Context and contact: unifying the study of environmental effects on politics

A growing literature explores how local environments, or contexts, affect political behavior, especially by shaping interpersonal contact with social out-groups. While many studies still draw directly on long-standing hypotheses from contact theory, this research agenda increasingly focuses on new research questions, beyond the classic social psychology literature, and new empirical cases, including from across the lower- and middle-income world. We develop a typology of forms of context and contact to aid the aggregation of findings across disparate cases and demonstrate that the mechanisms that may account for the political effects of intergroup context and contact are broader than those typically explored in psychologically oriented research. We propose future directions for research in this area, including greater focus on the intersection of ethnic and class-based contact and greater attention to how built or computer-based environments may mediate or mirror the effects of demographic contexts

Comparison of bungee-aided and free-bouncing accelerations on trampoline

Trampolines remain the single best apparatus for the training of aerial acrobatics skills. Trampoline use has led to catastrophic injuries from poor landings. Passive injury prevention countermeasures such as specialized matting have been largely ineffective. Active injury countermeasures such as hand spotting, “throw-in” mats, and overhead spotting rigs provide the most effective methods. The recent addition of several bungee cords between the ropes and the gymnast’s spotting harness has resulted in altered teaching and coaching of trampoline-related acrobatics. Bungee cords have eliminated the need for a coach/spotter to manage the ropes during skill learning. The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of the addition of bungee cords with a traditional rope-based overhead spotting rig. There is a paucity of any research involving trampoline injury countermeasures. Ten experienced trampoline acrobatic athletes (5 males, 5 females) from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association Aerials National Team performed 10 bounces as high as they could control. A triaxial accelerometer (200 Hz) characterized 10 bungee cord aided bounces and 10 freebounces on a trampoline from each athlete. Bed contact times, peak accelerations, and average accelerations were obtained. The results supported our hypotheses that the bungeeaided bounces achieved only 40% (average) to 70% (peak) of the free-bouncing accelerations (all ρ 0.092). The bed contact time was approximately 65% longer during the bungee-aided bounces (ρ < 0.001). Bungee cords may reduce the harshness of landings on trampoline

Enhanced conceptual understanding in first year mechanics through modelling

As part of the National HE STEM programme, we have developed and implemented a modelling curriculum in first year mechanics to overcome well known conceptual difficulties. By modelling, we mean more than just the development of mathematical equations to describe the evolution of a physical system; we also mean the use of multiple representations both to understand the problem at hand as well as to develop a solution. We have developed a structured approach to both teaching and assessing the use of such representations through the ACME protocol: Assess the problem, Conceptualise the Model, and Evaluate the solution. This paper describes the implementation of this protocol within a conventional lecture setting during a single semester of the 2011-12 academic session and demonstrates the impact on conceptual understanding of 42 students though pre-course and post-course testing using the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Detailed analysis shows that on virtually every question in the FCI student performance improved, with questions 4 and 15, relating to Newton’s third law, showing especially large gains. The average FCI score rose from 17.7 (out of 30) to 22.5, with the distribution of post-instruction scores being statistically significantly different (p=0.0001) from the distribution of pre-instruction scores

Developing Educational Groups in Social Work Practice

Education is integral to social work practice with groups and a central component of educational groups. Yet the social work literature has not offered much guidance in the development of educational groups other than to report on the content and/or evaluation of groups that are focused on a specific condition or population. This paper offers a generic process model for educational groups that are developed and led by social workers. The educational groups described here are differentiated from psychoeducational groups, which are treatment-oriented. The paper provides guidelines on how to set up educational groups with particular attention to their structure, content of the curriculum, implementation, and evaluation. Two checklists are offered to assist in the development and implementation and evaluation of educational groups

Exploring efficacy in personal constraint negotiation: an ethnography of mountaineering tourists

