A comparison study on collaboration between regular and special education teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine the collaboration between regular and special education teachers in a South New Jersey School District. A secondary purpose of the study was to evaluate the current inclusion program in the district where an inclusion program was implemented approximately 5 years ago. A survey was distributed to approximately 50 teachers in this particular district. Thirty-two of the fifty teachers participating in an inclusion program completed the survey with 26 questions. Four categories were analyzed: Training/Preparation, Role of the Special Education Teacher, Role of the Regular Education Teacher and Improvements. The results indicated that the participants have a clear understanding of both the role of the regular and special education teacher. However, as noted by many teachers in the section of Training/Preparation 56% of respondents agreed that teachers would benefit from training in order to provide appropriate instructional strategies to teach diverse students in an inclusion program. Sixty-three percent of the respondents strongly agreed that the role of the special education teacher should include modifying the same lessons the regular education teacher presents to the class to meet the needs of the classified student. Overall, the participants appear to give many comments on inclusion such as more planning time, training and selection of students to improve the existing inclusion program

Relationship between cardiovascular risk and lipid testing in one health care system: a retrospective cohort study.

BackgroundThe US Preventive Services Taskforce (USPSTF) recommends routine lipid screening beginning age 35 for men [1]. For women age 20 and older, as well as men age 20-34, screening is recommended if cardiovascular risk factors are present. Prior research has focused on underutilization but not overuse of lipid testing. The objective is to document over- and under-use of lipid testing in an insured population of persons at low, moderate and high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk for persons not already on statins.MethodsThe study is a retrospective cohort study that included all adults without prior CVD who were continuously enrolled in a large integrated healthcare system from 2005 to 2010. Measures included lipid test frequency extracted from administrative data and Framingham cardiovascular risk equations applied using electronic medical record data. Five year lipid testing patterns were examined by age, sex and CVD risk. Generalized linear models were used to estimate the relative risk for over testing associated with patient characteristics.ResultsAmong males and females for whom testing is not recommended, 35.8 % and 61.5 % received at least one lipid test in the prior 5 years and 8.4 % and 24.4 % had two or more. Over-testing was associated with age, race, comorbidity, primary care use and neighborhood income. Among individuals at moderate and high-risk (not already treated with statins) and for whom screening is recommended, between 21.4 % and 25.1 % of individuals received no screening in the prior 5 years.ConclusionsBased on USPSTF lipid screening recommendations, this study documents substantial over-testing among individuals with low CVD risk and under-testing among individuals with moderate to high-risk not already on statins. Opportunity exists to better focus lipid screening efforts appropriate to CVD risk

Macroalgal detritus and food-web subsidies along an Arctic fjord depth-gradient

Tight coupling between pelagic and benthic communities is accepted as a general principle on Arctic shelves. Whereas this paradigm has been useful for guiding ecological research, it has perhaps led to a disproportionate focus on POM and ice algae as the most likely sources of carbon for the benthic food web. Arctic shelves are complex systems, including banks, fjords, and trough systems up to 350 m or more in depth. In this stable-isotope study, 13 different potential carbon sources were analyzed for their contribution to the food-webs of Isfjorden, Svalbard. A mixing model with herbivorous copepods and grazing sea urchins as end-members was applied to determine the relative contributions of the most likely carbon sources to pelagic and benthic taxa. Most taxa from the benthos feed on a broad mixture of POM and macroalgal detritus, even at depths down to 410 m. Most suspension-feeding bivalves had isotopic signals consistent with more than a 50% contribution from kelps and rockweeds. In contrast, nearly all pelagic species had diets consistent with an overwhelming contribution of pelagic POM. These results indicate that macroalgal detritus can contribute significantly to near-shore Arctic food-webs, a trophic link that may increase if macroalgae increase in the Arctic as predicted. These weaker quantitative links between pelagic and benthic components of coastal systems highlight the need for thorough sampling of potential carbon-baselines in food-web studies. A large detrital-carbon component in diets of Arctic benthos may dampen the impacts of strong seasonality in polar primary producers, leading to higher ecosystem resilience, but may also result in lower secondary productivity

Gene transfer and expression in human neutrophils. The phox homology domain of p47(phox )translocates to the plasma membrane but not to the membrane of mature phagosomes

BACKGROUND: Neutrophils are non-dividing cells with poor survival after isolation. Consequently, exogenous gene expression in neutrophils is challenging. We report here the transfection of genes and expression of active proteins in human primary peripheral neutrophils using nucleofection. RESULTS: Exogenous gene expression in human neutrophils was achieved 2 h post-transfection. We show that neutrophils transfected by nucleofection are functional cells, able to respond to soluble and particulate stimuli. They conserved the ability to undergo physiological processes including phagocytosis. Using this technique, we were able to show that the phox homology (PX) domain of p47(phox )localizes to the plasma membrane in human neutrophils. We also show that RhoB, but not the PX domain of p47(phox), is translocated to the membrane of mature phagosomes. CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that cDNA transfer and expression of exogenous protein in human neutrophils is compatible with cell viability and is no longer a limitation for the study of protein function in human neutrophils

Benthic community response to ice algae and phytoplankton in Ny Ålesund, Svalbard

Author Posting. © Inter-Research, 2006. This article is posted here by permission of Inter-Research for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Ecology Progress Series 310 (2006): 1-14, doi:10.3354/meps310001.We assessed the digestibility and utilization of ice algae and phytoplankton by the shallow, subtidal benthos in Ny Ålesund (Kongsfjord) on Svalbard (79°N, 12°E) using chlorophyll a (chl a), essential fatty acids (EFAs) and stable isotopes as tracers of food consumption and assimilation. Intact benthic communities in sediment cores and individuals of dominant benthic taxa were given ice algae, phytoplankton, 13C-enriched ice algae or a no food addition control for 19 to 32 d. Ice algae and phytoplankton had significantly different isotopic signatures and relative concentrations of fatty acids. In the food addition cores, sediment concentrations of chl a and the EFA C20:5(n-3) were elevated by 80 and 93%, respectively, compared to the control after 12 h, but decreased to background levels by 19 d, suggesting that both ice algae and phytoplankton were rapidly consumed. Whole core respiration rates in the ice algae treatments were 1.4 times greater than in the other treatments within 12 h of food addition. In the ice algae treatment, both suspension and deposit feeding taxa from 3 different phyla (Mollusca, Annelida and Sipuncula) exhibited significant enrichment in δ13C values compared to the control. Deposit feeders (15% uptake), however, exhibited significantly greater uptake of the 13C-enriched ice algae tracer than suspension feeders (3% uptake). Our study demonstrates that ice algae are readily consumed and assimilated by the Arctic benthos, and may be preferentially selected by some benthic species (i.e. deposit feeders) due to their elevated EFA content, thus serving as an important component of the Arctic benthic food web.Funding for this study came from the National Science Foundation (Grant numbers OPP- 0514115 to W.G.A.; OPP-0222410 to L.M.C.; OPP-0222408 to M.-Y.S.; OPP0222500 to G.R.L.), the Norwegian Research Council (Grant number 151815-720 to M.L.C.), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute through Bates College and the Maine Marine Research Fund

Geographic Differences in Time to Culture Conversion in Liquid Media: Tuberculosis Trials Consortium Study 28. Culture Conversion Is Delayed in Africa

Tuberculosis Trials Consortium Study 28, was a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, phase 2 clinical trial examining smear positive pulmonary Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Over the course of intensive phase therapy, patients from African sites had substantially delayed and lower rates of culture conversion to negative in liquid media compared to non-African patients. We explored potential explanations of this finding.In TBTC Study 28, protocol-correct patients (n = 328) provided spot sputum specimens for M. tuberculosis culture in liquid media, at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8 of study therapy. We compared sputum culture conversion for African and non-African patients stratified by four baseline measures of disease severity: AFB smear quantification, extent of disease on chest radiograph, cavity size and the number of days to detection of M. tuberculosis in liquid media using the Kaplan-Meier product-limit method. We evaluated specimen processing and culture procedures used at 29 study laboratories serving 27 sites.African TB patients had more extensive disease at enrollment than non-African patients. However, African patients with the least disease by the 4 measures of disease severity had conversion rates on liquid media that were substantially lower than conversion rates in non-African patients with the greatest extent of disease. HIV infection, smoking and diabetes did not explain delayed conversion in Africa. Some inter-site variation in laboratory processing and culture procedures within accepted practice for clinical diagnostic laboratories was found.Compared with patients from non-African sites, African patients being treated for TB had delayed sputum culture conversion and lower sputum conversion rates in liquid media that were not explained by baseline severity of disease, HIV status, age, smoking, diabetes or race. Further investigation is warranted into whether modest variation in laboratory processes substantially influences the efficacy outcomes of phase 2 TB treatment trials or if other factors (e.g., nutrition, host response) are involved.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00144417

