What do schools need?

After eighteen years of professional commitment to library media services for youth, I found myself perplexed by the question, What do schools need? Perplexed because my personal perceptions were so clear or so I thought. Yet, I could not focus and translate them to the written word. It became necessary to sit and recall years of professional behaviors and experiences in the school and public library. It also became necessary to summon relationships and accomplishments, gained or lost, due to those behaviors. What I saw showed growth and tremendous change, but not nearly enough. It was frightening because I found that the majority of our problems were due to us; we did not know who we were or what we should be doing. I turned to research and fellow professionals for help. I had to know what was being done in the school library media centers of this country. There was too much fragmentation in my mind and in the evidence to determine what was needed now and tomorrow. What I discerned schools to need from librarianship and what I see them needing in the future was tied to how we perceived ourselves as being and what role we are willing to play.Institute sponsored by University of Illinois, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, cosponsored by the Youth Divisions of the American Library Association: American Association of School Librarians (AASL), Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), Young Adult Services Division (YASD)published or submitted for publicatio

From Data Snore, to Data Score: Communicating Library Assessment Data Visually through Infographics

This presentation was offered as part of the CUNY Library Assessment Conference, Reinventing Libraries: Reinventing Assessment, held at the City University of New York in June 2014

Signal processing methodologies for an acoustic fetal heart rate monitor

Research and development is presented of real time signal processing methodologies for the detection of fetal heart tones within a noise-contaminated signal from a passive acoustic sensor. A linear predictor algorithm is utilized for detection of the heart tone event and additional processing derives heart rate. The linear predictor is adaptively 'trained' in a least mean square error sense on generic fetal heart tones recorded from patients. A real time monitor system is described which outputs to a strip chart recorder for plotting the time history of the fetal heart rate. The system is validated in the context of the fetal nonstress test. Comparisons are made with ultrasonic nonstress tests on a series of patients. Comparative data provides favorable indications of the feasibility of the acoustic monitor for clinical use

Type II Estrogen Binding-Site Agonist: The Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of the Enantiomers of Methyl-Para-Hydroxyphenyllactate (MeHPLA)

The function of the type II estrogen binding site (EBS) has yet to be determined. However, a high affinity ligand for the binding site has been identified through HPLC and GC-MS. This ligand, MeHPLA, bears a structural relationship to a group of compounds called phytoestrogens which, along with MeHPLA, have been observed to suppress the cellular proliferation of estrogen sensitive MCF-7 breast cancer cells in vitro. Additionally, MeHPLA has been observed to suppress the growth of rat uteri in vivo. The high affinity of MeHPLA for the type II EBS suggests that this interaction is responsible for the observed suppression of cell growth. If this interaction is the mode of cell growth suppression, then the chiral center of MeHPLA might be expected to change the binding affinity of the ligand and the associated cellular activity. In this study, the enantiomers of MeHPLA were synthesized and separated by three methods. The methods included the use of the enantioselective catalyst, oxazoborolidine, the enzyme, lactate dehydrogenase, and the diastereomeric separation using a chiral amine. When the methods were compared, it was found that the method using the diastereomeric separation gave the superior yield for the two enantiomers. Binding studies for the enantiomers to the type II EBS showed that the L-MeHPLA isomer has a higher affinity for the binding site. However, binding affinity did not translate into cell growth suppression. Both enantiomers had the equivalent ability to suppress cellular growth. The conclusion is that the interaction of MeHPLA with the type II binding site may not be the mode by which cell growth suppression is achieved. This was supported by the evaluation of MeHPLA against LnCap prostate cancer cells and HxGC3 colon cancer cells in culture. Type II binding sites have been observed in prostate and colon cancer cell lines. However, their existence in these particular cell lines have not been confirmed. Some cellular growth suppression was observed in these cell lines upon treatment with MeHPLA. The possible function of MeHPLA was also compared to other phytoestrogens that appear to act independently of the type II EBS. Their activity was compared to a group of compounds known as xenoestrogens. MeHPLA, phytoestrogens, and xenoestrogens have the ability to stimulate, inhibit, or compromise normal or malignant cells with in the reproductive tract

Method and apparatus to characterize ultrasonically reflective contrast agents

A method and apparatus for characterizing the time and frequency response of an ultrasonically reflective contrast agent is disclosed. An ultrasonically reflective contrast agent is injected, under constant pressure, into a fluid flowing through a pump flow circuit. The fluid and the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent are uniformly mixed in a mixing chamber, and the uniform mixture is passed through a contrast agent chamber. The contrast agent chamber is acoustically and axially interposed between an ultrasonic transducer chamber and an acoustic isolation chamber. A pulse of ultrasonic energy is transmitted into the contrast agent chamber from the ultrasonic transducer chamber. An echo waveform is received from the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent, and it is analyzed to determine the time and frequency response of the ultrasonically reflective contrast agent

Fathers’ Perspectives and Challenges Regarding Their Child’s School Readiness

A key influence of children’s school readiness is parental engagement, yet less is known about father engagement. This paper explores fathers’ perspectives and challenges regarding their child’s school readiness. Data was collected from twelve fathers within a pool of community-based preschools in a large rural region in a southeastern state in the United States. A qualitative method was adopted using interviews to gather data. Findings revealed fathers perceived their engagement in supporting children’s social skills, approaches to learning, and grandparents’ influence attributed to preparing children for kindergarten. However, fathers were challenged with work obligations, feelings of inadequacy, and children’s attention span. Fathers wanted more support from school leaders and teachers about supplemental services children needed prior to kindergarten

Passive fetal heart rate monitoring apparatus and method with enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination

An apparatus for acquiring signals emitted by a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats and determining a fetal heart rate. Multiple sensor signals are outputted by a passive fetal heart rate monitoring sensor. Multiple parallel nonlinear filters filter these multiple sensor signals to identify fetal heart beats in the signal data. A processor determines a fetal heart rate based on these identified fetal heart beats. The processor includes the use of a figure of merit weighting of heart rate estimates based on the identified heart beats from each filter for each signal. The fetal heart rate thus determined is outputted to a display, storage, or communications channel. A method for enhanced fetal heart beat discrimination includes acquiring signals from a fetus, identifying fetal heart beats from the signals by multiple parallel nonlinear filtering, and determining a fetal heart rate based on the identified fetal heart beats. A figure of merit operation in this method provides for weighting a plurality of fetal heart rate estimates based on the identified fetal heart beats and selecting the highest ranking fetal heart rate estimate