Integrating multicultural literature and the arts across the curriculum

With the current emphasis on improving reading and comprehension in the school system, many teachers find it difficult to meet this challenge to providing increased reading time for students and still maintain the required classroom instruction in other areas of curriculum. Additionally, present teacher education classes stress the importance of recognizing the diversity in our classroom, school, community, and the world. The use of multicultural literature to create lessons across the curriculum is a good way to address literacy and diversity concerns. While we do live in a diverse world, I feel that one group of cultures that has been neglected in our current educational system is that of the Native American people. This group has played an important role in our history, yet very little classroom time is devoted to them. For this reason, I chose to focus on the use of Native American literature for this project

Uvod u planimetriju kvazieliptičke ravnine

The quasi-elliptic plane is one of nine projective-metric planes where the metric is induced by the absolute figure F_{QE} = { j_1; j_2;F} consisting of a pair of conjugate imaginary lines j_1 and j_2, intersecting at the real point F. Some basic geometric notions, denitions, selected constructions and a theorem in the quasi-elliptic plane will be presented.Kvazieliptička ravnina jedna je od devet projektivno-metričkih ravnina. Apsolutnu figuru F_{QE} = { j_1; j_2;F} određuju dva imaginarna pravca j_1 i j_2 i njihovo realno sjecište F. U ovom radu definirat ćemo osnovne pojmove, prikazati odabrane konstrukcije i dokazati jedan teorem

Socioeconomic Stress and Drug Consumption: Unemployment as an Adverse Health Factor in Croatia

Aim: To explore to what degree unemployment was related to health problems expressed in terms of consumption of prescription drugs in Croatian citizens. Methods: Based on the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance data for 2003, the number of prescriptions per insured individual (NPI) was calculated for employed and unemployed persons, as well as for different subsets according to the region (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek), age, gender, and prescribed drug category. Results: During 2003, a total of 1 003 547 drugs were prescribed to 949 746 health-insured persons aged 18-69 years. NPI was 32% higher for unemployed than for employed citizens; it averaged 0.995 among the employed, and 1.317 among the unemployed. Differences in NPI (∆NPI) between the employed and the unemployed varied within the subsets; the largest difference was observed in the Zagreb region (ΔNPI = 0.522), in the 30-39 age group (ΔNPI = 0.563), in men (ΔNPI = 0.565), and for anxiolytic/antidepressant drugs (ΔNPI = 0.184). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that unemployed Croatian citizens used more drugs, which calls for the implementation of health care measures to reduce or prevent their medical problems, particularly those affecting mental health. Medical problems associated with unemployment present a specific burden for family medicine and the health care system

Prihvatljivost ciljanog organa (probavne žlijezde) dagnje za provođenje biomonitoringa

In coastal marine areas, the level of metallothioneins (MTs) is monitored as the specific response to trace heavy metals and is considered as a biomarker of metal exposure. Laboratory experiments with bivalves indicate that MT synthesis is induced by Cd, Cu, Hg, Ag and Zn ions. The results of our study, conducted with the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis, deployed 12 months in the "hot spot" area of the Kaštela Bay, Dalmatia, Croatia, are evaluated considering the recommendation of MED POL Programme for estimating exposure of mussels to trace heavy metals by means of MTs. Our data clearly indicate that the MT level in the digestive gland of the Mediterranean mussel depends on the biotic and abiotic parameters. Beside MT level, a number of parameters, like digestive gland mass, shell mass, cytosolic metal concentration is needed in order to define if MT level in the digestive gland of mussels is indicative as a biomarker of cadmium exposure.U priobalnim morskim područjima razina metalotioneina (MT) prati se kao specifični odgovor na teške metale u tragovima te se smatra biomarkerom izloženosti metalima. Laboratorijski eksperimenti sa školjkama pokazuju da sintezu MT induciraju ioni Cd, Cu, Hg, Ag i Zn. Rezultati našeg istraživanja, koje je provedeno s dagnjama, Mytilus galloprovincialis, izloženim tijekom 12 mjeseci u području "vrućih točaka" u Kaštelanskom zaljevu, Dalmacija, Hrvatska, razmatrani su u skladu s preporukama MED POL programa za procjenu izloženosti dagnja teškim metalima u tragovima putem MT. Naši podaci jasno ukazuju da razina MT u probavnoj žlijezdi mediteranske dagnje ovisi o biotičkim i abiotičkim parametrima. Osim razine MT, potrebni su brojni parametri, poput mase probavne žlijezde, mase ljušture te koncentracije metala u citosolu kako bi se moglo definirati da li razina MT u probavnoj žlijezdi dagnja upućuje na njihovu izloženost kadmiju