Facilitating Academic and Mental Health Resilience in Students with a Learning Disability

This qualitative study explored the educational journeys of five postsecondary students with learning disabilities (LD) from the perspective of the students and their families. Using a resilience lens, it examined the challenges that they faced and the capacities and resources that facilitated their resilience and helped them achieve their current level of academic achievement and mental health. A retrospective, multiple case study design was used, and a series of three interviews was conducted with each university student with an LD and their families. The participants identified a number of interactions among the students and their parents, teachers, and peers that helped shape and develop the capacities they needed in order to negotiate for the supports and resources that sustained their well-being. These capacities included an awareness and acceptance of their LD and themselves as learners, the self-advocacy skills they needed in order to seek out and negotiate for the supports and accommodations that would help them succeed, the ability to set lofty yet attainable goals, the perseverance to work toward these goals in spite of setbacks and challenges, and the willingness to use the supports and resources that were available to them

Two-stage reusable launch system utilizing a winged core vehicle and glideback boosters

A near-term technology launch system is described in which Space Shuttle main engines are used on a manned orbiter and also on twin strap-on unmanned boosters. The orbiter has a circular body and clipped delta wings. The twin strap-on boosters have a circular body and deployable oblique wings for a glideback recovery. The dry and gross weights of the system, capable of delivering 70klb of cargo to orbit, are compared with a similar system with hydrocarbon-fueled boosters and with the current Shuttle

Reducing Stress and Enhancing the General Well-Being of Teachers Using T’ai Chi Chih® Movements: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of T’ai Chi Chih® (TCC) discipline on the physical symptoms of stress and the general well-being of 35 teachers. Teachers completed 15 hours of instruction and practice in a two-day format with four additional weeks of practice. The 23 teachers who completed pre-posttests showed significant improvement of their general well-being and reduction in perceived stress symptoms. Qualitative data from the teachers supported these results. Within the limitations of the study design it was concluded that this relatively new, easy to learn method of T’ai Chi has potential to enhance well-being and reduce stress symptoms of teachers. Teachers and other educational professionals may want to learn more about T’ai Chi Chih® discipline for its stress reducing benefits and enhancement of general well-being

Comparison of Neurologic Trauma and Motorcycle Helmet Use in Drivers vs Passengers

This study compares postcrash prevalences of neurological and head and neck injuries in motorcycle drivers and passengers, stratified by helmet use

An Efficient Protocol for the Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Decarboxylative Allylic Alkylation Using Low Palladium Concentrations and a Palladium(II) Precatalyst

Enantioselective catalytic allylic alkylation for the synthesis of 2-alkyl-2-allylcycloalkanones and 3,3-disubstituted pyrrolidinones, piperidinones and piperazinones has been previously reported by our laboratory. The efficient construction of chiral all-carbon quaternary centers by allylic alkylation was previously achieved with a catalyst derived in situ from zero-valent palladium sources and chiral phosphinooxazoline (PHOX) ligands. We now report an improved reaction protocol with broad applicability among different substrate classes in industry-compatible reaction media using loadings of palladium(II) acetate as low as 0.075 mol% and the readily available chiral PHOX ligands. The novel and highly efficient procedure enables facile scale-up of the reaction in an economical and sustainable fashion