ONE SIZE FITS ALL Research Articles

Evaluating an acceptance-based lifestyle modification program to address cardiovascular disease risk among adolescent girls with overweight and obesity: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial

BackgroundBehavioral weight loss interventions achieve only limited weight loss in adolescent samples and weight regain is common. This limited intervention success may be attributed, in part, to adolescents' lack of self-regulation skills essential for lifestyle modification and use of a one-size fits-all approach to produce weight loss in boys and girls. Interventions which teach self-regulation skills, such as Acceptance-Based Therapy (ABT), and are tailored to meet gender-specific concerns, are critical to help adolescents adapt to pervasive biological and environmental influences toward weight gain. ObjectiveThis trial tests the effect of an ABT intervention on cardiometabolic health, health-related behaviors, and psychological factors among adolescent girls with overweight or obesity (OW/OB). MethodsGirls 14–19 years (N = 148; ≥ 40% racial/ethnic minorities) with OW/OB (BMI: ≥ 85th percentile) will be enrolled in the study. Participants will be randomized to one of two 6-month interventions, consisting of either 18 sessions of ABT or 9 sessions of a health education control, an augmented version of standard care for adolescent OW/OB, both led by bachelor's level interventionists. ResultsRecruitment is taking place in Philadelphia, USA, from January 2024 to January 2028. Cardiometabolic health markers (adiposity; blood pressure; blood lipids), health-related behaviors (dietary intake; physical activity; sleep), and psychological factors (quality of life; depression; disordered eating; psychological flexibility) will be measured at baseline, mid-treatment, post-treatment, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up. ConclusionsThis study will provide valuable information on a novel intervention tailored to the needs of adolescent girls with OW/OB to address self-regulation and cardiometabolic health.

Integrating decision modeling and machine learning to inform treatment stratification.

There is increasing interest in moving away from "one size fits all (OSFA)" approaches toward stratifying treatment decisions. Understanding how expected effectiveness and cost-effectiveness varies with patient covariates is a key aspect of stratified decision making. Recently proposed machine learning (ML) methods can learn heterogeneity in outcomes without pre-specifying subgroups or functional forms, enabling the construction of decision rules ('policies') that map individual covariates into a treatment decision. However, these methods do not yet integrate ML estimates into a decision modeling framework in order to reflect long-term policy-relevant outcomes and synthesize information from multiple sources. In this paper, we propose a method to integrate ML and decision modeling, when individual patient data is available to estimate treatment-specific survival time. We also propose a novel implementation of policy tree algorithms to define subgroups using decision model output. We demonstrate these methods using the SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial), comparing outcomes for "standard" and "intensive" blood pressure targets. We find that including ML into a decision model can impact the estimate of incremental net health benefit (INHB) for OSFA policies. We also find evidence that stratifying treatment using subgroups defined by a tree-based algorithm can increase the estimates of the INHB.

How Personalization Affects Motivation in Gamified Review Assessments.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40593-022-00326-x.

Reconfiguring the Academic Success Matrix through Student Involvement: Implications for a Higher Education Institutions: A Case of Three Selected Universities in Zimbabwe

The article explores reconfiguring the concept of academic success in Zimbabwe, now premised on the attainment of benchmark Doctrine Education 5.0 pillars set by the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development and enforced by Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZimCHE) as a quality assurance agency. It reviews academic success standards based on teaching and learning; research, community engagement; innovation; and industrialisation. Targeting, HEI quality assurance officers, managers, and students as the population, the study purposively selected three HEIs based on stated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) mandates drawn from Zimbabwe’s 20 registered public and private universities. Questionnaire-elicited data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Scientists and presented in graphs derived from descriptive statistics to enhance meaning in findings. Findings show the five-fold Doctrine Education 5.0 remains news to HEI students although they passively participate as recipients, reflected in students-as- consumers rather than ‘students-as-partners’ among HEIs and later industry. Without students’ voice as HEI partners, success would be analogous to a maternity centre rating its success based on ‘state of the art equipment’ and high calibre staff without mention of babies delivered as core business therein. The article recommends the reconfiguration of the academic-success matrix to reflect the student-interests involvement, and the industrial perspective as end-line users of HEI graduates. A one-size fits-all approach to academic success is not tenable for HEIs, and their divergent mandates call for differentiated methodological approaches to achieve success. HEIs continue to rate their success in terms of student enrolment figure, infrastructural development at the expense of student-centred success criteria that assesses innovative skills capacity and industrial appraisals post-graduation. The shift to a business approach in higher education has been unmanaged, with telling implications for HEIs visions and stated missions, necessitating change. Consolidating HEI success requires Chief Executive Officers’ whose proven mandate espouses all education 5.0 deliverables, particularly innovation and industrialisation through research and community engagement, except for teaching and learning. Nothing in academia prepares Professors as Vice Chancellors for this task, reducing them to duds as their grasp of the five-fold mandate largely remains superficial. HEIs’ success criteria and students’ involvement continue to reflect education 3.0 scope when they should functionally be operating at 5.0, which is just on paper and tick-a-box-kind-of compliance to satisfy minimum quality assurance expectations. A danger of leaving important stakeholders behind until too late lingers, with potentially telling negative ramifications therefrom for all.

