Effectiveness of toys as an enhancement to instruction in explanation for students with learning disabilities

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston UniversityStudents with language-based learning disabilities demonstrate learning challenges that must be addressed to enable them to succeed academically. Some of these students have difficulty with the process of organizing their thoughts about information acquired and expressing them in the form of an explanation, both of which are critical to effective learning and the demonstration of learning. Graham's (1990) research reveals that these students use simplified approaches to the task of explanation, illustrating this challenge. This study was designed to analyze the effectiveness of an instructional approach to teach students to give an oral explanation. It utilized a toy to facilitate organization of the students' thinking, potentially aiding in their oral expression of a complete and coherent explanation, and possibly increasing their level of engagement, another area of learning that is also often challenging to these students (Mathinos & Wypych, 1988). The intervention used was based on Self-Regulated Strategy Development, an instructional approach that combines strategy instruction with self-management procedures (Graham & Harris, 1996), and a toy used as a manipulative that was projected to: (a) serve as an analogy to the chronology, completeness, and coherence of an explanation, and (b) increase engagement in the task. This intervention was an application of Universal Design for Learning principles, which was the overarching conceptual framework to this research, that has been found effective to enhance student learning (Rose & Meyer, 2002). A single-subject multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach with four middle school students with learning disabilities, all of whom were selected because of their difficulty with the process of explanation. Measures were taken on baseline levels of engagement and quality of oral explanation with instruction alone, and then with instruction and a toy as an enhancement to instruction. Results revealed that participating students' oral explanation scores increased slightly from baseline to Intervention 1 (Instruction) to Intervention 2 (Instruction review and toy use). While scores increased slightly from Baseline to Intervention 1 (Instruction), the subsequent increase from Intervention 1 to Intervention 2 (with the manipulative toy), was greater. Additionally, when considering student engagement data, for all but one student, the manipulative toy kept students highly engaged in both Intervention phases. This study suggests that the use of a manipulative toy in instruction improved students' learning. It also provides evidence that there is potential for the structured use of manipulative toys as augments to instruction more generally. These results have direct implications for practice in the area of curriculum design for students with learning disabilities

Protein phosphatase 4 – from obscurity to vital functions

AbstractProtein phosphatase 4 (Ppp4) is a ubiquitous serine/threonine phosphatase in the PPP family that is now recognised to regulate a variety of cellular functions independently of protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). Regulatory subunits (R1 and R2) have been identified in mammals that interact with the catalytic subunit of Ppp4 (Ppp4c) and control its activity. Ppp4c–R2 complexes play roles in organelle assembly; not only are they essential for maturation of the centrosome, but they are also involved in spliceosomal assembly via interaction with the survival of motor neurons (SMNs) complex. Several cellular signalling routes, including NF-κB and the target of rapamycin (TOR) pathways appear to be regulated by Ppp4. Emerging evidence indicates that Ppp4 may play a role in the DNA damage response and that Ppp4c–R1 complexes decrease the activity of a histone deacetylase, implicating Ppp4 in the regulation of chromatin activities. Antitumour agents, cantharidin and fostriecin, potently inhibit the activity of Ppp4. Orthologues of mammalian Ppp4 subunits in Saccharomyces cerevisiae confer resistance to the anticancer, DNA-binding drugs, cisplatin and oxaliplatin

Examination of perceived neighborhood characteristics and transportation on changes in physical activity and sedentary behavior: The Trial of Activity in Adolescent Girls

We examined the association between perceived neighborhood characteristics and transport and 2-year changes in accelerometer-determined nonschool MET-weighted moderate to vigorous physical activity (MW-MVPA) and sedentary behavior of adolescent girls. Reporting that children do not play outdoors in their neighborhood, that their neighborhood was well lit, and that there were trails in their neighborhood were each associated with significant decreases in nonschool MW-MVPA. None of the neighborhood or transportation measures was associated with changes in nonschool sedentary behavior. Further work is needed to understand the determinants of the decline in physical activity and the increase in sedentary behavior among adolescent girls

Moral panic and social theory: Beyond the heuristic

Copyright @ 2011 by International Sociological Association.Critcher has recently conceptualized moral panic as a heuristic device, or 'ideal type'. While he argues that one still has to look beyond the heuristic, despite a few exceptional studies there has been little utilization of recent developments in social theory in order to look 'beyond moral panic'. Explicating two current critical contributions - the first, drawing from the sociologies of governance and risk; the second, from the process/figurational sociology of Norbert Elias - this article highlights the necessity for the continuous theoretical development of the moral panic concept and illustrates how such development is essential to overcome some of the substantial problems with moral panic research: normativity, temporality and (un) intentionality

