Thematic Text Research Articles

“They're Doing Their Job”: Women’s Acceptance of Emergency Department Contraception Counseling

We explore reproductive-aged women's acceptance of contraception counseling in the emergency department (ED). This study is phase 1 of an exploratory sequential mixed methods study. We purposively interviewed 31 participants with the following criteria: black, white, or Latina race/ethnicity; nonpregnant; aged 15 to 44 years; receiving nonemergency care; not using highly effective contraception; and did not intend to become pregnant. We conducted semistructured interviews with a piloted interview guide until reaching thematic saturation. We coded transcripts with an iteratively developed codebook, maintaining intercoder agreement greater than 80%. Qualitative acceptance of ED contraception counseling was grouped into 3 categories: acceptable, unacceptable, and equivocal. We conducted a thematic text analysis to assess themes expressing support and concern for ED contraception counseling. Qualitative findings were stratified by age, race, and frequency of ED use. Using components of grounded theory, we developed a conceptual model. Most participants (81%) accepted ED contraception counseling. Themes expressing support and concern for ED contraception counseling included opportunity to address women's unmet contraception needs, contraception is within the scope of ED practice, the ED is a convenient setting with competent providers, contraception is a sensitive topic, and the ED may be an inappropriate setting for some women. Latina participants had lower acceptance of ED contraception counseling. Dominant subthemes varied slightly by race, age, and frequency of ED use. Diverse women had high acceptance of contraception counseling in the ED. Perspectives expressing both support and concern in regard to ED contraception counseling were explored in detail.

Introduction

Introduction Sarah Jaquette Ray (bio) In 2017 I organized a roundtable discussion format on teaching, climate justice, and affect for the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) conference in Detroit. The participants agreed that the positive response to the roundtable warranted publishing the conversation in this special issue of Resilience, in order to archive the event and to open the conversation more broadly. What follows are the contributions to the roundtable by a range of educators and one student, all asked to speak to the question, How do we deal with students' emotional responses to our classes on climate justice? Faculty from a variety of educational contexts—ethnic studies, English, composition, environmental studies—join one environmental studies student in the conversation here, to explore how it feels to learn about climate injustices around the world, debate the range of ways that students and faculty are complicit in those ecological and social injustices, and struggle to figure out how to become agents of social change. The roundtable is comprised of experts on topics of equity and justice, identity, knowledge production, affect or emotion and climate change, critical pedagogy, action and activism, and hope. Covering experiences teaching in places from Georgia to rural Idaho to Singapore, in a diversity of institutions from music conservatory to land grant university to technical college, and to undergraduates in majors ranging from music to engineering to environmental studies, each of five panelists contribute short pieces on the topic of teaching climate justice and affect. An invaluable sixth panelist, Carlrey Arroyo, provides a student's perspective. A brief biography of each panelist accompanies their contribution. [End Page 1] Motivated by a range of issues from social injustice to ecological degradation, students come to college classrooms ready to gain skills and credentials that will enable them to "be the change they want to see in the world." In recent years, however, colleagues and I have noticed that as students learn more about the connections between our current problems—climate change, the rise of xenophobic nationalism, growing inequality—they become despondent in the face of their perceived powerlessness to solve any, much less all, of these problems. Even students who are disengaged from these issues suffer a higher degree of mental health problems during their college years than previous generations. In a May 2018 Chronicle of Higher Education op-ed, Brian Rosenberg documents the rise of an "age of anxiety" post-9/11 that has rendered college students more likely to report depression as a health concern. Anxiety in general, as many studies are showing, and ecogrief (more specifically in environmental humanities and environmental studies or environmental sciences classes) have become the norm. Trauma-informed pedagogy and studies in the neuroscientific aspects of learning are helping us understand better the emotional landscape of our classrooms and methods. In addition to the experiences and contexts that shape students before they even come to college, students often become despondent, nihilistic, and apathetic upon learning more about the tragic state of the planet. Without affective tools to cultivate resilience, support in community, and what Jeff Andrade-Duncan calls "critical hope," students often struggle to do the work of college, much less the work of saving the planet that they came to college to become trained to do. Yet most educators in predominately Western and white environmental fields from ecocriticism to natural resource sciences have not been trained to address the emotional landscape of students in this age of anxiety—or in climate justice terms, the age of the Anthropocene. With PhDs in hockey stick graphs to "prove" climate change is a problem or in analytical skills to reveal environmental themes in cultural texts, the current generation of Anglo-Western environmental educators are ill-equipped to address the affective consequences of these fields' purposes on students. Emerging from dominant colonial educational models, environmental fields know little about liberatory, feminist, critical, or trauma-informed pedagogy. Environmental educators in general have not been as engaged in the abundant scholarship on affect, [End Page 2] liberation, and pedagogy. Yet they wonder why their students find their courses disempowering, depressing, or anxiety producing. Environmental educators can appeal to a wider range of students, dismantle...

