Psychological Strategies and Protocols for Promoting School Well-being: A Systematic Review

Physical, socio-economic, cultural and mental challenges faced by students have been associated with adverse impacts on school wellbeing, resulting in increased school dropout and deviant behaviour. This systematic review has analysed the present knowledge on factors associated with school dropouts to identify psychological interventions for promoting school wellbeing. A systematic search was done of the ScienceDirect, APA PsycINFO, Emerald and Google Scholar electronic databases. A hand-search was also done of the reference list of the included studies. The initial search resulted in 448 studies, and the search of the references list of the considered studies resulted in 28 more articles. The application of the eligibility criteria resulted in the inclusion of 38 studies in the review. The study established several factors associated with school dropouts and social deviance, such as school climate, school structure, and those defining social interaction among students. Mental and emotional health was identified as the main factor influencing school dropout and social deviance. A positive school climate should be the primary consideration for promoting school wellbeing. School administrations, teachers, and parents should collaborate to positively improve conditions in schools

Tragedy and History. About a Recent Book on Arnold Toynbee

The main aim of this book by Federico Leonardi is to propose a new view of Arnold Toynbee’s philosophy of history, tracing its roots back to a little known lecture the British historian delivered in Oxford on May 1920, The Tragedy of Greece. In fact, the book’s appendix contains the first Italian translation of the lecture (The Tragedy of Greece. A Lecture Delivered for the Professor of Greek to Candidates for Honours in Literae Humaniores at Oxford in May 1920, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1921)...

Identification of vortexes obstructing the dynamo mechanism in laboratory experiments

The magnetohydrodynamic dynamo effect explains the generation of self-sustained magnetic fields in electrically conducting flows, especially in geo- and astrophysical environments. Yet the details of this mechanism are still unknown, e.g., how and to which extent the geometry, the fluid topology, the forcing mechanism and the turbulence can have a negative effect on this process. We report on numerical simulations carried out in spherical geometry, analyzing the predicted velocity flow with the so-called Singular Value Decomposition, a powerful technique that allows us to precisely identify vortexes in the flow which would be difficult to characterize with conventional spectral methods. We then quantify the contribution of these vortexes to the growth rate of the magnetic energy in the system. We identify an axisymmetric vortex, whose rotational direction changes periodically in time, and whose dynamics are decoupled from those of the large scale background flow, is detrimental for the dynamo effect. A comparison with experiments is carried out, showing that similar dynamics were observed in cylindrical geometry. These previously unexpected eddies, which impede the dynamo effect, offer an explanation for the experimental difficulties in attaining a dynamo in spherical geometry.Comment: 25 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Physics of Fluid

The Influence Of ACTH, DCA, And Cortisone On The Electrolytic Shift Of Sodium And Potassium, On Blood Levels And Urinary Excretion Of Ascorbic Acid In Rats

Ascorbic acid, known as vitamin C and cevitamic acid, is the vitamin concerned specifically with the maintenance of intracellular substances, the matrices of bone, dentin, and cartilage, and all non-epithelial cement substance, including that of the vascular endothelium. In the absence of the protection afforded by this vitamin the condition known as scurvy develops in some animals. Ascorbic acid was isolated by Szent-Gyorgyi in 1928 from oranges, lemons, cabbage, and from the adrenal cortex (1). The pure substance has the structural formula C6 H8 O6, and is soluble in water and alcohol but practically Insoluble in fat solvents. It is very easily oxidized. Ascorbic acid may be obtained commercially from glucose. Rats are immune to scurvy apparently because of their ability to synthesize vitamin C, which is stored in their livers in sufficient amounts to meet their requirements. There is evidence that fowls and bovines are also able to manufacture this vitamin; however, the vitamin C content of milk is dependent on dietary supply. Mice are claimed to require vitamin C for normal growth. Various methods have been devised to measure the reduction in capillary resistance which occurs (not exclusively, however) in scurvy. These tests (17), are based on the production of small subcutaneous hemorrhages (petechiae) by applying suction or pressure to the circumscribed skin areas. More dependable criteria for measuring the state of vitamin C nutrition are the ascorbic acid content of the blood or the urine, or the saturation state as determined by the extent of excretion following administration of a test dose of ascorbic acid in the blood of humans the average, 1,6 mg. per 100 cc., which is above the renal threshold (about 1.1± mg. per 100 cc.)} the daily excretion may range from 15 to 25 mg., depending on the adequacy of the diet

Radio emission from dark matter annihilation in the Large Magellanic Cloud

The Large Magellanic Cloud, at only 50 kpc away from us and known to be dark matter dominated, is clearly an interesting place where to search for dark matter annihilation signals. In this paper, we estimate the synchrotron emission due to WIMP annihilation in the halo of the LMC at two radio frequencies, 1.4 and 4.8 GHz, and compare it to the observed emission, in order to impose constraints in the WIMP mass vs. annihilation cross section plane. We use available Faraday rotation data from background sources to estimate the magnitude of the magnetic field in different regions of the LMC's disc, where we calculate the radio signal due to dark matter annihilation. We account for the e+ e- energy losses due to synchrotron, Inverse Compton Scattering and bremsstrahlung, using the observed hydrogen and dust temperature distribution on the LMC to estimate their efficiency. The extensive use of observations, allied with conservative choices adopted in all the steps of the calculation, allow us to obtain very realistic constraints.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure