Use of the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test with a Deaf Population

Thirty-four million Americans have one or both parents who could be classified as alcoholic. Research related to the effects of child rearing in alcoholic families has resulted in the identification of a common pattern of dysfunction in the family. This environment has been shown to place Children of Alcoholics into a high risk group for psychological, psychological, and sociological disorders. The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test is a 30 item scale that requires subjects to respond to their perceptions of, experience with, and reactions to, a parent(s) drinking and is designed to identify children, adolescents or adults of alcoholic parents. Participants completed the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, a self identification screening sheet and a demographic questionnaire as part of their normal classroom activities. Self identification screening placed subjects into one of two groups, the Children of Alcoholics group, or the control group. The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test was administered to 142 adults ranging in age from 18 to 38. The Children or Alcoholics group scored significantly higher on the CAST in comparison to the NCOA group. The current study has successfully replicated serious studies indicating that the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test does discriminate between children of alcoholics and children of non-alcoholics who are Deaf from the same sample

Reporting on money in politics during the non-election cycle

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.Journalists aren't doing a great job of reporting on money in politics once an election is over. Experts and journalists share their suggestions to improve upon reporting and help the public understand how money truly affects politics.Includes bibliographic references

Brand X and the Wireline Broadband Report and Order: The Beginning of the End of the Distinction Between Title I and Title II Services

This Article traces the development of the FCC\u27s distinction between telecommunications services subject to common carrier services under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act and information services regulated under Title I of the Act from the Computer Inquiry line of cases through the Brand X decision and recent Wireline Broadband Report and Order. The Author pays particular attention to the Brand X decision and the FCC\u27s Wireline Broadband Order and its implications, suggesting that the Order may be subject to reversal when it is challenged in court and proposing how the Commission might react to a reversal. The Author concludes by applauding the Commission\u27s effort to level the playing field for similar services provided over different platforms despite the remaining challenges and uncertainties facing incumbent local exchange carriers

Collaborative Artificial Intelligence in Music Production

The use of technology has revolutionized the process of music composition, recording, and production in the last 30 years. One fusion of technology and music that has been longstanding is the use of artificial intelligence in the process of music composition. However, much less attention has been given to the application of AI in the process of collaboratively composing and producing a piece of recorded music. The aim of this project is to explore such use of artificial intelligence in music production. The research presented here includes discussion of an auto ethnographic study of the interactions between songwriters, with the intention that these can be used to model the collaborative process and that a computational system could be trained using this information. The research indicated that there were repeated patterns that occurred in relation to the interactions of the participating songwriters

Cutting the trees to save the forest: The Finch Pruyn working forest

The past two decades have seen sales of millions of acres of commercial forest land in the United States. Changed ownership often results in altered forest management, parcelization or development. Such changes have profound implications for forest species and ecosystems, as well as the timber industry, recreational opportunities, and local and regional economies. An emerging strategy seeks to protect lands through complex public-private partnerships involving state agencies, conservation organizations, and commercial investors. By definition, these partnerships have both environmental and socioeconomic goals; as such, they represent contemporary experiments in sustainable development applied to forested landscapes. As this approach is a recent innovation, its benefits for nature and people have yet to be demonstrated, and the general applicability of this integrated approach to conservation is unknown. Our objective is to identify context-specific objectives and indicators to support integrated monitoring and adaptive management for the former Finch Pruyn lands, which encompass 161,000 acres in the Adirondack region of New York State. This interdisciplinary project involves social science faculty and students from Cornell University and cooperation from conservation scientists from The Nature Conservancy. Through a review of the literature on criteria and indicators for sustainable forestry, we developed an analytical framework for measuring ecological, social, and economic implications of forest management practices. Through key informant interviews, we identified context-specific objectives and indicators for the Finch Pruyn lands, including forest health, species protection, expanded recreation opportunities and community economic vitality. Our approach allows us to compare existing commitments to collection of monitoring data to ideal data sets as defined by actors occupying various structural positions. Identification of potential gaps in monitoring represents an opportunity for dialogue, reallocation of resources and enrollment of new strategic partners. Over time, these global and local indicators can support an adaptive framework through which flows of information inform management in an iterative process. Preliminary results indicate that this project entails several innovations that may contribute to its success, including the development of a comprehensive ecological baseline and the explicit engagement of local claims to livelihoods and access. We make several recommendations for future working forest agreements, such as the need to define clear environmental and socioeconomic goals at the outset, and, when private philanthropy is central to project viability, the incorporation of monitoring costs into initial fundraising targets. We believe these lessons are applicable to conservation development projects in the Northern Forest region and beyond

A Paradox Within The Time Value Of Money: A Critical Thinking Exercise For Finance Students

