EFFECTS OF AN ANCHORED CAREER-FOCUSED CURRICULUM ON THE KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDES OF AT-RISK HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Students with disabilities (SWD) face an unfavorable employment future because many drop out of school at a disproportionate rate. The employment outlook for SWD who graduate from high school is also a concern because current studies show that only about half of them find jobs. In addition, most jobs they do find are entry level and low paying. One predictor of post-secondary success is career awareness. The purpose of this study was first to develop a curriculum especially designed for teaching career awareness of SWD and then to test its effects with a pretest-posttest randomized trial. Results indicated that the SWD who taught with the new curriculum deepened their knowledge of careers and developed a more positive attitude toward career planning. Implications for further development and research are provided

The macroevolutionary dynamics of mammalian sexual size dimorphism

Funding This project was funded by ERC grant no. 788203 (Innovation). Acknowledgements We thank Michael Benton and the Bristol Macroevolution lab group for early project feedback as well as Chris Law and three anonymous reviewers for thoughtful, constructive comments on previous versions of this manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Destroying God’s temple? Physical Inactivity, Poor Diet, Obesity, and other “Sin” Behaviors

Individual differences in health behavior across religious and spiritual individuals might be attributed to the general belief that the body is God’s temple, and should be treated with care and respect. Also, it is possible that some behaviors are thought to destroy the body (God’s temple), while inactivity, poor diet, and obesity might not be viewed in this way. Thus, our first aim was to assess current beliefs and attitudes regarding the role of physical inactivity, poor diet, and obesity in the destruction of the body, God’s temple. Subsequently, our second aim was to determine if these beliefs and attitudes were correlated with actual, self-reported physical activity, dietary intake, and body mass index (BMI). An online survey assessing the aforementioned variables was administered to 112 adults (≥ 18 years of age) who considered themselves Christians, and had a mean BMI of 26.36 ± 6.29 kg/m2. Participants self-reported their religion with the majority selecting Baptist (29%), other (22%), or Non-Denominational (21%). On average, participants had a moderate-high belief that their body was God’s temple (i.e. manifestation of God in the body; M = 64.84 out of possible score of 84). Mean beliefs that obesity, physically inactive lifestyle, poor diet, and overeating destroy the body, God’s temple were similar to those beliefs regarding drug use, smoking, and excessive drinking, but higher than pre-marital sex, tattoos, body piercings, and lust. When these beliefs were correlated with the manifestation of God in the body, only premarital sex (r = .68), lust (r = .62), tattoos (r = .42), body piercings (r = .38), drug use (r = .26), and smoking (r = .19) were found to be significant (p ≤ .05). Self-perceived manifestation of God in the body was significantly positively correlated (p \u3c .01) with prayer frequency (r = .65), church attendance (r = .67), and spirituality (r = .76). Spirituality was positively correlated (p \u3c .01) with prayer frequency (r = .77) and church attendance (r = .66). However, manifestation of God in the body was not correlated with physical activity, dietary intake, or BMI. In conclusion, our participants were definitive in their belief that physically inactive lifestyles, unhealthy eating, overeating, and being obese destroy the body, God’s temple. However, destroying the body with physical inactivity or poor diet was not necessarily viewed as sinful, on average, with variation in this view. Additionally, these beliefs did not correlate to self-reported physical activity, dietary behavior, and body weight (i.e. BMI). Also, the view that one’s body is God’s temple (i.e. manifestation of God in the body) did not correlate to beliefs that physical inactivity, poor diet and obesity destroy the body, but did relate to beliefs that premarital sex, lust, tattoos, body piercings, drug use, and smoking destroy the body. It is possible, then, that physical inactivity, poor dietary habits, and obesity are not internalized into the spiritual perspective as destroying the body, God’s temple, in the same way as other “sin” behaviors. Such findings provide a foundation for future research to expand our understanding of the confluence of health and spiritual lifestyles

Using bromide tracer to measure uranium diffusivity in ground water sediments

More than 129 million liters of groundwater are contaminated with uranium at Old Rifle, Colorado – a former uranium-processing site that operated until 1958. The original Department of Energy (DOE) strategy for remediation, involving natural flushing of U from the groundwater through mixing with surface water, has not proven successful. Thin pockets of silt-, clay-, and organic-rich sediments referred to as naturally reduced zones (NRZs) act both as sinks and sources of U to the aquifer, contribute to plume persistence, and appear to be diffusion limited controlled. To better understand how the NRZs are diffusion limited controlled, a bromide tracer was used to measure uranium diffusivity at two depths from the JB-02 well at Old Rifle: one depth in the middle of the NRZ and one depth at the bottom edge of the NRZ. A NaBr reservoir was allowed to diffuse into the sediments for several days with reservoir samples collected twice a day and analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for bromide concentrations. This data was then used to calculate net flux, effective diffusivity, and the tortuosity effect within the sediments, which will inform uranium management strategies not only at the Old Rifle site but potentially other DOE legacy sites including Riverton, Wyoming and Shiprock, New Mexico

