Predictors of Involvement in Head Start Services Among Diverse Immigrant Families

Nearly 86% of Head Start preschools serve non-English speaking families. The Head Start preschool program has been shown to increase academic proficiencies in children entering kindergarten and has been particularly successful in helping immigrant children entering the U.S. education system. Family involvement in their child’s education as early as preschool has been correlated with positive academic and behavioral outcomes throughout childhood. Given the importance of Head Start services for immigrant families, this study seeks to better understand variables associated with involvement in Head Start among immigrant families. Data was collected from a diverse sample of immigrant and U.S. born families to better understand what factors influence a family member’s level of involvement in their Head Start program (n = 196). Participating parents and caregivers were from 17 different countries and completed surveys regarding a variety of demographic information, caregiver’s level of satisfaction in Head Start services, and caregiver’s level of involvement in Head Start services. Results indicate a family’s language and birthplace have no significant relationship with a family’s level of involvement in their child’s education. Rather, a family’s satisfaction in the services provided by the school shows the strongest associations with a family’s involvement in services. Demographic variables associated with involvement in a child’s education include a caregiver’s level of education and a caregiver’s relation to the child. Findings indicate that caregivers with low educational attainment and in non-traditional families may be in need of targeted intervention focused on increasing levels of satisfaction in services

THE INHIBITORY EFFECT OF PROPOLIS AND CAFFEIC ACID PHENETHYLESTER ON CYCLOOXYGENASE ACTIVITY IN J774 MACROPHAGES.

The effect of an ethanolic extract of propolis, with and without CAPE, and some of its components on cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and COX-2) activity in J774 macrophages has been investigated. COX-1 and COX-2 activity, measaured as prostaglandin E-2 (PGE(2)) production, were concentration-dependently inhibited by propolis (C x 10(-3)-3 x 10(2) mugml(-1)) with an IC50 of 2.7 mugml(-1) and 4.8 x 10(-2) mugml(-1), respectively. Among the compounds tested pinocembrin and caffeic, ferulic, cinnamic and chlorogenic acids did not affect the activity of COX isoforms. Conversely, CAPE (2.8 x 10(-4)-28 mugml(-1); 10(-9)-10(-4) M) and galangin (2.7 x 10(-4)-27 mugml(-1); 10(-9)-10(-4) M) were effective, the last being about ten-twenty times less potent. In fact the IC50 of CAPE for COX-1 and COX-2 were 4.4 x 10(-1) mugml(-1) (1.5 x 10(-6) M) and 2 x 10(-3) mugml(-1) (6.3 x 10(-9) M), respectively. The IC50 of galangin were 3.7 mugml(-1) (15 x 10(-6) M) and 3 x 10(-2) mugml(-1) (120 x 10(-1) M), for COX-1 and COX-2 respectively. To better investigate the role of CAPE, we tested the action of the ethanolic extract of propolis deprived of CAPE, which resulted about ten times less potent than the extract with CAPE in the inhibition of both COX-1 and COX-2, with an IC50 of 30 mugml(-1) and 5.3 x 10(-1) mugml(-1), respectively. Moreover the comparison of the inhibition curves showed a significant difference (p < 0.001). These results suggest that both CAPE and galangin contribute to the overall activity of propolis, CAPE being more effective

Mind the gap! Organized hypocrisy in EU cooperation with Southern neighbor countries on international protection

The European Union (EU) has reacted to the migration crises of the last decade with growing externalization of migration management to neighbor countries often accused of not respecting human rights and individual liberties. Focusing on EU cooperation with the Southern neighborhood, as defined within the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) framework, this paper investigates the recent developments in the EU's external migration policies, demonstrating that there is a gap between EU discourses and policy instruments identified by the EU as strategic tools of the European migration and asylum policy (MAP). Five Southern neighbor countries (SNCs) have been selected, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon, to assess the extent to which the EU, when cooperating on migration and asylum issues, places international protection at risk instead of playing the role of humanitarian actor in accordance with the ideals and principles it defends. The research critically analyzes the EU's cooperation with SNCs concerning migration, as developed via international agreements, action plans, and mobility partnerships under the umbrella of the ENP. In particular, it explores the incompatibility between the European MAP instruments and international protection. MAP, the qualitative analysis shows, represents a clear mismatch between EU talk and action, outlining another case of organized hypocrisy

Kinetics of Thermal Decomposition of Particulate Samples of MgCO3: Experiments and Models

In this work, we study the kinetics of thermal decomposition of MgCO3 in the form of particles of known size. In the experiments, the material is heated to a known temperature in a vacuum oven, and it is characterized, both before and after heating, by infrared spectroscopy and gravimetry. The agreement between the results of the two techniques is excellent. These results are rationalized by means of a model based on Languir's law, and the comparison with the experiments allows us to estimate the activation energy of the process. The reabsorption of atmospheric water by the oxide is shown spectroscopically, finding that is strongly influenced by the temperature of the process

Two-Generation Approach to Improving Emotional and Behavioral Regulation:

