The effect of acculturation on parental perception of child psychological assessment among Chinese Americans

textPsychological assessment has a long history to be used for diagnostic purposes for all ages. This traditional model of assessment has been common for decades, but has not emphasized some important aspects of best practice (Brenner, 2003). To address the limitations of the information gathering model of assessment, collaborative and therapeutic approaches to assessment have been developed over the past several decades (e.g. Finn & Thonsager, 1997; Fischer, 1970). Therapeutic Assessment (TA) emphasizes the opportunity to provide positive changes in the client and their system by involving the client throughout the assessment process, and establishing a meaningful and collaborative relationship between assessor and client (Finn, 2007). The TA has been found to produce many positive impacts on client’s assessment experiences in mainstream American culture. It is important to note how these positive impacts transfer to clients of different cultures. Thus the purpose of this study will be to investigate the effect of acculturation on Asian American parents’ perception of existing models of child assessment. This study will examine the relations between acculturation and perception of assessment models (information gathering model versus Therapeutic Assessment) among Chinese American parents.Educational Psycholog

Multiple Constructs and the Effects of Accommodations on Standardized Test Scores for Students with Disabilities

Students with disabilities frequently use accommodations to participate in large-scale, standardized assessments. Accommodations can include changes to the administration of the test, such as extended time, changes to the test items, such as read aloud, or changes to the student’s response, such as the use of a scribe. Some accommodations or modifications risk changing the difficulty of the test items or decreasing the validity of how test scores are interpreted. Questions regarding the validity of accommodated tests are heightened when scores are used in high-stakes decisions such as grade promotion, graduation, teacher merit pay, or other accountability initiatives. The purpose of this article is to review existing literature on multiple constructs that affect validity of interpretations of accommodated assessment scores. Research on assessment accommodations continues to grow but offers few conclusive findings on whether they facilitate fair and accurate measurement of student knowledge and skill. The validity of an accommodated score appears to vary depending on several factors such as student characteristics, test characteristics, and the accommodations themselves. A multiple construct approach may facilitate more accurate evaluations of the effects of accommodated test scores Accessed 12,923 times on https://pareonline.net from October 19, 2009 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right

Integrating Satellite and Surface Sensor Networks for Irrigation Management Applications in California

Satellite mapping of evapotranspiration (ET) from irrigated agricultural lands can provide agricultural producers and water managers with information that can be used to optimize agricultural water use, especially in regions with limited water supplies. The timely delivery of information on agricultural crop water requirements has the potential to make irrigation scheduling more practical, convenient, and accurate. We present a system for irrigation scheduling and management support in California and describe lessons learned from the development and implementation of the system. The Satellite Irrigation Management Support (SIMS) framework integrates satellite data with information from agricultural weather networks to map crop canopy development, basal crop coefficients (Kcb), and basal crop evapotranspiration (ETcb) at the scale of individual fields. Information is distributed to agricultural producers and water managers via a web-based irrigation management decision support system and web data services. SIMS also provides an application programming interface (API) that facilitates integration with other irrigation decision support tools, estimation of total crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and calculation of on-farm water use efficiency metrics. Accuracy assessments conducted in commercial fields for more than a dozen crop types to date have shown that SIMS seasonal ETcb estimates are within 10 mean absolute error (MAE) for well-watered crops and within 15 across all crop types studied, and closely track daily ETc and running totals of ETc measured in each field. Use of a soil water balance model to correct for soil evaporation and crop water stress reduces this error to less than 8 MAE across all crop types studied to date relative to field measurements of ETc. Results from irrigation trials conducted by the project for four vegetable crops have also demonstrated the potential for use of ET-based irrigation management strategies to reduce total applied water by 20-40 relative to grower standard practices while maintaining crop yields and quality

