The IDEA Model as a Best Practice for Effective Instructional Risk and Crisis Communication

This study presents the IDEA (internalization, distribution, explanation, action) model as an easy-to-use and situationally generalizable framework for quickly developing effective messages instructing people on how to protect themselves before and during high-risk events, crises, disasters, and other emergencies. The model consists of four elements: helping message recipients internalize the potential impact of the risk or crisis event, identifying appropriate channels and strategies for distributing the risk or crisis event messages, offering a brief and intelligible explanation of the nature of the risk or crisis, and providing specific self-protective action steps for people to take. The model may be used to design messages in any risk, crisis, or emergency context. Through a posttest-only quasi-experimental cross-sectional research experiment, this study measured the perceived message effectiveness, cognitive understanding, and behavioral intentions of those viewing a television news story about a crisis situation employing the IDEA model compared to those viewing a similar story replicating typical crisis event news stories delivered to general publics. This comparative examination revealed that the message designed according to the IDEA model was significantly more effective than the status quo message and resulted in greater behavioral intentions to engage in appropriate self-protective actions in the event of an acute risk or crisis situation. Strategies for implementing the model are also provided.     

How changes in work structure influence employees’ perceptions of CSR: millionaire managers and locked-out laborers

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is widely understood as the various activities corporations engage in to meet stakeholder demands and demonstrate fit in society. Often employees are positioned as the beneficiaries of corporate largesse and worker recruitment and retention are offered as rationale for CSR activities. The voice of the employee, however, is noticeably missing from the CSR literature. This study uses a case study approach to explore how locked-out union workers define CSR. We conducted 51 semi-structured interviews and analyzed 27 secondary data sources. The results suggest that workers fuse together economic and ethical responsibilities to develop a portrait of their employer's CSR. Workers defined CSR as an economic/ethical responsibility that is intimately tied to a set of explicitly and implicitly communicated values. Our analysis exposed four additional dimensions that informed employees’ understanding of CSR: reciprocity, fair treatment, economic justice, and organizational structure. Propositions for future research and practical implications are offered based on the findings.     

Instructor Credibility as a Mediator of Instructors’ Compulsive Communication and Student Communication Satisfaction in the College Classroom

The purpose of this investigation was twofold: (a) from a dialogic pedagogy perspective, to determine the possible negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction; and (b) using Expectancy Violations Theory as a framework, to test the extent to which instructor credibility mediated the negative association between compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction. We found that students’ perceptions of instructors’ compulsive communication is linked to lower levels of student communication satisfaction. Importantly, results also showed that instructor credibility tempers the negative association between instructors’ compulsive communication and student communication satisfaction.     

Interdisciplinary therapy changes superoxide dismutase activity and adiponectin in obese adolescents: a randomised controlled trial

The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of interdisciplinary therapy in the parameters of the oxidative stress and the anti-inflammatory responses of obese adolescents. We selected 57 participants, who were randomly divided into 2 groups: interdisciplinary therapy group and a control group. After 6 months of intervention, 17 participants of the interdisciplinary therapy group and 8 of the control group returned for re-evaluation. The interdisciplinary therapy group participated in a treatment with 4 weekly sessions of exercise, a weekly group therapy session and a weekly nutritional education session. Blood parameters of oxidative stress and anti-inflammatory response were evaluated. The results demonstrated that there were significant increases in the interdisciplinary therapy group for superoxide dismutase activity (6.56 ± 3.22 to 11.40 ± 7.49) and ferric-reducing antioxidant potential concentration (532.91 ± 106.48 to 573.25 ± 112.57), although adiponectin levels did not reduce (40.9 ± 29.34 to 49.05 ± 41.22). A significant decrease in nitrite levels was also found (14.23 ± 8.48 to 11.45 ± 6.05). In the control group, significant reduction was found in adiponectin (31.56 ± 18.88 to 18.01 ± 11.66). This study suggests that interdisciplinary therapy for 6 months was effective in improving the anti-inflammatory responses and the antioxidant defences in obese adolescents.     

Toward an educational sphereology: Air,wind, and materialist pedagogy

Abstract

It’s not uncommon for people to make reference to atmospheres, including in relationship with educational spaces. In this article, we investigate educational atmospheres by turning to Western and Chinese literature on the air and wind. We pursue this task in three phases. First, we examine the Western literature to see the possible strings of thought that would help us reinvigorate the element of air/atmosphere as a foundational component of an educational sphere. Second, we historicize the Chinese notion of wind as a style of reasoning which structures ancient Chinese cosmology, tempo-spatiality, teaching, and governing into a grid of intelligibility. Third, we argue for a bracketing of a trap of philology and a signifier-signified representational logic through reconceptualizing the atmosphere as a thing that blurs the material-figural boundary and that pushes into a new genre of educational life.     

Availability of Education and Training for Medical Specialists about the Impact of Dementia on Comorbid Disease Management

Individuals with dementia carry an additional health burden of multiple comorbid conditions. Effectively assessing and treating these comorbid conditions requires the medical specialist to be aware of, understand, and manage the effects of dementia on their clinical subspecialty practice. This ecological study describes the dementia-related education available to medical specialists in Australia outside the domains of geriatrics, neurology, and psychiatry. The dementia-related content of specialist medical training curricula and dementia-related information published in high-impact medical journals between 2000–2012 was reviewed. Dementia-related education was found to be absent from the training curricula for 14 of the medical specialties within Australia. And less than 0.10% (1,921 articles) of the more than two million articles published in the 138 journals assessed were dementia related.