A Case Study of Principals\u27 Knowledge of Early Childhood Literacy

Nationally approximately 40 percent of third grade students do not read at grade level. Principals play a critical role in providing leadership in the implementation of Response to Intervention (RtI) to ensure that students not making adequate yearly progress receive targeted instruction to address their deficiencies. The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of five principals through an investigation of their understanding of the reading process as it relates to the implementation of RtI in their schools. I specifically wish to understand: What do principals know about early childhood literacy and how do they use that knowledge to support early childhood teachers? Sub questions relating to the central research question include: How do principals perceive their educational background and experience have prepared them to support early childhood teachers in making instructional reading decisions? How do principals perceive their role in the RtI problem solving process used to determine instructional strategies for early childhood students reading below grade level? How do principals structure their own learning of early literacy within the context of their school? How do teachers perceive the principal\u27s support of the reading program? What do teachers have to say about the educational background and experience of their principal as those relate to the reading program and to the RtI process in their schools? To address these questions, I conducted semi-structured interviews with five elementary school principals employed in a large, urban district in South Carolina. I used a constructivist theory lens to identify patterns and themes. Additionally, this study seeks to understand how principals structure support for themselves based on their educational background and experience relating to the reading process of early childhood students. I address implications for principals, superintendents, RtI teams, and future research. Keywords: Response to Intervention, reading process, principal leadership, professional learning communities, early childhood education, literac

Transinstitutionalization: A Feminist Political Economy Analysis of Ontario's Public Mental Health Care System

Feminist political economy (FPE) deepens our understanding of the nature and dynamics of marginalization confronting various social groups in late-capitalism. Scholars adopting an FPE approach have, however, neglected to scrutinize the arrangement of public mental health care systems under neoliberalism or prevailing understandings of mental illness in services and policy. Additionally, despite the recent emergence of Mad Studies, drawing further attention to the challenges facing consumers/survivors/ex-patients/Mad people under neoliberalism, FPE scholars have not substantively addressed this marginalization. FPE has much to offer studies of mental health care, as mental health care services are primarily services for daily maintenance, a central aspect of social reproduction, and are shaped by the prevailing arrangement of production. This dissertation draws on archival and documentary analysis and interviews in pursuit of an FPE analysis of Ontarios public mental health care system, both filling a gap in this field of inquiry and offering new insights into the state of mental health care in Ontario with the aim for forging positive social change. Drawing on FPEs conception of social reproduction, and focussing on mental health care services as a form of daily maintenance, my central contention is that downloading, privatization and individualization in the areas of mental health policy and service provisioning, together with concomitant changes to definitions of mental illness in policy and practice, have produced a new phase of mental health care in Ontario, namely transinstitutionalization. Transinstitutionalization is constituted through three distinct, but interrelated processes: 1) the application of the neoliberal imperatives of downloading, privatization, and individualization to existing services; 2) the structuring of mental health care services to condition independence in the activities of daily maintenance and, whenever possible, labour force attachment; and, 3) the development in policy and practice of new definitions of mental illness and recovery that encourage economic independence, producing a model of the ideal mental patient as one who can take control of their life and achieve independence. This dissertation first charts transinstitutionalization historically, then examines its constitution and operation in the areas of treatment, income support and housing services, the pillars of Ontarios public mental health care system

Longley Building: Reuse and Rehabilitation Feasibility Report

The southern, eastern, and northern façades (the principal façades) have a great amount of decorative masonry including granite, slate coursing, brownstone coursing, and brick veneer (Photo 2). All of these materials are in good condition, except for the brownstone, which is deteriorating in areas that are connected to a wrought iron balustrade. The surface of the brownstone is face-beded, and the corrosion of the iron in contact with the stone has caused oxide jacking. All of the masonry has environmental staining

Focal work conflict

301 leaves : illustrations ; 29 cmIncludes abstract and appendices.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-186).Scholars have explored conflict work conflict for more than 70 years and yet the basis for this research—a definition and severity scale—are not available. The absence of such a measure limits research linking the psychological experience of work conflict—how individuals think, feel, and behave—to employee functioning and health. To address this gap, the present research reviewed prior theory as a foundation for four studies. Study I was a scale development study with 19 cross-industry workers who recalled critical incidents. Thematic analysis supported the proposed definition and scale development. Study II was a scale validation study conducted with 1029 healthcare and university workers. Quantitative results suggested that a two-factor solution fit the data better than the proposed 3-factor solution. In addition, qualitative analysis of conflict descriptions suggested that the scale was incomplete. Study III was a second scale validation study with 268 workers who were contemporarily experiencing a conflict. Exploratory structured equation modeling supported a 3-factor model. Results indicated that focal work conflicts predict strain even after accounting for other job stressors and intragroup conflict. Rumination, emotion regulation, and psychological distancing each partially mediated the relationship between focal work conflict and strain. The quality of social interactions and one’s power relative to one’s conflict partner moderated the focal work conflict-strain relationship. Finally, Study IV was a diary study with 24 workers who were contemporarily in conflict and participating in conflict coaching. Results provide evidence that conflict coaching is beneficial. Taken together, the four studies suggest that work conflict is a state of social discord (i.e., norm violation or interpersonal friction) characterized by relational negativity (i.e., negative emotions and relational dissonance) that poses a threat to some core human need or state (i.e., one’s interests, identity, security, or sense of inclusion)

Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection Manifesting as Neonatal Persistent Pulmonary Hypertension: Report of Two Cases

Various neonatal symptoms can lead to a diagnosis of congenital CMV infection. We report two cases of persistent pulmonary hypertension in relation with congenital CMV infection following maternal primary infection and reinfection, respectively. Both infants had severe refractory hypoxemia, requiring high-frequency ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide and inotropic support. One of them required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for five days. Ganciclovir therapy was attempted in the two cases on day 12 postnatal. One of the infant died on day 15 postnatal. The other survived and is developing uneventfully at 15 months of age. Conclusion: Neonatal persistent pulmonary hypertension can be the consequence of congenital CMV infection. Intensive respiratory support and IV ganciclovir are indicated in case of life-threatening condition

Hijacking membrane transporters for arsenic phytoextraction

Arsenic is a toxic metalloid and recognized carcinogen. Arsenate and arsenite are the most common arsenic species available for uptake by plants. As an inorganic phosphate (Pi) analog, arsenate is acquired by plant roots through endogenous Pi transport systems. Inside the cell, arsenate is reduced to the thiol-reactive form arsenite. Glutathione (GSH)-conjugates of arsenite may be extruded from the cell or sequestered in vacuoles by members of the ATP-binding cassette (ABC) family of transporters. In the present study we sought to enhance both plant arsenic uptake through Pi transporter overexpression, and plant arsenic tolerance through ABC transporter overexpression. We demonstrate that Arabidopsis thaliana plants overexpressing the high-affinity Pi transporter family members, AtPht1;1 or AtPht1;7, are hypersensitive to arsenate due to increased arsenate uptake. These plants do not exhibit increased sensitivity to arsenite. Co-overexpression of the yeast ABC transporter YCF1 in combination with AtPht1;1 or AtPht1;7 suppresses the arsenate-sensitive phenotype while further enhancing arsenic uptake. Taken together, our results support an arsenic transport mechanism in which arsenate uptake is increased through Pi transporter overexpression, and arsenic tolerance is enhanced through YCF1-mediated vacuolar sequestration. This work substantiates the viability of coupling enhanced uptake and vacuolar sequestration as a means for developing a prototypical engineered arsenic hyperaccumulator. © 2012 Elsevier B.V

Proving Our Maternal and Scholarly Worth: A Collaborative Autoethnographic Textual and Visual Storying of MotherScholar Identity Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pivoting to remote work as female academics and to schooling our children from home as mothers in March 2020 marked a dramatic shift in how we enact our MotherScholar identities. This collaborative autoethnographic study employs a modification of interactive interviewing and photovoice to produce verbal and visual text of COVID-19 MotherScholar identity work for analysis. Thematic analysis results in themes of maternal interruptions, professional interruptions, maternal recognition, and professional recognition. Of note, our MotherScholar interactivity functioned as identity work as we sought and granted legitimacy to one another’s’ COVID-19 MotherScholar identities. Of particular concern to us is how institutions of higher education are (dis)enabling socially supportive MotherScholar interactivity during COVID-19 conditions that persist at the time of this writing and how they intend to address social support needs sustainably into the future

Reconsidering low-dose aspirin therapy for cardiovascular disease: a study protocol for physician and patient behavioral change

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>There are often disparities between current evidence and current practice. Decreasing the gap between desired practice outcomes and observed practice outcomes in the healthcare system is not always easy. Stopping previously recommended or variably recommended interventions may be even harder to achieve than increasing the use of a desired but under-performed activity. For over a decade, aspirin has been prescribed for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease and for patients with the coronary artery disease risk equivalents; yet, there is no substantial evidence of an appropriate risk-benefit ratio to support this practice. This paper describes the protocol of a randomized trial being conducted in six primary care practices in the Denver metropolitan area to examine the effectiveness of three interventional strategies to change physician behavior regarding prescription of low-dose aspirin.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>All practices received academic detailing, one arm received clinician reminders to reconsider aspirin, a second arm received both clinician and patient messages to reconsider aspirin. The intervention will run for 15 to 18 months. Data collected at baseline and for outcomes from an electronic health record will be used to assess pre- and post-interventional prescribing, as well as to explore any inappropriate decrease in aspirin use by patients with known cardiovascular disease.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>This study was designed to investigate effective methods of changing physician behavior to decrease the use of aspirin for primary cardiovascular disease prevention. The results of this study will contribute to the small pool of knowledge currently available on the topic of ceasing previously supported practices.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>ClinicalTrials.gov: <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01247454">NCT01247454</a></p

Re-identification of individuals from images using spot constellations : a case study in Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus)

The long-term monitoring of Arctic charr in lava caves is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund, RANNÍS (research grant nos. 120227 and 162893). E.A.M. was supported by the Icelandic Research Fund, RANNÍS (grant no. 162893) and NERC research grant awarded to M.B.M. (grant no. NE/R011109/1). M.B.M. was supported by a University Research Fellowship from the Royal Society (London). C.A.L. and B.K.K. were supported by Hólar University, Iceland. The Titan Xp GPU used for this research was donated to K.T. by the NVIDIA Corporation.The ability to re-identify individuals is fundamental to the individual-based studies that are required to estimate many important ecological and evolutionary parameters in wild populations. Traditional methods of marking individuals and tracking them through time can be invasive and imperfect, which can affect these estimates and create uncertainties for population management. Here we present a photographic re-identification method that uses spot constellations in images to match specimens through time. Photographs of Arctic charr (Salvelinus alpinus) were used as a case study. Classical computer vision techniques were compared with new deep-learning techniques for masks and spot extraction. We found that a U-Net approach trained on a small set of human-annotated photographs performed substantially better than a baseline feature engineering approach. For matching the spot constellations, two algorithms were adapted, and, depending on whether a fully or semi-automated set-up is preferred, we show how either one or a combination of these algorithms can be implemented. Within our case study, our pipeline both successfully identified unmarked individuals from photographs alone and re-identified individuals that had lost tags, resulting in an approximately 4 our multi-step pipeline involves little human supervision and could be applied to many organisms.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe