Gambling Awareness for Youth: An Analysis of the Don\u27t Gamble Away Our Future Program

Gambling has become increasingly popular among minors and is easily accessible to them. This is alarming since research has indicated that minors are more susceptible to gambling pathology than adults. Additionally, gambling has devastating effects on minors that gamble as well as their families and communities. The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery (IIAR) developed a gambling awareness prevention program called “Don’t Gamble Away our Future™” to educate minors about gambling and the dangers associated with it. The IIAR started collecting data for the purpose of evaluation in 2005. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the program’s effectiveness at changing knowledge about gambling and to assess the frequencies of problem and pathological gambling among participants at program implementation (year one). The program was evaluated with a sample of 8,455 Midwestern youth. Findings indicated that 10% of the participants were probable pathological gamblers and that the program was successful at increasing knowledge of gambling and the negative effects it can have, over the short term. Teaching minors about the risks of gambling and the effects it can have is an important preventative measure that can help protect youth from the dangers associated with problem and pathological gambling

Addressing Anthropogenic Climate Change: How Contemporary Latent Neoliberalism is Getting in the Way

This paper takes an exploratory approach to examining Anthropogenic Climate Change (ACC) and the system involved in addressing this issue. It starts by asking ‘What needs to be done to address ACC,’ and then similar to peeling away layers of an onion, goes deeper, shifting to two linked questions: ‘Why do we seem to be slow to respond to what is possibly the greatest threat of our time’; and, ‘Why do we seem to be getting in our own way?’ Through a layered approach, the paper identifies the actors within the system, the relationships, and the underlying ideology. Initially, the paper focuses on an objective viewpoint, and then peels that objectivity back to look at the realities and context in relation to each actor’s roles, influences, and challenges. Using a causal layered analysis and a systemigram, the paper works to show why the pace of change remains slow despite the growing crisis and despite overtly expressed interest in change from the three main actor groups: the public, government, and industry. What it finds through the analysis is that aspects of neoliberalism, called ‘contemporary latent neoliberalism’ (a focus on free-market capitalism, light-touch government, a hidden ruling elite, and social/environmental issues subordinate to all else), are at the heart of the problem, creating strong resistance and slowing the progress on addressing anthropogenic climate change. Ultimately, the current system is flawed. The majority of influence and power comes from individuals and organizations that profit from lines of business that contribute to climate change, and whose profits would be negatively affected by strong rapid efforts to address ACC. Governments are unable to step in to hold these actors to account as they are designed to follow market forces, and the public is unable to effect real change as they have the least amount of influence. For real change to occur, the system has to shift in some way

Gambling Awareness for Youth: An Analysis of the Don\u27t Gamble Away Our Future Program

Gambling has become increasingly popular among minors and is easily accessible to them. This is alarming since research has indicated that minors are more susceptible to gambling pathology than adults. Additionally, gambling has devastating effects on minors that gamble as well as their families and communities. The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery (IIAR) developed a gambling awareness prevention program called “Don’t Gamble Away our Future™” to educate minors about gambling and the dangers associated with it. The IIAR started collecting data for the purpose of evaluation in 2005. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the program’s effectiveness at changing knowledge about gambling and to assess the frequencies of problem and pathological gambling among participants at program implementation (year one). The program was evaluated with a sample of 8,455 Midwestern youth. Findings indicated that 10% of the participants were probable pathological gamblers and that the program was successful at increasing knowledge of gambling and the negative effects it can have, over the short term. Teaching minors about the risks of gambling and the effects it can have is an important preventative measure that can help protect youth from the dangers associated with problem and pathological gambling

Physiological Effects of Chronic Copper Exposure to Rainbow Trout (\u3cem\u3eOncorhynchus Mykiss\u3c/em\u3e) in Hard and Soft Water: Evaluation of Chronic Indicators

