250 research outputs found
The USU Mild/Moderate Distance Learning Degree and Licensure Program: Itâs All About Access
Providing access to quality special education teacher training programs for all qualified applicants is particularly pertinent in light of the national shortage of special education teachers. In addition, there are increasing numbers of students enrolling in Utah schools, and a percentage of that increased enrollment includes students with disabilities. The Mild/Moderate Distance Degree and Licensure Program at Utah State University began in 1995 to help address this shortage. Initially, the program was designed to recruit and prepare qualified mild/ moderate special education teachers in one rural area of the state that includes two school districts. Over time, the program expanded to other areas of the state in an effort to provide accessibility to qualified individuals for whom financial and family obligations preclude their ability to enroll in and attend a traditional campus-based program. Currently, 108 individuals have graduated from the program and are employed in 27 Utah school districts. In this article, the authors discuss the development of the distance program over the past decade, what worked, and future directions in distance education delivery at Utah State University
Reducing Isolation through Regional Mentors and Learning Communities: A Way to Support Rural Learners
Reinforcing and facilitating learning communities is a strategy that has been used to decrease attrition rates in traditional campus-based programs, and it has been hypothesized that applying principles of learning communities in distance education programs could have similar positive outcomes. To facilitate the development and maintenance of regional learning communities within the Mild/Moderate Distance Degree and Licensure Program at Utah State University, highly successful graduates of the program are employed as mentors within each broadcast locality to engineer regional opportunities for studying and socialization. Program evaluation respondents indicate that mentoring experiences were very helpful as they progressed through the courses and practica. Moreover, graduation rates increased from 53% to 75% since the inception of this approach
Contemplating Mindfulness at Work: An Integrative Review
Mindfulness research activity is surging within organizational science. Emerging evidence across multiple fields suggests that mindfulness is fundamentally connected to many aspects of workplace functioning, but this knowledge base has not been systematically integrated to date. This review coalesces the burgeoning body of mindfulness scholarship into a framework to guide mainstream management research investigating a broad range of constructs. The framework identifies how mindfulness influences attention, with downstream effects on functional domains of cognition, emotion, behavior, and physiology. Ultimately, these domains impact key workplace outcomes, including performance, relationships, and well-being. Consideration of the evidence on mindfulness at work stimulates important questions and challenges key assumptions within management science, generating an agenda for future research
Teaching Behaviorally Disordered Adolescents to Use Self-Management Skills for Improving the Completeness, Accuracy, and Neatness of Creative Writing Assignments
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a self-management procedure known as WATCH that was designed to teach adolescents with learning and behavior problems to improve the completeness, accuracy, and neatness of their creative writing homework assignments. The procedure was based on four strategies: teaching students the fundamentals of behavior change, teaching students to use self-instruction, teaching students to set goals and implement plans to achieve those goals, and teaching students to accurately evaluate their work. Two high school students who were classified as behaviorally disordered were taught to develop plans for completing their creative writing homework assignments, and to evaluate the completeness, accuracy, and neatness of their assignments. A multiple baseline design across students was used to determine if improvements in the completeness, accuracy, and neatness of homework assignments were associated with the use of the procedure. Data show that the completeness, accuracy, and neatness of creative writing assignments increased for both students following training in the use of the WATCH procedure
Education in the Empty Quarter: How Have We Fared?
Garreau (1981) used the Arabic term Rub âal Khali, or Empty Quarter, to label the Intermountain West portion of the United States. In Saudi Arabia, the Empty Quarter is a large, dry, and relatively unpopulated area with a wealth of energy resources not unlike the Intermountain West. Garreau described changes in the area that were associated with changes in commerce and industry during the 20th century, particularly with respect to mining ventures and the discovery of oil and natural gas in the region. Although Garreau discussed many ways that these changes impacted the people and environment, he did not discuss the actual impact, or predicted impact on the education of children and youth in the region. The purpose of this article is to examine the impact of these changes on the functioning of schools in the Empty Quarter and to propose considerations for improving educational services in the region
Chikungunya virus adaptation to Aedes albopictus mosquitoes does not correlate with acquisition of cholesterol dependence or decreased pH threshold for fusion reaction
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) is a mosquito transmitted alphavirus that recently caused several large scale outbreaks/epidemics of arthritic disease in tropics of Africa, Indian Ocean basin and South-East Asia. This re-emergence event was facilitated by genetic adaptation (E1-A226V substitution) of CHIKV to a newly significant mosquito vector for this virus; <it>Aedes albopictus</it>. However, the molecular mechanism explaining the positive effect of the E1-A226V mutation on CHIKV fitness in this vector remains largely unknown. Previously we demonstrated that the E1-A226V substitution is also associated with attenuated CHIKV growth in cells depleted by cholesterol.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, using a panel of CHIKV clones that varies in sensitivity to cholesterol, we investigated the possible relationship between cholesterol dependence and <it>Ae. albopictus </it>infectivity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We demonstrated that there is no clear mechanistic correlation between these two phenotypes. We also showed that the E1-A226V mutation increases the pH dependence of the CHIKV fusion reaction; however, subsequent genetic analysis failed to support an association between CHIKV dependency on lower pH, and mosquito infectivity phenotypes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>the E1-A226V mutation probably acts at different steps of the CHIKV life cycle, affecting multiple functions of the virus.</p
A new approach for modeling delayed fireâinduced tree mortality
Abstract Global change is expanding the ecological niche of mixedâseverity fire regimes into ecosystems that have not usually been associated with wildfires, such as temperate forests and rainforests. In contrast to standâreplacing fires, mixedâseverity fires may result in delayed tree mortality driven by secondary factors such as postâfire environmental conditions. Because these effects vary as a function of time postâfire, their study using commonly applied logistic regression models is challenging. Here, we propose overcoming this challenge through the application of timeâexplicit survival models such as the KaplanâMeier (KMâ) estimator and the Cox proportionalâhazards (PHâ) model. We use data on tree mortality after mixedâseverity fires in beech forests to (1) illustrate temporal trends in the survival probabilities and the mortality hazard of beech, (2) estimate annual survival probabilities for different burn severities, and (3) consider driving factors with possible timeâdependent effects. Based on our results, we argue that the combination of KMâestimator and CoxâPH models have the potential of substantially improve the analysis of delayed postâdisturbance tree mortality by answering when and why tree mortality occurs. The results provide more specific information for implementing postâfire management measures
An alternative pathway for alphavirus entry
The study of alphavirus entry has been complicated by an inability to clearly identify a receptor and by experiments which only tangentially and indirectly examine the process, producing results that are difficult to interpret. The mechanism of entry has been widely accepted to be by endocytosis followed by acidification of the endosome resulting in virus membrane-endosome membrane fusion. This mechanism has come under scrutiny as better purification protocols and improved methods of analysis have been brought to the study. Results have been obtained that suggest alphaviruses infect cells directly at the plasma membrane without the involvement of endocytosis, exposure to acid pH, or membrane fusion. In this review we compare the data which support the two models and make the case for an alternative pathway of entry by alphaviruses
- âŚ