Prevalence of childhood sexual abuse among incarcerated males in county jail

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined the prevalence and characteristics of childhood sexual abuse in a jailed-based population. METHODOLOGY: A retrospective, self-reported survey was administered over an 8-week period to a random sample of 100 men who were incarcerated in a county jail in Southeastern Texas. The survey included questions about childhood sexual experiences before and after puberty, drug history and use, and sexual risk-taking behaviors. RESULTS: Of the 100 male inmates who participated in this study, 59% reported experiencing some form of sexual abuse before puberty, and all such instances occurred before or at the age of 13 years. The first episode of childhood sexual abuse began at an average age of 9.6 years (SD = 2.4), and ended at an average age of 13.0 years (SD = 2.3). Kissing and touching without intercourse (64%) was the common pattern of sexual abuse experience reported. The total number of perpetrators was 165, with 10% male and 90% female. Friends (n = 72) and family (n = 56) were the most frequent perpetrators. CONCLUSION: Childhood sexual abuse may be more prevalent among inmates than among males in the general population. These results show a high percentage of inmates who report a history of childhood sexual abuse; this rate is higher than those reported by other studies for incarcerated males. The findings support the belief held by professionals in the criminal justice field that a significant number of incarcerated males may have been victims of sexual abuse.     

The Entrepreneurial University: a Fine Answer to a Difficult Problem?

The recent changes in the relationship between universities and society and the change of attitudes of governments towards higher education institutions are analysed. The different possible reactions of the institutions to the more demanding attitude of society as a whole are discussed. The authors present a critical view of the concept of entrepreneurial universities based on the work of Burton Clark and on the results of the quality audits of the Association of European Universities (CRE), and offer some comments about their applicability and usefulness to European higher education systems.     

Reconceptualizing electronic field trips: a Deweyian perspective

Electronic field tripping is a relatively new form of large‐scale distance education that attempts to provide contextually rich learning materials embedded within a coherent educational content base. Using Dewey’s (1943 Dewey, J. 1943. The child and the curriculum: the school and society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  [Google Scholar]) framework for the natural learning impulses of children, we describe the potential pedagogical benefits afforded by electronic field trips (EFTs). We outline a shift in distance education from a techno‐centric focus on hardware and logistics to the inherent features of children’s desires to explore their world, which represents an alteration of perspective and purpose in understanding computer technologies in classroom settings. Finally, we demonstrate that while each independent element of the EFT experience promotes one or more of Dewey’s impulses, bringing together all the resources provided for EFTs fosters deeper connections, more engaged learning, and contextualized distance learning true to the spirit of live field trips.     

Reading comprehension of deaf adolescent residential school students and its relationship to hearing mothers' communication strategies and skills

A nationwide study was conducted to examine the relationship between prelingually deaf adolescents' reading comprehension scores and their hearing mothers' communication strategies and skills. Subjects included 201 students from six randomly selected residential schools for the deaf. Correlation coefficients, stepwise multiple regression analyses and analysis of covariance showed that for this group of subjects, method of communication used by mothers had no significant relationship with their deaf children's reading comprehension scores. No significant relationship was found between reading comprehension of the children of mothers who used manual communication and the age of the child when the mother began to sign. A potential relationship was found, however, between reading comprehension scores and signing skill levels of mothers who used manual communication.     

Software engineers helping themselves: The web resource collaboration center

Conclusion By implementing knowledge management features in an EPSS-like structure, the WRCC provided a more effective performance solution that was in alignment with the firm’s business objectives, making sure that both the employees’ learning and performance needs and the firm’s needs were addressed (Stone & Villachica, 2003). The activity of building a WRCC helped the software engineers learn about new tools and languages in the software engineering domain, while constructing a knowledge base to support their future learning and professional development in that domain. In addition, their work on the WRCC helped software engineers strengthen their connections to the larger software engineering communities of practice while they developed a local learning community that encouraged sharing, coaching and mentoring. Ultimately, the firm was able to reduce their reliance on conventional training by 70% - their original goal — by allowing the software engineers to create and use an on-the-job learning architecture that was more situated, social, transparent, open, flexible and respectful of their workplace learning and professional development needs.     

Neonatal Stress Reactivity: Predictions to Later Emotional Temperament

To investigate the relations among popular measures of neonatal stress and their link to subsequent temperament, 50 full-term newborns from a normal care nursery were examined responding to a heelstick blood draw. Baseline and heelstick measures of behavioral state, heart period, vagal tone, and salivary cortisol were obtained. Recovery measures of behavioral and cardiac activity were also analyzed. Mothers completed Rothbart's Infant Behavior Questionnaire when their infants reached 6 months of age. Baseline vagal tone predicted cortisol in response to the heelstick, suggesting that baseline vagal tone reflects the infants' ability to react to stressors. Greater reactivity to the heelstick (more crying, shorter heart periods, lower vagal tone, and higher cortisol) was associated with lower scores on "Distress-to-Limitations" temperament at 6 months. This finding was consistent with the expectation that the capacity to react strongly to an aversive stimulus would reflect better neurobehavioral organization in the newborn. Recovery measures of cardiac activity approximated and were correlated with baseline measures indicating the strong self-righting properties of the healthy newborn. Finally, vagal tone and salivary cortisol measures were not significantly related, suggesting the importance of assessing both systems in studies of the ontogeny of stress-temperament relations.     

A Comprehensive Analysis of High School Genetics Standards: Are States Keeping Pace with Modern Genetics?

Science education in the United States will increasingly be driven by testing and accountability requirements, such as those mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, which rely heavily on learning outcomes, or standards, that are currently developed on a state-by-state basis. Those standards, in turn, drive curriculum and instruction. Given the importance of standards to teaching and learning, we investigated the quality of life sciences/biology standards with respect to genetics for all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using core concepts developed by the American Society of Human Genetics as normative benchmarks. Our results indicate that the states' genetics standards, in general, are poor, with more than 85% of the states receiving overall scores of Inadequate. In particular, the standards in virtually every state have failed to keep pace with changes in the discipline as it has become genomic in scope, omitting concepts related to genetic complexity, the importance of environment to phenotypic variation, differential gene expression, and the differences between inherited and somatic genetic disease. Clearer, more comprehensive genetics standards are likely to benefit genetics instruction and learning, help prepare future genetics researchers, and contribute to the genetic literacy of the U.S. citizenry.