Print Sources for Historical Constitutions

This paper examines general, regional, and country-specific print sources for historical national and sub-national constitutions. It also discusses sources that index those constitutions. The print sources for English translations of historical constitutions and other constitutional laws and documents remain widely scattered. This paper seeks to offer some guidance to those who need to find and use these scattered sources

Print Sources for Historical Constitutions

This paper examines general, regional, and country-specific print sources for historical national and sub-national constitutions. It also discusses sources that index those constitutions. The print sources for English translations of historical constitutions and other constitutional laws and documents remain widely scattered. This paper seeks to offer some guidance to those who need to find and use these scattered sources

Improving Nurses\u27 Knowledge of Stroke

Stroke is a devastating disease. Stroke care has advanced greatly in the past 20 years with innovations in radiologic imaging, development of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), organized systems of care, telestroke, and best practice guidelines via Get with the Guidelines Stroke (GWTGS). However, stroke remains the 5th leading cause of death in the United States. To provide current and quality care for stroke patients, nurses need ongoing stroke education. Additionally, stroke centers must provide a sustainable stoke education program to their nurses to keep their knowledge current. Guided by Rosswurm and Larrabee\u27s model, this quality improvement project addressed whether an educational program based on evidence in GWTGS could increase nursing knowledge of stroke. A convenience sample of 50 medical-surgical nurses from a stroke telemetry unit participated in this program. Nursing knowledge was assessed by using a student-developed tool based on the GWTGS best practice evidence to evaluate for increased knowledge regarding stroke and stroke management. Using simple descriptive statistics, the percent difference from pretest to posttest was calculated. The results revealed a 16.79% increase in nurses\u27 knowledge. The practicum organization therefore adopted the program. Implications for nursing practice and social change include organizations adopting the educational program as a sustainable learning opportunity for nurses in regards to stroke care

MapUtopia: An Improvement over Existing Census Mapping Applications

The United States Census public data portal and other existing demographic mapping applications do a suboptimal job of serving two prime data user groups; the casual data user, and the GIS data user. The Census Bureau in particular has produced a user-unfriendly product with a steep learning curve. In response to the lack of an existing platform which could efficiently handle common user requests, the author has created MapUtopia.com. MapUtopia is an interactive census data mapping application which allows for quick user access to commonly requested demographic data, and allows for user download of that data in the commonly utilized KML format. MapUtopia is built on the principle of usability, and leverages the Google Maps API and open source software

The use of an iPad as a classroom tool

The Apple i line has been steadily increasing in popularity and many educators believe these devices offer great potential as instructional adjuncts. Many schools (including colleges) have begun issuing iPads to students with the assumption that they would enhance the students\u27 educational experience. Little experimental evidence has been produced supporting this claim. This study was an attempt to experimentally evaluate the effectiveness of iPads on learning educational material. Participant\u27s interest and enjoyment while using the iPad versus traditional material presentation (paper images or physical models) were also examined. Participants were randomly assigned to learn 24 anatomical brain structures using one of three conditions; 1) control color paper images, 2) plastic anatomical model, and 3) iPad application 3-D Brain , produced by Dolan DNA Learning Center. Participants were given 10-minutes with their assigned material and were then immediately tested on the material. The results demonstrated that learning & memory performance using the iPad was significantly better than the plastic model, and no different from paper pictures. Compared to the plastic model, participants also reported that they enjoyed the task more, felt more prepared, felt their performance was better, and would be more likely to take a class using the iPad. A gender difference was also discovered, suggesting that females might benefit more from the use of the iPad than males. The limitations and implications of these findings are discussed

Metabolic, Physiological, And Behavioral Responses Of Prey To Predation

Predators are known to cause prey to alter their morphology, life history or behavior in ways that reduce the likelihood of the prey being consumed by the predator. Seldom considered, however, are the consequences of predators on internal morphology (e.g., gut length) or physiology of prey. Such consideration is important because these traits likely affect prey growth and could explain why prey often grow more slowly in the presence of predators. Furthermore, a history of exposure to predators may alter how strongly visual or chemical signals from predators affect prey physiology and behavior. I raised larval frogs in artificial ponds that either lacked or contained a caged fish predator and assessed whether rearing environment affected prey gut length, morphology, behavior, and metabolic rate. I also assessed whether the rearing environment affected the metabolic and behavioral response of larval frogs to either short-term visual or chemical signals from fish by measuring the metabolism and behavior of predator naïve and predator exposed larval frogs when exposed to short-term visual and/or chemical signals from fish. Tadpoles raised with predators had shorter guts but long-term predator exposure had no effect on the metabolic rate of tadpoles, body mass, or survival. The effect of long-term predator exposure on tadpole shape depended on body size. Occurrence of predators caused tadpole shape to differ for both small and large tadpoles but not tadpoles of the average body size. Short-term exposure to chemical cues from predators altered the metabolic rate of naïve tadpoles but not tadpoles with prior exposure to predators. Smaller naïve tadpoles reduced their metabolic rate but larger naïve tadpoles enhanced their metabolic rate in response to short-term chemical cues. Chemical cues caused the metabolic rate of naïve tadpoles to be 24% greater than that observed in tadpoles that were reared with predators. Short-term visual cues did not influence the metabolic rate of any tadpoles. Prior exposure to predators did not cause tadpoles to differ in their activity levels or their likelihood to seek a refuge. Exposure to short-term chemical cues increased the number of naïve tadpoles seeking a refuge. Short-term visual cues resulted in more predator exposed tadpoles hiding in a refuge. My results indicate that long-term exposure to predators may compromise the ability of prey to extract resources by causing prey to develop shorter guts. These results further suggest the greater activity of predator exposed tadpoles to be a result of a less efficient digestion system requiring increased foraging effort but the risk of increased activity in the face of predation may be mitigated to some degree by modifications to body shape. This study supports the idea that there are complex interactions among physiology, behavior, and morphology in predator-prey interactions.M.S

