192 research outputs found
Stakeholder Experiences in District University Administrator Preparation Partnerships
Our qualitative study explores the lived experiences of district stakeholders in university-district leadership preparation programs. Collaborative partnerships between school districts and universities focused on developing quality school leader are a part of recent efforts to provide the field of public education with exemplary leadership. The stakeholder experience in these partnerships is a little understood phenomenon lacking research. Thirteen district stakeholders in grant funded leadership development partnerships participated in the phenomenology informed study. Findings show that prior experiences, trust, issues of time, sustainability, and the power to build bridges were critical components of the district stakeholder experience in partnerships
The Unite the Right Rally and Charlottesville City Schools: The Transformation of a Crisis
Educational leaders at all levels must be prepared to address crises and their aftermaths. The conventional wisdom on crises and their management suggests that while crisis can originate from myriad sources, they largely proceed according to predictable stages. Our study draws from traditional and more critical literature on crisis and crisis management to understand the case the 2017 Unite the Right rally and its impact on Charlottesville City Schools. Specifically, we unpack the unfolding nature of the crisis and the district superintendent’s leadership through each phase of the crisis. We use the notion of paracrisis and crisis of challenge to understand how an acute and traumatic experience for the school community evolved into a crisis that challenged the legitimacy of the school district for its history of policy and practices that sustained institutionally racist practices for decades. Our findings illustrate how the process of crisis transformation occurred, and more importantly, how the superintendent’s approach to leadership also changed to meet the new demands of the evolving crisis. These findings raise important questions and implications for how educational leaders might think about the crises they face, and the crisis management plans that guide that work
Cultivating a \u27Community of Practice\u27 in an Educational Leadership Preparation Program: Experiences and Roles of Adjunct Faculty
Educational leadership preparation programs increasingly rely on adjunct faculty to teach aspiring leaders. Although the percentage of adjunct faculty serving as instructors continues to grow relative to full-time, tenured faculty, the role of part-time instructors/K-12 practitioners remains confined to instruction. This study explored how one educational leadership preparation program attempted to include adjunct faculty in roles beyond teaching to include course and curriculum development, program redesign, and recruitment and marketing. Informed by the communities of practice literature, this study illustrates ways that programs can foster meaningful professional community among full- and part-time faculty in ways that contribute to program quality. In this study we found that fostering a professional community not only contributes to positive program outcomes, but also creates formal and informal learning opportunities and a powerful professional network for adjunct faculty. The implications for program practice are discussed in light of these findings
Prenatal and Lactational Exposure to Bisphenol A in Mice Alters Expression of Genes Involved in Cortical Barrel Development without Morphological Changes
It has been reported that premature infants in neonatal intensive care units are exposed to a high rate of bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine disrupting chemical. Our previous studies demonstrated that corticothalamic projection was disrupted by prenatal exposure to BPA, which persisted even in adult mice. We therefore analyzed whether prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA affected the formation of the cortical barrel, the barreloid of the thalamus, and the barrelette of the brainstem in terms of the histology and the expression of genes involved in the barrel development. Pregnant mice were injected subcutaneously with 20 µg/kg of BPA daily from embryonic day 0 (E0) to postnatal 3 weeks (P3W), while the control mice received a vehicle alone. The barrel, barreloid and barrelette of the adult mice were examined by cytochrome C oxidase (COX) staining. There were no significant differences in the total and septal areas and the patterning of the posterior medial barrel subfield (PMBSF), barreloid and barrelette, between the BPA-exposure and control groups in the adult mice. The developmental study at postnatal day 1 (PD1), PD4 and PD8 revealed that the cortical barrel vaguely appeared at PD4 and completely formed at PD8 in both groups. The expression pattern of some genes was spatiotemporally altered depending on the sex and the treatment. These results suggest that the trigeminal projection and the thalamic relay to the cortical barrel were spared after prenatal and lactational exposure to low doses of BPA, although prenatal exposure to BPA was previously shown to disrupt the corticothalamic projection
