Secondary Teachers’ Perceptions of Delaware Bullying Intervention Programs

This applied dissertation was designed to measure the attitudes of teachers about bullying within the state of Delaware, to provide steps in reporting bullying incidents, to determine key factors teachers consider important for state bullying intervention programs, to understand teachers’ perceptions of the uniform definition of bullying and their perceptions of the Delaware bullying intervention programs, and to provide insight to the people who work with victims in the state of Delaware to ensure that bullying is being addressed. In 2010, due to several incidents of suicide caused by bullying, a consortium was convened by Family Court Chief Judge Chandlee Johnson Kuhn. Since this event, representatives and legislators addressed bullying prevention and realized that many organizations were doing excellent work, but resources were difficult for families to navigate. The researcher provided insight, knowledge, and awareness to help staff protect and provide helpful resources for children, parents, and educators regarding how to address and prevent instances of bullying. The resources on these databases provide students, parents, and staff with access to a) a new online resource database called DEletebullying.org; b) the ability to search and locate current bullying information; c) laws that focus on implementing Delaware’s first uniform policy to combat bullying in public schools; d) strategies to protect students against bullying by requiring consistency in how bullying incidents are reported; and e) a method for reporting incidents. Educators are encouraged to continue to use these services and resources for implementing bullying prevention programs because in the state of Delaware each school is required to establish a site-based committee to coordinate a bullying prevention program. The findings of this study provided insight that anti-bullying programs and interventions serve as a model to address the realities of bullying within the state of Delaware. However, the researcher incorporated the secondary teachers’ perceptions regarding the state of Delaware anti-bullying programs to enhance the existing programs’ effectiveness and awareness. These findings suggest more adequate consistency in monitoring behaviors and training is necessary throughout the school year in order to decrease bullying in schools and make environments safer

An Economic Analysis of Consumer Expenditures for Safe Drinking Water: Addressing Nitrogen Risk with an Averting Cost Approach

This article presents a procedure for estimating averting expenditures through the analyses of two data sources: (1) packaged water sales from 18 national supermarket chain stores in the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area (COMA); and (2) treatment expenditures for both high and low service water from a local drinking water treatment facility owned and operated by the Columbus, Ohio municipality. The averting behavior results from a nitrogen advisory for drinking water for 1/3 of the COMA. The study concentrates on estimating these averting expenditures as representative of averting behavior for a market and non-market good trade-off. This article concentrates on the economic consequences of the nitrogen pollution problem as it affects households through the water they drink. It measures the private and public averting for the remedies available to address this problem. Major findings are that consumers make significant expenditures on packaged water both inside and outside the nitrogen advisory area and the municipality also makes considerable averting expenditures. The results represent an averting behavior effect emanating through an area having experienced recent and historic nitrogen advisory events with significant implications for government and industrial strategies for identification and prevention of nitrogen contamination incidents.Averting Cost, Nitrogen Risk, Safe Drinking Water., Consumer/Household Economics,

The Effectiveness of Christian Accommodative Mindfulness in the Treatment of Shame

Shame is a destructive moral emotion experienced by a vast majority of the population and is found at the core of numerous mental illnesses and spiritual crises. Unfortunately, Christians seeking help for these conditions are often left with unmet cultural needs in the process of treatment, potentially hindering full healing or even entrance into needed treatment. The current small N time series case study research addresses this dilemma utilizing a culturally accommodated form of mindfulness, which is an existing treatment known to promote healing in the physical and mental health realms. Mindfulness has been demonstrated to be useful in the treatment of a multitude of mental health conditions as well as in reducing the experience of shame; therefore, this intervention was adapted to incorporate constructs common to the Christian culture and protocols were created to be used with Christians at a community-based Christian psychotherapy clinic. Utilizing a set of Christian Accommodative Mindfulness (CAM) meditations and exercises, levels of shame, depression, anxiety and resiliency were measured using psychometrically researched scales to determine the effect of CAM on the clinical presentation of recipients of professional counseling. Results of the study demonstrated that mindfulness was able to be successfully adapted for and delivered to Christian clients seeking therapy for depression or anxiety in an outpatient clinic with significant desired effect to decrease shame, depression and anxiety as well as to increase resiliency. These findings provide initial empirical support for the development and utilization of mindfulness interventions that are culturally sensitive to the unique worldview of the Christian clinical population. Future research considerations and recommendations are provided

