Pursuing the Principalship: Factors in Assistant Principals’ Decisions

School administrators who are hired to lead and guide schools and districts must possess a number of characteristics that allow them to become successful leaders. The presence or absence of a strong educational leader can make all the difference in school climate and student achievement (Kelley, Thornton, & Daugherty, 2005). Educational leaders need to be cognizant of what constitutes an effective leader and which characteristics have the most effective impact on student achievement. Alford et al. (2011) stated, while principals are engaged in the managerial tasks of the school, securing the building for safety, ensuring bus routes, student schedules, and the day-to-day management tasks, the instructional needs of the faculty and students compete for attention (p. 29)

Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) data in children with and without HIV at 11-12 years

Although HIV and antiretroviral drugs have been shown to cause damage in the brain, the long-term impacts of perinatal infection, early treatment and exposure in children at 11 years, remain unclear. The effects of HIV and antiretroviral therapy (ART), whilst indistinguishable, can be investigated at a chemical level through proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). Previous studies in children have largely focused on individual metabolite changes. However, several adult studies have now advanced beyond this to address patterns of metabolic activity that are altered with HIV infection. Using a 3T Skyra scanner, 136 children (76 HIV+, 30 HEU, 30 HU; 71 males) between the ages of 11.0- 12.5 years, and from a similar socioeconomic background, were scanned. In this study metabolite concentrations were quantified within the basal ganglia (BG), midfrontal gray matter (MFGM) and peritrigonal white matter (PWM). We utilised linear regression to investigate individual metabolite differences, comparing HIV-infected (HIV+) children from the Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) trial, and HIV-exposed-uninfected (HEU) children, to HIV-unexposed (HU) children. Pearson's correlation analysis, factor analysis and logistic regression were then used to study alterations in metabolic patterns between HIV+ and HIV-uninfected (HIV-) children. Analysis of the data was carried out in R. We found elevated total choline in the BG (p = 0.03) and MFGM (p < 0.001) of HIV+ children, as well as reduced PWM total NAA (p = 0.03) and total creatine (p = 0.01). Altered metabolite concentrations were further observed in HEU children. Additionally, we identified a cross-regional coupling of choline which distinguishes HIV+ from HIV- children (p < 0.001). These findings indicate that multiregional inflammation and PWM axonal damage are occurring in HIV+ children at 11 years. Ultimately, the consequences of perinatal HIV acquisition, in spite of early treatment, continue to be seen at 11 years, as do the impacts of exposure

Technology for the Mission to Planet Earth

Mission to Planet Earth is a concept referring to the endeavor of making long term, space based global observations for the purpose of understanding earth system processes. The Ad Hoc Review Team on Space Technology was formed to determine what technologies must be developed in the near term to support this endeavor. The review team's central finding is that the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology has identified all the correct technologies to pursue, but that the mission and system architecture has not been developed sufficiently to permit determination of meaningful priorities. Some of the specific recommendations of the review team are as follows: (1) long term, space based investigation of global changes and the earth's systems; (2) studies should begin that include the performance of relative cost-benefit trade-off analyses and development of operations concepts; (3) funding should be increased, especially in research and development; (4) pursue new technology in information processing; (5) improve interagency integration and coordination; and (6) after architecture studies are complete, another team should meet to consider questions of technology priorities, development schedules, and funding allocation

On the mark? Responses to a sting

A series of responses to John Bohannon's "sting" operation on OA journals

The Data Dilemma

Presented by Amy Stout at ASEE Annual Conference, June 24-27, 2007, Honolulu, HIThere’s a famous allegory about a map of the world that grows in detail until every point in reality has its counterpoint on paper; the twist being that such a map is at once ideally accurate and entirely useless, since it’s the same size as the thing it’s meant to represent 1. Introduction The proliferation of scientific data is inspiring a paradigm shift in the way we manage information. Scientists frequently use other scientists’ data for their experiments 2, taking a step out of the traditional process known as the scientific method 3. As data is rapidly produced and shared, the results of experiments are practically becoming disseminated as they are collected, speeding up a process that used to take longer 4. With such a wealth of data available, information retrieval has become a critical component of scientific research. Tools like metadata, sophisticated databases and search engines are desperately trying to keep pace with the changing world 5. Furthermore, there are social and legal issues to consider. What data can be shared and disseminated? Who owns data? What about “facts” that have been extracted from years of experimentation or using patented devices? Traditionally, so-called facts have not been copyrightable, resulting in laws that become blurred 6. Another issue affecting data management is how to handle data as an object. Librarians are used to the book/journal model 7. Open Access, a movement that started in the early 1990s in an effort to make published articles freely available to the public, is now extending its reach to data 8. As part of a task force at MIT, librarians interviewed researchers to get their perspectives on data, with the goal of gathering ideas on how to assist the researchers. In addition, librarians are submitting a data set to MIT’s institutional repository, DSpace, in an effort to investigate the technical challenges presented by data storage. This experience will provide insight into the technical and social issues librarians can address with expertise. As librarians become more skilled with data management, they will be able to better advise and assist scientists, opening up new collaborations between librarians and their academic communities.MIT Librarie

