The Creation of a Ninth Grade Literacy Course: One Teacher\u27s Experiences in Teaching a Standards-Based Literacy Course

This study examined one teacher’s experience with teaching a ninth grade literacy course. In response to consecutively low reading test scores, the administration in a rural high school in South Central Kentucky established a literacy course for all ninth grade students. This research illustrates the teacher’s implementation and instruction of that course. In addition, the research investigates how the results of a formal reading assessment might be used to improve the reading course in the future

Search for Electromagnetic Counterparts to LIGO-Virgo Candidates: Expanded Very Large Array

This paper summarizes a search for radio wavelength counterparts to candidate gravitational wave events. The identification of an electromagnetic counterpart could provide a more complete understanding of a gravitational wave event, including such characteristics as the location and the nature of the progenitor. We used the Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) to search six galaxies which were identified as potential hosts for two candidate gravitational wave events. We summarize our procedures and discuss preliminary results.Comment: 4 pages; to appear in the New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy, Proceedings of IAU Symposium 285, eds. R. E. M. Griffin, R. J. Hanisch & R. Seama

The African American communities of Princeville and Tarboro, Edgecombe County, NC : an action-oriented community diagnosis : findings and next steps of action

INTRODUCTION The following is a detailed report of an Action-Oriented Community Diagnosis (AOCD) of the African American communities of Princeville and Tarboro, North Carolina. The community assessment was conducted by a team of six graduate students in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The assessment took place between October 2006 and April 2007, and two community members guided the team. WHY DID YOU DO THIS? The purpose of an AOCD is to identify a community’s strengths, resources, and challenges, and to develop creative ways to approach the challenges. Over the course of the team’s seven months in Princeville and Tarboro, team members researched existing information about the communities, interviewed 42 community members and service providers, and volunteered at numerous events. The team worked to learn about the communities and to understand what life is like for African Americans in Princeville and Tarboro. HOW DID THE TEAM DETERMINE TOPICS? The team analyzed the information collected and identified five primary strengths and six challenges for the communities. This information, along with an explanation of the AOCD process, was presented to the communities at a community forum—Communities United for Collective Action—on April 19, 2007. More than 135 community members and service providers from both Princeville and Tarboro attended the forum and took part in small group discussions about six challenges presented by the team. Participants in the discussions identified causes of the challenges and developed action steps to help the communities address these challenges. WHAT WAS DISCUSSED AT THE FORUM? The challenges discussed at the forum are on the following pages, along with a sample of the action steps developed for each. LACK OF JOB OPTIONS People are concerned that with loss of industry, few well-paying jobs, and a lack of job skills training in Princeville and Tarboro, job opportunities for African Americans are limited. This leads to young adults not staying in the communities, not being attracted to move here, and pursuing illegal activities to supplement their income. Meet with local government leaders to discuss an African American small business incubator and apply for funding. Conduct an online search for funding for an African American small business incubator. Speak with local banks about low-interest loans for small businesses. YOUTH VIOLENCE Although the communities are currently working to prevent youth violence, people are concerned about violence increasing among African American youth and how it is affecting youth, their families, and their communities. Reduce the stigma of speaking to mental health professionals and raise awareness about the availability and accessibility of mental health services. Create an opportunity for youth in the communities to come together, tell their stories, and be heard. Perform one-on-one outreach to youth that would include being available during the days, evenings, and on weekends. ATTITUDES TOWARD EDUCATION While people feel that education is important for giving African American youth hope and expanding their future opportunities, there is a need for a collective effort to promote the value of education in the communities and to encourage youth to take advantage of their education. Offer instruction for educators in ways to identify the true potential of students and to help them achieve their potential. Provide empowerment courses for parents, teaching them to promote positive attitudes to their children and change existing negative attitudes. Recruit African Americans to be teachers in Princeville and Tarboro. QUALITY OF EDUCATION While people identified education as an important way to improve the quality of life in their communities, they feel that the schools are not meeting all the needs of African American youth in Princeville and Tarboro. Encourage community participation in the Edgecombe County Public Schools’ quarterly parent meeting. Increase community mentoring programs through sponsorship by churches and other community locations for Parent-Teacher Organization meetings or other school events. Develop a greater range of opportunities for community education. TEENAGE PREGNANCY Although programs currently work with teens to address teenage pregnancy, people continue to be concerned about its effects on the African American families and communities of Princeville and Tarboro. Contact the Board of Education to request a time slot on the next meeting agenda to discuss the possibility of getting comprehensive sex education and teenage pregnancy prevention taught in the schools. Write letters to the city council and county commissioners encouraging prioritization of teenage pregnancy prevention. Raise awareness of existing teenage pregnancy prevention programs. CHRONIC DISEASE People recognize the burden that diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and other chronic conditions place on the African American families and communities of Princeville and Tarboro. Both lifestyle habits and limited access to affordable healthcare and prescription drugs contribute to the problem. Contact the town managers of Princeville and Tarboro about the possibility of including health messages in utility bills. Coordinate the writing of health messages. Ask local doctors to write physician messages for inclusion in the mailings. CONCLUSION Following the forum, the team prepared this report and drafted recommendations for the communities based on the team’s experiences throughout the assessment process as well as outcomes from the forum. This document details the AOCD process and the full results of the assessment and is meant to serve as a resource for community members and service providers in Princeville and Tarboro. The document is divided into six sections: Introduction, Defining the Community, Findings, Community Forum, Methodology, and Conclusions and Recommendations. The team hopes the report will be useful in continuing the work that has already begun in Princeville and Tarboro.Master of Public Healt

