Are You Satisfied: A Qualitative Study on Job Satisfaction in Rural School Psychologists Roles and Functions

As early as kindergarten, children in rural areas are at greater risk for experiencing emotional, behavioral, social and adaptive problems (Girio-Herrera, Owens, Langberg, 2013). School psychologists are the closest network for children within the school, providing services such as assessments, interventions, and consultations (Reschly, 2000). From the limited research, rural school psychologists face unique barriers in their work such as a lack of resources to support children and experiencing professional isolation (Clopton & Knesting, 2006; McLeskey, et al., 1983). These challenges could negatively affect a rural school psychologist’s professional life and job satisfaction; however, this has yet to be thoroughly researched. Previous analyses of variance suggested a significant difference in self-reported job satisfaction between rural (M= 5.89) and suburban (M=5.4) school psychologists, but not urban school psychologists. The goal of this study is to closely examine the current roles and job satisfaction of rural school psychologists through an in-depth qualitative research methodology. An online survey was completed by 188 school psychologists in rural (n =94) and suburban (n =94) areas in the Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain regions of the United States. Participants answered open-ended items that asked about their current and desired roles. Qualitative analyses using Nvivo Software will be used to conduct a content analyses of these open-ended responses; evaluating both common and differing themes in why rural or suburban school psychologists are satisfied or unsatisfied in their roles and functions. Attendees of this presentation will learn about challenges faced by school psychologists in rural schools and communities. It is our goal to identify any differences found between rural and suburban school psychologists’ job satisfaction, as well as recognizing ways to improve their overall perceptions of their roles and functions in rural schools. Improving their job satisfaction may result in more effective services rendered towards Montanan children

The Effectiveness of an On-Line Graduate Engineering Management Course

In the summer of 1997, the Engineering Management Department of the University of Missouri-Rolla\u27s (UMR) began offering its first Internet-based graduate level course. This course, Advanced Production Management, was designed to utilize a combination of Internet-based tools, such as EMail and Chat rooms to create a alternative means for the delivery of course material. This paper will draw these following conclusions from more than a year of research, which included over 100 students in six different course offerings. First, the Internet-based students performed equally as well as the control group students. Second, students tend to have exaggerated time requirement expectations for Internet-based classes. Third, students tend to have positive course effectiveness experiences. Fourth, students tend to be very skeptical of electronic lectures but their experiences are positive. Fifth, learning styles play a role influencing student expectations regarding Internet-based education. This influence is especially strong in student course time expectations and both the effectiveness and satisfaction of the use of EMail and Chat rooms

Muscle strength and power imbalances and injury risk in Division I softball athletes

Softball requires development of lower body strength and power but specific demands may lead to asymmetries. These adaptive imbalances such as quadriceps to hamstrings (H:Q) ratio may impact performance and increase risk of anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, potentially altering an athletes’ career. PURPOSE: To compare body composition and lower body strength, power, and imbalances using Dual-energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA) body composition scans and isokinetic dynamometry, respectively between softball athletes and matched controls. METHODS: Twenty softball athletes (n=20) were matched with age- (±2yrs) and weight- (±5kg) controls who were physically active ≥3 d/wk. All participants provided voluntary informed consent, filled out physical activity frequency questionnaires, and completed a total body DXA scan to asses total body and regional muscle and fat tissue mass. They then tested their dominant and non-dominant quadriceps and hamstrings strength and power at three different velocities (60, 120, 180 deg/sec). Group comparisons were conducted using a univariate analysis after controlling for individual leg muscle mass, Cohen’s d effect sizes were calculated, and α=0.050. RESULTS: Athletes (20.0±1.7 years old, 163.0±34.1cm, 72.2±7.3kg) and controls (20.2±1.0years old, 166.7±7.5cm, 71.5±7.2kg) were similar for age, height, bodyweight (all p≥0.643), and average resistance training frequency per week (p=0.611; d=0.16). Athletes indicated greater total body and dominant and non-dominant leg lean mass (all p≤0.050; d=0.64-0.75) but were similar for leg fat mass (all p≥0.095; d=0.47-0.53) to controls. Athletes demonstrated greater torque at all speeds for both quadriceps and hamstrings (all p≤0.022; d=0.47-1.32) after correcting for leg lean mass. Quadriceps strength asymmetry was similar (p≥0.992; d=0.00) but power was different (p≤0.038; d=0.65) between groups. Strength and power H:Q ratio were superior in athletes for their dominant leg (all p≤0.050; d=0.61-0.76) but similar in their non-dominant leg (all p≥0.563; d=0.19-0.57) compared to controls although all athletes fell below the optimal ratio percentage of 65% (all ≤51.6%). CONCLUSION: These data suggest sport-related demands superiorly develop lower body strength and power but may elicit asymmetrical imbalances, increasing risk of ACL injury. Findings of this nature provide insight to performance and sports medicine staff on career-impacting injury risk and support assessment of regional, isolated tissue and torque characteristics.Kinesiology, Applied Health and Recreatio

