Georgia Southern University

This project explores preservice science teachers’ perceptions of global science learning in a content-focused integrated science undergraduate required course for elementary education majors. Before this year, this course focused on place-based curricula emphasizing local, rural ecosystems as most students teach within our state school system. To add a global perspective, we addressed the United Nations Sustainability Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitization for 8 weeks. Our findings indicate that before this course, students had never considered water resources from a global perspective and had a limited understanding of local water quality. Even with this, student learning activities, student self-reflection, and our personal reflections did capture a slight positive movement on the four domains of global competence. We conclude the chapter with ways our innovation could be adapted better to support preservice elementary teachers’ global competence development.

This chapter explores rural, southeastern US secondary science teachers’ perceptions of global science learning and their preparation to teach an internationalized science curriculum. Our action research project was implemented in a required online science methods course as part of an initial certification Master of Arts in Teaching program. We designed a 6-week, asynchronous learning module undergirded by the four domains of global competence to address the United Nations Sustainability Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Through a series of learning activities, students examined how the world’s water supply is similar to a community well by developing an ArcGIS StoryMap comparing local water resources to another country. Our findings indicated that participants’ self-reflection and learning products captured positive movement along the Globally Competent Teaching Continuum. We conclude the chapter with several ways our innovation could be enhanced for future iterations.

The isothermal bleaching of γ-irradiated glass was studied at elevated temperatures (280–340 °C) by real-time in situ optical microspectroscopy for the first time. The study was performed on γ-irradiated (0.83 and 1.99 MGy) International Simple Glass (ISG) borosilicate nuclear waste simulant made by Mo-SCI Corporation (Rolla, MO, USA). The current investigation proposes real-time optical transmission methodology for the activation energy assessment of isothermal bleaching of γ-irradiated glass. The method is based on robust quantification of the Urbach energy decay rates and yields similar activation energies for both doses within ∼0.24–0.26 eV.

This paper overviews the well-known inequality measures and applies information-theoretic tools to compare inequality between income levels among nations. Specifically, we use the World Values Survey data on households’ income levels in 57 countries to rank inequality. We then examine the effects of macroeconomic outcomes on inequality. Our findings suggest that the Gini coefficient with J-divergence provides further insight into inequality rankings. In addition, the results indicate that higher inflation and GDP growth lead to lower inequality. Finally, we find a positive relationship between income inequality and money growth.

Phosphor-converted light-emitting diode (pc-LED) is a prime light source in smart broadband near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy. The performance of NIR pc-LEDs crucially depends on the employed NIR luminescence materials. In this...

In this paper, we consider a kernel-based full-Newton step feasible interior-point method (IPM) for P∗(κ)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{*}(\kappa )$$\end{document}-Weighted Linear Complementarity Problem (WLCP). The specific eligible kernel function is used to define an equivalent form of the central path, the proximity measure, and to obtain search directions. Full-Newton steps are adopted to avoid the line search at each iteration. It is shown that with appropriate choices of the parameters, and a certain condition on the starting point, the iterations always lie in the defined neighborhood of the central path. Assuming strict feasibility of P∗(κ)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{*}(\kappa )$$\end{document}-WLCP, it is shown that the IPM converges to the ε\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\varepsilon $$\end{document}-approximate solution of P∗(κ)\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$P_{*}(\kappa )$$\end{document}-WLCP in a polynomial number of iterations. Few numerical results are provided to indicate the computational performance of the algorithm.

Many look to the federal courts as an avenue of control of the growing administrative state. Some advocate the creation of specialized federal courts of appeals in areas such as immigration and social security. Yet, little is known about whether repeat exposure to specific types of cases enables federal judges to overcome doctrines of deference and whether such an effect would be policy-neutral. Gathering a sample of over 4000 cases decided by the U.S. Courts of Appeals between 2002 and 2017, we demonstrate that exposure to asylum cases over time emboldens federal judges to challenge administrative asylum decisions, asserting their personal policy preferences. The effect is particularly strong when the legal issue should prompt deference based on bureaucratic expertise. These findings not only address important questions raised by bureaucracy and court scholars but also inform a salient public debate concerning the proper treatment of those seeking refuge within our borders.

