Educational Entertainment as an Intervention with Adolescents Exposed to Community Violence

Background: Violence is often part of life in impoverished Black communities. Youth with higher violence avoidance self-efficacy and positive coping strategies are better able to avoid violence than those without these skills. Using edutainment, e.g. dramatic presentation followed by group discussion, is one intervention that has shown success in increasing self-efficacy and coping strategies. Methods: This quasi-experimental research, examined the impact of live dramatic presentation about violence followed by group discussion, as an intervention with Black adolescents exposed to community violence as compared to group discussion only and no intervention. Self-administered scales were used to measure the concepts: stress, anxiety, violence avoidance self-efficacy and coping strategies. Data were collected pre and 9 days post intervention/no intervention from 19 subjects receiving the edutainment intervention, 20 subjects participating in a group discussion about violence, and 21 subjects receiving no intervention (N = 60). Analysis: Univariate descriptive statistics and ANOVA were conducted to determine comparability of the groups. ANOVA was conducted to determine differences in outcomes among the interventions and regression analysis was undertaken to assess mediator effects of violence avoidance self-efficacy on outcomes. Results: Edutainment and no intervention were more effective than group discussion alone in increasing violence avoidance self-efficacy. Although self-efficacy was not found to be a mediator in the relationship between edutainment nor group discussion/no intervention and outcomes, it was found to have an intervening relationship between edutainment and the outcome of stress. This study indicates limited but positive effects for edutainment. Clinical implications, limitations and further research are discussed

The student in residence: an analysis of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with residence life at the University of Natal's Durban campus: brief report on two follow-up studies

This report is an attempt to set out the major findings of the evaluation studies of University of Natal residences (1977 and 1984) updating an earlier survey in 1976, and to identify those aspects of residence life which may warrant particular attention on behalf of the University planners. A report of the 1976 survey evaluation appears in: Schlemmer, L. (1977) The student in residence, Durban: CASS, University of Natal

The short-term influence of cumulative, sequential rainfall-runoff flows on sediment retention and transport in selected SuDS devices

It is necessary to understand Sustainable urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) sediment retention efficiencies to fully comprehend SuDS pollution removal properties and urban sediment movement from source-to sink. This research presents the detention and transport of a single tagged sediment release through four SuDS devices over 12 months, with the aim of quasi-quantifying these selected SuDS devices sediment detention efficiencies. Field monitoring and mass balance analysis of deposited sediment shows that tagged sediment from the single sediment release moves through the monitored SuDS, with deposition declining over the 12-month monitoring period. Initial retention is high (>80% during the first week of monitoring) but falls below 80% after multiple consecutive rainfall-runoff events (events ≤50% ARI). The field monitoring illustrates retention to generally remain above 50%, suggesting that SuDS are highly efficient at retaining urban sediment pollution but that deposition of a single sediment release may resuspend due to cumulative rainfall-runoff events

The pencil, the pin, the table, the bowl and the wheel

The commodity created under global capitalism originates from everywhere and seems to have been made by everyone. Endlessly fungible, it is also endlessly divisible. Analysis of the commodity reveals the indissoluble link between commodification and technologization. Although the medieval commodity is a very different kind of object, not issuing from an economy dedicated to commodity production, and being produced more regionally, the link between production and technology applies to the Middle Ages as much as it does to now. Medieval technology, in particular road-building, is commonly regarded as a regression in comparison to Roman engineering skills. I argue, however, for the directedness of medieval technology, even when in apparent regress. This ‘regression’ calls into question the narratives of progress that inform debates about the posthuman, with all its attendant anxieties and heady possibilities. The case of medieval roads exposes the contingency of ‘efficiency’ as any standard of measure

Urban sediment transport through an established vegetated swale:Long term treatment efficiencies and deposition

Vegetated swales are an accepted and commonly implemented sustainable urban drainage system in the built urban environment. Laboratory and field research has defined the effectiveness of a vegetated swale in sediment detention during a single rainfall-runoff event. Event mean concentrations of suspended and bed load sediment have been calculated using current best analytical practice, providing single runoff event specific sediment conveyance volumes through the swale. However, mass and volume of sediment build up within a swale over time is not yet well defined. This paper presents an effective field sediment tracing methodology and analysis that determines the quantity of sediment deposited within a swale during initial and successive runoff events. The use of the first order decay rate constant, k, as an effective pollutant treatment parameter is considered in detail. Through monitoring tagged sediment deposition within the swale, the quantity of sediment that is re-suspended, conveyed, re-deposited or transported out of the swale as a result of multiple runoff events is illustrated. Sediment is found to continue moving through the vegetated swale after initial deposition, with ongoing discharge resulting from resuspension and conveyance during subsequent runoff events. The majority of sediment initially deposited within a swale is not detained long term or throughout its design life of the swale

Identification of human and mouse CatSper3 and CatSper4 genes: Characterisation of a common interaction domain and evidence for expression in testis

BACKGROUND: CatSper1 and CatSper2 are two recently identified channel-like proteins, which show sperm specific expression patterns. Through targeted mutagenesis in the mouse, CatSper1 has been shown to be required for fertility, sperm motility and for cAMP induced Ca(2+ )current in sperm. Both channels resemble a single pore forming repeat from a four repeat voltage dependent Ca(2+ )/Na(+ )channel. However, neither CatSper1 or CatSper2 have been shown to function as cation channels when transfected into cells, singly or in conjunction. As the pore forming units of voltage gated cation channels form a tetramer it has been suggested that the known CatSper proteins require additional subunits and/or interaction partners to function. RESULTS: Using in silico gene identification and prediction techniques, we have identified two further members of the CatSper family, CatSper3 and Catsper4. Each carries a single channel-forming domain with the predicted pore-loop containing the consensus sequence T×D×W. Each of the new CatSper genes has evidence for expression in the testis. Furthermore we identified coiled-coil protein-protein interaction domains in the C-terminal tails of each of the CatSper channels, implying that CatSper channels 1,2,3 and 4 may interact directly or indirectly to form a functional tetramer. CONCLUSIONS: The topological and sequence relationship of CatSper1 and CatSper2 to the four repeat Ca(2+ )/Na(+ )channels suggested other members of this family may exist. We have identified a further two novel CatSper genes, conserved in both the human and mouse genomes. Furthermore, all four of the CatSper proteins are predicted to contain a common coiled-coil protein-protein interaction domain in their C-terminal tail. Coupled with expression data this leads to the hypothesis that the CatSper proteins form a functional hetero-tetrameric channel in sperm

Pillars and Shadows: Statebuilding as peacebuilding in Solomon Islands

This volume of the Peacebuilding Compared Project examines the sources of the armed conflict and coup in the Solomon Islands before and after the turn of the millennium. The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) has been an intensive peacekeeping operation, concentrating on building ‘core pillars’ of the modern state. It did not take adequate notice of a variety of shadow sources of power in the Solomon Islands, for example logging and business interests, that continue to undermine the state’s democratic foundations. At first RAMSI’s statebuilding was neither very responsive to local voices nor to root causes of the conflict, but it slowly changed tack to a more responsive form of peacebuilding. The craft of peace as learned in the Solomon Islands is about enabling spaces for dialogue that define where the mission should pull back to allow local actors to expand the horizons of their peacebuilding ambition