Secondary Special Education Teachers\u27 Attitudes Toward Extended School Year Calendars

This researcher conducted a study in four traditional school year calendar districts to determine teachers\u27 attitudes towards extending the school year. All special education teachers and a randomly selected sample of regular education teachers from the middle and high schools from each school district were surveyed. A researcher-made survey was constructed using a Likert scale. Questions were constructed to obtain information about their own feelings toward extended school year program s and how their students might benefit from these services. Results were categorized as either regular or special education. A t-test was conducted to determine any significant differences between the two categories. A one-way analysis of variance and a Newman­ Keuls was used to detect any significant differences among the special education teachers (e.g. learning disabled , mentally retarded , and emotionally disturbed). Using these statistical tests, several significant differences were found

We Are Not Hiding So Why Can\u27t You Find Us? Attracting Users to Special Collections & Archives

Special Collections & Archives have become the focal point for many research libraries due to the unique materials. However, there are still many faculty and students who are unaware of the potential research value of these collections. This session explores strategies to improve awareness and use

Community oriented hygiene and sanitation

Community oriented hygiene and sanitatio

Lessons Learned from Two Teacher Educators: What COVID-19 Can Teach Us About Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers to Teach the Next Generation of Students

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has required teacher educators to teach their classes online. Teacher educators now need to reflect on the learning opportunities that the COVID-19 induced shift to online learning has provided. This study shares two teacher educators’ experiences of teaching and supporting preservice teachers (PSTs) as they taught engineering online to elementary students. The two teacher educators noticed (a) positive changes in PSTs’ attitudes and beliefs about technology integration, (b) PSTs’ tendency to select and use of educational technologies, (c) PSTs’ recognition of the importance of online interaction and feedback from K-12 students, (d) the importance of providing PSTs with extended access to physical hardware, and (e) the importance of providing developmentally appropriate digital resources. The paper concludes with suggestions for teacher educators who are preparing PSTs for the next generation of teaching

What Color Are Our Hearts? Challenging Social and Literacy Inequalities in an Elementary School Writing Club

This longitudinal phenomenological study centers on an after-school writing club at an elementary school started by two high school English teachers and their students. Over the course of a school year, the writing club addressed local and systemic issues of inequality and facilitated the voice, agency and creative expression of the third to fifth grade students who chose to participate. Emerging trends and themes speak to the promise and possibilities of inter-age writing clubs that go far beyond traditional tutorial models. Rather than engaging in a banking method of tutoring, this project facilitates voice, agency and equality, as well as making significant gains in literacy acquisition for the students participating

Optic neuropathy associated with systemic sarcoidosis

Objective: To identify and follow a series of 52 patients with optic neuropathy related to sarcoidosis. Methods: Prospective observational cohort study. Results: The disorder was more common in women and affected a wide age range. It was proportionately more common in African and Caribbean ethnic groups. Two clinical subtypes were identified: the more common was a subacute optic neuropathy resembling optic neuritis; a more slowly progressive optic neuropathy arose in the remaining 17%. Sixteen (31%) were bilateral. Concurrent intraocular inflammation was seen in 36%. Pain arose in only 27% of cases. An optic perineuritis was seen in 2 cases, and predominate involvement of the chiasm in one. MRI findings showed optic nerve involvement in 75% of cases, with adjacent and more widespread inflammation in 31%. Treatment with corticosteroids was helpful in those with an inflammatory optic neuropathy, but not those with mass lesions. Relapse of visual signs arose in 25% of cases, necessitating an increase or escalation of treatment, but relapse was not a poor prognostic factor. Conclusions: This is a large prospective study of the clinical characteristics and outcome of treatment in optic neuropathy associated with sarcoidosis. Patients who experience an inflammatory optic neuropathy respond to treatment but may relapse. Those with infiltrative or progressive optic neuropathies improve less well even though the inflammatory disorder responds to therapy

Human ex vivo wound model and whole-mount staining approach to accurately evaluate skin repair

