One Goal (one + goal)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Student Conflict Resolution, Power "Sharing" in Schools, and Citizenship Education

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 2 2001
Kathy Bickmore
One goal of elementary education is to help children develop the skills, knowledge, and values associated with citizenship. However, there is little consensus about what these goals really mean: various schools, and various programs within any school, may promote different notions of "good citizenship." Peer conflict mediation, like service learning, creates active roles for young people to help them develop capacities for democratic citizenship (such as critical reasoning and shared decision making). This study examines the notions of citizenship embodied in the contrasting ways one peer mediation model was implemented in six different elementary schools in the same urban school district. This program was designed to foster leadership among diverse young people, to develop students' capacities to be responsible citizens by giving them tangible responsibility, specifically the power to initiate and carry out peer conflict management activities. In practice, as the programs developed, some schools did not share power with any of their student mediators, and other schools shared power only with the kinds of children already seen as "good" students. All of the programs emphasized the development of nonviolent community norms,a necessary but not sufficient condition for democracy. A few programs began to engage students in critical reasoning and/or in taking the initiative in influencing the management of problems at their schools, thus broadening the space for democratic learning. These case studies help to clarify what our visions of citizenship (education) may look and sound like in actual practice so that we can deliberate about the choices thus highlighted. [source]


Relationship between eye preference and binocular rivalry, and between eye-hand preference and reading ability in children

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 8 2008
J. Fagard
Abstract One goal of the experiment presented here was to check, in children, the relationship between eye preference when sighting at different angles and eye dominance in binocular rivalry. In addition, since it is sometimes argued that a crossed pattern of eye-hand preference might put children at risk of difficulties in learning to read, we evaluated the relationship between this pattern and reading achievement in first and sixth graders. Results showed that a majority of children are right-eyed for monosighting, and that intrinsic preference and spatial factor influence the choice of eye. As many children were right- or left-eye dominant, and eye dominance was not related to eye preference. We found no relationship between eye-hand preference and reading proficiency, thus not confirming that a crossed pattern of eye-hand preference might put children at risk of difficulties in learning to read. Consistent handers were more advanced in reading than inconsistent handers. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 50: 789,798, 2008 [source]


Expected impacts of the Cannabis Infringement Notice scheme in Western Australia on regular users and their involvement in the cannabis market

DRUG AND ALCOHOL REVIEW, Issue 4 2005
FRANCOISE CHANTELOUP
Abstract The effect on the cannabis market is one area of interest in the evaluation of the new ,prohibition with civil penalties' scheme for minor cannabis offences in WA. One goal of the scheme is to reduce the proportion of cannabis consumed that is supplied by large-scale suppliers that may also supply other drugs. As part of the pre-change phase of the evaluation, 100 regular (at least weekly) cannabis users were given a qualitative and quantitative interview covering knowledge and attitudes towards cannabis law, personal cannabis use, market factors, experience with the justice system and impact of legislative change. Some 85% of those who commented identified the changes as having little impact on their cannabis use. Some 89% of the 70 who intended to cultivate cannabis once the CIN scheme was introduced suggested they would grow cannabis within the two non-hydroponic plant-limit eligible for an infringement notice under the new law. Only 15% believed an increase in self-supply would undermine the large scale suppliers of cannabis in the market and allow some cannabis users to distance themselves from its unsavoury aspects. Only 11% said they would enter, or re-enter, the cannabis market as sellers as a result of the scheme introduction. Most respondents who commented believed that the impact of the legislative changes on the cannabis market would be negligible. The extent to which this happens will be addressed in the post-change phase of this research. Part of the challenge in assessing the impact of the CIN scheme on the cannabis market is that it is distinctly heterogeneous. [source]


Retention of proteins and metalloproteins in open tubular capillary electrochromatography with etched chemically modified columns,