The effect of differentiated instruction on academic achievement of grade eleven students in the field of derivative in Bhutan

Given the increasing diversity of students academically and culturally, educators are being called upon to accommodate students' diverse learning requirements through differentiated instruction strategies. In Bhutan, the Ministry of Education recently mandated the implementation of a differentiated instruction strategy in the K-12 curriculum. From this perspective, this study attempted to ascertain the effect of differentiated strategies on grade eleven mathematics students within the framework of the pre_test and post_test quasi-experimental research method. 64 grade eleven students participated in this study. The concept of derivative was taught using a differentiated instruction strategy for the experimental group (N=32) while a conventional one-size fits-all strategy was used for teaching the control group (N=32). A Conceptual Understanding Test on the Derivative (CUTD) was administered as pretest and posttest groups to examine the differences in their learning achievements. A t-test analysis of the pretests indicated no significant differences, indicating that the experimental and control groups' learning abilities on the concept of the derivative were roughly comparable. However, a statistically significant difference in favour of the experimental group over the control group was discovered in the post test analysis. It was recommended that Mathematics teachers and educators should embrace the use of differentiated instruction while teaching and learning derivative.The researchers also recommended that differentiated education be used over a prolonged period of time and with a larger sample size.

The Use of Response Propensity Modeling (RPM) for Allocating Differential Survey Recruitment Strategies: Purpose, Rationale, and Implementation

Response Propensity Modeling (RPM) is an empirical process that identifies a multivariate statistical model to predict the likelihood (propensity) that a given element in an initial sample will cooperate with a forthcoming survey request. This predicted probability ranges from 0 to 1 and reflects an element’s unique combination of characteristics that are expected to affect the relative likelihood of obtaining a response from the element. RPM is consistent with Leverage-Salience Theory in that it is used to tailor different recruitment strategies to different sampled elements, rather than using a one-size-fits-all (OSFA) approach whereby all sampled elements receive the same recruitment strategies. The appeal of using an RPM approach to allocating differential recruitment strategies is that, in theory, it should perform better than an OSFA approach, in terms of gaining a higher overall response rate, gaining a more representative unweighted final sample, and being more cost-effective. As described here, RPM fits into a Tailored Design Method of trying to most efficaciously utilize total survey costs to reduce total survey error. We explain what we mean by RPM, compare it to past work on allocating differential recruitment strategies within an initial sample, and explain the three-stage process used to identify, implement/test, and refine the response propensity model.

Collaborative Innovation and Appropriability in Start-ups: Evidence from the FinTech Sector

Appropriability is about knowledge protection and openness is about being open with knowledge, resulting in the paradox of openness. Through an inductive study of FinTech start-ups, we tackle this gap and unravel how these firms manage this paradox in exploring contingencies of openness. We posit that the relationship between openness and appropriability is contingent upon the start-up growth stage, the type of knowledge flow, and the type of external collaboration. Firstly, we go beyond the extant one-size fits-all approach to appropriability and found an orchestration of formal and informal appropriability, acting as inhibitor and/or facilitator of openness, which is contingent upon the start-up growth stage. Results also uncover four patterns of appropriability profiles that are driven by the degree of openness and the stage of development of the start-up. Secondly, we uncover a more granular trajectory of openness in start-ups. The degree of openness is nuanced by the type of external collaboration, either with market or institutional partners, along the various growth stages. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

The importance of commitment, communication, culture and learning for the implementation of the Zero Accident Vision in 27 companies in Europe

In this paper the findings are presented of a multinational study involving 27 companies that have adopted a ‘Zero Accident Vision’ (ZAV). ZAV is the ambition that all accidents are preventable, and this paper focuses on how companies implement ZAV through ZAV commitment, safety communication, safety culture and safety learning. Managers and workers took part in a survey (8,819 respondents), company interviews and national workshops in seven European countries. A common characteristic of all the companies was the high ZAV commitment of their managers and workers, which often were embedded in the companies’ business strategies. It is very likely that this commitment is the main driver for long-term safety improvements. This research supports the importance of safety communication for ZAV implementation, especially of: specific ZAV or safety promotion programmes, constant and updated communication on functional tools, and effective supervisor communication. Successful communication must ensure ‘relevant’ information to respective organisational levels (not a one-size fits-all strategy), and allow for ‘decentralised’ initiatives. This research also highlights the importance of safety culture for ZAV implementation, with ZAV companies having high survey scores on management safety priority, safety empowerment and safety justice. The results also support the importance of safety learning (incidents and good-practice) for ZAV implementation. Additional success factors were top management support and an ‘open atmosphere’, systematic communication and dialogue on incidents, and a focus on things that go right. We conclude that ZAV is the basis for inspiring and innovative approaches to improve safety, as an integrated part of doing business.

