SNAKES OR LADDERS? AN EXAMINATION OF THE EXPERIENCES OF TWO TEACHER LEADERS RETURNING TO CLASSROOM TEACHING

Teachers who have held leadership roles at the school, district, or provincial level have the potential to contribute to student and school success when they return to classroom teaching. The contrasting experiences of two teacher leaders who returned voluntarily to classroom teaching are analyzed using Owens’s (2004) social constructivist theory of role definition. These case studies offer insight into a teacher career transition that has been considered infrequently in current research. As such, they may inform the decisions of district personnel, school administrators, and returning teacher leaders so that such transitions feel less like sliding down a snake and more like climbing a ladder.

“I Needed to Rediscover who I Really Was”: An Inquiry into the Impacts of one Graduate Teacher Education Program for Early Elementary Teachers

This paper reports on the impacts on teachers of a new Masters in Education program developed for early elementary teachers at one small Canadian university. Central to the program are concepts of the child as competent and capable, and a view of professional learning as democratic, critically reflective and a way to enhance teacher agency. Our findings are based on interviews and focus group conversations with several members of one of the cohorts who completed the program. In our thematic analysis we determined that teachers reported changes in their practices including slowing down and listening to children as well as increased flexibility and ability to relinquish control. Additionally, teachers spoke of increased confidence in themselves and the children in their classrooms as a result of participating in this program.Keywords: early elementary grades, graduate teacher education, early elementary pedagogy, democratic professional learning, teachers’ agencyCet article fait état des impacts sur les enseignants d’un nouveau programme de maitrise en éducation développé par une petite université canadienne pour les enseignants du primaire. Le programme est centré sur le concept selon lequel l’enfant est compétent et capable, et sur une perspective de l’apprentissage professionnel comme étant un processus de réflexion critique qui est démocratique et susceptible d’augmenter chez les enseignants le sentiment de pouvoir agir. Nos résultats découlent d’entrevues et de conversations avec des groupes de discussion impliquant plusieurs membres d’une cohorte ayant complété le programme. Notre analyse thématique révèle que les enseignants ont signalé des changements dans leurs pratiques; entre autres, ils ont indiqué qu’ils ralentissaient et écoutaient les élèves, étaient plus souples et se sentaient en mesure de céder le contrôle. De plus, les enseignants ont reconnu que leur participation au programme avait entrainé une augmentation de leur confiance en soi et en les élèves.Mots clés : premières années du primaire, études supérieures en enseignement, pédagogie des premières années du primaire, sentiment chez les enseignants de pouvoir agir

The Challenge of Differing Perspectives Surrounding Grades in the Assessment Education of Pre Service Teachers

In this paper we describe the challenges we experience teaching an assessment course to pre-service teachers, as part of their studies in a bachelor of education program. As we teach the course, our intent is to explicitly model assessment practices that reflect a philosophy of success for all, rather than sort and rank. Rather than ranking students by achievement, our goal is to model how to tap into the learning potential of every student (Stiggins, 2005). Inquiring into moments that show how the teaching of a success for all philosophy is tension-filled in teacher education, we demonstrate the multiple and conflicting perspectives informing grades. We situate our discussion in the area of assessment in higher education and propose a series of actions, which may resonate with instructors in teacher education and higher education contexts.  Cet article décrit les défis rencontrés lors de l’enseignement d’un cours d’évaluation pour de futurs enseignants étudiant au baccalauréat en éducation. Durant le cours, notre intention était de modéliser explicitement les pratiques d’évaluation qui reflètent une philosophie de la réussite pour tous, plutôt que celle du tri et du classement. Ainsi, au lieu de classer les élèves par rapport à leur réalisation, notre objectif était de modéliser la façon de puiser dans le potentiel d’apprentissage de chaque élève (Stiggins, 2005). En enquêtant sur des moments qui montrent à quel point l’enseignement d’une philosophie de réussite pour tous est rempli de tension dans la formation des enseignants, nous démontrons les perspectives multiples et contradictoires que représente le fait de remettre les notes. Nous situons notre discussion dans le domaine de l’évaluation en enseignement supérieur et proposons une série d’actions qui peuvent trouver un écho chez les instructeurs des enseignants et dans des contextes d’enseignement supérieur