ELECTROPHORESIS, Issue 18 2008
Joseph J. Pesek
Abstract Etched chemically modified capillaries with two different bonded groups (pentyl and octadecyl) are compared for their migration behavior of several common proteins and metalloproteins as well as metalloproteinases. Migration times, efficiency and peak shape are evaluated over the pH range of 2.1,8.1 to determine any effects of the bonded group on the electrochromatographic behavior of these compounds. One goal was to determine if the relative hydrophobicity of the stationary phase has a significant effect on proteins in the open tubular format of capillary electrochromatography as it does in HPLC. Reproducibility of the migration times is also investigated. [source]


Sampling and analysis of microcystins: Implications for the development of standardized methods

ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY, Issue 2 2007
Angeline R. Tillmanns
Abstract Microcystins (MC), a group of cyanotoxins, have been found in lakes and rivers worldwide. One goal of MC research is to develop models which predict MC concentrations, but these efforts have been hampered by a lack of standardized methods necessary for comparing data across studies. Here, we investigate the effect of chemical analysis (HPLC-PDA and ELISA), sample collection (whole water, plankton tow and surface scum), and choice of normalizing parameter (volume, dry weight, and chlorophyll a) on reported MC concentrations. Samples were collected over three years from a temperate mesotrophic, shallow lake with episodic blooms of cyanobacteria. We found that microcystins were up to four times higher in lake samples when analyzed by ELISA relative to HPLC-PDA and that MC concentration measured by HPLC explained less than half of the variation in MC concentrations measured by ELISA. Also, samples collected by plankton tow gave consistently higher concentrations than whole water samples. An additional HPLC analysis of two chlorophyte cultures revealed the presence of compounds with a similar UV absorbance spectrum to MC-LR, suggesting that identifying MC based solely on UV absorbance is not valid. Our results document the discrepancy in MC concentrations that can arise by using different methods throughout all stages of sampling, analysis, and reporting of MC concentrations. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 22: 132,143, 2007. [source]


Change processes for attractive work in small manufacturing companies

HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 1 2009
Mattias Åteg
The article originates from research in interaction between researchers and companies in a network, which has led to an increasing awareness among managers on issues such as reasons behind difficulties in attracting competent labor. Particularly, attention has been directed toward the importance of work environment improvements that increase the attractivity of industrial work. To deal with such challenges, for more than 5 years a number of small engineering companies, with research support, have been engaged in change processes based on the concept of attractive work. The purpose of the article is to develop knowledge and understanding for how small engineering companies can create more attractive work. One goal is to make it possible to draw conclusions about the employees' experiences of changes in the attractivity of industrial work. Efforts in this direction have been conducted through work environment assessments (before and after the changes) and through administration of a questionnaire. The results show that it is possible to analyze how employees experience changes in the attractivity of work. This is most interesting from the perspective that the results can be used for assisting further improvements. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Design of follow-up experiments for improving model discrimination and parameter estimation

NAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 8 2004
Szu Hui Ng
Abstract One goal of experimentation is to identify which design parameters most significantly influence the mean performance of a system. Another goal is to obtain good parameter estimates for a response model that quantifies how the mean performance depends on influential parameters. Most experimental design techniques focus on one goal at a time. This paper proposes a new entropy-based design criterion for follow-up experiments that jointly identifies the important parameters and reduces the variance of parameter estimates. We simplify computations for the normal linear model by identifying an approximation that leads to a closed form solution. The criterion is applied to an example from the experimental design literature, to a known model and to a critical care facility simulation experiment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004 [source]


Influence of ionic strength on the time course of force development and phosphate release by dogfish muscle fibres

