Interview with Cora B. Evans

Cora Boyett Evans (1914-2018) was born April 23, 1914, at Terra Ceia, an island in Florida’s Tampa Bay. She graduated from the Florida State College for Women (now Florida State University) with a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics in 1935 and married A. Ross Evans in 1936. Mr. and Mrs. Evans were married for 68 years. They moved to Winter Park in 1949, when Ross Evans joined the faculty of Rollins College, where he would teach business for more than 30 years. Cora Evans taught home economics at the original Winter Park High School from 1949 to 1959. Both Professor and Mrs. Evans were active in the community and at Rollins College. Cora was a longtime member of the Rollins Women’s Association and a member of the P.E.O. (Philanthropic Educational Organization), which promotes educational opportunities for women. In 1975, the couple established the A. Ross Evans Scholarship for undergraduate and graduate students studying accounting at Rollins. This interview was conducted by the Evanses’ great-nephew, Walker Hamby ’11, as a student project. Here Mrs. Evans described her years at Rollins as “very much of a blessing.” As she remembered, “When I came it was called ‘The Rollins Family,’ and I hope they never quit calling it the Rollins Family, because you really do have that feeling.

Parent Perspectives of Desired and Experienced Child and Family Practices in the Early Elementary Grades

Knowledge of the types of school-based practices parents consider important for their children and themselves are the foundations for improving school-family relationships. Surveys were used to determine parents’ (1) desire for family-centered practices, individualized and developmentally appropriate child practices, and integrated and coordinated child and family practices in the early elementary grades, (2) the extent to which parents and their children experienced desired practices, (3) barriers and solutions to use of the practices, and (4) strategies and recommendations for promoting increased use of desired practices. Participants were parents of children with disabilities or developmental delays who previously participated in early intervention or preschool special education programs, or both, where the children were currently enrolled in grades K through 3 at the time data collection occurred. Findings indicated that the desire for targeted practices varied depending on the types of practices, the parents and children minimally experienced desired practices, and that barriers and solutions tended to be related to family-school relationships. Implications for improving school-family relationships and practices are described. Keywords: Family-centered, developmentally appropriate, inclusion, integrated, coordinated, desired practices, experienced practices, barriers, solutions DOI: 10.7176/JEP/10-15-05 Publication date:May 31st 201

In Silico identification of pathogenic strains of Cronobacter from Biochemical data reveals association of inositol fermentation with pathogenicity

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Cronobacter</it>, formerly known as <it>Enterobacter sakazakii</it>, is a food-borne pathogen known to cause neonatal meningitis, septicaemia and death. Current diagnostic tests for identification of <it>Cronobacter </it>do not differentiate between species, necessitating time consuming 16S rDNA gene sequencing or multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The organism is ubiquitous, being found in the environment and in a wide range of foods, although there is variation in pathogenicity between <it>Cronobacter </it>isolates and between species. Therefore to be able to differentiate between the pathogenic and non-pathogenic strains is of interest to the food industry and regulators.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we report the use of Expectation Maximization clustering to categorise 98 strains of <it>Cronobacter </it>as pathogenic or non-pathogenic based on biochemical test results from standard diagnostic test kits. Pathogenicity of a strain was postulated on the basis of either pathogenic symptoms associated with strain source or corresponding MLST sequence types, allowing the clusters to be labelled as containing either pathogenic or non-pathogenic strains. The resulting clusters gave good differentiation of strains into pathogenic and non-pathogenic groups, corresponding well to isolate source and MLST sequence type. The results also revealed a potential association between pathogenicity and inositol fermentation. An investigation of the genomes of <it>Cronobacter sakazakii </it>and <it>C. turicensis </it>revealed the gene for inositol monophosphatase is associated with putative virulence factors in pathogenic strains of <it>Cronobacter</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We demonstrated a computational approach allowing existing diagnostic kits to be used to identify pathogenic strains of <it>Cronobacter</it>. The resulting clusters correlated well with MLST sequence types and revealed new information about the pathogenicity of <it>Cronobacter </it>species.</p

Review of the effects of technical assistance on program, organization and system change

Findings from a synthesis of technical assistance models and frameworks were used to code the use of 25 core elements of technical assistance in studies and evaluations of implementation interventions to affect program, organization, and systems change. The 25 core elements were group into five components: preparation for the provision of technical assistance, development of a technical assistance plan, implementation of technical assistance, evaluation of the effects of technical assistance, and sustainability of technical assistance-facilitated changes. Results indicated that a subset of 11 core elements was related to between groups and between condition differences in the sizes of effect for program, organization, and systems changes. Results also showed that more intensive technical assistance was associated with larger sizes of effects compared to less intensive technical assistance and that particular combinations of practices were associated with the largest sizes of effect

Family Socioeconomic Status and Ethnicity, Acculturation and Enculturation, and Parent Beliefs about Child Behavior, Learning Methods, and Parenting Roles

Relationships between family socioeconomic status and ethnicity, acculturation and enculturation, and parent beliefs about desired child behavior, child learning methods, and parenting roles in children’s learning desired behavior were examined in a study of 207 parents of preschoolers from seven ethnic and cultural groups. Different subgroups of participants were identified from patterns of acculturation and enculturation. Family ethnicity, family SES, and acculturation were differentially related to the parent beliefs whereas enculturation and combinations of acculturation and enculturation were unrelated to beliefs. Findings are discussed in terms of the high degree of specificity in the relationships between the predictor variables and parent beliefs about child behavior, learning methods, and parenting roles. The results are consistent with an individual-oriented concept of culture. Cautions are therefore raised in terms of overgeneralizations about attributing traditional beliefs broadly to families from the same ethnic or cultural group

Evaluation of E-Learning Lessons for Strengthening Early Childhood Practitioner Use of Family Capacity-Building Practices

Findings from a case study field-test evaluation of e-learning lessons for promoting early childhood intervention practitioners’ understanding and use of family capacity-building practices are described. Participants were two early childhood program directors, two early childhood technical assistance providers, and two early childhood intervention practitioners. Pattern matching was used to evaluate whether or not participants with different roles and responsibilities judged the instructional design, interactivity, video illustrations, and usefulness of the e-learning lessons similarly or differently. Results indicated that the different features of the e-learning lessons were rated highly by all but one participant and that the patterns of responses were much the same regardless of participants’ professional roles or responsibilities. Participant feedback and suggestions were used to revise the e-learning lessons and correct technical problems

Enumeration of quadratic forms over totally real fields

Let F be a real quadratic field with OF its ring of integers. Let f be a quadratic form over F with discriminant D. Using Koecher Theory and the generalized Voronoï Algorithm, we show that there are finitely many quadratic forms with discriminant D over F. As there are finitely many quadratic forms, we can enumerate the forms up to a factor of the determinant of the norm of the form. As an application, we can use these results to show a correspondence between the class of quadratic forms over F and the ideal class of a relative extension of F generated by the field discriminant

A Case Study Approach to Secondary Reanalysis of a Quantitative Research Synthesis of Adult Learning Practices Studies

Abstract. A secondary reanalysis of a quantitative research synthesis of four adult learning practices is described where a case study research methodology was used to identify which practices with which characteristics under which conditions were associated with the largest sizes of effects for different adult learner outcomes. Results showed that a case study approach was able to detect patterns of relationships among four adult learning practices (job-embedded learning, authentic learning opportunities, learner reflection, extended professional development supports) and adult learning outcomes that otherwise were not explicitly apparent from a quantitative analysis of the studies in the research synthesis. This was discerned from pattern matching and both literal and theoretical where studies including the adult learning practices had the largest effect sizes and those not including the practices had the smallest effect sizes

An analysis of the effectiveness of a career education cluster curriculum as reflected by student growth in career maturity

Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study was to determine whether there were significant differences in students' career maturity as a result of exposure to the concepts of career education. The study evaluated the relative effectiveness of a developing comprehensive career education project to help students attain increased maturity of attitudes and competency in career decision-making skills. In order to accomplish this, the following procedure was considered. Procedure This comparative study utilized an experimental design consisting of one experimental and one control group. The experimental group consisted of students exposed to intensive career guidance and enrolled in classes in which teachers modified their presentation of subject matter to include career-relevant information. The students in the control group were exposed to a traditional teacher oriented instructional environment. A pre-test/post-test design was utilized. Student career attitudes and behaviors were surveyed by the Attitude Scale of the Career Maturity Inventory (CMI-Att). The statistical procedures used to assess the measured results were the F statistic and the Least Significant Differences Test. Conclusion The research concluded that students in the experimental group, who experienced the exemplary career education project, showed no significant difference in career maturity, as measured by the CMI-Att, when contrasted with students in the traditional teacher oriented instructional environment. Although the analysis indicated a significantly lower career maturity mean score for the experimental population on the pre-test, the gain in post-test mean score was not significant. One of the two experimental schools did show a significant difference in mean scores in comparison with one of the six (6) control schools. This gain in post-test score may be attributed, in part, to the exemplary career education project. Recommendations It is recommended that: Research continue toward development of measurement instruments which will explicitly evaluate the concepts of career education as advocated by the local school district. - The study be replicated with the inclusion of intellectual, cultural and socioeconomic variables in order to empirically verify changes in career attitudes

Genome of Drosophila suzukii, the spotted wing drosophila.

Drosophila suzukii Matsumura (spotted wing drosophila) has recently become a serious pest of a wide variety of fruit crops in the United States as well as in Europe, leading to substantial yearly crop losses. To enable basic and applied research of this important pest, we sequenced the D. suzukii genome to obtain a high-quality reference sequence. Here, we discuss the basic properties of the genome and transcriptome and describe patterns of genome evolution in D. suzukii and its close relatives. Our analyses and genome annotations are presented in a web portal, SpottedWingFlyBase, to facilitate public access