Community colleges continue to experience high levels of student attrition and low degree/certificate completion rates. Given extant literature, there appears to be a need to reexamine how interactions between students and the institution, and students and institutional agents are taking place, with the aim of identifying institutional practices that deleteriously or positively impact degree completion and thus guide colleges to develop action plans to improve conditions for student success. This study examined how factors such as institutional commitment to students, mattering, sense of belonging, interactions with diverse peers, perceptions of the campus climate, engagement/involvement, socio-academic integrative experiences, and goal commitment collectively affected community college students’ intent to persist to degree completion. The proposed model tested the tenability of seven propositions examining how the above constructs interact to influence intent to persist. The sample consisted of 2,088 multiply diverse community college students. The conceptual model was grounded on Astin’s (1991) Input-Environment-Outcome model and was tested in the context of structural equation modeling. Multiple group invariance analyses for race/ethnicity were conducted. The conceptual model explained 28% of the variance on intent to persist for Asian students, 21% for White students, and 19% for Latino/a students. Results indicated that transition support from family/friends exerted the highest effect on intent to persist across all racial/ethnic groups, followed by engagement/involvement, perceptions of mattering, interactions with diverse peers, GPA, goal commitment, and socio-academic integrative experiences, albeit varying by group. This study was the first in the literature to empirically demonstrate a causal effect between institutional commitment to students and perceptions of mattering. Mattering, in turn, exerted a moderate to strong influence on engagement/involvement, socio-academic integrative experiences, sense of belonging, and indirectly on intent to persist. Evidence in support of an omnibus “student development and success” construct, as alluded to by Wolf-Wendel, et al. (2009) is also presented. Of import to these findings is that while this construct explained a significant proportion of the variance for engagement/involvement, belonging, mattering, and interactions with diverse peers, the individual factors exerted an independent effect on intent to persist. Implications for theory, research, and practice are also discussed.

This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

Altered neuromuscular processing and motor output as both a risk and perpetuating factor for chronic neck pain is a relative new area of study. The cervical flexion relaxation response (FRR) is a reproducible and reliable marker of differences in neuromuscular function between neck pain patients and controls. Change in joint position sense (JPS) of upper limb joints has also been linked to chronic neck pain. Studies in this thesis sought to develop an experimental model in humans to investigate whether the FRR and JPS can be altered by fatigue and/or postural stress. Additionally a pilot study on the effect of three months of chiropractic treatment on the FRR was conducted. The studies revealed that muscular fatigue is a modulator of the FRR and may play a large role in spine stabilization. Minor postural alterations in the neck can impact joint position error at the elbow and 12 weeks of chiropractic care is a useful therapy to improve chronic and recurrent neck pain as well as improving the cervical FRR. / UOIT

Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explain how executives can make effective use of fables provided by external guest speakers to create a situation of collective sense-making and centring, based on the story used in a policy making context of a private, Dutch for-profit organization ( fictitiously called Con-Zelo recruitment agency in this article ).   Design/methodology/approach The approach involved collecting and analyzing the ‘Swimming for gold’ fable as part of seven months phenomenological and symbolic study, to confirm organizational sense, identify categorized themes and analyze the process of creation. In which co-author Volkers, as a former member, had access to the organization and familiarity with the organization its history.   Findings The findings emphasize that both fables and myths can in fact establish organizational sense and centring based on categorized themes. Most important is that fables shared by an external guest speaker should not be considered as a singular event, but as start of a process; a true vehicle for collective sense-making and centring. Organizations can then do so through changes and alignment in all five types of cultural artifacts.   Originality/value This paper provides additional value by bridging the gap between theory and practice. Besides illustrating that fables do in fact contain the power to promote a particular point of view, specific meaning and or values and therewith establish organizational sense and centring. This study includes the documentation and cultural analysis of the fable, and illustrates the fable as a vehicle or process for collective sense-making and centring. Furthermore, the suggested fable-stretching model is a so called ‘soup-to-nuts’ approach that can serve as a blue-print for organizational researchers and change agents interested in using external guest speakers and the personal fables they carry out, to establish collective sense-making and centring within an organizational context.