The Health Status of Southern Children: A Neglected Regional Disparity

Purpose: Great variations exist in child health outcomes among states in the United States, with southern states consistently ranked among the lowest in the country. Investigation of the geographical distribution of children’s health status and the regional factors contributing to these outcomes has been neglected. We attempted to identify the degree to which region of residence may be linked to health outcomes for children with the specific aim of determining whether living in the southern region of the United States is adversely associated with children’s health status. Methods: A child health index (CHI) that ranked each state in the United States was computed by using statespecific composite scores generated from outcome measures for a number of indicators of child health. Five indicators for physical health were chosen (percent low birth weight infants, infant mortality rate, child death rate, teen death rate, and teen birth rates) based on their historic and routine use to define health outcomes in children. Indicators were calculated as rates or percentages. Standard scores were calculated for each state for each health indicator by subtracting the mean of the measures for all states from the observed measure for each state. Indicators related to social and economic status were considered to be variables that impact physical health, as opposed to indicators of physical health, and therefore were not used to generate the composite child health score. These variables were subsequently examined in this study as potential confounding variables. Mapping was used to redefine regional groupings of states, and parametric tests (2-sample t test, analysis of means, and analysis-of-variance F tests) were used to compare the means of the CHI scores for the regional groupings and test for statistical significance. Multiple regression analysis computed the relationship of region, social and economic indicators, and race to the CHI. Simple linear-regression analyses were used to assess the individual effect of each indicator. Results: A geographic region of contiguous states, characterized by their poor child health outcomes relative to other states and regions of the United States, exists within the “Deep South” (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Florida). This Deep-South region is statistically different in CHI scores from the US Census Bureau– defined grouping of states in the South. The mean of CHI scores for the Deep-South region was \u3e1 SD below the mean of CHI scores for all states. In contrast, the CHI score means for each of the other 3 regions were all above the overall mean of CHI scores for all states. Regression analysis showed that living in the Deep- South region is a stronger predictor of poor child health outcomes than other consistently collected and reported variables commonly used to predict children’s health. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicate that region of residence in the United States is statistically related to important measures of children’s health and may be among the most powerful predictors of child health outcomes and disparities. This clarification of the poorer health status of children living in the Deep South through spatial analysis is an essential first step for developing a better understanding of variations in the health of children. Similar to early epidemiology work linking geographic boundaries to disease, discovering the mechanisms/pathways/causes by which region influences health outcomes is a critical step in addressing disparities and inequities in child health and one that is an important and fertile area for future research. The reasons for these disparities may be complex and synergistically related to various economic, political, social, cultural, and perhaps even environmental (physical) factors in the region. This research will require the use and development of new approaches and applications of spatial analysis to develop insights into the societal, environmental, and historical determinants of child health that have been neglected in previous child health outcomes and policy research. The public policy implications of the findings in this study are substantial. Few, if any, policies identify these children as a high-risk group on the basis of their region of residence. A better understanding of the depth and breadth of disparities in health, education, and other social outcomes among and within regions of the United States is necessary for the generation of policies that enable policy makers to address and mitigate the factors that influence these disparities. Defining and clarifying the regional boundaries is also necessary to better inform public policy decisions related to resource allocation and the prevention and/or mitigation of the effects of region on child health. The identification of the Deep South as a clearly defined sub-region of the Census Bureau’s regional definition of the South suggests the need to use more culturally and socially relevant boundaries than the Census Bureau regions when analyzing regional data for policy development

Avoiding ‘starburst’: The need to identify common metrics of evaluating strengths-based programmes in prison

The notions of strengths-based working in health and justice are not new and areas as diverse as positive psychology and criminology, mental health and addictions recovery, and therapeutic jurisprudence and restorative approaches in the justice field all share a common set of principles and values that may offer some insights into questions of evaluation, effectiveness and measurement. The first part of this paper will examine the shared foundations of strengths- based approaches and this will inform a second section examining common principles in these models. Part Three will then provide three illustrative examples of strengths-based programmes in prisons in the United Kingdom (UK), before the final section, Part Four, outlines a two-tier model of strengths-measurement that will help to avoid 'starburst', that is, where the benefit is so short-lived that it has no lasting impact on the wellbeing of the prison or its constituents