Electronic Portfolios as Assessment Tied to Course Outcomes

ePortfolios, and portfolios in general, are typically used to collect student work across time to show evidence of learning and development, enabling students to reflect upon and demonstrate their unique understandings and mastery of concepts. However, besides being useful longitudinally, they can also prove valuable as summative assessment tools within quarter or semester long courses. As an alternative to traditional examinations that require students to conform their learning/memorization to information pre-selected by instructors, ePortfolios allow students to show what they have learned in highly individualized ways that are applied to their unique lives and social contexts. In the example presented here, ePortfolios are used as a summative assessment in a gender studies class meant to teach students gender-based conceptual lenses to interpret their lives and the world. The activity can be easily adapted to a number of different learning outcomes across a wide range of courses and disciplines. As a culminating project for the class, students create digital portfolios to assess their success in meeting four broad course objectives that student individually interpret. A portfolio gives students control over how their knowledge is presented, allows for creativity, and stretches them to find example of theoretical constructs in the world beyond the classroom

High-stakes Testing and Special Populations

This opinion paper critically examines the use of high-stakes testing on special populations. Without appropriate accommodations, standardized exams are not valid for some students with special needs. Unfortunately, many classroom teachers who must initiate testing accommodations lack knowledge of appropriate accommodations and regularly fail to provide the necessary testing accommodations. The deficit understanding of testing accommodations makes comparisons between classrooms, schools, and districts invalid since some scores loose validity. Solutions specific to standardized testing and students with special needs are offered and a more encompassing solution to the problems incurred from these tests when used for high-stakes is suggested

Therapist Multicultural Orientation: Client Perceptions of Cultural Humility, Sexual Identity, and the Working Alliance

Research examining the benefits of cultural humility for diverse clients has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. However, little empirical research has applied therapist cultural humility to lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) clients. In a sample of 333 LGB persons, the current study examined whether therapist cultural humility predicted a stronger client-therapist working alliance. LGB identity centrality (IC) and identity affirmation (IA) were considered as possible moderators of this relationship. Therapist cultural humility predicted stronger working alliances in the present sample; however, this association was not moderated by IC or IA. These results suggest that therapist cultural humility is a valuable therapeutic process for LGB individuals regardless of IC or IA. Future research should consider the benefits of therapist cultural humility for other sexual and gender diverse persons, such as transgender individuals. Continued investigation is needed to explicate how the interaction of cultural humility and identity may promote well-being among sexually diverse groups

A Case Study of the Crisis Communications Used in the 2009 Salmonella Outbreak in Peanut Products

The 2009 Salmonella outbreak in peanut products caused by contaminated peanut butter created a period of negative publicity for the peanut industry in the United States. It was one of many large food outbreaks the United States has seen in the past few years. Although one company was the cause of the outbreak, the peanut industry worked together to maintain its reputation. Crisis communications plans were put into effect, and crisis management teams worked together throughout. The purpose of this study was to examine the crisis communications efforts taken by peanut industry public relations practitioners during the 2009 Salmonella outbreak and determine which efforts had a successful outcome and which were ineffective. A case study methodology was employed whereby interviews with public relations practitioners that were working in the peanut industry during the crisis were conducted to address the research objectives. The findings indicate that a crisis communications plan is imperative for any organization, with the understanding that every crisis is unique and plans should be adapted accordingly. Plans should include, at the minimum, a crisis management team, a list of audiences that should be contacted, and key messages. In addition, media training should be conducted for potential spokespeople and relationships should be developed with members of the media before a crisis occurs. Investigation of the data and literature allowed the researchers to create a pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis model for agricultural communications

Primary total knee arthroplasty in a patient with a chronic extensor mechanism deficiency

AbstractA 44-year-old female presented with a chief complaint of left knee pain and dysfunction. The patient had a complex surgical history including patellar fracture repair, subsequent patellar ligament repair, and ultimately allograft reconstruction which was complicated by septic arthritis requiring graft resection. On presentation to our clinic, she was noted to have significant degenerative disease in addition to chronic extensor mechanism deficiency. She underwent primary total knee arthroplasty with concomitant tibial tubercle osteotomy and advancement. The patient has had an excellent result postoperatively including return of full range of motion without residual extensor lag

