132 research outputs found
The Effects of Read 180 on Reading Outcomes for Secondary Students
In this starred paper, I examine the effectiveness of Read 180 on struggling readers in grades 6-12. The literature review is based on quantitative studies that were published between 2009 and 2015. Although Scholastic has published a number of studies that examine Read 180 outcomes, I did not incorporate any of these studies in Chapter 2 due to potential bias. The only information taken from Scholastic consisted of the overall structure of Read 180. All studies used in the literature review are from peer-reviewed journals or published dissertations.
The majority of the studies summarized in this paper were generated from PsychINFO, ERIC, and Academic Search Premier. Keywords that helped to find studies for this literature review include reading, remedial reading, Read 180, high school, reading intervention, secondary, upper grades, literacy, effective reading programs, adolescent, and struggling readers
Creative-destructivism : a Delphi study of the current South African business environment
Abstract: In an attempt to remain financially viable, modern day organisations are forced to destabilise traditional business methodologies and principles. The dynamic interplay between the efforts of the conserving institutions, i.e. society at large and the disruptors, i.e. the organisations, within the business environment may be defined in terms of the Schumpeterian notion of âcreative-destructivismâ. Within the context of the creative-destructive environment, it is postulated that no individual or organisation will ever have complete information, knowledge or fore-knowledge of how the environment will shape and change in the near future. The South African economy is not exempt from the aforesaid notion. The research will contextualise the current South African business environment, by means of a Delphi study with the results offering insight into the management of the creative-destructive environment
Architecting information : a Delphi study of South African perspective
Abstract: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has transformed society at large, with the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) revolutionising the access, flow and use of information within the societal context. For organisations to maintain and increase their competitive stance within the market, attention should be focused on how the information is structured within the organisational context. Considering information may be regarded as the catalysts of change within the economy, the objective of this research is to determine how important the architecture of information is to organisations operating in South Africa. The research design utilised to answer the question is based on a pragmatic ontological stance. Building onto the ontological stance, the research employs an abductive epistemological assumption to rationalise the nature of knowledge..
Factors influencing a mother's choice of feeding after discharge of her baby from a neonatal unit
Objective. To assess feeding methods chosen by mothers of babies who spent time in a neonatal unit. Factors influencing this decision were investigated.Design. Descriptive study.Methods. Mothers were interviewed on the day they took their babies home. Basic demographic data on mother and baby were collected from the hospital records.Setting. The neonatal unit, Pelonomi Hospital, Bloemfontein from May 1996 to May 1998.Subjects. Eighty-one mothers of babies admitted to the neonatal unit.Outcome measures. At discharge 60% of mothers intended to breast-feed their babies exclusively the next day. The mother's decision to breasHeed her baby at home was significantly associated with her decision before delivery (P = 0.0050). Otherfactors positively associated with the decision to breast-feed exclusively at home were a significantly higher birth weight of the baby (P < 0.0008) and gestational age of the baby (P < 0.0005). The only hospital practice positively associated with this decision was the frequency with which mothers saw their babies during their stay in the unit (P = 0.0153). Mothers' knowledge of how to increase breast-milk supply was very poor.Conclusions. Infants with a lower weight and gestational age, who stayed in the unit longer, were less likely to be breast-fed after discharge from the neonatal unit. The mothers' experience in the unit did not seem to alter their choice of feeding method decided upon before delivery. This suggests that efforts to promote breast-feeding in the neonatal unit were either ineffectual or inadequate. In order to remedy this situation it is necessary to keep the motherinfant pair together (lodger mothers) and to promote breastfeeding before and after delivery. It would also be necessary to train staff in the management of lactation problems
Keeping record of the postoperative nursing care of patients
The aim of this research project was to evaluate the recordkeeping
of postoperative nursing care. A total of 186 randomly
selected patient records were evaluated in terms of
a checklist that included the most important parameters
for postoperative nursing care. All the patients underwent
operations under general anaesthetic in one month in a
Level 3 hospital and were transferred to general wards
after the operations.
The data collected was analysed by means of frequencies.
One finding was that the neurological status of most patients
was assessed but that little attention was paid in the
patient records to emotional status and physical comfort.
The respiratory and circulatory status of the patients and
their fluid balance were inadequately recorded. The patients
were well monitored for signs of external haemorrhage,
but in most cases haemorrhage was checked only
once, on return from the theatre. Although the patientsâ
pain experience were well-monitored, follow-up actions
after the administration of pharmacological agents was
poor. The surgical intervention was fully described and,
generally speaking, the records were complete and legible,
but the signatures and ranks of the nurses were illegible.
Allergies were indicated in the most important
records.
