Teacher Retention: Retaining Teachers in High-Needs, Urban Secondary Schools in a Midwest State Post-Pandemic

Teacher retention has been a challenge for most schools for several years. High-needs schools have been known to have twice the trouble with teacher retention as schools not considered high-needs. The purpose of this study was to identify effective practices school principals can implement to retain teachers at high-needs, urban secondary schools. This quantitative study called on teachers from high-needs schools in Iowa to complete a survey identifying principal qualities related to retention, perceived reasons for teacher attrition, and reasons they continue to teach at their current school. Three hundred eighty-five teachers from five different Iowa school districts participated in the study. The findings of the study suggest teacher attrition and retention revolves around three main elements—Leader Member Exchange (LMX), teacher allocations, and school climate

The temperature phased anaerobic biofilter-ASBR process

The temperature phased anaerobic biofilter-ASBR system is a new system that has been developed at Iowa State University. The temperature phased system employs a first stage thermophilic (55°C) biofilter reactor followed in series by a second stage mesophilic (35°C) anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR). The idea of temperature phased anaerobic treatment is to eliminate the disadvantages of both thermophilic (poor organic removals) and mesophilic (long retention times) temperatures while retaining the advantages of both these temperatures (fast reaction rates at thermophilic temperatures and good organic removal efficiencies at mesophilic temperatures);Three temperature phased systems were operated in the laboratory for the duration of this study. The systems were fed nonfat dry milk at hydraulic retention times (HRTs) ranging from 14 to 30 hours. This was accomplished by operating the second stage ASBRs at constant HRTs of 24, 18, and 12 hours, and changing the HRT of the first stage biofilters between 6 and 2 hours;The temperature phased system was able to achieve TCOD removals in excess 90% at system loads up to 26.8 g COD/L/day and SCOD removals in excess of 94% at these same organic loads at all HRTs tested. The temperature phased system performed equally at all HRTs and organic loads tested with the largest difference in organic removal efficiency between operating conditions of 5%;The second stage mesophilic ASBR was able to compensate for the declining efficiency of the first stage thermophilic unit as organic load was increased. Volatile fatty acid production remained low in the second stage ASBR even as volatile fatty acid production increased dramatically in the first stage biofilter. The concentration of propionic acid was greater in the first stage biofilter than the concentration of acetic acid with both acids being degraded in the second stage ASBR;The temperature phased system is a stable and resilient system as evidenced by its quick and complete start-up 54 hours after a 14 day shutdown. Overall, the temperature phased system performs better than either a thermophilic biofilter or a mesophilic ASBR operated with the same substrate and at similar organic loads and HRTs

Respirometry Test Manual: WEERC Laboratory

Biological treatment methods are the basis for waste water treatment worldwide. Among biological treatment systems, activated sludge processes are most widely used to remove the oxygen demand and nutrients from wastewater. The activated sludge process uses naturally occurring bacteria at high concentrations in tanks. The bacteria in the activated sludge process remove small molecules of organic carbon, nitrogen, and phosphate as a consequence of bacterial growth and the waste water is purified. The effluent can then be safely released to the environment. Respirometry techniques are an effective tool to measure the respiration of living organisms. These techniques are associated with readily biodegradable organic carbon . Modern respirometry has the ability to automate data collection. Therefore, it is considered a simple and effective tool to measure the oxygen uptake or the rate of substrate depletion. The oxygen consumption is directly associated with substrate removal and biomass growth in respirometry. This makes it a useful technique for monitoring, modeling and controlling the activated sludge process

The practices of a successful educational leader : a reflective essay

Good leaders are essential to successful organizations in the business world. Similarly, good educational leaders are imperative to students\u27 continual success in the school building and beyond. High student achievement and positive school climate are very important when school is in session, but students must continue to be successful when school is not in session. Some of the many roles that allow an educational leader to make this possible include: being a leader of reflection, educational change, continuous improvement, and service. These roles influence both teachers and students in the development of themselves, encouraging them to continually strive to be successful

Teacher Retention: Retaining Teachers in High-Needs, Urban Secondary Schools in a Midwest State Post-Pandemic

Teacher retention has been a challenge for most schools for several years. High-needs schools have been known to have twice the trouble with teacher retention as schools not considered high-needs. The purpose of this study was to identify effective practices school principals can implement to retain teachers at high-needs, urban secondary schools. This quantitative study called on teachers from high-needs schools in Iowa to complete a survey identifying principal qualities related to retention, perceived reasons for teacher attrition, and reasons they continue to teach at their current school. Three hundred eighty-five teachers from five different Iowa school districts participated in the study. The findings of the study suggest teacher attrition and retention revolves around three main elements—Leader Member Exchange (LMX), teacher allocations, and school climate

Recommended Strategies for Odor Control in Confinement Beef Cattle Operations

Odors coming off a beef feeding operation are generated from three different sources: the feedlot facility, waste storage, and the land where the manure is applied. In some operations, the feedlot facility may also serve as the primary waste storage area. To reduce the total amount of odor generated from a beef feeding operation, odor generation and emission by each of these three sources needs to be reduced

