UDL and Motivation: Student Perceptions of the Impact of Universal Design for Learning on Motivation of First-Year Community College Students in Rural East Tennessee

The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the perceptions of how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) impacts motivation in first-year community college students in rural East Tennessee. This study investigated the effects of UDL on motivation of first-year community college students in East Tennessee. This involved multiple sections of courses participating in a UDL pilot training program with the college’s Instructional Design department. Two of the courses were part of the UDL pilot, and two of the courses were teaching the Standard approved Master Curriculum. The study had a total of 109 participants, and 9 research questions were analyzed at the .05 significance level. Interactivity was significantly higher in the English UDL courses than the Education UDL courses. Rural students and nontraditional students were significantly more motivated in the UDL courses. There was no difference in predicted grades between the UDL and non-UDL courses. While results of this study did not align with other studies being published regarding the success of UDL programs, it provides good groundwork for more in depth studies. It also supports the idea that courses should implement UDL from beginning to end rather than just isolating one module for a UDL design

Hypothesis:soluble Aβ oligomers in association with redox-active metal ions are the optimal generators of reactive oxygen species in Alzheimer's disease

Considerable evidence points to oxidative stress in the brain as an important event in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The transition metal ions of Cu, Fe, and Zn are all enriched in the amyloid cores of senile plaques in AD. Those of Cu and Fe are redox active and bind to Aβ in vitro. When bound, they can facilitate the reduction of oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, and of the latter to the hydroxyl radical. This radical is very aggressive and can cause considerable oxidative damage. Recent research favours the involvement of small, soluble oligomers as the aggregating species responsible for Aβ neurotoxicity. We propose that the generation of reactive oxygen species (i.e., hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals) by these oligomers, in association with redox-active metal ions, is a key molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis of AD and some other neurodegenerative disorders

An Unfinished Canvas: District Capacity and the Use of New State Funds for Arts Education in California

Questions about district leadership and capacity -- particularly in light of the new funding -- served as the impetus for this study. Through a survey of leaders in 385 districts, we assessed districts' capacity with respect to arts education, explored early spending choices, and examined the relationship between the two. We also studied changes in arts education since the new resources became available and worked to understand the barriers that continue to stand in the way of comprehensive arts education for all California students

Medicating Children: ADHD and Pediatric Mental Health

Why and how did ADHD become the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder among children and adolescents, as well as one of the most controversial? Stimulant medication had been used to treat excessively hyperactive children since the 1950s. And the behaviors that today might lead to an ADHD diagnosis had been observed since the early 1930s as “organic drivenness,” and then by various other names throughout the decades. The authors argue that a unique alignment of social and economic trends and incentives converged in the early 1990s with greater scientific knowledge to make ADHD the most prevalent pediatric mental disorder. New movements advocating for the rights of children and the disabled and a massive increase in Medicaid spending on psychotropic drugs all contributed to the dramatic spike in ADHD diagnoses and stimulant use. Medicating Children is unique in that it integrates analyses of the clinical, political, historical, educational, social, economic, and legal aspects of ADHD and stimulant pharmacotherapy. Thus, it will be invaluable to educators, clinicians, parents, and policymakers, all of whom are trying to determine what is in the best interest of millions of children.https://scholarship.richmond.edu/bookshelf/1140/thumbnail.jp

Medicating Children: The Enduring Controversy over ADHD and Pediatric Stimulant Pharmacotherapy

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) holds the distinction of being both the most extensively studied pediatric mental disorder and one of the most controversial. This is partly due to the fact that it is also the most commonly diagnosed mental disorder among minors. On average, one in every ten to 15 children in the U.S. has been diagnosed with the disorder and one in every 20 to 25 uses a stimulant medication—often Ritalin, Adderall, or Concerta—as treatment. The biggest increase in youth diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed a stimulant drug occurred during the 1990s, when the prevalence of physician visits for stimulant pharmacotherapy increased five-fold. This unprecedented increase in U.S. children using psychotropic medication triggered an intense public debate

The Role of Metal Ions and Reactive Oxygen Species in beta-Amyloid Aggregation and Toxicity and Their Relevance to Alzheimer's Disease.

