Leading the Dance of Learning: Using Reflective Questions to Promote Community and Understanding in Classrooms

A major challenge facing teacher educators today is creating a field-based opportunity for pre-service educators in which they are able to connect with K-12 students and differentiate instruction to fit the unique needs, attitudes, and diversity of the classroom. This action-research study addresses this challenge by measuring the effectiveness of incorporating pre-lesson reflection questions as a strategy to consider pre-service undergraduate students’ needs prior to the planning of the lesson. Investigators were successful in utilizing this pre-reflective strategy within three distinct populations of pre-service undergraduate students. The investigators partnered with a group of undergraduate students early in their education program, a group of students just before their student teaching experience, and a group of seniors during their student teaching placements. The investigators and students participated in classroom discussions on information about pre-lesson reflection development, on-campus classroom exercises, and small group feedback conversations about lesson implementation, which enriched the connections between curriculum, classroom learning, and community

Nutritional Intake after Liver Transplant: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Cardiovascular disease and its concurrent risk factors are prevalent after liver transplant (LT). Most of these risk factors are modifiable by diet. We aimed to synthesise the literature reporting the nutritional intake of liver transplant recipients (LTR) and the potential determinants of intake. We performed a systematic review and meta-analyses of studies published up until July 2021 reporting the nutritional intake of LTR. The pooled daily mean intakes were recorded as 1998 (95% CI 1889, 2108) kcal, 17 (17, 18)% energy from protein, 49 (48, 51)% energy from carbohydrates, 34 (33, 35)% energy from total fat, 10 (7, 13)% energy from saturated fat, and 20 (18, 21) g of fibre. The average fruit and vegetable intake ranged from 105 to 418 g/day. The length of time post-LT and the age and sex of the cohorts, as well as the continent and year of publication of each study, were sources of heterogeneity. Nine studies investigated the potential determinants of intake, time post-LT, gender and immunosuppression medication, with inconclusive results. Energy and protein requirements were not met in the first month post-transplant. After this point, energy intake was significantly higher and remained stable over time, with a high fat intake and low intake of fibre, fruits and vegetables. This suggests that LTR consume a high-energy, low-quality diet in the long term and do not adhere to the dietary guidelines for cardiovascular disease prevention.Peer reviewe

Archeological Investigations at the Santa Maria Creek Site (41CW104) Caldwell County, Texas

The excavations by Atkins at the Santa Maria Creek site (41CW104) described in the following report have succeeded in bringing together a myriad of information regarding aboriginal occupations in eastern Central Texas at the dawn of the Historic period. The analysis of the materials recovered from National Register of Historic Places testing and data recovery has demonstrated that even a site buried in sandy, bioturbated sediments can still significantly add to the archeological record. This becomes even more important for areas such as Caldwell County, Texas, which have witnessed few such investigations. The report utilized a wide array of analytical techniques to unravel the site, including extensive ethnohistorical research, artifact analysis, special studies, and experimental archeology

Archeological Investigations at the Santa Maria Creek Site (41CW104) Caldwell County, Texas

Report on the excavations at the Santa Maria creek site in Caldwell County, Texas during 2006 and 2007. The report includes a discussion of research methods, analysis of the findings, and history of the area

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

The seeds of divergence: the economy of French North America, 1688 to 1760

Generally, Canada has been ignored in the literature on the colonial origins of divergence with most of the attention going to the United States. Late nineteenth century estimates of income per capita show that Canada was relatively poorer than the United States and that within Canada, the French and Catholic population of Quebec was considerably poorer. Was this gap long standing? Some evidence has been advanced for earlier periods, but it is quite limited and not well-suited for comparison with other societies. This thesis aims to contribute both to Canadian economic history and to comparative work on inequality across nations during the early modern period. With the use of novel prices and wages from Quebec—which was then the largest settlement in Canada and under French rule—a price index, a series of real wages and a measurement of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are constructed. They are used to shed light both on the course of economic development until the French were defeated by the British in 1760 and on standards of living in that colony relative to the mother country, France, as well as the American colonies. The work is divided into three components. The first component relates to the construction of a price index. The absence of such an index has been a thorn in the side of Canadian historians as it has limited the ability of historians to obtain real values of wages, output and living standards. This index shows that prices did not follow any trend and remained at a stable level. However, there were episodes of wide swings—mostly due to wars and the monetary experiment of playing card money. The creation of this index lays the foundation of the next component. The second component constructs a standardized real wage series in the form of welfare ratios (a consumption basket divided by nominal wage rate multiplied by length of work year) to compare Canada with France, England and Colonial America. Two measures are derived. The first relies on a “bare bones” definition of consumption with a large share of land-intensive goods. This measure indicates that Canada was poorer than England and Colonial America and not appreciably richer than France. However, this measure overestimates the relative position of Canada to the Old World because of the strong presence of land-intensive goods. A second measure is created using a “respectable” definition of consumption in which the basket includes a larger share of manufactured goods and capital-intensive goods. This second basket better reflects differences in living standards since the abundance of land in Canada (and Colonial America) made it easy to achieve bare subsistence, but the scarcity of capital and skilled labor made the consumption of luxuries and manufactured goods (clothing, lighting, imported goods) highly expensive. With this measure, the advantage of New France over France evaporates and turns slightly negative. In comparison with Britain and Colonial America, the gap widens appreciably. This element is the most important for future research. By showing a reversal because of a shift to a different type of basket, it shows that Old World and New World comparisons are very sensitive to how we measure the cost of living. Furthermore, there are no sustained improvements in living standards over the period regardless of the measure used. Gaps in living standards observed later in the nineteenth century existed as far back as the seventeenth century. In a wider American perspective that includes the Spanish colonies, Canada fares better. The third component computes a new series for Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is to avoid problems associated with using real wages in the form of welfare ratios which assume a constant labor supply. This assumption is hard to defend in the case of Colonial Canada as there were many signs of increasing industriousness during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The GDP series suggest no long-run trend in living standards (from 1688 to circa 1765). The long peace era of 1713 to 1740 was marked by modest economic growth which offset a steady decline that had started in 1688, but by 1760 (as a result of constant warfare) living standards had sunk below their 1688 levels. These developments are accompanied by observations that suggest that other indicators of living standard declined. The flat-lining of incomes is accompanied by substantial increases in the amount of time worked, rising mortality and rising infant mortality. In addition, comparisons of incomes with the American colonies confirm the results obtained with wages— Canada was considerably poorer. At the end, a long conclusion is provides an exploratory discussion of why Canada would have diverged early on. In structural terms, it is argued that the French colony was plagued by the problem of a small population which prohibited the existence of scale effects. In combination with the fact that it was dispersed throughout the territory, the small population of New France limited the scope for specialization and economies of scale. However, this problem was in part created, and in part aggravated, by institutional factors like seigneurial tenure. The colonial origins of French America’s divergence from the rest of North America are thus partly institutional

Talking about dying and death: a focus group study to explore a local community perspective

Background There is a general perception held by health care practitioners based in hospices, palliative care services and general healthcare services that society is reluctant to talk about dying and death. Furthermore, this avoidance behaviour is observed, noted and expressed in national policy briefings as being detrimental to patient involvement in decision making, effective coping and preparation for death, organ donation, writing a will and the process of bereavement. Aim The main aim of the study was to explore the views of the general public on the broad subject of ‘Talking about Dying and Death’. Design and methods An interactive qualitative methodology using a constructivist approach enabled exploration of a wide range of views from a variable population from the general community (n=8). Data were collected within a focus group session led by a facilitator and assistant. Systematic and analytical coding of transcripts was undertaken. Findings Four overriding themes were identified: 1) Emotions, beliefs and behaviours, 2) Coping with adversity, 3) Difficulties, barriers and tensions and 4) Fostering a participative future. Conclusions Dying and death was articulated as an upsetting topic, and remains a taboo in this community in the United Kingdom, accompanied by a belief that talking will bring harm. Promotion of talking about dying and death was discussed in relation to the role of the local hospice and several suggestions were put forward

Talking about dying and death: exploring the views of an ex-coal mining community in the UK

There is a genersl perception hweld by hospice and palliative care practioners taht society is reluctant to talk about dying and death. This study aimed to identify perceptions, barriers and facilitators of the general public and health care professionals surrounding talking about death and dying, and propose methods of increasing participation of talking about death and dying

The Identification of Risk Factors for Mortality and Respiratory Disease in Lambs: An Evaluation of Risk Factor Based Health Management Strategies

258 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999.The production simulation model evaluated two regression based strategies: decreased prevalence of poor milking ability (MLK) to <1% via culling over three years, and decreased prevalence of low birth weights (BWT) to 10% by improved gestational feeding. The comparison flock (BASE) had 15% poor milking ability and 25% low birth weight lambs. MLK strategy decreased POST and RM compared to BASE (0.4% and 0.8% respectively), but early years retained more replacement ewe lambs, lowered the number of market lambs, and initially decreased annual profits. Over ten years, average profits increased 0.7% under MLK, until the last seven years when poor milk prevalence was <1% and profits were 2.7% higher. The BWT strategy lowered PERI, POST, and RM (1%, 0.6%, 0.5% respectively). BWT increased profits by 12.6% over BASE, primarily due to the 2.9% increase in market lamb revenues, and was affected to a lesser extent by the 1% cost reduction associated with the lower mortality.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD