Social Learning Capabilities in Broward’s Black Male Success Task Force: Informing Collective Impact Initiatives

Broward Schools is addressing an achievement gap for Black males with a collective impact initiative. Collective impact initiatives address complex social problems. The social learning capability of the initiative can be enhanced by applying Wenger’s (2009) social learning spaces, learning as citizenship, and social artists concepts

When One Dimensional Models Fail: Complexifying Models of Knowledge Construction

One dimensional models of reflective practice do not incorporate spirituality and social responsibility. Theological reflection, a form of reflective practice, is contextualized by a vision of social responsibility and the use of spirituality. An alternative model of reflective practice is proposed for spirituality and socially responsive learning at work

A Comparison of the New York Bar Examination and the Proposed Uniform Bar Examination

The New York Board of Law Examiners (BOLE) proposes adopting the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), substituting it for the current New York Bar Exam (NYBE). The BOLE proposal is currently under active consideration, and it is the subject of public hearings. This article examines some of the issues the proposal raises. First, we look at the history of the proposal, and at the differences between the UBE and the NYBE as it is currently administered. Then we look in detail at the proposal for New York: a combination of the UBE plus a stand-alone one-hour multiple-choice New York test. Finally, we pose some important questions: What are the possible effects of adopting the new tests? What will the effect be on bar-exam pass rates, and on practice readiness? What will the effect be on preparation of foreign-trained members of the bar? How will adoption of the UBE affect the way law school professors teach? Must professors choose between preparing students for the bar exam by teaching uniform rules and preparing them for practice in New York State by teaching New York law? Will the UBE affect the attractiveness of New York law schools

Deconstructing heterosexual privilege with new science metaphors

The purpose of the paper is to deconstruct heterosexual privilege in adult education through exploring metaphors in quantum physics and ecology. Binary heterosexist boundaries are re-envisioned and alternative adult learning and education processes are suggested

A Comparison of the New York Bar Examination and the Proposed Uniform Bar Examination

The New York Board of Law Examiners (BOLE) proposes adopting the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), substituting it for the current New York Bar Exam (NYBE). The BOLE proposal is currently under active consideration, and it is the subject of public hearings. This article examines some of the issues the proposal raises. First, we look at the history of the proposal, and at the differences between the UBE and the NYBE as it is currently administered. Then we look in detail at the proposal for New York: a combination of the UBE plus a stand-alone one-hour multiple-choice New York test. Finally, we pose some important questions: What are the possible effects of adopting the new tests? What will the effect be on bar-exam pass rates, and on practice readiness? What will the effect be on preparation of foreign-trained members of the bar? How will adoption of the UBE affect the way law school professors teach? Must professors choose between preparing students for the bar exam by teaching uniform rules and preparing them for practice in New York State by teaching New York law? Will the UBE affect the attractiveness of New York law schools

Graph Connectivity: Approximation Algorithms and Applications to Protein-Protein Interaction Networks

A graph is connected if there is a path between any two of its vertices and k-connected if there are at least k disjoint paths between any two vertices. A graph is k-edge-connected if none of the k paths share any edges and k-vertex-connected (or k-connected) if they do not share any intermediate vertices. We examine some problems related to k-connectivity and an application. We have looked at the k-edge-connected spanning subgraph problem: given a k-edge-connected graph, find the smallest subgraph that includes all vertices and is still k-edge-connected. We improved two algorithms for approximating solutions to this problem. The first algorithm transforms the problem into an integer linear program, relaxes it into a real-valued linear program and solves it, then obtains an approximate solution to the original problem by rounding non-integer values. We have improved the approximation ratio by giving a better scheme for rounding the edges and bounding the number of fractional edges. The second algorithm finds a subgraph where every vertex has a minimum degree, then augments the subgraph by adding edges until it is k-edgeconnected. We improve this algorithm by bounding the number of edges that could be added in the augmentation step. We have also applied the idea of k-connectivity to protein-protein interaction (PPI) networks, biological graphs where vertices represent proteins and edges represent experimentally determined physical interactions. Because few PPI networks are even 1-connected, we have looked for highly connected subgraphs of these graphs. We developed algorithms to find the most highly connected subgraphs of a graph. We applied our algorithms to a large network of yeast protein interactions and found that the most highly connected subgraph was a 16-connected subgraph of membrane proteins that had never before been identified as a module and is of interest to biologists. We also looked at graphs of proteins known to be co-complexed and found that a significant number contained 3- connected subgraphs, one of the features that most differentiated complexes from random graphs

Cost-outcome description of clinical pharmacist interventions in a university teaching hospital

