Association Between Engagement In A Community-Based Home Visitation Program And Birth Spacing Between First And Second Children

OBJECTIVE: To identify patterns in engagement in the Connecticut-based home visitation program, Nurturing Families Network (NFN), and to determine whether associations exist between various engagement patterns and birth-to-pregnancy intervals between first and second children. METHODS: Repeated measures latent class analysis was employed to identify patterns in program engagement among 5,248 families enrolled in NFN with available home visit information. Maternal socio-demographic characteristics were examined to identify potential predictors of engagement patterns. Propensity score matching was used to identify firstborn children of families in Connecticut with comparable eligibility and tendency to enroll in NFN. Survival analysis was conducted to assess the association between engagement patterns and birth-to-pregnancy intervals for 19,489 firstborn children both enrolled and not enrolled in NFN. RESULTS: Five engagement patterns were identified. A large proportion of NFN participants is comprised of “High, late drop attenders” (22%), who maintain high levels of engagement for at least 9 months before gradually dropping out of the program, and “High, early drop attenders” (21%), who have near perfect home visit attendance in the first couple of months but begin to drop out at around 3 to 6 months. Engagement patterns are associated with interpregnancy intervals, but are not significantly associated with narrow interpregnancy intervals ofmother, such as age, race, and socioeconomic status. CONCLUSIONS: Distinct patterns exist in program engagement by participants enrolled in home visitation programs. Maternal socio-demographic characteristics can influence how and when participants engage in home visitation relative to first child’s birth. Engagement patterns are shown to be associated with interpregnancy intervals; in particular, “Not enrolled” and “Low attendance” families were observed to have increased risk of more narrow interpregnancy intervals. Further investigation of home visit attendance records is necessary to confirm findings in engagement patterns

Applying Rating Systems to Challenge Based Cybersecurity Education

As technology becomes a larger part of everyday life, it becomes increasingly more important for CS and CIT students to learn about cyber security during their education. While many cyber security oriented courses exist, it is also necessary that students must be able to work and learn in an environment that resembles a real world context. To address this problem it has become common to adapt cyber security challenges into the classroom as a method for students to put their knowledge into practice. One problem is that these challenges can vary considerably in levels of difficulty, which makes it problematic for students to be able to select a challenge that is an appropriate difficulty for their skill level. A potential solution to this problem could be to adapt a rating system to rank both the students and the challenges. This would then allow the students to easily select challenges that are appropriate for them to engage with by comparing their own rating with the rating of available challenges. In this project we propose methods that could be used to adapt a rating system to an existing cyber security education program. Finally we propose a method to survey students that interact with the program so that the effect of the rating system can be measured

End-Tethered Chains Increase the Local Glass Transition Temperature of Matrix Chains by 45 K Next to Solid Substrates Independent of Chain Length

The local glass transition temperature Tg of pyrene-labeled polystyrene (PS) chains intermixed with end-tethered PS chains grafted to a neutral silica substrate was measured by fluorescence spectroscopy. To isolate the impact of the grafted chains, the films were capped with bulk neat PS layers eliminating competing effects of the free surface. Results demonstrate that end-grafted chains strongly increase the local Tg of matrix chains by $\approx$45 K relative to bulk Tg, independent of grafted chain molecular weight from Mn = 8.6 to 212 kg/mol and chemical end-group, over a wide range of grafting densities $\sigma$ = 0.003 to 0.33 chains/nm$^2$ spanning the mushroom-to-brush transition regime. The tens-of-degree increase in local Tg resulting from immobilization of the chain ends by covalent bonding in this athermal system suggests a mechanism that substantially increases the local activation energy required for cooperative rearrangements

RETRACTED: Neural Correlates of Handwriting Effects in L2 Learners

Learning to write involves integrating motor production and visual perception to develop orthographic representations. This study tries to test the effect of hand movement training as a pathway to neural correlates for L2 Chinese and L2 English readers. Twenty L2 Chinese and 20 L2 English (n = 20) adults participated in both behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments. We designed six learning conditions: Hand Writing Chinese (HC), Viewing Chinese (VC), Drawing followed by Character Recognition in Chinese (DC), Hand Writing English (HE), Viewing English (VE), and Drawing followed by Word Recognition in English (DE). Behavioral and EEG results demonstrated that drawing facilitated visual word recognition in Chinese compared to viewing. The findings imply that hand movement could strengthen the neural processing and improve behavioral performance in Chinese character recognition for L2 Chinese learners and English word recognition for L2 Chinese learners. Furthermore, N170 amplitude at the drawing condition was positively correlated with N400 amplitudes. Thus, the early visual word recognition neural indicator (e.g., N170) was predictive of the late neural indicator of semantic processing (e.g., N400), suggesting that hand movement facilitates the neural correlates between early word recognition and later comprehension

Direct growth of 2D and 3D graphene nano-structures over large glass substrates by tuning a sacrificial Cu-template layer

We demonstrate direct growth of two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) graphene structures on glass substrates. By starting from catalytic copper nanoparticles of different densities and using chemical vapour deposition (CVD) techniques, different 2D and 3D morphologies can be obtained, including graphene sponge-like, nano-ball and conformal graphene structures. More important, we show that the initial copper template can be completely removed via sublimation during CVD and, if need be, subsequent metal etching. This allows optical transmissions close to the bare substrate, which, combined with electrical conductivity make the proposed technique very attractive for creating graphene with high surface to volume ratio for a wide variety of applications, including antiglare display screens, solar cells, light-emitting diodes, gas and biological plasmonic sensors.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Aplicación De Un Programa De Textos Discontinuos En La Comprensión Lectora En Estudiantes De Secundaria De Una Institución Educativa, 2019.

