Exploring the experiences and responses of LGBTQ+ adolescents to school-based sexuality education

The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, two spirit, and queer (LGBTQ+) youth with school-based sexuality education (SBSE), as well as to document strategies LGBTQ+ youth are using to address their evolving and specific sexual health needs outside of SBSE. Researchers conducted focus groups with 17 adolescents (ages 14–18) from urban and suburban Midwestern cities. Results of this study indicate LGBTQ+ youth find SBSE to be heteronormative, cisgender focused, and primarily focused on pregnancy and disease prevention, which contributes to LGBTQ+ youth experiences of exclusion. In response to SBSE that did not meet student needs, participants reported seeking sexual health information outside of SBSE. Other sources included family and other trusted adults, the Internet, and community resource centers. Students reported variable rates of use and trustworthiness across these resources. Results of this study suggest that school personnel should consider alternatives to traditional SBSE models to meet the needs of LGBTQ+ youth, and that an important part of SBSE should include guidelines for Internet safety.     

The professional role and exercise of the role of educational assistance professionals in schools with School Integration Programs in Chile

The incorporation of health professionals into inclusive schools is increasingly necessary. However, the work of these professionals has not yet been studied globally. This qualitative research analyses the perceptions of speech therapists, psychologists, physical therapists and occupational therapists on the role that educational policy defines for working in schools with School Integration Programmes in Chile. Through chain sampling, 52 professionals were interviewed. The data were analysed inductively through thematic analysis. The results show that the role defined by policies for professionals is not in line with the needs of schools and the aspirations of the inclusive approach. The exercise of the role emerges as a distinct entity from the defined role that seems to be more responsive to the needs of schools and students. Interviewees described tensions related to the role in schools, professional training, working conditions and contextual features that would permeate the role that the policy mandates them to play. The findings of the study promote new research horizons related to the role of professional assistants, where research is still incipient worldwide, and invite reflection on the importance of designing education policies with a bottom-up approach to capture the needs presented by learners and professional teams.     

A new industry creation and originality: Insight from the funding sources of university patents

Scientific breakthroughs coming from universities can contribute to the emergence of new industries, such as in the case of biotechnology. Obviously, not all research conducted in universities leads to a radical change from existing technological trajectories. Patents and patent dynamics have long been recognized as critical in understanding the emergence of new technologies and industries. Specifically, patent citations provide insight into the originality of a discovery that has received patent protection. Yet while a large body of literature addresses the impact of patent originality on various firm performance measures, we address the question of what conditions drive patent originality in the process of knowledge creation within the university. Using data on patented cancer research, we examine how research context – as reflected by the funding source for each scientist – is associated with patent originality. We find that when university scientists are partly funded by their own university, they have a higher propensity to generate more original patents. By contrast, university scientists funded either by industry or other non-university organizations have a lower propensity to generate more original patents. The significance of our findings in the cancer research setting call for further research on this question in other research fields.     

Solution pH change in non-uniform alternating current electric fields at frequencies above the electrode charging frequency

AC Faradaic reactions have been reported as a mechanism inducing non-ideal phenomena such as flow reversal and cell deformation in electrokinetic microfluidic systems. Prior published work described experiments in parallel electrode arrays below the electrode charging frequency (f_c), the frequency for electrical double layer charging at the electrode. However, 2D spatially non-uniform AC electric fields are required for applications such as in plane AC electroosmosis, AC electrothermal pumps, and dielectrophoresis. Many microscale experimental applications utilize AC frequencies around or above f_c. In this work, a pH sensitive fluorescein sodium salt dye was used to detect [H⁺] as an indicator of Faradaic reactions in aqueous solutions within non-uniform AC electric fields. Comparison experiments with (a) parallel (2D uniform fields) electrodes and (b) organic media were employed to deduce the electrode charging mechanism at 5 kHz (1.5f_c). Time dependency analysis illustrated that Faradaic reactions exist above the theoretically predicted electrode charging frequency. Spatial analysis showed [H⁺] varied spatially due to electric field non-uniformities and local pH changed at length scales greater than 50 μm away from the electrode surface. Thus, non-uniform AC fields yielded spatially varied pH gradients as a direct consequence of ion path length differences while uniform fields did not yield pH gradients; the latter is consistent with prior published data. Frequency dependence was examined from 5 kHz to 12 kHz at 5.5 V_pp potential, and voltage dependency was explored from 3.5 to 7.5 V_pp at 5 kHz. Results suggest that Faradaic reactions can still proceed within electrochemical systems in the absence of well-established electrical double layers. This work also illustrates that in microfluidic systems, spatial medium variations must be considered as a function of experiment time, initial medium conditions, electric signal potential, frequency, and spatial position.     

