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Market-based reforms have become pervasive in the public sector, generating a vigorous debate about whether they promote public goals like effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. Nonprofit organizations are not only instrumental in the market for public services but also play important representative roles in democratic society. This article uses Guo and Musso's theory of representative governance to examine how representation and participation in nonprofit governance influence representational outcomes in marketized environments. Leveraging the conflicting interests that nonprofit charter schools face in a geographic region marked by segregation, this article examines whether a nonprofit charter school's representative capacity improves representational outcomes. Findings suggest that, on average, charter schools in the sample employed few mechanisms to increase representative capacity and that lower descriptive representation was linked to segregating outcomes rather than representational outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies show smoking and vaping behaviors increase risk of contracting and worse symptoms of COVID-19. This study examines whether past 30-day youth and young adult users of marijuana, e-cigarettes, and cigarettes self-reported changes in their use of these substances due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and cross-sectional associations between perceived stress, nicotine or marijuana dependence, and COVID-19–related changes in use. Methods: Participants were 709 past 30-day self-reported substance users from the Texas Adolescent Tobacco and Marketing Surveillance study (TATAMS; mean age = 19; 58% female; 38% Hispanic, 35% white). Multiple logistic regression models assessed cross-sectional associations between perceived stress and dependence and increased, decreased, or sustained past 30-day use of marijuana, e-cigarettes, and cigarettes due to COVID-19 (e.g., "Has your marijuana use changed due to the COVID-19 outbreak?"). Covariates included age, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status (SES), dependence (exposure: stress), and stress (exposure: dependence). Results: Most participants reported sustained (41%, 43%, 49%) or increased (37%, 34%, 25%) use of marijuana, e-cigarettes, and cigarettes due to COVID-19, respectively. Participants who reported symptoms of dependence were significantly more likely than their non-dependent peers to report increasing their marijuana (AOR: 1.66; 95% CI: 1.15–2.39) and e-cigarette (AOR: 2.57; 95% CI: 1.38–4.77) use. Those who reported higher perceived stress were significantly more likely to report increasing their marijuana use (AOR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.01–2.42). Conclusions: Most youth and young adults did not decrease their substance use amid a global, respiratory disease pandemic. Health messaging and interventions that address the health effects of smoking and vaping as well as factors like stress and dependence that may be barriers to decreasing use are vital in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Philanthropic foundations are critical actors in the nonprofit sector—funding the programs of social and human service charities, fostering innovation, and serving as patrons of the arts. However, the dramatic growth of foundations and their endowments in recent decades has intensified charges of plutocracy—the claim that foundations are more interested in protecting their power and privilege than in contributing to the public good. The COVID-19 crisis has brought this critique into sharp focus, leading to the question, "How are large foundations acting to stem COVID-19's impact and help in the process of recovery?" Our descriptive study leverages data from a nationwide survey of the 500 largest philanthropic foundations (by total assets) in the United States to characterize foundations' (a) changes to internal strategy or giving, (b) shifts in relationships with grantee organizations, (c) prioritization of communities most affected by the COVID-19 crisis, and (d) collaboration across organizations and sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the inspiration of artists by one form of art to create a new composition in their preferred art form. It explores several opportunities for students to use visual art, poetry, and dance as inspiration for music-making as well as creating new musical compositions. It mentions that Revisions to the National Standards for Arts Education resulted in the 2014 National Core Arts Standards.

Young teachers often struggle with pacing and the ability to cover more than one or two songs and activities in a single 30-minute general music class. Included in this article are lesson activities that show it is not only possible to include many of the National Standards in a single lesson, but also possible to sing, play, and create in every lesson. In addition, these fun and exciting activities are appropriate for prekindergarten through sixth-grade music classes and can be achieved in as little as 20 minutes. With deliberate planning, these types of experiences, that include all learners, will not only excite and motivate students, but also set them on a path to transferring knowledge at higher, more complex levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commonly used neuroimaging approaches in humans exploit hemodynamic or metabolic indicators of brain function. However, fundamental gaps remain in our ability to relate such hemo-metabolic reactivity to neurotransmission, with recent reports providing paradoxical information regarding the relationship among basal perfusion, functional imaging contrast, and neurotransmission in awake humans. Here, sequential magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measurements of the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA+macromolecules normalized by the complex N-acetyl aspartate-N-acetyl aspartyl glutamic acid: [GABA+]/[NAA-NAAG]), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of perfusion, fractional gray-matter volume, and arterial arrival time (AAT) are recorded in human visual cortex from a controlled cohort of young adult male volunteers with neurocognitive battery-confirmed comparable cognitive capacity (3 T; n=16; age=23±3 years). Regression analyses reveal an inverse correlation between [GABA+]/[NAA-NAAG] and perfusion (R=−0.46; P=0.037), yet no relationship between AAT and [GABA+]/[NAA-NAAG] (R=−0.12; P=0.33). Perfusion measurements that do not control for AAT variations reveal reduced correlations between [GABA+]/[NAA-NAAG] and perfusion (R=−0.13; P=0.32). These findings largely reconcile contradictory reports between perfusion and inhibitory tone, and underscore the physiologic origins of the growing literature relating functional imaging signals, hemodynamics, and neurotransmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author presents information on the new ways adopted by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) of the U.S. for promoting music literacy to provide effective music education to the students. She discusses the Kodály Method of music teaching which incorporates the sequence of preparation, presentation and practice in a sound manner. The method allows the students to build up the previously learned skills and concepts that resulted in music literacy. She mentions that the prime goal of most music educators is to teach the symbols of music notation to their students. She informs that the term literacy means the ability to read and write and having knowledge in a particular subject.