The Birds and the Bees: The Impact of Parent-Child Communication on Adolescent Sexual Health

Having “the talk” with children can be difficult and uncomfortable. However, recent behavioral research indicates that having this conversation, and having it often, is important for raising sexually healthy adolescents. This paper provides an overview of the literature surrounding the role of parent-adolescent communication in the development of sexually healthy young adults, including benefits for LGBTQIA+ youth. The findings suggest that non-judgmental parental communication can encourage condom use, delay initiation of intercourse, and reduce mental health issues arising from a perceived lack of support for sexual choices

A Different Approach to Project Management: The Use of Soft Skills

The term soft skills is traditionally used to describe interpersonal and subjective skills such as leadership, communication, and emotional intelligence. This paper addresses a further explanation of soft skills, their relation to project management, project management education, and the highlighted differences between a transactional leader and a transformational leader. Project management has often been defined as the making of schedules/tasks; but more importantly providing the inspiration, motivation, and facilitator of great minds to produce innovative ideas. Because of the sheer necessity for human interaction within the project management profession, soft skills are of crucial concern. Although mastering soft skills is a heavily weighted aspect of the profession, the current education of project managers is lacking the proper emphasis on soft skills. A further case study will be analyzed comparing three project managers and their skill sets based on objective and subjective evaluations of their hard and soft skills. Hypothesizing that the soft skills of the project managers will rate significantly higher than the objective evaluations of their hard skills. Proving that the currently education of only hard skills is not sufficient for successful project managers

Educating the Whole Family: Expanding Education Through a Multi-Generational Learning Environment in Socioeconomic Disadvantaged Communities

Educators learn to implement a higher level of learning within lower-economic African American communities by creating a multi-generation educational team to support student’s progress through school. Educators use practical application to define learning and support roles within the family including defining school responsibility and expectations, defining an educational support system for the student, as well as aligning community mentors both within the family and within the community to provide the educational guidance necessary for youth to reach educational success

Exploring Potential Psychosocial Subgroup Differences in the Links Between Binge-watching and Loneliness

A relatively new form of technology use is the popular notion of “binge-watching” and this behavior may be increasing due to increasing availability and access (Flayelle et al., 2018). Binge-watching behavior is linked to a number of negative outcomes, particularly physical health indicators such as symptoms comparable to substance dependence, (Horvath, 2004; Kubey & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002). Moreover, TV viewing more generally has been linked to potential health issues due to a sedentary and unhealthy life such as reduced muscle strength (Reid et al., 2017) and increased risk of Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease (Grøntved & Hu, 2011). In addition, previous research has established links between negative social indicators such as depression and loneliness and TV viewing behaviors (Wheeler, 2017). Along these same lines, in previous Georgia College research, self-reported frequency of binge-watching was negatively correlated with several health behaviours, and also positively correlated with poor psychological health (Simmons et al., 2019). The aim of the current study was to further explore the links between binge-watching behavior and an important indicator of social wellness--loneliness.The hypothesis made was that positive correlations between binge-watching and loneliness would be more robust among certain subgroups of college students. Specifically, it was predicted that links would be stronger among: (1) freshmen, relative to upperclassmen; (2) single students, relative to students in a relationship; and (3) students high in the need to belong, determined by a self survey on the need to belong scale (Leary et al., 2006), relative to students low in the need to belong. Subgroups analysis performed on an existing dataset revealed that our hypotheses were supported for all but the “freshmen” hypothesis. The results of this study shed light on psychosocial and demographic factors that may represent particular vulnerabilities to the deleterious social correlates of binge-watching

Sustainable feedback and academic attainment: exploring the links in the modern higher education student

The expectation of current higher education students is that they are an independent, self-regulated learner who work in partnership with their institution to engender lifelong learning skills that can be applied in both education and employment.  Such learners are able to monitor, direct and optimise their own learning by effectively evaluating their progress towards achieving their learning goals, proceeding with confidence, determination and resilience towards their desired outcomes.  The central thesis advanced here is that a dialogic, sustainable feedback cycle may be the most valuable mechanism through which to develop such learners.  We propose that through dialogue around feedback and effective engagement with the feedback provided, students may develop agency in their studies and improve their mental toughness and academic self-efficacy, enabling them to both set, and evaluate progress towards self-determined learning goals and thus enter into a beneficial learning partnership with agents of their institution

A pragmatic cluster randomised controlled trial of an oral health intervention for people with serious mental illness (three shires early intervention dental trial).

People with mental illness have poor oral health compared to those without due to medication side effects, issues with self-care, barriers to treatment and poor recognition of dental problems. Guidelines recommend giving oral health advice and monitoring oral health for people with mental illness, but this is not reflected in current practice and Cochrane reviews found no existing randomised trials of these interventions

The Case for a Reparations Clinic: A Proposal for Investigation, Documentation, and Remediation of Historic Housing Discrimination Through the Law School Clinic Model

Article published in the Michigan State Law Review

Structural and spectroscopic characterisation of Cytochrome c’ and Cytochrome P460 from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath)

Many Ammonia-oxidising nonlithotrophic bacterium (ANB) and Ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB) have been shown to contain two phylogenetically related cytochromes: a cytochrome P460 and a cytochrome c’-β. Cytochrome P460s (so named due to their 460 nm peak in the ferrous state) are enzymes known to convert hydroxylamine to nitrous oxide, a key step in the metabolism of ammonia in bacteria which is considered to be one of the largest sources of nitrous oxide in the environment. Cytochromes c’-β are so called as they have spectral properties similar to the better studied c’-α but they are predicted to all have a highly beta sheet structure instead of the alpha helixes normally associated with a cytochrome c’. Whilst the role of Cytochrome c’s has not been definitively proved it has been proposed that they are involved in NO scavenging and protecting cells against nitrosoative stress. P460s have been well studied in AOB but less so in ANB, whilst very few members of the cytochrome c’-β have been characterised at all. This thesis focusses on the cytochrome P460 and c’ from Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath) characterising their structural and spectroscopic properties through the use of cryogenic single crystal X-ray crystallography and UV-visible and EPR spectra, along with kinetic studies and activity assays, on both the wt proteins and single point mutants, to investigate how structural differences in the distal heme pockets for two proteins with very similar overall protein folds can give rise to two very different functions