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In this archival study, life events were identified that served as precursors to identity transitions in 149 European American, African American, Mexican American, and Puerto Rican women. The data were collected during a period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s in the United States. Participants were interviewed and asked to describe events that had influenced their understanding of themselves. Events were coded into relational, career, education, personal, health-related, and miscellaneous categories. Results indicated that women were more likely to report life events regarding their relationships than events in other categories. A reexamination of the data revealed that that there were more similarities than differences among the racial and ethnic groups in terms of the life events described. Respondents were more likely to report continuity than change in their identities in response to life events serving as possible precursors to change. Results also revealed that when change did occur, it was associated with high levels of conflict particularly for the domains of relationships and educational achievement expectations. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

In 1785, William Ludlam wrote a book entitled The rudiments of mathematics. After I purchased the 1790 edition of this text some years ago at an antiquarian bookstore in Connecticut, I became interested in learning more about him. Ludlam's name had appeared as a footnote in several histories of mathematics, but little else had been written about him. I began some research, simply out of curiosity. What emerged was a story of an interesting mathematician, scientist, inventor, and clergyman - and a man who often found himself in the middle of controversy and subject to personal attacks, whether deserved or not. This article is a biography of Ludlam, in which I have used his own words, as well as those of his adversaries, wherever possible. © 2011 British Society for the History of Mathematics.

School nurses are involved in a complex framework of interactions with students, other professionals, parents, and administrators. Trust between nurse and student is critical for interaction effectiveness. The goal of this study was to understand through phenomenology the process of engendering trust in school nurse-high school student interactions. The qualitative approach explored school nurse perceptions of experiences interacting with students, yielding insights into nurse- and setting-based factors contributing to the development of trust. Subthemes within these included key behaviors and attributes enhancing trust engenderment in school nurse-student interactions. Study findings were well supported by the existing nursing and psychological research literature. Nurses that purposefully strive to develop trust in young people will maximize adolescent health results.

Parental knowledge is defined as parental awareness and information about a child's activities, whereabouts, and associations that is obtained through parental monitoring, parental solicitation, or self-disclosure. Increased parental knowledge is generally associated with lower adolescent substance use; however, the influence of various contextual factors, such as adolescent gender and grade level is not well understood, particularly for different racial or ethnic groups. In the present study, we used Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling analyses to examine the longitudinal relationship of parental knowledge to adolescent substance use in the context of adolescent gender and grade level among 207 urban African American adolescents in grades 6-11. Results indicated that increased parental knowledge is associated with a concurrent lower likelihood of substance use across all types of substances examined (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, other drug use, and any drug use), but it did not predict changes in substance use 1 year later for the entire sample. However, analyses by gender and grade level showed that for boys and middle school youth, parental knowledge was a protective factor for increases in substance use across 1 year. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for prevention and health promotion interventions for adolescent substance use among African American youth.

The objectives of this study were the following: (1) describe one organization's experience with recruiting minority-serving private practice primary care physicians to an ambulatory quality improvement (QI) project; (2) compare and contrast physicians who agreed to participate with those who declined; and (3) list incentives and barriers to participation. The authors identified eligible physicians by analyzing Medicare Part B claims data, a publicly available physician database, and office staff responses to telephone inquiries. The recruitment team had difficulty identifying, contacting, and recruiting eligible physicians. Solo practitioners and physicians who had lower scores on certain quality measures were more likely to participate. Barriers to participation were similar in all practices and included concerns about extra work, difficulty of change, and impact on office work flow. Commonly used incentives were offered but were not universally embraced. Additional work is required to refine the process of physician recruitment and to find more compelling incentives for QI.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RNC-NIC, FAAN, the editors of this department, address common issues, challenges, and opportunities that face academic executive teams, such as negotiating an executive contract, obtaining faculty lines, building effective work teams, managing difficult employees, and creating nimble organizational structure to respond to changing consumer, healthcare delivery, and community needs. In this article, the editors asked guest author, Dr Cesarina Thompson, to discuss the transition process from faculty to administrative role.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RNC-NIC, FAAN, the editors of this department, address common issues, challenges, and opportunities that face academic executive teams, such as negotiating an executive contract, obtaining faculty lines, building effective work teams, managing difficult employees, and creating nimble organizational structure to respond to changing consumer, healthcare delivery, and community needs. In this article, the editors asked guest author, Dr Cesarina Thompson, to discuss the transition process from faculty to administrative role.

