I Have a Solution to Share: Learning through Equitable Participation in a Mathematics Classroom

Student participation is an issue of equity. Without participation there can be no learning. This study focuses on the participation (and therefore learning) of struggling students (those with individual education plans [IEPs]) during the implementation of a relational thinking routine in a third-grade inclusion classroom. Students with IEPs often initially used direct modeling with linking cubes as a resource for presenting their thinking. In this way, they were able to demonstrate their ability to think relationally. As the year progressed, these students, who had earlier been reluctant to share and had done so only by using several of the resources that the participation structure of the routine provided, often showed a growth in their abilities to explain their thinking verbally

An Empirical Look At Developmental Interventions And Student Performance In The First Intermediate Accounting Course

Due to concerns about student performance in Intermediate Accounting I, our Department of Accounting established an Intermediate Readiness Committee in the spring of 2006 to create a developmental program for students entering Intermediate I, with the goal of improving performance in that course.  Over the next two years, the Committee established the Developmental Program with two escalating interventions to improve performance in Intermediate I.  These interventions were comprised of readiness testing with study sessions and readiness testing with use of developmental software.  This study reports the impact these interventions had on student performance in Intermediate I.  The authors control for gender, grades earned in each of the two accounting principles courses, whether the student took Principles II at school of study or transferred the course credit from another school, and overall undergraduate grade point average upon entering Intermediate I.  Results indicate that each intervention resulted in significantly higher grades than observed in a Base Period without intervention

Blood and marrow transplantation compensation: Perspective in payer and provider relations

AbstractThe high cost per patient of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) causes this therapy to be the focus of much controversy, given the competing societal demands to provide all possible therapy to preserve life while simultaneously limiting global health care expenditures. Treatment and eligibility decisions for HCT often are heavily scrutinized by both governmental and private payers and not simply determined by physicians, facility providers, and the patient. In an effort to control costs, payers have administrative infrastructure to review resource utilization by these patients. Additionally payers have developed payment methodologies, usually in the form of a case rate payment structure, that place facilities and physician providers of HCT at financial risk for adverse patient financial outcomes in an effort to promote optimal utilization and selection of patients for HCT. As providers enter into such financial risk arrangements with payers, the providers need to understand the true cost of care and be able to identify predictable and unpredictable outlier risks for the financial consequences of medical complications. HCT providers try to protect themselves from excessive financial risk by having different payment rates for different types of transplant, eg, autologous versus HLA or genotypically matched related versus HLA mismatched transplants. Because at certain times in the HCT process risk is more unpredictable, HCT providers require different payment system strategies for the different time periods of care such as evaluation, pre-transplant disease management, harvesting, and cell processing, as well as short- and long-term follow-up. Involvement by clinicians is essential for this process to be done well, especially given the rapid changes technological innovation brings to HCT. Constant dialogue and interaction between providers and payers on these difficult financial issues with HCT is essential to preserve patient access to this potentially lifesaving therapy

Early career elementary teachers’ practices & perceptions related to language & language learners

There has been limited attention to early career teachers’ (ECTs) understandings and practices related to language in teaching and learning mathematics. In this qualitative case study, we drew upon frameworks for teacher noticing to study the language practices of six early career elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. We describe multiple themes that cut across teachers’ noticing related to language and language learners, and discuss one theme (i.e., Perspectives on multiple languages) in more detail, including evidence of specific forms of noticing. Implications for teacher education and professional development are discussed

Directions for the future of technology in pronunciation research and teaching

This paper reports on the role of technology in state-of-the-art pronunciation research and instruction, and makes concrete suggestions for future developments. The point of departure for this contribution is that the goal of second language (L2) pronunciation research and teaching should be enhanced comprehensibility and intelligibility as opposed to native-likeness. Three main areas are covered here. We begin with a presentation of advanced uses of pronunciation technology in research with a special focus on the expertise required to carry out even small-scale investigations. Next, we discuss the nature of data in pronunciation research, pointing to ways in which future work can build on advances in corpus research and crowdsourcing. Finally, we consider how these insights pave the way for researchers and developers working to create research-informed, computer-assisted pronunciation teaching resources. We conclude with predictions for future developments

Randomised feasibility trial of the helping families programme-modified: an intensive parenting intervention for parents affected by severe personality difficulties.

