Uncovering stories: Investigating factors that contribute to parent experiences in eligibility meetings

Federal guidelines outline school communication with parents as a necessity throughout the special education process. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) states that parents have the right to participate in their children’s educational involvement, including but not limited to: Individualized Education Program Meetings (IEP), due process proceedings, and any components of evaluation and individual services provided to their child. While law mandates that schools proactively communicate with parents, in many aspects, parents may often feel disconnected from aspects of the special education process, particularly eligibility meetings (Bucknavage, 2007). Further, results of the component selections within the eligibility determination for special education may complicate the relationship between school and parents, potentially leaving parents feeling isolated, frustrated, or confused (Esquivel et al., 2008; (Buckman, 1992). This study specifically will use a parent survey to improve and inform best practices for school psychologists about investigating factors that encourage parent participation in eligibility meetings. As school professionals, it is important that parents not only participate and comprehend the entire process of special education, including potential diagnoses, but also feel empowered to advocate for the welfare of their child. The goal of this study is not to provide a comprehensive evaluation of experiences of parents and families who have completed the special education experience in schools. Rather, this study shares specific, meaningful stories of participants to illustrate potential successes and difficulties that parents may face specifically within special education eligibility meetings and the implications towards the future

Trends and Developments in Thirty Prominent Snare Drum Method Books Published in the United States from 1935 to 2008 with a Review of Selected Material

This document examines thirty prominent snare drum method books published between 1935 and 2008 in the United States. A review of each method book is provided, followed by a discussion of trends and developments in individual components including set-up and maintenance, note reading and music fundamentals, grip, stroke, rudimental instruction, exercises, etudes and solos, and organization. By exhibiting developments and trends this study informs snare drum pedagogy and provides valuable comprehensive educational material for students and educators. The study also allows performers to efficiently filter through various approaches to technique and serves as a guide for effective musical contextualization

Manipulation-Proof Machine Learning

An increasing number of decisions are guided by machine learning algorithms. In many settings, from consumer credit to criminal justice, those decisions are made by applying an estimator to data on an individual's observed behavior. But when consequential decisions are encoded in rules, individuals may strategically alter their behavior to achieve desired outcomes. This paper develops a new class of estimator that is stable under manipulation, even when the decision rule is fully transparent. We explicitly model the costs of manipulating different behaviors, and identify decision rules that are stable in equilibrium. Through a large field experiment in Kenya, we show that decision rules estimated with our strategy-robust method outperform those based on standard supervised learning approaches

A Prospect Theory-Based Real Option Analogy for Evaluating Flexible Systems and Architectures in Naval Ship Design.

A constant trend in U.S. Navy design and acquisition programs has been the emphasis on flexible systems and architectures. Modularity and design-for-upgradability are two examples of this trend. Given the increasing importance of flexibility in Naval design, the methods used for valuing Naval assets should adequately capture the impact of such flexibility. Current static budgetary techniques and net present value (NPV) analysis underestimate the value of the embedded ``optionality'' of flexible design features. The use of real options analysis (ROA) has been proposed to correct this underestimation, however the theory is not universally applicable to the naval domain because of key assumptions made by a real options approach. These deficiencies leave designers and decision makers to rely on their intuition and engineering experience when evaluating flexible systems and architectures. A quantitative evaluation framework would add valuable analytical rigor to increasingly complex designs and demanding mission requirements. This research presents a novel framework for evaluating flexible Naval assets, called prospect theory-based real options analysis (PB-ROA). The framework abstracts the principles of ROA to suit a wide variety of naval applications. Since naval assets do not generate cash flows, utility theory provides the alternative measure of value within PB-ROA. However, without a market where the assets are traded, a new source for data on prevailing risk tolerances in needed to properly adjust the option's value according to uncertainty. Where some prior research relies solely on utility curves to determine risk aversion, PB-ROA uses a unique mechanism inspired by Prospect Theory to derive the risk-adjusted probability measure from the decision maker's marginal utility curve(s). This enables PB-ROA to include the impact of loss aversion where previously it has been ignored. Game theory is also incorporated into PB-ROA to address the unique characteristic of some naval options which may be leveraged to influence the behavior of other agents in the Navy's environment. With game theory, PB-ROA lends a new perspective on the value of ``game changing'' options, which do not simply react to changes in the environment, but exert a feedback effect on it as well.PhDNaval Architecture & Marine EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107165/1/jtknight_1.pd

