San Diego State University

About: San Diego State University is a education organization based out in San Diego, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 12418 authors who have published 27950 publications receiving 1192375 citations. The organization is also known as: SDSU & San Diego State College.

Prevalence of Diabetes Among Hispanics/Latinos From Diverse Backgrounds: The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)

Abstract: OBJECTIVE We examine differences in prevalence of diabetes and rates of awareness and control among adults from diverse Hispanic/Latino backgrounds in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The HCHS/SOL, a prospective, multicenter, population-based study, enrolled from four U.S. metropolitan areas from 2008 to 2011 16,415 18–74-year-old people of Hispanic/Latino descent. Diabetes was defined by either fasting plasma glucose, impaired glucose tolerance 2 h after a glucose load, glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C), or documented use of hypoglycemic agents (scanned medications). RESULTS Diabetes prevalence varied from 10.2% in South Americans and 13.4% in Cubans to 17.7% in Central Americans, 18.0% in Dominicans and Puerto Ricans, and 18.3% in Mexicans ( P P P P = 0.0010) but was negatively related to education ( P = 0.0005) and household income ( P = 0.0043). Rate of diabetes awareness was 58.7%, adequate glycemic control (A1C CONCLUSIONS Present findings indicate a high prevalence of diabetes but considerable diversity as a function of Hispanic background. The low rates of diabetes awareness, diabetes control, and health insurance in conjunction with the negative associations between diabetes prevalence and both household income and education among Hispanics/Latinos in the U.S. have important implications for public health policies.

Visual-spatial thinking: An aspect of science overlooked by educators

Abstract: Thinking with images plays a central role in scientific creativity and communication but is neglected in science classrooms. This article reviews the fundamental role of imagery in science and technology and our current knowledge of visual-spatial cognition. A novel analogic and thematic organization of images and visualization within science and technology is proposed that can help in the generation and evaluation of classroom activities and materials, and serve as a focus for professional development programs in visual-spatial thinking for science teachers. Visual-spatial thinking includes vision—using the eyes to identify, locate, and think about objects and ourselves in the world, and imagery—the formation, inspection, transformation, and maintenance of images in the “mind's eye” in the absence of a visual stimulus. A spatial image preserves relationships among a complex set of ideas as a single chunk in working memory, increasing the amount of information that can be maintained in consciousness at a given moment. Vision and imagery are fundamental cognitive processes using specialized pathways in the brain and rely on our memory of prior experience. Visual-spatial thinking develops from birth, together with language and other specialized abilities, through interactions between inherited capabilities and experience. Scientific creativity can be considered as an amalgam of three closely allied mental formats: images; metaphors; and unifying ideas (themes). Combinations of images, analogies, and themes pervade science in the form of “master images” and visualization techniques. A critique of current practice in education contrasts the subservient role of visual-spatial learning with the dominance of the alphanumeric encoding skills in classroom and textbooks. The lack of coherence in curriculum, pedagogy, and learning theory requires reform that addresses thinking skills, including imagery. Successful integration of information, skills and attitudes into cohesive mental schemata employed by self-aware human beings is a basic goal of education. The current attempt to impose integration using themes is criticized on the grounds that the required underpinning in cognitive skills and content knowledge by teachers and students may be absent. Teaching strategies that employ visual-spatial thinking are reviewed. Master images are recommended as a novel point of departure for a systematic development of programs on visual-spatial thinking in research, teacher education, curriculum, and classroom practice. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Sci Ed 83:3–54, 1999.

Birth Cohort Increases in Narcissistic Personality Traits Among American College Students, 1982–2009

Abstract: Previous research produced conflicting results on whether narcissistic personality traits have increased among American college students over the generations. Confounding by campus may explain the discrepancy. Study 1 updates a nationwide meta-analysis of college students' scores on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) and controls for campus (k = 107; N = 49,818). In Study 2, the authors examine NPI scores among the students on one university campus, the University of South Alabama, between 1994 and 2009 (N = 4,152). Both studies demonstrate significant increases in narcissism over time (Study 1 d = .37, 1982–2008, when campus is controlled; Study 2 d = .37, 1994–2009). These results support a generational differences model of individual personality traits reflecting changes in culture.