USA educator perspectives regarding the nature and value of social and emotional learning

This paper discusses the US educator perspectives regarding the nature and value of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) skills. This research is part of a larger study being conducted by 33 career development investigators from 15 countries. SEL skills are becoming increasingly critical to helping youth develop the competencies needed to become employable within the emergent 4th Industrial Revolution. Today’s youth must articulate how their competencies align to multiple career opportunities. They need relationship skills and social awareness to interact with different managers and work environments. Youth need self-management skills to advance in the workplace and engage in lifelong learning. For this study, educators were asked to provide written responses to a series of open-ended questions about their understanding of SEL, their perspective on SEL’s relevance to their own effectiveness as educators, and whether and how they perceive SEL as relevant to teaching in classroom settings. This paper will report on the results of how U.S. educators perceive the value and relevance of SEL. Using a modified grounded theory approach, responses from 40 educators were analyzed and 123 SEL themes emerged. The results will be discussed in relation to existing SEL and career readiness frameworks.First author draf

Research on Community Detection Algorithm Based on the UIR-Q

Aiming at the current problems of community detection algorithm in which user’s property is not used; the community structure is not stable and the efficiency of the algorithm is low, this paper proposes a community detection algorithm based on the user influence and its parallelization method. In terms of the concept of user influence in the subject communication and the PageRank algorithm, this paper uses the properties of nodes of users in social networks to form the user influence factors. Then, the user with the biggest influence is set as the initial node of new community and and the local modularity is introduced into detecting the community structure.  in order to make the result of community detection quick and efficient. Many experiments show that the improved algorithm can efficiently detect the community structure with large scale users and the results are stable. Therefore, this algorithm will have a wide applied prospect

Anthocyanins: Novel Antioxidants in Diseases Prevention and Human Health

Anthocyanins are a category of water-soluble natural pigments that exist widely in all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and seeds. In fact, the chemical nature of anthocyanins is a group of compounds, and possesses antioxidant capacity like flavonoids. Anthocyanins show antioxidant activity by scavenging free radicals, activating antioxidant enzyme, and chelating metal ions. Anthocyanins, therefore, are recognized as one of the most effective natural antioxidant in the human body. Anthocyanins for a variety of disease prevention and health care are closely related to their strong antioxidant activity and scavenging free radical ability. The present chapter reviewed anthocyanins eliminating free radicals for preventing neoplasm, modulating antioxidant enzyme for preventing Alzheimer’s disease, losing weight for preventing diabetes, regulating lipid metabolism for preventing cardiovascular disease, and inhibiting photoreceptor apoptosis for treating xerophthalmia and for other diseases treated. In addition, some healthy food added of anthocyanins was used as precaution for some diseases, else, there are some cosmetics added with anthocyanins, including sunscreen, creams, mouthwash, and shampoo. Specific creams for characteristics of Chinese old people skin in Chinese Company were developed and achieved anti-wrinkle and moisturizing efficacy. Simultaneously, anthocyanins can also be as a food additive to lactic acid milk, cakes, and other food

The effects of yam gruel on lowering fasted blood glucose in T2DM rats

© 2020 Xinjun Lin et al., published by De Gruyter 2020. There is increasing evidence of the linkage between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and gut microbiota. Based on our previous studies, we investigated the hypoglycemic mechanisms of yam gruel to provide a scientific basis for its popularization and application. Wistar rats were randomly divided into control and T2DM model groups. Rats in the model group were stimulated by a high-sugar/high-fat diet combined with an intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin to induce T2DM. The T2DM rats were further subdivided randomly into three groups: (1) DM, (2) DM + yam gruel, and (3) DM + metformin. After 4 weeks of intervention, the changes in gut microbiota, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) (acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid), the expression of G protein-coupled receptor 43 (GPR43), glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), peptide YY (PYY), and fasted blood glucose (FBG) levels were observed. Yam gruel intervention elevated the abundance of probiotic bacteria and increased the expression of SCFAs, GPR43 receptor, GLP-1, and PYY. It also reduced FBG levels. We conclude that yam gruel can lower FBG by promoting the growth of probiotic bacteria, increasing the content of SCFAs, and enhancing the expression of GPR43 receptor to increase the content of GLP-1 and PYY in serum

Outcomes and lessons learnt from the national evaluation of the medication to manage sexual arousal (MMSA) programme for individuals in secure settings

