FACTORS DETERMINING STRUCTURED ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION IN RURAL YOUTH : INTERNAL CAPACITIES, MICROSYSTEM SUPPORT, AND CONSTRAINT NEGOTIATION

Rural youth often face challenges to recreation participation that differ from their urban counterparts. Fewer opportunities for exposure to positive adults, and a lack of resources and programs limit opportunities to positively impact youth in their free time. While these are commonly identified interpersonal and structural constraints, the research literature on adolescent intrapersonal constraints tends to focus on preferences or psychological variables related to aversion as opposed to limitations due to development. Resilience traits or protective factors can be thought of as internal capacities to support development and contribute to one's quality of life. The purpose of this study was to examine how the internal capacities of youth and the presence of external supports from parents and other adults predicted participation in high yield, structured recreation activities among rural youth. Secondary purposes of this study were to understand the constraints to participating in structured activities and identify the negotiation strategies youth use to initiate and continue participation in structured activities. Guided by Ecological Systems Theory (EST), the study examined relationships with parents and other adults through a concurrent mixed-model design using survey data and focus groups with youth aged 11-16 years. Findings support the proposition that the internal capacities of youth related positively to the availability of high expectations from and caring relationships with parents. Goals and aspirations of youth, an internal capacity, and high expectations from adults also predicted youth participation in structured activities. In focus groups, youth cited distance from opportunities and family obligations as the primary reasons for not participating in sports and after school activities. Constraint negotiation to initiate and continue activities came primarily from the availability of parental resources, making conscious choices to avoid boredom, and the influence and expectations of others. Recommendations for practice focuses on asset mapping and developing recreational programs housed at local community centers.  M.S

FINITE FIELD ELEMENTS OF HIGH ORDER ARISING FROM MODULAR CURVES (APPEARED IN DESIGNS, CODES, AND CRYPTOGRAPHY)

Abstract. In this paper, we recursively construct explicit elements of provably high order in finite fields. We do this using the recursive formulas developed by Elkies to describe explicit modular towers. In particular, we give two explicit constructions based on two examples of his formulas and demonstrate that the resulting elements have high order. Between the two constructions, we are able to generate high order elements in every characteristic. Despite the use of the modular recursions of Elkies, our methods are quite elementary and require no knowledge of modular curves. We compare our results to a recent result of Voloch. In order to do this, we state and prove a slightly more refined version of a special case of his result. 1

Growing our future: Introducing the Pacific School Food Network to support healthy school food and nutrition environments for better nourished children in the Pacific Islands

Food systems in the Pacific Islands (P.I.) are transitioning from local, traditional diets to those with low fruit and vegetable intake and largely based on ultra-processed foods that are often, but not always, imported. Alongside changes in diet and health outcomes, there is a loss of traditional and sociocultural dimensions of food, resulting in poor quality diets in many P.I. populations, including children. Besides high rates of overweight and obesity, in some areas stunting rates are up to 48.4%,1 and prevalence of anaemia (5-14 years) as high as 45%.2 After many years of limited multisectoral action and effort to enact sustainable change across policy and practice, there is growing interest in improving school food and nutrition environments (SFE) in the region. Against this backdrop of limited capacity, coordination, effort, research and evidence, the Pacific School Food Network (PSFN) was formed

Pacific food systems The role of fish and other aquatic foods for nutrition and health

This report is intended for actors, policymakers and funders concerned with improving food and nutrition security with fisheries as an entry point. It is equally valuable for food system, agricultural, health and nutrition actors who are seeking to protect and enhance the benefits that fish and other aquatic foods provide to a diversity of nutrition goals. This report has been developed from an extensive review of published scientific articles and technical reports, as well as interviews and consultations with 17 experts. It also draws upon insights from the Pacific Food System regional dialogues, which were held in the lead-up to the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Legitimacy intermediation in the multilevel European polity and its collapse in the euro crisis

This essay re-examines the dual – republican and liberal – foundations of democratic legitimacy in the Western traditions of normative political theory. Considered in isolation, the European Union conforms to liberal standards but cannot satisfy republican criteria. Given these conflicting standards, debates on the alleged European democratic deficit have remained inconclusive. Moreover, they have failed to pay sufficient attention to the multilevel character of the European polity and to the normative potential of legitimacy intermediation in its two-step compliance and legitimating relationships. I argue, however, that the capacity of democratic member states to legitimate the exercise of European governing functions is being destroyed in the present euro crisis, and I briefly discuss the implications of this new constellation.In der westlichen Tradition der normativen politischen Theorie beruht demokratische Legitimität auf der doppelten Grundlage republikanischer und liberaler Prinzipien. Für sich betrachtet entspricht die Europäische Union zwar liberalen Kriterien, aber eben nicht den republikanischen Anforderungen. Angesichts so unterschiedlicher Kriterien konnte es auch im Streit über das angebliche europäische Demokratiedefizit keine Einigung geben. Überdies ignorierte diese Diskussion den Mehrebenen-Charakter der europäischen Politik und das normative Potenzial der Legitimationsvermittlung zwischen Union und Bürgern durch die demokratisch verfassten Mitgliedstaaten. Die gegenwärtige Eurokrise allerdings zerstört die Fähigkeit demokratischer Mitgliedstaaten, die Ausübung europäischer Herrschaftsfunktionen zu legitimieren. Der Aufsatz erörtert die Implikationen dieser neuen Konstellation.1 Introduction 2 Legitimacy discourses The republican discourse The liberal discourse Differences 3 Constitutional democracies – and the European Union? 4 Legitimacy intermediation in the multilevel European polity 5 The end of legitimacy intermediation in the euro crisis Monetary Union and the failure of output legitimacy Rescuing the euro through supranational intervention 6 Legitimate supranational government? Input-oriented European legitimacy? 7 Reducing the burden on European legitimacy Reference

The Role Of Copper In Parkinson\u27s Disease

https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/urs2021bio/1018/thumbnail.jp

Understanding the Biological Basis of Cognitive Aging: The Role of Inhibitory Interneurons

Previous studies reveal decreases in hippocampal interneuron cell densities during normal aging. However, considerable variation in results exists within the literature. Overall, interneuron populations show either decreases or conservation in cell numbers expressing calcium binding proteins parvalbumin (PV) and calbindin (CB), and neuropeptides somatostatin (SOM) and neuropeptite Y (NPY) in hippocampal subregions of CA1, CA3, dentate granule cell layer, and dentate hilus. Notably, only few of the past aging studies showed correlations in cell loss with behavioral impairments in aged animals. This issue was addressed in the present study using male, young and old Fischer 344 rats, that were behaviorally characterized on four tasks before immunohistochemical staining and cell type quantification. Rats performed the Morris Watermaze, W-Track Continuous Spatial Alternation Task, Spontaneous Object Recognition (SOR) task, and Temporal Object Recognition (TOR) task. The old rats showed age-related deficits only in hippocampal-dependent memory tasks. Immunofluorescent imaging revealed an increase in SOM-immunoreactive interneurons in the dentate granule cell layer, as well as an increase in NPY expression in the dentate hilus. All other regions in which neurons were quantified showed no changes in any of the selected interneuron types examined. Contrary to previous findings, we found no decreases in interneuron populations anywhere in the hippocampus