A Causal-Comparative Study of Christian School Special Needs Student Test Scores Based on Teacher Degree

Special education is a field that is expanding at a rapid pace. A second field of education that has been in existence for only a few decades is the modern Christian K-12 day school. The merging of the two of these phenomena in education creates a research platform that few have studied in unison. There is little research when pairing these two fields, but the need to study them is great. This study will focus on the academic achievement of students with special needs, based upon standardized math and reading test scores, using the Stanford 10 (SAT 10) standardized assessment utilized by many Christian schools nationwide. The study will analyze standardized stanine scores of these students based on the formal college degree field of their classroom teacher. Using data from reading and math sub-tests of the SAT 10, the data determined whether there was a significant difference in reading and math stanine scores of high school students with an Individual Education Plan (IEP). The study compared scores of students whose teachers have one of the following degrees: a special education degree, a general or other education degree, or a non-education degree. A non-experimental, causal-comparative design was used to collect and analyze data. Test scores from the Spring 2019 SAT 10 were collected, matching those students’ scores to the credentials of the reading and math teachers. Data were collected from the administrator of each participating school via a data collection form using student numbers. The students’ SAT 10 reading and math stanine test score data from the 2019 school year was analyzed, using an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) significance test for math scores and an independent samples t-test for the reading scores. Results of the study showed that there is not a significant difference in reading and math test scores based on teacher degree

Slum health: diseases of neglected populations.

BackgroundUrban slums, like refugee communities, comprise a social cluster that engenders a distinct set of health problems. With 1 billion people currently estimated to live in such communities, this neglected population has become a major reservoir for a wide spectrum of health conditions that the formal health sector must deal with.DiscussionUnlike what occurs with refugee populations, the formal health sector becomes aware of the health problems of slum populations relatively late in the course of their illnesses. As such, the formal health sector inevitably deals with the severe and end-stage complications of these diseases at a substantially greater cost than what it costs to manage non-slum community populations. Because of the informal nature of slum settlements, and cultural, social, and behavioral factors unique to the slum populations, little is known about the spectrum, burden, and determinants of illnesses in these communities that give rise to these complications, especially of those diseases that are chronic but preventable. In this article, we discuss observations made in one slum community of 58,000 people in Salvador, the third largest city in Brazil, to highlight the existence of a spectrum and burden of chronic illnesses not likely to be detected by the formal sector health services until they result in complications or death. Lack of health-related data from slums could lead to inappropriate and unrealistic allocation of health care resources by the public and private providers. Similar misassumptions and misallocations are likely to exist in other nations with large urban slum populations.SummaryContinued neglect of ever-expanding urban slum populations in the world could inevitably lead to greater expenditure and diversion of health care resources to the management of end-stage complications of diseases that are preventable. A new approach to health assessment and characterization of social-cluster determinants of health in urban slums is urgently needed

Relaxation Adaptive Memory Programming For The Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem

The resource constrained project scheduling problem (RCPSP) is one of the most intractable problems in operations research; it is NP-hard in the strong sense. Due to the hardness of the problem, exact solution methods can only tackle instances of relatively small size. For larger instances commonly found in real applications heuristic solution methods are necessary to find near-optimal solutions within acceptable computation time limits. In this study algorithms based on the relaxation adaptive memory programming (RAMP) method (Rego, 2005) are developed for the purpose of solving the RCPSP. The RAMP algorithms developed here combine mathematical relaxation, including Lagrangian relaxation and surrogate constraint relaxation, with tabu search and genetic algorithms. Computational tests are performed on an extensive set of benchmark instances. The results demonstrate the capability of the proposed approaches to the solution of RCPSPs of different sizes and characteristics and provide meaningful insights to the potential application of these approaches to other more complex resource-constrained scheduling problems

Refrigerated storage and cryopreservation of sperm for the production of red snapper and snapper hybrids

The red snapper Lutjanus campechanus is an economically valuable sport and commercial fishery, and because of its high market value and limited commercial harvest, red snapper have received considerable attention as a candidate for marine aquaculture and stock enhancement programs. The goal of this thesis was to improve hatchery techniques for artificial spawning of red snapper Lutjanus campechanus. The objectives were to: 1) refine protocols for collecting, handling, transport, and holding of mature red snapper broodstock for induced spawning; 2) establish methods for strip-spawning of red snapper to optimize egg quality; 3) develop procedures for the collection, storage, and use of refrigerated and cryopreserved sperm of red snapper and gray snapper, and 4) evaluate the overall effects of gamete and larval quality on rearing success. The techniques developed were practical methods that hatchery managers can use to collect high-quality broodstock, to preserve sperm, and to collect and incubate eggs. Red snapper broodstock (N = 101; 1.0 to 3.8 kg) were collected during the 2000 and 2001 spawning seasons (May to August) off coastal Louisiana by hook and line sampling. The reproductive condition of females was evaluated through samples of oocytes collected by intraovarian biopsy. Females with oocytes ranging in size from 350 to 550 µm were considered good candidates for hormone induced spawning. Female snapper were induced to ovulate with injections of human chorionic gonadotropin. Females were monitored for oocyte maturation and were stripped after ovulation. In a series of 2 x 2 trials, refrigerated and cryopreserved sperm with motilities above 80% were compared to evaluate fertilization and hatching success. Eggs were incubated in plastic bags (200 eggs per L) and fertilization was assessed as embryos developed through 8-cell, neurulation, and hatch. Fertilization and hatch rates ranged from 7 to 99% and were highly correlated (r2 = 0.92). Refrigerated sperm yielded fertilization rates of 52 ± 23% (mean ± SD) and cryopreserved sperm yielded fertilization rates of 44 ± 22%. Use of refrigerated and cryopreserved sperm improved efficiency within the hatchery and each were effective for the fertilization of eggs and production of larvae

A phylogenomic analysis of the Actinomycetales mce operons

BACKGROUND: The genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis harbors four copies of a cluster of genes termed mce operons. Despite extensive research that has demonstrated the importance of these operons on infection outcome, their physiological function remains obscure. Expanding databases of complete microbial genome sequences facilitate a comparative genomic approach that can provide valuable insight into the role of uncharacterized proteins. RESULTS: The M. tuberculosis mce loci each include two yrbE and six mce genes, which have homology to ABC transporter permeases and substrate-binding proteins, respectively. Operons with an identical structure were identified in all Mycobacterium species examined, as well as in five other Actinomycetales genera. Some of the Actinomycetales mce operons include an mkl gene, which encodes an ATPase resembling those of ABC uptake transporters. The phylogenetic profile of Mkl orthologs exactly matched that of the Mce and YrbE proteins. Through topology and motif analyses of YrbE homologs, we identified a region within the penultimate cytoplasmic loop that may serve as the site of interaction with the putative cognate Mkl ATPase. Homologs of the exported proteins encoded adjacent to the M. tuberculosis mce operons were detected in a conserved chromosomal location downstream of the majority of Actinomycetales operons. Operons containing linked mkl, yrbE and mce genes, resembling the classic organization of an ABC importer, were found to be common in Gram-negative bacteria and appear to be associated with changes in properties of the cell surface. CONCLUSION: Evidence presented suggests that the mce operons of Actinomycetales species and related operons in Gram-negative bacteria encode a subfamily of ABC uptake transporters with a possible role in remodeling the cell envelope