Construction of a Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. The participants were 253 educator preparation graduate students. An orthogonal exploratory factor analysis resulted in a seven-factor scale that accounted for 54.48% of the variance, although four factors evidenced low reliability. The 27-item full-scale SCOPE exhibited good internal reliability (α= .857) and test-retest reliability (r = .879). Future exploration is recommended regarding content and construct validation as to whether contemplative practice is best viewed as a single- or multiple-factor construct

Construction of a Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education: An Exploratory Study

Some scholars have formed a more expansive view of knowledge that moves beyond the cognitive notion of intellect. For example, emotional intelligence theory posits that human intelligence encompasses both cognitive and emotional competencies, providing a framework for a relatively new concept known as contemplative practice. The purposes of this study were: (a) to develop a self-report measure, the Scale of Contemplative Practice in Higher Education (SCOPE), and (b) to explore issues of validity and reliability related to the SCOPE. An extensive review of the literature, reference to personal experiences, and consultation with an expert panel were used to generate scale items. The participants were 253 educator preparation graduate students. An orthogonal exploratory factor analysis resulted in a seven-factor scale that accounted for 54.48% of the variance, although four factors evidenced low reliability1. The 27-item full-scale SCOPE exhibited good internal reliability (α = .857) and test-retest reliability (r = .879). Future exploration is recommended regarding content and construct validation as to whether contemplative practice is best viewed as a single- or multiple-factor construct

Magnetic reversals in a simple model of MHD

We study a simple magnetohydrodynamical approach in which hydrodynamics and MHD turbulence are coupled in a shell model, with given dynamo constrains in the large scales. We consider the case of a low Prandtl number fluid for which the inertial range of the velocity field is much wider than that of the magnetic field. Random reversals of the magnetic field are observed and it shown that the magnetic field has a non trivial evolution linked to the nature of the hydrodynamics turbulence.Comment: 4 pages, submitted to PR

A compendium of NASA Aerobee sounding rocket launchings for 1966

Compendium of Aerobee sounding rocket launchings for 196

Prevalence and associated harm of engagement in self-Asphyxial behaviours ('choking game') in young people:A systematic review

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of engagement in self-asphyxial (risk-taking) behaviour (SAB) (‘choking game’) and associated morbidity and mortality in children and young people up to age 20. DESIGN: Systematic literature review. SEARCH STRATEGY: Electronic database search of MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS citation index and the Cochrane register with no language or date limits applied. References of key papers were reviewed, and experts were contacted to identify additional relevant papers. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Systematic reviews, cross-sectional, cohort and case–control studies, and case reports examining SAB with regard to individuals aged 0–20 years, without explicitly stated autoerotic, suicidal or self-harm intentions were included. RESULTS: Thirty-six relevant studies were identified, and SAB was reported in 10 countries. In North America, France and Colombia, awareness of SAB ranged from 36% to 91% across studies/settings, and the median lifetime prevalence of engagement in SAB was 7.4%. Six studies identified the potential for SAB to be associated with engagement in other risk behaviours. Ninety-nine fatal cases were reported. Of the 24 cases described in detail, most occurred when individuals engaged in SAB alone and used a ligature. CONCLUSIONS: The current evidence on SAB among young people is limited, and stems predominantly from North America and France. Awareness of SAB among young people is high, and engagement varies by setting. Further research is needed to understand the level of risk and harm associated with SAB, and to determine the appropriate public health response

Mean flow instabilities of two-dimensional convection in strong magnetic fields

The interaction of magnetic fields with convection is of great importance in astrophysics. Two well-known aspects of the interaction are the tendency of convection cells to become narrow in the perpendicular direction when the imposed field is strong, and the occurrence of streaming instabilities involving horizontal shears. Previous studies have found that the latter instability mechanism operates only when the cells are narrow, and so we investigate the occurrence of the streaming instability for large imposed fields, when the cells are naturally narrow near onset. The basic cellular solution can be treated in the asymptotic limit as a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. In the limit of large imposed field, the instability occurs for asymptotically small Prandtl number. The determination of the stability boundary turns out to be surprisingly complicated. At leading order, the linear stability problem is the linearisation of the same nonlinear eigenvalue problem, and as a result, it is necessary to go to higher order to obtain a stability criterion. We establish that the flow can only be unstable to a horizontal mean flow if the Prandtl number is smaller than order , where B0 is the imposed magnetic field, and that the mean flow is concentrated in a horizontal jet of width in the middle of the layer. The result applies to stress-free or no-slip boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the layer

Variational bound on energy dissipation in plane Couette flow

We present numerical solutions to the extended Doering-Constantin variational principle for upper bounds on the energy dissipation rate in turbulent plane Couette flow. Using the compound matrix technique in order to reformulate this principle's spectral constraint, we derive a system of equations that is amenable to numerical treatment in the entire range from low to asymptotically high Reynolds numbers. Our variational bound exhibits a minimum at intermediate Reynolds numbers, and reproduces the Busse bound in the asymptotic regime. As a consequence of a bifurcation of the minimizing wavenumbers, there exist two length scales that determine the optimal upper bound: the effective width of the variational profile's boundary segments, and the extension of their flat interior part.Comment: 22 pages, RevTeX, 11 postscript figures are available as one uuencoded .tar.gz file from [email protected]

Localized transverse bursts in inclined layer convection

We investigate a novel bursting state in inclined layer thermal convection in which convection rolls exhibit intermittent, localized, transverse bursts. With increasing temperature difference, the bursts increase in duration and number while exhibiting a characteristic wavenumber, magnitude, and size. We propose a mechanism which describes the duration of the observed bursting intervals and compare our results to bursting processes in other systems.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure