Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio State University, 1932. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 55-56). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to explore individuals’ experience with persistence in maintaining a regular practice of formal mindfulness. Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the main findings derived from in-depth semi-structured interviews with five mindfulness practitioners. Other sources included the pre-interview questionnaire, which asked for experience with mindfulness, field notes, a reflective journal, and feedback from the participants (member-check). Twenty-two codes were identified through the process of thematic data analysis. After grouping them based on relevance, seven themes emerged: (a) Creating appropriate conditions to practice, (b) flexibility in practice, (c) reaching out, (d) developing and maintaining habits, (e) living the teachings of mindfulness, (f) motivated to experience benefits, and (g) learning from lived experience. All codes and themes were related to both sources of motivation and actions taken by participants associated with persistence in maintaining a regular practice of formal mindfulness. The findings of this study have implications for psychotherapists and counsellors who want to incorporate mindfulness into their therapy practice. They contribute ideas for drawing on mindfulness as a self-care practice, and also for enhancing the therapeutic relationship with clients. The study also contributes useful ideas for mindfulness instructors in supporting their trainees in maintaining a continuous and regular practice following a mindfulness program.

PhD Thesis / Long-term persistence with oral anticoagulants (OAC) in atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with improved outcomes. However, 1-year discontinuation of vitamin K antagonists (VKA) is as high as 50%. Persistence to non-VKA oral anticoagulants (NOAC) show some signal of improvement but the estimates are variable. This thesis includes a prospective evaluation of newly diagnosed AF patients in 44 countries using physician reported start and stop dates of anticoagulation. One-year persistence to dabigatran was 75.6% and 69.2% at 2 years. Approximately half of discontinuers switched to another OAC, increasing estimates of general overall 2-year OAC persistence to 84.1%. Probability of discontinuation was highest in the first 6 month period (83.7%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 82.7-84.8%) and lower in successive periods. Patients persistent with dabigatran at 1 year had >90% probability of remaining persistent at 2 years. Patients with symptomatic AF, and prior bleeding had higher discontinuation, those with prior stroke, lower discontinuation. Standardized stroke incidence rates post-discontinuation were (95% CI) 1.76 (0.89 to 2.76) in non-switchers, and 1.02 (0.43 to 1.76) in those who switched, consistent with the expected benefit of remaining on treatment. Supplemental patient education may be one mechanism to improve persistence to treatment and improve patient outcomes. A systematic review of the impact of education on outcomes in 9 randomized clinical trials showed low to very low certainty of evidence for benefit of education over usual care. Sufficiently powered trials or different approaches are required to further assess the impact of education on patient outcomes. Finally, important considerations for interpreting available research in OAC persistence, including differences in study methodology, setting, and timing are examined, and patient factors associated with higher or lower persistence reported. A framework for assessing persistence studies is presented to assist researchers and clinicians in evaluating current research and to support planning of future studies. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Oral anticoagulants (OAC) are approved for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, however discontinuation rates are high and associated with poor patient outcomes. Prior to the last decade, medications to reduce blood clotting by reducing vitamin K action [vitamin K antagonists (VKA)] were primarily used. However, up to 50% of patients discontinue VKA within one year. The introduction of non-VKA (NOAC) anticoagulants that do not require continuous monitoring or dose adjustments, show some promise of improvement in persistence. This thesis examines and reports on long-term persistence over 2 years to the first NOAC available, dabigatran. Reasons, clinical predictors, and periods of risk for discontinuation as well as outcomes following discontinuation are prospectively examined. A systematic review of educational interventions examines existing evidence for improving outcomes with structured education. Finally, important considerations for interpreting OAC persistence research as well as recommendations for future research in this area are discussed.

The English-as-a-second-language (ESL) community college student population has increased notably in the past decade, but a decreasing number of these students are completing courses, programs, or degrees (Erisman & Looney, 2008). These students come to college with unique background experiences, and once in college, deal with challenging linguistic, academic, and social integration issues. Though they are not linguistically homogenous, and they do not have a common purpose, ESL students share the common goal of attending community college to learn to speak English (Szelényi & Chang, 2002). Course completion is a primary measure of progress toward that goal, and is therefore an issue of concern for both ESL students and community colleges, which continue to be the access point for language-minority students progressing into higher education (Laden, 2004). The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors that predict in-term persistence of community college ESL students. A mixed methods research design consisting of two phases was utilized, and participants in this study were ESL students enrolled in a large community college in south Florida. Phase 1 students completed the Community College ESL Student Questionnaire (CCSEQ), which collected demographic data and data on entry characteristics, academic integration, and social integration. Discriminant and descriptive analyses were used to report the data collected in Phase I. Phase 2 students were a matching cohort of completing and non-completing students who participated in semi-structured interviews at the end of the term. Data collected in the interviews were analyzed thematically, using a constant comparative method as described by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Students’ self reported demographic data, background characteristics, goal commitment, and integration factors on the CCSEQ showed no significance between the students who completed the term and the students who did not complete the term. However, several differentiating themes emerged from the interview data, which indicated differences in goal commitment and integration between the two groups. The focus of non-completers on getting good grades rather than completing the course, and the commitment of completers to the goal of finishing the class in order to go forward, both raise questions for future research studies.