El deber de lealtad de los administradores sociales en caso de grupos de sociedades: STS, Sala Primera, de 11 de diciembre de 2015

El artículo 227 del Texto Refundido de la Ley de Sociedades de Capital (en adelante, TRLSC), dentro del Capítulo III (“De los deberes de los administradores”), del Título VI (“La administración de la sociedad”) recoge, a modo de cláusula general, el deber de lealtad de los administradores sociales, disponiendo que “1. Los administradores deberán desempeñar el cargo con la lealtad de un fiel representante, obrando de buena fe y en el mejor interés de la sociedad.”. En el apartado 2 señala las consecuencias que se asocian a la infracción del deber de lealtad que “determinará no sólo la obligación de indemnizar el daño causado al patrimonio social, sino también la de devolver a la sociedad el enriquecimiento injusto obtenido por el administrador”

Medieval Blood Myths: Christian Readings and Misreadings of Jewish Practice towards Blood

In the High and Late Middle Ages, Christians accused Jews of shedding Christian blood, and sometimes even their own, for ritual purposes. This project is interested in how Jewish and Christian perceptions of blood may have led to the formation of such myths. I begin my analysis by discussing the ways in which medieval Jews and Christians interacted with one another, thereby providing the opportunity for Christians to observe and interpret the behaviors of their Jewish neighbors. Furthermore, Judaism and Christianity's shared history and typological language would have facilitated an awareness of one another's traditions. This paper, therefore, aims to demonstrate how interactions and common roots would have helped to shape Christian readings of Jewish practice. I argue that in observing and interpreting Jewish behavior towards blood, Christians applied their own concerns and values to make Jews active vehicles for Christian exegesis. Blood accusations stemmed from an awareness, observation, and interpretation of Jewish practices as filtered through the lenses of the medieval Christian Weltanschauung. In some cases, Christians even misinterpreted Jewish practices. To argue my thesis, I pair one type of bloodshed familiar to medieval Christians with one type of blood accusation made against Jews. The pairs are: the Crusades and ritual murder, menstruation and male menstruation, circumcision and ritual cannibalism, and the paschal lamb sacrifice and Host desecration. Each pair will be a case study in how Christians may have understood, or perhaps misunderstood, Jewish practice from a Christian perspective and how such a phenomenon contributed to the formation of blood accusations

Deber del juez de controlar de oficio las cláusulas abusivas en contratos celebrados con consumidores en el seno del concurso de acreedores

Es reiterada la doctrina del Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea (en adelante, TJUE), en el sentido de que el juez nacional no sólo tiene la facultad, sino también el deber de controlar de oficio las cláusulas abusivas insertas en contratos celebrados con consumidores (así lo ha señalado, entre otras y sin ánimo de ser exhaustiva, en las Sentencias de 27 de junio de 2.000 – Asunto Océano-; de 4 de junio de 2.009 – Asunto Pannon-; de 26 de enero de 2.017 – Asunto Banco Primus-, habiendo recaído todas estas resoluciones al contestar a las cuestiones prejudiciales planteadas por los Tribunales Nacionales en interpretación de la Directiva 93/13/ CEE del Consejo de 5 de abril de 1.993, sobre las cláusulas abusivas en los contratos celebrados con consumidores)

Depósitos minerales obtenidos por electrolisis y sus posibles aplicaciones en restauración de arrecifes de coral

