Why Do People Kill?
We need to resolve the violence in our society. I'm offering a few ideas regarding the issues we need to research and address.
Why? Why are these horrible killings happening?
I don't pretend to know the answers, but I do have some ideas that I want to share with you. I believe there are many issues that we need to attend to as a society.
There is much talk about the need for more mental health facilities, but just as important is why so many people are mentally ill.
People who know how to love and value themselves also love and value others, and would never deliberately do harm to others. People capable of empathy could not do what Adam Lanza did. The question is: What created such a degree of internal disconnection from his own feelings and empathic ability, and what created the level of self-loathing that resulted in Adam Lanza killing 20 children and six adults? What creates such a deep inability to regulate feelings? Why did Adam Lanza never learn to manage his feelings in a way that didn't hurt others?
Let's start from the beginning to see how this might occur.
Pre-Birth and Birth
Did Nancy Lanza, Adam's mother, take good physical care of herself when she was pregnant with Adam? Did she smoke, eat sugar and other processed foods that created an imbalance in her gut?
According to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride in "Gut and Psychology Syndrome," babies have a sterile gut until coming through the birth canal –- where they receive their first dose of hopefully beneficial gut flora. However, if the mother is unhealthy, then her floral is likely out of balance, with the unhealthy flora outnumbering the beneficial flora. Or, if a baby is born via C-section, then he or she receives no gut flora during birth.
The second dose of gut flora occurs with breast-feeding the baby. If the baby is not breast-fed, then he receives no gut flora. Even if he is nursed, if the mother is out of balance, then the flora the baby receives is not in balance.
According to Dr. Campbell-McBride and the many other researchers she cites in her book, unhealthy gut flora are responsible for much mental illness, including bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, autism and many learning disabilities. Could this have been part of the problem?
Parental love and connection is vital for a baby to develop the ability to regulate his feelings and to value himself.
Babies need help in learning to regulate their feelings, and when they don't receive this help in infancy, they may never learn to regulate.
"Caregivers who can't feel with the baby, because of their own difficulties in noticing and regulating their own feelings, tend to perpetuate this regulatory problem, passing it on to their own baby. Such a baby can't learn to monitor his own states and adjust them effectively, if mum or dad doesn't do this for him in the first place. He may be left without any clear sense of how to keep on an even keel. He may even grow up to believe he really shouldn't have feelings since his parents didn't seem to notice or be interested in them."
Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby's Brain, pp.23-24, by Sue Gerhardt
Once a child thoroughly suppresses his feelings, he losses touch with his humanity –- with his connection with himself, others and a spiritual source of love. When he can no longer feel the pain he causes others because he can't feel his own pain, he stops caring about others. He is left with a huge inner emptiness that he cannot manage.
Sue Gerhardt goes on to say that the orbitofrontal cortex is responsible for social development and the ability to empathize.
"[ It's not ] a matter of waiting patiently for your baby to develop an orbitofrontal cortex as a matter of course. There is nothing automatic about it. Instead, the kind of brain that each baby develops is the brain that comes out of his or her particular experiences with people." P. 38.
"A baby can't develop an orbitofrontal cortex on his or her own. It depends on the relationships with other people that are available." P. 39.
Were Nancy Lanza and Adam's father loving with Adam, helping him to develop his social skills and ability to empathize, or were they too busy working to be there for their son? Were they emotionally disconnected from themselves and therefore unable to connect with their son? These are important questions to explore.
The fact that Nancy lived in a mansion and received almost $300,000 yearly in alimony and child support possibly indicates that these people were hard workers – spending a lot of time earning money. Did Adam suffer a loss of attention as a result of that?
"Friends say that Nancy Lanza, a former financial trader, had not been working in recent years. The terms of the settlement could explain why: She received $289,800 in alimony in 2012, which was to increase each year to reach $298,000 in 2015.http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/17/_PHONE_-new-details-emerge-on-private-lives-of-school-gunman-adam-lanza-and-his-mother?lite
Adam was described by friends as "intelligent, mild-mannered and socially awkward. He also had an aversion to human contact…" _URL_
Awkward with an aversion to human contact – red flags that his early parenting was possibly neglectful or even abusive.
How long are we going to feed our children sugar and processes foods? Are we going to continue to allow the food industry to brainwash us into believing that processed foods are healthy? I read that Adam Lanza was an "organic vegan," but we don't know when he started doing this. Is it possible he was already nutritionally deficient when he became an organic vegan?
"Lack of basic nutrition creates generation of criminals; prison system society"
The school environment, rather than fostering caring, cooperation, empathy, deep self-worth and creativity, can be a torturing experience for children who are different. If they don't fit the mold, they often feel rejected by both teacher and peers. Bullying, of course, is a huge issue, and is involved in creating mental health problems –- especially problems in mood regulation — as explained in this article: Being Bullied Changes Your Kids' Genetics:
"A recent study suggests that bullying by peers changes the structure surrounding a gene involved in regulating mood, making victims more vulnerable to mental health problems as they age. Researcher Isabelle Ouellet-Morin says, 'Many people think that our genes are immutable; however this study suggests that environment, even the social environment, can affect their functioning. This is particularly the case for victimization experiences in childhood, which change not only our stress response but also the functioning of genes involved in mood regulation.'"_URL_
It may not be mere chance that many of these violent murders occur at schools. We need to look into and understand what is happening in our schools that can result in such tragedy.
Movies and Video Games
What happens when violence becomes 'normal' due to movies and video games?
"Connecticut school massacre: Adam Lanza 'spent hours playing Call Of Duty'"
Is this relevant? Did it contribute to this latest tragedy? Again, this is very important to address.
Did drugs play a part in this? Often, young people are given drugs rather than truly being helped to heal, and some of the drugs have an increased tendency toward violence as a side effect.
The headline at _URL_ states: "Increase in School Shootings Linked to Antidepressant Prescription Drugs"
Another article at _URL_ states:
The headline at _URL_ "The Antipsychotic Prescribed To Adam Lanza Has A Troubled History All Its Own"
Obviously, the causes of this tragedy are multi-faceted, including the availability of automatic weapons. But deliberately using guns to kill 26 people is far more complex than the availability of guns. I recently heard that Germany has just as many guns as we have, yet they have hardly any violence. Why is this?
We need to address all of these issues –- parenting, nutrition, school, violent movies and video games, drugs and the availability of guns – to fully understand why this happened. I sincerely pray that each of these areas is given the attention they deserve so that our society can start to engage in the changes we need to make.
To quote my daughter, Sheryl Paul, in a recent article of hers, Broken Heart:
"I can only send out a prayer for a world that needs attention on many levels: May our paradigms of parenting, education, nutrition, and our isolating living situations be revolutionized from the ground up. May we learn how to attend lovingly to our babies and children so that they grow into healthy, purposeful, whole adults.


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Introduction to Mold-Making & Casting
Presented by Artisan's Asylum
November 6-November 27, 2012
In this 4 week class students will try out a variety of processes and techniques used to replicate objects from life or to transform an object into different materials using rubber, plastic, foam, wax, alginate, and plaster. Students should be ready to get their hands dirty!

source: HuggingFaceFW/fineweb-edu


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Enhancing Flower Colour
The production of coloured tissues, particularly insect-attracting petals, depends upon the synthesis of pigments. Plants are able to mix, modify and enhance pigments to produce a vast array of final petal colours. These colours are usually distributed across the flower in patterns, which vary in their degree of regularity and complexity between different species. While colour contrast is much more important than pattern for attracting pollinators from a distance, pattern becomes important at close range and allows animals to distinguish between flowers of different species and to learn to 'handle' flowers. This chapter considers the effects of mixing pigments together, the regulation of pigment distribution in the flower, and the use of metals, pH, and cell shape to modify the final colour of the flower.
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.


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*The deadline for paper submission has passed.
1. Background and Purpose
In Japan, the population is aging at the fastest pace in the world. In order to establish a sustainable social security system, it is indispensable to construct a policy infrastructure by accumulating evidence based on high-quality micro-data on the diverse aspects of the lives of elderly people. As an important part of this process, Japanese Economic Review (JER) is very pleased to announce a special issue on the economics of aging. We invite the submission of original research contributions covering all aspects, broadly defined, of the economics of aging using the Japanese Study on Aging and Retirement (JSTAR) and/or other family surveys such as:
- Health and Retirement Study (HRS)
- English Longitudinal Survey on Ageing (ELSA)
- Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
- Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA)
- Chinese Health and Retirement Survey (CHARLS)
- Longitudinal Aging Study in India (LASI)
Priority will be given to studies using JSTAR data.
3. How to submit your papers
By the end of October 15, 2014 (GMT)

source: openbmb/Ultra-FineWeb


MD Physician & ICU
Dana Shivam is a multi speciality hospital having dedicated Critical / General care unit with Best General Physician in Jaipur who will first study your disease then will diagnose and treat accordingly.
Role of Physician
The role of the physician on a health care team is like a multi-tasker. The physician's duty are based on regulated range of practice. The physician is well qualified to provide leadership in maintaining and supervising the patient's overall health care.
How does a physician diagnose a disease?
A diagnosis is basically based on laboratory reports or on the test results, rather than the physical inspection of the patient body. For example, a total diagnosis of infectious diseases generally requires both an examination of signs and symptoms, as well as laboratory reports of the agent that is responsible for the disease.
MD Physician & ICU Doctor
Dr. C.P. Suthar
 Dr. C.P. Suthar
Dr. C.P. Suthar
Physician Diabetologist & Intensivist
MD (Medicine)


