IMPROVING EDUCATION OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS WITH AN EMOTIONAL DISABILITY THROUGH HIGHLY STRUCTURED TEACHER LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

Due to their unique needs, students with an emotional disability require teachers and programming grounded in evidence-based practices implemented with fidelity to be successful. In this needs assessment, I employed a convergent-parallel, mixed methods approach to explore teacher perspectives around the constructs of time, resources, and support needed to adequately support students with an ED. I utilized Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory as a framework for exploring the literature to help ensure an understanding of the full scope of constructs that impact outcomes for students with an ED. Using a mixed method design, I collected both quantitative and qualitative data, including a survey and interview, to provide a comprehensive view of the perspectives of teachers working with students who have an ED. Participants included teachers from an identified comprehensive high school in the district. Teachers identified issues around the need for further (a) preparation and (b) resources beyond professional learning as significantly impacting their ability to adequately support students with an ED. I constructed a tool that, implemented over time, may be the first step in building an ecosystem of learning that can be networked across a district and is sustainable and measurable for both teachers and school-based leaders

Human and Environmental Well-being in Alaska’s Kachemak Bay Watershed: An Ecosystem Services Assessment

The Kachemak Bay watershed, located on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, encompasses several terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (KBNERR) conducts research, monitoring, education, and community engagement that helps inform decision making in the region. This project provides insights for KBNERR regarding current ecosystem services valued in Kachemak Bay using a socio-cultural, place-based, ecosystem services framework. Major ecosystem services and values, community-perceived drivers of ecosystem health, and community relevant indicators were identified to help inform future monitoring and outreach. Methods employed include 31 semi-structured interviews with residents in public and private sectors and three focus groups with KBNERR’s Community Council. When asked what ecosystem services they valued, participants frequently mentioned fisheries, other wildlife (including moose, shellfish, birds), recreation, aesthetics, ecological processes, agriculture, and forests. Using a social value typology framework, this study analyzed the value orientations associated with these natural systems and resources. Several common value types emerged that align with existing literature, including: values for pristine environments, recreation opportunities, and life-sustaining ecological processes. However, other values outside of existing typologies were also present, including the value of connections to community, family, self and nature that were inspired by ecological systems. Interviewees discussed perceived drivers of ecosystem change, organized here as threats and assets. Major threats mentioned include pressures from population growth, climate change, social division/conflict, extraction, overharvesting, and aquaculture. Conversely, assets for positive ecosystem change include an engaged and concerned community, large scientific community, and aquaculture. Interviewees offered differing perspectives on the positive and negative impacts of natural resources management decisions on ecosystem change. Moving forward, the most salient ecosystem services values in the Kachemak Bay watershed that KBNERR could continue to monitor and target include pristine, economic, access, and cultural values. Indicators based on literature and interviewee responses are provided across provisioning, cultural, regulating, and supporting ecosystem service types. Methodologies to plan future research on coastal and marine ecosystem service valuation, both monetary and non-monetary, are provided. Using complementary methods and a larger sample size, KBNERR could continue to use the ecosystem services, values, and drivers in this report in their ongoing research and outreach.Master of ScienceSchool for Environment and SustainabilityUniversity of Michiganhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/148820/1/WellbeingKachemakBay_341_OpusReport.pd

Safety and Pharmacokinetics of a Four Monoclonal Antibody Combination Against Botulinum C and D Neurotoxins.

Botulism is caused by botulinum neurotoxin (BoNT), the most poisonous substance known. BoNTs are also classified as Tier 1 biothreat agents due to their high potency and lethality. The existence of seven BoNT serotypes (A-G), which differ between 35% to 68% in amino acid sequence, necessitates the development of serotype specific countermeasures. We present results of a Phase 1 clinical study of an anti-toxin to BoNT serotypes C and D, NTM-1634, which consists of an equimolar mixture of four fully human IgG1 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), each binding to non-overlapping epitopes on BoNT serotypes C and D resulting in potent toxin neutralization in rodents. This first-in-human study evaluated the safety and pharmacokinetics of escalating doses of NTM-1634 administered intravenously to healthy adults (NCT03046550). Three cohorts of eight healthy subjects received a single intravenous dose of NTM-1634 or placebo at 0.33 mg/kg, 0.66 mg/kg or 1 mg/kg. Follow-up examinations and pharmacokinetic evaluations were continued up to 121 days post-infusion. Subjects were monitored using physical examinations, hematology and chemistry blood tests, and electrocardiograms. Pharmacokinetic parameters were estimated using noncompartmental methods. The results demonstrated that the materials were safe and well-tolerated with the expected half-lives for human mAbs and with minimal anti-drug antibodies detected over the dose ranges and duration of the study

Cloud Based E-Governance System: A Survey

AbstractThe overwhelming success and the rapid growth of the Internet changes our lives; the way we interact, learn and work. Now a days most of the organizations including government deliver their services through internet. E–governance is the application of information and communication technologies to exchange information between government and the citizens, government and business organizations and between government organizations. Cloud computing is a new way of accepting and providing services over internet. Cloud based e-governance system provides many benefits to Government like reduced cost, distributed storage of data, availability of resources at lower cost,manages security, scalability, accountability and modifiability. This paper gives a survey on clod based E-Governance syste