Examining organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) motives is important as different citizenship motives influence work and health outcomes. However, the current understanding of citizenship motives is limited in that most studies have not considered that multiple citizenship motives can coexist within individuals as well as how many different combinations of citizenship motives can exist. Therefore, we adopted a person-centered approach and examined latent profiles of citizenship motives using the most well-known motives in the literature: organizational concern, prosocial values, and impression management. Results identified four profile groups and showed that participants with high levels of all three types of motives gave and received the most OCB. Additionally, participants with high levels of organizational concern and prosocial values (regardless of whether they had high or low levels of impression management) reported the lowest levels of burnout. Our results suggest that having high impression management can yield positive outcomes when accompanied by high prosocial values and high organizational concern. From a practical standpoint, this study indicates that organizations should consider promoting the development of all forms of citizenship motives among employees to facilitate giving OCB and receiving OCB and to reduce burnout in the workplace.

Background: Poverty-related stress plays a pivotal role in mediating the impact of poverty on behavioral health outcomes. However, existing research on adult poverty-related stress suffers from limited scope and inadequate measurement approaches. To address these shortcomings, our study undertakes a comprehensive investigation to develop and validate a multidimensional Poverty-Related Stress Scale (PRSS). Methods: A multi-study research design was employed to develop and validate the PRSS. Study 1 (N = 206) established a multidimensional framework for poverty-related stress by exploring the factor structure and internal consistency of our measure. Study 2 (N = 400) evaluated nuanced psychometric properties, including factorial validity, internal consistency, and temporal invariance, using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and modern exploratory structural equation models (ESEM). Lastly, Study 3 (N = 470/219) examined the criterion validity of our scale by investigating its concurrent and predictive relationships with depression, anxiety, and flourishing. Results: The findings consistently supported a hierarchal ESEM model for overall poverty-related stress, reflecting the dynamic interaction among three stressors: noise disturbance, housing dysfunction, and financial distress. This model exhibited temporal invariance, with different studies reliably measuring distinct components of poverty-related stress. Concurrent validity was demonstrated by significant associations between overall poverty-related stress and theoretically relevant constructs, such as depression, anxiety, and flourishing, at different time points. Additionally, predictive validity was established, showing poverty-related stress measured at Time 1 accounted for variations in depression, anxiety, and flourishing at Time 2. The results provide robust evidence for the validity and reliability of the PRSS as a tool for measuring poverty-related stress and its underlying factors. Conclusions: Our findings offer compelling preliminary support for the utility of our measure. Further research and potential clinical applications are discussed to deepen the understanding of poverty-related stress and its implications for behavioral health outcomes.

Differential access to life-saving COVID-19 vaccines reveals the inequitable distribution of wealth and power in the global system. While several countries have developed homegrown vaccines to avoid being priced out of markets dominated by transnational drug companies, Brazil—a country with a significant research and pharmaceutical base—lagged behind those of other middle-income countries. Why? This paper blends insights from dependency theory and the theory of global capitalism to demonstrate how political coalitions, leadership, and normative frameworks negatively affect state capacity and technological development. First, austerity in public investment in research, development, and innovation prior to and during the pandemic limited the amount of resources necessary to create homegrown vaccine candidates. Second, political leadership informed by science denialism did not prioritize the development of vaccines and even discouraged their use. The analysis of vaccine development in Brazil reveals that having a pharmaceutical base and strong leadership committed to scientific principles and backed by a political coalition seeking to expand social democratic rights play a vital role in developing treatments and responding to health crises.

Adolescents often experience heightened socioemotional sensitivity warranting their use of regulatory strategies. Yet, little is known about how key socializing agents help regulate teens’ negative emotions in daily life and implications for long-term adjustment. We examined adolescent girls’ interpersonal emotion regulation (IER) with parents and peers in response to negative social interactions, defined as parent and peer involvement in the teen’s enactment of emotion regulation strategies. We also tested associations between rates of daily parental and peer IER and depressive symptoms, concurrently and one year later. Adolescent girls ( N = 112; M age = 12.39) at temperamental risk for depressive disorders completed a 16-day ecological momentary assessment protocol measuring reactivity to negative social interactions, parental and peer IER, and current negative affect. Results indicated that adolescents used more adaptive strategies with peers and more maladaptive strategies with parents in daily life. Both parental and peer IER down-regulated negative affect, reflected by girls’ decreased likelihood of experiencing continued negative affect. Higher proportions of parental adaptive IER predicted reduced depressive symptoms one year later. Findings suggest that both parents and peers effectively help adolescent girls down-regulate everyday negative emotions; however, parents may offer more enduring benefits for long-term adjustment.

