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The author argues that the online environment lends opportunities for development of critical thinking and creation of a collaborative learning environment not available in the face-to-face classroom. The author compares student participation, test results, the quality of writing assignments in art history survey courses she taught online and face to face at the same university. Not only can critical thinking be encouraged and facilitated by introducing challenging and intriguing topics in group discussions and blogs, but the specific nature of online communication provides a unique and positive atmosphere for discussion: anonymity fosters participation among students who are less fond of public speaking, schedule flexibility means students can do research before posting to discussion boards, a lack of time constraints means discussions do not have to "end" when "class" is over, visibility of discussion postings to the entire class means that students can and do learn from their peers, and the variety of available tools means students can incorporate images, audio/video clips and graphics into their analytical reflections. This paper summarizes the most effective approaches taken to establishing group discussions in asynchronous online courses, discusses learner engagement strategies in the e-learning environment, describes best practices for the optimal use of discussion boards, analyzes learning outcomes of discussion board assignments compared to in-class essays and writing assignments. Copyright © 2012, Common Ground.

Hartford, the state capital of Connecticut, is a typical example of a former manufacturing oriented1 industrial city and, like much of the urban northeastern United States, has gone through a period of economic deindustrialization and consequent urban decay. Since the departure of the manufacturing base, Hartford has refocused its economic development on the service economy, and first and foremost, the insurance industry. The city even proclaims itself the “insurance capital of the world.” Yet, even though the insurance industry as well as other service oriented development strategies (a new convention center, science museum, and retail developments) have been quite successful in fostering economic activity and attracting employees (mostly residents of the surrounding suburbs commuting into white collar jobs), the spatial manifestations of deindustrialization are still visible and persistent in the physical as well as the social fabric of the city. © 2012 Neil Reid, Jay D. Gatrell and Paula S. Ross All rights reserved.

This book explores new and leading edge marketing research approaches as successfully practiced by visionaries of academia and the research industry. Ideal as either a supplementary text for students or as a guidebook for practitioners, this book showcases the excitement of a field where discoveries abound and researchers are valued for solving weighty problems and minimizing risks. The authors offer rich new tools to measure and analyze consumer attitudes, combined with existing databases, online bulletin boards, social media, neuroscience, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, behavioral economics, and more. The reader will profit from the numerous contemporary case studies that demonstrate the key role of marketing research in corporate decision-making.

Cosmopolitans are individuals with a distinctive kind of extended national and international orientation, a global vision, and sense of belonging to the world. These people are sophisticated and importantly engaged in the cultures outside of local geographical boundaries. But what do we know about them as consumers—their origins, values, media usage, and buyer behavior? This unique book details much about this group, and fills a knowledge gap that has long been overlooked largely because other related marketing areas have overshadowed and overlooked the notion of cosmopolitan consumers. Until this book, in fact, there has been no single authoritative source that directly and comprehensively covers the field of consumer cosmopolitanism. This book also includes original essays by an all-star cast of contributors, giving you an introduction to a powerful new approach to marketing, eclectically packed with novel ideas and insights that noticeably advance the marketing field and bring it more fully into the age of globalization.

Purpose: This study examined effects of fat-free chocolate milk (MILK) consumption on kinetic and cellular markers of protein turnover, muscle glycogen, and performance during recovery from endurance exercise. Methods: Male runners participated in two trials separated by 1 wk and consumed either MILK or a nonnitrogenous isocaloric carbohydrate (CHO) control beverage (CON) after a 45-min run at 65% of V̇O 2peak. Postexercise muscle protein fractional synthetic rate (FSR) and whole-body protein turnover were determined during 3 h of recovery using muscle biopsies and primed constant infusions of L-[ring-H5]phenylalanine and L-[1-C]leucine, respectively. Phosphorylation of translational signaling proteins and activity of proteolytic molecules were determined using Western blotting and enzymatic activity assays. Muscle glycogen was quantified, and treadmill time to exhaustion was determined after the recovery period. Results: Consuming MILK after exercise resulted in higher mixed muscle FSR with lower whole-body proteolysis and synthesis compared with CON (P ≤ 0.05). Phosphorylation of eIF4E-BP1 and FOXO3a was higher for MILK (P < 0.01), whereas Akt phosphorylation was lower during recovery regardless of dietary treatment (P < 0.05). Enzymatic activity assays indicated lower caspase-3 activity during recovery for MILK (P < 0.01) and higher 26S proteasome activity for CON (P < 0.01). Muscle glycogen was not affected by either dietary treatment; however, time to exhaustion was greater for MILK than for CON (P < 0.05). Conclusions: The effects of consumption of MILK after endurance exercise on FSR, signaling molecules of skeletal muscle protein turnover, leucine kinetics, and performance measures suggest unique benefits of milk compared with a CHO-only beverage. © 2012 by the American College of Sports Medicine.

Race is routinely defined as “socially constructed,” from which it follows that there was a time before its construction. What that time looked like, and how Africans were then viewed by white Americans, is difficult to perceive from a vantage point within the paradigm of race. This essay considers important but neglected cultural referents to argue that a binary distinction between black and white did not emerge on theoretical grounds until the 1780s, when Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia shrewdly redirected growing challenges to slavery into quasi-metaphysical reflections on the gulf between whites and blacks.

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.

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.