The Impact of Service-Learning on Participants in Community-Based Organizations

Research questions examined variables addressing the impact of service-learning on participants in community-based organizations during the 1997 summer session. The researcher set out to determine whether young people engaged in service-learning programs were likely to be involved in other service organizations, whether they are likely to continue to enroll in service-learning programs, likely to be committed to participation in voluntary service as adults, whether they value their service-learning experience, see value to themselves and to the community, and if differences exist by ethnicity and gender. A survey instrument was mailed to the six program coordinators in the study for administration to those participants present on the selected day and 340 completed surveys were returned by participants who had completed fifth grade or above. Findings indicated that more than 75% of youth were involved in other organizations which provide service to the community with Church groups having the largest number of participants. One-fifth of the students were enrolled for their second summer of participation; over two-thirds are likely to volunteer again and over 75% were satisfied with their service-learning experience. Students found service-learning to be valuable to themselves with over 80% agreement to the majority of the items in the cluster measuring this variable. Over 85% of the participants saw their service as valuable to the community. No differences existed by gender in satisfaction with service-learning but girls saw their service-learning experience as being of more value to themselves and their community than did boys. Statistically significant differences were found in satisfaction with service-learning indicating that white students were more satisfied than black students and other ethnic groups and that white students saw their experience as being of more value to themselves and their community than did black students and students from other ethnic groups. The study contains implications for both practitioners and administrators

Tumor suppression by p53 in the absence of Atm.

Oncogenes can induce p53 through a signaling pathway involving p19/Arf. It was recently proposed that oncogenes can also induce DNA damage, and this can induce p53 through the Atm DNA damage pathway. To assess the relative roles of Atm, Arf, and p53 in the suppression of Ras-driven tumors, we examined susceptibility to skin carcinogenesis in 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene/12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-treated Atm- and p53-deficient mice and compared these results to previous studies on Arf-deficient mice. Mice with epidermal-specific deletion of p53 showed increased papilloma number and progression to malignant invasive carcinomas compared with wild-type littermates. In contrast, Atm-deficient mice showed no increase in papilloma number, growth, or malignant progression. gamma-H2AX and p53 levels were increased in both Atm(+/+) and Atm(-/-) papillomas, whereas Arf(-/-) papillomas showed much lower p53 expression. Thus, although there is evidence of DNA damage, signaling through Arf seems to regulate p53 in these Ras-driven tumors. In spontaneous and radiation-induced lymphoma models, tumor latency was accelerated in Atm(-/-)p53(-/-) compound mutant mice compared with the single mutant Atm(-/-) or p53(-/-) mice, indicating cooperation between loss of Atm and loss of p53. Although p53-mediated apoptosis was impaired in irradiated Atm(-/-) lymphocytes, p53 loss was still selected for during lymphomagenesis in Atm(-/-) mice. In conclusion, in these models of oncogene- or DNA damage-induced tumors, p53 retains tumor suppressor activity in the absence of Atm

Just a beta....

Traditional implementation of clinical information systems follows a predictable project management process'. The selection, development, implementation, and evaluation of the system and the project management aspects of those phases require considerable time and effort. The purpose of this paper is to describe the beta site implementation of a knowledge-based clinical information system in a specialty area of a southeastern hospital that followed a less than traditional approach to implementation. Highlighted are brief descriptions of the hospital's traditional process, the nontraditional process, and key findings from the experience. Preliminary analysis suggests that selection of an implementation process is contextual. Selection of elements from each of these methods may provide a more useful process. The non-traditional process approached the elements of communication, areas of responsibility, training, follow-up and leadership differently. These elements are common to both processes and provide a focal point for future research

The spiritual revolution and suicidal ideation: an empirical enquiry among 13- to 15-year-old adolescents in England and Wales

The association between conventional religiosity and suicide inhibition has been well explored and documented since the pioneering work of Durkheim. Commentators like Heelas and Woodhead point to ways in which conventional religiosity is giving way in England and Wales to a range of alternative spiritualities, including renewed interest in paranormal phenomena. Taking a sample of 3095 13- to 15-year-old adolescents, the present study examines the association between suicidal ideation and both conventional religiosity and paranormal beliefs, after controlling for individual differences in sex, age and personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism). The data demonstrate that, while conventional religiosity is slightly associated with lower levels of suicidal ideation, paranormal beliefs are strongly associated with higher levels of suicidal ideation

Four Lessons in Versatility or How Query Languages Adapt to the Web

Exposing not only human-centered information, but machine-processable data on the Web is one of the commonalities of recent Web trends. It has enabled a new kind of applications and businesses where the data is used in ways not foreseen by the data providers. Yet this exposition has fractured the Web into islands of data, each in different Web formats: Some providers choose XML, others RDF, again others JSON or OWL, for their data, even in similar domains. This fracturing stifles innovation as application builders have to cope not only with one Web stack (e.g., XML technology) but with several ones, each of considerable complexity. With Xcerpt we have developed a rule- and pattern based query language that aims to give shield application builders from much of this complexity: In a single query language XML and RDF data can be accessed, processed, combined, and re-published. Though the need for combined access to XML and RDF data has been recognized in previous work (including the W3C’s GRDDL), our approach differs in four main aspects: (1) We provide a single language (rather than two separate or embedded languages), thus minimizing the conceptual overhead of dealing with disparate data formats. (2) Both the declarative (logic-based) and the operational semantics are unified in that they apply for querying XML and RDF in the same way. (3) We show that the resulting query language can be implemented reusing traditional database technology, if desirable. Nevertheless, we also give a unified evaluation approach based on interval labelings of graphs that is at least as fast as existing approaches for tree-shaped XML data, yet provides linear time and space querying also for many RDF graphs. We believe that Web query languages are the right tool for declarative data access in Web applications and that Xcerpt is a significant step towards a more convenient, yet highly efficient data access in a “Web of Data”

