The effects of the font Dyslexie on oral reading fluency skills in students grades 8 through 12 with and without reading disabilities

There has been considerable research studying the symptoms related to reading disabilities as well as the tools and training programs that can be used to remediate such symptoms. One such tool being used to increase fluency for those with reading disabilities is the introduction of a specially designed typeface or font that is different from the commonly used fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, etc. Several new fonts have been designed to help individuals with reading disabilities read more efficiently and fluently; however, the empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of using different typefaces is lacking in the scientific literature. If proven effective, the use of these different fonts could be an easy and inexpensive intervention for children with reading disabilities. The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of the font "Dyslexie" on Oral Reading Fluency scores in students, grades 8 through 12 with and without reading disabilities. Due to a lower than expected number of participants for the reading disability group, a statistical analysis to calculate the data's significance levels could not be conducted; however, research results and comparisons between groups are provided and suggestions for future research is discussed

Understanding Gender Patterns: Early Stage Development of a Gender Neutral Body Talk Scale

Fat talk is defined as the negative body talk that occurs in social contexts. Previous literature suggests that fat talk is more of a feminine rather than masculine conversational tendency, yet the measures that have detected such gender differences have an inherent gender bias within the scale or have been developed using only females. The present study reviewed the history of fat talk as well as key parameters associated with this phenomenon and proposed a new gender neutral measure of body talk. The new measure attempted to capture instances of initiating and responding to fat talk in same-gender dyads and groups as well as mixed-gender dyads and groups. While examining fat talk in these contexts, this measure also assessed if females and males interpret fat talk items in a comparable way. The results from the initial version of this measure suggested the need for separate female and male body talk scales that more directly address how and why the genders communicate body dissatisfaction

Techniques as a foundation builds artistic confidence

As an elementary and middle school art teacher, this art-making research has implications for my teaching. I have learned much more about watercolor painting techniques, which can be passed on to my students. I have found that my increased learning of the artistic process can also be carried over into the classroom. I have explored watercolor painting, which was an unfamiliar medium to me a couple of years ago. I selected ten paintings that show my development in watercolor painting as I learned the techniques and became more comfortable with the medium. My subject matter reflects specific places in Sylva, Bryson City, and the Western Carolina University campus that I found personally beautiful or interesting. I will discuss the processes of choosing the subject matter and of designing the compositions. I will describe my process of painting the images in watercolor. My influences from art history and the artistic guidance from my professors are explained in this thesis as well. After discussing the ten artworks, I will reflect on the possible future directions for my painting. While working on this body of work, I have discovered the value in finding beauty in the places that I live and work in. I would like to seek ways to help my young art students see beautiful or interesting imagery in their environments as a possible source for artistic expression. Above all, I have found that an artist needs a foundation in techniques to build confidence and lead to successful art-making. While learning techniques and experimenting with watercolor, I gained the confidence to continue using this medium throughout my graduate studio classes. I will reflect on ways that I can help my students and future students learn techniques as a foundation for building their artistic confidence

Determination of trace element provenance, Rio Loa Basin, northern Chile

The Atacama Desert, located between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes in northern Chile and southern Peru, is one of the driest regions on the planet. In spite of the extreme aridity, the Atacama is traversed by the Rio Loa, a perennial river which owes its continuous flow to precipitation and runoff at high elevations (>4000 m) along the western Andes, and the emergence of groundwater from thick alluvial aquifers. Water within the Rio Loa is an extremely important resource, but its water and sediment are contaminated, exhibiting levels of trace metals and metalloids that exceed drinking water standards (e.g., for arsenic) and threshold effect guidelines for aquatic biota (e.g., for copper, cadmium, antimony, and zinc). Previous studies, combined with data collected in 2009, suggest that trace metals/metalloids are derived from multiple sources, including El Tatio (a large geyser basin) and three large copper mines. Determination of the relative contribution of contaminants to the river from the geyser basin and the mines has proven problematic using spatial patterns in arsenic concentrations. This study utilizes both total elemental concentrations (arsenic, antimony, copper, and lead) along with isotopes of antimony and lead to distinguish contaminant sources in the Rio Loa. Additionally, a sequential extraction procedure provided additional geochemical understanding of the elemental dispersal pathways via sediment binding. Isotopes of antimony and lead did not provide enough information to distinguish contaminant sources. Total concentrations of arsenic, antimony, and copper proved to be more informative, the largest source of copper contamination was determined to be the copper mining operations of El Abra, Radiomiro Tomic, and Chuquicamata. But mining did not input significant quantities of arsenic or antimony, both of which were found in very high concentrations within the Rio Loa. Results showed that El Tatio Geyser Basin input most of the arsenic and antimony contamination. For this reason, a ratio of antimony/copper proved to be a good contaminant tracer to distinguish and quantify contaminated sediment from El Tatio and mining operations. This ratio was applied to floodplain cores and older terrace deposits to determine how sediments have been distributed within the basin over time. The El Tatio Geyser Basin proved to be the largest contaminator within the Rio Loa basin, mostly due to older terrace deposits, which are high in contamination from El Tatio, continually being eroded and re-worked into the floodplains and channel bed deposits of the lower reaches of the Rio Loa. Contaminated sediment from copper mining operations was not as relevant of a concern because copper transport downstream is inhibited by its adsorption onto Fe-Mn oxide rich particles, which are quickly deposited and/or diluted within the Rio San Salvador (a tributary) before reaching the Rio Loa

