Lifestyles, identity and young people's experiences of mountain biking

It has been widely recognised that, for young people, experiencing the natural environment may hold multiple benefits for well-being and the future development of healthy lifestyles. The Active England programme awarded funding aimed at increasing participation in sport and physical activity at Bedgebury Forest in Kent, with a particular emphasis on young people as a key target group. Mountain biking, as a popular youth sport that often occurs in woodlands, was promoted under the scheme and provides the case study upon which this Note is based

Rate constants for the reaction of NO and HO2 with peroxy radicals formed from the reaction of OH, Cl or NO3 with alkenes, dienes and α,β-unsaturated carbonyls

Rate constants for the gas-phase reaction of NO and HO2 radicals with 33 peroxy radicals are presented. The peroxy radicals are derived from the addition of either OH, Cl, or NO3 radicals, followed by addition of O2, to a series of alkenes: tetrachloroethene, ethene, 2,3-dimethyl but-2-ene, butadiene, 2,3,4,5-tetramethyl hexa-2,4-diene, 1,1,2,3,4,4-hexachlorobutadiene, but-1-ene-3-one (methyl vinyl ketone) and 2,3-dimethylpen-2-ene-4-one. The rate constants were predicted using a correlation between the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) energy of the peroxy radical and the logarithm of the rate constant for reaction with NO or HO2. A discussion of the accuracy of the method and the trends in the reactivity of the titled peroxy radicals is given. Peroxy radicals derived from halogenated alkenes have larger values of rate constants for reaction with NO relative to reaction with HO2, indicating that they are more likely to react with NO, rather than HO2, in the atmosphere. The reverse is true for peroxy radicals derived from alkylated alkenes

A comparative study of 1959-60 referrals to the school adjustment counselling services of Malden and Needham

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston Universit

Functional Data Analysis With Application to United States Weather Data

This thesis explores the use of functional data analytic methods to examine climate change in a select group of 16 cities in the United States. The purpose of the project was to explore methods of functional data analysis in the context of climate change.Data used in this study was collected from NOAA\u27s National Climatic Data Center. Major cities from around the United States were selected provided they had 100 percent coverage for the span of years of interest, 1950 through 2013. Sixteen cities were found to have complete data for every day of the 64-year period.Spline functions were fit to the temperature time series after removing seasonal variation. Mean temperature curves and associated confidence limits were computed.The results show a significant rise of temperature in U.S. cities within the last few decades and that the rate of increase has consistently stayed above zero since the 1970s

Factors Leading to Giving by Known Catholic Donors

The much-publicized low-level giving of Catholic donors versus other denominations has been the source of much debate and a rich topic for many research studies and reports, especially within the last 10 years. The major focus of this current study was to show that Catholics are indeed generous and to seek factors that lead to their giving. The positive aspects of Catholic generosity were sought, rather than focusing on negative factors serving as barriers to giving. A self-administered questionnaire was sent to 208 known Catholic donors of the Diocese of Oakland in California during its Annual Bishop\u27s Appeal. Donors who had given $100.00 or more within a 24-month period received a survey during the month of September in the year 2000. Donors within three parishes in three different cities-Pleasant Hill, Union City, and San Ramon-were selected as a study sample. These were parishes with the most donors from the Annual Appeal and not the most wealthy parishes within the diocese. The survey asked 20 multiple-choice questions and two open-ended questions addressing the giving patterns of the respondents, their habits in terms of church attendance, personal characteristics including educational background, and their ability to give. Ninety-five individuals responded (46%), ranging in age from 32 to 83 years and an average age of 55.78 years. These respondents represented a core group of committed, involved, and generous parishioners. They were also deemed to be a representative sample of such individuals within any Catholic parish. If Catholics wish to continue meeting the needs of their increasing population, sufficient funds must be generated to build new schools, new churches, and to continue the outreach toward justice for which the Catholic church is known. This will mean a consistent focus on building the donor base in development offices of dioceses around the country. This goal also served as the purpose of the current study. The results suggest that the respondents were more involved in church life than their counterparts in other religious organizations. Additionally, their personal data showed them to be much more educated and, in fact, more sophisticated in their giving patterns. Most of the respondents planned their gifts, rather than giving from leftover funds. These findings could be taken to a diocesan-wide level and the study easily replicated and used in comparing other dioceses across the United States. This would aid in discovering if the core group of givers identified in this study indeed exists in every diocese. If so, are development directors providing these individuals with the proper means to facilitate their contribution, or are potential donors meeting barriers in their attempts to give? Greater understanding of the group of donors newly revealed in this study is needed to effectively increase fundraising efforts in support of the Catholic church

Paving the Way for Recognizing Postpenetration Rape Through the Mistake of Fact Defense

On February 13, 2019, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Commonwealth v. Sherman introduced a communication element in rape cases involving withdrawn consent. The prosecutor must prove that the victim communicated the revocation of consent such that a reasonable defendant would understand its withdrawal. In doing so, the court invoked a mistake of fact defense with regard to consent, which Massachusetts historically did not apply in its rape jurisprudence. This Comment notes that Massachusetts is unique in recognizing postpenetration rape as a legal possibility. This Comment compares Sherman to the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in 2008 in Commonwealth v. Blache. In Blache, the court made the mistake of fact defense available to the defendant when the victim was incapacitated and thus could not consent. By comparing Sherman to Blache, this Comment further argues that the mistake of fact defense in cases of postpenetration rape does not expand Massachusetts’ principle that the mistake of fact defense should not apply in most rape cases

\u3cem\u3eMarchand v. Barnhill\u3c/em\u3e\u27s Impact on the Duty of Oversight: New Factors to Assess Directors\u27 Liability for Breaching the Duty of Oversight

In 2019, in Marchand v. Barnhill, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the dismissal of a complaint alleging that the defendants, Blue Bell directors, breached their duty of oversight. In doing so, the court invoked two new factors—whether the corporation is monoline and whether it is heavily regulated—to consider when evaluating claims against directors for an oversight failure. These factors inform whether a court can identify an essential compliance concern, such that a court can infer the directors violated their obligation to act in good faith by consciously disregarding a known duty. This inference allows a court to find that a plaintiff alleged sufficient facts to state a claim for a breach of the duty of oversight. This Note examines the upper and lower boundaries of the monoline as well as heavily regulated factors established in Marchand via a derivative complaint against The Boeing Company’s directors. Ultimately, this Note isolates factors most important for a plaintiff to consider when evaluating the strength of their breach of the duty of oversight claim, including (1) whether the company makes only one product or has one product that is particularly significant to the company’s success and (2) whether one, primary, external regulator governs the company’s business