1,362 research outputs found
Fourth Grade Writing Instruction: A Case Study of Three Teachers in Title I Schools
The purpose of this study was to explore writing instruction provided to students in fourth grade classrooms of two Title I schools. The researchers observed the writing instruction and classroom procedures of three fourth grade teachers at these two Title I campuses. The following three research questions guided this study: (1) How do fourth grade writing teachers in two Title I schools in Texas approach the teaching of writing? (2) How does the challenge of standardized testing impact writing instruction? (3) How do these fourth grade teachers perceive their effectiveness as teachers of writing? Analysis of data led to the following conclusions: for these three teachers, district mandates and a centralized curriculum established the agenda for classroom writing instruction for the most part. However, even within these constraints, researchers observed that efforts were made by each teacher to adapt some of the curriculum needs of their students and to incorporate their own teaching styles and strategies as much as possible
A Process for Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children
There is a growing interest in the potential for technology to facilitate emergency education of refugee children. However, designing in this space requires knowledge of the displaced population and the contextual dynamics surrounding it. Design should therefore be informed by both existing research across relevant disciplines, and from the practical experience of those who are on the ground facing the problem in real life. This paper describes a process for designing appropriate technology for these settings. The process draws on literature from emergency education, student engagement and motivation, educational technology, and participatory design. We emphasise a thorough understanding of the problem definition, the nature of the emergency, and of socio-cultural aspects that can inform the design process. We describe how this process was implemented leading to the design of a digital learning space for children living in a refugee camp in Greece. This drew on involving different groups of participants such as social-workers, parents, and children
Carriage rates, circulating serotypes and antibiotic resistance among Streptococcus pneumoniae in healthy infants in Yei, South Sudan
The carriage of Streptococcus pneumoniae, serotypes, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and disease development are poorly understood in Yei. Availability of affordable antibiotics over the counter, lack of laboratory infrastructure and high rates of penicillin resistance have the potential to aggravate rates of childhood mortality associated with Streptococcus pneumoniae. There is an urgent need to strengthen microbiological and public health services
The Bayesian Spatial Bradley--Terry Model: Urban Deprivation Modeling in Tanzania
Identifying the most deprived regions of any country or city is key if policy
makers are to design successful interventions. However, locating areas with the
greatest need is often surprisingly challenging in developing countries. Due to
the logistical challenges of traditional household surveying, official
statistics can be slow to be updated; estimates that exist can be coarse, a
consequence of prohibitive costs and poor infrastructures; and mass
urbanisation can render manually surveyed figures rapidly out-of-date.
Comparative judgement models, such as the Bradley--Terry model, offer a
promising solution. Leveraging local knowledge, elicited via comparisons of
different areas' affluence, such models can both simplify logistics and
circumvent biases inherent to house-hold surveys. Yet widespread adoption
remains limited, due to the large amount of data existing approaches still
require. We address this via development of a novel Bayesian Spatial
Bradley--Terry model, which substantially decreases the amount of data
comparisons required for effective inference. This model integrates a network
representation of the city or country, along with assumptions of spatial
smoothness that allow deprivation in one area to be informed by neighbouring
areas. We demonstrate the practical effectiveness of this method, through a
novel comparative judgement data set collected in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figures, to be published in the journal of the Royal
Statistical Society: Series
Classical and quantum ergodicity on orbifolds
We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to
Shnirelman, Colin de Verdi\`ere and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive,
first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact
orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow
of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of
the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional
curvature.Comment: 14 page
On the stationarity of linearly forced turbulence in finite domains
A simple scheme of forcing turbulence away from decay was introduced by
Lundgren some time ago, the `linear forcing', which amounts to a force term
linear in the velocity field with a constant coefficient. The evolution of
linearly forced turbulence towards a stationary final state, as indicated by
direct numerical simulations (DNS), is examined from a theoretical point of
view based on symmetry arguments. In order to follow closely the DNS the flow
is assumed to live in a cubic domain with periodic boundary conditions. The
simplicity of the linear forcing scheme allows one to re-write the problem as
one of decaying turbulence with a decreasing viscosity. Scaling symmetry
considerations suggest that the system evolves to a stationary state, evolution
that may be understood as the gradual breaking of a larger approximate symmetry
to a smaller exact symmetry. The same arguments show that the finiteness of the
domain is intimately related to the evolution of the system to a stationary
state at late times, as well as the consistency of this state with a high
degree of isotropy imposed by the symmetries of the domain itself. The
fluctuations observed in the DNS for all quantities in the stationary state can
be associated with deviations from isotropy. Indeed, self-preserving isotropic
turbulence models are used to study evolution from a direct dynamical point of
view, emphasizing the naturalness of the Taylor microscale as a self-similarity
scale in this system. In this context the stationary state emerges as a stable
fixed point. Self-preservation seems to be the reason behind a noted similarity
of the third order structure function between the linearly forced and freely
decaying turbulence, where again the finiteness of the domain plays an
significant role.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, changes in the discussion at the end of section
VI, formula (60) correcte
Defining the concept of ‘tick repellency’ in veterinary medicine
Although widely used, the term repellency needs to be employed with care when applied to ticks and other periodic or permanent ectoparasites. Repellency has classically been used to describe the effects of a substance that causes a flying arthropod to make oriented movements away from its source. However, for crawling arthropods such as ticks, the term commonly subsumes a range of effects that include arthropod irritation and consequent avoiding or leaving the host, failing to attach, to bite, or to feed. The objective of the present article is to highlight the need for clarity, to propose consensus descriptions and methods for the evaluation of various effects on ticks caused by chemical substances
Influence of real-world characteristics on outcomes for patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcal skin and soft tissue infections:a multi-country medical chart review in Europe
BACKGROUND: Patient-related (demographic/disease) and treatment-related (drug/clinician/hospital) characteristics were evaluated as potential predictors of healthcare resource use and opportunities for early switch (ES) from intravenous (IV)-to-oral methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)-active antibiotic therapy and early hospital discharge (ED). METHODS: This retrospective observational medical chart study analyzed patients (across 12 European countries) with microbiologically confirmed MRSA complicated skin and soft tissue infections (cSSTI), ≥3 days of IV anti-MRSA antibiotics during hospitalization (July 1, 2010-June 30, 2011), and discharged alive by July 31, 2011. Logistic/linear regression models evaluated characteristics potentially associated with actual resource use (length of IV therapy, length of hospital stay [LOS], IV-to-oral antibiotic switch), and ES and ED (using literature-based and expert-verified criteria) outcomes. RESULTS: 1542 patients (mean ± SD age 60.8 ± 16.5 years; 61.5% males) were assessed with 81.0% hospitalized for MRSA cSSTI as the primary reason. Several patient demographic, infection, complication, treatment, and hospital characteristics were predictive of length of IV therapy, LOS, IV-to-oral antibiotic switch, or ES and ED opportunities. Outcomes and ES and ED opportunities varied across countries. Length of IV therapy and LOS (r = 0.66, p < 0.0001) and eligibilities for ES and ED (r = 0.44, p < 0.0001) showed relatively strong correlations. IV-to-oral antibiotic switch patients had significantly shorter length of IV therapy (−5.19 days, p < 0.001) and non-significantly shorter LOS (−1.86 days, p > 0.05). Certain patient and treatment characteristics were associated with increased odds of ES (healthcare-associated/ hospital-acquired infection) and ED (patient living arrangements, healthcare-associated/ hospital-acquired infection, initiating MRSA-active treatment 1–2 days post cSSTI index date, existing ED protocol), while other factors decreased the odds of ES (no documented MRSA culture, ≥4 days from admission to cSSTI index date, IV-to-oral switch, IV line infection) and ED (dementia, no documented MRSA culture, initiating MRSA-active treatment ≥3 days post cSSTI index date, existing ES protocol). CONCLUSIONS: Practice patterns and opportunity for further ES and ED were affected by several infection, treatment, hospital, and geographical characteristics, which should be considered in identifying ES and ED opportunities and designing interventions for MRSA cSSTI to reduce IV days and LOS while maintaining the quality of care. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-476) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users
A Systematic Review of the Literature on the Use of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in Criminal Justice Work to Reduce Re-offending
A systematic review of the published literature from 1995 to 2007 considers the published evidence on the use of interventions employing Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy in criminal justice efforts to reduce re-offending. Thirty-six studies are briefly described, summarised and appraised for research quality using a six point scale. Twenty-four studies were excluded from further analysis due to insufficiently rigorous or weak research design and method. Twelve studies were appraised as sufficiently robust to reliably inform the research interest. Further analysis of the studies indicated an association between negative emotional states and offending behaviour, some evidence of REBT effectiveness in treating emotional disturbance in offender populations, and mixed evidence of REBT effectiveness in reducing re-offending. It is concluded that interventions using REBT might be a promising approach for aiding criminal justice aims to reduce re-offending
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