High Quality, Equity, and Assessment: An Analysis of Variables Impacting English Learner Standardized Science Test Performance and Implications for Construct Validity

In the United States, assessment is seen as a lever that can facilitate high-quality education. This study on English learners, students whose native language is not English, was based on data from eighth-grade English learners’ performance on science general and content-specific (physical, life, and earth science) standardized exams and an English language proficiency exam. The researchers utilized regression analysis to examine factors (i.e., socioeconomic status, home language, English language proficiency, and receptive and productive elements of language) that are predictive of English learner performance in general and content-specific science standardized assessments to identify implications for construct validity of high-stakes science assessments. The research question is as follows: What factors influence the performance of English learners on a standardized science assessment, including overall performance and content-specific domains? Three main findings emerged from this research study. First, this study confirms previous research indicating that socioeconomic status and English language proficiency are predictive of English learners’ achievement on content-based standardized tests. Second, this study adds to current research by providing evidence that productive language scores are the most significant predictors of English learner science achievement, in comparison to receptive language scores, overall English language proficiency scores, home language, and socioeconomic status. Third, this study adds to the body of evidence needed to challenge the validity of standardized science tests for English learner populations. The findings of this study challenge the construct validity of science content-based assessments for English learners, emphasizing the importance of productive language in academic performance

Ten Simple Rules for Developing a Short Bioinformatics Training Course

This is an open-access article under the Creative Commonset.-- et al.This paper considers what makes a short course in bioinformatics successful. In today’s research environment, exposure to bioinformatics training is something that anyone embarking on life sciences research is likely to need at some point. Furthermore, as research technologies evolve, this need will continue to grow. In fact, as a consequence of the introduction of high-throughput technologies, there has already been an increase in demand for training relating to the use of computational resources and tools designed for high-throughput data storage, retrieval, and analysis. Biologists and computational scientists alike are seeking postgraduate learning opportunities in various bioinformatics topics that meet the needs and time restrictions of their schedules. Short, intensive bioinformatics courses (typically from a couple of days to a week in length, and covering a variety of topics) are available throughout the world, and more continue to be developed to meet the growing training needs.This work was partly supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, NLM, NCBI, and by funds awarded to the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute by the European Commission under SLING, grant agreement number 226073 (Integrating Activity) within Research Infrastructures of the FP7 Capacities Specific Programme EMBL-EBI.Peer reviewe

Terra e escola: duas faces da mesma luta

This article part of the historiographic research “Educação no Assentamento 29 de Outubro” that we developed. We tried to point the resistance and exclusion of a teacher’s group in the MST (Landless movement) in a settle in Trindade do Sul tour, in Rio Grande do Sul, the fight between the stadual Education Net and the settlers community in the fight for the education program to be developed in the stadual Elementary School Marli Rissotto Zanchet. We historicized the fight for the land and the school conquest by the group of parents teachers and students.Este artigo é parte da pesquisa historiográfica “Educação no Assentamento 29 de Outubro”. Procura-se destacar a resistência e exclusão de um grupo de professoras do Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra – MST, em assentamento do município de Trindade do Sul, no Rio Grande do Sul; o confronto da Rede Estadual de Ensino e a comunidade de assentados na luta pelo programa de ensino a ser desenvolvido na Escola Estadual de Ensino Fundamental Marli Rissotto Zanchet. Historiciza-se a luta pela conquista da terra e da escola pelo grupo de pais, professores e alunos.Palavras-chave: Luta pela Terra. Conquista da Escola. MST

Inter-cultural differences in response to a computer-based anti-bullying intervention

Background and purpose: Many holistic anti-bullying interventions have been attempted, with mixed success, while little work has been done to promote a 'self-help' approach to victimisation. The rise of the ICT curriculum and computer support in schools now allows for approaches that benefit from technology to be implemented. This study evaluates the cross-cultural effects of a computer-based anti-bullying intervention on primary school-aged children's knowledge about bullying and relevant coping strategies. Programme description: FearNot! is an interactive computer-based virtual learning environment designed for use as an anti-bullying intervention. It includes interactive virtual agents who assume the most common participant roles found in episodes of bullying. FearNot! was used by children over three consecutive weeks to allow its effectiveness to be evaluated in a longitudinal in situ programme. Sample: Two comparable samples were drawn from the UK and Germany. In the UK, 651 participants (aged 8-11) were recruited from primary schools in Hertfordshire, Coventry and Warwickshire, whereas the 535 German participants (aged 7-10) were sourced from Grundschulen in the Bayern and Hessen regions. Because of lack of parental consent, late joiners and absences/missing responses, data from 908 participants (UK 493; Germany 415) were analysed. Design and methods: A quasi-experimental, pre/post-tests control group design employed pre-published and bespoke questionnaires to collect data. Descriptive and inferential analyses were conducted. Results: UK students possessed higher coping strategy knowledge scores than German participants, but German children's scores improved over time and as a result of the FearNot! intervention. Conclusions: Overall, while not effective at increasing children's coping strategy knowledge in this study, the FearNot! intervention could prove a useful classroom tool to approach the issue of bullying as part of a wider initiative. Cultural differences at baseline and reactions to the intervention are discussed

SafeDrones: Real-Time Reliability Evaluation of UAVs using Executable Digital Dependable Identities

The use of Unmanned Arial Vehicles (UAVs) offers many advantages across a variety of applications. However, safety assurance is a key barrier to widespread usage, especially given the unpredictable operational and environmental factors experienced by UAVs, which are hard to capture solely at design-time. This paper proposes a new reliability modeling approach called SafeDrones to help address this issue by enabling runtime reliability and risk assessment of UAVs. It is a prototype instantiation of the Executable Digital Dependable Identity (EDDI) concept, which aims to create a model-based solution for real-time, data-driven dependability assurance for multi-robot systems. By providing real-time reliability estimates, SafeDrones allows UAVs to update their missions accordingly in an adaptive manner

Can We Really Prevent Suicide?

Every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. Unfortunately, suicide is difficult to prevent, in large part because the prevalence of risk factors is high among the general population. In this review, clinical and psychological risk factors are examined and methods for suicide prevention are discussed. Prevention strategies found to be effective in suicide prevention include means restriction, responsible media coverage, and general public education, as well identification methods such as screening, gatekeeper training, and primary care physician education. Although the treatment for preventing suicide is difficult, follow-up that includes pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, or both may be useful. However, prevention methods cannot be restricted to the individual. Community, social, and policy interventions will also be essentia

The GOBLET training portal: a global repository of bioinformatics training materials, courses and trainers

Summary: Rapid technological advances have led to an explosion of biomedical data in recent years. The pace of change has inspired new collaborative approaches for sharing materials and resources to help train life scientists both in the use of cutting-edge bioinformatics tools and databases and in how to analyse and interpret large datasets. A prototype platform for sharing such training resources was recently created by the Bioinformatics Training Network (BTN). Building on this work, we have created a centralized portal for sharing training materials and courses, including a catalogue of trainers and course organizers, and an announcement service for training events. For course organizers, the portal provides opportunities to promote their training events; for trainers, the portal offers an environment for sharing materials, for gaining visibility for their work and promoting their skills; for trainees, it offers a convenient one-stop shop for finding suitable training resources and identifying relevant training events and activities locally and worldwide. Availability and implementation: http://mygoblet.org/training-portal Contact: [email protected]

The sensitivity of ECG contamination to surgical implantation site in brain computer interfaces.

BACKGROUND Brain sensing devices are approved today for Parkinson's, essential tremor, and epilepsy therapies. Clinical decisions for implants are often influenced by the premise that patients will benefit from using sensing technology. However, artifacts, such as ECG contamination, can render such treatments unreliable. Therefore, clinicians need to understand how surgical decisions may affect artifact probability. OBJECTIVES Investigate neural signal contamination with ECG activity in sensing enabled neurostimulation systems, and in particular clinical choices such as implant location that impact signal fidelity. METHODS Electric field modeling and empirical signals from 85 patients were used to investigate the relationship between implant location and ECG contamination. RESULTS The impact on neural recordings depends on the difference between ECG signal and noise floor of the electrophysiological recording. Empirically, we demonstrate that severe ECG contamination was more than 3.2x higher in left-sided subclavicular implants (48.3%), when compared to right-sided implants (15.3%). Cranial implants did not show ECG contamination. CONCLUSIONS Given the relative frequency of corrupted neural signals, we conclude that implant location will impact the ability of brain sensing devices to be used for "closed-loop" algorithms. Clinical adjustments such as implant location can significantly affect signal integrity and need consideration

Impact of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations on sustained virologic response in HCV-infected patients: Results from the GUARD-C Cohort

BACKGROUND: Despite the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, peginterferon alfa/ribavirin remains relevant in many resource-constrained settings. The non-randomized GUARD-C cohort investigated baseline predictors of safety-related dose reductions or discontinuations (sr-RD) and their impact on sustained virologic response (SVR) in patients receiving peginterferon alfa/ribavirin in routine practice. METHODS: A total of 3181 HCV-mono-infected treatment-naive patients were assigned to 24 or 48 weeks of peginterferon alfa/ribavirin by their physician. Patients were categorized by time-to-first sr-RD (Week 4/12). Detailed analyses of the impact of sr-RD on SVR24 (HCV RNA <50 IU/mL) were conducted in 951 Caucasian, noncirrhotic genotype (G)1 patients assigned to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin for 48 weeks. The probability of SVR24 was identified by a baseline scoring system (range: 0-9 points) on which scores of 5 to 9 and <5 represent high and low probability of SVR24, respectively. RESULTS: SVR24 rates were 46.1% (754/1634), 77.1% (279/362), 68.0% (514/756), and 51.3% (203/396), respectively, in G1, 2, 3, and 4 patients. Overall, 16.9% and 21.8% patients experienced 651 sr-RD for peginterferon alfa and ribavirin, respectively. Among Caucasian noncirrhotic G1 patients: female sex, lower body mass index, pre-existing cardiovascular/pulmonary disease, and low hematological indices were prognostic factors of sr-RD; SVR24 was lower in patients with 651 vs. no sr-RD by Week 4 (37.9% vs. 54.4%; P = 0.0046) and Week 12 (41.7% vs. 55.3%; P = 0.0016); sr-RD by Week 4/12 significantly reduced SVR24 in patients with scores <5 but not 655. CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, sr-RD to peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin significantly impacts on SVR24 rates in treatment-naive G1 noncirrhotic Caucasian patients. Baseline characteristics can help select patients with a high probability of SVR24 and a low probability of sr-RD with peginterferon alfa-2a/ribavirin