Understanding How Undergraduate Students Experience and Manage Stress: Implications for Teaching and Learning Anthropology

Research has shown that negative effects of stress on undergraduate students can have a significant impact on their college experience. Most of what we know about this topic is quantitative, based on surveys that provide self-reported information for large numbers of college students. The present study provides an in-depth qualitative perspective on college students and stress that foregrounds the voices of these emerging adults. Specifically, in this article we (a) share findings from a study using qualitative methods to examine how college students experience and manage stress and (b) provide strategies to help anthropology instructors design and manage their classes to improve learning for students under chronic stress

Health Research Access to Personal Confidential Data in England and Wales: Assessing any gap in public attitude between preferable and acceptable models of consent

England and Wales are moving toward a model of ‘opt out’ for use of personal confidential data in health research. Existing research does not make clear how acceptable this move is to the public. While people are typically supportive of health research, when asked to describe the ideal level of control there is a marked lack of consensus over the preferred model of consent (e.g. explicit consent, opt out etc.). This study sought to investigate a relatively unexplored difference between the consent model that people prefer and that which they are willing to accept. It also sought to explore any reasons for such acceptance. A mixed methods approach was used to gather data, incorporating a structured questionnaire and in-depth focus group discussions led by an external facilitator. The sampling strategy was designed to recruit people with different involvement in the NHS but typically with experience of NHS services. Three separate focus groups were carried out over three consecutive days. The central finding is that people are typically willing to accept models of consent other than that which they would prefer. Such acceptance is typically conditional upon a number of factors, including: security and confidentiality, no inappropriate commercialisation or detrimental use, transparency, independent overview, the ability to object to any processing considered to be inappropriate or particularly sensitive. This study suggests that most people would find research use without the possibility of objection to be unacceptable. However, the study also suggests that people who would prefer to be asked explicitly before data were used for purposes beyond direct care may be willing to accept an opt out model of consent if the reasons for not seeking explicit consent are accessible to them and they trust that data is only going to be used under conditions, and with safeguards, that they would consider to be acceptable even if not preferable

New VLBA Identifications of Compact Symmetric Objects

The class of radio sources known as Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) is of particular interest in the study of the evolution of radio galaxies. CSOs are thought to be young (probably ~10^4 years), and a very high fraction of them exhibit HI absorption toward the central parsecs. The HI, which is thought to be part of a circumnuclear torus of accreting gas, can be observed using the VLBA with high enough angular resolution to map the velocity field of the gas. This velocity field provides new information on the accretion process in the central engines of these young sources. We have identified 9 new CSOs from radio continuum observations for the VLBA Calibrator Survey, increasing the number of known CSOs by almost 50%.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, for "Lifecycles of Radio Galaxies", eds. J. Biretta et al., New Astronomy Review

PUSH Buffalo\u27s Net Zero House at 10 Winter St.

PUSH Buffalo acquired the property at 10 Winter Street for $2200 at the City tax foreclosure auction, free and clear of all liens. The house is a single family home that is approximately 1198 sq. ft., with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a partial basement and a crawl space. The house was originally built in 1920. The farm house style is unusual in this neighborhood. Previous owners never altered the original floor plan and had not made any significant investment in the house since the 1960’s, when an owner added asbestos siding. The house was severely rundown, and the previous owner was a “pack rat”, which made the initial phase of the Net Zero project difficult

The Message and the Situation: An Evaluation of the Preaching of Paul Tillich

In much of Western Christianity, there exists a problem of identity for the Christian individual. The individual considers him or herself a Christian, but feels a matter of disconnect between who he or she is on Saturday night and who he or she is on Sunday morning. The Christian struggles to live a life in both the sacred and the secular. The Christian struggles to establish an authentic identity, an identity that incorporates all of the human experience. How can this struggle be resolved? Paul Tillich had an answer. Tillich developed his method of correlation as a way of uniting the individual’s deepest meaningful questions about life with the message of the Gospel: Jesus Christ as the New Being. Tillich believed there was not a separation between the Saturday night and Sunday morning Christian, between the secular and the sacred. He advocated a theological method that used secular culture – music, art, philosophy – as a means of demonstrating the omnipresence of God within human existence. Further, he used this concept in his preaching of the Gospel. This study shows how he used representations of secular culture in three of his homilies. Information about the Author

