The Socioeconomics of Homelessness in Bowling Green, Kentucky

Though the city of Bowling Green, Kentucky has experienced tremendous economic growth in recent years, poverty and homelessness have become a problem for residents and city officials. This project seeks to expand research on homelessness in Bowling Green, Kentucky in order to prescribe policies that could be enacted by local government entities. Construction of low-income housing, rent subsidies, rent ceilings, and tougher eviction laws are all policy measures that have been discussed by previous literature. To analyze the effectiveness of these four policies, this project proposes a regression model that explores the relationship between the homeless population and each of these measures. Next, the project uses Mind Genomics™ techniques developed by Dr. Howard Moskowitz to examine constituent preferences in housing policy in Bowling Green. The conclusion takes the findings of these two sections and proposes two actions be taken by the Bowling Green City Commission. Results suggest that to address the problem of homelessness, the City Commission could expand rent subsidies to low-income families and hold public forums to discuss changes to laws surrounding evictions. This project represents one of the first pieces of research focused on homelessness in Bowling Green, as well as one of the first uses of Mind Genomics™ experimental methods in political science

Lawlessness in the occupied Soviet territories during World War II

Members of both the German counterinsurgency forces and Soviet partisans terrorised the civilians of the occupied Soviet territories during World War II. At times, fighters of either force robbed, sexually assaulted and killed civilians. The nature of the rear-area security war was such that these actions could be treated as legitimate acts of war rather than wanton crimes. This thesis seeks to explain these crimes by exploring its preconditions. Both the German and Soviet regimes can be understood to have deliberately undermined the restraints that would have helped prevent these crimes from occurring. Judicial restraints were nullified with the war on the frontlines distancing itself from international law and the norms of war. Psychological and moral restraint was undermined with both regimes' official ideologies conceiving of the occupied civilians as innately criminal. Finally, a further aspect of judicial restraint was countered as fighters were not heavily punished for individualistic crimes against the civilian population. With these restraints removed, the overwhelming picture of the rear areas is one of lawlessness. Fighters from both forces of the security war had absolute authority over the occupied civilians and often exploited them to a horrific degree. Both forces can be seen as having converged against the civilian population and a full understanding of the occupied experience seems incomplete without recognition of this. This convergence also highlights similarities between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union with both, otherwise-opposed, ideologies manifesting themselves in comparable ways in the rear areas

Intervening on the Side Effects of Hormone-Dependent Cancer Treatment: The Role of Strength Training

While prostate and breast cancers are both highly prevalent and treatable using hormone suppression therapy, a constellation of side effects ensue, which mimic typical aging effects but at an accelerated pace. Because strength training is considered to be an intervention of choice for addressing the musculoskeletal and metabolic consequences of normal aging in older adults, it may be an effective intervention to attenuate or reverse the side effects of hormone-dependent cancer treatment. This paper provides an overview of the independent effects of strength training on common musculoskeletal and metabolic side effects of hormone-dependent therapy used for prostate and breast cancers. Strength training appears to be an effective complementary therapy for some of the adverse effects of prostate and breast treatment. Future research needs to address potential mechanisms to explain recent findings and to explore the role of strength training in addressing specific risk factors resulting from cancer treatment

