How Educators Can Eradicate Disparities in School Discipline: A Briefing Paper on School-Based Interventions

The number of students issued suspensions in U.S. schools continues to be extremely high, resulting in thousands of students missing school every day. Simultaneously,disparities in school suspension continue to worsen, indicating that students in some groups are missing school far more often and disproportionately(particularly, boys, African American students, students with disabilities, and in some regions, Latino and American Indian students). These disparities are also true of referrals to law enforcement and school-based arrests nationwide. According to recent data collected by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, students of color made up 75% of referrals to law enforcement and 79% of schoolbased arrests, even while students of color comprise 39% of the nation's public school population.Punitive school discipline matters tremendously to the educational opportunity of young people: New knowledge on school discipline shows that even a single suspension or a single referral to the juvenile court system increases the odds of low achievement and dropping out of school altogether. Moreover, research shows that schools and educators -- not just students themselves -- make a difference in how discipline is meted out

User involvement in a Cochrane systematic review:using structured methods to enhance the clinical relevance, usefulness and usability of a systematic review update

Background: This paper describes the structured methods used to involve patients, carers and health professionals in an update of a Cochrane systematic review relating to physiotherapy after stroke and explores the perceived impact of involvement.Methods: We sought funding and ethical approval for our user involvement. We recruited a stakeholder group comprising stroke survivors, carers, physiotherapists and educators and held three pre-planned meetings during the course of updating a Cochrane systematic review. Within these meetings, we used formal group consensus methods, based on nominal group techniques, to reach consensus decisions on key issues relating to the structure and methods of the review.Results: The stakeholder group comprised 13 people, including stroke survivors, carers and physiotherapists with a range of different experience, and either 12 or 13 participated in each meeting. At meeting 1, there was consensus that methods of categorising interventions that were used in the original Cochrane review were no longer appropriate or clinically relevant (11/13 participants disagreed or strongly disagreed with previous categories) and that international trials (which had not fitted into the original method of categorisation) ought to be included within the review (12/12 participants agreed or strongly agreed these should be included). At meeting 2, the group members reached consensus over 27 clearly defined treatment components, which were to be used to categorise interventions within the review (12/12 agreed or strongly agreed), and at meeting 3, they agreed on the key messages emerging from the completed review. All participants strongly agreed that the views of the group impacted on the review update, that the review benefited from the involvement of the stakeholder group, and that they believed other Cochrane reviews would benefit from the involvement of similar stakeholder groups.Conclusions: We involved a stakeholder group in the update of a Cochrane systematic review, using clearly described structured methods to reach consensus decisions. The involvement of stakeholders impacted substantially on the review, with the inclusion of international studies, and changes to classification of treatments, comparisons and subgroup comparisons explored within the meta-analysis. We argue that the structured approach which we adopted has implications for other systematic reviews.</p

Increasing uptake of influenza vaccine by pregnant women post H1N1 pandemic: a longitudinal study in Melbourne, Australia, 2010 to 2014

Background: A Melbourne (Australia) university affiliated, tertiary obstetric hospital provides lay and professional education about influenza vaccine in pregnancy annually each March, early in the local influenza season. Responding to a 2011 survey of new mothers' opinions, the hospital made influenza vaccine freely available in antenatal clinics from 2012. We wished to determine influenza vaccination uptake during pregnancy with these strategies 5 years after 2009 H1N1. Methods: Face to face interviews based on US Center for Disease Control and Prevention Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System with new mothers in postnatal wards each July, 2010 to 2014. We calculated recalled influenza vaccine uptake each year and assessed trends with chi square tests, and logistic regression. Results: We recorded 1086 interviews. Influenza vaccination during pregnancy increased by 6% per year (95% confidence interval 4 to 8%): from 29.6% in 2010 to 51.3% in 2014 (p < 0.001). Lack of discussion from maternity caregivers was a persistent reason for non-vaccination, recalled by 1 in 2 non-vaccinated women. Survey respondents preferred face to face consultations with doctors and midwives, internet and text messaging as information sources about influenza vaccination. Survey responses indicate messages about vaccine safety in pregnancy and infant benefits are increasingly being heeded. However, there was progressively lower awareness of maternal benefits of influenza vaccination, especially for women with risk factors for severe disease. Conclusions: We observed improving influenza vaccination during pregnancy. There is potential to integrate technology such as text message or internet with antenatal consultations to increase vaccination coverage further

Medicating race : heart disease and durable preoccupations with difference

Thesis (Ph. D. in History and Social Study of Science and Technology (HASTS))--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Science, Technology and Society, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 320-350).This dissertation is an examination of intersections of race, pharmaceuticals, and heart disease over the course of the 20th century and today. Each of these parts has had a dynamic history, and when they are invoked together they provide a terrain for arguments about interventions in health and in justice in the present. An enduring aspect of discourses of heart disease over the past century has been articulating connections between characterizations of the modem American way of life and of heart disease. In that process, heart disease research and practice has participated in differentiating Americans, especially by race. This dissertation uses heart disease categories and the drugs prescribed for them as windows into racialized medicine. The chapters are organized in a way that is roughly chronological, beginning with the emergence of cardiology as a specialty just before World War II and the landmark longitudinal Framingham Heart Study that began shortly thereafter. A central chapter tracks the emergence and mobilization of African American hypertension as a disease category since the 1960s.(cont.) Two final chapters attend to current racial invocations of two pharmaceuticals: thiazide and BiDil. Using methods from critical historiography of race, anthropology, and science studies, this thesis provides an account of race in medicine with interdisciplinary relevance. By attending to continuities and discontinuities over the period, this thesis illustrates that race in heart disease research and practice has been a durable preoccupation. Racialized medicine has used epistemologically eclectic notions of race, drawing variously on heterogeneous aspects that are both material and semiotic. This underlying ambiguity is central to the productivity of the recorded category of race. American practices of medicating race have also been mediating it, arbitrating and intervening on new and renewed articulations of inclusion and difference in democratic and racialized American ways of life.by Anne Pollock.Ph.D.in History and Social Study of Science and Technology (HAST

Wetland Connectivity and Macroinvertebrate Diversity

Wetlands are important in filtering pollutants from aquatic ecosystems and also serve as habitats for a diverse array of organisms. However, wetland-river networks are often subject to human disturbances such as dyke construction. These decreases in connectivity have the potential to impede movement of organisms and nutrients between habitats. This study examined how the food web structure and diversity of macroinvertebrate communities differ between wetland sites connected and disconnected to nearby rivers. According to macroinvertebrate surveys in wetlands connected to nearby rivers and dyked wetlands (not connected to nearby rivers), there is an increase in average species richness and diversity (Shannon index) in connected sites. This may be because wetland-river connections provide opportunities for species to enter adjacent ecosystems. I used stable isotope analyses to examine the impact of species diversity and connectivity on the nutrient source and trophic position of odonates (dragonflies and damselflies)- top predators in many wetlands. Because stable nitrogen isotope values (δ15N) increase by 3-5 ‰ with each trophic transfer, the offset in δ15N between odonates and amphipods (primary consumers in wetland food webs) served as a proxy for food chain length. Although there was not evidence to conclude that the offset in δ15 N is greater in connected wetlands, average Odonate δ15N values in sites connected to a river were higher than in dyked sites. This observed shift in δ15N may be an indication of different nitrogen inputs to connected and disconnected wetlands, specifically, the relative input of terrestrial (allochthonous) nutrients. Notably, amphipods are often assumed to be primary consumers in wetlands. However, amphipods in this study had variable δ15N values, providing evidence for the claim that they can function as both primary consumers and secondary-tertiary consumers. While managers increasingly promote the restoration of natural connectivity between wetlands and rivers, there are few studies showing the likely impacts to wetland food web structure. My research will help to fill this gap and provide a more solid foundation for management decisions aimed at preserving wetland biodiversity

The forgotten children

The prevailing viewpoint on the history of childhood is that: (a) there was no concept of childhood prior to the 17th century; (b) children were cruelly disciplined; (c) there was a formal parent-child relationship. The evidence presented to support the thesis is suspect and there is little systematic analysis of any source. Moreover, the thesis is not universally accepted - other authors have shown that there was a concept of childhood in the middle ages. In addition, the main writers have concentrated on discipline, to the virtual exclusion of all other childhood experiences. This study, covering the period from the 16th to the 19th century inclusive, has attempted to provide a detailed analysis of primary sources of evidence (autobiographies and diaries) in order to reconstruct child life in the past. Newspaper reports on child abuse cases occurring before the prevention of cruelty to children act in 1009 have also been examined. The methodological problems inherent in the sources used have been considered. The information provided by the texts suggests that parents did possess a concept of childhood, were not indifferent to their children and did not treat the latter cruelly. (With reference to the last point, the newspaper reports also reveal that child abuse was condemned before specific child protection legislation appeared). Although there was discord between parents and adolescent offspring, in the vast majority of families there was an affectionate parent-child relationship. Parents did not totally control their children's lives. Moreover, the texts suggest that the basics of child life have changed very little. Children did pass through such developmental stages as teething and talking at a similar age to modern children, although the texts do disclose the considerable amount of individual variation. Children played and also received at least some education in every century studied. Nonetheless there have been some changes in parental care and child life, as revealed in the texts: the concept of the innocence of childhood did not appear till the 10th century; there was an increase in thinking about the nature of childhood and the parental role in the abstract; there was a lessening of parental control in such areas as career and marriage through the centuries and there was an increase in the severity of the discipline meted out to children in the early 19th century

