Negative Effects of Standardized Testing

This Capstone Project focused on the negative effects of standardized testing and the alternatives. The participants for this project consisted of 32 third-graders in a public elementary school located in Southern California. This project consisted of having all the third-grade students organize their own portfolio in mathematics, with a focus on fractions and shapes, as an alternative to standardized testing. In this way, the students have the control of their grade rather than having a long, cumulative test at the end of the year. This can alleviate the stress of standardized testing for students and teachers. After conducting the project, students showed enthusiasm about being in control of their grade and deciding which assignments go into the portfolio to be graded on. This connects to teaching because this could be a potential alternative to standardized testing, taking away anxiety for both students and teachers

Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Literacy Among Black and Latinx Patients Who Could Benefit from HIV Prevention Medication

Introduction: Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) is only reaching a small percentage of people who could benefit from it. The disproportionate impact of HIV and lower rates of PrEP prescriptions for Black and Latinx patients is of crucial concern and must be addressed if the disease is ever to be eradicated. Primary Care Provider (PCP) communication strategies focused on increasing Sexual Health Practices Self-Efficacy (SHPSE) and understanding of one’s own sexual health needs when educating about HIV and PrEP will be a significant approach to reducing disparities among people of color. Objective: Determine the influences of PrEP/HIV sources of information and SHPSE on level of PrEP literacy. Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional study design to explore PrEP literacy. The survey was disseminated among Black and Latinx individuals in Indiana. A multivariate linear regression was conducted to determine the relationship of 2 independent variables: sources of HIV information and SHPSE, and 5 covariates: race/ethnicity, gender, PrEP indicators, sexual identification, and HIV standards of care, on the dependent variable: PrEP literacy. PrEP Literacy Scale contained 9 questions concerning common misconceptions about PrEP. Scores ranged from 9-18, with a score of 18 indicating a high degree of PrEP literacy. SHPSE was assessed using participants’ self-rated level of confidence in performing various sexual health practices on a scale from 1=no confidence to 4=high confidence. Results: Participants (n=606) identified as Black (67.6%) and Latinx (32.4%). Women accounted for the majority (63.4%) of the sample, followed by men (35.5%). 83% of the sample identified as straight, while 1.8% and 10.1% identified as gay and bisexual. The regression model was significant (p<.001) and explained 22% of the variance in the dependent variable, PrEP literacy (R2=.223). Results indicate that participants who report a level 4 (p=.01) and level 3 (p=.02) SHPSE were more likely to have a higher PrEP literacy compared to respondents who report level 1 SHPSE. Latinx participants reported higher PrEP literacy compared with Black respondents (p=.02). Receiving annual HIV screenings was associated with a higher PrEP literacy (p=.002). Finally, using a PCP as the primary source of HIV information was associated with higher PrEP literacy (p=.01); conversely, using friends as the primary source of HIV information was associated with lower PrEP literacy (p<.001), which was the strongest predictor in the model (=-.238). Conclusions: PrEP literacy is increased among patients reporting more contact with their provider, especially with PCPs who screen for HIV regularly. Respondents who utilize their PCPs are more confident accessing HIV services and are more able to discern fact from fiction around PrEP. PCPs who serve as a primary source of information may also serve as the patient’s sole, accurate source of sexual health education. Findings suggest that curricular changes should integrate a holistic education strategy around sexual health for healthcare providers, which entails taking a detailed sexual health history, assessing HIV risk factors, and determining when it is appropriate to prescribe PrEP

Bodied: Who Does Society Think You Should Be?

It is no secret that society has constructed a high level of pressure surrounding the appearance of women’s bodies. In light of such pressures we have chosen to create a zine focused on issues regarding body image and the different ways in which society impacts women\u27s bodies. Our goal is to raise awareness of how society\u27s standards affect women and also empower those who are a part of the project. On the following pages you will find four sections highlighting a few main categories of which we have found there to be the significant presence of stigma and stereotypes: athletes, teenagers, mothers, and models. We hope that this content will challenge your thoughts on how society labels women and encourage you to examine how they instead would label themselves.https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/spring_2023/1015/thumbnail.jp

Akin House Curriculum Development and Living History Programming

This unit plan is comprised of a variety of inquiry-based lessons that explore the culture and way of life of the Native Americans who occupied New England. After studying the Akin house documents, materials, and narratives, I chose to focus my unit on the land and the people who came before the Akin family so that students will learn the long-view of our rich New England history

Fan cells in lateral entorhinal cortex directly influence medial entorhinal cortex through synaptic connections in layer 1

Acknowledgements This work was supported by grants from the Wellcome Trust (200855/Z/16/Z) to MFN and the BBSRC (BB/V010107/1) to MFN and BV. The authors thank Innes Jarmson for the generation of adeno-associated viruses.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

The Incentive Amplifying Effects of Nicotine Are Reduced by Selective and Non-Selective Dopamine Antagonists in Rats

