The Experience of Well-Being in Educators Who Transitioned From In-Person to Online Teaching

The COVID-19 pandemic created substantive stress and uncertainty for secondary educators, including responding to the shifts in delivering education from the traditional to the online classroom and back to the classroom. Improper training, increased work demands, increased responsibilities, and decreased autonomy took a toll on teachers’ work and home life. To better understand how teachers deal with transitions in online, hybrid, and in-person education, this study explored secondary educators\u27 experiences of psychological well-being during the transitions from in-person to online teaching. An interpretative phenomenological approach guided the research design. Lazarus and Folkman\u27s transactional theory of stress and coping was used as the framework for exploring coping with stress during transitions. Demerouti et al.\u27s job demands-resources theory was used to explore the role of social support in responding to job demands. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven educators to explore the experience of well-being and social support during their transitions. The results revealed positive and negative thematic dimensions for well-being and social support. Future studies could explore administrators\u27 perspectives and consider what interventions for well-being would contribute to reducing stress. The results may contribute to positive social change by emphasizing the consequences of such transitions and encouraging school administration to build opportunities for resources and social support that can facilitate well-being at work

Timing the formation and assembly of early-type galaxies via spatially resolved stellar populations analysis

To investigate star formation and assembly processes of massive galaxies, we present here a spatially-resolved stellar populations analysis of a sample of 45 elliptical galaxies (Es) selected from the CALIFA survey. We find rather flat age and [Mg/Fe] radial gradients, weakly dependent on the effective velocity dispersion of the galaxy within half-light radius. However, our analysis shows that metallicity gradients become steeper with increasing galaxy velocity dispersion. In addition, we have homogeneously compared the stellar populations gradients of our sample of Es to a sample of nearby relic galaxies, i.e., local remnants of the high-z population of red nuggets. This comparison indicates that, first, the cores of present-day massive galaxies were likely formed in gas-rich, rapid star formation events at high redshift (z>2). This led to radial metallicity variations steeper than observed in the local Universe, and positive [Mg/Fe] gradients. Second, our analysis also suggests that a later sequence of minor dry mergers, populating the outskirts of early-type galaxies (ETGs), flattened the pristine [Mg/Fe] and metallicity gradients. Finally, we find a tight age-[Mg/Fe] relation, supporting that the duration of the star formation is the main driver of the [Mg/Fe] enhancement in massive ETGs. However, the star formation time-scale alone is not able to fully explain our [Mg/Fe] measurements. Interestingly, our results match the expected effect that a variable stellar initial mass function would have on the [Mg/Fe] ratio.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRA

BLOGS: ANTI-FORENSICS and COUNTER ANTI-FORENSICS

Blogging gives an ordinary person the ability to have a conversation with a wide audience and has become one of the fastest growing uses of the Web. However, dozens of employee-bloggers have been terminated for exercising what they consider to be their First Amendment right to free speech and would-be consumer advocates face potential liability for voicing their opinions. To avoid identification and prevent retribution, bloggers have sought to maintain anonymity by taking advantage of various tools and procedures - anti-forensics. Unfortunately some anonymous bloggers also post content that is in violation of one or more laws. Some blogging content might be viewed as harassing others - an area known as cyber-bullying. Law enforcement and network forensics specialists are developing procedures called Counter Anti-forensics that show some promise to identify those who violate the law. However, these techniques must be used with caution so as not to violate the rights of others

Employee Blogs: Protected Speech Or Grounds For Discharge?

Posting and reading blogs is one of the fastest growing uses of the Web.  Blogging gives an ordinary person the ability to have a conversation with a wide audience.  Dozens of employee-bloggers have been “dooced” (terminated) for exercising what they consider to be their First Amendment right to free speech.  An important legal issue with significant implications for both employers and employees is to what extent are employee blogs a form of protected speech.  The First Amendment, employment at will, and laws protecting employee speech are discussed.  Suggestions are made for procedures employees should follow to safely blog.       &nbsp

INFOSEC: What Is The Legal Standard Of Care?