Monitoring indexes are significant for real-time monitoring of dam performance in ensuring safe and normal operation. Traditional methods for establishing monitoring indexes are mostly focused on single point displacements, and rational monitoring indexes based on multi-point displacements are rare. This study establishes monitoring indexes based on correlation and discreteness of multi-point displacements. The proposed method is applicable when several monitoring points show strong correlation. In this study, principal component analysis (PCA) was introduced for preprocessing the observations of multi-point displacements. Correlation and discreteness of multi-point displacements were extracted and constructed. The correlation and discreteness parts described the integral and local variance of the displacement field. On this basis, the annual maximum values of the correlation and discreteness parts were selected and their probability density functions (PDF) could be generated by employing the principle of maximum entropy. PDF was constructed using maximum entropy method and was least subjective because it barely provided the moment information of the observations. The multi-point monitoring indexes were then determined by the typical low probability method based on the obtained PDFs. Finally, the proposed method was analyzed using a practical engineering and was verified in terms of its feasibility

Effects of Dioscorea polystachya \u27yam gruel\u27 on the cognitive function of diabetic rats with focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury via the gut-brain axis

© 2020 Pang et al. Published by IMR press. Focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury is closely related to hyperglycemia and gut microbiota imbalance, while gut microbiota contributes to the regulation of brain function through the gut-brain axis. Previous studies in patients with diabetes have found that \u27yam gruel\u27 is a classic medicated diet made from Dioscorea polystachya, increases the content of Bifidobacterium, regulates oxidative stress, and reduces fasting blood glucose levels. The research reported here investigated the effects of \u27yam gruel\u27 on the cognitive function of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats with focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury and explored the mechanism underlying the role of the gut-brain axis in this process. \u27Yam gruel\u27 was shown to improve cognitive function as indicated by increased relative content of probiotic bacteria, and short-chain fatty acids in the intestinal tract and cerebral cortex reduced oxidative stress and inflammatory response and promotion of the expression of neurotransmitters and brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Thus, it is concluded that \u27yam gruel\u27 has a protective effect on cognitive function via a mechanism related to the gut-brain axis

Depressive symptoms, social support, and health-related quality of life: A community-based study in Shanghai, China

BackgroundDepressive symptoms erode both physical and mental aspects of health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Social support (SS) may improve HRQoL through its direct effects or buffering effects. The association among depressive symptoms, SS, and HRQoL has been studied in specific groups, but research in the general adult population remains limited. This study examined the association among depressive symptoms, SS, and HRQoL, including exploring whether SS (including its three dimensions: subjective SS, objective SS and support utilization) mediated or moderated the relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQoL among community-based adults.MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional survey in six communities in Shanghai, China, and 1642 adult participants with complete information on depressive symptoms and/or SS, and HRQoL were included. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate the association among depressive symptoms, SS, and HRQoL. In addition, we explored the mediating and moderating role of SS in the relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQoL.ResultsMore depressive symptoms were associated with lower physical HRQoL (B = −0.64, p < .001) and lower mental HRQoL (B = −0.83, p < .001). SS (B = 0.07, p = .02), specifically subjective SS (B = 0.09, p = .03), was positively related to mental HRQoL. After adjusting for covariates, we found no evidence for a mediating role of SS in the relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQoL, while SS (subjective SS and objective SS) moderated the association between depressive symptoms and mental HRQoL.LimitationsDue to the low voluntary participation rate of employees, participants represented approximately 50% of the individuals approached, thus limiting the generalizability of our findings. Data collected through self-report scales could lead to information bias.ConclusionsSS does not appear to underlie the relationship between depressive symptoms and HRQoL. However, interventions to increase SS (in particular, subjective SS and objective SS) should be studied to determine whether they may be beneficial in alleviating the adverse impact of depressive symptoms on mental HRQoL

Empowering women in finance through developing girls' financial literacy skills in the United States

This study examines the effectiveness of a financial literacy program, Invest in Girls (IIG), in promoting financial capability among high school girls. Using a quasi-experimental separate-samples pretest-posttest design and a longitudinal qualitative study, the study aims to assess the program efficacy and investigate the perspectives of the female students on its impact on their knowledge, behavior, and future goals and aspirations. The results indicated that the participants had significantly higher confidence for engaging in financial literacy after the program. The findings from the longitudinal study also suggested that that the program was influencing the students in positive ways, increasing their financial capability and leading them to consider wide occupational pathways available in finance. Given the lack of female leaders in the world of finance, the IIG program aims to address gender disparity in financial knowledge and highlight the importance of building financial literacy skills among girls.Published versio