804 research outputs found
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A Space-Occupying Lesion Manifesting as Unilateral Optic Disc Edema
Full text linkBackground: Primary and secondary orbital diseases can arise from different tissues in the periorbital regions as space-occupying lesion leading to ophthalmic symptoms. Therefore, eye care providers are often the first encounter for these patients.
Case report: A 54-year-old Caucasian male presented as a new patient at the eye clinic with an incidental finding of edema of the left optic disc. After a thorough optometric evaluation, a referral was made to a local ear-nose-throat (ENT) specialist who confirmed a diagnosis of cavernous hemangioma by further neuroimaging. Surgical removal eventuated in resolution of disc edema with restoration of vision.
Conclusion: An insidious and asymptomatic cavernous hemangioma can lead to irreversible vision loss and require surgical excision. Comprehensive ophthalmic examination and multimodal imaging are essential in early detection and timely management. A health care team consisting of an ENT surgeon, neuroradiologist and optometrist was necessary to manage this orbital space-occupying lesion successfully
Exploring Educators’ Perceptions and Practices of Self-Directed Learning in Graduate Education: A Basic Interpretive Qualitative Study
No full textThis research focused on how educators support students’ transition toward self-directed learning (SDL) by facilitating a learning environment that promotes increased student responsibility and independence. In this study, a basic interpretative qualitative approach was employed to explore educators’ perceptions and practices of SDL in graduate education, guided by Grow’s (1991) staged-self-directed learning model to better understand educators’ experiences and approaches of SDL. The participants of this study consisted of 11 educators from various graduate education institutions in South Texas, United States, who teach master\u27s and/or doctoral-level courses in the field of social sciences. Data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews and documents. The data analysis for the interview data involved a thematic analysis using both deductive and inductive analytical approaches. Document analysis was conducted using a directed content analysis approach. The data from the documents were used to compare and assess the extent to which they supported the findings from thematic analysis of the interview data. The findings from this research revealed that educators perceive SDL in graduate education as a vital, multifaceted approach where students actively participate in their learning journeys, take responsibility and control. Educators viewed SDL not merely as a skill for academic success but as a foundational element of lifelong learning, preparing students for continuous, independent learning across various contexts. They considered their role evolving from traditional instructors to facilitators, guiding students while promoting SDL. To implement SDL, educators adopted student-centered and active learning approaches that foster student independence and responsibility within flexible, personalized environments. Educators acknowledged that effective SDL implementation requires adapting instructional strategies to meet students\u27 varying needs and SDL readiness, supporting them in taking ownership of their learning journeys. The findings of this research have broader implications for graduate education as they highlight the effectiveness and increasing adoption of student-centered methodologies designed to foster SDL. The findings of this research suggest that educators, irrespective of their teaching expertise, content area, or instructional format, are increasingly prioritizing SDL principles, including student ownership of learning, flexibility, and a redefined educator role as a guide and facilitator. However, successful integration of SDL within graduate education requires it to be a consistent component across the entire curriculum rather than isolated within individual courses. Future research should explore the long-term impacts of SDL, consistency within programs, and the effects of educator training on SDL facilitation
Creating Spaces For Civic Engagement: A Qualitative Action Research Study on Sustaining Engagement and Generating Power Through Relational Community Organizing
No full textThe purposes of this action research (AR) study were threefold. First, to explore the key ingredients that Communities Organized for Public Service and the Metro Alliance (COPS/Metro)—a broad-based community organization in San Antonio, Texas—uses to keep ordinary citizens civically engaged. Secondly, my AR study aimed to use a critical pedagogy approach to leverage and amplify the same COPS/METRO process to increase civic engagement, raise awareness of redlining, and engage in actions to address the present-day effects of redlining. My third purpose was to understand the connection between the two better—in other words, how COPS/METRO civic engagement and awareness-raising lead to concrete action and how AR might amplify that process.
There were eleven participants in this study, all of whom were members of COPS/Metro, including leaders from four institutions located in marginalized communities. My AR process drew from traditional qualitative research methods and formative processes focused on critical pedagogy and active change-oriented interventions: Qualitative methods: I used semi-structured interviews, journaling, photographs, artifacts, and field notes to collect data (Charmaz, 2014; Saldana, 2021; & Leavy, 2017). Critical pedagogy: I facilitated two civic academies to increase civic engagement and raise awareness of redlining (Freire, 2020; Leavy, 2017; Stringer & Ortiz Aragón, 2021). Participatory actions: I engaged in various participatory organizing processes to address the long-term effects of redlining in terms of public safety in neighborhoods (speed humps), met with our councilwoman to effect policy change, and participated in a gun violence awareness campaign (Stringer & Ortiz Aragón, 2021).
I engaged in both individual and collective analysis processes. Individually, I used an iterative process of open, in vivo, and process coding, then organized the data into a category system through a constant comparison analysis method (Charmaz, 2014; Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Leech & Onwuegbuzie, 2007). Throughout the process, I invited participation in data analysis through the co-creation of knowledge used to inform subsequent steps, including in the civic academies.
