Examining the Attitudes of Preservice Teachers toward English Learners

The rapid growth of the K-12 English Learner (EL) student population in the United States raises concerns related to their learning and growth in schools. Teachers are central figures in their students’ achievement. The influence of teachers’ attitudes on student learning and development validates the need to examine these in research studies. What influences teachers’ attitudes is an important part of understanding teachers’ attitudes towards their EL students. Certain individual characteristics including teachers’ training, may be associated with their positive attitudes. Studies have shown that effective teacher preparation programs can change preservice teacher attitudes in general and specifically towards their EL students. The majority of studies are survey-based. The surveys have consistently shown that teachers do not have adequate training and skills to meet the needs of their EL students. The studies have shown that attitudes make a difference in teacher actions and students learning. This study builds on the past research using surveys to continue to extend our knowledge of teacher attitudes towards ELs to a new context and populations of preservice teachers. The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine the preservice teachers’ attitudes toward ELs. This study collected 162 surveys on undergraduate preservice teachers’ attitudes towards ELs. Analysis of survey data indicated that undergraduate preservice teachers at a diverse, public university reported positive overall attitudes towards ELs and supporting their learning in mainstream classrooms. Participant degree program membership showed differences in attitudes, but most demographic variables did not. Taking courses in teaching ELs (ELAD) was not strongly related to differences in preservice teacher attitudes. Results also showed that teacher preparation programs need to directly address preservice teacher attitudes towards ELs

Health-related quality of life and depression among participants in the Sjögren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance registry.

ObjectiveTo examine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and depression among participants in an international Sjögren's syndrome (SS) registry, comparing those with and without SS.MethodsCross-sectional study of participants in the Sjögren's International Collaborative Clinical Alliance (SICCA) registry. The 2016 American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism SS classification criteria were used to determine disease status. HRQoL was assessed using the Short Form 12, version 2 Health Survey to derive scores for physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS). Depression was assessed using the 9-Item Patient Health Questionnaire. Multivariate linear and logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of HRQoL and depression while controlling for potential confounders.ResultsAmong 2401 SICCA participants who had symptoms of dry eyes and dry mouth, 1051 had SS (44%) and 1350 did not (56%). After controlling for confounders, when compared with non-SS participants, those with SS had better PCS (p<0.001, β=2.43, 95% CI 1.57 to 3.29), MCS (p=0.002, β=1.37, 95% CI 0.50 to 2.23) and lower adjusted odds of depression (p<0.001, OR 0.67, 95% CI 0.55 to 0.81). Other significant predictors of HRQoL and depression included employment, country of residence and use of medication with anticholinergic effect or for management of SS-related signs and symptoms.ConclusionOur results suggest that among symptomatic patients, having a diagnosis of SS may be associated with better emotional and psychological well-being compared with patients without a diagnosis. Having a definitive diagnosis of SS may encourage patients to obtain a better understanding of their disease and have coping mechanisms in place to better manage their symptoms

Betwixt and Between: Subjective Experiences of "Taiwanese Identity"

The main objective of this thesis is to disentangle the complexities of Taiwanese identity with hopes of advancing broader treatises on identity, recognition, and the frictions between internal and external (re)labelling. Overall, it aspires to promote some much-needed dialogue about Taiwanese identity and convey the nuances of its experience through direct engagement with Taiwanese subjects. My research seeks neither to confirm nor deny the materiality of their experiences, but alternatively, it acknowledges the inherent truths embedded within each and every one of them. Thus, I hope to honour the fluidity, changeability, and variability of Taiwanese identity. In summary, this thesis is devoted to celebrating the potential conflicts within and between individual biographies; it bears witness to the plural and contingent nature of Taiwanese identity and experience.Bachelor of Art

Teacher Training and Teaching Practice: The Case of Niger’s English as a Foreign Language Teachers

There continues to be a debate as to the role and value of educator preparation programs throughout the world. This paper examines self-report data of the instructional language learning methods of Nigerien English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers. This study sought to understand what instructional methods EFL teachers are using in their classrooms and if there is any connection between instructional methods and teacher training. All EFL teachers in Niger were surveyed to answer these questions. Teachers used a variety of instructional methods based on their preservice training; however, these differences were contained to teachers in their first five years of teaching. The findings support that teacher training is associated with the instructional decisions of teachers

HIV Infection and the Risk of World Health Organization-Defined Sudden Cardiac Death

Background People living with HIV have higher sudden cardiac death (SCD) rates compared with the general population. Whether HIV infection is an independent SCD risk factor is unclear. Methods and Results This study evaluated participants from the Veterans Aging Cohort Study, an observational, longitudinal cohort of veterans with and without HIV infection matched 1:2 on age, sex, race/ethnicity, and clinical site. Baseline for this study was a participant\u27s first clinical visit on or after April 1, 2003. Participants were followed through December 31, 2014. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we assessed whether HIV infection, CD4 cell counts, and/or HIV viral load were associated with World Health Organization (WHO)–defined SCD risk. Among 144 336 participants (30% people living with HIV), the mean (SD) baseline age was 50.0 years (10.6 years), 97% were men, and 47% were of Black race. During follow‐up (median, 9.0 years), 3035 SCDs occurred. HIV infection was associated with increased SCD risk (hazard ratio [HR], 1.14; 95% CI, 1.04–1.25), adjusting for possible confounders. In analyses with time‐varying CD4 and HIV viral load, people living with HIV with CD4 counts \u3c 200 cells/mm3 (HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.28–1.92) or viral load \u3e 500 copies/mL (HR, 1.70; 95% CI, 1.46–1.98) had increased SCD risk versus veterans without HIV. In contrast, people living with HIV who had CD4 cell counts \u3e 500 cells/mm3 (HR, 1.03; 95% CI, 0.90–1.18) or HIV viral load \u3c 500 copies/mL (HR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.87–1.09) were not at increased SCD risk. Conclusions HIV infection is associated with increased risk of WHO‐defined SCD among those with elevated HIV viral load or low CD4 cell counts

Countdown to 2030 : tracking progress towards universal coverage for reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health

Building upon the successes of Countdown to 2015, Countdown to 2030 aims to support the monitoring and measurement of women's, children's, and adolescents' health in the 81 countries that account for 95% of maternal and 90% of all child deaths worldwide. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, the rate of decline in prevalence of maternal and child mortality, stillbirths, and stunting among children younger than 5 years of age needs to accelerate considerably compared with progress since 2000. Such accelerations are only possible with a rapid scale-up of effective interventions to all population groups within countries (particularly in countries with the highest mortality and in those affected by conflict), supported by improvements in underlying socioeconomic conditions, including women's empowerment. Three main conclusions emerge from our analysis of intervention coverage, equity, and drivers of reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in the 81 Countdown countries. First, even though strong progress was made in the coverage of many essential RMNCH interventions during the past decade, many countries are still a long way from universal coverage for most essential interventions. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence suggests that available services in many countries are of poor quality, limiting the potential effect on RMNCH outcomes. Second, within-country inequalities in intervention coverage are reducing in most countries (and are now almost non-existent in a few countries), but the pace is too slow. Third, health-sector (eg, weak country health systems) and non-health-sector drivers (eg, conflict settings) are major impediments to delivering high-quality services to all populations. Although more data for RMNCH interventions are available now, major data gaps still preclude the use of evidence to drive decision making and accountability. Countdown to 2030 is investing in improvements in measurement in several areas, such as quality of care and effective coverage, nutrition programmes, adolescent health, early childhood development, and evidence for conflict settings, and is prioritising its regional networks to enhance local analytic capacity and evidence for RMNCH

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Método híbrido para categorización de texto basado en aprendizaje y reglas

En este artículo se presenta un nuevo método híbrido de categorización automática de texto, que combina un algoritmo de aprendizaje computacional, que permite construir un modelo base de clasificación sin mucho esfuerzo a partir de un corpus etiquetado, con un sistema basado en reglas en cascada que se emplea para filtrar y reordenar los resultados de dicho modelo base. El modelo puede afinarse añadiendo reglas específicas para aquellas categorías difíciles que no se han entrenado de forma satisfactoria. Se describe una implementación realizada mediante el algoritmo kNN y un lenguaje básico de reglas basado en listas de términos que aparecen en el texto a clasificar. El sistema se ha evaluado en diferentes escenarios incluyendo el corpus de noticias Reuters-21578 para comparación con otros enfoques, y los modelos IPTC y EUROVOC. Los resultados demuestran que el sistema obtiene una precisión y cobertura comparables con las de los mejores métodos del estado del arte