Anomalous Magnetic and Electric Dipole Moments of the Tau

This paper reviews the theoretical predictions for and the experimental measurements of the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton. In particular, recent analyses of the \eettg process from the L3 and OPAL collaborations are described. The most precise results, from L3, for the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments respectively are: \atau = 0.004 \pm 0.027 \pm 0.023 and \dtau = (0.0 \pm 1.5 \pm 1.3)\times 10^{-16}{e{\cdot}\mathrm{cm}}.Comment: Invited talk at the TAU'98 Workshop, 14-17 September 1998, Santander, Spai

TOPCAT: Desktop Exploration of Tabular Data for Astronomy and Beyond

TOPCAT, the Tool for OPerations on Catalogues And Tables, is an interactive desktop application for retrieval, analysis and manipulation of tabular data, offering a powerful and flexible range of interactive visualization options amongst other features. Its visualization capabilities focus on enabling interactive exploration of large static local tables - millions of rows and hundreds of columns can easily be handled on a standard desktop or laptop machine, and various options are provided for meaningful graphical representation of such large datasets. TOPCAT has been developed in the context of astronomy, but many of its features are equally applicable to other domains. The software, which is free and open source, is written in Java, and the underlying high-performance visualisation library is suitable for re-use in other applications.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, journal special issue on Scalable Interactive Visualizatio

Silence at a Price? Judicial Questionnaires and the Independence of Alaska’s Judiciary

