Implementing standards and guidelines for C-Print in the secondary education of deaf students

This curriculum project was created in hopes of developing a set of guidelines that will strengthen the use of C-print and speech to text services at the K-12 level. The (1998) National Task force on Educational Interpreting released a report that outlined the job description, roles and responsibilities of all Educational Interpreters. In contract, C-print and speech to text services do not yet have a clear consensus or mandate on the roles and responsibilities involved in this service. This project attempts to address the strengths and weaknesses of implementing C-print in public schools. It also creates materials to better prepare teachers, students, and support personnel to use these services effectively in the K-12 demographic. The materials implemented in this project were created with the support and feedback of high school and college instructors, college, high school, and one middle school student, and with the ideas and support of C-Print service providers. These materials will help the provider and the Educational team supporting the C-print service have a more clear picture of what their respective roles and responsibilities are to implement this service successfully for all deaf and hard of hearing students

The Role of Lifetime Exposures across Cognitive Domains in Barbados Using Data From the SABE Study

This study characterized the effects of aging on individual cognitive domains and how sex, job type, and years of education alter the age effect on older adults from Barbados. This was an analysis of the cross-sectional data collected as part of the SABE Study (Health, Well-being and Ageing) in 2006. The loss of a single point in each of the individual cognitive domains assessed using the mini-mental state exam served as dependent variables. Independent variables included age, sex, years of education, job type, and the interactions with age in a series of logistic regression analyses. The study aimed to identify which factors altered the effect of age on cognitive performance and which directly affected performance. Results demonstrated that the effect of age differed across the cognitive domains. In addition, sex, education, and job type all differentially affected cognitive performance in an additive, formative manner. The most consistent finding was that high years of education coupled with employment requiring mostly mental effort was the best combination for maintaining high levels of cognitive performance in late life. The results demonstrate that adverse age effects on cognitive performance may be minimized or delayed through modifiable lifetime exposures in the people of Barbados

NMME Monthly / Seasonal Forecasts for NASA SERVIR Applications Science

This work details use of the North American Multi-Model Ensemble (NMME) experimental forecasts as drivers for Decision Support Systems (DSSs) in the NASA / USAID initiative, SERVIR (a Spanish acronym meaning "to serve"). SERVIR integrates satellite observations, ground-based data and forecast models to monitor and forecast environmental changes and to improve response to natural disasters. Through the use of DSSs whose "front ends" are physically based models, the SERVIR activity provides a natural testbed to determine the extent to which NMME monthly to seasonal projections enable scientists, educators, project managers and policy implementers in developing countries to better use probabilistic outlooks of seasonal hydrologic anomalies in assessing agricultural / food security impacts, water availability, and risk to societal infrastructure. The multi-model NMME framework provides a "best practices" approach to probabilistic forecasting. The NMME forecasts are generated at resolution more coarse than that required to support DSS models; downscaling in both space and time is necessary. The methodology adopted here applied model output statistics where we use NMME ensemble monthly projections of sea-surface temperature (SST) and precipitation from 30 years of hindcasts with observations of precipitation and temperature for target regions. Since raw model forecasts are well-known to have structural biases, a cross-validated multivariate regression methodology (CCA) is used to link the model projected states as predictors to the predictands of the target region. The target regions include a number of basins in East and South Africa as well as the Ganges / Baramaputra / Meghna basin complex. The MOS approach used address spatial downscaling. Temporal disaggregation of monthly seasonal forecasts is achieved through use of a tercile bootstrapping approach. We interpret the results of these studies, the levels of skill by several metrics, and key uncertainties

The Landscape of Giving Circles/Collective Giving Groups in the U.S.

This research presents an updated understanding of the current landscape of Giving Circles and similar models of collective giving or giving collaboratives in the United States. This research comprises the first of a three-part inquiry, which also looks at research underway related to the impact of participation in GCs on donor giving and civic engagement, and a study of the relationships between GCs and their hosting organizations

Intraseasonal Variations in Tropical Energy Balance: Relevance to Climate Sensitivity?

