First Year Students\u27 Use of the Writing Center in Fall 2020

A brief slide overview of some usage trends of the Writing Center by first year students in Fall 2020.https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/flc_first_year_students/1007/thumbnail.jp

Impact of antiretroviral therapy on adult HIV prevalence in a low-income rural setting in Uganda: a longitudinal population-based study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the contribution to HIV prevalence of lives saved due to the introduction of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in rural Uganda in 2004. DESIGN: Open population-based cohort study. METHODS: An open general population cohort with annual demographic and HIV serostatus data is used to estimate annual HIV prevalence, HIV incidence, and mortality from 2000 to 2010. We calculated standardized mortality rates among HIV-positive adults and the expected number of deaths in the cohort if ART had not been available during 2004-2010, based on the average mortality rate in the 4 years (2000-2003) before ART introduction. RESULTS: During 2004-2010, the estimated prevalence increased by 29% from 6.9% to 8.9%. HIV incidence was 5.6 cases per 1000 person-years in 2004, falling to 3.9 cases per 1000 person-years in 2006, and slightly rising to 5.1 in 2010. There was an increase of 182 in the number of HIV-positive participants during that period, cumulatively 228 lives were saved due to ART. Expected lives saved due to ART accounted for an increasing proportion of the estimated HIV prevalence from 4.0% in 2004 to 29.4% in 2010. CONCLUSIONS: Expected lives saved due to ART largely accounted for the increased estimated HIV prevalence from 2004 to 2010. Because HIV prevalence survey results are important for planning, programming, and policy, their interpretation requires consideration of the increasing impact of ART in decreasing mortality

Leadership, curriculum, instruction, and accountability scores : evidence from Kentucky scholastic audits.

In 1983 the National Commission on Excellence in Education released A Nation at Risk, which triggered an extended era of school reform culminating in today\u27s accountability movement. In Kentucky the school improvement process, in which principals play an integral part, is based on the Standards and Indicators for School Improvement (SISI--with nine standards and 88 indicators overall) and the Scholastic Audit, a measurement tool based thereon. Murphy\u27s (2004) mediated model of instructional leadership recognizes that complex school reform necessitates both direct and indirect skills. The central research question captures the purpose of this study, testing Murphy\u27s model: Based on Scholastic Audits, what are the effects of instructional leadership on Kentucky accountability scores, as mediated by curriculum and instruction? Secondary data from 83 high schools in Kentucky are examined to determine the direct and indirect effect of leadership on student achievement. Descriptive statistics were calculated for nine demographic factors and the composite Academic Index (AI), an accountability measure. Factors for Standard 7 (Leadership), Standard 1 (Curriculum), and Standard 3 (Instruction) were derived from exploratory factor analysis of the 11, 7, and 8 indicators, respectively, for the standards. Cronbach\u27s alpha and inter-scale correlations were also calculated. Simultaneous multiple regressions examined relationships among demographic factors, three standards, and AI. The full mediated effects model was tested with hierarchical regression. The three sets of indicators each produced a single factor solution explaining 45.4%,52.9%, and 48.2%, respectively of the variance. Cronbach\u27s alpha ranged from .837 to .873. Standard 7 (Leadership) explained 39%, 40%, and 20%, respectively, of the variance on Curriculum, Instruction, and the AI. Standards 1 and 3 combined explained 40% of the AI. Demographic factors explained 65% of variance on AI; each of the three standards was essentially independent of demographic controls. In final hierarchical model, Leadership added .06 to the variance explained in Step 2. Step 3 with Curriculum and Instruction added produced an additional.05; all that influence came from Standard 3 (Instruction). The final model had an effect size of 76%, establishing empirical support for Murphy\u27s mediated effects model of instructional leadership for high schools in Kentucky

Neurophysiological Correlates of Executive Function: A Comparison of European-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian 5-Year-Old Children

This study explored the neurophysiological correlates of executive function (EF) in young children from two different cultural backgrounds. Twenty European-Canadian and 17 Chinese-Canadian 5-year-olds participated in a go/no-go task, during which high-density electroencephalographic (EEG) data were recorded. No cultural group differences were observed in children's behavioral performance on the task, but marked differences were revealed by ERP analyses, which focused on the amplitude and latency of the N2 waveform. Chinese-Canadian children showed larger (i.e., more negative) N2 amplitudes than European-Canadian children on the right side of the scalp on no-go trials, as well as on the left side of the scalp on go trials, and for all children, larger N2 amplitudes were associated with faster median reaction times. Source analyses of the N2 were consistent with the hypothesis that compared to European-Canadian children, Chinese-Canadian children showed more activation in dorsomedial, ventromedial, and (bilateral) ventrolateral prefrontal cortex. These findings reveal that EEG can provide a measure of cultural differences in neurocognitive function that is more sensitive than behavioral data alone; that Chinese-Canadian children show a pattern of hemispheric differentiation in the context of this task than that is more pronounced than that of age-matched European-Canadian children; that the asymmetrically lateralized N2 may be a reliable marker of both effortful inhibition (on the right) and effortful approach (on the left); and that the neural correlates of EF may vary across samples of healthy participants, even in children

