THE EFFECT OF IMPLIED PERFORMER AGE, IMPLIED PERFORMER GENDER, AND PERFORMANCE QUALITY LEVEL ON MUSIC MAJORS’ EVALUATIONS OF SOLO MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of implied performer age, implied performer gender, and performance quality level on undergraduate music majors’ evaluations of solo alto saxophone performances. Participants (N = 124) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: (a) good quality musical performances with images of male performers, (b) good quality musical performances with images of female performers, (c) poor quality musical performances with images of male performers, and (d) poor quality musical performances with images of female performers. All experimental conditions contained high quality images of the faces of both older adults (OA) and younger adults (YA). Participants rated six examples of solo saxophone performances by responding to seven evaluative statements and assigned each performance an overall rating. Two performances were presented in an audio-only format (AO), two performances were presented in an audio-visual (AV) format that featured an image of an OA, and two performances were presented in an AV format that featured an image of a YA. The participants also rated each soloist’s potential to improve musically over a one-year period and provided written comments explaining their rationales for these ratings. The raw data were used to compute each participant’s mean rating of the AO presentations, the presentations that featured the OA soloists, and the presentations that featured the YA soloists. Individual means were then used in a mixed repeated-measures ANOVA. A significant two-way interaction for implied age condition and performance quality was found and a significant interaction for implied performer gender and performance quality was found. No significant three-way interaction was found. A statistically significant main effect was observed for implied performer age and for level of performance quality. Statistically significant differences were also found between improvement capacity scores assigned to the OA performers and the YA performers and favored the YA performers. The participants’ written explanations of these ratings indicated negative attitudes toward the OA soloists’ abilities to improve musically over a one-year period

Objective physical activity and sleep characteristic measurements using a triaxial accelerometer in eight year olds

Background: Secular trends demonstrate that young children are less active and sleep less. Inequity in an individual\u27s energy balance is known to have poor health outcomes. Academic achievement, academic behavior, and weight status are proxy indicators for health and psychosocial outcomes in this study. Current guidelines in place for sleep and physical activity in childhood are the result of data collected in the form of self-reports. Quantification and qualification of physical activity dimensions and sleep characteristics are essential not only for the purpose of clearly establishing parameters but also for the intent of verifying optimal health outcomes and evaluating interventions related to conditions of energy balance. Purpose: The purpose of this research was to determine the relationships amongst and between the objective dimensions of physical activity, sleep, weight status, academic achievement, and academic behavior. Methods: This cross-sectional correlational descriptive design study monitored the physical activity and sleep duration for 24 hours per day for 7 consecutive days with triaxial accelerometers. Data was successfully gathered on 55 low socioeconomic income African American eight-year-olds. Weight status was measured and body mass index (BMI) was calculated. Standardized scores, subjective grades from the teachers, and attendance records were obtained from the schools. A qualitative component gathered demographic information related to home life, meal habits, and play times. Results: This sample was predominantly overweight/obese. Light intensity activity accounted for 86% of their daytime hours while vigorous activity accounted for less than 1%. Moderate-vigorous activity bouts were inversely significantly correlated with the standardized reading scores. Students with failing reading scores had significantly more time per day in light activity and less time in moderate intensity activity. This sample averaged 8 hours of sleep per night. Students with failing math scores had significantly longer mean wake episodes at night. A significant difference between hours of sleep and weight status was seen. The overweight/obese child slept, on average, less than the normal weight child. Conclusions: Sleep is an important health indicator. Lack of sleep has academic implications. Different weight classifications may benefit from different interventional activities. Future studies should be conducted with larger and diverse samples

Addressing the needs of the children’s integrated workforce: A method for developing collaborative practice through joint learning

The delivery of welfare, health and educational provision to the majority of children aged 0–18 in England is primarily led by local authorities via their children’s integrated service. In 2004 the children’s integrated service model was launched and it promised the benefits of an integrated and collaborative system of working, regarding flexibility and responsiveness to national policy, local development and capacity building (Robinson et al, 2008). However, the implementation and emergence of this model has been characterised by competing local and national agendas, practitioner misunderstanding and lack of trust, a lack of strong leadership and also financial restrictions. It can therefore be contended that conceptually children’s integrated services are not operating fully with a collaborative and integrated workforce. As a possible solution to the current situation, it is proposed that joint learning, along with a combined continual professional development (CPD) framework, be made available as a valuable starting point for such organisations. Learning and working together has benefits for children and practitioners, and especially, as this article will argue, for playwork practitioners

