Emergent Writing Practices for a Kindergarten Classroom: A Handbook for Kidergarten Teachers

A handbook has been developed to aid in the design of a kindergarten writing program and/or to be used as a supplement to any existing kindergarten writing curriculum. The handbook consists of four main content areas of discussion regarding current writing practices used in a kindergarten writing curriculum: Writer\u27s Workshop, journals, partner writing, and parent involvement. Each section consists of a brief definition of the term and five distinctive lesson plans implementing the above practices. Current literature and research regarding the topic of young children\u27s development in writing were explored

Contamination par des adventices

On observe de plus en plus d’adventices contenant des alcaloïdes toxiques comme la stramoine ou les séneçons. Il faut les maîtriser sous peine d’avoir rapidement des aliments contaminés

The rating reliability calculator

BACKGROUND: Rating scales form an important means of gathering evaluation data. Since important decisions are often based on these evaluations, determining the reliability of rating data can be critical. Most commonly used methods of estimating reliability require a complete set of ratings i.e. every subject being rated must be rated by each judge. Over fifty years ago Ebel described an algorithm for estimating the reliability of ratings based on incomplete data. While his article has been widely cited over the years, software based on the algorithm is not readily available. This paper describes an easy-to-use Web-based utility for estimating the reliability of ratings based on incomplete data using Ebel's algorithm. METHODS: The program is available public use on our server and the source code is freely available under GNU General Public License. The utility is written in PHP, a common open source imbedded scripting language. The rating data can be entered in a convenient format on the user's personal computer that the program will upload to the server for calculating the reliability and other statistics describing the ratings. RESULTS: When the program is run it displays the reliability, number of subject rated, harmonic mean number of judges rating each subject, the mean and standard deviation of the averaged ratings per subject. The program also displays the mean, standard deviation and number of ratings for each subject rated. Additionally the program will estimate the reliability of an average of a number of ratings for each subject via the Spearman-Brown prophecy formula. CONCLUSION: This simple web-based program provides a convenient means of estimating the reliability of rating data without the need to conduct special studies in order to provide complete rating data. I would welcome other researchers revising and enhancing the program

Rückstände von Anthrachinon in Lebensmitteln

In den letzten Jahren wurden mehrmals Rückstände von Anthrachinon in diversen Bio- und konventionellen Lebensmitteln gefunden. Dieses Gutachten befasst sich mit den Hintergründen und möglichen Ursachen und schlägt Massnahmen zur Vermeidung solcher Rückstände vo

Giftige Ernte durch Beikräuter?

Vermehrt werden giftige alkaloidhaltige Beikräuter wie Stechapfel oder Kreuzkraut beobachtet. Diese muss man im Griff haben, sonst kann es schnell zu belasteten Lebensmitteln kommen

Tropanalkaloide in Biolebensmitteln

Am 1. April 2015 publizierte das BLV (Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen) eine öffentliche Warnung, die auf kontaminierte Bio-Hirsebällchen hinwies. Beim Schadstoff handelte es sich um Tropanalkaloide (TA) – ein Pflanzengiftstoff, der von verschiedenen Pflanzen als Abwehrsubstanz gegen Insektenfrass produziert wird. Für den Menschen sind Tropanalkaloide ebenfalls giftig. Akute Symptome wie Benommenheit, Übelkeit oder Kopfschmerzen können auftreten. In letzter Zeit konnten vermehrt Spuren von Tropanalkaloiden auch in anderen, importierten Bioprodukten aus Hirse, aber auch aus Mais und Buchweizen nachgewiesen werden. Der Ursprung der Verunreinigung ist auf das Feld zurückzuführen. Auf den Feldern können TAhaltige Pflanzen als Unkräuter vorkommen. Bei der Ernte werden Samen von diesen Unkräuter mitgeerntet und gelangen, vermischt mit dem Erntegut, in die Verarbeitung. In diesem Projekt wurde entlang der Produktionskette abgeklärt, welche Massnahmen zur Verhinderung oder Minimierung der Kontaminierung mit Tropanalkaloiden ergriffen werden können

Representing Graph Families with Edge Grammars

An edge grammar is a formal mechanism for representing families of related graphs (binary trees, hypercubes, meshes, etc.). Given an edge grammar, larger graphs in the family are derived from simple basis graphs using edge rewriting rules. A drawback to many graph grammars is that they cannot represent some important, highly regular graph families such as the family of shuffie-exchange graphs. Edge grammars, however, exist for all "computable " graph families, and simple edge gramma.rs exist for most regular graph families. In this paper, we define and illuskate edge grammars and analyze them in the context of formal language theory. Our results include hierarchy and decidability properties. Since this work originally was motivated by a need to represent graph families found in parallel computation, the application of edge grammars in this context is also discussed

AGS to RHIC transfer line: Design and commissioning

In the fall of 1995, we successfully completed a major milestone in the RHIC (Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider) project: the first beam test of the AGS (Alternating Gradient Synchrotron) to RHIC (ATR) transfer line. The ATR serves as a test bed for the new RHIC control system. This transfer line is highly instrumented, with several types of instrumentation for characterizing the extracted beam from AGS and for matching the beam into RHIC. We describe the design and performance of ATR with gold ions with an eye to reaching the design criteria for RHIC operation, both in beam quality and controls

