Descriptive evidence shows that English learners (ELs) have lower high school graduation and 4-year-college attendance rates than monolingual and fluent English users. Applying the regression ...discontinuity design to rich administrative data from a large district in California, this study identifies the first causal effects of initial EL classification on high school graduation and college enrollment. I also report the effects of maintaining EL status, or not reclassifying, after testing in each grade between third and eighth grades. I find no statistically significant impact of initial EL classification on high school graduation or college enrollment. Reclassification just before school transition (fifth and eighth grades) significantly affected the probabilities of on-time graduation and, conditional on college attendance, starting at a 4-year university and starting full-time.
Prior research documented disproportional representation across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic lines within the population of students identified as gifted and talented (GT). Less research has ...focused on what predicts improved representation for English learners (ELs) or students with disabilities (SwDs), or how state GT policies facilitate such representation. This paper attempted to fill that void by analyzing data from the Civil Rights Data Collection and Stanford Education Data Archive along with original coding of state GT policies. We found that while ELs and SwDs are disproportionately underrepresented within the population of students identified as gifted, state mandates for schools to offer GT, requirements for formal gifted education plans, and regular audits for compliance were correlated with higher rates of GT service availability and greater representation among ELs and SwDs. We further describe the characteristics of the top 5% of schools with the highest GT representation for ELs and SwDs.
Despite recent interest and pressing need, we lack a clear model of culturally relevant, responsive, sensitive teaching in university STEM departments. Most culturally relevant efforts within STEM ...education address actions individual professors can take within their own classrooms and mentoring, rather than describing how to go about enacting cultural transformation at the departmental level. In this article, we propose the application of the Ladson-Billings model of culturally relevant pedagogy to promote an inclusive culture within undergraduate STEM departments. The model consists of three components: academic success, cultural competence and integrity, and critical consciousness. We define each component and describe what it looks like and how it can be used to guide departmental transformation, including examples in biology, physics, mathematics, and computer science departments at our own institution. This model can help guide faculty committed to creating departments where all kinds of STEM students can thrive, provided they are willing to work hard.
Food waste and food loss has been a growing concern in the manufacturing industry with a gap between identifying the problem and implementing a solution. The manufacturing process of chicken is ...largely automated by conveyor belts and machines in which initial application of either peroxyacetic acid (PAA) or sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution is utilized to reduce the microbial load and prevent food borne illnesses on the chicken products as they are processed and packaged for distribution. However, during this automated process whole chickens can drop from the manufacturing line and become contaminated leading to the disposal and waste of the product. A solution to reduce food waste was to analyze a reconditioning procedure within the manufacturing process. The study evaluated the aerobic microbial growth on salvaged marinated deli raw whole chickens without giblets (WOGs) from conveyor belt loss reconditioned in either PAA or sodium hypochlorite (chlorine) solution to undropped chicken WOGs. Chicken rinsate and segmented samples were collected from each parameter and tested for microbial growth using Petrifilm aerobic plate count (APC) plates and converting results into log colony forming units (CFU). A difference (P < 0.05) was observed with the reconditioning of the WOGs in PAA (0.71 log
CFU/mL) compared to the control (1.45 ± 0.26 log
CFU/mL), for rinses. Of the segmented samples, the trussing strings displayed a significant decrease in APC counts for both chlorine (2.30 ± 0.49 log
CFU/g) and PAA (2.3 ± 0.49 log
CFU/g) reconditioning compared to the control (2.72 ± 0.39 log
CFU/g). Reconditioning of salvaged deli chicken WOGs in chlorine or PAA is comparable to or better than the conventional process for the reduction of APC, it is an effective strategy to reintroduce dropped marinated deli chicken WOGs to the manufacturing line and can reduce food waste at a manufacturing level.
Despite efforts by universities to promote racial/ethnic, gender, and socioeconomic diversity, college students continue to report discrimination. In two studies, we examined the frequency, ...predictors, and health consequences of experiencing everyday discrimination at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Findings show the majority of students reported experiencing discrimination at the university, with most experiences attributed to their gender and aspects of their physical appearance. More frequent discrimination was associated with poorer physical and psychological health. Furthermore, most participants cited other students as the source of their discrimination. These findings offer important insight into students’ experiences of everyday discrimination at a diverse setting.
