Reflections on Labor and Delivery Internship

Breastfeeding is very beneficial for the health of both mothers and babies. Despite this fact, not enough mothers are breastfeeding. It is important for nurses to help facilitate successful breastfeeding. The purpose of this literature review was to determine what interventions from healthcare staff impact the success of breastfeeding. Articles were retrieved from reliable sources such as CINAHL, Pub Med, and Medline in order to compare what research shows as beneficial for breastfeeding to what was observed in the clinical setting. The results revealed that health care support, educated staff, and baby friendly policies impact the success of breastfeeding. It is critical that health care staff in the women and infants’ field are educated and prepared for the challenges that accompany breastfeeding

Examining the Effects of Student-Centered, Project Based Teaching on Students With and Without Special Needs in an Elementary General Music Classroom

The purpose of this action research is to study the effects of student-centered learning as compared to teacher-led instruction in an elementary general music classroom. This research study is framed by the conjunction of the lenses of sociology, specifically constructivism, in a music classroom with special learners. Students in fifth and sixth grade general music classes study the musical concepts of composition and reading notation in one of two manners. One group of students is instructed in a traditional format of teacher-led lectures and discussions, with guided practice following. The other group is instructed using a student-centered approach, in which students are given basic instructions and then given time to explore concepts and discover their own meanings. Attention is also given to students with special needs, in order to determine if a different learning approach works best for them. The study is designed to investigate the following research questions: (1) What are the effects of project-based, discovery learning on student growth? (2) How is this same question answered when studying special learners? (3) How confident do non-special learners feel in learning through project-based learning? (4) How confident do special learners feel in learning through project-based learning? The primary research question for this study is: What are the effects of project-based, discovery learning on students with and without special needs in the elementary general music classroom? The data collected is in the form of graded rubrics and rating scales, journal notes of the researcher, and student self-assessment in the form of Likert-scales and interview questions. Results are inconclusive in regards to student performance growth. Student attitudes show that they prefer the approach they are most familiar with. Students are more likely to thrive when choices are provided. Those students with special needs do not show significant differences when compared to students without special needs, other than struggling with the social aspects of student-centered learning. Students enjoy their time working in groups on musical projects

Examining the Effects of Student-Centered, Project Based Teaching on Students With and Without Special Needs in an Elementary General Music Classroom

The purpose of this action research is to study the effects of student-centered learning as compared to teacher-led instruction in an elementary general music classroom. This research study is framed by the conjunction of the lenses of sociology, specifically constructivism, in a music classroom with special learners. Students in fifth and sixth grade general music classes study the musical concepts of composition and reading notation in one of two manners. One group of students is instructed in a traditional format of teacher-led lectures and discussions, with guided practice following. The other group is instructed using a student-centered approach, in which students are given basic instructions and then given time to explore concepts and discover their own meanings. Attention is also given to students with special needs, in order to determine if a different learning approach works best for them. The study is designed to investigate the following research questions: (1) What are the effects of project-based, discovery learning on student growth? (2) How is this same question answered when studying special learners? (3) How confident do non-special learners feel in learning through project-based learning? (4) How confident do special learners feel in learning through project-based learning? The primary research question for this study is: What are the effects of project-based, discovery learning on students with and without special needs in the elementary general music classroom? The data collected is in the form of graded rubrics and rating scales, journal notes of the researcher, and student self-assessment in the form of Likert-scales and interview questions. Results are inconclusive in regards to student performance growth. Student attitudes show that they prefer the approach they are most familiar with. Students are more likely to thrive when choices are provided. Those students with special needs do not show significant differences when compared to students without special needs, other than struggling with the social aspects of student-centered learning. Students enjoy their time working in groups on musical projects