Four key themes emerged from the study that explain what keeps citizens civically engaged in COPS/Metro and how critical pedagogy and AR can enhance this process. Overall, I discovered essential ingredients to the COPS/METRO Secret Sauce that nourish the spirit, mind, and body. The first theme I labeled The Truth Will Set You Free”—focuses on critical consciousness and the power of stories to enhance solidarity and co-create knowledge, thereby democratizing knowledge. Theme Two: The Secret Sauce that Sustains Civic Engagement. This theme consists of five key ingredients (subthemes) that nourish the spirit, mind, and body while sustaining civic engagement. These key ingredients are: Good Samaritans, Institutional Support, Spiritual and Personal Fulfillment, Social Networks, and Collective Action. A third theme—understanding COPS/METRO work as A Power University for the Common Good”—deeply addresses how leaders create relational power that empowers citizen leaders to act collectively and publicly in their communities, thus reinforcing the COPS/Metro “secret sauce” and knowledge democratization. Theme Four: Challenges to Civic Engagement fundamental to community organizing. Based on these findings, I developed a holistic model called the Relational Power Generation Model that sustains civic engagement and generates power. Through an iterative dynamic process, this model shows that power is generated in spaces created by the collaborative actions of organizers and leaders. These ingredients reinforce each other, and each generates energy that ultimately transforms into power to act collectively, power for the community, power with each other, power within each of us, and power within the organization that creates staying power to sustain the organization (Gaventa, 2021; Christens, 2019). My study can also be considered a systematization of experience (Holliday, 2014; Ortiz Aragón & Hoetmer, 2020), representing the documentation of collaboration between community organizing and AR. Action research and community organizing processes were pivotal in enabling this study\u27s findings and the conceptual model by providing a pathway for deep participation, reflexivity, relationality, and collective action
Ocular Myasthenia Gravis: A Case Report
No full textBackground: Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease caused by faulty transmission at the neuromuscular junction leading to fatigable muscular weakness. Ocular MG is distressing in that it can cause visual difficulties, but generalized MG can be life-threatening. MG is an acquired disorder that can easily be overlooked in clinic and is commonly misdiagnosed. Providers should be aware of the clinical features of this condition, as well as the critical testing needed to confirm the diagnosis so the appropriate management course can be implemented.
Case Report: This case features a 67-year-old Caucasian male diagnosed with ocular myasthenia gravis with in-office positive rest/ice testing and positive Cogan’s lid twitch sign, followed by confirmatory serum laboratory anti-acetylcholine binding, blocking and modulating antibody testing results. The patient was referred to neuro-ophthalmology where treatment with pyridostigmine bromide was initiated. In addition to the details of this case, this report highlights the other key diagnostics, laboratory testing and imaging, detailed pathogenesis, as well as systemic treatment options and ophthalmic interventions for the condition.
Conclusion: Ocular myasthenia gravis is a neuromuscular disease that is commonly misdiagnosed or overlooked, as it can mimic any pupil-sparing ocular motility disorder. Detailed patient history, clinical awareness, and special testing are all important in the diagnosis of ocular myasthenia gravis. In many cases the diagnosis can be tentatively made via in office non-invasive tests; however, laboratory investigation and imaging is necessary to rule out systemic myasthenia gravis. Interdisciplinary referrals and education can potentially avoid life threatening consequences
You Can\u27t Sit With Us: A Textual Analysis of Racial Hostility in the Sarah J. Maas Fandom on TikTok
Full text linkThis paper examines the relationship between fandom, race, and the cultivation of (digital) community. I argue that fandoms provide an important sense of community for many people and contribute to defining American pop culture in new and interesting ways. However, fandom communities are too often unwelcome or downright hostile to nonwhite fans or to fans who do not subscribe to the status quo of white supremacy. To explore how fandoms marginalize racial minorities, I conduct a textual analysis of the Sarah J. Maas (SJM) fandom’s rhetorical habits on TikTok. I have selected hashtags the fandom commonly uses to connect, and within these hashtags, I identified videos from users who are in the SJM fandom and critics of the fandom. This culture of upholding racism is true even for predominantly female fandoms, such as the SJM fandom, that would presumably operate with an inclusive feminist framework. Despite the culture of sisterhood built by the fandom, SJM fans often perpetuate white feminism and white fragility when confronted with criticism. Throughout my research, my findings are threefold. First, I identify the normative whiteness of the SJM fandom. Secondly, I examine the post-racial politics Maasassins weaponize against critics and use to continue supporting Maas and her work. Third, I highlight how fandoms can benefit when fans consider the critique of people of color and seek to operate more inclusively going forward
Faculty and Graduate Students\u27 Practicum Experiences and Challenges in Digital Environments During the Covid Pandemic: A Qualitative Instrumental Case Study
Full text linkResearch Focus. The Covid pandemic was an unprecedented event evolving from a novel virus unknown to humans, highly infectious with no human immunity, spreading globally (Bell et al., 2020). With the declaration of a worldwide pandemic in March 2020, graduate students and faculty of colleges and universities nationwide experienced a disruption in their graduate practicum/internship courses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use a qualitative instrumental case study design to explore the challenges faculty instructors faced with supervising graduate student practicums/internships, and the graduate student barriers with self-directed learning, when limited to digital environments during the Covid pandemic; within a private university’s graduate programs located in South Central Texas.
