Energy conversion in biological systems—part II. heat production in brown adipose tissue

This study involves the application of bond graphs to the generation of heat by cells in brown adipose tissue. In the first portion of this paper, data are presented to show the types of signals that can be measured at several sites in the system controlling thermogenesis—signals travelling from the brain to the tissue as well as signals over a feedback pathway from spinal cord temperature receptors back to the brain. Bond graphs are developed for several components of the system with an emphasis being placed on graphs describing the alternative mechanisms proposed for cellular energy conversion. The power flow is calculated using ENPORT for one mechanism for different values of plasma membrane resistance.     

It's Not Always Just About the Grade: Exploring the Achievement Goal Orientations of Pre-Med Students

This qualitative study investigated the achievement goal orientations of a group of all male pre-med students attending a small, urban undergraduate college. Semi-structured interviews examined under what circumstances students adopted extrinsic goals, mastery goals, or a mixture of the two. Findings indicated that while nearly all students possessed an underlying or baseline extrinsic goal orientation, a sizable number of students (32%) were primarily mastery oriented and only a small percent (13%) were primarily extrinsically oriented. A large number of students did not fit either category, with many best described as being mastery oriented within certain subject areas and extrinsically oriented within others. Furthermore, this study found that social comparison (performance) goals were rarely mentioned spontaneously by students. The study concluded that the goal orientations of many students could best be described as complicated and conflicted with students experiencing a strong tension between a desire to learn and a desire to get good grades.     

The Research Mentoring Program: Serving the Needs of Graduate and Undergraduate Researchers

Many institutions of higher education confront seemingly unrelated needs of graduate students, who need not only to complete their dissertations but also to learn how to become proficient mentors for undergraduates as they move on to faculty roles. The graduate students are increasingly searching out high-impact learning experiences such as involvement with undergraduate research. The program we describe in this article offers a solution to these issues by pairing undergraduates with graduate students to work on their dissertation research. Undergraduates undertake hands-on research while learning about graduate school, and the graduate students learn about the mentoring process while receiving assistance that allows them to keep their dissertations moving toward completion.     

Encouraging ecological behaviors among students by using the ecological footprint as an educational tool: a quasi-experimental design in a public high school in the city of Haifa

The aim of the current study is to explore whether the ecological footprint is an appropriate tool for encouraging ecological behaviors in students. In the quasi-experimental research that we conducted, four classes from one of the public high schools in the city of Haifa (N?=?130) participated in an environmental education (EE) program (intervention program) based on the theoretical and practical aspects of the ecological footprint and the action competence approach in EE. Two classes (N?=?70) constituted a control group. Ecological worldview (EW), perceived behavioral control (PBC), behavioral intentions (BI), personal norms (PN), pro-environmental behavior (PEB), and self-reported behaviors were measured by means of questionnaires completed by the students in their classes before and after the intervention program. The results show statistically significant differences between the experimental and the control groups in the variables PBC, PN, and BI. However, no statistically significant differences were revealed in EW and PEB. The results indicate that incorporating the ecological footprint as an educational tool in high school might yield some predictors of PEB.     

Re-presenting Sport: How Instant Replay and Perceived Violence Impact Enjoyment of Mediated Sports

Several long-standing theories intersect in discussing the impact of community characteristics and of the mass media. The structural pluralism model popularized by Tichenor and his colleagues says that social structure influences how mass media operate in communities because they respond to how power is distributed in the social system, whereas the linear model says that the increasing size of a community's population leads to more social differentiation and diversity and corresponding increases in subcultures with their own beliefs, customs, and behaviors. Recently, there has been a concern about how changes in society have led to a decline in organizational activity and the network of relationships and trust that constitute “social capital.” This article examines the impact of population and diversity (using census data) on individuals’ media use, interpersonal discussion and civic engagement (measured in a national survey), and the relationship among these variables. Analysis of a structural model provides evidence that the “linear hypothesis” can be combined with structural pluralism, with size—measured by population—impacting diversity, which influences the relationships that people have with their community. Concurrently, social categories influence people's communication patterns and community relationships, and communication impacts civic engagement.     

