Tracing an American Yoga: Identity and Cross-Cultural Transaction

This dissertation looks at the creative identity of an American yoga, both rooted in its Indic origins and radically transformed in its U.S. manifestations. It traces the broad historical transactions of yoga in terms of East and West, Secular and Religious, authenticity and idealized conception, as well as provides a critical historical genealogy of Anusara and Sridaiva yoga. Furthermore, the project relates yoga to the identity, power, and knowledge dynamics of pre-modern, modern, and postmodern histories and interpretations of yoga and Tantra, multiple theoretical discourses, and the embodied practices of individuals within Indian and American contexts. I argue that there is a unique and polysemous yogic identity in America, and that this identity has developed from a messy process of transaction between Indian and Western modes of being and knowing. Furthermore, the current Americanized culture of yoga brings along with it narratives of specific value. American yoga displays a particularly consumptive quality of yogic lifestyle that reflects a cultural atmosphere of reinvention and a merging of profit and personal purpose. American yoga’s identity today is entrepreneurial, branded, business oriented, and marketed for consumption. This dissertation shows how the American yogic identity is in flux, continuously fracturing and multiplying into various and novel understandings that relate to yoga’s past and to the market value for today’s American consumer. It examines the moving nature of yoga in the American landscape as what Jared Farmer calls a “center of creativity” and as a display of excess and choice. The discussion of yoga is further located in John Friend’s styles of yoga and/or lifestyle practices, Anusara and Sridaiva, as they both redefine and further remove yoga from established Indian markers of identity. My locations as American yogi, as comparativist, as ethnographer, and as a Bachelor of Science in Advertising and Marketing also situate this analysis.

Land use practices near tributary rivers and their influence on duckweed (Lemna obscura) bloom in the southern part of Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela: Sustainable solutions to address the issue

This study examined the relationship between land-use practices near tributary rivers in South Lake Maracaibo and the appearance of duckweed (Lemna obscura) in the lake. Four rivers were studied: The Mucujepe, Capaz, Guamo and Frio. Eight factors were assessed: rivers, sediments, erosion, soils, fertilizers, water quality, land use activities and vegetation corridors. Satellite images, official cartography, field visits and observations, water samples and personal communication with organizations involved were held to get an accurate and current assessment of the conditions. The study revealed the land-use practices surrounding the Pan-American Zone Rivers contribute to the duckweed blooming in Lake Maracaibo.

Industry Professionals Who Attain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accreditation: An Examination of Motivations in Human Resource (HR) Training and Development

Despite the economy, the green building industry continues to grow and drive the demand for environmentally conscious, highly skilled professionals (USGBC 2009). LEED Accredited Professionals (APs) have the knowledge and skills to meet such demand; however, information is limited regarding LEED APs or their motivations and expectations toward prospective employers. The author surveyed a sample of LEED Accredited architects and found a combination of job and personal factors motivated them to attain accreditation. LEED APs value both a competitive salary and commitment to sustainability in prospective employers. To attract, retain, and utilize LEED APs, executives in this industry must reexamine corporate culture, their willingness to pay for credentialing, and the alignment of their reputation with the desires of potential applicants.

Food, nutrition and public health in contemporary Spain, 1900-1936

Within the context of the health reforms introduced in Spain in the early 20th century and the influence of international health organisations on their development, this article analyses the growing interest that surrounded nourishment and food-related problems at that time in relation to healthcare, the diagnosis provided by hygienists of such problems, and the public health measures applied to resolve them. The issue of hygienic diet and the collective aspect of nutritional problems became priorities in the field of healthcare. Two of the most prominent initiatives involved setting up a Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene and Bromatological Technique during the early years of the Second Republic, as part of the National School of Health, as well as a Food Hygiene Service. Spanish hygienists underlined the importance of education and the dissemination of information about food hygiene, health and nutrition, in order to overcome the qualitative and quantitative deficiencies observed in the average diet of the Spanish population.

Knowledge spirals, situational leadership and informal learning applied on b-learning methodology

The methodology “b-learning” is a new teaching scenario and it requires the creation, adaptation and application of new learning tools searching the assimilation of new collaborative competences. In this context, it is well known the knowledge spirals, the situational leadership and the informal learning. The knowledge spirals is a basic concept of the knowledge procedure and they are based on that the knowledge increases when a cycle of 4 phases is repeated successively.1) The knowledge is created (for instance, to have an idea); 2) The knowledge is decoded into a format to be easily transmitted; 3) The knowledge is modified to be easily comprehensive and it is used; 4) New knowledge is created. This new knowledge improves the previous one (step 1). Each cycle shows a step of a spiral staircase: by going up the staircase, more knowledge is created. On the other hand, the situational leadership is based on that each person has a maturity degree to develop a specific task and this maturity increases with the experience. Therefore, the teacher (leader) has to adapt the teaching style to the student (subordinate) requirements and in this way, the professional and personal development of the student will increase quickly by improving the results and satisfaction. This educational strategy, finally combined with the informal learning, and in particular the zone of proximal development, and using a learning content management system own in our University, gets a successful and well-evaluated learning activity in Master subjects focused on the collaborative activity of preparation and oral exhibition of short and specific topics affine to these subjects. Therefore, the teacher has a relevant and consultant role of the selected topic and his function is to guide and supervise the work, incorporating many times the previous works done in other courses, as a research tutor or more experienced student. Then, in this work, we show the academic results, grade of interactivity developed in these collaborative tasks, statistics and the satisfaction grade shown by our post-graduate students.

Inclusive education in Spain: how do skills, resources, and supports affect regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion?

This study examined regular education teachers’ perceptions of inclusion in elementary and secondary schools in Spain and how these perceptions may differ depending on teaching experience, skills, and the availability of resources and supports. Stratified random sampling procedures were used to draw a representative sample of 336 general education teachers (68 kindergarten, 133 elementary, and 135 secondary teachers) from the province of Alicante. The results indicated the acceptance of the principles of inclusion, although teacher skills, time, material resources, and personal supports for inclusion were deemed insufficient. Kindergarten and elementary teachers showed more positive perceptions of inclusion than secondary education teachers, and so did teachers with more personal supports and material resources than those with less supports and resources. The results are discussed in terms of its implications for practice in order to promote more inclusive classrooms in Spain.

Predictive Models of Alcohol Use Based on Attitudes and Individual Values

Two predictive models are developed in this article: the first is designed to predict people's attitudes to alcoholic drinks, while the second sets out to predict the use of alcohol in relation to selected individual values. University students (N = 1,500) were recruited through stratified sampling based on sex and academic discipline. The questionnaire used obtained information on participants' alcohol use, attitudes and personal values. The results show that the attitudes model correctly classifies 76.3% of cases. Likewise, the model for level of alcohol use correctly classifies 82% of cases. According to our results, we can conclude that there are a series of individual values that influence drinking and attitudes to alcohol use, which therefore provides us with a potentially powerful instrument for developing preventive intervention programs.

BMI and physical activity in diabetic adolescents followed Hospital Barcelos

Introduction: Physical activity is related to health and lifestyle and should be part of the daily routine of all individuals since it brings many benefits to the body. Ains: To study the adolescent population‘s body mass index (BMI). To study the relation between physical activity and gender. Materials and Methods: We performed a quantitative, observational, analytic and cross-sectional study. After the use of exclusion criteria, a sample of 36 individuals was selected from a population of diabetic adolescents. A validated questionnaire was applied to collected physical activity and personal data. SPSS 22.0 was used to treat the data. The chi-square test was applied to study the relation between the level of physical activity and gender; Fisher’s exact test was applied to study the relation between level of physical activity and BMI. Results and discussion: The chi-square test showed a significant relation between the level of physical activity and gender (p-value = 0.018) with moderate intensity (phi = .4), which corroborates other national and worldwide studies. Fisher’s exact test showed no relation between BMI and the level of physical activity (p-value=0,646). Conclusion: 86,1% of the sampled diabetic adolescents are eutrophic, and 66,7% are considered insufficient active. A significant relation was found between gender and the level of physical activity. No relation was found between BMI and level of physical activity.

Saving for Retirement and Investing for Growth. Report of the CEPS-RCMI Task Force on Long-term Investing and Retirement Savings. CEPS Task Force Report, September 2013

Europe is facing a double challenge: a significant need for long-term investments – crucial levers for economic growth – and a growing pension gap, both of which call for resolute action. Crucially, at a time when low interest rates and revised prudential standards strain the ability of life insurers and pension funds to offer guaranteed returns, Europe lacks a framework ensuring the quality and accessibility of long-term investment solutions for small retail investors and defined contribution pension plans. This report considers the potential to steer household financial wealth – accounting for over 60% of total financial wealth in Europe – towards long-term investing, which would achieve two goals at once: higher growth and higher pensions. It follows a holistic approach that considers both solution design – how to gear product structuring towards long-term investing – and market structure – how to engineer a competitive market setting that is able to deliver high-quality and cost-efficient solutions. The report also considers prudential rules for insurers and pension funds and the potential to build a single market for less-liquid funds, occupational and personal pensions, with improved investor protection. It urges policy-makers to act aggressively to deliver more inclusive, efficient and resilient retail investment markets that are better equipped and more committed to deliver value over the long-term for beneficiaries.

Can the new refugee relocation system work? Perils in the Dublin logic and flawed reception conditions in the EU. CEPS Policy Brief No. 332, October 2015 Thursday, 1 October 2015

This Policy Brief argues that the newly adopted EU temporary relocation (quota) system constitutes a welcome yet timid step forward in addressing a number of central controversies of the current refugee debate in Europe. Two main challenges affect the effective operability of the new EU relocation model. First, EU member states’ asylum systems show profound (on-the-ground) weaknesses in reception conditions and judicial/administrative capacities. These prevent a fair and humane processing of asylum applications. EU states are not implementing the common standards enshrined in the EU reception conditions Directive 2013/33. Second, the new relocation system constitutes a move away from the much-criticised Dublin system, but it is still anchored to its premises. The Dublin system is driven by an unfair and unsustainable rule according to which the first EU state of entry is responsible for assessing asylum applications. It does not properly consider the personal, private and family circumstances or the preferences of asylum-seekers. Policy Recommendations In order to respond to these challenges, the Policy Brief offers the following policy recommendations: The EU should strengthen and better enforce member states’ reception capacities, abolish the current Dublin system rule of allocation of responsibility and expand the new relocation distribution criteria to include in the assessment (as far as possible) asylum-seekers’ preferences and personal/family links to EU member states. EU member countries should give priority to boosting their current and forward-looking administrative and judicial capacities to deal and welcome asylum applications. The EU should establish a permanent common European border and asylum service focused on ensuring the highest standards through stable operational support, institutional solidarity across all EU external borders and the practical implementation of new distribution relocation criteria.

Evidências de validade da versão brasileira do Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 em contexto de academia e personal training

Este estudo teve como objetivos verificar a validade fatorial e a validade interna da versão brasileira do Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 (EMI-2) e comparar os principais motivos para prática de exercício tendo em conta os contextos de academia e personal training. Um total de 588 praticantes de exercício da cidade de Pelotas/RS/Brasil (405 de academia e 183 de personal training) preencheram o EMI-2, o qual é constituído por 51 itens, agrupados em 14 motivos (fatores) para prática de exercício físico. A validade fatorial do EMI-2 foi testada através da realização de análises fatoriais confirmatórias e a validade interna através do alfa de Cronbach. Para a verificar o efeito do contexto nos motivos foi utilizada a MANOVA e calculado o tamanho do efeito. Os resultados obtidos dão suporte à estrutura original do EMI-2 com 14 fatores, nesta amostra. Verificou-se um efeito multivariado significativo do contexto sobre os motivos de prática [Wilks’ λ = 0.912, F (14, 573.000) = 3.9, p < 0.001, η² = 0.088]. Os motivos de “Prazer”, “Força e resistência”, “Desafio”, “Socialização”, “Competição” e “Reconhecimento Social” foram significativamente superiores no contexto de academia e os motivos de “Agilidade” e “Prevenção de Doenças” foram significativamente superiores no contexto de personal training.

Great Himalaya: Tourism and the dynamics of change in Nepal

Based on extensive field work and years of personal experience, the authors discuss the development of tourism in the Great Himalaya of Nepal from the early days of mountaineering to present-day trekking. Tourism and its potentials, drawbacks, and risks are illustrated with a focus on the Khumbu/Everest and Annapurna regions, the most popular mountain destinations in the country. The themes addressed include: growth and expansion of mountain tourism; employment and income generation; wealth, poverty, and livelihood as reflected in statistics and personal accounts by local people; the revival of trade with Tibet; tourism and the role of women; the crucial role played by institutions, policies and political stability; and environmental issues such as forest degradation, garbage management, and trail damage. With its numerous illustrations, text boxes and quotes, the book is intended for a broad readership of policy- and decision-makers in tourism and development, scholars, and tourists and mountaineers who take an interest in mountain development in the Great Himalaya and elsewhere.

West Virginia Jewry: origins and history, 1850-1958.

"Sources for the history of West Virginia Jewry, literary and personal": p. lxiv-lxxix.

Monthly bulletin - Bureau of Child Welfare and Bureau of Public Health Nursing.

WI docs no.: HE 1 CH.4:1926-1927

School health activities in 1930. Summary of information collected for the White House conference on child health and protection,

"For a comparison of this survey with that made by the Office of Education in 1923, see A Biennium in hygiene and physical education, Bulletin, 1931, no. 20."--Foot-note, p. [1]