Many new nursing leaders assuming deanships, assistant, or interim deanships have limited education, experience, or background to prepare them for the job. To assist new deans and those aspiring to be deans, Jana L. Pressler, PhD, RN, and Carole A. Kenner, PhD, RNC-NIC, FAAN, the editors of this department, address common issues, challenges, and opportunities that face academic executive teams, such as negotiating an executive contract, obtaining faculty lines, building effective work teams, managing difficult employees, and creating nimble organizational structure to respond to changing consumer, healthcare delivery, and community needs. In this article, the editors asked guest author, Dr Cesarina Thompson, to discuss the transition process from faculty to administrative role.

The authors conducted a diabetes quality improvement project in 5 privately owned primary care practices serving at least 25% minority patients. Interventions included group-specific and practice-specific training on an electronic patient registry, cultural competency practices and tools, and selected quality improvement strategies. The authors conducted a comprehensive evaluation involving quantitative and qualitative data to assess project impact. Although overall clinical performance did not improve over the 14- to 20-month project time frame, other practice structural characteristics and processes did show improvement: successful implementation of the registry and clinician reminders in all practices, institution of team care and patient reminders in 4 practices, and collection of patient race/ethnicity data in 4 practices. These results highlight the difficulty of bringing about clinical improvement in this subset of practices and also the importance of conducting comprehensive evaluations to fully understand and interpret multicomponent quality improvement projects. © 2012 by the American College of Medical Quality.

Superintendents have the responsibility to engage in the act of teaching their colleagues what they have learned about the most important work of school districts-ensuring high student achievement. They also must provide strong leadership that will foster and nurture powerful learning communities.

In the developing nervous system, neurotrophin 3 (NT3) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) have been shown to interact with each other and with different parts of a neuron or glia and over considerable distances in time and space. The auditory system provides a useful model for analyzing these events, insofar as it is subdivided into well-defined groups of specific neuronal types that are readily related to each other at each stage of development. Previous work in our laboratory suggested that NT3 and its receptor TrkC in the mouse cochlear nucleus (CN) may be involved in directing neuronal migration and initial targeting of inputs from cochlear nerve axons in the embryo. NT3 is hard to detect soon after birth, but TrkC lingers longer. Here we found NT3 and TrkC around P8 and the peak around P30. Prominent in ventral CN, associated with globular bushy cells and stellate cells, they were localized to different subcellular sites. The TrkC immunostain was cytoplasmic, and that of NT3 was axonal and perisomatic. TrkC may be made by CN neurons, whereas NT3 has a cochlear origin. The temporal pattern of their development and the likelihood of activity-dependent release of NT3 from cochlear axons suggest that it may not be critical in early synaptogenesis; it may provide long-term trophic effects, including stabilization of synapses once established. Activity-related regulation could coordinate the supply of NT3 with inner ear activity. This may require interaction with other neurotrophins, such as BDNF.

