Rethinking Local Government Support for Youth Arts:The Case of NOISE South Dublin

Within Ireland, interest in strategically supporting young people’s participation in the arts has increased. Additionally, awareness of the Internet’s potential for promot- ing engagement with the arts has grown. Addressing national directives and local needs assessments, South Dublin County Council’s Arts Office initiated NOISE South Dublin (http://www.noisesouthdublin.com), an interactive Web site based on Australia Council’s NOISE project (http://www.noise.net), to promote the creative development of young people in the county. This article presents the practical chal- lenges and potential of youth arts Web-based programs for harnessing the creative engagement of youth. It concludes that the Internet is only useful if it expands online engagement offline.

Increased Exposure to Rigid Routines can Lead to Increased Challenging Behavior Following Changes to Those Routines

Several neurodevelopmental disorders are associated with preference for routine and challenging behavior following changes to routines. We examine individuals with Prader–Willi syndrome, who show elevated levels of this behavior, to better understand how previous experience of a routine can affect challenging behavior elicited by disruption to that routine. Play based challenges exposed 16 participants to routines, which were either adhered to or changed. Temper outburst behaviors, heart rate and movement were measured. As participants were exposed to routines for longer before a change (between 10 and 80 min; within participants), more temper outburst behaviors were elicited by changes. Increased emotional arousal was also elicited, which was indexed by heart rate increases not driven by movement. Further study will be important to understand whether current intervention approaches that limit exposure to changes, may benefit from the structured integration of flexibility to ensure that the opportunity for routine establishment is also limited.

Intervenção centrada no brincar: um estudo de caso em criança institucionalizada

Dentro dos vários processos de Intervenção Precoce, elegemos o brincar, enquanto ato sempre presente na criança. Na revisão de literatura verifica-se uma quase inexistência de estudos de Intervenções centradas no jogo em crianças institucionalizadas desde os 0 anos. Assim, partimos de duas questões fulcrais: quais os riscos associados à institucionalização prolongada e precoce, e de que modo o jogo e o brincar potenciam o desenvolvimento e a aprendizagem da criança em risco biológico e sociocultural. O presente estudo tem como objetivo promover, através de um estudo de caso, a relação do lúdico com o desenvolvimento e a aprendizagem, imprescindíveis numa criança em situação de institucionalização. Partimos da problemática da institucionalização infantil, expondo os diversos trabalhos apresentados pela revisão bibliográfica relativamente aos riscos associados à condição de institucionalização. Os diversos estudos sublinham que, efetivamente, não será a única solução para as crianças em risco, apontando para a legislação atual que prevê o acolhimento familiar como solução viável e mais ajustada às necessidades das crianças. Apresentamos ainda a teoria do desenvolvimento de Vygotsky como fundamento teórico-prático deste trabalho de intervenção centrada no brincar.

Influence of a lifestyle intervention in preschool children on physiological and psychological parameters (Ballabeina): study design of a cluster randomized controlled trial.

Childhood obesity and physical inactivity are increasing dramatically worldwide. Children of low socioeconomic status and/or children of migrant background are especially at risk. In general, the overall effectiveness of school-based programs on health-related outcomes has been disappointing. A special gap exists for younger children and in high risk groups. This paper describes the rationale, design, curriculum, and evaluation of a multicenter preschool randomized intervention study conducted in areas with a high migrant population in two out of 26 Swiss cantons. Twenty preschool classes in the German (canton St. Gallen) and another 20 in the French (canton Vaud) part of Switzerland were separately selected and randomized to an intervention and a control arm by the use of opaque envelopes. The multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention aimed to increase physical activity and sleep duration, to reinforce healthy nutrition and eating behaviour, and to reduce media use. According to the ecological model, it included children, their parents and the teachers. The regular teachers performed the majority of the intervention and were supported by a local health promoter. The intervention included physical activity lessons, adaptation of the built infrastructure; promotion of regional extracurricular physical activity; playful lessons about nutrition, media use and sleep, funny homework cards and information materials for teachers and parents. It lasted one school year. Baseline and post-intervention evaluations were performed in both arms. Primary outcome measures included BMI and aerobic fitness (20 m shuttle run test). Secondary outcomes included total (skinfolds, bioelectrical impedance) and central (waist circumference) body fat, motor abilities (obstacle course, static and dynamic balance), physical activity and sleep duration (accelerometry and questionnaires), nutritional behaviour and food intake, media use, quality of life and signs of hyperactivity (questionnaires), attention and spatial working memory ability (two validated tests). Researchers were blinded to group allocation. The purpose of this paper is to outline the design of a school-based multicenter cluster randomized, controlled trial aiming to reduce body mass index and to increase aerobic fitness in preschool children in culturally different parts of Switzerland with a high migrant population. Trial Registration: (clinicaltrials.gov) NCT00674544.