Identity, Belonging & Citizenship in Urban Britain

This paper explores how identity, belonging and citizenship might change in the cities of the future. It starts by setting out how we are using our key terms. As a baseline, it traces the tectonic shifts that have structured these terms in the period from 1965 to the present. As part of this, we present new original analysis of Census data to explore how national identity is patterned geographically across the UK’s system of cities. The paper then briefly sets out some of the “known unknowns” that will affect their future unfolding, before tracking what we know about trends that are likely to shape future urban forms of citizenship, belonging and identity. Drawing on an inventory of key future threats and opportunities, we set out a series of scenarios for future cities in relation to our three key terms. In thinking this through, we have foregrounded the role that citizenship, belonging and especially identity might have in rethinking notions of resilience in both imagining and planning for cities of the future. For the sake of coherence, we focus in this paper on trends which relate to the ongoing massive migration-driven demographic transformation of the UK. As we will note in the paper, these changes intersect with changes in several different domains of life – such as gender, age, lifestyle, sexuality, constitutional change and cultures of consumption. International migration is the main driver of demographic change in the UK today. Thus this paper specifically addresses how migration has fundamentally changed identity, belonging and citizenship in Britain, especially urban Britain. This transformation is not unique to the UK. As we will show, it is part of the larger turbulence of globalisation that has put more people on the move on the planet than ever before, hastening a final global shift from the countryside to the city – but an understanding of Britain’s near future is impossible without it. At the start of our baseline period, 1965, there were a little over 2 million foreign-born people in the UK; now there are close to 8 million. The period between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses saw the biggest population growth in the UK since the Census began in 1801: a growth of 3.7 million or 7.1%, of which 55% was directly due to international migration rather than natural growth (births over deaths). As the demographic changes caused by this period ripple down the generations in the coming decades, the ethnic make-up of the UK and the prevalent forms of identification, belonging and citizenship will be transformed. There are now a growing number of “majority minority” cities, and the transnational connections of the residents of these cities will be among the most significant drivers of change in this domain

Multi-Function Tribometer Design

ME450 Capstone Design and Manufacturing Experience: Winter 2010Friction and wear properties of many material combinations are becoming increasingly important as engineers look to create more durable and reduced-friction materials. Currently, there is no tribometer which can measure real world complex 2D wear patterns at speeds required by our sponsor. Because of this, our team has been asked to design a tribometer which will measure friction and wear in complex two-dimensional wear patterns to better model and test real world applications. Key design characteristics will include both closed-loop environmental control and closed-loop normal force application. A successful prototype must have each of the aforementioned functionalities among others.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109387/1/me450w10project5_report.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109387/2/me450w10project5_photo.jp

Colleague appraisal of Australian general practitioners in training: an analysis of multisource feedback data

Background: Multisource feedback is an evidence-based and validated tool used to provide clinicians, including those in training, feedback on their professional and interpersonal skills. Multisource feedback is mandatory for participants in the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Practice Experience Program and for some Australian General Practice Training Registrars. Given the recency of the Practice Experience Program, there are currently no benchmarks available for comparison within the program and to other comparable cohorts including doctors in the Australian General Practice Training program. The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare colleague feedback within and across General Practice trainee cohorts. Methods: Colleague feedback, from multisource feedback of Practice Experience Program participants and Australian General Practice Training Registrars, collected between January 2018 and April 2020, was compared to identify similarities and differences. Analyses entailed descriptive statistics, between and within groups rater consistency and agreement measures, principal component analysis, t-tests, analysis of variance, and psychometric network analysis. Results: Colleague ratings of Practice Experience Program participants (overall average 88.58%) were lower than for Registrars (89.08%), although this difference was not significant. ‘Communication with patients’ was rated significantly lower for Practice Experience Program participants (2.13%) while this group was rated significantly better for their ‘Ability to say no’ (1.78%). Psychometric network analyses showed stronger linkages between items making up the behavioural component (compared to the items of the performance and self-management components, as found by principal component analysis) for Practice Experience Program participants as compared to Registrars. Practice Experience Program participants were stronger in clinical knowledge and skills as well as confidentiality, while Registrars were stronger in communicating with patients, managing their own stress, and in their management and leadership skills. Conclusions: The multisource feedback scores of doctors undertaking the Practice Experience Program suggests that, while all mean values are ‘very good’ to ‘excellent’, there are areas for improvement. The linkages between skills suggests that Practice Experience Program doctors’ skills are somewhat isolated and have yet to fully synthesise. We now have a better understanding of how different groups of General Practitioners in training compare with respect to professional and interpersonal skills. Based on the demonstrated differences, the Practice Experience Program might benefit from the addition of educational activities to target the less developed skills