A Qualitative Case Study to Investigate How Educators Promote Parent Collaboration and Involvement for African American Elementary Males with Learning Disabilities

The disproportionate identification and achievement gap of African American students and their peers are inexhaustible. African American students continue to lag tremendously behind their Asian and Caucasian peers. There is limited research of African American students with disabilities as it relates specifically to various components of special education. To understand the narrative surrounding African American males, their achievement, and the collaboration between their parents and educators, the researcher will evaluate various components in conjunction with educators’ composition and characteristics and various parent’s attributes and behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative case study is to investigate how educators promote parent collaboration and involvement through (a) home visits, (b) parent-teacher conferences, (c) Individual Education Plan (IEP) meetings, and (d) school-based activities and events to serve urban elementary school African American males diagnosed with learning disabilities. The target population will include educators and parents of African American males with learning disabilities in urban elementary charter schools in Washington, D.C

Safe-Play Knowledge, Aggression, and Head-Impact Biomechanics in Adolescent Ice Hockey Players

Addressing safe-play knowledge and player aggression could potentially improve ice hockey sport safety

Rapid 13(c) urea breath test to identify Helicobacter pylori infection in emergency department patients with upper abdominal pain

Introduction: In emergency department (ED) patients with upper abdominal pain, management includes ruling out serious diseases and providing symptomatic relief. One of the major causes of upper abdominal pain is an ulcer caused by Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), which can be treated and cured with antibiotics. We sought to estimate the prevalence of H. pylori infection in symptomatic patients using a convenience sample at a single urban academic ED and demonstrate the feasibility of ED-based testing. Methods: We prospectively enrolled patients with a chief complaint of pain or discomfort in the upper abdomen for 1 year from February 2011 until February 2012 at a single academic urban ED. Enrolled subjects were tested for H. pylori using a rapid point of care 13C Urea Breath Test (UBT) [Exalenz Bioscience]. We compared patient characteristics between those who tested positive versus negative for the disease. Results: A total of 205 patients with upper abdominal pain were tested over 12 months, and 24% (95% confidence interval: 19% to 30%) tested positive for H. pylori. Black subjects were more likely to test positive than white subjects (28% v. 6%, P \u3c 0.001). Other factors, such as age and sex, were not different between the 2 groups. Conclusion: In our ED, H. pylori infection was present in 1 in 4 patients with epigastric pain, and testing with a UBT was feasible. Further study is needed to determine the risk factors associated with infection, the prevalence of H. pylori in other EDs, the effect of the test on ED length of stay and the cost-effectiveness of an ED-based test-and-treat strategy. [West J Emerg Med. 2013;14(3):278–282.

Advanced Gearless Drivetrain - Phase I Technical Report

Boulder Wind Power (ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂBWPÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ) collaborated with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado, to demonstrate the economics of scaling an advanced gearless drivetrain technology to 6MW (and larger) turbine applications. The project goal was to show that this advanced drivetrain technology enables a cost of energy of less than $0.10/kWH in offshore applications. This drivetrain technology achieves this Cost of Energy (ÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂCOEÃÂâÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ) advantage via a 70% greater torque density versus current state-of-the-art drivetrain technologies. In addition, a new dynamically compliant design strategy is required to optimize turbine system-level COE. The BWP generator is uniquely suited for this new design strategy. This project developed a concept design for a 6MW drivetrain and culminated in a plan for a system-level test of this technology at 3MW scale. The project further demonstrated the advantage of the BWP drivetrain with increasing power ratings, with conceptual designs through 10 MW

The effects of diet-induced obesity on the distribution of systemic trace elements

Background: Iron, copper, manganese, and zinc are essential trace elements critical for cellular and physiological process, such as catalytic enzymatic reactions, gene regulation, and signaling cascades. These elements must be maintained through homeostatic regulation for one’s health. The importance of trace element homeostasis is seen in system organs, liver, spleen, and adipose tissues where dysregulation has been thought to be associated with liver disease, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Obesity is associated with increased risks for altered systemic trace element status, such as with iron, but the effects of diet-induced obesity (DIO) between strains and sexes remain unclear. Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine strain and sex differences in the distribution of systemic trace elements due to diet-induced obesity (DIO). Methods: Male and female C57BL/6J (n=36) and DBA/2J (n=36) mice were fed either a high-fat diet (60% Kcal from fat) or a control diet (10% Kcal from fat) for 16 weeks. Food intake and body mass were measured weekly. At the end of the 16 weeks, blood, liver, and spleen tissues were collected. Iron, Copper, Manganese, and Zinc concentrations were measured using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy. Trace element and inflammatory related genes were analyzed in the liver, spleen, and adipose tissue. Results: Key findings from this study included mouse models developing obesity-induced iron deficiency without anemia and decreased hepatic hepcidin expression in high fat diet group. DIO is sufficient in altering systemic trace elements and gene regulation. There were marked decreased levels of systemic copper, altered iron homeostasis and the potential of hepatic manganese and zinc toxicity in high fat diet mice. There were mixed significant ceruloplasmin expression and increased gene expression of IRP-1 between strains and sexes, decreased HAMP expression, increased DMT-1in both sexes, only in C57 strain, and lastly HIF-1a gene expression remained near normal levels in male mice. Conclusions: These observations of altered trace element status and gene regulation indicates that these changes brought on by obesity may be amplified or attenuated depending on strain and sex