Explorações educacionais (educational explorations) : schooling experiences of second-generation Portuguese Canadian students

This study explores the stories and experiences of second-generation Portuguese Canadian secondary school students in Southern Ontario, Canada. The purpose of this research was to understand the educational experiences of students, specifically the successes, challenges, and struggles that the participants faced within the education system. Questions were also asked about identity issues and how participants perceived their identities influencing their educational experiences. Six Portuguese Canadian students in grades 9 to 11 were interviewed twice. The interviews ranged from 45 minutes to 90 minutes in length. Data analysis of qualitative, open-ended interviews, research journals, field notes and curricular documents yielded understandings about the participants' experiences and challenges in the education system. Eight themes emerged from data that explored the realities of everyday life for second-generatiop Portuguese Canadian students. These themes include: influences of part-time work on schooling, parental involvement, the teacher is key, challenges and barriers, the importance of peers, Portuguese Canadian identity, lack of focus on identity in curricul:um content, and the dropout problem. Recommendations in this study include the need for more community-based programs to assist students. Furthermore, teachers are encouraged to utilize strategies and curriculum resources that engage learners and integrate their histories and identities. Educators are encouraged to question power dynamics both inside and outside the school system. There is also a need for further research with Portuguese Canadian students who are struggling in the education system as well as an examination of the number of hours that students work.

Influence et facteurs incitatifs de la participation des parents dans un programme d’éducation à la nutrition implanté en milieu scolaire : Petits cuistots – Parents en réseaux

Au cours de leur croissance, les jeunes sont exposés à des facteurs de risques de maladies associés aux habitudes de vie, notamment celles alimentaires. Les interventions scolaires mises en place en vue de modifier leurs comportements nutritionnels sont plus efficaces lorsque les parents prennent part aux activités. Toutefois, les travaux réalisés dans ce domaine font état d’un faible taux de participation des parents dans les activités proposées. Les recherches effectuées sur la participation parentale dans les interventions d’éducation nutritionnelle à l’école, révèlent des lacunes importantes quant à la définition du concept. L’investissement parental y est défini par la fréquence d’apparition des parents à l’école et le rôle de ceux-ci dans les interventions; ce qui constitue, à notre avis, une vision réductionniste des dimensions du concept. De plus, ces études répertoriées dans la littérature mettent l’emphase sur la proportion de parents participants et l’influence de celle-ci quant aux effets sur les enfants, sans se préoccuper de ce qui pourrait expliquer leur implication aux activités proposées. L’objectif de cette thèse est de documenter les mécanismes qui sous-tendent la participation des parents dans les programmes de promotion de la santé dispensés en milieu scolaire. Plus spécifiquement, notre étude vise à identifier la relation entre les différentes dimensions de l’implication parentale et les comportements alimentaires des enfants suite à l’exposition de ces derniers à un projet d’éducation à la nutrition mis en place dans huit écoles primaires de milieux défavorisés de Montréal, le Projet PC-PR, tout en appréciant l’influence de certaines caractéristiques familiales sur ce lien. Puis, explorer la relation entre des facteurs qui motivent les parents à participer et l’investissement de ces derniers dans le projet. La présente recherche est conduite grâce à une analyse secondaire de données d’un échantillon de parents d’enfants fréquentant les écoles qui participent au projet PC-PR (N=502). La participation parentale est conceptualisée en quatre dimensions faisant référence à la notion du mésosystème proposée par Bronfenbrenner (1979), alors que les motifs d’implication sont définis en s’inspirant des travaux de Hoover-Dempsey et Sandler (1995, 1997). Des analyses descriptives, bivariées et multivariées sont effectuées. L’analyse du discours des parents montre une association positive entre la participation parentale aux activités (soit l’investissement à la maison, la communication et la connaissance intermilieu) et le développement de comportements alimentaires des enfants. Des effets modérateurs de certaines variables familiales (la langue, le nombre d’enfants à la maison, l’âge et l’opinion du parent sur la nécessité que l’enfant sache faire à manger) sur cette relation sont aussi identifiés. Les raisons qui poussent un parent à participer (la compréhension du rôle, le sentiment de compétence et les occasions offertes par les ateliers) sont liées à la participation de ce dernier aux activités de cuisine-nutrition. Les résultats de cette recherche contribuent non seulement à l’avancement des connaissances dans le domaine, mais servent de prémisses à une réflexion visant à mieux orienter les interventions en promotion de la santé.

Le programme cognitif-comportemental au CJM-IU : l'effet du degré d'exposition au programme sur l'ampleur des troubles de comportement des adolescentes six mois après leur admission au CJM-IU

L’implantation de programmes probants dans les milieux d’intervention peut comporter son lot de difficultés pour les gestionnaires ainsi que les intervenants en contexte de réadaptation pour adolescents. En effet, les contraintes auxquelles peuvent être confrontés les milieux de pratique mènent parfois à la modification des programmes, ceci en vue de faciliter leur implantation. Il devient alors important de documenter ainsi qu’identifier l’effet des éléments associés à la fidélité d’implantation lorsque les programmes d’intervention sont évalués. En plus d’évaluer l’effet du degré d’exposition au programme cognitif-comportemental implanté dans les unités d’hébergement du Centre jeunesse de Montréal – Institut universitaire (CJM-IU) sur l’ampleur des troubles de comportement des adolescentes, ce mémoire propose une nouvelle piste de recherche. Puisque la recherche empirique ne permet pas encore d’identifier les conditions selon lesquelles il serait possible de modifier les programmes d’intervention qui sont adoptés dans le contexte de la pratique, cette étude propose d’élaborer une logique d’exposition au programme qui s’inspire des principes d’intervention efficace élaborés par Andrews et ses collègues (1990). Cette approche permettrait d’adapter le niveau d’intervention aux caractéristiques de la clientèle, et ce, tout en s’assurant de l’efficacité du programme cognitif-comportemental. L’échantillon de cette étude est donc constitué de 74 adolescentes hébergées au CJM-IU pour une durée de six mois. Les résultats indiquent d’abord que les activités du programme cognitif-comportemental ont été appliquées de façon plutôt irrégulière et bien en deçà de la fréquence initialement prévue, ce qui rend bien compte des difficultés à implanter des programmes en contexte de pratique. Les résultats suggèrent aussi une diminution de l’ampleur des troubles de comportement six mois après l’admission au CJM-IU pour les adolescentes qui étaient caractérisées par une ampleur des troubles de comportement plus marquée au moment de leur admission et qui ont complété un plus grand nombre d’auto-observations durant leur placement.

Safe Distributed Coordination of Heterogeneous Robots through Dynamic Simple Temporal Networks

Research on autonomous intelligent systems has focused on how robots can robustly carry out missions in uncertain and harsh environments with very little or no human intervention. Robotic execution languages such as RAPs, ESL, and TDL improve robustness by managing functionally redundant procedures for achieving goals. The model-based programming approach extends this by guaranteeing correctness of execution through pre-planning of non-deterministic timed threads of activities. Executing model-based programs effectively on distributed autonomous platforms requires distributing this pre-planning process. This thesis presents a distributed planner for modelbased programs whose planning and execution is distributed among agents with widely varying levels of processor power and memory resources. We make two key contributions. First, we reformulate a model-based program, which describes cooperative activities, into a hierarchical dynamic simple temporal network. This enables efficient distributed coordination of robots and supports deployment on heterogeneous robots. Second, we introduce a distributed temporal planner, called DTP, which solves hierarchical dynamic simple temporal networks with the assistance of the distributed Bellman-Ford shortest path algorithm. The implementation of DTP has been demonstrated successfully on a wide range of randomly generated examples and on a pursuer-evader challenge problem in simulation.

Carga viral de seis tipos de Virus del Papiloma Humano de alto riesgo y su asociacion con lesiones cervicales

