Brain Resilience: Shedding Light into the Black Box of Adventure Processes

Understanding of the active beneficial processes of adventure learning remains elusive. Resilience may provide one foundation for understanding the positive adaptation derived from Outdoor Adventure Education (OAE) and Adventure Therapy (AT) programming. From a neurological perspective, resilience may be explained by the brain’s innate capability to adapt its structure (growth of new cells) and function (re-wiring of existing cells) directly in response to environmental exposure. This paper explores the role of known brain responses to experiences analogous to adventure programming based on themes from a key literature review. The fundamental paradigm of ‘stress and recovery’ contends that a balance of neurobiological processes help realign psychosocial equilibrium in the short term and over time. Through progressive, repeated exposure to custom-built outdoor challenges, the concept of brain resilience may provide a scientific platform for understanding the mechanisms of achieving meaningful, authentic and healthy outcomes. It could also help to begin to illuminate a section of the black box of adventure processes

Experimental study of extrusion and surface treatment of organo clay with PET nano-composites

This article was submitted to and presented at the Polymer Process Engineering 2009 conference.Inclusion of organoclay in engineering polymers is increase annually and this trend will continue for the foreseeable future despite the economic downturn. This paper describes melt blending techniques using PET nanocomposites containing commercially available organoclays with different percentage of surfactant coatings. This paper will also evaluate the morphology and mechanical properties of the composites using a range of techniques like, scanning electron microscopy, melt rheology and thermal analysis. Comparisons will be made between properties of amorphous and semi crystalline films in terms of surfactant used and material properties. It will be demonstrated that the quantity of surfactant used with the organoclays can significantly affect dispersion and properties of composites produced

IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING ON CROPPING PRACTICES IN ALBERTA

A Target MOTAD farm-level model was developed to assess the expected impacts from global warming on representative grain and oilseed farms in Alberta. It was found that a warmer climate would increase crop yields and length of the cropping season. Net returns and shadow values of land would increase substantially. Price risk generally was more important than yield risk under simulated warmer climates.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Foreign aid, women in parliament and corruption: empirical evidence from the 2000s

Using data for the 2000s, this paper explores the impact of foreign aid and the percentage of women in parliament on corruption. In doing so, it combines the aid – corruption literature with the literature that addresses the impact of gender on corruption. We also inquire if aid is more effective in countries with a larger participation of women in parliament. We find that neither aid nor the percentage of women in parliament affects perceived corruption in a significant way. Moreover, the impact of aid on corruption does not seem to be affected by the share of women in parliament.On the other hand,a long-established democracy is consistently found to be significant in affecting corruption.Our results are robust to various specifications, alternative measures of corruption and use of estimation techniques.Foreign aid, women in parliament, corruption

Impeller-Induced Rotor-Dynamic Forces

The flow through and around the rotor of a turbomachine exerts a force on the rotor and, hence, rotor shaft and bearing system. In some circumstances this force may lead to excitation of shaft whirl in the direction of impeller rotation. Recent international research of this phenomenon is briefly reviewed; these findings suggest that turbomachines intended to operate well above the first critical speed should take the effect into account

Cooling of 2 kW H subscript 2-O subscript 2 fuel cell

An extensive research and development program has been carried out to devise an improved method of removing waste heat of reaction from a developmental 2 kW hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell