Poverty, Minorities, and Respect for Law

Students spend most of their waking hours with their teachers and peers, who are considered to be the significant others, that influence their learning motivation and school life. Whether a student likes to go to school or not, whether she can adjust in school and engage in all learning activities, whether she can get good grades or fail depend not only on herself, but on the significant others. In this study, the aim is to find out how and in what ways teachers and peers influence adolescents in their academic life. Forty-one articles were reviewed to discuss around four research questions: What kinds of influences do peers have on adolescents in the academic context? In what ways do teachers’ high expectations affect the students? What kind of teacher-student relationships do students perceive in order to have positive attitudestowards school and have satisfying outcomes? What aspects in adolescents’ academic life are influenced by teachers’ self-efficacy? Teachers and peers are important motivators in students’ academic life. When the school, teacher and parents are aware of the influences from peers and teachers, they are given a chance to improve the factors involved so that students can learn best in a supportive atmosphere and environment

The USDA Cotton Outlook

Crop Production/Industries,

Pan-European Chikungunya surveillance: Designing risk stratified surveillance zones

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund - Copyright @ 2009 Tilston et alThe first documented transmission of Chikungunya within Europe took place in Italy during the summer of 2007. Chikungunya, a viral infection affecting millions of people across Africa and Asia, can be debilitating and no prophylactic treatment exists. Although imported cases are reported frequently across Europe, 2007 was the first confirmed European outbreak and available evidence suggests that Aedes albopictus was the vector responsible and the index case was a visitor from India. This paper proposed pan-European surveillance zones for Chikungunya, based on the climatic conditions necessary for vector activity and viral transmission. Pan-European surveillance provides the best hope for an early-warning of outbreaks, because national boundaries do not play a role in defining the risk of this new vector borne disease threat. A review of climates, where Chikungunya has been active, was used to inform the delineation of three pan-European surveillance zones. These vary in size each month across the June-September period of greatest risk. The zones stretch across southern Europe from Portugal to Turkey. Although the focus of this study was to define the geography of potential surveillance zones based on the climatic limits on the vector and virus, a preliminary examination of inward bound airline passengers was also undertaken. This indicated that France and Italy are likely to be at greater risk due to the number of visitors they receive from Chikungunya active regions, principally viraemic visitors from India. Therefore this study represents a first attempt at creating risk stratified surveillance zones, which we believe could be usefully refined with the use of higher resolution climate data and more complete air travel data

Paper-based web connected objects and the Internet of Things through EKKO

Paper has existed as a communications ‘platform’ for thousands of years. It’s ‘versioning history’ spans papyrus, parchment and pulp, and when paper became a scalable and mass-production item, most famously via the Guttenberg press, it sparked unparalleled social and political change. It’s a technology that’s had ‘impact’. More recently, News and Information - a sector with paper at its core - has seen substantial editorial and commercial disruption from digital communications networks. This paper outlines a collaborative project between journalism, media and technology researchers, and commercial product designers, exploring the potential of paper-based web-connected objects. Our work examines how emergent conductive ink technologies could offer a disruptive alternative to existing media products, and explores how to create, power and populate a connected paper platform, and analyse user activity. Through a range of industry partnerships with newspaper, magazine and book publishers, our research creates new paper affordances and interactions, and positions paper as a digital disruptor

Dynamic stabilization versus fusion for treatment of degenerative spine conditions.

Study design Comparative effectiveness review.Study rationale Spinal fusion is believed to accelerate the degeneration of the vertebral segment above or below the fusion site, a condition called adjacent segment disease (ASD). The premise of dynamic stabilization is that motion preservation allows for less loading on the discs and facet joints at the adjacent, non-fused segments. In theory, this should decrease the rate of ASD. However, clinical evidence of this theoretical decrease in ASD is still lacking. We performed a systematic review to evaluate the evidence in the literature comparing dynamic stabilization with fusion.Clinical question In patients 18 years or older with degenerative disease of the cervical or lumbar spine, does dynamic stabilization lead to better outcomes and fewer complications, including ASD, than fusion in the short-term and the long-term?Methods A systematic search and review of the literature was undertaken to identify studies published through March 7, 2011. PubMed, Cochrane, and National Guideline Clearinghouse Databases as well as bibliographies of key articles were searched. Two individuals independently reviewed articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria which were set a priori. Each article was evaluated using a predefined quality-rating scheme.Results No significant differences were identified between fusion and dynamic stabilization with regard to VAS, ODI, complications, and reoperations. There are no long-term data available to show whether dynamic stabilization decreases the rate of ASD.Conclusions There are no clinical data from comparative studies supporting the use of dynamic stabilization devices over standard fusion techniques

Paper Gaming: Creating IoT Paper Interactions with Conductive Inks and Web-connectivity through EKKO

Paper is ubiquitous. It forms a substantial part of our everyday activities and interactions; ranging from our take-away coffee cups -- to wallpaper -- to rail tickets -- to board and card games. Imagine if you could connect paper to the Internet, interact and update it with additional data but without recourse to reprinting or using e-ink alternatives. This paper explores work examining conductive inks and web-connectivity of printed objects, which form part of an emergent sub-field within the Internet of Things (IoT) and paper. Our research is starting to explore a range of media uses, such as interactive newspapers, books, beer mats and now gaming environments through prototype IoT device named EKKO; a clip that allows conductive ink frameworks to detect human touch interaction revealing rich media content through a mobile application as the 'second screen'

