Development and Construct Validity of Scores on the Community Service Attitudes Scale

This study reports the multistage development of the Community Service Attitudes Scale (CSAS), an instrument for measuring college students\u27 attitudes about community service. The CSAS was developed based on Schwartz\u27s helping behavior model. Scores on the scales of the CSAS yielded strong reliability evidence (coefficient alphas ranging from .72 to .93). Principal components analysis yielded results consistent with the Schwartz model. In addition, the CSAS scale scores were positively correlated with gender, college major, community service experience, and intentions to engage in community service. The CSAS will be useful to researchers for conducting further research on the effects of service learning and community service experiences for students

Weight Gain and Decreased Sleep Duration in First-Year College Students: A Longitudinal Study

Poster from the 2017 Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. Poster Session: Professional Skills; Nutrition Assessment & Diagnosis; Medical Nutrition Therapy

Community Service Learning Increases Communication Skills Across the Business Curriculum

Community service learning offers a unique and rewarding way for business students to reinforce communication capabilities while developing lifelong career and social skills. This article defines community service learning, discusses its importance to business as well as higher education, and describes three community service learning projects. Students in these projects taught elementary students, designed a computer system for a community nonprofit, and developed accounting systems for university divisions. In doing so, they enhanced their understanding of classroom theories and communication skills through service-learning

Health Communication as a Public Health Training and Workforce Development Issue

Effective communication is one of the core competencies for public health professionals and is required for local health department (LHD) accreditation. Public health communication specialists play a critical role as conduits of health information, particularly with regard to managing relationships with media and the message that is ultimately represented by news outlets. However, capacity for engagement with traditional media in community health improvement at the local level has not been well-described. As part of a larger study examining the use and impact of the County Health Rankings in North Carolina, LHD media staffing and interaction with traditional media were examined through a cross-sectional, online survey, administered to North Carolina LHDs. Results indicate that most LHDs in North Carolina have staff designated to work with media, but few have dedicated staff or staff with an educational background in mass communication. Most communication staff enter their position with less than one year of experience, though almost all receive some training once on the job. Press releases are issued relatively infrequently, which implies that media engagement and message management are underdeveloped at the local level. These results suggest that health communication specialists are underutilized in LHDs and these skills should be emphasized in LHD hiring practices and in public health workforce development

Energy deposition in metals by laser-guided discharges

Experimental and theoretical results are reported concerning energy deposition on metal surfaces by laser-guided discharges (LGD) in argon and nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. These experiments have demonstrated effective guidance of 30-kV discharges for lengths up to 6 cm. The electron temperature and density have been measured spectroscopically for LGD plasmas. Scaling of the melted metallic mass has been studied as a function of discharge circuit parameters for both argon and nitrogen. Results show that laser-guided discharges in nitrogen couple energy to metal samples more efficiently than argon discharges with identical electrical parameters. This experimentally observed difference in energy deposition has been shown to be in good agreement with a theoretical model which accounts for the recombination energy of nitrogen on the metallic surface. Melting has been accomplished by LGDs in copper, iron, aluminum, and titanium foils. Laser-guided discharges have also bored holes and deposited surface layers of aluminum and titanium onto stainless steel.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45475/1/11090_2004_Article_BF00564625.pd

Thermal Expansion in 3d-Metal Prussian Blue Analogs - A Survey Study

We present a comprehensive study of the structural properties and the thermal expansion behavior of 17 different Prussian Blue Analogs (PBAs) with compositions MII3[(M')III(CN)6]2.nH2O and MII2[FeII(CN)6].nH2O, where MII = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, (M')III = Co, Fe and n is the number of water molecules, which range from 5 to 18 for these compounds. The PBAs were synthesized via standard chemical precipitation methods, and temperature-dependent X-ray diffraction studies were performed in the temperature range between -150oC (123 K) and room-temperature. The vast majority of the studied PBAs were found to crystallize in cubic structures of space groups, and . The temperature dependence of the lattice parameters was taken to compute an average coefficient of linear thermal expansion in the studied temperature range. Of the 17 compounds, 9 display negative values for the average coefficient of linear thermal expansion, which can be as large as 39.7 x 10-6 K-1 for Co3[Co(CN)6]2.12H2O. All of the MII3[CoIII(CN)6]2.nH2O compounds show negative thermal expansion behavior, which correlates with the Irving-Williams series for metal complex stability. The thermal expansion behavior for the PBAs of the MII3[FeIII(CN)6]2.nH2O family are found to switch between positive (for M = Mn, Co, Ni) and negative (M = Cu, Zn) behavior, depending on the choice of the metal cation (M). On the other hand, all of the MII2[FeII(CN)6].nH2O compounds show positive thermal expansion behavior.Comment: Submitted, 32 pages, 3 tables, 10 figure

