Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Formal Testing of Students in Grades K-2

School leaders and teachers are confronted with federal, state, and local mandates that must be followed to ensure all students reach their fullest academic potential. To this end, the challenge has been raised to teachers and administrators to have younger students in the lower elementary grades prepared for standardized student testing. Assessment comes with varied expectations and beliefs among parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, and the community that may cause difficulty acknowledging developmentally appropriate assessment methods. This qualitative study focuses on the perceptions of 16 elementary teachers towards testing students in kindergarten, first, and second grade in one New Jersey urban public school district. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as participants discussed their agreements and disagreements of whether testing has an effect on students, teachers, and on classroom practice. Findings from this study disclosed negative results from student testing such as distress, anxiety, high-levels of worry, and students’ lack of confidence as well as positive outcomes from the collected test data, including richer discussions between student, teacher, and parent, and classroom planning and grouping. In an age where accountability for student achievement impacts schools, districts, and teachers, the pressure rises to have student scores increase. Findings for this study documented the importance of professional development and the involvement of teachers in curriculum design

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Formal Testing of Students in Grades K-2

School leaders and teachers are confronted with federal, state, and local mandates that must be followed to ensure all students reach their fullest academic potential. To this end, the challenge has been raised to teachers and administrators to have younger students in the lower elementary grades prepared for standardized student testing. Assessment comes with varied expectations and beliefs among parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, and the community that may cause difficulty acknowledging developmentally appropriate assessment methods. This qualitative study focuses on the perceptions of 16 elementary teachers towards testing students in kindergarten, first, and second grade in one New Jersey urban public school district. Semi-structured interviews were conducted as participants discussed their agreements and disagreements of whether testing has an effect on students, teachers, and on classroom practice. Findings from this study disclosed negative results from student testing such as distress, anxiety, high-levels of worry, and students’ lack of confidence as well as positive outcomes from the collected test data, including richer discussions between student, teacher, and parent, and classroom planning and grouping. In an age where accountability for student achievement impacts schools, districts, and teachers, the pressure rises to have student scores increase. Findings for this study documented the importance of professional development and the involvement of teachers in curriculum design

Perception of Ecosystem Services from Podolian Farming System in Marginal Areas of Southern Italy

Ecosystem services (ESs) are gaining increasing interest among researchers, local communities, and policymakers. The farming of Podolian cattle in the remote and marginal areas of southern Italy plays an important socio-economic role. This study aimed to assess the perception of ESs provided by Podolian cattle farming in the Basilicata region among the local actors and stakeholders. Using a questionnaire administered to 198 respondents, the level of agreement and disagreement was assessed on a 1–5 scale for the four main ESs: cultural, regulating, supporting, and provisioning. On average, the perception of ESs related to Podolian cattle farming was positive. However, the role of promoting tourism in the region was somewhat controversial, and the results in terms of regulation were divisive. The perception of provisioning services had a highly positive result. Further research is needed to better understand the role of Podolian cattle farming in the Basilicata region, providing more explicit guidance for local communities and policymakers

Erectile Dysfunction as a Predictor of Cardiovascular Events and Death in Diabetic Patients With Angiographically Proven Asymptomatic Coronary Artery Disease A Potential Protective Role for Statins and 5-Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors

ObjectivesWe sought to investigate whether erectile dysfunction (ED) is a predictor of future cardiovascular events and death in diabetic patients with silent coronary artery disease (CAD) and whether there are predictors of cardiovascular events and death among CAD diabetic patients with ED.BackgroundCase-control studies showed that ED is associated with CAD in diabetic patients, but no prospective study is available.MethodsType 2 diabetic men (n = 291) with silent CAD angiographically documented were recruited. Erectile dysfunction was assessed by the International Index Erectile Function-5 questionnaire.ResultsDuring a follow-up period of 47.2 ± 21.8 months (range 4 to 82 months), 49 patients experienced major adverse cardiac events (MACE). The difference in ED prevalence between patients with and those without MACE was significant (61.2% vs. 36.4%; p = 0.001). Cox regression analysis showed that ED predicted MACE (hazard ratio [HR] 2.1; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.6 to 2.6; p < 0.001). Among patients with CAD and ED, the Kaplan-Meier method showed that the statin (Mantel log-rank test: 3.921; p = 0.048) and 5-phosphodiesterase (5-PDE) inhibitor use (Mantel log-rank test: 4.608; p = 0.032) were associated with a lower rate of MACE. Cox regression analysis showed that statin use (HR 0.66; 95% CI 0.46 to 0.97; p = 0.036) reduced MACE. Treatment with 5-PDE inhibitors did not enter the model, but its p value was very near to the significant level (HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.46 to 1.01; p = 0.056).ConclusionsOur data first show that ED is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in diabetic patients with silent CAD and that the treatment with statins and 5-PDE inhibitors might reduce the occurrence of MACE among CAD diabetic patients with ED

