Changing attitudes of children in grades three to six towards persons with disabilities via the \u27Kids on the Block\u27 program

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the “Kids on the Block” program in the Waterloo Regional schools as part of the work of the Independent Living Center of Waterloo Region. The “Kids on the Block” program was designed to teach school age children about handicapped children and adults. The main emphasis of the program is to foster the development of positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. As well, the “Kids on the Block” program also provides knowledge about various disabilities. This research attempted to study the impact of the “Kids on the Block” program on children in grades three to six, by studying changes in attitudes, as well as the amount of knowledge gained. Six schools were involved in the process, including all classes between grades three and six. Three of the schools saw the four-week presentation of the “Kids on the Block” program. Two of the schools acted as a control group, and were no exposed to the program. One school had seen the program a year ago, and thus was able to provide some information regarding the long term effects of the “Kids on the Block” program. The study was conducted in three stages. The three stages involved a pretest and two follow-up post-tests. The pretest was assigned one week prior to the four-week “Kids on the Block” program. The first post-test was assigned the day after the four-week program. At this time, participants who had just seen the program also completed a subjective program evaluation form. Approximately one month later the second post-test was presented. The children who had seen the program one year ago and the children who had never seen the program were assigned the same three testing sessions on the same dates as the program participants. Results revealed that the “Kids on the Block” program does have a short term positive effect on children in grades three to six, particularly on knowledge of disabilities. However, the long term effects of the program appeared to be weak and unclear. This indicates a need for further development of a long term follow-up strategy. Reliability was moderate across the forms, ranging from .34 to .70. Multiple regressions supported the validity of this measure in concordance with previous research. The factors influencing the success of the program included the grade of the child, and whether or not the child knew a person with a disability. Qualitative data indicated that the children enjoyed the puppet presentations, and believed that they learned a great deal from the puppets

A Framework for Agreeing Standard Terminology

This document outlines a process that can be followed to reach agreement on standard terminology for a community or topic

Unpacking the ERP investment decision: an empirical assessment of the benefits and risks

Most leading organizations, in all sectors of industry, commerce and government are dependent upon ERP for their organizational survival. Yet despite the importance of the decision to adopt ERP and its impact on the entire firm’s performance the IT literature has been in the large part silent on the nature of the ERP investment decision. This study is the first of its kind to determine the preference structure of senior managers around the organizational benefits and risks of adopting ERP. We present the results which provide interesting insights into how managers’ perceive the benefit and risk factors salient to the organization’s adoption decision. In line with prior research we found that improved productivity, and information and planning are important drivers of the ERP adoption decision. Moreover our findings reveal that the benefits of ERP are weighted almost twice as important as the risks when making an ERP investment decision. However when it comes to risk, interestingly managers consider issues such as top management commitment and vendor support as more important than financial risks

Unpacking the RFID Investment Decision

Mandates aside, there are many reasons why firms decide to move forward with or delay investment in RFID technology. In this paper we use a theoretically based, easy to implement methodology to empirically derive a relative importance scale of those factors that influence the decision to invest in RFID technology. More specifically, we compare the factors that matter most and least to a sample of firms that have adopted RFID technology with a sample of firms that have yet to embrace RFID technology. The theoretical and practical implications are that both RFID adopters and non adopters are driven by the promise of greater data accuracy, improved information visibility, service quality, process innovation, and track and trace capabilities. What separates the adopters from the non adopters is an opportunity to derive strategic benefits from RFID through improved decision making. Not surprisingly, the non adopting firms are primarily concerned with the high acquisition and other ongoing costs associated with RFID technology

Inter-laboratory validation of the measurement of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) after various lengths of frozen storage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Serum follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) levels are used clinically to evaluate infertility, pituitary and gonadal disorders. With increased frequency of research collaborations across institutions, it is essential that inter-laboratory validation is addressed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>An inter-laboratory validation of three commercial FSH immunoassays was performed with human serum samples of varying frozen storage length (2 batches of 15 samples each) at -25 degree C. Percentage differences and Bland-Altman limits of agreement were calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The inter- and intra-laboratory consistency of FSH values with the same assay manufacturer was much higher after shorter-term storage (frozen for less than 11 months, mean percentage degradation less than 4%) than after long-term storage (2-3 years, mean percentage degradation = 23%). Comparing assay results from different manufacturers, there was similar overall long term degradation as seen with the same manufacturer (-25%), however the degradation was greater when the original FSH was greater than 20 mIU/mL relative to less than 10 mIU/mL (p < 0.001 trend test).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The findings suggest that degradation of serum samples stored between 11 months and 2-3 years at -25 degrees C can lead to unstable FSH measurements. Inter-laboratory variability due to frozen storage time and manufacturer differences in assay results should be accounted for when designing and implementing research or clinical quality control activities involving serum FSH at multiple study sites.</p

