Archeota, Spring 2017

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/saasc_archeota/1004/thumbnail.jp

Archeota, Fall 2016

https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/saasc_archeota/1003/thumbnail.jp

Intervention Integrity in Mindfulness-Based Research

Assessing program or intervention fidelity/integrity is an important methodological consideration in clinical and educational research. These critical variables influence the degree to which outcomes can be attributed to the program and the success of the transition from research to practice and back again. Research in the Mindfulness-Based Program (MBP) field has been expanding rapidly over the last 20 years, but little attention has been given to how to assess intervention integrity within research and practice settings. The proliferation of different program forms, inconsistency in adhering to published curriculum guides, and variability of training levels and competency of trial teachers all pose grave risks to the sustainable development of the science of MBPs going forward. Three tools for assessing intervention integrity in the MBP field have been developed and researched to assess adherence and/or teaching competence: the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy-Adherence Scale (MBCT-AS), the Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention-Adherence and Competence Scale (MBRP-AC), and the Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC). Further research is needed on these tools to better define their inter-rater reliability and their ability to measure elements of teaching competence that are important for participant outcomes. Research going forward needs to include systematic and consistent methods for demonstrating and verifying that the MBP was delivered as intended, both to ensure the rigor of individual studies and to enable different studies of the same MBP to be fairly and validly compared with each other. The critical variable of the teaching also needs direct investigation in future research. We recommend the use of the "Template for Intervention Description and Replication" (TIDieR) guidelines for addressing and reporting on intervention integrity during the various phases of the conduct of research and provide specific suggestions about how to implement these guidelines when reporting studies of mindfulness-based programs

Deindividuation in Social Media

Deindiviuation in social media is increasing as more social media applications, such as Yik Yak, allow you to post anonymously. The deindividuation theory suggests that people who are anonymous in a group setting tend to act more aggressively than if their identity was known. It is important to understand why people do such actions while they are anonymous versus if their identity were known. For this study, Yik Yak posts from college students who attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University were collected to analyze. Seven participants were then given an Excel spreadsheet to sort and categorize each Yik Yak post into Content Categories and Intent Categories. Each participant had to then choose from a subset of categories within the Content and Intent Categories. The subset of Content Categories includes: aggression, charity, academic dishonesty, crime, escapism, political activities, sexual behavior, social disruption, interpersonal spying and eaves dropping, travel, and miscellaneous. The subset of Intent Categories includes: prosocial (helps others), antisocial (hurts others), nonnormative (violating social norms without hurting or helping others), and neutral (meeting none of the other three categories). The results suggested that most of the people using Yik Yak were most likely not experiencing deindividuation. We concluded this because more than half of the posts were categorized as Miscellaneous . If the Yik Yak users were experiencing deindividuation, most of the posts should have fallen into the Aggression or another violent category

RFRA Exemptions from the Contraception Mandate: An Unconstitutional Accommodation of Religion

