult, aspects of starting an education research project is identifying an interesting, answerable, repeatable, measurable, and appropriately scoped research question. The lack of a valid research question reduces the potential impact of the work and could result in wasted effort. The goal of this workshop is to help educational researchers get off on the right foot by defining such a research question. This workshop is part of the larger Designing Empirical Education Research Studies (DEERS) project, which consists of an ongoing series of workshops in which researcher cohorts work with experienced empirical researchers to design, implement, evaluate, and publish empirical work in computer science education. In addition to instruction on the various aspects of good research questions, DEERS alumni will join us to mentor attendees in development of their own research questions in small group breakout sessions. At the end of the workshop, attendees will leave with a valid research question that can then be the start for designing a research study. Attendees will also receive information on how to apply to attend the full summer workshop, where they can fully flesh out the empirical study design, and join a DEERS research cohort. More information about DEERS can be found at http://empiricalcsed.org.

Over the course of 2013, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and the National Institute on Aging (NIA) collaborated with a multi-national group of expert scientists to convene, host and facilitate a four-part virtual webinar workshop on sedentary behavior. Participants met to evaluate and discuss the current epidemiological, clinical and other relevant literature on sedentary behavior and to identify research priorities relative to preventing cardiovascular disease and mitigating aging-related disability and functional outcomes. The workshop was predicated on findings of insufficient levels of population adherence to current physical activity recommendations (1,12) and the need to address the NHLBI and NIA research portfolio gaps in the area of sedentary behavior.