To study the mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss and the phantom noise, or tinnitus, often associated with it, we used a mouse model of noise damage designed for reproducible and quantitative structural analyses. We selected the posteroventral cochlear nucleus, which has shown considerable plasticity in past studies, and correlated its changes with the distribution of neurotrophin 3 (NT3). We used volume change, optical density analysis, and microscopic cluster analysis to measure the degeneration after noise exposure. There was a fluctuation pattern in the reorganization of nerve terminals. The data suggest that the source and size of the nerve terminals affect their capacity for regeneration. We hypothesize that the deafferentation of ventral cochlear nucleus is the structural basis of noise-induced tinnitus. In addition, the immunofluorescent data show a possible connection between NT3 and astrocytes. There appears to be a compensatory process in the supporting glial cells during this degeneration. Glia may play a role in the mechanisms of noise-induced hearing loss. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the most prolific and distinguished Spanish American novelists of the twentieth century and the winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature, is also the author of eight plays, which have frequently been overshadowed by his narrative production. Going beyond the relationship traced by critics between his novels and his plays, this essay underscores the prevalence in his theatrical work of a tug of war between biographical and autobiographical voices as part of a fundamental exploration of real and fictional memory. From Vargas Llosa's early plays of the 1980s to his most recent ones, he has frequently dramatized the life of both real and imaginary, famous and infamous others and selves, creating the illusion that the audience is witnessing someone's life trajectory. This is the analytical angle from which this essay approaches not only Vargas Llosa's first play, La seorita de Tacna (1981), but in particular one of his most recent ones, Odiseo y Penélope (2007). In both analyses, the definitions of biographical and autobiographical discourses are interpreted in light of theatrical representation, underscoring in this way the subjective, dramatic, and metaphorical perspectives of these expressions. © 2012 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

iPrompts® is a software application for handheld devices that provides visual support to individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Caregivers use the application to create and present visual schedules, visual countdown timers, and visual choices, to help individuals with ASDs stay organized, understand upcoming events, and identify preferences. The developer of the application, HandHold Adaptive, LLC, initially introduced iPrompts on the iPhone and iPod Touch in May of 2009. The research team from the Center of Excellence on Autism Spectrum Disorders at Southern Connecticut State University conducted a study of iPrompts in 2010, investigating its use by educators working with students with ASDs. Among other findings, educators indicated a desire to present visual supports on a larger, "tablet"-sized display screen, leading the developer to produce an iPad-specific product, iPrompts® XL. Described in this paper are the research effort of iPrompts and subsequent development effort of iPrompts XL. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.

Objectives: Increasing evidence suggests that deficits in mindfulness (awareness, attentiveness, and acceptance of the present moment) play a role in a range of disorders involving behavioral dysregulation. This paper adds to that literature by describing a transdiagnostic psychotherapy (Mindfulness & Modification Therapy; MMT) developed to target behavioral dysregulation. Design: An open-treatment pilot-trial investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and pre-post effects of MMT targeting women (N = 14) court-referred for alcohol abuse/dependence and aggression. Results: Pre-post comparisons revealed significant decreases in alcohol use, drug use, and aggression. In addition, the retention rate was 93%. Conclusion: Preliminary evidence suggests that MMT is a feasible and acceptable treatment that decreases dysregulated behaviors such as substance use and aggression, while also potentially increasing retention. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 67:117, 2011.

Writing centers have long been rich sites of critical inquiry into individualized instructional styles and methods. One of the great writing center debates involves directive versus nondirective tutoring styles and methods. While many writing center scholars have discussed the intricacies of directive or interventionist versus nondirective or minimalist pedagogical methods, few have examined the rhetorical implications of this important debate in relation to more classroom-based peer collaborations. This article rhetorically analyzes the literature on directive/nondirective methods and various approaches to tutoring writing, drawing pedagogical and rhetorical connections and implications useful for all teachers of writing and rhetoric. © 2013 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Age and portion size have been found to influence food intake in American children but have not been examined in an international context. This study evaluated the association between age and the effects of portion size on the food intake of kindergarteners in Kunming, China. Using a within-subjects crossover design in a classroom setting, 173 children in two age groups, mean age 4.2 years and 6.1 years, were served a predefined reference, small (-30%) and large (+30%) portion of rice, vegetables, and a protein source during lunchtime over three consecutive days. Each portion was weighed before and after the meal to determine amount of food consumed. Linear mixed modeling, controlling for repeated measures and clustering by classroom, was used to compare food intake under small and large portion size conditions to the reference portion. Children ate significantly less food when served small portions. When served a large portion, 6-year-old children increased food intake while 4-year-old children decreased food intake in comparison to the reference portion. Findings indicate that portion size affects food intake in Chinese children 4-6-years old. Older children show larger increases in food intake with increased portion size than do younger children. (c) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.