Perspectives of Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders about their Experiences with Social Stories

Social stories are defined as a short story that describes social situations in terms of relevant cues and often defines appropriate responses for children diagnosed with Autism (Bradys, Gouvousis, VanLue & Waldron, 2004). Social stories a have been used since the early 1990\u27s as a social skills intervention for students with Autism and research has shown that social stories have been very effective as an intervention for students with Autism (Scattone, Tingstrom & Wilczynski, 2006). A review of the research found that very little research has been conducted with students with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD) and their perspectives with social skills interventions. This research examines the question what are the perspectives of students with emotional/behavioral disorders about their experiences with social stories. Through this research I conducted interviews with 5 students with EBD who participated in the social stories intervention project. Themes that emerged from the interviews were: (a) ambiguity about social skills instruction, (b) name and behavior recognition provides powerful initial draw, (c) social stories do not sustain student attention, and (d) mixed perspectives with positive outcomes

Abnormal arterial-venous fusions and fate specification in mouse embryos lacking blood flow.

The functions of blood flow in the morphogenesis of mammalian arteries and veins are not well understood. We examined the development of the dorsal aorta (DA) and the cardinal vein (CV) in Ncx1 -/- mutants, which lack blood flow due to a deficiency in a sodium calcium ion exchanger expressed specifically in the heart. The mutant DA and CV were abnormally connected. The endothelium of the Ncx1 -/- mutant DA lacked normal expression of the arterial markers ephrin-B2 and Connexin-40. Notch1 activation, known to promote arterial specification, was decreased in mutant DA endothelial cells (ECs), which ectopically expressed the venous marker Coup-TFII. These findings suggest that flow has essential functions in the DA by promoting arterial and suppressing venous marker expression. In contrast, flow plays a lesser role in the CV, because expression of arterial-venous markers in CV ECs was not as dramatically affected in Ncx1 -/- mutants. We propose a molecular mechanism by which blood flow mediates DA and CV morphogenesis, by regulating arterial-venous specification of DA ECs to ensure proper separation of the developing DA and CV

Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success? The limitations of women-only mentoring for tackling gender inequality in the workplace

Mentoring is widely acknowledged to be an important contributor to women’s career success and progression but women often struggle to access mentoring networks that can help sponsor and develop their careers. Formal mentoring programmes designed specifically for women help overcome this challenge, but such schemes may at the same time reinforce masculine discourses which position women as deficient in relation to the invisibly male norm that is implicit within contemporary working practices. Drawing on a formal women-only mentoring programme built on gender-positive goals to empower women to ‘be the best they can be’ within the events industry, this paper considers the extent to which such programmes can both challenge and reproduce gendered discourses of business and success. Interviews with mentors and mentees illustrate how such programmes make gender visible within business and individual careers, but masculinist underpinnings of organisational discourses remain invisible, unacknowledged and thus largely unchallenged

An Identical Twin Study on Human Achilles Tendon Adaptation: Regular Recreational Exercise at Comparatively Low Intensities Can Increase Tendon Stiffness

Achilles tendon adaptation is a key aspect of exercise performance and injury risk prevention. However, much debate exists about the adaptation of the Achilles tendon in response to exercise activities. Most published research is currently limited to elite athletes and selected exercise activities. Also, existing studies on tendon adaptation do not control for genetic variation. Our explorative cross-sectional study investigated the effects of regular recreational exercise activities on Achilles tendon mechanical properties in 40 identical twin pairs. Using a handheld oscillation device to determine Achilles tendon mechanical properties, we found that the Achilles tendon appears to adapt to regular recreational exercise at comparatively low intensities by increasing its stiffness. Active twins showed a 28% greater Achilles tendon stiffness than their inactive twin (p < 0.05). Further, our research extends existing ideas on sport-specific adaptation by showing that tendon stiffness seemed to respond more to exercise activities that included an aerial phase such as running and jumping. Interestingly, the comparison of twin pairs revealed a high variation of Achilles tendon stiffness (305.4–889.8 N/m), and tendon adaptation was only revealed when we controlled for genetic variance. Those results offer new insights into the impact of genetic variation on individual Achilles tendon stiffness, which should be addressed more closely in future studies.Peer Reviewe

The impact of revitalization treatments on biological activity of soil under afforestation on post-agricultural land

In Poland, afforestation is usually carried out on the weakest soils, excluded from agricultural use and wasteland, i.e. post-agricultural land. A characteristic feature of such habitat is poor-quality soil, relatively high content of nutrients for trees, particularly nitrogen, as well as a low level of humus. This is important for the quality of microbiological processes occurring in post-agricultural soils. Restitution of the forest in such a habitat requires the use of various revitalisation treatments for improving soil quality and increasing biological activity and soil fertility. This article presents the results of a long-term experiment on the effectiveness of various revitalisation treatments (zoo- and phytomelioration) on afforested post-agricultural lands after more than 30 years from their application in pine forests in north-western Poland. These treatments consisted of introducing additional organic matter into the soil in the form of bark and sawdust, sowing lupine and introducing soil fauna. The comparative area for afforestation on post-agricultural soils in the presented experiment was the area of forest soils, located in the same habitat, in a pine stand, at the same time. Biological activity of soil was measured with the activity of soil enzymes dehydrogenases and acid phosphatase, the biomass of microorganisms was measured and the content of total dissolved carbon and nitrogen was also determined.

HOW BIOMECHANICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN RUNNING ECONOMY COULD HELP BREAK THE 2-HOUR MARATHON BARRIER

A sub-2-hour marathon requires an average velocity that is "only" 2.5% faster than the current world record of 2:02:57. A 2.5% reduction in the metabolic cost of running would enable a 2.5% faster velocity of 5.86 mls, i.e. a sub-2-hour marathon. Our analyses suggest that the metabolic cost of body wei 9 ht support could be reduced by running at the equator (slightly lower gravity = 9.78 mls ) and by pre-emptive, strategic dehydration of 2% body weight. Drafting and tailwinds could reduce the cost of forward propulsion. These biomechanical factors could each be exploited to enhance running economy by small amounts, and sum to save at least 178 seconds, permitting a time of 1:59:59