Intraseasonal variability of deep convection represents a fundamental mode of organization for tropical convection. While most studies of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) have focused on the spatial propagation and dynamics of convectively coupled circulations, here we examine the projection of ISOs on the tropically-averaged heat and moisture budget. One unresolved question concerns the degree to which observable variations in the "fast" processes (e.g. convection, radiative / turbulent fluxes) can inform our understanding of feedback mechanisms operable in the context of climate change. Our analysis use daily data from satellite observations, the Modern Era analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), and other model integrations to address these questions: (i) How are tropospheric temperature variations related to that tropical deep convection and the associated ice cloud fractional amount (ICF), ice water path (IWP), and properties of warmer liquid clouds? (ii) What role does moisture transport play vis-a-vis ocean latent heat flux in enabling the evolution of deep convection to mediate PBL - free atmospheric temperature equilibration? (iii) What affect do convectively generated upper-tropospheric clouds have on the TOA radiation budget? Our methodology is similar to that of Spencer et al., (2007 GRL ) whereby a composite time series of various quantities over 60+ ISO events is built using tropical mean tropospheric temperature signal as a reference to which the variables are related at various lag times (from -30 to +30 days). The area of interest encompasses the global oceans between 20oN/S. The increase of convective precipitation cannot be sustained by evaporation within the domain, implying strong moisture transports into the tropical ocean area. The decrease in net TOA radiation that develops after the peak in deep convective rainfall, is part of the response that constitutes a "discharge" / "recharge" mechanism that facilitates tropical heat balance maintenance on these time scales. However, water vapor and hydrologic scaling relationships for this mode of variability cast doubt on the utility of ISO variations as proxies for climate sensitivity response to external radiatively forced (e.g. greenhouse gas-induced) climate change

The immune and neurological impacts of developmental Bisphenol A exposure in a C57bl/6 mouse model

Environmental exposure to exogenous agents during critical time points of development may be associated with the onset of deleterious effects, including immune and neurological disorders. Numerous studies have shown that exposure to bisphenol A (BPA) can disrupt myriad biological systems. This research was focused on the immune and neurological impacts of developmental exposure to BPA both with and without an acute exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in adulthood. LPS exposure given around the time of learning "unmasks" developmental deficits in learning and memory induced by exposure to an exogenous agent earlier in life. We hypothesized that adult exposure to LPS would unmask BPA-induced developmental impacts to hippocampal-dependent learning and memory of C57BL/6 offspring. In one set of experiments, C57BL/6 female mice were exposed to 0, 25, 50, or 100 mg/kg of BPA in a corn oil vehicle by gavage, beginning at pairing with males and ending at weaning of offspring. The F1 generation were assessed on a Barnes maze at postnatal day 21 (PND21), 42, and 60. Splenic lymphocyte immunophenotype was evaluated after behavioral testing. The behavioral results from this study included high intra- and intertrial variability across ages and between sexes. While this is not unusual for this type of behavioral measure, significant differences between ages and dose groups did not conform to any observable patterns during acquisition learning. On the final reference day, exposure to BPA was associated with more correct attempts in the Barnes maze. The fewest number of correct attempts was observed in BPA-exposed females at PND60. Several significant differences in behavior were noted among age groups, and indicate that as these C57BL/6 mice aged, they responded differently to the same tasks. BPA exposure led to modified immune cell numbers at different doses and ages. Overall, this study demonstrated that BPA could alter behavior, but no consistent patterns emerged with regard to the effects of BPA dose or age at testing. In another set of experiments, pregnant C57BL/6 female mice were exposed to 0, 0.4, or 50 mg/kg of BPA in a corn oil vehicle. The resulting offspring were assessed on a Barnes maze at PND60, beginning 4 hours after a single challenge with LPS. Mice developmentally exposed to different doses of BPA made more correct escape attempts than vehicle control animals; no control groups outperformed BPA exposed groups on any behavioral measure. Control animals injected with saline significantly outperformed LPS-challenged animals. Female animals were 88% faster at this visuospatial task than males. This is inconsistent with previously reported studies where males outperform or perform equally with females on this type of evaluation. BPA exposure could be associated with impaired spatial memory in males on this task. We also reported significant changes to NK cell numbers, CD4+CD25+ T cell numbers in females and alterations to IgG in males and IL-4 in female mice. Overall, our findings suggest that developmental BPA exposure, can alter learning and immune cell types but additional research should be conducted to determine at which doses these alterations occur.Ph.D