Two Sample Tests for High Dimensional Covariance Matrices

We propose two tests for the equality of covariance matrices between two high-dimensional populations. One test is on the whole variance-covariance matrices, and the other is on offdiagonal sub-matrices which define the covariance between two non-overlapping segments of the high-dimensional random vectors. The tests are applicable (i) when the data dimension is much larger than the sample sizes, namely the “large p, small n” situations and (ii) without assuming parametric distributions for the two populations. These two aspects surpass the capability of the conventional likelihood ratio test. The proposed tests can be used to test on covariances associated with gene ontology terms

Tuberculosis and gender in the Asia-Pacific region

We thank the NHMRC Tuberculosis Centre of Research Excellence, Australia, and Philippe Glaziou, Senior Epidemiologist, GTB/TME, WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerlan

Adolescent tuberculosis.

Adolescence is characterised by a substantial increase in the incidence of tuberculosis, a known fact since the early 20th century. Most of the world's adolescents live in low-income and middle-income countries where tuberculosis remains common, and where they comprise a quarter of the population. Despite this, adolescents have not yet been addressed as a distinct population in tuberculosis policy or within tuberculosis treatment services, and emerging evidence suggests that current models of care do not meet their needs. This Review discusses up-to-date information about tuberculosis in adolescence, with a focus on the management of infection and disease, including HIV co-infection and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis. We outline the progress in vaccine development and highlight important directions for future research

Fraction of all hospital admissions and deaths attributable to malnutrition among children in rural Kenya235

Background: Malnutrition is common in the developing world and associated with disease and mortality. Because malnutrition frequently occurs among children in the community as well as those with acute illness, and because anthropometric indicators of nutritional status are continuous variables that preclude a single definition of malnutrition, malnutrition-attributable fractions of admissions and deaths cannot be calculated by simply enumerating individual children

Likely Health Outcomes for Untreated Acute Febrile Illness in the Tropics in Decision and Economic Models; A Delphi Survey

BACKGROUND: Modelling is widely used to inform decisions about management of malaria and acute febrile illnesses. Most models depend on estimates of the probability that untreated patients with malaria or bacterial illnesses will progress to severe disease or death. However, data on these key parameters are lacking and assumptions are frequently made based on expert opinion. Widely diverse opinions can lead to conflicting outcomes in models they inform. METHODS AND FINDINGS: A Delphi survey was conducted with malaria experts aiming to reach consensus on key parameters for public health and economic models, relating to the outcome of untreated febrile illnesses. Survey questions were stratified by malaria transmission intensity, patient age, and HIV prevalence. The impact of the variability in opinion on decision models is illustrated with a model previously used to assess the cost-effectiveness of malaria rapid diagnostic tests. Some consensus was reached around the probability that patients from higher transmission settings with untreated malaria would progress to severe disease (median 3%, inter-quartile range (IQR) 1-5%), and the probability that a non-malaria illness required antibiotics in areas of low HIV prevalence (median 20%). Children living in low transmission areas were considered to be at higher risk of progressing to severe malaria (median 30%, IQR 10-58%) than those from higher transmission areas (median 13%, IQR 7-30%). Estimates of the probability of dying from severe malaria were high in all settings (medians 60-73%). However, opinions varied widely for most parameters, and did not converge on resurveying. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the uncertainty around potential consequences of untreated malaria and bacterial illnesses. The lack of consensus on most parameters, the wide range of estimates, and the impact of variability in estimates on model outputs, demonstrate the importance of sensitivity analysis for decision models employing expert opinion. Results of such models should be interpreted cautiously. The diversity of expert opinion should be recognised when policy options are debated

Field Measurements of Terrestrial and Martian Dust Devils

Surface-based measurements of terrestrial and martian dust devils/convective vortices provided from mobile and stationary platforms are discussed. Imaging of terrestrial dust devils has quantified their rotational and vertical wind speeds, translation speeds, dimensions, dust load, and frequency of occurrence. Imaging of martian dust devils has provided translation speeds and constraints on dimensions, but only limited constraints on vertical motion within a vortex. The longer mission durations on Mars afforded by long operating robotic landers and rovers have provided statistical quantification of vortex occurrence (time-of-sol, and recently seasonal) that has until recently not been a primary outcome of more temporally limited terrestrial dust devil measurement campaigns. Terrestrial measurement campaigns have included a more extensive range of measured vortex parameters (pressure, wind, morphology, etc.) than have martian opportunities, with electric field and direct measure of dust abundance not yet obtained on Mars. No martian robotic mission has yet provided contemporaneous high frequency wind and pressure measurements. Comparison of measured terrestrial and martian dust devil characteristics suggests that martian dust devils are larger and possess faster maximum rotational wind speeds, that the absolute magnitude of the pressure deficit within a terrestrial dust devil is an order of magnitude greater than a martian dust devil, and that the time-of-day variation in vortex frequency is similar. Recent terrestrial investigations have demonstrated the presence of diagnostic dust devil signals within seismic and infrasound measurements; an upcoming Mars robotic mission will obtain similar measurement types