A qualitative study of principal discipline decision making

Disproportionality in school discipline (i.e., disparities in exclusionary discipline for certain subgroups) represents one of the most significant problems in education today (Losen et al, 2015; Welsh & Little, 2018). This qualitative study investigated how school principals described their concerns, pressures, and tensions when making student discipline decisions and explored how principals described a good discipline decision. The findings in this study provide insight concerning how to support school leaders in their efforts to close the discipline equity gap. Study results highlight the principals’ concerns including ensuring safety, adhering to laws, policies, and procedures, maintaining positive and healthy relationships, and upholding internal consistency as decisions get made. Principals’ pressures consisted of keeping everyone safe, performing in a public arena under scrutiny, and incorporating the added complexities of the principalship. The tensions principals faced included tensions related to navigating organizational contexts, balancing core values and beliefs, and following laws, policies, and procedures. Importantly, results shed light on how principals describe what makes a discipline decision good. Principals in this study suggested that good discipline decisions produce results, keep relationships intact, get resolved at the lowest level, and address root causes. Generally, principals in this study attempted to resolve the issues they faced by employing a discipline decision-making cycle consisting of three phases including learning, planning, and enacting

Human embryonic mosaicism: single-cell whole-genome sequencing and hEPS cell conversion

Infertility affects nearly 10% of women globally, and many of these women seek Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) therapies (Mascarenhas, Flaxman, Boerma, Vanderpoel, & Stevens, 2012). Despite the substantial clinical need for improvements in in vitro fertilization, embryo implantation, pregnancy and live birth rates following embryo transfer remain below 50% (CDC Division of Reproductive Health, 2017). This paper aims to review the driving factors behind IVF failures and the new technologies being utilized to improve IVF outcomes, while also outlining novel experimental approaches to address these challenges. While morphology, morphokinetics, time-lapse imaging, and embryo biopsy have all been studied to assess embryo quality, no method has proven to be uniquely effective in improving the outcomes of IVF treatments. Single-cell whole genome sequencing will be evaluated to determine if this alternative approach can provide better information about early embryonic events that may impede embryo viability in vivo. Conversion of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) into human extended pluripotent stem cells (hEPS) will also be undertaken. Co-culture of hEPS cells with cells derived from human embryo trophectoderm biopsies will support further investigation of early embryonic events at the cellular level, as well as of culture conditions that could facilitate long-term culture of human embryonic trophectoderm cells. Ultimately, the results of both approaches will be used to improve outcomes for patients seeking successful IVF treatment and pregnancy

The Effects of Vitamin C on Cancer: A Cellular and Epidemiological Perspective

While vitamin C has been proven to benefit the immune system during acute infections, there are now many studies to support the findings that vitamin C may also contribute to more effective chemotherapy and lessened damage on the body as a result of chemotherapy. This thesis investigates the impact of vitamin C on many components of cancer such as C-reactive protein, interleukins, reactive oxygen species, and many types of antioxidants and examines vitamin C\u27s ability to inhibit or promote these agents\u27 functions in the body. In addition, this thesis evaluates the ability of vitamin C to keep tumor cells from developing, enhance the antioxidant abilities of other cellular components including vitamin E, lessen the carcinogenic environment produced by chronic inflammation, and diminish the effects of chemotherapy. This thesis concludes by comparing various methods of vitamin C administration and their varied levels of effectiveness in cancer treatment

A Study of the Cognitive Profiles of Medicated and Nonmedicated Children Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is among the most commonly diagnosed childhood disorders, with symptoms that can cause significant difficulties in the educational setting. Deficits related to working memory and processing speed are thought to be a core feature of ADHD. As such, research using traditional measures of cognitive functioning has shown that children diagnosed with ADHD tend to perform poorly on measures of processing speed and working memory, relative to non-ADHD individuals and relative to measures of other cognitive abilities. Psychostimulant medication is a common treatment for ADHD and research overwhelmingly supports its positive impact on behavior and concentration; however, research related to its impact on cognitive functioning is sparse and findings have been equivocal. The major purpose of the current study was to determine whether or not there are significant differences in the cognitive profiles of individuals with ADHD relative to non-ADHD controls. Of particular interest was the functioning of children with ADHD on measures of processing speed and working memory relative to non-ADHD children and relative to measures of other cognitive abilities. Furthermore, this study was designed to investigate the effects of medication on the performance of ADHD subjects on measures of cognitive functioning. The results of this study found that students with ADHD did perform significantly lower on measures of processing speed and working memory on the WISC-IV relative to non-ADHD subjects and relative to measures of verbal and nonverbal reasoning skills. This lends support to previous research and hypotheses, indicating that working memory and processing speed deficits are a core feature of ADHD. This study did not find significant differences between students who were medicated relative to those who were not on overall IQ, Index, or Subtest scores of the WISC-IV. On the other hand, nonmedicated ADHD subjects were more likely than medicated ADHD subjects to display GAI scores greater than WMI, which provides some support for the positive effects of medication on working memory, although much more research is needed to make this claim. No support for positive medication effects on processing speed was found in this study