Sexual crimes in Scotland
If you are facing an allegation of a sexual offence, you should not hesitate to contact us immediately. Our lawyers have a wealth of experience defending people accused of a sexual offence.
FAQ Sexual offences
A: The 2009 Act states covers what is considered a sexual offence. This includes:
 - Rape
 - Sexual assault by penetration
 - Sexual assault
 - Sexual Coercion
 - Coercing someone into being present during sexual activity
 - Coercing someone into looking at a sexual image
 - Communicating indecently
 - Sexual exposure
 - Voyeurism
A: Sentencing depends on the crime committed. For example convictions of rape, sexual assault by penetration, sexual assault and sexual coercion can lead to life imprisonment. Read this list here to get the full list of possible penalties.
A senior judge has set out new guidelines into the sentencing for sex crimes in Scotland. The previous guidelines looked at all sexual assault, rape and indecent child images under the same guidelines which have led to some unfavourable incidents of guilty people walking free.
These new guidelines are based on the 2009 Act, where a new set of sexual offences were created to cover existing common law and statutory offences.
Why are new sexual crime guidelines being created?
Lady Dorrian, who chairs the Scottish Sentencing Council, said: "This will allow each topic to be given in-depth consideration, and for the first guidelines on sexual offending to be produced more quickly". Who could argue with that? Sexual crime is a stain on society; victims should know their case will be listened to for the specific crime that they alleged occurred.
2009 Act: sexual crimes
The 2009 Act rectifies inconsistencies in current law such as; an adult male having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl is an offence but an adult female having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy is not an offence.
When is there a lack of consent?
Consent is defined as "free agreement". which although not defined in the 2009 Act, it does list examples of where free agreement is absent. This list does not cover every scenario as that would be impossible. Therefore, existing case law can be used to assist in proving lack of consent.


Modbus Communication between PLC and Energy Meter
Write the PLC program to read the energy meter readings in the programmable logic controller (PLC) using Modbus Communication.
Energy Meter Modbus Communication
Modbus Communication between PLC and Energy Meter
Consider Modbus protocol supported energy meter and display the readings in the PLC. In PLC, Modbus instructions are used to read the energy meter parameters.
First, we have to Set communication parameters like address, baud rate, parity, etc. in the energy meter as per requirement or standard data.
For example, consider the energy meter that has the following parameters.
 - Address = 2,
 - Baud rate = 19200 and
 - Parity bit = 0.
We will read frequency data in the PLC from the energy meter using Modbus communication. In energy meter, different parameters are available in the Modbus and each parameter has a unique address (register) where the readings are stored.
As we are planning to get the "frequency" data into the PLC, we need its specific address and assume it as 40106. So we need to use this address in our PLC configuration, DATA_ADDR is 40106 in the MB master block.
Configure pointer address in DATA_PTR so the frequency will be received in PLC address MW500. If floating value needed, use conversion instruction to convert INT value to REAL value.
The same setting should be in PLC for Modbus RTU communication. Set all the above parameters (address, baud rate, and parity) in the MB COMM LOAD block in PLC.
Modbus master instruction is used for data communication in PLC. MB master instruction allows the program to communicate as a Modbus master using the port on a point to point module.
An instant DB will be created when a Modbus master is created in a program.
MB COMM LOAD instruction execution is necessary before using Modbus master instruction. So we used MB COMM LOAD instruction also.
MB COMM LOAD instruction configures a port for communication using the Modbus RTU protocol.
List of Memory bits
MB COMM LOAD memory bits
 - M1.2:-Always true
 - M1.0:-First scan
 - M800.0:-Done bit
 - M800.1:-Error bit
 - MW802:-Status word
MB_MASTER memory bits
 - M1.2:-Always true
 - M0.7:-Clock pulse
 - M803.0:-MB master done bit
 - M803.1:-MB master busy bit
 - M803.2:-MB master error bit
 - MW804:-MB master status word
 - MW500:-Frequency in INT
 - MD700:-Frequency in Real.
Ladder diagram PLC Modbus communication
Network 1:-
MB COMM LOAD parameters
Siemens Modbus Configuration
Network 2:-
MB MASTER Parameters
Modbus Master in Simatic PLC
Network 3:-
INT to REAL conversion instruction.
Int to Real Conversion Block in PLC
Program Description
Network 1:-
In this network, we have taken MODBUS COMM LOAD instruction for port communication. In this network, we have configured the port, baud rate and parity for communication.
Network 2:-
In this network, MODBUS_MASTER instruction used will allow the program to communicate as a Modbus master using the port on the module. Here we have configured Modbus data address parameters for the device.
Network 3:-
Conversion instruction is used for data format conversion from INT to REAL.
Done bit:- If false then transaction not completed and true then transaction completed without error
Busy bit:- If false then MB no MB master transaction in process and true then MB master transaction in process.
Error:- If false then no error in the block and true then error in block.
Status word:- Show error code for troubleshooting.
Now we get the data into the PLC registers. So we can use this data in our other function blocks or use them in graphics to display the readings for the operator.
Note:- Above application may be different from the actual application. This example is only for explanation purposes only. We can implement this logic in other PLC also. This is the simple example of meter data reading in PLC using Modbus communication, we can use this concept in other examples also. All parameters and graphical representations considered in this example are for explanation purposes only, parameters or representation may be different in actual applications. Also, all interlocks are not considered in the application.
Author: Bhavesh
Comparison Instructions in PLC
Demultiplexer PLC ladder diagram
PLC Programming Motor Example
Industrial Communication Network
Data Handling Instructions in PLC
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Religion and National Identity in Eastern Europe and Eurasia
The Pew Research Center recently conducted a survey on the relationship between religious and national identity in Eastern European and Eurasian countries, noting changes in the way that religious identification has influenced national identity since the fall of atheist fundamentalism with the USSR. For religious and belief minorities—now including atheists—the relationship can be a troubling one, particularly as resurgent nationalism in the region has been accompanied by xenophobia and religious discrimination.
Here are highlights from the findings:
70% (Orthodox-majority) / 57% (Catholic-majority)
Average among countries who believe majority religious identity is very or somewhat important to national identity
Percentage within Orthodox-majority countries who believe Orthodox religious identity is very or somewhat important to national identity
Percentage within Catholic-majority countries who believe Catholic religious identity is very or somewhat important to national identity
Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe (Pew Research Center | May 2017)


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Statement of the Problem : Bullying and Animal Cruelty: Is There a Connection?
Category : Early Childhood Programme, Statement of the Problem
Bullying and Animal Cruelty: Is There a Connection?
Statement of the Problem
Studying the connection between bullying and animal cruelty would identify and substantiate the co-occurrence of bullying and animal cruelty and support the effective development of effective interventions in the field of human services. The study seeks to contribute to the research gap in identifying the existence of a relationship and the nature or direction of relationship between bullying and animal cruelty with implications on counseling and other interventions.
Overview of the Research Topic
Animal cruelty is the anti-social behavior of intentionally causing pain, suffering or even the death of animals (Ascione, 1993). Bullying is the aggressive behavior involving the desire to inflict physical or mental injury, cause a power imbalance or use power unjustly, in a repetitive manner, with evident enjoyment on the part of the aggressor and a corresponding perception of oppression on the side of the victim (Rigby, 2002).
So far, research has focused on the link between these two behaviors because of co-occurrence, which requires specialized interventions. Frick et al. (1993) explained that these behaviors manifest in early childhood between the ages of 6 and 7 to indicate psychopathology. The American Psychiatric Association (2000) explained that these two comprise symptoms of conduct disorder. These studies directly investigated the relationship between bullying and animal cruelty. However, these studies were qualitative with the intention of describing this phenomenon by drawing accounts. These studies also utilized case study methods using observation and interviews.
Other studies focused solely on animal cruelty or bullying. Merz-Perez, Heide and Silverman (2000) found that cruelty to animals has a link to violent behavior during adulthood. Gleyzer, Felthouse and Holzer (2001) explained that children with a history of animal cruelty are likely to develop antisocial personality disorder when they reach adulthood. Henry (2004) found that animal cruelty manifesting during early childhood have links to delinquency or criminal behavior during adolescence or adulthood.
There are also studies linking bullying with other behavioral manifestations during adolescence or adulthood. Haynie et al. (2001) explained that bullying has a direct relationship with higher risks of anti-social behavior in adulthood. Hanish and Guerra, 2004 and Toblin et al. (2005) conducted a study on bullying and found that children exhibiting bullying behavior are also likely to experience poor academic performance, limited emotional relationships, and negative behavioral or relational outcomes. Viljoen, O'Neill and Sidhu (2005) found that individuals with history of bullying also engage in delinquent or criminal behavior during their adolescence or adulthood.
The results comprise a framework for the current study. The studies also have a number of implications in support of the current study. One is the similar occurrence of both these behaviors in early childhood. There could be similar factors arising during this stage that causes both bullying and animal cruelty. Another, there are similarities in the impact of bullying and cruelty behavior during adolescence or adulthood, particularly anti-social behavior, delinquent activities, and even crime. This means that if these childhood behaviors have similar impact to behavior of adolescents or adults with a history of these behaviors, then there is likely a relationship between the two but there is need to measure this relationship.
Significance of the Study in the Field of Human Services
Human services encompass planning, managing and providing health, educational, social and other service to the community. Bullying and animal cruelty are behaviors within the sphere of human services because these are problem experienced by the community, particularly in the case of families exhibiting symptoms of these behaviors and schools affected by these anti-social behaviors. In addition, the links to these behaviors to delinquency and crimes in adolescence or adulthood requires early intervention at the community level. However, existing interventions were for bullying or animal cruelty. Establishing the correlation between these two constructs would support the development of interventions for children exhibiting both behaviors or preventing children exhibiting one behavior or the other in developing the other behavior.
Significance in Meeting Research Gap
Existing studies show that there are only a limited number of studies directly investigating the relationship between bullying and animal cruelty. These studies were qualitative. While these provide insight into these behaviors, there is need to measure the relationship between these two constructs since the extent and nature of relationship would support effective intervention development.
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (text revision) (4th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
Ascione, F. R. (1993). Children who are cruel to animals: A review of research and implications for developmental psychopathology. Anthrozoös, 6(4), 226-247.
Frick, P. J., Lahey, B. B., Loeber, R., Tannenbaum, L., Van Horn, Y., Christ, M. A. G., et al. (1993). Oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder: A meta-analytic review of factor analyses and cross-validation in a clinic sample. Clinical Psychology Review, 13, 319-340.
Gleyzer, R., Felthous, A. R., & Holzer, C. E. (2002). Animal cruelty and psychiatric disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 30(2), 257-265.
Hanish, L. D., & Guerra, N. G. (2004). Aggressive victims, passive victims, and bullies: Developmental continuity or developmental change? Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 50(1), 17-38.
Haynie, D. L., Nansel, T., Eitel, P., Crump, A. D., Saylor, K., Yu, K., et al. (2001). Bullies, victims, and bully/victims: Distinct groups of at-risk youth. Journal of Early Adolescence, 21(1), 29-49.
Henry, B. C. (2004). The relationship between animal cruelty, delinquency, and attitudes toward the treatment of animals. Society and Animals, 12(3), 185-207.
Merz-Perez, L., Heide, K. M., & Silverman, I. J. (2001). Childhood cruelty to animals and subsequent violence against humans. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 45(5), 556-573.
Rigby, K. (2002). New perspectives on bullying. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Toblin, R. L., Schwartz, D., Hopmeyer Gorman, A., & Abou-ezzeddine, T. (2005). Social-cognitive and behavioral attributes of aggressive victims of bullying. Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 329-346.
Viljoen, J. L., O'Neill, M. L., & Sidhu, A. (2005). Bullying behaviors in female and male adolescent offenders: Prevalence, types, and association with psychosocial adjustment. Aggressive Behavior, 00, 1-16.
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Kalman filter
Motion of high frequency and relatively low amplitude do not need to be compensated by the DP systems. Such motion is the result of first order wave loads. In order to remove those wave frequency components from the position and heading measurements and estimated velocities, we use Kalman filter. The signal is filtered and then passed to the controller.
Having the DP system trying to compensate those wave-frequency motions would result to unnecessarilly high power compasation and potential wear of accuators.
[Figure of filtered and unfilltered signal]