Professional Issues: Bisexuality,Not Homosexuality: Counseling Issues and Treatment Approaches

The most obvious oppression experienced by bisexuals is characterized by the denial of the very existence of bisexual people. Counseling concerns, such as marginality, biphobia, and coming out, are discussed, and treatment implications are identified that pertain specifically to the college counseling population. A treatment model for counseling bisexuals is described.     

Assessing the value of structured protocols for forensic interviews of alleged child abuse victims

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a structured interview protocol (NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol) operationalizing universally recommended guidelines for forensic interviews. METHOD: The NICHD Investigative Protocol was designed to maximize the amount of information obtained using recall memory probes, which are likely to elicit more accurate information than recognition memory probes. Forensic investigators were trained to use the NICHD protocol while conducting feedback-monitored simulation interviews. The utility of the protocol was then evaluated by comparing 55 protocol interviews with 50 prior interviews by the same investigators, matched with respect to characteristics likely to affect the richness of the children's accounts. The comparison was based on an analysis of the investigators' utterance types, distribution, and timing, as well as quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the information produced. RESULTS: As predicted, protocol interviews contained more open-ended prompts overall as well as before the first option-posing utterance than non-protocol interviews did. More details were obtained using open-ended invitations and fewer were obtained using focused questions in protocol interviews than in non-protocol interviews, although the total number of details elicited did not differ significantly. In both conditions, older children provided more details than younger children did. CONCLUSION: The findings confirmed that implementation of professionally recommended practices affected the behavior of interviewers in both the pre-substantive and substantive phases of their interviews and enhanced the quality (i.e., likely accuracy) of information elicited from alleged victims.     

How Day School Teachers Perceive Their Working Conditions: A National Study

Induction and mentoring are widely considered in the United States and in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as a basic universal and critical intervention for a successful launch of new teachers. Based on an expanded set of survey data, this article focuses on how Jewish day schools offer professional support and learning opportunities from the head of school, the administration, colleagues, parents, and the school community and how useful teachers perceive these resources to be. This study reveals that less than half of all teachers in the schools surveyed report participating in formal induction programs and believe their schools take the learning needs of new teachers seriously. Schools would do well to attend to this aspect of teacher support and consider the systems and structures that do (or do not) exist to help orient, support, and develop new teachers.     

Integration of an intelligent tutoring system in a course of computer network design

INTUITEL is a research project aiming to offer a personalized learning environment. The INTUITEL approach includes an Intelligent Tutoring System that gives students recommendations and feedback about what the best learning path is for them according to their profile, learning progress, context and environmental influences. INTUITEL combines efficient pedagogical-based recommendations with freedom of choice and it introduces this tutoring support in different Learning Management Systems. During the INTUITEL project various software and pedagogical testing procedures were defined to provide the development teams with feedback, both summative and formative. The current paper describes the initial user test, which was conducted at the University of Valladolid for the course “Network Design”. The experiment was focused on real learners’ reactions to INTUITEL recommendations received by an INTUITEL-enabled LMS. Nineteen students participated in a two phase testing procedure in order to analyze the learners’ behavior with INTUITEL, as well as obtaining information about how learners perceive the influence and usefulness of the tutoring system in online learning courses. Results show that students with INTUITEL follow learning paths that are more suitable for them. Besides, the general satisfaction level of participants is high. Most learners appreciate INTUITEL, would follow its recommendations and consider the messages shown by INTUITEL as useful and caring.     

Neonatal behavioral organization and visual processing at three months

In 2 studies, the Range of State cluster derived from infants' scores on the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale with Kansas Supplements (NBAS-K) was found to correlate significantly with visual discrimination performance at 3 months of age. Contrary to the expectation that NBAS-K orientation scores would predict visual discrimination at 3 months, it was neonatal behavioral state organization that related to later cognitive functioning in infancy.