The Beliefs of K-12 Public School Principals About Disabilities and How Those Beliefs Inform Their Leadership of Students With Disabilities

The leadership of the school principal is an integral part of a successful school. A principal’s leadership goes beyond hiring teachers, managing building, and balancing budgets. The leadership of principals involves their work with instruction and influence on students. A principals’ leadership is shaped by factors that include knowledge, skill, experiences, and beliefs. The beliefs of principals have a direct impact on the leadership of principals. This phenomenological case study investigated what principals’ believed about disability and how these beliefs influenced their leadership of students with disabilities. Principles developed by the Council of Exceptional Children were used as the conceptual framework of the study. Through the use of interviews, principals indicated what they believed about disability, leadership of students with disabilities, the relevancy of degree programs, and needs they had in leading students with disabilities. Three major themes were drawn from the interviews. These themes included leadership, experiences, and knowledge. In addition to the emerging themes, the study provided answers to the original research questions and a revision to the original conceptual framework. Implications for principals, local education agencies, and graduate school programs are included along with suggestions for future research

Effects of mood and cognition on the social information-processing mechanisms underlying aggression

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of executive functions and anger activation on the social information-processing mechanisms related to aggressive behavior. The social information-processing stages examined were attribution, goal selection, and response evaluation. Participants were randomly assigned to either an anger or neutral mood induction and listened to three different scenario types: accidental, ambiguous and hostile. Hypotheses were: 1) the anger group when compared to the neutral would demonstrate more hostile aggressive responding in interpretation attribution, goal evaluation, and response evaluation in the ambiguous and hostile conditions, 2) executive functioning would moderate the relationship between anger and hostile-aggressive responding. Results are discussed in terms of integrating affect and executive function into models of social information processing

The time course of attention during two golf putts of different lengths in a group of experienced golfers

Previous research using the dual-task paradigm to assess the time course of attention has been conducted with many sport-specific movements, such as a tennis serve, a volleyball set, a horseshoe pitch, and a basketball free-throw. However, this line of research has not been applied to a golf putting stroke which differs from previous sport skills because it requires that participants strike the ball with a club rather than propelling it directly from their hands. In the current study, a dual-task paradigm was used to investigate the time course of attention during two golf putts: one from 6 feet (easy condition) and one from 12 feet (difficult condition). A sample of experienced golfers (N = 20) with a handicap of 17 or less participated in the study. Participants were asked to respond verbally to an auditory tone presented at three probe positions during the two putts. The order of the putts and the presentation of the auditory cue at each probe position were randomized and catch trials were used to prevent anticipatory effects. The first hypothesis of this study stated that the time course of attention would follow a similar pattern for both shots. Specifically, it was hypothesized that attentional demand would be greatest just before the putter contacted the golf ball. The second hypothesis of this study stated that the increased task difficulty of the 12-foot putt would result in greater overall attentional demand during this putt than during the 6-foot putt. The results of a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) for putting performance indicated no significant differences in the level of performance (p > .05) for probe positions across the short putt. However, a repeated-measures ANOVA for putting performance on the long putt indicated that participants' level of performance changed based on probe position (p .05), indicating that attentional demand remains constant throughout the putting stroke. The results of a repeated-measures ANOVA for reaction time also indicated that reaction times on the long putt were significantly higher than reaction times for the short putt (p < .05), indicating that the long putt required an overall higher level of attentional demand than the short putt. These findings suggest that experienced golfers demonstrate a constant level of attentional demand throughout the putting stroke on a 6-foot putt. These findings also suggest that experienced golfers were unable to maintain primary task performance on the 12-foot putt and that the 12-foot putt required higher attentional demand than the 6-foot putt as a result of increased task difficulty

A production of And Miss Reardon drinks a little

It was the purpose of this study to research, produce and analyze the play And Miss Reardon Drinks a Little by Paul Zindel. The research of the play involved tracing previous productions of the play, the author's background, and study of the play itself. The production involved casting the play, assembling the crews and staging the play for performance on the mainstage of W. Raymond Taylor Theatre at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The analysis involved evaluation of the finished performance in all areas of the production

Should I stay or should I go? Stress, coping, and retention among novice teachers

There are many factors that lead to stress and burnout of teachers that ultimately result in up to half of teachers leaving the profession before their sixth year of experience. This study is a mixed-method approach to the problem that began with surveying n=385 secondary teachers of all content areas. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to measure the teachers’ burnout levels, the Classroom Appraisal of Resources and Demands (CARD) was used to measure stress, and the Preventive Resources Inventory (PRI) was used to determine the teachers’ preventive coping skills. An independent t-test was conducted that found the stress and burnout levels between new and experienced teachers are not statistically different. Additionally, multiple regression tests were conducted with various combinations of independent and dependent variables. It was found that stress and burnout were significant predictors of job satisfaction. It was also revealed that years of experience, job satisfaction, and burnout are significant predictors of stress, while job satisfaction, preventive coping skills, and stress were significant predictors of burnout. This project aims to further research mathematics teachers as they are teachers in one of the most critical needs area of education. After the collection and analysis of the surveys, four mathematics teachers were chosen for follow-up interviews where they were questioned about their stressful occasions, coping mechanisms, and their ideas on mathematics teacher retention. The teachers were chosen randomly from groups that were stratified based on their preventive coping skills and stress levels

The challenges of extending climate risk insurance to fisheries

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas)Willis Research NetworkCommonwealth Marine Economies Programme, UK Foreign and Commonwealth Offic