USE OF PERIPHERAL VASOPRESSORS IN EARLY SEPSIS-INDUCED HYPOTENSION ACROSS MICHIGAN HOSPITALS

INTRODUCTION: Recent data suggest it may be safe to administer vasopressors via peripheral IV (PIV), challenging convention that vasopressors must be delivered centrally. Surviving Sepsis Campaign 2021 guidelines suggest using peripheral vasopressors as a bridge to central access. However, little is known about vasopressor initiation in practice. METHODS: Cohort study of patients hospitalized with community-onset sepsis at 12 hospitals in the Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium (HMS) sepsis initiative. HMS is a Collaborative Quality Initiative sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. A random sample of adult sepsis hospitalizations between 11/2020-1/2022 were included. Data were abstracted by trained abstractors. We sought to determine how commonly vasopressors were initiated via PIV vs central access across hospitals. HMS-Sepsis is expanding to 69 hospitals. Here we present pilot data; full cohort analysis is in process. RESULTS: of 1,901 patients in the HMS-Sepsis registry at the time of pilot data analysis, 440 (23.1%) had hypotension (defined by mean arterial pressure\u3c 65mmHg, systolic blood pressure\u3c 90mmHg, and/or vasopressor initiation) within 3 hours of hospital arrival. of these, 160 (36.4%) received vasopressors within 6 hours of hospital arrival. Route of initial vasopressor was PIV in 122 (76.3%), central access in 30 (18.8%), midline catheter in 1 (0.6%), oral (ie, midodrine) in 5 (3.1%), and unknown in 2 (1.3%). Across all hospitals, 50.0% to 91.7% of vasopressor initiation was via PIV (median 83.3%). Among 122 patients with vasopressor initiation via PIV, 66 (54.1%) received a 2nd vasopressor, after a median of 2.8 hrs [IQR 1, 8] from 1st vasopressor. Route of 2nd vasopressor was PIV in 27 (40.9%) and central access in 30 (45.4%). Time from hypotension to vasopressor initiation did not differ between patients receiving initial vasopressor via PIV vs central access (median 1.9 vs 2.1 hrs, p=0.79). Likewise, IV fluids within 6 hrs (median 2.0 vs 2.1L, p=0.78), hospitalization length (median 7 vs 6 days, p=0.31), and inhospital mortality (33.6% vs 40.0%, p=0.51) were similar. CONCLUSIONS: In this 12-hospital cohort, vasopressors were most frequently initiated peripherally. Outcomes were similar between patients in whom vasopressors were initiated via peripheral vs central access

Modeling views in the layered view model for XML using UML

In data engineering, view formalisms are used to provide flexibility to users and user applications by allowing them to extract and elaborate data from the stored data sources. Conversely, since the introduction of Extensible Markup Language (XML), it is fast emerging as the dominant standard for storing, describing, and interchanging data among various web and heterogeneous data sources. In combination with XML Schema, XML provides rich facilities for defining and constraining user-defined data semantics and properties, a feature that is unique to XML. In this context, it is interesting to investigate traditional database features, such as view models and view design techniques for XML. However, traditional view formalisms are strongly coupled to the data language and its syntax, thus it proves to be a difficult task to support views in the case of semi-structured data models. Therefore, in this paper we propose a Layered View Model (LVM) for XML with conceptual and schemata extensions. Here our work is three-fold; first we propose an approach to separate the implementation and conceptual aspects of the views that provides a clear separation of concerns, thus, allowing analysis and design of views to be separated from their implementation. Secondly, we define representations to express and construct these views at the conceptual level. Thirdly, we define a view transformation methodology for XML views in the LVM, which carries out automated transformation to a view schema and a view query expression in an appropriate query language. Also, to validate and apply the LVM concepts, methods and transformations developed, we propose a view-driven application development framework with the flexibility to develop web and database applications for XML, at varying levels of abstraction

The Metabochip, a Custom Genotyping Array for Genetic Studies of Metabolic, Cardiovascular, and Anthropometric Traits

PMCID: PMC3410907This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Hundreds of variants clustered in genomic loci and biological pathways affect human height

