Intentional Self Regulation and Positive Youth Development: Implications for Youth Development Programs

Character education programs are mission-aligned with the positive youth development (PYD) perspective, which, in research with American youth suggests that intentional self-regulation (ISR) develops through mutually beneficial interactions between youth and their environment. Cross-cultural studies of Western youth suggest an adolescence-specific ISR process may exist. We begin to extend this work to assess the relationship between ISR and positive development in young Scottish adolescents (approximately 7th grade, N = 82; 50% male), a previously unexamined group. ISR was correlated with the Five Cs of PYD and OLS regression analyses demonstrated that ISR predicted two of the Five Cs: Character and Connection. We discuss implications for youth development programs of the findings that ISR and some indices of PYD were linked in a sample of Scottish youth

Financial stress

status: publishe

Speech compression & decompression through DSP

The main purpose of this project is to implement a speech compression algorithm using a digital signal processor. The algorithm that will be developed is the efficient compression and storage of speech signals in real-time. This will be implemented through the use of three components: a host computer, a software program and the digital signal processor. The appropriate signal processing algorithm will be programmed by the group and a host computer will be used as a medium to send and load the necessary instructions of the program to the digital signal processor. The digital signal processor will be the system that will perform the actual signal processing, specifically the encoding of signals, compression, decompression, and the decoding of the decompressed signals. Signal processing will be done by first acquiring speech signals using a microphone which is directly connected to a pre-amplifier. These signals will then be encoded, compressed accordingly in the DSP kit and will be stored into the DSP on-chip RAM. The project will be very substantial for many signal-related applications since most of modern signal related technologies require efficient signal compression. Some of its common applications are computer-based training (CBT), sound editing and recording, speech recognition and voice mail. Computer-based training is a means of acquiring knowledge with the use of computers through recorded topics or lectures whereas sound editing and recording is popularly used by most recording studios and companies to enhance music reproduction. Speech recognition also requires compression to increase its number of templates for signal comparison and it is needed in voice mail to efficiently store as many number of messages as possible

American Cancer Society guidelines for the early detection of breast cancer: update 1997

The American Cancer Society (ACS) convened a workshop in March 1997 to consider new scientific findings related to breast cancer screening and to determine whether these findings warrant a change in the existing ACS guidelines. The meeting was timed so that participants could benefit from new data related to screening women aged 40 to 49 years. A recommendation based on the new data and subsequently approved by the ACS Board of Directors is reported

Developing the next generation of engaged youth: Inspire Aspire – Global Citizens in the Making

School-based character education (CE) programs provide an opportunity to increase the moral fortitude of adolescents. This study is a preliminary evaluation of Inspire Aspire, a CE program that was implemented with 13- to 14-year-olds in Scotland. A relational developmental systems meta-theoretical approach and person-centered analyses were employed to understand whether teacher implementation variability is associated with student outcomes. The study aimed to: assess variation in program implementation across teachers; assess student poster quality, which served as a youth outcome measure; and, assess the relationship between variations in program implementation and poster quality. Teachers who fully integrated Inspire Aspire with the broader curriculum (as opposed to using it as a standalone program) as well as teachers who made more modifications to Inspire Aspire tended to have students with higher quality posters. This finding stands in contrast to the common narrative regarding evidence-based programs that requires teachers to strictly adhere to program guidelines in order to maintain implementation fidelity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR