The Effects of Modeling on Request Assertive Behavior

Two social psychology experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of modeling on request assertive behavior. No previous research was found on this particular subject-matter so, therefore, these two experiments were basically exploratory in nature. Before discussing the particulars of the experiments, it is necessary first to describe some of the basic underlying principles upon which they were based. In the first section of this paper, assertion and non-assertion will be differentiated. Second, modeling and its concepts will be discussed. Next, the three categories of assertive behavior will be introduced. And in the final section, request assertive behavior and the experiments that centered around this concept will be discussed in detail

A Qualitative Study of Supervisors' Reflections on Providing Sanctioned Supervision

Sanctioned supervision, sometimes referred to as mandated supervision or professional monitoring, is intended to protect the public, reduce further counselor ethical/legal violations, and improve the professional practice of the counselor adjudicated for unprofessional behavior. Sanctioned supervision is a common remediation intervention required by state regulatory board. However, there is a lack of research on the practice of sanctioned supervision and the perceptions of the sanctioned supervisors. A qualitative research approach was used to better understand the experiences of four supervisors who provided sanctioned supervision within the past year as part of a state regulatory board remediation process. The main themes from the qualitative study included the following: supervisors finding the supervision process to be unique from traditional supervision, and supervisors experience ambivalence about the sanctioned supervision process. Practice considerations for supervisors producing sanctioned supervision are discussed

The Removal of the Multiaxial System in the DSM-5: Implications and Practice Suggestions for Counselors

With the advent of the DSM-5 in 2013, the American Psychiatric Association eliminated the longstanding multiaxial system for mental disorders. The removal of the multiaxial system has implications for counselors’ diagnostic practices. In this article, the removal of the multiaxial system in the DSM-5 is discussed, and counselor practice suggestions related to each of the five Axes are provided. Additionally, ways in which counselors can sustain their current diagnostic skills while developing updated practices that align with the new streamlined system will be discussed

Informal Faculty Mentoring as a Component of Learning to Teach Online: An Exploratory Study

Distance education has become an important instructional method for institutes of higher learning over the last decade. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2003) , during the 2000-2001 academic year, 56 percent of all 2- and 4-year institutions offered distance education courses, and this represents an increase of approximately 34 percent over a three-year period. According to the report, ninety percent of all institutions that offered distance education courses used asynchronous Internet courses as their primary technology for instructional delivery. Faculty development programs have become essential to prepare faculty to teach in the online environment. Institutions often provide training for their faculty by way of faculty development. The purpose of this case study is to investigate and describe the informal faculty mentoring that occurs on university campuses to support online learning within the various university departments. Specific research questions included the following: (1) Does informal faculty mentoring occur within university departments when a formal faculty development program that supports online learning is not in place for the university?; (2) If faculty mentors within the university departments do provide informal support of online learning, how do their colleagues identify them? (3) What are the characteristics of the informal faculty mentors?; (4) What are the factors that motivate informal faculty mentors to work with colleagues in the area of online learning?; and (5) What can be done to provide support to the informal faculty mentors so that they will continue to mentor their colleagues in the area of online learning? Participants were faculty who were currently using an online component in their classes at a small Southeastern university, where no formal faculty development structure for online teaching was in place in order to determine whether informal mentoring was occurring. Interview methodology was used in this case study in order to get a deeper understanding of the interactions that occur between the informal mentor and the mentee. Informal mentoring usually occurs naturally between the mentor and mentee, without other entities becoming involved in the process

Calcium and Zinc Ion Release from Polyalkenoate Cements Formed from Zinc Oxide/apatite Mixtures

Calcium and zinc ion release from hydroxyapatite-zinc oxide-poly (acrylic acid) (HAZnO-PAA) composite cements into deionised water was investigated as a function of HA content, PAA concentration, PAA molecular weight and maturation time. At any given maturation time, zinc ion release was constant until the HA content was at the maximum loading (60 wt%) resulting in the cement matrix breaking up, allowing exacerbated ion release. The calcium ion release increased with increased HA content in the composite until the maximum loading where the release drops off. Up to this point, the release of both ionic species was proportional to square root time for the initial 24-hour period, indicating that the release is diffusion controlled. In agreement with related data from conventional Glass Polyalkenoate Cements (GPCs), it is the concentration of the PAA, not the molecular weight, that influences ion release from these materials. However, unlike GPCs, the release of the active ions results in a pH rise in the deionised water, more conventionally seen with Bioglass® and related bioactive glasses. It is this pH rise, caused by the ion exchange of Zn2+ and Ca2+ for H+ from the water, leaving an excess of OH-, that should result in a favourable bioactive response both in vitro and in-vivo. © Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2006