A view of myths and politics related to Kohomba Kankariya: Some inventive dimension of history

This paper attempts to trace the substantial reality underlying the mythical establishments: the-origin myth, and the concept of gods in the Kohomba kankariya traditional ritual of Sri Lanka. Narrators tend to alter the historical myth known as “Vijaya and Kuveni” after about 1000 years of its available initial mention in the great chronicle of Sri Lanka in weaving the origin myth of the ritual. The Kuveni Asna of 15th century, a creative prose poetical writing, appears as the pioneer modifier of the myth while depicting the traits of a ritual as well, performed for the king Parakramabahu VI (AD 1412–1467). The long-term social political process localised the royal ritual as “Kohomba kankariya” under the intervention of feudal aristocracy promoting a-local godhead. Current paper argues that the composition of the origin myth of the ritual was an action taken upon aristocratic need in order to tune the ritual milieu into “their culture” and this very “stratification of human intelligence” disrupts the universal reality of invocation based on the common human sensation of consolation. Paper applies thematic text analysis and historical analysis in tracing the social political dimensions underlying the myths in Kohomba kankariya. In this sense, the current paper is an attempt to explicate that the myths in Kohomba kankariya-are creative establishments produced by humans in order to achieve their social political goals.

Intercultural variation in academic discourse: Theme zones and the build-up of coherence in research articles

AbstractThis paper explores the form and function of the initial part of a sentence, the “Theme zone” (Hannay, 1994; Fetzer, 2008), in the genre of research articles, with a threefold purpose. First, it deals with a comparative analysis of Theme zone patterns (i.e. employment of simple and multiple Themes – the latter being several different configurations of topical, interpersonal and textual Themes) in a corpus of research articles written by English authors and Czech EAL writers. The aim is to determine to what extent these writers differ in thematization and trace possible reasons for the differences. Second, the study offers an intercultural comparison of the realizations of topical, interpersonal and textual Themes, and finally, it looks into thematic progression in two excerpts from the corpus and how the Theme zone contributes to the construal of textual, interpersonal and topical coherence. In all three parts, intercultural variation can be observed, be it Czech authors’ preference for the [textual Theme] [topical Theme] configuration, their more frequent use of exclusiveweand abstract rhetors in topical Themes and higher employment of textual Themes in the Theme zone, or their inclination to build coherence on a local rather than a more global level.

Medical Students' Experiences and Outcomes Using a Virtual Human Simulation to Improve Communication Skills: Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundAttending to the wide range of communication behaviors that convey empathy is an important but often underemphasized concept to reduce errors in care, improve patient satisfaction, and improve cancer patient outcomes. A virtual human (VH)–based simulation, MPathic-VR, was developed to train health care providers in empathic communication with patients and in interprofessional settings and evaluated through a randomized controlled trial.ObjectiveThis mixed methods study aimed to investigate the differential effects of a VH-based simulation developed to train health care providers in empathic patient-provider and interprofessional communication.MethodsWe employed a mixed methods intervention design, involving a comparison of 2 quantitative measures—MPathic-VR–calculated scores and the objective structured clinical exam (OSCE) scores—with qualitative reflections by medical students about their experiences. This paper is a secondary, focused analysis of intervention arm data from the larger trial. Students at 3 medical schools in the United States (n=206) received simulation to improve empathic communication skills. We conducted analysis of variance, thematic text analysis, and merging mixed methods analysis.ResultsOSCE scores were significantly improved for learners in the intervention group (mean 0.806, SD 0.201) compared with the control group (mean 0.752, SD 0.198; F1,414=6.09; P=.01). Qualitative analysis revealed 3 major positive themes for the MPathic-VR group learners: gaining useful communication skills, learning awareness of nonverbal skills in addition to verbal skills, and feeling motivated to learn more about communication. Finally, the results of the mixed methods analysis indicated that most of the variation between high, middle, and lower performers was noted about nonverbal behaviors. Medium and high OSCE scorers most often commented on the importance of nonverbal communication. Themes of motivation to learn about communication were only present in middle and high scorers.ConclusionsVHs are a promising strategy for improving empathic communication in health care. Higher performers seemed most engaged to learn, particularly nonverbal skills.

