Shared decision-making and its impact on inclusion for special needs students

Shared decision-making is a style of leadership that affords ownership, empowerment, and being part of a team that can make a difference. When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) required a committee to develop an Individualized Education Program, inclusion was considered in order to provide the least restrictive environment within which the student could make progress in a school setting.;When the regular classroom teachers feel that they help to make decisions for inclusion of children in their classrooms, does it impact their implementation of inclusion? Regular classroom teachers were interviewed for this case study to determine how shared decision-making involves them and resolves barriers of inclusion for special needs students when teachers are involved in the process

What\u27s to Know?: Navigating Knowledge Gaps of Hansen\u27s Disease in the U.S.

This thesis uses a critical medical anthropology approach to explore healthcare professionals’ perspectives of Hansen’s disease (HD) patients’ treatment-seeking experiences in the United States. During semi-structured interviews my eight informants discussed challenges patients face when seeking treatment. The number one challenge discussed was that of knowledge gaps among healthcare professionals which influence misconceptions of HD being highly contagious and dangerous. Such misconceptions negatively influence patients’ treatment from start to finish. My informants discussed their understandings of, and roles in minimizing challenges for their patients

A Comparative Analysis of Proposed Improvements in Aviation Education: Nationwide Aviation Education Programs Versus Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

This paper presents a comparison of findings related to a study of proposed improvements in four-year aviation education programs as indicated by nation-wide survey instruments conducted in the summer of 1993 and during a follow-on survey performed at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in early 1996. Aviation education program directors of four-year non-engineering collegiate aviation programs and faculty members throughout the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University system were contacted to provide input as to methods of improving the quality of aviation education programs. Key information obtained was then paraphrased into a written instrument that was categorized in order of importance by the two different mailings. The improvement of both faculty and teaching aids and to provide more student internships were the most recommended improvements in this study. This paper provides multiple nationwideranked proposed improvements in aviation education, and describes peer-suggested methods of improving student attainment of knowledge, competency, and proficiency in aviation education

Context dependent differences in working memory related brain activity in heavy cannabis users

Rationale  Compromised cognitive control in cannabis use–tempting situations is thought to play a key role in the development of cannabis use disorders. However, little is known about how exposure to cannabis cues and contexts may influence cognitive control and the underlying neural mechanisms in cannabis users.  Objectives  Working memory (WM) is an attention reliant executive function central to cognitive control. In this study, we investigated how distracting cannabis words affected WM load–dependent performance and related brain activity in near-daily cannabis users (N = 36) relative to controls (N = 33).  Methods  Brain activity was recorded during a novel N-back flanker WM task with neutral and cannabis flankers added as task-irrelevant distractors.  Results  On a behavioural level, WM performance did not differ between groups, and the presence of cannabis flankers did not affect performance. However, in cannabis users compared to controls, the presence of cannabis flankers reduced WM load–related activity in multiple regions, including the insula, thalamus, superior parietal lobe and supramarginal gyrus.  Conclusions  The group specificity of these effects suggest that cannabis users might differ from controls in the way they process cannabis-related cues and that cannabis cue exposure could interfere with other cognitive processes under cognitively demanding circumstances. Future studies should focus on the role of context in cognitive control–related processes like WM and attention to further elucidate potential cognitive impairments in heavy cannabis users and how these relate to loss of control over drug seeking itself

A simple model to estimate atmospheric concentrations of aerosol chemical species based on snow core chemistry at Summit, Greenland

A simple model is presented to estimate atmospheric concentrations of chemical species that exist primarily as aerosols based on snow core/ice core chemistry at Summit, Greenland. The model considers the processes of snow, fog, and dry deposition. The deposition parameters for each of the processes are estimated for SO42− and Ca2+ and are based on experiments conducted during the 1993 and 1994 summer field seasons. The seasonal mean atmospheric concentrations are estimated based on the deposition parameters and snow cores obtained during the field seasons. The ratios of the estimated seasonal mean airborne concentration divided by the measured mean concentration ( ) for SO42− over the 1993 and 1994 field seasons are 0.85 and 0.95, respectively. The ratios for Ca2+ are 0.45 and 0.90 for the 1993 and 1994 field seasons. The uncertainties in the estimated atmospheric concentrations range from 30% to 40% and are due to variability in the input parameters. The model estimates the seasonal mean atmospheric SO42− and Ca2+ concentrations to within 15% and 55%, respectively. Although the model is not directly applied to ice cores, the application of the model to ice core chemical signals is briefly discussed