Nicotine is a psychomotor stimulant with ‘reinforcement enhancing’ effects — the actions of nicotine in the brain increase responding for non-nicotine rewards. We hypothesized that this latter effect of nicotine depends on increased incentive properties of anticipatory cues; consistent with this hypothesis, multiple laboratories have reported that nicotine increases sign tracking, i.e. approach to a conditioned stimulus (CS), in Pavlovian conditioned-approach tasks. Incentive motivation and sign tracking are mediated by mesolimbic dopamine (DA) transmission and nicotine facilitates mesolimbic DA release. Therefore, we hypothesized that the incentive-promoting effects of nicotine would be impaired by DA antagonists. To test this hypothesis, separate groups of rats were injected with nicotine (0.4 mg/kg base) or saline prior to Pavlovian conditioning sessions in which a CS (30 s illumination of a light or presentation of a lever) was immediately followed by a sweet reward delivered in an adjacent location. Both saline and nicotine pretreated rats exhibited similar levels of conditioned approach to the reward location (goal tracking), but nicotine pretreatment significantly increased approach to the CS (sign tracking), regardless of type (lever or light). The DAD1 antagonist SCH-23390 and the DAD2/3antagonist eticlopride reduced conditioned approach in all rats, but specifically reduced goal tracking in the saline pretreated rats and sign tracking in the nicotine pretreated rats. The non-selective DA antagonist flupenthixol reduced sign-tracking in nicotine rats at all doses tested; however, only the highest dose of flupenthixol reduced goal tracking in both nicotine and saline groups. The reductions in conditioned approach behavior, especially those by SCH-23390, were dissociated from simple motor suppressant effects of the antagonists. These experiments are the first to investigate the effects of dopaminergic drugs on the facilitation of sign-tracking engendered by nicotine and they implicate dopaminergic systems both in conditioned approach as well as the incentive-promoting effects of nicotine

Is measurement error altered by participation in a physical activity intervention?

WINKLER, E., L. WATERS, E. EAKIN, B. FJELDSOE, N. OWEN, and M. REEVES. Is Measurement Error Altered by Participation in a Physical Activity Intervention? Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 1004-1011, 2013. Purpose: There is no "gold standard" measure for moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA); some error is inherent to self-report and device-based measures. Few studies have examined agreement between self-report and device-based measures in the intervention trial context or whether the difference between measures is influenced by intervention participation. Methods: MVPA was measured at baseline and after 6 months by Active Australia Survey (AAS) and by the GT1M accelerometer (>= 1952 counts per minute) in the intervention (n = 135) and usual care control (n = 141) participants of a randomized trial targeting weight loss by MVPA increases and energy intake reductions in adults with type 2 diabetes. Agreement (for each group at each assessment) was examined using the Bland-Altman approach and regression-based modeling. Because the differences between MVPA measures varied with average values ([AAS + GT1M]/2), they were examined as a percentage of average physical activity. t-tests were used to assess unadjusted group differences and changes over time. ANCOVA models tested intervention effects on measurement error at follow-up, adjusted for baseline. Results: Agreement worsened, and variability in the difference measures became greater, as the average amount of MVPA increased. Measurement error differed significantly between groups at follow-up (P = 0.010) but not at baseline (P = 0.157) and changed significantly within the intervention group (P = 0.001) but not the control group (P = 0.164). There was a statistically significant effect of the intervention on measurement error (P = 0.026). Conclusions: Measurement error of self-report relative to the accelerometer appeared to be affected by intervention. Because measurement error cannot be definitively attributed to self-report or accelerometer, it would be prudent to measure both in future studies

Kate 2009 Spring

Each year, kate seeks to: explore ideas about normative gender, sex, and sexuality work against oppression and hierarchies of power in any and all forms serve as a voice for race and gender equity as well as queer positivity encourage the silent to speak and feel less afraid build a zine and community that we care about and trusthttps://digitalcommons.otterbein.edu/kate/1002/thumbnail.jp

Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs): Development of Small Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) to Supplement Power Needs

Small Modular Reactor (SMR) is a small nuclear reactor that can operate as part of or independently of the electrical grid system 100 to 1,000 times smaller than typical nuclear reactors Modular and easily transportable Reliable and operationally flexibl

Survivorship, complications, and outcomes following distal femoral arthroplasty for non-neoplastic indications.

AIMS: Endoprosthetic reconstruction with a distal femoral arthroplasty (DFA) can be used to treat distal femoral bone loss from oncological and non-oncological causes. This study reports the short-term implant survivorship, complications, and risk factors for patients who underwent DFA for non-neoplastic indications. METHODS: We performed a retrospective review of 75 patients from a single institution who underwent DFA for non-neoplastic indications, including aseptic loosening or mechanical failure of a previous prosthesis (n = 25), periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) (n = 23), and native or periprosthetic distal femur fracture or nonunion (n = 27). Patients with less than 24 months\u27 follow-up were excluded. We collected patient demographic data, complications, and reoperations. Reoperation for implant failure was used to calculate implant survivorship. RESULTS: Overall one- and five-year implant survivorship was 87% and 76%, respectively. By indication for DFA, mechanical failure had one- and five-year implant survivorship of 92% and 68%, PJI of 91% and 72%, and distal femur fracture/nonunion of 78% and 70% (p = 0.618). A total of 37 patients (49%) experienced complications and 27 patients (36%) required one or more reoperation. PJI (n = 16, 21%), aseptic loosening (n = 9, 12%), and wound complications (n = 8, 11%) were the most common complications. Component revision (n = 10, 13.3%) and single-stage exchange for PJI (n = 9, 12.0 %) were the most common reoperations. Only younger age was significantly associated with increased complications (mean 67 years (SD 9.1)) with complication vs 71 years (SD 9.9) without complication; p = 0.048). CONCLUSION: DFA is a viable option for distal femoral bone loss from a range of non-oncological causes, demonstrating acceptable short-term survivorship but with high overall complication rates