Levosimendan for patients with severely reduced left ventricular systolic function and/or low cardiac output syndrome undergoing cardiac surgery. a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Previous studies have shown beneficial effects of levosimendan in high-risk patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Two large randomized controlled trials (RCTs), however, showed no advantages of levosimendan. Methods: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis (MEDLINE and Embase from inception until March 30, 2017), investigating whether levosimendan offers advantages compared with placebo in high-risk cardiac surgery patients, as defined by preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) = 35% and/or low cardiac output syndrome (LCOS). The primary outcomes were mortality at longest follow-up and need for postoperative renal replacement therapy (RRT). Secondary postoperative outcomes investigated included myocardial injury, supraventricular arrhythmias, development of LCOS, acute kidney injury (AKI), duration of mechanical ventilation, intensive care unit and hospital lengths of stay, and incidence of hypotension during drug infusion. Results: Six RCTs were included in the meta-analysis, five of which investigated only patients with LVEF = 35% and one of which included predominantly patients with LCOS. Mortality was similar overall (OR 0.64 [0.37, 1.11], p = 0.11) but lower in the subgroup with LVEF < 35% (OR 0.51 [0.32, 0.82], p = 0.005). Need for RRT was reduced by levosimendan both overall (OR 0.63 [0.42, 0.94], p = 0.02) and in patients with LVEF < 35% (OR 0.55 [0.31, 0.97], p = 0.04). Among secondary outcomes, we found lower postoperative LCOS in patients with LVEF < 35% receiving levosimendan (OR 0.49 [0.27, 0.89], p = 0.02), lower overall AKI (OR 0.62 [0.42, 0.92], p = 0.02), and a trend toward lower mechanical support, both overall (p = 0.07) and in patients with LVEF < 35% (p= 0.05). Conclusions: Levosimendan reduces mortality in patients with preoperative severely reduced LVEF but does not affect overall mortality. Levosimendan reduces the need for RRT after high-risk cardiac surger

Microbes do not follow the elevational diversity patterns of plants and animals

The elevational gradient in plant and animal diversity is one of the most widely documented patterns in ecology and, although no consensus explanation exists, many hypotheses have been proposed over the past century to explain these patterns. Historically, research on elevational diversity gradients has focused almost exclusively on plant and animal taxa. As a result, we do not know whether microbes exhibit elevational gradients in diversity that parallel those observed for macroscopic taxa. This represents a key knowledge gap in ecology, especially given the ubiquity, abundance, and functional importance of microbes. Here we show that, across a montane elevational gradient in eastern Peru, bacteria living in three distinct habitats (organic soil, mineral soil, and leaf surfaces) exhibit no significant elevational gradient in diversity (r2 0.1 in all cases), in direct contrast to the significant diversity changes observed for plant and animal taxa across the same montane gradient (r2 > 0.75, P < 0.001 in all cases). This finding suggests that the biogeographical patterns exhibited by bacteria are fundamentally different from those of plants and animals, highlighting the need for the development of more inclusive concepts and theories in biogeography to explain these disparities

Metagenomic covariation along densely sampled environmental gradients in the Red Sea

Oceanic microbial diversity covaries with physicochemical parameters. Temperature, for example, explains approximately half of global variation in surface taxonomic abundance. It is unknown, however, whether covariation patterns hold over narrower parameter gradients and spatial scales, and extending to mesopelagic depths. We collected and sequenced 45 epipelagic and mesopelagic microbial metagenomes on a meridional transect through the eastern Red Sea. We asked which environmental parameters explain the most variation in relative abundances of taxonomic groups, gene ortholog groups, and pathways—at a spatial scale of <2000 km, along narrow but well-defined latitudinal and depth-dependent gradients. We also asked how microbes are adapted to gradients and extremes in irradiance, temperature, salinity, and nutrients, examining the responses of individual gene ortholog groups to these parameters. Functional and taxonomic metrics were equally well explained (75–79%) by environmental parameters. However, only functional and not taxonomic covariation patterns were conserved when comparing with an intruding water mass with different physicochemical properties. Temperature explained the most variation in each metric, followed by nitrate, chlorophyll, phosphate, and salinity. That nitrate explained more variation than phosphate suggested nitrogen limitation, consistent with low surface N:P ratios. Covariation of gene ortholog groups with environmental parameters revealed patterns of functional adaptation to the challenging Red Sea environment: high irradiance, temperature, salinity, and low nutrients. Nutrient-acquisition gene ortholog groups were anti-correlated with concentrations of their respective nutrient species, recapturing trends previously observed across much larger distances and environmental gradients. This dataset of metagenomic covariation along densely sampled environmental gradients includes online data exploration supplements, serving as a community resource for marine microbial ecology