Preventive Counseling without Borders: Using Mobile Devices for Teaching, Training, and Wellness Promotion

Despite documented benefits regarding the utilization of technology in counseling, it has been underutilized by school, mental health, and student affairs counselors. Even less information has been available regarding the professional use of mobile devices by counselors in this area. This interactive presentation examines the utilization of iPads in Preventive Counseling for instruction, training, social marketing, and wellness promotion. This practice-focused workshop reflects the presenters’ yearlong exploration of the iPad and selected apps for use in teaching, training, and wellness promotion. The workshop revisits the evidence-based Indivisible Self Wellness Model (Myers and Sweeney, 2004) and uses it as the conceptual framework from which to discuss and demonstrate creative ways the iPad and selected apps can be used to enhance training, counselor education, and individual and group-based wellness promotion strategies. The limitations and caveats of using iPads and apps in this way will also be discussed

High frequency diffraction of an electromagnetic plane wave by an imperfectly conducting rectangular cylinder

Copyright @ 2011 IEEEWe shall consider the the problem of determining the scattered far wave field produced when a plane E-polarized wave is incident on an imperfectly conducting rectangular cylinder. By using the the uniform asymptotic solution for the problem of the diffraction of a plane wave by a right-angled impedance wedge, in conjunction with Keller's method, the a high frequency far field solution to the problem is given

Temporal and spatial variations in maximum river discharge from a new Russian data set

Floods cause more damage in Russia than any other natural disaster, and future climate model projections suggest that the frequency and magnitude of extreme hydrological events will increase in Russia with climate change. Here we analyze daily discharge records from a new data set of 139 Russian gauges in the Eurasian Arctic drainage basin with watershed areas from 16.1 to 50,000 km2 for signs of change in maximum river discharge. Several hypotheses about changes in maximum daily discharge and their linking with trends in precipitation over the cold season were tested. For the magnitude of maximum daily discharge we found relatively equal numbers of significant positive and negative trends across the Russian Arctic drainage basin, which draws into question the hypothesis of an increasing risk of extreme floods. We observed a significant shift to earlier spring discharge, which is consistent with documented changes in snowmelt and freeze‐thaw dates. Spatial analysis of changes in maximum discharge and cold season precipitation revealed consistency across most of the domain, the exception being the Lena basin. Trends in maximum discharge of the small‐ to medium‐sized rivers were generally consistent with aggregated signals found for the downstream gauges of the six largest Russian rivers. Although we observe regional changes in maximum discharge across the Russian Arctic drainage basin, no evidence of widespread trends in extreme discharge can be assumed from our analysis

Apps4Counseling: What’s in your Digital Toolbox?

From the article: “The goal of our current multiyear mobile device and app curation project is to explore ways in which iOS and Android mobile devices and related apps can be used to enhance counseling and therapy, counselor education, training and wellness promotion. Initial emphasis was on the iPad. The hope is that the results of the project will significantly streamline the app search process for counselors, human service and other allied health providers, counselor educators, trainers and counselor education students, and increase the ways and frequency in which mobile devices are purposively integrated into our work. We also hope project results might be useful to and accessed by laypeople to increase their overall well-being.

Crowd-Sourced Radio Science at Marshall Space Flight Center

August 21, 2017 provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of the total solar eclipse on high frequency (HF) radio propagation and ionospheric variability. In Marshall Space Flight Center's partnership with the US Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) and Austin Peay State University (APSU), we engaged citizen scientists and students in an investigation of the effects of an eclipse on the mid-latitude ionosphere. Activities included fieldwork and station-based data collection of HF Amateur Radio frequency bands and VLF radio waves before, during, and after the eclipse to build a continuous record of changing propagation conditions as the moon's shadow marched across the United States. Post-eclipse radio propagation analysis provided insights into ionospheric variability due to the eclipse

Intervention fidelity in a school-based diet and physical activity intervention in the UK:Active for Life Year 5

Active for Life Year 5 (AFLY5) is an educational programme for Year 5 children (aged 9-10) designed to increase children's physical activity, decrease sedentary behaviour and increase fruit and vegetable intake. This paper reports findings from a process evaluation embedded within a randomised controlled trial evaluating the programme's effectiveness. It considers the fidelity of implementation of AFLY5 with a focus on three research questions: 1. To what extent was the intervention delivered as planned? 2. In what ways, if any, did the teachers amend the programme? and 3. What were the reasons for any amendments?Mixed methods were used including data collection via observation of the intervention delivery, questionnaire, teacher's intervention delivery log and semi-structured interviews with teachers and parents. Qualitative data were analysed thematically and quantitative data were summarised using descriptive statistics.Following training, 42 of the 43 intervention school teachers/teaching staff (98%) were confident they could deliver the nutrition and physical activity lessons according to plan. The mean number of lessons taught was 12.3 (s.d. 3.7), equating to 77% of the intervention. Reach was high with 95% of children in intervention schools receiving lessons. A mean of 6.2 (s.d. 2.6) out of 10 homeworks were delivered. Median lesson preparation time was 10 min (IQR 10-20) and 28% of lessons were reported as having been amended. Qualitative findings revealed that those who amended the lessons did so to differentiate for student ability, update them for use with new technologies and to enhance teacher and student engagement. Teachers endorsed the aims of the intervention, but some were frustrated with having to adapt the lesson materials. Teachers also a reported tendency to delegate the physical activity lessons to other staff not trained in the intervention.Fidelity of intervention implementation was good but teachers' enthusiasm for the AFLY5 programme was mixed despite them believing that the messages behind the lessons were important. This may have meant that the intervention messages were not delivered as anticipated and explain why the intervention was found not to be effective.ISRCTN50133740.Rona Campbell, Emma Rawlins, Sian Wells, Ruth R. Kipping, Catherine R. Chittleborough, Tim J. Peters, Debbie A. Lawlor and Russell Jag

Mitigation and screening for environmental assessment

This article considers how, as a matter of law and policy, mitigation measures should be taken into account in determining whether a project will have significant environmental effects and therefore be subject to assessment under the EU Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive. This is not straightforward: it is problematic to distinguish clearly between an activity and the measures proposed to minimise or mitigate for the adverse consequences of the activity. The issue is a salient one in impact assessment law, but under-explored in the literature and handled with some difficulty by the courts. I argue that there is an unnecessarily and undesirably narrow approach currently taken under the EIA Directive, which could be improved upon by taking a more adaptive approach; alternatively a heightened standard of review of ‘significance’, and within this of the scope for mitigation measures to bring projects beneath the significance threshold, may also be desirable

Lung epithelial tip progenitors integrate glucocorticoid- and STAT3-mediated signals to control progeny fate.

Insufficient alveolar gas exchange capacity is a major contributor to lung disease. During lung development, a population of distal epithelial progenitors first produce bronchiolar-fated and subsequently alveolar-fated progeny. The mechanisms controlling this bronchiolar-to-alveolar developmental transition remain largely unknown. We developed a novel grafting assay to test if lung epithelial progenitors are intrinsically programmed or if alveolar cell identity is determined by environmental factors. These experiments revealed that embryonic lung epithelial identity is extrinsically determined. We show that both glucocorticoid and STAT3 signalling can control the timing of alveolar initiation, but that neither pathway is absolutely required for alveolar fate specification; rather, glucocorticoid receptor and STAT3 work in parallel to promote alveolar differentiation. Thus, developmental acquisition of lung alveolar fate is a robust process controlled by at least two independent extrinsic signalling inputs. Further elucidation of these pathways might provide therapeutic opportunities for restoring alveolar capacity.Medical Research Council (G0900424, ER), the March of Dimes (5-FY11-119, ER), the Wellcome Trust (093029, ER), Newton Trust (14.07h, ER), Wellcome Trust PhD programme for Clinicians (MN), Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Government of the Basque Country (UL), MRC studentship (RVR), British Heart Foundation Studentship (EJB), COST BM1201. Core grants from the Wellcome Trust (092096) and Cancer Research UK (C6946/A14492).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Company of Biologists at http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/dev.134023

Effects of the 2017 Solar Eclipse on HF Radio Propagation and the D-Region Ionosphere: Citizen Science Investigation

August 21, 2017 provided a unique opportunity to investigate the effects of the total solar eclipse on high frequency (HF) radio propagation and ionospheric variability. In Marshall Space Flight Center's partnership with the US Space and Rocket Center (USSRC) and Austin Peay State University (APSU), we engaged students and citizen scientists in an investigation of the eclipse effects on the mid-latitude ionosphere. Activities included implementing and configuring software, monitoring the HF Amateur Radio frequency bands and collecting radio transmission data on days before, the day of, and days after the eclipse to build a continuous record of changing propagation conditions as the moon's shadow marched across the United States. Post-eclipse radio propagation analysis provided insights into ionospheric variability due to the eclipse. We report on results, interpretation, and conclusions of these investigations