From Athenian fleet to prophetic eschatology. Correlating formal features to themes of discourse in Ancient Greek

AbstractThis is a diachronic corpus-based semantic analysis of the verbplēróōin Ancient Greek, from 6th c. BCE to the 2nd c.ce. Adopting the usage-based profile approach, it inquiries into the relation between formal features and themes of discourse, following the methodological consequences of two theoretical assumptions: first, that textual themes have a prototypical structure. Second, that formal features as a conceptual schematicity underlying the elaborated and situated level of discourse are immanent to these themes. Methodologically, it implements a Multiple Correspondence Analysis for each century, exploring the contribution of the formal and a fine-grained range of semantic features to the variation, as well as the strength of association between them. In order to test the plausibility of the immanence hypothesis, the analysis implements a Hierarchical Agglomerative Clustering for the totality of data over the eight-century period, comparing the results of the latter with the individual MCA analyses.

Patient's companions as a vulnerable group in Turkish hospitals: A descriptive study.

In Turkish hospitals, in addition to health care professionals, there are people who are also a significant part of the health care services; even though they are not professionals. In Turkey, these people are known as refakatçi (a patient's companion). The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the concept of the patient's companion from their own perspective and to evaluate the concept of the patient's companion in terms of biomedical ethics. This was a descriptive study. Personal interviews were conducted via a structured questionnaire containing open-ended questions with the patients' companions. Thematic text analysis method was used to analyze the open-ended questions. The study was conducted at a University Research and Training Hospital in the Aegean Region of Turkey. A total of 118 patient companions participated in the study. These patient companions stayed with the patients because of their concerns about trusting the health care professionals in caring for the patients. During their stay, the companions encountered several problems, including staying in ward-type rooms and resting in a single armchair, as well as staying for a mean time span of 4 days, primarily for 24 consecutive hours in each day. Despite these conditions, most of the companions surprisingly declared their satisfaction with their stays. Patients' companions should be defined as bioethical subjects; more specifically, they should be defined as vulnerable subjects and should not be taken advantage of. The description of patient companions as a vulnerable group allows for the ethical evaluation of similar systems, such as those in Israel, Greece, Korea, and Iran, and could allow for the development of a common solution for these systems. Moreover, such a definition provides an important basis for social, ethical, or legal studies on the health care systems in all of these countries.

Saʿdi-ye Shirāzi and Bono Giamboni in Dialogue: A Comparative Approach to Temperance

This article presents a study of two coeval works on morals: the first belongs to the classic Persian tradition, the Golestān (The Rose Garden) by Saʿdi (Shirāz 1210–91 or 1292); the second, Il libro de’ vizî e delle virtudi (Book of Vices and Virtues) by Bono Giamboni (Florence 1240–92), belongs to the first didactic prose in vernacular Italian. The study will specially concern the theme of temperance قناعت qanāʿat, central to both Islamic and Christian morals. An analysis is made of passages dedicated to this theme in both texts, also through comparative observations, in order to identify the approach characteristic to each work.

