Improving Elementary Nutrition Education Curriculum in San Francisco - A Program Analysis of the Food Education Project

Childhood obesity and food insecurity are problems within San Francisco, California. The purpose of this program analysis is to assess the Food Education Project (FEP), which is one of many projects addressing nutrition education and the long-term public health impact is to solve the problems of food insecurity and childhood obesity. Through primary data collection, students shared their honest feelings about food and were able to openly discuss what they know and do not know about food. A literature review was conducted through research from various databases from the University of San Francisco to identify not only current interventions but gaps in knowledge surrounding this problem. From the literature review and primary data collection, a three-step recommendation was developed for consideration. The steps of the recommendations included a needs assessment specific to McKinley Elementary School, updates to current materials, the creation of a training and orientation guide for health educators and interns, and a pilot program. The purpose of the pilot program is to identify further areas of improvement and enhance the hope for the sustainability of the project and expansion beyond McKinley. The overall impact of the project and analysis is to address childhood obesity and food insecurity. Through early childhood education, there can be a step toward helping children understand where their food comes from and how to build a sustainable, affordable healthy lifestyle. Keywords: nutrition education, elementary schools, San Francisco, childhood obesity, food insecurit

Examining Effects of Technology Level and Reinforcer Arrangements on Preference and Efficacy

Understanding dimensions that influence reinforcement is important for applied behavior analysts. Preference, and reinforcer effectiveness, may change depending upon several dimensions of reinforcement. Two influential dimensions that may influence preference and reinforcer efficacy are response-reinforcer arrangements and stimulus type. Many leisure items used as reinforcers may be classified depending upon technology level (e.g., highly technological items versus non-technological items). In recent years use of highly technological items has increased among individuals with disabilities. When using high- and low-tech reinforcers, reinforcer deliveries may be arranged to occur in a distributed manner (i.e., every response results in a reinforcer delivery), or an accumulated manner (i.e., reinforcers are accumulated and exchanged following completion of all the work). The purpose of this study was to examine the interaction and effects of reinforcer arrangements (i.e., distributed reinforcement and accumulated reinforcement) and technology level of items (i.e., high-tech and low-tech) on preference and reinforcer efficacy with three children with autism. Results demonstrated higher response rates and preference toward accumulated reinforcer arrangements compared to distributed reinforcer arrangements regardless of technology level. Overall, participants’ responding and preference were sensitive to different reinforcer arrangements but were less sensitive to differences in the technology level of the reinforcers used

Developing a Website for the Cal Poly Rodeo Program

The purpose of this project was to create an effective website for the Cal Poly Rodeo Program in order to improve communication with key audiences and ensure continued success for the organization. This website was intended to remain consistent with other Cal Poly websites, such as those listed on the Cal Poly College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) Student Life page under Clubs and Organizations, and was included on this page once created. A secondary purpose of the project was to give the Cal Poly Rodeo coach an easier way to recruit and contact potential student athletes. The project included research on the history of the program, content generation, collection and capture of photographs, edits of the website once it was created, and ensuring the website was included on the Cal Poly CAFES Student Life page under Clubs and Organizations

Spectroscopy and critical temperature of diffusive superconducting/ferromagnetic hybrid structures with spin-active interfaces

The description of the proximity effect in superconducting/ferromagnetic heterostructures requires to use spin-dependent boundary conditions. Such boundary conditions must take into account the spin dependence of the phase shifts acquired by electrons upon scattering on the boundaries of ferromagnets. The present article shows that this property can strongly affect the critical temperature and the energy dependence of the density of states of diffusive heterostructures. These effects should allow a better caracterisation of diffusive superconductor/ferromagnet interfaces.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Partnership Instability and Child Wellbeing during the Transition to Elementary School

Data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 2,957) are used to examine partnership instability and children’s wellbeing during the transition to elementary school. We find that coresidential transitions are related to externalizing, attention, and social problems. Mothers’ mental health and use of harsh parenting partially mediate the associations between coresidential transitions and child outcomes at age five. The impact of coresidential transitions on externalizing, attention, and social problems is stronger for boys than girls. Also, non-coresidential transitions predict externalizing and attention problems for White children but not for Hispanic children. Finally, the association between coresidential transitions and verbal ability is stronger for children with highly educated mothers than for children of less educated mothers.