Understanding Nicotine Addition: Dependency as a Result of Maladaptive Brain Structure

Nicotine addiction is the most prevalent, destructive dependency found in our culture. Despite its well-documented damaging health risks, nicotine use is still widely accepted and could be conceptualized as a social epidemic. Much of this acceptance may stem from nicotine’s lack of debilitating cognitive effects, as compared to those of other abused drugs. However, what may reign dominantly over nicotine’s legality is simple cultural precedent: tobacco has never been illegal and holds a place in human history. Therefore, attempting to alter this would prove highly unpopular and unsuccessful. This macroscopic irrationality, a blind favor for cultural precedents, parallels the irrational behaviors exhibited in an individual experiencing nicotine dependence. Just as the dependent brain unconditionally craves nicotine, our culture accepts longstanding practices and traditions, despite the contradictory state they may force upon our laws

Danialle Karmanos' Work It Out Evaluation Report: Winter/Spring 2013

The DKWIO program seeks to prevent childhood obesity by promoting a healthy mind, body, and spirit through yoga and nutrition programming. The purpose of DKWIO is to help children become healthier by reducing anxiety and increasing self-esteem through the calming and focused effects of yoga. Each week (10 weeks total) children are introduced to a unique one-hour formula that includes an introduction, nutritional information, yoga and activities, as well as relaxation and meditation exercises. The program is delivered by volunteer yoga instructors at urban elementary schools as part of students' existing physical education programming. By the end of the 10 weeks, the DKWIO program goals are that children will have a better understanding of and appreciation for yoga, healthy eating and physical activity, and that incorporating a practice of yoga will improve students' mental and physical health. This report is an evaluation of the program

The Use of an Incentive Program to Increase Motivation for Academic Performance

The effects of an incentive program (Free Hours Points Program) on academic performance were examined. Sixty student-athletes on academic probation (less than a 2.25 GPA) at a Division I university participated. Points were awarded for positive, measurable efforts towards improving academic standing. Although grade point average (GPA) did not significantly increase from one year to the next, 62% of student-athletes did demonstrate improvement on this measure. Total points earned by each individual was not significantly correlated to GPA, however, class year was significantly negatively correlated with points earned, suggesting that this type of intervention may be more effective with younger student-athletes

CACTE Partnership Proposal

Proposal by Columbus Adult Career and Technology Education (CACTE) to Columbus City Schools and two Franklinton venues to use their buildings for evening courses in computer literacy and technology that CACTE would provide

Spider Silk- Hydrogels, Lyogels, Sponges

Spider silk is stronger than Kevlar and more elastic than nylon. These characteristics have led scientists to attempt mass production and world renowned research of the strongest fiber on earth and one of the strongest materials known to man. Only recently has spider silk been artificially produced in large enough quantities to branch out to its endless possibilities. Utah State University\u27s USTAR program has used transgenic goats to produce spider silk protein within their milk. Once these proteins are extracted from the goat\u27s milk it can be restructured in to fibers, adhesives, hydrogels, and coatings. Spider silk has opened the potential for aqueous bases protein materials. Spider silk has been dissolved in aqueous solutions and hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been produced. With an aqueous based solution we have determined each of these materials to be biocompatible through immortalized cell culture. This opens a broad range of biomedical uses for each of these materials. We determined the mechanical strength, structural stability, diffusion rate, and drug release effectiveness of these materials. Hydrogels are a gelatinous material composes of mostly water. Their molecular rearrangement can be altered with the incorporation of different post treatments. Lyogels are lyophilized hydrogels that are composed of mostly air and spider silk protein. Sponges are the result of hydrogels that have been frozen in water then allowed to thaw. The properties of the hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges have been characterized by mechanical testing, FTIR, UV spectrometry, and SEM. Through testing and exploration hydrogels have been loaded with antibiotics and much has been learned about the rates of drug release and diffusion through the gels. Although the research on sponges is very new, great strides have been made in showing that they have potential in the biomedical industry especially with their ability to be completely dehydrated then rehydrated again. These different materials can potentially be applied to many different healing applications. The structure and capability of hydrogels, lyogels, and sponges to withstand compression have been studied for all materials. Though each material is related and similar they all have vastly different mechanical properties that give each material distinct properties and capabilities to achieve different tasks