My CCT Journey to Become a History Teacher and Creativity and Art in a Facing History Classroom - The Holocaust and Human Behavior Curriculum

: I did not always know I wanted to be a history teacher. I arrived at this place by taking a circuitous route and coming full circle three times in my journey of self-discovery. Obtaining my master’s degree after choosing to be a stay at home mother and discovering my professional identity was challenging. My family had been one of the pioneers in the charter school movement in the mid-1990’s and my children enrolled in the Ben Franklin Classical Charter Public School (BFCCPS). The experience sparked my desire to have a career in education. I became a parent leader and participated in all aspects of the charter school. My first circle occurred as I was I researching possible careers in education and returned to BFCCPS as part of the process to finish my CCT coursework. I had a meeting with the Head of School and learned I could become a certified high school teacher in Massachusetts with my bachelor’s degree in political science. I loved history and current events and knew I was on the right career path. During my research for a career in education I reached out to an old friend, the head of the history department at our high school alma mater. He suggested I begin substitute teaching there in hopes a long term substitute position would open and it did. I got the job. My second circle happened when I became a high school history teacher at North Attleboro High School. My third and final circle began with my first CCT course when I met Jennifer Jones-Clark of Facing History and Ourselves during Larry Blum’s course. I was so inspired by Jennifer and their pedagogy, I knew from that moment on, I wanted Facing History to be a part of my future work. Facing History is a nonprofit educational institute that provides students with the ability to make personal connections to history by learning about themselves. I obtained a full time teaching position at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School (SERVTHS) and in my fifth year of teaching I met Jennifer again. The next school year, I began teaching Facing History, the Holocaust and Human Behavior course to my students. I designed my own curriculum using the Facing History pedagogy. Their motto is “People make choices and choices make history.” Students critically analyze the Holocaust and learn about the social injustices that allowed it to happen. The Holocaust is one of the darkest chapters in the history of humankind and I have designed lessons to incorporate art and creativity into my course. It is through student created art they express themselves and hopefully find joy and beauty in this heavy topic. In my desire to understand the Holocaust fully and share this knowledge with my students, I have devoted all of my professional development for the past five years to this endeavor. I enrolled in seminars at Facing History, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Georgetown University and a variety of others courses and trainings. I have traveled with teachers to Holocaust sites in Germany and Poland. My recent professional development culminated with study and travel at the Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel. My learning continues as a student at Seton Hill University in their Genocide and Holocaust Studies graduate certificate program. It is my hope that others may find inspiration and guidance to their own fulfilling career though my journey of self- discovery. It is my wish to provide teachers with ideas and tools to incorporate art and creativity in their own history lessons. Finally, by sharing my love of learning, teaching and passion to become a Holocaust scholar it is my desire to motivate others to follow their dreams. My CCT motto, “Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.” Goethe

Social Class Differences in Workplace Harassment during the Transition to Adulthood

Young disadvantaged workers are especially vulnerable to harassment due to their age and social class position. As young people enter the workforce, their experiences of, and reactions to, harassment may vary dramatically from those of older adult workers. Three case studies introduce theory and research on the relationship between social class and harassment of young workers. We suggest two mechanisms through which class may structure harassment experiences: (1) extremely vulnerable youth are directly targeted based on their social class origins, and (2) the type and condition of youth employment, which is structured by class background, indirectly affect experiences of harassment

The Millisecond Radio Sky: Transients from a Blind Single Pulse Search

We present the results of a search for transient radio bursts of between 0.125 and 32 millisecond duration in two archival pulsar surveys of intermediate galactic latitudes with the Parkes multibeam receiver. Fourteen new neutron stars have been discovered, seven of which belong to the recently identified "rotating radio transients" (RRATs) class. Here we describe our search methodology, and discuss the new detections in terms of how the RRAT population relates to the general population of pulsars. The new detections indicate (1) that the galactic z-distribution of RRATs in the surveys closely resembles the distribution of pulsars, with objects up to 0.86 kpc from the galactic plane; (2) where measurable, the RRAT pulse widths are similar to that of individual pulses from pulsars of similar period, implying a similar beaming fraction; and (3) our new detections span a variety of nulling fractions, and thus we postulate that the RRATs may simply be nulling pulsars that are only "on" for less than a pulse period. Finally, the newly discovered object PSR J0941-39 may represent a link between pulsars and RRATs. This bizarre object was discovered as an RRAT, but in follow-up observations often appeared as a bright (~10 mJy) pulsar with a low nulling fraction. It is obvious therefore that a neutron star can oscillate between being an RRAT and a pulsar. Crucially, the sites of the RRAT pulses are coincident with the pulsar's emission, implying that the two emission mechanisms are linked, and that RRATs are not just pulsars observed from different orientations.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, accepted by MNRA