Using American Library Association\u27s Current Notable Literature for Younger and Middle Readers to Help Enhance the 6 + 1 Trait Writing™ Model in the Elementary Classroom

This study recognized that teachers perform under an incredible amount of stress daily. They feel overcome at the end of each day by stress and high expectations placed upon them for their students to achieve (Black, 2003, p. 37). In addition, the study showed that reading aloud was an important component in helping students become excited about reading and writing. Furthermore, research shows teachers need to help students make connections between what the teacher shares as a read-aloud and what is being taught in the classroom. Therefore, the media specialist is there to help teachers make the connection between award-winning literature and classroom curriculum. This study demonstrated how the media specialist is a valuable resource in assisting teachers in reviewing current award-winning children\u27s literature to develop the 6 + 1 Traits of Writing in their classroom curriculum. It provided teachers with minilesson ideas that relate current ALA Notable Children\u27s Books for Younger and Middle Readers to the 6 + 1 Trait™ model that supports the Reading and Language Arts Benchmarks and Teaching Objectives in the Waukee School District. In the conclusion of the this study the researcher found that it was an enlightening job to look closely through award-winning picture books and discuss them with the reading strategist in the district. The researcher found that simple conversations about each book sparked an amazing amount of ideas. As a media specialist, when books arrive and suit a particular part of a grade levels curriculum they are placed with a note in the teachers\u27 mailboxes. Often without that one-on-one conversation the books are returned without seeing their full potential on correlating the book with curriculum. Today in the average school day there is so much stress placed on the teacher it is hard to find time to discuss how literature can enhance their classroom curriculum. These mini-lesson ideas will be a great start to begin a better line of communication

Systemwide Clinical Ultrasound Program Development: An Expert Consensus Model.

Clinical ultrasound (CUS) is integral to the practice of an increasing number of medical specialties. Guidelines are needed to ensure effective CUS utilization across health systems. Such guidelines should address all aspects of CUS within a hospital or health system. These include leadership, training, competency, credentialing, quality assurance and improvement, documentation, archiving, workflow, equipment, and infrastructure issues relating to communication and information technology. To meet this need, a group of CUS subject matter experts, who have been involved in institution- and/or systemwide clinical ultrasound (SWCUS) program development convened. The purpose of this paper was to create a model for SWCUS development and implementation

Development of an advanced on-line position-specific stable carbon isotope system and application to methyl tert-butyl ether

We present an advanced system for on-line position-specific carbon isotope analysis. The main limitation of on-line intramolecular isotope ratio measurements has been that optimal pyrolytic fragments are obtained mostly at temperatures where the analyte has not completely reacted. As a result of undetermined isotopic fractionation, the isotopic signatures of the pyrolysis products are not strictly equal to these of the equivalent moieties in the parent molecule. We designed a pyrolytic unit in which both temperature and reaction time are variable parameters, enabling determination of the enrichment factor of the pyrolysis at optimal temperature by construction of a Rayleigh plot. In the case of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) presented here, a 'pre-pyrolysis' fractionation of MTBE leading to a depletion of 0.9 parts per thousand was discovered and the enrichment factor of the optimal pyrolysis reaction was determined at -1.7 parts per thousand. Absolute delta C-13 values of two functional groups of MTBE - the methoxy group and the 2-methylpropane group - could be determined with 95% confidence intervals of 0.4 parts per thousand and 0.5 parts per thousand, respectively

African-American inflammatory bowel disease in a Southern U.S. health center

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) remain significant health problems in the US and worldwide. IBD is most often associated with eastern European ancestry, and is less frequently reported in other populations of African origin e.g. African Americans ('AAs'). Whether AAs represent an important population with IBD in the US remains unclear since few studies have investigated IBD in communities with a majority representation of AA patients. The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) is a tertiary care medical center, with a patient base composed of 58% AA and 39% Caucasian (W), ideal for evaluating racial (AA vs. W) as well and gender (M vs. F) influences on IBD.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this retrospective study, we evaluated 951 visits to LSUHSC-S for IBD (between 2000 to 2008) using non-identified patient information based on ICD-9 medical record coding (Crohn's disease 'CD'-555.0- 555.9 and ulcerative colitis 'UC'-556.0-556.9).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall, there were more cases of CD seen than UC. UC and CD affected similar ratios of AA and Caucasian males (M) and females (F) with a rank order of WF > WM > AAF > AAM. Interestingly, in CD, we found that annual visits per person was the highest in AA M (10.7 ± 1.7); significantly higher (* -p < 0.05) than in WM (6.3 ± 1.0). Further, in CD, the female to male (F: M) ratio in AA was significantly higher (*- p < 0.05) (1.9 ± 0.2) than in Caucasians (F:M = 1.3 ± 0.1) suggesting a female dominance in AACD; no differences were seen in UC F: M ratios.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although Caucasians still represent the greatest fraction of IBD (~64%), AAs with IBD made up >1/3 (36.4%) of annual IBD cases from 2000-2008 at LSUHSC-S. Further studies on genetic and environments risks for IBD risk in AAs are needed to understand differences in presentation and progression in AAs and other 'non-traditional' populations.</p

Potencijalna upotreba izotopa važnih za okoliš u ispitivanju migracije onečišćujućih tvari

This article presents the use of natural abundance stable isotope (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine) analysis data as a tool for providing important information about the origin of contaminants, the contribution of different sources to a multi-source plume, characterisation of their complex transport (rate and mechanisms) and for evaluating the success of contaminated site remediation. Isotopic signatures of contaminants are useful tracers of their sources, while isotopic fractionation can be used to quantitatively assess the progress of an environmental process such as biodegradation. This new isotopic approach is reliable and can offer more information than traditional techniques in pollutant migration studies, particularly after waste disposal. During biological degradation of any organic compound, molecules containing lighter isotopes are degraded, and the portion of heavier isotopes in the substrate is increased, identifying specific microbial roles in biogeochemical cycling. Since isotopic fractionation is proportional to degradation, depending on the type of contamination, a microbial degradation of 50 % to 99 % of the initial concentration can be quantified using isotope ratio measurements.Cilj ovog rada je da se prikaže korištenje podataka analize prirodne obilnosti stabilnih izotopa (vodika, ugljika, dušika, kisika i klora) kao alata za dobivanje važnih informacija o porijeklu onečišćujućih tvari, doprinosu različitih multikomponentnih onečišćivača, karakterizaciji njihova kompleksnog transporta (brzine i mehanizma) i praćenja uspjeha remedijacije onečišćenih mjesta. Izotopski sadržaji onečišćujućih tvari koriste se kao traseri za određivanje njihovih izvora, dok se izotopsko frakcioniranje može iskoristiti za kvantitativnu procjenu toka procesa kao što je biodegradacija. Takav nov izotopski pristup je pouzdan i nudi više informacija od tradicionalnih tehnika kontrole putovanja onečišćivala, napose nakon odlaganja opasnog otpada na zemljištu. Za vrijeme biodegradacije nekog organskog spoje molekule koje sadržavaju lake izotope lakše se degradiraju, a dio težih izotopa u supstratu se povećava, što upućuje na mikrobiološku ulogu u biokemijskom ciklusu. Kako je izotopsko frakcioniranje proporcionalno degradaciji zavisno od tipa onečišćenja, korištenjem podataka mjerenja izotopskih odnosa može se procijeniti mikrobiološka degradacija od 50 % do 99 % od početne koncentracije