The Perceived Benefits of an Arts Project for Health and Wellbeing of Older Offenders

Background: The increasing ageing prison population is becoming a pressing issue throughout the criminal justice system. Alongside the rising population, are a host of health and wellbeing issues that contribute to older offenders needs whilst in prison. It has been recommended that meaningful activities can have positive effects on this population and therefore this paper uniquely reviews older offenders accounts of taking part in an arts based project, Good Vibrations, whilst imprisoned. Objective and design: The Good Vibrations project engages individuals in Gamelan music making with an end of project performance. This study used independent in-depth interviews to capture the voices of older offenders who took part in an art based prison project. Analysis and Results: The interview data was analysed using thematic analysis, which highlighted themes that were consistent with other populations who have taken part in a Good Vibrations project, along with specific age relating issues of mobility, motivation, identity and wellbeing.

Having a strategy for new service development : does it really matter?

Purpose – The aim of this study is to investigate the role of key strategic factors in new service development (NSD). In particular, the role of service development strategy, a formalised development process, integrated development teams and customer co-creation were investigated and the results were compared with managers' beliefs. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a sample of more than 500 service development projects to test a NSD conceptual model. Regression analysis was used to test the relative importance of the key strategic factors, and the results were compared with managers' beliefs. Findings – The results show that managers believe that customer co-creation is most important in order to succeed with NSD. However, contrary to management belief, a service development strategy is the “missing link” in improving NSD performance. In addition, the research highlighted an interaction effect between integrated development teams and customer co-creation, which means that project managers should focus on individual competencies on the development team and how they interact with customers throughout the NSD process. Originality/value – For a long time, NSD has failed to receive the attention it deserves, not just in practice but also in service research. This study shows that the number of new services put on the market and then withdrawn because of low sales remains as high as 43 per cent. This paper contributes knowledge on how to reduce the number of failures in NSD by pointing out the key strategic factors that influence NSD performance.

Adolescent depression in schools: + Contigo Project

epidemiological data. It involves a high degree of mortality, namely by suicide, which is the third leading cause of death in the 15-24 age group. Objectives: To assess the presence and severity of depressive symptoms in a non-clinical population of adolescents. Methodology: This is a quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional study, using the Portuguese version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). The sample was composed of 741 adolescents. Results: The results show that 31.2% of the adolescents have depression and, of these, 17.7% have moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Girls have higher levels of depression (p=.00). The total mean score in the BDI-II was 12. Conclusion: Given the adolescents' high vulnerability to depression and suicide, it is essential to implement prevention programs in schools to promote the early detection of depression and suicidal behaviors, and the referral to mental health services.

The Historic Maryland Newspapers Project

This poster addresses frequently asked questions regarding the Historic Maryland Newspapers Project, such as "What is the National Digital Newspaper Program?" and "How are titles selected for digitization?" It also provides information about the project's funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), newspaper titles digitized by the project to date, and the future of the project. This poster was presented at the UMD Libraries Research & Innovative Practice Forum, McKeldin Library, June 8, 2016.

The +Contigo Project in the Voice of Eight-Grade Students

The +Contigo Project is a longitudinal research project based on a multilevel network intervention aimed at promoting mental health and well-being and preventing suicidal behaviors. Students participate in social skills training sessions on the stigma of mental disorders, adolescence, self-esteem, problem-solving skills, and wellbeing. Problem statement: To identify the qualitative impact of the +Contigo Project. Objectives: To identify the importance of the project for students, the problem situations which it helped to solve, and its impact on an individual level. Research methods: Content analysis (Bardin, 2009) with a posteriori categorical identification. Semi-structured interview guide with 5 questions. A convenience sample of 16 students, from three schools of one school cluster in the Center Region of Portugal, was used. The ethical aspects of parental consent, voluntary participation and data confidentiality were addressed. Findings: Fourteen categories emerged from the data analysis. The answers to Question 4 'How was this project important to you?' were particularly relevant. Students mentioned that it improved their self-esteem by increasing self-confidence and interpersonal skills, and that it increased their reflection and awareness on problems with which they learned how to cope during the sessions. Conclusions: All interviewees considered that the +Contigo project helped them to solve problems, improve their interpersonal skills and cope with the adolescence period. Students improved their self-esteem and self-knowledge, and were able to apply what they had learned in the sessions in their daily lives. We concluded that the project had a positive impact on the students' mental health.

Promotion and diffusion of tha career Bachelor and Licenciature of Mathematics Teaching in rural areas of Costa Rica project: effects and results

This article describes the purpose and activities of the project Promoting Mathematics Education in Rural Areas of Costa Rica. The activity has focused on two objectives. First, supporting and monitoring students who have expressed interest in studying a mathematics teacher. To achieve this, it has been working with students who have an ideal profile for the career, mainly from rural areas. The second objective is to conduct training workshops for high school in-service teachers, to strengthen and improve their knowledge in the area of mathematics. Among the results of the project, it can be highlighted a significant increase in the enrollment of students in the career of Mathematics Education in 2010 and 2011, and the training processes in the field of Real Functions of Real Variable and Geometry at different regional areas mostly rural as Aguirre, Sarapiquí, Coto, Buenos Aires, Limón, Cañas, Pérez Zeledón, Nicoya, Los Santos, Turrialba, Puriscal, Desamparados, San Carlos, Puntarenas, Limón, Liberia, Santa Cruz y Upala.

Sicily in Transition Research Project. Investigations at Castronovo di Sicilia. Results and Prospects, 2015

Il progetto Sicily in Transition è nato dalla collaborazione delle Università di York e di Roma Tor Vergata, con il pieno ap-poggio della Soprintendenza ai BB. CC. AA di Palermo. La finalità della nostra ricerca è quella di analizzare, attraverso il registro archeologico, in quale modo i mutamenti di regime politico hanno influenzato organizzazione, composizione e stili di vita delle popolazioni soggette. L’arco di tempo considerato va dal VI al XIII secolo, periodo nel quale la Sicilia ha visto diverse dominazioni: quella bizantina, islamica, normanna e sveva. Sicily in Transition prevede di analizzare con metodi in parte nuovi, in parte più tradizionali, sia insiemi di reperti (ecofatti e manufatti) prodotti da precedenti scavi, sia di acquisire dati attraverso nuove indagini. In particolare gli scriventi hanno scelto di indagare un’area molto promettente della Sicilia centrale: il territorio di Castronovo di Sicilia. Qui, in due campagne di ricerca durate ciascuna quattro settimane, sono state realizzate indagini magnetometriche, ricognizioni di superficie, di archeologia dell’architettura e sondaggi stratigrafici. La finalità era quella di valutare il potenziale archeologico dei principali siti storici del territorio. I primi risultati sono promettenti in relazione alla varietà tipologica e cronologica dei diversi insediamenti identificati: una fortezza dei secoli VII-IX sul Monte Kassar; un fortilizio con fasi del pieno medioevo e dell’età moderna sul Colle San Vitale; un ampio villaggio non difeso con fasi dall’età tardoantica al medioevo, incluse importanti testimonianze di età islamica, nell’area del Casale San Pietro. Le indagini preliminari hanno quindi confermato le ampie potenzialità informative dell’intero territorio di Castronovo rispetto ai temi della nostra ricerca e stanno quindi consentendo di programmare gli interventi futuri.

Novana, its territory and the Pisa South Picenum Survey Project II

Si presenta in questa sede una sintesi dei risultati emersi dalle campagne 2014-2015 del Pisa South Picenum Survey Project II, relativo alle alte valli dei fiumi Aso e Tenna, nelle Marche meridionali. Dalle ricognizioni intensive effettuate nel territorio comunale di Amandola (Provincia di FM) è emerso un fitto popolamento rurale costituito da piccole fattorie, databili a partire dalla fine del III sec.a.C., e posizionate all’interno di una griglia centuriale. Questo territorio, con tutta probabilità viritim adsignatus a seguito della lex de agro Gallico et Piceno viritim dividundo del 232 a.C., doveva avvalersi di un polo di aggregazione sociale e amministrativa ubicato nelle vicinanze e ben collegato alla viabilità principale. La posizione strategica, un’accurata analisi dell’assetto centuriale e numerosi rinvenimenti archeologici permettono di identificare questa praefectura nell’area dell’attuale Comunanza dove possiamo localizzare l’antica Novana citata da Plinio (N.H., III, 11)., un centro piceno che divenne, forse, un foro, e poi una praefectura ed infine un municipium.

Some Like It Hot: The Influence and Implications of Climate Change on Coffee Berry Borer (Hypothenemus hampei) and Coffee Production in East Africa

The negative effects of climate change are already evident for many of the 25 million coffee farmers across the tropics and the 90 billion dollar (US) coffee industry. The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei), the most important pest of coffee worldwide, has already benefited from the temperature rise in East Africa: increased damage to coffee crops and expansion in its distribution range have been reported. In order to anticipate threats and prioritize management actions for H. hampei we present here, maps on future distributions of H. hampei in coffee producing areas of East Africa. Using the CLIMEX model we relate present-day insect distributions to current climate and then project the fitted climatic envelopes under future scenarios A2A and B2B (for HADCM3 model). In both scenarios, the situation with H. hampei is forecasted to worsen in the current Coffea arabica producing areas of Ethiopia, the Ugandan part of the Lake Victoria and Mt. Elgon regions, Mt. Kenya and the Kenyan side of Mt. Elgon, and most of Rwanda and Burundi. The calculated hypothetical number of generations per year of H. hampei is predicted to increase in all C. arabica-producing areas from five to ten. These outcomes will have serious implications for C. arabica production and livelihoods in East Africa. We suggest that the best way to adapt to a rise of temperatures in coffee plantations could be via the introduction of shade trees in sun grown plantations. The aims of this study are to fill knowledge gaps existing in the coffee industry, and to draft an outline for the development of an adaptation strategy package for climate change on coffee production. An abstract in Spanish is provided as Abstract S1.

Linking electronic journals - Lessons from the Open Journal project

The Open Journal project has completed its three year period of funding by the UK Electronic Libraries (eLib) programme (Rusbridge 1998). During that time, the number of journals that are available electronically leapt from a few tens to a few thousand. Some of these journals are now developing the sort of features the project has been advocating, in particular the use of links within journals, between different primary journals, with secondary journals data, and to non-journal sources. Assessing the achievements of the project and considering some of the difficulties it faced, we report on the different approaches to linking that the project developed, and summarise the important user responses that indicate what works and what does not. Looking ahead, there are signs of change, not just to simple linking within journals but to schemes in which links are the basis of "distributed" journals, where information may be shared and documents built from different sources. The significance has yet to be appreciated, but this would be a major change from printed journals. If projects such as this and others have provided the initial impetus, the motivation for distributed journals comes, perhaps surprisingly, from within certain parts of the industry, as the paper shows.

Child-to-child interaction and corrective feedback during a tandem chat exchange project

L’objectif principal de cette recherche était d’examiner l’interaction entre élèves d’ALS et de FLS de sixième année du primaire du Québec et de l’Ontario communicant par clavardage et utilisant l’approche en Tandem. Plus spécifiquement, elle visait à vérifier si ces apprenants offraient de la rétroaction corrective et, le cas échéant, si cette dernière suscitait de la réparation. L’opinion des participants par rapport à leur expérience de communication en Tandem a été examinée. Les sessions de clavardage ont eu lieu sur une période de quatre mois produisant 16 séances de clavardage (8 en anglais et 8 en français). Les résultats montrent que des apprenants de langue seconde ont offert de la rétroaction corrective à 370 occasions. L’examen des données révèle que les sujets ont utilisé les trois types de rétroaction: la rétroaction explicite, la reformulation et la négociation de la forme. Contrairement à ce qui a pu être observé dans d’autres études antérieures impliquant de jeunes apprenants, une des découvertes majeures de cette recherche fut l’utilisation, par les participants, de la rétroaction explicite plutôt que la reformulation. Par contraste avec la recherche de Morris (2005) qui impliquait également de jeunes apprenants de niveau primaire utilisant le clavardage, le taux de réparation a été plutôt bas. La grande majorité des élèves d’ALS ont aimé utiliser l’ordinateur comme moyen d’apprentissage de leur L2 et de leur L1 contrairement aux élèves de FLS. Les implications pédagogiques des résultats de cette recherche ainsi que des suggestions pour de futures recherches sont également discutées.

Art-Map: concept of moving curatorial project and its practical realization in Aveiro

In this dissertation, I present the results of a project which aim was to find out and try an effective model of independent curatorial project executable in small and medium cities in Portugal. The concept of Moving Curatorial Project ARTMAP is a result of theoretical research and reflection about municipal exhibition spaces and possibility of presentation of the contemporary art in these spaces. To test if this curatorial project is realizable and if there are conditions to continue it, a first trial was implemented in Aveiro. A curated international exhibition, entitled “A Poética do Visual" occupied two municipal and two private gallery spaces and brought together 111 artists from 25 different countries. The art event was carried out in collaboration with the Municipality of Aveiro and the University of Aveiro, and involved several private cultural spaces in the city. This first experience showed that there are all conditions for the presentation of contemporary art in small and medium size locations in Portugal, and for this project to be replicated in other regions of the country.

Journal publishing with Acrobat: the CAJUN project

The publication of material in electronic form should ideally preserve, in a unified document representation, all of the richness of the printed document while maintaining enough of its underlying structure to enable searching and other forms of semantic processing. Until recently it has been hard to find a document representation which combined these attributes and which also stood some chance of becoming a de facto multi-platform standard. This paper sets out experience gained within the Electronic Publishing Research Group at the University of Nottingham in using Adobe Acrobat software and its underlying PDF (Portable Document Format) notation. The CAJUN project1 (CD-ROM Acrobat Journals Using Networks) began in 1993 and has used Acrobat software to produce electronic versions of journal papers for network and CD-ROM dissemination. The paper describes the project's progress so far and also gives a brief assessment of PDF's suitability as a universal document interchange standard.

La ricerca e il gruppo esperienziale nell’ambito del progetto “www…parliamonepure.it” realizzato nel carcere di Castelvetrano (TP)

Nel panorama nazionale si discute poco degli autori dei reati sessuali, infatti l’attenzione dell’opinione pubblica e dei diversi attori sociali è più rivolta alle vittime dei reati sessuali. Ancora poco si affronta il problema legato al trattamento dei pedofili e dei violentatori di donne, nonostante l’argomento meriti approfondimenti anche in ambito penitenziario. Appare necessario ed opportuno individuare, nell’ambito del lavoro trattamentale, un modello operativo finalizzato alla ricerca di strategie che orientino il condannato per reati sessuali verso un percorso di analisi degli agiti. Ciò assume una rilevanza particolare nel trattamento dei detenuti sex offenders, pur riconoscendo la valenza del percorso trattamentale rivolto a qualsiasi tipologia di detenuti. L’esperienza realizzata presso la Casa Circondariale di Castelvetrano, descritta nel presente articolo, ha consentito, attraverso l’uso di una metodologia di lavoro di gruppo, di rilevare a carico dei soggetti partecipanti un quadro di consistente difficoltà nei percorsi di approfondimento e di analisi personale. In Italy, there has been little discussion about sex offenders. In fact, public and social actors’ attention has focused more on the victims of sex crimes rather than on criminals, so little importance is given to resocialization programs for paedophiles and rapists, even if this topic is worth exploring particularly in prisons. In the treatment phase, it is necessary and considered appropriate to identify an operational model aimed to orientate the sex offenders towards a process of analysis of their deviant behaviours. Through the methodology of the experiential group, the project carried out at Castelvetrano prison has highlighted the severe difficulties in personal analysis encountered by the sex offenders involved.

Evaluating Water Temperature, Habitat and Fish Communities in Candidate Coolwater Streams in Illinois Annual Project Report 2010

Work during this reporting period focused on characterizing temperature, habitat, and biological communities at candidate coolwater sites. During the past year we have collected additional temperature data from 57 candidate streams and other locations and now have records from 232 stream reaches. Eighty-two sites in Illinois have been identified as cool- or coldwater based on these records. Physical habitat surveys have been conducted at 79 sites where temperature data were available. Fish and macroinvertebrate data were obtained from the cooperative basin survey program data managers for candidate sites whenever possible and added to collections made during previous project years. This report summarizes progress for the period beginning 1 October 2009 and ending 30 September 2010. Additional analyses are ongoing and will be presented in the final report upon completion of this project.