Introducción: La infección por un tipo de Virus del Papiloma Humano de alto riesgo (VPH-AR), es el factor principal en el desarrollo de Cáncer de Cérvix (CC). La carga viral puede modular esta asociación, por lo que resulta importante su cuantificación y el establecimiento de su relación con lesiones precursoras de CC. Metodología: 60 mujeres con lesiones escamosas intraepiteliales (LEI) y 120 mujeres sin LEI, confirmadas por colposcopia, fueron incluidas en el estudio. Se determinó la carga viral de 6 tipos de VPH-AR, mediante PCR en tiempo real. Se estimaron OR crudos y ajustados para evaluar la asociación entre la carga viral de cada tipo y las lesiones cervicales. Resultados: 93.22% de mujeres con LEI y 91.23% de mujeres negativas, fueron positivas para al menos un tipo de VPH. VPH-18 y VPH-16 fueron los tipos más prevalentes, junto con VPH-31 en mujeres sin LEI. No se encontraron diferencias estadísticamente significativas de las cargas virales entre éstos dos grupos, aunque se observó un mayor carga viral en lesiones para algunos tipos virales. Una mayor frecuencia de lesiones se asoció a infecciones con carga baja de VPH-16 (ORa: 3.53; IC95%: 1.16 – 10.74), en comparación a mujeres con carga alta de VPH-16, (ORa: 2.63; IC95%: 1.09 – 6.36). En infecciones por VPH-31, la presencia de carga viral alta, se asoció con una menor frecuencia de lesiones (ORa: 0.34; IC95%: 0.15 – 0.78). Conclusiones: La prevalencia tipo-específica de VPH se corresponde con las reportadas a nivel mundial. La asociación entre la carga viral del VPH y la frecuencia de LEI es tipo específica y podría depender de la duración de la infección, altas cargas relacionadas con infecciones transitorias, y bajas cargas con persistentes. Este trabajo contribuye al entendimiento del efecto de la carga viral en la historia natural del CC; sin embargo, estudios prospectivos son necesarios para confirmar estos resultados.

Integrating participatory community mobilization processes to improve dengue prevention: an eco-bio-social scaling up of local success in Machala, Ecuador

This project investigates the effectiveness and feasibility of scaling-up an eco-bio-social approach for implementing an integrated community-based approach for dengue prevention in comparison with existing insecticide-based and emerging biolarvicide-based programs in an endemic setting in Machala, Ecuador.

A dialética do amor em pigmaleão, de G. B. Shaw.

Pygmalion (1913), by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), has many studies in literary criticism. However, this study brings a new interpretation to Shaw s play based on Harold Bloom s theory and methodology, that is, the anxiety of influence and the dialectic of revisionism. Through the analysis of poetic influence and the dialectic of love, we can see that Pygmalion represents an apophrades in relation to William Shakespeare s The Taming of the Shrew (1593) and Ovid s myth of Pygmalion and Galatea in Metamorphosis (c. 14), which creates a family romance between the three stories. Shaw s play surpasses The Taming of the Shrew when it shows the possibility of the relation between this parent poem and Ovid s myth, which it is also its parent poem, and because it represents a strong misreading of Shakespeare s play as well as of Ovid s myth.

The Modified Direct Analysis Method: an Extension of the Direct Analysis Method

The purpose of this research project is to study an innovative method for the stability assessment of structural steel systems, namely the Modified Direct Analysis Method (MDM). This method is intended to simplify an existing design method, the Direct Analysis Method (DM), by assuming a sophisticated second-order elastic structural analysis will be employed that can account for member and system instability, and thereby allow the design process to be reduced to confirming the capacity of member cross-sections. This last check can be easily completed by substituting an effective length of KL = 0 into existing member design equations. This simplification will be particularly useful for structural systems in which it is not clear how to define the member slenderness L/r when the laterally unbraced length L is not apparent, such as arches and the compression chord of an unbraced truss. To study the feasibility and accuracy of this new method, a set of 12 benchmark steel structural systems previously designed and analyzed by former Bucknell graduate student Jose Martinez-Garcia and a single column were modeled and analyzed using the nonlinear structural analysis software MASTAN2. A series of Matlab-based programs were prepared by the author to provide the code checking requirements for investigating the MDM. By comparing MDM and DM results against the more advanced distributed plasticity analysis results, it is concluded that the stability of structural systems can be adequately assessed in most cases using MDM, and that MDM often appears to be a more accurate but less conservative method in assessing stability.