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Numerous cancer types are known to have an influence on human chromosomes, deleting certain portions in order to be able to infect the body. Now, researchers have shown that some of these deleted sections contain clusters of tumor-suppressing genes.
Experts say that this has been suspected for quite some time, but that evidence to prove that this was indeed the case has been lacking. The new investigation looked at a copy-number alteration (CNA), a deletion that occurs on the short arm of chromosome 8 (8p).
The study was carried out on mouse models of human liver cancer. Researchers found that this specific CNA affected a series of genes that work together to counteract tumors as soon as they start evolving.


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> Aromatherapy Articles & Guides >
Quantifiable Testing of Essential Oils
Quantifiable Testing of Essential Oils for Quality and Purity
Several quantifiable tests exist
that allow scientists, producers, suppliers and end users to be
able to test their oils to determine quality and help to ascertain
if an oil is pure and of the quality sought after for each particular
Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectroscopy (GC-MS)
Testing by means of Gas Chromatography
and Mass Spectroscopy can help to verify that the constituents contained
within an essential oil sample are representative of what that particular
essential oil should contain.
Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectroscopy
are two separate tests that are usually both conducted on an oil
specimen to identify constituents contained within it. Mass Spectrometry
assists in identification of the specific constituents measured
within Gas Chromatography, so typically, both tests are done together.
Gas Chromatography, also known as
Gas Liquid Chromatography is abbreviated as GC or
Gas Chromatography measures the constituents
contained within a particular essential oil sample by plotting each
constituent found within the sample onto a graph. To begin, a sample
of the oil is placed into the heating chamber of the gas chromatograph
machine. The oil sample is then heated to a specific temperature
until the constituents vaporize. Each constituent vaporizes at a
different rate of time. As each constituent vaporizes, is passes
through a detector that measures a) the time it took for the constituent
to vaporize and b) the percentage/concentration of the constituent
within the particular sample.
The gas chromatograph machine plots
a graph of the results. The x-axis identifies the time that passes
between the vaporization of each constituent. The y-axis shows the
percentage concentrations of each constituent within the oil.
Mass Spectrometry, abbreviated as
MS is often used in conjunction with Gas Chromatography as
it can aid in determining if a sample contains any adulterants.
Each compound, after passing through
the gas chromatograph machine, is fed into the mass spectrometer.
The Mass Spectrometer ionizes the compounds, sorts each by their
mass-to-charge ratio and then measures their molecular weights.
The results are then charted.
< Return to Article Archive Index


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|This article does not cite any references or sources. (March 2007)|
Discan is both a scale and a method in clinical psychology. As a scale, it is a type of ordered-metric scaling that yields a scale with internal reliability, and scale-points in excess of the number of initial anchors, more than would be the case with the Likert scale, though not as many as are achieved by the Analog scale.
For example, four descriptive anchor-levels yield 14 scale-points. In Louis Thurstone's tradition, it is scored by paired-comparisons. Seeking optimality, it is a compromise between the competing merits and demerits of the Likert scale and the Analog scale. Its use in clinical psychology derives from the influence of the late M.B. Shapiro.
For more detail, see Nomothetic and Idiographic
|This psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.|


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MECHANICAL WATCH MECHANISM
Showing Winding Mechanism And Gears
Gears can transfer motion from one place to another. They are used to reverse the direction of rotation, increase or decrease the speed of rotation, move rotational motion to a different axis, or keep the rotation of two axes synchronized.
Copyright:© 2004 Paul Silverman - Fundamental Photographs
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Book Review: Money Munchkids Activity Book 1
A fun, engaging way to teach young kids with ADHD financial literacy and money management.
Make It, Count It, Keep It
The author, Victoria May Khaze, developed the Money Munchkid$ program — which consists of a course taught in public schools, books, and home kits — back in 2013. Khaze's mission is to teach children about basic financial principles so they can meet challenges later in life.
This book, the first in a series, use mazes, word searches, drawings, and short stories to teach basic lessons about financial responsibility: This is what a bank does. This is how checks work (the book provides play checks). This is how to use a bank book (there is a play bank book). It also helps kids brainstorm ways to make money.
People with ADHD have trouble managing money. Personal finance is daunting for someone with a limited attention span and little impulse control. This book introduces concepts like saving and spending and balances and debits. Learning these concepts at a young age will help kids be financially responsible as they move into the teen years.
My seven-year-old picked up the book on his own and started reading it. When I asked if he wanted to study it in homeschool, he gave me a quick yes. The games and puzzles break up the text, and engage students in learning about money without even realizing that they are learning. My child loves this — and, likely, so will yours.
Updated on January 27, 2018


Referencing Package Contents
Now that we've covered Organizing Content, we'll discuss how to access that content across different packages. Let's consider the following example:
within ModelicaByExample.PackageExamples;
model RLC "An RLC circuit referencing types from the Modelica Standard Library"
 parameter Modelica.SIunits.Voltage Vb=24 "Battery voltage";
 parameter Modelica.SIunits.Inductance L = 1;
 parameter Modelica.SIunits.Resistance R = 100;
 parameter Modelica.SIunits.Capacitance C = 1e-3;
 Modelica.SIunits.Voltage V(fixed=true, start=0);
 Modelica.SIunits.Current i_L(fixed=true, start=0);
 Modelica.SIunits.Current i_R;
 Modelica.SIunits.Current i_C;
 i_R = V/R;
 i_C = C*der(V);
 L*der(i_L) = (Vb-V);
end RLC;
As we learned in the previous section, the very first line,
within ModelicaByExample.PackageExamples;
tells us that the RLC model is contained within the ModelicaByExample.PackageExamples package. As with the previous example, we are going to make use of the Modelica package system to allow us to avoid defining types directly in our model. In this way, we define the types once in one package and then we can reuse them in many places simply by referencing them.
Unlike the previous example in this chapter, we don't define any types in this example. Instead, we rely on types that are defined in the Modelica Standard Library. The Modelica Standard Library contains many useful types, models, constants, etc. For this example, we'll just utilize a few of them. These types can be easily recognized because they start with Modelica. in the name of the type.
We look more closely at the Lookup Rules later in this chapter. For now, it is sufficient to say that all the types starting with Modelica. exist within the Modelica package. In this case, all types start with Modelica.SIunits. SIunits is a package within the Modelica package. The purpose of the SIunits package is to store type definitions that conform to ISO standard quantities and units.
As can be seen in the example code, these types are referenced by their "fully qualified name". That means that type name starts with the name of a top-level package (a package that is not contained within another package). Each. in the name represents a new child package. The last name in the sequence identifies that actual type being referenced.
In this case, we are using 5 different types from within the Modelica.SIunits package: Voltage, Inductance, Resistance, Capacitance and Current. These types provide information about the units for each of these types, limitations on the values of these types (e.g., a capacitance cannot be less than zero), etc. They are defined in the Modelica Standard Library as follows:
// Base Definitions
type ElectricPotential = Real(final quantity="ElectricPotential",
 final unit="V");
type ElectricCurrent = Real(final quantity="ElectricCurrent",
 final unit="A");
// The types referenced in our example
type Voltage = ElectricPotential;
type Inductance = Real(final quantity="Inductance",
 final unit="H");
type Resistance = Real(final quantity="Resistance",
 final unit="Ohm");
type Capacitance = Real(final quantity="Capacitance",
 final unit="F", min=0);
type Current = ElectricCurrent;
Apart from providing better documentation, there is an immediate benefit to associating such types with variables and that is because it enables unit consistency checking of the equations. For example, note the following equation from this example:
i_R = V/R;
Clearly, this is a statement of Ohm's law. But what if we made a mistake and accidentally wrote:
i_R = V*R;
Syntactically speaking, this equation is perfectly legal. Furthermore, if the variable i_R, V and R were all declared to have the type Real, there would be no issue with this equation. However, because we know (from the type definitions) that these variables represent a current, a voltage and a resistance, respectively, a Modelica compiler is able to determine (in a completely automatic way using the definitions shown previously) that the left and right hand sides of this equation are inconsistent with respect to physical units. In other words, by associating a physical type with variables it is possible to detect modeling errors, automatically.


