Sr. Judith: Community and Environmental

This paper includes an interview with Sr. Judith, a woman religious who has worked with environmental issues for the majority of her time as a woman religious. It highlights what she has worked on to improve the environment and how to keep our Earth cleaner in the future

Wind Ensemble Curriculum Catalog and Applications in the Classroom

Project consists of a catalog of 250 well-known, high quality pieces of band scores that can be used by school band directors. The pieces are selected based on four criterions: difficulty, genre, period, and elements of music

IDENTITY AND BODY IMAGE: HOW BICULTURAL INFLUENCES AFFECT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEGATIVE BODY IMAGE AND DISORDERED EATING IN KOREAN AMERICAN ADOLESCENTS

The objective of this research project is to examine the existing literature related to culture, body image, and disordered eating in Korea and the United States as they are related to the identity and body image formation of Korean American adolescents in the United States. Because there is not much existing literature specifically investigating the experience of Korean American adolescents, this paper aims to synthesize the current research regarding Korean and United States culture to create a summary of factors that contribute to the development of negative body image and/or disordered eating in this population. In addition, these factors will be considered through the lens of acculturation, and how acculturation impacts the identity formation and identity security of Korean American adolescents. This paper concludes that research indicates that the Korean American adolescent population is at significant risk of developing negative body image and/or disordered eating tendencies. The Korean American adolescent population is not only increasing rapidly but is also less likely to receive proper treatment for mental health conditions including negative body image and disordered eating. This makes them a population of concern, necessitating further research on disordered eating and negative body image in Korean American adolescents specifically

Investigating Post-Exertional Malaise as a Core Symptom of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Meta-Analytic Approach

Efforts to establish a reliable and valid case definition for myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME and CFS) have been complicated by an over-reliance on clinical consensus, and inconsistent application of established case definitions by researchers across study sites. This has resulted in the absence of an empirically-based case definition for ME and CFS, as well as failed replication studies on potential diagnostic tests and biomarkers. One step toward an empirically-driven case definition is determining which symptoms best discriminate between patients with ME and CFS versus controls. Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is considered a cardinal symptom of ME and CFS and is either required or included in many previously proposed case definitions. PEM refers to the symptom exacerbation and impairment/sickness that follows physical exertion or cognitive effort. PEM is typically assessed subjectively, with a patient describing his or her experience to a physician or on a self-report measure. To date, there have been no meta-analyses of the findings from studies that investigate PEM differences between patients and controls. A meta-analysis of odds ratios (association between patient status and PEM status) and a number of potential moderators (i.e., study level characteristics) of effect size were conducted for a total of 31 studies. PEM was found to be 10.4 times more likely to be associated with an ME and CFS diagnosis than with control status. Significant moderators of effect size included patient recruitment strategy and control selection. These findings strongly suggest that PEM should be considered a cardinal symptom of ME and CFS, and the implications of the moderator analyses are discussed

The study of volatile organic compounds associated with decomposition of pig tissue as a model for human decomposition

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityVolatile organic compounds are a topic of interest for researchers in a variety of fields. These areas include the postmortem interval (PMI), cadaver dogs, postmortem toxicology, search and rescue, human scent as a biometric measure, human scent as an attractant to mosquitoes, and cancer biomarkers. In the research of volatile organic compounds associated with human decomposition, a number of methods and techniques are being used, which leads to inconsistencies in the compounds detected. The difficulty in the procurement of human tissues for research also adds to the inconsistencies and the limitations of current research. The domestic pig is often used as a substitute for human research because it has been determined to be the best model corpse. Due to the many restrictions associated with testing on human cadavers, pigs are often substituted because of their anatomical and physiological similarities to humans. This study analyzed the volatile organic compounds associated with the decomposition of pig tissue as a model for the volatile organic compounds associated with human decomposition. Heated passive headspace concentration with activated carbon as the adsorbent material followed by analysis with GC/MS was tested for its reliability in recovering and detecting volatile organic compounds of decomposition. The volatile organic compounds detected were examined for their applicability in determining the postmortem interval and for their use as cadaver dog training aids. The volatile organic compounds detected were compared to volatile organic compounds reported in the literature and examined to determine their reliability in using the domestic pig as a research model for humans. The results of this study demonstrated the need for a reliable, consistent method for analyzing volatile organic compounds associated with decomposition. It also demonstrated the need for procurement of human tissue for further research. The results of this research further demonstrated the variability surrounding the decomposition process and the difficulty in determining the postmortem interval based on the volatile organic compounds detected. This research corroborated that the compounds detected from decomposition are not unique or specific to human decomposition and exposes a number of areas that require further research and exposes aspects of current research that need to be reexamined

Pediatric Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Research on pediatric Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) is reviewed in this article. Many recent articles in this area highlight the existence of key differences between the adult and pediatric forms of the illness. This review article provides an overview of pediatric ME/ CFS, including epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, treatment, and prognosis. Challenges to the field are identified with the hope that in the future pediatric cases of ME/CFS can be more accurately diagnosed and successfully managed

Through Their Eyes: How Students View Growth Mindset Teaching in Middle and High Schools

Through Their Eyes: How Students View Growth Mindset Teaching in Middle and High Schools When teachers communicate growth mindsets – or the belief that student intelligence is malleable vs. fixed – their students report greater belonging in the classroom, show increased motivation, and perform better. However, extant research on the benefits of teacher growth mindsets focused exclusively on college student samples. Thus, the purpose of the present research is to determine how teachers’ mindset beliefs affect middle and high school students in the classroom. Specifically, we examined how students perceived four dimensions of growth mindset teaching: (1) messages about success, (2) provision of opportunities, (3) responses to struggle, confusion, or poor performance, and (4) value placement. Students (Nstudent = 90) learned about mindsets and then categorized 42 teaching practices as either growth- or fixed- minded (NObservations = 3,780). Results revealed that much like college-students, middle and high school students were more likely to perceive teaching practices as growth-minded (vs. fixed-minded) when teachers suggested that all students are capable of academic success, when they provided opportunities to improve, when they offered support and reassurance to struggling students, and when they valued learning over performance. Future research should explore how to train teachers to foster growth-minded classrooms that are perceived as such by students

Social media platforms as complex and contradictory spaces for feminisms: Visibility, opportunity, power, resistance and activism

YesThis special issue on feminisms and social media is published at a unique point in time, namely when social media platforms are routinely utilised for communication from the mundane to the extraordinary, to offer support and solidarity, and to blame and victimise. Collectively, social media are online technologies that provide the ability for community building and interaction (Boyd & Ellison, 2007), allowing people to interact, share, create and consume online content (Lyons, McCreanor, Goodwin, & Moewaka Barnes, 2017). They include such platforms as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Tinder, and Snapchat among others