A psychometric measure of working memory capacity for configured body movement.

Working memory (WM) models have traditionally assumed at least two domain-specific storage systems for verbal and visuo-spatial information. We review data that suggest the existence of an additional slave system devoted to the temporary storage of body movements, and present a novel instrument for its assessment: the movement span task. The movement span task assesses individuals' ability to remember and reproduce meaningless configurations of the body. During the encoding phase of a trial, participants watch short videos of meaningless movements presented in sets varying in size from one to five items. Immediately after encoding, they are prompted to reenact as many items as possible. The movement span task was administered to 90 participants along with standard tests of verbal WM, visuo-spatial WM, and a gesture classification test in which participants judged whether a speaker's gestures were congruent or incongruent with his accompanying speech. Performance on the gesture classification task was not related to standard measures of verbal or visuo-spatial working memory capacity, but was predicted by scores on the movement span task. Results suggest the movement span task can serve as an assessment of individual differences in WM capacity for body-centric information

Determination of Samarium and Dysprosium Solubility

In recent years, the use of Rare Earth Elements (REE) has rapidly increased, resulting in numerous potential anthropogenic inputs to the environment. As a result, these metals are emerging as microcontaminants and pose a potential threat to aquatic life. However, the toxicity of REE are largely unknown due, in part, to the limited information on their chemical speciation. The purpose of this project was to gain an understanding of REE precipitate formation and solubility as the foundation for the development of the chemical equilibrium component of toxicity prediction models. Solubility experiments were conducted with Samarium, (Sm), a light REE, and Dysprosium, (Dy), a heavy REE and measured using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Water chemistries of varying pH (6, 7, 8 and 9), total metal (1 mM, 10 mM and 100 mM) and total carbonate (atmospheric CO2, 1 mM and 10 mM) were used to study the kinetics of precipitate formation over a 120-h period. Experimental results indicate that data obtained at atmospheric CO2 and low total metal concentrations was unreliable, likely due to the difficulty in measuring solubility limits near the ICP-OES detection limit. Furthermore, most of the water chemistries explored appeared to achieve steady-state conditions within 24-h for both Sm and Dy, indicating the suitability of 24-h renewal processes used in acute toxicity tests. However, measured dissolved metal concentrations did not approach the predicted equilibrium concentrations, indicating that while steady-state conditions were achieved, equilibrium was not reached. For Sm, geochemical models over predicted the amount of precipitation for most water chemistries, with the exception of at low pH where no precipitation was predicted. The opposite trend was predicted for Dy, with over predicted precipitation at pH 8 and 9. Very little precipitation was observed under atmospheric conditions, while data for 1 mM and 10 mM total carbonate concentrations agreed strongly with one another for all total Sm and Dy concentrations. This was an indication that the Sm or Dy available for complexation, and therefore precipitation, was in much lower concentration than carbonate. This was especially true at high pH values. All metal precipitated at pH 9 for most water chemistries. Under these conditions, the system was saturated with both hydroxides and carbonates, which provided a greater opportunity for precipitation. Future work is required to investigate the formation of multi-ligand precipitates with Sm and Dy, as well as the investigation of the role that DOM plays in precipitate formation

Promising, Intimate Relationships, and Conventionalism

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Shiffrin’s talk is drawn from her paper of the same name. In it she argues that conventional accounts of the moral foundation for promise and obligation miss the mark. She gives an alternate account of promising behavior and argues that binding promises between agents are integral to individual autonomy and relations of intimacy and complexity. Without what she calls “the power to promise,” we cannot live freely on an equal basis with others.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. Dept. of Philosoph

Folklore and Literacy: A View from Nova Scotia

This article describes a pilot project in museum based literacy learning that took place in Windsor, Nova Scotia in the autumn of 1999. The author coordinated the project in close consultation with a local literacy practitioner. The Windsor study was part of a national project undertaken by the Canadian Museums Association and funded by a SSHRC Strategic Research Grant Initiative. The project attracted four female participants, although one left before completing her research for personal reasons. The women chose objects as topics for study, and were given assistance with research and documentation techniques. As a discourse involving traditions of expressive behaviour and worldview, folklore plays an important role in literacy education. Specifically, this discussion examines the interactions between the participants, their chosen topics, and the museum environments, and underscores the need for an understanding of value, class, gender and contexts of use in an appreciation of literacy. A review of relevant literature is included, focusing on ethnographic studies of literacy with particular emphasis on recent work in Atlantic Canada. Outcomes of the study and future directions for this kind of community based, qualitative research are also discussed.Cet article décrit un projet-pilote en alphabétisation, basé dans un musée, qui s’est déroulé à Windsor, en Nouvelle-Écosse, durant l’automne 1999. L’auteure a coordonné ce projet en collaboration étroite avec un praticien local de l’alphabétisation. L’étude de Windsor faisait partie d’un projet national entrepris par l’Association des musées canadiens, financé par une bourse d’initiative en recherche stratégique du CRSHC. Le projet a attiré quatre participantes, bien que l’une d’elles l’ait quitté, pour des raisons personnelles, avant d’avoir fini sa recherche. Ces femmes ont choisi des objets comme sujets d’étude et ont reçu de l’aide pour les techniques de recherche et de documentation. En tant que discours impliquant des traditions d’expression comportementale et de vision du monde, le folklore joue un rôle important dans l’alphabétisation. Cet article examine de manière spécifique les interactions entre les participantes, leurs choix de sujets, l’environnement muséal, et signale le besoin d’une compréhension des notions de valeur, classe, genre et contextes d’utilisation dans l’évaluation de l’alphabétisation. L’article passe en revue la littérature sur le sujet, plus particulièrement les études ethnographiques sur l’alphabétisation, en mettant l’accent sur les travaux récents dans les régions atlantiques du Canada. Il discute également des aboutissements de cette étude et des orientations futures de ce type de recherche qualitative basée dans une communauté

