Sixth Grader Speaks Out

Here are some of the personal experiences I\u27ve had at school with my teachers. At the end of French class, the French teacher said, The boys can leave now. All the girls said, Why can\u27t we leave now? The teacher said, You have to help clean up, you future housewives. At the end of art class, the art teacher said that it was time to clean up. A couple of boys pretended to cry. The art teacher said, Come on! You sound like girls

LEAP Works! Outcomes of a Family-Based Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Promotion Program

Overweight is an endemic public health concern for children, adolescents, and adults. Reducing the prevalence of childhood overweight is a national health objective and nine million U.S. children, currently classified as overweight, require effective nutrition education and physical activity promotion services. The intent of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a family-based nutrition education and physical activity promotion program, Lifelong Eating and Activity Patterns (LEAP), as an effective approach for the prevention and treatment of child overweight. The study design was an eight-week intervention and participant files were analyzed retrospectively to ascertain information for the study variables. The main outcome measures were changes in body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, fitness level, and eating and activity behaviors for child and parent participants. Qualitative data gathered from an exit survey for both children and parents were used to assess perceived benefits, value, and effectiveness of the program. Participants included 107 boys (n=48) and girls (n=59) ages 7-14, mean age 10.6 years, and their accompanying parents. The child participants were either “at risk for overweight” (3%) or “overweight” (97%). The results showed a significant decrease in BMI for both child and parent participants and percent body fat for child participants. There was a significant increase in reported fruit and vegetable consumption, regular physical activity, and in fitness parameters for both child and parent participants. The qualitative exit survey results indicated that the LEAP program resulted in significant improvements in knowledge, attitude, and behavior. In conclusion, this family-based nutrition education and physical activity promotion program was effective in decreasing BMI and body fat, increasing fitness level, and eliciting positive changes in eating and activity attitudes and behavior in both child and parent participants

Quartz enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy on solid samples

Quartz-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy (QEPAS) is a technique in which the sound wave is detected by a quartz tuning fork (QTF). It enables particularly high specificity with respect to the excitation frequency and is well known for an extraordinarily sensitive analysis of gaseous samples. We have developed the first photoacoustic (PA) cell for QEPAS on solid samples. Periodic heating of the sample is excited by modulated light from an interband cascade laser (ICL) in the infrared region. The cell represents a half-open cylinder that exhibits an acoustical resonance frequency equal to that of the QTF and, therefore, additionally amplifies the PA signal. The antinode of the sound pressure of the first longitudinal overtone can be accessed by the sound detector. A 3D finite element (FE) simulation confirms the optimal dimensions of the new cylindrical cell with the given QTF resonance frequency. An experimental verification is performed with an ultrasound micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) microphone. The presented frequency-dependent QEPAS measurement exhibits a low noise signal with a high-quality factor. The QEPAS-based investigation of three different solid synthetics resulted in a linearly dependent signal with respect to the absorption

Central Illinois Bach Society, November 16, 1975

Centennial East Recital HallSunday AfternoonNovember 16, 19752:00 p.m

Gender Wage Differentials, Affirmative Action, and Employment Growth on the Industry Level

The present study examines factors that might explain the difference between female and male industry wage premia. It focuses on three industry characteristics in particular -- the extent to which firms in each industry were likely to be targeted for Affirmation Action compliance review or investigation, industry employment growth, and industry profitability. We find strong evidence that all three factors help narrow the gender gap in industry wage premia. Other characteristics that we have looked at, including average plant size, the capital intensity of the production process, both the average level and variance in work education, and changes in overall sales and wage levels were statistically much less important. Our principal finding is that Affirmation Action, employment growth, and profitability each leads to a narrowing of the gender gap in industry wage premia. These effects act independently of each other. With regard to the Affirmation Action variable, our results contract sharply with those of Leonard (1996), who concludes that Affirmative Action had lost its effectiveness as a measure to reduce the gender wage gap in the 1980s. The difference in results is likely attributable to the fact that the dependent variable in his regression analysis is the gender gap in earnings, whereas ours is the gender gap in industry wage premia. In terms of policy implications, our results provide new support to the recent effectiveness of the Affirmative Action program, which is currently under fire from so many sources and has been greatly diminished in size and is also clear that import-competing industries, for which output prices and sales declined during this period, showed smaller wage increases for all workers during the 1980s. This would narrow the gender gap in wage premia, if males had been more likely than females to benefit from rent sharing before the decline in demand for the industry's output, or if males at the top of the wage ladder were more likely than others, of both genders, to have left these industries when demand and pay declines. Sachs and Shatz (1996) support this argument with the observation that the overall gender gap in wages tended to narrow in these industries.

LEAP Works! Outcomes of a Family-based Nutrition Education and Physical Activity Promotion Program

Abstract Overweight is an endemic public health concern for children, adolescents, and adults. Reducing the prevalence of childhood overweight is a national health objective and nine million U.S. children, currently classified as overweight, require effective nutrition education and physical activity promotion services. The intent of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a family-based nutrition education and physical activity promotion program, Lifelong Eating and Activity Patterns (LEAP), as an effective approach for the prevention and treatment of child overweight. The study design was an eight-week intervention and participant files were analyzed retrospectively to ascertain information for the study variables. The main outcome measures were changes in body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, fitness level, and eating and activity behaviors for child and parent participants. Qualitative data gathered from an exit survey for both children and parents were used to assess perceived benefits, value, and effectiveness of the program. Participants included 107 boys (n=48) and girls (n=59) ages 7-14, mean age 10.6 years, and their accompanying parents. The child participants were either "at risk for overweight" (3%) or "overweight" (97%). The results showed a significant decrease in BMI for both child and parent participants and percent body fat for child participants. There was a significant increase in reported fruit and vegetable consumption, regular physical activity, and in fitness parameters for both child and parent participants. The qualitative exit survey results indicated that the LEAP program resulted in significant improvements in knowledge, attitude, and behavior. In conclusion, this family-based nutrition education and physical activity promotion program was effective in decreasing BMI and body fat, increasing fitness level, and eliciting positive changes in eating and activity attitudes and behavior in both child and parent participants

Quantitative thermophoretic study of disease-related protein aggregates

Amyloid fibrils are a hallmark of a range of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. A detailed understanding of the physico-chemical properties of the different aggregated forms of proteins, and of their interactions with other compounds of diagnostic or therapeutic interest, is crucial for devising effective strategies against such diseases. Protein aggregates are situated at the boundary between soluble and insoluble structures, and are challenging to study because classical biophysical techniques, such as scattering, spectroscopic and calorimetric methods, are not well adapted for their study. Here we present a detailed characterization of the thermophoretic behavior of different forms of the protein a-synuclein, whose aggregation is associated with Parkinson's disease. Thermophoresis is the directed net diffusional flux of molecules and colloidal particles in a temperature gradient. Because of their low volume requirements and rapidity, analytical methods based on this effect have considerable potential for high throughput screening for drug discovery. In this paper we rationalize and describe in quantitative terms the thermophoretic behavior of monomeric, oligomeric and fibrillar forms of a-synuclein. Furthermore, we demonstrate that microscale thermophoresis (MST) is a valuable method for screening for ligands and binding partners of even such highly challenging samples as supramolecular protein aggregates