The Capacity to Consent to Research Among Older Adults

The aim of this study was to develop and validate an assessment tool for research consent competence in older participants. A four-item instrument was developed to assess the capacity of the older adults to consent to research. Data were obtained from 203 nursing home residents from two facilities and 201 community-dwelling older adults in a metropolitan city in South Korea. The results revealed that the four-item instrument for assessing the capacity of older adults to consent to research had good internal consistency, convergent and concurrent validity, an acceptable model fit, and good sensitivity and specificity. The short form can be used for gerontological researchers to encourage their older participants to have the capacity to consent to research in informed consent process.     

Body-Mind-Spirit Practice for Healthy Aging

This community-based, health promotion intervention for seniors provided a comprehensive review of the effect of body-mind-spirit (BMS) interventions on health behaviors. The 12-week curriculum offered sessions on exercise, nutrition, sexuality, leisure, stress management, cognitive behavioral therapy, forgiveness, and happiness. Gerontological experts carefully reviewed the adequacy of the program's objectives and instructional methods to meet the needs of older adults in South Korea. Seventy community-dwelling older adults were recruited at two community welfare centers and assigned to experimental (n = 32) and control (n = 38) groups. Extensive evaluations found that participation in the BMS program contributed to better outcomes in both physical and spiritual dimensions of health.     

Reading Performances Between Novices and Experts in Different Media Multitasking Environments

This experimental study investigated connections between subject expertise and multitasking ability among college students. One hundred thirty college students participated in the study. Participants were assessed on their subject expertise and reading tasks under three conditions: (a) reading only (silence condition), (b) reading with a video playing in the background (background multitasking condition), and (c) reading and watching video simultaneously (test multitasking condition). The data indicated that the participants performed best in the background condition; the experts scored better than the novices; experts performed better when the reading-comprehension questions were more difficult. Implications for teaching are discussed.     

Book review essay

THE MYTH OF PSYCHOTHERAPY: MENTAL HEALING AS RELIGION, RHETORIC, AND REPRESSION. By Thomas Szasz. New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1978, 236 pages, $8.95.

SCHIZOPHRENIA: THE SACRED SYMBOL OF PSYCHIATRY. By Thomas Szasz. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1976, 204 pages, $10.00.     

Community education as citizen organising for democratic accountability

This article focuses on the role of adult education in community development initiatives that intentionally aim at more general and equitable power-sharing arrangements at local and regional levels. It argues that community-based learning is a necessary component of community development and the rejuvenation of democracy. In the new millennium, citizens participating in civil society need the vehicle of a city-wide broad-based organisation to act for the attainment of these goals. Adult education in North America was founded on citizen action—often around migrant issues: adequate shelter, jobs, English language acquisition, poverty, and urbanisation. Responses to common needs in the Mechanics Institutes, Citizens' Forums, and the Antigonish Movement are only a few examples of how citizen learning changed lifeworld conditions. In this unsettled and unsettling historical moment, as we move from late modernity or post-modernity to some version of a “new world order”, the potential contributions of critical adult education to the future well-being of a global civil society are becoming increasingly apparent. Identifying and assessing means of resistance to the escalating encroachments of international finance and administrative power into the domains of individual and community autonomy is one practical role for adult education.     

对WebQuest的学生观感研究

WebQuest将专题研习和网络结合起来,给学生提供了建构主义的学习环境.学生对学习环境的观感决定了他们的学习方式和结果,同时可以给教师的教提供直接的反馈.本研究采用混合式的研究方法对香港10所中小学的学生进行观感方面的调查访谈,结果认为WebQuest改善了他们的学习态度.     

Assessment of highway slope failure using neural networks

An artificial intelligence technique of back-propagation neural networks is used to assess the slope failure. On-site slope failure data from the South Cross-Island Highway in southern Taiwan are used to test the performance of the neural network model. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of artificial neural networks in the evaluation of slope failure potential based on five major factors, such as the slope gradient angle, the slope height, the cumulative precipitation, daily rainfall and strength of materials.     

Chlorella vulgaris triggers apoptosis in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats

Chlorella vulgaris (CV) has been reported to have antioxidant and anticancer properties. We evaluated the effect of CV on apoptotic regulator protein expression in liver cancer-induced rats. Male Wistar rats (200∼250 g) were divided into eight groups: control group (normal diet), CDE group (choline deficient diet supplemented with ethionine in drinking water to induce hepatocarcinogenesis), CV groups with three different doses of CV (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight), and CDE groups treated with different doses of CV (50, 150, and 300 mg/kg body weight). Rats were sacrificed at various weeks and liver tissues were embedded in paraffin blocks for immunohistochemistry studies. CV, at increasing doses, decreased the expression of anti-apoptotic protein, Bcl-2, but increased the expression of pro-apoptotic protein, caspase 8, in CDE rats, which was correlated with decreased hepatoctyes proliferation and increased apoptosis as determined by bromodeoxy-uridine (BrdU) labeling and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) assay, respectively. Our study shows that CV has definite chemopreventive effect by inducing apoptosis via decreasing the expression of Bcl-2 and increasing the expression of caspase 8 in hepatocarcinogenesis-induced rats. Project supported by Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, UKM Medical Center, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the Malaysian Ministry of Science and Technological Innovation (MOSTI)     

Implementing a case‐based e‐learning environment in a lecture‐oriented anaesthesiology class: Do learning styles matter in complex problem solving over time?*

This study explores how students' learning styles influence their learning while solving complex problems when a case‐based e‐learning environment is implemented in a conventional lecture‐oriented classroom. Seventy students from an anaesthesiology class at a dental school participated in this study over a 3‐week period. Five learning‐outcome tests and two course‐satisfaction surveys were implemented during the case‐based instruction using a blended approach (online and face‐to‐face). The results of one‐way ANOVAs with repeated measures revealed that the four learning styles (active–reflective, sensing–intuitive, visual–verbal, sequential–global) did not influence students' learning experience and learning outcomes during the implementation of case‐based e‐learning. However, the pattern of the students' performance graph and further analysis with a liberal approach implied that the active–reflective learning style may influence learning outcomes slightly at an earlier time during the case‐based learning implementation; however, as time passed, this learning style no longer influenced their learning at all. Thus, learning styles may not be considered important or may be considered only during the early stages of instructional implementation in order to facilitate the students' transition to the new case‐based learning environment. It is more efficient to encourage students to adapt to different learning environments than to design adaptive systems in order to embrace diverse learning styles.