Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports: Perspectives from Teachers and Support Staff

School staff members face challenging behaviors in school settings daily. There will be times when an educator will be exhausted and even perplexed when a challenging behavior occurs. In this Starred Paper, one evidence-based practice is closely examined to help reduce these challenging behaviors and it is called Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS). The research focused on the manageability of PBIS strategies, the training provided to school staff, and the overall perspective on the effectiveness of PBIS strategies from teachers and paraprofessionals specifically. Research has shown time and time again that the use of schoolwide PBIS improves the likelihood that students will engage in behavior that is effective, efficient, relevant, functional, and socially appropriate (Hill & Flores, 2013). Overall, the goal as teachers is to provide students with the skills they need to be successful members of the community and the PBIS framework proves to be effective and malleable for each school or classroom to increase academic learning and decrease challenging behaviors

A Study of the Relationship of Antibiotics on Fecal Microflora of Chicks

The advent of antibiotics in animal nutrition placed new emphasis on the intestinal microflors. E.L.R. Stokstad (38) presented the following observations as indicating that the growth promoting effect of antibiotics was due to the action on the bacteria of the intestinal trace. “(1) Antibiotics and chemotherapeutic agents of widely varying chemical structure are effective. This precludes the possibility of their being incorporated into any growth essential for the animal. (2) The ineffectiveness of antibiotics in increasing growth in the germ free animal. (3) The ineffectiveness of aureomycin in increasing growth of the developing chick embryo. (4) The effect of sanitation on the magnitude of the antibiotic growth response.” The actual mechanisms of the growth promoting action arenot known. Some of the possibilities have been presented as follows (38): “(1) Increased bacterial synthesis of essential or stimulatory growth factors. (2) Inhibition of bacteria which compete with the host for essential nutrients. (3) Inhibition of microorganisms which are deleterious because they produce toxic compounds or damage the intestinal tissues.” It has been reported that sureomycin (19) did not stimulate growth of chicks in new quarters, and that penicillin and other antibiotics (2) failed to increase growth of chicks reared in clean quarters. Along with the non-response of germ free chicks to antibiotics these reports would tend to lend favor to the theory of the inhibition of deleterious organisms. Waibel at al (39) observed that for a two year period antibiotics gave an improved growth rate. During the next year the antibiotics no longer improved the growth rate. These authors propose the possibility that “harmful bacteria had been eliminated through the long-continued use of antibiotics.” Working with penicillin, bacitracin and autoclaved penicillin Elan at al (10) administered the antibiotics both orally and parenterally. These workers found that parenteral penicillin had no effect on the fecal microflora, autoclaved penicillin had little effect and bacitracin when orally or parenterally administered failed to have any effect on the fecal flora, yet all increased growth. These investigators stated that the antibiotics may have stimulated growth in some other manner than altering the number of intestinal organisms, and surmised that “the antibiotic molecule or a fragment of the same might not as a metabolite within the body of the bird.” Dixon and Thayer (S) obtained equally good or better growth response with intra-muscular injection of anreomycin and penicillin as the same antibiotics fed orally. In cases with the injected antibiotics the cecal microflora did not change from the control lot. From this they concluded that functional cecal organisms were not essential for growth promoting action of the antibiotics. That the antibiotics may possibly alter the metabolic rate of some intestinal organisms was demonstrated by Anderson et al (3). Working with the Warburg respirometer they showed that “penicillia enhanced the oxygen uptake of lactobacilli and aciduric type organisms.

Evaluation, Design, and Cost Analysis of a 256 Acre Almond Orchard

This project discusses the evaluation, design, and cost analysis of a 256 acre almond orchard. This is a high flow low head system, and the application method is referred to as dual line drip. The system will be designed to be able to meet weekly water requirements within a tight time constraint, and it is important that it can do so efficiently while providing good uniformity. A dual line drip system was designed for this almond orchard using the correct engineering standards and integrated field and farmer constraints. The system design was based on a peak evapotranspiration rate of 7.69 inches per month. The weekly operating hours for the entire parcel would be 96 hours, 4 days a week for 24 hours. The design DU was 0.93, and the final DU of the manifold came out to be 0.96. The system operates with an application rate of 0.087 inches/hour. The total fixed cost to install the entire system will be $363,024 or$1,418 per acre, not including pump and labor

Master of Science

thesisEast Canyon Reservoir is located 32 km east of Salt Lake City, Utah, and serves as a resource for irrigation, culinary water, and recreation. This research used paleolimnology and historical records to investigate the impacts of multiple stressors, including land clearance, dam construction and enlargement, and climate warming on East Canyon Reservoir. Recently, blue green algal blooms, typically indicative of eutrophication, have been increasing at East Canyon Reservoir despite reductions of nutrients from point sources, so part of the impetus for this study was to understand the forcing mechanisms of these blooms. A multiproxy analysis of three sediment cores retrieved from the reservoir determined changes in nutrient concentrations and sediment composition over time. Percent organics, magnetic susceptibility, and diatom analyses of 210Pb dated cores were compared to measurements of temperature and precipitation as well as records of historical land use, which were determined using remote sensing. Percent organics and magnetic susceptibility showed changes related to dam construction and increased development. Fossil diatom assemblages indicated that East Canyon Reservoir had been eutrophic since origination; however, principal components analyses of the diatom data indicated that the canyon became more P-enriched following dam construction and increased development. Recent increases in Cyclotella diatoms indicate changes related to warming temperatures, and we speculate that this warming is also what is causing blue-green algal blooms to increase

Negative ESG Screening and Investment Returns : A Study of the Norwegian Oil Fund and Excluded Stocks

This thesis investigates whether there is a difference in stock returns for the Norwegian Oil Fund and the companies they exclude from their investment universe due to breaches of their ethical guidelines between 2006 and 2022. We analyze the returns from the excluded companies and the Oil Fund with the Fama-French five-factor model and split the excluded stocks into sub-portfolios to investigate if there is a difference in returns for sectors, markets and reason for exclusion. In addition to previous work, we also investigate if there is a correlation between the yearly returns and the ESG score for the excluded companies and the 100 largest companies in the Oil Fund measured by investment size. In line with previous research, our findings suggest that the excluded companies have outperformed the Oil Fund between 2006 and 2022. Moreover, eight out of nine sub-portfolios deliver excessive returns compared to the Oil Fund. We find that ESG scores and yearly returns are positively correlated for the excluded companies and negatively correlated for the 100 largest companies in the Oil Fund.nhhma