Educating the Youth to Develop Life Purpose: An Eco-systemic Approach

Life purpose is an internal representation of a personally meaningful, prosocial contribution the person intends to engage with over their life span. Individuals’ purposes interact within a social-cultural eco-system by directing individuals’ perceptions toward situational resources (including others’ purposes) that can help enact their purpose. Education can encourage students to explore their purposes within and beyond the classroom. This paper describes a case study of a class offered six times using three different ecological “niches”: (1) conceptual understanding eco-niche focused on learning the concept and its relationships to other concepts; (2) resources-application eco-niche focused on reconceiving aspects of the concept as intellectual instruments to apply to real-life cases, including students themselves; (3) iterative practice eco-niche focused on implementing purposes within various contexts and interpreting feedback from those contexts. Using a feedback loop model to interpret how each eco-niche favours a different starting point and development trajectory through Damon’s (2008) four dimensions of purpose, this eco-niche comparison (a) emphasizes how “high impact” educational experiences focus not on the students’ improvements but rather on the improvements of communities as a result of students' enacting their purpose through their contributions, and (b) offers insights for teachers to infuse purpose development opportunities in their classes.     El propósito de vida es una representación interna de una contribución prosocial significativa que la persona intenta realizar a lo largo de su vida. Los propósitos de los individuos interactúan dentro de un ecosistema sociocultural al dirigir las percepciones de los individuos hacia los recursos situacionales que pueden ayudar a cumplir su propósito. La educación puede animar a los estudiantes a explorar sus propósitos dentro y fuera del aula. Este artículo describe un estudio de caso de una clase ofrecida seis veces usando tres “nichos” ecológicos diferentes: (1) comprensión conceptual enfocado en aprender el concepto y sus relaciones con otros conceptos; (2) aplicación de herramientas enfocadas en reconcebir aspectos del concepto para aplicar a casos reales, incluyendo a los propios estudiantes; (3) práctica iterativa enfocada en implementar propósitos dentro de varios contextos e interpretar la retroalimentación de esos contextos. Usando un modelo de bucle de retroalimentación para interpretar cómo cada nicho ecológico privilegia un punto de partida diferente y una trayectoria de desarrollo a través de las cuatro dimensiones de propósito de Damon (2008), esta comparación de nicho ecológico (a) enfatiza cómo las experiencias educativas de "alto impacto" no se enfocan en las mejoras en los estudiantes, sino más bien en las mejoras a las comunidades a través de las contribuciones de los estudiantes, y (b) ofrece ideas para que los maestros infundan oportunidades de desarrollo de propósito en sus clases.

Puberty, Stress, Hormones, and Depression Symptoms

Many physical and psychological changes characterize puberty. The drastic increase of gonadal hormone release (such as testosterone and estradiol) guides the development and has a lasting effect on the brain and behaviour. During this time, exacerbation of stress via adversity and trauma is hypothesized to be a risk factor for major depression. The body responds to stress with cortisol release. Research suggests that pubertal stressors cause maladaptive neuronal organization. In other words, increased cortisol release during puberty alters brain development, and this potentiates outcomes such as depression. Additionally, people with depression have increased cortisol secretion compared to healthy counterparts. This honours thesis will investigate stress-related cortisol secretion. It is hypothesized that pubertal stress is correlated with increased cortisol secretion in response to stress and increased depression symptoms in adulthood. This study will examine cortisol concentration in hair, and saliva samples from undergraduate participants recruited from Simon Fraser University

Can Standardizing CABG care with Clinical Pathways Reduce Length of Stay and Hospital Acquired Infections?

