A Parental Management Strategy For Single-Mothers With Adolescent Boys In South Chicago

Problem The Mizpah and Brunswick Heights Seventh-day Adventist Churches are located in a predominately low-income community in the South side of Chicago. The church has many single mothers who face the challenges of raising their children without the presence of a father or male figure. This has had a devastating impact on the family and the children. Single-mother families are more likely to suffer from economic insecurity than two-parent families (McLanahan, 2004). Father-loss causes object hunger in males (Herring, 2005) and 75 % of all drug users and 65 % of all suicides (Sowers, 2010) come from fatherless homes. Method Training programs on finances, relationships, self-esteem, and raising boys were conducted for single-mothers. Surveys were administered among the participants to determine their level of satisfaction and self-esteem. Literature was reviewed on the challenges of single mothers who raise at-risk adolescent males and lessons were learned about a variety of skills and techniques that can be used to establish improved selfesteem, life satisfaction, and improved parenting skills. Results This project revealed the challenges that single-mothers have in raising adolescent males alone. It also raised the awareness of the specific needs for both single mothers and their children who are growing up without fathers. This project also revealed the challenges that single mothers have with self-esteem and gives hope that self-esteem can improve with training projects such as this. The focus groups with single mothers detailed their struggles and gave rich insight into their needs and how best to minister to them. This study further identified some of the possible programs that the church and community leaders could implement to support a growing need. Conclusions On the basis of this project’s findings, the church should be instrumental in the development of programs that implement training for not only single-mothers, but also for their sons

The motor-visual effects of apertures on a 20/20 acuity field at a 40 cm viewing distance

The motor-visual effects of apertures on a 20/20 acuity field at a 40 cm viewing distanc

Primary sand-dune plant community and soil properties during the west-coast India monsoon

A seven-station interrupted belt transect was established that followed a previously observed plant zonation pattern across an aggrading primary coastal dune system in the dry tropical region of west-coast India. The dominant weather pattern is monsoon from June to November, followed by hot and dry winter months when rainfall is scarce. Physical and chemical soil characteristics in each of the stations were analysed on five separate occasions, the first before the onset of monsoon, three during and the last post-monsoon. The plant community pattern was confirmed by quadrat survey. A pH gradient decreased with distance from the shoreline. Nutrient concentrations were deficient, increasing only in small amounts until the furthest station inland. At that location, there was a distinct and abrupt pedological transition zone from psammite to humic soils. There was a significant increase over previous stations in mean organic matter, ammonium nitrate and soil-water retention, although the increase in real terms was small. ANOVA showed significant variation in electrical conductivity, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and sodium concentrations over time. There was no relationship between soil chemistry characteristics and plant community structure over the transect. Ipomoea pes-caprae and Spinifex littoreus were restricted to the foredunes, the leguminous forb Alysicarpus vaginalis and Perotis indica to the two stations furthest from the strand. Ischaemum indicum, a C4 perennial grass species adopting an ephemeral strategy was, in contrast, ubiquitous to all stations

Assessing the impact of marine-derived nutrient on nitrogen cycling in Nequasset Lake in reponse to the 2012 migration of anadromous alewives (Alosa pseudoherangus)

Anadromous fish, such as alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus) can provide an important link between coastal watersheds and the Atlantic Ocean along the Gulf of Maine. Alewives contribute marine-derived nutrients (MDN) in the form of nitrogen to freshwater lakes via excretion and mortality as they migrate upstream during spawning season. Previous attempts to detect MDN in the sedimentary record have provided equivocal results. Freshwater biota or the size of current alewife migrations may have a significant effect on the sedimentary MDN signal. The focus of this project is to determine the degree to which MDN were imported into Nequasset Lake, Woolwich Maine. These data represent the initial findings of an expanded, multi-institutional, multi-year study currently underway. The Nequasset Lake watershed covers an area of ~50 square kilometers and provides drinking water to the city of Bath and three other communities in Maine. Every spring, alewives return to Nequasset Lake to spawn, accessing the lake through a fish ladder adjacent to the water control dam. In April and May 2012, alewife counts were performed at the top of the fish ladder by volunteers of Trout Unlimited and Kennebec Estuary Land Trust. Water samples were collected from the top of the fish ladder, and from the 4 major stream inlets, and analyzed for nutrient concentrations (TDN, NO3-, NH4+) to construct a nitrogen budget. Additional samples were collected for δ15N of water NO3- analysis from April to June to trace marine-derived nitrogen from the alewives in the lake. δ15N of water NO3− (+1.6 ‰) suggests the only detectable MDN signal is at the top of Nequasset Dam. However, NH4+ concentrations may suggest Nequasset Brook and Sucker Brook be targeted for restoration management. Nutrient cycling models shows that the implications of MDN may be insignificant because nutrient loading from the 2012 migration only accounts for approximately 1% of the total nitrogen inputs

Calling For Diversity In Health Care Executive Suites And Evaluation Of Effects On Efficiency Using Data Envelopment Analysis

Adequate diversity in the leadership of health care organizations is a problem that potentially affects overall performance.  In this paper, we propose the application of data envelopment analysis (DEA) and strategic human information systems to determine how diversity affects the efficiency, stability, and long-term viability of health care organizations at the organization level.  Data envelopment analysis could also be applied within a given health care organization to examine how the organization’s diversity make-up in its various departments affects relative efficiencies across the departments.  After presenting a brief introduction of DEA, we provide examples of inputs and outputs used in a proposed DEA analysis. We also propose the use of strategic information systems in health care organizations in developing countries at both organization and departmental levels.  We suggest that both developed and developing countries would benefit from using these tools as they seek to control costs and improve health care systems

Nitrate pharmacokinetics: taking note of the difference

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier. NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Nitric Oxide: Biology and Chemistry (2015), DOI: 10.1016/j.niox.2015.04.006It is now recognised that administration of oral nitrate (NO3(-)), in its various forms, increases the level of nitric oxide (NO) metabolites in the circulation of humans. Its application to modulate physiology and alleviate cardiovascular dysfunction in some patients is now recorded and shows particular promise in hypertension, in modifying platelet activation/aggregation, and in conditions where tissue ischemia prevails. The potential of oral NO3(-) to modify exercise/performance via elevation of plasma nitrite concentration ([NO2(-)]) has been applied across a range of human test systems. Herein we discuss how the choice of NO3(-) source, route of administration and resulting pharmacokinetics might influence the outcome of physiological measures and potentially contribute to discrepancies in performance trials. There are but a few examples of detailed pharmacokinetic data on which the majority of researchers base their test protocols in different cohorts/settings. We compare and contrast the results of key publications with the aim of highlighting a consensus of our current understanding and critical considerations for those entering the field