Great leaders of Hebrew history from Manasseh to John the Baptist

by Henry Thatcher Fowler

Effects of a health advocacy program to promote physical activity and nutrition behaviors among adolescents: An evaluation of the Young Leaders for Healthy Change program

Background. This study was designed to evaluate the effects of the Young Leaders for Healthy Change program, an internet-delivered program in the school setting that emphasized health advocacy skills-development, on nutrition and physical activity behaviors among older adolescents (13–18 years). The program consisted of online curricular modules, training modules, social media, peer and parental support, and a community service project. Module content was developed based on Social Cognitive Theory and known determinants of behavior for older adolescents. ^ Methods. Of the 283 students who participated in the fall 2011 YL program, 38 students participated in at least ten of the 12 weeks and were eligible for this study. This study used a single group-only pretest/posttest evaluation design. Participants were 68% female, 58% white/Caucasian, 74% 10th or 11th graders, and 89% mostly A and/or B students. The primary behavioral outcomes for this analysis were participation in 60-minutes of physical activity per day, 20-minutes of vigorous- or moderate- intensity physical activity (MVPA) participation per day, television and computer time, fruit and vegetable (FV) intake, sugar-sweetened beverage intake, and consumption of breakfast, home-cooked meals, and fast food. Other outcomes included knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes related to healthy eating, physical activity, and advocacy skills. ^ Findings. Among the 38 participants, no significant changes in any variables were observed. However, among those who did not previously meet behavioral goals there was an 89% increase in students who participated in more than 20 minutes of MVPA per day and a 58% increase in students who ate home-cooked meals 5–7 days per week. The majority of participants met program goals related to knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes prior to the start of the program. Participants reported either maintaining or improving to the goal at posttest for all items except FV intake knowledge, taste and affordability of healthy foods, interest in teaching others about being healthy, and ease of finding ways to advocate in the community. ^ Conclusions. The results of this evaluation indicated that promoting healthy behaviors requires different strategies than maintaining healthy behaviors among high school students. In the school setting, programs need to target the promotion and maintenance of health behaviors to engage all students who participate in the program as part of a class or club activity. Tailoring the program using screening and modifying strategies to meet the needs of all students may increase the potential reach of the program. The Transtheoretical Model may provide information on how to develop a tailored program. Additional research on how to utilize the constructs of TTM effectively among high school students needs to be conducted. Further evaluation studies should employ a more expansive evaluation to assess the long-term effectiveness of health advocacy programming.^

Best practices for school leaders: Implementation of a profesional competence model for school management in Chile

In Chile, during the last three decades there has been a strong decentralization process whose main objective has been to improve the management of schools through the transfer of responsibilities and resources of education and thus improve the outcome of learning, reducing equity gaps between schools and territories. This is how, there has been an evolution of school principals¿ professional profile from an administrative to a management approach, in which principals have become project managers of educational projects. From a competence model for school leaders, based on IPMA guidelines, the present article presents an analysis of best practices for school management, allowing to generate a link between competencies and school management, from the perspective of project management. Results showed that the different competence elements, have relative weights according to the different practice fields, and that this analysis can be considered as a strategic element in educational project planning and development.

Best practices for school leaders: implementation of a professional competence model for school management in Chile

In Chile, during the last three decades there has been a strong decentralization process whose main objective has been to improve the management of schools through the transfer of responsibilities and resources of education and thus improve the outcome of learning, reducing equity gaps between schools and territories. This is how, there has been an evolution of school principals¿ professional profile from an administrative to a management approach, in which principals have become project managers of educational projects. From a competence model for school leaders, based on IPMA guidelines, the present article presents an analysis of best practices for school management, allowing to generate a link between competencies and school management, from the perspective of project management. Results showed that the different competence elements, have relative weights according to the different practice fields, and that this analysis can be considered as a strategic element in educational project planning and development.