Sea star wasting disease (SSWD) first appeared in Oregon in April 2014, and by June had spread to most of the coast. Although delayed compared to areas to the north and south, SSWD was initially most ...intense in north and central Oregon and spread southward. Up to 90% of individuals showed signs of disease from June-August 2014. In rocky intertidal habitats, populations of the dominant sea star Pisaster ochraceus were rapidly depleted, with magnitudes of decline in density among sites ranging from -2x to -9x (59 to 84%) and of biomass from -2.6x to -15.8x (60 to 90%) by September 2014. The frequency of symptomatic individuals declined over winter and persisted at a low rate through the spring and summer 2015 (~5-15%, at most sites) and into fall 2015. Disease expression included six symptoms: initially with twisting arms, then deflation and/or lesions, lost arms, losing grip on substrate, and final disintegration. SSWD was disproportionally higher in orange individuals, and higher in tidepools. Although historically P. ochraceus recruitment has been low, from fall 2014 to spring 2015 an unprecedented surge of sea star recruitment occurred at all sites, ranging from ~7x to 300x greater than in 2014. The loss of adult and juvenile individuals in 2014 led to a dramatic decline in predation rate on mussels compared to the previous two decades. A proximate cause of wasting was likely the "Sea Star associated Densovirus" (SSaDV), but the ultimate factors triggering the epidemic, if any, remain unclear. Although warm temperature has been proposed as a possible trigger, SSWD in Oregon populations increased with cool temperatures. Since P. ochraceus is a keystone predator that can strongly influence the biodiversity and community structure of the intertidal community, major community-level responses to the disease are expected. However, predicting the specific impacts and time course of change across west coast meta-communities is difficult, suggesting the need for detailed coast-wide investigation of the effects of this outbreak.
As the contribution for long-term ecological and environmental studies (LTEES) to our understanding of how species and ecosystems respond to a changing global climate becomes more urgent, the ...relative number and investment in LTEES are declining. To assess the value of LTEES to advancing the field of ecology, we evaluated relationships between citation rates and study duration, as well as the representation of LTEES with the impact factors of 15 ecological journals. We found that the proportionate representation of LTEES increases with journal impact factor and that the positive relationship between citation rate and study duration is stronger as journal impact factor increases. We also found that the representation of LTEES in reports written to inform policy was greater than their representation in the ecological literature and that their authors particularly valued LTEES. We conclude that the relative investment in LTEES by ecologists and funders should be seriously reconsidered for advancing ecology and its contribution to informing environmental policy.
Study objective We determine the diagnostic accuracy of goal-directed echocardiography, cardiac biomarkers, and computed tomography (CT) in early identification of severe right ventricular ...dysfunction in normotensive emergency department patients with pulmonary embolism compared with comprehensive echocardiography. Methods This was a prospective observational study of consecutive normotensive patients with confirmed pulmonary embolism. Investigators, blinded to clot burden and biomarkers, performed qualitative goal-directed echocardiography for right ventricular dysfunction: right ventricular enlargement (diameter greater than or equal to that of the left ventricle), severe right ventricular systolic dysfunction, and septal bowing. Brain natriuretic peptide and troponin cutoffs of greater than or equal to 90 pg/mL and greater than or equal to 0.07 ng/mL and CT right ventricular:left ventricular diameter ratio greater than or equal to 1.0 were also compared with comprehensive echocardiography. Results One hundred sixteen normotensive pulmonary embolism patients (111 confirmed by CT, 5 by ventilation-perfusion scan) were enrolled. Twenty-six of 116 patients (22%) had right ventricular dysfunction on comprehensive echocardiography. Goal-directed echocardiography had a sensitivity of 100% (95% confidence interval CI 87% to 100%), specificity of 99% (95% CI 94% to 100%), positive likelihood ratio (+LR) of 90.0 (95% CI 16.3 to 499.8), and negative likelihood ratio (–LR) of 0 (95% CI 0 to 0.13). Brain natriuretic peptide had a sensitivity of 88% (95% CI 70% to 98%), specificity of 68% (95% CI 57% to 78%), +LR of 2.8 (95% CI 2.0 to 3.9), and –LR of 0.17 (95% CI 0.06 to 0.43). Troponin had a sensitivity of 62% (95% CI 41% to 80%), specificity of 93% (95% CI 86% to 98%), +LR of 9.2 (95% CI 4.1 to 20.9), and –LR of 0.41 (95% CI 0.24 to 0.62). CT had a sensitivity of 91% (95% CI 72% to 99%), specificity of 79% (95% CI 69% to 87%), +LR of 4.3 (95% CI 2.8 to 6.7), and –LR of 0.11 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.34). Conclusion Goal-directed echocardiography was highly accurate for early severe right ventricular dysfunction identification and pulmonary embolism risk-stratification. Brain natriuretic peptide was sensitive but less specific, whereas troponin had lower sensitivity but higher specificity. CT had good sensitivity and moderate specificity.
As we head into another uncertain year, library visits will look very different. With the transition to virtual/dual learning, many school libraries are closed and public libraries are running at low ...capacity. Here, Johnson discusses the importance of libraries to low-income families.
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