Effects of Professional Development and Virtual Teacher Coaching with Videoconferencing on the Increase of Teacher Given Opportunities to Respond and the On-Task Behavior of Students with Emotional/Behavior Disorders

Coaching has been identified as a critical support for persistent use of newly adopted practices and skills (Joyce & Showers, 1982). A systematic review of the literature was conducted to examine the literature base on supervisory coaching, an approach in which an outside expert or supervisor gives specific, positive, and corrective coaching when needed and is offered to the teacher after the completion of the observed lesson in an effort to move the recipient toward a desired level of performance (Joyce & Showers, 1981; 1982; Maeda, 2001; Simonsen, Myers, & DeLuca, 2010). Sixteen quasi-experimental and single-subject studies were identified and reviewed using quality indicators specific to quasi-experimental (Gersten et al., 2005) and single subject (Horner et al., 2005) research. Only six of the sixteen studies met all quality indicators. Mixed results were found across the studies, with six reporting improved teacher results and four reporting improved student behaviors. The subsequent study explored an alternative means to offering supervisory coaching to teachers: professional development and virtual teacher coaching with videoconferencing. A single-case multiple baseline design was used to investigate the effect the intervention had on the frequency with which teachers offer Opportunities to Respond (OTR) and on the on-task behavior of middle school students with emotional/ behavior disorders (E/BD). OTR is a teacher behavior that petitions a student response (Haydon et al., 2010). After baseline data was collected, virtual coaching sessions were implemented to increase OTR after every other observed session. Results indicated there was a functional relation between virtual teacher coaching with videoconferencing and teacher rates of OTR. However, no functional relation was observed between teachers given OTR and student on-task behavior. Implications for virtual teacher coaching, OTR, and future research are discussed

Development of a collagen-based scaffold for sequential delivery of antimicrobial agents and pdgf genes to chronic wounds

Chronic wounds are a global health burden affecting more than 5 million people in the United States alone. The complex wound microenvironment causes variable therapeutic outcomes following treatment with commercially available products. Wound infection is one of the major barriers in healing of wounds and localized delivery of antimicrobials is necessary for treatment. Furthermore, growth factors play a vital role in orchestrating the wound healing process through enhancement of cell proliferation, migration, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Accordingly, we have developed a collagen-based scaffold modified with combination of vancomycin-loaded liposomes and platelet derived growth factor (PDGF)-loaded DNA polyplexes. Both the liposomes and polyplexes were anchored to collagen using collagen mimetic peptides (CMPs). Our aim was to use CMP tethering to control the sequential release of vancomycin and PDGF polyplexes to immediately suppress infection and subsequently transfect wound bed fibroblasts with PDGF to assist the wound healing process. Vancomycin-loaded liposomes were prepared using dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), cholesterol, and 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[amino(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG). The liposomes were 160.7±2.1 nm in diameter based on dynamic light scattering (DLS) analyses, and the loading capacity of vancomycin was 51.5±0.7% in the liposomes. PDGF polyplexes (115.2±1.2 nm in diameter) were prepared by self-assembly of polyethyleneimine and PDGF plasmid DNA (N/P = 8) in 20 mM HEPES buffer (pH = 6.0), and successful PDGF gene loading was confirmed by agarose gel electrophoresis. Co-gels were prepared with collagen (4 mg/mL), fibrinogen (1.25 mg/mL), and thrombin (0.156 IU/mL) combinations that could successfully encapsulate both the vancomycin-loaded liposomes and PDGF polyplexes. Drug release studies confirmed that ~80% of the vancomycin was released during the 48 h study period, whereas PDGF polyplexes were retained longer (\u3e 5 days) in the gel because their release requires collagen degradation mediated by matrix metalloproteinases present in the wound bed. The ability of the PDGF polyplexes to transfect fibroblasts was confirmed by in vitro cell transfection studies using green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a model gene. Furthermore, polyplex-mediated PDGF transfection was evaluated in fibroblasts cultured in an in vitro culture wound model, which showed that PDGF transfection enhanced migration rates of fibroblasts by ~2.4 fold as compared to controls in which culture wounds were allowed to heal in the absence of polyplexes. These results showcase the capacity for sequential delivery of vancomycin and PDGF gene in vitro, using collagen-based scaffolds, for potential applications in in vivo chronic wound treatments

Gaslighting Female Leadership: All Gas, No Brakes!

In this study, we asked: Does female leadership style safeguard Black female leaders against gaslighting? Between September 2023 and December 2023, we read case studies, reviewed numerous government publications and documents, and read peer-reviewed published articles and scholarly books retrieved from Google Scholar and library databases. Burn’s (1978) definition of a transformational leader is how we, too, define a leader. One definition of gaslighting stood out, and we used that definition to operationalize our investigation (Duignan, 2023). We found that when female leaders are exposed to gaslighting, they are less likely to participate in workforce leadership initiatives. Gaslighting negatively impacts female leaders’ performance; nonetheless, a few female leadership styles safeguard female leaders from the drawbacks of gaslighting. We make four recommendations that will help Black female leaders avoid the pitfalls of gaslighting

Deaf individuals’ bilingual abilities: American Sign Language proficiency, reading skills, and family characteristics

