Perceptions of School Counselors and Teachers Regarding the Communities in Schools Model

Lower graduation rates among Black, Latino, and low-income students negatively impact individuals, families, and communities. The Communities in Schools (CIS) model was widely used in urban school districts due to suggested positive outcomes butwas underrepresented in current independent research. Using Benet’s polarities of democracy as the theoretical framework, this qualitative case study allowed for the collection and analysis of perceptions of educators within the Atlanta Public Schools (APS). The results of this study suggested social change implications related to increasing manpower in urban high schools and the development and use of comprehensive student support services to reach more at-risk students. Increased funding through grants and foundations and budgetary policy changes to provide additional funding for targeted interventions were essential. The underutilization of the CIS model and lack of awareness of services were evident and required adjustments in the management and implementation of the model to increase effectiveness. Additionally, the ineffective management of the polarity pair of human rights and communal obligations negatively impacted the ability of schools to create healthy and just communities and further analysis indicated ineffective management of other polarity pairs. The results of this study suggested that the Atlanta Board of Education may want to consider reviewing and modifying district and school policies related to improving graduation rates through the development of stronger school-community partnerships and the funding to support these initiatives which would lead to positive social change

Lyplal1 is dispensable for normal fat deposition in mice.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have detected association between variants in or near the Lysophospholipase-like 1 (LYPLAL1) locus and metabolic traits, including central obesity, fatty liver and waist-to-hip ratio. LYPLAL1 is also known to be upregulated in the adipose tissue of obese patients. However, the physiological role of LYPLAL1 is not understood. To investigate the function of Lyplal1 in vivo we investigated the phenotype of the Lyplal1tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi homozygous mouse. Body composition was unaltered in Lyplal1 knockout mice as assessed by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning, both on normal chow and on a high-fat diet. Adipose tissue distribution between visceral and subcutaneous fat depots was unaltered, with no change in adipocyte cell size. The response to both insulin and glucose dosing was normal in Lyplal1tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi homozygous mice, with normal fasting blood glucose concentrations. RNAseq analysis of liver, muscle and adipose tissue confirmed that Lyplal1 expression was ablated with minimal additional changes in gene expression. These results suggest that Lyplal1 is dispensable for normal mouse metabolic physiology and that despite having been maintained through evolution Lyplal1 is not an essential gene, suggesting possible functional redundancy. Further studies will be required to clarify its physiological role

Exploring and evaluating the War Widows InTouch (WW.it) Programme

Experiences of loneliness and social isolation through widowhood are complex and compounded by military bereavement. Digital technology is one method to facilitate social connection, with social interaction being considered as one of the central motivations for older adults being online (Age UK, 2015; Büchi, Just, & Latzer, 2016; Cotten, Anderson, & McCullough, 2013).The use of technology has become central to many of our lives through the COVID-19 pandemic, not only for social connection, but for work, education, shopping, and online banking etc. However, the issue of digital exclusion deters some individuals from using technology to connect with others, either through lack of access (internet access and access to digital devices), lack of skills (and confidence), or not recognising the tangible outcomes individuals perceive from using the internet (Blank & Groselj, 2014; Scheerder, van Deursen, & van Dijk, 2017; van Deursen & Helsper, 2015).The War Widows InTouch (WW.it) programme provided members of the War Widows’ Association (WWA) with iPads and/or iPad training to empower individuals digitally, and to support the development of new skills to connect with others online. The WW.it project aimed to connect members of the WWA across the UK, as well as improve their digital access, digital confidence, and digital skills.This study was carried out independently, aiming to explore and evaluate the implementation and running of the WW.it programme. Specifically, this study aimed to examine the perceived impact of the intervention(s) from the perspective of participants and the instructor, reflect on the perceived facilitators and barriers to implementing the intervention(s), and map perceived changes to social isolation, loneliness, and well-being.The study was carried out across two phases, using both surveys and interviews. In total, 35 participants partook in Phase one (35 completed surveys, and 17 also participated in interviews), and 28 participants took part in Phase two (28 completed surveys, and 12 also participated in interviews). At Phase two, an interview was also conducted with the instructor leading the WW.it training programme.Three themes were generated from Phase one, with survey data integrated throughout the interview findings to highlight pertinent points. The same process was completed for Phase two where a further three themes were generated.Findings demonstrated the benefits of the WW.it programme in improving access to technology and internet connectivity. The iPad training itself led to improved skills and increased confidence, as well as reduced fear around using the iPad; although some did not develop as many skills as they had believed they would before starting training and fear of scamming and online financial affairs remained for many.In Phase one, many participants did not recognise the potential benefits of the iPad as they had no prior experience of using one, however, once they were supported to use this device for their own interests during training, they were able to see how this technology could benefit them, and their own daily living. The personalised learning and programme content supported individuals to recognise tangible outcomes from using the internet. Through this, there were widespread advantages to using the iPad, including enhanced civic participation and social connection. A Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test showed significant reduction of total loneliness scores following receipt of the iPad and the iPad training. There were no further significant effects observed for social isolation, technological use, or attitudes towards technology.Whilst the WW.it training session was useful for many participants, this was just a launchpad to their learning. Individuals spoke of seeking additional learning opportunities to further enhance their skills and knowledge. Whereas others continued to rely upon friends and family to support them in unfamiliar or financial digital tasks.As part of this project, a reflective tool for delivering digital skills to older adults was developed through the systematic narrative review. This was developed to use when delivering digital skills training programmes for older adults. It focuses specifically upon the negative perceptions of ageing, the learning environment, and the value of technology. The WW.it programme took into account all three of these values, however, lessons can be learned moving forward. This tool can be used by practitioners when reflecting on programme delivery, as well as when evaluating digital skills delivery programmes.Recommendations for practice:Several recommendations were developed from the findings of this study.1. Multiple practical recommendations for digital skills training arose from this study and are recommended for consideration in future delivery programmes aimed at older adults:• Shorter sessions spread across several weeks• Face-to-face, group classes• Importance of demystifying the technology through debunking jargon• Importance of reducing fear of using the system• Focus on accessibility settings• Personalised learning and content2. Training across multiple systems (e.g. Kindles or Android devices) was difficult for the instructor and not always beneficial for the learner. It is recommended, for future programmes, that training focusses upon one system only. This will also support peer-learning between individuals on the programme using the same device.3. Online training allowed for individuals to participate in the WW.it programme from across the UK, however, this geographical dispersal would have been difficult if training was done face-to-face. Therefore, one recommendation for this project would be to roll out training regionally, through peers, or Regional Organisers at the WWA. This would group learners together to benefit from face-to-face, peer-supported learning.4. Multiple participants suggested having training materials to accompany the training, whether this was a paper handout, online aide-memoires, or a recording of the session. One recommendation was to include bitesize help sheets on the WWA members area. This would encourage use of the WWA website and members area, as well as supporting individuals to improve and practise their digital skills. Other organisations could provide similar materials on their own website, provide learners with paper handouts, or online handouts via email.5. Signposting information should be provided by organisations for learners to seek further training once the programme is completed. This could be through local digital champions, national digital organisations, textbooks, or online-only resources.6. It is recommended that organisations utilise the reflective tool when implementing and/or running programmes to improve older adults’ digital skills. Ensuring that the three core areas of the tool are met is fundamental for inclusive, supportive, and empowering digital skills training.a. Following on from this, one drawback for participants was often their own perceptions of ageing. It is recommended that organisations and instructors recognise the importance of this in their learning, and place emphasis on individual learning styles, through use of the reflective tool for delivering digital skills to older adults

Integrating Public Deliberation into Engineering Systems: Participatory Technology Assessment of NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission

We discuss an experiment employing participatory technology assessment (pTA), a public deliberation method for eliciting lay citizen input prior to making decisions about science and technology, to inform upstream engineering decisions concerning technical aspects of NASA's Asteroid Initiative. In partnership with NASA, the Expert and Citizen Assessment of Science and Technology network conducted a pTA-based forum on NASA's Asteroid Initiative in late 2014. The goal of the exercise was to assess citizens' values and preferences about potential asteroid detection, asteroid mitigation, and exploration-based technologies associated with NASA's Initiative. This paper discusses the portion of the forum that focused on the Asteroid Redirect Mission, an effort to redirect an asteroid into lunar orbit that astronauts can study. The forum sought public input on two options for performing the mission that NASA included in technical assessments to make a down select decision: Option A (capturing a 10-meter-diameter asteroid) or Option B (redirecting a several-meter-diameter boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid). We describe the values and perceptions participants had about Option A and B, how these results were used by NASA managers, and the impact the results of the participatory technology assessment had on the down select