Litigation surrounding use of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to exempt employers from the Affordable Care Act’s “contraception mandate” is moving steadily towards resolution in the U.S. Supreme Court. Both opponents and supporters of the mandate, however, have overlooked the Establishment Clause limits on such exemptions. The heated religious-liberty rhetoric aimed at the mandate has obscured that RFRA is a “permissive” rather than “mandatory” accommodation of religion — a government concession to religious belief and practice that is not required by the Free Exercise Clause. Permissive accommodations must satisfy Establishment Clause constraints, notably the requirement that the accommodation not impose material burdens on third parties who do not believe or participate in the accommodated practice. While it is likely that RFRA facially complies with the Establishment Clause, it violates the Clause’s limits on permissive accommodation as applied to the mandate. RFRA exemptions from the mandate would deny the employees of an exempted employer their ACA entitlement to contraceptives without cost-sharing, forcing employees to purchase with their own money contraceptives and related services that would otherwise be available to them at no cost beyond their share of the healthcare insurance premium. Neither courts nor commentators seem aware that a line of permissive accommodation decisions prohibits shifting of material costs of accommodating anti-contraception beliefs from the employers who hold them to employees who do not. Many of the Court\u27s decisions under the Free Exercise Clause and Title VII also exhibit this concern with cost-shifting accommodations. Yet, one federal appellate court has already mistakenly dismissed this cost-shifting as irrelevant to the permissibility of RFRA exemptions from the mandate. The impermissibility of cost-shifting under the Establishment Clause is a threshold doctrine whose application is logically prior to all of the RFRA issues on which the courts are now focused: If RFRA exemptions from the mandate violate the Establishment Clause, then that is the end of RFRA exemptions, regardless of whether for-profit corporations are persons exercising religion, the mandate is a substantial burden on employers’ anti- contraception beliefs, or the mandate is not the least restrictive means of protecting a compelling government interest. Part I summarizes the legal mechanics of the mandate and briefly describes the three classes of anti-mandate plaintiffs — churches, religious nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses owned by anti-contraception believers. Part II details Establishment Clause doctrine that prohibits permissive accommodations that impose material burdens on third parties. Part III applies this rule to RFRA exemptions from the mandate, showing that the cost- shifting entailed by such exemptions violates the Establishment Clause. Part II also surveys free-exercise and Title VII decisions influenced by the same concern. We conclude that the existing regulatory regime that exempts churches, accommodates religious nonprofits, and leaves for-profit businesses subject to the mandate is the proper balance of private and government interests in the radically plural society that the United States has become

RFRA Exemptions from the Contraception Mandate: An Unconstitutional Accommodation of Religion

Litigation surrounding use of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to exempt employers from the Affordable Care Act’s “contraception mandate” is moving steadily towards resolution in the U.S. Supreme Court. Both opponents and supporters of the mandate, however, have overlooked the Establishment Clause limits on such exemptions. The heated religious-liberty rhetoric aimed at the mandate has obscured that RFRA is a “permissive” rather than “mandatory” accommodation of religion — a government concession to religious belief and practice that is not required by the Free Exercise Clause. Permissive accommodations must satisfy Establishment Clause constraints, notably the requirement that the accommodation not impose material burdens on third parties who do not believe or participate in the accommodated practice. While it is likely that RFRA facially complies with the Establishment Clause, it violates the Clause’s limits on permissive accommodation as applied to the mandate. RFRA exemptions from the mandate would deny the employees of an exempted employer their ACA entitlement to contraceptives without cost-sharing, forcing employees to purchase with their own money contraceptives and related services that would otherwise be available to them at no cost beyond their share of the healthcare insurance premium. Neither courts nor commentators seem aware that a line of permissive accommodation decisions prohibits shifting of material costs of accommodating anti-contraception beliefs from the employers who hold them to employees who do not. Many of the Court\u27s decisions under the Free Exercise Clause and Title VII also exhibit this concern with cost-shifting accommodations. Yet, one federal appellate court has already mistakenly dismissed this cost-shifting as irrelevant to the permissibility of RFRA exemptions from the mandate. The impermissibility of cost-shifting under the Establishment Clause is a threshold doctrine whose application is logically prior to all of the RFRA issues on which the courts are now focused: If RFRA exemptions from the mandate violate the Establishment Clause, then that is the end of RFRA exemptions, regardless of whether for-profit corporations are persons exercising religion, the mandate is a substantial burden on employers’ anti- contraception beliefs, or the mandate is not the least restrictive means of protecting a compelling government interest. Part I summarizes the legal mechanics of the mandate and briefly describes the three classes of anti-mandate plaintiffs — churches, religious nonprofit organizations, and for-profit businesses owned by anti-contraception believers. Part II details Establishment Clause doctrine that prohibits permissive accommodations that impose material burdens on third parties. Part III applies this rule to RFRA exemptions from the mandate, showing that the cost- shifting entailed by such exemptions violates the Establishment Clause. Part II also surveys free-exercise and Title VII decisions influenced by the same concern. We conclude that the existing regulatory regime that exempts churches, accommodates religious nonprofits, and leaves for-profit businesses subject to the mandate is the proper balance of private and government interests in the radically plural society that the United States has become

