Melville\u27s America : democratic brotherhood

Herman Melville had a deep faith in his fellow man. He felt that man\u27s devotion to other men, a feeling of brotherhood between men, was the essential bond of humanity. Men had to acknowledge their responsibility to their own kind in order to achieve order and happiness in the rapidly changing, ambiguous world of the mid-nineteenth century. He rejected transcendental philosophy because each man had to achieve his own convictions and peace of mind through personal contact with nature, which led to the isolation of the individual. Melville believed that men could not live together in a society by cultivating their isolation from other men; he felt men could only achieve happiness through their concern for their fellow men. He adopted almost religiously the principle of the brotherhood of men

Engaged and On Board: 2015 National Survey of Nonprofit Board Members

When it comes to board engagement, the board environment and experience that an organization delivers plays a more significant role than many nonprofits realize. "Engaged and On Board 2015" offers a fresh look at board engagement through the lens of those board members who are highly involved. More than 1,200 nonprofit board members nationwide participated in the study.In a wake-up call for the nonprofit sector, the survey finds less than half of board members are likely to actively recommend serving on their own board to friends or colleagues. The study also makes clear that highly engaged board members are having a very different experience than their less enthused colleagues. And by examining the differences in their views about the benefits of board membership and the culture and practices of their boards, the survey findings offer insight and guidance to nonprofit leaders as they work to heighten the engagement and effectiveness of their board members

2017-2018 Master Class and Mini-Recital - Nancy Elton (Piano)

https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_masterclasses/1156/thumbnail.jp

Utah Water Watch Volunteer Monitoring Manual

This manual is part of the training for Utah Water Watch volunteers

Effects of contingent and noncontingent social reinforcement on performance of children in a ball-striking skill

The study was conducted to determine effects of contingent and noncontingent social reinforcement on preschool children performing a ball-striking skill. Answers to the following questions were sought: (1) Do the performance results of practice accompanied by contingent social reinforcement differ from the results of practice accompanied by noncontingent social reinforcement?  (2) Do levels of performance, as measured by the number of target hits, the distance at which the target is hit, and form consistency scores, increase with practice? (3) Do children who are high achievers in hitting the target differ from low achievers in form consistency? Twelve preschool children, enrolled in the Experimental Kindergarten at the Institute for Child and Family Development at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, served as subjects for the study. The nine boys and three girls were matched for age, sex, and pretest scores, and then randomly assigned to one of three groups. Subjects in two groups practiced the skill individually with praise given contingently or noncontingently in a counterbalanced order. Subjects in the third group served as a no-practice control. Practice periods were distributed over four weeks. All subjects were tested at the end of the second and the fourth week

“This Is Public Health: Recycling Counts!” Description of a Pilot Health Communications Campaign

This paper describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of a pilot recycling campaign. The goal of the campaign was to increase people’s awareness and knowledge about recycling and the link between a healthy environment and the public’s health. A total of 258 individuals attended campaign week events and completed an initial survey. Results identified inconvenience of recycling facility locations as a key barrier to recycling. Post-campaign survey results revealed increased recycling of paper, plastic, glass, and cans (p < 0.05). The majority of participants “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that as a result of campaign messages they had greater awareness about recycling (88.4%) and their recycling efforts increased (61.6%)

Crafting Stories in the Domestic Archive

The Knitting and Crochet Guild archive, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire hosts a vast array of hand-made items, including clothing, artefacts, yarns and samples, as well as tools, pattern leaflets, booklets and magazines. This article explores how the collection was used as a starting point for engaging students in new experiential encounters with the archive, as both a concept and as a container for material histories of the past. Two theoretical frameworks of investigation provide an intertwining methodology for reading the project: the first operates as a feminist narrative of intervention in the history of textile craft making, and the second considers how the ‘thought-images’ of Walter Benjamin provide a tool for thinking through student responses. It is argued that as a repository of the home-crafts, Lee Mills provides historical materialism with the experiential investigation it needs for a critical pedagogy of the present

A Comparison of Various Teaching Methods for Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases

The purpose of this study was to find out whether patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (C.O.P.D.) learn more from auditory or from visual teaching. Of the 30 patients in the sample, 10 used a programmed instruction booklet, 10 used a taped recording of the same programmed material and 10 were in a control group which received no specific teaching. A pre-test was given to each of the patients who met the criteria for the study. One researcher gave the pre-test through an oral interview with the patient. After the pre-test, the patient received the teaching device assigned to him by random selection. Forty-eight hours after he had had the teaching device a second researcher gave a post-test, also by interview. The difference in the score from the pre-test to the post-test was used to measure learning. A second post-test was given to fifteen of the patients two weeks after the first post-test. This score was measured against the previous scores to ascertain retention of learning. The hypothesis accepted for the study was that patients with C.O.P.D. instructed with auditory teaching techniques learn more than similar patients taught with visual teaching techniques. Analysis of the data showed support of this hypothesis in that the auditory group improved a mean of 1.8 points, the visual group improved a mean 1.0 points and the control group a mean 0.7 points. A similar sub-hypothesis related to retention of learning was not supported by this study because the control group scored highest on mean improvement. The effect of chronic hypoxia and motivation of the patient\u27s learning was discussed and tested. These results were for the main, statistically insignificant. Included in the findings were the following: Patients who admitted changes in reading habits consistently scored less in all groups, (P \u3c .10), Patients that lived at one address longer learned less in all groups (P \u3c .05 in visual and auditory groups), formal education a person had the greater the increase in post-test The more scores. The literature was reviewed in terms of C.O.P.D. and the role of education in the patient\u27s management, teaching methods commonly used in patient education, and specific problems related to learning in the C.O.P.D. patient (hypoxia, motivation, and vision)

