Civic engagement in young adulthood: Social capital and the mediating effects of postsecondary educational attainment

Civic Engagement has two purposes in American society. The first is to maintain democracy and democratic institutions; the second is to serve as a pathway for maturation into adulthood. Utilizing data from The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), we investigate how adolescent experiences with schools and families impact young adult’s political (voting) and nonpolitical (volunteering) civic engagement and the mediating role postsecondary educational attainment may have in this process. Utilizing measures of adolescent bonding and bridging social capital, as well as human and financial capital, this investigation takes a life course perspective and relies heavily on theories of capital and emerging adulthood. Our study examines relationships between adolescence, emerging adulthood, and young adulthood with a sample of 6,872 respondents drawn from Waves I and IV of Add Health with a structural equation model and 10,000 bootstrap samples to test for mediation. We investigated these political and nonpolitical civic engagement. Our study used nationally representative, longitudinal data, to account for multiple important developmental pre-collegiate factors, assessed civic engagement in young adulthood, and included individuals who did not attend and/or complete higher education as well as those who did. In short, we found unique relationships exist for political and non-political civic engagement. Behavioral bonding and bridging social capital demonstrated direct and indirect effects to civic engagement in young adulthood. Postsecondary education was the strongest predictor civic engagement in young adulthood, suggesting greater levels of education are a powerful social structure to prepare members of society for civic participation

Ivory from early Anglo-Saxon burials in Lincolnshire – a biomolecular study

Ivory bag rings have been found in more than 70 cemeteries across southern, central, and eastern England dating to between the late-5th and 7th centuries AD. These rings are most frequently found in richly furnished female graves, and would have served as the framework for bags that hung at the waist. Debate over the source of this ivory has prevailed since the 19th century, with walrus and mammoth ivory considered as possible contenders to elephantid ivory. Recent excavations at an early Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Scremby, Lincolnshire revealed a number of elaborate female burials containing such bag rings. Using radiocarbon dating this study aimed to establish whether the rings were contemporary with the burials before seeking to identify the species of ivory through Zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS). Strontium analysis was also used to identify the place of residence of the elephantids at the time of tusk formation. Through a multi-methodological approach, we have established that the ivory used for the Scremby bag rings came from elephants living in an area of young volcanic rocks in Africa at some point during the 5th and 6th centuries AD. This preliminary evidence allows us to consider the networks and socio-economic factors that facilitated the distribution of ivory from Africa to the British Isles at this time

FEM simulation of welded joint geometry influence on fatigue crack growth resistance

Fatigue behaviour of welded joints is investigated, in terms of welded joint geometry and the fatigue crack position. It is based on previous work which involved numerical simulation of fatigue crack growth in a welded joint made of micro-alloyed, low-carbon pressure vessel steel P460NL1, with the main focus on fatigue crack growth rate through different welded joint regions. The goal here was to change the size of the heat affected zone, as the region in which the fatigue crack initiated, and to compare the results obtained for new crack length values with the original ones, obtained by creating numerical models based on experimental data. A number of models were created, some of which simulated the case with a bigger heat affected zone (and, consequently, a smaller crack length in the weld metal), and other which simulated the case with a smaller heat affected zone. Due to the micro-structural differences between these two welded joint regions, noticeable differences appeared in the numbers of cycles obtained for each zone with varying fatigue crack lengths, as well as in the total number of cycles for both zones through which the crack propagated

Analytical vs Numerical Calculation of Fatigue Life for Different Welded Joint Regions

This research will show the analytical way of determining the remaining life of a welded joint with a fatigue crack initiated in its heat affected zone. The calculation will be divided into two stages, since the fatigue crack propagated through the heat affected zone, and then through the parent material. The analysis will be related to specimens with different fatigue properties taken into account for both regions. These calculations included a number of models, since different crack lengths were used for the heat affected zone and the parent material. There were three pairs of different HAZ vs PM fatigue crack lengths, always with the assumption that the total crack length is 5 mm, due to measuring range of the used measuring foils. The aim of this analysis was to apply method typically used in fracture mechanics in order to determine the number of cycles in a welded joint with an initiated fatigue crack, depending on a number of parameters. Obtained results were then compared to the results from the numerical analysis for the same cases. While the total number of cycles was mostly unaffected by these changes, some noticeable differences were observed between individual welded joint regions in question, the heat affected zone and the parent material

