A Framework for culturally responsive teaching: Effectively implementing culturally responsive instruction in the science classroom

Culturally responsive instruction (CRT) is a term that has been bandied about the world of education for the past several decades. Despite substantial discussion into the theoretical constructs behind CRT, concrete applications of CRT to the science classroom have yet to be articulated or proposed. In this project, six elements of CRT classroom practices are described and applied to the secondary science classroom. Exemplar lessons modeling these six elements are provided to illustrate how authentic science instruction can occur in a culturally responsive classroom

Design Functions in Transformable Garments for Sustainability

The trends of fast fashion and overconsumption have brought negative influences on the environment, the economy, and society (Fletcher, 2008; Hawley, 2008; Hethorn & Ulasewicz, 2008). Consumers keep purchasing garments as their needs and wants change, and waste related to clothing and footwear consumption keeps increasing(Fletcher, 2008; The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Among many ways to encourage sustainability, transformable garments (which add a transformation phase to the regular clothing lifecycle)are expected to encourage consumers to be naturally involved in sustainable practices (Dombek-Keith & Loker, 2011; Loker, 2008)

A study of topical reading interests and their relation to the literature texts of selected grade nine students

This study was designed to investigate the extent to which the reading interests of the grade nine students of the Roman Catholic School board of the Burin Peninsula in Newfoundland were satisfied in the curriculum of their literature course, primarily the anthology and assigned novels. -- This study was part of an intensive, cooperative effort of three graduate students to analyze the status of reading in the curriculum of the students and teachers under the board concerned and to make the findings available to the local school authority, together with some suggestions and recommendations for future development of a high school reading program. -- For this study, two questionnaires were formulated: one examined general reading interests, while the other investigated specific reading interests as they related to selections in the anthology and assigned novels. Both questionnaires were tested for student comprehension and ease of administration in a pilot study in a junior high school. The population of the present study consisted of 209 grade nine students under the jurisdiction of the board concerned. Information regarding intelligence quotient and reading ability of the students was obtained from the research data of another Master’s thesis which was conducted concurrently with this one. The resulting data of the General Topical Interest Questionnaire and the Specific Literature Interest Questionnaire were analyzed by computer programs. -- An analysis of the data revealed that the students displayed interest in a wide variety of topics and character types. The type of literature they liked best was short stories, followed by novels and plays. Poetry and essays fell far behind. -- Five of the six interest ratings that were assigned the major sections of the literature curriculum ranged from 0.61 to 0.69. This percentage can be interpreted as the average percentage of students to whom the unit has the potential of appealing. -- The factor of sex exerted a significant influence upon the ratings given to the units of short stories, poetry, non-fiction, plays and novels. The factor of age exerted a significant influence upon students’ ratings of the selections in the short story, poetry, drama and novel units. The factor of intelligence exerted a significant influence upon student ratings on the units of poetry and non-fiction. The factor of reading ability exerted a significant influence upon student ratings of the selections in the short story, poetry and drama sections. -- Reading ability exerted a significant influence upon the ratings with students assigned to the level of difficulty of the poetry section of the text. -- Several recommendations were made by the research after consideration of the findings of the study. Among these were: -- 1. The text should be supplemented by materials in which the students have expressed interest. -- 2. The units of poetry and mythology need to be revised and supplemented. -- 3. Two groups of students need special consideration in the selection of curriculum materials: those above the average age for grade nine and those of above average intelligence. -- 4. Alternative choices of literature materials should be available for boys and girls

A Strategic Audit of a Company in the Alcoholic Beverages Industry: Anheuser-Busch InBev

This strategic audit provides a comprehensive analysis of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world\u27s largest brewer. The audit examines the company\u27s business model, competitive position, financial performance, and future growth prospects. It also assesses the impact of external factors such as changing consumer preferences, government regulations, and technological innovations on the company\u27s operations. The audit identifies key strengths and weaknesses of Anheuser-Busch InBev, as well as potential opportunities and threats in the beer industry. Based on this analysis, the audit provides recommendations for strategic actions that the company can take to enhance its competitive position, achieve sustainable growth, and mitigate potential risks. Overall, this strategic audit aims to provide valuable insights into Anheuser-Busch InBev\u27s strategic direction and potential for long-term success in the global beer market

