Mathematics-Literacy Checklists: A Pedagogical Innovation to Support Teachers as They Implement the Common Core

This article presents two innovative tools – the Mathematics-Literacy Planning Framework and Mathematics-Literacy Implementation Checklist – which are designed to help instructional coaches and specialists support teachers to meet the challenges of the mathematics-literacy integration goals of the Common Core. Developed with teacher input, these instruments serve as cognitive “safety nets” to ensure effective integration of appropriate strategies before, during, and after instruction

Listening to the Voices of Teacher Candidates to Design Content Area Literacy Courses

While teacher candidates take courses which prepare them to deliver content in secondary content area classrooms, they often lack the knowledge necessary to help their future students learn discipline-specific information through the use of literacy strategies. In many cases, content area teacher candidates do not view themselves as literacy educators, believing instead that English teachers or elementary level educators are responsible for developing the reading and writing skills of students. However, development as teachers of literacy is possible. Through a content area literacy course taken as part of a teacher preparation program, secondary content area teacher candidates reported changes in their perceptions of and willingness to use literacy strategies to improve the learning outcomes of their students. Through pre-course and post-course surveys, teacher candidates reported an expanded understanding of the importance of literacy in the development of content knowledge

Informed consent: From good intentions to sound practices—A report of a seminar

This report is a summary of presentations and discussions at a seminar entitled “Informed Consent: From Good Intentions to Sound Practices.” This two-day seminar brought together 65 individuals from nine countries in May 2001 to discuss challenges of informed consent in research. The goal of the meeting was to put informed consent into historical and contemporary perspective and to explore ways that the barriers to effective implementation can be overcome. The underlying premise of the seminar was that, as the issues around doing ethical research in health will only grow in scope and complexity, even when those who sponsor and conduct research start with good intentions, they may have difficulty translating them into practice. The report concludes with a number of suggestions that the community of people and institutions concerned about informed consent and charged with protecting the rights of research participants should consider in order to conduct ethical research

Sexual Risk Behaviour among HIV-Positive Individuals in Clinical Care in Urban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Objectives: To assess the prevalence and predictors of unprotected sex among HIV+ individuals in clinical care in urban KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Design: Cross-sectional survey of 152 HIV+ individuals attending a hospital-based HIV-clinic. Methods: Structured interviews were conducted by bilingual interviewers. Sexual risk behaviour in the preceding 3 months was assessed via event counts. Results: In one of the first studies of its kind in South Africa we found that nearly half of the sample reported vaginal or anal sex during the preceding 3 months, and 30% of these patients reported unprotected vaginal or anal sex. Among sexually active patients, a total of 171 unprotected sex events were reported, 40% of which were with partners perceived to be HIV negative or HIV-status unknown. Nine such partners were potentially exposed to HIV. Alcohol use during sex, being forced to have sex, sex with a perceived HIV+ partner, and sex with a casual partner predicted more unprotected sex, whereas HIV-status disclosure was related to less unprotected sex. Conclusions: HIV+ individuals in clinical care in South Africa may engage in unprotected sex that place others at risk of HIV infection and themselves at risk for infection with STIs. With a national ARV rollout currently underway in South Africa, increasing numbers of HIV+ individuals are entering care. This affords a crucial opportunity to link HIV prevention with HIV care, an approach that aims to reduce transmission risk behaviour among HIV+ individuals and is consistent with international agencies’ current prevention priorities

Safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine as prophylactic against COVID-19 in healthcare workers: a meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials

OBJECTIVE: We studied the safety and efficacy of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as pre-exposure prophylaxis for COVID-19 in healthcare workers (HCWs), using a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs). DATA SOURCES: PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched to identify randomised trials studying HCQ. STUDY SELECTION: Ten RCTs were identified (n=5079 participants). DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines were used in this systematic review and meta-analysis between HCQ and placebo using a Bayesian random-effects model. A pre-hoc statistical analysis plan was written. MAIN OUTCOMES: The primary efficacy outcome was PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and the primary safety outcome was incidence of adverse events. The secondary outcome included clinically suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS: Compared with placebo, HCWs randomised to HCQ had no significant difference in PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 0.92, 95% credible interval (CI): 0.58, 1.37) or clinically suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR 0.78, 95% CI: 0.57, 1.10), but significant difference in adverse events (OR 1.35, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.73). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Our meta-analysis of 10 RCTs investigating the safety and efficacy of HCQ as pre-exposure prophylaxis in HCWs found that compared with placebo, HCQ does not significantly reduce the risk of confirmed or clinically suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection, while HCQ significantly increases adverse events. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD42021285093

Dark sectors 2016 Workshop: community report

This report, based on the Dark Sectors workshop at SLAC in April 2016, summarizes the scientific importance of searches for dark sector dark matter and forces at masses beneath the weak-scale, the status of this broad international field, the important milestones motivating future exploration, and promising experimental opportunities to reach these milestones over the next 5-10 years

New Applications for Phage Integrases

Within the last twenty-five years bacteriophage integrases have rapidly risen to prominence as genetic tools for a wide range of applications from basic cloning to genome engineering. Serine integrases such as that from ϕC31 and its relatives have found an especially wide-range of applications within diverse micro-organisms right through to multi-cellular eukaryotes. Here we review the mechanisms of the two major families of integrases, the tyrosine and serine integrases, and the advantages and disadvantages of each type as they are applied in genome engineering and synthetic biology. In particular, we focus on the new areas of metabolic pathway construction and optimisation, bio-computing, heterologous expression and multiplexed assembly techniques. Integrases are versatile and efficient tools that can be used in conjunction with the various extant molecular biology tools to streamline the synthetic biology production line

Current Challenges for the Early Detection of Alzheimer's Disease: Brain Imaging and CSF Studies

The development of prevention therapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) would greatly benefit from biomarkers that are sensitive to the subtle brain changes that occur in the preclinical stage of the disease. Reductions in the cerebral metabolic rate of glucose (CMRglc), a measure of neuronal function, have proven to be a promising tool in the early diagnosis of AD. In vivo brain 2-[18F]fluoro-2-Deoxy-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging demonstrates consistent and progressive CMRglc reductions in AD patients, the extent and topography of which correlate with symptom severity. There is increasing evidence that hypometabolism appears during the preclinical stages of AD and can predict decline years before the onset of symptoms. This review will give an overview of FDG-PET results in individuals at risk for developing dementia, including: presymptomatic individuals carrying mutations responsible for early-onset familial AD; patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), often a prodrome to late-onset sporadic AD; non-demented carriers of the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) ε4 allele, a strong genetic risk factor for late-onset AD; cognitively normal subjects with a family history of AD; subjects with subjective memory complaints; and normal elderly followed longitudinally until they expressed the clinical symptoms and received post-mortem confirmation of AD. Finally, we will discuss the potential to combine different PET tracers and CSF markers of pathology to improve the early detection of AD

Integrating vehicle design and human factors: minimizing elderly driving constraints

With a projected rise in the number of elderly, most of whom have also relied primarily on the private automobile for their mobility, it is likely that future adaptations in vehicle design will be linked in some part to the physical infirmities often faced by the elderly. This paper offers a bridge between medical research on the physical impairments of the elderly and automobile design and driving safety. We describe recent findings on the driving-related physical and cognitive impairments faced by the elderly. We then propose two major types of vehicle design and infrastructure adaptations: (1) modifications for private vehicles, and (2) intelligent technology and support services for private vehicles, which can help to minimize the driving-related effects of these impairments. For example, we present a range of modest vehicle design adaptations for components such as seats and doorways, handles, knobs, and steering wheels, and seat belts. We find that many of these improvements can be made to standard passenger vehicles with little additional design effort, and that the adaptations should also increase overall vehicle marketability. Finally, we argue that while most, if not all, of our proposed adaptations would be made to largely benefit the elderly, they will nevertheless support and improve driving across all age groups