The researchers recommend that a comprehensive and
easily usable documentation form be used in postoperative
nursing care. Such a form would serve as a checklist
and could ensure to a large degree that attention is given
to the most important postoperative parameters. Errors
and negligence could also be reduced by this meansHealth Studie
Maternal deaths in Bloemfontein, South Africa -1986 - 1992
Objective. Determination of the maternal mortality ratio and the main causes of maternal death.Setting. Pelonomi Hospital, a tertiary care and referral hospital in Bloemfontein.Methods. Review of prospectively completed structured questionnaires on all maternal deaths from 1986 to 1992.Results. The maternal mortality ratio at our institution was 171 per 100000 live births. Haemorrhage (25%), infection (24%) and hypertensive disease (18%) were the most important causes of death. Seventy-one per cent were direct obstetric deaths and 23% indirect; in the remaining 6%, the cause was uncertain. Of all deaths, 35% were considered preventable.Conclusions. The maternal mortality ratio has decreased since our previous report for the period 1980 - 1985, and haemorrhage has replaced infection as the leading cause of death
The accommodation coefficient of water molecules on ice -cirrus cloud studies at the AIDA simulation chamber
Cirrus clouds and their impact on the Earth's radiative budget are subjects of current research. The processes governing the growth of cirrus ice particles are central to the radiative properties of cirrus clouds. At temperatures relevant to cirrus clouds, the growth of ice crystals smaller than a few microns in size is strongly influenced by the accommodation coefficient of water molecules on ice, αice, making this parameter relevant for cirrus cloud modeling. However, the experimentally determined magnitude of αice for cirrus temperatures is afflicted with uncertainties of almost three orders of magnitude, and values for αice derived from cirrus cloud data lack significance so far. This has motivated dedicated experiments at the cloud chamber AIDA (Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics in the Atmosphere) to determine αice in the cirrus-relevant temperature interval between 190 K and 235 K under realistic cirrus ice particle growth conditions. The experimental data sets have been evaluated independently with two model approaches: the first relying on the newly developed model SIGMA (Simple Ice Growth Model for determining Alpha), the second one on an established model, ACPIM (Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Interaction Model). Within both approaches a careful uncertainty analysis of the obtained αice values has been carried out for each AIDA experiment. The results show no significant dependence of αice on temperature between 190 K and 235 K. In addition, we find no evidence for a dependence of αice on ice particle size or on water vapor supersaturation for ice particles smaller than 20 ÎŒm and supersaturations of up to 70%. The temperature-averaged and combined result from both models is αice = 0.7−0.5+0.3, which implies that αice may only exert a minor impact on cirrus clouds and their characteristics when compared to the assumption of αice =1. Impact on prior calculations of cirrus cloud properties, e.g., in climate models, with αice typically chosen in the range 0.2â1 is thus expected to be negligible. In any case, we provide a well-constrained αice which future cirrus model studies can rely on
Heterogeneous ice nucleation properties of natural desert dust particles coated with a surrogate of secondary organic aerosol
Ice nucleation abilities of surface collected mineral dust particles from the
Sahara (SD) and Asia (AD) are investigated for the temperature (T) range
253â233 K and for supersaturated relative humidity (RH) conditions in the
immersion freezing regime. The dust particles were also coated with a proxy
of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from the dark ozonolysis of
α-pinene to better understand the influence of atmospheric coatings on
the immersion freezing ability of mineral dust particles. The measurements
are conducted on polydisperse particles in the size range
0.01â3 ”m with three different ice nucleation chambers. Two of the
chambers follow the continuous flow diffusion chamber (CFDC) principle
(Portable Ice Nucleation Chamber, PINC) and the Colorado State University
CFDC (CSU-CFDC), whereas the third was the Aerosol Interactions and Dynamics
in the Atmosphere (AIDA) cloud expansion chamber. From observed activated
fractions (AFs) and ice nucleation active site (INAS)
densities, it is concluded within experimental uncertainties that
there is no significant difference between the ice nucleation ability of the
particular SD and AD samples examined. A small bias towards higher
INAS densities for uncoated versus SOA-coated dusts is found but
this is well within the 1Ï (66 % prediction bands) region of the
average fit to the data, which captures 75 % of the INAS densities observed in this study. Furthermore, no systematic differences are
observed between SOA-coated and uncoated dusts in both SD and AD cases,
regardless of coating thickness (3â60 nm). The results suggest that any
differences observed are within the uncertainty of the measurements or
differences in cloud chamber parameters such as size fraction of particles
sampled, and residence time, as well as assumptions in using INAS densities to compare polydisperse aerosol measurements which may show
variable composition with particle size. Coatings with similar properties to
that of the SOA in this work and with coating thickness up to 60 nm are not
expected to impede or enhance the immersion mode ice nucleation ability of
mineral dust particles.</p
- âŠ