An Exploratory Study Comparing a Low Income Black Dominant Urban School to a Low Income White Dominant Urban School in Terms of School Quality

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)Urban Schools are often judge on the perceived shortcomings of students’ academic skills and family social economic status. This image is judged more negatively when students are mainly Black students from low-income homes. One of the main sources of that judgement is the overall letter grade each school receives as part of state accountability systems. When urban schools have a preponderance of low income white students (LIW) with higher letter grades than urban schools with a preponderance of Black students from low income homes (LIB), the typical conclusion is that the LIW schools are “better” than the LIB schools. To see if this is validated in other areas of schooling, I selected four areas that it would be possible to use to “compare” in an exploratory fashion these two types of urban schools. Those four are: 1) teacher quality, 2) AP enrollment and completion data, 3) technology usage, and 4) graduation rates, for all of which data is available and/or can be collected. Thus, I will be exploring whether the school’s letter grade does distort the understanding or perception of quality for these two types of schools. The findings of the study indicated that the LIB urban high school was not equal or better than LIW urban high school. Even though there was growth in the four focus areas and in the state accountability grade for LIB urban high school, the LIW urban high school outperformed the LIB urban high school in all areas. This study also confirmed that the LIB urban high schools continue to have the less effective teachers in the classrooms, which leads to little to no change in educational quality

Letter from Wm. M. Shipp

Letter concerning a copy of the catalogue for Utah Agricultural College

A Longitudinal Study of the Establishment and Proliferation of Enterococcus on a Dairy Farm

Enterococci are Gram-positive, facultative anaerobic cocci. They are found in many environments (including milk and dairy products, vegetables, plants, cereals, and meats). Enterococci are considered commensal organisms, but can also be opportunistic pathogens associated with morbidity and mortality of humans and animals. A longitudinal study of antibiotic resistance of Enterococcus to ampicillin, erythromycin, and tetracycline was conducted on an academic teaching farm. Environmental samples were collected by drag swabs at select locations prior to and after the introduction of livestock. All samples were initially processed and screened with specialized media, and then replica plated on tryptic soy agar containing a predetermined amount of antibiotic. There was some variation in the quantity of bacterial and antibiotic-resistant colonies; however, resistance to tetracycline was extremely high. The increases of too numerous to count populations were not time-dependent and appeared consistently after the placement of cows. There is little information on the prevalence and epidemiology of antibiotic resistance of Enterococci outside of the hospital setting, including on dairy farms. Longitudinal studies are important in providing insight into the dynamics of establishment and proliferation of bacteria and of antibiotic resistance

Oculocutaneous Albinism in a Finetooth Shark, Carcharhinus isodon, from Mobile Bay, Alabama

Albinism has been documented in numerous species of teleosts (Dawson, 1964, 1966, 1971; Dawson and Heal, 1971). However, published accounts of oculocutaneous albino elasmobranches are relatively rare. Oculocutaneous albinism is a deficiency of the melanocyte system, resulting in a lack of skin pigment and pink eyes. Coad and Gilhen (2002) reviewed the literature and found published reports of 24 cases of albinism in 20 species with only eight of those being oculocutaneous albinos, 12 being piebaldistic (partial albinos), and 4 not clearly defined. Coloration in piebaldistic specimens includes partially white dorsal or ventral surfaces, lack of diagnostic markings (such as ocellae), or leucistic (yellow) coloration

S-cone signals invisible to the motion system can improve motion extraction via grouping by color

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Purification of alpha-glucosidase inhibitors from grape extract

ABSTRACT PURIFICATION OF ALPHA-GLUCOSIDASE INHIBITORS FROM GRAPE EXTRACT by GAYLE SHIPP August 2012 Advisor: Dr. Kevin Zhou Major: Nutrition and Food Science Degree: Master of Science Diabetes and its complications are steadily growing and remain major causes of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Intestinal á-glucosidases play a crucial role in controlling postprandial blood glucose. For this reason, one attractive prevention and/or treatment strategy for type-2 diabetes is the inhibition of á-glucosidase. The effectiveness of á-glucosidase inhibitors (AGI\u27s) for diabetes treatment is well documented in numerous animal and human clinical studies. Grape pomace extract (GPE) has recently found in our laboratory to selectively inhibit alpha-glucosidases without inhibiting alpha-amylase, leading to inhibition of postprandial hyperglycemia in diabetic animals. The present study was designed to identify effective GPE by fractionating and isolating active compounds that inhibit alpha-glucosidases in a specific GPE. From enzyme assay testing, results revealed Fraction 1 active, showed 35% inhibition (p \u3c0.05) compared to the positive control 87.64% and negative control -.565%. HPLC was conducted on F1, which yielded two potential active compounds (peaks) following ACN gradient system method. F1 will undergo future structure identification and elucidation. Fractionation of GPE yielded a very small amount of active F1 for testing. Open column chromatography using HP20 and coarse C18 for scale-up of GPE separation but the resulting fraction failed to show significant inhibition on alpha-glucosidases. Further method development is needed if the collected peaks are not active compounds

Understanding food consumption lifecycles using wearable cameras

Application of design in HCI is a common approach to engendering behavioural change to address important challenges such as sustainability. Encouraging such change requires an understanding of current motivations and behaviours in the domain in question. In this paper, we describe use of wearable cameras to study motivations and behaviours around food consumption by focusing on two contrasting cultures, Malaysia and the UK. Our findings highlight the potential of wearable cameras to enhance knowledge of food consumption practices and identify where and how some digital interventions might be appropriate to change food behaviour. This includes appealing to people’s motivations behind food consumption and capitalising on existing practices such as gifting of food and social meals. We propose a food consumption lifecycle as a framework to understand and design human–food interaction. The use of wearable cameras enabled us to capture a high-level overview of spatially distributed food-related practices and understand food behaviours in greater depth.This work was co-funded by Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, UK, and Crops for the Future, Malaysia.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00779-015-0871-

Influence of Work on Elevated Blood Pressure in Hispanic Adolescents in South Texas.

Literature supports an association between work and cardiovascular disease in adults. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between current work status and elevated blood pressure in Hispanic adolescents. Participants were students in Hidalgo County, located along the Texas-Mexico border. Participants enrolled in the cohort study in ninth grade with assessments completed once a year for up to three years. Participants completed a self-report survey, while staff measured height, weight, waist circumference, blood pressure, and were screened for acanthosis nigricans. A generalized linear regression model with a logit link function was constructed to assess current work status and elevated blood pressure. Of the 508 participants, 29% had elevated blood pressure, which was associated with being male and other chronic disease indicators (e.g., acanthosis nigricans, overweight/obesity). The mean probability for elevated blood pressure was higher among currently working adolescents compared to those who were not. Findings were statistically significant (p < 0.05) at baseline. The findings illustrate that a large proportion of adolescents along the Texas-Mexico border may have elevated blood pressure and that working may be associated with it. Subsequent research is needed to confirm these findings, as well as to identify the mechanism for how work may increase hypertension in adolescents