Thesis advisor: Eric DearingIncreasing evidence indicates that exposure to poverty in early childhood may undermine neural growth that is critical to developing executive functions (EF) and, in turn, emotional and behavioral regulation (Blair et al. 2011; Kim et al., 2013; Raver et al., 2013). There is, however, also increasing evidence indicating that high-quality Early Childhood Education (ECE) (a) buffers children from risks associated with early exposure to poverty and (b) supports healthy socio-emotional development (Bierman et al., 2008; Raver, 2002; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). One line of this intervention work has focused on two-generation programs that pair high-quality ECE with supports for parents that are designed to improve parenting and the home environment. Although evidence on two-generation programs is mixed (Grindal et al., 2016; Neville et al., 2013), it is clear that much of the risk of poverty is relayed to children through their homes, and parenting is among the most critical influences on child emotional and behavioral self-regulation in infancy and early childhood (Bradley & Corwyn, 2004; Calkins & Johnson, 1998; Calkins et al., 1998). The present study builds on existing theoretical and empirical prior work indicating that children’s EF skills are important precursors to emotional and behavioral regulation that may be best promoted when addressed in both classroom and home contexts. Specifically, the present study uses a randomized design to evaluate the effects of classroom-based activities that target children’s executive functioning and the value added by training parents to better support their children’s EFs. Children were evaluated pre- and post-intervention on EF skills and prosocial and adaptive problem-solving behavior. In general, few significant effects of either the child training or the added parent component were evident. These findings are discussed with special attention to the fact that fidelity of implementation of the classroom and parent trainings was low, with less than half of teachers incorporating games at least once a week and only 13 percent of parents attending the trainings. In addition, implications for future empirical work as well as policy and practice are discussed with special attention given to further inquiry into the malleability of EF.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017.Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education.Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology

Il sistema scolastico nella Grande Guerra

The following essay reports an examination of the school system during the first world war. In such a complex and devastating period for the entire population, the school system couldn’t be unconcerned and had to worry about kids and people in need as much as possible. A detailed analysis is been made to recognize the change of every school subject, since teachers tried to actualize schooling with the war theme. Moreover another analysis’ goal is the recognition of the school system’s conditions in terms of facilities and infrastructure. At last an in-depth analysis of the condition of schooling in Apulia is reported, especially in the city of Brindisi, through the vision of historical documents. This indepth analysis has made possible thanks to some relations of final year exams (of the period between 1915 and 1918) of the primary school “G. Perasso” granted by the public records of Brindisi

Effect of efflux pump inhibition on Pseudomonas aeruginosa transcriptome and virulence

Efflux pumps of the resistance-nodulation-cell-division (RND) family increase antibiotic resistance in many bacterial pathogens, representing candidate targets for the development of antibiotic adjuvants. RND pumps have also been proposed to contribute to bacterial infection, implying that efflux pump inhibitors (EPIs) could also act as anti-virulence drugs. Nevertheless, EPIs are usually investigated only for their properties as antibiotic adjuvants, while their potential anti-virulence activity is seldom taken into account. In this study it is shown that RND efflux pumps contribute to Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 pathogenicity in an insect model of infection, and that the well-characterized EPI Phe-Arg-β-naphthylamide (PAβN) is able to reduce in vivo virulence of the P. aeruginosa PAO1 laboratory strain, as well as of clinical isolates. The production of quorum sensing (QS) molecules and of QS-dependent virulence phenotypes is differentially affected by PAβN, depending on the strain. Transcriptomic and phenotypic analyses showed that the protection exerted by PAβN from P. aeruginosa PAO1 infection in vivo correlates with the down-regulation of key virulence genes (e.g. genes involved in iron and phosphate starvation). Since PAβN impacts P. aeruginosa virulence, anti-virulence properties of EPIs are worthy to be explored, taking into account possible strain-specificity of their activit

Qualche osservazione sulla Retorica di Filodemo

Thanks to the progress made in the reconstruction of the Herculaneum scrolls and to new readings of the subscriptiones, an attempt is made to define the structure of Philodemus' Rhetoric, transmitted, as is known, by several scrolls

Fracture Healing Assessment Based on Impact Testing: In Vitro Simulation and Monitoring of the Healing Process of a Tibial Fracture with External Fixator

In clinical practice, bone healing is monitored with X-rays and manipulation. Its assessment is thus subjective, depending on the skills of the operator. Alternative and quantitative approaches have been proposed, generally based on the estimation of bone stiffness, which is known to increase with the healing process. The present study investigates the application of experimental modal analysis to fracture healing assessment focusing on fractures treated with an external fixator. The aim is to ascertain the capability of this approach to detect changes in the bone-callus stiffness as variations in the resonant frequencies despite the presence of the fixator, which might hide the bone response. In vitro tests were performed on a tibia phantom where the healing process was simulated creating three different types of callus surrogates, using glue and resin. The resonant frequencies of the phantom with screwed pins and of the phantom with the complete fixator were estimated. Results confirm an increase in the frequencies as the simulated bone-callus stiffness increases, encouraging the application of experimental modal analysis to fracture healing monitoring. This approach can offer remarkable advantages with respect to the actual standards: being non-invasive and quantitative, it would allow a more frequent healing monitoring