Relationship Between School Climate and Student Achievement

Increasingly public schools in the United States are finding that factors beyond curriculum and instruction impact student achievement. Much research has been conducted on the relationship between school climate and student achievement (Cohen, McCabe, Michelli, & Pickeral, 2009; Guo & Higgins-D’Alessandro, 2011). This study set out to determine if there was a correlation between school climate and student achievement in middle schools in the Central Savannah River Area Regional Educational Service Agency region in the state of Georgia. Findings from this quantitative study indicated that there is a statistically significant, positive relationship between school climate and student achievement in middle schools in this region. Discussion and implications of the findings suggest practical recommendations for schools to implement changes were needed. Recommendations for future research include expanding the research to elementary and high schools as well as other regions of Georgia

Alien Registration- Greenway, John H. (Brownville, Piscataquis County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/11546/thumbnail.jp

Episiotomy and Obstetric Trauma in Nevada: Evidence from Linked Hospital Discharge and Birth Data

Based on the perception that episiotomy prevents obstetric trauma, the procedure is liberally performed in U.S. Hospitals. Using linked Nevada Birth Registry and Nevada Impatient Hospital Discharges (2000 to 2005), we applied descriptive analyses and logistic regression to examine the status of Nevada episiotomy practice and its impact on birth trauma for mothers. Of 106,461 vaginal live births, 26,383 (24.8%) episiotomies were conducted. Obstetric trauma rate declined from 5.2% of vaginal deliveries in 2000 to 4.4% in 2005. After statistically controlling for the effect of other risk factors, zero parity, episiotomy, other instrument assisted deliveries, non-MDs as birth attendants, rural hospitals, urban county residences, and non-teaching hospitals are associated with an elevated risk obstetric trauma. We conclude that Nevada is on par with the year over year decline in national episiotomy rates

Interaction of temperature, salinity and extracellular polymeric substances controls trace element incorporation into tufa calcite

The influence of extracellular polymeric substances on carbonate mineral growth in natural settings remains one of the most poorly understood contributors to the growth of non-marine carbonate sediments. The influences of these materials are complicated by their association with living cells creating local microenvironments via metabolism and enzyme production, and by our uncertainty about the extracellular polymeric substances materials themselves. Different mixtures of extracellular polymeric substance molecules may behave in different ways, and differences in the local physical environment may alter how the mixtures influence mineral formation, and even result in different patterns of polymerization. Here, the influence of extracellular polymeric substances on calcite precipitation rate and Mg/Cacalcite in the absence of cells is investigated using extracts of extracellular polymeric substances from temperate fluvial tufa biofilm. The influence is complex, with the concentration of extracellular polymeric substances in solution altering deposition rate and trace element incorporation. Moreover, the results show interaction of the presence/absence of extracellular polymeric substances and both temperature and salinity. However, despite extracting extracellular polymeric substances from the same parent sample, a uniform influence was not found in these experiments, implying that the mixture is sufficiently variable within a sample for microenvironments within the biofilm to either promote or inhibit mineralization. As sedimentologists, we can no longer take the view that extracellular polymeric substances are a bystander material, or that they have a single set of coherent and predictable or intuitive influences. Rather, the emphasis must be on investigating the specific mixtures present in nature, and their complex and dynamic interaction with both mineral surfaces and hydrochemical conditions

Optimization of pH as a strategy to improve enzymatic saccharification of wheat straw for enhancing bioethanol production

In this work, wheat straw (WS) was used as a lignocellulosic substrate to investigate the influence of pH on enzymatic saccharification. The optimum enzymatic hydrolysis occurred at pH range 5.8 – 6.0, instead of 4.8 - 5.0 as has been widely reported in research. Two enzymes cocktails, Celluclast® 1.5L with Novozymes 188, Cellic® CTec2 and endo-1, 4-β-Xylanase, were used for the pH investigation over a pH range of 3.0 – 7.0. The highest concentration of total reduced sugar was found at pH 6.0 for all the different enzymes used in this study. The total reduced sugar produced from the enzymatic saccharification at pH 6.0 was found to be 7.0, 7.4 and 10.8 (g L-1) for Celluclast® 1.5L with Novozymes 188, endo-1, 4-β-Xylanase and Cellic® CTec2, respectively. By increasing the pH from 4.8 to 6.0, the total reduced sugar yield increased by 25% for Celluclast® 1.5L with Novozymes 188 and endo-1, 4-β-Xylanase and 21% for Cellic® CTec2. The results from this study indicate that WS hydrolysis can be improved significantly by elevating the pH at which the reaction occurs to the range of 5.8 to 6.0

Toxicity of polyelectrolyte-functionalized titania nanoparticles in zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos

We investigated the effects of short-term exposure of bare TiO2NPs and polyelectrolyte-coated TiO2NPs in the 5-25 nm size range, at relatively high concentrations (of 500 and 1000 mg/L) under light or dark conditions, in D. rerio embryos. The biological endpoints investigated included embryo viability and mRNA transcript levels of antioxidant and membrane transport genes relative to control embryos. The presence of nanoparticles on the surface of embryos was assessed using TEM. The results confirm an accumulation of TiO2NPs on the outer surface (chorion) of the embryo, but not within the embryo. No significant difference in embryo viability was detected following each exposure regime. The expression of antioxidant biomarker, SOD2, was significantly impacted by the type of TiO2NP, with TiO2NPs/PSS/PAH coating exposure showing down regulation; the concentration of the nanoparticles, with down regulation at 500 mg/L; and dark/light condition with down regulation in the light. The expression levels of the hypoxia and membrane markers, HIF1 and Pxmp2, were not significantly impacted by any factor. The study indicates that SOD2 mRNA expression levels may be useful in the detection of apparent oxidative stress induced by the titania nanoparticle build up on the embryo chorion surface

960-86 Implications of Alternative Classifications of Sudden Cardiac Death: A Prospective Analysis of 109 Deaths in Defibrillator Trials

In order to explore the implications of using varied definitions of sudden cardiac death (SCD), a classification (CL) committee (3 cardiologists) prospectively evaluated 109 deaths over a period of 19 months in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibriliator (ICD). The basis for CL was the CAST approach with additional assessments of the consequences of considering autopsy and ICD interrogation information. Concordance and/or discordance between committee members was recorded.ResultsOf the 834 patients followed for 19 months, there were 109 deaths: 17 were classified SCD, 51 non-SCD. and 40 non-cardiac. Of the deaths classified as SCD, 10/17 were unwitnessed as compared to 6/51 non-SCD and 3/40 non-cardiac deaths; p < 0.001. ICD detections occurred in 5/17 SCD <1 hour, 7/17 SCD <6 hours; therefore, 10/17 SCD had no ICD detection or information available. There was committee discordance in 5/17 SCD compared to 18/51 non-SCD and 16/40 non-cardiac. SCD rates as high as 3.6% (30/834) can be estimated if all SCD cases Cl by ≥1 member was counted as SCD. Likewise. a SCD rate as low as 0.8% (7/834) is possible if SCD is limited to witnessed SCD ≤1 hour; (a 4-fold difference). Autopsy information was available in 29/109 deaths. In 7 cases, autopsy findings resulted in changing a “SCD” CL (5 witnessed; 2 unwitnessed) to either non-SCD or non-cardiac [ruptured abdominal (N=21 or thoracic aortic (N=1) aneurysm, acute MI (N=1), cerebral infarction (N=1). pulmonary embolism (N=2)]. Thus, had autopsy information been unavailable or not considered, the SCD rate would have increased to 24/834 12.9%). ICD interrogation was unavailable in 51/109 (47%), most commonly due to being buried with the patient or programmed off prior to death.ConclusionA 4-fold spectrum of SCD rates is possible to report from the identical data-set. ICD interrogation has significant limitations for use in death CL, in contrast to its utility in clinical management. Autopsy results clarify cause-specific mortality in deaths that are temporally quite “sudden.” Total mortality is the most objective primary end point

The response of ostracod faunal assemblages to hydrology, lake level and carbon cycling in a Jamaican marl lake: a palaeolimnological investigation

Ostracod taxa from shallow freshwater lakes are sensitive to a range of limnological factors including temperature, hydrological habitat, lake level and the distribution of aquatic plants. Ostracod assemblages preserved in Quaternary lake sediments can be used to reconstruct limnological change and are therefore potentially valuable palaeoenvironmental proxies. However, lack of autecological information about some taxa may limit the validity of such reconstructions. We use fossil ostracod assemblages recovered from radiocarbon-dated Late Holocene sediments from Wallywash Great Pond, a small, shallow and freshwater lake in Southwest Jamaica, to reconstruct limnological change over the past ~1800 years. We circumvent ongoing taxonomic and ecological uncertainties associated with the identification of fossil ostracod taxa by drawing on observations of the ecology of ostracods found living in Jamaican water bodies. By combining this information with limnological data from the extant lake, and with sedimentological and isotopic data from the lake sediments, we show that a published interpretation of ostracod assemblages for the Late Quaternary of Wallywash Great Pond is simplistic, at least for the Late Holocene section of the sediment record. We conclude that changes in ostracod assemblages are linked to variations in the input of undersaturated groundwater to the northern part of the lake from which the core was recovered. These variations, which were driven by changes in the precipitation/evaporation ratio (effective moisture), also controlled sedimentation, with reduced effective moisture and a decline in undersaturated groundwater input favouring marl precipitation, whereas organic sediments are linked to increased effective moisture and enhanced groundwater input. Our findings suggest that the dramatic shifts in ostracod assemblages at this site are a complex response to changes in hydrology, sedimentology and carbonate saturation rather than being a simple indicator of lake-level change. Combining ostracod assemblage data with the results of other palaeolimnological analyses also allows more detailed reconstructions to be made for this lake and such a multiproxy approach is recommended for similar lakes elsewhere