Clinical pathways are a common component in the quest to improve the quality of health. Clinical pathways are used to reduce variation, improve quality of care and maximize the outcomes for specific groups of patients (Lawal, et al., 2016). The purpose of this project is to develop and initiate a Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) clinical pathway to reduce variation in care as a way to improve quality of care and patient outcomes for CABG patients CABG surgery is considered a high risk, high cost, yet highly profitable surgery with considerable post-operative complications that affect numerous quality metrics including Length of Stay (LOS), hospital acquired infections (HAI), mortality rate, readmission rates and patient satisfaction. The importance of delivering high quality clinical management of CABG patients and minimizing postoperative complications is essential for the growth of a Center of Excellence and for financial sustainability. Therefore, implementation of CABG Clinical Pathways (CPW) will improve quality of care delivered to patients who undergo coronary revascularization via CABG. As a result of the implementation of the CABG clinical pathway there was a reduction in HAI including central line associated blood stream infection, catheter associated urinary tract infection and surgical site infection. In addition to the reduction of HAI the CABG clinical pathway also presented an initial reduction in the LOS of CABG patients

Determination of Samarium and Dysprosium Solubility

In recent years, the use of Rare Earth Elements (REE) has rapidly increased, resulting in numerous potential anthropogenic inputs to the environment. As a result, these metals are emerging as microcontaminants and pose a potential threat to aquatic life. However, the toxicity of REE are largely unknown due, in part, to the limited information on their chemical speciation. The purpose of this project was to gain an understanding of REE precipitate formation and solubility as the foundation for the development of the chemical equilibrium component of toxicity prediction models. Solubility experiments were conducted with Samarium, (Sm), a light REE, and Dysprosium, (Dy), a heavy REE and measured using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP-OES). Water chemistries of varying pH (6, 7, 8 and 9), total metal (1 mM, 10 mM and 100 mM) and total carbonate (atmospheric CO2, 1 mM and 10 mM) were used to study the kinetics of precipitate formation over a 120-h period. Experimental results indicate that data obtained at atmospheric CO2 and low total metal concentrations was unreliable, likely due to the difficulty in measuring solubility limits near the ICP-OES detection limit. Furthermore, most of the water chemistries explored appeared to achieve steady-state conditions within 24-h for both Sm and Dy, indicating the suitability of 24-h renewal processes used in acute toxicity tests. However, measured dissolved metal concentrations did not approach the predicted equilibrium concentrations, indicating that while steady-state conditions were achieved, equilibrium was not reached. For Sm, geochemical models over predicted the amount of precipitation for most water chemistries, with the exception of at low pH where no precipitation was predicted. The opposite trend was predicted for Dy, with over predicted precipitation at pH 8 and 9. Very little precipitation was observed under atmospheric conditions, while data for 1 mM and 10 mM total carbonate concentrations agreed strongly with one another for all total Sm and Dy concentrations. This was an indication that the Sm or Dy available for complexation, and therefore precipitation, was in much lower concentration than carbonate. This was especially true at high pH values. All metal precipitated at pH 9 for most water chemistries. Under these conditions, the system was saturated with both hydroxides and carbonates, which provided a greater opportunity for precipitation. Future work is required to investigate the formation of multi-ligand precipitates with Sm and Dy, as well as the investigation of the role that DOM plays in precipitate formation

The Impact of Transformational Leadership Practices on the Cultural Responsiveness of Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT) Implementation

Purpose: Research has shown that family engagement has a positive impact on student academic performance; however, schools that serve increasingly diverse communities often struggle with forming meaning partnerships with their parents. The primary purpose of this case study was to investigate the impact transformational leadership has on stakeholders’ perceptions of the cultural responsiveness of family engagement, in schools that have implemented Academic Parent Teacher Teams (APTT). Additionally, this study investigated teachers’ and families’ perceptions of the cultural responsiveness of APTT. Research Methods: This dissertation was guided by the theoretical frameworks of transformational leadership and cultural responsive school leadership. The case study was conducted at a Title 1 elementary school with a diverse population that had implemented APTT. Data was collected through interviews of school leaders, teachers, and families as well as observations of APTT meetings. NVivo, qualitative data analysis software, was used to code and analyze the data using coding themes developed from the theoretical frameworks. Findings: The findings revealed four themes that described the leadership practices that affected the cultural responsiveness of APTT implementation: (a) leaders establish a mission that encouraged culturally responsive actions; (b) the parent center played a strong leadership role in the execution of the school’s mission, as well as APTT implementation; (c) teachers’ focused on communication with parents in a family friendly manner; (d) parental engagement efforts were designed to meet the needs of the community. The findings also revealed two themes that explained how transformational leadership practices impacted stakeholders’ perceptions of the partnerships: (a) the increase in family engagement helped inform school leaders about resources that families needed including the presence of unknown barriers to cultural engagement; and (b) more effective communication with parents resulted in the majority of teachers confirming positive perceptions of parent/teacher partnerships. Implications for Research and Practice: This study supports the need for state and local policy makers to train and build the capacity of educators to establish meaningful partnerships with students and their families. The findings also support the correlation between the theories of transformational school leadership and culturally responsive school leadership