Crisis interpreting and deaf community access in the COVID-19 pandemic

Scientific and public health knowledge must be communicated efficiently to the public during a health crisis to allow communities to respond, recover, and prepare. Public briefings and national campaigns are important components of this communication, and sign language interpreting may be an element of this process. This paper examines the experiences of sign language interpreters during the COVID-19 crisis in Ireland and the UK, and explores their role in providing access to scientific and public health information for the Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) community. Findings in this study are based on interviews conducted in the first half of 2020 with 16 Irish Sign Language (ISL) or British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters or science communicators, 11 of whom had direct experience of interpreting during COVID-19 public briefings. These interviews constitute authentic accounts of sign language interpreters working during a global health crisis. Interviews were qualitatively analysed using theoretical assumptions from Witter-Merithew and Nicodemus (2010) about the development of specialisation among sign language interpreters to discuss how specialised competence and scientific understanding factored into participants' experiences and to derive lessons to inform future crises

The ultraviolet properties of star-forming galaxies - I. HST WFC3 observations of very high redshift galaxies

The acquisition of deep near-IR imaging with Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble Space Telescope has provided the opportunity to study the very high redshift Universe. For galaxies up to z≈ 7.7 sufficient wavelength coverage exists to probe the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) continuum without contamination from either Lyman α emission or the Lyman α break. In this work we use near-infrared (near-IR) imaging to measure the rest-frame UV continuum colours of galaxies at 4.7 < z < 7.7. We have carefully defined a colour–colour selection to minimize any inherent bias in the measured UV continuum slope for the drop-out samples. For the highest redshift sample (6.7 < z < 7.7), selected as zf850lp-band drop-outs, we find mean UV continuum colours approximately equal to zero (AB), consistent with a dust-free, solar metallicity, star-forming population (or a moderately dusty population of low metallicity). At lower redshift we find that the mean UV continuum colours of galaxies (over the same luminosity range) are redder, and that galaxies with higher luminosities are also slightly redder on average. One interpretation of this is that lower redshift and more luminous galaxies are dustier; however, this interpretation is complicated by the effects of the star formation history and metallicity and potentially the initial mass function on the UV continuum colours

H-ATLAS/GAMA and HeViCS - dusty early-type galaxies in different environments

NKA acknowledges the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council. LD, RJI and SJM acknowledge support from the European Research Council Advanced Grant COSMICISM. IDL gratefully acknowledges the support of the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO-Vlaanderen). KR acknowledges support from the European Research Council Starting Grant SEDmorph (P.I. V. Wild). Date of acceptance: 22/05/2015The Herschel Space Observatory has had a tremendous impact on the study of extragalactic dust. Specifically, early-type galaxies (ETG) have been the focus of several studies. In this paper, we combine results from two Herschel studies -a Virgo cluster study Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS) and a broader, low-redshift Herschel-Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS)/Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA) study -and contrast the dust and associated properties for similar mass galaxies. This comparison is motivated by differences in results exhibited between multiple Herschel studies of ETG. A comparison between consistent modified blackbody derived dust mass is carried out, revealing strong differences between the two samples in both dust mass and dust-to-stellar mass ratio. In particular, the HeViCS sample lacks massive ETG with as high a specific dust content as found in H-ATLAS. This is most likely connected with the difference in environment for the two samples. We calculate nearest neighbour environment densities in a consistent way, showing that H-ATLAS ETG occupy sparser regions of the local Universe, whereas HeViCS ETG occupy dense regions. This is also true for ETG that are not Herschel-detected but are in the Virgo and GAMA parent samples. Spectral energy distributions are fit to the panchromatic data. From these, we find that in H-ATLAS the specific star formation rate anticorrelates with stellar mass and reaches values as high as in our Galaxy. On the other hand HeViCS ETG appear to have little star formation. Based on the trends found here, H-ATLAS ETG are thought to have more extended star formation histories and a younger stellar population than HeViCS ETG.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Investigating the role of early low-dose aspirin in diabetes: A phase III multicentre double-blinded placebo-controlled randomised trial of aspirin therapy initiated in the first trimester of diabetes pregnancy