The convenience of conducting personal business in the comfort of one’s home attracts millions of individuals to shop, pay bills, and bank online. In the process, sensitive personal and financial information is disclosed and the exchange of this information creates a risk of identity theft. Providing effective cyber security is an issue with significant implications for companies.  Failure to provide adequate security for consumer information may subject a company to legal action by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).  Information vulnerability, recent security failures and the standard of care are discussed

Faculty Showcase Concert

Center for the Performing Arts Thursday Evening November 9, 2006 8:00p.m

Animal Behaviour Packs a Punch: From Parasitism to Production, Pollution and Prevention in Grazing Livestock

Behaviour is often the fundamental driver of disease transmission, where behaviours of individuals can be seen to scale up to epidemiological patterns seen at the population level. Here we focus on animal behaviour, and its role in parasite transmission to track its knock-on consequences for parasitism, production and pollution. Livestock face a nutrition versus parasitism trade-off in grazing environments where faeces creates both a nutritional benefit, fertilizing the surrounding sward, but also a parasite risk from infective nematode larvae contaminating the sward. The grazing decisions of ruminants depend on the perceived costs and benefits of the trade-off, which depend on the variations in both environmental (e.g., amounts of faeces) and animal factors (e.g., physiological state). Such grazing decisions determine the intake of both nutrients and parasites, affecting livestock growth rates and production efficiency. This impacts on the greenhouse gas costs of ruminant livestock production via two main mechanisms: (1) slower growth results in longer durations on-farm and (2) parasitised animals produce more methane per unit food intake. However, the sensitivity of behaviour to host parasite state offers opportunities for early detection of parasitism and control. Remote monitoring technology such as accelerometers can detect parasite-induced sickness behaviours soon after exposure, before impacts on growth, and thus may be used for targeting individuals for early treatment. We conclude that livestock host x parasite interactions are at the centre of the global challenges of food security and climate change, and that understanding livestock behaviour can contribute to solving both

Animal Behaviour Packs a Punch: From Parasitism to Production, Pollution and Prevention in Grazing Livestock

Behaviour is often the fundamental driver of disease transmission, where behaviours of individuals can be seen to scale up to epidemiological patterns seen at the population level. Here we focus on animal behaviour, and its role in parasite transmission to track its knock-on consequences for parasitism, production and pollution. Livestock face a nutrition versus parasitism trade-off in grazing environments where faeces creates both a nutritional benefit, fertilizing the surrounding sward, but also a parasite risk from infective nematode larvae contaminating the sward. The grazing decisions of ruminants depend on the perceived costs and benefits of the trade-off, which depend on the variations in both environmental (e.g., amounts of faeces) and animal factors (e.g., physiological state). Such grazing decisions determine the intake of both nutrients and parasites, affecting livestock growth rates and production efficiency. This impacts on the greenhouse gas costs of ruminant livestock production via two main mechanisms: (1) slower growth results in longer durations on-farm and (2) parasitised animals produce more methane per unit food intake. However, the sensitivity of behaviour to host parasite state offers opportunities for early detection of parasitism and control. Remote monitoring technology such as accelerometers can detect parasite-induced sickness behaviours soon after exposure, before impacts on growth, and thus may be used for targeting individuals for early treatment. We conclude that livestock host x parasite interactions are at the centre of the global challenges of food security and climate change, and that understanding livestock behaviour can contribute to solving both

IMF - metallicity: a tight local relation revealed by the CALIFA survey

Variations in the stellar initial mass function (IMF) have been invoked to explain the spectroscopic and dynamical properties of early-type galaxies. However, no observations have yet been able to disentangle the physical driver. We analyse here a sample of 24 early-type galaxies drawn from the CALIFA survey, deriving in a homogeneous way their stellar population and kinematic properties. We find that the local IMF is tightly related to the local metallicity, becoming more bottom-heavy towards metal-rich populations. Our result, combined with the galaxy mass-metallicity relation, naturally explains previous claims of a galaxy mass-IMF relation, derived from non-IFU spectra. If we assume that - within the star formation environment of early-type galaxies - metallicity is the main driver of IMF variations, a significant revision of the interpretation of galaxy evolution observables is necessary.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. 6 pages, 4 figure