Improving Literacy Outcomes for Adolescent English Language Learners

As the population of English Language Learners in United States public schools has risen significantly in recent years, the unique academic challenges these students faced, particularly in middle and high school, became more apparent. A widening reading and vocabulary gap between English Language Learners and their native English-speaking peers posed particular barriers in secondary content area classes, where many teachers reported feeling ill-prepared to meet the specialized linguistic needs of their English Language Learner students. This paper analyzed a mix of recent, available qualitative and quantitative research on best practices to improve literacy outcomes for adolescent English Language Learners. As a result of the research, this paper identified several strategies that have been found to be successful in increasing English Language Learners’ reading, vocabulary and content comprehension through secondary content area classes, namely explicit reading comprehension strategy instruction, a focus on vocabulary and academic language, reading engagement strategies, and finally the integration of literacy and content. This paper concluded by outlining specific applications of the results for secondary school content area teachers to ensure that the academic literacy needs of their English Language Learner students are being met

Stress, coping, and emotional distress of medically underserved lung and head-and-neck cancer patients

2019 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.The intent of this study was to investigate how lung cancer (LC) and head and neck cancer (HNC) patients who are medically underserved (i.e. uninsured, underinsured, low income) experience emotional distress (symptoms of depression and anxiety) after being diagnosed with LC or HNC. Participants were recruited from four Colorado hospitals. They completed a baseline survey which included measures of perceived stress, coping self-efficacy, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. The Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (TMSC) was used as a theoretical guide for analyses about the relations of stress coping and emotional distress. When age, sex, and stage of cancer were controlled for, levels of perceived stress were observed to be positively associated with experience of emotional distress. Further, coping was shown to be an effective moderator of the relation of perceived stress to emotional distress. The TMSC is a functional theoretical model for organizing the understanding of stress, coping and emotional distress for medically underserved LC and HNC patients. Further research should be conducted to assess for changes in these variables overtime, particularly if psychological interventions can be used to influence each variable

Some Observations on the Germicidal Efficiencies of Alkalies

A technique is described for measuring the relative germicidal efficiencies of strong alakalies. For a given alkali, the germicidal efficiency increases with decreasing H +ion concentration, but the H +ion concentration is not suitable as an index of the germicidal powers of different alkalies. The addition of various salts to sodium hydroxide increased the germicidal effects of the alkali

Psychopathy and Empathy: A Correlational Study

Cognitive and affective empathy have long been thought to play an important role in moral decision making. While most individuals have intact capabilities, certain populations are believed to have deficits in empathy , especially individuals high in psychopathy. Specifically, psychopathic individuals are known to have the capacity for cognitive empathy but not affective empathy. The present study further examined the relationship between psychopathy, cognitive empathy, and affective empathy using undergraduates from Belmont University. Participants were recruited from introduction to psychology courses and completed the 4th edition of the Self-Report Psychopathy Scale (SRP 4) ) as well as the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) . We expect that psychopathy will be positively correlated with cognitive empathy and negatively correlated with affective empathy

Evaluation of Foliar Insecticides for the Control of Western Bean Cutworm in Field Corn, 2016

The western bean cutworm (WBC) is an important pest of corn and dry beans. In addition to yield loss due to direct feeding on developing kernels in the ear, WBC infestation can also lead to secondary fungal infections. This study was conducted within the historic range of WBC in western Nebraska; however, it has undergone a rapid range expansion into the eastern Corn Belt within the last 16 years. This field trial was established to evaluate the efficacy of a single application of foliar insecticides against this pest to prevent feeding damage to non-Bt corn ears. The trial was located at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Stumpf International Wheat Center in Perkins County, Nebraska, USA (40.856805° N, –101.701594° W). A RCB design with 10 treatments (including an untreated check) and 4 replications was used. Each plot was eight rows by 35 ft. The trial was planted on 13 May using a small plot research planter at 32,000 seeds/acre at an approximate depth of 1.4– 1.75 inch in 30 inch rows. The hybrid planted was DKC62-95 (Monsanto Company, St. Louis, MO) non-Bt with RR2 herbicide tolerance. The plots received irrigation, fertilization, and weed management inputs following standard agronomic practices for the region, with no insecticide applications other than the experimental treatments

UFRN E GESPÚBLICA: UMA EXPERIÊNCIA DA DIRETORIA DE ADMINISTRAÇÃO DE PESSOAL (DAP)

O presente estudo tem por finalidade apresentar a experiência da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte – UFRN com sua adesão ao Programa Gespública. O tipo da pesquisa é exploratório, o subtipo é estudo de caso. Nesse sentido, foram realizadas entrevista e pesquisa documental, cujos dados foram tratados por meio da análise qualitativa. Identificou-se que a UFRN representada por sua Diretoria de Administração de Pessoal (DAP) assinou o termo de adesão ao Programa Gespública e realizou a autoavaliação utilizando o Instrumento para Avaliação da Gestão Pública de 250 pontos e elaborou a Carta de Serviços do DAP. Conclui-se que a experiência da UFRN foi bem sucedida, uma vez que o DAP, a partir dessas práticas, começou a dedicar-se ao pensamento sistêmico como também aos processos de gestão, atitudes essas que, com o contínuo aprendizado, irão permitir à instituição atingir outros níveis em excelência em gestão pública

Increasing trust in new data sources: crowdsourcing image classification for ecology

Crowdsourcing methods facilitate the production of scientific information by non-experts. This form of citizen science (CS) is becoming a key source of complementary data in many fields to inform data-driven decisions and study challenging problems. However, concerns about the validity of these data often constrain their utility. In this paper, we focus on the use of citizen science data in addressing complex challenges in environmental conservation. We consider this issue from three perspectives. First, we present a literature scan of papers that have employed Bayesian models with citizen science in ecology. Second, we compare several popular majority vote algorithms and introduce a Bayesian item response model that estimates and accounts for participants' abilities after adjusting for the difficulty of the images they have classified. The model also enables participants to be clustered into groups based on ability. Third, we apply the model in a case study involving the classification of corals from underwater images from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. We show that the model achieved superior results in general and, for difficult tasks, a weighted consensus method that uses only groups of experts and experienced participants produced better performance measures. Moreover, we found that participants learn as they have more classification opportunities, which substantially increases their abilities over time. Overall, the paper demonstrates the feasibility of CS for answering complex and challenging ecological questions when these data are appropriately analysed. This serves as motivation for future work to increase the efficacy and trustworthiness of this emerging source of data.Comment: 25 pages, 10 figure