The Insanity Defense in Juvenile Delinquency Proceedings

The insanity defense in delinquency proceedings poses an important legal dilemma concerning the rights of children in the juvenile justice system. Indeed, beyond the purely legal concerns of the rights of an accused juvenile, the concept of criminal responsibility in the context of juvenile court proceedings raises perhaps an even more important issue of what is the best model for dealing with mentally ill juvenile offenders, both from the juvenile\u27s viewpoint and that of society as a whole. It is our opinion that not only does the insanity defense have an appropriate role in juvenile proceedings, but that legal as well as practical considerations dictate that juveniles be permitted to raise the defense. Denial of this defense to juveniles poses serious negative ramifications for our system of justice and the individual accused child

Workforce Issues in the Greater Boston Health Care Industry: Implications for Work and Family

This working paper synthesizes critical problems identified by interviews with more than 40 leaders in the Boston area health care industry and places them in the context of work and family issues. At present, the defining circumstance for the health care industry nationally as well as regionally is an extraordinary reorganization, not yet fully negotiated, in the provision and financing of health care. Hoped-for controls on increased costs of medical care have fallen far short of their promise. Pressures to limit expenditures have produced dispiriting conditions for the entire healthcare workforce. Under such strains, relations between managers and workers providing care are uneasy. Five key issues affect a broad cross-section of occupational groups, albeit in different ways: staffing shortages; long work hours and inflexible schedules; degraded and unsupportive working conditions; lack of opportunities for training and advancement; professional and employee voices are insufficiently heard. The paper concludes with possible ways to address such issues

Workforce Issues in the Greater Boston Health Care Industry: Implications for Work and Family

Interviews with more than 40 leaders in the Boston area health care industry have identified a range of broadly-felt critical problems. This document synthesizes these problems and places them in the context of work and family issues implicit in the organization of health care workplaces. It concludes with questions about possible ways to address such issues. The defining circumstance for the health care industry nationally as well as regionally at present is an extraordinary reorganization, not yet fully negotiated, in the provision and financing of health care. Hoped-for controls on increased costs of medical care – specifically the widespread replacement of indemnity insurance by market-based managed care and business models of operation--have fallen far short of their promise. Pressures to limit expenditures have produced dispiriting conditions for the entire healthcare workforce, from technicians and aides to nurses and physicians. Under such strains, relations between managers and workers providing care are uneasy, ranging from determined efforts to maintain respectful cooperation to adversarial negotiation. Taken together, the interviews identify five key issues affecting a broad cross-section of occupational groups, albeit in different ways: Staffing shortages of various kinds throughout the health care workforce create problems for managers and workers and also for the quality of patient care. Long work hours and inflexible schedules place pressure on virtually every part of the healthcare workforce, including physicians. Degraded and unsupportive working conditions, often the result of workplace "deskilling" and "speed up," undercut previous modes of clinical practice. Lack of opportunities for training and advancement exacerbate workforce problems in an industry where occupational categories and terms of work are in a constant state of flux. Professional and employee voices are insufficiently heard in conditions of rapid institutional reorganization and consolidation. Interviewees describe multiple impacts of these issues--on the operation of health care workplaces, on the well being of the health care workforce, and on the quality of patient care. Also apparent in the interviews, but not clearly named and defined, is the impact of these issues on the ability of workers to attend well to the needs of their families--and the reciprocal impact of workers' family tensions on workplace performance. In other words, the same things that affect patient care also affect families, and vice versa. Some workers describe feeling both guilty about raising their own family issues when their patients' needs are at stake, and resentful about the exploitation of these feelings by administrators making workplace policy. The different institutions making up the health care system have responded to their most pressing issues with a variety of specific stratagems but few that address the complexities connecting relations between work and family. The MIT Workplace Center proposes a collaborative exploration of next steps to probe these complications and to identify possible locations within the health care system for workplace experimentation with outcomes benefiting all parties