Reducing the Spread of Infectious Disease Through Hand Washing

According to the Centers for Disease Control (2002), hand washing is the simplest, most effective measure for preventing the spread of bacteria, pathogens, and viruses. Recent studies by the American Society for Microbiology (2005) indicate that Americans do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom and before handling or eating food. The study reported here sought to determine the presence of publications encouraging the public to wash hands in two North Carolina counties. Public restrooms located in rest areas, convenience stores, restaurants, and childcare facilities were examined. Findings indicate that literature encouraging hand washing is not present

Microbial Symbionts and Ecological Divergence of Caribbean Sponges: A New Perspective on an Ancient Association

Marine sponges host diverse communities of microbial symbionts that expand the metabolic capabilities of their host, but the abundance and structure of these communities is highly variable across sponge species. Specificity in these interactions may fuel host niche partitioning on crowded coral reefs by allowing individual sponge species to exploit unique sources of carbon and nitrogen, but this hypothesis is yet to be tested. Given the presence of high sponge biomass and the coexistence of diverse sponge species, the Caribbean Sea provides a unique system in which to investigate this hypothesis. To test for ecological divergence among sympatric Caribbean sponges and investigate whether these trends are mediated by microbial symbionts, we measured stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) ratios and characterized the microbial community structure of sponge species at sites within four regions spanning a 1700 km latitudinal gradient. There was a low (median of 8.2 %) overlap in the isotopic niches of sympatric species; in addition, host identity accounted for over 75% of the dissimilarity in both δ13C and δ15N values and microbiome community structure among individual samples within a site. There was also a strong phylogenetic signal in both δ15N values and microbial community diversity across host phylogeny, as well as a correlation between microbial community structure and variation in δ13C and δ15N values across samples. Together, this evidence supports a hypothesis of strong evolutionary selection for ecological divergence across sponge lineages and suggests that this divergence is at least partially mediated by associations with microbial symbionts

Distribution of the

OBJECTIVE: To study whether reported, but inconsistent, associations between the FMR1 CGG repeat lengths in the intermediate, high normal, or low normal range differentiate women diagnosed with diminished ovarian reserve (DOR) from population controls and whether associations vary by race/ethnic group. DESIGN: Case-control study. SETTING: Academic and private fertility clinics. PATIENT(S): DOR cases (n = 129; 95 Whites, 22 Asian, 12 other) from five U.S. fertility clinics were clinically diagnosed, with regular menses and no fragile X syndrome family history. Normal fertility controls (n = 803; 386 Whites, 219 African-Americans, 102 Japanese, 96 Chinese) from the United States-based SWAN Study had one or more menstrual period in the 3 months pre-enrollment, one or more pregnancy, no history of infertility or hormone therapy, and menopause ≥46 years. Previously, the SWAN Chinese and Japanese groups had similar FMR1 CGG repeat lengths, thus they were combined. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): FMR1 CGG repeat lengths. RESULT(S): Median CGG repeats were nearly identical by case/control group. DOR cases had fewer CGG repeats in the shorter FMR1 allele than controls among Whites, but this was not significant among Asians. White cases had fewer CGG repeats in the shorter allele than Asian cases. No significant differences were found in the high normal/intermediate range between cases and controls or by race/ethnic group within cases in the longer allele. CONCLUSION(S): This study refutes prior reports of an association between DOR and high normal/intermediate repeats and confirms an association between DOR and low normal repeats in Whites

A Collection of Fragrances

This book was completed for Jan Baker\u27s artists\u27 book class, Papermaking.https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/specialcollections_bookmark_senses/1015/thumbnail.jp

Age-Related Success with Elective Single versus Double Blastocyst Transfer

Background. Although the optimal outcome of assisted reproductive technology (ART) is a healthy singleton pregnancy, the rate of twin gestation from ART in women over the age of 35 is persistently high. Methods/Findings. We compared clinical pregnancy rates (PRs), ongoing pregnancy/live birth rates, and multiple gestation rates (MGRs) in 108 women who chose elective single blastocyst transfer (eSBT) to 415 women who chose elective double blastocyst transfer (eDBT) at a hospital-based IVF center. There was no significant difference in PR between eSBT and eDBT (57.4% versus 50.2%, P = 0.47) nor between eSBT and eDBT within each age group: <35, 35–37, 38–40, and >40. The risk of multiple gestations, however, was greatly increased between eSBT and eDBT (1.6 versus 32.4%, P < 0.00005), and this difference did not vary across age groups. Conclusion(s). Women undergoing eDBT are at uniformly high risk of multiple gestation regardless of age. eSBT appears to significantly lower the risk of multiple gestation without compromising PR