Childrearing Correlates of the Repression-Sensitization Dimension

The repression-sensitization (R-S) dimension (Byrne, 1964) assumes that individuals may be placed along a continuum according to their characteristic responses to threatening stimuli. At the repression pole are individuals whose responses purportedly include repression, suppression, and denial (avoiding behaviors), while at the sensitizing pole are persons whose responses allegedly include intei lectualization, rationalization, and obsessive-compulsive ideation (approach behaviors)

A Case Study on Cruelty to Farm Animals: Lessons Learned From the Hallmark Meat Packing Case

“I need the public to understand that my office takes all cases involving animal cruelty very seriously . . . [and i]t doesn’t matter whether the mistreated animal is a beloved family pet or a cow at a slaughterhouse. Unnecessary cruelty will not be tolerated and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law.” San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos (February 15, 2008) One morning in January 2008, images of horrific animal cruelty were blasted by Internet, television, and print media throughout the country. The story was all the more shocking in that the animals at issue were cows at a commercial slaughter plant—a place from which Americans usually avert their gaze. The images of dairy cows so ill or injured that they could not stand, being battered, shocked, and nearly drowned to force them into the kill box, struck a chord with the American public. Abusing downed animals is at odds with our venerable national public policy against torturing animals. The reaction was swift and far-reaching. The Hallmark Meat Packing plant was closed indefinitely, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) initiated the largest meat recall in U.S. history, and two of the plant’s employees were arrested and charged with animal cruelty. The case at the Hallmark plant is remarkable—both for the degree of cruelty and sadism recorded, as well as the vigor of the response to such cruelty by the public, the media, and state and federal officials. The case also reflects a changing trend in the United States. The American public is no longer averting its gaze when it comes to farm animal cruelty. In fact, U.S. consumers and policy makers are taking a long-overdue, hard look at the way we treat animals raised for food, and the moral and practical consequences of the abusive industrial farming system that has developed over the last fifty years. As discussed herein, Hallmark may or may not turn out to be a turning point in the humane movement, but it certainly provides an illuminating case study of how the regulatory system addresses farm animal treatment and the limits and loopholes that need to be remedied at both the state and federal levels

Severe Pneumomediastinum Complicating EBUS-TBNA

Pneumomediastinum infrequently complicates diagnostic bronchoscopy. Increased airway or alveolar pressure results in air leaks to the mediastinum through existing or induced defects. Excessive cough, recurrent episodes of increased abdominal pressure, vomiting, or sneezing can all induce spontaneous pneumomediastinum. Less commonly it has been documented with lung or neck infections, esophageal or tracheal tears, and rapid increases in altitude such as during plane flights or scuba diving, with mechanical ventilation, substance abuse, and after bronchoscopy. Pneumomediastinum may be, but is not always, associated with pneumothorax

Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar Matematika Siswa Pada Materi Matriks Melalui Penerapan Model Pembelajaran Kooperatif Tipe NHT

The purpose of this study was to improve students' mathematics learning outcomes on matrix material through the application of cooperative learning model type Numbered Head Together (NHT). The subjects of this study were 23 students of class XI IPA-2 SMA Negeri 7 Prasetya Gorontalo in the academic year 2022/2023. Data collection techniques consisted of observation and tests. The research instrument is in the form of teacher and student activity observation sheets and tests in the form of description questions. This research is a Classroom Action Research using the Kemmis and Mc Taggart model with planning, action implementation, observation, and reflection stages. Data analysis techniques in this study consisted of data analysis of observation results and analysis of learning outcomes tests. The results showed that in cycle 1, the average observation of teacher activities that obtained at least good criteria was 81.25%, the average observation of student activities that obtained at least active criteria was 71.43%, the percentage of completeness of students' math learning outcomes was 60.87%. Because cycle 1 has not yet reached the action success indicator, the research continued to cycle 2. In cycle 2, the percentage of teacher activity observation results that obtained at least good criteria was 100%, the percentage of student activity observation results that obtained at least active criteria was 92.86%, and the percentage of completeness of students' mathematics learning outcomes was 91.30%. From the results of cycle 2, it is concluded that the application of cooperative learning model type NHT can improve students' mathematics learning outcomes on matrix material

EPIC TTS Models: Empirical Pruning Investigations Characterizing Text-To-Speech Models

Neural models are known to be over-parameterized, and recent work has shown that sparse text-to-speech (TTS) models can outperform dense models. Although a plethora of sparse methods has been proposed for other domains, such methods have rarely been applied in TTS. In this work, we seek to answer the question: what are the characteristics of selected sparse techniques on the performance and model complexity? We compare a Tacotron2 baseline and the results of applying five techniques. We then evaluate the performance via the factors of naturalness, intelligibility and prosody, while reporting model size and training time. Complementary to prior research, we find that pruning before or during training can achieve similar performance to pruning after training and can be trained much faster, while removing entire neurons degrades performance much more than removing parameters. To our best knowledge, this is the first work that compares sparsity paradigms in text-to-speech synthesis

Thriving on Challenge: Examining One Teacher’s View on Sources of Support for Motivation and Well-Being

Alarmingly high rates of teacher attrition exist in contexts designed for students with considerable needs, such as in alternative education programs serving marginalized youth. Research has linked teachers’ levels of motivation and well-being to their effectiveness and retention. Consequently, we explore what distinguishes teachers who thrive in contexts others find taxing. Specifically, we investigate whether and how their motivation and well-being support their teaching effectiveness. As part of a larger case study of an alternative education program for youth who haven’t found success in mainstream schools, this article reports a semi-structured interview asking whether and how one teacher’s perceived autonomy, belonging, and competence support other facets of his motivation (e.g., teaching efficacy) and his well-being (i.e., constructive responses to potentially stressful events.) Plentiful evidence was found to link our researcher-derived constructs from self-determination theory to the teacher’s professional experiences in general, and to his work with youth in particular, indicating that our conceptual framework is an authentic representation of his experience. Implications for theory and research are discussed