Attainment Process Research Articles

Damage Detection in Structural Beams Using Model Strain Energy Method and Wavelet Transform Approach

Damage identification method of surface cracks in beams using strain energy method and its spatial wavelet transform is investigated in this paper. Experimental modal analysis (EMA) is conducted on a aluminium cantilever beam to obtain the mode shapes before and after damage under a fixed-free boundary condition by Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV). A small perturbation is created by using Electro Discharge Machine (EDM) and simulated crack by separation of nodes at the crack location in beams. The purpose of the study is to present damage index method and spatial wavelet transform approaches to identify the location and quantification of surface crack in beam structure. A finite element analysis (FEA) is also performed to access this approaches and illustrate a attainable process for the experimental work. First, the displacement mode shapes obtained from the intact and damaged beams which are used to obtain strain energy ratio of the beam before and after damage and then these spatially distributed signals are analyzed by wavelet transformation. Good correlation between FEA and EMA results is obtained. Both methods damage index (DI) and wavelet transform (WT) successfully identify the location of surface crack in the aluminium beam. it is also demonstrated that the location and quantification of single and multi cracks can be detected by this methods

A tailored counseling and home-based rehabilitation program to increase physical activity and improve mobility among community-dwelling older people after hospitalization: protocol of a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundPhysical activity (PA) decreases during hospitalization. In particular, the amount of PA engaged in by older people who are hospitalized following musculoskeletal injury is likely to be limited for months after discharge home. Given the importance of an active lifestyle for their recovery and the prevention of future adverse outcomes, there is clearly a need for interventions to increase PA. This article describes the protocol of a randomized controlled trial set up to investigate the effects of a physical activity oriented home rehabilitation program (ProPA) on PA and the restoration of mobility in community-dwelling older people.MethodsMen and women aged 60 years or older hospitalized due to a musculoskeletal injury or disorder in the back or lower limbs are recruited. After discharge from hospital to home, participants are randomized into a six-month ProPA program or a standard care (control) group. The ProPA program consists of a motivational interview, goal attainment process, guidance for safe walking, a progressive home exercise program and physical activity counseling. In addition, frail participants who are not able to go outdoors alone receive support from volunteers.Primary outcomes are PA measured using a 3-dimentional accelerometer, and mobility assessed by the Short Physical Performance Battery and self-reports. Secondary outcomes are life space mobility, participation restriction, fear of falling, pain, mood, and grip strength. Information on barriers to and enablers of PA participation are also collected. Data on mortality and use of health services are collected from the national register. In this 6-month intervention, all participants are assessed in their homes at baseline and after three and six months, and at 12 months after randomization they will receive a follow-up questionnaire.DiscussionThis study investigates the effects of a rehabilitation program on PA and mobility among older people at risk for increased sedentary time and mobility problems. If positive effects are observed, the program can be considered for incorporation into the health care system and thereby contribute to the rehabilitation of older people who have recently been discharged from hospital.Trial registrationISRCTN13461584. Registered 27 January 2016.

Abuelos at home: Differential impact on children’s education by family structure

Improvements in life expectancy have increased interactions between grandchildren and grandparents. This paper examines how grandparent’s co-residence shapes grandchildren’s educational progression by grandchildren’s family structure. Based on a life course perspective approach, I use three waves of novel panel data from the Mexican Family Life Survey, and ask whether grandparent’s co-residence influence grandchildren’s educational transitions, depending upon grandchildren’s family structure, and whether grandparents’ education influence grandchildren’s educational transitions. This study suggests that grandparents’ co-residence does not have a linear effect on the process of educational attainment, given that its effect maybe positive, negative, of null depending on family structure and the specific roles grandparents assume. It also shows that in countries like Mexico, where the education of older cohorts is fairly low, grandparent’s education is not associated with grandchildren’s school progression.

The Invisible 1%: A Comparison of Attaining Stepping Stones Toward College Between Military and Civilian Children

ABSTRACTThis study examined the differences between U.S. civilian and military children in their attainment of milestones toward college during a period of burgeoning military deployment (2002–2004). In spite of this intensive deployment, the process of attainment of milestones toward college among military children from Grade 10 to Grade 12 was remarkably similar to that of civilian children.