Automatically extracted machine learning features from preoperative CT to early predict microvascular invasion in HCC: the role of the Zone of Transition (ZOT)

open12noMicrovascular invasion (MVI) is a consolidated predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence after treatments. No reliable radiological imaging findings are available for preoperatively diagnosing MVI, despite some progresses of radiomic analysis. Furthermore, current MVI radiomic studies have not been designed for small HCC nodules, for which a plethora of treatments exists. This study aimed to identify radiomic MVI predictors in nodules ≤3.0 cm by analysing the zone of transition (ZOT), crossing tumour and peritumour, automatically detected to face the uncertainties of radiologist’s tumour segmentation. Methods: The study considered 117 patients imaged by contrast-enhanced computed tomography; 78 patients were finally enrolled in the radiomic analysis. Radiomic features were extracted from the tumour and the ZOT, detected using an adaptive procedure based on local image contrast variations. After data oversampling, a support vector machine classifier was developed and validated. Classifier performance was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and related metrics. Results: The original 89 HCC nodules (32 MVI+ and 57 MVI−) became 169 (62 MVI+ and 107 MVI−) after oversampling. Of the four features within the signature, three are ZOT heterogeneity measures regarding both arterial and venous phases. On the test set (19MVI+ and 33MVI−), the classifier predicts MVI+ with area under the curve of 0.86 (95%CI (0.70–0.93), p∼10^−5), sensitivity = 79% and specificity = 82%. The classifier showed negative and positive predictive values of 87% and 71%, respectively. Conclusions: The classifier showed the highest diagnostic performance in the literature, disclosing the role of ZOT heterogeneity in predicting the MVI+ status.noneMatteo Renzulli, Margherita Mottola, Francesca Coppola, Maria Adriana Cocozza, Silvia Malavasi, Arrigo Cattabriga, Giulio Vara, Matteo Ravaioli, Matteo Cescon, Francesco Vasuri, Rita Golfieri, Alessandro BevilacquaMatteo Renzulli, Margherita Mottola, Francesca Coppola, Maria Adriana Cocozza, Silvia Malavasi, Arrigo Cattabriga, Giulio Vara, Matteo Ravaioli, Matteo Cescon, Francesco Vasuri, Rita Golfieri, Alessandro Bevilacqu

Radiomic Features from Post-Operative 18F-FDG PET/CT and CT Imaging Associated with Locally Recurrent Rectal Cancer: Preliminary Findings

Locally Recurrent Rectal Cancer (LRRC) remains a major clinical concern, it rapidly invades pelvic organs and nerve roots, causing severe symptoms. Curative-intent salvage therapy offers the only potential for cure but it has a higher chance of success when LRRC is diagnosed at an early stage. Imaging diagnosis of LRRC is very challenging due to fibrosis and inflammatory pelvic tissue which can mislead even the most expert reader. This study exploited a radiomic analysis to enrich, through quantitative features, the characterization of tissue properties, thus favouring an accurate detection of LRRC by Computed Tomography (CT) and 18F-FDG-Positron Emission Tomography/CT (PET/CT). Of 563 eligible patients, undergoing radical resection (R0) of primary RC, 57 patients with suspected LRRC were included, 33 of which histologically confirmed. After manually segmenting suspected LRRC in CT and PET/CT, 144 radiomic features (RFs) were generated, and RFs were investigated for univariate significant discriminations (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, p&lt;0.050) of LRRC from NO LRRC. Five RFs in PET/CT (p&lt;0.017) and 2 in CT (p&lt;0.022) enabled, individually, a clear distinction of the groups, and one RF was shared by PET/CT and CT. Besides confirming the potential role of radiomics to advance LRRC diagnosis, the aforementioned shared RF describes LRRC as tissues having high local inhomogeneity due to evolving tissue’s properties

Violencia de género: descripción y resultados de una investigación sobre mujeres golpeadas

La Cátedra "Fundarnentcis, Técnicas e Instrumentos de la Exploración Psicológica II" inició en el año 2006 una Investigación titulada: Violencia: Mujer golpeada. Delimitación de estructura psíquica mediante Técnicas Proyectivas. El rastreo bibliográfico nos permitió delimitar dos líneas explicativas que giran alrededor de esta situación, a saber: una, correspondiente a la línea psico-socio-económica. La otra, centrada psicoanalíticamente sobre la estructura y dinámica psíquica de las mujeres que son golpeadas (deslindando las situaciones extremas de la perversión y las que corresponden a las costumbres de tipo cultural). La primera línea no satisface nuestras expectativas, ya que nos dan razones suficientes, pero no necesarias. Se asientan en lo que hemos dado en llamar "Teoría de la escasez" (falta de recursos, de afectos y de red social), pero sabemos que no es necesario que estas "faltas" se encuentren presentes para que una mujer sea golpeada. La segunda linea explicativa en cambio, nos permitió hipotetizar que "algo de la estructura psíquica debia estar en juego...". Esto nos llevó a implementar una Batería de Técnicas Proyectivas para investigar estructuras psíquicas, la cual aplicamos a un grupo de casos obtenido de población urbana, de distintas edades, clases sociales y nivel educacional. Obteniendo hasta el momento indicadores que nos hablan de una indefensión yoica. Prevaleciendo las defensas maníacas reveladas como idealización del otro, negación e identificación con el agresor.Facultad de Psicologí