Community-Based Interventions to Decrease Obesity and Tobacco Exposure and Reduce Health Care Costs: Outcome Estimates From Communities Putting Prevention to Work for 2010–2020

INTRODUCTION: In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), a $485 million program to reduce obesity, tobacco use, and exposure to secondhand smoke. CPPW awardees implemented evidence-based policy, systems, and environmental changes to sustain reductions in chronic disease risk factors. This article describes short-term and potential long-term benefits of the CPPW investment. METHODS: We used a mixed-methods approach to estimate population reach and to simulate the effects of completed CPPW interventions through 2020. Each awardee developed a community action plan. We linked plan objectives to a common set of interventions across awardees and estimated population reach as an early indicator of impact. We used the Prevention Impacts Simulation Model (PRISM), a systems dynamics model of cardiovascular disease prevention, to simulate premature deaths, health care costs, and productivity losses averted from 2010 through 2020 attributable to CPPW. RESULTS: Awardees completed 73$2.4 billion (in 2010 dollars) in discounted direct medical costs, and $9.5 billion (in 2010 dollars) in discounted lifetime and annual productivity losses through 2020. CONCLUSION: PRISM results suggest that large investments in community preventive interventions, if sustained, could yield cost savings many times greater than the original investment over 10 to 20 years and avert 14,000 premature deaths

Single Event Effect Flight Data Analysis of Multiple NASA Spacecraft and Experiments

Abstract We present the spaceflight Single Event Effect (SEE) data for the emerging commercial technologies utilized in multiple NASA spacecraft and experiments. Analyses of device performance as well as design implications of the flight results are discussed

Locomotor adaptability in persons with unilateral transtibial amputation

Background Locomotor adaptation enables walkers to modify strategies when faced with challenging walking conditions. While a variety of neurological injuries can impair locomotor adaptability, the effect of a lower extremity amputation on adaptability is poorly understood. Objective Determine if locomotor adaptability is impaired in persons with unilateral transtibial amputation (TTA). Methods The locomotor adaptability of 10 persons with a TTA and 8 persons without an amputation was tested while walking on a split-belt treadmill with the parallel belts running at the same (tied) or different (split) speeds. In the split condition, participants walked for 15 minutes with the respective belts moving at 0.5 m/s and 1.5 m/s. Temporal spatial symmetry measures were used to evaluate reactive accommodations to the perturbation, and the adaptive/de-adaptive response. Results Persons with TTA and the reference group of persons without amputation both demonstrated highly symmetric walking at baseline. During the split adaptation and tied post-adaptation walking both groups responded with the expected reactive accommodations. Likewise, adaptive and de-adaptive responses were observed. The magnitude and rate of change in the adaptive and de-adaptive responses were similar for persons with TTA and those without an amputation. Furthermore, adaptability was no different based on belt assignment for the prosthetic limb during split adaptation walking. Conclusions Reactive changes and locomotor adaptation in response to a challenging and novel walking condition were similar in persons with TTA to those without an amputation. Results suggest persons with TTA have the capacity to modify locomotor strategies to meet the demands of most walking conditions despite challenges imposed by an amputation and use of a prosthetic limb

BRAIN Initiative: Cutting-Edge Tools and Resources for the Community.

