Mindful Meditation and Misconduct: A Proposal

Rehabilitation and treatment methods used in incarceration have evolved, causing punishment philosophies in the U. S. to swing from rehabilitation to “zero tolerance” and back again. As this transition occurs, it is essential to evaluate current correctional programs as there has been a trend towards evidence-based corrections. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the SAVR (stress, anger, violence reduction) program implemented by a county jail in Massachusetts. This research will examine the extent to which participating in SAVR reduces inmate misconduct. The participants will be selected through a non-probability, convenience sample of program participants. Misconduct files will be retrieved from those who participated in at least 60 days of the program. The number of misconduct before entering the program will be counted and compared to the misconduct that occurs 60 days after completing the program, and 90 days after the program if applicable. Policy implications and directions for future research will be considered

A Case Study: What are the social experiences of an international minority male at a PWI really like?

International students of color often have trouble integrating socially into a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). The purpose of this study is to explore the social experiences of an international student of color at a Predominantly White Institution. My research methodology was a case study. The methodology and methods consisted of a study of a single international student of color at Merrimack College this fall semester. The data collection techniques included an in-depth interview, participant observation, and a journal written by the participant. After gathering my data, I used the coding method to analyze my data and find common themes throughout each data collection technique and from the review of literature. Through the findings I hope to facilitate awareness with my peers in my Diversity class through a meaningful final PowerPoint presentation

A Scene Designer\u27s Guide to Evil Dead: The Musical

This thesis encompasses the design and production process for Southern Illinois University Carbondale Department of Theater’s production, Evil Dead: The Musical. The writing focuses on the scene designer’s process of analyzing a script to putting it on stage. Through the document the reader will gain insight into the process of a live production from the pre-design phase to post production

Bicultural Appalachian Females: The Mediating Effect of Perceived Stigma on Health Outcomes

Appalachia has been the focus of ongoing curiosity and ascribed disdain in Euro-centric American history. An amalgamation of cultures found a home in the Appalachian Mountains, blending to create a unique collectivistic culture still visible today. However, this culture has often been misconstrued as unhealthy or undesirable at best and, by reductionistic intentions, relegated to a culture of poverty. Within this system, Appalachian females have faced the burden of the intersectionality of their identities, given the acculturation expectations and Appalachian identity stigma imposed by the dominant Euro-North American culture. As indicated in scholarly literature, despite chronic marginalization and systemic oppression, a silent minority still retains the core elements of its heritage culture. However, it remains hidden by a bicultural approach that bridges the gap between identifying as Appalachian and American. This study hypothesized that perceived stigma directly impacts the overall physical and mental health outcomes of women who identify as culturally Appalachian. The degree of bicultural expression was assumed to affect the strength of the relationship between perceived stigma and health outcomes

The nitrogen cost of photosynthesis

Global food security depends on three main cereal crops (wheat, rice and maize) achieving and maintaining high yields, as well as increasing their future yields. Fundamental to the production of this biomass is photosynthesis. The process of photosynthesis involves a large number of proteins that together account for the majority of the nitrogen in leaves. As large amounts of nitrogen are removed in the harvested grain, this needs to be replaced either from synthetic fertilizer or biological nitrogen fixation. Knowledge about photosynthetic properties of leaves in natural ecosystems is also important, particularly when we consider the potential impacts of climate change. While the relationship between nitrogen and photosynthetic capacity of a leaf differs between species, leaf nitrogen content provides a useful way to incorporate photosynthesis into models of ecosystems and the terrestrial biosphere. This review provides a generalized nitrogen budget for a C3 leaf cell and discusses the potential for improving photosynthesis from a nitrogen perspective.This work was supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis (CE140100015) and the Grains Research Development Corporation (ANU00025)

Predicting reading difficulty for readers with autism spectrum disorder

People with autism experience various reading comprehension difficulties, which is one explanation for the early school dropout, reduced academic achievement and lower levels of employment in this population. To overcome this issue, content developers who want to make their textbooks, websites or social media accessible to people with autism (and thus for every other user) but who are not necessarily experts in autism, can benefit from tools which are easy to use, which can assess the accessibility of their content, and which are sensitive to the difficulties that autistic people might have when processing texts/websites. In this paper we present a preliminary machine learning readability model for English developed specifically for the needs of adults with autism. We evaluate the model on the ASD corpus, which has been developed specifically for this task and is, so far, the only corpus for which readability for people with autism has been evaluated. The results show that out model outperforms the baseline, which is the widely-used Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level formula.paper presented at LREC 2016 Workshop ”Improving Social Inclusion Using NLP: Tools and Resources” held on 23 May 2016 – Portorož, Slovenia

Curriculum reform in Wales: Physical education teacher educators\u27 negotiation of policy positions

This paper reports on research that explored the experiences of secondary Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) professionals\u27 simultaneous negotiation and implementation of the new Curriculum for Wales (CfW) Health and Well-Being (HWB) Area of Learning and Experience (AoLE) and policies focused on the transformation of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Wales. The study was an exploratory case study of PETE professionals working within one university\u27s ITE programme. Data were generated through documentary analysis of PETE and ITE programme materials and semi-structured interviews with staff involved in programme management and delivery. Data analysis employed Ball and colleagues\u27 conceptualisation of policy actors and contexts to critically examine the varied policy positions that PETE professionals adopt in navigating and negotiating enactment of the HWB AoLE within their ITE provision. Attention is drawn to the significance of historical and culturally situated dimensions of secondary physical education and PETE in Wales, and significant changes to the professional culture of ITE, in shaping PETE educators\u27 engagement with the HWB AoLE. The paper concludes by contending that ITE institutions in Wales need to further consider how PETE (and other) educators can be actively supported to engage in sophisticated policy work within their institutions and across policy and professional networks