An RCT of dating matters:Effects on teen dating violence and relationship behaviors

Introduction Teen dating violence is a serious public health problem with few effective prevention strategies. This study examines whether the Dating Matters comprehensive prevention model, compared with a standard of care intervention, prevented negative relationship behaviors and promoted positive relationship behaviors. Study design This longitudinal, cluster-RCT compared the effectiveness of Dating Matters with standard of care across middle school. Standard of care was an evidence-based teen dating violence prevention curriculum (Safe Dates) implemented in eighth grade. Setting/participants Forty-six middle schools in high-risk urban neighborhoods in four U.S. cities were randomized. Schools lost to follow-up were replaced with new schools, which were independently randomized (71% school retention). Students were surveyed in fall and spring of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (2012–2016). The analysis sample includes students from schools implementing Dating Matters or standard of care for >2 years who started sixth grade in the fall of 2012 or 2013 and had dated (N=2,349 students, mean age 12 years, 49% female, and 55% black, non-Hispanic, 28% Hispanic, 17% other). Intervention Dating Matters is a comprehensive, multicomponent prevention model including classroom-delivered programs for sixth to eighth graders, training for parents of sixth to eighth graders, educator training, a youth communications program, and local health department activities to assess capacity and track teen dating violence–related policy and data. Main outcome measures Self-reported teen dating violence perpetration and victimization, use of negative conflict resolution strategies, and positive relationship skills were examined as outcomes. Imputation and analyses were conducted in 2017. Results Latent panel models demonstrated significant program effects for three of four outcomes; Dating Matters students reported 8.43% lower teen dating violence perpetration, 9.78% lower teen dating violence victimization, and 5.52% lower use of negative conflict resolution strategies, on average across time points and cohorts, than standard of care students. There were no significant effects on positive relationship behaviors. Conclusions Dating Matters demonstrates comparative effectiveness, through middle school, for reducing unhealthy relationship behaviors, such as teen dating violence and use of negative conflict resolution strategies, relative to the standard of care intervention

The effects of moderate alcohol supplementation on estrone sulfate and DHEAS in postmenopausal women in a controlled feeding study

BACKGROUND: We have demonstrated that moderate alcohol consumption (15 g/d, 30 g/d) for 8 weeks resulted in significantly increased levels of serum estrone sulfate and DHEAS in 51 postmenopausal women in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. We now report on the relationships between serum estrone sulfate and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels after 4 weeks of moderate alcohol supplementation, and compare the results to the 8 weeks data to elucidate time-to-effect differences. METHODS: Postmenopausal women (n = 51) consumed 0 (placebo), 15 (1 drink), and 30 (2 drinks) g alcohol (ethanol)/ day for 8 weeks as part of a controlled diet in a randomized crossover design. Blood samples were drawn at baseline, at 4 weeks and at 8 weeks. Changes in estrone sulfate and DHEAS levels from placebo to 15 g and 30 g alcohol per day were estimated using linear mixed models. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: At week 4, compared to the placebo, estrone sulfate increased an average 6.9% (P = 0.24) when the women consumed 15 g of alcohol per day, and 22.2% (P = 0.0006) when they consumed 30 g alcohol per day. DHEAS concentrations also increased significantly by an average of 8.0% (P < 0.0001) on 15 g of alcohol per day and 9.2% (P < 0.0001) when 30 g alcohol was consumed per day. Trend tests across doses for both estrone sulfate (P = 0.0006) and DHEAS (P < 0.0001) were significant. We found no significant differences between the absolute levels of serum estrone sulfate at week 4 versus week 8 (P = 0.32) across all doses. However, absolute DHEAS levels increased from week 4 to week 8 (P < 0.0001) at all three dose levels. CONCLUSIONS: These data indicate that the hormonal effects due to moderate alcohol consumption are seen early, within 4 weeks of initiation of ingestion

Expressions 1985

PRODUCTION STAFFLOUISE AUSTINDANA Z. BEHRENDSENAMBER HEWITTTOSHIA SOUTHRANDY STANDLEYSHELLY WILSONhttps://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1006/thumbnail.jp