A Study of the Attitudes of Public School Teachers in Chelan and Douglas Counties Regarding Teacher Evaluation for Merit Pay Purposes

The purposes of this research were: (1) to determine the attitude of public school teachers toward teacher evaluation for the purposes of merit pay; and (2) to determine the feasibility of a merit pay program based on these attitudes

Utility of accelerometers to measure physical activity in children attending an obesity treatment intervention

Objectives. To investigate the use of accelerometers to monitor change in physical activity in a childhood obesity treatment intervention. Methods. 28 children aged 7–13 taking part in “Families for Health” were asked to wear an accelerometer (Actigraph) for 7-days, and complete an accompanying activity diary, at baseline, 3-months and 9-months. Interviews with 12 parents asked about research measurements. Results. Over 90% of children provided 4 days of accelerometer data, and around half of children provided 7 days. Adequately completed diaries were collected from 60% of children. Children partake in a wide range of physical activity which uniaxial monitors may undermonitor (cycling, nonmotorised scootering) or overmonitor (trampolining). Two different cutoffs (4 METS or 3200 counts⋅min-1) for minutes spent in moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) yielded very different results, although reached the same conclusion regarding a lack of change in MVPA after the intervention. Some children were unwilling to wear accelerometers at school and during sport because they felt they put them at risk of stigma and bullying. Conclusion. Accelerometers are acceptable to a majority of children, although their use at school is problematic for some, but they may underestimate children's physical activity

Rethinking participatory design research in virtual environments: A case study

After the COVID-19-related closure of most institutions, including public libraries, in March 2020, there arose a need for significant modifications to research methods for an ongoing three-year IMLS-sponsored project investigating the use of participatory design techniques, specifically, Bonded Design (BD), to enable meaningful collaboration between public librarians and older adults in development of targeted programming and services. The foremost modification involves converting face-to-face design sessions to virtual, to allow older adults to participate from their homes. Shifting to a completely virtual environment actually benefits the participatory goals of this research; for example, by going virtual it is surmised that the possibilities for greater solicitation of non-library users for participation will broaden the perspectives and expertise of the design team and allow for the inclusion of the older adult participants in all aspects of the research design. However, this new reliance on technology to host low-tech activities within the shared space of the design team, and inherent in BD, has also introduced new complexities for planning: 1) the focus of investigation must remain on the efficacy of the BD methodology and not the hosting technologies; 2) as BD emphasizes equity among its members in recognition of the unique expertise each team member brings, librarian-researchers must devise ways of avoiding teacher-student hierarchies when helping those older adult participants who may experience difficulties using the technology; and 3) methods will need to be developed to support any participants not comfortable engaging in virtual environments due to issues such as privacy concerns. The proposed poster will highlight the above challenges and potential solutions, and in doing so, directly relates to the “resilience” and “inspiration” themes of the conference

Energy Conversion Alternatives Study (ECAS), General Electric Phase 1. Volume 3: Energy Conversion subsystems and components. Part 2: Primary heat input systems and heat exchangers

Primary heat input systems and heat exchangers were evaluated for advanced energy conversion systems. Results are presented and discussed

Pilot of ‘Families for Health’ : community-based family intervention for obesity

Objective - To develop and evaluate ‘Families for Health’ - a new community based family intervention for childhood obesity. Design – Programme development, pilot study and evaluation using intention-to-treat analysis. Setting – Coventry, England Participants – 27 overweight or obese children aged 7-13 years (18 girls, 9 boys) and their parents, from 21 families. Intervention – ‘Families for Health’ is a 12 week programme with parallel groups for parents and children, addressing parenting, lifestyle change and social & emotional development. Main Outcome Measures – Primary: change in baseline BMI z-score at end of programme (3 months) and 9 month follow-up. Attendance, drop-out, parents’ perception of programme, child’s quality of life and self esteem, parental mental health, parent-child relationships and lifestyle changes were also measured. Results: Attendance rate was 62%, with 18 of the 27 (67%) children completing the programme. For the 22 children with follow-up data (including 4 drop-outs), BMI z-score was reduced by -0.18 (95%CI -0.30 to -0.05) at end of programme and by -0.21 (-0.35 to -0.07) at 9 months. Statistically significant improvements were observed in children’s quality of life and lifestyle (reduced sedentary behaviour, increased steps and reduced exposure to unhealthy foods), child-parent relationships and parents’ mental health. Fruit and vegetable consumption, participation in moderate/vigorous exercise and children’s self-esteem did not change significantly. Topics on parenting skills, activity and food were rated as helpful and were used with confidence by the majority of parents. Conclusions Families for Health is a promising new childhood obesity intervention. Definitive evaluation of its clinical effectiveness by randomised controlled trial is now required

Parallel analysis of ribonucleotide-dependent deletions produced by yeast Top1 in vitro and in vivo

Ribonucleotides are the most abundant non-canonical component of yeast genomic DNA and their persistence is associated with a distinctive mutation signature characterized by deletion of a single repeat unit from a short tandem repeat. These deletion events are dependent on DNA topoisomerase I (Top1) and are initiated by Top1 incision at the relevant ribonucleotide 3′-phosphodiester. A requirement for the re-ligation activity of Top1 led us to propose a sequential cleavage model for Top1-dependent mutagenesis at ribonucleotides. Here, we test key features of this model via parallel in vitro and in vivo analyses. We find that the distance between two Top1 cleavage sites determines the deletion size and that this distance is inversely related to the deletion frequency. Following the creation of a gap by two Top1 cleavage events, the tandem repeat provides complementarity that promotes realignment to a nick and subsequent Top1-mediated ligation. Complementarity downstream of the gap promotes deletion formation more effectively than does complementarity upstream of the gap, consistent with constraints to realignment of the strand to which Top1 is covalently bound. Our data fortify sequential Top1 cleavage as the mechanism for ribonucleotide-dependent deletions and provide new insight into the component steps of this process