Subjective well-being in cultural advocacy: a politics of research between the market and the academy

This paper responds to a trend of contracting out subjective well-being econometrics to demonstrate social return on investment (SROI) for evidence-based policy-making. We discuss an evolving ecology of ‘external’ research taking place ‘between’ the academy and commercial consultancy. We then contextualise this as waves of research methodologies and consultancy for the cultural sector. The new model of ‘external between’ consultancy research for policy is not only placed between the University and the market, but also facilitates discourse between policy sectors, government, the media and the academy. Specifically, it enables seductive but selective arguments for advocacy that claim authority through academic affiliation, yet are not evaluated for robustness. To critically engage with an emergent form of what Stone calls ‘causal stories’, we replicate a publicly funded externally commissioned SROI model that argues for the value of cultural activities to well-being. We find that the author’s operationalisation of participation and well-being are crucial, yet their representation of the relationship problematic, and their estimates questionable. This case study ‘re-performs’ econometric modelling national-level survey data for the cultural sector to reveal practices that create norms of expertise for policy-making that are not rigorous. We conclude that fluid claims to authority allow experimental econometric models and measures to perform across the cultural economy as if ratified. This new model of advocacy research requires closer academic consideration given the changing research funding structures and recent attention to expertise and the contracting out of public services.     

What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities

A view of science as a culturally‐mediated way of thinking and knowing suggests that learning can be defined as engagement with scientific practices. How students engage in school science is influenced by whether and how students view themselves and whether or not they are the kind of person who engages in science. It is therefore crucial to understand students' identities and how they do or do not overlap with school science identities. In this paper, we describe four middle school African American girls' engagement with science. They were selected in the 7th grade because they expressed a fondness for science in school or because they had science‐related hobbies outside of school. The data were collected from the following sources: interviews of students, their parents and their teachers; observations in science classes; journal writing; and focus groups. These girls' stories provide us with a better understanding of the variety of ways girls choose to engage in science and how this engagement is shaped by their views of what kind of girl they are. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 441–458, 2000.     

Entrepreneurialism and the transformation of Russian universities

Like many Western knowledge‐practices, experiential learning is seen to require what is, in effect, an act of self‐dismemberment, a splitting of the head from the body that denies the connectedness of knowledge to the body and thus loses sight of knowledge as a product of corporeally and emotionally grounded human life. This article first traces the history through which modernist knowledge‐practices were predicated on the rejection of the experiencing body and examines the impact of the resultant epistemology on power relationships. It then suggests that, as a function of memory, experiential learning is more properly understood as an act of re‐membering. It argues that experience is itself located in the body as well as in the social and material locations that bodies invariably occupy — and asks what a theory of experiential learning might look like that re‐members body and mind.     

Comparison of Haptic and Biometric Properties,Bacterial Load,and Student Perception of Fixative Solutions: Formaldehyde Versus Chilean Conservative Fixative Solution with and without Formaldehyde in Pig Kidneys

One of the most widely used solutions to fix and preserve organic tissues is formaldehyde, despite reservations regarding its toxicity and the fact that formaldehyde-embalmed bodies lose their original characteristics. Anatomy laboratories have been replacing formaldehyde with solutions that retain the characteristics of fresh tissue. For this purpose, alternative solutions with a very low concentration of formaldehyde or without any formaldehyde have been analyzed. The objective of this study was to compare biometry, coloration, haptic properties, and bacterial load on animal specimens (pig kidneys) embalmed with formaldehyde, and with Chilean Conservative Fixative Solution with and without formaldehyde (formaldehyde chCFS and formaldehyde-free chCFS). Also, the perception of health and biological science students toward specimens treated with different solutions was assessed. The results indicated that there were no significant differences in specimens’ retraction, or bacterial load. Students showed a preference for organs embalmed in formaldehyde chCFS and formaldehyde-free chCFS; indicating that with these treatments they could better visualize structures and that the prosections had greater flexibility and the colors were more similar to those of fresh tissue. Additionally, students recommended the material embalmed in formaldehyde chCFS and formaldehyde-free chCFS for anatomy learning. In contrast, students indicated that formaldehyde-fixation negatively affected their practical experience. In conclusion, embalming with formaldehyde chCFS or formaldehyde-free chCFS provides an advantageous practical experience over the use of formaldehyde and may be an alternative to replace the use of formaldehyde in anatomy laboratories.     

Temporal effects of leadership style on state communication anxiety in small task‐oriented groups

This investigation reports a typology of maintenance behaviors that were derived through inductive analyses of papers students wrote about their strategies for maintaining various relationships. Ten major strategies were inductively derived: positivity; openness; assurances; sharing tasks; social networks; joint activities; cards/letters/calls; avoidance; anti‐social; and humor. These strategies extend the previous research on relational maintenance strategies. More specifically, the latter five strategies and the subcategories of all the strategies are additions to Stafford and Canary's (1991)typology. In addition, analyses revealed the positivity, openness, assurances, sharing tasks, and cards/letters/calls differed in their frequency of use among lovers, relatives, friends and others.