A Descriptive and Qualitative-Quantitative Analysis of the Spelling of L1 Spanish-English Speaking Elementary Students

Abstract This is a descriptive and qualitative analysis of the most prevalent spelling errors in Spanish L1 Students spelling in the English language. The present study also does have qualitative method mixed in since the amount of spelling tokens and errors in each location and spelling stage has been quantified. This thesis posed the questions (1) how did the errors pattern among participants? (2) How did the errors pattern within the onset, nucleus, and coda? (3) How did errors pattern within the spelling stages? (4) What can teachers do to help? These questions framed pedagogical approaches that are being proposed to help teachers of this population of students. Studies in developmental spelling have outlined that vowels are difficult for students to spell. As children age they are more equipped to deal with spellings of vowels. Similarly, the within word pattern stage was the most difficult. This was followed by the coda and the spelling stage of syllable juncture. Finally, the onset of the word and the phonemic and derivational stages resulted in few errors. Discussion of data is listed by spelling stage and analysis is approached from aspects of historic language change, phonology, morphology and orthography as applicable. Pedagogical strategies consist of direct study of the internal structures of the words. It is recommended that the examination of these words should be done in the context of text study

Polymorphic Students

Objective: In an effort to break away from the stale classifications of community college students that stem from the hegemonic perspective of previous literature, this work utilizes the perceptions of community college practitioners to demonstrate new ways of understanding the identities of community college students. Method: By utilizing Gee’s identity theory and Grillo’s theory of intersectionality, we analyze interviews with community college practitioners from three different community colleges on the West coast of the United States to answer these questions: What identities (i.e., natural, institutional, and discursive) do faculty and administrators recognize in community college students? In what ways do community college faculty and administrators describe and conceptualize community college students? Findings: First, community college student identities are intricate and have changed with time; there are two different institutional views held by organizational members—the educational view and the managerial view—which both shape the construction of student identities and play a prominent role in determining which students are disadvantaged. Second, organizational members constructed meanings of student achievement and value (i.e., attributes or outcomes of the ideal student, or what policy makers and institutions refer to as success) according to organizational priorities and perspectives. Conclusion: This investigation encapsulates and elucidates the portrayals and understandings of community college students held by community college administrators and faculty as a means to acknowledge the diverse identities among these students. Scholars and practitioners are encouraged to acknowledge the polymorphic identities of this diverse population to improve scholarship and practice

Do transmitters affect survival and body condition of American beavers Castor canadensis?

One key assumption often inferred with using radio-equipped individuals is that the transmitter has no effect on the metric of interest. To evaluate this assumption, we used a known fate model to assess the effect of transmitter type (i.e. tail-mounted or peritoneal implant) on short-term (one year) survival and a joint live—dead recovery model and results from a mark—recapture study to compare long-term (eight years) survival and body condition of ear-tagged only American beavers Castor canadensis to those equipped with radio transmitters in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA. Short-term (1-year) survival was not influenced by transmitter type (wi = 0.64). Over the 8-year study period, annual survival was similar between transmitter-equipped beavers (tail-mounted and implant transmitters combined; 0.76; 95% CI = 0.45–0.91) versus ear-tagged only (0.78; 95% CI = 0.45–0.93). Additionally, we found no difference in weight gain (t9 = 0.25, p = 0.80) or tail area (t11 = 1.25, p = 0.24) from spring to summer between the two groups. In contrast, winter weight loss (t22 = - 2.03, p = 0.05) and tail area decrease (t30 = - 3.04, p = 0.01) was greater for transmitter-equipped (weight = - 3.09 kg, SE = 0.55; tail area = - 33.71 cm, SE = 4.80) than ear-tagged only (weight = - 1.80 kg, SE = 0.33; tail area = - 12.38 cm, SE = 5.13) beavers. Our results generally support the continued use of transmitters on beavers for estimating demographic parameters, although we recommend additional assessments of transmitter effects under different environmental conditions

Ecosystem Health Education: Teaching Leadership Through Team-Based Assignments

The health and sustainability of humans, animals, and environments are interdependent. The relationship between climate change, disease emergence, and food security on sustainability of ecosystem services is embodied in the sustainable development goals (SDGs). A diverse workforce needs to be equipped with leadership skills to function in a transdisciplinary, team-based environment. Ecosystem health (ESH) provides a critical and innovative approach to solving these complex challenges and offers a toolbox to actualize SDGs. This article outlines the development of a course detailing the process of framing a new academic approach in ESH as a training pathway for undergraduate and graduate students

