26 research outputs found
Community Based Programs: An Alternative Approach For Treating/Preventing Childhood Obesity In Low-Income and Ethnically Diverse Families
No full textResearch Question: Will using local community-programs in place of the current standards of diet and exercise counseling be more effective in reducing overweight and obesity among children ages 3-7 in low-income and ethnically diverse families? Hypothesis- We believe community programs are a more viable resource for low-income families due to their convenience and propensity to provide programming structured to accommodate the social and cultural factors of citizens within their neighborhoods. We expect to realize significant differences favoring the community-based program group over control group for all indicated measures. There may be an association between low counseling rates of physicians and percentage of minority patients, particularly those whose first language is one other than English. We expect to realize this association through the design of our study. Finally, we expect to see improvements in the diet and exercise knowledge base in participating patientsMaster of Public Healt
Evaluating Effectiveness of an Intervention Designed to Improve Nutrition Knowledge in Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program Participants
No full textAuthor declined to include full text document in this repository.Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized nutrition education handouts specific to participants’ chronic condition(s) on increasing knowledge. Design: Quasi-experimental Methods: Pre-intervention and post-intervention data assessing nutrition knowledge was compared and analyzed using a paired t-test(p < 0.05) and chi square test. Setting: The intervention took place at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Jefferson County in Watertown, New York. Intervention: The intervention consisted of customizing nutrition/dietary handouts to three chronic condition diet orders that participants were diagnosed with prior to the study for the purpose of increasing nutrition knowledge. The diets were diabetic, low-fat/low-cholesterol, and sodium. Results: The intervention did not generate statistically significant results for the quantitative data, however, improvements in knowledge were demonstrated through qualitative data. Change in knowledge and understanding about following dietary restrictions recommended for a chronic condition, participant’s confidence in their ability to identify appropriate recipes, ability to alter a recipe with healthy substitutions, and prepare meals suitable their diagnoses, and grocery shopping behavior did not have significant results after the intervention. Conclusions & Implications: Nutrition/dietary informational handouts are not a statistically significant intervention for the set study duration. A larger sample size and longer intervention period is needed to determine the effectiveness of the planned intervention.NASUNY OneontaHuman EcologyMSRiddle, Emil
Exploring Gender Differences in Orbitofrontal Cortex Connectivity in Response to Dyadic Conflict
No full textExploring Gender Differences in Orbitofrontal Cortex Connectivity in Response to Dyadic Conflict
No full textMarginalized students accessing museum art education programs
No full textThesis (M.A.) PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you.For many years as an art educator, this researcher, has observed, the positive impact an art education program can have on a variety of different student populations. All students deserve access to a meaningful art education. It has been shown that developing brain health and looking at art is beneficial for the human mind. Scientists in collaboration with artists have recently shown, through Computed Axial Tomography (CAT scans) something that we already knew (or suspected), from our own experiences; making and looking at art is positive for human cognition. According to Professor Semir Zeki, Chair of the Neurasthenics Department at University College London: (1999, p.187). Inner Vision: An exploration of art and the brain:
"What we found is when you look at art – whether it is a landscape, a still life, an abstract or a portrait – there is strong activity in that part of the brain related to pleasure. We put people in a scanner and showed them a series of paintings every ten seconds. We then measured the change in blood flow in one part of the brain. The reaction was immediate. What we found was the increase in blood flow was in proportion to how much the painting was liked. The blood flow increased for a beautiful painting just as it increases when you look at somebody you love. It tells us art induces a feel-good sensation direct to the brain."
This thesis will not be examining the positive impact art has on the brain; it is referred to in order to acknowledge the fact many artists and art appreciators already know: Looking at art is a valuable thing, and art education is important for developing minds.
