Improving Comprehension for Students with Learning Disabilities Using The Comprehension Improvement Strategy

Students with learning disabilities generally have a difficult time meeting all of the course deadlines and gaining necessary skills in each of their rigorous high school courses. There are students who have difficulty showing what they learn and completing all the requirements for each class. For many years, there have been teachers that have looked for the best ways to instruct students and give them the tools they need to find success. There have been some strategies that have worked through the years and proved to be a great benefit for the students. There are other strategies that must be revamped and updated to fit the diverse needs of the 21st century learner. In order for students to be successful, one must ask if the learning strategy is effective for students and the teacher and whether the strategy can be implemented by students in practical situations. The main goal of this creative project was to determine if the implementation of the Comprehension Improvement Strategy in a reading prompt would improve students’ reading comprehension. To answer this question, data were collected for the number of accurate synonyms generated and the number of correctly answered comprehension questions answered. When synonyms were used within a reading prompt, the objective was for students to begin to put information together and enhance comprehension. However, the data suggest that this was not always the case for all students- while use of synonyms increased for some students, the number of correctly answered comprehension questions did not

Comparison of sequence-dependent tiling array normalization approaches

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The detection of enriched DNA or RNA fragments by tiling microarrays has become more and more popular. These microarrays contain a high number of small probes covering genomic loci. However, to achieve high coverage the probe sequences cannot be selected for their hybridization properties. The affinity of the probes towards their targets varies in a sequence-dependent manner. In order to remove this bias a number of approaches have been developed and shown to increase the detection of enriched DNA or RNA fragments. However, these approaches also employ a peak detection algorithm that is different from the one used previously. Thus, it seems possible that the enhancement of detection is due to the peak detection algorithm rather than the sequence-dependent normalization.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We compared three different sequence-dependent probe level normalization procedures to a naïve sequence-independent normalization technique. In order to achieve maximal comparability, we used the normalized intensity values as input to a single peak detection algorithm. A so-called "spike-in" data set served as benchmark for the performance. We will show that the sequence-dependent normalization procedures do not perform better than the naïve approach, suggesting that the benefit of using these normalization approaches is limited. Furthermore, we will show that the naïve approach does well, because it effectively removes the sequence-dependent component of the measured intensities with the help of the control hybridization experiment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Sequence-dependent normalization of microarray data hardly improves the detection of enriched DNA or RNA fragments. The "success" of the sequence-independent naïve approach is only possible due to the control experiment and requires proper scaling of the measured intensities.</p

Total Empiricism: Learning from Data

Statistical analysis is an important tool to distinguish systematic from chance findings. Current statistical analyses rely on distributional assumptions reflecting the structure of some underlying model, which if not met lead to problems in the analysis and interpretation of the results. Instead of trying to fix the model or "correct" the data, we here describe a totally empirical statistical approach that does not rely on ad hoc distributional assumptions in order to overcome many problems in contemporary statistics. Starting from elementary combinatorics, we motivate an information-guided formalism to quantify knowledge extracted from the given data. Subsequently, we derive model-agnostic methods to identify patterns that are solely evidenced by the data based on our prior knowledge. The data-centric character of empiricism allows for its universal applicability, particularly as sample size grows larger. In this comprehensive framework, we re-interpret and extend model distributions, scores and statistical tests used in different schools of statistics.Comment: Keywords: effective description, large-N, operator formalism, statistical testing, inference, information divergenc

Optimal management of chronic cyclical pelvic pain: an evidence-based and pragmatic approach

This article reviews the literature on management of chronic cyclical pelvic pain (CCPP). Electronic resources including Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, Current Contents, and EMBASE were searched using MeSH terms including all subheadings and keywords: “cyclical pelvic pain”, “chronic pain”, “dysmenorrheal”, “nonmenstrual pelvic pain”, and “endometriosis”. There is a dearth of high-quality evidence for this common problem. Chronic pelvic pain affects 4%–25% of women of reproductive age. Dysmenorrhea of varying degree affects 60% of women. Endometriosis is the commonest pathologic cause of CCPP. Other gynecological causes are adenomyosis, uterine fibroids, and pelvic floor myalgia, although other systems disease such as irritable bowel syndrome or interstitial cystitis may be responsible. Management options range from simple to invasive, where simple medical treatment such as the combined oral contraceptive pill may be used as a first-line treatment prior to invasive management. This review outlines an approach to patients with CCPP through history, physical examination, and investigation to identify the cause(s) of the pain and its optimal management

UA30/1/1 Planning, Design & Construction Blueprints, Drawings & Plans

Blueprints, drawings and plans of WKU buildings and campus created by the Department of Planning, Design & Construction

The density compression ratio of shock fronts associated with coronal mass ejections

We present a new method to extract the three-dimensional electron density profile and density compression ratio of shock fronts associated with Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) observed in white light coronagraph images. We demonstrate the method with two examples of fast halo CMEs ($\sim$ 2000 km s$^{-1}$) observed on 2011 March 7 and 2014 February 25. Our method uses the ellipsoid model to derive the three-dimensional (3D) geometry and kinematics of the fronts. The density profiles of the sheaths are modeled with double-Gaussian functions with four free parameters and the electrons are distributed within thin shells behind the front. The modeled densities are integrated along the lines of sight to be compared with the observed brightness in COR2-A, and a $\chi^2$ approach is used to obtain the optimal parameters for the Gaussian profiles. The upstream densities are obtained from both the inversion of the brightness in a pre-event image and an empirical model. Then the density ratio and Alfv\'{e}nic Mach number are derived. We find that the density compression peaks around the CME nose, and decreases at larger position angles. The behavior is consistent with a driven shock at the nose and a freely-propagating shock wave at the CME flanks. Interestingly, we find that the supercritical region extends over a large area of the shock and last longer (several tens of minutes) than past reports. It follows that CME shocks are capable of accelerating energetic particles in the corona over extended spatial and temporal scales and are likely responsible for the wide longitudinal distribution of these particles in the inner heliosphere. Our results also demonstrate the power of multi-viewpoint coronagraphic observations and forward modeling in remotely deriving key shock properties in an otherwise inaccessible regime.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Space Weather and Space Climat