Smoke-free homes: what are the barriers, motivators and enablers? A qualitative systematic review and thematic synthesis

Objective: To thematically synthesise primary qualitative studies of the barriers, motivators and enablers of smoke-free homes (SFHs). Design: Systematic review and thematic synthesis. Data sources: Searches of MEDLINE, EBM Reviews (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), PsycINFO, Global Health, CINAHL, Web of Science, Informit and EMBASE, combining terms for families, households and vulnerable populations; SFH and secondhand smoke; and qualitative research, were supplemented by searches of PhD theses, key authors, specialist journals and reference lists. Study selection: We included 22 articles, reporting on 18 studies, involving 646 participants. Inclusion criteria: peer-reviewed; English language; published from 1990 onwards (to week 3 of April 2014); used qualitative data collection methods; explored participants’ perspectives of home smoking behaviours; and the barriers, motivators and enablers to initiating and/or maintaining a SFH. Data extraction: 1 of 3 authors extracted data with checking by a second. Data synthesis: A thematic synthesis was performed to develop 7 core analytic themes: (1) knowledge, awareness and risk perception; (2) agency and personal skills/attributes; (3) wider community norms and personal moral responsibilities; (4) social relationships and influence of others; (5) perceived benefits, preferences and priorities; (6) addiction and habit; (7) practicalities. Conclusions: This synthesis highlights the complexity faced by many households in having a SFH, the practical, social, cultural and personal issues that need to be addressed and balanced by households, and that while some of these are common across study settings, specific social and cultural factors play a critical role in shaping household smoking behaviours. The findings can inform policy and practice and the development of interventions aimed at increasing SFHs. Trial registration number: CRD42014014115

Planet Four: A Neural Network’s search for polar spring-time fans on Mars

Dark deposits visible from orbit appear in the Martian south polar region during the springtime. These are thought to form from explosive jets of carbon dioxide gas breaking through the thawing seasonal ice cap, carrying dust and dirt which is then deposited onto the ice as dark ‘blotches’, or blown by the surface winds into streaks or ‘fans’. We investigate machine learning (ML) methods for automatically identifying these seasonal features in High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) satellite imagery. We designed deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) that were trained and tested using the catalog generated by Planet Four, an online citizen science project mapping the south polar seasonal deposits. We validated the CNNs by comparing their results with those of ISODATA (Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis Technique) clustering and as expected, the CNNs were significantly better at predicting the results found by Planet Four, in both the area of predicted seasonal deposits and in delineating their boundaries. We found neither the CNNs or ISODATA were suited to predicting the source point and directions of seasonal fans, which is a strength of the citizen science approach. The CNNs showed good agreement with Planet Four in cross-validation metrics and detected some seasonal deposits in the HiRISE images missed in the Planet Four catalog; the total area of seasonal deposits predicted by the CNNs was 27% larger than that of the Planet Four catalog, but this aspect varied considerably on a per-image basis

Unexpected Nickel Complex Speciation Unlocks Alternative Pathways for the Reactions of Alkyl Halides with dppf-Nickel(0)

The mechanism of the reactions between dppf-Ni0 complexes and alkyl halides has been investigated using kinetic and mechanistic experiments and DFT calculations. The active species is [Ni(κ2-dppf)(κ1-dppf)], which undergoes a halide abstraction reaction with alkyl halides and rapidly captures the alkyl radical that is formed. The rates of the reactions of [Ni(COD)(dppf)] with alkyl halides and the yields of prototypical nickel-catalyzed Kumada cross-coupling reactions of alkyl halides are shown to be significantly improved by the addition of free dppf ligand

Dust in Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin)

We report optical imaging, optical and near-infrared polarimetry, and Spitzer mid-infrared spectroscopy of comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin). Polarimetric observations were obtained in R (0.676 micron) at phase angles from 0.44 degrees to 21 degrees with simultaneous observations in H (1.65 micron) at 4.0 degrees, exploring the negative branch in polarization. Comet C/2007 N3 (Lulin) shows typical negative polarization in the optical as well as a similar negative branch near-infrared wavelengths. The 10 micron silicate feature is only weakly in emission and according to our thermal models, is consistent with emission from a mixture of silicate and carbon material. We argue that large, low-porosity (akin to Ballistic Particle Cluster Aggregates) rather absorbing aggregate dust particles best explain both the polarimetric and the mid-infrared spectral energy distribution.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures, 3 table