A Buddhist Perspective on the Global Environmental Crisis: Poetics of the Wild

My thesis is about a Buddhist perspective on the global environmental crisis, including an exploration of how both ancient and modern poetry express a compassionate response to nature, a social science survey, and a creative project of my own poetry. The exploration in the rationale paper suggests that looking inward may be an important way to begin to understand individual responsibility for the global environmental crisis. In consideration of this is a discussion of ancient Buddhist wisdom and teachings about, and the relevance of, mindfulness, compassion, interdependence, and impermanence. In a creative extension of this discussion, an exploration of Buddhist- inspired nature poetry follows. Both ancient and modern poetics address the human condition and interconnection with the planet in deep, heartfelt and insightful ways. I call this Poetics of the Wild, to describe the vast, passionate art of language that captures the wildness of nature, as well as the wildness of the creative mind in expressing our connection to it. In my emergent and multidimensional vision for this project, I include my research survey on how mindfulness may be a factor in individuals’ actions with regard to global warming; the findings are presented to illustrate the importance of mindful behavior within the context of creating solutions to the environmental crisis. Finally, my own poetry is presented in a creative project, with deep compassion and love for the earth. Awareness and respect of nature sustains my own mindfulness of how to live within the context of the devastating global environmental crisis, and I hope that it inspires others to pay close attention to the world around them, as well as to each other

A Shot At Freedom: The Story Of Lance Sessoms

Lance Sessoms has served 32 years in prison for a crime he committed. He has spent the entirety of his long term sentence turning his life around and helping any and everyone that he\u27s crossed paths with. Now, Sessoms is hoping a life of servitude and being a model incarcerated person will afford him a second chance at life and with his family.https://medium.com/@tljdowd/a-shot-at-freedom-the-story-of-lance-sessoms-d3f190e0b81

Panics and Principles: A History of Drug Education Policy in New South Wales 1965-1999

When the problem of young people using illegal drugs for recreation emerged in New South Wales in the 1960s drug education was promoted by governments and experts as a humane alternative to policing. It developed during the 1970s and 1980s as the main hope for preventing drug problems amongst young people in the future. By the 1990s drug policy experts, like their temperance forbears, had become disillusioned with drug education, turning to legislative action for the prevention of alcohol and other drug problems. However, politicians and the community still believed that education was the best solution. Education Departments, reluctant to expose schools to public controversy, met minimal requirements. This thesis examines the ideas about drugs, education and youth that influenced the construction and implementation of policies about drug education in New South Wales between 1965 and 1999. It also explores the processes that resulted in the defining of drug problems and beliefs about solutions, identifying their contribution to policy and the way in which this policy was implemented. The thesis argues that the development of drug education over the last fifty years has been marked by three main cycles of moral panic about youth drug use. It finds that each panic was triggered by the discovery of the use of a new illegal substance by a youth subculture. Panics continued, however, because of the tension between two competing notions of young people’s drug use. In the traditional dominant view ‘drug’ meant illegal drugs, young people’s recreational drug use was considered to be qualitatively different to that of adults, and illegal drugs were the most serious and concerning problem. In the newer alternative ‘public health’ view which began developing in the 1960s, illicit drug use was constructed as part of normal experimentation, alcohol, tobacco and prescribed medicines were all drugs, and those who developed problems with their use were sick, not bad. These public health principles were formulated in policy documents on many occasions. The cycles of drug panic were often an expression of anxiety about the new approach and they had the effect of reasserting the dominant view. The thesis also finds that the most significant difference between the two discourses lies in the way that alcohol is defined, either as a relatively harmless beverage or as a drug that is a major cause of harm. Public health experts have concluded that alcohol poses a much greater threat to the health and safety of young people than illegal drugs. However, parents, many politicians and members of the general community have believed for the last fifty years that alcohol is relatively safe. Successive governments have been influenced by the economic power of the alcohol industry to support the latter view. Thus the role of alcohol and its importance to the economy in Australian society is a significant hindrance in reconciling opposing views of the drug problem and developing effective drug education. The thesis concludes that well justified drug education programs have not been implemented fully because the rational approaches to drug education developed by experts have not been supported by the dominant discourse about the drug problem. Politicians have used drug education as a populist strategy to placate fear but the actual programs that have been developed attempt to inform young people and the community about the harms and benefits of all drugs. When young people take up the use of a new mood altering drug, the rational approach developed by public health experts provokes intense anxiety in the community and the idea that legal substances such as alcohol, tobacco and prescribed drugs can cause serious harm to young people is rejected in favour of an approach that emphasizes the danger of illegal drug use