Designing for Dissemination: Lessons in Message Design from 1-2-3 Pap

Despite a large number of evidence-based health communication interventions tested in private, public, and community health settings, there is a dearth of research on successful secondary dissemination of these interventions to other audiences. This article presents the case study of 1-2-3 Pap, a health communication intervention to improve human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination uptake and Pap testing outcomes in Eastern Kentucky, and explores strategies used to disseminate this intervention to other populations in Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia. Through this dissemination project, we identified several health communication intervention design considerations that facilitated our successful dissemination to these other audiences; these intervention design considerations include (a) developing strategies for reaching other potential audiences, (b) identifying intervention message adaptations that might be needed, and (c) determining the most appropriate means or channels by which to reach these potential future audiences. Using 1-2-3 Pap as an illustrative case study, we describe how careful planning and partnership development early in the intervention development process can improve the potential success of enhancing the reach and effectiveness of an intervention to other audiences beyond the audience for whom the intervention messages were originally designed

Cytogenetic analysis of an exposed-referent study: perchloroethylene-exposed dry cleaners compared to unexposed laundry workers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Significant numbers of people are exposed to tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene, PCE) every year, including workers in the dry cleaning industry. Adverse health effects have been associated with PCE exposure. However, investigations of possible cumulative cytogenetic damage resulting from PCE exposure are lacking.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Eighteen dry cleaning workers and 18 laundry workers (unexposed controls) provided a peripheral blood sample for cytogenetic analysis by whole chromosome painting. Pre-shift exhaled air on these same participants was collected and analyzed for PCE levels. The laundry workers were matched to the dry cleaners on race, age, and smoking status. The relationships between levels of cytological damage and exposures (including PCE levels in the shop and in workers' blood, packyears, cumulative alcohol consumption, and age) were compared with correlation coefficients and t-tests. Multiple linear regressions considered blood PCE, packyears, alcohol, and age.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>There were no significant differences between the PCE-exposed dry cleaners and the laundry workers for chromosome translocation frequencies, but PCE levels were significantly correlated with percentage of cells with acentric fragments (R²= 0.488, p < 0.026).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>There does not appear to be a strong effect in these dry cleaning workers of PCE exposure on persistent chromosome damage as measured by translocations. However, the correlation between frequencies of acentric fragments and PCE exposure level suggests that recent exposures to PCE may induce transient genetic damage. More heavily exposed participants and a larger sample size will be needed to determine whether PCE exposure induces significant levels of persistent chromosome damage.</p

Carbon nutrition of \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e in the mouse intestine

Whole-genome expression profiling revealed Escherichia coli MG1655 genes induced by growth on mucus, conditions designed to mimic nutrient availability in the mammalian intestine. Most were nutritional genes corresponding to catabolic pathways for nutrients found in mucus. We knocked out several pathways and tested the relative fitness of the mutants for colonization of the mouse intestine in competition with their wild-type parent. We found that only mutations in sugar pathways affected colonization, not phospholipid and amino acid catabolism, not gluconeogenesis, not the tricarboxylic acid cycle, and not the pentose phosphate pathway. Gluconate appeared to be a major carbon source used by E. coli MG1655 to colonize, having an impact on both the initiation and maintenance stages. N-acetylglucosamine and N-acetylneuraminic acid appeared to be involved in initiation, but not maintenance. Glucuronate, mannose, fucose, and ribose appeared to be involved in maintenance, but not initiation. The in vitro order of preference for these seven sugars paralleled the relative impact of the corresponding metabolic lesions on colonization: gluconate \u3e N-acetylglucosamine \u3e N-acetylneuraminic acid = glucuronate \u3e mannose \u3e fucose \u3e ribose. The results of this systematic analysis of nutrients used by E. coli MG1655 to colonize the mouse intestine are intriguing in light of the nutrient-niche hypothesis, which states that the ecological niches within the intestine are defined by nutrient availability. Because humans are presumably colonized with different commensal strains, differences in nutrient availability may provide an open niche for infecting E. coli pathogens in some individuals and a barrier to infection in others