Anti-depressants and Suicide

Does drug treatment for depression with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) increase or decrease the risk of completed suicide? The question is important in part because of recent government warnings that question the safety of SSRIs, one of the most widely prescribed medications in the world. While there are plausible clinical and behavioral arguments that SSRIs could have either positive or negative effects on suicide, randomized clinical trials have not been very informative because of small samples and other problems. In this paper we use data from 26 countries for up to 25 years to estimate the effect of SSRI sales on suicide mortality using just the variation in SSRI sales that can be explained by cross-country variation in the growth of drug sales more generally. We find that an increase in SSRI sales of 1 pill per capita (about a 12 percent increase over 2000 sales levels) is associated with a decline in suicide mortality of around 5 percent. These estimates imply a cost per statistical life far below most other government interventions to improve health outcomes.

Impact of cooperative co-teaching relationships on student achievement outcomes in the 7th grade inclusion mathematics class

Since the inception of the No Child Left Behind law in 2002, much attention has been paid to its effects on the special education population of students. This law, as well as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), required school districts in the United States to include students with special needs in general education classrooms to provide an atmosphere of least restricted environment (LRE). This practice has come to be known as inclusion which has become the forefront of educating students with special needs in United States’ public schools. Inclusion continues to be a controversial practice and matter of debate within educational circles with varying attitudes among teacher towards this practice. Research has found that in order for the model of inclusion to be carried out successfully, a key ingredient is cooperative communication and collaboration between the special education and general education teachers. If teacher collaboration is emphasized as the key to success in the inclusion model, it is important to assess the effects of a cooperative co-teaching relationship among inclusion classroom teachers. Specifically, this study asks, does a cooperative relationship between regular education and special education teacher in the 7th grade inclusion mathematics classroom have a positive effect on student achievement as measured by the North Carolina End-of Grade (EOG) Mathematics test? The participants in this study are 276 teachers practicing the inclusion co-teaching model, 138 regular education mathematics teachers and 138 special education teachers. The study assesses all Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools seventh grade inclusion mathematics classrooms. The pools of student participants that are being assessed are 3,447 seventh grade students in the inclusion mathematics classrooms. Teachers were first given Teacher Collaboration Assessment Survey (TCAS) to assess whether or not their relationship with their co-teacher was deemed cooperative or uncooperative. Then data was collected after the students in the inclusion classes took their End-of-Grade Mathematics standardized test. Results from the survey showed that that inclusion teaching pair have a collaborative relationship in the 7th grade mathematics class. This collaborative relationship is positively correlated with student achievement outcomes on the NC EOG math test. These findings have important implications for schools and educators who work in inclusive classrooms and suggest that fostering collaboration among inclusion teaching pairs can have a positive impact on student outcomes. With the intense implementation of the inclusion model since No Child Left Behind, further research aimed on collaboration and student achievement should focus on the co-teaching relationship as many of American children are learning in the inclusion classroom, whether or not they are classified as regular education, or special education

Experiences and Perceptions of Rural Junior High Teachers Participating in a Professional Learning Community

In this qualitative descriptive case study, the researcher investigated how junior high school teachers’ perceptions of the role of how professional learning communities (PLCs) shaped their instructional practices in a rural Title I school in Texas. Exploring and understanding the experiences and perceptions of the teachers and administrators that participated in an English, language arts, and reading PLC provided valuable data that helped the administration determine professional development opportunities that could improve the instructional strategies of the teachers. By collaborating, analyzing student data, and sharing teaching strategies, the teachers were empowered to take ownership and improve their instructional practices. Examining the teachers’ perceptions and experiences revealed the strengths and weaknesses of the local program and provided an opportunity to personalize professional development to increase teacher learning as well as student achievement. Furthermore, the researcher identified and analyzed barriers to develop a plan of action to increase stronger team bonding. Keywords: professional learning communities; collaboration; shared mission, vision, and values; collective inquiry; continuous improvement; results orientatio

Creating order in hybrid systems: reflexions on the interaction of man and smart machines

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion und der Schaffung hybrider Systeme, in denen der Mensch nur ein kleiner Bestandteil eines hochautomatisierten Räderwerks ist, das weitgehend von Robotern, von autonomen Software-Agenten sowie sich selbst steuernden Multi-Agenten-Systemen geprägt ist. Im zweiten Kapitel werden die sozialen Folgen dieser fortschreitenden Verwissenschaftlichung und Technisierung aller gesellschaftlichen Bereiche behandelt. Das dritte Kapitel enthält eine Fallstudie zu dem Kollisionswarnsystem in der Luftfahrt (TACS), das das erste Beispiel dafür ist, dass ein Multi-Agenten-System versagt hat. Im vierten und fünften Kapitel werden Schlussfolgerungen gezogen und Forschungsbedarfe aufgezeigt. (ICD

The Second NASA Formal Methods Workshop 1992

The primary goal of the workshop was to bring together formal methods researchers and aerospace industry engineers to investigate new opportunities for applying formal methods to aerospace problems. The first part of the workshop was tutorial in nature. The second part of the workshop explored the potential of formal methods to address current aerospace design and verification problems. The third part of the workshop involved on-line demonstrations of state-of-the-art formal verification tools. Also, a detailed survey was filled in by the attendees; the results of the survey are compiled

Teaching styles of Australian tennis coaches: an exploration of practices and insights using Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum of Teaching Styles

Many educational theorists believe that there is no best teaching style. A common principle in the discipline of sports coaching is that coaches should base their teaching style(s) on a number of considerations. These include: the developmental characteristics and individual requirements of the player, as well as the subject matter intent. Apart from anecdotal reports, however, the subject of tennis coaches and teaching styles remains largely unexplored. It is unknown what teaching styles coaches are employing during coaching sessions and whether these teaching styles are associated with recommended pedagogical principles advocated by scholars. The insights with regard to teaching styles that underpin and inform the coaches’ decisions to employ particular teaching styles during coaching sessions are equally undetermined. Perhaps this noted lack of information regarding teaching styles is due to the theoretical and practical difficulty of comparing the various terms and interpretations that tennis coaches enact in relation to their instructional practices. Arguably, many of these conceptions about teaching styles are not organised in a common theoretical framework but rather exist with the individual interpretations of tennis coaches. It has been anecdotally suggested that the terms used to define teaching styles largely lack consistency and uniformity and are frequently employed interchangeably. Conceivably, this has led to the perceived confusion and the absence of a definitive set of concepts and principles reflective of the tennis coaching process and effective practice within it. As diverse learning conditions and experiences are often created by employing different teaching styles, the necessity for coaches to understand and purposefully implement a range of teaching styles to achieve various learning aims and objectives is vital. Contrary to educational convictions and perceptions, however, the results from this study indicated a different view in relation to the recommended employment of a variety of teaching styles. The requirement for a tennis coach to possess the capacity to employ a range of teaching styles when appropriate is perhaps reliant on a number of considerations. Coaches must be prepared to cater for the diversity of players’ learning needs, interests, preferences and developmental readiness or stage of learning. Additionally, tennis involves learning aims and objectives from the psychomotor (physical/motor skill), cognitive (decision making) and affective (enjoyment/motivation) domains. This might suggest the application of specific teaching styles to develop each learning area comprehensively. As no one teaching style encompasses all learning eventualities, an effective coach must have the capability to change, combine and transition between various teaching styles during sessions. To understand fully the holistic nature of sports coaching and to aid in the investigation of the teaching styles that tennis coaches employ, quantitative and qualitative research methods have been employed in this study. It was anticipated that the combination of self-report survey questionnaires, observations and interview methods would result in the creation of data whereby the qualitative findings complemented and extended the meaning of the quantitative results. It was also expected that this combination of research methods would more precisely focus on the entirety of coaches’ practices and insights by revealing the multidimensional and intricate level exchanges that epitomise the complex reality of the everyday tennis coaching habits of Junior Development (JD) and Club Professional (CP) tennis coaches in Australia. This thesis presents the findings of research completed on the self-identified teaching styles of 208 JD and CP tennis coaches in Australia as well as the observed teaching styles of 12 tennis coaches from three 30 minute tennis sessions. As well as these observations, an additional coach participated in an extended observational period of 18 hours of coaching at their local tennis club. This study also explored the coaches’ insights of teaching styles in addition to the motivations that informed their decisions to employ particular teaching styles during coaching sessions. Therefore, a total of 13 coaches participated in the observation and interview of this study. Mosston and Ashworth’s Spectrum of Teaching Styles (2008) (which is referred to as The Spectrum) was used as a basis for identifying the coaches’ teaching styles. The Spectrum (Mosston & Ashworth, 2008) consists of 11 landmark teaching styles that function as indicators that represent considerably different teaching and learning experiences. Located between the landmark teaching styles are many, if not an infinite number of, pedagogical variations that share similar, or approximate, but not precise, decision structures of the landmark teaching style(s) that they are located near or between. These variations are termed canopy designs. The results showed that JD and CP tennis coaches in Australia do not use a range of teaching styles during their coaching sessions throughout the year. The coaches were primarily observed employing a canopy design that approximated the decision structures of landmark teaching style Practice Style-B. This study also indicated a lack of congruence between the landmark teaching styles that coaches’ reported using during their coaching sessions throughout the year and the landmark teaching styles that they actually used. The survey questionnaire respondents reported using all of the landmark teaching styles on The Spectrum (Mosston & Ashworth, 2008). When the video-recorded sessions of the coaches were coded, a total of two landmark teaching styles was actually observed. As a percentage of total time observed, the results from the 12 coaches indicated that they employed landmark teaching style Practice Style-B for 12.87% of the time and landmark teaching style Command Style-A for 0.18% of the time. The 12 coaches were also observed performing two canopy designs. A variation of landmark teaching style Practice Style-B (Canopy design Practice Style-B) was observed for 71.38% of the time and a variation of landmark teaching style Command Style-A (Canopy design Command Style-A) was observed for 10.40% of the time. Among the 12 coaches, no other landmark teaching styles or canopy designs were observed. The results from the extended observation period (18 hours) of the single coach revealed that as a percentage of total time, landmark teaching style Practice Style-B was observed for 13.42% of the time, and landmark teaching style Command Style-A was employed for 1.61% of the time. This coach was also observed using two variations of the landmark teaching styles. Canopy design Practice Style-B was employed for 72.05% of the time and canopy design Command Style-A was used for 9.44% of the time. No other landmark teaching styles or canopy designs were observed. The observed landmark teaching styles and canopy designs strongly correlated with the pedagogical principles associated with direct instruction guidelines. Direct instruction is commonly represented by the coach making decisions about what the students are learning in addition to how and why they are learning it. The interviews demonstrated that the terms that the coaches used to describe teaching styles lacked consistency and accuracy and were often used interchangeably. It was also revealed that coaches were incapable of accurately describing and identifying their own teaching styles during their observed lessons. This suggests that coaches exhibit a reduced self-awareness of their coaching in practice. However, the findings established that despite the coaches’ limited awareness of the teaching styles they performed during the observed lessons, they were able to articulate the type of environment they wished to produce and the behaviours they wanted to encourage. For example, all the coaches (n=13) believed in asking the players questions, allowing the players to solve challenges independently, and not prescriptively informing the players what to do or how to do it. In spite of all the coaches advocating the employment of teaching styles that share similar pedagogical principles with indirect instruction, they were unable to explain the theoretical assumptions that underpin these practices. All the interviewed coaches stated that their choice and employment of a particular teaching style did not alter as a function of the age or ability of the players they coached. Modifying, changing or enhancing the practices of tennis coaches necessitates recognition that they can identify their coaching practices as well as understand the assumptions that inform these behaviours. Consequently, research that has the capacity to identify the teaching styles that coaches employ during coaching sessions and the underlying explanations of these practices presents a pathway for coaches to contest and reflect on the effectiveness of their practices. This might produce a more coherent connection between beliefs and practice. Exploring the teaching styles of tennis coaches may provide assistance in identifying how coaches facilitate learning and why coaches decide upon the application of teaching styles during coaching sessions. With an understanding and an awareness of coaching behaviours, theorising about current limitations becomes likely. The possible identification of different features within pedagogical behaviour among tennis coaches in Australia will be particularly crucial in the design of coach education programs and professional development initiatives. These findings may also extend relevance into sports coaching more broadly

