Connecting clicks to context: National Geographic's contextual approach to covering environment issues in a digital era

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.Few media companies have the global reach of the National Geographic Society. It includes a magazine that is read by 8 million globally and a website seen by nearly 20 million unique visitors monthly. The nonprofit has a varied audience, and, like many media organizations, is doing all it can to set the bar for multimedia in this digital era. This article examines how National Geographic continues to carry out its mission to educate and give context to audiences about science and environment issues, while creating engaging and innovative multimedia content.Includes bibliographic references

Temperament, Attachment, and Parenting Stress in Infancy: Relations to Social Competence of Second Graders

The importance of social competence in children\u27s development has been recognized, and evidence has been found that children who are socially incompetent are at risk for academic problems. Yet the influences that may be involved from infancy, such as temperament and attachment, have not been explored longitudinally. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of infant temperament characteristics on later social development and to explore the idea that this influence may be affected by the infant\u27s attachment security mediated by parenting stress. Eighteen-month-old infants, from a previous study, were studied as second graders to examine whether their development was influenced by early attachment and temperament . This study examined the involvement of infant temperament and attachment in relation to maternal goodness-of-fit and parenting stress to predict social problems in the school years to gain valuable insight into the potential of the infant to influence his/her own development. Results indicate that characteristics of the infant and the mother-infant relationship have only indirect relations with how children function later in childhood. However, the child\u27s temperament as a second grader, although not stable from infancy, is related to how well a child adapts in a school environmen

Burnout and Hopelessness Among Nurses Working on Midwest Community Psychiatric Hospital Units

This quantitative descriptive study was undertaken to examine burnout and hopelessness in a sample of nurses working on Midwest co mmunity psychiatric hospital units. The literature identifies nursing as a stressful occupation; however, a very limited number of studies have examined stress in psychiatric nursing. In spite of the limited research to date, there is evidence in the literature to suggest a relationship between burnout and hopelessness in the nursing profession. The lack of consensus in the literature creates a difficulty in defining burnout; however, essential elements of burnout are consistent and clear throughout the nursing literature, including a sense of hopelessness. Registered nurses and licensed practical nurses (n = 13) who work on Midwest community psychiatric hospital units in an inpatient setting were surveyed to determine burnout indicators and the emergence of hopelessness. The: nurses were administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), and a demographic tool developed for this study. Correlational and descriptive statistics were utilized for data analysis. The findings of this study did not support a causal relationship among burnout and hopelessness. This study, carried out on a small sample representing one group of nurses, concluded that psychiatric mental health nurses showed some significant indicators for burnout related to the variables that were examined. The study findings supported that a higher degree of hopelessness correlated with a lower degree of Personal Accomplishment. The study findings further identified that burnout, as measured by the MBI-HSS, was a reliable indicator of burnout in this study

How Knowledge, Experience, and Educational Level Influence the Use of Informal and Formal Sources of Home Canning Information

In the research study reported here, West Virginia University Extension educators surveyed the public about their current canning knowledge and practices in 2010. The results showed that educational background and canning experience were the most important factors in understanding how clients seek canning information and the degree to which they preserve foods safely. Home canners primarily use family members as first sources of canning information and consider Extension one of the less important sources of information. Improved marketing efforts are needed to increase canners\u27 understanding of the importance of formal canning sources, especially those offered by Extension programs

Regional Differences and Race Effects in Mental Health Symptoms Among Juvenile Offenders

Regional differences in the reporting of mental health symptoms among juvenile justice (JJ) involved youth were examined using data from the 70,423 youths in the MAYSI-2 national norm study (Vincent et al., 2008). The percentage of youth scoring above Caution on MAYSI-2 scales was examined by race/ethnicity (white vs. minorities) and sex. Regional differences were assessed using Cochran’s Mantel-Haenszel (CMH) analyses. White youth were more likely to score above caution on all clinical scales except Depressed-Anxious. An interesting gender and race/ethnicity effect emerged such that White male youth in the Northeast and Midwest were more likely than Minority youth to score above caution; whereas White female youth in the West were more likely than Minority youth to score above caution

Innovations in Research with Medically Fragile Populations: Using Bulletin Board Focus Groups

A new group of medically fragile young adults are graduating from pediatric palliative care programs with limited expectations to live beyond early adulthood, and no comparable adult services to support their complex needs. Accessing this population is difficult because of the complexity of their conditions, the extensive personal and equipment supports that limit feasibility for travel, and divergent communication abilities. Therefore, we undertook a descriptive case study using an asynchronous modification of an online focus group, a bulletin board focus group (BBFG). The greatest strengths of the BBFG are the appeal of this methodology for young adults and the multi day focus group becomes both a community and an intervention. An important limitation of this method was participant follow through on discussion threads. This BBFG provided rich and varied types of data, and very positive participant experiences

Detecting variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) gene segment recombination using a two-colour fluorescence system

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Diversity of immunoglobulins and the T cell antigen receptors is achieved via the recombination activating gene (RAG)-mediated rearrangement of variable (V), diversity (D) and joining (J) gene segments, and this underpins the efficient recognition of a seemingly limitless array of antigens. Analysis of V(D)J recombination activity is typically performed using extrachromosomal recombination substrates that are recovered from transfected cells and selected using bacterial transformation. We have developed a two-colour fluorescence-based system that simplifies detection of both deletion and inversion joining events mediated by RAG proteins.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This system employs two fluorescent reporter genes that differentially mark unrearranged substrates and those that have undergone RAG-mediated deletion or inversion events. The recombination products bear the hallmarks of true V(D)J recombination and activity can be detected using fluorescence microscopy or flow cytometry. Recombination events can be detected without the need for cytotoxic selection of recombination products and the system allows analysis of recombination activity using substrates integrated into the genome.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This system will be useful in the analysis and exploitation of the V(D)J recombination machinery and suggests that similar approaches could be used to replace expression of one gene with another during lymphocyte development.</p