Preschool Connectedness: The Impact of Attending a School District Affiliated Prekindergarten Program on Student Success in the Initial Elementary Years

Schools are seeking ways to address the achievement gap and yield increased performance for students to meet expectations outlined in NCLB. An examination of efficacy of pre-k program delivery models within a given community might assist districts in determining where to focus energy in an attempt to address the existing achievement gap. Many school districts overlook the years preceding kindergarten as a time to concentrate on needs of the student population. To determine if a relationship existed between the type of pre-k program attended and the level of academic success as well as social competency as measured by office discipline referrals in the early elementary years (k–3), student performance on AIMSweb benchmarking items, Missouri Assessment Program scores, and the number of office discipline referrals received per year were examined among three groups: former district-affiliated pre-k participants, former community-based pre-k participants, and former home participants. In addition, interviews were conducted with parents and kindergarten teachers. The independent variable in the study was participation for a minimum of one year in the district-affiliated pre-k program. The dependent variables in this study were AIMSweb benchmarking scores, Missouri Assessment Program scores, and the number of office discipline referrals received. A single factor ANOVA determined that there was a significant difference in performance between the former district-affiliated program participants and those who spent their pre-k years learning primarily in the home environment. This difference was most apparent on the data analyzed at the third grade level. The overall analysis of the data demonstrated that the former district-affiliated participants performed at a similar level to those who participated in a community-based pre-k program. Results indicate that educational decision makers might benefit from an analysis of pre-k programming within their own community. This analysis might result in an understanding of the percentage of the population that is accessing pre-k programming and the percentage that is not participating in formal programming. It might also inform the district as to the most efficacious delivery model for their given population. They could utilize this information to determine if prekindergarten programming should become a focus from the school district perspective

Sports and Somali Girls: Increasing Participation and Acculturation

The research questions addressed in this project are: What are the current barriers in high schools in a large mid-­‐western city that prevent Somali girls from joining high school sports? Which local programs have been successful in recruiting Somali girls and how has this been accomplished? What are some solutions to overcoming obstacles that are preventing involvement? The motivating factor for this capstone was to provide recommendations to coaches and athletic directors of high schools on how to incorporate more of their Somali female population into their athletic programs. The results of this study suggest that there are specific actions that can be taken in order to increase involvement from the mentioned population

“I want to fit in… but I don’t want to change myself fundamentally”:A qualitative exploration of the relationship between masking and mental health for autistic teenagers

Background: Previous research has identified an association between masking and mental health for autistic people. However, the direction of causality and mechanisms involved in this relationship are not well understood. This qualitative study aimed to investigate autistic teenagers’ experiences of masking, mental health and how the two develop and interact. / Methods: Twenty autistic teenagers took part in a semi-structured interview. The interviews were analysed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis. / Results: From the analysis, one theme was identified to conceptualise masking as described by participants. Five more inter-related themes were identified, each involved both in the relationship between masking and mental health and conversely in the relationship between authenticity and mental health. Participants described how masking and mental health both influence each other, and both are influenced by social and environmental factors. / Conclusions: The findings are consistent with previous research indicating that masking is associated with mental health difficulties. Our analysis presents a broader conceptualisation of masking than previously defined in the literature, placing social oppression of autistic people at the heart of the relationship between masking and mental health. The findings have implications for diagnostic services, post-diagnostic support and therapeutic interventions, highlighting the need to challenge deficit-based narratives of autism

“You feel, in that moment, you are sitting next to them!”: Exploring audience responses to virtual reality nonfiction in the home

Summary findings from EPSRC Virtual Realities research project Household Study. Peer reviewed article in Convergence Journal - in UWE Research Repository.‘You wouldn’t get that from watching TV!’: Exploring audience responses to virtual reality non-fiction in the home https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/135485652097996

Did you see what I saw?: Comparing attentional synchrony during 360° video viewing in head mounted display and tablets