Role of acculturation and enculturation on Chinese adults' perception of child psychological assessment models

textThe Therapeutic Assessment model of child assessment (TA-C) aims to provide psychological benefits and facilitate positive changes in the children and their family. However, research on TA-C has focused almost exclusively on the experience of clients from mainstream American culture. This study investigated the cultural applicability of the TA-C model with Chinese adults residing in the United States. A convenience sample of 74 Chinese adults, ages 25-40, was recruited. Two sets of vignettes were written to simulate the experiences of each step of the TA-C and information gathering (IG) model of assessment. Each participant was randomly assigned to either the TA-C or the IG group, and completed the Perceived Experiences of Assessment Scale and My Feelings after reading each phase of the assessment (introductory, testing, child feedback, parent feedback, and overall experience) in their vignette. In addition, each participant completed the European American Values Scale of Asian Americans--Revised and the Asian American Values Scale--Multidimensional, designed to measure of acculturation and enculturation respectively. Findings indicated that after taking acculturation and enculturation into account, Chinese participants had a more positive experience with the TA-C model than the IG model. Additional analyses found that the level of acculturation and enculturation had no significant impact on how participants in the TA-C group experienced the case through their vignette, supporting the robust nature of TA-C. However, participants in the IG group did experience an impact of both acculturation and enculturation on how they experienced the case through their vignette, supporting less applicability of the IG model when high enculturation is present. In addition, the experience of being emotionally stirred up in the TA-C condition was examined and discussed, suggesting further that the TA-C model both evokes and supports emotional disequilibrium that then facilitates a positive experience by the end of the TA-C. In conclusion, this study offered promising preliminary support for TA-C as a culturally appropriate child assessment model for Chinese families in the United States and provided a more nuanced understanding about the use of the IG model with those who are highly enculturated.Educational Psycholog

A perspective on the role of microRNA-128 regulation in mental and behavioral disorders

MiRNAs are short, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression post-transcriptionally. Over the past decade, misregulated miRNA pathways have been associated with various diseases such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and neurodevelopmental disorders. In this article, we aim to discuss the role played by miR-128 in neuropsychiatric disorders, and highlight potential target genes from an in silico analysis of predicted miR-128 targets. We also discuss the differences of target gene determination based on a bioinformatics or empirical approach. Using data from TargetScan and published reports, we narrowed the miR-128 target gene list to those that are known to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders, and found that these genes can be classified into 29 gene clusters and are mostly enriched in cancer and MAPK signaling pathways. We also highlight some recent studies on several of the miR-128 targets which should be investigated further as potential candidate genes for therapeutic interventions

Supraleitungstechnik. RABiTS YBCO-Bandleiter. Teilvorhaben: Handhabung und Beschichtung von Bandleitern Abschlussbericht

SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F04B335 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

Evaluation of immunoprotection conferred by the subunit vaccines of GRA2 and GRA5 against acute toxoplasmosis in BALB/c mice

Toxoplasmosis is a foodborne disease caused by Toxoplasma gondii, an obligate intracellular parasite. Severe symptoms occur in the immunocompromised patients and pregnant women leading to fatality and abortions respectively. Vaccination development is essential to control the disease. The T. gondii dense granule antigen 2 and 5 (GRA2 and GRA5) have been targeted in this study because these proteins are essential to the development of parasitophorous vacuole (PV), a specialized compartment formed within the infected host cell. PV is resistance to host cell endosomes and lysosomes thereby protecting the invaded parasite. Recombinant dense granular proteins, GRA2 (rGRA2) and GRA5 (rGRA5) were cloned, expressed, and purified in Escherichia coli, BL21 (DE3) pLysS. The potential of these purified antigens as subunit vaccine candidates against toxoplasmosis were evaluated through subcutaneous injection of BALB/c mice followed by immunological characterization (humoral- and cellular-mediated) and lethal challenge against virulent T. gondii RH strain in BALB/c mice. Results obtained demonstrated that rGRA2 and rGRA5 elicited humoral and cellular-mediated immunity in the mice. High level of IgG antibody was produced with the isotype IgG2a/IgG1 ratio of ≈0.87 (p<0.001). Significant increase (p<0.05) in the level of four cytokines (IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-4 and IL-10) was obtained. The antibody and cytokine results suggest that a mix mode of Th1/Th2-immunity was elicited with predominant Th1-immune response inducing partial protection against T. gondii acute infection in BALB/c mice. Our findings indicated that both GRA2 and GRA5 are potential candidates for vaccine development against T. gondii acute infection