This study uses a range of magnetic parameters, eg. Susceptibility (X), Saturation Isothermal Remanence (SIRM), Anhysteretic Remanence (ARM), interparametric ratios (ARM/X, SIRM/X, SIRM/ARM) and coercivity of remanence data (IRM-n/SIRM, (BO)CR), coupled with various dating methods (eg. moss increment counting and radiometric dating) to estimate the magnetic deposition onto some Scandinavian peat bogs. The sites available included 4 from southern Finland, 5 from northern Finland, 2 from northern Norway and 1 from southern Denmark. In addition to the magnetic techniques, a range of chemical determinations (iron, copper, zinc, lead, nickel and, where available, manganese) have been made, or are utilised, for all the peat cores. The reproducibility of the primary magnetic deposition record at Kaurastensuo, southern Finland has been examined. The rise in magnetic particulate concentrations, termed the magnetic 'take-off', was consistently dated to about 1931 for 7 of the 8 cores used, regardless of hummock-hollow micro topography. The persistence of magnetic minerals over timescales of 101-103 years has been examined by means of long core profiles from 4 southern Finnish bogs. The mineral magnetic and heavy metal profiles (iron, copper, zinc, lead and nickel) were in reasonable accord with the development of the individual bogs above different mineral soils. The development of peat profiles is dated from between 8000-9000 years BP using 14C dates spanning both the ombrotrophic and minerotrophic phases. The availability of moss increment counts for the northern Scandinavian sites and 210Pb determinations for Draved Moss, southern Denmark and Mo-I-Rana, northern Norway, has allowed estimates of variation in the magnetic deposition to be made. The northern Scandinavian sites all show increasing deposition from 1900, although maximum surface deposition varies from site to site, between 1.24-22.6 10-6Am2yr-1. The magnetic deposition at Draved Moss was estimated to be 21.6 10-6Am2yr-1 at a subsurface maximum dated to between 1967-1978. The increase in lead deposition at Draved Moss is in reasonable agreement with that of published lead deposition profiles from the same site, using earlier attempts at 210Pb determinations. At Mo-I-Rana, northern Norway the maximum magnetic deposition value is estimated to be 8.65 10-6Am'yr-1 for the surface slice, spanning the last 21 years. Any spatial variation in deposition within the Scandinavian sites appears to be partly masked by site-specific features, for example the close proximity of industrial sources at 2 of the Finnish sites and the iron and steel works at Mo-I-Rana. Magnetic deposition at the latter site is in good agreement with the history of iron and steel production within the region since the turn of the century.

Few research efforts have tested Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory in an educational setting. Though the results from these studies have provided support for this theory's applicability in this setting, the effects of certain model behaviors and characteristics have not yet been determined. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of videotaped peer models on children's self-efficacy judgments and persistence times on an intellectual task. One hundred and sixty-two fourth grade children were randomly assigned to one of eight experimental conditions or one control condition with equal numbers of males and females in each condition. Eight videotapes constituted the eight experimental conditions. Each tape consisted of either a male or female peer model trying to solve a block puzzle at one of two levels of persistence and success. Children's persistence on the insolvable block puzzle was measured by time in seconds, while an efficacy scale assessed children's conviction that they could master the block puzzle. It was found that children's persistence times and self-efficacy judgments regarding a block puzzle task were influenced by a model's persistence and success behaviors. Model persistence was more influential than model success on children's persistence, while self-efficacy was influenced only by model success. Sex of the model and sex of the subject did not affect children's persistence times; however, sex of the subject did affect children's self-efficacy judgments. The research findings were discussed in terms of: (1) The role of self-efficacy as a cognitive mediator, (2) Same-sex versus different sex modeling, (3) The utility and strength of videotaped modeling relative to live modeling, and (4) Peer models versus adult models.

No description available.

This study was undertaken to make a comparative analysis of selected nonintellective characteristics of intellectually superior female students who persisted and those who did not persist in an Advanced Placement Program offering sequentially planned course offerings in mathematics and science. A second dimension of the study was an investigation of selected nonintellective traits to determine if the students' scores are elevated in the same direction as those of superior female adults who have been studied on essentially the same dimensions.