Background: Preeclampsia, preterm birth and low birth weight represent key contributing factors to perinatal morbidity and mortality. Pregnancies complicated by type 1 and type 2 diabetes are at increased risk of these complications, which are purported to be largely attributed to placental dysfunction. Studies investigating a potential role for aspirin therapy in optimizing perinatal outcome have consistently failed to demonstrate a benefit among women with pre-existing diabetes, and yet widespread aspirin administration has become common practice in many centres. This study seeks to examine the effect of aspirin therapy, administered from the first trimester until 36 weeks gestation, on perinatal outcome in women with established pre-pregnancy diabetes. Our hypothesis is that aspirin therapy will reduce complications mediated by placental dysfunction, and improve perinatal outcomes. Methods: This phase III double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial will be conducted in seven tertiary-level perinatology centres in Ireland. Consenting participants who meet all eligibility criteria will be allocated randomly to either aspirin 150 mg once daily or matching placebo, commenced between 11 + 0 and 13 + 6 weeks. Allocation will take place electronically using software by Clininfo with randomization tables provided by the trial biostatistician. The primary outcome will be a composite clinical measure of placental dysfunction (preeclampsia, preterm birth before 34 weeks, birthweight below the 10th centile or perinatal mortality). This trial has been set up such that it is parallel in design and is a superiority study. No participants have been recruited yet. The trial has been registered with Eudra Clinical Trials - EudraCT Number 2018-000770-29. Funding for this trial was granted by the Health research Board (HRB) 1/9/2017(DIFA-2017-026). Discussion: Aspirin therapy has been investigated for the prevention of preeclampsia owing to its reduction on thromboxane production. Previous studies have failed to demonstrate a beneficial effect of aspirin on perinatal outcome amongst women with type I or type II diabetes. It is plausible that the failure to observe benefit to date, among the limited aspirin studies that have included participants with diabetes, may be a consequence of aspirin initiation too late in pregnancy to exert any effect on placentation. We believe that if aspirin is to be used for the prevention of placental dysfunction, it must be initiated before the second active phase of trophoblast invasion, which takes place from 14 weeks’ gestation onwards. No randomized trials investigating the role of aspirin in prevention of preeclampsia in pregnancies complicated by diabetes have previously initiated treatment in the first trimester, the gestational period at which it is most likely to exert an effect on placentation

Performance of plate-based cytokine flow cytometry with automated data analysis

BACKGROUND: Cytokine flow cytometry (CFC) provides a multiparameter alternative to ELISPOT assays for rapid quantitation of antigen-specific T cells. To increase the throughput of CFC assays, we have optimized methods for stimulating, staining, and acquiring whole blood or PBMC samples in 96-well or 24-well plates. RESULTS: We have developed a protocol for whole blood stimulation and processing in deep-well 24- or 96-well plates, and fresh or cryopreserved peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) stimulation and processing in conventional 96-well round-bottom plates. Samples from both HIV-1-seronegative and HIV-1-seropositive donors were tested. We show that the percent response, staining intensity, and cell recovery are comparable to stimulation and processing in tubes using traditional methods. We also show the equivalence of automated gating templates to manual gating for CFC data analysis. CONCLUSION: When combined with flow cytometry analysis using an automated plate loader and an automated analysis algorithm, these plate-based methods provide a higher throughput platform for CFC, as well as reducing operator-induced variability. These factors will be important for processing the numbers of samples required in large clinical trials, and for epitope mapping of patient responses