Reliability of a smartphone goniometer app compared with traditional goniometer for measuring passive motion at the first metatarsophalangeal joint

BACKGROUND: Adequate sagittal plane motion of the first metatarsalphalangeal joint (1st MTPJ) is important during normal gait and goniometric measurement is commonly used as a diagnostic and outcome assessment tool. We aimed to determine the intra and inter-rater reliability together with the concurrent validity of a universal plastic goniometer (UG) and a smartphone applicationlication (Dr G) for the measurement of dorsiflexion at the 1st MTPJ. METHODS: Measurement of joint position and passive range of motion of the 1st MTPJ dorsiflexion was compared using a UG and DrG goniometer. A double-blind repeated measures design was utilized, with intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) used to determine levels of reliability. RESULTS: For joint position good intra-rater reliability (ICC >0.861) and good inter-rater reliability (ICC >0.823) was noted. However, the Dr G application consistently measured lower angles (mean 27.8° (SD 8.37)) than the UG (mean 32° (SD 11.7)) and these associations were significant (r = 0.399, p < 0.001). For passive range of motion, the mean total range of dorsiflexion motion (from maximum plantarflexed position to maximum dorsiflexed position) was 82.8° (SD 12.2) for the UG and 82.9° (SD 11.3) for the Dr G application. Both instruments demonstrated high levels of intra-rater reliability (ICC >0.809). Inter-rater reliability was moderate to good for the UG (ICC 0.693 (95 % CI 0.580 to 0.788)) and good for the Dr G application (ICC 0.708 (95 % CI 0.597 to 0.799)). CONCLUSIONS: Moderate to high intra and inter-rater reliability of joint position and passive 1st MTPJ motion can be achieved with traditional and smartphone-based goniometric measurement. The Dr G application may provide a slightly higher reliability, but devices should not be used inter-changeably as significant variation in measurement between devices may occur. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13047-015-0088-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

A High-resolution Mosaic of the Neutral Hydrogen in the M81 Triplet

We present a 3° × 3°, 105-pointing, high-resolution neutral hydrogen (H I) mosaic of the M81 galaxy triplet, (including the main galaxies M81, M82, and NGC 3077, as well as dwarf galaxy NGC 2976) obtained with the Very Large Array C and D arrays. This H I synthesis mosaic uniformly covers the entire area and velocity range of the triplet. The observations have a resolution of ̃20″ or ̃420 pc. The data reveal many small-scale anomalous velocity features highlighting the complexity of the interacting M81 triplet. We compare our data with Green Bank Telescope observations of the same area. This comparison provides evidence for the presence of a substantial reservoir of low-column density gas in the northern part of the triplet, probably associated with M82. Such a reservoir is not found in the southern part. We report a number of newly discovered kpc-sized low-mass H I clouds with H I masses of a few times 106 M ☉. A detailed analysis of their velocity widths show that their dynamical masses are much larger than their baryonic masses, which could indicate the presence of dark matter if the clouds are rotationally supported. However, due to their spatial and kinematical association with H I tidal features, it is more likely that the velocity widths indicate tidal effects or streaming motions. We do not find any clouds that are not associated with tidal features down to an H I mass limit of a few times 104 M ☉. We compare the H I column densities with resolved stellar density maps and find a star formation threshold around 3-6 × 1020 cm-2. We investigate the widths of the H I velocity profiles in the triplet and find that extreme velocity dispersions can be explained by a superposition of multiple components along the line of sight near M81 as well as winds or outflows around M82. The velocity dispersions found are high enough that these processes could explain the linewidths of damped-Lyα absorbers observed at high redshift.</p

Clinical Assessment of a Recombinant Simian Adenovirus ChAd63: A Potent New Vaccine Vector

Background. Vaccine development in human Plasmodium falciparum malaria has been hampered by the exceptionally high levels of CD8+ T cells required for efficacy. Use of potently immunogenic human adenoviruses as vaccine vectors could overcome this problem, but these are limited by preexisting immunity to human adenoviruses

Hybridization and adaptive evolution of diverse Saccharomyces species for cellulosic biofuel production

Additional file 15. Summary of whole genome sequencing statistics