From Death Notification Through the Funeral: Bereaved Parents’ Experiences and their Advice to Professionals

Parents who experience the sudden death of a child will interact with many professionals in the period immediately following the death notification through to the funeral. The way these professionals respond to the parents during this critical period may be perceived as helpful, and thus support them in beginning the process of managing the trauma and starting a healthy grieving process. It may also be perceived as unhelpful, though, and contribute to more prolonged and complicated grieving. This article identifies the interventions that a sample of 20 parents who had experienced the sudden death of a child found helpful with different aspects of grieving. Specific advice is given to police, nurses, doctors, coroners, social workers, crisis counselors, funeral directors, and chaplains or clergy

Overtime Overruled: Why the New Department of Labor Overtime Regulations Should Not Go Into Effect

The United States Department of Labor recently revised its overtime regulations for white collar workers to keep up with the changing economy and inflation. While the salary level for who can receive overtime pay needs to be elevated, the proposed elevation to the salary level under the Obama Administration is too drastic. The proposed overtime regulations essentially double the current salary level for overtime eligibility. This drastic increase is already having negative effects on employees, even though it has not yet gone into effect. To prepare for the new regulations to take effect, employers have begun to find ways around the law, disqualifying employees from receiving overtime pay that would begin receiving it under the new regulations. The new overtime regulations are not meeting its intended purpose of extending the right to overtime pay to more employees and, therefore, should not go into effect. This article proposes that the new salary threshold for overtime eligibility be set at $35,000, meaning that anyone making below this amount per year would qualify to receive overtime pay. Raising the salary threshold to$35,000 would still inevitably make more Americans eligible to receive overtime, while not increasing the threshold so drastically that employers cannot afford to pay the additional overtime pay

Educación para el trabajo social en el Canadá : paso a paso hacia una filosofía progresista

La historia del trabajo social en el Canadá puede caracterizarse como un debate entre dos perspectivas, una que da énfasis a la función del trabajo social y otra que se enfoca mas en las razones de su existencia. Este artículo ofrece una sinopsis de la historia de la educación del trabajo social en el Canadá, describe la presente estructura y las responsabilidades de los diferentes cuerpos que establecen los estándares corrientes. Finalmente, describe puntos de debate identificados a través de un proceso de planeamiento en el contexto de un amplio debate acreca de la misión del trabajo social.The history of social work education in Canada can be characterized as a debate about the mission of social work practice between two perspectives: the “professional” (or function) and the “progressive” (or cause) one. This paper briefly outlines the history of social work education in Canada, describes the current delivery structure of social work education, and summarizes the responsibilities of the various standard-setting bodies. It then discusses the issues identified through a recent planning process in the context of the larger debate about the mission of social wor