Most common human traits and diseases have a polygenic pattern of inheritance: DNA sequence variants at many genetic loci influence the phenotype. Genome-wide association (GWA) studies have identified more than 600 variants associated with human traits, but these typically explain small fractions of phenotypic variation, raising questions about the use of further studies. Here, using 183,727 individuals, we show that hundreds of genetic variants, in at least 180 loci, influence adult height, a highly heritable and classic polygenic trait. The large number of loci reveals patterns with important implications for genetic studies of common human diseases and traits. First, the 180 loci are not random, but instead are enriched for genes that are connected in biological pathways (P = 0.016) and that underlie skeletal growth defects (P < 0.001). Second, the likely causal gene is often located near the most strongly associated variant: in 13 of 21 loci containing a known skeletal growth gene, that gene was closest to the associated variant. Third, at least 19 loci have multiple independently associated variants, suggesting that allelic heterogeneity is a frequent feature of polygenic traits, that comprehensive explorations of already-discovered loci should discover additional variants and that an appreciable fraction of associated loci may have been identified. Fourth, associated variants are enriched for likely functional effects on genes, being over-represented among variants that alter amino-acid structure of proteins and expression levels of nearby genes. Our data explain approximately 10% of the phenotypic variation in height, and we estimate that unidentified common variants of similar effect sizes would increase this figure to approximately 16% of phenotypic variation (approximately 20% of heritable variation). Although additional approaches are needed to dissect the genetic architecture of polygenic human traits fully, our findings indicate that GWA studies can identify large numbers of loci that implicate biologically relevant genes and pathways.

Vitamins B2, B6, and B12 and Risk of New Colorectal Adenomas in a Randomized Trial of Aspirin Use and Folic Acid Supplementation

Folate, other vitamin B cofactors, and genes involved in folate-mediated one-carbon metabolism (FOCM) all may play important roles in colorectal neoplasia. In this study, we examined the associations between dietary and circulating plasma levels of vitamins B2, B6 and B12 and risk colorectal adenomas

Genetic association study of QT interval highlights role for calcium signaling pathways in myocardial repolarization.

The QT interval, an electrocardiographic measure reflecting myocardial repolarization, is a heritable trait. QT prolongation is a risk factor for ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death (SCD) and could indicate the presence of the potentially lethal mendelian long-QT syndrome (LQTS). Using a genome-wide association and replication study in up to 100,000 individuals, we identified 35 common variant loci associated with QT interval that collectively explain ∼8-10% of QT-interval variation and highlight the importance of calcium regulation in myocardial repolarization. Rare variant analysis of 6 new QT interval-associated loci in 298 unrelated probands with LQTS identified coding variants not found in controls but of uncertain causality and therefore requiring validation. Several newly identified loci encode proteins that physically interact with other recognized repolarization proteins. Our integration of common variant association, expression and orthogonal protein-protein interaction screens provides new insights into cardiac electrophysiology and identifies new candidate genes for ventricular arrhythmias, LQTS and SCD

Cyclooxygenase-2 Polymorphisms, Aspirin Treatment, and Risk for Colorectal Adenoma Recurrence--Data from a Randomized Clinical Trial

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) catalyzes the rate-limiting step in the production of prostaglandins, potent mediators of inflammation. Chronic inflammation plays an important role in the development and progression of colorectal cancer. Aspirin inhibits COX-2 activity and lowers the risk of colorectal adenomas and cancer. We investigated whether common genetic variation in COX-2 influenced risk of colorectal adenoma recurrence among 979 participants in the Aspirin/Folate Polyp Prevention Study who were randomly assigned to placebo or aspirin and followed for 3 years for the occurrence of new adenomas. Of these participants, 44.2% developed at least one new adenoma during follow-up. Adjusted relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to test the association between genetic variation at six COX-2 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and adenoma occurrence and interaction with aspirin treatment. Two SNPs were significantly associated with increased adenoma recurrence: for rs5277 homozygous carriers of the minor C allele had a 51% increased risk compared to GG homozygotes (RR=1.51, 95% CI=1.01–2.25), and for rs4648310 heterozygous carriers of the minor G allele had a 37% increased risk compared to AA homozygotes (RR=1.37, 95% CI=1.05–1.79). (There were no minor allele homozygotes.) In stratified analyses, there was suggestive evidence that rs4648319 modified the effect of aspirin. These results support the hypothesis that that COX-2 plays a role in the etiology of colon cancer and may be a target for aspirin chemoprevention and warrant further investigation in other colorectal adenoma and cancer populations