“If It’s Not Fixed, the Staples are Out!”: Documenting Young Children’s Perceptions of Strategic Reading Processes

The purpose of this article is to describe how teachers can foster strategic reading processes in their early literacy classrooms, and how to incorporate a Strategy Perception Interview to assist in documenting students’ use and perceptions of these strategies. Descriptions of classroom instruction incorporating literacy strategies and implementation of the Interview are discussed as well as results from the administration of the Interview and specific classroom implications

Chlamydia trachomatis and the risk of spontaneous preterm birth, babies who are born small for gestational age, and stillbirth: A population-based cohort study

Background: Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the most commonly diagnosed sexually transmitted infections worldwide, but reports in the medical literature of an association between genital chlamydia infection and adverse obstetric outcomes are inconsistent. Methods: The Western Australia Data Linkage Branch created a cohort of women of reproductive age by linking records of birth registrations with the electoral roll for women in Western Australia who were born from 1974 to 1995. The cohort was then linked to both chlamydia testing records and the state perinatal registry for data on preterm births and other adverse obstetric outcomes. We determined associations between chlamydia testing, test positivity, and adverse obstetric outcomes using multivariate logistic regression analyses. Findings: From 2001 to 2012, 101558 women aged 15 to 38 years had a singleton birth. Of these women, 3921 (3·9%) had a spontaneous preterm birth, 9762 (9·6% of 101371 women with available data) had a baby who was small for gestational age, and 682 (0·7%) had a stillbirth. During their pregnancy, 21267 (20·9%) of these women had at least one chlamydia test record, and 1365 (6·4%) of those tested were positive. Before pregnancy, 19157 (18·9%) of these women were tested for chlamydia, of whom 1595 (8·3%) tested positive for chlamydia. Among all women with a test record, after adjusting for age, ethnicity, maternal smoking, and history of other infections, we found no significant association between a positive test for chlamydia and spontaneous preterm birth (adjusted odds ratio 1·08 [95% CI 0·91–1·28]; p=0·37), a baby who was small for gestational age (0·95 [0·85–1·07]; p=0·39), or stillbirth (0·93 [0·61–1·42]; p=0·74). Interpretation: A genital chlamydia infection that is diagnosed and, presumably, treated either during or before pregnancy does not substantially increase a woman’s risk of having a spontaneous preterm birth, having a baby who is small for gestational age, or having a stillbirth. Funding: Australian National Health and Medical Research Counci

Climate response to large, high-latitude and low-latitude volcanic eruptions in the Community Climate System Model

Explosive volcanism is known to be a leading natural cause of climate change. The second half of the 13th century was likely the most volcanically perturbed half-century of the last 2000 years, although none of the major 13th century eruptions have been clearly attributed to specific volcanoes. This period was in general a time of transition from the relatively warm Medieval period to the colder Little Ice Age, but available proxy records are insufficient on their own to clearly assess whether this transition is associated with volcanism. This context motivates our investigation of the climate system sensitivity to high- and low-latitude volcanism using the fully coupled NCAR Community Climate System Model (CCSM3). We evaluate two sets of ensemble simulations, each containing four volcanic pulses, with the first set representing them as a sequence of tropical eruptions and the second representing eruptions occurring in the mid-high latitudes of both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The short-term, direct radiative impacts of tropical and high- latitude eruptions include significant cooling over the continents in summer and cooling over regions of increased sea-ice concentration in Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter. A main dynamical impact of moderate tropical eruptions is a winter warming pattern across northern Eurasia. Furthermore, both ensembles show significant reductions in global precipitation, especially in the summer monsoon regions. The most important long-term impact is the cooling of the high-latitude NH produced by multiple tropical eruptions, suggesting that positive feedbacks associated with ice and snow cover could lead to long-term climate cooling in the Arctic

Improving adherence to guidelines for the diagnosis and management of pelvic inflammatory disease: a systematic review

Background Evidence suggests adherence to clinical guidelines for pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) diagnosis and management is suboptimal. We systematically reviewed the literature for studies describing strategies to improve the adherence to PID clinical guidelines. Methods. The databases MEDLINE and EMBASE, and reference lists of review articles were searched from January 2000 to April 2012. Only studies with a control group were included. Results. An interrupted time-series study and two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included. The interrupted time-series found that following a multifaceted patient and practitioner intervention (practice protocol, provision of antibiotics on-site, written instructions for patients, and active followup), more patients received the recommended antibiotics and attended for followup. One RCT found a patient video on PID self-care did not improve medication compliance and followup. Another RCT found an abbreviated PID treatment guideline for health-practitioners improved their management of PID in hypothetical case scenarios but not their diagnosis of PID. Conclusion. There is limited research on what strategies can improve practitioner and patient adherence to PID diagnosis and management guidelines. Interventions that make managing PID more convenient, such as summary guidelines and provision of treatment on-site, appear to lead to better adherence but further empirical evidence is necessary

