Informal Strategies Research Articles

503 - Informal antidepressant strategies in nursing homes: Two Group Concept Mapping studies among residents, their relatives, and professional caregivers

Background:Although formal treatments like antidepressants and psychotherapy may effectively reduce depression in nursing home residents, side effects and poor treatment adherence are common. To improve depression care, it is important to also learn from informal strategies already used successfully in daily practice, alongside or in absence of formal treatment. For example, although not prescribed as formal treatment, a care provider may seat a resident with depression at a table near the window. This may have antidepressant effects due to extra day light or pleasant views from the window.Objectives:To identify, categorize, and prioritize informal antidepressant strategies for residents already used in daily practice as reported by residents themselves, their relatives, and professional caregivers.Method:In the first Group Concept Mapping study, residents, relatives, and professional caregivers (N = 124) brainstormed on strategies to prevent or improve depression that may be performed by residents themselves. In the second study, the same participants (N = 110) reported on strategies others involved in residents’ lives could perform. In a second round of both studies, participants rated the expected effectiveness (N = 54, N = 51 respectively) and feasibility (N = 50 for both studies) of the strategies mentioned. In addition, strategies for both studies were sorted based on similarity in meaning by experts.Results:Six clusters appeared for actions to be undertaken by residents themselves, and five clusters for actions by others. The results showed that, for strategies by residents, the clusters ‘Being socially connected’ and ‘Participating in activities’, and for strategies by others, the cluster ‘Offering personal attention’ stand out the most in terms of high expected effectiveness. The cluster with strategies executed by residents that stood out as the most feasible was ‘Having a healthy living environment’. The most feasible clusters performed by others were ‘Offering personal attention’, ‘Using positive treatment/approach’, and ‘Using or adapting the physical environment’.Conclusion:By using an innovative bottom-up participatory approach, this research shed light on various clusters of useful informal antidepressant strategies for daily practice. To test effectiveness and implementation, research is needed on these antidepressant strategies and their regular use in care.

517 - Informal and Formal Depression Care in Nursing Homes (InFormeD): Study protocol of a six month cohort study to better match treatment with residents

AbstractBackground:Depression is common among nursing home residents and has a considerable impact on their quality of life. Therefore, there has been an increased interest in interventions aiming at the reduction of depression among nursing home residents. These interventions could be categorized into formal and informal depression care. Formal care includes psychosocial, psychotherapeutic and/or (neuro-)biological interventions. Informal care can be provided by nursing home staff, alongside the formal care (e.g., letting sunlight into the room when one believes in the positive effects of daylight). Although many studies have been done about depression treatment in nursing homes, there is still a lack of insight into the effectiveness of interventions and how they differ among specific target groups (e.g., residents with cognitive impairment versus residents with physical disabilities). Moreover, research into informal care is rather rare. More insight is needed into the effect of formal and informal depression care and the mutually reinforcing effects of those strategies on nursing home residents. This insight is essential to better match treatments with residents and to provide a more comprehensive approach to counter depression.Objectives:The aim of this study is to gain insight in the use of formal and informal depression care and their associations with depression among nursing home residents.Design:A six month cohort study will be conducted.Method:Residents will be recruited in nursing homes across the Netherlands and Flanders (Belgium). To measure formal and informal care, newly developed tools will be cross-culturally validated: one to assess the provided formal care in nursing homes, two tools for measuring the used informal strategies. Depression outcomes will be measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale, Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia, and the Nijmegen-Observer-Rated Depression-scale). Baseline measurements and cross- sectional analyses will be performed and repeated after six months. The intended associations will be assessed using multiple regression analysis.Conclusion:To develop a good depression care policy, a more comprehensive approach is needed and may benefit both residents and staff.

STRATEGI PEWARISAN SENI PERTUNJUKAN DRAMA GONG KEPADA GENERASI PENERUS

<p class="abstrak">This article aims to discuss the inheritance of the performing arts of drama gong to the next generation. As a form of qualitative research, data collection was carried out through analysis of four selected drama gong stories, namely (1) Suluh Ikang Praba; (2) Gesing Reed Beads; (3) Nila Warsiki; and (4) Jayaprana produced in 2019 – 2021. Research data were also collected through observation, document studies, and interviews with several informants who understand the performing arts of gong drama in Bali. Data analysis was carried out qualitatively by applying the theory of semiotics and Bourdeau's social practice. The results of the study indicate that the inheritance of drama gongs is very urgent: (a) to preserve drama gongs; (b) regeneration of young Balinese as supporters of the drama gong; (c) drama gongs are part of Balinese cultural identity, and (d) drama gong as a medium for educating Balinese language and culture. The inheritance of the performing arts of drama gong is carried out through a formal strategy, namely through formal education from kindergarten (PAUD) to college in part by the State Hindu University I Gusti Bagus Sugriwa Denpasar, and an informal strategy, namely the role of families and art-culture studios in socializing, enculturating values. cultural values in the art of performing the drama gong to the younger generation of Bali.</p>

Fact-checking on Twitter: An analysis of the hashtag #StopBulos

The fact-checking is an important tool to improve the quality of the information that circulates in virtual networks. Although there are different fact-checking verification agencies, we also found some more informal strategies such as the use of the hashtag #Stopbulos. Thus, this research aims to characterize the #StopBulos hashtag on Twitter as a way to verify information and control the spread of fake news. The results showed that there was diversity among users and the themes of the tweets that included this hashtag, while the main function was to deny fake news. However, it was found that those who achieved greater dissemination were the users with the largest number of followers and institutional character. The implications of using the #StopBulos hashtag as a tool to identify false information on social networks are discussed. Keywords: fake news, post-truth, post-news, social media, network societies

INFORMAL POLITICAL COMMUNICATION OF WOMEN IN LOCAL DEMOCRACY (STUDY AT BPD BALIUK VILLAGE, BARITO KUALA)

This study aims to determine how the informal communication strategy is used by women to achieve their political position in government villages. The essence of informal communications is not to follow any specific rules and procedures. the studies of informal communications have remained the question cause there is not a clear form of informal communication. This study has been contributed to the women's informal political communication in Baliuk village to fulfill the gap of informal communication studies. There are three strategies that women used to dominate political representatives in Baliuk Village Government. First, the women have dominated the political issue in Village, second, women’s have dominated the informal channel, second women dominated the informal political communication channels, and the third, women have dominated the informal campaign for BPD’s election. The main factors from those strategies are how the women do the interpersonal conversation and how they made gossip in every aspect and access of communication itself for their political interest. The women have a concern about how to use an alternative way of communications to gain power in a political position, then they have to succeed dominated Badan Permusyawaratan Desa or BPD as the representatives' institution for village people.

Informal Learning Experiences on Social Media: The Case of #MarketingTwitter

Informal learning in online social communities encourages a sense of belonging and support in a casual environment while enhancing members' knowledge and expertise. Several studies have explored the use and benefit of online social communities, particularly in the education field. Yet, little research examines how informal learning occurs in other professional hashtag communities on Twitter. This research explores the #MarketingTwitter professional's community to identify how users promote an instructional design of informal learning experiences and strategies to engage and impact members in the community including possible new users.

Informal management of health and safety risks associated with alarm response by Australian firefighters

Fire-fighters use informal strategies to manage risks to health and safety during operations. It is not known whether such strategies are used during the high-risk alarm response period. The aim of this study was to determine if informal risk management strategies are employed by Australian firefighters during the alarm response procedure, and if these strategies differ between salaried and retained personnel. Forty-six metropolitan firefighters (all male; mean age 38 years ± 10 years; 22 salaried; 24 retained) participated in semi-structured group interviews. A general inductive data analysis approach revealed that firefighters use multiple informal risk management strategies. Some similar themes were reported by both salaried and retained personnel, for example leveraging team dynamics, communication about sleep and fatigue, stress adaptation, informal debriefs, and enhancing physical preparedness. These findings could be used by fire services to tailor risk management approaches during the alarm response period. Practitioner summary: Identifying informal risk management strategies firefighters use during alarm response will allow their development, refinement and dissemination, and may help other firefighters and emergency service workers to manage these risks. This qualitative study reveals multiple informal strategies that firefighters employ during alarm response to keep themselves and their team-mates safe.