BACKGROUND: Specialist parenting intervention could improve coexistent parenting and child mental health difficulties of parents affected by severe personality difficulties. OBJECTIVE: Conduct a feasibility trial of Helping Families Programme-Modified (HFP-M), a specialist parenting intervention. DESIGN: Pragmatic, mixed-methods trial, 1:1 random allocation, assessing feasibility, intervention acceptability and outcome estimates. SETTINGS: Two National Health Service health trusts and local authority children's social care. PARTICIPANTS: Parents: (i) primary caregiver, (ii) 18 to 65 years, (iii) severe personality difficulties, (iv) proficient English and (v) capacity for consent. Child: (i) 3 to 11 years, (ii) living with index parent and (iii) significant emotional/behavioural difficulties. INTERVENTION: HFP-M: 16-session home-based intervention using parenting and therapeutic engagement strategies. Usual care: standard care augmented by single psychoeducational parenting session. OUTCOMES: Primary feasibility outcome: participant retention rate. SECONDARY OUTCOMES: (i) rates of recruitment, eligibility and data completion, and (ii) rates of intervention acceptance, completion and alliance (Working Alliance Inventory-Short Revised). Primary clinical outcome: child behaviour (Eyberg Child Behaviour Inventory). SECONDARY OUTCOMES: child mental health (Concerns About My Child, Child Behaviour Checklist-Internalising Scale), parenting (Arnold-O'Leary Parenting Scale, Kansas Parental Satisfaction Scale) and parent mental health (Symptom-Checklist-27). Quantitative data were collected blind to allocation. RESULTS: Findings broadly supported non-diagnostic selection criterion. Of 48 participants recruited, 32 completed post-intervention measures at mean 42 weeks later. Participant retention exceeded a priori rate (HFP-M=18; Usual care=14; 66.7%, 95% CI 51.6% to 79.6%). HFP-M was acceptable, with delivery longer than planned. Usual care had lower alliance rating. Child and parenting outcome effects detected across trial arms with potential HFP-M advantage (effect size range: 0.0 to 1.3). CONCLUSION: HFP-M is an acceptable and potentially effective specialist parenting intervention. A definitive trial is feasible, subject to consideration of recruitment and retention methods, intervention efficiency and comparator condition. Caution is required in interpretation of results due to reduced sample size. No serious adverse events reported. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN14573230

An exploration of knowledge, attitudes and advice given by health professionals to parents in Ireland about the introduction of solid foods. A pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For the purposes of this paper "weaning is defined as the introduction of the first solid foods to infants". Global recommendations by the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommend that all infants be exclusively breast-fed for the first six months of life. No global recommendations have been made for formula fed infants. In Europe it is recommended that weaning foods should be introduced between 18 weeks and 26 weeks regardless of whether infants are breast or formula fed. In the United Kingdom it is recommended that solids be introduced at around six-months for both breast and formula fed infants. In Ireland official guidelines recommend that breast fed infants should be introduced solids at 6 months of age while for formula fed infants the recommendation is for 4 months. The disparity between these global, European, UK and local recommendations may be a source of confusion for parents and health care professional based in Ireland. Emerging evidence suggests that babies in Ireland are given solid foods before the recommended age but there has been little investigation of the weaning advice provided by health professionals. Since community health professionals have routine parent interactions in the pre-weaning and early-weaning period and hence are in a unique position to positively influence parental weaning decisions, this study aimed to explore their knowledge, attitudes and advice practices about weaning.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A mixed-methods approach was used for the research, commencing with a multi-disciplinary focus group to guide and develop a questionnaire. Questionnaires were then distributed in a postal survey to General Practitioners (GPs) (<it>n </it>179), Practice Nurses (PNs) (<it>n </it>121), Public Health Nurses (PHNs) (<it>n </it>107) and Community Dieticians (CDs) (<it>n </it>8).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results indicate varying levels of knowledge of official weaning recommendations and a variety of advice practices. CDs and PHNs acknowledged a clear role in providing weaning advice while demonstrating high confidence levels in providing this advice. However, 19% of PNs and 7% of GP respondents did not acknowledge that they have a role in providing weaning advice to parents; even though Health Service Executive (HSE) written literature given to parents states that they should seek information from PNs and GPs.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Small pockets of misinformation about the introduction of solid foods persist amongst health professionals which may lead to inconsistent advice for parents. Further research is needed.</p

Polygenic Resilience Modulates the Penetrance of Parkinson Disease Genetic Risk Factors

peer reviewedObjective: The aim of the current study is to understand why some individuals avoid developing Parkinson disease (PD) despite being at relatively high genetic risk, using the largest datasets of individual-level genetic data available. Methods: We calculated polygenic risk score to identify controls and matched PD cases with the highest burden of genetic risk for PD in the discovery cohort (International Parkinson's Disease Genomics Consortium, 7,204 PD cases and 9,412 controls) and validation cohorts (Comprehensive Unbiased Risk Factor Assessment for Genetics and Environment in Parkinson's Disease, 8,968 cases and 7,598 controls; UK Biobank, 2,639 PD cases and 14,301 controls; Accelerating Medicines Partnership–Parkinson's Disease Initiative, 2,248 cases and 2,817 controls). A genome-wide association study meta-analysis was performed on these individuals to understand genetic variation associated with resistance to disease. We further constructed a polygenic resilience score, and performed multimarker analysis of genomic annotation (MAGMA) gene-based analyses and functional enrichment analyses. Results: A higher polygenic resilience score was associated with a lower risk for PD (β = −0.054, standard error [SE] = 0.022, p = 0.013). Although no single locus reached genome-wide significance, MAGMA gene-based analyses nominated TBCA as a putative gene. Furthermore, we estimated the narrow-sense heritability associated with resilience to PD (h2 = 0.081, SE = 0.035, p = 0.0003). Subsequent functional enrichment analysis highlighted histone methylation as a potential pathway harboring resilience alleles that could mitigate the effects of PD risk loci. Interpretation: The present study represents a novel and comprehensive assessment of heritable genetic variation contributing to PD resistance. We show that a genetic resilience score can modify the penetrance of PD genetic risk factors and therefore protect individuals carrying a high-risk genetic burden from developing PD. ANN NEUROL 202

The Rat Genome Database (RGD): developments towards a phenome database

The Rat Genome Database (RGD) (http://rgd.mcw.edu) aims to meet the needs of its community by providing genetic and genomic infrastructure while also annotating the strengths of rat research: biochemistry, nutrition, pharmacology and physiology. Here, we report on RGD's development towards creating a phenome database. Recent developments can be categorized into three groups. (i) Improved data collection and integration to match increased volume and biological scope of research. (ii) Knowledge representation augmented by the implementation of a new ontology and annotation system. (iii) The addition of quantitative trait loci data, from rat, mouse and human to our advanced comparative genomics tools, as well as the creation of new, and enhancement of existing, tools to enable users to efficiently browse and survey research data. The emphasis is on helping researchers find genes responsible for disease through the use of rat models. These improvements, combined with the genomic sequence of the rat, have led to a successful year at RGD with over two million page accesses that represent an over 4-fold increase in a year. Future plans call for increased annotation of biological information on the rat elucidated through its use as a model for human pathobiology. The continued development of toolsets will facilitate integration of these data into the context of rat genomic sequence, as well as allow comparisons of biological and genomic data with the human genomic sequence and of an increasing number of organisms