The Development of Positive Budgetary Theory within the UK Hotel Industry

Previous applied empirical research is limited. This research builds a bridge between management accounting 'normative theory' and current practice, through the development of 'positive budgetary theory'. In order to achieve this a series of objectives were set, relating to: developing a statement of textbook 'normative' theory; identifying industry practice; analysing practice in relation to theory; critically reviewing the rationale for practice; and developing a model of 'positive' budgetary theory appropriate for UK hotel organizations. The methodological stance was interpretive and corpus based. Individual corpus (body of knowledge) were developed related to 'normative' theory and hospitality industry practice. An interpretative approach was used to interrogate the corpus in order to ascertain 'positive' theory, concerning budgeting in the hospitality industry. The methodological approach adopted required a multi-method approach, which allowed triangulation of results. Methods used were content analysis, postal census survey, semi-structured interviews and a qualitative questionnaire. The content analysis results identified aspects of budgeting that were 'normative', 'probably normative', 'probably not normative', and 'not normative' in textbooks. Of the sixteen aspects of budgeting reviewed ten were considered normative (at the primary coded level) but others such as zero base budgeting was probably not normative. Findings from industry research established aspects of practice in line with 'normative' theory. Positive theory developed was informed by practice, normative theory and the rationale for industry practice. No general 'theory/practice' gap was identified for budgeting. For many aspects such as the need for participation in the budgeting process, or the marginal reporting of zero base budgeting, there was agreement. However flexible budgeting was viewed has having little use in the industry, whilst it was normative in textbooks. The results also identify aspects that need to be reconsidered by industry, particularly participation at lower levels in the organization and the financial training needs of non-financial managers

Evaluation of HIV counseling and testing in ANC settings and adherence to short course antiretroviral prophylaxis for PMTCT in Francistown, Botswana

Worldwide, it is estimated that two million children are infected with HIV (USAID 2005). The vast majority of these infections are the result of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of the virus during pregnancy, labor, or breastfeeding. However, there are effective methods for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT). Botswana is one of the first countries in the developing world with a national PMTCT program that uses an efficacious and complex regimen to reduce vertical transmission. At the time of this evaluation (August - December 2005), the standard of care for prevention of MTCT of HIV in Botswana included three-drug antiretroviral therapy for HIV-infected women with a CD4 count of 200 (300 mg AZT in the morning and 300 mg AZT in the evening); four weeks of AZT for their infants; single-dose maternal and infant nevirapine (NVP); and 12 months of free infant formula. Botswana's PMTCT program also provided routine HIV testing for all pregnant women during antenatal care (ANC) to identify HIV-positive women for prophylaxis or treatment. While programs often report the number of individuals beginning AZT and receiving nevirapine for PMTCT, effectiveness is dependent on the level of adherence of individuals to these regimens. To describe adherence of pregnant women to the current PMTCT regimen, the Horizons Program of the Population Council, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Premiere Personnel in Botswana, conducted an evaluation to describe HIV-related services provided to women during their pregnancies, document the content of post-test counseling sessions for HIV-positive pregnant women, whether HIV-positive women remembered what had been discussed, the extent of AZT adherence based on self-reports, and the operational successes and barriers to adherence to AZT for PMTCT

The ISCIP Analyst, Volume III, Issue 4

This repository item contains a single issue of The ISCIP Analyst, an analytical review journal published from 1996 to 2010 by the Boston University Institute for the Study of Conflict, Ideology, and Policy

METHOD OF PROVIDING DRY ADDITIVES FOR A GYPSUM BOARD MANUFACTURING PROCESS

In general, the present publication is directed to a dry additive regulation and transmission system. In particular, the present system is an improved method of dispersing, mixing, and conveying dry additives to a wall board manufacturing process

Education of Staff Nurses on the Implementation of a Standardized Clinical Care Pathway for Patients Who Undergo Correction of Pectus Excavatum

Objective: Educate staff nurses on a new standardized clinical care pathway (SCCP) for Nuss Procedure patients to decrease the length of stay, decrease hospital costs, decrease postoperative complications, and improve pain control. Design: Evidence-based practice improvement initiative. Setting/Local Problem: An inpatient surgery unit at a local pediatric medical center with no previous standardized care plan for Nuss Procedure patients. Participants: All staff nurses working on the inpatient surgery unit of a pediatric medical center. Intervention/Measurements: An SCCP was created by a multidisciplinary care team. All staff nurses on the inpatient surgery unit at a local pediatric medical center were assigned an online education module to evaluate pre/post-knowledge of nursing care from a standardized clinical care pathway for patients after receiving the Nuss Procedure. Chart audits were completed to assess staff nurses’ utilization of the SCCP on patients undergoing the Nuss Procedure to assess patient outcome measures and length of stay. This project aimed to enhance policies and protocols and decrease Nuss patients’ length of stay, which in turn improves patient outcomes and healthcare costs. Results: Fourteen out of 32 staff nurses completed the nursing education module, with a 44% compliance rate. Pre-test score (M = 9.07, SD = 1.27). Post-test score (M = 10.71, SD = 0.47). Patient length of stay decreased from M = 4.2 days in 2020 to M =2 days in 2022 (p = 0.001). Chart audits revealed that the nursing staff adhered to charting patient diet and hygiene, not ambulation or incentive spirometry use. Conclusion: Implementation of an SCCP leads to decreased postoperative length of stay in Nuss Procedure patients. In nursing staff, post-knowledge assessment scores were higher than pre-knowledge assessment scores. The nursing staff adhered to charting measures pre-populated in the electronic charting system but showed poor compliance in charting interventions that needed to be manually added to the patient chart. Adherence to a daily patient checklist could not be assessed due to the misplacement of the checklists upon patient discharge

States of consciousness: performing sensory perceptions

This conference discussion paper outlines the potential impacts of our emerging scientific understanding of the breadth of human (and non-human) sensory perceptions on the future of theatrical performance. We examine how sensory perspectives may be taught and learned by performers and audiences