Latino/a immigrant parents’ educational aspirations for their children

This study explores Latino/a parents’ educational aspirations and parents’ perspectives on supporting educational attainment as a way to better understand the connection between high educational aspirations among Latino/a parents and hindrances to Latino/a youth educational attainment. Data from focus group interviews with immigrant Latino/a parents suggest that parents’ high educational aspirations are shaped by their lived experiences of their own educational and occupational struggles, their immigrant status, and perceptions of opportunity in the United States. In turn, parents’ perspectives on supporting educational attainment are focused on education in the home and guiding their children to overcome inevitable obstacles. This study contributes to current research by expanding sociological theory related to the status attainment process for Latino/as as well as incorporating parents’ perspectives into the broader body of knowledge about how parents support their children’s attainment.

Personality and the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational Attainment: Evidence from Germany.

Research based in the United States, with its relatively open educational system, has found that personality mediates the relationship between parents' and child's educational attainment and this mediational pattern is especially beneficial to students from less-educated households. Yet in highly structured, competitive educational systems, personality characteristics may not predict attainment or may be more or less consequential at different points in the educational career. We examine the salience of personality in the educational attainment process in the German educational system. Data come from a longitudinal sample of 682 17 to 25 year-olds (54% female) from the 2005 and 2015 German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Results show that adolescent personality traits-openness, neuroticism, and conscientiousness-are associated with educational attainment, but personality plays a negligible role in the intergenerational transmission of education. Personality is influential before the decision about the type of secondary degree that a student will pursue (during adolescence). After that turning point, when students have entered different pathways through the system, personality is less salient. Cross-national comparisons in a life course framework broaden the scope of current research on non-cognitive skills and processes of socioeconomic attainment, alerting the analyst to the importance of both institutional structures and the changing importance of these skills at different points in the life course.

CRUCIAL IMPORTANCE OF VOCABULARY IN THE PROCESS OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This paper focuses on the role of vocabulary in second language learning with reference to the teaching of English language to learners at tertiary level in Saudi Arabia. As we are well aware that English language is the demand of the contemporary times, a large number of people around the world are rather bound to learn English for different reasons. The learning of any second language hugely relies on vocabulary. Keeping the relevance of English in view, the Saudi government implemented English language courses in almost all the levels and domains of education. Therefore, it is expected from the language instructors that they will provide an environment within the classrooms in which learners can acquire the targeted language easily. Therefore, this paper also explores the perception and role of English teachers in the attainment process of Vocabulary learning goals in English language classrooms. The study is exploratory in nature, and it utilizes qualitative analysis. The finding will lead to improvement on the curriculum design, contents selection and teaching styles. Article visualizations:

Adapting to Family Setbacks: Malleability of Students’ and Parents’ Educational Expectations

Ambitions that students and their parents set during their adolescence have significance across the life course. It is yet unclear, however, how these expectations respond to changing family circumstances. In this work, we examine how negative family economic shocks affect educational expectations for students and their parents by using two theoretical perspectives – status attainment and adopt-adapt models. Further, we move beyond these debates about the malleability of expectations by considering how this malleability might differ by your place in the social structure. We thus make hypotheses about how social class may buffer or amplify the effect of negative family economic shocks on educational expectations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we expand our conceptualization of educational expectations beyond degree expectations to include educational institutional route expectations—the educational pathway that students plan to take to achieve their degree expectations. We find that degree expectations are only somewhat malleable, but that route expectations are malleable. Family economic shocks served to reduce students’ and parents’ expectations for beginning their post-secondary education at a B.A.-granting institution. Further, we find support for the amplification hypothesis rather than the buffering hypothesis; the expectations of middle-class students and parents prove more negatively responsive to family economic shocks than do those of their lower SES counterparts. This work has implications for examining the dynamic nature of the status attainment process and suggests that expanding educational expectations to include institutional route may be vital for understanding social mobility in the current educational climate.

The “vowels in hand” system: a time-out with five quite contrary letters

This article introduces the Vowels in Hand (VH) method. Developed for choral directors, the VH method communicates vowel preferences to choral singers in rehearsal in order to speed up the rehearsal process and create vowel clarity, instead of more traditional methods like written IPA symbols or singing demonstrations. The article first discusses the need for the method within the choral field and investigates various choir rehearsal challenges that arise when attempting to unify vowels. The author enumerates the method and strategies for successfully using it with choirs. With this method in place, the author argues that conductors can quickly communicate desired vowel shapes to singers who can use them in performance. The VH strives to take the mystique out of vowel unification by making it a straightforward and attainable process.