© 2021 JoVE Creative Commons. Chronic non-healing wounds, which primarily affect the elderly and diabetic, are a significant area of clinical unmet need. Unfortunately, current chronic wound treatments are inadequate, while available pre-clinical models poorly predict the clinical efficacy of new therapies. Here we describe a high throughput, pre-clinical model to assess multiple aspects of the human skin repair response. Partial thickness wounds were created in human ex vivo skin and cultured across a healing time course. Skin wound biopsies were collected in fixative for the whole-mount staining procedure. Fixed samples were blocked and incubated in primary antibody, with detection achieved via fluorescently conjugated secondary antibody. Wounds were counterstained and imaged via confocal microscopy before calculating percentage wound closure (re-epithelialization) in each biopsy. Applying this protocol, we reveal that 2 mm excisional wounds created in healthy donor skin are fully re-epithelialized by day 4-5 post-wounding. On the contrary, closure rates of diabetic skin wounds are significantly reduced, accompanied by perturbed barrier reformation. Combining human skin wounding with a novel whole-mount staining approach allows a rapid and reproducible method to quantify ex vivo wound repair. Collectively, this protocol provides a valuable human platform to evaluate the effectiveness of potential wound therapies, transforming pre-clinical testing and validation

Attachment anxiety predicts IL-6 and length of hospital stay in coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) patients.

OBJECTIVE: The mechanisms underlying the association between adult attachment and health are not well understood. In the current study, we investigated the relationship between attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, inflammation, and length of hospital stay in coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery patients. METHOD: 167 CABG patients completed an attachment questionnaire prior to surgery, and blood samples were taken before and after surgery to assess inflammatory activity. RESULTS: We found that attachment anxiety predicted higher plasma interleukin 6 (IL-6) concentration, and this association was mediated by self-reported sleep quality. Anxious attachment also predicted longer hospital stays following CABG surgery, even after controlling for demographic and clinical factors. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that increased levels of IL-6 may be a process linking adult attachment anxiety with health outcomes

Strengthening Health Systems and Improving the Capacity of Pediatric Care Centers to Respond to Epidemics Such as COVID-19 in Resource-limited Settings

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted in dramatic fashion the weaknesses of health systems worldwide in responding to emerging pandemics [1]. Although many governments, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and multinational organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) have prioritized the strengthening of health systems, and developed pandemic preparedness plans, the world’s uneven (and often belated) response to the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that many of these plans were insufficient and that the global health community will need to improve resource allocation, information-sharing and government coordination in order to minimize the impact of future outbreaks [2]. We are particularly concerned that existing preparedness plans do not adequately address the special needs of children; the relatively low hospitalization and death rates of children in the COVID-19 pandemic may result in the continuation of those needs being overlooked [3]. Additionally, the needs of children in low-resource settings, which differ in many ways from those of wealthier settings, may be even further at stake. As health systems begin to reassess their preparedness plans, this pandemic gives the world the opportunity to put safety measures in place to protect children now, and in turn to prepare for future outbreaks that will, sooner or later, affect children to a greater degree than this pandemic has thus far

A BAC-based physical map of the Nile tilapia genome

BACKGROUND: Cichlid fishes, particularly tilapias, are an important source of animal protein in tropical countries around the world. To support selective breeding of these species we are constructing genetic and physical maps of the tilapia genome. Physical maps linking collections of BAC clones are a critical resource for both positional cloning and assembly of whole genome sequences. RESULTS: We constructed a genome-wide physical map of the tilapia genome by restriction fingerprinting 35,245 bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) clones using high-resolution capillary polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The map consists of 3,621 contigs and is estimated to span 1.752 Gb in physical length. An independent analysis of the marker content of four contigs demonstrates the reliability of the assembly. CONCLUSION: This physical map is a powerful tool for accelerating genomic studies in cichlid fishes, including comparative mapping among fish species, long-range assembly of genomic shotgun sequences, and the positional cloning of genes underlying important phenotypic traits. The tilapia BAC fingerprint database is freely available at