Comparison of omics technologies for hybrid prediction

One of the great challenges for plant breeders is dealing with the vast number of putative candidates, which cannot be tested exhaustively in multi-environment field trials. Using pedigree records helped breeders narrowing down the number of candidates substantially. With pedigree information, only a subset of candidates need to be subjected to exhaustive tests of their phenotype whereas the phenotype of the majority of untested relatives is inferred from their common pedigree. A caveat of pedigree information is its inability to capture Mendelian sampling and to accurately reflect relationships among individuals. This shortcoming was mitigated with the advent of marker assays covering regions harboring causal quantitative trait loci. Today, the prediction of untested candidates using information from genomic markers, called genomic prediction, is a routine procedure in larger plant breeding companies. Genomic prediction has revolutionized the prediction of traits with complex genetic architecture but, just as pedigree, cannot properly capture physiological epistasis, referring to complex interactions among genes and endophenotypes, such as RNA, proteins and metabolites. Given their intermediate position in the genotype-phenotype cascade, endophenotypes are expected to represent some of the information missing from the genome, thereby potentially improving predictive abilities. In a first study we explored the ability of several predictor types to forecast genetic values for complex agronomic traits recorded on maize hybrids. Pedigree and genomic information were included as the benchmark for evaluating the merit of metabolites and gene expression data in genetic value prediction. Metabolites, sampled from maize plants grown in field trials, were poor predictors for all traits. Conversely, root-metabolites, grown under controlled conditions, were moderate to competitive predictors for the traits fat as well as dry matter yield. Gene expression data outperformed other individual predictors for the prediction of genetic values for protein and the economically most relevant trait dry matter yield. A genome-wide association study suggested that gene expression data integrated SNP interactions. This might explain the superior performance of this predictor type in the prediction of protein and dry matter yield. Small RNAs were probed for their potential as predictors, given their involvement in transcriptional, post-transcriptional and post-translational regulation. Regardless of the trait, small RNAs could not outperform other predictors. Combinations of predictors did not considerably improve the predictive ability of the best single predictor for any trait but improved the stability of their performance across traits. By assigning different weights to each predictor, we evaluated each predictors optimal contribution for attaining maximum predictive ability. This approach revealed that pedigree, genomic information and gene expression data contribute equally when maximizing predictive ability for grain dry matter content. When attempting to maximize predictive ability for grain yield, pedigree information was superfluous. For genotypes having only genomic information, gene expression data were imputed by using genotypes having both, genomic as well as gene expression data. Previously, this single-step prediction framework was only used for qualitative predictors. Our study revealed that this framework can be employed for improving the cost-effectiveness of quantitative endophenotypes in hybrid prediction. We hope that these studies will further promote exploring endophenotypes as additional predictor types in breeding.Eine der größten Herausforderungen der Pflanzenzüchtung ist der Umgang mit der enormen Anzahl von Kandidaten, die nicht vollständig in mehrortigen Versuchen geprüft werden können. Die Nutzung von Verwandtschaftsbeziehungen hilft Züchtern die Anzahl dieser Kandidatennerheblich zu reduzieren. In diesem Fall muss nur ein Teil der Kandidaten phänotypisch geprüft werden. Für die übrigen, ungetesten Verwandten wird der Phänotyp hingegen mit Hilfe des Stammbaums vorhergesagt. Ein Nachteil von Stammbauminformationen ist, dass sie Zufallsprozesse Mendelscher Vererbung nicht erfassen und somit nicht präzise die genetische Ähnlichkeit zwischen Individuen wiedergeben.Die Nutzung von Marker-Chips, welche Genomregionen mit kausaler Beziehung zur Ausprägung phänotypischer Merkmale abdecken, konnte an dieser Stelle eine Verbesserung erzielen. Inzwischen ist die Nutzung von Markerinformationen zur Vorhersage ungetester Kandidaten - gemeinhin als Genomische Selektion bezeichnet - in größeren Pflanzenzüchtungsunternehmen bereits Routine. Genomische Selektion hat die Vorhersage von Merkmalen mit komplexer genetischer Architektur revolutioniert. Wie Stammbauminformationen, so können auch genomische Informationen physiologische Epistasie, welche komplexe Interaktionen zwischen Genen und Endophänotypen wie RNA, Proteinen und Metaboliten beschreibt, nicht adäquat abbilden. Aufgrund ihrer Einbettung innerhalb der Genotyp-Phänotyp-Kaskade wird erwartet, dass sie Informationen, die nicht durch das Genom repräsentiert werden, abbilden. Auf diesem Weg könnten Endophänotypen möglicherweise die Vorhersagegenauigkeit gegenüber genomischen Informationen verbessern. In einer ersten Studie untersuchten wir die Eignung unterschiedlicher Klassen von Prädiktoren zur Vorhersage genetischer Werte für komplexe agronomische Merkmale bei Hybridmais. Stammbaum- sowie genomische Informationen wurden als Referenz zur Bewertung der Eignung von Metabolit- und Genexpressionsdaten für die Vorhersage genetischer Werte herangezogen. Metabolite, die von Maispflanzen aus dem Feld entnommen wurden, erwiesen sich als wenig geeignet für die Vorhersage der untersuchten Merkmale. Im Gegensatz dazu erwiesen sich Wurzelmetabolite, entnommen von Maispflanzen, welche unter kontrollierten Bedingungen im Gewächshaus angezogen wurden, als akzeptable Prädiktoren für die Vorhersage der Merkmale "Fett" und "Trockensubstanzgehalt". Genexpressionsdaten waren der überlegene Prädiktor zur Vorhersage genetischer Werte für die Merkmale "Protein" sowie das ökonomisch wichtigste Merkmal "Trockenmasseertrag". Eine genomweite Assoziationskartierung deutete darauf hin, dass Genexpressionsdaten Interaktionen zwischen Genorten integrieren. Dies könnte die überlegene Eignung dieser Prädiktorenklasse zur Vorhersage der Merkmale "Protein" und "Trockenmasseertrag" erklären. Small RNAs wurden in einer zweiten Studie auf ihre Eignung als Prädiktoren untersucht, da sie an der Regulierung transkriptionaler, post-transkriptionaler und post-translationaler Prozesse beteiligt sind. Unabhängig vom Merkmal konnten small RNAs andere Prädiktoren nicht übertreffen. Obwohl keine Kombination von Prädiktoren deutlich die Vorhersagegenauigkeit der besten einzelnen Prädiktorenklasse übertreffen konnte, gewährleistete die Nutzung mehrer Prädiktoren die höchste Stabilität der Vorhersagen über Merkmale hinweg. Indem wir jedem Prädiktor ein unterschiedliches Gewicht zuwiesen, konnten wir deren optimale Beiträge zur Maximierung der Vorhersagegenauigkeit bestimmen. Dieser Ansatz zeigte, dass Stammbauminformationen, genomische Informationen sowie Genexpressionsdaten zu gleichen Anteilen zur Maximierung der Vorhersagegenauigkeit beim Merkmal "Korntrockensubstanzgehalt" beitrugen. Zur Maximierung der Vorhersagegenauigkeit des Merkmals "Kornertrag" waren Stammbauminformationen hingegen unerheblich. Für Genotypen, die lediglich mit genomischer Information abgedeckt waren, imputierten wir Genexpressionsdaten mit Hilfe solcher Genotypen für die sowohl genomische Informationen als auch Genexpressionsdaten vorlagen. Bis dato wurde dieser "single-step" Vorhersageansatz lediglich für qualitative Prädiktoren verwendet. Unsere Studie zeigte, dass dieser Ansatz zur Verbesserung der Kosteneffizienz quantitativer Prädiktoren in der Hybridleistungsvorhersage genutzt werden kann. Wir hoffen mit diesen Studien einen Anstoß für weiterführende Forschungsarbeiten über den Einsatz von Endophänotypen als zusätzliche Prädiktoren in der Züchtung gegeben zu haben

