Schools Are Very Different Here: Somali Refugees\u27 Perspectives of Parent Involvement

Qualitative case study with participant observation was used to explore the parent involvement experiences of nine Somali refugee parents in a small city in an agricultural area of the Rocky Mountain region. The parents of students who were attending classes through a school-based Welcome Center program were invited to participate. Parents were asked to discuss their own educational background, and their experiences prior to immigration to the United States in an effort to understand the development of their understanding, values and beliefs about education. Parents were also asked about their experiences in the local school systems to better understand their children’s adjustment to schools in the United States, and factors which proved to be either supports or barriers to parent involvement or empowering as related to their interactions with their children’s schools. Limited educational backgrounds impacted parents’ ability to assist their students with homework, or to feel like they could approach the teachers about how they might help their children. Parent perception of their role was clearly in the home, and they typically deferred to educators for matters in the school. They had no previous parallel constructs to volunteering in the schools or serving on committees or other school based involvement. However, parents were quite ready to come to school if they were specifically requested to do so by a parent or administrator. Key variables to student adjustment involved differences in pedagogy, discipline practices, and credit systems, as well as having interrupted formal education and the phenomenon of being over-aged and under-credited. Factors which posed barriers to parent involvement at school included differences in educational background, language barriers, perceived disrespect of culture and religion, and logistical barriers such as time, employment, and transportation. The importance of building relationship with families was a common thread throughout the study. Parents experienced empowerment when schools were proactive in communications, met with parents to help them understand expectations and to address fear and mistrust. Parents realized that schools were there to help when school personnel learned of needs and connected families with resources to help them succeed. The stories of these refugee parents in a smaller city setting lent insight to strategies which may be used to help refugee students succeed with support garnered from collaboration between school, families and community resources. Key Words: adolescents, case study, cultural adjustment, education, over-aged and under-credited, parent involvement, qualitative research, refugee, Somali, students with interrupted forma

LandbouwOnderzoek (LO): Portfolioanalyse, Resultaten & Effecten

Het IWT is uitvoerder van het programma LandbouwOnderzoek (LO). Dat programma is in 2005 ontstaan, na goedkeuring van de Vlaamse overheid, om toegepast collectief onderzoek voor de land- en tuinbouwsector te financieren. Jaarlijks kunnen uitvoerders (universiteiten, hogescholen, praktijkcentra en onderzoekscentra), alleen of in consortium, voorstellen indienen om kennis te ontwikkelen, te bundelen en te vertalen voor bedrijven uit de Vlaamse primaire sector (en distributie en opslag). De activiteiten in het programma richten zich uitsluitend op de primaire plantaardige productie, evenals de distributie en opslag van deze producten. Het onderzoeksbureau Dialogic heeft de studie naar het portfolio, de werking, resultaten en effecten van LandbouwOnderzoek als instrument toegewezen gekregen. De studie is bovendien gelijktijdig uitgevoerd met het verder uitwerken van de hervorming van het LO-programma door het IWT. De inzichten worden verwerkt in de vernieuwde aanpak van LandbouwOnderzoek naar Landbouw-trajecten

Evidence-based approach to thrombophilia testing

Thrombophilia can be identified in about half of all patients presenting with VTE. Testing has increased tremendously for various indications, but whether the results of such tests help in the clinical management of patients has not been settled. I use evidence from observational studies to conclude that testing for hereditary thrombophilia generally does not alter the clinical management of patients with VTE, with occasional exceptions for women at fertile age. Because testing for thrombophilia only serves limited purpose this should not be performed on a routine basis

CD38 as a therapeutic target for adult acute myeloid leukemia and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Acute leukemia is a clonal expansion of malignant hematopoietic cells leading to impaired production of normal blood cells in the bone marrow (BM). Acute leukemia can be classified, according to the lineage involved, into acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).1 AML is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults, accounting for over 80% of all diagnosed acute leukemias. Despite advances in the understanding of disease pathogenesis, the standard treatment protocols for adult acute leukemia have remained largely unchanged for the past decades. As a result, the overall 5-year survival in AML patients over 65 years of age is less than 5%,2 and, although the initial responses are better in ALL, the overall outcome of relapsed ALL in adults is poor, with an overall 5-year survival of less than 7%.3 Hence, more and novel treatment options are warranted for both types of adult acute leukemia. Targeted immunotherapies, including monoclonal or bispecific antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, are currently being developed and clinically tested in a wide variety of hematologic malignancies. CD38 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that can function as an adhesion partner for CD31 or as multifunctional ectoenzyme involved in the catabolism of NAD+ and NADP. In the hematopoietic system, CD38 is expressed by lymphoid and myeloid cells, and is also expressed on red blood cells and platelets, with the highest expression found on plasma cells. This uniform, high expression on healthy and malignant plasma cells makes CD38 an ideal target for targeted immunotherapy in multiple myeloma (MM). Indeed, CD38 monoclonal antibodies (daratumumab, isatuximab, and MOR202) have been shown to be effective in relapsed or refractory MM patients and their use is gradually moving towards front-line therapy.