School tracking, educational mobility and inequality in German secondary education: developments across cohorts

ABSTRACTSecondary education is associated with a comparatively high level of inequality in Germany. This has often been attributed to the early ability-based between-school tracking in the German school system. However, as yet there has been no empirical evaluation of the actual impact of initial track placement on social inequality in final school attainment. Since educational reforms in the 1960s increased educational mobility after track placement, it can be expected that initial track allocation has become less important for the process of secondary educational attainment and the inequalities therein. By drawing on longitudinal life-course data for different birth cohorts from the 1930s to the 1980s, this paper analyses temporal developments in the connections between track placement, educational mobility and social inequality in final school outcomes. The analyses reveal that the impact of track placement actually diminished for those cohorts exposed to the reformed school system. Instead, social inequalities in school attainment are increasingly influenced by processes of educational mobility after track allocation. Furthermore, the analyses show that developments in educational mobility have contributed more to declining inequalities in access to upper secondary education than changes of the selectivities in the transition to secondary education.

PEMBELAJARAN MENULIS KEMBALI DONGENG YANG TELAH DIBACA DENGAN METODE KONSTRUKSIVISME DI MTS AL MUTTAQIN BUPER JAYAPURA

This study describes rewriting process of tale reproduction and attainment in reproduction of a tale using constructivism teaching tecniques. This study used Classroom Action Researc design on two cycles. Students were asked to rewrite contents of the tales and edited the writing on its contents and language use. Subject of the study was 25 eigth graders of MTs Almuttaqien Buper, Jayapura. Data were writing texts on the tales produced by students and scores on the quality of the texts. Findings of the study showed that in cycle I students’ writing production was short of content and outline resulting incomplete quality. Competency standard achieved in cycle I was 64%, below minimum criteria of attainment. In cycle II students achieved 84% on rewriting the tales, indicating higher achievement than minimum criteria 75%. This means constructivism has been successfully increased students’ attainment on reproducing tales they read.

Developing and evaluating a virtual coaching programme: A pilot study

This paper describes the process of adapting a face to face cognitive behavioural coaching (CBC) model, PRACTICE (Palmer, 2011), into a virtual self-coaching programme and presents the results from a pilot study concerning the usability of the programme. There are a lack of studies regarding effects of assisted and non-assisted cognitive behavioural virtual coaching programmes in the workplace. With the increasing public health focus on wellbeing and prevention of mental illness, coaching psychology (rather than psychotherapy) could play an important role. Virtual coaching programmes accessible on company intranets may take a preventive role and provide cost-effective ways to reach larger work populations. They may lower the threshold for seeking further assistance with issues at work that potentially, if not detected and handled, could lead to decreased wellbeing. The intervention group consisted of nine participants and the results suggested that the software/programme design/method were user-friendly. The results further indicated that post-test scores were higher than pre-test scores concerning wellbeing and goal attainment after the six-week self-coaching programme. The pilot study was however limited by a small sample size and the results should therefore be interpreted merely as indications. The primary conclusions drawn from this study were that the results suggested that the programme’s self-coaching and goal attainment process were designed in a methodical and user friendly way.

Transmission of cultural capital and status attainment – an analysis of development between 15 and 45 years of age

Starting with Bourdieu’s habitus and capital theory, this paper focuses on the question of whether the cultural resources of families and students have an impact on the status attainment process between the ages of 15 and 45. The analysis is based on the LifE survey, which follows up a youth study conducted by Fend et al. between 1979 and 1983. It can be shown by means of a structural equation model that there is a substantial transmission of cultural capital between parents and their children and that students’ cultural resources have an effect on their educational attainment (reproduction effect). Besides this social inheritance, the amount of cultural capital acquired by age 35 also depends on educational attainment. The effect of cultural capital over the life course is limited to the period up to the completion of vocational/professional education.

An Analysis on Occupational Attainment Process for People with Psychiatric Disabilities

The purpose of this research was to investigate the occupational attainment process of a sample of psychiatrically disabled individuals who have been active members of the labor force for most of their adult lives. For the purposes, this study examines a rarely studied cohort of persons with psychiatric disability in the labor market. Specifically, this study examined whether the status attainment process, namely family of origin’s influence and early educational attainment, decays less for those with mental health problems than for those without disabilities? The major finding of this study is the status attainment process is proceeding in a similar way between person with psychiatric disabilities and person without psychiatric disabilities. The results of the study dispute some biases and prejudices with regard to people with psychiatric disabilities. Specifically, the results show that many people with substantial psychiatric problem in the labor force have the similar process with regards to their occupational attainment process and social mobility process.

