Addressing education debt: student and teacher perceptions of successful teaching of low-income African American students

Low-income African American students face a number of barriers to achieving academic success. When compared to other low-income students, the challenges facing low-income African American students are unique as they must overcome both economic and racialized barriers. Viewed through the lens of education debt (Ladson-Billings, 2006), which considers the effects of long-term social disparities, this thesis addresses two questions: 1) How do students and teachers describe the barriers to students’ academic success? and 2) What factors do students and teachers identify in the classroom, school, and community environment that facilitate student engagement and classroom learning? Data for this thesis come from a community-based participatory research project conducted at a racially-segregated, high-poverty public school, and consist of 24 in-depth interviews: 6 teacher interviews, 14 student interviews, and 4 student focus group interviews. Participants include 6 teachers and 9 students. Participants were asked open-ended questions regarding their perceptions about their experiences in the school. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed through a collaborative process of coding, memoing, and discussion with advising faculty. Student-identified barriers to academic success include behavior problems, educators’ inability to manage students, a focus on discipline rather than academics, and a lack of culturally competent educators. Student-identified factors that lead to positive school experiences include authoritative yet caring and supportive educators, structured small group collaboration, and extracurricular and recreational activities. Teacher-identified barriers to academic success include poor administrative support, inconsistencies in school, and negative out-of-school experiences and influences. Teacher-identified factors that lead to positive school experiences include professional relationship-building skills and cultural competence. Findings provide insight about education debt in schools serving predominantly low-income African American youth and suggest a behavioral, cultural, professional, and institutional manifestation of education debt. Findings also suggest methods for repaying education debt include increasing behavioral and emotional support resources, strengthening professional training and recruitment, and transforming schools into institutions of social justice

Observations of cosmic ray induced phosphenes

Phosphene observations by astronauts on flights near and far from earth atmosphere are discussed. It was concluded that phosphenes could be observed by the naked eye. Further investigation is proposed to determine realistic human tolerance levels for extended missions and to evaluate the need to provide special spacecraft shielding

Management of septic shock: a protocol-less approach

Citation\ud ProCESS Investigators, Yealy DM, Kellum JA, Huang DT, Barnato AE, Weissfeld LA, Pike F, Terndrup T, Wang HE, Hou PC, LoVecchio F, Filbin MR, Shapiro NI, Angus DC. A randomized trial of protocol-based care for early septic shock. N Engl J Med. 2014; 370:1683–93.\ud \ud Background\ud In a single-center study published more than a decade ago involving patients presenting to the emergency department with severe sepsis and septic shock, mortality was markedly lower among those who were treated according to a 6-h protocol of early goal-directed therapy (EGDT), in which intravenous fluids, vasopressors, inotropes, and blood transfusions were adjusted to reach central hemodynamic targets including central venous pressure, central venous oxygen saturation, and indirect estimates of cardiac output, than among those receiving usual care.\ud \ud Methods\ud Objective: The objective was to determine whether these EGDT findings were generalizable and whether all aspects of the EGDT protocol were necessary to achieve those outcomes.\ud \ud Design: A multicenter randomized three-arm controlled trial.\ud \ud Setting: Thirty-one academic emergency departments in the United States.\ud \ud Subjects: Patients older than 18 years of age presenting to the emergency department with septic shock.\ud \ud Intervention: Patients were assigned to one of three groups for 6 h of resuscitation: protocol-based EGDT as defined by River and colleagues; protocol-based standard therapy that did not require the placement of a central venous catheter, administration of inotropes, or blood transfusions; and usual care which mandated no specific monitoring or management approaches.\ud \ud Outcomes: The primary end point was 60-day in-hospital mortality. Also tested sequentially was whether protocol-based care (EGDT and standard therapy groups combined) was superior to usual care and whether protocol-based EGDT was superior to protocol-based standard therapy. Secondary outcomes included longer-term mortality and the need for organ support.\ud \ud Results\ud A total of 1,351 patients were enrolled, of whom 1,341 were evaluable due to patient/family request: 439 were randomly assigned to protocol-based EGDT, 446 to protocol-based standard therapy, and 456 to usual care. Resuscitation strategies differed significantly with respect to the monitoring of central venous pressure and central venous oxygen and the use of intravenous fluids, vasopressors, inotropes, and blood transfusions. By 60 days, there were 92 deaths in the protocol-based EGDT group (21.0 %), 81 in the protocol-based standard therapy group (18.2 %), and 86 in the usual care group (18.9 %) (relative risk with protocol-based therapy versus usual care, 1.04; 95 % confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.31; P = 0.83; relative risk with protocol-based EGDT versus protocol-based standard therapy, 1.15; 95 % CI, 0.88 to 1.51; P = 0.31). There were no significant differences in 90-day mortality, 1-year mortality, or the need for organ support.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud In a multicenter trial conducted in the tertiary care setting, protocol-based resuscitation of patients in whom septic shock was diagnosed in the emergency department did not improve outcomes

Effects of the components of positive airway pressure on work of breathing during bronchospasm