Throughout the nineteenth and into the twentieth century, theories of race contributed to the justification and authorization of global European imperialism and the colonization of indigenous people. In Canada, racial theories influenced perceptions of each citizen as either superior or inferior. Although European and American theorists constructed hundreds of ideas about race, there are several key ideas that continue to linger in the minds of Canadians. This thesis examines the socio-ideological context of racial theories and provides an historical account of the construction of race. The historical account highlights four prominent ideas: white superiority, non-white inferiority (marked by low intelligence levels), the belief in inherent racial characteristics, and racial purity and contamination. In Saskatchewan, these ideas continue to surface in discourse about Aboriginal people and relations between the non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal population. Although constructed ideas about race are scientifically unsound and grounded in the belief in white superiority, these ideas are often normalized as common sense and not easily recognized as constructed. Discourse and practices that appear to be emancipatory for Aboriginal people but rely on constructed ideas about race need to be re-examined. This thesis provides several examples of where these ideas surface in Saskatchewan discourse and recommends anti-racist education as an alternative.

This preliminary investigation utilized both a top-down theory (Banduras Self-Efficacy Theory: SET, 1997) and a bottom-up theory (Leventhals Common Sense Model: CSM, 1980) to examine the cognitions and exercise behavior of novice cardiac rehabilitation (CR) participants engaged in 3 months of standard CR treatment. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate if the Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ,) as a reflection of the CSM, could classify CR novices relative to the strength of their illness perceptions. A further objective was to detect differences at baseline between the illness perception groups when evaluating SET variables and health-related outcomes that have been identified as important correlates of CR adherence. Additionally, the study proposed to determine differences between illness perception groups on adherence to recommended exercise therapy in CR. Lastly, differences between the groups on the assessed variables over the 3 month-rehabilitation period was examined. Forty-nine CR initiates were recruited. Participants were measured at 4 different time points over the 3-month initiation phase of CR. The IPQ, SF-36 (assessing health-related quality of life; HRQL,) and other social cognitive measures, including self-regulatory efficacy and positive and negative outcome expectations, were used to examine individuals. Participants completed measures at initiation of CR, after 2 weeks in CR, 6 weeks in CR and at the end of the 3-month initiate phase of CR. At onset of the program, cluster analysis successfully classified participants to weaker and stronger symptom-identity groups (i.e., illness perception groups). These groups were shown to be significantly different on the illness perceptions of identity, consequences and emotion. Upon initiation of CR, the classified groups were also significantly different on likelihood and value of negative outcome expectations, as well as physical and mental HRQL. At baseline, the group with stronger identity, consequences and emotion had higher negative outcome expectations and lower HRQL. In regards to adherence at the end of 3-months of CR, significant differences were found between the groups such that the group with stronger identity, consequences and emotion were less adherent to CR. This study was an initial exploration of the effectiveness of using the CSM along with SET. The findings offer insight into complementary use of top-down and bottom-up theoretical constructs to study psychological beliefs and adherence to exercise therapy in this rehabilitation setting.

Cleft palate is a common human birth defect caused by any process which interferes with palatogenesis. Studies in Hoxa2 mutant (Hoxa2-/-) mice which exhibit a secondary cleft palate were reported to be due to an abnormal positioning of the tongue which prevents normal palatal shelf fusion to occur. To obtain direct evidence for the importance of Hoxa2 in murine palate development, an in vitro whole organ palatal culture model was developed, eliminating any influences from the tongue. A retroviral gene delivery system was employed, containing either Hoxa2 sense or Hoxa2 antisense cDNA, to respectively enhance or knockdown the expression of Hoxa2 mRNA in the developing palate. <p>Our results show that palatal cultures infected with the lowest titer of Hoxa2 sense virus induce a fusion rate of 72.7%, which is similar to palatal cultures treated with the control virus (81.8%), although fusion rates of 41.2% to 50.0% were observed in palates infected with higher titers. With the antisense virus treated group, a more profound inhibition of the fusion rate was observed (27.7% - 46.1%), which is comparable with the frequency of palatal fusion in Hoxa2-/- mice (44.4%). Additionally, the palatal shelves in both sense and antisense virus treated groups appear to be relatively shorter in length, than those measured in the control group. Interestingly, in the antisense virus treated group, the ratio of the length of the fused portion to the length of palatal shelves appears to be relatively large compared to the control group. Verification and quantification of Hoxa2 mRNA in the developing palate between E12.5 and E15.5 was performed by real-time RT-PCR. Hoxa2 gene expression was observed at all stages studied, with expression being the highest at E12.5 and declining from E13.5. The expression level remained constant from E13.5 through E15.5. These findings demonstrate for the first time that Hoxa2 may play a direct role in murine palate development. Results suggest that both factors (the absence of Hoxa2 gene in the palate causing delayed palatal development, as well as the position of the tongue) appear to act in unison to produce cleft palate in Hoxa2 knockout mice.