Limited work has explored the relationship between efficacy and personal constraint negotiation for adventure tourists, yet efficacy is pivotal to successful activity participation as it influences people’s perceived ability to cope with constraints, and their decision to use negotiation strategies. This paper explores these themes with participants of a commercially organised mountaineering expedition. Phenomenology-based ethnography was adopted to appreciate the social and cultural mountaineering setting from an emic perspective. Ethnography is already being used to understand adventure participation, yet there is considerable scope to employ it further through researchers immersing themselves into the experience. The findings capture the interaction between the ethnographer and the group members, and provide an embodied account using their lived experiences. Findings reveal that personal mountaineering skills, personal fitness, altitude sickness and fatigue were the four key types of personal constraint. Self-efficacy, negotiation-efficacy and other factors, such as hardiness and motivation, influenced the effectiveness of negotiation strategies. Training, rest days, personal health, and positive self-talk were negotiation strategies. A conceptual model illustrates these results and demonstrates the interplay between efficacy and the personal constraint negotiation journey for led mountaineers

Diseases Prevalence and Behavioral Choices in Nevada

Determining the health of a state population is a complex task. It involves knowing at least the prevalence of various diseases and conditions as well as the leading causes of death and disability compared to a national mean or median. The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” Since health is affected by numerous social, economic, environmental, and cultural factors, these factors must also be considered when examining the health status of a population. All attempts to rank states in health are limited by the type and quality of available data. A remarkable array of health-related data is collected by federal, state, and local governmental agencies. Meaningful analyses of this data are usually limited to the mission of the collecting agencies and available funding

The role of attenuated astrocyte activation in infantile neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis

Infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (INCL) is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder affecting the CNS during infancy. INCL is caused by mutations in the CLN1 gene that leads to a deficiency in the lysosomal hydrolase, palmitoyl protein thioesterase (PPT1). A murine model of INCL, the PPT1(−/−) mouse, is an accurate phenocopy of the human disease. The first pathological change observed in the PPT1(−/−) brain is regional areas of GFAP upregulation, which predicts future areas of neurodegeneration. We hypothesized that preventing GFAP upregulation in reactive astrocytes will alter the CNS disease. To test this hypothesis, we generated mice simultaneously carrying null mutations in the GFAP, Vimentin, and PPT1 genes (GFAP(−/−)Vimentin(−/−)PPT1(−/−)). Although the clinical and pathological features of the GFAP(−/−)Vim(−/−)PPT1(−/−) mice are similar to INCL, the disease appears earlier and progresses more rapidly. One mechanism underlying this accelerated phenotype is a profound neuroinflammatory response within the CNS. Thus, our data identify a protective role for intermediate filament upregulation during astrocyte activation in INCL, a model of chronic neurodegeneration

The extraordinary Hall effect in coherent epitaxial tau (Mn,Ni)Al thin films on GaAs

Ultrathin coherent epitaxial films of ferromagnetic tau(Mn,Ni)0.60Al0.40 have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaAs substrates. X-ray scattering and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy measurements confirm that the c axis of the tetragonal tau unit cell is aligned normal to the (001) GaAs substrate. Measurements of the extraordinary Hall effect (EHE) show that the films are perpendicularly magnetized, exhibiting EHE resistivities saturating in the range of 3.3-7.1 muOMEGA-cm at room temperature. These values of EHE resistivity correspond to signals as large as +7 and -7 mV for the two magnetic states of the film with a measurement current of 1 mA. Switching between the two magnetic states is found to occur at distinct field values that depend on the previously applied maximum field. These observations suggest that the films are magnetically uniform. As such, tau(Mn,Ni)Al films may be an excellent medium for high-density storage of binary information

Non-Volatile Memory Characteristics of Submicrometre Hall Structures Fabricated in Epitaxial Ferromagnetic MnAl Films on GaAs

Hall-effect structures with submicrometre linewidths (<0.3pm) have been fabricated in ferromagnetic thin films of Mn[sub 0.60]Al[sub 0.40] which are epitaxially grown on a GaAs substrate. The MnAl thin films exhibit a perpendicular remanent magnetisation and an extraordinary Hall effect with square hysteretic behaviour. The presence of two distinct stable readout states demonstrates the potential of using ultrasmall ferromagnetic volumes for electrically addressable, nonvolatile storage of digital information