The Effects of Individualized Teacher Meetings on Struggling High School Students

The research question addressed in this project was, how does having regularly scheduled one on one meetings between an academically struggling student and one of their teachers effect their success in school? It used a mixed-methods approach to gather data that included interviews, surveys, and academic data collected from students, their teachers, and their parents. The author documents the details of the meetings with the five selected students and uses related research literature to add meaning to and to validate the study. He describes both the successes and weaknesses of the meetings and the study. Conclusions include that these meetings do in fact help students academically, but for future research the study could be expanded in regards to adding more students, more time, and more work with school administration to help set up the meetings

ORNITROL: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

This talk today will be on recent developments with Ornitrol. All the recent developments have been with blackbirds and grackles; and, unfortunately, the man who has done the most recent work is sitting right here, so I can\u27t steal his data very well! We have done some work since I spoke to you last on some of the pharmacol¬ogy of SC-12937--which is an axocholesterol the active ingredient of Ornitrol. One of these developments is the determination of the half-life of SC-12937, which is 28 days. This is the reason, we feel, for its prolonged activity in birds. It is stored in the liver. It is metabolized at this rate, and excreted. It interferes with several liver functions, and this is how the material takes its affect. Ornitrol affects the synthesis of cholesterol, which is connected in turn with egg yolk formation, and also we think with egg yolk membrane formation. Recently, we have come to find that it interferes, in mammals at any rate, with lipid synthesis. Our endocrinologists tell us that it has an effect on the adrenals, which may have an effect on the pituitary and an influence thereby on estrogen production which is con¬cerned with spermatogenesis in the male through the Sertoli cells. Some of this infor¬mation is postulated, and some of it we have shown to be fact. Mammalian data on cholesterol and the lipid levels are very adequate. Work done at Urbana a few years ago, when the material was fed for a long period of time, seven weeks, showed that a percentage of birds, on subsequent post mortem, did not appear to have any gonads; or at least the gonads could not be found. If they had gonads, they were so small and so atrophied that they could not be found. We really didn\u27t attach very much importance to this, of course. I now realize that this wasn\u27t very wise. But it did show that prolonged interference with the synthe¬sis of cholesterol and lipids has a permanent effect on the ovaries in these pigeons

Minimizing the Pervasiveness of Women’s Personal Experiences of Gender Discrimination

Given the Rejection-Identification Model (Branscombe, et al., 1999) which shows that perceiving discrimination to be pervasive is a negative experience, it was suggested that there would be conditions under which women would instead minimize the pervasiveness of discrimination. Study 1 (N = 91) showed that when women envisioned themselves in a situation of academic discrimination, they defined it as pervasive but when they experienced a similar laboratory simulation of academic discrimination, its pervasiveness was minimized. Study 2 (N = 159) showed that women who envisioned themselves experiencing discrimination minimized its pervasiveness more so than women reading about discrimination happening to someone else. Further, mediation analysis showed that minimizing the pervasiveness enhanced positive affect about personal discrimination. Implications for minimizing on both an individual and social level are discussed

The Relationship Between Personality and the Experience of Solution-Focused Therapy and Cognitive Therapy

Throughout the past 20 years, a growing emphasis on client competence building within the psychotherapy literature has led to the creation of specific therapeutic interventions, such as narrative therapy and solution-focused therapy. These interventions offer a distinct alternative to traditional deficit-based interventions, where clients are viewed as having a dysfunction that is causing specific symptoms. This study indirectly compared the experiences of a client undergoing a competence model of helping, solution-focused therapy, with the experiences of the same client undergoing a deficit model of helping, cognitive therapy. Information about how personality dimensions are related to the experience of both solution-focused and cognitive therapies was also examined. The sample used in this study was comprised of 117 undergraduate students. They were presented with a videotaped simulated therapy vignette of either solution- focused therapy or cognitive therapy. They were asked to imagine themselves as the client within the vignette. Following this presentation, participants were asked to complete a series of questionnaires that inquired about techniques observed, expected outcomes, and perceived experience. Participants were then presented with the other therapy vignette and asked to complete the same measures regarding it. Finally, participants were asked to complete a third series of questionnaires that assessed therapy preference and demographic information. At that time, participants also completed the MCMI-II as a measure of personality. The results of this study failed to identify strong associations between personality dimensions and preference of therapy. Such an outcome suggests that other factors are more associated with preference for therapy than personality . Cognitive therapy was found to be rated as more effective and more preferred than solution-focused therapy. Such results are consistent with the prevalence of deficit-based interventions. The extensive exposure of deficit-based i\u3c derventions in various media presentations may have created expectations about therapy that are influencing the results found here. Additional analyses were conducted to examine the perceived experience of both forms of therapy. Cognitive therapy was overwhelmingly rated as more positive - affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally - than solution-focused therapy. These results also were interpreted as resulting from the prevalence of deficit-based interventions

Persuasive Narrative: Examining Policy Actor Influences on Accreditation Reform Legislation

Accreditation is an integral component of the higher education landscape. Regional accreditors accredit approximately 7,000 institutions of higher education in the United States. In the decade from 2008 to 2018, these accrediting agencies have been the recipients of significant criticism and demands for change. This study explored federal public policy narrative related to accreditation reform through the lens of Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) theory. The research was bounded by an embedded case study of legislation from the 115th U.S. Congress. The subcomponents identified within the case were two pieces of legislation written to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The two bills: Promoting Real Opportunity, Success, and Prosperity through Education Reform (PROSPER) Act and the Aim Higher Act, included significant recommendations for accreditation reform. The purpose of the study was to determine how competing coalitions use narrative in public policy documents to escalate the issue of accreditation reform, and how narrative contributes to the formation of the subsequent policy. The findings from the study suggest that narrative, in particular the use of narrative that described the exploitation of students and taxpayers, contributed to the prioritization of the issue of accreditation reform. Identified as the devil shift strategy in NPF theory, pro-reform policy actors consistently used the inclusion of villains (accrediting agencies) and victims (students) in their narrative to garner the attention of legislators. Additionally, the findings indicated these policy actors used additional narrative strategies to inform and influence the formation of the accreditation reform legislation introduced during the 115th Congress. Public policy at all levels, but especially at the federal level, is a significant factor in how institutions of higher education conduct their business, support students, and advance research agendas. This study uncovered the significant influence policy actors have on the prioritization and formation of higher education policy. Diverse policy actors from mass media, think tanks, advocacy groups, and foundations use their social and financial capital to forward their agendas and mold the future of higher education through accreditation reform. It is critical for higher education leaders to ensure all voices contribute to the conversation and that policy actors use narrative strategies to minimize divisiveness and to build consensus

Identification of foot pathologies based on plantar pressure asymmetry

Foot pathologies can negatively influence foot function, consequently impairing gait during daily activity, and severely impacting an individual’s quality of life. These pathologies are often painful and correspond with high or abnormal plantar pressure, which can result in asymmetry in the pressure distribution between the two feet. There is currently no general consensus on the presence of asymmetry in able-bodied gait, and plantar pressure analysis during gait is in dire need of a standardized method to quantify asymmetry. This paper investigates the use of plantar pressure asymmetry for pathological gait diagnosis. The results of this study involving plantar pressure analysis in fifty one participants (31 healthy and 20 with foot pathologies) support the presence of plantar pressure asymmetry in normal gait. A higher level of asymmetry was detected at the majority of the regions in the feet of the pathological population, including statistically significant differences in the plantar pressure asymmetry in two regions of the foot, metatarsophalangeal joint 3 (MPJ3) and the lateral heel. Quantification of plantar pressure asymmetry may prove to be useful for the identification and diagnosis of various foot pathologies

Scaffolding patient counselling skills in Australian university pharmacy programs.

This paper presents the results of an appraisal of the extent of, and approaches to, scaffolding for development of counseling skills of pharmacy students across Australian universities. There were two stages in the work. The first involved mapping of university pharmacy program and examination of placement handbooks from all but two of the fourteen universities offering pharmacy programs in Australia. The second involved a series of consultations and interviews with key representatives of various pharmacy stakeholder groups and individuals at a national level and in each state and territory of Australia. University academics and preceptors described significant roles in supporting students to build these skills especially within the pre-placement and during placement phases. Across Australian pharmacy schools, scaffolding for development of counseling skills through a range of approaches is evident. There appears to be support for this approach from both students and preceptors. The results of this research will have relevance both for other health professional programs and other programs which include experiential workplace learning with respect to the preparation of students for workplace activities

Signaling by EphrinB1 and Eph Kinases in Platelets Promotes Rap1 Activation, Platelet Adhesion, and Aggregation via Effector Pathways that Do Not Require Phosphorylation of EphrinB1

We have previously shown that platelets express 2 receptor tyrosine kinases, EphA4 and EphB1, and the Eph kinase ligand, ephrinB1m and proposed that transcellular Eph/ephrin interactions made possible by the onset of platelet aggregation promote the further growth and stability of the hemostatic plug. The present study examines how this might occur. The results show that clustering of either ephrinB1 or EphA4 causes platelets to adhere to immobilized firinogen via αIIbβ3. Adhesion occurs more slowly than with adenosine diphosphate (ADP) abd requires phosphatidylinositol 3 (PI3)—kinase and protein kinase C activity but not ephrinB1 phosphorylation. By itself, Eph and ephrin signaling is insufficient to cause aggregation or the binding of soluble fibrinogen, but it can potentiate aggregation initiated by a Ca++ ionophore or by agonists for thrombin and thromboxane receptors. It also enhances Rap1 activation without requiring ADP secretion, ephrinB1 phosphorylation, or the activation of PI3-kinase and Src. From this we conclude that (1) Eph/ephrin signaling enhances the ability of platelet agonists to cause aggregation provided that those agonists can increase cytosolic Ca++; (2) this is accomplished in part by activating Rap1; and (3) these effects require not phosphotyrosine-based interactions with the ephrinB1 cytoplasmic domain