The Deficit Reduction Act's (DRA) Citizenship Documentation Requirements for Medicaid Through the Eyes of State Officials in December 2006 and January 2007

Based on interviews, summarizes how state officials expect the 2005 citizenship documentation requirement for Medicaid to affect efforts to simplify application processes and enrollment in Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs

Covering Kids & Families Evaluation: Lasting Legacies of Covering Kids & Families

Outlines results of a survey of Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program officials in forty-six states on the impact of RWJF's initiative to increase outreach and enrollment, including grantees' strategies, effectiveness, and sustainability

Covering Kids & Families Evaluation: Sustaining the Effects of Covering Kids & Families on Policy Change

Presents results of a follow-up survey of Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program officials to assess the policy and procedural changes shaped by Covering Kids & Families, RWJF's initiative to expand enrollment in these programs

Do simple "groundrules" reduce preschoolers\u27 suggestibility about experienced and nonexperienced events?

This study examined whether providing preschool children with simple groundrules (the importance of being complete, saying &bdquo;I don‟t know‟, correcting the interviewer and not guessing) would reduce false details in their recall of a staged event. Forty-nine preschool children participated in an event that consisted of two activities. One or two days later they were given a biasing interview that included false suggestions about one of the experienced activities as well as a non-experienced activity. For the other activity, no suggestions were made. Eight, 15, and 22 days after the event, the children were required to recall all three activities in their own words. Immediately prior to their recall, half of the children were provided with the groundrules while the remaining children were not. The children in the control group also participated in a fifth interview in which they received the groundrule instructions. The results revealed that the provision of the groundrules had negligible impact on the accuracy of information provided irrespective of the context or order of the interview or the activity being recalled. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.<br /

Preparing Students for Success on Examinations: Readiness Assurance Tests in a Graduate-Level Statistics Course

Formative feedback is one way to foster students' readiness for statistics examinations. The use of Readiness Assurance Tests was examined as an educational intervention in which feedback was provided for both correct and incorrect responses in a graduate-level statistics course. Examination scores in the intervention group ( n = 56) were compared with those in a control group ( n = 42). Intervention group examination scores significantly improved from 75.92 ± 14.52 on the Readiness Assurance Test to 90.06 ± 7.06, p < .001, on the midterm, and final examination scores improved from 78.23 ± 17.29 to 85.6 ± 6.98, p = .002. Intervention group midterm scores were significantly higher than those of the control group (90.06 ± 7.06 versus 79.7 ± 11.6, p < .001); however, no differences were found between the groups on the final examination (85.35 ± 9.46 versus 85.6 ± 6.98, p = .91). Use of Readiness Assurance Tests was an effective modality to increase student self-efficacy, learning experience, and, relative to a control group, midterm examination performance in statistic

Synthesizing Middle Grades Research on Cultural Responsiveness: The Importance of a Shared Conceptual Framework

In conducting a literature review of 133 articles on cultural responsiveness in middle level education, we identified a lack of shared definitions, theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and foci, which made it impossible to synthesize across articles. Using a conceptual framework that required: 1) clear definitions of terms; 2) a critically conscious stance; and 3) inclusion of the middle school concept, we identified 14 articles that met these criteria. We then mapped differences and convergences across these studies, which allowed us to identify the conceptual gaps that the field must address in order to have common definitions and understandings that enable synthesis across studies

Approaches to teaching through digital reference

As “teaching libraries,” many academic libraries are committed to teaching not only in classrooms but also at the reference desk. As reference has expanded to include digital modes of e-mail and chat, reference librarians are prompted to consider approaches to teaching in these new reference venues in ways that are meaningful to the user. A promising approach to teaching through digital reference is the application of the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards. This paper presents some challenges and benefits of teaching via digital reference. Practical methods for promoting self-directed learning by examining online instruction, and suggestions for effectively advancing a pedagogy based on the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards, are offered

Peer coaching through mHealth targeting physical activity in people with Parkinson disease: feasibility study

