Development of a Coding Instrument to Assess the Quality and Content of Anti-Tobacco Video Games

Previous research has shown the use of electronic video games as an effective method for increasing content knowledge about the risks of drugs and alcohol use for adolescents. Although best practice suggests that theory, health communication strategies, and game appeal are important characteristics for developing games, no instruments are currently available to examine the quality and content of tobacco prevention and cessation electronic games. This study presents the systematic development of a coding instrument to measure the quality, use of theory, and health communication strategies of tobacco cessation and prevention electronic games. Using previous research and expert review, a content analysis coding instrument measuring 67 characteristics was developed with three overarching categories: type and quality of games, theory and approach, and type and format of messages. Two trained coders applied the instrument to 88 games on four platforms (personal computer, Nintendo DS, iPhone, and Android phone) to field test the instrument. Cohen's kappa for each item ranged from 0.66 to 1.00, with an average kappa value of 0.97. Future research can adapt this coding instrument to games addressing other health issues. In addition, the instrument questions can serve as a useful guide for evidence-based game development.Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco ProductsNational Cancer Institute (NCI) Office of Communication and EducationCommunication Studie

A New Phenomenon: Sub-Tg, Solid-State, Plasticity-Induced Bonding in Polymers

Polymer self-adhesion due to the interdiffusion of macromolecules has been an active area of research for several decades [70, 43, 62, 42, 72, 73, 41]. Here, we report a new phenomenon of sub-Tg, solid-state, plasticity-induced bonding; where amorphous polymeric films were bonded together in a period of time on the order of a second in the solid-state at ambient temperatures nearly 60 K below their glass transition temperature (Tg) by subjecting them to active plastic deformation. Despite the glassy regime, the bulk plastic deformation triggered the requisite molecular mobility of the polymer chains, causing interpenetration across the interfaces held in contact. Quantitative levels of adhesion and the morphologies of the fractured interfaces validated the sub-Tg, plasticity-induced, molecular mobilization causing bonding. No-bonding outcomes (i) during the compression of films in a near hydrostatic setting (which inhibited plastic flow) and (ii) between an 'elastic' and a 'plastic' film further established the explicit role of plastic deformation in this newly reported sub-Tg solid-state bonding

Role-Playing Games and the Ethics of Care

In this essay, the author explores the development of the “ethic of care” in philosophy and psychology, specifically the promising advancements from Gilligan and Noddings. It is clear that Bill Puka’s critique of Gilligan’s “different voice” philosophy presents a significant challenge to care ethics. What is needed is a formulation of the “feminist” insights that neither falls victim to the “regression” problem, nor requires too strong a commitment to gender roles. The answer the author developes introduces a lens that makes use of Erving Goffman’s role-playing metaphor. In the third of this essay’s three parts, the author shows how role-playing maps onto the concerns in Gilligan and Noddings’ philosophy, remaining true to their spirit but positing new relations and understandings. The ideal derived, after combining all of the relevant insights mentioned in the essay, is one that makes it possible to account for a positive concern for others, personal character growth, and awareness of shifting context

Review of Intersections of Open Educational Resources and Information Literacy

Review of Cullen, M. A., & Dill, E. (Eds.). (2022). Intersections of open educational resources and information literacy. Association of College and Research Libraries

A Clash of Principles: Personal Jurisdiction and Two-Level Utilitarianism in the Information Age

Utilitarianism provides the best analytic framework for “minimum contacts” analyses in multi-state mass tort litigation. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical philosophy contending that one should act in a way that maximizes utility; that is, act in a way that maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. This is often referred to as the “felicific calculus.”1 To maintain a civil lawsuit against a defendant, a court must have “personal jurisdiction” over that defendant, meaning that the defendant must have minimum contacts related to the suit such that maintenance of the suit does not offend traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.2 This is referred to as the “minimum contacts” test.3 The minimum contacts test serves two primary functions: first, ensuring that litigation takes place in a convenient forum; and second, ensuring that states do not intrude on the sovereignty of other states.4 The former function can be seen as a form of utilitarianism, whereby the court effectively weighs the costs and benefits of maintaining litigation in the given forum. However, the former function can conflict with the latter, more formalist function of maintaining a federalist system. This conflict featured in the recent Supreme Court case Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court, where the Supreme Court ruled that California did not have personal jurisdiction over mass tort claims from Oklahoma consumers, even though the exact same claims were being brought in California.5 In this case, the Supreme Court affirmed that in minimum contacts analyses, the formalist function is more important than the utilitarian one. The purpose of this note is to argue that the utilitarian function of minimum contacts should subsume the formalist one

Implementation of Project-based Learning to Entrepreneurship at International Preparatory in Buffalo: Its Effect on Learners’ Desire to Become Entrepreneurs and Impact on the Practice of 21st Century Skills

To extract the evidence of the effect of project-based learning in the teaching of entrepreneurship at International Preparatory in the City of Buffalo, the researcher will work with two groups of students. One group of students hereinafter called Group A will be exposed to the course of entrepreneurship using the project-based learning golden standards and teaching practices recommended by the Buck Institute of Education and the second group, hereinafter called Group B will not include project-based learning as a teaching strategy. Of special interest is the notable effect on the students’ desire to want to open and operate a business as an entrepreneur. In addition, the paper seeks to identify ways in which the students in Group A apply 21st Century skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication as an integral part of using project-based learning. The paper will consist of a literature review to find out what the experts in the field have proven through research and experience in regard to the use of project-based learning as a strategy for the teaching of entrepreneurship. Curriculum content will be designed to cover a period of one semester, three units, namely, entrepreneurship, principles of marketing and sales. This content will be presented using project based learning from the beginning of the semester during which the students in Group A will be asked to work on the challenging question of what good or service they want to create or provide for sale to potential customers. Students in this group will proceed during the first few weeks of the semester with a sustained inquiry until they come up with the product or service they will create or obtain from an established supplier. Implementation of project-based learning to the teaching of entrepreneurship will consist of providing students the opportunities to identify their product or service and move forward to the selection of effective modes of packaging, promotion, advertising, sale and distribution of the product or service. The students will also create a written business plan which will outline how their business will be organized and operated. The students will then be directed to work on their final presentations which will be revised, improved, and critiqued for continuous improvement. The research design will continue with a comparative statistical analysis of the two groups: Group A and Group B. Group A will be the group that will be using project-based learning in the teaching and learning about entrepreneurship, while Group B will be the group that will be doing the course without project-based learning. The purpose of studying the two groups is to establish whether there is a connection between the desire to want to become entrepreneurs when project based learning is implemented to the course content and to observe the 21st Century skills as the learners work on creating or providing a good or a service to customers. Finally, the research design will allow for data to be gathered from the students of Group A to conclude which aspect of the curriculum content they found to be most helpful. The purpose for doing this is to establish which segment helped the students the most and to establish the need for emphasis on that segment for future experiments of this nature