The aggregation and deposition of beta-amyloid (AB) in the brain has long been implicated in the neurotoxic pathways causing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent data suggests that early, soluble oligomers of Ap are the toxic species. Oxidative stress may be partly responsible for the toxicity of the peptide as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) has been found to be produced during the early stages of aggregation. This study investigates the generation of H2O2 by Abeta during the process of aggregation and presents evidence supporting the hypothesis that some form of Ap oligomer has the capacity for H2O2 generation. A technique developed to immobilise Abeta during its aggregation suggested H2O2 generation to be an event associated with early Abeta-Abeta interactions, whereas fibrillar Abeta degraded H2O2. The development of cross-linking techniques to generate stable oligomeric Ap found Ap42 to be the most susceptible to these reactions, correlating with its increased tendency for aggregation. Tyr10 was found to be critical for these reactions, but not for the formation of Abeta fibrils, nor the generation of H2O2 by Abeta, indicating that dityrosine dimers are not the sole source of H2O2 generation from Abeta. The binding of copper to Ap, but not iron, was found to be central to the redox reactions enabling generation of H2O2, in addition to having complex effects on the aggregation of Ap. Zinc may also play a regulatory role in mediating Ap aggregation state and redox potential. Research of potentially toxic Ap oligomers is problematic due to the heterogeneous and dynamic nature of Abeta solutions. Development of techniques to cross-link and immobilise Abeta may be useful for studying early oligomeric Ap, not only in respect of H2O2 generation but also in identification of Ap oligomers responsible for neurotoxicity in AD. This may enable identification of a potential diagnostic marker and also a potential therapeutic target

Quantitative Reasoning in Environmental Science: Rasch Measurement to Support QR Assessment

Original work is hosted at USF Libraries Scholar Commons publisher of Numeracy, the electronic journal of the National Numeracy Network (NNN). Abstract : The ability of middle and high school students to reason quantitatively within the context of environmental science was investigated. A quantitative reasoning (QR) learning progression, with associated QR assessments in the content areas of biodiversity, water, and carbon, was developed based on three QR progress variables: quantification act, quantitative interpretation, and quantitative modeling. Diagnostic instruments were developed specifically for the progress variable quantitative interpretation (QI), each consisting of 96 Likert-scale items. Each content version of the instrument focused on three scale levels (macro scale, micro scale, and landscape scale) and four elements of QI identified in prior research (trend, translation, prediction, and revision). The QI assessments were completed by 362, 6th to 12th grade students in three U.S. states. Rasch (1960/1980) measurement was used to determine item and person measures for the QI instruments, both to examine validity and reliability characteristics of the instrument administration and inform the evolution of the learning progression. Rasch methods allowed identification of several QI instrument revisions, including modification of specific items, reducing number of items to avoid cognitive fatigue, reconsidering proposed item difficulty levels, and reducing Likert scale to 4 levels. Rasch diagnostics also indicated favorable levels of instrument reliability and appropriate targeting of item abilities to student abilities for the majority of participants. A revised QI instrument is available for STEM researchers and educators

Concert recording 2013-03-28

[Track 01]. Fanfares liturgiques. Procession du Vendredi-Saint / Henri Tomasi -- [Track 02]. The good soldier Schweik suite. Overture / Robert Kurka -- [Track 03]. The good soldier Schweik suite. Lament / Robert Kurka -- [Track 04]. The good soldier Schweik suite. March / Robert Kurka -- [Track 05]. The good soldier Schweik suite. War Dance / Robert Kurka -- [Track 06]. The good soldier Schweik suite. Pastoral / Robert Kurka -- [Track 07]. The good soldier Schweik suite. Finale / Robert Kurka -- [Track 08]. Serenade no. 11 in E flat major, KV 375. Allegro maestoso / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart -- [Track 09]. Prelude, fugue and riffs / Leonard Bernstein

New directions for patient-centred care in scleroderma : the Scleroderma Patient-centred Intervention Network (SPIN)