Bridging Programs: Pathways to Equity in Post-Secondary Education

The purpose of this report is to review the evidence related to how well existing PSE bridging programs support and enable underrepresented youth to access, persist, and complete a PSE program. To close the PSE opportunity gap and “move the dial” on PSE access and completion equity, our report is intended to serve as an evidence-based resource for youth-serving organizations and individuals interested in developing and/or evaluating bridging programs. This report provides a point-in-time summary of the evidence-base related to PSE bridging programs. As this field of research evolves, so will the data. As such, this report presents a snapshot of both the academic and grey literature, highlighting promising practices that are evidence-based and that, as a result, provide an important starting point for those interested in program development and/or evaluation. This paper seeks to: review and assess the most effective bridging strategies and/or programs for engaging underrepresented youth in PSE; present evaluated strategies for engaging young people in bridging opportunities and for keeping them engaged and supported after transitioning to PSE; and reflect on the challenges in the delivery of bridging programs and examine case studies of programs that have achieved significant success

The Effect of Early Adolescents’ Psychological Needs Satisfaction upon Their Perceived Competence in Information Skills and Intrinsic Motivation for Research

The American Association of School Librarians’ Standards for the 21st Century Learner make clear that information skills alone are not sufficient for student success; students must also value those skills, use them in a productive and responsible manner, and have the motivational “dispositions in action” to support successful research and independent lifelong learning. Self-determination theory highlights perceived competence and autonomy as two basic psychological needs that support intrinsically-motivated behavior. This study investigates the extent to which context factors inherent to the school library influence students’ perceived competence in the domain of information skills (PCIS), and their intrinsic motivation for research (IMR). The study explores this relationship among 1272 eighth grade 13-year old students in 20 states. Findings indicate that student perceptions of their school librarian’s autonomy supportiveness and their perceptions of the librarian’s technology competence contribute significantly to PCIS and IMR. These findings are important in that they highlight the important role that the school librarian may play in influencing student affect towards the activity of information uses and research, and likely their consequent learning outcomes

The population genetics of red squirrels in a fragmented habitat

The genetics of eight small red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris L. ) populations in northern Belgium is investigated by analysing variation in a section of the mitochondrial control region and five microsatellite loci. The full sequence of the mitochondrial control region in red squirrels is determined and is compared to that of other mammals. The isolation of microsatellite loci is also described. The eight fragment populations are compared with two large Belgian populations and one large population in the Bavarian Forest, Germany. Virtually no variation is found in the control region within any of the Belgian squirrels, although the German population is found to be highly variable. However, the Belgian and German samples show comparable levels of diversity at the microsatellite loci. The lack of variation in the control region of the Belgian squirrels suggests that they have lost variation, due to either selective or demographic pressures. A combination of a bottleneck and metapopulation structuring could lead to reduced diversity levels and explain the observed patterns of variation. The recent effects of habitat fragmentation and population expansion can be seen in the microsatellite data. Three of the fragment populations show evidence of recent bottlenecks or founder events, probably due to the recent colonisation of these areas by squirrels from nearby expanding populations. Estimations of FsT and RsT show that there is some differentiation among the populations, but none of the populations are significantly differentiated from any of the others. There is no correlation between genetic differentiation and geographic distance indicating that migration is influenced by other factors as well as distance. The fragment populations all contain more allelic diversity than would be expected in populations of their size at mutation-drift equilibrium. Migration between the populations appears to be maintaining nuclear variation and counteracting the effects of random genetic drift

Developing an evidence-based program sustainability training curriculum: A group randomized, multi-phase approach

Abstract Background The emergence of dissemination and implementation (D&I) science has driven a rapid increase in studies of how new scientific discoveries are translated and developed into evidence-based programs and policies. However, D&I science has paid much less attention to what happens to programs once they have been implemented. Public health programs can only deliver benefits if they reach maturity and sustain activities over time. In order to achieve the full benefits of significant investment in public health research and program development, there must be an understanding of the factors that relate to sustainability to inform development of tools and trainings to support strategic long-term program sustainability. Tobacco control programs, specifically, vary in their abilities to support and sustain themselves over time. As of 2018, most states still do not meet the CDC-recommended level for funding their TC program, allowing tobacco use to remain the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the USA. The purpose of this study is to empirically develop, test, and disseminate training programs to improve the sustainability of evidence-based state tobacco control programs and thus, tobacco-related health outcomes. Methods This paper describes the methods of a group randomized, multi-phase study that evaluates the empirically developed “Program Sustainability Action Planning Training” and technical assistance in US state-level tobacco control programs. Phase 1 includes developing the sustainability action planning training curriculum and technical assistance protocol and developing measures to assess long-term program sustainability. Phase 2 includes a group randomized trial to test the effectiveness of the training and technical assistance in improving sustainability outcomes in 24 state tobacco control programs (12 intervention, 12 comparison). Phase 3 includes the active dissemination of final training curricula materials to a broader public health audience. Discussion Empirical evidence has established that program sustainability can improve through training and technical assistance; however, to our knowledge, no evidence-based sustainability training curriculum program exists. Therefore, systematic methods are needed to develop, test, and disseminate a training that improves the sustainability of evidence-based programs. Trial registration NCT03598114. Registered 25 July 2018—retrospectively registered