Success of Georgia Extension PSAs

Evaluation! We hear the term more and more in extension service work and it\u27s no different with radio programming. In Georgia, we wanted to know if the resources spent on agricultural public service announcements (PSAs) for radio were worth it

A Causal-Comparative Analysis of Performance-Based Music Classes and ACT Scores

Educational leaders at the state and district level are struggling to provide adequate funding for schools due to the uncertainty of the economic outlook throughout the country. Although several states have requested and received waivers for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), many school systems still find themselves in the difficult position of providing enough instructional time dedicated to the four primary core content areas (language arts, math, science, and social studies) to allow students to be successful in high stakes standardized testing. While NCLB stated the fine arts, including performance-based music classes, such as band, choir, and orchestra are part of the core curriculum, music programs are dealing with cutbacks and even elimination. After years of debate in Congress, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) finally passed and was signed into law by President Barack Obama in December 2015. This legislation provides hope within the music education community these concerns will be addressed. This causal-comparative study measured the impact of performance-based music classes on academic achievement utilizing data provided by recent high school graduates from a high school in the Southeastern United States

Deciding What We See

About six people will decide In a few minutes what hundreds of thousands of people like you and me will see on tonight\u27s TV news. At most Georgia TV stations, the procedure for determining what stories are covered is about the same. Let\u27s look at a day in WSB-TV\u27s news operation in Atlanta

Social Distance, Stigma, and Help-Seeking: A Comparison of Lay and Professional Conceptualizations of Autism in the Southern US

Understanding stigma, help-seeking and barriers to treatment for persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is essential for informing interventions toward increased relevance and utility. An array of sociocultural and individual factors can influence lay beliefs and behavioral responses to ASD, including stigma and social distancing (i.e., preference for distance from autistic individuals). It is important to consider the Explanatory Models of ASD among helping professionals (e.g., health care, education) as they are likely touchstones along the help-seeking pathway for children with ASD. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to explore factors in the southern United States associated with different aspects of the EM, namely how background factors (demographics), knowledge, and familiarity with ASD are related to social distancing, autism stigma, and help-seeking; and 2) to elicit and compare beliefs about ASD among groups of lay persons and professionals (i.e., healthcare professionals, teachers) on the frontline of initiating the help-seeking pathway. Quantitative surveys (n = 343) and open-ended data were collected from individuals in the southern United States. Quantitative results indicated: increased knowledge was associated with lower levels of stigma and social distancing; more preference for social distance was associated with decreased help-seeking; more education and ASD knowledge were associated with increased help-seeking intentions. Similarly, the data suggests that individuals with higher levels of ASD knowledge were more likely to endorse positive attitudes towards help-seeking from professionals. Educators had more ASD knowledge than the lay community. However, educators were less likely to seek help from all sources on the measure of general help-seeking (GHSQ-V). Qualitative data indicated significant differences between groups in terms of causes and treatment of ASD. Educators and healthcare workers more frequently endorsed neurodevelopmental disorders as the cause of ASD-like symptoms compared to the lay community. While the lay community and healthcare professionals more frequently recommended psychological treatment, educators were more likely to suggest multiple, specific treatments. Overall, the present study indicated the importance of ASD knowledge and how that knowledge impacts each individual’s ability and willingness to provide access to the help-seeking pathway

Baehr v. Lewin: Hawaii Takes a Tentative Step to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

In Baehr v. Lewin, the Supreme Court of Hawaii sparked a controversy that has potential nationwide implications. The court held that three same-sex couples were entitled to an evidentiary hearing to determine if the State can demonstrate that denying the couples the right to marry under the Hawaii Marriage Law furthers compelling state interests. If the State fails its burden, it can no longer refuse marriage licenses to couples merely on the basis that they are of the same sex. Should this occur, gay marriages will become legal in Hawaii

Slowing down length of neutrons in hydrogenous media.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1089978

Social Distance, Stigma, And Help-Seeking: An Exploration Of Autism Beliefs In The Southern United States

Stigma has been associated with physical and mental health conditions and their treatment long before formal care systems. Negative perceptions within the lay community, such as stigma and social distancing, negatively impact individuals with autism and their families. The purpose of this study was to explore factors associated with autism stigma among laypeople in the Southern United States. Specifically, the study explored how demographics, knowledge, and familiarity are related to social distancing and stigma, and how these factors relate to beliefs about and intentions of help-seeking. Using a lay sample (N=108) of rural Southern towns, survey data was collected in two community settings (healthcare centers and churches). The survey consisted of questionnaires designed to measure an individual’s knowledge of ASD, stigma, social distancing, and help-seeking attitudes. Multiple hierarchical regressions examined the following hypotheses: 1) demographics (i.e., age, gender, education level, and income level), ASD knowledge, and ASD familiarity will predict stigma 2) demographics, knowledge, and familiarity will predict social distancing 3) demographics, knowledge, familiarity, stigma, and social distancing will predict help-seeking intentions. Results partially supported the hypotheses. That is, individuals who have higher levels of ASD knowledge are less likely to hold stigmatized attitudes towards individuals with ASD. Individuals more familiar with someone with autism were less likely to prefer greater social distance. People who preferred higher amounts of social distance were more likely to avoid seeking help than individuals who had preference for less social distance. It appears that both are needed in order to reduce social distancing and increase help-seeking intentions. Taken together, these findings indicate an increased need for awareness and intervention campaigns that provide psychoeducation along with opportunities for interaction. Contrary to previous literature, there were no indications that demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, educational level, or income level) significantly predicted any of these variables. Future research should focus on larger sample sizes with increased diversity in background and beliefs. Increased male representation would be helpful, as would efforts to study ASD phenomena in other regions of the United States and in the world

Utilizing social media to build community in the residence halls

The purposes of this study are to understand how community is built and residents are educated in the residence halls on college campuses as well as to design a method for social media to aid that process. To achieve this, documents were collected from 10 different institutions from across the country. The documents were analyzed to determine how community is built, residents are educated, and the use of social media in residence life. The results showed that none of the institutions were using social media in any form. It also showed that all of the institutions build community and educate residents through similar methods which led to the seven themes: 1. Community; 2. Intentional; 3. Academic Success; 4. Relationships; 5. Programing; 6. Resources; and 7. Inclusive. After understanding the methods used to build community and educate residents, a process to implement social media to aid in both areas was designed. The final piece is an example of specific features of social media to build community and educate residents within a residence hall on a college campus

Why do inequality and deprivation produce high crime and low trust?

Humans sometimes cooperate to mutual advantage, and sometimes exploit one another. In industrialised societies, the prevalence of exploitation, in the form of crime, is related to the distribution of economic resources: more unequal societies tend to have higher crime, as well as lower social trust. We created a model of cooperation and exploitation to explore why this should be. Distinctively, our model features a desperation threshold, a level of resources below which it is extremely damaging to fall. Agents do not belong to fixed types, but condition their behaviour on their current resource level and the behaviour in the population around them. We show that the optimal action for individuals who are close to the desperation threshold is to exploit others. This remains true even in the presence of severe and probable punishment for exploitation, since successful exploitation is the quickest route out of desperation, whereas being punished does not make already desperate states much worse. Simulated populations with a sufficiently unequal distribution of resources rapidly evolve an equilibrium of low trust and zero cooperation: desperate individuals try to exploit, and non-desperate individuals avoid interaction altogether. Making the distribution of resources more equal or increasing social mobility is generally effective in producing a high cooperation, high trust equilibrium; increasing punishment severity is not