Insights Gained From a Cultural Contexts Counseling Course in a Rural Setting

Abstract The intention of this study was to explore the ways in which graduates of a master’s level counseling program reflect their knowledge and experiences gained during a required course entitled, “Cultural Contexts in Counseling.” Seven graduates of the counseling program participated in the study. The study took place at a state university located in a rural, racially homogenous region of the northeast. Using a qualitative design, the researcher, who was also the course instructor, solicited feedback from her former students who had taken the course at least one year prior to the time of the study. Participants responded via email, answering questions regarding their level of cultural competency before and after taking this class, whether there were any activities and/or experiences that the participants feel changed the way they view and/or interact with people unlike themselves and what were they, and were there any aspects of this course that participants feel impact them on a regular basis? The responses were then coded for themes and gleaned for similarities in opinion regarding the course’s strong points. The findings indicate that all participants felt strongly about the long-term impact of a couple of the course activities in regard to their cultural competence as counselors. The implications of these findings contribute to the field of best practices in multicultural education, particularly for universities in rural settings

The Spitzer Science Center: using metrics analysis to improve system stability

The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) Software Science Operations System (SOS) is a large, complex software system. Over 1.2 million lines of code had been written for the SOS by time of launch (August 2003). The SSC uses a defect tracking tool called GNATS to enter defect reports and change requests. GNATS has been useful beyond just tracking defects to closure. Prior to launch a number of charts and graphs were generated using metrics collected from GNATS. These reports demonstrated trends and snapshots of the state of the SOS and enabled the SSC to better identify risks to the SOS and focus testing efforts. This paper will focus primarily on the time period of Spitzer's launch and In Orbit Checkout. It will discuss the metrics collected, the analyses done, the format the analyses was presented in, and lessons learned. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Advanced load-testing techniques for a science archive

Performance goals for data archive systems need to be established early in the design process to ensure stability and acceptable response throughput. Load testing is one technique used to measure the progress towards these performance goals. Providing resources for load-test planning is critical, and this planning must include feasibility studies, tool analyses, and generation of an overall load-test strategy. This strategy is much different for science data archives than other systems, including commercial websites and high-volume data centers. This paper will provide an overview of the load testing performed on the Spitzer Space Telescope's science archive, which is part of Science Operations System at the Spitzer Science Center (SSC). Methods used for planning and conducting SSC load tests will be presented, and advanced load-testing techniques will be provided to address runtime issues and enhance verification results. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Advanced load-testing techniques for a science archive

Performance goals for data archive systems need to be established early in the design process to ensure stability and acceptable response throughput. Load testing is one technique used to measure the progress towards these performance goals. Providing resources for load-test planning is critical, and this planning must include feasibility studies, tool analyses, and generation of an overall load-test strategy. This strategy is much different for science data archives than other systems, including commercial websites and high-volume data centers. This paper will provide an overview of the load testing performed on the Spitzer Space Telescope's science archive, which is part of Science Operations System at the Spitzer Science Center (SSC). Methods used for planning and conducting SSC load tests will be presented, and advanced load-testing techniques will be provided to address runtime issues and enhance verification results. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The Spitzer Science Center: using metrics analysis to improve system stability

The Spitzer Science Center (SSC) Software Science Operations System (SOS) is a large, complex software system. Over 1.2 million lines of code had been written for the SOS by time of launch (August 2003). The SSC uses a defect tracking tool called GNATS to enter defect reports and change requests. GNATS has been useful beyond just tracking defects to closure. Prior to launch a number of charts and graphs were generated using metrics collected from GNATS. These reports demonstrated trends and snapshots of the state of the SOS and enabled the SSC to better identify risks to the SOS and focus testing efforts. This paper will focus primarily on the time period of Spitzer's launch and In Orbit Checkout. It will discuss the metrics collected, the analyses done, the format the analyses was presented in, and lessons learned. This work was performed at the California Institute of Technology under contract to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

A new multivariate measurement error model with zero-inflated dietary data, and its application to dietary assessment

In the United States the preferred method of obtaining dietary intake data is the 24-hour dietary recall, yet the measure of most interest is usual or long-term average daily intake, which is impossible to measure. Thus, usual dietary intake is assessed with considerable measurement error. Also, diet represents numerous foods, nutrients and other components, each of which have distinctive attributes. Sometimes, it is useful to examine intake of these components separately, but increasingly nutritionists are interested in exploring them collectively to capture overall dietary patterns. Consumption of these components varies widely: some are consumed daily by almost everyone on every day, while others are episodically consumed so that 24-hour recall data are zero-inflated. In addition, they are often correlated with each other. Finally, it is often preferable to analyze the amount of a dietary component relative to the amount of energy (calories) in a diet because dietary recommendations often vary with energy level. The quest to understand overall dietary patterns of usual intake has to this point reached a standstill. There are no statistical methods or models available to model such complex multivariate data with its measurement error and zero inflation. This paper proposes the first such model, and it proposes the first workable solution to fit such a model. After describing the model, we use survey-weighted MCMC computations to fit the model, with uncertainty estimation coming from balanced repeated replication.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS446 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Adolescent tuberculosis.

Adolescence is characterised by a substantial increase in the incidence of tuberculosis, a known fact since the early 20th century. Most of the world's adolescents live in low-income and middle-income countries where tuberculosis remains common, and where they comprise a quarter of the population. Despite this, adolescents have not yet been addressed as a distinct population in tuberculosis policy or within tuberculosis treatment services, and emerging evidence suggests that current models of care do not meet their needs. This Review discusses up-to-date information about tuberculosis in adolescence, with a focus on the management of infection and disease, including HIV co-infection and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis. We outline the progress in vaccine development and highlight important directions for future research