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Study Finds Female Patients May Respond Differently to Traumatic Brain Injuries
Researchers interviewed over 9,000 Ontario students in grades 7 through 12 who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. Sports were the most common cause of these injuries. The girls who were surveyed reported that they had considered suicide, experienced distressing psychological symptoms like depression and anxiety, become victims of bullying, and even tried smoking cigarettes to cope. By contrast, boys who were surveyed reported more "acting out" behaviors, like bullying and poor grades related to classroom misbehavior.
Researchers are still uncertain whether a difference in the symptoms of TBI among boys and girls indicates a different response in brain chemistry, a different approach to treatment, or social factors. They say more investigation is needed before doctors will know exactly how these findings should affect treatment of TBI in each group.
Traumatic brain injuries send 2.5 million Americans to the emergency room every year. While boys are still more likely to suffer concussions than girls, girls are by no means immune to traumatic brain injuries. Sports like soccer, basketball and cheerleading can cause concussions in any student who participates if an accident occurs.
At Cullan & Cullan LLC, our experienced Omaha child sports injury attorneys strive to protect the legal rights of each injured person we represent. Contact us today to learn more.


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How does the existence of an active historical society make a positive impact on McHenry County? This organization has an enviable 47 year-old track record of educational, entertainment, resource and preservation contributions. Each year county wide school systems bus about 3500 students to the Society's museum in Union.
Educational programs at the museum foster the type of thinking that can see the realities of today as being part of a continuing historical process. Computers, for example, didn't just arrive on the scene. Generations previous to this had their versions of modern technology which they both questioned and ultimately trusted to make their lives and their children's lives easier. If people logically understand that progress is part of a historical process, change may be easier to deal with.
The award-winning (voted best small Institution in Illinois by the Illinois Association of Museums in 1998) McHenry County Historical Society continues to collect and hold among its collection the three dimensional teaching artifacts of human progress. Without any use of tax dollars the Historical Society museum makes this educational contribution.
The museum also provides a family-oriented entertainment and educational destination spot. It uniquely and interactively helps tell the story of this county and its people. No other public facility can make that claim. Museums, like theaters, opera houses, parks, libraries, and golf courses, speak to quality of life issues that ultimately raise our standard of living.
As a resource for local information the McHenry County Historical Society fields an average of 10 to 15 requests each day on property, building and site preservation, family history, business history and object conservation. The Society's local history research library contains photographs; picture post cards; maps; journals; business, club, school and governmental records; standard local history books; biographical files; scrapbooks; newspapers and other documentary materials such as old phone directories and high school yearbooks which provide the answers to all sorts of questions.
In addition, technical books and pamphlets on everything from quilt repair to building restoration plus staff training in conservation, restoration and preservation, provide an invaluable one-stop resource for businesses, public groups and individuals. In 1995 the Society co-produced a 1200 plus page history entitled McHenry County in the Twentieth Century. In 2004 the Society co-published the book Historic Country Schools of McHenry County, Illinois by Society member Robert Frenz. These are all public contributions of the McHenry County Historical Society.
In the field of preservation, it is this organization's philosophy that older historic neighborhoods provide a necessary variety of housing stock in addition to providing a visible tangible accounting of architectural history. Historic downtown districts maintain a building scale that encourages the kind of socialization not found in outlying retail malls that rely on the automobile for access. Downtown revitalization opens possibilities for residential as well as creative commercial use that capitalizes on a municipality's physical uniqueness. One doesn't look at commercial strips to "see" Crystal Lake or Algonquin or McHenry because those stripbusinesses are likely to be uniform in style and content.
This Society spearheaded the efforts at developing a McHenry County Historic Preservation Ordinance in 1990. Most larger municipalities have followed that lead and established similar ordinances. The society also undertook the restoration of the 1843 Gannon log cabin, the 1867 Pringle School, 1886 Seneca Town Hall, the 1895 West Harmony School and a 1950 Modern Tourist Cabin. In 2009 the Society acquired the 1898 Riley Methodist Church. Many of these structures remain on their original sites. Standing as footprints of earlier times, they provide visible evidence of our history. Part of the Society's museum at Union consists of the 1870 native limestone Union School.
Preserving one's community provides its citizenry with a visual collective memory. Ultimately the goal of educational and service organizations like the McHenry County Historical Society is to encourage the appreciation of all aspects of our environment both natural and built. Those individuals who are sensitive to their environment make better citizens. Better citizens vote, they participate in community life and they teach their children by example. Historical Societies have a role to play in that process.
New Board Members
At our Annual Meeting in June 2012, four new individuals joined our Board of Directors.
Pictured here, L to R: Greg Barry, Greenwood Township; Marlene Keenan, McHenry Township; Mary Ott, Nunda Township. Not pictured: Tom Behles, Alden Township.


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While in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area, you decided to try some surveying with the aid of a protractor and a piece of string, as in the figure above. The rock keeps the string pointing straight down, and the straight edge of the protractor can be lined up with an object, allowing you to measure its angle of elevation. When you use this setup to look at something that is at the same elevation you are, the string intersects the mark on the protractor.
First, you lined up the protractor with South Sister, and it read. Then you walked 1 km toward the mountain, lined the protractor up again, and it read. What did you measure South Sister's relative elevation to be, and how far from the mountain were you when you made the second measurement?


The best Grass Seed for your baseball field
Seed for your Baseball Field
The right sports turf seed makes all the difference
Choices and Decisions
Do you seed or sod? This section covers seeding new areas or overseeding existing turf.
Check local agriculture experts for type of grass most suited for your climate. But here's the basics for baseball field seed:
90/10 blue fescue mix.
This is 90% fescue and 10% bluegrass. This is a nice mix for outfield grass and common at most fields maintained by a park district. After mowing, this usually is 2 inches or longer.
80/20 blue rye mix.
This is 80% perennial rye and 20% bluegrass. It is sometimes called sports turf mix. This mix is good for infields if not the entire field. This can be mowed as short as an inch long.
bermuda grass seed.
In the hot climates this works for the entire field and can be mowed to 3/4 inch long.
Sources and Suppliers
Suppliers I've used and am satisfied with: Horizon, Sierra Pacific Turf Supply. There are others of course, but these folks provide bulk supplies to landscapers and park districts and I've found that they understand what baseball fields need.
Tips & Hint for seeding
 1. In the northern climates the cooler grasses work best - rye, bluegrass, fescue.
 2. In the southern climates the hot grasses work best - bermuda.
 3. In the transition climates it is sometimes a combination depending on the time of year. For example, bermuda in the hot summer, but overseeded with perennial rye throughout the season and heavily before winter. Pro teams use Chaparral perennial rye.
 4. Seed needs to be kept moist and in contact with dirt to germinate. That's why you drag the infield turf after seeding in the 10 step turf maintenance program. This works the seed and topdressing together and down to the soil. Keep the top 2 inches of topsoil moist for the seedlings.
 5. When seeding a larger area, till in topsoil/compost, roll flat, lightly rake to scarify, spread seed, lightly rake, roll flat, fertilize, and then start a watering program. Keep the seeds moist. Once they germinate and sprout you can cut back on watering a bit.
 6. Overseed rate is 6 to 8 pounds per thousand square feet. One 50 pound bag is good for a high school size infield. One 50 pound bag can overseed 2 little league infields.
 7. Apply seed to new areas at double the rate as overseeding.
Mistakes to avoid
 1. Don't just lay the seed on top of bare spots. It will float to the edges when you water or the birds will eat it. Either way you still have a bare spot.
 2. Find the best lawn in your neighborhood. Quite often the maintenance and growing practice there is NOT what you'd do for a sports field. You not only want your turf to look nice, but it needs to stand up to competitive play. Home lawns rarely are the same as a sports field.
bag of fescue grass seed
50 lb bag of blue/fescue
for the outfield area
grass seed up close
blue/fescue up close
bag of rye grass seed
50 lb bag of sports turf
80/20 blue rye
thin turf to overseed
thin area that is
raking top soil before seeding
raking the top soil and
compost smooth before
putting out seed and
rolling it
rolling newly seeded area
rolling a newly seeded
area at second base
Baseball Field Products
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Transference And Counter Transference
you were asked to analyze the role of transference and counter-transference in relation to psychodynamic/relational therapy approaches, specifically the Interpersonal Psychotherapy approach, to help you better understand the role of, and its use in therapy.
For this Assignment, you will continue to explore a more depth level understanding of, further exploring the theoretical underpinnings as well as the associated interventions that might be used within an interpersonal psychotherapy approach, specifically addressing.
To prepare for this Assignment:
· Review Learning Resources related to transference and countertransference
For this Assignment:
Write a 3- to 5- page paper (not including title and reference pages):
· Explain interpersonal psychotherapy's theoretical underpinnings regarding and its use in therapy.
· Explain the types of interventions from an interpersonal psychotherapy approach that are being used to address in therapy.
 Provide examples from the Learning Resources to support your explanations.
Use Full APA citations
What Students Are Saying About Us