STEM learning content in elementary school national curriculum

STEM education implementation in Indonesia particularly in elementary level is still weakly established although it should have its own place in the development of the required 21st century skills. Therefore, this study aimed to identify curriculum content which intercept with STEM subjects as well as teachers’ understanding about STEM and its potential integration in elementary curriculum. This study deploys qualitative explanatory method. Data collection was done by the use of form to help analyse curriculum contents which potentially joint STEM subjects both in the Core Standards and thematic text books of grades K4-K6. Online questionnaire is used to gather data about teachers’ knowledge of STEM and its potential in the curriculum practice. Results indicated that national curriculum strongly supports the enhancement of STEM education in upper elementary school level. Yet, almost all teachers were not familiar with STEM, its importance, nor how it is implemented in classroom learning. So, teachers require further professional development to improve their competences in designing and implementing STEM learning according to national curriculum standards in classroom level.

Selection of scientific articles according to the degree of proximity to the semantic pattern of the title and phrases of the abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of numerical evaluation of the proximity of a thematic text to the most rational (reference) language version of the description of the piece of knowledge it represents. This problem is relevant for the implementation of targeted selection of textual information without losing the useful semantic component. Examples of practical applications here can be the selection of articles for publication in scientific journals, as well as the development of training courses and educational portals. In the proposed solution, the basis for assessing the proximity of a text to a semantic pattern (i.e. sense standard) is the division of the words of each phrase into classes according to the value of the TF-IDF measure relative to the texts of the corpus pre-formed by an expert. The analyzed texts considered in the paper are the abstracts of scientific articles along with their titles. At the same time, the semantic images of the texts closest to the standard determine the words with the highest TF-IDF values, which, being neighbors in a linear series, are most likely related by meaning and form key combinations. The proposed numerical estimate of the proximity to the standard makes it possible to rank articles according to the significance of the described fragments of knowledge with respect to a given subject area, as well as to the non-redundancy of the description itself.

The impact of online reputation on hotel profitability

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to quantify the impact of online customer reputation on financial profitability.Design/methodology/approachOnline reputation is captured by extracting the most recurring textual themes associated with customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, expressed within positive vs negative online guest reviews on Booking.com. Latent semantic analysis is used for textual analysis. Proxies of overall financial performance are manually constructed for the sample hotels, using financial data from the Financial Analysis Made Easy (FAME) database. Ordinary least squares is used to gauge the effect of online customer reputation on financial profitability.FindingsEmpirical findings indicate that recurring textual themes from positive online reviews (in contrast to negative reviews) exhibit a higher degree of homogeneity and consensus. The themes repeated in positive, but not in negative reviews, are found to significantly associate with hotel financial performance. Results contribute to the discussion about the measurable effect of online reputation on financial performance.Originality/valueContemporary quantitative methods are used to extract online reputation for a sample of UK hotels and associate this reputation with bottom-line financial profitability. The relationship between online reputation, as manifested within hotel guest reviews, and the financial performance of hotels is examined. Financial profitability is the result of revenues, reduced by the costs incurred in order to be able to offer a given level of service. Previous studies have mainly focused on basic measures of performance, i.e. revenue generation, rather than bottom-line profitability. By combining online guest reviews from travel websites (Booking.com) with financial measures of enterprise performance (FAME), this study makes a meaningful contribution to the strategic management of hotel businesses.

Integrating power-to-gas in the biogas value chain: analysis of stakeholder perception and risk governance requirements

BackgroundWhen integrating power-to-gas (PtG) in the biogas sector (BGS), it is essential to consider how risk is perceived and handled since it influences technology uptake, acceptance, and legitimacy. In this study, we aimed to identify factors that determine how risks are managed in the BGS grounded on stakeholders’ perceptions of environmental and safety risks, and the socio-political, technological, and economic challenges associated with the adoption of PtG in this industry.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 experts located throughout Germany. They represented relevant institutions associated with the development of the BGS and PtG. Participants included expert stakeholders from science, industry, associations, and politics. The interview data were assessed by the use of thematic qualitative text analysis, followed by inductive reasoning, based on holistic and axial coding of the transcribed interviews.ResultsThe participants predominantly trusted existing regulations to ascertain that environmental and safety risks from this energy concept are under control. The expert stakeholders were convinced that except for farm-based biogas facilities, there is adequate know-how in the BGS to appropriately manage risks of biogas and PtG technologies and thus prevent potential negative externalities. Furthermore, they were inclined to identify socio-political challenges, such as public criticism of biogas, and missing financial incentives as the most relevant matters to the development and adoption of PtG in this sector. The interviewees mainly identified politicians as responsible actors to handle identified risks and challenges. Such risk rationalities are characterized as hierarchist in the cultural theory of risk perception.ConclusionsPossible reasons behind the prevailing high level of risk tolerance among the participants of this study could be related to (1) strong reliance on governmental action, technical protocols, and the perception that others are responsible for risk management in the BGS; (2) a high confidence in expertise in the biogas industry to control risks; and (3) the tendency of experts to advocate biogas and PtG, linked to possible professional roles and motivational factors. These aspects may influence them to attenuate the urgency to prevent accidents and environmental risks, even if this can have undesirable consequences when incorporating PtG in the biogas industry. While critical environmental and safety risks are not acknowledged and adequately tackled, societal controversies may accentuate to the disadvantage of the BGS and the potential benefits linked to the integration of PtG in this field. We recommend implementing measures that enhance risk awareness within this community, urge interest groups to adopt collaborative risk management strategies and consider the involvement of multiple stakeholders in risk assessment and control, and likewise, address the particularities of the social context in defining strategies for risk management and communication.

