The Relationship Between Retention and College Counseling for High‐Risk Students

The author used an archival study to explore the relationship between college counseling and retention. The cohort for this study was a college's 2006 class of full‐time, 1st‐year students (N = 429). The results of chi‐square analyses and regression analyses indicated (a) a significant difference in retention between high‐risk and low‐risk students who used counseling services (CS) and (b) that a student's risk for dropout did not vary significantly over time based on risk level or CS use.     

“‘I Was Gonna Go Off,but My Best Friend is White.”: Hispanic Students’ Co-Cultural Reasoning in a Hispanic Serving Institution

The researchers engaged in a qualitative analysis (using journaling and focus group methodology) of the communicative behaviors of Hispanic students with White institutional members at a medium-sized, Southwest HSI. Utilizing Co-Cultural Theory and Elaborative Coding analysis, the authors mapped how Hispanic students narrated their co-cultural communication and reasoning (i.e., why they engage in one strategy rather than another). The findings show that, although Hispanic students used almost all co-cultural strategies, their responses were clustered primarily around assimilationist strategies – indicating that they engage in a high degree of self-monitoring and self-censorship when interacting with White institutional members in an HSI. These results suggest that even when Hispanic students constitute a large or majority part of the institution’s population, they still feel the need to engage in behaviors that navigate White norms. The study concludes by examining the findings for co-cultural theorizing as well as providing insights for instructors who wish to engage in inclusive teaching practices.     

Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginning deaf and hearing readers

The emerging reading and spelling abilities of 24 deaf and 23 hearing beginning readers were followed over 2 years. The deaf children varied in their language backgrounds and preferred mode of communication. All children were given a range of literacy, cognitive and language-based tasks every 12 months. Deaf and hearing children made similar progress in literacy in the beginning stages of reading development and then their trajectories began to diverge. The longitudinal correlates of beginning reading in the deaf children were earlier vocabulary, letter-sound knowledge, and speechreading. Earlier phonological awareness was not a longitudinal correlate of reading ability once earlier reading levels were controlled. Only letter name knowledge was longitudinally related to spelling ability. Speechreading was also a strong longitudinal correlate of reading and spelling in the hearing children. The findings suggested that deaf and hearing children utilize slightly different reading strategies over the first 2 years of schooling.     

Young weightlifters' performance across time

Prestigious professional organisations have questioned the efficacy of resistive training by children or have often neglected to address weightlifting in their position papers on resistive training for children. The purpose of this paper was to address the deficit in data regarding the efficacy of training children for weightlifting and to report data regarding to safety in this population. Eleven subjects (3 female, 8 male) who had trained at the USA Weightlifting Development Centre in Shreveport Louisiana for a minimum of 22 months (mean = 28.8; SD +/- 4.4) served as subjects for this study. Means for the pool of subjects subjected to t-test to compare data obtained at each subject's initial competition with that obtained at the individual's most recent competition revealed significant positive changes in body weight, snatch weight, clean and jerk weight, and total weight lifted. The latter three were significant both in absolute weight and in weight lifted per kg of body weight. Total weight lifted at competitions plotted separately for boys and for girls across time indicated an apparently steeper slope of improvement for boys. The latter were not tested for significance because of the small sample sizes. The lack of injury in training and in 534 competitive lifts was discussed. None required medical attention or loss of training time. It was concluded that there can be no doubt regarding the efficacy of weightlifting as carried out at the USA Weightlifting Development Centre. The importance of proper application of scientific theory of conditioning in a conservative manner for this population was emphasised.     

Statin use and self-reported swimming performance in US masters swimmers

Exercise and treating hyperlipidaemia with statins are two integral components of the American Heart Association guidelines to reduce cardiovascular risk in adults. Since statins can cause myalgias and myopathies, they could affect the duration or intensity of an exercise regimen. To determine the impact of statin use in adult masters swimmers, a survey was distributed to examine the association between swimming performance and statin usage in adult swimmers (≥35 years). After excluding those with chronic diseases or taking drugs that reduce physical capacity, 749 swimmers (118 taking statins, 73 not taking statins to control elevated cholesterol and 558 controls) were included in a regression model to determine the factors significantly affecting the duration and intensity of swimming workouts. Age and gender were significantly (P ≤ 0.001) associated with the distance swam per 60 min. Younger, male swimmers completed more yards per 60-min workout. Use of statins was not significantly associated with yards swam per 60-min workout. Nor did statin usage affect the number of swim sessions per month or the length of swim session. Evidently, statins do not cause enough fatigue or pain in masters swimmers to require a decrease in the duration or intensity of workouts.     

Evaluating the impact of library user training programmes across Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority in the UK

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to provide evidence that library outreach projects in the NHS in the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority area were effective and could justify continued funding. Objectives: The object was to assess whether information literacy skills training taken up by health professionals impacts on their confidence and skills in using electronic sources of health information. METHOD: A total of 487 health professionals taking up training on a voluntary basis were assessed by completing a self-assessment questionnaire prior to and after training to establish their information literacy skills and confidence levels. Of these, 223 trainees (46%) also returned 6-week follow-up questionnaires. RESULTS: Results showed that 464 trainees (95%) intended to apply what they had learnt in a variety of ways; use of specific resources greatly increased after training and confidence in using them increased substantially. Use of search techniques increased considerably overall, whereas use of Google decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The major findings of this research are that training health-care personnel in the use of electronic resources impacts positively on their information literacy skills and confidence, and that the information available to them is considered to have potential value across health-care practice.