Logical Step-Indexed Logical Relations

Appel and McAllester's "step-indexed" logical relations have proven to be a simple and effective technique for reasoning about programs in languages with semantically interesting types, such as general recursive types and general reference types. However, proofs using step-indexed models typically involve tedious, error-prone, and proof-obscuring step-index arithmetic, so it is important to develop clean, high-level, equational proof principles that avoid mention of step indices. In this paper, we show how to reason about binary step-indexed logical relations in an abstract and elegant way. Specifically, we define a logic LSLR, which is inspired by Plotkin and Abadi's logic for parametricity, but also supports recursively defined relations by means of the modal "later" operator from Appel, Melli\`es, Richards, and Vouillon's "very modal model" paper. We encode in LSLR a logical relation for reasoning relationally about programs in call-by-value System F extended with general recursive types. Using this logical relation, we derive a set of useful rules with which we can prove contextual equivalence and approximation results without counting steps

Racial Differences in Treatments and Toxicity in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated with Thoracic Radiation Therapy

Background: Racial disparities are of particular concern for lung cancer patients given historical differences in surgery rates for African-American lung cancer patients that resulted in lower overall survival and higher recurrence rates compared with rates in White patients. Objectives: The overall objective of this study was to examine racial differences in thoracic radiation therapy (RT) treatments and toxicities in a large cohort of patients from a multi-institutional consortium database of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Methods: A large multi-institutional statewide prospectively collected patient-level database of locally advanced (stage II or III) NSCLC patients who received thoracic RT from March 2012 to November 2019 was analyzed to assess the associations between race and treatment and toxicity variables. Race (White or African-American) was defined by patient self-report or if not available then by the electronic medical record system classification. Race categories other than White or African-American comprised a small minority of patients and were excluded from this analysis. Patient-reported toxicity was determined by validated tools including the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) quality of life instrument. Provider-reported toxicity was determined by the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) version 4.0. Uni-variable and multi-variable regression models were then fitted to assess relationships between primary outcomes by race and indicators of high-quality treatment and secondary analysis of symptoms. Spearman rank correlation coefficients were calculated between provider reported toxicity and similar patient reported outcomes for each race category. Results: A total of 1441 patients from 24 institutions with mean age of 68 years (range 38-94) were evaluated; 226 patients were African-American, of whom 61% were treated at three facilities. Race was not significantly associated with RT treatment approach, use of concurrent chemotherapy, or the dose to the planning target volume (PTV) or organs at risk including the heart and lungs. However, there was increased patient-reported general pain in African-American patients (compared with White patients) at several time points including pre-RT (22% (vs 15%), P=0.02) and at the end of RT (30% (vs 17%), P=0.001). African-American patients were significantly less likely to have provider-reported grade 2+ radiation pneumonitis (odds ratio (OR) 0.36, P=0.03), despite similar levels of patient-reported respiratory toxicities such as cough and shortness of breath and even after controlling for known patient and treatment-related factors. Correlation coefficients between provider- and patient-reported toxicities were generally similar across race categories. Conclusions: In this large multi-institutional observational study, we reassuringly found no evidence of differences in radiation treatment or chemotherapy approaches by race, in contrast to historical differences by race in surgical care that led to worse survival and outcomes in minority race patients. However, we did unexpectedly find that African-American race was associated with lower odds of provider-reported grade 2+ radiation pneumonitis despite similar patient-reported toxicities of shortness of breath and cough. There are several possibilities for this finding including that pneumonitis is a multifactorial diagnosis that relies on clinical as well as radiologic information and clinical information alone may be insufficient. The Spearman correlation analysis also revealed stronger correlations between patient- and provider-reported toxicities in White patients compared with African-American patients, particularly for trouble swallowing/esophagitis. These findings together for pneumonitis and esophagitis discouragingly suggest possible under-recognition of symptoms in black patients. Further investigation is now warranted to better understand how these findings impact the care of racially diverse lung cancer patients

INTS3 controls the hSSB1-mediated DNA damage response

MISE is identified as a component of the Integrator complex required for DNA repair