Nutritional risk and a high NRS2002 score are closely related to disease progression and poor prognosis in patients with COVID-19

BackgroundOrganism can lead to excessive nutrient consumption in the infected state and increase nutritional risk, which is detrimental to the control of the infection and can further aggravate the disease.ObjectivesTo investigate the impact of nutritional risk and the NRS2002 score on disease progression and prognosis in patients with COVID-19.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study including 1,228 COVID-19 patients, who were divided into a with-nutritional risk group (patients with NRS2002 score ≥ 3) and a without-nutritional risk group (patients with NRS2002 score < 3) according to the NRS2002 score at admission. The differences in clinical and outcome data between the two groups were compared, and the relationship between the NRS2002 score and the disease progression and prognosis of COVID-19 patients was assessed.ResultsOf 1,228 COVID-19 patients, including 44 critical illness patients and 1,184 non-critical illness patients, the rate of harboring nutritional risk was 7.90%. Compared with those in the without-nutritional risk group, patients in the with-nutritional risk group had a significantly longer coronavirus negative conversion time, significantly lower serum albumin (ALB), total serum protein (TP) and hemoglobin (HGB) at admission, discharge or 2 weeks, a significantly greater proportion with 3 or more comorbidities, and a significantly higher rate of critical illness and mortality (all p < 0.001). Multiple regression analysis showed that nutritional risk, NRS2002 score and ALB at admission were risk factors for disease severity. In addition, nutritional risk, NRS2002 score and TP at admission were risk factors for prognosis. The NRS2002 score showed the best utility for predicting critical illness and death in COVID-19 patients.ConclusionNutritional risk and a high NRS2002 score are closely related to disease progression and poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. For patients with NRS2002 score > 0.5, early intervention of malnutrition is needed to reduce the occurrence of critical disease. Additionally, for patients with NRS2002 score > 5.5, continuous nutritional support therapy is needs to reduce mortality and improve prognosis.Clinical Trial registration: [https://www.chictr.org.cn/historyversionpub.aspx?regno=ChiCTR2000034563], identifier [Chinese Clinical Trial Register ChiCTR2000034563]

Patient satisfaction in an acute medicine department in Morocco

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Patients' satisfaction is an important indicator for quality of care. Measuring healthcare quality and improving patient satisfaction have become increasingly prevalent, especially among healthcare providers and purchasers of healthcare. This is mainly due to the fact that consumers are becoming increasingly more knowledgeable about healthcare. No studies of inpatients' satisfaction with hospital care have been conducted in Morocco. The first objective of the present study was to confirm the reliability and validity of the Arabic version of the EQS-H (Echelle de Qualité des Soins en Hospitalisation). The second objective was to evaluate patient satisfaction in an acute medicine department in Morocco by using the EQS-H questionnaire; and also to assess the influence of certain demographics, socioeconomics, and health characteristics in patient satisfaction.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>it was a patient survey conducted in an acute medicine department of a Moroccan University Hospital. We surveyed their socio demographic status, and health characteristics at admission. We performed structured face to face interviews with patients who were discharged from hospital. The core of the EQS-H questionnaire was translated to Arabic, adapted to the present setting, and then used to measure patient satisfaction with quality of care. The internal consistency of the EQS-H scale was assessed by Chronbach's coefficient alpha. Validity was assessed by factor analysis. Factors influencing inpatients' satisfaction were identified using multiple linear regression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The Arabic version of EQS-H demonstrated an excellent internal consistency for the two dimensions studied (0.889 for 'quality of medical information' (MI) and 0.906 for 'Relationship with staff and daily routine' (RS)). The principal component analysis confirmed the bidimensional structure of the questionnaire and explained 60% of the total variance. In the univariate analysis, urban residence, higher income, better perceived health status compared to admission, better perceived health status compared to people of the same age, and satisfaction with life in general were related to MI dimension; Otherwise, mal gender, urban residence, higher income, staying in double room, better perceived health status compared to admission, and satisfaction with life in general were related to RS dimension. The multiple linear regression showed that four independent variables were associated with higher satisfaction in MI: More than 2 prior hospitalizations, a longer length of stay (10-14 days) (<it>P </it>= 0.002), staying in double room (<it>P </it>= 0.022), and better perceived health status compared to admission (<it>P </it>= 0.036). Three independent variables were associated with higher satisfaction in RS: a longer length of stay (10-14 days) (<it>P </it>= 0.017), better perceived health status compared to admission day (<it>P </it>= 0.013), and satisfaction with life in general (<it>P </it>= 0.006).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our current data assessing patient satisfaction with acute health care by the Arabic version of the EQS-H showed that the satisfaction rate was average on MI dimension; and good on RS dimension of the questionnaire. The majority of participants were satisfied with the overall care. Demographic, socioeconomic, and health characteristics may influence in-patients satisfaction in Morocco, a low/middle income country. An appreciation and understanding of these factors is essential to develop socio culturally appropriate interventions in order to improve satisfaction of patients.</p