Analytical vs Numerical Calculation of Fatigue Life for Different Welded Joint Regions

This research will show the analytical way of determining the remaining life of a welded joint with a fatigue crack initiated in its heat affected zone. The calculation will be divided into two stages, since the fatigue crack propagated through the heat affected zone, and then through the parent material. The analysis will be related to specimens with different fatigue properties taken into account for both regions. These calculations included a number of models, since different crack lengths were used for the heat affected zone and the parent material. There were three pairs of different HAZ vs PM fatigue crack lengths, always with the assumption that the total crack length is 5 mm, due to measuring range of the used measuring foils. The aim of this analysis was to apply method typically used in fracture mechanics in order to determine the number of cycles in a welded joint with an initiated fatigue crack, depending on a number of parameters. Obtained results were then compared to the results from the numerical analysis for the same cases. While the total number of cycles was mostly unaffected by these changes, some noticeable differences were observed between individual welded joint regions in question, the heat affected zone and the parent material

Patient reported upper gastro-intestinal symptoms associated with fractionated image-guided conformal radiotherapy for metastatic spinal cord compression

Background and purpose Palliative radiotherapy is given to sustain or improve quality of life for patients with advanced cancer. Radiotherapy may however result in symptomatic side effects, which may affect the patient negatively. This prospective longitudinal study of 30 patients aimed at investigating the incidence and severity of early toxicity, particularly focusing on dysphagia, esophagitis and mucositis, following fractionated radiotherapy for cervical and thoracic metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC), as well as determining the relationship between esophageal dose and early upper gastro-intestinal symptoms. Materials and methods Thirty patients receiving radiotherapy of 3Gyx10 for MSCC were included in the study. Patients were assessed for a total of 7 weeks from onset of radiotherapy using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) questionnaire. Upper gastro-intestinal symptoms and severity were assessed from the tenth and eleventh question section of the ESAS questionnaire of “other problems” and how much this affected them. The relationships between the mean and maximum esophageal doses and incidence of dysphagia, esophagitis or mucositis were estimated and dose response curves determined. Results Eleven patients reported esophageal symptoms (average duration eleven days, range 1–18 days). Incidence of esophageal toxicity in patients treated at Th8 or above was 79 percent, while no patients treated below Th8 reported any symptoms (p < 0.001). Furthermore, 2 out of 3 patients irradiated at the cervical region reported substantial changes in taste sensation. Risk of symptoms correlated with both mean and maximum esophageal dose and may be a useful tool in planning radiotherapy for MSCC, potentially reducing early upper gastro-intestinal toxicity

Global-scale changes to extreme ocean wave events due to anthropogenic warming

Extreme surface ocean waves are often primary drivers of coastal flooding and erosion over various time scales. Hence, understanding future changes in extreme wave events owing to global warming is of socio-economic and environmental significance. However, our current knowledge of potential changes in high-frequency (defined here as having return periods of less than 1 year) extreme wave events are largely unknown, despite being strongly linked to coastal hazards across time scales relevant to coastal management. Here, we present global climate-modeling evidence, based on the most comprehensive multi-method, multi-model wave ensemble, of projected changes in a core set of extreme wave indices describing high-frequency, extra-tropical storm-driven waves. We find changes in high-frequency extreme wave events of up to ∼50%-100% under RCP8.5 high-emission scenario; which is nearly double the expected changes for RCP4.5 scenario, when globally integrated. The projected changes exhibit strong inter-hemispheric asymmetry, with strong increases in extreme wave activity across the tropics and high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere region, and a widespread decrease across most of the Northern Hemisphere. We find that the patterns of projected increase across these extreme wave events over the Southern Hemisphere region resemble their historical response to the positive anomaly of the Southern Annular Mode. Our findings highlight that many countries with low-adaptive capacity are likely to face increasing exposure to much more frequent extreme wave events in the future