Sophisticated Prayer

This poem illustrates the internal narrative of Ada Lois Sipuel Fisher, an African American woman who was denied entry into the University of Oklahoma School of Law, as discussed in Manuel Luis Espinoza and Shirin Vossoughi's “Perceiving Learning Anew.” Here, our protagonist wrestles with the concept of “dignity” when weighing the worth of her own education with the discrimination she faces to earn her degree. Using the themes of the author's text and research, this poem stylizes a “dignity-conferring” education through perseverance in the face of racism and divisiveness that still exists today.

Nursing roles for in-hospital cardiac arrest response: higher versus lower performing hospitals

BackgroundGood outcomes for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) depend on a skilled resuscitation team, prompt initiation of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation, and organisational structures to support IHCA response. We examined...

Palliative care for persons with Parkinson\u2019s disease: a qualitative study on the experiences of health care professionals

BackgroundParkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic and neurodegenerative disease associated with a wide variety of symptoms. The risk of complications increases with progression of the disease. These complications have a tremendous impact on the quality of life of people with PD. The aim of this study was to examine health care professionals’ experiences of potential barriers and facilitators in providing palliative care for people with PD in the Netherlands.MethodsThis was a qualitative descriptive study. The data were collected from 10 individual in-depth interviews and three focus groups (n = 29) with health care professionals. Health care professionals were selected based on a positive answer to the question: “In the past 2 years, did you treat or support a person with PD who subsequently died?” The data were analyzed by thematic text analysis.ResultsHealth care professionals supported the development of a palliative care system for PD but needed to better understand the essence of palliative care. In daily practice, they struggled to identify persons’ needs due to interfering PD-specific symptoms such as cognitive decline and communication deficits. Timely addressing the personal preferences for providing palliative care was identified as an important facilitator. Health care professionals acknowledged being aware of their lack of knowledge and of their little competence in managing complex PD. Findings indicate a perceived lack of care continuity, fragmentation of services, time pressure and information discontinuity.ConclusionsHealth care professionals experienced several facilitators and barriers to the provision of palliative care to people with PD. There is a need to improve the knowledge on complex PD and the continuity of information, as well as optimize coordination and deliver care based on a persons’ preferences. Additional training can help to become more knowledgeable and confident.

O LIRISMO NA CRÔNICA E O CASO DE ELIANE BRUM

O espaço da crônica é, na maioria das vezes, o lugar das reflexões críticas à sociedade, utilizando como ponto de partida temas “miúdos” que são potencializados ao nível do humor, da ironia e da poesia. Poesia adentro, a problematização do lirismo na crônica foi por vezes citada em discussões teóricas, e aparece em algumas categorizações do gênero que foram propostas por críticos. Entretanto, e considerando o volume de trabalhos que já se debruçaram sobre a crônica e seus desdobramentos, entendemos que o tema tenha sido negligenciado. Por isso, o objetivo desse trabalho é apresentarmos um breve apanhado do tema a partir de textos teóricos escritos por autores como: Massaud Moisés (1982), Antonio Candido (1992), Davi Arrigucci Jr (1987), Afrânio Coutinho (1986) e Eduardo Portella (1958). Pretendemos, ainda, realizar análises-interpretativas com foco nos aspectos líricos que compõem duas crônicas da escritora Eliane Brum.