J. Swales’ Creating a Research Space (CARS) model (2008) with its three rhetorical strategies: establishing a territory, establishing a niche, and occupying the niche, were utilized as a framework towards understanding the problem, the existence of previous research, the importance of the topic, and the core issues needing to be further investigated. Due to the limited amount of studies, four issues were explored further to address changes in the learning platform: 1) What were graduate students’ experiences accessing digital and material resources while engaging in a graduate practicum or internship course during the Covid pandemic; 2) What contributed to a graduate student feeling a sense of isolation in their practicum or internship course due to being limited to a digital environment during the Covid pandemic; 3) What were the limitations graduate students encountered in locating a practicum or internship site supervisor/mentor due to being limited to a digital environment during the Covid pandemic; and 4) What were the instructional challenges experienced by faculty instructors when supervising graduate students’ practicums or internships when utilizing a digital environment during the Covid-pandemic.
Research Methods. The research design used was an instrumental case study, utilizing the primary data sources of semi-structured graduate student interviews, faculty interviews, and focus groups discussions. The instrumentation for the collection of data consisted of audio recordings, interview transcripts, field notes, course documents, memoing, and journaling. Building on Saldana’s (1995) coding strategies, Miles and Huberman’s (2020) code-to-theory was used in the data analysis, utilizing the qualitative analysis software of QDA Miner version 6.0 and Microsoft Delve version 2024 in the assessment of the transcription data. The population for this study consisted of graduate students enrolled in practicum/internship courses limited to a digital learning platform and the faculty instructors who taught graduate level practicum/internship courses during the period of spring 2020 to spring 2022.
Research Results/Findings. This case study’s findings revealed a total of five themes inclusive of one emerging theme. The five themes consisted of: 1) graduate student academic and socioeconomic divide; 2) faculty instructional and supervision challenges; 3) graduate student imbalance from seclusion, disruption in self-directed learning and lack of socialization; 4) faculty and student personal challenges impacting their well-being; and 5) graduate student dissatisfaction with the digital experience. Unexpectedly, the fourth theme developed from the physical, emotional, and personality trait challenges which surfaced from the barriers encountered by both graduate students and faculty instructors. The categories were represented in the conceptual framework of this case study, each theme also exemplified and characterized within educational theories which provided support and reasoning towards understanding the challenges with self-directed learning, isolation, and the various challenges faced by graduate students and faculty instructors.
Conclusions from Research. Inevitably, this national impact of the Covid pandemic did not allow the opportunity for colleges, universities, instructors/mentors to prepare for this sudden disruption. Therefore, the findings of this case study helped to identify and understand the graduate-level instructional impediments with supervising graduate students during practicums/internships, and their barriers to effectively engage in self-directed learning due to social distancing and a sense of isolation. Unfortunately, this sudden shift towards a digital platform accompanied with a limitation of time, did not allow for proper digital development to occur; thus resulting in graduate students having a dissatisfactory experience with their practicums and internships.
Upon the completion of this case study, answers to the research question and sub-questions were attained. The dissatisfaction and lack of readiness in shifting towards a digital platform were linked to an imbalanced academic situation and impact on graduate students and faculty instructors; with an increase of dissatisfaction coming from the lack of guidelines, need for training/tutorials to navigate through digital course modules and tools, and the need for a little technology savviness towards producing better interactive class discussions. Therefore, the theoretical recommendation of a “best practices” model was developed, to provide a plan when shifting to a digital learning platform. This model addresses three major areas attained from the data analysis, which are: college/university resources and support, socialization for the increase of self-directed motivation, and support of faculty instructors, educational institutions, and graduate student peers. Through substantial development, this theory model could be implemented as part of a faculty instructor’s course building prior to teaching a graduate practicum/internship course, with the goal of establishing preexisting digital course material should the course need to be shifted to a digital platform or evolve into a Hy-flex course.
Consequently, with the development of this best practices model, the implications of this case study can be understood as revolving around the real-world impact of addressing graduate students’ challenges with self-directed learning, isolation and academic challenges when utilizing a digital platform; while addressing faculty instructor’s challenges with digital supervision, digital divide, and personal challenges. In addition, providing research data for future development of strategies and evaluations of digital practicums/internships and data in support of future research; with recommendations evolving from the researcher’s reflection on the challenges and barriers encountered by the graduate students and faculty instructors, in an effort towards helping to close the gap between the classroom and online populations