Advances in head mounted displays (HMDs) have increased the interest in cinematic virtual reality as an art form. However, the freedom of a viewer in 360 video presents challenges in ensuring that audiences do not inadvertently miss important events and locations. We examined whether the high level of immersion provided by HMDs encourages participants to synchronize their attention during viewing. Sixty-four participants watched the 360° documentary Clouds Over Sidra (VRSE.works, 2015) using either an HMD or via a flat screen tablet display. We used intersubject correlation (ISC) analysis to measure attentional synchrony over the course of the video and to examine whether spatial and temporal factors led to different amounts of correlation both within and between groups. We found significantly greater ISC for the HMD compared to the tablet group. This effect was greatest for scenes with a unidirectional focus and at the start of scenes. We discuss our results in terms of the visual properties and the motor affordances of HMDs versus tablets. Our results show the value of HMDs in increasing attentional synchrony and may provide producers of 360° content insight in how to encourage or discourage synchronization of viewing direction

Moderation of effects of AAC based on setting and types of aided AAC on outcome variables: An aggregate study of single-case research with individuals with ASD

Objective: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the potential moderating effects of intervention setting and type of aided AAC on outcome variables for students with autism spectrum disorders. Methods: Improvement Rate Difference, an effect size measure, was used to calculate aggregate effects across 35 single case research studies. Results: Results indicated that the largest effects for aided AAC were observed in general education settings. With respect to communication outcomes, both speech generating devices and the Picture Exchange Communication System were associated with larger effects than other picture-based systems. With respect to challenging behaviour outcomes, SGDs produced larger effects than PECS. Conclusion: This aggregate study highlights the importance of considering intervention setting, choice of AAC system, and target outcomes when designing and planning an aided AAC intervention

Moderation of effects of AAC based on setting and types of aided AAC on outcome variables: An aggregate study of single-case research with individuals with ASD

Objective: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the potential moderating effects of intervention setting and type of aided AAC on outcome variables for students with autism spectrum disorders. Methods: Improvement Rate Difference, an effect size measure, was used to calculate aggregate effects across 35 single case research studies. Results: Results indicated that the largest effects for aided AAC were observed in general education settings. With respect to communication outcomes, both speech generating devices and the Picture Exchange Communication System were associated with larger effects than other picture-based systems. With respect to challenging behaviour outcomes, SGDs produced larger effects than PECS. Conclusion: This aggregate study highlights the importance of considering intervention setting, choice of AAC system, and target outcomes when designing and planning an aided AAC intervention

Over-Expression of LEDGF/p75 in HEp-2 Cells Enhances Autoimmune IgG Response in Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia : A Novel Diagnostic Approach with Therapeutic Consequence?

Lens epithelium-derived growth factor splice variant of 75 kDa (LEDGF/p75) is an autoantigen over-expressed in solid tumors and acts as a stress-related transcriptional co-activator. Participation of autoimmune responses in the pathophysiology of benign prostatic hyperplasia (PBH) and a corresponding immunosuppressive therapy by TNFalpha antagonists has been recently suggested. Thus, autoAb testing could aid in the diagnosis of BPH patients profiting from such therapy. We generated CRISPR/Cas9 modified HEp-2 LEDGF knock-out (KO) and HEp-2 LEDGF/p75 over-expressing (OE) cells and examined IgG autoantibody reactivity to LEDGF/p75 in patients with prostate cancer (PCa, n = 89), bladder cancer (BCa, n = 116), benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH, n = 103), and blood donors (BD, n = 60) by indirect immunofluorescence assay (IFA). Surprisingly, we could not detect elevated binding of autoAbs against LEDGF/p75 in cancer patients, but autoAb reactivity to LEDGF/p75 OE cells in about 50% of patients with BPH was unexpectedly significantly increased. Furthermore, a line immunoassay enabling the detection of 18 different autoAbs revealed a significantly increased occurrence of anti-dsDNA autoAbs in 34% of BPH patients in contrast to tumor patients and BD. This finding was confirmed by anti-mitochondrial (mDNA) autoAb detection with the Crithidia luciliae immunofluorescence test, which also showed a significantly higher prevalence (34%) of anti-mDNA autoAbs in BPH. In summary, our study provided further evidence for the occurrence of autoimmune responses in BPH. Furthermore, LEDGF/p75 over-expression renders HEp-2 cells more autoantigenic and an ideal target for autoAb analysis in BPH with a potential therapy consequence