An Evaluation of a Family Life Education Program

This study has two distinct objectives: to evaluate how effectively the family life education program at Sir John A. Macdonald High School in Hamilton, Ontario is meeting its stated objectives and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of a traditional teaching method and an annovative teaching method with this family life education program. There are three groups in this study. The first group took the family life education program taught with the innovative method, the second group took the family life education program taught with the traditional method,a nd the third group did not take a family life education program. Students in all three groups were administered a pretest questionnaire in October, 1975 and a posttest questionnaire in May, 1976. Tests of significance were applied to all of the following hypotheses: Degree of change in the proportion of students who report having positive relationships with their parents, teachers, friends and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students seeking help with their personal problems from their parents, teachers, friends and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students reporting a high level of assertiveness with their parents, teachers, friends and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students who have occupational goals will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students with a nontraditional attitude toward marriage and woman’s role will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students with a high level of self-esteem will be greater for students who have taken the family life education program than for students who have not taken the family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students who report having positive relationships with their parents, teachers, friend and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the innovatively taught family life education program than for students who have taken the traditionally taught family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students seeking help with their personal problems from parents, teachers, friends and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the innovatively taught family life education program than for students who have taken the traditionally taught family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students reporting a high level of assertiveness with parents, teachers, friends and siblings will be greater for students who have taken the innovatively taught family life education program than for students who have taken the traditionally taught family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students with a nontraditional attitude toward marriage and woman’s role will be greater for students who have taken the innovatively taught family life education program than for students who have taken the traditionally taught family life education program. Degree of change in the proportion of students with a high level of self-esteem will be greater for students who have taken the innovatively taught family life education program than for students who have taken the traditionally taught family life education program. Analysis of the pretest data showed that there were no significant differences among the three groups on age, sex, religion, father’s education, father’s occupation, participation in class, birth position, grade average, relationships with others, help-seeking behaviour, level of assertiveness, the proportion having career goals or attitude toward marriage and woman’s role. The control group had a significantly higher level of self-esteem at pretest. At posttest, this significant difference had disappeared. We also found that there had been a significant increase in the proportion of comparison group respondents who felt that trial marriages was acceptable for others. The experimental group, at posttest, showed a significant increase in help-seeking behaviour with siblings. There were also two significant findings which were in the opposite direction to that hypothesized. The control group showed a significantly less traditional attitude toward marriage and woman’s role on two counts; there was a significant increase in the number of control group respondents who were undecided about having children, and there was a significant increase in the percentage who had a positive attitude toward trial marriage for themselves. Only one of the hypotheses predicting greater effectiveness for the innovative teaching method was supported; that students who had taken the innovatively taught family life education program would be more likely to seek help from siblings with their personal problems. The traditionally taught family life educationa program proved significantly more effective in increasing the proportion of students who found trial marriage acceptable for others. These findings give tentative support ot the proposition that the family life education program at Sir John A. Macdonald High School in Hamilton, Ontario meeting its stated objectives, as outlined in the text. They also suggest that the traditional teaching method and the innovative roleplaying method are equally effective with this particular course material and these particular teachers

Beliefs and Practices Related to Community Water Sources: The Specialness of Springs