Nocturnal sleep, daytime sleepiness, and quality of life in stable patients on hemodialysis

BACKGROUND: Although considerable progress has been made in the treatment of chronic kidney disease, compromised quality of life continues to be a significant problem for patients receiving hemodialysis (HD). However, in spite of the high prevalence of sleep complaints and disorders in this population, the relationship between these problems and quality of life remains to be well characterized. Thus, we studied a sample of stable HD patients to explore relationships between quality of life and both subjective and objective measures of nocturnal sleep and daytime sleepiness METHODS: The sample included forty-six HD patients, 24 men and 22 women, with a mean age of 51.6 (10.8) years. Subjects underwent one night of polysomnography followed the next morning by a Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT), an objective measure of daytime sleepiness. Subjects also completed: 1) a brief nocturnal sleep questionnaire; 2) the Epworth Sleepiness Scale; and, 3) the Quality of Life Index (QLI, Dialysis Version) which provides an overall QLI score and four subscale scores for Health & Functioning (H&F), Social & Economic (S&E), Psychological & Spiritual (P&S), and Family (F). (The range of scores is 0 to 30 with higher scores indicating better quality of life.) RESULTS: The mean (standard deviation; SD) of the overall QLI was 22.8 (4.0). The mean (SD) of the four subscales were as follows: H&F – 21.1 (4.7); S&E – 22.0 (4.8); P&S – 24.5 (4.4); and, F – 26.8 (3.5). H&F (r(s )= -0.326, p = 0.013) and F (r(s )= -0.248, p = 0.048) subscale scores were negatively correlated with periodic limb movement index but not other polysomnographic measures. The H&F subscale score were positively correlated with nocturnal sleep latency (r(s )= 0.248, p = 0.048) while the H&F (r(s )= 0.278, p = 0.030) and total QLI (r(s )= 0.263, p = 0.038) scores were positively associated with MSLT scores. Both of these latter findings indicate that higher life quality is associated with lower sleepiness levels. ESS scores were unrelated to overall QLI scores or the subscale scores. Subjective reports of difficulty falling asleep and waking up too early were significantly correlated with all four subscale scores and overall QLI. Feeling rested in the morning was positively associated with S&E, P&S, and Total QLI scores. CONCLUSION: Selected measures of both poor nocturnal sleep and increased daytime sleepiness are associated with decreased quality of life in HD patients, underscoring the importance of recognizing and treating these patients' sleep problems

A genome-wide association study identifies a susceptibility locus for biliary atresia on 2p16.1 within the gene EFEMP1

Biliary atresia (BA) is a rare pediatric cholangiopathy characterized by fibrosclerosing obliteration of the extrahepatic bile ducts, leading to cholestasis, fibrosis, cirrhosis, and eventual liver failure. The etiology of BA remains unknown, although environmental, inflammatory, infectious, and genetic risk factors have been proposed. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in a European-American cohort of 343 isolated BA patients and 1716 controls to identify genetic loci associated with BA. A second GWAS was performed in an independent European-American cohort of 156 patients with BA and other extrahepatic anomalies and 212 controls to confirm the identified candidate BA-associated SNPs. Meta-analysis revealed three genome-wide significant BA-associated SNPs on 2p16.1 (rs10865291, rs6761893, and rs727878; P < 5 ×10-8), located within the fifth intron of the EFEMP1 gene, which encodes a secreted extracellular protein implicated in extracellular matrix remodeling, cell proliferation, and organogenesis. RNA expression analysis showed an increase in EFEMP1 transcripts from human liver specimens isolated from patients with either BA or other cholestatic diseases when compared to normal control liver samples. Immunohistochemistry demonstrated that EFEMP1 is expressed in cholangiocytes and vascular smooth muscle cells in liver specimens from patients with BA and other cholestatic diseases, but it is absent from cholangiocytes in normal control liver samples. Efemp1 transcripts had higher expression in cholangiocytes and portal fibroblasts as compared with other cell types in normal rat liver. The identification of a novel BA-associated locus, and implication of EFEMP1 as a new BA candidate susceptibility gene, could provide new insights to understanding the mechanisms underlying this severe pediatric disorder