Systemic sclerosis (SSc), or scleroderma, is a chronic multisystem autoimmune disorder characterised by thickening and fibrosis of the skin and by the involvement of internal organs such as the lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and heart. Because there is no cure, feasibly-implemented and easily accessible evidence-based interventions to improve health-related quality of life (HRQoL) are needed. Due to a lack of evidence, however, specific recommendations have not been made regarding non-pharmacological interventions (e.g. behavioural/psychological, educational, physical/occupational therapy) to improve HRQoL in SSc. The Scleroderma Patient-centred Intervention Network (SPIN) was recently organised to address this gap. SPIN is comprised of patient representatives, clinicians, and researchers from Canada, the USA, and Europe. The goal of SPIN, as described in this article, is to develop, test, and disseminate a set of accessible interventions designed to complement standard care in order to improve HRQoL outcomes in SSc.The initial organisational meeting for SPIN was funded by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Meetings, Planning, and Dissemination grant to B.D. Thombs (KPE-109130), Sclerodermie Quebec, and the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research of the Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Quebec. SPIN receives finding support from the Sclemderma Society of Ontario, the Scleroderma Society of Canada, and Sclerodermie Quebec. B.D. Thombs and M. Hudson are supported by New Investigator awards from the CIHR, and Etablissement de Jeunes Chercheurs awards from the Fonds de la Recherche en Sante Quebec (FRSQ). M. Baron is the director of the Canadian Scleroderma Research Group, which receives grant folding from the CIHR, the Scleroderma Society of Canada and its provincial chapters, Scleroderma Society of Ontario, Sclerodermie Quebec, and the Ontario Arthritis Society, and educational grants from Actelion Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. M.D. Mayes and S. Assassi are supported by the NIH/NIAMS Scleroderma Center of Research Translation grant no. P50-AR054144. S.J. Motivala is supported by an NIH career development grant (K23 AG027860) and the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology. D. Khanna is supported by a NIH/NIAMS K23 AR053858-04) and NIH/NIAMS U01 AR057936A, the National Institutes of Health through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research Grant (AR052177), and has served as a consultant or on speakers bureau for Actelion, BMS, Gilead, Pfizer, and United Therapeutics

Evaluation of methods and marker systems in genomic selection of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.)

Background Genomic selection (GS) uses genome-wide markers as an attempt to accelerate genetic gain in breeding programs of both animals and plants. This approach is particularly useful for perennial crops such as oil palm, which have long breeding cycles, and for which the optimal method for GS is still under debate. In this study, we evaluated the effect of different marker systems and modeling methods for implementing GS in an introgressed dura family derived from a Deli dura x Nigerian dura (Deli x Nigerian) with 112 individuals. This family is an important breeding source for developing new mother palms for superior oil yield and bunch characters. The traits of interest selected for this study were fruit-to-bunch (F/B), shell-to-fruit (S/F), kernel-to-fruit (K/F), mesocarp-to-fruit (M/F), oil per palm (O/P) and oil-to-dry mesocarp (O/DM). The marker systems evaluated were simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). RR-BLUP, Bayesian A, B, Cπ, LASSO, Ridge Regression and two machine learning methods (SVM and Random Forest) were used to evaluate GS accuracy of the traits. Results The kinship coefficient between individuals in this family ranged from 0.35 to 0.62. S/F and O/DM had the highest genomic heritability, whereas F/B and O/P had the lowest. The accuracies using 135 SSRs were low, with accuracies of the traits around 0.20. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.24, as compared to 0.20 achieved by other methods. The trait with the highest mean accuracy was F/B (0.28), while the lowest were both M/F and O/P (0.18). By using whole genomic SNPs, the accuracies for all traits, especially for O/DM (0.43), S/F (0.39) and M/F (0.30) were improved. The average accuracy of machine learning methods was 0.32, compared to 0.31 achieved by other methods. Conclusion Due to high genomic resolution, the use of whole-genome SNPs improved the efficiency of GS dramatically for oil palm and is recommended for dura breeding programs. Machine learning slightly outperformed other methods, but required parameters optimization for GS implementation