Effective and Efficient Parent-Teacher Communication

This action research study examines parent-teacher communication using a combination of an online email program called MailChimp, a text app called Remind, and a class web page. A group of 17 parents from a private elementary classroom in a Montessori school agreed to participate in this study. Time sheets, check-off lists, feedback from parents, and statistics from MailChimp were used to collect data. The majority of the parents were pleased with the school-to-home communication during this period. The email and text message programs were the most efficient communication methods. Updating the class web page proved to be the most time-consuming communication process. This study showed why teachers should use a variety of correspondence methods in order to be effective communicators. While I will continue to use MailChimp, Remind, and my web page for parent-teacher communication, I also discovered there is room for improvement in my communication method

What is Your Social Justice IQ: Leading Social Justice in Higher Education

This article describes an experience originating in the College of Education to explore a process for the college’s social justice efforts to lead and guide administration, faculty, and staff in their day-to-day decision-making. This educational process examined in the article was introduced through the College of Education’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee to engage administration, faculty, and staff in using their various perspectives focused on social justice to help them shift the college\u27s current paradigm from understanding to action. The authors incorporated a conceptual framework as the foundation to develop the collaborative process to engage education professionals in gaining a greater consciousness of their social justice role. It is important for higher education professionals to recognize that as representatives of many cultures and experiences that they influence the social, economic, political, and work environments (SAMHSA, 2001) on campus. It is their responsibility to be adaptable using their intelligence, emotional, and social justice quotient lenses to meet the needs of all stakeholders

Maternal Serum Polychlorinated Biphenyl Concentrations across Critical Windows of Human Development

Background Few data are available on polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) concentrations over critical windows of human reproduction and development inclusive of the periconception window. Objectives Our goal was to measure changes in PCB concentrations from preconception to pregnancy, through pregnancy, or after a year without becoming pregnant. Methods Seventy-nine women planning pregnancies were prospectively enrolled and followed for up to 12 menstrual cycles of attempting pregnancy. Blood specimens were obtained from participating women preconceptionally (n = 79), after a positive pregnancy test leading to a live birth (n = 54) or pregnancy loss (n= 10), at approximately 6 weeks postpartum (n = 53), and after 12 unsuccessful cycles (n = 9) for toxicologic analysis of 76 PCB congeners. We estimated overall and daily rate of change in PCB concentration (nanograms per gram serum) adjusting for relevant covariates, serum lipids, and baseline PCB concentration. Results Significant (p \u3c 0.0001) decreases in the mean overall and daily rate of change in PCB concentrations were observed between the preconception and first pregnancy samples for total (–1.012 and –0.034, respectively), estrogenic (–0.444 and –0.016, respectively), and antiestrogenic (–0.106 and –0.004, respectively) PCBs among women with live births. Similar significant decreases in total (–1.452 and –0.085), estrogenic (–0.647 and –0.040), and antiestrogenic (–0.093 and –0.004) PCB concentrations were seen for women with pregnancy losses. No significant changes were observed for PCB congener 153. Conclusions These data suggest that PCB concentrations may change during the periconception interval, questioning the stability of persistent compounds during this critical window

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts analyzing aristotle commentaries in collaboration between philology and data science

This paper aims at presenting the surplus value of collaboration between philologists and data scientists in the research on medieval digitized manuscripts. Both the great potential and the challenges of such a collaboration will be addressed. The following case study originates from research which is conducted in the Collaborative Research Center “Episteme in Motion. Transfer from the Ancient World to the Early Modern Period” which is located at the Freie Universit¨at Berlin and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). One of the goals of this collaboration is to advance research questions in which the data basis is complex or too complex for traditional research methods. The case study presented in this paper will deal with the knowledge transfer and text transmission in manuscripts of Aristotle’s ancient Greek treatises on logic, the so-called Organon, and will focus on the manuscripts of his work de interpretatione (On Interpretation) and on commentaries and explanations which are found as paratexts in the manuscripts

A BAYESIAN APPROACH TO JOINT MODELING OF MENSTRUAL CYCLE LENGTH AND FECUNDITY

Female menstrual cycle length is thought to play an important role in couple fecundity, or the biologic capacity for reproduction irrespective of pregnancy intentions. A complete assessment of the association between menstrual cycle length and fecundity requires a model that accounts for multiple risk factors (both male and female) and the couple\u27s intercourse pattern relative to ovulation. We employ a Bayesian joint model consisting of a mixed effects accelerated failure time model for longitudinal menstrual cycle lengths and a hierarchical model for the conditional probability of pregnancy in a menstrual cycle given no pregnancy in previous cycles of trying, in which we include covariates for the male and the female and a flexible spline function of intercourse timing. Using our joint modeling approach to analyze data from the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment Study, a couple based prospective pregnancy study, we found a significant quadratic relation between menstrual cycle length and the probability of pregnancy even with adjustment for other risk factors, including male semen quality, age, and smoking status