The Application of Second Language Acquisition to Programming Language Study

This paper describes a design and implementation of a Second Language Acquisition in a Blended Learning (SLA-aBLe) project that aims to examine the efficacy of SLA approaches for teaching programming language. The project, which has been running for three semesters, modifies specific learning modules in a programming language class using a series of shorter videos with subtitles, online quizzes with tiered questions and comments, and a topic specified discussion board with Q&A sections. The SLA aspect of the SLA-aBLe study is emphasized through the use of strategies defined as best-practice SLA techniques, such as the inclusion of self-testing tired questions and visual-aided explanation in screencasts, more online programming writing assessment, more collaboration, and ‘speak aloud’ in labs. A series of surveys assessing students’ perceptions, attitudes, and satisfaction of students in the SLA-aBLe, and control groups were analyzed. Their academic performance on exam scores was compared. A random group of students were selected and interviewed face-to-face each semester to understand the effectiveness of the SLA-aBLe design. Assessment results confirmed the effectiveness of SLA-aBLe design

A Human Factors Perspective on Learning Programming Languages using a Second Language Acquisition Approach

In this day and age, knowing a programming language is an essential skill to have for those pursuing a career in any of the STEM fields. In most colleges and universities around the world, engineering and computer science students are required to take an introductory course in a programming language. However, many students find these courses intimidating and too challenging. This paper explores a psychological perspective on learning programming languages using Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories. The paper also describes the basic function of how learning works and how SLA aids in the learning process. This paper also briefly discusses the Second Language Acquisition in a Blended Learning (SLA-aBLe) project, and how the use of SLA techniques facilitated students learning MATLAB. Demographic survey data and overall grade data from spring 2016 show that students in the SLA-aBLe courses received overall higher grades and felt less overwhelmed and intimidated

Geodetic constraints on the translation and deformation of India: implications for future great Himalayan earthquakes

Because the elastic deformation of rock is fundamental to the earthquake process, geodetic surface measurements provide a measure of both the geometrical parameters of earthquake rupture, and a measure of the temporal and spatial development of elastic strain prior to rupture. Yet, despite almost 200 years of geodesy in India, and the occurrence of several great earthquakes, the geodetic contribution to understanding future damaging earthquakes in India remains minor. Global Positioning System (GPS) geodesy promises to remedy the shortcomings of traditional studies. Within the last decade, GPS studies have provided three fundamental constraints concerning the seismogenic framework of the Indian Plate: its overall stability < 0.01 μstrainlyear), its velocity of collision with Asia (58 ± 4 mm/year at N44E), and its rate of collision with southern Tibet (20.5 ± 2 mm/year). These NE directed motions are superimposed on a secular shift of the Earth's rotation axis. As a net result, India currently moves southward at 8 ± 1 cm/ year. In the next few decades we can expect GPS measurements to illuminate the subsurface distribution and rate of development of strain in the Himalaya, the relative contributions of along-arc and arc-normal deformation in the Himalaya and southern Tibet, and perhaps the roles of potential energy, plastic deformation and elastic strain in the earthquake cycle

Highly Coordinated Gene Regulation in Mouse Skeletal Muscle Regeneration

Mammalian skeletal muscles are capable of regeneration after injury. Quiescent satellite cells are activated to reenter the cell cycle and to differentiate for repair, recapitulating features of myogenesis during embryonic development. To understand better the molecular mechanism involved in this process in vivo, we employed high density cDNA microarrays for gene expression profiling in mouse tibialis anterior muscles after a cardiotoxin injection. Among 16,267 gene elements surveyed, 3,532 elements showed at least a 2.5-fold change at one or more time points during a 14-day time course. Hierarchical cluster analysis and semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR showed induction of genes important for cell cycle control and DNA replication during the early phase of muscle regeneration. Subsequently, genes for myogenic regulatory factors, a group of imprinted genes and genes with functions to inhibit cell cycle progression and promote myogenic differentiation, were induced when myogenic stem cells started to differentiate. Induction of a majority of these genes, including E2f1 and E2f2, was abolished in muscles lacking satellite cell activity after gamma radiation. Regeneration was severely compromised in E2f1 null mice but not affected in E2f2 null mice. This study identifies novel genes potentially important for muscle regeneration and reveals highly coordinated myogenic cell proliferation and differentiation programs in adult skeletal muscle regeneration in vivo