This thesis will examine the bridge between art museum programs and marginalized student populations. These are the students who have Individualized Education Programs (IEP’s), or those for whom English is a second language and who may live in low-income urban communities. It will also examine what museum-based art education programs can provide to this population of youth. In the Wall Street Journal, as cited by (Winner, Goldstein, and Vincent-Lancrin, 2013, p.18) the former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman offers pointed remarks when arts education comes up:
"Some students don’t fit the No Child Left Behind regime and other subjects don’t inspire them. Talented but offbeat, they sulk through algebra, act up in the cafeteria, and drop out of school. The arts 'catch' them and pull them back, turning a sinking ego on the margins into a creative citizen with 'a place in society.'"
Museums often provide a place for students to go and engage with art in a meaningful way that captures their imagination and engages them in learning. The emphasis of this research falls on the unusual student, the difficult learner, the student who has a learning style difference and who may never have encountered an original work of art. The purpose of this study is to report the ways in which students responded to art in a museum setting.
Why art museums enjoy a reciprocal benefit from serving these students will also be examined. Art educators know that art is important for the development of creativity in students, and students’ benefit from engagement in studio art activities. Yet, most crucially, art programs are often marginalized in low-income urban communities. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, more than 95 percent of schoolaged children are attending schools that have cut art education since the recession.
In low-income communities, many students have few studio art classes along their journeys through pre/K-12 public education. Those denied an art education often find themselves without the benefit of an education that includes studies about the value of culture, leaving those affected by poverty with little impetus to reach for higher educational goals.
Art education programs at two museums are examined to show how their programs reach out to students from underserved communities. In particular, this study looks at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester and Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, both in, Massachusetts, to evaluate how to engage marginalized, urban students and retain these youth as enthusiastic lifetime museumgoers.2031-01-0
Specialized Drug Court Participation Across Offender Subtypes
No full textabstract: Over the last few decades, specialized courts have received an increasing amount of research attention. The existing literature mostly supports drug courts and demonstrates their effectiveness in reducing recidivism and substance abuse, more generally (Belenko, 1998; Bouffard & Richardson, 2007; Gottfredson, Najaka, & Kearley, 2003). Whether the drug court model “works” across offender subgroups remains an open empirical question. The current study uses data originally collected by Rossman and colleagues (2003-2009) for the Multi-Site Adult Drug Court Evaluation (MADCE) to examine the effect of drug court participation on recidivism among unique offender subgroups. First, a context-specific risk score is used to examine recidivism outcomes. Second, offender subgroups are statistically created using latent class analysis (LCA). Recidivism outcomes are then assessed by subgroup, with these results compared to the initial measure of risk. Both analyses are performed using the full sample of drug court participants and the comparison groups. Finally, the third model uses a split sample analysis by court participation to explore the full effects of drug court. The findings of the present study contribute to the theoretical literature and help inform future policy regarding risk assessment and the treatment of offenders in drug courts.Dissertation/ThesisMasters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 201
Solar Energetic Particle Events Detected in the Housekeeping Data of the European Space Agency's Spacecraft Flotilla in the Solar System
No full textDespite the growing importance of planetary Space Weather forecasting and radiation protection for science and robotic exploration and the need for accurate Space Weather monitoring and predictions, only a limited number of spacecraft have dedicated instrumentation for this purpose. However, every spacecraft (planetary or astronomical) has hundreds of housekeeping sensors distributed across the spacecraft, some of which can be useful to detect radiation hazards produced by solar particle events. In particular, energetic particles that impact detectors and subsystems on a spacecraft can be identified by certain housekeeping sensors, such as the Error Detection and Correction (EDAC) memory counters, and their effects can be assessed. These counters typically have a sudden large increase in a short time in their error counts that generally match the arrival of energetic particles to the spacecraft. We investigate these engineering datasets for scientific purposes and perform a feasibility study of solar energetic particle event detections using EDAC counters from seven European Space Agency Solar System missions: Venus Express, Mars Express, ExoMars-Trace Gas Orbiter, Rosetta, BepiColombo, Solar Orbiter, and Gaia. Six cases studies, in which the same event was observed by different missions at different locations in the inner Solar System are analyzed. The results of this study show how engineering sensors, for example, EDAC counters, can be used to infer information about the solar particle environment at each spacecraft location. Therefore, we demonstrate the potential of the various EDAC to provide a network of solar particle detections at locations where no scientific observations of this kind are available.Astrodynamics & Space Mission
