Implementing Curriculum Based Assessment: A Model to Identify Children who are Academically at Risk

The purpose of the project was to develop a curriculum based assessment model using Custer Elementary School\u27s prescribed curriculum that would identify academically at-risk students and provide intervention services. A curriculum based assessment model was developed based upon the major assumptions that measurement of pupil progress should: (1) be directly related to the curriculum the student is taught; (2) be repeated frequently; and (3) guide instructional planning for the student. A review of the related literature indicated curriculum based assessment offers an alternative approach for continuously measuring student achievement of proficiency in basic school skills. Implications for the implementation of a curriculum based assessment format are discussed

We Need the Storm, the Whirlwind, the Earthquake : The Intersection of Language and Violence in Nat Turner\u27s Confessions and Frederick Douglass\u27s \u3ci\u3eMy Bondage and My Freedom\u3c/i\u3e

Resistance literature is an established genre, dating back to the late eighteenth century, but it underwent a rhetorical revision as slavery increased within the United States in the years leading up to the Civil War. As slaves and free blacks began to rebel against their oppressed condition, they stole two prominent tools whites used_ to - oppress slaves: language and violence. Frederick Douglass\u27s My Bondage and My Freedom is a self-conscious revision within resistance literature that argues for national change by advocating physical violence with written language. Reading this text as an intertext with Nat Turner\u27s Confessions reveals the ways in which Douglass reappropriates the stolen slave\u27s voice and works to-further abolition in the antebellum era

Classification of newborn EEG maturity with Bayesian averaging over decision trees

EEG experts can assess a newborn’s brain maturity by visual analysis of age-related patterns in sleep EEG. It is highly desirable to make the results of assessment most accurate and reliable. However, the expert analysis is limited in capability to provide the estimate of uncertainty in assessments. Bayesian inference has been shown providing the most accurate estimates of uncertainty by using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) integration over the posterior distribution. The use of MCMC enables to approximate the desired distribution by sampling the areas of interests in which the density of distribution is high. In practice, the posterior distribution can be multimodal, and so that the existing MCMC techniques cannot provide the proportional sampling from the areas of interest. The lack of prior information makes MCMC integration more difficult when a model parameter space is large and cannot be explored in detail within a reasonable time. In particular, the lack of information about EEG feature importance can affect the results of Bayesian assessment of EEG maturity. In this paper we explore how the posterior information about EEG feature importance can be used to reduce a negative influence of disproportional sampling on the results of Bayesian assessment. We found that the MCMC integration tends to oversample the areas in which a model parameter space includes one or more features, the importance of which counted in terms of their posterior use is low. Using this finding, we proposed to cure the results of MCMC integration and then described the results of testing the proposed method on a set of sleep EEG recordings

Just picking it up? Young children learning with technology at home

We describe a two-year empirical investigation of three- and four-year-old children's uses of technology at home, based on a survey of 346 families and 24 case studies. Using a sociocultural approach, we discuss the range of technologies children encounter in the home, the different forms their learning takes, the roles of adults and other children, and how family practices support this learning. Many parents believed that they do not teach children how to use technology. We discuss parents' beliefs that their children 'pick up' their competences with technology and identify trial and error, copying and demonstration as typical modes of learning. Parents tend to consider that their children are mainly self-taught and underestimate their own role in supporting learning and the extent to which learning with technology is culturally transmitted within the family

Catecholamine Training Effects from Exercise Programs: A Bridge to Exercise-Temperament Relationships

Three studies were conducted to test whether a catecholamine training effect results from a long-term aerobic exercise program. Study 1 showed significant increases in urinary adrenaline and noradrenaline following moderate mental stress/challenge for male aerobics subjects after a semester of training. Control groups of nonexercisers and continuously in-condition marathoners showed no comparable pre- to post semester catecholamine increases. Male and female Aerobics subjects were contrasted with nonexercisers across a semester in Study 2; the hypothesis was confirmed that postsemester increases in catecholamines occurred only following an episode of mental challenges/stress, and not following base-rate-rest conditions. Under conditions of more active challenge than in Studies 1 and 2, women subjects in Study 3 provided directional but nonsignificant support for the Study 2 findings. The results are discussed in the context of literature on the relationship of catecholamine availability during challenge/ stress to temperament and on the relationship of aerobic training to temperament. At a theoretical level, the question is discussed of increased catecholamine availability being a likely mediator in the exercise program to temperament relationship

Simulation of barrier heterogeneity and preferential flow effects on the performance of shallow land burial facilities

Compacted soil barriers constructed at landfill sites have some degree of heterogeneity in hydraulic properties that may lead to a decline in barrier integrity and performance. A computer modeling study of the water dynamics of compacted soil barriers for a mesic site in eastem Tennessee was undertaken to identify possible situations that could lead to barrier failure. A water dynamics model for soil-plant systems (UTM) was applied to three landful construction scenarios, and varying degrees of heterogeneity of hydraulic properties for the cap and liner were introduced with a scaling procedure. Simulations were conducted for three annual contrasting rainfall conditions, and sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo methods were used in the investigation

A systematic review of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration

AbstractThis systematic review examined 140 outcome evaluations of primary prevention strategies for sexual violence perpetration. The review had two goals: 1) to describe and assess the breadth, quality, and evolution of evaluation research in this area; and 2) to summarize the best available research evidence for sexual violence prevention practitioners by categorizing programs with regard to their evidence of effectiveness on sexual violence behavioral outcomes in a rigorous evaluation. The majority of sexual violence prevention strategies in the evaluation literature are brief, psycho-educational programs focused on increasing knowledge or changing attitudes, none of which have shown evidence of effectiveness on sexually violent behavior using a rigorous evaluation design. Based on evaluation studies included in the current review, only three primary prevention strategies have demonstrated significant effects on sexually violent behavior in a rigorous outcome evaluation: Safe Dates (Foshee et al., 2004); Shifting Boundaries (building-level intervention only, Taylor, Stein, Woods, Mumford, & Forum, 2011); and funding associated with the 1994 U.S. Violence Against Women Act (VAWA; Boba & Lilley, 2009). The dearth of effective prevention strategies available to date may reflect a lack of fit between the design of many of the existing programs and the principles of effective prevention identified by Nation et al. (2003)

Health Coverage History of Local Uninsured PatientsAssessing the Need for an Eligibility Specialist

Abstract: Uninsured Americans are a growing population as insurance premiums climb and fewer employers offer health coverage. Providing medical care to the uninsured often represents a significant financial loss to medical institutions. Our study sought to describe the insurance history and barriers to obtaining health coverage for uninsured patients at the Community Health Center of Burlington, Vermont (CHCB). The potential benefit of adding an insurance eligibility position to the staff at CHCB was also explored. Data were collected by random phone survey from 100 CHCB patients identified as uninsured at their last visit; patients were queried regarding insurance history and interest in enrollment assistance. At the time of survey 66% were currently uninsured, and the majority (87.9%) of these respondents previously held insurance. Loss of insurance was most often due to a change in job status, income or a change in eligibility. Cost was a major barrier to insurance noted by individuals; on average respondents indicated they would be willing to pay around $65 per month for overage. A majority (75.7%) of uninsured respondents also expressed interest in an onsite eligibility worker. These data suggest that the patient population at CHCB would be well served by implementing some form of eligibility staffing. There are a number of different health insurance options in Vermont that could benefit these patients, provided they have assistance with applying. Due to the small sample size of our survey, we recommend that the scope of the eligibility position be determined by closely examining the caseload encountered.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1025/thumbnail.jp