Effects of chronic copper exposure on a suite of indicators were examined: acute toxicity, acclimation, growth, sprint performance, whole-body electrolytes, tissue residues, and gill copper binding characteristics. Juvenile rainbow trout were exposed for 30 d to waterborne copper in hard water (hardness = 120 μg/L as CaCO3, pH = 8.0, Cu = 20 and 60 μg/L) and soft water (hardness = 20 μg/L as CaCO3, pH = 7.2, Cu = 1 and 2 μg/L). Significant acclimation to the metal occurred only in fish exposed to 60 mg/L, as seen by an approx. twofold increase in 96-h LC50 (153 vs 91 μg Cu/L). Chronic copper exposure had little or no effect on survival, growth, or swimming performance in either water hardness, nor was there any initial whole-body electrolyte loss (Na+ and Cl-). The present data suggest that the availability of food (3% wet body weight/day, distributed as three 1% meals) prevented growth inhibition and initial ion losses that usually result from Cu exposure. Elevated metal burdens in the gills and livers of exposed fish were measures of chronic copper exposure but not of effect. Initial gill binding experiments revealed the necessity of using radiolabeled Cu (64Cu) to detect newly accumulated Cu against gill background levels. Using this method, we verified the presence of saturable Cu-binding sites in the gills of juvenile rainbow trout and were able to make estimates of copperbinding affinity (log Kgill=Cu) and capacity (Bmax). Furthermore, we showed that both chronic exposure to Cu and to low water calcium had important effects on the Cu-binding characteristics of the gills

Conducting Interviews in Hermeneutic Research: An Example

In this paper, we discuss the conduct of an interview that was done as a demonstration of the character of interviews in hermeneutic research. This interview was conducted within the context of a graduate course on hermeneutics and involved one of the course professors and a volunteer doctoral student in the class. Although the interview did not occur within a research study, the content of the interview is genuine and not fabricated or acted. Offering the course in an online platform of Zoom allowed for the opportunity to record it and, as a result, we are able to discuss it as well as offer a link to the viewing of the actual interview. Keywords Hermeneutic research, interviewing, Gadamerian philosophical hermeneutics, &nbsp

Assignment Of Grades And Student Performance In A Hybrid Operations Management Course: What Works And Ideas For Improvements

The production and operations management class offered at California State University, Fresno underwent a transformation from being a four-unit, face-to-face course to a hybrid course.  This hybrid course, which is required for all students in the Craig School of Business, includes two units of face-to-face instruction each week, with some coverage of conceptual material as well as review and practice of the mathematical material presented online.   There are also two units of online streaming lecture instruction created and delivered by the course coordinator covering primarily quantitative material with some coverage of conceptual material for some chapters.  This second component translates into about ten hours of online related activities during the week for the students, requiring a large amount of self-discipline as they study and learn complex mathematical concepts applied to production management.  Students are expected to work through this material and complete corresponding quantitative worksheets prior to coming to class.  This paper compares the proportions of assigned grades of 116 students in four sections of the hybrid production and operations management class in the fall of 2006 to the proportions of assigned grades of 76 students in three sections of the course conducted in the spring of 2001, one of the last semesters that it was taught entirely in the classroom.  Changes that have taken place in the delivery of the course will be described, as well as suggestions for making the instructor’s delivery of the course more effective in the future.  Fisher’s exact test and chi-square analysis will be performed to determine if there was a significant change in the proportions of assigned grades between the face-to-face format and the hybrid course.  One item of particular interest is the proportion of assigned grades on the comprehensive, final exam, the content of which was virtually the same in 2001 as in 2006.  Thus, it provides a consistent measure of the students’ overall understanding of both conceptual and mathematical material at the end of the semester.&nbsp

Sex of Spouse Abuse Offender and Directionality of Abuse as Predictors of Personal Distress, Interpersonal Functioning, and Perceptions of Family Climate

This study examines perceptions of personal distress, interpersonal functioning and family climate reported by men and women involved in unidirectional versus bidirectional spouse abuse. Participants were 7253 offenders treated by the USAF Family Advocacy Program from 1988 to 1996. Over a quarter of the sample is female and included among them were both undirectional and bidirectional offenders. Grouping factors for the analysis are gender, directionality of aggression, history of abuse in childhood, history of recidivism, and severity of aggression. Females and offenders raised in abusive homes reported more negative perceptions across the measured spheres. Unidirectional abusers reported more personal distress, but bidirectional abuse had more conflicted family climates. Few differences were noted in offenders\u27 perceptions based on the severity of their abuse or their history of repeat offenses. Tests for interactions yielded no reliable pattern indicating that grouping factors were related to outcomes in an additive fashion