Family socioeconomic status, family health, and changes in students' math achievement across high school: A mediational model

In response to recent calls to integrate understandings of socioeconomic disparities in health with understandings of socioeconomic disparities in academic achievement, this study tested a mediational model whereby family socioeconomic status predicted gains in academic achievement across high school through its impact on both student and parent health. Data on over 8000 high school students in the U.S. were obtained from wave 1 (2009–2010) and wave 2 (2012) of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), and structural equation modeling with latent difference scores was used to determine the role of family health problems in mediating the well-established link between family SES and gains in academic achievement. Using both static and dynamic indicators of family SES, support was found for this mediational model. Higher family SES in 9th grade reduced the probability of students and their parents experiencing a serious health problem in high school, thereby promoting growth in academic achievement. In addition, parent and student health problems mediated the effect of changes in family SES across high school on math achievement gains. Results emphasize the importance of considering the dynamic nature of SES and that both student and parent health should be considered in understanding SES-related disparities in academic achievement. This relational process provides new mechanisms for understanding the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status and the status attainment process more broadly.

Getting ahead in professional organizations: individual qualities, socioeconomic background and organizational context

In order to understand inequality in society, it is necessary to understand the matching of people and positions in organizations through hiring, promotion, and other processes leading to the attainment of rank and authority. These processes are not necessarily the same in professional organizations—such as professional service firms, universities, and hospitals—as they are in non-professional settings. This essay reviews what we know about how organizational attainment processes operate in professional organizations. After examining the role of individual qualities—technical ability, cultural proficiency, and social connections—the essay turns to the effects of gender, race, and social class. Next, it traces the ways in which organizational context moderates processes occurring at the individual level. Many questions remain unanswered, and the essay concludes by outlining directions for future research.

The highs that bind: school context, social status and marijuana use.

Substance use has been closely linked with the structural characteristics of adolescent social networks. Those who drink, smoke, and use drugs typically enjoy an elevated status among their peers. Rates of substance use vary substantially across schools, and indicators of school structure and climate account for at least part of this variation. Emerging research suggests peer-group processes are contingent on school context, but questions remain regarding the school-level mechanisms which condition the influence of network characteristics on substance use. The present study uses multilevel logistic regression models to examine the moderating influence of school connectedness, school drug culture, and global network density on the association between peer network status and marijuana use. The analyses draw on self, peer, and parental data from a sample of 7,548 high-school aged youth nested within 106 schools participating in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (mean age=15.2; % white=59%; male=45%). The results indicate that school connectedness significantly reduces the effect of social status on marijuana use. This provides evidence that school-level mechanisms can reduce the instrumentality of marijuana consumption in the status attainment process in adolescence.

The impact of adolescents' self-efficacy and self-regulated goal attainment processes on school performance — Do gender and test anxiety matter?

According to R. Schwarzer's theory of self-regulatory goal attainment processes (1998), self-efficacy beliefs have positive effects on motivational and volitional processes and the resulting performance. Test anxiety, on the other hand, is known to have detrimental effects on performance. To disentangle the complex relationships between trait test anxiety, self-efficacy, self-regulation processes, and school performance, this study tested the theory's predictions with a sample of adolescent German school students (N=783). Students completed measures on goal setting, school-related self-efficacy, test anxiety, task persistence, effort investment, and current academic performance. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to test for differences between boys and girls and between high and low test-anxious students in the interplay of these variables. Results indicated no gender differences, but revealed slight differences in the structural relations among these variables between students with high and low test anxiety. Implications for future research and educational practice are discussed.

The Trend of Research about Environmental Change during Period and Attainment Process of Short-Range Profit Plan

The Trend of Research about Environmental Change during Period and Attainment Process of Short-Range Profit Plan

Understanding Black Male Mathematics High Achievers from the Inside Out: Internal Risk and Protective Factors in High School

The gendered and racialized narrative of Black male adolescents in urban spaces is one often fraught with deficit-based assumptions and presuppositions about their abilities, competencies, and proclivities with regard to schooling in general and mathematics in particular. Yet despite these conventional beliefs, compounded by the dearth of Black male representation in many STEM-related careers, there remain Black male adolescents who, during their high school years, nevertheless achieve a high degree of mathematical success. This study endeavors to unpack the internal, interrelated processes and strategies through which a cohort of 13 high-achieving, Black male high school students develop positive mathematical, social, racial, and gendered identities. Drawing on narrative analysis, we utilized semi-structured interviews to identify and explore how internal protective and risk factors operated in their lives. Results identify not only several coping strategies, beliefs, practices, and habits that foster positive mathematical identity trajectories for our respondents, but also several internal challenges that Black male adolescents must successfully negotiate both in- and out-of-school throughout the attainment process. We also discuss how these findings relate to in-school practices that might promote and sustain Black male achievement in high school mathematics.