This study explored the experiences of young adult members of a Ukrainian Catholic community in Western Canada using the concept of sense of community as a conceptual framework. Psychological sense of community refers to a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members needs will be met through their commitment to be together (p. 9, McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Sense of community has been studied primarily at the level of the individual, rather than the group or community. This research used focus groups to move beyond the level of the individual to examine the sense of community shared by Ukrainian Catholic young adults. A total of 22 young adults participated in six focus groups. Qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts using Ethnograph 5.07 (Robbins & Seidel, 1998) revealed that belonging, familiarity with community members, and trust that the community would support them, were three core aspects of the sense of community shared by these young adults. Three supportive aspects that increased sense of community also emerged from this study: participation in church services and community events, similarity in members beliefs, values, interests and goals, and a strong sense of ones ethnic and religious heritage and traditions. These findings argue for the inclusion of participation as a dimension of sense of community rather than a correlate. Challenges to all of these aspects tended to decrease young adults sense of community. Lack of shared beliefs, feelings of intimidation in a new parish and hypocrisy in the actions of other community members were especially damaging to young adults sense of community. Based on this information, four areas of need were identified for the Ukrainian Catholic young adult population and suggestions were made to help strengthen their sense of community. The use of focus groups allowed for the emergence of a description of sense of community that was reflective of the ethnic, religious and developmental characteristics of the population under study. Future research should employ methodologies that are sensitive to the context-dependent nature of this construct.

I denna uppsats undersöker jag relationen mellan känsla av sammanhang (KASAM) och styrkan i den religiösa tron (SCSORF) genom en enkätundersökning genomförd utifrån ett bekvämt urval. Resultatet från undersökningen visade att ingen korrelation föreligger mellan KASAM och SCSORF och att styrkan i den religiösa tron därför inte kan antas påverka KASAM. Dock innebär urvalsmetoden och storleken på urvalet (n = 22) att denna slutsats är osäker och att en större undersökning med bättre forskningsdesign behövs för att slutligen kunna fastställa om styrkan i den religiösa tron påverkar KASAM.

This study explored the experiences of young adult members of a Ukrainian Catholic community in Western Canada using the concept of sense of community as a conceptual framework. Psychological sense of community refers to a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members needs will be met through their commitment to be together (p. 9, McMillan & Chavis, 1986). Sense of community has been studied primarily at the level of the individual, rather than the group or community. This research used focus groups to move beyond the level of the individual to examine the sense of community shared by Ukrainian Catholic young adults. A total of 22 young adults participated in six focus groups. Qualitative analysis of focus group transcripts using Ethnograph 5.07 (Robbins & Seidel, 1998) revealed that belonging, familiarity with community members, and trust that the community would support them, were three core aspects of the sense of community shared by these young adults. Three supportive aspects that increased sense of community also emerged from this study: participation in church services and community events, similarity in members beliefs, values, interests and goals, and a strong sense of ones ethnic and religious heritage and traditions. These findings argue for the inclusion of participation as a dimension of sense of community rather than a correlate. Challenges to all of these aspects tended to decrease young adults sense of community. Lack of shared beliefs, feelings of intimidation in a new parish and hypocrisy in the actions of other community members were especially damaging to young adults sense of community. Based on this information, four areas of need were identified for the Ukrainian Catholic young adult population and suggestions were made to help strengthen their sense of community. The use of focus groups allowed for the emergence of a description of sense of community that was reflective of the ethnic, religious and developmental characteristics of the population under study. Future research should employ methodologies that are sensitive to the context-dependent nature of this construct.