From TVET to workforce development
No full textRobin Shreeve, the CEO of the Australian Workforce and Productivity Agency, provides a critical analysis of how the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has evolved to meet the challenges relating to skills and workforce development. A historical analysis of the policies and strategies that had been used in Australia to increase skills development is provided as well as the recent shift in policy direction towards what has been termed as a ‘workforce development’ approach. This shift presents some challenges and the author provides insight into what policy makers in Australia are doing to facilitate better workforce development planning, better skills utilisation and better skills development to support industries. The analysis will be relevant for Asia’s developing member countries that are facing similar problems of enhancing productivity growth, meeting the demands of demographic transitions and improving workforce participation of youth, women and older people
Women's Leadership Aspiration Research Internship
No full text37 p.This summer I was afforded the opportunity to work under Dr. Karyn Boatwright as her primary research assistant and co-author of her manuscript concerning women’s leadership aspirations and the inquiry into the internal (psychological) factors that may be preventing women from filling the gender gap in higher level leadership positions across career fields. Over the course of the summer, I worked on a daily basis alongside Dr. Boatwright, in-person and virtually, completing Phase I of her qualitative longitudinal study. This included helping her complete her mostly-written manuscript over the results of her initial experiment. In these results, Dr. Boatwright examines the responses of 19 undergraduate women to five questions regarding effective leadership styles and experiences in leadership posed to them in the spring of each year (and also in the fall of their first year) throughout a series of five interviews during their time at college. Dr. Boatwright’s results add to the growing field of research on women’s leadership aspirations, while her article specifically addresses the primary barriers college women face in obtaining (and maintaining) aspirations for higher level leadership positions throughout their college experience. Further, her discussion offers suggestions to professors on how they can help eradicate the problem of low leadership aspirations, as well as pedagogical strategies to promote women’s balanced leadership style and to inspire more women to seek elite leadership roles. Through many meetings with Dr. Boatwright over the summer and an additional deal of time spent alone, I familiarized myself with the manuscript and the important studies she had used in her previous research on the topic. During daily meetings in her home lab, I continually ensured the reference list was both consistent with the manuscript and correctly formatted in adherence with APA formatting. I was also in charge of all APA formatting throughout the rest of the manuscript as well. Another task of mine was to find current statistics from different sources (including government databases and other organizations) on the number of women in various positions of leadership. Additionally, I assisted in locating quotes to be used as supportive evidence in the results section of the manuscript and wrote a small addition that was included in the final version. The other part of my SIP involved working in a dual leadership style under Mona Griesberg and in collaboration with student research assistants on Phase II of Dr. Boatwright’s study. The dual leadership process worked in that Dr. Boatwright’s previous research leadership training with Mona was able to inform Mona’s training of myself as a leader in preparation for a future date when I will lead my fellow student research assistants as the head of our team. Phase II is currently ongoing and engages research assistants in tracking down our past participants from Phase I of the study to re-interview them with an updated edition of the same questions from the original interviews. We also added a few extra questions concerning intersectionality and family planning in hopes to identify additional barriers in women’s leadership aspirations, as well as a questionnaire to investigate the phenomenon of imposter syndrome within our participants. We have been fortunate enough to have conducted interviews with four past participants so far, and I’m thrilled to have been given the opportunity to interview a past participant who is now a successful head and neck surgeon and doubles as an assistant professor. It was both inspiring and empowering to hear this participant speak about her success in her budding career. I also saw a very human side to her as she spoke about her internal struggles with leadership despite her current achievements. Although Phase II of the research is ongoing, my SIP was officially completed when Dr. Boatwright and I submitted the manuscript from Phase I to the Journal of College Student Development for review