Eventual election of multiple leaders for solving consensus in anonymous systems

In classical distributed systems, each process has a unique identity. Today, new distributed systems have emerged where a unique identity is not always possible to be assigned to each process. For example, in many sensor networks a unique identity is not possible to be included in each device due to its small storage capacity, reduced computational power, or the huge number of devices to be identified. In these cases, we have to work with anonymous distributed systems where processes cannot be identified. Consensus cannot be solved in classical and anonymous asynchronous distributed systems where processes can crash. To bypass this impossibility result, failure detectors are added to these systems. It is known that ? is the weakest failure detector class for solving consensus in classical asynchronous systems when amajority of processes never crashes. Although A? was introduced as an anonymous version of ?, to find the weakest failure detector in anonymous systems to solve consensus when amajority of processes never crashes is nowadays an open question. Furthermore, A? has the important drawback that it is not implementable. Very recently, A? has been introduced as a counterpart of ? for anonymous systems. In this paper, we show that the A? failure detector class is strictly weaker than A? (i.e., A? provides less information about process crashes than A?). We also present in this paper the first implementation of A? (hence, we also show that A? is implementable), and, finally, we include the first implementation of consensus in anonymous asynchronous systems augmented with A? and where a majority of processes does not crash.

The Thought Leaders Roundtable Discussion about Race Relations in Missouri

https://bluetigercommons.lincolnu.edu/pli/1008/thumbnail.jpg

Women Leaders Resolving Conflict in Higher Education: A Feminist Epistemological Perspective

In an American postsecondary context, conflict is inherent (Gianneschi & Yanagiura, 2006; Valian, 1999). Successful navigation of conflict in the academy is vital for those who aspire to leadership positions (Nadler & Nadler, 1987; Walters, Stuhlmacher, & Meyer, 1998). Presently, however, women face significant barriers to achieving success in higher education administration, including gender expectations for conflict resolution behavior (Bartunek, 1992; Bowles, Babcock, & McGinn, 2005; Gayle, Preiss, & Allen, 2002). While a considerable body of literature exists for understanding gender negotiation, it remains rooted in a masculine paradigm (Kolb & Putnam, 2006; Shuter & Turner, 1997), and, as such, established theories lack a feminist epistemological perspective. Consequently, my primary research question is, How do women leaders experience and perceive conflict in the higher education work environment? I conduct a qualitative study that examines workplace conflict experiences of 15 women leaders from diverse personal and professional backgrounds. Hartsock's (1983) three-tiered gender-sensitive analysis of power, updated to include multicultural perspectives, serves as my theoretical framework. It is a lens through which I evaluate theories, finding multicultural organizational, higher education conflict, and gender negotiation theories most applicable to this study. The framework also creates the foundation upon which I build my study. Specifically, I determine that a feminist research method is most relevant to this investigation. To analyze data obtained through in depth interviews, I employ a highly structured form of grounded theory called dimensional analysis. Based on my findings, I co-construct with study participants a Feminist Conflict Process Theory and Flowchart in which initially the nature of the relationship, and subsequently the level of risk to the relationship, institution, or self, is evaluated. This study supports that which is observed in the conflict resolution practitioner literature, but is unique in its observation of factors that influence decisions within a dynamic conflict resolution process. My findings are significant to women who aspire to serve in leadership positions in higher education, as well as to the academy as a whole, for it expands our knowledge of women's ontological and epistemological perspectives on resolving conflict in postsecondary education.

Developing an Interdependent Relationship between Preservation and Recreation: Managing Mountain Bicycling in National Parks

Increasing demand from mountain bikers for greater access to riding in National Park Service (NPS) units is driving the need for park managers to seriously look at the impacts from and feasibility of permitting this recreational use. Currently, NPS units that permit mountain bicycling do not have formal mountain bicycling management plans. An analysis of recreational policies and existing research was conducted to identify criteria for effective mountain bicycling management strategies. Criteria were developed for trail selection, establishment, use, closures and rehabilitation. Criteria were also developed for user education, participatory planning and monitoring. This study shows that the NPS needs formal mountain bicycling management plans that focus on the preservation of natural and cultural resources and consider the appropriateness of proposed recreational uses.

River Recreation Management in Western States: Results of a Recreation Management Survey

This Capstone represents a qualitative analysis of survey responses concerning river recreation management policies and techniques in the Western United States. Respondents were asked about management topics including permits and fees, monitoring, enforcement, resource management, recreational experience, and current and future demand for whitewater rafting. Responses with consistent results include those for questions concerning permits for commercial uses, justification of fees, and enforcement, while responses with variation in results were received for questions concerning permits for private uses, agency self-sufficiency, monitoring, and use capacity. Most respondents do not expect a significant increased demand for commercial or private boating in the next five years. Respondents that do expect an increase do not see a need for additional commercial outfitters.

Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

prepared for the National Park Service by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

Proposed Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area

produced by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council GIS Lab.