Strong Pipelines, Strong Principals: A guide for leveraging federal sources to fund principal pipelines

A comprehensive, aligned principal pipeline is a systematic approach districts can use to develop and support school principals – one that researchers have termed a feasible, affordable and effective way to improve student achievement. This guide shows how federal funding sources can be used to help cover its cost, which is estimated at less than half a percent of a large district's annual budget

Accessing emergency contraception pills from pharmacies: the experience of young women in London.

INTRODUCTION: Over-the-counter provision of emergency contraception pills (ECP) has increased since deregulation of progestogen-only formulations and is now the most common public health service provided by UK pharmacists. Important questions relate to women's perceptions of their experience of receiving ECPs from pharmacists. METHODS: Qualitative study: in-depth interviews with young women reporting ECP use, recruited from clinic (10); pharmacy (6) and community settings (5) in London. RESULTS: Key advantages of pharmacy provision were ease and speed of access and convenience. Disadvantages included a less personal service, inadequate attention to information needs and to prevention of recurrence of ECP need, and unsupportive attitudes of pharmacy staff. Suggested service improvements included increasing privacy, providing more contraceptive advice, adopting a more empathetic approach and signposting follow-up services. CONCLUSION: Pharmacies are important in the choice of settings from which ECPs can be obtained and many aspects of pharmacy provision are appreciated by young women. There is scope to further enhance pharmacists' role

The potential for circular dichroism as an additional facile and sensitive method of monitoring low-molecular-weight heparins and heparinoids

The ultraviolet circular dichroism (CD) spectra of commercial low-molecular-weight heparins, heparinoids and other anticoagulant preparations have been recorded between 180 and 260 nm. Principal component analysis of the spectra allowed their differentiation into a number of groups related to the means of their production reflecting the structural changes introduced by each process. The findings suggest that CD provides a complementary technique for the rapid analysis of heparin preparations

Marine-derived C-14 calibration and activity record for the past 50,000 years updated from the Cariaco Basin

Author Posting. © Elsevier B.V., 2006. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Elsevier B.V. for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006): 3216-3227, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.03.014.An expanded Cariaco Basin 14C chronology is tied to 230Th-dated Hulu Cave speleothem records in order to provide detailed marine-based 14C calibration for the past 50,000 years. The revised, high resolution Cariaco 14C calibration record agrees well with data from 230Th-dated fossil corals back to 33 ka, with continued agreement despite increased scatter back to 50 ka, suggesting that the record provides accurate calibration back to the limits of radiocarbon dating. The calibration data document highly elevated Δ14C during the Glacial period. Carbon cycle box model simulations show that the majority of observed Δ14C change can be explained by increased 14C production. However, from 45 to 15 ka, Δ14C remains anomalously high, indicating that the distribution of radiocarbon between surface and deep ocean reservoirs was different than it is today. Additional observations of the magnitude, spatial extent and timing of deep ocean Δ14C shifts are critical for a complete understanding of observed Glacial Δ14C variability

Breast screening: visual search as an aid for digital mammographic interpretation training

Digital mammography is gradually being introduced across all breast screening centres in the UK during 2010. This provides increased training opportunities using lower resolution, lower cost and more widely available devices, in addition to the clinical digital mammography workstations. This study examined how experienced breast screening personnel performed when they examined sets of difficult DICOM two-view screening cases in three conditions: on GE digital mammography workstations, on a standard LCD monitor (using a DICOM viewer) and an iPhone (running Osirix software). In each condition they either viewed the full images unaided or were permitted to use the post-processing manipulations of pan, zoom and window level/width adjustments. For each case they had to report the feature type, rate their confidence on the presence of abnormality, classify the case and specify case density. Their visual search behaviour was recorded throughout using a head mounted eye tracker. Additionally aspects of their real life screening performance and performance on a national self assessment scheme were examined. Data indicate that screening experience plays a major role in doing well on the self assessment scheme. Task performance was best on the clinical workstation. However, the data also suggest that a DICOM viewer that runs on a PC or laptop with a standard LCD display allows viewing digital images in full resolution support impressive cancer detection performance. The iPhone is not ideal for examining full images due to the amount of scrolling and zooming required. Overall, the results indicate that low cost devices could be used to provide additional tailored training as long as device resolution and HCI aspects are carefully considered

Characterizing Heterogeneous Behavior of Non-Point-Source Polluters in a Spatial Game under Alternate Sensing and Incentive Designs

Behavioral research on natural resource management has revealed a number of variables that can impact collective action. This research builds upon an interactive decision game using experimental economics methods with a focus on production decisions and the corresponding impact they have on ambient water quality. Using hierarchical clustering algorithms, four primary types of behavior are identified: competitive, hypercompetitive, cooperative, and hypercooperative. The results from the experiment are used to test the following three hypotheses: (1) financial incentives increase cooperative behavior, (2) increasing the number and frequency of water quality sensors increases cooperative behavior, and (3) the spatial location of the agents and sensors affect cooperative behavior. Mixed-effect multinomial logistic models reveal that policy incentives, sensor location, and frequency of sensing alter the behavioral strategies of decision makers in the experiment and that outcomes vary by spatial location. From a watershed planning perspective, minimal investments in advanced environmental monitoring/sensing systems can potentially have large effects in improving water quality; however, there is also some evidence of marginal diminishing returns associated with such investments

A comparison of the galaxy peculiar velocity field with the PSCz gravity field-- A Bayesian hyper-parameter method