OSFA: A New Paradigm of Aging Aware Gate-Sizing for Power/Performance Optimizations Under Multiple Operating Conditions

Modern systems-on-a-chip and microprocessors, e.g., those in smart phones and laptops, typically have multiple operating conditions, such as video streaming, Web browsing, standby, and so on. They will have different performance targets and run under different supply voltages. Gate sizing (with threshold voltage assignment) is a fundamental step for power/performance optimization. However, conventional gate sizing algorithms only consider one scenario, e.g., the performance-critical operating condition, which may be over-design for other operating conditions. In addition, reliability has become a prime concern in nanometer designs, and gate sizing has been employed to mitigate aging. However: 1) previous aging-affected delay models do not take into account more than one operating condition to estimate the aging impact and 2) earlier aging aware gate sizing algorithms only consider one operating condition at a time. In this paper, we present a new paradigm of aging aware gate sizing, one-size-fits-all (OSFA), which performs power/performance optimizations across multiple operating conditions. The existing delay model for negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is extended to take into account multiple operating conditions, and incorporated into our OSFA framework. Based on OSFA, we also adjust the supply voltage targeting overall power optimization. A speed-up heuristic is proposed to scale our OSFA design space exploration methodology for higher number of operating conditions. Experimental results on industry-strength benchmarks demonstrate that: 1) compared with conventional approach OSFA could provide an average 6.1% reduction in power without performance loss; 2) NBTI-aware OSFA framework can provide significant improvement in comparison with guard-band based traditional NBTI-aware gate sizing approach; and 3) percentage savings compared to conventional methodology increases with the number of operating conditions.

Individualization for Education at Scale: MIIC Design and Preliminary Evaluation

We present the design, implementation, and preliminary evaluation of our Adaptive Educational System (AES): the Mobile Integrated and Individualized Course (MIIC). MIIC is a platform for personalized course delivery which integrates lecture videos, text, assessments, and social learning into a mobile native app, and collects clickstream-level behavioral measurements about each student as they interact with the material. These measurements can subsequently be used to update the student’s user model, which can in turn be used to determine the content adaptation. Recruiting students from one of our Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), we have conducted two preliminary trials with MIIC, in which we found (i) that the majority of students (70 percent) preferred MIIC overall to a one-size-fits-all (OSFA) presentation of the same material, (ii) that the mean level of engagement, when quantified as the number of pages viewed, was statistically higher (by 72 percent) among students using MIIC than among OSFA, and (iii) that the integrated multimedia learning features were generally favorable among the students (e.g., 87 percent found the videos helpful).

ONE SIZE FITS ALL?: Recasts, Prompts, and L2 Learning

This quasi-experimental study investigated the potential benefits of two corrective feedback techniques (recasts and prompts) for learners of different proficiency levels. Sixty-four students in three intact grade 6 intensive English as a second language classes in the Montreal area were assigned to the two experimental conditions—one received corrective feedback in the form of recasts and the other in the form of prompts—and a control group. The instructional intervention, which was spread over a period of 4 weeks, targeted third-person possessive determiners his and her, a difficult aspect of English grammar for these Francophone learners of English. Participants' knowledge of the target structure was tested immediately before the experimental intervention, once immediately after it ended, and again 4 weeks later through written and oral tasks. All three groups benefited from the instructional intervention, with both experimental groups benefiting the most. Results also indicated that, overall, prompts were more effective than recasts and that the effectiveness of recasts depended on the learners' proficiency. In particular, high-proficiency learners benefited equally from both prompts and recasts, whereas low-proficiency learners benefited significantly more from prompts than recasts.This study is based on the first author's Ph.D. research (Ammar, 2003). We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the participating teachers and students. We thank Patsy Lightbown, Roy Lyster, Pavel Trofimovich, and the anonymous SSLA reviewers for their valuable input and feedback on earlier versions of this paper.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL?

ONE SIZE FITS ALL?

FULL INCLUSION AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: ONE SIZE FITS ALL?

(1996). FULL INCLUSION AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: ONE SIZE FITS ALL? Reading & Writing Quarterly: Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 241-244.