Real-Time Imaging System using a 12-MHz Forward-Looking Catheter with Single Chip CMUT-on-CMOS Array

Forward looking (FL) imaging catheters would be an important tool for several intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) applications. Single chip capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) arrays fabricated on front-end CMOS electronics with simplified electrical interconnect have been previously developed for highly flexible and compact catheters. In this study, we present a custom built real time imaging system utilizing catheters with single chip CMUT-on-CMOS arrays and show initial imaging results. The fabricated array has a dual-ring structure with 64 transmit (Tx) and 56 receive (Rx) elements. The CMUT arrays fit on a 2.1 mm diameter circular region with all the required front-end electronics. The device operates at 12 MHz center frequency and has around 20 V collapse voltage. The single-chip system requires 13 external connections including 4 Rx channels and power lines. The electrical connections to micro cables in the catheter are made from the top side of the chip using polyimide flex tapes. The device is placed on a 6-Fr catheter shaft and secured with a medical grade silicon rubber. For real time data acquisition, we developed a custom design FPGA based imaging platform to generate digital control sequences for the chip and collect RF data from Rx outputs. We performed imaging experiments using wire phantoms immersed in water to test the real time imaging system. The system has the potential to generate images at 32 fps rate with the particular catheter. The overall system is fully functional and shows promising image performance

Prospective cohort study of body mass index and the risk of hospitalisation: findings from 246 361 participants in the 45 and Up Study.

OBJECTIVE: To quantify the risk of hospital admission in relation to fine increments in body mass index (BMI). DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Population-based prospective cohort study of 246 361 individuals aged X45 years, from New South Wales, Australia, recruited from 2006–2009. Self-reported data on BMI and potential confounding/mediating factors were linked to hospital admission and death data. MAIN OUTCOMES: Cox-models were used to estimate the relative risk (RR) of incident all-cause and diagnosis-specific hospital admission (excluding same day) in relation to BMI. RESULTS: There were 61 583 incident hospitalisations over 479 769 person-years (py) of observation. In men, hospitalisation rates were lowest for BMI 20–o25 kgm2 (age-standardised rate:120/1000 py) and in women for BMI 18.5–o25 kgm2 (102/1000 py); above these levels, rates increased steadily with increasing BMI; rates were 203 and 183/1000 py, for men and women with BMI 35–50 kgm2, respectively. This pattern was observed regardless of baseline health status, smoking status and physical activity levels. After adjustment, the RRs (95% confidence interval) per 1 kgm2 increase in BMI from X20 kgm2 were 1.04(1.03–1.04) for men and 1.04(1.04–1.05) for women aged 45–64; corresponding RRs for ages 65–79 were 1.03(1.02–1.03) and 1.03(1.03–1.04); and for agesX80 years, 1.01(1.00–1.01) and 1.01(1.01–1.02). Hospitalisation risks were elevated for a large range of diagnoses, including a number of circulatory, digestive, musculoskeletal and respiratory diseases, while being protective for just two—fracture and hernia. CONCLUSIONS: Above normal BMI, the RR of hospitalisation increases with even small increases in BMI, less so in the elderly. Even a small downward shift in BMI, among those who are overweight not just those who are obese, could result in a substantial reduction in the risk of hospitalisatio

Massive relativistic particle model with spin from free two-twistor dynamics and its quantization

We consider a relativistic particle model in an enlarged relativistic phase space M^{18} = (X_\mu, P_\mu, \eta_\alpha, \oeta_\dalpha, \sigma_\alpha, \osigma_\dalpha, e, \phi), which is derived from the free two-twistor dynamics. The spin sector variables (\eta_\alpha, \oeta_\dalpha, \sigma_\alpha,\ osigma_\dalpha) satisfy two second class constraints and account for the relativistic spin structure, and the pair (e,\phi) describes the electric charge sector. After introducing the Liouville one-form on M^{18}, derived by a non-linear transformation of the canonical Liouville one-form on the two-twistor space, we analyze the dynamics described by the first and second class constraints. We use a composite orthogonal basis in four-momentum space to obtain the scalars defining the invariant spin projections. The first-quantized theory provides a consistent set of wave equations, determining the mass, spin, invariant spin projection and electric charge of the relativistic particle. The wavefunction provides a generating functional for free, massive higher spin fields.Comment: FTUV-05-0919, IFIC-05-46, IFT UWr 0110/05. Plain latex file, no macros, 22 pages. A comment and references added. To appear in PRD1

Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Extraterrestrial Missions: Workshop Report

This report on Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Extraterrestrial Missions summarizes the presentations, deliberations and findings of a workshop at NASA Ames Research Center, March 24-26, 2015, which was attended by more than 100 participants representing a diverse mix of science, engineering, technology, and policy areas. The main objective of the three-day workshop was to identify specific knowledge gaps that need to be addressed to make incremental progress towards the development of NASA Procedural Requirements (NPRs) for Planetary Protection during human missions to Mars