The Impact of Stability Ball Seating on Behavior and Academic Achievement among Elementary School Students in Grades 1 through 4.

This study was designed to answer three questions: 1) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the behavior of students in grades 1 through 4? 2) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the mathematics scores of students in grades 1 through 4? and 3) What is the impact of stability ball seating on the reading scores of students in grades 1 through 4? Research has shown that stability ball seating is linked to behavior and academic achievement among students diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and/or autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examines the effect of stability ball seating on behavior and academic achievement among students in mainstream classrooms in grades 1-4 who do not have a diagnosis of ADHD or ASD and was conducted in one elementary school in Lenoir City, Tennessee through a group randomized design. All classes in grades 1 through 4 agreed to participate. Data were collected from 136 students in first grade, 140 students in second grade, 141 in third grade and 80 in fourth grade, for an overall response rate of 99.9%. There were a total of 229 males and 268 females in this 16-week group randomized trial. Changes in classroom conduct, aggressive and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder behavior was monitored by teachers and identified through the Achenbach’s Teacher Report Form which was completed as a pre and post intervention assessment with every student in the study. The Discovery Educational Assessment was also regularly implemented school-wide and scores for all students were monitored for any changes in academic achievement. Stability ball seating did not improve behavior or academic achievement in this sample. Any changes that occurred in student behavior or reading and math scores cannot be attributed to the stability ball seating but are probably the result of other influences such as teacher involvement, curricula, or other possible environmental factors excluding stability ball seating. It would not be recommended that teachers replace seating as an intervention in effort to improve behaviors as outlined in this research nor to improve reading or math scores

Levels of job stress among 4-H Agents within the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service

This was a study of the work environment and job stress of the 4-H Agents across the state of Tennessee. Previous studies looking into the level of satisfaction in Extension had revealed that the 4-H Agent was the most dissatisfied sector within the system, regardless of which state the study examinedThe instrument used in this study focused on the stress levels facing the individual in the workplace. Research has linked the level of stress to the level of satisfaction. It was hoped that this study could be used to identify job stress areas that the administration of the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service (UTAES) could focus on to increase the level of 4-H Agents\u27 job satisfaction. Ultimately this action could reduce the rate of turn over of the individuals possessing the job responsibility of 4-H Agent within UTAES. This study identified the following areas of the work environment: Occupation Roles with the subset of role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility, and physical environment; Personal Strain with the subset of vocational strain, psychological strain, interpersonal strain, and physical strain; and finally Personal Resources with the subset of recreation, self-care, social support, and rational/cognitive areas. The instrument used was the Occupational Stress Inventory Revised Edition by Samuel H. Osipow, PhD. This study was a total population study of 113 agents with 100 percent youth responsibilities. Seventy-six percent or 86 usable surveys were returnedEach section revealed ratings over and above the normal levels as recommended by the OSI-R™. The areas of role overload, role ambiguity, role boundary, vocational strain, physical strain, recreation, and rational/cognitive were the highest sectors with role overload the most stressed at 51.2 percent of the agents replying in a higher than normal stress level. No set pattern was established for the high stress levels across the state. However when broken down according to districts, the Western District and the Cumberland Districts displayed the highest stress levels with the highest stress scores in each of the five sections. The Western District scored the highest among the state in the areas of Responsibility, Vocational Stress, Role Overload, Interpersonal Stress and Self-Care. The Cumberland District scored the highest in the state in the areas of Role Insufficiency, Role Ambiguity, Role Boundary, Physical Environment, and Psychological Stress. The Central District and the Smoky Mountain District each had only two areas to score high stress levels in comparison to the entire state data. The two areas the Central District scored the highest in were Recreation and Social Support. The Smoky Mountain District scored the highest in Rational/Cognitive Coping and Physical Strain

Using a virtual machine to protect sensitive Grid resources

Most Grid systems rely on their operating systems (OSs) to protect their sensitive files and networks. Unfortunately, modern OSs are very complex and it is difficult to completely avoid intrusions. Once intruders compromise the OS and gain system privilege, they can easily disable or bypass the OS security protections. This paper proposes a secure virtual Grid system, SVGrid, to protect sensitive system resources. SVGrid works by isolating Grid applications in Grid virtual machines. The Grid virtual machines' filesystem and network services are moved into a dedicated monitor virtual machine. All file and network accesses are forced to go through this monitor virtual machine, where SVGrid checks request parameters and only accepts the requests that comply with security rules. Because SVGrid enforces security policy in the isolated monitor virtual machine, it can continue to protect sensitive files and networks even if a Grid virtual machine is compromised. We tested SVGrid against attacks on Grid virtual machines. SVGrid was able to prevent all of them from accessing files and networks maliciously. We also evaluated the performance of SVGrid and found that performance cost was reasonable considering the security benefits of SVGrid. Furthermore, the experimental results show that the virtual remote procedure call mechanism proposed in this paper significantly improves system performance. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/56163/1/1134_ftp.pd