Improvement of LDA Topic Mining Algorithm and Its Application in Short Text

In order to quickly provide a large number of short text themes, an improved linear discriminant analysis (LDA) topic mining algorithm is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the acquisition method of obtaining the traditional short text themes is first analyzed. Focusing on the shortcomings of the original algorithm, the improvement process of the improved topic mining algorithm based on LDA is introduced. Finally, through the mining of short text themes by college students as an example, the improved LDA algorithm is improved in the accuracy of short text processing.

When the Line between Victimization and Criminalization Blurs: The Victim-Offender Overlap Observed in Female Offenders in Cases of Trafficking in Persons for Sexual Exploitation in Australia

ABSTRACTThis paper applies the concept of the victim-offender overlap to Australian cases of trafficking in persons for sexual exploitation through an analysis of six cases involving female offenders. To do this, a thematic qualitative text analysis approach is adopted to focus on the judges’ sentencing remarks. Based on this methodology, the paper identifies two themes, categorized as ‘similar circumstances to victims’ and ‘she should have known’. These two themes are linked, and allow us to reflect on the judges’ expectation of behavior by those women who were previously victimized and sexually exploited. This paper argues that such expectation is idealistic, is not supported by the literature on the victim-offender overlap and does not consider the social structural constraints, including lack of opportunities, for a comprehensive exercise of agency by the former victim. Finally, this expectation is formed because the Australian criminal justice system relies heavily on a clear differentiation between the completely innocent victim and the completely guilty offender, despite the identification of an individual as a victim or an offender having significant consequences for how the criminal justice system responds to that individual.

Exploring textual and interpersonal Themes in the expository essays of college students of different linguistic backgrounds

This study investigates how college students of different linguistic backgrounds organize information and encode stance in expository essays, which are contrasted to the texts of professional writers to understand how linguistic difference and experience in writing play out in rhetorically effective essays. The study compares the textual and interpersonal Themes of 180 essays by English as Foreign Language (EFL), English as Second Language (ESL), and English as First language (L1) professional writers drawn from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE), in which L1 English teachers' essays were collected as reference data. The raw frequencies of both types of Theme were calculated and normalized. A 4X2 two-way mixed design ANOVA was conducted. The results reveal that both student groups used significantly more textual Themes than the professionals. Specifically, each of the groups applied a distinct set of textual Theme types. The EFL group most frequently used devices associated with listing and adding reasons to support their thesis. By contrast, the ESL group sounded more argumentative due to their frequent use of adversative devices. Although the professional essays used significantly fewer explicit textual Themes, they attained cohesion and coherence in developing and binding their arguments by both effective internal flow and lexical chains. Regarding interpersonal Themes, no significant difference was found and all three groups applied much more explicit subjective expressions to make visible their rhetorical role as writers. The relative maturity of interpersonal Theme use may be attributed to the students' affiliation with the soft disciplines.

Parents act as intermediary users for their children when using assistive technology for cognition in everyday planning: Results from a parental survey

ABSTRACT Assistive Technology for Cognition (ATC) is employed by children with and without disabilities. However, how the ATC is used in everyday life has not been studied. The current study investigated ATC-usage in everyday planning in three groups: 1) children qualifying for Swedish habilitation centers (ID/ASD), 2) children with disability not qualifying for habilitation service (ADHD), and 3) children with typical development (TD). A parental survey was conducted (n = 192) and answers were analyzed with statistical tests and inductive thematic text analysis. Results showed that all groups used ATC, most in the Habilitation group and least in the TD group. According to parents, ATC supported cognitive functions in all groups, but it became evident that the parents were responsible for planning by setting up the ATC, whilst the children merely executed the plans. This was linked to several limitations, for example the design was not appropriately adapted for these groups. The implications for the practitioners are 1) evaluate the users’ cognitive abilities and choose an ATC suitable for that individual rather focusing on the diagnosis, and 2) follow up usage to see if it is the parent or the child that are using the ATC.