BACKGROUND: Long-term engagement in exercise and physical activity mitigates the progression of disability and increases quality of life in people with Parkinson disease (PD). Despite this, the vast majority of individuals with PD are sedentary. There is a critical need for a feasible, safe, acceptable, and effective method to assist those with PD to engage in active lifestyles. Peer coaching through mobile health (mHealth) may be a viable approach. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop a PD-specific peer coach training program and a remote peer-mentored walking program using mHealth technology with the goal of increasing physical activity in persons with PD. We set out to examine the feasibility, safety, and acceptability of the programs along with preliminary evidence of individual-level changes in walking activity, self-efficacy, and disability in the peer mentees. METHODS: A peer coach training program and a remote peer-mentored walking program using mHealth was developed and tested in 10 individuals with PD. We matched physically active persons with PD (peer coaches) with sedentary persons with PD (peer mentees), resulting in 5 dyads. Using both Web-based and in-person delivery methods, we trained the peer coaches in basic knowledge of PD, exercise, active listening, and motivational interviewing. Peer coaches and mentees wore FitBit Zip activity trackers and participated in daily walking over 8 weeks. Peer dyads interacted daily via the FitBit friends mobile app and weekly via telephone calls. Feasibility was determined by examining recruitment, participation, and retention rates. Safety was assessed by monitoring adverse events during the study period. Acceptability was assessed via satisfaction surveys. Individual-level changes in physical activity were examined relative to clinically important differences. RESULTS: Four out of the 5 peer pairs used the FitBit activity tracker and friends function without difficulty. A total of 4 of the 5 pairs completed the 8 weekly phone conversations. There were no adverse events over the course of the study. All peer coaches were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the training program, and all participants were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the peer-mentored walking program. All participants would recommend this program to others with PD. Increases in average steps per day exceeding the clinically important difference occurred in 4 out of the 5 mentees. CONCLUSIONS: Remote peer coaching using mHealth is feasible, safe, and acceptable for persons with PD. Peer coaching using mHealth technology may be a viable method to increase physical activity in individuals with PD. Larger controlled trials are necessary to examine the effectiveness of this approach.This study is supported by Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions (RALI Boston), Grant #P30 AG048785, and the American Parkinson Disease Association, Massachusetts chapter. The authors would like to thank Nicole Sullivan, SOT, for her assistance with data management and data collection and Nick Wendel, DPT, for his assistance with data collection. Additionally, the authors would like to thank the participants in this study for their time, effort, and insights. (P30 AG048785 - Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions (RALI Boston); American Parkinson Disease Association, Massachusetts chapter)Accepted manuscrip

Applying Information Competency to Digital Reference

Presented at the 67th IFLA Council and General Conference (2001), this paper presents a case for applying information competency (IC) standards to digital reference services at academic libraries. Practical reasons for applying standards or guidelines to e-mail and online chat reference services are given with some insight to the nature of digital reference interactions. The standards that arose from the information competency movement in academic libraries are described and offered as a touchstone for planning and designing digital reference services. The paper concludes with preliminary ideas for how IC standards could be applied to the provision of digital reference

Science Fiction

Literary and cultural critics call science fiction the premiere story form of modernity because it relates the adventures of educated men and women who use science and technology to reshape the material world and build new, hopefully better societies. As such, it is no surprise that many authors working in this popular genre explore how educated men and women might use science and technology to reshape the physical body and build new, hopefully better versions of humanity itself. Yet, lingering even in the most optimistic imaginings of a posthuman future is the doubt that these transformations will be evenly distributed or desired. In the first part of this essay, Yaszek and Ellis show how the stories of nineteenth century proto science fiction authors such as Mary Shelley and Nathaniel Hawthorne responded to the founding principles of the emergent modern scientific community--especially as they pertained to the treatment of human subjects--with stories about the often-disastrous results of scientific experiments designed to alter human bodies and life processes. In the second part of this essay, Yaszek and Ellis explore how early and mid-twentieth-century sf writers responded to the ascendancy of engineering and cybernetics and early attempts to seize control over evolution itself with stories about part-organic, part-technological cyborgs. While authors such as C.L. Moore and directors such as Fred McLeod Wilcox generally treated individual cyborg characters sympathetically, they also depicted them as one-off, isolated beings created before their time had really come. Finally, Yaszek and Ellis demonstrate how new technologies of simulation and replication have engendered a wide range of stories about the meaning and value of post humanity over the past 50 years. Beginning with New Wave sf, Philip K. Dick and other sf writers leveraged psychopharmacology and the neurosciences to explore how various technologies transform the inner space of the human mind to make humanity more like machines and our posthuman offspring more like humanity. Later, with the exponentially progressing developments in personal computing, nanotechnology, and genetic engineering, sf shifted to ask how these sciences and technologies might remake humanity. On the one hand, cyberpunk tales by artists including William Gibson and the Wachowskis explore the promises and perils of disembodied virtual life, while on the other hand post singularity stories such as those created by Charles Stross consider how infinite life extension might change our understanding of humanity as well. Meanwhile, science fiction writers associated with various social justice movements, including feminist Joanna Russ, Afrofuturist Octavia Butler, and environmentalist Kim Stanley Robinson, ask readers to think about how allying ourselves with the post human (and even nonhuman) might produce new modes of psychological and social organization that do a better job of securing justice for all than earlier, human-oriented modes of civil rights activism