Refining the Moose Serum Progesterone Threshold to Diagnose Pregnancy

Pregnancy determination is necessary for sound wildlife management and understanding population dynamics. Pregnancy rates are sensitive to environmental and physiological factors and may indicate the overall trajectory of a population. Pregnancy can be assessed through direct methods (rectal palpation, sonography) or indicated using hormonal assays (serum progesterone or pregnancy-specific protein B, fecal progestogen metabolites). A commonly used threshold of 2 ng/ml of progesterone in serum has been used by moose biologists to indicate pregnancy but has not been rigorously investigated. To refine this threshold, we examined the relationship between progesterone concentrations in serum samples and pregnancy in 87 moose (Alces alces; 64 female, 23 male) captured from 2010 to 2020 in the Grand Portage Indian Reservation in northeastern Minnesota, USA. Pregnancy was confirmed via rectal palpation (n = 25), necropsy (n = 2), calf observation (n = 25) or characteristic pre-calving behavior (n = 6), with a total of 58 females determined pregnant and 6 not pregnant; 23 males were included to increase the non-pregnant sample size. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, we identified an optimal threshold of 1.115 ng/ml with a specificity of 0.97 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.90–1.00) and a sensitivity of 0.98 (95% CI = 0.95–1.00). Progesterone concentrations were significantly higher in cases of pregnant versus non-pregnant cows, but we did not detect a difference between single and twin births. We applied our newly refined threshold to calculate annual pregnancy rates for all female moose (n = 133) captured in Grand Portage from 2010 to 2021. Mean pregnancy rate during this period was 91% and ranged annually from 69.2 to 100%. Developing a reliable method for determining pregnancy status via serum progesterone analyses will allow wildlife managers to assess pregnancy rates of moose without devoting substantial time and resources to palpation and calf monitoring

Potential Cost-effectiveness of Early Identification of Hospital-acquired Infection in Critically Ill Patients

Limitations in methods for the rapid diagnosis of hospital-acquired infections often delay initiation of effective antimicrobial therapy. New diagnostic approaches offer potential clinical and cost-related improvements in the management of these infections. We developed a decision modeling framework to assess the potential cost-effectiveness of a rapid biomarker assay to identify hospital-acquired infection in high-risk patients earlier than standard diagnostic testing. The framework includes parameters representing rates of infection, rates of delayed appropriate therapy, and impact of delayed therapy on mortality, along with assumptions about diagnostic test characteristics and their impact on delayed therapy and length of stay. Parameter estimates were based on contemporary, published studies and supplemented with data from a four-site, observational, clinical study. Extensive sensitivity analyses were performed. The base-case analysis assumed 17.6% of ventilated patients and 11.2% of nonventilated patients develop hospital-acquired infection and that 28.7% of patients with hospital-acquired infection experience delays in appropriate antibiotic therapy with standard care. We assumed this percentage decreased by 50% (to 14.4%) among patients with true-positive results and increased by 50% (to 43.1%) among patients with false-negative results using a hypothetical biomarker assay. Cost of testing was set at $110/d. In the base-case analysis, among ventilated patients, daily diagnostic testing starting on admission reduced inpatient mortality from 12.3 to 11.9$1,640 per patient, resulting in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $21,389 per life-year saved. Among nonventilated patients, inpatient mortality decreased from 7.3 to 7.1$1,381 with diagnostic testing. The resulting incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $42,325 per life-year saved. Threshold analyses revealed the probabilities of developing hospital-acquired infection in ventilated and nonventilated patients could be as low as 8.4 and 9.8$50,000 per life-year saved. Development and use of serial diagnostic testing that reduces the proportion of patients with delays in appropriate antibiotic therapy for hospital-acquired infections could reduce inpatient mortality. The model presented here offers a cost-effectiveness framework for future test development

Same Trait, Different Receiver Response: Unlike Females, Male American Goldfinches Do Not Signal Status with Bill Colour

In species in which both sexes have similar ornamentation, the ornaments often function as sexual or social signals in both sexes. However, males and females may use ornaments in different signalling contexts. We previously demonstrated that carotenoid-based bill colour of female American goldfinches, Spinus tristis, functions as a signal of status during intrasexual, but not intersexual, competition. Here we test whether male bill colour functions as a competitive status signal during both intra- and intersexual contests. We tested whether focal males and females avoided feeding adjacent to taxidermic male models as a function of the models’ experimentally altered bill colour. We additionally tested whether male bill colour functions as a mate choice signal by presenting females with a choice of two live males with experimentally altered bill colour. In the status signal experiment, neither focal males nor females avoided male models with more colourful bills, as was predicted by the status-signalling hypothesis. These results indicate that male bill coloration does not function as a signal of competitive status and that the signal function of male bill colour does not parallel that of female bill colour. In our mate choice experiment, females showed no preference for male bill colour, suggesting that male bill colour may have some yet untested signalling function or that male bill colour may no longer be under selection. Our findings suggest that selection can lead to different signalling strategies in males and females, even in species that express mutual ornamentation

Optical imaging and spectroscopy for the study of the human brain: status report.

This report is the second part of a comprehensive two-part series aimed at reviewing an extensive and diverse toolkit of novel methods to explore brain health and function. While the first report focused on neurophotonic tools mostly applicable to animal studies, here, we highlight optical spectroscopy and imaging methods relevant to noninvasive human brain studies. We outline current state-of-the-art technologies and software advances, explore the most recent impact of these technologies on neuroscience and clinical applications, identify the areas where innovation is needed, and provide an outlook for the future directions