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Summary and Info
Clinical Applications for Motor Control is a comprehensive text that will help bridge the gap between motor control/motor learning research and practical clinical applications. Written by a variety of physical therapists with a broad range of clinical expertise areas such as neurophysiology, biomechanics, and human motor control, this text is rich in a multitude of topics. The case-study format that is applied throughout the text amplifies the principles of motor control research and demonstrates the transfer of information from research studies to clinical settings. Incorporated throughout Clinical Applications for Motor Control are the concepts and language of the Guide to Physical Therapist Practice. The text begins with an introductory and historical review of traditional neurophysiologic treatment approaches and new theoretical alternatives. This comprehensive review establishes a foundation for the remaining chapters that address topics such as motor control, learning and development; musculoskeletal considerations; sensory and cognitive systems underlying the production and control of movement; disorders of the control of limb movement; and gait. Five case studies representing common clinical problems are included throughout the text to facilitate clinical problem solving. This innovative style is geared towards the student who has limited clinical experience, while also serving as a useful reference for the practicing clinician.


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used to lay the groundwork for a sustainable apiary of European Honeybees to use for research. There are currently four beehives located at the Stockton Arboretum. They were installed on March 30, 2013 and the bees are currently in the process of building honey comb and starting their first brood cycle. This poster presentation documents our experience in establishing the apiary at Stockton, and we hope that it will encourage current and future students as well as faculty to get involved with research using this new resource on campus.
33. Molecular Identification and Phylogenetic Analysis of Aquifer Bacteria
Perez, Michelle; Siconolfi, Dominick; and York, Karen
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey utilizes a geothermal energy storage system for heating and cooling the academic buildings. After ten years of operation, an increase in the temperature of the aquifers was observed because more heat was deposited underground than extracted. To explore the impact of the temperature increase on aquifer microbes, aquifer samples were collected from the monitoring well with the greatest temperature increase. Preliminary identification of microbes using the 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequence identified seven bacteria isolates as being related to bacteria of the genus Acidovorax. This study describes further characterization of those bacteria using the single copy protein encoding gene lepA and focuses on the isolates Cu 7, Cu 10, and Cu 24. Using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the lepA gene was amplified from chromosomal DNA, cloned into a pGEM-T Easy plasmid, and transferred into E. coli. DNA sequences of the recombinant plasmids were determined using automated DNA sequencing. These DNA sequences were compared to known bacterial sequences in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database using the BLAST program (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool). The sequences obtained from Cu 7 lepA did not share a 100% similarity with any of sequences in the NCBI database, indicating that lepA from this bacteria has been sequenced for the first time. To determine the phylogenetic relationship between CU 7, other aquifer bacteria, and other bacteria in the NCBI database, a phylogenetic tree was constructed. These results indicate that the lepA sequence obtained for Cu 7 was distinct from other aquifer isolates and from all bacteria in the NCBI database.
34. Use of Wavelets to Analyze Long Term Temperature Data and Short Term Atmospheric Phenomena
Prouty, Roy; and Allen, Jeniffer
Faculty Advisor: Trout, Joseph
An atmospheric front can be defined as a sloping zone of pronounced fluctuation in thermal, moisture, and/or wind fields present in the atmosphere. These transition zones (fronts) can be characterized by a strong, horizontal temperature gradient. To examine long term trends in the number and magnitude of these transition zones, the frequency, intensity and shape must be analyzed. When performing this analysis on temperature records, otherwise evident transition zones may be obscured by the more persistent diurnal and seasonal fluctuations in temperature. Where Fourier Analysis reveals the long term, very persistent tendencies of a signal, utilizing the compact, scalable nature of wavelets allows us to reveal both the long and short term transitions present in temperature fields, allowing us to examine the long term trends.
35. Retrospective analysis of Horseshoe Crab (Limulus polyphemus) egg density data from New Jersey beaches of Delaware Bay
Raymond, Eric; and Santoro, Michael
Faculty Advisor: Hernandez, Daniel
Horseshoe crabs are an important species: their blood is utilized as the only FDA-approved test of all injectable drugs for bacterial contamination and their eggs are a vital food source for migrating shorebirds, including the State-endangered Red Knot (Calidris canutus). Delaware Bay is the last major Spring migratory stopover for Knots traveling between Tierra del Fuego and the Arctic breeding grounds. It is here that the Horseshoe crab egg resource provides a vital fuel source to birds during the final leg of their annual migration. The purpose of this project was to analyze an eight-year egg density dataset in order to parse out egg availability trends for individual beaches, rather than the statewide index currently in use. Samples of horseshoe crab eggs were collected each spring using the USGS "core method" (the current standard procedure for Horseshoe Crab egg collection). Eggs in the samples were enumerated to produce density data (eggs/m^2) for a total of 12 beaches along Delaware Bay from 2005 to 2012. During this time period, nine of the beaches, including: Reeds, Kimbles, Cape Shore, East Point, Villas, Highs, Sunray, Pierces and Cooks all showed a decrease in their egg densities. Two beaches, Moores and Fortescue, showed an increase in their egg densities. Finally, the egg density for Gandys beach showed no trend. The negative trends observed at the majority of the beaches may be due to a number of factors including: excessive non-sustainable harvesting of horseshoe crabs, natural erosion of Bay beaches and increasing frequency and severity of storms, due to climate change. These data suggest that more aggressive measures need to be taken in managing Horseshoe crabs and spawning habitat in order for the population to stabilize and recover. An increase in population size should therefore lead to a proportional increase in eggs available to the birds on Bay beaches.
36. Development of a parallel genetic algorithm framework to bridge the gap between general purpose programming and high performance algorithms and computation
Computational Science Program, MSCP
This framework enables general purpose programmers using the JAVA programming language to implement parallel genetic algorithms that can leverage the high compute capacity of graphics processors using the CUDA programming language (Compute Unified Device Architecture by NVidia). This project allows for the development and re‐use of several common genetic algorithm operators including selection, mutation, and crossover.
37. Limiting Rheumatoid arthritis through the understanding and blockade of PI3K protein
Santaromita, Kim; Benjamin III, Earl; and Benjamin, Ellis
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that often causes inflammation of the synovial joints resulting in severe pain, bone erosion, and joint deformity which affects more than 2 million Americans. Current treatments for RA are based on anti-inflammatory treatments including steroids, non-steroidial anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs), immunosuppressants, and TNF-alpha inhibitors. Side effects of current treatments can lead to heart problems, liver and kidney damage, bone marrow suppression, and severe lung infections. Improved pharmaceutical targeting of inflammatory proteins such as phosphphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) should yield drugs with increased efficacy and decreased side effects. This research sought to understand the pharmaceutical blockade of the PI3K kinase functionality to inhibit its function in the inflammatory pathway. 16 crystal structures of the tyrosine kinase of the PI3K protein were docked using IGEMDock to FDA, Alkaloids, Lactams, Lactones, Flavinoids, Sulfanilamide, Cyclic Imides, and NSAIDs drugs to determine structural correlation for the most effective binders. Structural similarities were determined with IGEMDock and vROCS and partition coefficient was determined using DRAGON program. This data found a cluster of approximately 10 drugs to preferentially bind to the PI3K kinase for use as targeted anti-inflammatory treatments.
38. Chemical Analysis of Seawater in an Anthropogenic Depression in Bass River
Sirak, Laura; Blood, Amy; Friedman, Duane; and Grguric, Gordan
An analysis of chemical parameters in a 12 m deep anthropogenic depression in Bass River was performed. Our data indicate a continuous increase in salinity with depth, starting from 15 ppt at the surface and continuing to 21 ppt at the bottom. The water column exhibits continuously decreasing dissolved oxygen concentrations, becoming anoxic below 7 m. Redox potential values show a similar drop, becoming negative soon after the onset of anoxia. These negative values indicate reduction of sulfate, which was verified by a drop in the sulfate concentration at deeper depths. The concentrations of silica, phosphate, and total alkalinity show a significant increase toward the bottom of the water column. Correlations of all these parameters to each other had coefficients of 0.80 or higher. This suggests the same source of these chemical species, which is likely sand and decomposition of organic matter, both coming from the sediments. Fluxes of these chemical species into the water column give this basin a distinct chemical signature.
39. A Study of Recombinant Frequencies in Sordaria fimicola With Mutant Spore Types
Sullivan, Alexis; Farrell, Douglas; and Hoang, Thien
Faculty Advisor: Barbato, Guy
In this experiment, two parental populations of Sordaria fimicola that contained mutant spore color genes, gray (ggt+t+) and tan (g+g+tt), were crossed under laboratory conditions to determine a linkage between the genes. Sordaria fimicola exists primarily in a haploid state with the only diploid pore being the zygote produced when the mycelia merge. The diploid zygote undergoes meiosis to produce ascospores. Sordaria fimicola are commonly used to demonstrate crossing over in a haploid organism. By using a dihybrid cross, ascospores can have the following phenotypes and genotypes, respectively: black (g+t+), tan (g+t), gray (gt+), and colorless or clear (gt). The mutant