QUANTITATIVE SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL SYSTEMS THROUGH SYSTEM CONTROL CAPACITY

Quantitative Safety Assessments (QSA) are essential to safety benefit verification and regulations of developmental changes in safety critical systems like the Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems. Effectiveness of the assessments is particularly desirable today in the safe implementations of revolutionary ATC overhauls like NextGen and SESAR. QSA of ATC systems are however challenged by system complexity and lack of accident data

Evaluating Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs): The Case of Jubilee 2000 Campaign (J2K)

This thesis deploys the Jubilee 2000 Campaign (J2K) to enhance our knowledge of transnational collective actions (TCAs). It contends that the major collective action theories are inadequate for explaining the emergence of J2K because of their inherent limitations and that the emergence of J2K was underpinned by the principles of ‘cutting the diamond’ of debt which included robust research, critical analysis and broad framing. This enabled the J2K to deconstruct the perceived arcane nature and complexity of debt and international finance, name debt a crisis, and reframe it as a justice based issue. The thesis argues that it is problematic to cast outcomes in definitive and conclusive terms due to the problem of causal complexity and that evaluating TCAs mainly in the binary of ‘success’ or ‘failure’ does not advance our knowledge of TCAs. For this reason, evaluation is better conducted in terms of outcomes before a judgement could be made in terms of success or failure of a collective action vis-a-vis its aims. The thesis finds that the J2K was successful in its mobilisation and education of the public for debt cancellation. It achieved sensitising impacts because it was able to mobilise and socialise the relevant target actors to accept the debt situation as a crisis and it politicised and mainstreamed the issue in a political context where virtually all the target actors disputed that judgement. Further, the thesis finds evidence that the J2K achieved procedural and substantive impacts as it gained access to its targets and elicited policy changes that resulted in partial debt cancellation. A legacy of the J2K the thesis contends is that it reinforced aspects of the governance regime of international financial institutions and further exposes the North-South divide. This thesis concludes that the categorisation of TCAs has intrinsic political meaning and that various groups’ agendas and the way TCAs emerge may help explain why TCA outcomes are controversial. It finds that J2K emergence could best be explained by a combination of the core contentions of the major collective action theories, and organisational platform is deemed a major distinguishing factor of TANs

A tabular propositional logic: and/or Table Translator

The goal of this project is to design a tool to help users translate any logic statement into Disjunctive Normal Form and present the result as an AND/OR TABLE, which makes the logic relation easier to express by using a two-dimensional grid of values or expressions. This tool is implemented through a web-based and Java-based application. Thus, the user can utilize this tool via World Wide Web