The overarching goal of the NIH BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative is to advance the understanding of healthy and diseased brain circuit function through technological innovation. Core principles for this goal include the validation and dissemination of the myriad innovative technologies, tools, methods, and resources emerging from BRAIN-funded research. Innovators, BRAIN funding agencies, and non-Federal partners are working together to develop strategies for making these products usable, available, and accessible to the scientific community. Here, we describe several early strategies for supporting the dissemination of BRAIN technologies. We aim to invigorate a dialogue with the neuroscience research and funding community, interdisciplinary collaborators, and trainees about the existing and future opportunities for cultivating groundbreaking research products into mature, integrated, and adaptable research systems. Along with the accompanying Society for Neuroscience 2019 Mini-Symposium, "BRAIN Initiative: Cutting-Edge Tools and Resources for the Community," we spotlight the work of several BRAIN investigator teams who are making progress toward providing tools, technologies, and services for the neuroscience community. These tools access neural circuits at multiple levels of analysis, from subcellular composition to brain-wide network connectivity, including the following: integrated systems for EM- and florescence-based connectomics, advances in immunolabeling capabilities, and resources for recording and analyzing functional connectivity. Investigators describe how the resources they provide to the community will contribute to achieving the goals of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. Finally, in addition to celebrating the contributions of these BRAIN-funded investigators, the Mini-Symposium will illustrate the broader diversity of BRAIN Initiative investments in cutting-edge technologies and resources

Reverberation Mapping of the Kepler-Field AGN KA1858+4850

KA1858+4850 is a narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy at redshift 0.078 and is among the brightest active galaxies monitored by the Kepler mission. We have carried out a reverberation mapping campaign designed to measure the broad-line region size and estimate the mass of the black hole in this galaxy. We obtained 74 epochs of spectroscopic data using the Kast Spectrograph at the Lick 3-m telescope from February to November of 2012, and obtained complementary V-band images from five other ground-based telescopes. We measured the H-beta light curve lag with respect to the V-band continuum light curve using both cross-correlation techniques (CCF) and continuum light curve variability modeling with the JAVELIN method, and found rest-frame lags of lag_CCF = 13.53 (+2.03, -2.32) days and lag_JAVELIN = 13.15 (+1.08, -1.00) days. The H-beta root-mean-square line profile has a width of sigma_line = 770 +/- 49 km/s. Combining these two results and assuming a virial scale factor of f = 5.13, we obtained a virial estimate of M_BH = 8.06 (+1.59, -1.72) x 10^6 M_sun for the mass of the central black hole and an Eddington ratio of L/L_Edd ~ 0.2. We also obtained consistent but slightly shorter emission-line lags with respect to the Kepler light curve. Thanks to the Kepler mission, the light curve of KA1858+4850 has among the highest cadences and signal-to-noise ratios ever measured for an active galactic nucleus; thus, our black hole mass measurement will serve as a reference point for relations between black hole mass and continuum variability characteristics in active galactic nuclei

Validation of ammonia diffusive and pumped samplers in a controlled atmosphere test facility using traceable Primary Standard Gas Mixtures

We report the determination of ammonia (NH3) diffusive sampling rates for six different designs of commercial diffusive samplers (CEH ALPHA sampler, Gradko diffusion tube, Gradko DIFRAM-400, Passam ammonia sampler,and ICS Maugeri Radiello radial sampler (blue and white turbulence barriers)), together with the validation test results for a pumped sampler (CEH DELTA denuder). The devices were all exposed in the UK's National Physical Laboratory's (NPL) controlled atmosphere test facility (CATFAC). For each of the seven diffusive sampler exposure tests there were traceable concentrations of ammonia (in the range 3–25 μgm−3) generated under well-defined conditions of temperature, relative humidity and wind speed, which are applicable to a variety of ambient monitoring environments. The sampler exposure time at each concentration was 28 days, except for the radial devices, which were exposed for 14 days. The work relied on the dilution of newly developed stable Primary Standard Gas Mixtures (PSMs) prepared by gravimetry in passivated gas cylinders as a method of improving the metrological traceability of ammonia measurements. The exposed diffusive samplers were sent blind to the participants for analysis and the reported NH3 concentrations were then compared against the known reference concentration. From the results for each sampler type a diffusive sampling rate was calculated and compared against the rate used routinely by the participants. Some measurement results were in good agreement with the known traceable reference concentration (particularly for one diffusive sampler design (ALPHA)), while other devices exhibited over-reading and under-reading (each with a clear bias). The new diffusive sampling rates determined in the laboratory study were then applied to measurements in a field comparison campaign, and this was found to deliver an improvement in agreement between the different devices deployed