Increased Rates of Death from Unintentional Injury among Non-Hispanic White, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Non-Metropolitan Communities

Overview of Key Findings Living in a nonmetropolitan area is associated with an increase in the age-adjusted death rate from unintentional injuries, from 46.2 in metropolitan areas to 59.2 in nonmetropolitan areas in 2018, with all races/ethnicity groups affected except for non-Hispanic Black. The ratio of unintentional injury deaths in nonmetropolitan areas, compared to metropolitan areas, was 1.28 overall, ranging from 1.05 to 1.56 depending on race and ethnicity. American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest rate of living in nonmetropolitan areas (39.5%), and this group has the greatest increase in death from unintentional injury associated with living in a nonmetropolitan setting (from 67.7 to 105.3 per 100,000). There is no association between urbanization and race/ethnicity on the rate of emergency department visits for nonfatal unintentional injuries

Corporate Bankruptcy Panel--The Fraudulent Conveyance Origins of Chapter 11: An Essay on the Unwritten Law of Corporate Reorganizations

The second panel was the Corporate Panel, led by Professor Douglas Baird from the University of Chicago Law School. We were fortunate enough to have the impressive Sarah R. Borders act as the moderator of this panel. The discussion, however, did not require much moderating; the panelists were familiar with one another and the discussion was entertaining. The panel was divided into two schools of thought: those who felt like the Code solely governed the practice of corporate bankruptcy, and those who felt like there was a set of unwritten rules created over the last 150 years that pulled the strings

Syrian Refugees and the Digital Passage to Europe: Smartphone Infrastructures and Affordances

This research examines the role of smartphones in refugees’ journeys. It traces the risks and possibilities afforded by smartphones for facilitating information, communication, and migration flows in the digital passage to Europe. For the Syrian and Iraqi refugee respondents in this France-based qualitative study, smartphones are lifelines, as important as water and food. They afford the planning, navigation, and documentation of journeys, enabling regular contact with family, friends, smugglers, and those who help them. However, refugees are simultaneously exposed to new forms of exploitation and surveillance with smartphones as migrations are financialised by smugglers and criminalized by European policies, and the digital passage is dependent on a contingent range of sociotechnical and material assemblages. Through an infrastructural lens, we capture the dialectical dynamics of opportunity and vulnerability, and the forms of resilience and solidarity, that arise as forced migration and digital connectivity coincide

Evaluating a Modular Decision Support Application For Colorectal Cancer Screening

BACKGROUND: There is a need for health information technology evaluation that goes beyond randomized controlled trials to include consideration of usability, cognition, feedback from representative users, and impact on efficiency, data quality, and clinical workflow. This article presents an evaluation illustrating one approach to this need using the Decision-Centered Design framework. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate, through a Decision-Centered Design framework, the ability of the Screening and Surveillance App to support primary care clinicians in tracking and managing colorectal cancer testing. METHODS: We leveraged two evaluation formats, online and in-person, to obtain feedback from a range primary care clinicians and obtain comparative data. Both the online and in-person evaluations used mock patient data to simulate challenging patient scenarios. Primary care clinicians responded to a series of colorectal cancer-related questions about each patient and made recommendations for screening. We collected data on performance, perceived workload, and usability. Key elements of Decision-Centered Design include evaluation in the context of realistic, challenging scenarios and measures designed to explore impact on cognitive performance. RESULTS: Comparison of means revealed increases in accuracy, efficiency, and usability and decreases in perceived mental effort and workload when using the Screening and Surveillance App. CONCLUSION: The results speak to the benefits of using the Decision-Centered Design approach in the analysis, design, and evaluation of Health Information Technology. Furthermore, the Screening and Surveillance App shows promise for filling decision support gaps in current electronic health records

Persuasive health educational materials for colorectal cancer screening

This paper describes an effort to design and evaluate persuasive educational materials for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Although CRC screening is highly effective, screening rates in the US remain low. Educational materials represent one strategy for educating patients about screening options and increasing openness to screening. We developed a one-page brochure, leveraging factual information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and national guidelines, and strategies for persuasion from the human factors and behavioral economics literatures. We evaluated the resulting brochure with adults over the age of 50. Findings suggest that the educational brochure increases knowledge of CRC and screening options, and increases openness to screening. Furthermore, no significant difference was found between the new one-page brochure and an existing multi-page Screen for Life brochure recommended by the CDC. We interpret these findings as indication that the more practical and potentially less intimidating one-page brochure is as effective as the existing multi-page Screen for Life brochure