Background stronger analgesic effect than morphine without causing side effects brought about by morphine-like drugs. Functional opiorphin analogs have been created to enhance its metabolic stability and preserve its potent analgesic effect. Objective We conducted a systematic review to summarize all opiorphin analogs and identify those with the strongest metabolic stability and antinociceptive effect. Methods From a total of 122 articles, 11 made it to the quantitative synthesis phase. The included articles were categorized into the type of modifications used to improve the metabolic stability of the peptide, metabolism and toxicity profile, drug absorption and in vitro cytotoxicity, antinociceptive effect, the opiorphin analogs’ administration in animals or humans, and the type of the test used to test the antinociceptive effect. Results The substitution of natural amino acid with a non-natural amino acid, side-chain modifications, or D-aminoacid substitution were the most used type of peptide modification to create opiorphin analogs. STR-324 and PEGylated liposomes loaded with opiorphin showed the best metabolism and toxicity performance. [C]-[(CH2)6]-QRF-[S-O-(CH2)8]-R showed high stability in human plasma and stronger inhibitory potency. YQRFSR and PEGylated liposomes loaded with opiorphin showed a stronger antinociceptive effect than the parent opiorphin or morphine, with an analgesic effect of PEGylated liposomes lasting more than 50%. Intravenous administration was the preferred method of opiorphin analog administration, and different tests were used to test the antinociceptive effect. Conclusion This paper presents the first systematic review discussing opiorphin and opiorphin analogs and identifies the most promising candidates for future research.

Districts are investing more in school leadership, including the implementation of residency training programs for aspiring principals. There is limited evidence about the district return on these investments, and none in the context in which principal hiring is decentralized at the school level. This paper develops a model highlighting the conditions under which districts benefit from investments in general leadership skills and examines the residency program in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The event-study analysis that addresses treatment effect heterogeneity finds that principals who complete a residency are significantly more effective at raising achievement. Although the leadership skills gained through the residency are likely to make a principal more valuable to districts outside of CPS, the large majority of residents remain in CPS despite the absence of salary premia for completion of a residency or high performance. These findings suggest the presence of transition costs that enable CPS to retain more effective, residency-trained principals without having to increase pay, thereby realizing some of the return on the investment in general skills.

A mediating variable is a variable that is intermediate in the causal path relating an independent variable to a dependent variable in statistical analysis. The mediation analysis of using a categorical predictor, mediator, and outcome variables has been investigated in the literature. It is extremely common to have missing data even after having a well-controlled study. It is also well known that missingness, especially the non-ignorable missing, in a dataset has often been proven to produce biased results. This paper uses the extended Baker, Rosenberger, and Dersimonian (BRD) model to estimate the mediation effect under non-ignorable missing mechanisms. This paper also proposes four identifiable models to estimate the mediation effect for missingness in one categorical variable with two fully observed categorical variables. We reported the relative bias and Mean Square Error to compare the performance of the proposed BRD models against the Complete Case and Multiple Imputation methods in estimating the mediated effect (\(\widehat{a}\widehat{b}\)) under the non-ignorable missing mechanism. The application of these models in estimating the mediated effect was demonstrated using the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial datasets.

Compartmental models assuming exponentially distributed lifetime stages are limited because of a constant hazard rate. Here, a theoretical compartmental model for a system with general lifetime distributions is studied. The model represents the transition rates between jumps of a renewal process in the system. Applications are given for the SVIS disease epidemic model, to investigate the impacts of the hazard rate functions (HRFs) on disease control. The new SVIS model is a non-autonomous nonlinear system (NANLS) of ordinary differential equations (ODEs), with coefficients that are HRFs. Moreover, for a class of lifetime distributions, the NANLS of ODEs is asymptotically autonomous. Four asymptotic behaviors of the HRFs: a monotonic, a bathtub, a reverse bathtub and a constant shape are explored to determine the asymptotic population for disease eradication. Also, analysis is conducted to determine the sensitivity of the epidemic system to the hazard rate behaviors over time. Numerical simulation results are given for different lifetime models representing hazard behaviors for vaccine efficacy and immunity. 2000 MSC: 92B15, 62N05, 60E05, 92D25