The Effects Of Increasing Family Involvement On Student Achievement In Scientific Inquiry

Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering parenting a middle school student workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. One classroom served as the control group, while the second served as the experimental group. The teacher researcher was responsible for increasing communication with the parents in regards to student behavior and/or performance. Implementation of increased communications are associated with keeping parents informed, however they only work to increase student performance if the parent uses the increased communication and applies the information to use at home. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no difference between the two classes. The majority of the invited parents in the experimental group did not participate in the parent workshops. Students in the experimental groups showed little or no difference in grades on the post unit exam or in their overall grades. Additional research with smaller sampling sizes would be a recommendation of this researcher. When working with an average of one hundred and twenty students on a regular basis, working with twenty five sets of parents to increase communication was a daunting task. The researcher would recommend having an experimental group of no more than ten for future ii i studies. Although a small sample may be sufficient for a descriptive study, it\u27s recognized that a small sample will likely not have sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences if they exist

A Trial Separation

Decolonization; Politics and government; Papua new guine

SPLUMA: A Practical Guide by Adv Nic Laubscher, Lizette Hoffman, Dr Ernst Drewes & Jan Nysschen

This represents one of the first comprehensive attempts to dissect the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) and to examine all of its constituent parts. As such, the book is structured using the act, with each chapter of SPLUMA having a corresponding chapter in this book. The intent of the book (seemingly) is to provide a practical day-to-day guide on how to interpret SPLUMA. It attempts to achieve this through showing how the different sections of SPLUMA should be interpreted given the relevant case law, as well as the linkages to other legislation, in particular, the Municipal Systems Act. In terms of case law, more than 150 cases are cited, and in terms of legislation, more than 120 pieces of legislation are mentioned. Noting this, this is clearly an exhaustive review of existing thinking on planning law in South Africa

A Study of Adapted Physical Education Programs In Public Schools in the State of Kansas

M.S. University of Kansas 1979The very nature of American society today inevitably seeks to provide adequately for the education of all children. The acceptance of physical education as an integral part of general education is an established fact. Physical education is education by means of physical activities which meet the needs of the individuals involved. Properly planned and taught, it is a method whereby the entire physical, mental, and emotional well-being of an individual is enhanced through participation in activities which place emphasis on the development of skill, speed, strength, and endurance. (5) During an interview with Greve (35) he stated that school systems, in order to meet the needs of the handicapped, must adapt their existing physical education programs. In his opinion the existing programs do not need radical modifications, just adaptations to be integrated in with the existing programs

The impact of remittances on financial sector development: An exploration in the SADC region

Remittances received from migrants abroad have become one of the largest sources of external finance for developing countries. It has been argued that a particular impact of this influential flow is the stimulation of financial sector development. However, current research has been mainly based at a broad level across the developing world. This paper investigates whether this consensus holds true when examined at a sub-regional level within Sub-Saharan Africa. It is an important question given the extensive literature documenting the direct growth enhancing effect of financial development, and consequently, poverty reduction. In particular, annual data from 11 countries in the South African Development Community (SADC) are analysed from 1990 to 2011 using the panel data analysis techniques of fixed and random effects models, a Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) dynamic framework (Arellano & Bover, 1995) and Instrumental Variables (IV) Estimations (Baum, Schaffer & Stillman, 2003). Three indicators of financial sector development are analysed, namely: the level of bank deposits, near money (M2) and credit intermediated by the local banking sector. Remittances are found to have a largely negative and insignificant impact on financial sector development in SADC over the period of study. This contradicts the findings of the current literature on this topic. The implications of this are noteworthy as it adds evidence that the model currently held in the literature (i.e. that remittances have a positive and significant relationship on financial sector development) is not robust at the less smoothed level of a subregional scale. But further, it provides evidence to motivate the further exploration of the impact of measurement errors of remittance flows. Recommendations for further research are provided on the basis of both these possible causes

A Trial Separation

Decolonization; Politics and government; Papua new guine

ACETOACETATE ENHANCES OXIDATIVE METABOLISM AND RESPONSE TO TOXICANTS OF CULTURED RENAL CELLS

In vitro methods can be cost effective and facilitate large scale drug screening in the pharmaceutical industry. Renal proximal tubular cells have been a prime target for drug induced toxicity. LLC-PK1 cells possess many transport functions of the proximal tubule epithelia, however, its energy metabolism differs from the highly oxidative tubule metabolism in vivo. This may impact its reliability in predicting toxicity. Modulating the growth media composition has been shown to shift cultured liver and muscle cells from high glycolytic activity to increased oxidative metabolism, but few studies have been done on renal cells. This study is designed to test the impact of growth media modulation on mitochondrial respiration and glycolytic activity of LLC-PK1 cells via measurement of oxygen consumption rate (OCR) and extracellular acidification rate (ECAR) using the Seahorse XFp Analyzer (Agilent Technologies). Cells were grown to confluence in SFFD (50:50 DMEM-Ham’s nutrient mix F-12 with 15 mM HEPES) culture medium containing 3% FBS and 5mM glucose or 5mM glucose supplemented with 5mM acetoacetate. Extracellular flux (XF) analysis showed that the basal respiration, maximal respiration, spare respiratory capacity and ATP-linked respiration were significantly increased, indicating an increase in mitochondrial function. The increase in mitochondrial function was accompanied by an increased expression in biomarkers   of mitochondrial biogenesis, PGC-1α and TFAM. There was also an increase in mitochondrial COX IV expression. Additionally, XF analysis also showed a significant decrease in glycolytic capacity and reserve for the acetoacetate group. LC50 values for mitochondrial toxicants, clotrimazole, diclofenac and ciprofibrate were assessed via a modified trypan blue staining assay. Cells grown in media complemented with acetoacetate displayed significantly lower LC50 values when treated with clotrimazole and diclofenac. There was a marked increase in uncoupled respiration in the presence of diclofenac, while clotrimazole and ciprofibrate significantly decreased respiration in the acetoacetate group. In conclusion, acetoacetate complemented media can alter the cellular metabolism of the LLC-PK1 cell line and increase its sensitization to toxicants, thus making this a better model for toxicity drug screening

Partnership Perspectives: Empowering Stakeholders

Change occurs in small increments which, upon reflection, lead to quiet celebrations

Obstacles and opportunities : labour emigration to the ‘British World’ in the nineteenth century

Peer reviewedPostprin