Creating a Pathway to Multicultural Education in Urban Communities: Real-Life Experiences for Preservice Teachers

The classrooms within our nation are becoming rich tapestries, interwoven with people of diverse cultures and ethnic groups. In response to the evolving tapestries, many educators advocate the need to heighten preservice teachers\u27 sensitivity to cultural issues so that they might apply this cultural knowledge within their teaching and learning. Using a reconstructionist approach, where preservice teachers become caring citizens who reach out to help culturally diverse children, is one way to address these issues. This manuscript describes an alternative tutoring program, where meaningful teaching and learning emerges within an urban community, and its\u27 evaluation process. As a result of participating in this experience, preservice teachers learn to understand the social context within which literacy can occur. The evaluation process reveals, through the use of observations, questionnaires, interviews, and writing samples, the impact of this experience on preservice teachers\u27 teaching and learning, as well as young children\u27s reading and writing performance

Supporting Teachers in their Integration of Technology with Literacy

This study investigates how two elementary teachers begin to use technology in a private school that had access to technology at many levels. Using a collaborative teacher-research model, the researcher specifically examined how to support teachers’ practice as they integrated technology tools within their literacy curriculum. Due to a supportive context, the teachers refined their writing instruction to include technology tools, and students improved their literacy through challenging learning experiences

In the mind\u27s eye : a study of Shakespeare\u27s imaginative use of stage properties in six representative plays

The unity, or stylistic oneness, that is the most salient characteristic of Shakespeare\u27s style has been achieved with such consummate ease that the underlying pattern of workmanship is imperceptible at a casual reading. Upon analysis, however, the ingenious means which the playwright has employed, perhaps unconsciously, to create this effect of unity easily may be discerned. This paper is an analysis of the stage properties in six plays and their function in the plays\u27 overall design. In this study it may be seen that within each play each stage property is so imaginatively used that it seems at once both natural and wonderful. Each property, upon careful examination yields moreover a striking significance not only to the individual play, but also to the reality-illusion motif which is the implicit theme of the entire canon

The American Businessman in the Novels and Stories of Henry James

The critical interest in Henry James and his relationship with the "Gilded Age," or the "golden age of American business," indicates that a chronological study of the American businessman, as this character appears in James's fiction, may have some value. The term businessman in this study will simply be understood to mean a maker of money. To consider in detail all of James's writings would exceed the scope of this study; only those novels and stories which deal most obviously and directly with American businessmen will be included

Do practitioners and friends support patients with coronary heart disease in lifestyle change? a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Healthy lifestyles help to prevent coronary heart disease (CHD) but outcomes from secondary prevention interventions which support lifestyle change have been disappointing. This study is a novel, in-depth exploration of patient factors affecting lifestyle behaviour change within an intervention designed to improve secondary prevention for patients with CHD in primary care using personalised tailored support. We aimed to explore patients\u27 perceptions of factors affecting lifestyle change within a trial of this intervention (the SPHERE Study), using semi-structured, one-to-one interviews, with patients in general practice. METHODS: Interviews (45) were conducted in purposively selected general practices (15) which had participated in the SPHERE Study. Individuals, with CHD, were selected to include those who succeeded in improving physical activity levels and dietary fibre intake and those who did not. We explored motivations, barriers to lifestyle change and information utilised by patients. Data collection and analysis, using a thematic framework and the constant comparative method, were iterative, continuing until data saturation was achieved. RESULTS: We identified novel barriers to lifestyle change: such disincentives included strong negative influences of social networks, linked to cultural norms which encouraged consumption of \u27delicious\u27 but unhealthy food and discouraged engagement in physical activity. Findings illustrated how personalised support within an ongoing trusted patient-professional relationship was valued. Previously known barriers and facilitators relating to support, beliefs and information were confirmed. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention development in supporting lifestyle change in secondary prevention needs to more effectively address patients\u27 difficulties in overcoming negative social influences and maintaining interest in living healthily

Systematic Review of the Effect of Diet and Exercise Lifestyle Interventions in the Secondary Prevention of Coronary Heart Disease

The effectiveness of lifestyle interventions within secondary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) remains unclear. This systematic review aimed to determine their effectiveness and included randomized controlled trials of lifestyle interventions, in primary care or community settings, with a minimum follow-up of three months, published since 1990. 21 trials with 10,799 patients were included; the interventions were multifactorial (10), educational (4), psychological (3), dietary (1), organisational (2), and exercise (1). The overall results for modifiable risk factors suggested improvements in dietary and exercise outcomes but no overall effect on smoking outcomes. In trials that examined mortality and morbidity, significant benefits were reported for total mortality (in 4 of 6 trials; overall risk ratio (RR) 0.75 (95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.65, 0.87)), cardiovascular mortality (3 of 8 trials; overall RR 0.63 (95% CI 0.47, 0.84)), and nonfatal cardiac events (5 of 9 trials; overall RR 0.68 (95% CI 0.55, 0.84)). The heterogeneity between trials and generally poor quality of trials make any concrete conclusions difficult. However, the beneficial effects observed in this review are encouraging and should stimulate further research

Soil properties associated with vegetation patches in a pinus ponderosa bunchgrass mosaic.

