How Racially Diverse Schools and Classrooms Can Benefit All Students

A growing number of parents, university officials, and employers want our elementary and secondary schools to better prepare students for our increasingly racially and ethnically diverse society and the global economy. But for reasons we cannot explain, the demands of this large segment of Americans have yet to resonate with most of our federal, state, or local policymakers. Instead, over the past forty years, these policy makers have completely ignored issues of racial segregation while focusing almost exclusively on high-stakes accountability, even as our schools have become increasingly segregated and unequal.This report argues that, as our K -- 12 student population becomes more racially and ethnically diverse, the time is right for our political leaders to pay more attention to the evidence, intuition, and common sense that supports the importance of racially and ethnically diverse educational settings to prepare the next generation. It highlights in particular the large body of research that demonstrates the important educational benefits -- cognitive, social, and emotional -- for all students who interact with classmates from different backgrounds, cultures, and orientations to the world. This research legitimizes the intuition of millions of Americans who recognize that, as the nation becomes more racially and ethnically complex, our schools should reflect that diversity and tap into the benefits of these more diverse schools to better educate all our students for the twenty-first century.The advocates of racially integrated schools understand that much of the recent racial tension and unrest in this nation -- from Ferguson to Baltimore to Staten Island -- may well have been avoided if more children had attended schools that taught them to address implicit biases related to racial, ethnic, and cultural differences. This report supports this argument beyond any reasonable doubt

Wellness Lessons From Transportation Companies, Research Report WP 11-01

The purpose of this report is to describe wellness programs and offer two suggestions for improving how they are delivered to commercial drivers and operators. It is not a large sample empirical study from which generalizations can be made. Rather, the Mineta Transportation Institute commissioned brief case studies of transportation companies to show what several organizations have done. Stress, nicotine use, sleep apnea, obesity and lack of information are significant barriers to wellness in commercial drivers/operators. Many wellness programs ask the individual driver/operator to lose weight; exercise more; and monitor blood pressure, glucose, cholesterol and other such indicators of health. However, little is done to change the environment or adopt structural interventions such as forbidding nicotine use, as is possible in 20 states. Other structural interventions include those possible at the levels of the company and community, including access to healthy food rather than the junk food drivers often can find on the road. At the societal level, more public transit that gets people walking and out of their cars, cities designed for people to walk and cycle in rather than drive from work to a sprawling suburb, and encouraging food manufacturers to make healthy food (rather than a toxic mix of sodium, fat and sugar to boost one’s craving for a particular food) are just a few measures that could improve the health and well being of the public. The Union Pacific Corporation (rail transportation), and Con-way Freight (trucking) are included because they were willing to share information and are large publicly traded companies. The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) is included because other transit authorities recommended it to the authors, as it has a long history in wellness as part of local government and it too chose to participate. Two issues are discussed: the first is the importance of using the mitigation of erectile dysfunction in the promotion of wellness programs to commercial drivers/operators and the second issue is to urge employers to consider banning tobacco use, both on and off the job, where legal

A comparative study of positive versus negative polarity in the treatment of acute ankle sprains utilizing high voltage electrogalvanic stimulation

Electrical stimulation has long been used in the treatment of a variety of ailments. Its current uses range from muscle re-education and orthotic substitute to scoliosis management and edema control. I chose to study the effect of electrode polarity in high voltage electrogalvanic stimulation in the treatment of edema for several reasons. I had access to subjects because I was the only physical therapist at the Stockton Orthopedic Medical Group. High voltage electrogalvanic stimulation is a commonly used modality in treating edema (Brown, 1981). High voltage generators have a polarity switch, and the direction manual which accompanies the Electro-Med generator used by the Stockton Orthopedic Medical Group states that the negative pole should be used for edema reduction. (Instruction manual for high voltage Electrogalvanic Stimulator, 1977). However, the effect of electrode polarity on edema reduction has not been demonstrated, nor documented in the literature

The Effects of Social-Emotional Learning Strategies on Promoting Positive Behavior on Elementary Students

The focus of this action research project was to implement social-emotional learning (SEL) lessons to help promote positive behaviors in the classroom. Participants in the six week study included 16 first graders and 21 fourth graders, in two different classrooms, in Central Minnesota. During the intervention both classrooms participated in daily morning meetings, constructed classroom norms, weekly journals and SEL lessons. Data sources included daily behavior frequency tally charts, behavior office referrals, pre/post feedback forms, student journals and a teacher lesson log. After analyzing the data collected during this research project, the researchers concluded that weekly social-emotional teaching had a positive effect on students in elementary schools. Further research could study the impact of a school-wide scale on promoting positive behaviors from social emotional teaching