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Risk assessment of high altitude free flight commercial aircraft operations
A quantitative model is under development to assess the safety and efficiency of commercial aircraft operations under the Free Flight Program proposed for air traffic control for the US National Airspace System. The major objective of the Free Flight Program is to accommodate the dramatic growth anticipated in air traffic in the US. However, the potential impacts upon aircraft safety from implementing the Program have not been fully explored and evaluated. The model is directed at assessing aircraft operations at high altitude over the continental US airspace since this action is the initial step for Free Flight. Sequential steps with analysis, assessment, evaluation, and iteration will be required to satisfactorily accomplish the complete transition of US commercial aircraft traffic operations
Selective Constraints on Amino Acids Estimated by a Mechanistic Codon Substitution Model with Multiple Nucleotide Changes
Empirical substitution matrices represent the average tendencies of
substitutions over various protein families by sacrificing gene-level
resolution. We develop a codon-based model, in which mutational tendencies of
codon, a genetic code, and the strength of selective constraints against amino
acid replacements can be tailored to a given gene. First, selective constraints
averaged over proteins are estimated by maximizing the likelihood of each 1-PAM
matrix of empirical amino acid (JTT, WAG, and LG) and codon (KHG) substitution
matrices. Then, selective constraints specific to given proteins are
approximated as a linear function of those estimated from the empirical
substitution matrices.
Akaike information criterion (AIC) values indicate that a model allowing
multiple nucleotide changes fits the empirical substitution matrices
significantly better. Also, the ML estimates of transition-transversion bias
obtained from these empirical matrices are not so large as previously
estimated. The selective constraints are characteristic of proteins rather than
species. However, their relative strengths among amino acid pairs can be
approximated not to depend very much on protein families but amino acid pairs,
because the present model, in which selective constraints are approximated to
be a linear function of those estimated from the JTT/WAG/LG/KHG matrices, can
provide a good fit to other empirical substitution matrices including cpREV for
chloroplast proteins and mtREV for vertebrate mitochondrial proteins.
The present codon-based model with the ML estimates of selective constraints
and with adjustable mutation rates of nucleotide would be useful as a simple
substitution model in ML and Bayesian inferences of molecular phylogenetic
trees, and enables us to obtain biologically meaningful information at both
nucleotide and amino acid levels from codon and protein sequences.Comment: Table 9 in this article includes corrections for errata in the Table
9 published in 10.1371/journal.pone.0017244. Supporting information is
attached at the end of the article, and a computer-readable dataset of the ML
estimates of selective constraints is available from
10.1371/journal.pone.001724
The impact of the Great Recession on mental health and its inequalities: the case of a Southern European region, 1997–2013
Background: Numerous studies have shown that macroeconomic changes have a great influence on health, prompting different concerns in recent literature about the effects of the current recession. The objetive of the study was to assess the changes in the mental health of the working-age population in the Basque Country (Spain) and its social inequalities following the onset of the 2008 recession, with special focus on the role of unemployment.
Methods: Repeated cross-sectional study on the population aged 16-64, using four Basque Health Surveys (1997-2013). Age-adjusted prevalences of poor mental health and incremental prevalence ratios (working status and social class adjusted) between years were calculated. Absolute/relative measures of social inequalities were also calculated.
Results: From 2008, there was a clear deterioration in the mental health, especially among men. Neither changes in employment status nor social class accounted for these changes. In men, the deterioration affected all working status categories, except the retired but significant changes occurred only among the employed. In women, poor mental health significantly increased among the unemployed. Students were also especially affected. Relative inequalities increased only in men.
Conclusions: The Great Recession is being accompanied by adverse effects on mental health, which cannot be fully explained by the increase of unemployment. Public healtThis work was partially supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (State Programme for Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research Challenges (CSO2013-44886-R))
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