The practice of gathering water from community springs in Kentucky constitutes a rich and complex research setting for the study of folklore beliefs and practices. Local knowledge construction, nostalgia as an evaluative process, contested views about purity and impurity, the protection and retention of a “public commons,” and the crisis which ensues when infrastructure maintenance and the delivery of safe drinking water are no longer guaranteed to communities, are all relevant to this vernacular practice. My thesis explores these topics, informed by fieldwork I conducted in nine Kentucky counties, which included formal and informal interviews with individuals who have used springs, as well as participant observation of spring sites. Roadside water sources are used by the public for drinking water, and are vestiges of the public commons. In addition to gathering water, these sites allow us to gather and study folkloric practice and knowledge. Historically, community springs were utilized before public water systems were implemented, providing a critical source of water for travelers, or for those who did not have private access to a reliable water source. Yet today, even with the presence of municipal water systems, many people still gather water from springs. My thesis integrates archival/historical library research, participant observation, and oral history narratives collected in 2016 as part of a Kentucky Oral History Commission Project Grant, in order to illuminate two fundamental research questions: Why do people prefer to get water from springs today? And what cultural meanings are constructed through the continued engagement with this tradition? I examine the historical use of these resources, their relationship to the implementation of municipal water systems, and how localized knowledge about water purity is formed and put into practice in this region. I also explore the use of nostalgia, collective memory, and narrative for constructing place and landscape, as well as theorize on how springs function as public commons resources today. I also use photographs to convey ethnographic knowledge distinct from the written word, providing an opportunity to convey sensory information about the spaces I describe in my research

Circumstellar Disks revealed by HH/KK Flux Variation Gradients

The variability of young stellar objects (YSO) changes their brightness and color preventing a proper classification in traditional color-color and color magnitude diagrams. We have explored the feasibility of the flux variation gradient (FVG) method for YSOs, using $H$ and $K$ band monitoring data of the star forming region RCW\,38 obtained at the University Observatory Bochum in Chile. Simultaneous multi-epoch flux measurements follow a linear relation $F_{H}=\alpha + \beta \cdot F_{K}$ for almost all YSOs with large variability amplitude. The slope $\beta$ gives the mean $HK$ color temperature $T_{var}$ of the varying component. Because $T_{var}$ is hotter than the dust sublimation temperature, we have tentatively assigned it to stellar variations. If the gradient does not meet the origin of the flux-flux diagram, an additional non- or less-varying component may be required. If the variability amplitude is larger at the shorter wavelength, e.g. $\alpha < 0$, this component is cooler than the star (e.g. a circumstellar disk); vice versa, if $\alpha > 0$, the component is hotter like a scattering halo or even a companion star. We here present examples of two YSOs, where the $HK$ FVG implies the presence of a circumstellar disk; this finding is consistent with additional data at $J$ and $L$. One YSO shows a clear $K$-band excess in the $JHK$ color-color diagram, while the significance of a $K$-excess in the other YSO depends on the measurement epoch. Disentangling the contributions of star and disk it turns out that the two YSOs have huge variability amplitudes ($\sim 3-5$\,mag). The $HK$ FVG analysis is a powerful complementary tool to analyze the varying components of YSOs and worth further exploration of monitoring data at other wavelengths.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Photometric reverberation mapping of 3C120

We present the results of a five month monitoring campaign of the local active galactic nuclei (AGN) 3C120. Observations with a median sampling of two days were conducted with the robotic 15cm telescope VYSOS-6 located near Cerro Armazones in Chile. Broad band (B,V) and narrow band (NB) filters were used in order to measure fluxes of the AGN and the H_beta broad line region (BLR) emission line. The NB flux is constituted by about 50% continuum and 50% H_beta emission line. To disentangle line and continuum flux, a synthetic H_beta light curve was created by subtracting a scaled V-band light curve from the NB light curve. Here we show that the H_beta emission line responds to continuum variations with a rest frame lag of 23.6 +/- 1.69 days. We estimate a virial mass of the central black hole M_BH = 57 +/- 27 * 10^6 solar masses, by combining the obtained lag with the velocity dispersion of a single contemporaneous spectrum. Using the flux variation gradient (FVG) method, we determined the host galaxy subtracted rest frame 5100A luminosity at the time of our monitoring campaign with an uncertainty of 10% (L_AGN = 6.94 +/- 0.71* 10^43 ergs^-1). Compared with recent spectroscopic reverberation results, 3C120 shifts in the R_BLR - L_AGN diagram remarkably close to the theoretically expected relation of R-L^0.5. Our results demonstrate the performance of photometric AGN reverberation mapping, in particular for efficiently determining the BLR size and the AGN luminosityComment: 11 pages, 11 figures, Published in Astronomy and Astrophysic