INTRODUCTION: Partial assist ventilation reduces work of breathing in patients with bronchospasm; however, it is not clear which components of the ventilatory cycle contribute to this process. Theoretically, expiratory positive airway pressure (EPAP), by reducing expiratory breaking, may be as important as inspiratory positive airway pressure (IPAP) in reducing work of breathing during acute bronchospasm. METHOD: We compared the effects of 10 cmH(2)O of IPAP, EPAP, and continuous positive airwaypressure (CPAP) on inspiratory work of breathing and end-expiratory lung volume (EELV) in a canine model of methacholine-induced bronchospasm. RESULTS: Methacholine infusion increased airway resistance and work of breathing. During bronchospasm IPAP and CPAP reduced work of breathing primarily through reductions in transdiaphragmatic pressure per tidal volume (from 69.4 ± 10.8 cmH(2)O/l to 45.6 ± 5.9 cmH(2)O/l and to 36.9 ± 4.6 cmH(2)O/l, respectively; P < 0.05) and in diaphragmatic pressure–time product (from 306 ± 31 to 268 ± 25 and to 224 ± 23, respectively; P < 0.05). Pleural pressure indices of work of breathing were not reduced by IPAP and CPAP. EPAP significantly increased all pleural and transdiaphragmatic work of breathing indices. CPAP and EPAP similarly increased EELV above control by 93 ± 16 ml and 69 ± 12 ml, respectively. The increase in EELV by IPAP of 48 ± 8 ml (P < 0.01) was significantly less than that by CPAP and EPAP. CONCLUSION: The reduction in work of breathing during bronchospasm is primarily induced by the IPAP component, and that for the same reduction in work of breathing by CPAP, EELV increases more

Open and Closed Seascapes: Where Does Habitat Patchiness Create Populations with High Fractions of Self-Recruitment?

Which populations are replenished primarily by immigrants (open) and which by local production (closed) remains an important question for management with implications for response to exploitation, protection, and disturbance. However, we lack methods for predicting population openness. Here, we develop a model for openness and show that considering habitat isolation explains the existence of surprisingly closed populations in high-dispersal species, including many marine organisms. Relatively closed populations are expected when patch spacing is more than twice the standard deviation of a species\u27 dispersal kernel. In addition, natural scales of habitat patchiness on coral reefs are sufficient to create both largely open and largely closed populations. Contrary to some previous interpretations, largely closed marine populations do not require mean dispersal distances that are unusually short, even for species with relatively long pelagic larval durations. We predict that habitat patchiness has strong control over population openness for many marine and terrestrial species with a highly dispersive life stage and relatively sedentary adults. This information can be used to make initial predictions about where populations will be more or less resilient to local exploitation and disturbance

The epidemiology of heart failure: The Framingham Study

AbstractCongestive heart failure has become an increasingly frequent reason for hospital admission during the last 2 decades and clearly represents a major health problem. Data from the Framingham Heart Study indicate that the incidence of congestive heart failure increases with age and is higher in men than in women. Hypertension and coronary heart disease are the two most common conditions predating its onset. Diabetes mellitus and electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy are also associated with an increased risk of heart failure. During the 1980s, the annual age-adjusted incidence of congestive heart failure among persons aged ≥ 45 years was 7.2 cases/1,000 in men and 4.7 cases/1,000 in women, whereas the age-adjusted prevalence of overt heart failure was 24/1,000 in men and 25/1,000 in women. Despite improved treatments for ischemic heart disease and hypertension, the age-adjusted incidence of heart failure has declined by only 11%/calendar decade in men and by 17%/calendar decade in women during a 40-year period of observation. In addition., congestive heart failure remains highly lethal, with a median survival time of 1.7 years in men and 3.2 years in women and a 5-year survival rate of 25% in men and 38% in women

Spectral simplicity and asymptotic separation of variables

We describe a method for comparing the real analytic eigenbranches of two families of quadratic forms that degenerate as t tends to zero. One of the families is assumed to be amenable to `separation of variables' and the other one not. With certain additional assumptions, we show that if the families are asymptotic at first order as t tends to 0, then the generic spectral simplicity of the separable family implies that the eigenbranches of the second family are also generically one-dimensional. As an application, we prove that for the generic triangle (simplex) in Euclidean space (constant curvature space form) each eigenspace of the Laplacian is one-dimensional. We also show that for all but countably many t, the geodesic triangle in the hyperbolic plane with interior angles 0, t, and t, has simple spectrum.Comment: 53 pages, 2 figure

Lyapunov exponent of the random Schr\"{o}dinger operator with short-range correlated noise potential

We study the influence of disorder on propagation of waves in one-dimensional structures. Transmission properties of the process governed by the Schr\"{o}dinger equation with the white noise potential can be expressed through the Lyapunov exponent $\gamma$ which we determine explicitly as a function of the noise intensity \sigma and the frequency \omega. We find uniform two-parameter asymptotic expressions for $\gamma$ which allow us to evaluate $\gamma$ for different relations between \sigma and \omega. The value of the Lyapunov exponent is also obtained in the case of a short-range correlated noise, which is shown to be less than its white noise counterpart.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

Modal expansions and non-perturbative quantum field theory in Minkowski space

We introduce a spectral approach to non-perturbative field theory within the periodic field formalism. As an example we calculate the real and imaginary parts of the propagator in 1+1 dimensional phi^4 theory, identifying both one-particle and multi-particle contributions. We discuss the computational limits of existing diagonalization algorithms and suggest new quasi-sparse eigenvector methods to handle very large Fock spaces and higher dimensional field theories.Comment: new material added, 12 pages, 6 figure