Characteristics of Low-Income, Black, Midwestern Teenage Mothers

Characteristics of Low-Income, Black, Midwestern Teenage Mothers is an exploratory project based on interviews with 26 Midwestern, black, and low-income adolescent mothers. Of these 26 mothers, 20 mothers had one child and six mothers had more than one child. Each interview obtained qualitative data pertaining to the participant\u27s family background; romantic/sexual relationships; reproductive history and plans; use of and attitude toward birth control; the experience of parenting; and future ambitions for mother and child. The interview schedule also obtained quantitative data regarding the participant\u27s cognitive perception of the environment as measured by a modified version of Martin E. P. Seligman\u27s Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The modified version of the Attributional Style Questionnaire included five hypothetical positive events such as: (1) You meet a friend who compliments you on your appearance ; (2) You become very rich ; (3) You complete your homework and it is highly praised ; (4) Your boyfriend has been treating you more lovingly ; and (5) You want something very badly and you get it . The modified version also included four negative events: (1) A friend comes to you with a problem and you don\u27t try to help him /her ; (2) You give an opinion in front of the class and the class reacted negatively at you ; (3) You meet a friend who acts mad at you ; and (4) You go out on a date and it goes badly . The recruitment and the interviewing of participants was concluded when the researcher encountered several dangerous situations. As a result, this study has a total sample size of 26. This limitation precludes the researcher from making comparisions between mothers with one and mothers with two children, as had been planned. In spite of these limitations, the project does provide information that reveals teenage mothers\u27 (1) desire academic achievement; (2) want to be good parents; and (3) perceive their environment as neutral or without learned helplessness. This project can also offer some suggestions for insuring the safety of future researchers during field studies. Finally, this exploratory project confirms the findings of several other researchers regarding the age relationship between the mother/father pairs; and for the teen mother, having a maternal history of adolescent childbearing

Developing Meaningful Higher Education Evaluation Systems: Putting China in Context

This paper firstly reviews how issues of accountability and transparency have become some of the key drivers of government policy over recent years. It finds that the drive for greater higher education accountability and transparency has encouraged the growth of an international evaluation industry. It secondly discusses issues related to different types of policy and evaluation instruments across Europe, as well as the importance of rankings. It finds that traditional approaches have relied on collegiality, expert judgment, and peer review, and there is a growing focus on indicator-led systems in the belief that indicators are value-free and statistically robust so that leads to rankings have a significant part of development. The paper finally discusses and compares trends and developments of accountability and transparency in China’s higher education. It finds that China is now pursuing “World-class Universities” (WCUs) establishment and China’s experience reflect the challenges and tensions around quality and accountability

Law School Based Incubators and Access to Justice

At the end of February 2015, law professors, law deans, incubator staff and attorneys, and self-selected others gathered at California Western School of Law for the Second Annual Conference on Law School Incubators and Residency Programs. The incubators that are the subject of this article tend to focus on transition to law practice and access to justice, and some are also working to incorporate technology for the practice of law as a means of enhancing access to justice. As more law schools decide to host, sponsor or offer an incubator, and following our panel discussion at the February 2015 incubator conference, we thought it would be helpful to consider fundamental issues deans grapple with when asked to launch an incubator. This list may not be exhaustive, but it will certainly more quickly advance the conversation, and offers a roadmap of sorts for an incubator business plan

Health behaviors of American pregnant women: a cross-sectional analysis of NHANES 2007-2014.

BackgroundThis study examined engagement in five health behaviors among pregnant women in the USA.MethodsPregnant women who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2007-2014 were included in this study. Five health behaviors were examined: adequate fruit and vegetable consumption, prenatal multivitamin use, physical activity, sleep and smoking. Multivariable regressions were used to estimate the odds ratio and 95% confidence interval of characteristics associated with health behaviors.ResultsAmong 248 pregnant women, only 10.2% engaged in all five health behaviors and 35.4% consumed adequate fruits and vegetables. For adequate fruit and vegetable consumption, Hispanic and women of 'other' race were more likely to meet the recommendation compared to non-Hispanic white (P = 0.01 and P = 0.03, respectively); high school graduates were less likely to meet the recommendation compared to those with at least some college education or more (P = 0.04).ConclusionsAdequate fruit and vegetable consumption among pregnant women was poor and differed by race/ethnicity and education status. Because of the cross-sectional design, we cannot examine engagement in health behaviors continuously throughout pregnancy. Future research with longitudinal data over the course of pregnancy is needed to confirm these results