Since Euro-American settlement, fire exclusion and other factors have dramatically altered interior western coniferous forests. Once open and parklike, present day structure in many southwestern Pinus ponderosa forests consists of dense stands of young, small-diameter trees, with small patches of larger, old trees, and relict open bunchgrass areas. Our objectives were to assess differences in soil properties associated with these different vegetation patches. We examined soil morphological characteristics, pH, organic C concentration, total N concentration C:N ratio, and phytolith concentration from profiles within 6 transects (18 soil pedons) crossing patches of dense stands of small-diameter trees, patchs of old-growth trees, and open grassy areas. Results indicate that old-growth plots had significantly lower A horizon pH and thicker 0 horizons than grass plots. In general, we found vegetation patches had statistically similar C and N concentrations and C:N ratios for A and B horizons; however, C in the A horizon was positively correlated with 0 horizon accumulation (r2 = 0.79). Greater accumulation of organic C in the A horizon of forested areas contrasts with commonly reported results from mesic, mid-continental prairie forest ecosystems but is typical for many arid semiarid, and humid savanna ecosystems. Phytolith concentration was similar among old-growth pine, dense younger pine, and open grassy plots; the lack of a spatial pattern in phytolith distribution could indicate that grass cover was more spatially continuous in the past. Additionally this interpretation is consistent with current theories regarding historical vegetation change in these forests

The Importance of the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico to Foraging Loggerhead Sea Turtles

Identification of high-use foraging sites where imperiled sea turtles are resident remains a globally-recognized conservation priority. In the biodiverse Gulf of Mexico (GoM), recent telemetry studies highlighted post-nesting foraging sites for federally threatened loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta). Our aim here was to discern loggerhead use of additional northern GoM regions that may serve as high-use foraging sites. Thus, we used satellite tracking and switching state-space modeling to show that the Big Bend region off the northwest Florida coast is a coastal foraging area that supports imperiled adult female loggerhead turtles tracked from different nesting subpopulations. From 2011 to 2016, we satellite-tagged 15 loggerheads that nested on four distinct beaches around the GoM: Dry Tortugas National Park, FL; Everglades National Park, FL; St. Joseph Peninsula, FL; and Gulf Shores, AL. Turtles arrived at their foraging ground in the Big Bend region between June and September and remained resident in their respective foraging sites for an average of 198 tracking days, where they established mean home ranges (95% kernel density estimate) 232.7 km2. Larger home ranges were in deeper water; 50% kernel density estimate centroid values were a mean 26.4 m deep and 52.7 km from shore. The Big Bend region provides a wide area of suitable year-round foraging habitat for loggerheads from at least 3 different nesting subpopulations. Understanding where and when threatened loggerheads forage and remain resident is key for designing both surveys of foraging resources and additional protection strategies that can impact population recovery trajectories for this imperiled species

Managing Tourism – A Missing Element?

Se habla mucho de la gestión turístico mas se ejerce poco. Se utiliza el modelo TALC (Butler 1980) como gran angular para explorar algunos de los temas problemáticos enfrentados por la mayoría de los destinos turísticos en la actualidad (pre‐COVID). Se centra en algunos aspectos básicos del modelo TALC como son la capacidad de carga y otras fuerzas endógenas o externas desencadenantes de cambios determinantes en los destinos turísticos. Se argumenta asimismo que exista cierta reticencia por parte de muchos stakeholders, sobre todo los elementos políticos a la hora de gestionar para la sostenibilidad, hecho que aboca a muchos destinos al sobreturismo y a la pérdida de calidad de vida. Hace falta visibilizar el papel político como cuarta pata de la sostenibilidad, ya que sin voluntad política, todo esfuerzo hacia la sostenibilidad termine fracasando. Hace falta asimismo redefinir la escala y la calidad del turismo ofrecido además de medir el éxito de un destino según parámetros muy distintos a los cuantitativos (números de turistas y cantidad bruta del gasto turístico) que se han utilizado en la época pre‐pandémica: es decir, gestionar hacia la sostenibilidad y la seguridad, claves del éxito en el futuro post‐COVID