Tracing ‘21st Century Literacies’ in College and Career Ready State Standards: A Multi-State Scalar Analysis

This paper brings together resources of sociocultural literacy studies (Heath, 1983; Street, 1984; Barton, Hamilton, & Ivanic, 1999) and policy attribute analysis (Porter, Floden, Freeman, Schmidt, & Schwille, 1988) to examine how the meaning of “21st century skills/literacies” - as emphasized in recent college and career-readiness (CCR) standards - is framed and negotiated across state and district scales

#AntiSlaveryDay & #WorldDayAgainstTrafficking: A multi-method analysis of the framing & social construction of modern slavery & human trafficking

In the modern digital landscape, among a scrolling generation on Instagram that has made it commonplace to (over) share details about one's personal life in visually captivating ways, this platform is also emerging as a channel for activism. Modern slavery, human trafficking and exploitation are not new phenomena, however the past few decades have witnessed the establishment of international and local legislation, as well as increased media coverage. These developments have propelled these concerns to the forefront of political and charitable endeavours, focusing on addressing the problems, devising prevention and disruption strategies, and expanding victim identification and survivor support services. Along with these crucial efforts, social media activism has seen a significant surge in the anti-modern slavery and human trafficking field, giving rise to a digital abolitionist movement. This movement is encouraging all members of society to actively participate in the mission to "abolish slavery" and "end human trafficking” in digital and offline spaces. This thesis examines how modern slavery and human trafficking are framed in Instagram awareness campaigns using a pragmatic approach. This involves a triangulated research methodology of a manual content analysis of Instagram posts, interviews with UK anti-modern slavery and human trafficking professionals, and an online survey of Instagram users to explore the various ways language, statistics, and iconography are being used to frame the issues and potential prevention and disruption solutions. My central argument is that these Instagram-based awareness initiatives not only oversimplify the complexity of these issues but also contribute to a digital abolitionist movement that propagates the idea that simple, passive actions such as taking selfies and sharing Instagram posts are effective means of addressing these issues. This perspective ignores the root causes and systemic issues behind modern slavery and human trafficking, as well as the specific regional and cultural variations in exploitation methods and the unique experiences of victims/survivors. Digital actions superficially address the problem and turn anti-modern slavery/trafficking efforts into a trendy online movement, prioritising self-presentation on Instagram rather than effective prevention strategies or strengthened support for victims and survivors

Anti-cholinergic load, health care utilization, and survival in people with advanced cancer: a pilot study

Introduction: Anti-cholinergic medications have been associated with increased risks of cognitive impairment, premature mortality and increased risk of hospitalisation. Anti-cholinergic load associated with medication increases as death approaches in those with advanced cancer, yet little is known about associated adverse outcomes in this setting. Methods: A substudy of 112 participants in a randomised control trial who had cancer and an Australia modified Karnofsky Performance Scale (AKPS) score (AKPS) of 60 or above, explored survival and health service utilisation; with anti-cholinergic load calculated using the Clinician Rated Anti-cholinergic Scale (modified version) longitudinally to death. A standardised starting point for prospectively calculating survival was an AKPS of 60 or above. Results: Baseline entry to the sub-study was a mean 62 ± 81 days (median 37, range 1–588) days before death (survival), with mean of 4.8 (median 3, SD 4.18, range 1 – 24) study assessments in this time period. Participants spent 22% of time as an inpatient. There was no significant association between anti-cholinergic score and time spent as an inpatient (adjusted for survival time) (p = 0.94); or survival time. Discussion: No association between anti-cholinergic load and survival or time spent as an inpatient was seen. Future studies need to include cognitively impaired populations where the risks of symptomatic deterioration may be more substantial

Character Strengths and Deep Connections Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Spiritual and Secular Pathways to Resistance Among Volunteers

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100170/1/jssr12043.pd

Understanding uncertainty in temperature effects on vector-borne disease: A Bayesian approach

Extrinsic environmental factors influence the distribution and population dynamics of many organisms, including insects that are of concern for human health and agriculture. This is particularly true for vector-borne infectious diseases, like malaria, which is a major source of morbidity and mortality in humans. Understanding the mechanistic links between environment and population processes for these diseases is key to predicting the consequences of climate change on transmission and for developing effective interventions. An important measure of the intensity of disease transmission is the reproductive number $R_0$. However, understanding the mechanisms linking $R_0$ and temperature, an environmental factor driving disease risk, can be challenging because the data available for parameterization are often poor. To address this we show how a Bayesian approach can help identify critical uncertainties in components of $R_0$ and how this uncertainty is propagated into the estimate of $R_0$. Most notably, we find that different parameters dominate the uncertainty at different temperature regimes: bite rate from 15-25$^\circ$ C; fecundity across all temperatures, but especially $\sim$25-32$^\circ$ C; mortality from 20-30$^\circ$ C; parasite development rate at $\sim$15-16$^\circ$C and again at $\sim$33-35$^\circ$C. Focusing empirical studies on these parameters and corresponding temperature ranges would be the most efficient way to improve estimates of $R_0$. While we focus on malaria, our methods apply to improving process-based models more generally, including epidemiological, physiological niche, and species distribution models.Comment: 27 pages, including 1 table and 3 figure

Safe Care for Seizure Patients on an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit

Seizure patients admitted to an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit located within an academic tertiary medical center have a high potential to impact patient safety. As a result, a unit based team identified a need for a higher level of training for both their staff and float companions to ensure safe and standardized care for this group of patients. The goal of this quality improvement project was to create an educational tool that would assist 100% of staff in better recognizing and responding to seizures. Baseline metrics and root cause analysis demonstrated a lack of consistent information being taught, a poorly identified target audience as well as educators. Several countermeasures were instituted to include an educational video that standardized seizure and response education. Data collected post rollout demonstrated several positive outcomes to include zero safety events involving this patient population, meeting the goal of 100% of staff educated, and education being mandatory for new staff. Some of the next steps include expanding training to staff caring for pediatric epilepsy patients as well as a tele-sitters video monitoring system request for FY20 budget year

Supporting Disaster Resilience Spatial Thinking with Serious GeoGames: Project Lily Pad

The need for improvement of societal disaster resilience and response efforts was evident after the destruction caused by the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. We present a novel conceptual framework for improving disaster resilience through the combination of serious games, geographic information systems (GIS), spatial thinking, and disaster resilience. Our framework is implemented via Project Lily Pad, a serious geogame based on our conceptual framework, serious game case studies, interviews and real-life experiences from 2017 Hurricane Harvey survivors in Dickinson, TX, and an immersive hurricane-induced flooding scenario. The game teaches a four-fold set of skills relevant to spatial thinking and disaster resilience, including reading a map, navigating an environment, coding verbal instructions, and determining best practices in a disaster situation. Results of evaluation of the four skills via Project Lily Pad through a “think aloud” study conducted by both emergency management novices and professionals revealed that the game encouraged players to think spatially, can help build awareness for disaster response scenarios, and has potential for real-life use by emergency management professionals. It can be concluded from our results that the combination of serious games, geographic information systems (GIS), spatial thinking, and disaster resilience, as implemented via Project Lily Pad and our evaluation results, demonstrated the wide range of possibilities for using serious geogames to improve disaster resilience spatial thinking and potentially save lives when disasters occur