A bluffers guide to non-linear pedagogy
Learning within PE can be seen as a non-linear process. Skill Acquisition development, which should be at the heart of PE to help improve children's technical competency, along with their physical and social development, is not linear. Especially when that child is going through the trials and tribulations of puberty. Traditional practices that promote an ideal model movement pattern for a certain task, or isolated technical practice to then implement in a dynamic activity such as team sports, might not be the best or only approach. In a recent book, Nonlinear Pedagogy in Skill Acquisition, Jia Yi Chow, Keith Davids, Chris Button and Ian Renshaw, put forward an attractive alternative. This post is an attempt to clarify my emerging knowledge and understanding of non-linear pedagogy and how it might be useful to explore as a rationale to certain teaching approaches within physical education.
Non-linear pedagogy is a learner-centered approach to skill acquisition. An umbrella term for teaching and coaching that uses task and environment design to develop skill acquisition. That advocates for individualised learning, even in team sports. It is through exploration, practice and play that both movement co-ordination solutions and decision making can be learnt and enhanced, by focusing on the nature of specific learner-environment interactions. If human movement systems are considered as non-linear dynamical systems, then ecological psychology and dynamical systems theory attempts to explain how human behaviour is information driven.
Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 14.56.04
Perception, action, intentions and behaviour are therefore seen to be highly integrated with one another. The combination of these two ideas provides a theoretical framework for ecological dynamics as a rationale for skill acquisition, especially, but not solely, in a team sports context.
Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 15.01.11
Ecological Dynamics considers both individual performers and sports teams as complex adaptive systems (systems that are composed of two or more interacting components) that can self organise. It sees each individual performer as having their own individual set of characteristics, which in turn interact with the information from a dynamic or continuous environment. Two key terms within Ecological Dynamics are:
Screen Shot 2016-02-18 at 15.02.48
Not all affordances are equal for individuals. Some are more attractive than others. This is due to the capabilities of the individual to act on the possibilities the environment offers. Perceiving the environment in those terms provides the participant with direct information about what it is they are supposed to do. Affordances along with effectivities offer invitations for the individual to act upon.
Therefore a non-linear pedagogy promotes the practice of creating affordances to act on, through task design and manipulating the constraints of the environment that allow for both the individual and the team to develop. It requires an intimate knowledge, by the teacher, of both the activity and of the participants involved. It emphasises that behaviour is emergent. By shaping the relevant constraints (and therefore information provided), and by challenging the learning experience, that functional movement solutions can occur and will be learnt. Non-linear pedagogy also suggests that practice task constraints should be designed to stimulate the constraints of the actual performance environment.
In the context of a dynamic sporting environment, you want children to be able to learn to perceive that environment, so they have some chance at learning which movements they can start to co-ordinate or control in response to those perceived task demands. If we as PE Teachers don't expose them to an environment or a situation that that creates information, then its not there to be learnt. We want to try to develop dynamic responsive behaviours. I think we instinctively know that many of the skills for sports can be taught through a games approach, that there needs to be variability in practice and by playing ensures that motivation and engagement in children can be kept high. What we don't always know is the rationale why this might be the case.
Whilst a non-linear pedagogy promotes the practice of constraints manipulation, through a constraints led approach, it also has some implications for games based approaches used with physical education. Teaching Games for Understanding or Games Sense aren't necessarily true non-linear pedagogical approaches, elements of constraint manipulation can be used to help develop skill acquisition through modified games.
So is non-linear pedagogy and constraints led approach a silver bullet for PE teachers? I think we need to probably be more pragmatic than that, and realise traditional practices, such as explicit instruction and isolated technical practices still have a place within our teaching toolkit, but we need to start questioning why we use them. Are we able to justify the learning processes and the outcomes that underpin our teaching methods? Clearly understanding why we do something as PE Teachers, allows us better to reflect on the when,where and for whom. Having more knowledge and a clearer understanding means we can begin to ask better questions. It is through better questions we can begin to challenge our practices and to make adjustments to refine and improve them, specifically to focus on teaching and learning.
Obviously my thinking on this topic is still very early on it's evolution. Any feedback, clarifications or pointing out anY misconceptions of my understanding would be most helpful.
Further information:
Dynamics of skill acquisition – a constraints led approach by Davids, Button and Bennett
Non-linear pedagogy in skill acquisition by Chow, Davids, Button and Renshaw
14C – Interview with Keith Davids, Sheffield Hallam University, Constraints-Led Approach to Skill Acquisition
18D – Interview with Duarte Araujo, University of Lisbon, Portugal, Ecological Dynamics in Sport
20C – The Ecological Approach to Perception-Action & Implications for Skill Acquisition
Webinars/Google Hangouts
Ecological Psychology
The non-linear journey
Blog Posts
7 Principles of a Nonlinear Pedagogy
An Aussie, a Scotsman and a Kiwi walk into a hangout
The ecological approach to sporting performance
Do we really know how to utilise the constraints led approach?
From practice sessions to the real match — expert insights into transfer & learning
What is being taught in Senior PE? A reflection on Cognitive "Information Processing" and Ecological "Dynamic Systems" skill acquisition theories
What is skill development?
Research Articles
Quantifying the affordances for throwing for distance and accuracy
17 thoughts on "A bluffers guide to non-linear pedagogy
 1. I think this explains a lot if I can actually wrap my head around what I think it means. Right now I need to do some more reading, clarify the terms, look for ways to bring the theoretical back down to my gym full of 1st, 2nd & 5th graders. but honestly, this *feels* helpful. The first non-linear post was quite edifying and this makes me (kinda) want to get clearer on how this perspective might serve me and my colleagues as we struggle through our next round of curriculum revision. Thanks for doing this work!
 1. Hi Sherrie. I'm still where you are at, if I'm honest, in my understanding. I've developed a preference for models based approaches in my teaching, but the issue I had with it was that skill acquisition wasn't fully supported. This gives a clear theoretical under pinning that skill acquisition *may* develop through these types of approaches. However I am aware that perhaps my liking and interest in NLP is because I was looking for evidence to back up my beliefs. What I have clearly developed, through this process of reading and writing, is that of patience. Patience with myself and patience with my students. This shift in thinking has been a very important for me to re-kickstart my development as a PE teacher, if i am to stay in the classroom for the rest of my career. Let me know if you gain enlightenment….I would be very grateful to hear your thoughts and progress in the future. Good luck.
 Liked by 2 people
 2. Great post, thanks for making me think.
 My argument for games based approaches to skill acquisition as always been that students need context for when, why and how a skill is required and they can then develop their own system of executing that skill that works for them (with, at times, the guidance of a teacher). That therefore shifts the focus of the teacher to present learning environments that expose students to situations and challenges that occur in games so the student has the opportunity to understand their 'best response' or can begin to understand what alternative responses might be available and what skill development they might require to be able to execute their response.
 It seems that NLP would be an argument for this thinking, but am I correct in my reading of that? Or just hearing what I want to hear?
 1. Hi James in short the answer is yes. What non-linear pedagogy is suggesting is that the one size all mentality of traditional teaching in PE and School Sport needs to be discarded, and prescriptive instructions should be replaced where appropriate with more exploratory informational constraints. Shane Pill has done quite a bit of work at looking at this and a games based approach. Check his work out in the Acpher conference paper The Game Sense approach as explicit teaching and deliberate practice
 3. Excellent read as always. Thanks for sharing. With regards to this statement, "traditional practices, such as explicit instruction and isolated technical practices still have a place within our teaching toolkit, but we need to start questioning why we use them." My question is, what are your thoughts on why there is still a place for explicit instruction and isolated technical practices?
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The modern age has been chastised to a great degree for the distance it has put between itself and the consumption of literature. As a Cultural Centre in Pune we can say with confidence that the readership of books and the number of people who actually take an active interest in reading books, periodicals, newspapers, magazines or journals has gone down.
With the advent of the internet, the proliferation of visual media and entertainment in general being so widespread, people have almost forgotten the joy of reading. But let us take one small step back and try to realize the root of this phenomenon. And to do that we must approach it by the concept which is at its core. Literature!
What is literature?
For the highbrow intellectual literature is indulgence in a higher art form. Just putting words onto paper does not constitute or qualify the work as literature. It needs to be canonical or representative of an entire generation in regards to poetry, prose or drama.
But simply put, literature is a representation of the culture and tradition of human languages and how people use them to communicate. By virtue of it being a concept that evolves and changes with time, the people using it and its context, it is difficult to explain.
So in layman terms, literature is a body of written works. Specifically it is writing that is considered to be an art form deemed to have artistic or intellectual value. Literature, in regards to written works is often books that deploy language in ways that differ from the ordinary usage of language.
Now for the main topic of our discussion, which is the importance of literature and how does it touch our lives?
1. Our World View
First and foremost, literature opens our eyes and makes us see more than just the obvious. It helps us realize the wide world outside, surrounding us. It changes our perspective about things, people and events. It broadens the horizon of our minds and shapes our world view. With this, we begin to learn, ask questions, and build our intuitions and instincts. We expand our minds.
2. Critical Thinking
Many of us learn what critical thinking is in our language classes. When we read, we learn to look between the lines. We are taught to find symbols, make connections, find themes and learn about characters. Consuming literature expands these skills, and we begin to look at texts with a larger sense of detail and depth and realize the importance of hidden meanings.
Then there is the aspect of the relationship with the past. This is perhaps the most critical functions of literature. History and literature are entwined with each other. History is not just about power struggles, wars, names, and dates. It is about people who are products of their time, with their own lives. Today the world is nothing like it was in the last century or the one before that; people have changed largely. We ourselves are an arts and literature space and we conduct regular monthly Storytelling Events in Pune. That in itself is a way to stay connected with our past because literature also encompasses storytelling. Without literature, we would not know about our past, the people who came before and walked on the same ground as us. Literature preserves this link, this bond between us and the past. Without it, we would be lost.
4. Acceptance and Empathy
Reading about history, anthropology, or religious studies provides a method of learning about cultures and beliefs other than our own. It allows you to understand experience and empathize with people, cultures and places that are different than our own. One could get a closer look at the lives of others without even being present physically in said situation. We get a view of the inside looking out, a personal view and insight into the minds and reasoning of someone else. We can learn, understand, and appreciate it.
5. Better writing skills
How can one expect to become a better writer without being a voracious reader? If writing is the end product then reading must be the raw material. It is fodder for the mind. When you open a book, when your eyes read the words and you take in its contents, do you ask yourself: How did this person imagine and write this? Well, many of those authors, poets, or playwrights used literature to expand their writing. Critical theory is a field of literature where one dissects works of classical and contemporary literature in a bid to improve one selves understanding about the art and skill of writing well.
6. The Human Condition
All literature, whether those are poems, essays, novels, or short stories, helps us address human nature. The human condition is a constant need for growth, our doubts and fears of success and failure, the need for company be it friends or family, our trials and tribulations, the goodness of compassion and empathy, the need to be loved and to love back in return, wanting to trust people around us, or the realization of imperfection. Human beings are capable of so much emotion and all of that reflects in our literature. Literature is that outlet. Literature is humankind expressing itself in the most honest way. It addresses our undeniable pathological need to share. We need literature in order to connect with our own humanity.
There's much more to literature than one could possibly hope to contain within a blog post. It is hundreds and hundreds of years of human knowledge, craftsmanship and pure unbridled creativity. Having said all that, if you are reading this; it only goes to say that there is still hope. But what is more important is to support spaces that encourage reading. Spaces like RAAH. We house a completely equipped and well stocked library that boasts of a variety of titles and seminal works across all genres. Look us up online to check out any other Upcoming Culture Activities in Pune that you might be interested in.


