Session Limits and the Probability of the Next Visit

Among the approaches that have been used to balance the demand for services with the agency’s service resources is to limit the number of visits available to clients. Such limits have been introduced, however, without any empirical basis for estimating the impact of a limit on the overall demand for services or the proportion of clients. The probability of a next visit is a statistic that addresses these shortcomings. Analyses indicate that there is a fairly stable pattern to students use of counseling services, that this pattern is affected by the imposition of a limit, and that reducing the probabilities of a next visit for the first, second, and third visits has a greater impact on reducing total service demand than imposing a limit at the 12th visit, the most commonly reported point     

Factors affecting placement decisions of children following short-term emergency care

Case files of 424 residents at an emergency treatment center for abused and neglected children were used to generate a beginning set of variables which, in combination, predicted whether or not children from the center would be discharged to their natural family environment. Variables with descending order of predictive significance were place from which the child was admitted, the length of time spent in treatment, the age and the race of the child, Other variables--the number of siblings, the child's sex and the presence of physical/sexual abuse--did not approach significance.     

The introduction of a medical informatics course into a medical school curriculum

Fulfilling the need for a course in medical informatics to be taught to medical students requires an effort on the part of the teaching faculty and administration. Creators of the curriculum must take into account contemporary pedagogical trends and the direction of medical education. Producing a course of study requires a firm conviction that practicing medicine in the 21st century demands currency, accuracy, and literacy with the available information sources.     

Enabling Factors of Preservice Science Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Nature of Science and Nature of Scientific Inquiry

Science & Education - The goal of this study was to explore the influencing factors of pre-service science teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for targeted aspects of nature of...     

Giving priority to evidence in science teaching: A first‐year elementary teacher's specialized practices and knowledge

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the nature of a first‐year elementary teacher's specialized practices and knowledge for giving priority to evidence in science teaching and to explore the possible sources from which this knowledge was generated. Data included three audiotaped interviews, six videotaped classroom observations, lesson plans, and samples of students' work. The findings of this study reveal that the teacher gave priority to evidence by frequently engaging students in collecting evidence through observations and investigations, recording and representing evidence, and using that evidence to construct explanations. The findings of this study also illustrate that critical experiences during preparation to teach and specific university coursework acted as sources through which the teacher's specialized knowledge for giving priority to evidence was generated. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 965–986, 2005     

MANAGING STRESS AMONG ADULT WOMEN STUDENTS IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Stress management for adult women students in community colleges is essential because of the enormous demands they face from family, career, and financial responsibilities. Community colleges and adult educators must help adult women students identify their major sources of stress as well as provide strategies to alleviate those stressors. An extensive review of the literature and a campus-based study found high levels of stress resulting from parenting, nancial, and health concerns. Age was also found to be an important stress factor. Recommendations for helping adult women students are discussed.     

Sympathoadrenal and parasympathetic responses to exercise

Exhaustive exercise is associated with a persistent sensation of weakness and sometimes nausea suggesting abdominal vagal activity. We measured plasma indices of sympathoadrenal (adrenaline, noradrenaline, dopamine) and vagal (pancreatic polypeptide) activity before, during and after submaximal and maximal exercise in healthy young subjects. Plasma adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine increased to 8.5 (range 7.4–40.5), 48.0 (32.3–100.5) and 1.8 (1.2–6.6) nmol l^–1 respectively (n = 5), during maximal exercise and decreased towards control values within 15 min of rest. Pancreatic polypeptide (n = 10) increased only during maximal exercise and reached its highest value, 48 (21–145) pmol l^–1, after exertion. The results conform to an increase in sympathetic activity during exercise and a persistent vagal activity after intense exercise which could contribute to the sensation of weakness.