Growing the We: Collaboration and Character Education

Growing the “We:” Collaboration and Character Education This project explores the intersection of collaboration and character education for elementary school children. Though character education has gained increasing popularity, most school programs seem more focused on cultivating the individual than on developing group identity, group creativity or group productivity. Some character education programs speak to global citizenship or being a responsible and contributing community member; but, few focus on the elements of character that enable successful and rewarding collaboration. In response, the author created a classroom resource called Growing the “We:” Collaboration and Character that details ten collaboration-related character strengths and activities intended to help young people experience and become excited about working collaboratively. Keywords: Collaboration, character education, play, improvisatio

Special Section Introduction: ARNOVA Governance Symposium Case Studies for Use in the Classroom and Practitioner Training

On behalf of the Governance Section of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), we are pleased to present this special section of the Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership, which consists of four advocacy case studies. The cases were developed as part of the Governance Symposium, Board Advocacy: Promoting Organizational Values, Beliefs, and Goals, convened during the 2017 ARNOVA conference. The symposium was cosponsored by the Governance Section of ARNOVA and the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, the national organization of capacity builders. These case studies provide wonderful learning tools focused on board advocacy for use in the classroom and in training workshops and are designed for instructors, consultants, students, board members, and executive directors. The set of cases is followed by a study guide that is designed to be used in conjunction with all the cases. The guide includes instructor/trainer and student/training-participant sections with activities, discussion questions, and a list of print and electronic resources

On the morpho-syntax of possessive constructions

Possessive constructions in English, Spanish, and French differ in several ways. This article considers variation in word order, in the expression of agreement, and in the appearance of a preposition. The article generalizes to Spanish and French Bernstein & To r t o r a ’s (2005) analysis of English possessive constructions, particularly the idea that the prenominal possessive constructions are distinct from the postnominal ones. All three languages display a prenominal possessive form that cannot co-occur with an article, supporting the idea that these forms must (eventually) occupy a DP-internal position. Postnominal possessive constructions display various patterns crosslinguistically. That of is required in English is consistent with the idea (see Kayne, 1993) that the movement assumed is DP internal. This also applies to Spanish and French possessive constructions with lexical DPs, which display de. In Spanish, no preposition appears with postnominal possessive pronouns, which display properties of predicative adjectives. The analysis assumes a reduced relative structure with a possessive adjective and suppressed C (not D). In French, à appears with a non-possessive pronoun. Nevertheless, there is some support for the idea that the French construction is derived parallel to the English one

TileProbe: modeling tiling array probe effects using publicly available data

Motivation: Individual probes on an Affymetrix tiling array usually behave differently. Modeling and removing these probe effects are critical for detecting signals from the array data. Current data processing techniques either require control samples or use probe sequences to model probe-specific variability, such as with MAT. Although the MAT approach can be applied without control samples, residual probe effects continue to distort the true biological signals

The Effectiveness of Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention in Emergency Departments: A Multicentre Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Alcohol misuse is common in people attending emergency departments (EDs) and there is some evidence of efficacy of alcohol screening and brief interventions (SBI). This study investigated the effectiveness of SBI approaches of different intensities delivered by ED staff in nine typical EDs in England: the SIPS ED trial. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Pragmatic multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial of SBI for hazardous and harmful drinkers presenting to ED. Nine EDs were randomized to three conditions: a patient information leaflet (PIL), 5 minutes of brief advice (BA), and referral to an alcohol health worker who provided 20 minutes of brief lifestyle counseling (BLC). The primary outcome measure was the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) status at 6 months. Of 5899 patients aged 18 or more presenting to EDs, 3737 (63·3%) were eligible to participate and 1497 (40·1%) screened positive for hazardous or harmful drinking, of whom 1204 (80·4%) gave consent to participate in the trial. Follow up rates were 72% (n?=?863) at six, and 67% (n?=?810) at 12 months. There was no evidence of any differences between intervention conditions for AUDIT status or any other outcome measures at months 6 or 12 in an intention to treat analysis. At month 6, compared to the PIL group, the odds ratio of being AUDIT negative for brief advice was 1·103 (95% CI 0·328 to 3·715). The odds ratio comparing BLC to PIL was 1·247 (95% CI 0·315 to 4·939). A per protocol analysis confirmed these findings. CONCLUSIONS: SBI is difficult to implement in typical EDs. The results do not support widespread implementation of alcohol SBI in ED beyond screening followed by simple clinical feedback and alcohol information, which is likely to be easier and less expensive to implement than more complex interventions

Deficient Plakophilin-1 Expression Due to a Mutation in PKP1 Causes Ectodermal Dysplasia-Skin Fragility Syndrome in Chesapeake Bay Retriever Dogs

