Teen Voice 2009: The Untapped Strengths of 15-Year-Olds

Based on a survey, explores how interests that give teenagers purpose, engagement with civic and social issues, and relationships and opportunities that encourage and guide them can shape their choices and potential. Recommends actions to support teens

Increasing Service-Learning\u27s Impact on Middle School Students

The use of service-learning in middle and high schools has expanded in the 1990s (Scales & Koppelman 1997), but the gap between what is being done in schools and what research tells us about the impact of service-learning is uncomfortably large. Service-learning advocates are convinced of its profound impact on young people, both personally and socially. The quantitative research consistently shows positive effects, but the quality of the research has not been consistently high, the effects observed vary from study to study, and positive academic effects are the least commonly documented. The scarcity of data on academic impact may be because relatively few programs have established academic impact as an important goal (Scales & Blyth 1997). Search Institute researchers, in partnership with the National Youth Leadership Council, conducted a national search to identify middle school service-learning programs in order to take a closer look at both the effects of service-learning and the reasons for those effects. We selected three schools in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Missouri to participate in the study during the 1996-1997 school year (we had planned to follow students into the 1997-1998 school year, but the followup data were not useful because schools were unable to maintain the control groups)

Wall Adhesion and Constitutive Modelling of Strong Colloidal Gels

Wall adhesion effects during batch sedimentation of strongly flocculated colloidal gels are commonly assumed to be negligible. In this study in-situ measurements of colloidal gel rheology and solids volume fraction distribution suggest the contrary, where significant wall adhesion effects are observed in a 110mm diameter settling column. We develop and validate a mathematical model for the equilibrium stress state in the presence of wall adhesion under both viscoplastic and viscoelastic constitutive models. These formulations highlight fundamental issues regarding the constitutive modeling of colloidal gels, specifically the relative utility and validity of viscoplastic and viscoelastic rheological models under arbitrary tensorial loadings. The developed model is validated against experimental data, which points toward a novel method to estimate the shear and compressive yield strength of strongly flocculated colloidal gels from a series of equilibrium solids volume fraction profiles over various column widths.Comment: 37 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Journal of Rheolog

Third Generation of Service-Learning Research Yields More Thorough Data

The first and second generations of studies on service-learning, encompassing an era from the 1960s to the early 1990s, can be said to have consisted largely of: 1. research on experiential learning and community service in general (but not service-learning as we define it today); and 2. research conducted specifically on servicelearning programs, but having numerous methodological shortcomings

Review of Australian higher education: discussion paper

The federal government\u27s review of Australia’s higher education system will examine and report on the future direction of the higher education sector, its fitness for purpose in meeting the needs of the Australian community and economy and the options for ongoing reform. This paper has been released to outline issues and invite input on the key issues identified in the review\u27s terms of reference. The paper has been structured around nine key challenges and issues for higher education in Australia over the coming decades

Statin therapy in critical illness : an international survey of intensive care physicians' opinions, attitudes and practice

Background Pleotropic effects of statins on inflammation are hypothesised to attenuate the severity of and possibly prevent the occurrence of the host inflammatory response to pathogen and infection-related acute organ failure. We conducted an international survey of intensive care physicians in Australia, New Zealand (ANZ) and United Kingdom (UK). The aims of the survey were to assess the current prescribing practice patterns, attitudes towards prescribing statin therapy in critically ill patients and opinions on the need for an interventional trial of statin therapy in critically ill patients. Methods Survey questions were developed through an iterative process. An expert group reviewed the resulting 26 items for face and content validity and clarity. The questions were further refined following pilot testing by ICU physicians from Australia, Canada and the UK. We used the online Smart SurveyTM software to administer the survey. Results Of 239 respondents (62 from ANZ and 177 from UK) 58% worked in teaching hospitals; most (78.2%) practised in ‘closed’ units with a mixed medical and surgical case mix (71.0%). The most frequently prescribed statins were simvastatin (77.6%) in the UK and atorvastatin (66.1%) in ANZ. The main reasons cited to explain the choice of statin were preadmission prescription and pharmacy availability. Most respondents reported never starting statins to prevent (65.3%) or treat (89.1%) organ dysfunction. Only a minority (10%) disagreed with a statement that the risks of major side effects of statins when prescribed in critically ill patients were low. The majority (84.5%) of respondents strongly agreed that a clinical trial of statins for prevention is needed. More than half (56.5%) favoured rates of organ failure as the primary outcome for such a trial, while a minority (40.6%) favoured mortality. Conclusions Despite differences in type of statins prescribed, critical care physicians in the UK and ANZ reported similar prescription practices. Respondents from both communities agreed that a trial is needed to test whether statins can prevent the onset of new organ failure in patients with sepsis

