Bridging the Skills Gap: Employers’ Needs vs. Vocational Education Students’ Perceived Capabilities

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived worker qualities of vocational education students who have participated in a job training program for at least one year. In addition, this study also endeavored to reveal what these students rated as the five most important worker qualities needed for their future employment. Sixty high school students enrolled in the WE-MO-CO Vocational Education and Technological Center participated in this study. This job training program enrolls students from 11 public high schools and two private educational institutions in western Orleans/Monroe County, New York. A Survey of Worker Qualities was administered to the students by their instructors prior to the beginning of their job training sessions. Fifty four usable surveys were examined. Results indicated that the majority of these students felt they had to offer a prospective employer personal management behaviors and positive work-related attitudes as opposed to academic abilities. Students\u27 ratings also indicated that the above worker qualities were most important to their future employment and did not rate academic abilities as important qualities for their future employment

Leadership Challenges of the Rural School Principal

As stress impacts the organization and operations of a school, leader stressors may be determined by the setting, years of experience of the leader and the greater educational landscape in which the principal must lead. The researchers sought to differentiate between the perceived stress and joy of urban and rural school principals. Findings derived from this time series design inquiry suggest that despite external influence, there is limited change in reported stress of rural school principals. Though the leadership in any setting is complex and multi-faceted, the researchers identified and assessed contributing factors

Phage ϕC2 mediates transduction of Tn6215, encoding erythromycin resistance, between Clostridium difficile strains

UNLABELLED: In this work, we show that Clostridium difficile phage ϕC2 transduces erm(B), which confers erythromycin resistance, from a donor to a recipient strain at a frequency of 10(-6) per PFU. The transductants were lysogenic for ϕC2 and contained the erm(B) gene in a novel transposon, Tn6215. This element is 13,008 bp in length and contains 17 putative open reading frames (ORFs). It could also be transferred at a lower frequency by filter mating. IMPORTANCE: Clostridium difficile is a major human pathogen that causes diarrhea that can be persistent and difficult to resolve using antibiotics. C. difficile is potentially zoonotic and has been detected in animals, food, and environmental samples. C. difficile genomes contain large portions of horizontally acquired genetic elements. The conjugative elements have been reasonably well studied, but transduction has not yet been demonstrated. Here, we show for the first time transduction as a mechanism for the transfer of a novel genetic element in C. difficile. Transduction may also be a useful tool for the genetic manipulation of C. difficile.Peer reviewe

Curriculum Wars and Cold War Politics: The Struggle for Academic Freedom in Higher Education

During the early 1960s, in the formative years of Florida\u27s newest university, the University of South Florida located in Tampa, the Florida Investigative Committee in true McCarthy-era style, set up its Star Chamber interviews with students and others at local motels near the University. The purpose of these interviews was to ferret out information about university administrators and instructors which would point to either their innocence or their guilt in terms of communist party membership, homosexuality, or the teaching of atheism. After an exhaustive process which left the intellectual community on Florida\u27s West Coast shaken and dismayed at what it collectively believed was a misguided mission and waste of taxpayer dollars, academic communities in other university towns throughout Florida responded with outrage over the intrusion of politicians and perceived anti-intellectuals into the business of higher education. Some had already run the investigative committee\u27s gauntlet, others likely feared they would follow. In what could have resulted in the sudden demise of the infant university, its leaders and faculty emerged from the experience, not as victors, but rather as survivors of a bitter battle over academic freedom. This study serves to fill the growing body of research on the McCarthy era and its influence on education. It will cover as a case study the entire struggle of the university over the issue of academic freedom and the attempts of well-meaning citizens to control what is taught and in what way it is taught at the most sacred of investigative places—the university