Does School Connectedness Impact Academic Performance?

Gwen Bass provides a brief overview of the article, Do School Bullying and Student-Teacher Relationships Matter for Academic Achievement? Multilevel Analysis, originally published in the Canadian Journal of School Psychology. Through brief overviews of the introduction, methods, results, and limitations, the author outlines key takeaways from the article that can aid in school officials\u27 understanding of the relationship between school connectedness and academic outcomes

Sticky Seeding in Discrete-Time Reversible-Threshold Networks

When nodes can repeatedly update their behavior (as in agent-based models from computational social science or repeated-game play settings) the problem of optimal network seeding becomes very complex. For a popular spreading-phenomena model of binary-behavior updating based on thresholds of adoption among neighbors, we consider several planning problems in the design of \textit{Sticky Interventions}: when adoption decisions are reversible, the planner aims to find a Seed Set where temporary intervention leads to long-term behavior change. We prove that completely converting a network at minimum cost is $\Omega(\ln (OPT) )$-hard to approximate and that maximizing conversion subject to a budget is $(1-\frac{1}{e})$-hard to approximate. Optimization heuristics which rely on many objective function evaluations may still be practical, particularly in relatively-sparse networks: we prove that the long-term impact of a Seed Set can be evaluated in $O(|E|^2)$ operations. For a more descriptive model variant in which some neighbors may be more influential than others, we show that under integer edge weights from $\{0,1,2,...,k\}$ objective function evaluation requires only $O(k|E|^2)$ operations. These operation bounds are based on improvements we give for bounds on time-steps-to-convergence under discrete-time reversible-threshold updates in networks.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure

Cortical Bone Ontogeny: Activity, Nutritional Stress and Archaeology

This poster introduces the idea that femoral compact bone growth and development demonstrates a very different pattern among infants and children in a contemporary sample of well-nourished active children versus archaeological samples of stressed, malnourished children

Nursing with the Heart of Christ

Within the nursing profession it is necessary for the nurse to learn to have love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity within his/her character. After reviewing numerous peer reviewed journals and personal examples, the following paper reveals how these traits – love, compassion, joy, peace, patience, humility, and integrity – are beneficial within the nursing profession. The paper defines the mentioned characteristics, shows how they can be used and implemented within the nursing practice, demonstrates how their implementation leads to greater patient care, and then compares these traits and actions to the character and person of Christ

The International Criminal Court\u27s Ineffective Enforcement Mechanisms: The Indictment of President Omar Al Bashir

Part I introduces the Rome Statute and highlights the portions of the Rome Statute that leave the ICC vulnerable to member states that violate the Rome Statute without any clear punishment for the violation. In particular, Part I focuses on the expansive jurisdiction and the limited enforcement mechanisms that the Rome Statute bestows upon the ICC. Part II illustrates the ICC\u27s vulnerability under the Rome Statute by using the example of the ICC\u27s indictment of President Al Bashir and examining the existing tension between the ICC and the African Union ( AU ). Part III argues that the ICC must strengthen or expand its enforcement mechanisms in order to become a legitimate force in the international forum. It suggests three possible ways to reach this goal: suspension, expulsion, and implementation of United Nations ( UN ) Security Council sanctions

Why is Europe forming a monetary union?

On January 1, 1999, 11 European countries will officially become a monetary union with one currency, the euro. Forming a monetary union brings benefits, such as increased trade between countries. But it carries costs as well. To join the union, each country must cede its right to set individual monetary and exchange-rate policies. Yet each country’s economic situation may differ from that of its fellow union members. How will these countries--and the union--fare when economic shocks hit, especially shocks that affect one country or region more than another? In this article, Gwen Eudey weighs the benefits and costs of European monetary union and discusses some of the issues involved.European currency unit ; European Monetary System (Organization)

Diagnostic evaluation of the real business cycle model with factor hoarding

This paper proposes evaluating the assumptions of the RBC model rather than merely the ability of model-constrained data to mach moments of official data counterparts. Reduced-form relationships can be used to create model-consistent derivations of capital and labor input. Since several relationships exist for each input, comparison of their properties highlights weaknesses and strengths in the model assumptions. Applied to the RBC model with factor hoarding and depreciation through use, the approach highlights weaknesses in the standard utility function and casts doubt upon use of the model to improve official capital stock measures or utilization rates.Business cycles

Now: Music from the musicals 1975 - 2018

Musical Theatre performance at The Meteor Theatre Gwen is an opera singer and is joined for an evening of song, by special guests; Courteney Mayall, Alex Pelham-Waerea, Scot Hall, Hannah MacFarlane and Michaela Gilling Accompanied by the incomparable David Sidwell, Gwen and guests will be singing from musical theatre canon of 1975 through to 2018 Let them take you on a journey through the best pieces Broadway has to offer

Changing old habits: the case of feeding patterns in anaerobic digesters

A non-linear programming model was developed to maximize the economic profit from an anaerobic co-digester. The model consists of a combination of technical and economic equations, linked through the biogas production variable. Five scenarios were simulated. These differed with regard to substrate inlet mass flow rate, organic loading rate and hydraulic retention time. The impact on biogas production was investigated and an economic analysis was undertaken based on the concepts of profitability and Net Present Value. The model results indicate that varying the substrate inlet mass flow rate and organic loading rate could have a positive impact on the profitability of co-digesters in Flanders. This can be achieved either by increasing the interval time between feedstock input, or by feeding individual streams of feedstock separately into the system, while at the same time reducing the hydraulic retention. time