Identifying predictable foraging habitats for a wide-ranging marine predator using ensemble ecological niche models

Aim Ecological niche modelling can provide valuable insight into species' environmental preferences and aid the identification of key habitats for populations of conservation concern. Here, we integrate biologging, satellite remote-sensing and ensemble ecological niche models (EENMs) to identify predictable foraging habitats for a globally important population of the grey-headed albatross (GHA) Thalassarche chrysostoma. Location Bird Island, South Georgia; Southern Atlantic Ocean. Methods GPS and geolocation-immersion loggers were used to track at-sea movements and activity patterns of GHA over two breeding seasons (n = 55; brood-guard). Immersion frequency (landings per 10-min interval) was used to define foraging events. EENM combining Generalized Additive Models (GAM), MaxEnt, Random Forest (RF) and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) identified the biophysical conditions characterizing the locations of foraging events, using time-matched oceanographic predictors (Sea Surface Temperature, SST; chlorophyll a, chl-a; thermal front frequency, TFreq; depth). Model performance was assessed through iterative cross-validation and extrapolative performance through cross-validation among years. Results Predictable foraging habitats identified by EENM spanned neritic ( 0.5 mg m−3) and frequent manifestation of mesoscale thermal fronts. Our results confirm previous indications that GHA exploit enhanced foraging opportunities associated with frontal systems and objectively identify the APFZ as a region of high foraging habitat suitability. Moreover, at the spatial and temporal scales investigated here, the performance of multi-model ensembles was superior to that of single-algorithm models, and cross-validation among years indicated reasonable extrapolative performance. Main conclusions EENM techniques are useful for integrating the predictions of several single-algorithm models, reducing potential bias and increasing confidence in predictions. Our analysis highlights the value of EENM for use with movement data in identifying at-sea habitats of wide-ranging marine predators, with clear implications for conservation and management

Association of Patient and Visit Characteristics With Rate and Timing of Urologic Procedures for Patients Discharged From the Emergency Department With Renal Colic

Importance: Little is known about the timing of urologic interventions in patients with renal colic discharged from the emergency department. Understanding patients\u27 likelihood of a subsequent urologic intervention could inform decision-making in this population. Objectives: To examine the rate and timing of urologic procedures performed after an emergency department visit for renal colic and the factors associated with receipt of an intervention. Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study used the Massachusetts All Payers Claims Database to identify patients 18 to 64 years of age who were seen in a Massachusetts emergency department for renal colic from January 1, 2011, to October 31, 2014, Patients were identified via International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision codes, and all medical care was linked, enabling identification of subsequent health care use. Data analysis was performed from January 1, 2017, to December 31, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was receipt of urologic procedure within 60 days. Secondary outcomes included rates of return emergency department visit and urologic and primary care follow-up. Results: A total of 66218 unique index visits by 55314 patients (mean [SD] age, 42.6 [12.4] years; 33 590 [50.7%] female; 25 411 [38.4%] Medicaid insured) were included in the study. A total of 5851 patients (8.8%) had visits resulting in admission at the index encounter, and 1774 (2.7%) had visits resulting in a urologic procedure during that admission. Of the 60367 patient visits resulting in discharge from the emergency department, 3018 (5.0%) led to a urologic procedure within 7 days, 4407 (7.3%) within 14 days, 5916 (9.8%) within 28 days, and 7667 (12.7%) within 60 days. A total of 3226 visits (5.3%) led to a subsequent emergency department visit within 7 days and 6792 (11.3%) within 60 days. For the entire cohort (admitted and discharged patients), 39 189 (59.2%) had contact with a urologist or primary care practitioner within 60 days. Having Medicaid-only insurance was associated with lower rates of urologic procedures (odds ratio, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.66-0.74) and urologic follow-up (5.6% vs 8.8%; P \u3c .001) and higher rates of primary care follow-up (59.2% vs 47.2%; P \u3c .001) compared with patients with all other insurance types. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort study, most adult patients younger than 65 years who were discharged from the emergency department with a diagnosis of renal colic did not undergo a procedure or see a urologist within 60 days. This finding has implications for both the emergency department and outpatient treatment of these patients