Voice-Activated Bionic Hand

The goal of this project is to design and build an inexpensive, voice-controlled prosthetic hand. Because precise electromyographic technology is often costly, our design utilizes speech recognition to move all five fingers of our bionic hand independently. This allows the user to command multiple different grips without the cumbersome and expensive equipment needed to detect individual finger movements. Speech recognition is carried out by a hardware module, which can detect up to five unique voice commands at a time. To eliminate the chance of an inaccurately identified command, we installed an easy-access power button. In addition, an OLED (a digital screen) displays pertinent information about voice command sets and steps the user through re-training the speech module. Various buttons are installed to allow user input for this process. The bionic hand is controlled by an STM32 Blue Pill, which receives translated voice commands from the speech hardware module. To prevent servo damage when an object is grasped, pressure sensors made from a conductive material are attached to each finger on the prosthetic. The bionic hand and all circuit components are attached to a 3D printed socket, which can be molded to fit each user’s arm. This entire system is designed with both cost and precision in mind. All components are inexpensive and easily replaceable, providing the user with an affordable prosthetic hand. However, while the parts are inexpensive, the system accurately detects voice commands in a consistent manner. In addition, the user interface is designed to be intuitive, allowing any user to easily train and use their own bionic hand

Immunosurveillance associated with upper respiratory symptoms in elite swimmers: 8-month period leading into Commonwealth Games

Most research suggests that a greater degree of immune suppression and subsequent increased illness risk occurs during winter and the heaviest training periods. Monitoring an individual’s change in salivary Immunoglobulin A (sIgA) throughout a training programme, could help identify athletes at risk of illness; promoting the use of individual athlete monitoring. Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) has been identified as one of the most likely causes of illness symptoms (Reid et al., 2004). An association has been found between short sleep duration (< 7 hours) and increased number of illnesses, including cold and flu (Orzech et al., 2014). These findings are empirical because athletes do not obtain enough sleep, regularly sleeping less than the NR of 7-9hours of sleep per night.Peer reviewe

Male-to-Female Cross-Dressing in Yorkshire: 1870-1939

This thesis examines male-to-female cross-dressing in Yorkshire between 1870 and 1939. It analyses the relationship between cross-dressing and masculinity in the criminal justice system, on the stage, in carnival and on film. By analysing cross-dressing in spaces in which it could be accepted this thesis demonstrates that cross-dressing had the ability to reinforce hegemonic constructions of both femininity and masculinity. In doing so, it demonstrates that binary narratives of masculine vs. effeminate behaviours do not reflect the majority of experiences of cross-dressing and masculinity in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Yorkshire. Instead, cross-dressing is best understood as existing on a scale of acceptability. Historical and regional specificities were important in defining where an act of gender transgression was positioned on the scale of acceptability and deviance. The regional focus of the thesis develops histories of cross-dressing and masculinity by drawing attention to how regional culture shaped attitudes towards gender, sexuality, and the masculine body. Yorkshire was a space with a very specific set of traditions that significantly influenced understandings of masculinity, community, and identity, which in turn influenced experiences of male-to-female cross-dressing. The experiences of the men discussed in this thesis were shaped by the fact that they lived and worked in Yorkshire. The broad time frame of this thesis also exposes the endurance of cross-dressing in popular entertainment culture alongside changing technologies. The move from music hall to silver screen emphasises the relative normativity of cross-dressed men in a range of entertainment forms. Tracking the decline in the popularity of the act also demonstrates how changing entertainment technologies, developing understandings of gender and sexuality as binary identities, and the increasing conflation of the two, complicated the ability of cross-dressing to be enjoyed as family entertainment

Exercise intolerance in chronic heart failure is not associated with impaired recovery of muscle function or submaximal exercise performance

Objectives.This study investigated whether recovery of skeletal muscle function is impaired in patients with heart failure and whether impaired recovery is associated with abnormal submaximal systemic exercise tolerance during repeated testing.Background.Patients with heart failure experience fatigue during daily activities. Because abnormalities of skeletal muscle play a role in their exercise intolerance, these symptoms may reflect a delay in muscle recovery and a resulting limitation in submaximal exercise tolerance.Methods.Two protocols were used. In protocol 1, knee extensor strength and endurance, and their recovery after fatiguing exercise, were evaluated in 11 patients (mean [±SEM] age 62 ± 5 years, New York Heart Association functional class 2.3 ± 0.2, ejection fraction 24 ± 5%) and in 10 age-matched sedentary control subjects. Protocol 2 examined the recovery of knee extensor endurance and submaximal exercise tolerance, as quantified on a self-powered treadmill, over 24 h in 18 patients (mean age 65 ± 3 years, functional class 2.4 ± 0.2, ejection fraction 23 ± 3%) and in 10 control subjects.Results.Peak oxygen consumption was reduced in both heart failure groups (15.4 ± 1.4 and 15.6 ± 1.0 ml/kg per min) compared with that in the respective control groups (23.1 ± 2.9 and 25.6 ± 1.0 ml/kg per min, both p < 0.05), as was muscle endurance but not muscle strength. In protocol 1, knee extensor endurance recovered more slowly in the patients than in control subjects (to 62 ± 4% and 87 ± 7% of the baseline value after 5 min, respectively, p < 0.05). In protocol 2, submaximal exercise tolerance was lower in the patients with heart failure than in control subjects (1,075 ± 116 vs. 1,390 ± 110 m), but knee extensor endurance and walking distance recovered fully by 10 and 30 min, respectively.Conclusions.Although these findings confirm earlier studies that demonstrated impaired muscle endurance in patients with heart failure, the results provide no evidence that recovery of either muscle function or submaximal exercise tolerance is delayed beyond the initial 5 to 10 min after exercise