City of Magic: Aesthetic Value in the Los Angeles Magic Scene

In the vast Los Angeles entertainment complex, magic is often deemed one of the lowest forms of performance art, unworthy of respect or critical evaluation. In response to mainstream aesthetic evaluations that routinely devalue magical performance, Los Angeles magicians engage in a variety of strategies designed to re-legitimize the world of magic. Chief among these strategies is the construction of a competing aesthetic value system, one that allows magicians to reject mainstream assumptions about magic’s artlessness and instead reassert magic as a form of genuine artistic expression. However, this new aesthetic system comes with its own brand of hierarchization, one that aligns the concept of “good magic” with the white, heteromasculine subject. Because of this, female magicians and magicians of color can often find it difficult to penetrate the upper echelons of the magic community. By exploring the roots and consequences of magic’s devaluation, this dissertation uses participant observation and in-depth interviews to interrogate the ways in which Los Angeles magicians navigate the aesthetic value systems that undergird magical performance. In this way, we can investigate the broader impact that aesthetic devaluation has had on how magicians are debased, derided, and disregarded within the modern entertainment machine—not just by laymen, but by each other

Incentives to learn

The authors report results from a randomized evaluation of a merit scholarship program for adolescent girls in Kenya. Girls who scored well on academic exams received a cash grant and had school fees paid. Girls eligible for the scholarship showed significant gains in academic examination scores (average gain 0.15 standard deviations). There was considerable sample attrition and no significant program impact in the smaller of the two program districts, but in the other district girls showed large gains (average gain 0.22-0.27 standard deviations), and these gains persisted one full year following the competition. There is also evidence of positive program externalities on learning-boys (who were ineligible for the awards) also showed sizable average test gains. Both student and teacher school attendance increased in the program schools.Primary Education,Gender and Development,Poverty and Social Impact Analysis,Education Finance,Access&Equity in Basic Education

Proton spin relaxation in dilute methane gas: A symmetrized theory and its experimental verification

Nuclear spin relaxation in low density methane gas is investigated theoretically and experimentally. A theory is developed in which full account is taken of the tetrahedral symmetry of the molecule. For a nuclear Larmor frequency of 30 MHz, the time evolution of the nonequilibrium magnetization is measured as a function of density between approximately 0.005 and 17 amagats at temperatures of 110, 150, and 295 K. In all cases, exponential relaxation is observed. By using the theory in conjunction with the known spin rotation constants and rotational energy levels of CH4, the measured values of the relaxation rate R1 have been fit very well at each temperature, both for the maximum value of R1 which contains no adjustable parameters and for the density dependence of R1 which contains a single parameter taken to be the collision cross section for molecular reorientation. The centrifugal distortion splittings of the rotational levels are shown to have an important influence on the observed values of R1 at 30 MHz and. more generally on the dependence of the time evolution of the nonequilibrium magnetization on density and frequency. On the basis of the theory, a new type of \u27relaxation rate spectroscopy\u27 is proposed. Non-exponential relaxation is predicted to occur at low densities when the nuclear Larmor frequency is tuned to a centrifugal distortion splitting

Recruitment, effort, and retention effects of performance contracts for civil servants: Experimental evidence from Rwandan primary schools

This paper reports on a two-tiered experiment designed to separately identify the selection and effort margins of pay-for-performance (P4P). At the recruitment stage, teacher labor markets were randomly assigned to a 'pay-for-percentile' or fixed-wage contract. Once recruits were placed, an unexpected, incentive- compatible, school-level re-randomization was performed, so that some teachers who applied for a fixed-wage contract ended up being paid by P4P, and vice versa. By the second year of the study, the within-year effort effect of P4P was 0.16 standard deviations of pupil learning, with the total effect rising to 0.20 standard deviations after allowing for selection

Motivating bureaucrats through social recognition: External validity - A tale of two states

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordBureaucratic performance is a crucial determinant of economic growth, but little real-world evidence exists on how to improve it, especially in resource-constrained settings. We conducted a field experiment of a social recognition intervention to improve record keeping in health facilities in two Nigerian states, replicating the intervention – implemented by a single organization – on bureaucrats performing identical tasks. Social recognition improved performance in one state but had no effect in the other, highlighting both the potential benefits and also the sometimeslimited generalizability of behavioral interventions. Furthermore, differences in facility-level observables did not explain cross-state differences in impacts, suggesting that it may often be difficult to predict external validity