Cooperative population coding facilitates efficient sound-source separability by adaptation to input statistics

Our sensory environment changes constantly. Accordingly, neural systems continually adapt to the concurrent stimulus statistics to remain sensitive over a wide range of conditions. Such dynamic range adaptation (DRA) is assumed to increase both the effectiveness of the neuronal code and perceptual sensitivity. However, direct demonstrations of DRA-based efficient neuronal processing that also produces perceptual benefits are lacking. Here, we investigated the impact of DRA on spatial coding in the rodent brain and the perception of human listeners. Complex spatial stimulation with dynamically changing source locations elicited prominent DRA already on the initial spatial processing stage, the Lateral Superior Olive (LSO) of gerbils. Surprisingly, on the level of individual neurons, DRA diminished spatial tuning because of large response variability across trials. However, when considering single-trial population averages of multiple neurons, DRA enhanced the coding efficiency specifically for the concurrently most probable source locations. Intrinsic LSO population imaging of energy consumption combined with pharmacology revealed that a slow-acting LSO gain-control mechanism distributes activity across a group of neurons during DRA, thereby enhancing population coding efficiency. Strikingly, such "efficient cooperative coding" also improved neuronal source separability specifically for the locations that were most likely to occur. These location-specific enhancements in neuronal coding were paralleled by human listeners exhibiting a selective improvement in spatial resolution. We conclude that, contrary to canonical models of sensory encoding, the primary motive of early spatial processing is efficiency optimization of neural populations for enhanced source separability in the concurrent environment

Variance fluctuations in nonstationary time series: a comparative study of music genres

An important problem in physics concerns the analysis of audio time series generated by transduced acoustic phenomena. Here, we develop a new method to quantify the scaling properties of the local variance of nonstationary time series. We apply this technique to analyze audio signals obtained from selected genres of music. We find quantitative differences in the correlation properties of high art music, popular music, and dance music. We discuss the relevance of these objective findings in relation to the subjective experience of music.Comment: 13 pages, 4 fig

Neo: an object model for handling electrophysiology data in multiple formats

Neuroscientists use many different software tools to acquire, analyze and visualize electrophysiological signals. However, incompatible data models and file formats make it difficult to exchange data between these tools. This reduces scientific productivity, renders potentially useful analysis methods inaccessible and impedes collaboration between labs. A common representation of the core data would improve interoperability and facilitate data-sharing. To that end, we propose here a language-independent object model, named “Neo,” suitable for representing data acquired from electroencephalographic, intracellular, or extracellular recordings, or generated from simulations. As a concrete instantiation of this object model we have developed an open source implementation in the Python programming language. In addition to representing electrophysiology data in memory for the purposes of analysis and visualization, the Python implementation provides a set of input/output (IO) modules for reading/writing the data from/to a variety of commonly used file formats. Support is included for formats produced by most of the major manufacturers of electrophysiology recording equipment and also for more generic formats such as MATLAB. Data representation and data analysis are conceptually separate: it is easier to write robust analysis code if it is focused on analysis and relies on an underlying package to handle data representation. For that reason, and also to be as lightweight as possible, the Neo object model and the associated Python package are deliberately limited to representation of data, with no functions for data analysis or visualization. Software for neurophysiology data analysis and visualization built on top of Neo automatically gains the benefits of interoperability, easier data sharing and automatic format conversion; there is already a burgeoning ecosystem of such tools. We intend that Neo should become the standard basis for Python tools in neurophysiology.EC/FP7/269921/EU/Brain-inspired multiscale computation in neuromorphic hybrid systems/BrainScaleSDFG, 103586207, GRK 1589: Verarbeitung sensorischer Informationen in neuronalen SystemenBMBF, 01GQ1302, Nationaler Neuroinformatik Knote