Evaluation of the check in/check out (CICO) intervention for students with internalizing behavior problems

Internalizing behaviors are directed inward at the child and are often overlooked in classrooms compared to outwardly-directed externalizing behaviors. When internalizing behaviors are identified, Cognitive Behavioral Interventions (CBIs) are the go-to targeted interventions. However, CBIs are time-consuming and require considerable training to implement. An efficient and time-effective targeted intervention for internalizing behaviors is needed. Check In/Check Out (CICO) has been shown to be an effective targeted intervention for children with externalizing behavior problems. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate CICO as a targeted intervention for kids with internalizing behavior problems. Four elementary school students with internalizing behavior problems received the CICO intervention. A mixed single-subject design was used to evaluate the intervention’s effectiveness. Results suggest that ratings of prosocial replacement behaviors increased during the CICO phase and that overall, participants internalizing behaviors decreased

Multivariate Generalizability of Writing Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM): An Examination of Form, Occasion, and Scoring Method

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is an assessment technique that has become increasingly popular in schools, gaining importance with the recent national emphasis on school and teacher accountability for student achievement. CBM is used to monitor student performance to provide an indicator of which students are at-risk of not achieving grade level standards and thus are in need of intervention. CBM is easy to administer, utilizes standard procedures, and provides measures indicative of general achievement in various domains. The utility of CBM to measure student ability in writing has been well-established. However, there is a paucity of technical adequacy research for writing CBM compared to CBM in reading and math. Additionally, various scoring methods for writing CBM have been proposed and tested with variable results. This study investigated the reliability of writing CBM using multivariate generalizability (G) theory. The dependability of the measure across forms and occasions for a composite dependent variable consisting of 7 different scoring methods was investigated. Additionally, univariate G theory studies were conducted for each individual scoring method. Results suggested that a composite measure and all independent measures are dependable when 3 forms are administered on 3 occasions for students in grades 3-5, with person contributing the most variance. Additionally, support was found for the use of a composite measure, TWW, WSC, CWS, and CIWS for screening and progress monitoring purposes with 2 forms administered on 1 occasion

It's Not Just the ATMs: Technology, Firm Strategies, Jobs, and Earnings in Retail Banking

The authors examine trends in job content and earnings in selected jobs in two American banks. Firm restructuring and technological changes resulted in higher earnings for college-educated workers. The banks followed different strategies in implementing these changes for lower-skill jobs, with different effects on bank tellers in particular. The authors conclude that technology enables workplace reform but does not determine its effect on jobs and earnings; these effects are contingent on managerial strategies. This focus on organizational processes and managerial strategy provides a complementary approach to accounts of growing inequality that center solely on the role of individual skills and technological change.

Analysis of rolling group therapy data using conditionally autoregressive priors

Group therapy is a central treatment modality for behavioral health disorders such as alcohol and other drug use (AOD) and depression. Group therapy is often delivered under a rolling (or open) admissions policy, where new clients are continuously enrolled into a group as space permits. Rolling admissions policies result in a complex correlation structure among client outcomes. Despite the ubiquity of rolling admissions in practice, little guidance on the analysis of such data is available. We discuss the limitations of previously proposed approaches in the context of a study that delivered group cognitive behavioral therapy for depression to clients in residential substance abuse treatment. We improve upon previous rolling group analytic approaches by fully modeling the interrelatedness of client depressive symptom scores using a hierarchical Bayesian model that assumes a conditionally autoregressive prior for session-level random effects. We demonstrate improved performance using our method for estimating the variance of model parameters and the enhanced ability to learn about the complex correlation structure among participants in rolling therapy groups. Our approach broadly applies to any group therapy setting where groups have changing client composition. It will lead to more efficient analyses of client-level data and improve the group therapy research community's ability to understand how the dynamics of rolling groups lead to client outcomes.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS434 the Annals of Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Social density, but not sex ratio, drives ecdysteroid hormone provisioning to eggs by female house crickets (Acheta domesticus)

