Using Online Interventions to Address Summer Learning Loss in Rising Sixth-Graders

Summer learning loss affects students to different degrees across curriculum areas. Traditional content review methods have often included workbooks or practice packets that lacked real-time feedback to the student. This study provided optional weekly online math and science review lessons to rising sixthgraders in two midwestern schools over the ten-week summer break. Students received both automated feedback from the online environment and teacher feedback in response to student questions or information students needed to acquire mastery. Students also had the opportunity to revise and edit their work. A test group, summer computer-based intervention group (SCBI), and a control group, completed a spring semester pre-assessment and a fall semester post-assessment to measure the change in math and science knowledge over the summer. The successful performance of the SCBI group on the post-assessment was statically significant when compared to the control group

The Effects of Residency and Body Size on Contest Initiation and Outcome in the Territorial Dragon, Ctenophorus decresii

Empirical studies of the determinants of contests have been attempting to unravel the complexity of animal contest behaviour for decades. This complexity requires that experiments incorporate multiple determinants into studies to tease apart their relative effects. In this study we examined the complex contest behaviour of the tawny dragon (Ctenophorus decresii), a territorial agamid lizard, with the specific aim of defining the factors that determine contest outcome. We manipulated the relative size and residency status of lizards in contests to weight their importance in determining contest outcome. We found that size, residency and initiating a fight were all important in determining outcomes of fights. We also tested whether residency or size was important in predicting the status of lizard that initiated a fight. We found that residency was the most important factor in predicting fight initiation. We discuss the effects of size and residency status in context of previous studies on contests in tawny dragons and other animals. Our study provides manipulative behavioural data in support of the overriding effects of residency on initiation fights and winning them.This study was funded by the Australian Research Council (www.arc.gov.au), the School of Botany and Zoology, and ANU (www.anu.edu.au). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

ACTION FOR BETTER GOVERNMENT: A ROLE FOR DONORS

Summary This article describes calls for more participation and accountability to bring better government in countries receiving aid and suggests how donors could help. These calls are made because people are more educated, better informed, disillusioned with bad government, and moved by news of changes elsewhere and by the concerns of donors. Better government requires a balance between economic, social and political goals, and the political determination to act against corruption. Aid programmes need participatory and accountable management with project appraisals that value social and political, as well as economic, benefits. The article concludes with a portfolio of project proposals to help political leaders, give people voice, transfer resources from public to private sectors, act against corruption, support law and order, strengthen civil society, and provide training to develop attitudes as well as skills. Résumé Cet article décrit les appels pour une augmentation de la participation et de la responsabilité financière afin d'instaurer de meilleures pratiques de gouvernement dans les pays donataires d'aide, et suggère certains moyens par lesquels les donateurs pourraient faciliter à ce processus. Ces demandes se font entendre parce que les peuples sont plus éduqués, mieux informés, désillusionnés par le mauvais gouvernement, et poussés à la fois par les nouvelles des changements intervenus ailleurs et par les inquitétudes des pays donateurs. L'amélioration de la pratique gouvernamentale exige un équilibre entre les aspirations économiques, sociales et politiques, et la volonté politique d'intervenir contre la corruption. Les programmes d'aide exigent la mise en place de moyens de gestion à la fois participatifs et capables de répondre d'eux mêmes, offrant en particulier des moyens d'évaluation des projets qui tiendraient compte des avantages sociaux et politiques en plus des bénéfices économiques. L'article présente en conclusion un portefeuille de projets proposés afin d'aider les dirigeants politiques; de faire entendre la voix des peuples; de transférer les ressources du secteur public au secteur privé; d'intervenir contre la corruption; d'appuyer l'ordre public; de renforcer la société civile; et de mettre en place des programmes de formation susceptibles de développer à la fois les attitudes et les aptitudes. Resumen Este artículo describe los llamamientos a más participación y responsabilidad para alcanzar mejor gobierno en los países que reciben ayuda, y sugiere cómo los donantes pueden ayudar. Se hacen estos llamamientos porque la gente está hoy más educada, mejor informada, y desilusionada con los malos gobiernos, y conmovida con las noticias de cambios en otros sitios, así como por el interés de los donantes. Un mejor gobierno requiere un equilibrio entre los objetivos económicos, sociales y políticos, y la determinación de actuar contra la corrupción. Los programas de ayuda necesitan una administración participatoria y responsable con evaluaciones que midan no sólo los beneficios económicos, sino también los sociales y los políticos. El artículo concluye con un paquete de propuestas para ayudar a los líderes políticos, dar voz al pueblo, transferir recursos del sector público al privado, apoyar la lucha contra la corrupción, asegurar el respeto a las leyes, fortalecer la sociedad civil, y proveer entrenamiento para desarrollar tanto actitudes como habilidades