This study presents a paradox within the time value of money (TVM), namely, that the interest-principal sequence embedded in the payment stream of an amortized loan is exactly the opposite of the interest-principal sequence implicit in the present value of a matching annuity.  We examine this inverse sequence, both mathematically and intuitively, and argue that it provides an excellent exercise for finance students to explore, both to enhance their critical thinking skills as well as to strengthen their understanding of TVM concepts.  Additionally, such an exercise will involve them actively in the learning process, as mandated by AACSB International’s Eligibility Procedures and Standards for Business Accreditation

Optimizing Health for Complex Adults in Primary Care: Current Challenges and a Way Forward

As the population ages, the quantity and complexity of comorbidities only increases in the primary care setting. Health systems strive to improve quality of care and enhance cost savings, but current administrative and payment systems do not easily support the implementation of existing evidence and best practices for multimorbid adults in most primary care offices. This perspectives piece sets forth a research agenda in the area of implementation science at the intersection of geriatrics and general internal medicine. We challenge academic medical centers, medical societies, journals, and funders to actively value and support investigation in this area as much as traditional research pathways

The Metal-Poor Halo of the Andromeda Spiral Galaxy (M31)

We present spectroscopic observations of red giant branch (RGB) stars over a large expanse in the halo of the Andromeda spiral galaxy (M31), acquired with the DEIMOS instrument on the Keck II 10-m telescope. Using a combination of five photometric/spectroscopic diagnostics -- (1) radial velocity, (2) intermediate-width DDO51 photometry, (3) Na I equivalent width (surface gravity sensitive), (4) position in the color-magnitude diagram, and (5) comparison between photometric and spectroscopic [Fe/H] estimates -- we isolate over 250 bona fide M31 bulge and halo RGB stars located in twelve fields ranging from R = 12-165kpc from the center of M31 (47 of these stars are halo members with R > 60 kpc). We derive the photometric and spectroscopic metallicity distribution function of M31 RGB stars in each of these fields. The mean of the resulting M31 spheroid (bulge and halo) metallicity distribution is found to be systematically more metal-poor with increasing radius, shifting from = -0.47+/-0.03 (sigma = 0.39) at R = -0.94+/-0.06 (sigma = 0.60) at R ~ 30 kpc to = -1.26+/-0.10 (sigma = 0.72) at R > 60 kpc, assuming [alpha/Fe] = 0.0. These results indicate the presence of a metal-poor RGB population at large radial distances out to at least R = 160 kpc, thereby supporting our recent discovery of a stellar halo in M31: its halo and bulge (defined as the structural components with R^{-2} power law and de Vaucouleurs R^{1/4} law surface brightness profiles, respectively) are shown to have distinct metallicity distributions. If we assume an alpha-enhancement of [alpha/Fe] = +0.3 for M31's halo, we derive = -1.5+/-0.1 (sigma = 0.7). Therefore, the mean metallicity and metallicity spread of this newly found remote M31 RGB population are similar to those of the Milky Way halo.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ on May 4th, 2006 (submitted on Jan 30, 2006). 16 pages, 13 figures, 3 table

Kinematics and Metallicity of M31 Red Giants: The Giant Southern Stream and Discovery of a Second Cold Component at R = 20 kpc

We present spectroscopic observations of red giant branch (RGB) stars in the Andromeda spiral galaxy (M31), acquired with the DEIMOS instrument on the Keck II 10-m telescope. The three fields targeted in this study are in the M31 spheroid, outer disk, and giant southern stream. In this paper, we focus on the kinematics and chemical composition of RGB stars in the stream field located at a projected distance of R = 20 kpc from M31's center. A mix of stellar populations is found in this field. M31 RGB stars are isolated from Milky Way dwarf star contaminants using a variety of spectral and photometric diagnostics. The radial velocity distribution of RGB stars displays a clear bimodality -- a primary peak centered at v = -513 km/s and a secondary one at v = -417 km/s -- along with an underlying broad component that is presumably representative of the smooth spheroid of M31. Both peaks are found to be dynamically cold with intrinsic velocity dispersions of sigma(v) = 16 km/s. The mean metallicity and metallicity dispersion of stars in the two peaks is also found to be similar: [Fe/H] = -0.45 and sigma([Fe/H]) = 0.2. The observed velocity of the primary peak is consistent with that predicted by dynamical models for the stream, but there is no obvious explanation for the secondary peak. The nature of the secondary cold population is unclear: it may represent: (1) tidal debris from a satellite merger event that is superimposed on, but unrelated to, the giant southern stream; (2) a wrapped around component of the giant southern stream; (3) a warp or overdensity in M31's disk at R > 50 kpc (this component is well above the outward extrapolation of the smooth exponential disk brightness profile).Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in Ap