Developing a Mentor Program for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

Our group worked in conjunction with the Executive Director of StandUp For Kids, the Fulton County Schools Homeless Liaison, and the School Social Worker at Frank McClarin High School to develop a school-based mentor program for unaccompanied homeless youth. The purpose was to provide support and encouragement to improve academic performance among youth, with the overall goal of graduation. We developed The Fulton Effect from the ground up, creating its name, mission statement, goals and objectives, program structure, and policies. We recruited mentors to match with students, as well as coordinated and facilitated bi-weekly meetings. We formed partnerships with local businesses to obtain lunch and monetary donations. We also developed and administered evaluation tools to measure program success. Our experience taught us the importance of utilizing community partnerships skills and understanding elements of successful collaborations in order to build a program that is effective and sustainable

Becoming a pianist: an fMRI study of musical literacy acquisition

Musically naive divisions were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before and after they had been taught to read music and play keyboard. When divisions played melodies from musical notation after training, activation was seen in a cluster of voxels within the right superior parietal cortex consistent with the view that music reading involves spatial sensorimotor mapping

Whose Land Is It Anyway? Navigating Ghana\u27s Complex Land System

This Article dives into Ghana’s complex land-registration system, which is influenced by both statutory and customary law. Section II discusses Ghana’s statutory land laws. Section III provides a brief overview of Ghana’s customary land laws. Section IV discusses several obstacles within Ghana’s land-administration system

Late Cretaceous Temperature Evolution of the Southern High Latitudes:A TEX₈₆ Perspective

The Late Cretaceous was a greenhouse world, characterized by elevated temperatures and high atmospheric pCO2. Even in the context of an extreme greenhouse climate, existing planktic foraminiferal δ18O data from the Falkland Plateau (paleolatitude of ~55°S) suggest anomalous warmth, with sea‐surface temperatures (SSTs) >30 °C for much of the Late Cretaceous, followed by sudden cooling in the Campanian. Over the last two decades, there has been discussion as to whether these high δ18O‐based SSTs reflect a genuine temperature signal and, if so, whether there was a local temperature anomaly in the South Atlantic or whether the data are representative of zonal paleotemperatures at 55°S. To provide new insights into the degree of ocean warming in the southern high latitudes during the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Campanian), new SST records from the Falkland and Kerguelen Plateaus are presented here using the organic geochemical paleothermometer TetraEther indeX of 86 carbon atoms (TEX86). Overall, the TEX86 data support the δ18O data, indicating extreme and widespread warmth in the middle to high southern latitudes in the Late Cretaceous, with SSTs from 27 to 37 °C. Crucially, the TEX86 data show slow, steady cooling from the Turonian to the Campanian and suggest that temperature gradients during the Campanian did not become as steep as suggested by some planktic foraminiferal data

The Student Movement Volume 108 Issue 11: A Merry Christmas: From the SM Staff to You

HUMANS Meet the Professors: New Humans Series, Grace No Psychology Research, Interviewed by Grace No What\u27s The Deal With Santa Claus?, Reagan Westerman Student Worker Interview: Sam Namkung, Interviewed by Lauren Kim ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT A Flat World for Our Round One, Nate Miller Art & Music in Andrews\u27 History - Introduction, Aiko J. Ayala Rios Why Do I Fell Bad for President Snow?: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Review, Corinna Bevier Have Yourself a Merry Little Hallmark Christmas, Lexie Dunham It\u27s Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas: A Christmas Playlist, Madison Vath NEWS Questions Answered, Questions Avoided: AUSA Town Hall , Andrew Francis The Shift from Emmanuel Missionary College to Andrews University, Katie Davis Deliverance from Same-Sex Attraction? A History of Conversion Therapy in the Adventist Church, Jonathan Clough Introducing Andrews Through the Ages, Melissa Moore The New Diversity Position and Students\u27 Reaction To It, Nate Miller IDEAS Christmas Traditions, Katie Davis Coming Out Ministries: \u27Coming Out\u27 is Coming In, Two perspectives by Lexie Dunham & Bella Hamann How Can We Improve Andrews?, Abby Shim How to Combat Seasonal Depression, Robert Zhang PULSE Christmas or Paganmas: A Question of Celebration, Rodney Bell II Christmas Spirit, Please Don\u27t Go!, Reagan Westerman Civil Rights at Andrews: A Series, Wambui Karanja The Meaning of Christmas, Anna Rybachek LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Desmond Hartwell Murray, I Know Dilution! Shandelle Henson LAST WORD Sonder* in the Train Station, Amelia Stefanescuhttps://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/sm-108/1010/thumbnail.jp