The Intelligibility Of Esophageal Speech With And Without Visual Cues

The purpose of this study was to determine if the intelligibility of esophageal speech is improved by the addition of the visual component to the auditory component

Factors Associated with Survival of Veterans with Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Tumors

Background. Gastrointestinal (GI) neuroendocrine tumor (NET) incidence has been increasing; however, GI NET within the national Veterans Affairs (VA) health system has not been described. Methods. We used the VA Central Cancer Registry to identify the cohort of patients diagnosed with GI NET in 1995–2009. Cox regression models were constructed to explore factors associated with survival. Results. We included 1793 patients with NET of the stomach (9%), duodenum (10%), small intestine (24%), colon (19%) or rectum (38%). Twenty percent were diagnosed in 1995–1999, 35% in 2000–2004, and 45% in 2005–2009. Unadjusted 5-year survival rates were: stomach 56%, duodenum 66%, small intestine 52%, colon 67%, and rectum 84%. Factors associated with shorter survival were increasing age, hazard ratio (HR) 1.05 (95% CI 1.04–1.06), NET location [compared to rectum: stomach HR 2.26 (95% CI 1.68–3.05), duodenum HR 1.70 (95% CI 1.26–2.28), small intestine HR 1.85 (95% CI 1.42–2.42), and colon 1.83 (95% CI 1.41–2.39)], stage [compared to in situ/local: regional HR 1.15 (95% CI 0.90–1.47), distant HR 2.38 (95% CI 1.87–3.05)], and earlier period of diagnosis [compared to 1995–1999: 2000–2004 HR 0.70 (95% CI 0.59–0.85), 2005–2009 HR 0.43 (95% CI 0.34–0.54)]. Conclusions. The incidence of GI NET has also increased over time in the VA system with similar survival rates to those observed in non-VA settings. Worsened survival was associated with older age, tumor site, advanced stage, and earlier year of diagnosis

Clinical biological and genetic heterogeneity of the inborn errors of pulmonary surfactant metabolism

Pulmonary surfactant is a multimolecular complex located at the air-water interface within the alveolus to which a range of physical (surface-active properties) and immune functions has been assigned. This complex consists of a surface-active lipid layer (consisting mainly of phospholipids), and of an aqueous subphase. From discrete surfactant sub-fractions one can isolate strongly hydrophobic surf acta nt proteins B (SP-B) and C (SP-C) as well as collectins SP-A and SP-D, which were shown to have specific structural, metabolic, or immune properties. Inborn or acquired abnormalities of the surfactant, qualitative or quantitative in nature, account for a number of human diseases. Beside hyaline membrane disease of the preterm neonate, a cluster of hereditary or acquired lung diseases has been characterized by periodic acid-Schiff-positive material filling the alveoli. From this heterogeneous nosologic group, at least two discrete entities presently emerge. The first is the SP-B deficiency, in which an essentially proteinaceous material is stored within the alveoli, and which represents an autosomal recessive Mendelian entity linked to the SFTPB gene (MIM 1786640). The disease usually generally entails neonatal respiratory distress with rapid fatal outcome, although partial or transient deficiencies have also been observed. The second is alveolar proteinosis, characterized by the storage of a mixed protein and lipid material, which constitutes a relatively heterogeneous clinical and biological syndrome, especially with regard to age at onset (from the neonate through to adulthood) as well as the severity of associated signs. Murine models, with a targeted mutation of the gene encoding granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) (Csfgm) or the beta subunit of its receptor (II3rb1) support the hypothesis of an abnormality of surfactant turnover in which the alveolar macrophage is a key player. Apart from SP-B deficiency, in which a near-consensus diagnostic chart can be designed, the ascertainment of other abnormalities of surfactant metabolism is not straightforward. The disentanglement of this disease cluster is however essential to propose specific therapeutic procedures: repeated broncho-alveolar ravages, GM-CSF replacement, bone marrow grafting or lung transplantation

Narrative-based computational modelling of the Gp130/JAK/STAT signalling pathway.

BACKGROUND: Appropriately formulated quantitative computational models can support researchers in understanding the dynamic behaviour of biological pathways and support hypothesis formulation and selection by "in silico" experimentation. An obstacle to widespread adoption of this approach is the requirement to formulate a biological pathway as machine executable computer code. We have recently proposed a novel, biologically intuitive, narrative-style modelling language for biologists to formulate the pathway which is then automatically translated into an executable format and is, thus, usable for analysis via existing simulation techniques. RESULTS: Here we use a high-level narrative language in designing a computational model of the gp130/JAK/STAT signalling pathway and show that the model reproduces the dynamic behaviour of the pathway derived by biological observation. We then "experiment" on the model by simulation and sensitivity analysis to define those parameters which dominate the dynamic behaviour of the pathway. The model predicts that nuclear compartmentalisation and phosphorylation status of STAT are key determinants of the pathway and that alternative mechanisms of signal attenuation exert their influence on different timescales. CONCLUSION: The described narrative model of the gp130/JAK/STAT pathway represents an interesting case study showing how, by using this approach, researchers can model biological systems without explicitly dealing with formal notations and mathematical expressions (typically used for biochemical modelling), nevertheless being able to obtain simulation and analysis results. We present the model and the sensitivity analysis results we have obtained, that allow us to identify the parameters which are most sensitive to perturbations. The results, which are shown to be in agreement with existing mathematical models of the gp130/JAK/STAT pathway, serve us as a form of validation of the model and of the approach itself