THE JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY, Issue 3 2005
Timothy G. West
We measured the effects of ionic strength (IS), 200 (standard) and 400 mmol l,1 (high), on force and ATP hydrolysis during isometric contractions of permeabilized white fibres from dogfish myotomal muscle at their physiological temperature, 12°C. One goal was to test the validity of our kinetic scheme that accounts for energy release, work production and ATP hydrolysis. Fibres were activated by flash photolysis of the P3 -1-(2 nitrophenyl) ethyl ester of ATP (NPE-caged ATP), and time-resolved phosphate (Pi) release was detected with the fluorescent protein MDCC-PBP, N -(2[1-maleimidyl]ethyl)-7-diethylamino-coumarin-3-carboxamide phosphate binding protein. High IS slowed the transition from rest to contraction, but as the fibres approached the isometric force plateau they showed little IS sensitivity. By 0.5 s of contraction, the force and the rate of Pi release at standard and high IS values were not significantly different. A five-step reaction mechanism was used to account for the observed time courses of force and Pi release in all conditions explored here. Only the rate constants for reactions of ATP, ADP and Pi with the contractile proteins varied with IS, thus suggesting that the actin,myosin interactions are largely non-ionic. Our reaction scheme also fits previous results for intact fibres. [source]


Location analysis of DNA-bound proteins at the whole-genome level: untangling transcriptional regulatory networks

BIOESSAYS, Issue 6 2001
Béatrice Nal
In this post-sequencing era, geneticists can focus on functional genomics on a much larger scale than ever before. One goal is the discovery and elucidation of the intricate genetic networks that co-ordinate transcriptional activation in different regulatory circuitries. High-throughput gene expression measurement using DNA arrays has thus become routine strategy. This approach, however, does not directly identify gene loci that belong to the same regulatory group; e.g., those that are bound by a common (set of) transcription factor(s). Working in yeast, two groups have recently published an elegant method that could circumvent this problem, by combining chromatin immunoprecipitation and DNA microarrays.(1,2) The method is likely to provide a powerful tool for the dissection of global regulatory networks in eukaryotic cells. BioEssays 23:473,476, 2001. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source]


Quantitative Risk Assessment for Multivariate Continuous Outcomes with Application to Neurotoxicology: The Bivariate Case

BIOMETRICS, Issue 3 2005
Zi-Fan Yu
Summary The neurotoxic effects of chemical agents are often investigated in controlled studies on rodents, with multiple binary and continuous endpoints routinely collected. One goal is to conduct quantitative risk assessment to determine safe dose levels. Such studies face two major challenges for continuous outcomes. First, characterizing risk and defining a benchmark dose are difficult. Usually associated with an adverse binary event, risk is clearly definable in quantal settings as presence or absence of an event; finding a similar probability scale for continuous outcomes is less clear. Often, an adverse event is defined for continuous outcomes as any value below a specified cutoff level in a distribution assumed normal or log normal. Second, while continuous outcomes are traditionally analyzed separately for such studies, recent literature advocates also using multiple outcomes to assess risk. We propose a method for modeling and quantitative risk assessment for bivariate continuous outcomes that address both difficulties by extending existing percentile regression methods. The model is likelihood based; it allows separate dose,response models for each outcome while accounting for the bivariate correlation and overall characterization of risk. The approach to estimation of a benchmark dose is analogous to that for quantal data without the need to specify arbitrary cutoff values. We illustrate our methods with data from a neurotoxicity study of triethyl tin exposure in rats. [source]


Bayesian Detection of Clusters and Discontinuities in Disease Maps

BIOMETRICS, Issue 1 2000
Leonhard Knorr-Held
Summary. An interesting epidemiological problem is the analysis of geographical variation in rates of disease incidence or mortality. One goal of such an analysis is to detect clusters of elevated (or lowered) risk in order to identify unknown risk factors regarding the disease. We propose a nonparametric Bayesian approach for the detection of such clusters based on Green's (1995, Biometrika82, 711,732) reversible jump MCMC methodology. The prior model assumes that geographical regions can be combined in clusters with constant relative risk within a cluster. The number of clusters, the location of the clusters, and the risk within each cluster is unknown. This specification can be seen as a change-point problem of variable dimension in irregular, discrete space. We illustrate our method through an analysis of oral cavity cancer mortality rates in Germany and compare the results with those obtained by the commonly used Bayesian disease mapping method of Besag, York, and Mollié (1991, Annals of the Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 43, 1,59). [source]