Dietary potassium supplementation improves vascular structure and ameliorates the damage caused by cerebral ischemia in normotensive rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Dietary potassium supplementation in hypertensive rats is cardioprotective. This protection includes a blood pressure independent reduction in the amount of damage caused by cerebral ischemia. Therefore, we hypothesized that dietary potassium supplementation would improve the outcome of ischemic stroke by improving cerebral vessel structure in normotensive rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were fed a high (HK) or low potassium (LK) diet for six weeks from six weeks of age. At the end of treatment, cerebral ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and the resultant infarct was quantified and expressed as a percentage of the hemisphere infarcted (%HI). MCA structure was assessed in an additional group of rats using a pressurized arteriograph.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The cerebral infarct was significantly smaller in rats fed the HK diet, compared to rats fed the LK diet (21 ± 5.4 vs 33.5 ± 4.8 %HI HK vs LK p < 0.05). Vessel structure was improved in WKY rats fed the HK diet as indicated by an increase in the MCA lumen (298 ± 6.3 vs 276 ± 3.9 μm HK vs LK p < 0.05) and outer diameters (322 ± 7.6 vs 305 ± 4.8 μm HK vs LK p < 0.05). Wall thickness and area were unchanged, suggesting an outward euthrophic remodelling process. The HK diet had no effect on body weight or telemetry blood pressure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These studies are the first to show a beneficial effect of dietary potassium in rats with normal blood pressure.</p

Effects of home access to active videogames on child self-esteem, enjoyment of physical activity, and anxiety related to electronic games: results from a randomized controlled trial

Objective: Active-input videogames could provide a useful conduit for increasing physical activity by improving a child’s self-confidence, physical activity enjoyment, and reducing anxiety. Therefore this study evaluated the impact of (a) the removal of home access to traditional electronic games or (b) their replacement with active-input videogames, on child self-perception, enjoyment of physical activity, and electronic game use anxiety. Subjects and Methods: This was a crossover, randomized controlled trial, conducted over a 6-month period in participants’ family homes in metropolitan Perth, Australia, from 2007 to 2010. Children 10–12 years old were recruited through school and community media. Of 210 children who were eligible, 74 met inclusion criteria, and 8 withdrew, leaving 66 children (33 girls) for analysis. A counterbalanced randomized order of three conditions sustained for 8 weeks each: No home access to electronic games, home access to traditional electronic games, and home access to active-input electronic games. Perception of self-esteem (Harter’s Self Perception Profile for Children), enjoyment of physical activity (Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale questionnaire), and anxiety toward electronic game use (modified Loyd and Gressard Computer Anxiety Subscale) were assessed. Results: Compared with home access to traditional electronic games, neither removal of all electronic games nor replacement with active-input games resulted in any significant change to child self-esteem, enjoyment of physical activity, or anxiety related to electronic games. Conclusions: Although active-input videogames have been shown to be enjoyable in the short term, their ability to impact on psychological outcomes is yet to be established

The Ursinus Weekly, April 16, 1962

Jane Mikuliak is prom queen; New Cub & Key men tapped • Sokoloffs sparkle in Forum program • Dr. Tornetta to address pre-medicals on Tuesday • Christianity versus communism heads weekend Y retreat • Building program rolls as ground broken for new heating and power plant Monday • Y slates 2-part seminar on modern art beginning this Wednesday evening • MSGA elections • PSEA sponsors high school day here • Navy information team to explain training program • Ursinus to give college S.S. qualification tests • IRC represents Yemen in recent Model UN session • Young Republicans slate events for coming month • Editorial: What\u27s wrong?; Two kinds of people; Friday the 13th • Jayne Mansfield exhilarates UC\u27s Martin, Kinzley • Chekhov\u27s Bear is ambitious calling • Letters to the editor • Intramural corner • Siebmen shine in victory over PMC, suffer defeat at hands of Delaware • Cindermen lose to Haverford power, return to stop Albrighters Saturday • Greek gleanings • Conservative coed visits Dixielandhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1317/thumbnail.jp