INCLUSIVE MALE ADOLESCENT IDENTITY FORMATION IN GROUP SETTINGS

The principal developmental task of adolescence is the formation of an individual’s identity. Through much of human history there has been an intentional design of practices that harness this developmental energy and channel it through structured experiences where the individual earns a targeted identity through certain actions. These practices continue in recognizable forms that target specific identities and fulfill the individual psychological need of identity formation and the societal need of transition into adulthood. Inherent to these identity formation experiences is the group setting, where a variety of capabilities for identity achievement exist. This research project explores what structures and interventions effectively support high performing and low performing male adolescents through these identity formation experiences. Organizations working with male adolescents which use structured experiences to support a targeted identity achievement of all participants were study sites for the project. Qualitative data was gathered through the form of interviews with staff working directly with male adolescents at these organizations. Results of the project suggest that there are common strategies that support an inclusive experience for all participants, as well as strategies specific to supporting identity achievement among low performing and high performing participants. These strategies offer the potential to improve the programmatic development of identity formation experiences for male adolescents as well as targeted interventions for male adolescence engaged in identity formation experiences

Van Devenders Share Special Moment with Mannings

Successful businessman and his family give back to Ole Mis

DBI Realizations of the Pseudo-Conformal Universe and Galilean Genesis Scenarios

The pseudo-conformal universe is an alternative to inflation in which the early universe is described by a conformal field theory on approximately flat space-time. The fields develop time-dependent expectation values, spontaneously breaking the conformal symmetries to a de Sitter subalgebra, and fields of conformal weight zero acquire a scale invariant spectrum of perturbations. In this paper, we show that the pseudo-conformal scenario can be naturally realized within theories that would ordinarily be of interest for DBI inflation, such as the world-volume theory of a probe brane in an AdS bulk space-time. In this approach, the weight zero spectator field can be associated with a geometric flat direction in the bulk, and its scale invariance is protected by a shift symmetry.Comment: 34 page

Highly prevalent but not always persistent: undergraduate and graduate student's misconceptions about psychology.

Although past research has documented the prevalence of misconceptions in introductory psychology classes, few studies have assessed how readily upper-level undergraduate and graduate students endorse erroneous beliefs about the discipline. In Study 1, we administered a 30-item misconception test to an international sample of 670 undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral students. Analyses indicated that participants identified and rejected the majority of misconceptions, with doctoral students performing better than their Master’s or undergraduate peers. In Study 2, we administered a revised version of our questionnaire to a novel sample of 557 students while controlling for number of years spent at university, psychology courses completed and need for cognition. Once again, we found that graduate students rejected more, affirmed less and reported lower levels of uncertainty than their undergraduate counterparts. Educational implications and future research directions are discussed

Prior cigarette smoke exposure does not affect acute post-stroke outcomes in mice

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently the third leading cause of death globally and is characterized by airflow limitation that is progressive and not fully reversible. Cigarette smoking is the major cause of COPD. Fifty percent of deaths in the COPD population are due to a cardiovascular event and it is now recognised that COPD is a risk factor for stroke. Whether COPD increases stroke severity has not been explored. The aim of this study was to investigate whether functional and histological endpoints of stroke outcomes in mice after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo) were more severe in mice exposed to cigarette smoke (CS). 7-week-old male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to room air or CS generated from 9 cigarettes/day, 5 days/week for 2, 8 and 12 weeks. Following air or CS exposure, mice underwent tMCAO surgery with an ischaemic period of 30–40 min or sham surgery. Mice were euthanised 24 h following the induction of ischaemia and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), lungs and brains collected. Mice exposed to CS for 2 weeks and subjected to a stroke had similar BALF macrophages to air-exposed and stroke mice. However, CS plus stroke mice had significantly more BALF total cells, neutrophils and lymphocytes than air plus stroke mice. Mice exposed to CS for 8 and 12 weeks had significantly greater BALF total cells, macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes than air-exposed mice, but stroke did not affect CS-induced BALF cellularity. Prior CS exposure did not worsen stroke-induced neurological deficit scores, reduced foregrip strength, infarct and oedema volumes. Collectively, we found that although CS exposure caused significant BALF inflammation, it did not worsen acute post-stroke outcomes in mice. This data suggests that while patients with COPD are at increased risk of stroke, it may not translate to COPD patients having more severe stroke outcomes

Plasma Urea Concentrations of Pigs on Commercial Operations

Research was conducted on commercial swine operations to determine whether plasma urea concentrations could be used as an indicator of the protein requirement of growing-finishing pigs. The research consisted of a 30-question survey and an on-farm visit to collect blood and feed samples. The survey included questions about genetics, nutrition, housing and health. Results showed that when plasma urea concentrations were analyzed across all phases of production, barrows had greater plasma urea concentrations than gilts. Plasma urea concentrations varied between the different phases of production, with nursery pigs having the lowest plasma urea concentrations, followed by growing and finishing pigs, respectively. An increase in dietary crude protein resulted in an increase of plasma urea in barrows and gilts in all phases of production. The comparison of dietary crude protein concentrations and age of the pigs at the time of blood collection indicates that the majority of the diets were over-formulated for crude protein. The effects of sex, crude protein, and phase of production on plasma urea concentrations in pigs raised on commercial operations were similar to those in a research setting. These results suggest that within an individual swine operation, plasma urea is a useful indicator of the protein requirement of growing-finishing pigs

A Review of the Ammonia Issue and Pork Production

During the last few decades, an increasing interest in, and respect for, the environment has arisen. This has consequences for livestock production. Air can become polluted by noxious odors from animal husbandry. A particular example is odor emission from pig buildings, because in several parts of the world pig production has become highly specialized, industrialized and concentrated geographically. Air quality in pig facilities, as it influences the well-being of animals and workers, has become a major concern for pork producers. Odors emanating from pig slurry are an increasing source of environmental pollution as well as a nuisance to the human population in the vicinity. Emission regulations that establish a maximum acceptable emission rate for individual pollutants released from a source are currently under debate for production agriculture in several regions throughout the United States. To meet increasingly stringent air quality demands, pork producers will be obligated to adopt technologies and innovations in production to minimize the concentration of pollutants present in the odor emitted from pig facilities. The purpose of this review is to discuss how ammonia is produced, the human health concerns involved, and the control of ammonia and odor emission

The Use of Plasma Urea as an Indicator of Protein Status in Growing-Finishing Pigs

An experiment is being conducted on commercial swine operations to determine if plasma urea concentration can be used as an indicator of protein status in growing-finishing pigs. Swine producers in Eastern Nebraska are being selected to participate in this on-farm study. The experiment includes the completion of a 30-question survey and an on-farm visit for the collection of blood and feed samples. The survey includes questions about genetics, nutrition, housing and health. Preliminary results suggest that crude protein is overfed in most finishing diets. Gilts consistently have lower plasma urea concentrations than barrows when gilts and barrows are fed the same diet during the finishing growth period. This confirms the concept that gilts utilize protein more efficiently for lean growth. These results suggest that within an individual swine operation, plasma urea is a useful indicator of protein status in growing-finishing pigs