Brain changes after learning to read and play music

Musically naive participants were scanned before and after a period of 15 weeks during which they were taught to read music and play the keyboard. When participants played melodies from musical notation after training, activation was seen in a cluster of voxels within the bilateral superior parietal cortex. A subset of these voxels were activated in a second experiment in which musical notation was present, but irrelevant for task performance. These activations suggest that music reading involves the automatic sensorimotor translation of a spatial code (written music) into a series of motor responses (keypresses)

Different regression equations relate age to the incidence of Lauren types 1 and 2 stomach cancer in the SEER database: these equations are unaffected by sex or race

BACKGROUND: Although impacts upon gastric cancer incidence of race, age, sex, and Lauren type have been individually explored, neither their importance when evaluated together nor the presence or absence of interactions among them have not been fully described. METHODS: This study, derived from SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute) data, analyzed the incidences of gastric cancer between the years 1992–2001. There were 7882 patients who had developed gastric cancer. The total denominator population was 145,155, 669 persons (68,395,787 for 1992–1996, 78,759,882 for 1997–2001). Patients with multiple tumors were evaluated as per the default of the SEER*Stat program. 160 age-, five year period (1992–1996 vs 1997–2001)-, sex-, race (Asian vs non-Asian)-, Lauren type- specific incidences were derived to form the stratified sample evaluated by linear regression. (160 groups = 2 five year periods × 2 race groups × 2 sexes × 2 Lauren types × 10 age groups.) Linear regression was used to analyze the importance of each of these explanatory variables and to see if there were interactions among the explanatory variables. RESULTS: Race, sex, age group, and Lauren type were found to be important explanatory variables, as were interactions between Lauren type and each of the other important explanatory variables. In the final model, the contribution of each explanatory variable was highly statistically significant (t > 5, d.f. 151, P < 0.00001). The regression equation for Lauren type 1 had different coefficients for the explanatory variables Race, Sex, and Age, than did the regression equation for Lauren type 2. CONCLUSION: The change of the incidence of stomach cancer with respect to age for Lauren type 1 stomach cancer differs from that for Lauren type 2 stomach cancers. The relationships between age and Lauren type do not differ across gender or race. The results support the notion that Lauren type 1 and Lauren type 2 gastric cancers have different etiologies and different patterns of progression from pre-cancer to cancer. The results should be validated by evaluation of other databases

Perceptual and conceptual processing of visual objects across the adult lifespan

Abstract: Making sense of the external world is vital for multiple domains of cognition, and so it is crucial that object recognition is maintained across the lifespan. We investigated age differences in perceptual and conceptual processing of visual objects in a population-derived sample of 85 healthy adults (24–87 years old) by relating measures of object processing to cognition across the lifespan. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was recorded during a picture naming task to provide a direct measure of neural activity, that is not confounded by age-related vascular changes. Multiple linear regression was used to estimate neural responsivity for each individual, namely the capacity to represent visual or semantic information relating to the pictures. We find that the capacity to represent semantic information is linked to higher naming accuracy, a measure of task-specific performance. In mature adults, the capacity to represent semantic information also correlated with higher levels of fluid intelligence, reflecting domain-general performance. In contrast, the latency of visual processing did not relate to measures of cognition. These results indicate that neural responsivity measures relate to naming accuracy and fluid intelligence. We propose that maintaining neural responsivity in older age confers benefits in task-related and domain-general cognitive processes, supporting the brain maintenance view of healthy cognitive ageing

Distinct components of cardiovascular health are linked with age-related differences in cognitive abilities

Cardiovascular ageing contributes to cognitive impairment. However, the unique and synergistic contributions of multiple cardiovascular factors to cognitive function remain unclear because they are often condensed into a single composite score or examined in isolation. We hypothesized that vascular risk factors, electrocardiographic features and blood pressure indices reveal multiple latent vascular factors, with independent contributions to cognition. In a population-based deep-phenotyping study (n = 708, age 18–88), path analysis revealed three latent vascular factors dissociating the autonomic nervous system response from two components of blood pressure. These three factors made unique and additive contributions to the variability in crystallized and fluid intelligence. The discrepancy in fluid relative to crystallized intelligence, indicative of cognitive decline, was associated with a latent vascular factor predominantly expressing pulse pressure. This suggests that higher pulse pressure is associated with cognitive decline from expected performance. The effect was stronger in older adults. Controlling pulse pressure may help to preserve cognition, particularly in older adults. Our findings highlight the need to better understand the multifactorial nature of vascular aging