Dispelling the Myth: What Parents Really Think about Sex Education in Schools

Background: School-based sex education is effective in reducing risky sexual behavior among adolescents that may lead to unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. However, most sex education policies in the US do not support evidence-based programs. Understanding parental attitudes around sex education is crucial to overcoming perceived barriers to implementing school-based sex education. Little research has been published on the opinions of parents in Texas, which accounts for 12% of the nation’s teen births. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether Texas parents favor teaching sex education in schools, in what grades they think sex education should be taught, what content they think should be taught, and who they think should make decisions regarding sex education. Methods: We commissioned a telephone survey of parents of children 18 years or younger in Harris County, Texas. Survey questions assessed demographic characteristics and opinions about sex education. We used chi-square tests to examine differences across sociodemographic characteristics. Results: 1,201 parents completed the survey. The majority of parents (80%) responded that sex education should begin in middle school or earlier, and two-thirds said that it should include information about condoms and contraception. Hispanic parents showed the highest support for teaching sex education and providing medically accurate information on condoms and contraception in middle school or earlier. Conclusion: Parents in Harris County overwhelmingly support sex education that includes medically accurate information about condoms and contraception beginning before high school. These data provide evidence to change sex education policies to better reflect parental opinions.

Use of tabletop exercises for disaster preparedness training

Background. In public health preparedness, disaster preparedness refers to the strategic planning of responses to all types of disasters. Preparation and training for disaster response can be conducted using different teaching modalities, ranging from discussion-based programs such as seminars, drills and tabletop exercises to more complex operation-based programs such as functional exercises and full-scale exercises. Each method of instruction has its advantages and disadvantages. Tabletop exercises are facilitated discussions designed to evaluate programs, policies, and procedures; they are usually conducted in a classroom, often with tabletop props (e.g. models, maps or diagrams). ^ Objective. The overall goal of this project was to determine whether tabletop exercises are effective teaching modalities for disaster preparedness, with an emphasis on intentional chemical exposure. ^ Method. The target audience for the exercise was the Medical Reserve Brigade of the Texas State Guard, a group of volunteer healthcare providers and first responders who prepare for response to local disasters. A new tabletop exercise was designed to provide information on the complex, interrelated organizations within the national disaster preparedness program that this group would interact with in the event of a local disaster. This educational intervention consisted of a four hour multipart program that included a pretest of knowledge, lecture series, an interactive group discussion using a mock disaster scenario, a posttest of knowledge, and a course evaluation. ^ Results. Approximately 40 volunteers attended the intervention session; roughly half (n=21) had previously participated in a full scale drill. There was an 11% improvement in fund of knowledge between the pre- and post-test scores (p=0.002). Overall, the tabletop exercise was well received by those with and without prior training, with no significant differences found between these two groups in terms of relevance and appropriateness of content. However, the separate components of the tabletop exercise were variably effective, as gauged by written text comments on the questionnaire. ^ Conclusions. Tabletop exercises can be a useful training modality in disaster preparedness, as evidenced by improvement in knowledge and qualitative feedback on its value. Future offerings could incorporate recordings of participant responses during the drill, so that better feedback can be provided to them. Additional research should be conducted, using the same or similar design, in different populations that are stakeholders in disaster preparedness, so that the generalizability of these findings can be determined.^

Get ur 60: A social marketing campaign to promote and facilitate physical activity among Central Texas middle school students

If allowed to continue unabated, the obesity epidemic may lead to the first decline in life expectancy in the developed world (Olshansky et al., 2005). Similar to the relationship between smoking habits in youth and adulthood, obesogenic dietary and physical activity habits in childhood may persist into adulthood (Kelder et al., 2002). Teaching children how to establish healthy eating habits and activity levels, as well as providing them the necessary resources to internalize and maintain these behaviors, may be the key to curbing this epidemic.^ A school-based obesity prevention approach is advantageous for many reasons including exposure to large captive audiences, reduced costs of sustainability and long-term maintenance, and generalizability of models and results across multiple populations. The effectiveness of school-based programs has been researched over the past 20 years, with promising results.^ Social marketing is a program-planning process that “facilitates the acceptance, rejection, modification, abandonment, or maintenance of particular behaviors” (Grier & Bryant, 2005). Social marketing has been shown to be effective in a variety of public health applications including improving diet, increasing physical activity, and preventing substance abuse. It is hypothesized that social marketing could further enhance the effectiveness of the Coordinated Approach To Child Health (CATCH) Central Texas Middle School Project, a school-based obesity prevention program.^ The development, implementation, and initial evaluation of the get ur 60 campaign, to promote the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended sixty minutes of daily activity, is described in this paper. Various components of the get ur 60 campaign were assessed to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign during the first semester of implementation. At the end of the spring semester focus groups were held to collect student reactions to the first semester of the get ur 60 campaign.^ The initial results from the first semester of get ur 60 have demonstrated that the campaign as designed was feasible to implement, accepted at all intervention schools, and resulted in a measure of success. ^