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This Developer Guide provides information on using Aspose.Words in a variety of practical scenarios. Its articles provide suggestions and tips that will help using specific features, achieve a certain document appearance or make a use case possible.
To learn more about Aspose.Words features, select the corresponding section:
- "Loading, Saving and Converting" – provides information about different ways to load or save documents and format-specific features useful for converting a document from one format to another.
- "Rendering" – provides information on how to get a paginated representation from a document in flow-layout page format.
- "Mail Merge and Reporting" – provides information about generating documents, such as reports, catalogs, inventories, and invoices, from templates with mail merge fields.
- "LINQ Reporting Engine" – provides information about building reports using an extended set of reporting features.
- "Printing a Document Programmatically or Using Dialogs" – provides information on how to print a document in various ways and fine-tune the print operation to implement your custom logic.
- "Programming with Documents" – provides information on how to programmatically create, modify, and manage documents including changing both their content and visual appearance.
For a detailed description of classes, methods, and properties refer to the Aspose.Words for.NET API Reference section.


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DO PARTNERS CARE ABOUT THEIR MUTUAL LOCATION? Spatial awareness in virtual environments.
This paper reports on four experimental studies concerning regard to how people use space so as to solve problems collaboratively in virtual environments. Prior to presenting the results, it summarizes the wide range of literature concerning social uses of spatiality in human interactions. The experiments we conducted revealed that virtual space modifies and improves collaborative processes such as division of labor, grounding, communication, coordination, as well as the performance to the task. It concludes by proposing Computer Supported Collaborative Work practitioners? ideas about how to use these results in order to design more effective and more adapted environments.


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|Title:||ETYMO - An Interpreter to Simulate Historical Sound Change|
|Description:||ETYMO is an IBM-compatible program which simulates regular historical sound change. ETYMO works as an interpreter which first reads a set of linguistical rules that describe the diachronical evolution of a language. It then applies those rules to ancestor words (which can be single words or corpora containing an unlimited number of words) and calculates its descendency line or lines (the program can handle ''single'' and ''multiple'' evolutions - in the latter case, the different possibilities are represented in an evolution tree). For each evolution step, ETYMO can give detailed information about the transformation. All evolutions can be saved and printed out. When used for corpus calculations, ETYMO can give statistical information about the regularity of the evolution. A set of linguistical rules describing the evolution from latin to spanish is available.
The program has been developped as a diploma work (''ETYMO - un interpr?teur linguistique dans le domaine de la linguistique diachronique. Avec une application? l'?volution du latin? l'espagnol'') at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).
The program, it's source code, the linguistical data (a corpus with 600 spanish words) and the written diploma work can be downloaded a _URL_


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Design and Implementation of VOD Database System
A database is an organized collection of data and the database data collection with DBMS is called a database system. A numerous database systems have been developed. In the authors' previous paper, they have introduced their design of database system for a VOD system. Now-a-days computing power of mobile terminals is utterly astonishing and playing video on them became popular. So, this paper extends the previous paper to mobile VOD and further discusses implementation of the design.


Should students have to pay to play sports or extra curricular activities?
November 05, 2008|By EVAN SAWYER
North Star
Well, I have to admit, this is an easy one. The answer is no. What would be the point in making students pay? Not only would that lessen the number of students that would participate in the sports or activities, but it would be a disadvantage to the students whose families don't have a decent income.
Many high school students have jobs to supplement their social events. It would truly be a hardship for students to have to work even more hours to supplement their participation in sports. Something would have to give, either activities with friends or high school sports.
In this day and age, students are trying to pay for gas, go to the movies and do other fun activities with their friends that cost money.
Paying just to play in sports or other school related activities would lessen students' time to get together with friends. This would precipitate a decline in our social communication with other people.
So, when asked if students should have to pay to be in sports or activities, I firmly believe that the answer is no.
I do not feel that it is necessary for students to be made to "pay to play." While I understand that sometimes the school district may not be able to cover all funds, how can they expect the students to be able to fit the bill?
Many students play sports for the fact that it is a way to be involved at no cost. Unlike many other community activities, school associated sports are a free way for students to have fun and play a sport they enjoy. Another fact not being considered is that money is already being put forth by the students and their families. Practice clothing, shoes, and transportation are just a few of the considerations that already require money to be put forth by the student and his or her family.
Paying to play would rob some students of the opportunity to be involved in school athletics. Some can not afford the extra cost it would require to play the sports.
There is no reason that makes it absolutely necessary to charge students to play sports.
Whether or not students should have to pay to take part in sports or other school activities is a question that Rockwood has been forced to deal with over the past year. When a tax referendum failed to pass this spring, parents, faculty, and community members banded together for fundraising that kept sports and activities free. For many students, this was a great relief because participation in their respective activities would have been impossible due to the high costs.
However, paying to play might not always be bad, if the cost is not too great. If students had to contribute monetarily toward the activities in which they are involved, it would emphasize that participation in extracurriculars is a privilege, not an automatic right. More students would gain respect for the programs and opportunities that schools provide.
Conemaugh Township
If I had to pay to participate in all of my extracurricular activities, I would be completely broke. The thought of actually charging students to become involved in their school seems utterly ridiculous to me.
I have trouble understanding the point of making students pay to participate. Clubs and sports are certainly able to get the money they need through fundraisers and support by the community. Why should students have to pay from their own pockets to fund their clubs?
Of course, there are certain clubs and organizations in which members are expected to pay dues; although, a student who is just trying to get the most out of his high school years should not be expected to make financial investments in his clubs, especially if that student attends a public school.
Some students may even be forced into making tough decisions, such as deciding which activity to join if they cannot afford to join every club they wish. If this is not an example of financial-status-discrimination, then I do not know what is.
As a teenager, I sometimes hear my elders complain about some students not being involved in school. If schools decided to charge students to participate in activities, this complaint would certainly be heard more often, in addition to robbing students of their rights to freely pursue any extracurricular activity throughout their high school career.
My mother always said, "Money doesn't grow on trees." I strongly agree with that statement. Especially, as a high school student with a minimum wage job, I understand that sports and extracurricular activities do have expenses. Some scholars have their parents pay for their activity of choice. This is fine and dandy, but some participants come from low income families who can't afford excessive expenses such as extracurricular activities. Fundraising is the key to success.
Daily American Articles


