Mentoring School-Age Children: A Classification of Programs

The number of mentoring programs providing adult support to youth has increased dramatically in recent years. This report presents information on the characteristics of programs serving school-aged youth (K-12). We found that rather than simply replicating the traditional Big Brothers Big Sisters model, newer programs are emphasizing somewhat more instrumental goals and activities, as well as experimenting with different types of relationships (group, school-based, etc.). Most programs seem to have sufficient infrastructure to screen, train, and supervise their mentors adequately, but many de-emphasize the importance of developing long-term relationships

Third order nonlinearity of graphene: effects of phenomenological relaxation and finite temperature

We investigate the effect of phenomenological relaxation parameters on the third order optical nonlinearity of doped graphene by perturbatively solving the semiconductor Bloch equation around the Dirac points. An analytic expression for the nonlinear conductivity at zero temperature is obtained under the linear dispersion approximation. With this analytic formula as starting point, we construct the conductivity at finite temperature and study the optical response to a laser pulse of finite duration. We illustrate the dependence of several nonlinear optical effects, such as third harmonic generation, Kerr effects and two photon absorption, parametric frequency conversion, and two color coherent current injection, on the relaxation parameters, temperature, and pulse duration. In the special case where one of the electric fields is taken as a dc field, we investigate the dc-current and dc-field induced second order nonlinearities, including dc-current induced second harmonic generation and difference frequency generation.Comment: 23+ pages, 10 figures. In this version we correct a sign typo in Eq. (25), for which we thank the discussion in the work http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.00534v

Numerical study of the optical nonlinearity of doped and gapped graphene: From weak to strong field excitation

Numerically solving the semiconductor Bloch equations within a phenomenological relaxation time approximation, we extract both the linear and nonlinear optical conductivities of doped graphene and gapped graphene under excitation by a laser pulse. We discuss in detail the dependence of second harmonic generation, third harmonic generation, and the Kerr effects on the doping level, the gap, and the electric field amplitude. The numerical results for weak electric fields agree with those calculated from available analytic perturbation formulas. For strong electric fields when saturation effects are important, all the effective third order nonlinear response coefficients show a strong field dependence.Comment: 12 pages with 9 figure

Enriching Summer Work: An Evaluation of the Summer Career Exploration Program

To determine the impact of the Summer Career Exploration Program (SCEP), a privately funded summer jobs program for low-income teens, P/PV examined the lives of over 1700 applicants. These youth were randomly assigned to participate or to not participate in SCEP in the summer of 1999, and their outcomes were compared at four and twelve months after program application. Researchers found that implementation was strong, but program impacts were less impressive. While SCEPs participants got summer jobs at a substantially higher rate (92%) than the control group (62%), the programs ability to translate this large and immediate summer employment impact into intermediate gains (in terms of future plans, college enrollment, work success, sense of self-efficacy or reduced criminal activity) proved to be negligible. Although impacts were short lived, the report concludes that SCEP and similar programs have an important place in the larger mosaic of supports, programs and opportunities for young people

Mentoring: A Synthesis of P/PV's Research: 1988-1995

This is an essential handbook for anyone interested in mentoring. It presents the evidence and conclusions that P/PV compiled from over a decade of research on mentoring programs in five crucial areas:Can participating in mentoring programs make important and observable changes in the attitudes and behaviors of at-risk youth?Are there specific practices that characterize effective mentoring relationships?What program structures and supports are needed to maximize "best practices" among mentors?Can mentoring be integrated into large-scale youth-serving institutions?Are there large numbers of adults with enough flexible time and emotional resources to take on the demands of mentoring at-risk youngsters?The report also includes as an appendix the executive summaries of eleven P/PV reports on mentoring

Evaluation of Oral Nutritional Supplement Use in Elderly Patients Admitted with Heart Failure

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of enhanced ordering privileges among registered dieticians (RD) on oral nutritional supplement (ONS) ordering frequency and prevalence of oral nutritional supplement use among elderly patients admitted with heart failure (HF). METHODS: This study was a single facility, retrospective pre-post implementation evaluation of the impact of expanded ONS ordering privileges among elderly patients (age ≥ 65 years old) hospitalized with heart failure at Frankfort Regional Medical Center (FRMC). The sample consisted of 105 patients for the pre-evaluation period and 259 for the post-evaluation period. RESULTS: There were no differences among groups in age, sex, ethnicity, total comorbidity burden, LOS or BMI. Post group patients received more nutritional assessments (P=.05), but not more ONS. ONS ordering did not differ by provider. Nutritional risk did not predict ONS ordering, but receiving full nutritional assessment did predict ONS ordering. CONCLUSION: Expanded dietary ONS ordering privileges are consistent with the literature, but it was not effective at improving the use of ONS. The nutritional risk screening and process for full nutritional assessment remains open for improvement. An interdisciplinary team including the advance practice nurse to champion the development of a nutritional risk screening process using a validated assessment tool and then subsequent evidence-based interventions is needed. Nutritional assessment must determine nutritional risk to facilitate ONS ordering, not risk determining assessment