Law School Based Incubators and Access to Justice – Perspectives from Deans

At the end of February 2015, law professors, law deans, incubator staff and attorneys, and self-selected others gathered at California Western School of Law for the Second Annual Conference on Law School Incubators and Residency Programs. The incubators that are the subject of this article tend to focus on transition to law practice and access to justice, and some are also working to incorporate technology for the practice of law as a means of enhancing access to justice. As more law schools decide to host, sponsor or offer an incubator, and following our panel discussion at the February 2015 incubator conference, we thought it would be helpful to consider fundamental issues deans grapple with when asked to launch an incubator. This list may not be exhaustive, but it will certainly more quickly advance the conversation, and offers a roadmap of sorts for an incubator business plan

Law School Based Incubators and Access to Justice – Perspectives from Deans

At the end of February 2015, law professors, law deans, incubator staff and attorneys, and self-selected others gathered at California Western School of Law for the Second Annual Conference on Law School Incubators and Residency Programs. The incubators that are the subject of this article tend to focus on transition to law practice and access to justice, and some are also working to incorporate technology for the practice of law as a means of enhancing access to justice. As more law schools decide to host, sponsor or offer an incubator, and following our panel discussion at the February 2015 incubator conference, we thought it would be helpful to consider fundamental issues deans grapple with when asked to launch an incubator. This list may not be exhaustive, but it will certainly more quickly advance the conversation, and offers a roadmap of sorts for an incubator business plan

Insurance Coverage Policies for Pharmacogenomic and Multi-Gene Testing for Cancer

Abstract: Insurance coverage policies are a major determinant of patient access to genomic tests. The objective of this study was to examine differences in coverage policies for guideline-recommended pharmacogenomic tests that inform cancer treatment. We analyzed coverage policies from eight Medicare contractors and 10 private payers for 23 biomarkers (e.g., HER2 and EGFR) and multi-gene tests. We extracted policy coverage and criteria, prior authorization requirements, and an evidence basis for coverage. We reviewed professional society guidelines and their recommendations for use of pharmacogenomic tests. Coverage for KRAS, EGFR, and BRAF tests were common across Medicare contractors and private payers, but few policies covered PML/RARA, CD25, or G6PD. Twelve payers cover at least one multi-gene test for nonsmall cell lung cancer, citing emerging clinical recommendations. Coverage policies for single and multi-gene tests for cancer treatments are relatively consistent among Medicare contractors despite the lack of national coverage determinations. In contrast, coverage for these tests varied across private payers. Patient access to tests is governed by prior authorization among eight private payers. Substantial variations in how payers address guideline-recommended pharmacogenomic tests and the common use of prior authorization underscore the need for additional studies of the effects of coverage variation on cancer care and patient outcomes

Impacts of large-scale Sahara solar farms on global climate and vegetation cover

Large‐scale photovoltaic solar farms envisioned over the Sahara Desert can meet the world's energy demand while increasing regional rainfall and vegetation cover. However, adverse remote effects resulting from atmospheric teleconnections could offset such regional benefits. We use state‐of‐the‐art Earth system model simulations to evaluate the global impacts of Sahara solar farms. Our results indicate a redistribution of precipitation causing Amazon droughts and forest degradation, and global surface temperature rise and sea‐ice loss, particularly over the Arctic due to increased polarward heat transport, and northward expansion of deciduous forests in the Northern Hemisphere. We also identify reduced El Niño‐Southern Oscillation and Atlantic Niño variability and enhanced tropical cyclone activity. Comparison to proxy inferences for a wetter and greener Sahara ∼6,000 years ago appear to substantiate these results. Understanding these responses within the Earth system provides insights into the site selection concerning any massive deployment of solar energy in the world's deserts

Oxygen depletion recorded in upper waters of the glacial Southern Ocean

Oxygen depletion in the upper ocean is commonly associated with poor ventilation and storage of respired carbon, potentially linked to atmospheric CO2 levels. Iodine to calcium ratios (I/Ca) in recent planktonic foraminifera suggest that values less than ~2.5 μmol mol−1 indicate the presence of O2-depleted water. Here we apply this proxy to estimate past dissolved oxygen concentrations in the near surface waters of the currently well-oxygenated Southern Ocean, which played a critical role in carbon sequestration during glacial times. A down-core planktonic I/Ca record from south of the Antarctic Polar Front (APF) suggests that minimum O2 concentrations in the upper ocean fell below 70 μmol kg−1 during the last two glacial periods, indicating persistent glacial O2 depletion at the heart of the carbon engine of the Earth’s climate system. These new estimates of past ocean oxygenation variability may assist in resolving mechanisms responsible for the much-debated ice-age atmospheric CO2 decline