Entanglement model of antibody viscosity

Antibody solutions are typically much more viscous than solutions of globular proteins at equivalent volume fraction. Here we propose that this is due to molecular entanglements that are caused by the elongated shape and intrinsic flexibility of antibody molecules. We present a simple theory in which the antibodies are modeled as linear polymers that can grow via reversible bonds between the antigen binding domains. This mechanism explains the observation that relatively subtle changes to the interparticle interaction can lead to large changes in the viscosity. The theory explains the presence of distinct power law regimes in the concentration dependence of the viscosity as well as the correlation between the viscosity and the charge on the variable domain in our anti-streptavidin IgG1 model system

The Value of High Intensity Locomotor Training Applied to Patients With Acute-Onset Neurologic Injury

The purpose of this review is to delineate some of the evidence regarding the effects of exercise intensity during locomotor training in patients with stroke and iSCI. We provide specific definitions of exercise intensity used within the literature, describe methods used to ensure appropriate levels of exertion, and discuss potential adverse events and safety concerns during its application. Further details on the effects of locomotor training intensity on clinical outcomes, and on neuromuscular and cardiovascular function will be addressed as available. Existing literature across multiple studies and meta-analyses reveals that exercise training intensity is likely a major factor that can influence locomotor function after neurologic injury. To extend these findings, we describe previous attempts to implement moderate to high intensity interventions during physical rehabilitation of patients with neurologic injury, including the utility of specific strategies to facilitate implementation, and to navigate potential barriers that may arise during implementation efforts

Heterozygote advantage at HLA class I and II loci and reduced risk of colorectal cancer

Objective: Reduced diversity at Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) loci may adversely affect the host's ability to recognize tumor neoantigens and subsequently increase disease burden. We hypothesized that increased heterozygosity at HLA loci is associated with a reduced risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: We imputed HLA class I and II four-digit alleles using genotype data from a population-based study of 5,406 cases and 4,635 controls from the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer Study (MECC). Heterozygosity at each HLA locus and the number of heterozygous genotypes at HLA class -I (A, B, and C) and HLA class -II loci (DQB1, DRB1, and DPB1) were quantified. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the risk of CRC associated with HLA heterozygosity. Individuals with homozygous genotypes for all loci served as the reference category, and the analyses were adjusted for sex, age, genotyping platform, and ancestry. Further, we investigated associations between HLA diversity and tumor-associated T cell repertoire features, as measured by tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs; N=2,839) and immunosequencing (N=2,357). Results: Individuals with all heterozygous genotypes at all three class I genes had a reduced odds of CRC (OR: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.56-0.97, p= 0.031). A similar association was observed for class II loci, with an OR of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.60-0.95, p= 0.016). For class-I and class-II combined, individuals with all heterozygous genotypes had significantly lower odds of developing CRC (OR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.49-0.87, p= 0.004) than those with 0 or one heterozygous genotype. HLA class I and/or II diversity was associated with higher T cell receptor (TCR) abundance and lower TCR clonality, but results were not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our findings support a heterozygote advantage for the HLA class-I and -II loci, indicating an important role for HLA genetic variability in the etiology of CRC

Tumor immune infiltration estimated from gene expression profiles predicts colorectal cancer relapse

A substantial fraction of patients with stage I-III colorectal adenocarcinoma (CRC) experience disease relapse after surgery with curative intent. However, biomarkers for predicting the likelihood of CRC relapse have not been fully explored. Therefore, we assessed the association between tumor infiltration by a broad array of innate and adaptive immune cell types and CRC relapse risk. We implemented a discovery-validation design including a discovery dataset from Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC; Tampa, FL) and three independent validation datasets: (1) GSE41258 (2) the Molecular Epidemiology of Colorectal Cancer (MECC) study, and (3) GSE39582. Infiltration by 22 immune cell types was inferred from tumor gene expression data, and the association between immune infiltration by each cell type and relapse-free survival was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. Within each of the four independent cohorts, CD4+ memory activated T cell (HR: 0.93, 95% CI: 0.90-0.96; FDR = 0.0001) infiltration was associated with longer time to disease relapse, independent of stage, microsatellite instability, and adjuvant therapy. Based on our meta-analysis across the four datasets, 10 innate and adaptive immune cell types associated with disease relapse of which 2 were internally validated using multiplex immunofluorescence. Moreover, immune cell type infiltration was a better predictors of disease relapse than Consensus Molecular Subtype (CMS) and other expression-based biomarkers (Immune-AICMCC:238.1-238.9; CMS-AICMCC: 241.0). These data suggest that transcriptome-derived immune profiles are prognostic indicators of CRC relapse and quantification of both innate and adaptive immune cell types may serve as candidate biomarkers for predicting prognosis and guiding frequency and modality of disease surveillance