Conducting rigorous research with subgroups of at-risk youth: lessons learned from a teen pregnancy prevention project in Alaska

In 2010, Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) received federal funding to test an evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention program. The grant required a major modification to an existing program and a randomized control trial (RCT) to test its effectiveness. As the major modifications, Alaska used peer educators instead of adults to deliver the program to youth aged 1419 instead of the original curriculum intended age range of 1214. Cultural and approach adaptations were included as well. After 4 years of implementation and data collection, the sample was too small to provide statistically significant results. The lack of findings gave no information about the modification, nor any explanation of how the curriculum was received, or reasons for the small sample. This paper reports on a case study follow-up to the RCT to better understand outcome and implementation results. For this study, researchers reviewed project documents and interviewed peer educators, state and local staff, and evaluators. Three themes emerged from the data: (a) the professional growth of peer educators and development of peer education, (b) difficulties resulting from curriculum content, especially for subpopulations of sexually active youth, youth identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and/or asexual, pregnant, and parenting youth and (c) the appropriateness of an RCT with subpopulations of at-risk youth. Three recommendations emerged from the case study. First, including as many stakeholders as possible in the program and evaluation design phases is essential, and must be supported by appropriate funding streams and training. Second, there must be recognition of the multiple small subpopulations found in Alaska when adapting programs designed for a larger and more homogeneous population. Third, RCTs may not be appropriate for all population subgroups.Ye

Distributed leadership

Published in Leadership: the key concepts / edited by Antonio Marturano and Jonathan Gosling. Routledge, 2008The concept of ‘distributed leadership’ has become popular in recent years as an alternative to models of leadership that concern themselves primarily with the attributes and behaviours of individual ‘leaders’ (e.g. trait, situational , style and transformational theories). This approach argues for a more systemic perspective, whereby leadership responsibility is dissociated from formal organisational roles, and the action and influence of people at all levels is recognised as integral to the overall direction and functioning of the organisation

Linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopy of a strongly-coupled microdisk-quantum dot system

A fiber taper waveguide is used to perform direct optical spectroscopy of a microdisk-quantum-dot system, exciting the system through the photonic (light) channel rather than the excitonic (matter) channel. Strong coupling, the regime of coherent quantum interactions, is demonstrated through observation of vacuum Rabi splitting in the transmitted and reflected signals from the cavity. The fiber coupling method also allows the examination of the system's steady-state nonlinear properties, where saturation of the cavity-QD response is observed for less than one intracavity photon.Comment: adjusted references, added minor clarification

Actuation of Micro-Optomechanical Systems Via Cavity-Enhanced Optical Dipole Forces

We demonstrate a new type of optomechanical system employing a movable, micron-scale waveguide evanescently-coupled to a high-Q optical microresonator. Micron-scale displacements of the waveguide are observed for milliwatt(mW)-level optical input powers. Measurement of the spatial variation of the force on the waveguide indicates that it arises from a cavity-enhanced optical dipole force due to the stored optical field of the resonator. This force is used to realize an all-optical tunable filter operating with sub-mW control power. A theoretical model of the system shows the maximum achievable force to be independent of the intrinsic Q of the optical resonator and to scale inversely with the cavity mode volume, suggesting that such forces may become even more effective as devices approach the nanoscale.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures. High resolution version available at (http://copilot.caltech.edu/publications/CEODF_hires.pdf). For associated movie, see (http://copilot.caltech.edu/research/optical_forces/index.htm

Evanescent light-matter Interactions in Atomic Cladding Wave Guides

Alkali vapors, and in particular rubidium, are being used extensively in several important fields of research such as slow and stored light non-linear optics3 and quantum computation. Additionally, the technology of alkali vapors plays a major role in realizing myriad industrial applications including for example atomic clocks magentometers8 and optical frequency stabilization. Lately, there is a growing effort towards miniaturizing traditional centimeter-size alkali vapor cells. Owing to the significant reduction in device dimensions, light matter interactions are greatly enhanced, enabling new functionalities due to the low power threshold needed for non-linear interactions. Here, taking advantage of the mature Complimentary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) compatible platform of silicon photonics, we construct an efficient and flexible platform for tailored light vapor interactions on a chip. Specifically, we demonstrate light matter interactions in an atomic cladding wave guide (ACWG), consisting of CMOS compatible silicon nitride nano wave-guide core with a Rubidium (Rb) vapor cladding. We observe the highly efficient interaction of the electromagnetic guided mode with the thermal Rb cladding. The nature of such interactions is explained by a model which predicts the transmission spectrum of the system taking into account Doppler and transit time broadening. We show, that due to the high confinement of the optical mode (with a mode area of 0.3{\lambda}2), the Rb absorption saturates at powers in the nW regime.Comment: 10 Pages 4 Figures. 1 Supplementar

The Quantum Internet

Quantum networks offer a unifying set of opportunities and challenges across exciting intellectual and technical frontiers, including for quantum computation, communication, and metrology. The realization of quantum networks composed of many nodes and channels requires new scientific capabilities for the generation and characterization of quantum coherence and entanglement. Fundamental to this endeavor are quantum interconnects that convert quantum states from one physical system to those of another in a reversible fashion. Such quantum connectivity for networks can be achieved by optical interactions of single photons and atoms, thereby enabling entanglement distribution and quantum teleportation between nodes.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures Higher resolution versions of the figures can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.its.caltech.edu/~hjkimble/QNet-figures-high-resolutio

What About Interaction Geography to Evaluate Physical Learning Spaces?

This paper reviews and explores how interaction geography, a new approach to visualize people’s interaction over space and time, extends current approaches to evaluate physical learning spaces. This chapter begins by reviewing representations produced using interaction geography to study visitor engagement and learning in a museum. In particular, this review illustrates Mondrian Transcription, a method to map people’s movement and conversation over space and time, and the Interaction Geography Slicer (IGS), a dynamic visualisation tool that supports new forms of interaction and multi-modal analysis. Subsequently, this chapter explores how interaction geography may advance the evaluation of physical learning spaces by providing dynamic information visualisation methods that support more expansive views of learning and the evaluation of the alignment between space and pedagogy. This chapter concludes by outlining significant limitations and next steps to expand interaction geography to evaluate physical learning spaces

Effect of within-session breaks in play on responsible gambling behaviour during sustained monetary losses

Rapid, continuous gambling formats are associated with higher risks for gambling-related harm in terms of excessive monetary and time expenditure. The current study investigated the effect on gambling response latency and persistence, of a new form of within-game intervention that required players to actively engage in response inhibition via monitoring for stop signals. Seventy-four experienced electronic gaming machine gamblers, with a mean age of 35.28 years, were recruited to participate in a rapid, continuous gambling task where real money could be won and lost. Participants were randomly allocated to either the control condition where no intervention was presented, or either a condition with a passive three minute break in play or a condition with a three minute intervention that required participants to engage in response inhibition. Although there was no main effect for experimental condition on gambling persistence, both interventions were effective in elevating response latency during a period of sustained losses. It was concluded that within-game interventions that create an enforced break in play are effective in increasing response latency between bets during periods of sustained losses. Furthermore, within-game interventions that require active involvement appear to be more effective in increasing response latency than standard, passive breaks in play

Процесс анализа угроз, влияющих на экономическую устойчивость предприятия

На основании проведенного исследования были выявлены факторы возникновения угроз, их группировка по степени воздействию на экономическую устойчивость предприятий и рассмотрена формализация процесса анализа угроз экономической устойчивости предприятий. В условиях рыночной экономики невозможно управлять предприятием без учета влияния угроз, а для эффективного управления важно не только знать об их присутствии, а и правильно идентифицировать конкретную угрозу.На підставі проведеного дослідження були виявлені чинники виникнення загроз, їх угруповання по степені впливу на економічну стійкість підприємств і розглянута формалізація процесу аналізу загроз економічної стійкості підприємств. В умовах ринкової економіки неможливо керувати підприємством без вивчення впливу загроз, а для ефективного керування важливо не тільки знати про їх присутність, а і правильно ідентифікувати конкретну загрозу.On the basis of the conducted research the factors of origin of threats were exposed, their gourmet on a degree to influence on economic stability of enterprises and formalization of process of analysis of threats of economic stability of enterprises is considered. In the conditions of market economy it is impossible to manage an enterprise without taking into account influencing of threats, and for the effective management it is important not only to know about their presence, and to identify the concrete threat correctly