Background: Pharmacist interventions are one of the pivotal parts of a clinical pharmacy service within a hospital. This study estimates the cost avoidance generated by pharmacist interventions due to the prevention of adverse drug events (ADE). The types of interventions identified are also analysed. Methods: Interventions recorded by a team of hospital pharmacists over a one year time period were included in the study. Interventions were assigned a rating score, determined by the probability that an ADE would have occurred in the absence of an intervention. These scores were then used to calculate cost avoidance. Net cost benefit and cost benefit ratio were the primary outcomes. Categories of interventions were also analysed. Results: A total cost avoidance of €708,221 was generated. Input costs were calculated at €81,942. This resulted in a net cost benefit of €626,279 and a cost benefit ratio of 8.64: 1. The most common type of intervention was the identification of medication omissions, followed by dosage adjustments and requests to review therapies. Conclusion: This study provides further evidence that pharmacist interventions provide substantial cost avoidance to the healthcare payer. There is a serious issue of patient’s regular medication being omitted on transfer to an inpatient setting in Irish hospitals

Acute hospital dementia care: results from a national audit

Background: Admission to an acute hospital can be distressing and disorientating for a person with dementia, and is associated with decline in cognitive and functional ability. The objective of this audit was to assess the quality of dementia care in acute hospitals in the Republic of Ireland. Methods: Across all 35 acute public hospitals, data was collected on care from admission through discharge using a retrospective chart review (n = 660), hospital organisation interview with senior management (n = 35), and ward level organisation interview with ward managers (n = 76). Inclusion criteria included a diagnosis of dementia, and a length of stay greater than 5 days. Results: Most patients received physical assessments, including mobility (89 %), continence (84 %) and pressure sore risk (87 %); however assessment of pain (75 %), and particularly functioning (36 %) was poor. Assessment for cognition (43 %) and delirium (30 %) was inadequate. Most wards have access at least 5 days per week to Liaison Psychiatry (93 %), Geriatric Medicine (84 %), Occupational Therapy (79 %), Speech & Language (81 %), Physiotherapy (99 %), and Palliative Care (89 %) Access to Psychology (9 %), Social Work (53 %), and Continence services (34 %) is limited. Dementia awareness training is provided on induction in only 2 hospitals, and almost half of hospitals did not offer dementia training to doctors (45 %) or nurses (48 %) in the previous 12 months. Staff cover could not be provided on 62 % of wards for attending dementia training. Most wards (84 %) had no dementia champion to guide best practice in care. Discharge planning was not initiated within 24 h of admission in 72 % of cases, less than 40 % had a single plan for discharge recorded, and 33 % of carers received no needs assessment prior to discharge. Length of stay was significantly greater for new discharges to residential care (p < .001). Conclusion: Dementia care relating to assessment, access to certain specialist services, staffing levels, training and support, and discharge planning is sub-optimal, which may increase the risk of adverse patient outcomes and the cost of acute care. Areas of good practice are also highlighted

Development of an in vitro diagnostic method to determine the genotypic sex of Xenopus laevis

A genotypic sex determination assay provides accurate gender information of individuals with well-developed phenotypic characters as well as those with poorly developed or absent of phenotypic characters. Determination of genetic sex for Xenopus laevis can be used to validate the outcomes of Tier 2 amphibian assays, and is a requirement for conducting the larval amphibian growth and development assay (LAGDA), in the endocrine disruptor screening program (EDSP), test guidelines. The assay we developed uses a dual-labeled TaqMan probe-based real-time polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR) method to determine the genotypic sex. The reliability of the assay was tested on 37 adult specimens of X. laevis collected from in-house cultures in Eurofins EAG Agroscience, Easton. The newly designed X. laevis-specific primer pair and probe targets the DM domain gene linked-chromosome W as a master female-determining gene. Accuracy of the molecular method was assessed by comparing with phenotypic sex, determined by necropsy and histological examination of gonads for all examined specimens. Genotypic sex assignments were strongly concordant with observed phenotypic sex, confirming that the 19 specimens were male and 18 were female. The results indicate that the TaqMan® assay could be practically used to determine the genetic sex of animals with poorly developed or no phenotypic sex characteristics with 100% precision. Therefore, the TaqMan® assay is confirmed as an efficient and feasible method, providing a diagnostic molecular sex determination approach to be used in the amphibian endocrine disrupting screening programs conducted by regulatory industries. The strength of an EDSP is dependent on a reliable method to determine genetic sex in order to identify reversals of phenotypic sex in animals exposed to endocrine active compounds