La investigación titulada: “Aplicación de un programa de textos discontinuos en la comprensión lectora en estudiantes de secundaria de una Institución Educativa, 2019”, tuvo como objetivo: Determinar la influencia del programa de textos discontinuos en la comprensión lectora en las estudiantes del segundo grado de secundaria de la Institución Educativa “Santa Rosa” de Trujillo – 2019. El tipo de investigación fue de enfoque cuantitativo, de alcance aplicada, nivel de conocimiento explicativa y por su diseño cuasiexperimental. La población se determinó con 449 estudiantes del segundo grado del nivel secundario de la Institución Educativa Santa Rosa de Trujillo. Las técnicas de recolección de datos fueron la observación directa y la evaluación sumativa y como instrumentos se utilizó la guía de observación y la prueba objetiva, cuya validez se estableció mediante juicio de expertos y la confiabilidad mediante la valoración de su consistencia interna, obteniendo un alfa de Cronbach=0.801 para guía de observación y un KR20=793 para la prueba objetiva de comprensión lectora. Los resultados evidenciaron que existe una influencia significativa entre el programa de textos discontinuos y comprensión lectora en las estudiantes del segundo grado de secundaria de la Institución Educativa “Santa Rosa” de Trujillo; es decir, la aplicación del programa favorece la comprensión de textos discontinuo

In vivo electrophysiological study of the targeting of 5-HT3 receptor-expressing cortical interneurons by the multimodal antidepressant, vortioxetine

This study was supported by an educational grant from H. Lundbeck A/S.The antidepressant vortioxetine has high affinity for the ionotropic 5-HT3 receptor (5-HT3R) as well as other targets including the 5-HT transporter. The procognitive effects of vortioxetine have been linked to altered excitatory:inhibitory balance in cortex. Thus, vortioxetine purportedly inhibits cortical 5-HT3R-expressing interneurons (5-HT3R-INs) to disinhibit excitatory pyramidal neurons. The current study determined for the first time, the effect of vortioxetine on the in vivo firing of putative 5-HT3R-INs whilst simultaneously recording pyramidal neuron activity using cortical slow-wave oscillations as a readout. Extracellular single unit and local field potential recordings were made in superficial layers of the prefrontal cortex of urethane-anaesthetised rats. 5-HT3R-INs were identified by a short-latency excitation evoked by electrical stimulation of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN). Juxtacellular-labelling found such neurons had the morphological and immunohistochemical properties of 5-HT3R-INs; basket cell or bipolar cell morphology, expression of 5-HT3R-IN markers, and parvalbumin-immunonegative. Vortioxetine inhibited the short-latency DRN-evoked excitation of 5-HT3R-INs and simultaneously decreased cortical slow wave oscillations, indicative of pyramidal neuron activation. Likewise, the 5-HT3R antagonist ondansetron inhibited the short-latency DRN-evoked excitation of 5-HT3R-INs. However unlike vortioxetine, ondansetron did not decrease cortical slow-wave oscillations suggesting a dissociation between this effect and inhibition of 5-HT3R-INs. The 5-HT reuptake inhibitor escitalopram had no consistent effect on any electrophysiological parameter measured. Overall, the current findings suggest that vortioxetine simultaneously inhibits (DRN-evoked) 5-HT3R-INs and excites pyramidal neurons, thereby changing the excitatory:inhibitory balance in cortex. However, under the current experimental conditions these two effects were dissociable with only the former likely involving a 5-HT3R-mediated mechanism.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Determination of Interface Atomic Structure and Its Impact on Spin Transport Using Z-Contrast Microscopy and Density-Functional Theory

We combine Z-contrast scanning transmission electron microscopy with density-functional-theory calculations to determine the atomic structure of the Fe/AlGaAs interface in spin-polarized light-emitting diodes. A 44% increase in spin-injection efficiency occurs after a low-temperature anneal, which produces an ordered, coherent interface consisting of a single atomic plane of alternating Fe and As atoms. First-principles transport calculations indicate that the increase in spin-injection efficiency is due to the abruptness and coherency of the annealed interface.Comment: 16 pages (including cover), 4 figure

Talk and Let Talk: The Effects of Language Proficiency on Speaking up and Competence Perceptions in Multinational Teams

Collaboration within multinational teams necessitates the adoption of a common language, typically English, which often leads to significant differences in language proficiency across members. We develop and test a multilevel model of the effects of language proficiency within multinational teams. An experimental study of 51 teams (102 American and 102 Chinese participants) revealed that, at the individual level, members with higher levels of language proficiency were more likely to speak up, which led to more positive perceptions of their competence. At the team level, greater dispersion in language proficiency across members was associated with less accurate competence recognition, which, in turn, led to lower overall team performance. Moreover, communication medium moderated these relationships, such that the effects of language proficiency were more potent in face-to-face than in computer-mediated teams. We discuss the implications of these findings for future research and for managing participation, competence, and technology in multinational teams