¿A quién escucha Bolsonaro en contexto de emergencia? Construyendo un marco analítico para el estudio de las redes informales de asesoría presidencial durante la pandemia de Covid-19 en Brasil

A pesar de las evidencias sobre los asesores informales de los presidentes en América Latina, la literatura sobre el tema aún es incipiente. Esteartículo investiga el escenario informativo que rodeó al presidente brasileño,Jair Bolsonaro, de enero a abril de 2020, un período de toma de decisionespresidenciales sobre las medidas para combatir la pandemia de Covid-19. Paraeso, se realiza un estudio de caso de las interacciones establecidas por el presidente brasileño basado en los registros de la Agenda del Presidente. Se utilizanherramientas de análisis de redes sociales (SNA) para examinar las evidencias.Los resultados indican que el Ministerio de Salud no fue el principal canal deinformación del presidente al principio de la pandemia a pesar de su papel central en la estructura de gobernanza nacional de emergencia en salud pública.Además, revelan la elección del presidente de utilizar la presidencia como suprincipal soporte informativo, incluso fortaleciéndolo a través de sus poderes. 

App Development in an Urban After-School Computing Programme: A Case Study with Design Implications

ABSTRACT This mixed methods case study presents the experience of a group of middle school students in a year-long, after-school computing programme in a large, inner-city school district in the southeastern United States. The purpose of this research is to explore informal educational strategies that are conducive at giving underrepresented minority youth access to information and communication technology tools and content. Results indicate that hands-on support from mentors, peer collaboration, and options for customising work and creating unique projects contributed positively to the student experience in the programme. This study suggests giving students more creative freedom, adequate scaffolding and the option for peer collaboration when working in informal learning environments. Results are specific to the context of the one school in which this pilot study was conducted, though the findings confirm the research of others in this area. Data sources included a perceptions survey, participant interviews and researcher observations.

Pengalaman Pembelajaran Informal dalam kalangan Pengusaha Bengkel Automotif di Kota Tinggi, Johor

This research purpose is to examine the informal learning among automotive workshop entrepreneurs. Three research objectives such as informal learning factors, informal learning strategies and informal learning effects are also identified. This study used a case study by using a qualitative method. Semi-structured interviews have been used for data collection. By using purposive sampling, five automotive workshop entrepreneurs in Kota Tinggi were selected as respondents. The findings show that individual needs, environment, interests, motivations and job requirements have been factors that help automotive workshop entrepreneurs involved in informal learning. In addition, reading materials, electronic media, observation, consulting with experts and try and error are informal learning strategies that have been used. Moreover, the effects of informal learning can be seen as the enhancement of knowledge and skills. Meanwhile, there has been a positive change in the attitude of automotive workshop entrepreneurs. This study also provided suggestions for improvement to future researchers.

Student engagement in schools serving marginalised communities

ABSTRACT This paper shares findings from a project that examined how schools serving marginalised communities facilitated students’ substantive engagement. Through interviews with students, parents, teachers and school leaders, we determined that substantive engagement was supported by formal and informal strategies that enabled access to rich learning opportunities, the provision of welcoming school and classroom climates, and the enactment of pedagogies of care and school-wide programmes focused on substantive engagement. There were four key areas of substantive engagement: engaging curriculum and pedagogy, engaging school climate, engaging with learners, and engaging with communities. Strategies to support engagement included the removal of barriers to learning, such as assistance with breakfast or public transport, nurturing a positive school climate, providing support for ethnic groups and the delivery of alternative or flexible programmes. Drawing on the findings from five case studies, we propose four principles for substantive student engagement in complex contexts, which will be useful for school leaders and teachers who work in schools that serve marginalised communities.

Dominant type and migrant spaces in Chinese cities: architectural transformation of the tower-podium typology of a high-rise housing block into hybrid living place in Ningbo, China

ABSTRACT Focusing on the housing issue which segregates city dwellers and marginalises the migrants, this paper proposes an architectural transformation of a dominant type in Chinese cities, in search of a sustainable regeneration strategy which encourages social integration. This paper is concerned with two main issues: how to transform a dominant type of high-rise residential living – i.e. tower-podium residential – in China to promote a sustainable city, architecture and community; and how to integrate migrant-working class with the middle-income class to form a hybrid cohabitation place. The paper uses a design project to put forward a hypothesis, focusing on modifying the spaces of the podium in a tower-podium residential building in Xiaowen Street, Ningbo to provide a cohabitation living space for both migrant-working class and middle-income class group. The design creates spaces for living, co-working and community interaction, etc. to cultivate hybrid programme and spaces aided by informal spatial design strategies. Besides providing a case study of typological transformation with a tower-podium housing type of Ningbo, the study also contributes to the literature of informal cities and design strategies in seeing architectural design as an active agent for social changes.