The interview in the context of research and the F.I.S

Este trabajo se inscribe en el marco de la Investigación denominada “Actualización del Test Frases Incompletas de Joseph M. Sacks”, que se realiza en la Facultad de Psicología de la U.N.L.P. En esta oportunidad abordaremos la Entrevista dentro del quehacer cualitativo como una herramienta eficaz para desentrañar significaciones elaboradas por los sujetos mediante sus discursos, relatos y experiencias. Uno de los inconvenientes que presenta este instrumento es en el proceso previo a la aplicación de la misma, momento en que se requiere unificar criterios en la construcción metodológica del dato, para poder ser aplicada por uno o más investigadores, sin alterar los objetivos del estudio. Resulta clave, por lo tanto, reflexionar en cómo elaborar una entrevista de manera correcta, sobre todo su guión, lo cual incluye las preguntas pertinentes al objeto de estudio, que el entrevistador va a usar. La consecuencia esperada es la obtención de contenidos veraces por el proceso en sí y la dinámica que permitirá la correlación con las respuestas obtenidas en las 60 frases incompletas que el sujeto debe completar contestando lo primero que se le ocurra.This work is part of the research called “Update of the Joseph M. Sacks Incomplete Phrases Test”, which is carried out at the Faculty of Psychology of the U.N.L.P. In this opportunity we will approach the Interview within the qualitative task as an effective tool to unravel meanings elaborated by the subjects through their speeches, stories and experiences. One of the drawbacks of this instrument is in the process prior to its application, at which time it is required to unify criteria in the methodological construction of the data, in order to be applied by one or more researchers, without altering the objectives of the study. It is key, therefore, to reflect on how to prepare an interview correctly, especially its script, which includes the pertinent questions to the object of study, which the interviewer is going to use. The expected consequence is the obtaining of truthful content through the process itself and the dynamics that will allow the correlation with the answers obtained in the 60 incomplete sentences that the subject must complete by answering the first thing that comes to mind.Facultad de Psicologí

Aportes de la investigación: violencia: mujer golpeada delimitación de la estructura psíquica mediante técnicas proyectivas

Este trabajo lleva el nombre del Proyecto de Investigación Violencia: mujer golpeada-delimitación de la estructura psíquica mediante Técnicas Proyectivas en el cual, desde el año 2006, dirigidos por la Dra. Liliana Schwartz, participamos los miembros de la Cátedra Fundamentos, Técnicas e Instrumentos de Exploración Psicológica II. Durante el desarrollo del proyecto hemos podido encontrar generalidades sobre la estructura psíquica de las mujeres víctimas de violencia que conformaron la muestra. Para ello se utilizó una batería con técnicas proyectivas, compuesta por una Entrevista semi-dirigida, El Dibujo de la Figura Humana (DFH), Dibujo de Persona bajo la Lluvia, el Cuestionario Desiderativo y el Test de Apercepción Temática (TAT). Como síntesis podemos decir que no se encontraron cuestiones relacionadas con la perversión. En las mujeres golpeadas que constituyeron la muestra se evidenció una estructura psíquica neurótica, un yo débil, con predominio de defensas maníacas.Eje: Psicología clínica y psicopatología.Facultad de Psicologí

Aportes de la investigación: violencia: mujer golpeada delimitación de la estructura psíquica mediante técnicas proyectivas

Este trabajo lleva el nombre del Proyecto de Investigación Violencia: mujer golpeada-delimitación de la estructura psíquica mediante Técnicas Proyectivas en el cual, desde el año 2006, dirigidos por la Dra. Liliana Schwartz, participamos los miembros de la Cátedra Fundamentos, Técnicas e Instrumentos de Exploración Psicológica II. Durante el desarrollo del proyecto hemos podido encontrar generalidades sobre la estructura psíquica de las mujeres víctimas de violencia que conformaron la muestra. Para ello se utilizó una batería con técnicas proyectivas, compuesta por una Entrevista semi-dirigida, El Dibujo de la Figura Humana (DFH), Dibujo de Persona bajo la Lluvia, el Cuestionario Desiderativo y el Test de Apercepción Temática (TAT). Como síntesis podemos decir que no se encontraron cuestiones relacionadas con la perversión. En las mujeres golpeadas que constituyeron la muestra se evidenció una estructura psíquica neurótica, un yo débil, con predominio de defensas maníacas.Eje: Psicología clínica y psicopatología.Facultad de Psicologí