Public Pension Fund Governance Practices and Financial Performance

This study is a follow up of an earlier investigation concerning the effects of governance practices and investment strategies on public pension fund risk adjusted financial performance. Specifically, the inquiry uses three cross sectional national surveys of state and local government retirement systems to determine how governance practices in terms of system policies, board purview, and board composition impact abnormal returns. Results indicate that governance practices, particularly board purview over investment decisions, continue to have a direct negative impact on risk adjusted financial performance even after controlling for other factors

COVID-19 lessons for climate change and sustainable health

The drivers underpinning the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 and climate change attest to the fact that we are now living in the Anthropocene Epoch, with human activities significantly impacting and altering the global ecosystem. Here, we explore the historical context of zoonoses, the effect of anthropogenic climate change and interrelated drivers on the emergence of, and response to emerging infectious diseases. We call attention to an urgent need for inculcating a One Health research agenda that acknowledges the primary interconnection between animals, humans, pathogens, and their collective milieus to foster long term resilience across all systems within our shared planetary environment.</jats:p

An event-based approach to validating solar wind speed predictions: high-speed enhancements in the Wang-Sheeley-Arge model

One of the primary goals of the Center for Integrated Space Weather Modeling (CISM) effort is to assess and improve prediction of the solar wind conditions in near‐Earth space, arising from both quasi‐steady and transient structures. We compare 8 years of L1 in situ observations to predictions of the solar wind speed made by the Wang‐Sheeley‐Arge (WSA) empirical model. The mean‐square error (MSE) between the observed and model predictions is used to reach a number of useful conclusions: there is no systematic lag in the WSA predictions, the MSE is found to be highest at solar minimum and lowest during the rise to solar maximum, and the optimal lead time for 1 AU solar wind speed predictions is found to be 3 days. However, MSE is shown to frequently be an inadequate “figure of merit” for assessing solar wind speed predictions. A complementary, event‐based analysis technique is developed in which high‐speed enhancements (HSEs) are systematically selected and associated from observed and model time series. WSA model is validated using comparisons of the number of hit, missed, and false HSEs, along with the timing and speed magnitude errors between the forecasted and observed events. Morphological differences between the different HSE populations are investigated to aid interpretation of the results and improvements to the model. Finally, by defining discrete events in the time series, model predictions from above and below the ecliptic plane can be used to estimate an uncertainty in the predicted HSE arrival times

Addressing School Safety through a Student Support Lens

This presentation is designed to provide an overview of the The UNCP School Safety Training Program. The UNCP School Safety Training Program, developed by UNCP Social Work and Counseling faculty and funded through the NC DPI School Safety Grant, provides a variety of trainings related to addressing school safety from a student support standpoint. Data from training participants' workshop evaluations will also be highlighted

Psychopolitics: Peter Sedgwick’s legacy for mental health movements

This paper re-considers the relevance of Peter Sedgwick's Psychopolitics (1982) for a politics of mental health. Psychopolitics offered an indictment of ‘anti-psychiatry’ the failure of which, Sedgwick argued, lay in its deconstruction of the category of ‘mental illness’, a gesture that resulted in a politics of nihilism. ‘The radical who is only a radical nihilist’, Sedgwick observed, ‘is for all practical purposes the most adamant of conservatives’. Sedgwick argued, rather, that the concept of ‘mental illness’ could be a truly critical concept if it was deployed ‘to make demands upon the health service facilities of the society in which we live’. The paper contextualizes Psychopolitics within the ‘crisis tendencies’ of its time, surveying the shifting welfare landscape of the subsequent 25 years alongside Sedgwick's continuing relevance. It considers the dilemma that the discourse of ‘mental illness’ – Sedgwick's critical concept – has fallen out of favour with radical mental health movements yet remains paradigmatic within psychiatry itself. Finally, the paper endorses a contemporary perspective that, while necessarily updating Psychopolitics, remains nonetheless ‘Sedgwickian’