Electrical continuity scanner facilitates identification of wires for soldering to connectors

Electrical continuity scanner automatically scans 50 wires in 2 seconds to correlate all wires in a circuit with their respective known ends. Modifications made to the basic plan provide circuitry for scanning up to 250 wires

Gaetano Salvemini: An Anti-Fascist in Cambridge

Gaetano Salvemini was one of the earliest political exiles during Fascism. Before his exile Salvemini had the reputation as a well-respected historian and political activist. He taught history at the University of Florence among other universities. Salvemini was known for his intelligence, detailed research and analysis, as well as his unflinching ideals. After his exile Salvemini spent some time in England and France. During this time he traveled to the United States for a lecture tour. He returned to Europe but soon after returned to the U.S. He settled in Cambridge, MA to teach at Harvard University. Salvemini’s time at Harvard is very interesting and it is this time period that this paper will focus on. Salvemini’s main objective in his writing and lectures was to debunk the myths set forth by the Fascist propaganda machine. This paper will analyze if all his efforts were worthwhile. This paper will make use of a variety of sources including Salvemini’s own writing, newspaper articles, reviews, etc. Other sources that will be used include access to Professor DiScala’s personal collection of documents on Salvemini. This collection includes articles, letters, Italian governmental documents, etc. This particular collection includes very important primary sources, including correspondence between Italian government officials in the United States and Italy

Disrupting the School-To-Prison Pipeline: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review of Alternative Discipline Practices to Reduce Exclusion and Promote Equity

Zero tolerance policies were designed to create safety by implementing automatic exclusion (e.g., suspensions, expulsions) for misbehavior in response to rising school violence in the United States. However, evidence over the past four decades shows that these policies fail to increase objective and subjective safety, and instead foster poor school climate and disproportionate rates of minority groups in the school-to-prison pipeline. Previous research and literature reviews suggest there are a host of developing Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) practices that have promising potential to reduce exclusionary outcomes and foster equitable treatment of vulnerable student populations, such as Positive Behavioral Intervention Supports and Restorative Practices. This mixed methods systematic review collates available data regarding the effectiveness of various MTSS interventions as alternative discipline practices that intend to replace or reduce exclusionary outcomes in schools. This review identifies both the quantitative outcomes for each universal, secondary, and tertiary non-exclusionary disciplinary intervention, as well as the qualitative processes and perspectives associated with each MTSS strategy, such as subjective impact, acceptability, feasibility, and implementation barriers and facilitators across multiple types of stakeholders. Studies included in this systematic review were limited to peer-reviewed research in United States general education K-12 settings published in 1997 and later in order to capture the most relevant, high-quality work on this topic. This systematic review incorporates school-level, staff-level, and student-level effects and perspectives across multiple types of study design, therefore highlighting prevalent themes across various practices so that these strategies can be more easily replicated in under-resourced settings with access to less support. In order to ensure more unbiased assessment of the evidence, the quality of each study\u27s reporting, methodology, and evidence are discussed to frame how strongly these findings should be taken into consideration when drawing conclusions. Each of the 59 studies is discussed in terms of its design, setting, population, intervention focus and MTSS tier, methods, and outcomes, followed by an overview of the shared characteristics and key findings across studies. While conclusions are limited by the available study designs and comparisons between interventions, recommendations are provided for administrators, educations, and practitioners in schools moving forward, as well as directions for future research on what we still need to know about alternative discipline practices to reduce exclusion and promote equity. Key themes for future implementers include: promoting school-wide culture change through relationship-building; using behavioral strategies to incentivize positive behaviors; implementing brief teacher-focused trainings to enhance empathy, cultural responsiveness, and awareness of implicit bias; offering trauma-informed trainings to enhance contextual awareness; providing ongoing professional development to prevent initiative fatigue ; selecting core common practices across interventions to simplify implementation and reduce burden; tailoring interventions to fit students\u27 developmental level; and involving stakeholders in development, implementation, and evaluation of these interventions. Implications for implementation science and disability critical race theory are also discussed

Historical Thinking: Perspectives on Teaching History in the Secondary Education Classroom

“Doing” history can be interpreted in many different ways and this is due to the dynamic nature of history as a discipline. Doing history can be research, writing papers, working on a manuscript, putting final touches on a thesis, setting up a museum exhibit, being a tour guide, or teaching. In all these examples historians try to take their passion for the subject and make that clear to others. History needs an audience. Interest in history exists, if not, we would not have outlets like the History Channel. Dealing with an audience who wants to learn about history is one thing, but the ultimate in doing history is taking a group of young people who are forced to take history and teach them to like it (if not love it). Middle school and high school history teachers must wade through vast amounts of material in order to put together lessons that are accessible to young people. A good teacher must not only utilize a school text but must supplement it. School books are often outdated which can be challenging to a teacher. A teacher must also be aware of new scholarship and resources that are available. Not all students will appreciate our dedication to teaching history, but they will all benefit from our diligence in staying up-to-date on both historical and educational practices. This paper serves as a challenge to history teachers to use new scholarship, sources, and resources to bring the best education and historical knowledge to our students: the historians of the future

Review: Reducing Adolescent Sexual Risk: A Theoretical Guide for Developing and Adapting Curriculum-Based Programs

A review of Reducing Adolescent Sexual Risk: A Theoretical Guide for Developing and Adapting Curriculum-Based Programs by Douglas Kirby

Development of a readiness ruler for use with alcohol brief interventions

Background A quick method of assessing readiness to change was needed for a major study of implementing screening and alcohol brief intervention in England. For this purpose, a Readiness Ruler that had been validated among a sample of male college students in the USA was adapted and applied to a sample of excessive drinkers in a general medical practice located in a deprived area of Gateshead, England. Methods 72 participants identified as excessive drinkers by health professionals completed a single-item Readiness Ruler, the 12-item Readiness to Change Questionnaire (RCQ) and the AUDIT questionnaire. Results In terms of concurrent validity, the relationships between the Readiness Ruler, on the one hand, and either stage of change allocation or a dimensional score derived from the RCQ, on the other hand, were highly significant but weaker than expected. When patients who endorsed the “maintenance” point on the Readiness Ruler were excluded from the analysis, the above relationships were considerably strengthened for reasons that are discussed. On this basis and with another small change, a final Readiness Ruler was developed. Conclusion If the validity of the Readiness Ruler is confirmed in subsequent research, a quick and simple way of measuring readiness to change will be available for research or clinical work with alcohol brief interventions

Coping with Exposure to Community Violence: Assessing the Role of Avoidance in Reducing Delinquency and Aggression in Low-Income Urban Adolescents

Exposure to community violence has disabling effects on the mental health of youth in the US, with high rates of exposure for African American adolescents from underserved, urban communities. Past literature suggests that avoidant coping, specifically behavioral avoidance, may be most useful for youth exposed to uncontrollable stress. The current study assessed the utility of coping strategies in reducing aggression and delinquency in 267 sixth through eighth grade African American youth. First, confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-factor structure of coping: cognitive approach, behavioral approach, and avoidance. Next, moderated moderation findings showed that for boys, avoidance and approach strategies increased risk for delinquency and aggression. For girls, high use of avoidance was protective, but low use of avoidance and approach was harmful. These results suggest that in general, more coping is helpful for girls but unhelpful for boys. This research enhances understanding of how youth adaptively cope with community violence

Progressive stage transition does mean getting better: a further test of the Transtheoretical Model in recovery from alcohol problems

Aims To test two central assumptions of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) regarding recovery from alcohol problems: (i) individuals making a forward transition from pre-action to action stages will show greater drinking improvements than those remaining in pre-action stages; and (ii) individuals remaining in pre-action stages will not demonstrate improvements in drinking outcomes. Design and setting Large, multi-centre, randomized controlled trial of treatment for alcohol problems [United Kingdom Alcohol Treatment Trial (UKATT)]. Measurements Stage of change, drinks per drinking day and percentage days abstinent at baseline, 3- and 12-month follow-ups. Findings In support of TTM assumption 1, improvements in drinking outcomes were consistently greater among clients who showed a forward stage transition (Cohen's d = 0.68) than among those who did not (d = 0.10). Two tests of assumption 2 showed a significant improvement in drinking outcomes in non-transition groups, inconsistent with the TTM; one test showed a significant deterioration and the other showed equivalent drinking outcomes across time. An explanation is offered as to why, under the relevant assumption of the TTM, clients in non-transition groups showed small changes in drinking outcomes. Conclusions In contrast to a previous study by Callaghan and colleagues, our findings largely support the TTM account of recovery from alcohol problems in treatment. The discrepancy can be explained by the use in our study of a more reliable and valid method for assigning stage of change

On the motivating impact of price and online recommendations at the point of online purchase

This is the post-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2011 ElsevierDo online recommendations have the same motivating impact as price at the point of online purchase? The results (n = 268) of an conjoint study show that: (1) when the price is low or high relatively to market price, it has the strongest impact (positive and negative) on the likelihood of an online purchase of an mp3 player, (2) when the price is average to market price, online recommendation and price are equal in their impact at the point of online purchase, and, (3) the relative impact from price increases when online shopping frequencies increases. The implications these results give are that online retailers should be aware that online recommendations are not as influential as a good offer when consumers purchase electronics online. However, other customer recommendations have a stronger impact on novice online shoppers than towards those consumers that shop more frequently online