The real estate industry is facing a major change. The activity based working is promoted heavily by real estate companies, brokers and consultants as the future workplace. Knowledge and information is however limited. Many concepts have a tendency to get mixed up when companies on the market choose to formulate their own concepts. The research is neglected, and more focused on health and design. This thesis focuses on describing how the market may evolve the knowledge and how to implement the activity based working in the workplaces. Purpose The thesis aims to conduct a study to clarify the question of what activity based working means. The focus will be to examining the current work that is proceeding on the market but also explore if it would be possible to facilitate the implementation of the activity based working by using explorative factor analysis. Primary questions • How to define activity based working? • Which theories support the discussion and definition of activity based working? • Which concepts are available on the market today and how are these promoted? • Can the implementation of the activity based working be facilitated by using an activity based scale that measures needs and reactions in different workplace environments? Method The thesis consists of both a qualitative and a quantitative study. The qualitative study is based on interviews and a survey of how the market perceive the activity based working and with which keywords associated with the concept. In total, seven interviews were conducted. The quantitative survey consised of approximately 1000 surveys. Conclusions • Importance of a common definition and market approach for activity based working • Manage the self interest in the market to ensure a good development of activity based working • Activity based working is not just about design and floorlayouts. • Knowledge sharing should be prioritized • Organization, Technology and Premises are all very influencing aspects • The implementation requires a lot of time and effort • Through exploratory factor analysis, is it possible to define the driving forxes within the organization. • The workplace is no longer a specific place. It is an activity that can be performed in multiple places. Future research Future research should focus to continuing efforts on create an overall overview of the activity based working, but also develop clear and efficient processes for the implementation of the activity based working. Other interesting aspects are the international dimension of the work. The development with activity based working will in the future not only be applied on offices. To therefore explore how various industries work with the concepts and if there are any specific needs to develop in the future. Definition In the analysis chapter the author presents a comprehensive definition of activity based working which is developed with the support by the qualitative and quantitative research: “Based on the activities that occur in the workplace, teadership, facilities, and technology are customized to effectively and in a structured way maximize the benefits and value of the work that the individuals performs”Fastighetsbranschen står inför en förändring. Det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet marknadsförs starkt av fastighetsbolag, mäklare och konsulter som det framtida arbetssättet. Kunskapen och informationen är dock bristfällig. Många begrepp har en tendens att blandas ihop då aktörer väljer att formulera sina egna begrepp. Forskningen är eftersatt och mer fokuserad på hälsa och design. Detta examensarbete fokuserar därför på att redogöra för hur arbetssättet kan utvecklas och hur arbetet i framtiden skall på ett effektivt sätt implementera det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet inom svenska företag och organisationer. Syfte Syftet med examensarbetet är att bringa klarhet i frågan om vad ett aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt är. Fokus kommer även ligga i att undersöka det pågående arbetet på marknaden och olika aktörers syn på arbetssättet. I arbetet undersöks även om det skulle vara möjligt att underlätta implementeringen av ett aktivitetsbaserat arbetsätt med hjälp av en aktivitetsbaserad skala som mäter reaktioner på olika arbetsmiljöer. Frågeställningar • Hur definieras aktivitetsbaserat arbetsätt? • Vilka teorier stödjer diskussionen och definitionen av aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt? • Vilka koncept finns idag på marknaden inom aktivitetsbaserat arbetsätt och hur preciseras och presenteras dessa? • Kan implementeringen av ett aktivitetsbaserat arbetsätt underlättas med hjälp av en aktivitetsbaserad skala som mäter behov och reaktioner på arbetsplatsmiljöer? Metod Undersökningen består dels av en kvalitativ samt en kvantitativ del. Den kvalitativa delen baseras på intervjuer och en marknadsundersökning över hur aktörer på marknaden uppfattar det aktivitetsbaserade begreppet och vilka nyckelord som används frekvent. Sammanlagt har sju även intervjuer genomförts med framstående personer inom ämnesområdet. Den kvantitativa undersökningen består av ett 100-tal enkäter som undersökt kunskapen om det aktivitetsbaserade begreppet inom marknaden och även här vilka nyckelord som används frekvent. Slutsatser • Samtliga aktörer bör enas om gemensam definition, information och kommunikation av det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet • Hantera marknadens starka egenintresse av arbetssättets utvekcling för att säkerställa en en seriös och förtreoendegivande bild av det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssätt • Aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt har många fler dimensioner än design och planlösningar • Kunskapsspridning inom ämnesområdet bör prioriteras och säkerställas • Organisation, Ledarskap, Medarbetare, Teknik och Lokal är samtliga aspekter som bör beaktas vid implementeringen av det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet • Aktivitetsbaserat arbetssätt är en förändringsprocess som kräver kraft, engagemang och tid • Genom explorativ faktoranalys kan tydliga drivande aspekter urskiljas inom organisationer (AktivitetsBaserad Skala) • Arbetsplatsen är inte längre en specifik plats utan en aktivitet som kan utföras på mängder av platser. Framtida forskning Den framtida forskningen bör fokuseras på att dels fortsätta arbetet med att skapa en helhetsbild av arbetssättet men även möjliggöra tydliga och effektiva processer för implementering av det aktivitetsbaserade arbetssättet. Det internationella perspektivet är idag mindre utforskat. Ytterliggare ett område som är av intresse är hur olika branscher ser på utveckling av arbetssättet och vilka specifika behov dessa branscher möjligen har. Definition I det avslutande kapitlet redogörs en samlad definition av aktivitetsbaserat arbetsssätt som är framtagen med stöd av den kvalitativa och kvantitativa forskningen: “ Utifrån de aktiviteter som sker på arbetsplatsen anpassas ledarskap, lokaler och teknik för att på ett effektivt och strukturerat sätt maximera nyttan och värdet i det arbete som individerna utför

Sleep, Sleep, and More Sleep

Postcard from Taylor Brown, during the Linfield College Semester Abroad Program at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norwa