Effects of dietary nitrate supplementation on symptoms of acute mountain sickness and basic physiological responses in a group of male adolescents during ascent to Mount Everest Base Camp

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary nitrate supplementation, in the form of beetroot juice, on acute mountain sickness (AMS) symptoms and physiological responses, in a group of young males trekking to Mount Everest Base Camp (EBC). Forty healthy male students (mean age (SD): 16 (1) yrs) trekked to EBC over 11 days. Following an overnight fast, each morning participants completed the Lake Louise AMS questionnaire and underwent a series of physiological tests: resting blood pressure as well as resting and exercising heart rate, respiratory rate, and peripheral oxygen saturation. The exercise test consisted of a standardised 2-minute stepping protocol and measurements were taken in the last 10 seconds. Participants in the intervention arm of the study consumed 140 ml of concentrated beetroot juice daily, containing approximately 10 mmoles of nitrate, while those in the control arm consumed 140 ml of concentrated blackcurrant cordial with negligible nitrate content. Drinks were taken for the first seven days at high altitude (days 2 to 8), in two equal doses; one with breakfast, and one with the evening meal. Mixed modelling revealed no significant between-groups difference in the incidence of AMS (Odds Rationitrate vs. control: 1.16 (95% CI: 0.59; 2.29)). Physiological changes occurring during ascent to high altitude generally were not significantly different between the two groups (Model Coef (95% CI) – average difference nitrate vs. control: systolic blood pressure, 0.16 (-4.47; 4.79); peripheral oxygen saturation, 0.28 (-0.85; 1.41); heart rate, -0.48 (-8.47; 7.50) (Model Coef (95% CI) – relative difference nitrate vs. control: ventilatory rate, 0.95 (0.82; 1.08)). Modelling revealed that diastolic blood pressure was 3.37 mmHg (0.24; 6.49) higher for participants in the beetroot juice, however this difference was no larger than that found at baseline and no interaction effect was observed. Supplementation with dietary nitrate did not significantly change symptoms of AMS or alter key physiological variables, in a group of adolescent males during a high altitude trekking expedition. There was no evidence of harm from dietary nitrate supplementation in this context. Given the wide confidence intervals in all models, a larger sample size would be required to exclude a false negative result. Our data suggest that prolonged oral nitrate supplementation is safe and feasible at altitude but has little physiological or clinical effect

Towards a model of talent development in physical education

Traditional conceptions of talent generally emphasise the construction of threshold values and the development of relatively unitary abilities, and this approach still dominates talent development programmes for elite sport. Most researchers on high ability, however, now favour domain-specific, multidimensional conceptions of ability that stress the development of behavioural potential and its interaction with personal and environmental characteristics. This paper presents a model of talent in physical education, drawing together findings from a wide range of literature on the realisation and inhibition of abilities, international studies of effective school-based identification and provision strategies, and a conception of the subject as an integration and realisation of different forms of ability. In presenting this model, the authors aim to redress the imbalance within the current debate from an almost total concern with out-of-school clubs and the preparation for adult elite sport, in favour of a more equitable and inclusive approach, premised upon the unique importance of mainstream, curricular physical education within any talent development scheme

Gravito-electromagnetic analogies

We reexamine and further develop different gravito-electromagnetic (GEM) analogies found in the literature, and clarify the connection between them. Special emphasis is placed in two exact physical analogies: the analogy based on inertial fields from the so-called "1+3 formalism", and the analogy based on tidal tensors. Both are reformulated, extended and generalized. We write in both formalisms the Maxwell and the full exact Einstein field equations with sources, plus the algebraic Bianchi identities, which are cast as the source-free equations for the gravitational field. New results within each approach are unveiled. The well known analogy between linearized gravity and electromagnetism in Lorentz frames is obtained as a limiting case of the exact ones. The formal analogies between the Maxwell and Weyl tensors are also discussed, and, together with insight from the other approaches, used to physically interpret gravitational radiation. The precise conditions under which a similarity between gravity and electromagnetism occurs are discussed, and we conclude by summarizing the main outcome of each approach.Comment: 60 pages, 2 figures. Improved version (compared to v2) with some re-write, notation improvements and a new figure that match the published version; expanded compared to the published version to include Secs. 2.3 and

Measurement of the cross-section and charge asymmetry of WW bosons produced in proton-proton collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents measurements of the $W^+ \rightarrow \mu^+\nu$ and $W^- \rightarrow \mu^-\nu$ cross-sections and the associated charge asymmetry as a function of the absolute pseudorapidity of the decay muon. The data were collected in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 20.2~\mbox{fb^{-1}}. The precision of the cross-section measurements varies between 0.8% to 1.5% as a function of the pseudorapidity, excluding the 1.9% uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The charge asymmetry is measured with an uncertainty between 0.002 and 0.003. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-next-to-leading-order calculations with various parton distribution functions and have the sensitivity to discriminate between them.Comment: 38 pages in total, author list starting page 22, 5 figures, 4 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2017-13