Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Their Preparation to Choose and Implement Effective Methods for Teaching Emergent Readers.

Reading is not an easily learned skill for most students. I chose to look at the methodology being used by teachers in East Tennessee to instruct emerging readers. Through my review of literature, I researched reading approaches implemented in American classrooms in the last 150 years. I compared and contrasted data to determine current researchers\u27 findings concerning the most effective techniques for teaching reading and how teachers have implemented this knowledge base into their teaching strategies. Teachers cannot teach what they do not know. Therefore, I also researched literature addressing the growing concern among educators with teachers\u27 preparation and professional development opportunities as well as the amount of specific preparation teachers received regarding the reading methods they are using. After compiling the data from my interviews with 30 East Tennessee first-grade teachers, I found that most said they did not feel adequately prepared to teach emergent readers. These teachers reported they had not had instruction that provided foundations in a wide range of research-based approaches to reading. The professional development offerings for teachers already in the classroom were often sporadic and did not compensate for their lack of preparation in college. There is a need for colleges and universities to re-evaluate the current teacher preparation programs. School systems should strive to provide quality inservice opportunities for instructors of emergent readers as well as hiring reading coaches or specialists to assist the reading instructors

Developmental Delays in Executive Function from 3 to 5 Years of Age Predict Kindergarten Academic Readiness

Substantial evidence has established that individual differences in executive function (EF) in early childhood are uniquely predictive of children’s academic readiness at school entry. The current study tested whether growth trajectories of EF across the early childhood period could be used to identify a subset of children who were at pronounced risk for academic impairment in kindergarten. Using data that were collected at the age 3, 4, and 5 home assessments in the Family Life Project (N = 1,120), growth mixture models were used to identify 9% of children who exhibited impaired EF performance (i.e., persistently low levels of EF that did not show expected improvements across time). Compared to children who exhibited typical trajectories of EF, the delayed group exhibited substantial impairments in multiple indicators of academic readiness in kindergarten (Cohen’s ds = 0.9–2.7; odds ratios = 9.8–23.8). Although reduced in magnitude following control for a range of socioeconomic and cognitive (general intelligence screener, receptive vocabulary) covariates, moderate-sized group differences remained (Cohen’s ds = 0.2–2.4; odds ratios = 3.9–5.4). Results are discussed with respect to the use of repeated measures of EF as a method of early identification, as well as the resulting translational implications of doing so

Integrating Item Accuracy and Reaction Time to Improve the Measurement of Inhibitory Control Abilities in Early Childhood

Efforts to improve children’s executive function are often hampered by the lack of measures that are optimized for use during the transition from preschool to elementary school. Whereas preschool-based measures often emphasize response accuracy, elementary school-based measures emphasize reaction time (RT)—especially for measures inhibitory control (IC) tasks that typically have a speeded component. The primary objective of this study was to test in a preschool-aged sample whether the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT data resulted in improved scoring for three IC tasks relative to scores derived from accuracy data alone. Generally, the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT data resulted in modest improvements in the measurement precision of IC abilities. Moreover, the joint use of item-level accuracy and RT helped eliminate floor and ceiling effects that occurred when accuracy data were considered alone. Results are discussed with respect to the importance of scoring IC tasks in ways that are maximally informative for program evaluation and longitudinal modeling

ICU Made 4 U: Critical Care Education for Novice Nurses

Background: The novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic had a large impact on education in the healthcare setting. At Henry Ford Jackson Hospital (HFJH), due to staffing constraints and emergent clinical needs, nurses hired during the COVID 19 pandemic did not complete standard critical care orientation after March 2020. During yearly learning needs assessments, nurses identified opportunities for enhanced education regarding the management of critically ill patients. Staff Development Educators and Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs) within the acuity adaptable units identified a gap in knowledge regarding critical care concepts. At HFJH, acuity adaptable units house critical care patients on the Medical Universal Bed unit and the Surgical Universal Bed unit. Aim: The aim of this quality improvement project was to increase novice nurses’ knowledge of critical care concepts while increasing confidence implementing advanced nursing skills within the patient population. Methods: The Staff Development Educators and CNSs proposed an education program to the nursing leadership and gained support for mandatory attendance. Content was formulated based on input from the interprofessional critical care team and feedback from the nursing learning needs assessments. Nurses caring for the critical care population hired or transferred after March 2020 were required to complete the program. Nurses were given the opportunity to complete and pass a standardized test (score of 80% or higher) in lieu of attending the educational sessions. Three, four-hour sessions were created and included didactic content, simulation with case scenarios, and interactive teaching methods with equipment specific to the intensive care setting. A pre-test was administered prior to content presentation and the post test was administered at the end of the third session. Nurses completed an evaluation for each didactic content presentation and received continuing education credit. Findings: The average score for pre-test was 70.7%. The average post test score was 77.3%. Demonstrating a 6.6% increase following intervention. The results of this quality improvement project indicated that formalized, didactic and simulation education opportunities enhanced the knowledge of critical care concepts for novice nurses. Nurses completed an evaluation for each didactic session with positive feedback and suggestions for additional content. Implications: Nurses with critical care experience opted to participate in the program to enhance their personal growth and knowledge. Based on the pre and post test results, gastrointestinal and parenteral content will be added to future sessions. Tailored education, with a focus on simulation and hands on content, showed to improve nurses understanding of advanced critical care concepts. These didactic, simulation, and hands on learning sessions will be integrated into the onboarding orientation for nurses caring for the critical care population.https://scholarlycommons.henryford.com/nursresconf2023/1004/thumbnail.jp