El cambio climático y el gran aumento de los gases de efecto invernadero producen una gran cantidad de daños. En el océano, uno de los problemas más acusados, junto con los microplásticos, es la acidificación y subida de las temperaturas. La acidificación produce una reducción en el pH. Eso afecta gravemente a los corales, ya que se reduce la cantidad de carbonato cálcico en el agua y junto con la subida de la temperatura provoca un estrés que lleva a la expulsión de zooxantelas (las algas simbióticas de los corales) y produce el conocido blanqueamiento coralino. El incremento de la acidificación y la temperatura lleva a los corales a la muerte e incluso puede llegar a disolver su esqueleto calcáreo. Para resolver el problema de la desaparición coralina, se llevan a cabo un gran número de planes de protección, conservación y restauración, que van de áreas marinas protegidas, a cultivo y trasplante de corales. También existen técnicas avanzadas, entre las cuales destaca la restauración de corales por electrolisis. Esta técnica deposita carbonato cálcico por medio de una corriente. Esto es lo que se ha hecho en este estudio en un sistema cerrado, mediante una rejilla actuando como cátodo, sobre la cual se han colocado corales del género Echinophylia dentro de un tanque. Se ha realizado un seguimiento de los corales, analizando distintos parámetros del agua (salinidad, temperatura, pH, variación de iones…), los depósitos generados, mediante la técnica DRX (Difracción de Rayos X) y el crecimiento de corales, mediante la toma de imágenes. Se observa: que el consumo del calcio es más rápido en el tanque expuesto a este tratamiento, que la composición de los depósitos es mayoritariamente aragonito, con presencia de brucita para aquellos depósitos generados a alta intensidad de corriente y que existe un crecimiento ligeramente inferior en los individuos tratados con electrolisis frente a los del control. Sin embargo, al ser un estudio piloto, no se puede llegar a ninguna conclusión significativa. Sería necesario la continuación del estudio, con un mayor número de individuos y un tiempo experimental más extenso, con el fin de obtener unos resultados más claros para esta propuesta de restauración tan interesante

Doctrina consolidada de la Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado en materia de retribución del consejero ejecutivo y del consejero delegado

Principio básico de la regulación de la retribución de los administradores sociales en nuestro ordenamiento jurídico es el de la exigencia de que la misma quede reflejada en los estatutos de la sociedad (principio de determinación estatutaria de la remuneración).Bajo la vigencia de la actual regulación, sigue discutiéndose si la exigencia de la determinación estatutaria de la retribución del administrador contenida en el artículo 217 LSC es de aplicación general o si quedan fuera de tal regulación los consejeros delegados o los miembros del consejo de Administración con funciones ejecutivas.La Dirección General de los Registros y del Notariado ya ha tomado partido en esta cuestión, desde la Resolución de 30 de julio de 2015 (BOE 30/09/2015), que fue objeto de comentario en el primer número de esta revista digital por la Profesora Sra. Cortés Brenes (“El nuevo régimen de retribución de los consejeros ejecutivos tras la reforma operada por la Ley 31/2014, de 3 de diciembre, por la que se modifica la Ley de Sociedades de Capital para la mejora del Gobierno Corporativo”, Revista Lex Mercantoria, Nº 1, Año 2.015, páginas 1 a 6)

Sepsis biomarkers in unselected patients on admission to intensive or high-dependency care

Although many sepsis biomarkers have shown promise in selected patient groups, only C-reactive protein and procalcitonin (PCT) have entered clinical practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate three promising novel sepsis biomarkers in unselected patients at admission to intensive care. We assessed the performance of pancreatic stone protein (PSP), soluble CD25 (sCD25) and heparin binding protein (HBP) in distinguishing patients with sepsis from those with a non-infective systemic inflammatory response and the ability of these markers to indicate severity of illness. METHODS: Plasma levels of the biomarkers, PCT and selected inflammatory cytokines were measured in samples taken from 219 patients during the first six hours of admission to intensive or high dependency care. Patients with a systemic inflammatory response were categorized as having sepsis or a non-infective aetiology, with or without markers of severity, using standard diagnostic criteria. RESULTS: Both PSP and sCD25 performed well as biomarkers of sepsis irrespective of severity of illness. For both markers the area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) was greater than 0.9; PSP 0.927 (0.887 to 0.968) and sCD25 0.902 (0.854 to 0.949). Procalcitonin and IL6 also performed well as markers of sepsis whilst in this intensive care unit (ICU) population, HBP did not: PCT 0.840 (0.778 to 0.901), IL6 0.805 (0.739 to 0.870) and HBP 0.607 (0.519 to 0.694). Levels of both PSP and PCT reflected severity of illness and both markers performed well in differentiating patients with severe sepsis from severely ill patients with a non-infective systemic inflammatory response: AUCs 0.955 (0.909 to 1) and 0.837 (0.732 to 0.941) respectively. Although levels of sCD25 did not correlate with severity, the addition of sCD25 to either PCT or PSP in a multivariate model improved the diagnostic accuracy of either marker alone. CONCLUSIONS: PSP and sCD25 perform well as sepsis biomarkers in patients with suspected sepsis at the time of admission to intensive or high dependency care. These markers warrant further assessment of their prognostic value. Whereas previously published data indicate HBP has clinical utility in the emergency department, it did not perform well in an intensive-care population