An Exploratory Survey of Participants in Urban and Suburban Teacher Academy Programs

In an era plagued by teacher shortages, recruitment and training strategies are crucial. One promising early recruitment strategy is the use of teacher academies, pre-collegiate programs for aspiring teachers. Yet precious little is known about these programs or their students, many of whom appear to mirror the much sought-after diversity hoped for in practicing teachers (Darling-Hammond, Berry, Hasselkorn, & Fideler, 1999). This paper reports results of a survey of 133 students enrolled in 11 teacher academies surrounding a large Midwestern city. Data on students’ demographics, future goals, and perceived program needs are reported. Results indicate strengths in program experiences and cohesiveness, and the need for greater emphasis on college readiness and program organization. Further research on these programs is imperative

Influential Article Review - Utilizing a Retail Case Study to Explore Community Businesses

This paper examines entrepreneurship. We present insights from a highly influential paper. Here are the highlights from this paper: Community-based entrepreneurship is considered to be an important instrument for the realization of potential among marginal and deprived communities isolated from the mainstream economy and is important in bringing social upliftment. Cultural values, shared resources, linkages, and mutual trust work for the community, nurtured through close personal relations for the functioning of economic activities. Entrepreneurial activities creating local public goods for a community have a comparative advantage over the absolute market-oriented activities. This paper tries to follow a case study method to analyze the community-based entrepreneurship in a marginal community (Muslim). Many self-employed Muslim workers and small businesses in urban centers in a non-Islamic society indicate that they bound to have a great propensity for entrepreneurship compared to the indigenous population. The government needs to introduce a policy with implicative measures for financial and technical support to these entrepreneurial activities. For our overseas readers, we then present the insights from this paper in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and German

Plume motion and large-scale circulation in a cylindrical Rayleigh-B\'enard cell

We used the time correlation of shadowgraph images to determine the angle $\Theta$ of the horizontal component of the plume velocity above (below) the center of the bottom (top) plate of a cylindrical Rayleigh-B\'enard cell of aspect ratio $\Gamma \equiv D/L = 1$ ($D$ is the diameter and $L \simeq 87$ mm the height) in the Rayleigh-number range $7\times 10^7 \leq R \leq 3\times 10^{9}$ for a Prandtl number $\sigma = 6$. We expect that $\Theta$ gives the direction of the large-scale circulation. It oscillates time-periodically. Near the top and bottom plates $\Theta(t)$ has the same frequency but is anti-correlated.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure

Absence of Metal-Insulator-Transition and Coherent Interlayer Transport in oriented graphite in parallel magnetic fields

Measurements of the magnetoresistivity of graphite with a high degree of control of the angle between the sample and magnetic field indicate that the metal-insulator transition (MIT), shown to be induced by a magnetic field applied perpendicular to the layers, does not appear in parallel field orientation. Furthermore, we show that interlayer transport is coherent in less ordered samples and high magnetic fields, whereas appears to be incoherent in less disordered samples. Our results demonstrate the two-dimensionality of the electron system in ideal graphite samples.Comment: 4 figures, details adde

Missing men with tuberculosis: the need to address structural influences and implement targeted and multidimensional interventions.

Tuberculosis (TB) is treatable but is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide, with men over-represented in some key aspects of the disease burden. Men's TB epidemiological scenario occurs within a wider public health and historical context, including their prior sidelining in health discussions. Differences are however noticeable in how some Western countries and high TB and HIV burden low and middle-income countries (LMIC) including in Africa have approached the subject(s) of men and health. The former have a comparatively long history of scholarship, and lately are implementing actions targeting men's health and wellness, both increasingly addressing multilevel social and structural determinants. In contrast, in the latter men have received attention primarily for their sexual practices and role in HIV and AIDS and gender-based violence; moreover, interventions, guided by the public health approach, have stressed short-term, measurable and medical goals. Debates and the limited available empirical literature on men's engagement with TB-related healthcare are nevertheless indicating need for a shift, within TB work with men in high burden LMICs towards, structural and multicomponent interventions

Modelling strategies to break transmission of lymphatic filariasis : aggregation, adherence and vector competence greatly alter elimination

Background: With ambitious targets to eliminate lymphatic filariasis over the coming years, there is a need to identify optimal strategies to achieve them in areas with different baseline prevalence and stages of control. Modelling can assist in identifying what data should be collected and what strategies are best for which scenarios. Methods: We develop a new individual-based, stochastic mathematical model of the transmission of lymphatic filariasis. We validate the model by fitting to a first time point and predicting future timepoints from surveillance data in Kenya and Sri Lanka, which have different vectors and different stages of the control programme. We then simulate different treatment scenarios in low, medium and high transmission settings, comparing once yearly mass drug administration (MDA) with more frequent MDA and higher coverage. We investigate the potential impact that vector control, systematic non-compliance and different levels of aggregation have on the dynamics of transmission and control. Results: In all settings, increasing coverage from 65 to 80 % has a similar impact on control to treating twice a year at 65 % coverage, for fewer drug treatments being distributed. Vector control has a large impact, even at moderate levels. The extent of aggregation of parasite loads amongst a small portion of the population, which has been estimated to be highly variable in different settings, can undermine the success of a programme, particularly if high risk sub-communities are not accessing interventions. Conclusion: Even moderate levels of vector control have a large impact both on the reduction in prevalence and the maintenance of gains made during MDA, even when parasite loads are highly aggregated, and use of vector control is at moderate levels. For the same prevalence, differences in aggregation and adherence can result in very different dynamics. The novel analysis of a small amount of surveillance data and resulting simulations highlight the need for more individual level data to be analysed to effectively tailor programmes in the drive for elimination

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Knowing who likes who: The early developmental basis of coalition understanding

Group biases based on broad category membership appear early in human development. However, like many other primates humans inhabit social worlds also characterised by small groups of social coalitions which are not demarcated by visible signs or social markers. A critical cognitive challenge for a young child is thus how to extract information concerning coalition structure when coalitions are dynamic and may lack stable and outwardly visible cues to membership. Therefore, the ability to decode behavioural cues of affiliations present in everyday social interactions between individuals would have conferred powerful selective advantages during our evolution. This would suggest that such an ability may emerge early in life, however, little research has investigated the developmental origins of such processing. The present paper will review recent empirical research which indicates that in the first 2 years of life infants achieve a host of social-cognitive abilities that make them well adapted to processing coalition-affiliations of others. We suggest that such an approach can be applied to better understand the origins of intergroup attitudes and biases. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

"Not just dogs, but rabid dogs": tensions and conflicts amongst research volunteers in Malawi.

Building trust between researchers and communities involved in research is one goal of community engagement. This paper examines the implications of community engagement for trust within communities, including trust among community volunteers who assist with research and between these volunteers and other community members. We describe the experiences of two groups of community volunteers recruited as part of an HIV and TB intervention trial in Malawi: cluster representatives, recruited both to act as key informants for TB suspects and mortality reporting and to identify and report community concerns, and community counsellors, recruited to provide semi-supervised HIV self-testing. We examine tensions experienced due to playing multiple roles, and the implications of volunteer responsibilities for short- and long-term community relationships. Data was collected through a workshop, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with volunteers and community members. While the volunteer system initially enhanced trust among volunteers and with the community, relationships deteriorated when cluster representatives assumed an additional supervisory role part-way through the trial. Combined with challenging recruitment targets and unequal power relations between volunteers, this new role damaged trust, with implications for volunteer well-being and social relationships. These experiences suggest researchers should consider potential social implications when designing community engagement systems