Tracking ancient beach-lines inland: 2600-year-old dentate-stamped ceramics at Hopo, Vailala River region, Papua New Guinea

The Lapita expansion took Austronesian seafaring peoples with distinctive pottery eastward from the Bismarck Archipelago to western Polynesia during the late second millennium BC, marking the first stage in the settlement of Oceania. Here it is shown that a parallel process also carried Lapita pottery and people many hundreds of kilometres westward along the southern shore of Papua New Guinea. The key site is Hopo, now 4.5km inland owing to the progradation of coastal sand dunes, but originally on the sea edge. Pottery and radiocarbon dates indicate Lapita settlement in this location c.600 BC, and suggest that the long-distance maritime networks linking the entire southern coast of Papua New Guinea in historical times may trace their origin to this period

Social Marketing: Meeting the Outreach Challenges of Today

Social marketing uses traditional marketing strategies to create social change by maximizing audience response. The social marketing framework holds great promise for extending Extension\u27s outreach to new audiences on new and old issues. Extension professionals can greatly benefit the communities they serve by employing some simple, but strategized marketing techniques. Six simple tools are shared to develop a social marketing toolbox

The influence of anxiety sensitivity on sleep quality

Sleep is important to overall wellbeing. Mental health and sleep likely have a bidirectional relationship, wherein sleep problems are both causal factors and consequences of psychiatric conditions (Krystal, 2012). This study specifically examined the relationship of anxiety sensitivity, conceptualized as a fear of anxiety symptoms (Reiss, 1991), to sleep problems. Those with higher anxiety sensitivity may be more worried about the negative effects of poor sleep quality, which could interfere with their ability to fall asleep (Baker et al., 2017; Harvey, 2002). Furthermore, the role of body-mass index (BMI) was examined; people who are overweight or obese may be at a greater risk for anxiety and other mental illness (Zhao et al., 2009). They also are at a greater risk for obstructive sleep apnea (Jehan et al., 2017), which in turn is related to higher anxiety (Rezaeitalab et al., 2014). To examine these relationships, participants were recruited from Ball State University and through social media to respond to measures assessing trait anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, BMI, sleep quality, and demographics. Those with higher BMIs, trait anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity were expected to report greater sleep dysfunction. It was hypothesized that anxiety sensitivity would moderate the trait anxiety– sleep quality and BMI – sleep quality relationships. While anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety significantly predicted sleep quality in a hierarchical linear regression, anxiety sensitivity did not moderate the trait anxiety – sleep quality relationship. Exploratory analyses revealed that anxiety sensitivity did moderate the trait anxiety-sleep quality relationship for the college participants, but not the non-college participants, suggesting that age may be an important factor in these relationships. Additionally, BMI was not found to be related to anxiety sensitivity or sleep quality, and anxiety sensitivity did not moderate the relationship between BMI and sleep quality.Thesis (M.A.

The redox potential characteristics of saltmarsh sediments and their influence on the restoration of perennial halophytes in coastal realignment

Sediment anoxia and associated low redox potential (Eh) are important influences on the distribution of saltmarsh plants. Nevertheless, the detailed variation of Eh in space and time is poorly understood, especially on managed realignment (MR) saltmarshes where anoxia may be a significant constraint on the establishment of characteristic perennial halophytes. This thesis examines the distribution of Eh in natural and MR saltmarshes of North Norfolk and Lincolnshire, UK and its implications for Armeria maritima, Limonium vulgare, Plantago maritima and Triglochin maritima, species important in general saltmarsh (GSM) communities. Detailed measurements of Eh were made using arrays of fixed electrodes and a field datalogger, at different sites/seasons/sediment depths, over tidal cycles, and in relation to microtopography (including on an existing experiment with manipulated microtopography). Laboratory apparatus was devised to examine responses of halophytes to controlled Eh in water culture. Relationships between vegetation and Eh proved complex. Prolonged low-Eh episodes occurred both at MR and natural GSM sites, particularly in summer. Atriplex portulacoides and Puccinellia maritima tended to dominate where low-Eh episodes were more transient, generally near drainage channels or at higher elevations. Atriplex, Armeria and Plantago previously planted in experimental plots survived poorly at low Eh, while Limonium and Triglochin showed higher survival. In cultivation, Atriplex tolerated anoxia for only two weeks, and low Eh did not impose any additional stress. In contrast, Triglochin survived the ten-week duration of the experiment even at low Eh. Thus laboratory results suggested mechanistic bases to explain those in the field. Although MR and GSM sediments can exhibit similar Eh measurements, they may differ with respect to redox capacity; MR sediments sites with high reduction capacities may exert additional stresses that could limit colonisation. Conversely, consistently high Eh could also limit colonisation on MR sites by promoting vigorous competitive growth of Atriplex and Puccinellia