In humans, congenital and hereditary skin diseases associated with epidermal cell-cell separation (acantholysis) are very rare, and spontaneous animal models of these diseases are exceptional. Our objectives are to report a novel congenital acantholytic dermatosis that developed in Chesapeake Bay retriever dogs. Nine affected puppies in four different litters were born to eight closely related clinically normal dogs. The disease transmission was consistent with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. Clinical signs occurred immediately after birth with superficial epidermal layers sloughing upon pressure. At three month of age, dogs exhibited recurrent superficial skin sloughing and erosions at areas of friction and mucocutaneous junctions; their coat was also finer than normal and there were patches of partial hair loss. At birth, histopathology revealed severe suprabasal acantholysis, which became less severe with ageing. Electron microscopy demonstrated a reduced number of partially formed desmosomes with detached and aggregated keratin intermediate filaments. Immunostaining for desmosomal adhesion molecules revealed a complete lack of staining for plakophilin-1 and anomalies in the distribution of desmoplakin and keratins 10 and 14. Sequencing revealed a homozygous splice donor site mutation within the first intron of PKP1 resulting in a premature stop codon, thereby explaining the inability to detect plakophilin-1 in the skin. Altogether, the clinical and pathological findings, along with the PKP1 mutation, were consistent with the diagnosis of ectodermal dysplasia-skin fragility syndrome with plakophilin-1 deficiency. This is the first occurrence of ectodermal dysplasia-skin fragility syndrome in an animal species. Controlled mating of carrier dogs would yield puppies that could, in theory, be tested for gene therapy of this rare but severe skin disease of children

Use of biological based therapy in patients with cardiovascular diseases in a university-hospital in New York City

BACKGROUND: The use of complementary and alternative products including Biological Based Therapy (BBT) has increased among patients with various medical illnesses and conditions. The studies assessing the prevalence of BBT use among patients with cardiovascular diseases are limited. Therefore, an evaluation of BBT in this patient population would be beneficial. This was a survey designed to determine the effects of demographics on the use of Biological Based Therapy (BBT) in patients with cardiovascular diseases. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of the education level on the use of BBT in cardiovascular patients. This survey also assessed the perceptions of users regarding the safety/efficacy of BBT, types of BBT used and potential BBT-drug interactions. METHOD: The survey instrument was designed to assess the findings. Patients were interviewed from February 2001 to December 2002. 198 inpatients with cardiovascular diseases (94 BBT users and 104 non-users) in a university hospital were included in the study. RESULTS: Users had a significantly higher level of education than non-users (college graduate: 28 [30%] versus 12 [12%], p = 0.003). Top 10 BBT products used were vitamin E [41(43.6%)], vitamin C [30(31.9%)], multivitamins [24(25.5%)], calcium [19(20.2%)], vitamin B complex [17(18.1%)], fish oil [12(12.8%)], coenzyme Q10 [11(11.7%)], glucosamine [10(10.6%)], magnesium [8(8.5%)] and vitamin D [6(6.4%)]. Sixty percent of users' physicians knew of the BBT use. Compared to non-users, users believed BBT to be safer (p < 0.001) and more effective (p < 0.001) than prescription drugs. Forty-two potential drug-BBT interactions were identified. CONCLUSION: Incidence of use of BBT in cardiovascular patients is high (47.5%), as is the risk of potential drug interaction. Health care providers need to monitor BBT use in patients with cardiovascular diseases

Frequency of the ATM IVS10-6T→G variant in Australian multiple-case breast cancer families

BACKGROUND: Germline mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 account for only a proportion of hereditary breast cancer, suggesting that additional genes contribute to hereditary breast cancer. Recently a heterozygous variant in the ataxia–telangiectasia mutated (ATM) gene, IVS10-6T→G, was reported by an Australian multiple-case breast cancer family cohort study (the Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer) to confer a substantial breast cancer risk. Although this variant can result in a truncated ATM product, its clinical significance as a high-penetrance breast cancer allele or its role as a low-penetrance risk-modifier is controversial. METHODS: We determined the frequency of ATM IVS10-6T→G variants in a cohort of individuals affected by breast and/or ovarian cancer who underwent BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic testing at four major Australian familial cancer clinics. RESULTS: Seven of 495 patients (1.4%) were heterozygous for the IVS10-6T→G variant; the carrier rate in unselected Australian women with no family history of breast cancer is reported to be 6 of 725 (0.83%) (P = 0.4). Two of the seven probands also harboured a pathogenic BRCA1 mutation and one patient had a BRCA1 unclassified variant of uncertain significance. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that the ATM IVS10-6T→G variant does not seem to occur at a significantly higher frequency in affected individuals from high-risk families than in the general population. A role for this variant as a low-penetrance allele or as a modifying gene in association with other genes (such as BRCA1) remains possible. Routine testing for ATM IVS10-6T→G is not warranted in mutation screening of affected individuals from high-risk families

Integrated Magnetic MEMS Relays:Status of the Technology

The development and application of magnetic technologies employing microfabricated magnetic structures for the production of switching components has generated enormous interest in the scientific and industrial communities over the last decade. Magnetic actuation offers many benefits when compared to other schemes for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), including the generation of forces that have higher magnitude and longer range. Magnetic actuation can be achieved using different excitation sources, which create challenges related to the integration with other technologies, such as CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor), and the requirement to reduce power consumption. Novel designs and technologies are therefore sought to enable the use of magnetic switching architectures in integrated MEMS devices, without incurring excessive energy consumption. This article reviews the status of magnetic MEMS technology and presents devices recently developed by various research groups, with key focuses on integrability and effective power management, in addition to the ability to integrate the technology with other microelectronic fabrication processes