The Benefits of Adding a Brief Measure of Simple Reaction Time to The Assessment of Executive Function Skills in Early Childhood

Early childhood represents a period of rapid cognitive developmental change in executive function (EF) skills along with a variety of related cognitive processes, including processing speed. This leads to interpretational challenges in that children’s performance on EF tasks reflects more than EF skills per se. We tested whether the inclusion of a brief measure of simple reaction time (SRT) during EF assessments could help to partially address this challenge. Data were drawn from a cross-sectional convenience sample of 830 preschool-aged children. Individual differences in SRT were significantly associated with performance on all tasks (R2s = .09–.26); slower performance on the SRT task was associated with poorer performance on each EF task. Age-related differences in individual EF tasks were reduced by approximately one half after accounting for age-related differences in SRT, and EF task scores were less coherent (i.e., less strongly intercorrelated with each other) after the removal of SRT. Age-related differences in EF were smaller (Cohen ds = 1.36 vs. 0.78), and poverty-related differences in EF were larger (Cohen ds = 0.30 vs. 0.46) after accounting for SRT-related variation. Finally, consistent with previous studies, SRT-related differences in fluid reasoning were mediated by EF skills. Results are discussed with respect to using a brief measure of SRT to partially address the problem of measurement impurity at the level of individual EF tasks

Developmental Delays in Executive Function from 3 to 5 Years of Age Predict Kindergarten Academic Readiness

Substantial evidence has established that individual differences in executive function (EF) in early childhood are uniquely predictive of children’s academic readiness at school entry. The current study tested whether growth trajectories of EF across the early childhood period could be used to identify a subset of children who were at pronounced risk for academic impairment in kindergarten. Using data that were collected at the age 3, 4, and 5 home assessments in the Family Life Project (N = 1,120), growth mixture models were used to identify 9% of children who exhibited impaired EF performance (i.e., persistently low levels of EF that did not show expected improvements across time). Compared to children who exhibited typical trajectories of EF, the delayed group exhibited substantial impairments in multiple indicators of academic readiness in kindergarten (Cohen’s ds = 0.9–2.7; odds ratios = 9.8–23.8). Although reduced in magnitude following control for a range of socioeconomic and cognitive (general intelligence screener, receptive vocabulary) covariates, moderate-sized group differences remained (Cohen’s ds = 0.2–2.4; odds ratios = 3.9–5.4). Results are discussed with respect to the use of repeated measures of EF as a method of early identification, as well as the resulting translational implications of doing so

Genomic alterations associated with mutational signatures, DNA damage repair and chromatin remodeling pathways in cervical carcinoma

Despite recent advances in the prevention of cervical cancer, the disease remains a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. By applying the GISTIC2.0 and/or the MutSig2CV algorithms on 430 whole-exome-sequenced cervical carcinomas, we identified previously unreported significantly mutated genes (SMGs) (including MSN, GPX1, SPRED3, FAS, and KRT8), amplifications (including NFIA, GNL1, TGIF1, and WDR87) and deletions (including MIR562, PVRL1, and NTM). Subset analyses of 327 squamous cell carcinomas and 86 non-squamous cell carcinomas revealed previously unreported SMGs in BAP1 and IL28A, respectively. Distinctive copy number alterations related to tumors predominantly enriched for *CpG- and Tp*C mutations were observed. CD274, GRB2, KRAS, and EGFR were uniquely significantly amplified within the Tp*C-enriched tumors. A high frequency of aberrations within DNA damage repair and chromatin remodeling genes were detected. Facilitated by the large sample size derived from combining multiple datasets, this study reveals potential targets and prognostic markers for cervical cancer.publishedVersio

Postnatal parental smoking: an important risk factor for SIDS

Background: Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the unexpected death of an infant that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation of the circumstances, family history, paediatric investigation and complete autopsy. In Western society, it is the leading cause of post-neonatal death below 1 year of age. In the Netherlands, the SIDS incidence is very low, which offers opportunities to assess the importance of old and new environmental risk factors. For this purpose, cases were collected through pathology departments and the working group on SIDS of the Dutch Paediatrician Foundation. A total of 142 cases were included; these occurred after the parental education on sleeping position (1987), restricted to the international age criteria and had no histological explanation. Age-matched healthy controls (N∈=∈2,841) came from a survey of the Netherlands Paediatric Surveillance Unit, completed between November 2002 and April 2003. A multivariate analysis was performed to determine the risk factors for SIDS, including sleeping position, antenatal maternal smoking, postnatal parental smoking, premature birth, gender, lack of breastfeeding and socio-economic status. Postnatal smoking was identified as an important environmental risk factor for SIDS (OR one parent∈=∈2.5 [1.2, 5.0]; both parents∈=∈5.77 [2.2, 15.5]; maternal∈=∈2.7 [1.0, 6.4]; paternal∈=∈2.4 [1.3, 4.5] ) as was prone sleeping (OR put prone to sleep∈=∈21.5 [10.6, 43.5]; turned prone during sleep∈=∈100 [46, 219]). Premature birth was also significantly associated with SIDS (OR∈=∈2.4 [1.2, 4.8]). Conclusion: Postnatal parental smoking is currently a major environmental risk factor for SIDS in the Netherlands together with the long-established risk of prone sleeping

Longitudinal changes in physical activity level, body mass index, and oxygen uptake among Norwegian adolescents

publishedVersio