A Chemoenzymatic Approach for the Synthesis of Unnatural Disaccharides Containing D -Galacto- or D -Fucofuranosides

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ORGANIC CHEMISTRY, Issue 22 2005
Ronan Euzen
Abstract Unusual diglycosides composed of D -hexofuranosyl entities were prepared by a chemoenzymatic route using the ,- L -arabinofuranosidase, AbfD3. The required, unprotected monosaccharidic donors were first prepared according to multi-step syntheses. Since one goal of this study was the investigation of donor ,1 subsite in the active site of the enzyme, we focused on D -fucofuranosyl and 6-deoxy-6-fluoro- D -galactofuranosyl derivatives which present stereochemical similarities with L -arabinose series, but also structural variations on the side arm. These substrates were then used in AbfD3-catalysed hydrolyses to determine the parameters Km and kcat and in AbfD3-catalysed transglycosylation to evaluate their ability to serve as donor/acceptor. Four disaccharides were thus isolated and characterised, two resulting from ,-(1,2) connection along with two ,-(1,3)-regioisomers. (© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2005) [source]


Design of follow-up experiments for improving model discrimination and parameter estimation

NAVAL RESEARCH LOGISTICS: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL, Issue 8 2004
Szu Hui Ng
Abstract One goal of experimentation is to identify which design parameters most significantly influence the mean performance of a system. Another goal is to obtain good parameter estimates for a response model that quantifies how the mean performance depends on influential parameters. Most experimental design techniques focus on one goal at a time. This paper proposes a new entropy-based design criterion for follow-up experiments that jointly identifies the important parameters and reduces the variance of parameter estimates. We simplify computations for the normal linear model by identifying an approximation that leads to a closed form solution. The criterion is applied to an example from the experimental design literature, to a known model and to a critical care facility simulation experiment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2004 [source]


The Link Between Childhood Undernutrition and Risk of Chronic Diseases in Adulthood: A Case Study of Brazil

NUTRITION REVIEWS, Issue 5 2003
Ana L. Sawaya PhD
Obesity, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus are now prevalent among adults living in developing countries; these chronic diseases affect socioeconomically disadvantaged adults living in impoverished families with under-nourished children. This review summarizes data from Brazil - a developing country undergoing the nutrition transition - suggesting an association between childhood undernutrition and obesity and chronic degenerative disease. Potential mechanisms for the association include longterm effects of childhood undernutrition on energy expenditure, fat oxidation, regulation of food intake, susceptibility to the effects of high-fat diets, and altered insulin sensitivity. The combination of childhood undernutrition and adult chronic degenerative disease results in enormous social and economic burdens for developing countries. Further research is urgently needed to examine the effect of childhood undernutrition on risk of obesity and chronic degenerative diseases; one goal of such research would be to determine and provide low-cost methods for prevention and treatment. [source]


Hypo-Egoic Self-Regulation: Exercising Self-Control by Diminishing the Influence of the Self

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2006
Mark R. Leary
ABSTRACT Theory and research dealing with self-regulation have focused primarily on instances of self-regulation that involve high levels of self-reflection and effortful self-control. However, intentionally trying to control one's behavior sometimes reduces the likelihood of achieving one's goals. This article examines the process of hypo-egoic self-regulation in which people relinquish deliberate, conscious control over their own behavior so that they will respond more naturally, spontaneously, or automatically. An examination of spontaneously occurring hypo-egoic states (such as flow, deindividuation, and transcendence) suggests that hypo-egoic states are characterized by lowered self-awareness and/or an increase in concrete and present-focused self-thoughts. In light of this, people may intentionally foster hypo-egoism via two pathways,(a) taking steps to reduce the proportion of time that they are self-aware (such as repeating a behavior until it is automatic or practicing meditation) or (b) increasing the concreteness of their self-thoughts (such as inducing a concrete mindset or practicing mindfulness). In this way, people may deliberately choose to regulate hypo-egoically when effortful control might be detrimental to their performance. [source]