What Are Twilio Products?
The newest and the most popular communication platform are Twilio. What are Twilio products you might ask? Twilio is a voice and messaging application provided by Twilio Communications, a company that is part of the acquisition of Citibank. It is a programmable device that is capable of integrating with web cams, VoIP phones, and computer applications to provide text and audio messaging services. How can this help me? Since Twilio is an instant messaging (IM) applications, it is possible for a business owner to send text messages and voice messages from his computer to an employee, client, or visitor of his company even if the latter is not online.
Can you imagine how much better your customer and sales would be with a programmable voice and messaging device like Twilio? Through Twilio, it is now possible for clients, employees, and visitors to receive text messages and voice messages wherever they are. This eliminates the need to have their computers on all the time. With the advent of these kinds of communication programs and technologies, there has been a dramatic increase in the productivity of companies as well as individual entrepreneurs. In other words, people can now do their jobs from the comfort of their homes and offices.
Get all WordPress SMS Twilio addons for -85% OFF
One of the advantages of using a programmable voice and messaging device like Twilio is that it allows one person to coordinate with several people, whether they are in the same office, on a phone conference call, or in the same location through their personal computers. Furthermore, by using a twilio product, an entrepreneur will be able to supervise each and every operation from anywhere in the world. Imagine being able to attend a meeting while in New York or Hong Kong!
A voice over IP (VOIP) system refers to any type of telephone transmission that uses broadband Internet to allow voice calls to be made and received. The system can be found as part of a telephone system. In addition, some systems also incorporate video and web conferencing capabilities. It uses the same basic technologies as other types of broadband Internet telephony. However, the voice communication component is completely separate from the normal telephone function. There is no physical connection between the product and the Internet.
A VOIP system consists of three primary components, a router, a switch, and a gateway. The router enables the user to configure an IP-based phone using a computer or a smartphone. The switch connects the phone to the proper port on the router, and the gateway takes the voice signals and translates them into something that the computer or the smartphone can understand. Lastly, the gateway enables the user to dial a phone number or use a traditional handset.
What are Twilio products? The company has been in the business of selling internet phone service for the last several years, and they have developed several different products that enable their customers to use their phones even when they are on the road. Their base system, called Spice, is relatively inexpensive. The Twilio mobile phone service goes beyond voice calling though, and the company offers internet access through a mobile contract and the availability of prepaid and postpaid minutes on their plans.
How do Twilio phones work? A typical Twilio phone will have preinstalled software that enables it to make outgoing VoIP calls through the use of broadband Internet. The software works with the existing analog hardware in phones to create a virtual phone number that can be called from a computer or other device. The device then interprets the call and translates the sound and data into words or codes that the caller can understand. The converted sound and data are then transmitted to the IP address of the recipient so that he or she can then use the phone as normal.
What are Twilio phones good for? They are ideal for use in places where phone reception may be poor, or the infrastructure is not as high-speed or robust as you would like. Because the company is well known for making excellent phones that are affordable, they are perfect for people who need an alternative to traditional cell phones. Additionally, if you happen to live in an area that does not have a great amount of available cell phone minutes, you can always use your Twilio phone there instead. As long as the signal is good, you can rest easy knowing that your calls are in good hands.
Twilio Products
 - Twilio Flex
 The Cloud Contact Center Platform
 - Marketing Campaigns
 UI-based email-marketing tool
 - Twilio Frontline Beta
 Mobile app for employees to build customer relationships
 - Programmable SMS
 Send and receive text messages
 - Programmable Voice
 Make, receive, and monitor calls
 - Twilio SendGrid Email APINew
 Send and receive emails
 - Programmable Chat
 Add chat to any app or website
 - Programmable Video
 Build real-time video and HD audio applications
 - Programmable Fax
 Send and receive faxes
 - Twilio API for WhatsApp
 - Reach users around the world on the most popular messaging app


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LEARN ABOUT AND ENROLL IN THE "DRINKERS OF THE WIND" PERFORMANCE AWARD PROGRAM HERE
Without immediate intervention, we could lose the Desert Arabian horse within the next generation
- The Desert Arabian horse is one of the oldest of breeds, developed by the Bedouin who bred them pure for thousands of years.
- The Desert Arabian horse provided the foundation stock to create almost all other light breeds of horse.
- Fewer than 8 percent of the 400,000 modern Arabian horses registered worldwide descend exclusively from the original Bedouin horse: these are the last Desert Arabian horses.
- New births of Desert Arabian horses have declined over 60 percent in the past decade; fewer than 800 fillies were born worldwide in 2010 – to mares that average 18 years of age.
Once lost, this precious genetic pool can never be restored. Only immediate intervention can save this breeding population for the next generation.
You can help.
TRACK THE NUMBERS:
Total US Purebred registrations: 2012: 3653 (through December; down 7% from 2011) 2011: 3939 2010: 4912 2009: 5544
Total US registered Desert Arabian foals born in:
2011: _PHONE_: _PHONE_: 741 Numbers for all years are updated as additional horses are registered.
|The Institute estimates that fewer than 1500 Desert Arabians are foaled worldwide each year. Most are born in North America, Egypt, Germany, Syria, and the Gulf states.|


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Birmingham's residents are from a wide range of national, ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The chart below shows that the largest ethnic group in Birmingham was White British with 570,217 (53.1%). This is down from 2001 (65.6%) and lower than the average in England (79.8%).
Other large groups include Pakistani (144,627, 13.5%) and Indian (64,621, 6.0%) which have grown since 2001, while people defining themselves as Black Caribbean (47,641, 4.4%) have declined.
- Overseas migrants arriving between the 1950s and 1980s were mainly from southern India and the Caribbean. More recent trends see people arriving from many different parts of the world, including Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
- 238,313 Birmingham residents were born outside the UK. Of these around 45% arrived during the last decade.
- The Census shows that most people (86%), regardless of ethnicity, consider themselves to be British.
- 46.1% of residents said they were Christian, 21.8% Muslim and 19.3% no religion.
See the documents below for more details.
Last Updated : 26th March 2013


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A major reason there has been so little progress in ending gender inequality is the fact that few men are actively working to end it. In Beyond Bias: The PATH to End Gender Inequality at Work, a new book I wrote with my husband, Alton Harris, we delve into this problem. We conclude that, without more men in the game, half of the team remains on the sidelines — and the often more powerful and better-resourced half at that. So why are so many men AWOL?
The lack of men working to end gender inequality is both surprising and explainable. On the one hand, surprising: A national survey from Equimundo, found that two-thirds of men believe that women face "major barriers" that men don't in order to advance in their chosen professions, and 60 percent of men support having more women in positions of leadership in their workplaces. A Pew Research survey similarly found that almost half of the men in the United States (49 percent) believe that women and men should have equal rights; 58 percent of these men believe that society has different expectations of women and men; and 55 percent of them believe there are not enough women in positions of leadership and power. These findings are consistent with a recent national survey of 2,000 men conducted by The Coven, a self-described "network of shared workspaces designed for radical changemakers." The Coven survey found that 68 percent of men think "it is important to address diversity equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) in the workplace." Among these male supporters of DEIJ, 75 percent take time to educate themselves about DEIJ-related issues on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. And 70 percent have attended DEIJ-related workshops, sessions, or committees.
On the other hand, however, both we and The Coven have found that men who believe in gender equality have serious reservations about actually working to accomplish it. We identify in Beyond Bias five principal reasons for this reluctance and how this reluctance can be overcome:
- Not their fight. Men do not think that gender equality will make their lives better and, as a result, they don't feel that it is their fight. To change these attitudes, leaders need to shift the focus of DEI initiatives away from the advancement of women to building fair, equal, and inclusive workplace experiences for everyone. By framing the DEI objective as establishing equal and equitable workplaces, it should become readily apparent to men that they have as much to gain from gender equality as women. Therefore, it is their fight too.
- Backlash. Men fear backlash if they actively advocate for gender equality. This fear is driven by negative stereotypes about men who support women's advancement. The solution is for men to support each other in their DEI efforts and ensure that everyone has detailed information about the serious discriminatory consequences of workplace inequality for everyone. The more knowledge men have about the concrete, adverse consequences of workplace inequality, the more willing they are to ignore backlash.
- Don't know what to say or do. Men worry that if they get involved in DEI initiatives, they will say or do the wrong thing and be thought of as unenlightened, ignorant, or worse. To make progress, both women and men must be willing to enter into non-defensive, blame-free conversations. Such conversations can be tricky because one side or the other can so easily be misunderstood. If women and men are patient and willing to give each other the benefit of the doubt, such conversations will help bring more men into the fight for gender equality.
- Too busy. Men can feel as if they are too busy to spend time on an effort that doesn't seem to have a personal payoff for them. Most of these men, however, can come to realize that the time required to play an important part is worthwhile, given the real benefits of successful DEI initiatives.
- Don't know how to be helpful. Men are often unsure about how, where, and when they should join the fight for gender equality. The Coven focuses on this concern in its study, where it found that many men are confused and anxious about DEI efforts. They don't know where or how to apply themselves or how they can be helpful. They want to know what actions would be welcomed, and that they will not be criticized if they misspeak or make missteps. They're looking for "direction and opportunities to participate in a judgement-free zone." In short, they seek clear, specific instructions about the role they can and should play in DEI efforts.
The first thing men need to do is take steps to ensure that all their colleagues enjoy positive workplace experiences. They must be prepared to step in to prevent exclusionary behavior of all sorts: incivility, rudeness, microaggressions, disregard, dismissal, exclusive networking, assumed superiority or entitlement, harassment, intimidation and bullying. A workplace free of exclusionary behavior is inclusive, welcoming and supportive. It is an environment in which all people can thrive without regard to their social identity or personal characteristics.
The second thing men need to do is ensure that the processes by which personnel management decisions are made are fair, objective and transparent. Structures and practices need to be designed to insulate personnel decisions from the stereotypes and unconscious biases of decision-makers. In other words, subjective discretion must be taken out of personnel decisions.
Finally, men need to be on guard against discriminatory processes in the selection of those who are to be given management training, leadership development opportunities, career-enhancing experiences and complete, honest and action-oriented feedback. For example, men need to mentor women just as frequently as they mentor other men, and they need to give women just as much support and encouragement as they give to other men. This is a critical and often overlooked aspect of workplace inequality, and it is one that men are in a unique position to address.
When men are concerned that they don't know how to get involved in DEI efforts, they simply need to be reminded of the positive, proactive steps they can take.
Read the full article here