We constructed a Bayesian hyper-parameter statistical method to quantify the difference between predicted velocities derived from the observed galaxy distribution in the \textit{IRAS}-PSC$z$ redshift survey and peculiar velocities measured using different distance indicators. In our analysis we find that the model--data comparison becomes unreliable beyond 70 \hmpc because of the inadequate sampling by \textit{IRAS} survey of prominent, distant superclusters, like the Shapley Concentration. On the other hand, the analysis of the velocity residuals show that the PSC$z$ gravity field provides an adequate model to the local, \le 70 \hmpc, peculiar velocity field. The hyper-parameter combination of ENEAR, SN, A1SN and SFI++ catalogues in the Bayesian framework constrains the amplitude of the linear flow to be $\beta=0.53 \pm 0.014$. For an rms density fluctuations in the PSC$z$ galaxy number density $\sigma_8^{\rm gal}=0.42\pm0.03$, we obtain an estimate of the growth rate of density fluctuations $f\sigma_{8}(z\sim0) = 0.42 \pm 0.033$, which is in excellent agreement with independent estimates based on different techniques.Comment: 14 pages, 32 figures, MNRAS in press, matched the MNRAS published versio

Versatile Separation and Analysis of Heparan Sulfate Oligosaccharides Using Graphitized Carbon Liquid Chromatography and Electrospray Mass Spectrometry.

Heparin and heparan sulfate (HS) by nature contain multiple isomeric structures, which are fundamental for the regulation of biological processes. Here we report the use of a porous graphitized carbon (PGC) LC-MS method with effective separation and sensitivity to separate mixtures of digested HS oligosaccharides. Application of this method allowed the separation of oligosaccharide mixtures with various degree of polymerization (dp) ranging from dp4 to dp8, two dp4 isomers that were baseline resolved, four dp6 isomers, and the observation of a dp3 oligosaccharide. PGC LC-MS of complex mixtures demonstrated that compounds eluted from the column in decreasing order of hydrophilicity, with the more highly sulfated structures eluting first. Our data indicate that sulfation levels, chain length, and conformation all effect elution order. We found that PGC's resolving capabilities for the dp4 and dp6 isomeric structures makes this methodology particularly useful for the sequencing of HS saccharides, because the lack of contaminating isomeric structures provides unambiguous structural assignments from the MS/MS data. Collectively this work demonstrates that PGC column-based methods are powerful tools for enhanced separation and analysis of heterogeneous mixtures of HS saccharide species

Evidence for oncolytic virotherapy: Where have we got to and where are we going?

The last few years have seen an increased interest in immunotherapy in the treatment of malignant disease. In particular, there has been significant enthusiasm for oncolytic virotherapy, with a large amount of pre-clinical data showing promise in animal models in a wide range of tumour types. How do we move forward into the clinical setting and translate something which has such potential into meaningful clinical outcomes? Here, we review how the field of oncolytic virotherapy has developed thus far and what the future may hold

Quantification of urban atmospheric boundary layer greenhouse gas dry mole fraction enhancements in the dormant season: Results from the Indianapolis Flux Experiment (INFLUX)

We assess the detectability of city emissions via a tower-based greenhouse gas (GHG) network, as part of the Indianapolis Flux (INFLUX) experiment. By examining afternoon-averaged results from a network of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and carbon monoxide (CO) mole fraction measurements in Indianapolis, Indiana for 2011–2013, we quantify spatial and temporal patterns in urban atmospheric GHG dry mole fractions. The platform for these measurements is twelve communications towers spread across the metropolitan region, ranging in height from 39 to 136 m above ground level, and instrumented with cavity ring-down spectrometers. Nine of the sites were deployed as of January 2013 and data from these sites are the focus of this paper. A background site, chosen such that it is on the predominantly upwind side of the city, is utilized to quantify enhancements caused by urban emissions. Afternoon averaged mole fractions are studied because this is the time of day during which the height of the boundary layer is most steady in time and the area that influences the tower measurements is likely to be largest. Additionally, atmospheric transport models have better performance in simulating the daytime convective boundary layer compared to the nighttime boundary layer. Averaged from January through April of 2013, the mean urban dormant-season enhancements range from 0.3 ppm CO2 at the site 24 km typically downwind of the edge of the city (Site 09) to 1.4 ppm at the site at the downwind edge of the city (Site 02) to 2.9 ppm at the downtown site (Site 03). When the wind is aligned such that the sites are downwind of the urban area, the enhancements are increased, to 1.6 ppm at Site 09, and 3.3 ppm at Site 02. Differences in sampling height affect the reported urban enhancement by up to 50%, but the overall spatial pattern remains similar. The time interval over which the afternoon data are averaged alters the calculated urban enhancement by an average of 0.4 ppm. The CO2 observations are compared to CO2 mole fractions simulated using a mesoscale atmospheric model and an emissions inventory for Indianapolis. The observed and modeled CO2 enhancements are highly correlated (r2 = 0.94), but the modeled enhancements prior to inversion average 53% of those measured at the towers. Following the inversion, the enhancements follow the observations closely, as expected. The CH4 urban enhancement ranges from 5 ppb at the site 10 km predominantly downwind of the city (Site 13) to 21 ppb at the site near the landfill (Site 10), and for CO ranges from 6 ppb at the site 24 km downwind of the edge of the city (Site 09) to 29 ppb at the downtown site (Site 03). Overall, these observations show that a dense network of urban GHG measurements yield a detectable urban signal, well-suited as input to an urban inversion system given appropriate attention to sampling time, sampling altitude and quantification of background conditions