The effects of text messaging on memory recall in college students

Technology is constantly changing, and has enabled communication to be readily available everywhere, to everyone, including students in classrooms. Most devices are portable, capable of talking, texting, and surfing the internet. Many researchers have questioned the impact technology has on individuals, making multitasking a popular research area in cognitive psychology today. Simulated environments have been created and used to examine an individual’s performance while using a cell phone as they engage in everyday activities such as driving or walking. Results from the simulated environments have found that when individuals perform a primary task while conversing on a cell phone, they have lower performance on the primary task (Charlton, 2009). The majority of research on multitasking has examined how cell phone use affects driving performance. Because text messaging is a popular form of communication among young adults, an emerging area of multitasking research is now examining the effects of cell phones in learning environments. The purpose of the current study is to examine the various components of text messaging and determine which component is the most distracting for college students. Participants were randomly assigned to the control group, the receiving group, or the combined sending and receiving group. The group the participant was randomly assigned to determined their task with the cell phone during the video. Each participant watched a 10 minute video on memory. After the video ended, participants completed the posttest about the video. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if there was an overall difference between group’s posttest scores. Results indicated a significant difference in posttest scores for the three groups. Results indicated the mean score for the control group was significantly different from the receiving group and the combined group. The combined group and receiving group did not differ significantly from one another. An ANOVA was used to determine the overall difference between groups on target questions. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups memory recall for the target questions. Pearson product moment correlation was used to investigate the relationships between participant’s perceived multitasking ability and their posttest score. There was a small negative correlation between the two variables, with high levels of individual beliefs about their ability to multitask associated with lower scores on the posttest. These findings go along with the threaded cognition theory, combining a novel task with a well learned task consumes a significant amount of cognitive resources and interferes with learning. The implications of the results and areas of future research are discussed

The CALM Gatekeeper Training Is Associated With Increased Confidence In Suicide Prevention Skills Among A Sample Of Resident Assistants

Suicide is a significant public health concern accounting for nearly 121 deaths per day. Many prevention programs focus on improving knowledge regarding suicide, yet most fail to address how individuals elect to harm themselves. In an attempt to address this gap in practice, the Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) program was developed to educate clinicians on the importance and impact of means restriction interventions. The purpose of the current study was to administer and evaluate a gatekeeper version of the CALM training delivered to a group of 167 resident assistants (RAs) at a university in the Southeastern United States. Confidence levels regarding suicide prevention (SP) and means restriction (MR) skills were assessed at baseline, post-training, and after a 4-6 week follow-up. Results were suggestive of medium to large training effects for SP and MR confidence levels among the sample of trained RAs. There was also a small decay of the training effects at follow-up possibly due to the passing of time. This might suggest that training should be provided more consistently to help sustain the impact. Additionally, if CALM becomes implemented more broadly, suicide rates should be studied to determine the impact of means restriction approaches

Personality and preservice teacher success

Teacher education programs are required by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation to identify and assess dispositions of preservice teachers throughout the duration of their academic training. Teacher dispositions have been understood to consist of various facets such as beliefs, values, habits, attitudes, and ethics. As such, some researchers suggest that personality assessments can be utilized to measure teacher dispositions. This study sought to determine the relationship between personality traits and preservice teacher success

Preventing Fraud In Churches: An Analysis Of Segregation Of Duties Implementation

Despite the existence of fraud in churches, little research has been done regarding the level of internal control implementation in these entities. Internal controls, particularly the basic control of duty segregation, allow an organization to protect itself from employee theft and fraud. This study attempts to determine the level of segregation of duties implemented in churches, as well as the relationship between the extent of duty segregation and the age and size of the church. A survey instrument was emailed to a sample of North Carolina churches, and the 44 usable responses were analyzed for deviations from proper segregation of duties. All churches reported some level of deviation, and were therefore susceptible to fraud. However, a statistically significant relationship was not found between the number of deviations and the age of the church, or between the number of deviations and the size of the church, measured by either annual giving or average weekly giving

CALM Gatekeeper Training Is Associated With Increased Confidence In Utilizing Means Reduction Approaches To Suicide Prevention Among College Resident Assistants

Background: Most suicide prevention programs focus on increasing knowledge regarding the problem of suicide, yet many fail to include information on the science and application of means reduction approaches. In an attempt to address this gap in practice, the Counseling on Access to Lethal Means (CALM) program was developed to educate clinicians on the importance of means reduction interventions. Methods: In the current study, a gatekeeper CALM training was delivered to 167 resident assistants. Confidence levels regarding suicide prevention and means reduction skills were assessed at baseline, post-training, and after a 6-week follow-up. Results: Results were suggestive of medium to large training effects. Though there was a small decay of training effects at follow-up, the effects were durable when compared to baseline levels. Conclusion: Given these findings, future gatekeeper trainings should be provided more consistently to help sustain the effects and data on the implementation of CALM principles should be measured during follow-up assessments

Four women

It was the purpose of this study to show four women from a historical view of slavery. This point of view was used to develop the moods, personalities, and movements of the four women. The four types of women concerned were those of a slave, a free mulatto, a prostitute, and a free black. The first woman, a slave, executed movements which were somewhat spastic and displayed strong back contractions. The second woman, a free mulatto, was characterized by lyrical movements that often became tensed. The third woman, a prostitute, was concerned with seductive type movements of the torso, shoulders, and hips. And the fourth woman, a free bitter black, utilized strong, hard, explosive movements. All of the women except the last one were influenced by being a slave or existing during the time of slavery and all of them represented attitudes of black people as forces inherent in their lives. The lighting for Four Women was very basic with no special lighting effects. The music used was by Nina Simone, entitled "Four Women", and, for purposes of this study, edited by Kevin Fitzpatrick. The costumes were similar in style but different in color. Each woman wore a long gathered skirt and long sleeve shirt