Producing state capacity through corruption: the case of immigration control in Russia

ABSTRACT Immigration control in Russia, one of the world’s top five largest immigrant-receiving countries, is rife with corruption and other informal practices. Instead of framing corruption simply as bad governance, this article shows that informal strategies are intertwined with formal state practices to produce immigration control. Instead of presenting corruption as subversive of state institutions and contradictions between formal and informal practices as a signal of system dysfunction, I argue that state actors’ simultaneous formal and informal activities can work together towards a perhaps surprisingly coherent set of goals. Drawing on ethnographic work with migrants and legal-institutional analysis of Russia’s migration sphere, this article demonstrates how felt immigration control, or the experience of migrants, combines legal and informal strategies that center on coercion. It shows how coercive interactions between migrants and state agents produce visible data and media images that are projected to the public as immigration control.

The Effect of Using Multiple Mathematical Representations of Rational number concepts in Basic Grades Students in Jordan

This study, aimed at the effect of using multiple mathematical representations of rational number concept in basic grades students in jordan. The current study employed the content analysis approach to investigate the multiple mathematical representations and transitions among them in 8th Grade Mathematics Textbook. An observation method was used to analyses the teacher practices (n=35 observations), and record the representations and transitions. The results showed that there was an existence of symbol and verbal representations in the textbook and teachers' implementation. Meanwhile, the other three representations (pictures and figures, models and Cutters, and life situations) . And This study explored the nature of difficulties of eighth-grade students who struggled to build their conceptual understanding of early fraction ideas. interviews with Pre and post of students were conducted for a sufficient identification of the nature of the students’ difficulties. The study revealed The students also minimal use of informal ordering strategies that involve more conceptual than a procedural understanding of the concept of initial fraction ideas.

Communicating climate change policy to people in rural area

Climate change is a real problem threatening all human beings in the world. Therefore, everyone has a responsibility to reduce the climate change impacts. Based on research, opinion leaders can play various important roles in the societal life. One of them is to disseminate government policies in rural area. This study focused to examine opinion leaders’ strategy to communicate climate change policy in rural area. This research employed descriptive qualitative method. The data were taken through interviews, observation and documentation. The results showed that the opinion leaders employed various formal and informal strategies to communicate climate change policy to their community. They were evidently important actors to boost the successful of climate change policy implementation. This research confirmed that opinion leaders especially in rural area posits important roles in the societal life.

Diaspora Komunitas Tamil di Sumatera Utara: Antara Menjadi India atau Indonesia

Cultural sustainability refers to inter-and intra-generation access to cultural heritage. The sustainability of non-material culture is complex because it is related to the experiences of cultural groups and is built by actors in their daily lives. Cultural sustainability is important for the diaspora community because it is an attempt to maintain their cultural identity in their communities while not completely losing contact with cultural elements in their ancestral lands. This paper discusses the strategies used by Muslim Tamils ​​in Medan, North Sumatra, The Muslim Tamils ​​in Indonesia use mainly informal strategies in the process of preserving culture. However, technological advances that have increased the ease of travel and communication have also enhanced the communication and closeness of these two communities with other Tamil communities around the world and have helped further the sustainability of art, language, culinary and religious practices. Muslim Tamils ​​in Medan are experiencing a crisis of identity as Tamils ​​because they are Muslim and many cultural identities conflict with Islamic teachings. Cross-ethnic marriage, assimilation with the non-Tamil community is strong enough to influence changes in cultural orientation, the identity that is still embedded in the Tamil Muslim community can only be found in weddings, culinary and some cultural adaptation practices. At the same time, as citizens of descent, they face the construction of a citizenship identity, becoming Tamils ​​who live in Indonesia or become Indonesians as ethnic Tamils.

Socioeconomic Status, Gender, and Politeness Strategies: Studying the Usage of Request Speech Act in Pakistani Undergraduate Students

Politeness strategy has non-linguistic as well as linguistic apprehensions. Moreover, it is observed as part of the sociolinguistics and conversational competency of the orators of a particular language. This recent study investigates the politeness strategies in the context of Punjabi language. The goal is to classify the politeness strategies as a part of Pakistani set culture particularly with reference to Punjabi language context. To make this study valid, Brown and Levison’s (1987) framework is employed as a ration ground for this study. The variable of gender and socioeconomic factors has been analyzed to investigate the impending result by stalking down the politeness strategies especially in Pakistani culture context. A survey was conducted through an open ended questionnaire. For this study (DCT) Discourse conclusive test is selected as a modified version. A group of 120 people which is comprised of male and female native speakers of Punjabi language are selected. This study investigates that in Pakistani culture particularly with reference to Punjabi language, people tend to remain informal when making requests which can be classified as informal politeness strategies. This study investigates socioeconomic status of Punjabi language speakers both male and female by not making in gender specific. Through this study frequency of politeness strategies has been undergone in Punjabi language.

The use of technology in informal English language learning: evidence from Yemeni undergraduate students

Purpose This study aims to explore the use of technology-based strategies by Yemeni undergraduate students to develop their English as a foreign language skills in informal learning settings. Design/methodology/approach A mixed methods research design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data from 110 undergraduate students enrolled at the English Departments in two universities in Yemen. In the first phase of the study, 10 students were interviewed to obtain information about their use of technology to develop their English language skills and subsystems in informal settings. Following the analysis of the interview data, a questionnaire was built to collect quantitative data, and the second phase of the study was carried out with 100 undergraduate students. Findings The findings revealed that students developed four technology-based strategies that they used in informal settings. These strategies included using social media, being inspired by someone, accessing social networks and websites. Students reported that these strategies helped them develop their listening, speaking and reading skills, while they also reported that their vocabulary was enhanced over grammar and pronunciation. Research limitations/implications The study findings can be of benefit not only for helping to raise students’ awareness of informal learning strategies to develop their English skills outside the classroom but also for teachers to rethink the importance of integrating technology tools and digital resources in their teaching practice. The results could also guide curriculum designers to augment textbook materials by integrating technology-based informal learning strategies. Originality/value This is the first study on this topic conducted in the context of higher education in Yemen and offers unique insights into informal learning practices of Yemeni students. In addition, the findings of the study open new dimensions for rethinking the classification of language learning strategies to include those that are technology-based and mainly useful for independent informal learning.

The dark side of journalism: Understanding the phenomenology of conflicts in the newsroom and the mechanisms intended to solve them

The practice and structural conditions of the journalism craft provide fertile grounds for facilitating the emergence of conflicts in the newsroom. However, extant research on journalism studies have largely neglected the boundary conditions for their emergence and the individual and organizational mechanisms displayed to unravel them. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 Spanish journalists, we conceptualize newsrooms’ conflicts as the dark side of journalism and examine the structural and individual factors that nurtures their appearance. We also clarify the main strategies for conflict management, arguing that conflict resolution is typically based on informal mediation strategies, rather than institutionalized plans directly implemented by news organizations.

Social Determinants of Health among Health Workers in a Tertiary Health Institution in Anambra State, Nigeria: A Pilot Study

Background
 Social determinants of health (SDH) are a critical theme for health equality for Nigeria. Nigeria is one of the countries in the world which is far from achieving targets of 2030 SDG 3 due to this inequity in health.
 Methods
 This is a cross-sectional pilot survey designed to collect information about the SDH, strengths, challenges and perceived areas to be addressed among different cadres of healthcare workers at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH) Awka in the South eastern part of Nigeria. This is a cross-sectional pilot survey among the different cadres of healthcare workers.
 Results
 The elements of SDH are vital for the continuing well-being of health workers because of their role in attending to the totality of their community. From our study, two elements of SDH (family and physical activity) had the greatest level of confidence (44% and 26% respectively), while the justice system (police and the legal issues) had the lowest areas of confidence (2% each), but the greatest strength of the community were found in education (70%) and family (58%).
 Conclusions
 Policies in general need to be implemented to address the economic instability in order to yield positive outcomes towards education, security of lives and property, food security and affordable healthcare and transportation. Reducing health inequities in Nigeria will depend on a focus addressing the social circumstances of individuals, families and communities using equity-based approaches on the broader structural environment. The role of formal and informal educational strategies will be beneficial in the highlighted social, economic and political factors from this study.