Benchmarks for Detecting Measurement Tampering

When training powerful AI systems to perform complex tasks, it may be challenging to provide training signals which are robust to optimization. One concern is \textit{measurement tampering}, where the AI system manipulates multiple measurements to create the illusion of good results instead of achieving the desired outcome. In this work, we build four new text-based datasets to evaluate measurement tampering detection techniques on large language models. Concretely, given sets of text inputs and measurements aimed at determining if some outcome occurred, as well as a base model able to accurately predict measurements, the goal is to determine if examples where all measurements indicate the outcome occurred actually had the outcome occur, or if this was caused by measurement tampering. We demonstrate techniques that outperform simple baselines on most datasets, but don't achieve maximum performance. We believe there is significant room for improvement for both techniques and datasets, and we are excited for future work tackling measurement tampering.Comment: Edits: extended and improved appendices, fixed references, figures, and typo

Conditional Status Quo Bias and Top Income Shares: How U.S. Political Institutions Have Benefited the Rich

This article develops and tests a model of conditional status quo bias and American inequality. We find that institutional features that bias policy outcomes toward the status quo have played a central role in the path of inequality. Using time-series analysis of top income shares during the post-Depression period, we identify the Senate as a key actor in the politics of income inequality. Our findings suggest that the supermajoritarian nature of the Senate and policy stagnation, when coupled with economic and social factors that produce rising inequality, create a situation in which inequality becomes difficult to reverse

Using Yoga to Reduce Stress and Bullying Behaviors Among Urban Youth

Background/Purpose: Obesity and secondary conditions continue to disproportionally affect the health of children living in urban areas. Studies show that a lack of resources and physical activity-unfriendly communities discourage 60 minutes of daily activity, including strengthening exercises, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using Social Ecological theory, the purpose of this study was to examine the multi-level influences of a yoga-based intervention on urban, inner city youth. Method: Using a mixed-methods design, ninety-three 3 - 5th grade students at five urban elementary schools participated in a ten-week yoga intervention. Analysis/Results: RM-ANOVA results revealed a significant reduction in stress and bullying behaviors among participants, and multiple regression analyses revealed that program attendance, change in stress, and change in yoga enjoyment significantly predicted change in yoga participation outside PE, when controlling for gender and age F(5, 87) = 5.36, p \u3c 0.01, adj. R2 = 0.19, but did not have a significant impact on physical activity participation outside of school. Student interviews and non-participant observations revealed strong enjoyment of yoga which led students to report substantial increases in yoga-related activities outside of school. Students also revealed that experience in yoga improved focus, attention, and reduced stress. Conclusions: Through convergence of qualitative and quantitative methods, this study showed a positive relationship between the number of yoga sessions attended (dose), enjoyment of yoga, and participation in yoga outside PE with friends and family. Findings suggest that urban PE should include more individual, non-competitive activities such as yoga, which students find to be stress-relieving, fun, inexpensive and easy to perform at home

Understanding Stress and Aggression Behaviors among Urban Youth

Background/Objective: Youth violence, including school bullying and fighting, has become a global public health problem. Stress has been identified as a factor related to aggression (i.e., bullying behaviors, fighting, and anger), of which inner-city youth are particularly vulnerable given their often disproportionately high stress living environments. Stress and aggression are of particular concern in urban physical education (PE) given the proliferation of competitive, sport-based curricula, “culture of basketball”, and the often-limited supervision that takes place. Using the Social Ecological Model, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between stress and aggression in inner-city elementary PE students. Methods: After parental consent, participants completed a questionnaire with validated scales measuring stress, aggression, and demographics. Participants included 138, 3rd-5th grade students (Mage = 9.77) from six inner-city schools in the Midwestern United States. Analysis/Results: After correlations were conducted to determine relationships, a series of multiple regression analyses were used to determine the predictors of aggression; controlling for gender, race, and age. Regression results revealed that fighting was significantly predicted by the independent variables with stress, anger, and bullying uniquely contributing (F (6,115) = 21.54, p \u3c 0.01, adj. R2 = 0.51). Additionally, bullying was uniquely predicted by fighting and anger (F (6,115) = 35.01, p \u3c 0.01, adj. R2 = 0.63). Conclusions: This study established a significant relationship between stress, anger, fighting and bullying behaviors in urban PE, possibly indicating a need for renewed focus on anti-aggressive approaches and positive stress response techniques. Specifically, mindfulness-based physical activities, such as Yoga, could enable educators to create more peaceful and less stressful climates, which might then lead to less bullying, fighting, and aggression, hence a more productive learning environment