The current study investigated the bilingual abilities of 55 Deaf individuals, examining both American Sign Language (ASL) competency and English reading skills. Results revealed a positive relationship between ASL competency and English skills, with highly competent signers scoring higher on a measure of reading comprehension. Additionally, family characteristics (e.g., parental education level, family hearing status) were entered into the analysis to ascertain their effect on Deaf individuals’ bilingual abilities. The findings support the theory that competency in ASL may serve as a bridge to the acquisition of English print. Moreover, the findings provide support for the critical period hypothesis for first language acquisition and its later impact on other cognitive and academic skills

Function Vectors in Large Language Models

We report the presence of a simple neural mechanism that represents an input-output function as a vector within autoregressive transformer language models (LMs). Using causal mediation analysis on a diverse range of in-context-learning (ICL) tasks, we find that a small number attention heads transport a compact representation of the demonstrated task, which we call a function vector (FV). FVs are robust to changes in context, i.e., they trigger execution of the task on inputs such as zero-shot and natural text settings that do not resemble the ICL contexts from which they are collected. We test FVs across a range of tasks, models, and layers and find strong causal effects across settings in middle layers. We investigate the internal structure of FVs and find while that they often contain information that encodes the output space of the function, this information alone is not sufficient to reconstruct an FV. Finally, we test semantic vector composition in FVs, and find that to some extent they can be summed to create vectors that trigger new complex tasks. Taken together, our findings suggest that LLMs contain internal abstractions of general-purpose functions that can be invoked in a variety of contexts.Comment: 43 pages, 25 figures, 20 tables, Code and data at https://functions.baulab.inf

Institutional-level drivers of gender-inequitable scientific career progression in sub-Saharan Africa

BACKGROUND: This study sought to determine how institutional environments, including values, policies, and their implementation, shape inequities in scientific career progression for women and men, and their disadvantages in relation to their multiple social identities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The findings are drawn from a wider research study that was aimed at gaining an in-depth understanding of the barriers and enablers of gender-equitable scientific career progression for researchers in SSA. This was nested within the context of the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science in Africa (DELTAS Africa) programme—a health-based scientific research capacity-strengthening initiative. METHODS: The study adopted an exploratory qualitative cross-sectional study design. In-depth interviews (IDIs) with trainees/research fellows at various career stages supported and/or affiliated to three purposively selected DELTAS Africa Research Consortia were the main method of data collection. In addition, key informant interviews (KIIs) with consortia research leaders/directors, co-investigators, and the consortia management team were also conducted to corroborate information gathered from the IDIs, and also to provide additional insights on the drivers of intersectional gender-inequitable career progression. In total, 58 IDIs (32 female and 26 male) and 20 KIIs (4 female and 16 male) were conducted. The interviews were carried out in English between May and December 2018. The data were analysed inductively based on emergent themes. RESULTS: Three interrelated themes were identified: first, characterization of the institutional environment as highly complex and competitive with regard to advancement opportunities and funding structure; second, inequitable access to support systems within institutions; third, informal rules—everyday experiences of negative practices and culture at the workplace, characterized by negative stereotypical attitudes, gender biases, sexual harassment, and bullying and intimidation. CONCLUSIONS: We contend that understanding and addressing the social power relations at the meso-institutional environment and macro-level contexts could benefit career progression of both female and male researchers by improving work culture and practices, resource allocation, and better rules and policies, thus fostering positive avenues for systemic and structural policy changes

Phytochemical and antioxidant evaluation of cassia sieberiana D.C. stem bark extracts

Cassia sieberiana D.C. belongs to the Fabaceae family and it is used ethnomedically in the management of cancer, diabetes and other diseases. There is a growing concern about the scourge of diseases caused by excessive free radicals in the body and lack of standardization of medicinal herbal products. Therefore, this research is aimed at evaluating the phytochemical and free radical scavenging activities of the plant extracts with the view to identify the chemical constituents and antioxidant properties of the extracts. The powdered stem bark was evaluated for its pharmacognostic profiles and then extracted successively with the aid of Soxhlet extractor using n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The extracts obtained were concentrated using rotary evaporator and the percentage yields of the extracts were determined. The extracts were screened for their phytochemical constituents using standard protocols. The thin layer chromatography (TLC) profiles of the resulting extracts were determined using suitable solvent systems and the retention factor (Rf) values of separated spots of compounds were calculated. The total phenolic content of the ethyl acetate and methanol extracts were measured using Folin-Ciocalteu reagent and gallic acid was used as standard. The antioxidant (free radical scavenging) activity of the extracts were measured using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1- picryl hydrazyl) and ascorbic acid was used as standard. The results were expressed in terms of percentage inhibition. The percentage yields of the extracts were: 0.52 %, 6.58 % and 10.52 % respectively for n-hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol. The preliminary phytochemical screening of the extracts revealed the presence of tannins, cardiac glycosides, saponins, flavonoids and triterpenoid/steroids. Also, the total phenolic contents were found to 7.64 mg and 2.97 mg gallic acid equivalents for ethyl acetate and methanolic extract respectively. The free radical scavenging activity of the extracts revealed higher activity in the ethyl acetate extract. The results indicated that the extracts contain phenolic compounds which may be responsible for the antioxidant activity