Immunopathology of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

Both increased mast cells numbers and raised immune mediator concentrations indicate immune activation in the affected skin of patients with early CRPS, but little is known about regional immune cell involvement in late stage CRPS. The aim of the current study was to determine skin immune cell populations in longstanding CRPS. Using 6mm skin punch biopsies from CRPS-affected and non-affected tissues, and a combination of chemical and immunofluorescence staining, we examined the density and function of key cell populations including mast cells, epidermal Langerhans cells (LCs), and tissue resident T-cells. We found no significant differences in either overall immune cell infiltrates, or mast cell density between CRPS-affected and non-affected sub-epidermal tissue sections, contrasting recent findings in early CRPS by other groups. However, CD1a+ LC densities in the epidermal layer were significantly decreased in affected compared to non-affected CRPS limbs (p

A Case for Online Algorithms

Cyberneticists agree that metamorphic communication are an interesting new topic in the field of robotics, and mathematicians concur. After years of appropriate research into XML, we verify the simulation of cache coherence, demonstrates the appropriate importance of software engineering. Our focus in this position paper is not on whether suffix trees and multicast algorithms are often incompatible, but rather on constructing an adaptive tool for controlling IPv6 (Chalcocite)

Review of Salvage Therapy for Biochemically Recurrent Prostate Cancer: The Role of Imaging and Rationale for Systemic Salvage Targeted Anti-Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Radioimmunotherapy

Despite local therapy with curative intent, approximately 30% of men suffer from biochemical relapse. Though some of these PSA relapses are not life threatening, many men eventually progress to metastatic disease and die of prostate cancer. Local therapy is an option for some men, but many have progression of disease following local salvage attempts. One significant issue in this setting is the lack of reliable imaging biomarkers to guide the use of local salvage therapy, as the likely reason for a low cure rate is the presence of undetected micrometastatic disease outside of the prostate/prostate bed. Androgen deprivation therapy is a cornerstone of therapy in the salvage setting. While subsets may benefit in terms of delay in time to metastatic disease and/or death, research is ongoing to improve salvage systemic therapy. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly overexpressed by the majority of prostate cancers. While initial methods of exploiting PSMA's high and selective expression were suboptimal, additional work in both imaging and therapeutics is progressing. Salvage therapy and imaging modalities in this setting are briefly reviewed, and the rationale for PSMA-based systemic salvage radioimmunotherapy is described

The effect of non-ideal market conditions on option pricing

Option pricing is mainly based on ideal market conditions which are well represented by the Geometric Brownian Motion (GBM) as market model. We study the effect of non-ideal market conditions on the price of the option. We focus our attention on two crucial aspects appearing in real markets: The influence of heavy tails and the effect of colored noise. We will see that both effects have opposite consequences on option pricing.Comment: 26 pages and 8 colored figures. Invited Talk in "Horizons in complex systems", Messina, 5-8 December 2001. To appear in Physica-

Antiviral protection and the importance of Wolbachia density and: tissue tropism in Drosophila simulans

Wolbachia, a maternally transmitted endosymbiont of insects, is increasingly being seen as an effective biological control agent that can interfere with transmission of pathogens, including dengue virus. However, the mechanism of antiviral protection is not well understood. The density and distribution of Wolbachia in host tissues have been implicated as contributing factors by previous studies with both mosquitoes and flies. Drosophila flies infected with five diverse strains of Wolbachia were screened for the ability to mediate antiviral protection. The three protective Wolbachia strains were more closely related and occurred at a higher density within whole flies than the two nonprotective Wolbachia strains. In this study, to further investigate the relationship between whole-fly Wolbachia density and the ability to mediate antiviral protection, tetracycline was used to decrease the abundance of the high-density, protective Wolbachia strain wAu prior to viral challenge. Antiviral protection was lost when the density of the protective Wolbachia strain was decreased to an abundance similar to that of nonprotective Wolbachia strains. We determined the Wolbachia density and distribution in tissues of the same five fly-Wolbachia combinations as used previously. The Wolbachia density within the head, gut, and Malpighian tubules correlated with the ability to mediate antiviral protection. These findings may facilitate the development of Wolbachia biological control strategies and help to predict host-Wolbachia pairings that may interfere with virus-induced pathology