Social environment profoundly influences the fitness of animals, affecting their probability of survival to adulthood, longevity, and reproductive output. The social conditions experienced by parents at the time of reproduction can predict the social environments that offspring will face. Despite clear challenges in predicting future environmental conditions, adaptive maternal effects provide a mechanism of passing environmental information from parent to offspring and are now considered pervasive in natural systems. Maternal effects have been widely studied in vertebrates, especially in the context of social environment, and are often mediated by steroid hormone (SH) deposition to eggs. In insects, although many species dramatically alter phenotype and life‐history traits in response to social density, the mechanisms of these alterations, and the role of hormone deposition by insect mothers into their eggs, remains unknown. In the experiments described here, we assess the effects of social environment on maternal hormone deposition to eggs in house crickets (Acheta domesticus). Specifically, we tested the hypotheses that variable deposition of ecdysteroid hormones (ESH) to eggs is affected by both maternal (a) social density and (b) social composition. We found that while maternal hormone deposition to eggs does not respond to social composition (sex ratio), it does reflect social density; females provision their eggs with higher ESH doses under low‐density conditions. This finding is consistent with the interpretation that variable ESH provisioning is an adaptive maternal response to social environment and congruent with similar patterns of variable maternal provisioning across the tree of life. Moreover, our results confirm that maternal hormone provisioning may mediate delayed density dependence by introducing a time lag in the response of offspring phenotype to population size.Here we show that female crickets respond to social density in provisioning their eggs with hormones that govern hatchling growth and development. This is the first evidence that we are aware of for hormone provisioning as a mechanism for achieving delayed density dependence in a population.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146319/1/ece34502_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146319/2/ece34502.pd

Virginity: Not All Rose Petals and Candles

This paper examines how the construct of virginity was developed from the ancient Greeks to Western Europe and modern times in the United States. Other cultures may have different opinions about the topic of virginity, but with people of European descent, the value placed on virginity was used as a way to suppress female sexuality and promote male control over female sexuality expression. Women’s usefulness to society was reduced to being the most desirable choice for marriage which meant being virginal or pure. The reasons for why purity was important for women varied such as being representative of their family’s honor or to secure the bloodline. The ways in which society has regulated female virginity have also changed through time from marrying girls off early, to supporting abstinence-only education, or throwing purity balls for girls to pledge their virginity to their fathers. The lines drawn for female sexuality are so blurred in terms of what is acceptable by society, that no matter what, women are shamed for having sex, being sexual, or not doing either

Prosper: A Community-Centric Wellness Center in The Heart of Franklinton

The purpose of this research is to study how to design an inclusive healthcare facility that is open to everyone regardless of socioeconomic status or income level. From the research and articles read a framework was created for community-centric wellness centers focused on health equity for those who are struggling with health disparities. Doing this will help create an environment that is safe for all users and ultimately help give access to healthcare to those that do not have it. Access to healthcare and health insurance is a continuing problem in the United States. 10.9% of United States residents do not have health insurance, making it extremely hard to get access to healthcare. (Tolbert, 2020) Three out of ten Americans that don't have health insurance decide to not seek out care when needed solely based on fear of cost. How do we solve this? Designing a community-centric wellness center will encourage those who oftentimes feel nervous or anxious about going to the doctor, to go to the doctor and take care of their bodies. Using evidence-based design and elements and principles of biophilia will create an inclusive environment where everyone will feel welcomed to learn about their health. Due to Franklinton's poverty level and the crime rate, getting access to affordable healthcare and preventative health education is difficult to do. Evidence-based research was used to put together a framework for a community-centric wellness center. Incorporating elements of biophilia has shown a significant influence on user's health benefits. (14 Patterns of Biophilia) Community engagement is key in creating strong relationships between healthcare centers and the neighborhoods they are located in. It is pivotal that we create an environment that people feel safe in and that also educates them on the benefits of preventative healthcare. So that they can take this knowledge with them and continue to use it in their everyday lives. Studies show that going to the doctor just once a year lessens the chances of getting sick. (PVHC, 2017) Therefore, "Prosper" will educate the residents of Franklinton about the proper forms of preventative healthcare while giving them a safe environment to be themselves.No embargoAcademic Major: Interior Desig