Constrained by managerialism : caring as participation in the voluntary social services

The data in this study show that care is a connective process, underlying and motivating participation and as a force that compels involvement in the lives of others, care is at least a micro-participative process. Care or affinity not only persisted in the face of opposition, but it was also used by workers as a counter discourse and set of practices with which to resist the erosion of worker participation and open up less autonomized practices and ways of connecting with fellow staff, clients and the communities they served. The data suggest that while managerialism and taylorised practice models may remove or reduce opportunities for worker participation, care is a theme or storyline that gave workers other ways to understand their work and why they did it, as well as ways they were prepared to resist managerial priorities and directives, including the erosion of various kinds of direct and indirect participation. The degree of resistance possible, even in the highly technocratic worksite in Australia, shows that cracks and fissures exist within managerialism

Neutrophils induce paracrine telomere dysfunction and senescence in ROS‐dependent manner

Cellular senescence is characterized by an irreversible cell cycle arrest as well as a pro-inflammatory phenotype, thought to contribute to aging and age-related diseases. Neutrophils have essential roles in inflammatory responses; however, in certain contexts their abundance is associated with a number of age-related diseases, including liver disease. The relationship between neutrophils and cellular senescence is not well understood. Here, we show that telomeres in non-immune cells are highly susceptible to oxidative damage caused by neighboring neutrophils. Neutrophils cause telomere dysfunction both in vitro and ex vivo in a ROS-dependent manner. In a mouse model of acute liver injury, depletion of neutrophils reduces telomere dysfunction and senescence. Finally, we show that senescent cells mediate the recruitment of neutrophils to the aged liver and propose that this may be a mechanism by which senescence spreads to surrounding cells. Our results suggest that interventions that counteract neutrophil-induced senescence may be beneficial during aging and age-related disease

Fractional exhaled nitric oxide measurements are most closely associated with allergic sensitization in school-age children

Background: Factors affecting fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) in early childhood are incompletely understood. Objective: To examine the relationships between FeNO and allergic sensitization, total IgE, atopic dermatitis, rhinitis, asthma, and lung function (spirometry) in children. Methods: Children at high risk of asthma and other allergic diseases because of parental history were enrolled at birth and followed prospectively. FeNO was measured by an online technique at ages 6 and 8 years. Relationships among FeNO, various atopic characteristics, and asthma were evaluated. Results: Reproducible FeNO measurements were obtained in 64% (135/210) of 6-year-old and 93% (180/194) of 8-year-old children. There was seasonal variability in FeNO. Children with aeroallergen sensitization at ages 6 and 8 years had increased levels of FeNO compared with those not sensitized (geometric mean; 6 years, 10.9 vs 6.7 parts per billion [ppb], P < .0001; 8 years, 14.6 vs 7.1 ppb, P < .0001). FeNO was higher in children with asthma than in those without asthma at 8 years but not 6 years of age (6 years, 9.2 vs 8.3 ppb, P 5 .48; 8 years, 11.5 vs 9.2 ppb, P 5 .03). At 8 years of age, this difference was no longer significant in a multivariate model that included aeroallerge

Rhinovirus illnesses during infancy predict subsequent childhood wheezing

Background: The contribution of viral respiratory infections during infancy to the development of subsequent wheezing and/ or allergic diseases in early childhood is not established. Objective: To evaluate these relationships prospectively from birth to 3 years of age in 285 children genetically at high risk for developing allergic respiratory diseases. Methods: By using nasal lavage, the relationship of timing, severity, and etiology of viral respiratory infections during infancy to wheezing in the 3rd year of life was evaluated. In addition, genetic and environmental factors that could modify risk of infections and wheezing prevalence were analyzed. Results: Risk factors for 3rd year wheezing were passive smoke exposure (odds ratio [OR] 5 2.1), older siblings (OR 5 2.5), allergic sensitization to foods at age 1 year (OR 5 2.0), any moderate to severe respiratory illness without wheezing during infancy (OR 5 3.6), and at least 1 wheezing illness with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; OR 5 3.0), rhinovirus (OR 5 10) and/or non-rhinovirus/RSV pathogens (OR 5 3.9) during infancy. When viral etiology was considered, 1st-year wheezing illnesses caused by rhinovirus infection were the strongest predictor of subsequent 3rd year wheezing (OR 5 6.6; P < .0001). Moreover, 63% of infants who wheezed during rhinovirus seasons continued to wheeze in the 3rd year of life, compared with only 20% of all other infants (OR 5 6.6; P < .0001). Conclusion: In this population of children at increased risk of developing allergies and asthma, the most significant risk factor for the development of preschool childhood wheezing is the occurrence of symptomatic rhinovirus illnesses during infancy that are clinically and prognostically informative based on their seasonal nature. (J Allergy Clin Immunol 2005;116:571-7.

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