Another Hat for the Special Reading Teacher

The special reading teacher functions most successfully if he is one who can wear many different hats. He may be required to wear more than one at a time or to change them rather quickly with the ease of a magician. He is versatile and flexible in this accomplishment. However, there is one hat in particular to which we would like to give attention in this article. It is a hat that is deserving particular attention because it is a year around necessity and should be worn in any season. It is indispensable to the reading teacher who works with retarded readers. The purpose of this article will be to describe the hat and to suggest that it would be more serviceable if it were more adequately designed and constructed

History: A determinant of diabetes in an American Indian nation

American Indians and Alaska Natives are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are more likely than the general U.S. population to suffer from diabetes-related complications. Although the association among diet, physical activity, and diabetes are well established, the social determinants of health provide another explanation of the disproportionate risk of diabetes and diabetes-related disparities among American Indians. Few studies have examined other contributing factors, such as colonisation. In this study, a critical Indigenous framework that includes historical events and policies as primary social determinants to explain diabetes-related disparities within a contemporary American Indian/Alaska Native context was applied. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with citizens of an American Indian nation to examine the relationship between local history and diabetes. Drawing from this data, a new framework is provided to understand the root causes of the diabetes epidemic that has meaningful application to public health.

The Cognitive and Emotional Reactions of Commercial Casualty Insurance Underwriters to the Use of Predictive Analytics

The rise of big data and predictive analytics continues to proliferate throughout many industries across the globe and the commercial insurance industry is no exception. One of the core operations of any insurance company is underwriting, where underwriters make important decisions about which risks the insurance company accepts (or rejects), at what price and what terms. These decisions have traditionally been made through a balance of human intuition, judgment and actuarial science but now, with the ability to capture large bodies of data and the application of sophisticated algorithms, insurance companies are developing new decision-making tools that may change the traditional underwriting process and methodology. This exploratory study examines the cognitive and emotional reactions of underwriters to these new tools. Although a limited amount of research exists dealing with human reactions to computer-based decision making, a near complete gap exists examining the interaction of commercial casualty underwriters and predictive analytics. A quantitative research methodology was used as the framework for an online survey was completed by 46 commercial casualty underwriters from various insurance companies. Purposeful sampling was used to select participants for the study and a simple statistical analysis was used to develop inferences about the population. The prominent finding showed that underwriters often acquiesced to the output produced by algorithmic based tools when they did not agree with the result. This in turn caused frustration and ambivalence toward the model. In addition, the majority of underwriters did not always agree with the model setting the stage for more frustration. Interestingly the data showed a notable split in how underwriters do their job now in the face of predictive analytics. The majority are still underwriting the same and considered predictive analytics as a complementary piece, rather than an exclusive one, signaling that underwriters still had meaningful influence in the decision making process while a sizable portion spent less time underwriting knowing the model would ultimately trump their decision

Psychosis in the elderly

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of psychosis in the elderly

Depression in children/adolescents

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of depression in children and adolescents

Female orgasmic disorder

This issue of eMedRef provides information to clinicians on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and therapeutics of female orgasmic disorder