Advancement to postsecondary education for English language learners (ELLs) can be seriously constrained by a lack of academic preparation during high school. Currently, ELLs lag behind their non-ELL ...peers in their level of access to advanced college-preparatory courses. Through a qualitative case study of ELL education at a large public high school, we examine the educational practices that result in ELLs' restricted curricular choices. The findings expose the way in which ELLs' chances for rigorous academic preparation are systematically reduced and point to the importance of providing ELLs with high-level academic curriculum while also supplying linguistic scaffolding that makes such learning possible.
Early identification of ambulatory persons at high short-term risk of death could benefit targeted prevention. To identify biomarkers for all-cause mortality and enhance risk prediction, we conducted ...high-throughput profiling of blood specimens in two large population-based cohorts.
106 candidate biomarkers were quantified by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of non-fasting plasma samples from a random subset of the Estonian Biobank (n = 9,842; age range 18-103 y; 508 deaths during a median of 5.4 y of follow-up). Biomarkers for all-cause mortality were examined using stepwise proportional hazards models. Significant biomarkers were validated and incremental predictive utility assessed in a population-based cohort from Finland (n = 7,503; 176 deaths during 5 y of follow-up). Four circulating biomarkers predicted the risk of all-cause mortality among participants from the Estonian Biobank after adjusting for conventional risk factors: alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (hazard ratio HR 1.67 per 1-standard deviation increment, 95% CI 1.53-1.82, p = 5×10⁻³¹), albumin (HR 0.70, 95% CI 0.65-0.76, p = 2×10⁻¹⁸), very-low-density lipoprotein particle size (HR 0.69, 95% CI 0.62-0.77, p = 3×10⁻¹²), and citrate (HR 1.33, 95% CI 1.21-1.45, p = 5×10⁻¹⁰). All four biomarkers were predictive of cardiovascular mortality, as well as death from cancer and other nonvascular diseases. One in five participants in the Estonian Biobank cohort with a biomarker summary score within the highest percentile died during the first year of follow-up, indicating prominent systemic reflections of frailty. The biomarker associations all replicated in the Finnish validation cohort. Including the four biomarkers in a risk prediction score improved risk assessment for 5-y mortality (increase in C-statistics 0.031, p = 0.01; continuous reclassification improvement 26.3%, p = 0.001).
Biomarker associations with cardiovascular, nonvascular, and cancer mortality suggest novel systemic connectivities across seemingly disparate morbidities. The biomarker profiling improved prediction of the short-term risk of death from all causes above established risk factors. Further investigations are needed to clarify the biological mechanisms and the utility of these biomarkers for guiding screening and prevention.
Energy inefficiency in the building stock is a substantial contributor to climate change. Integrated energy service companies (IESCs) have a potentially important role in improving energy efficiency. ...This paper presents a qualitative analysis of the energy efficiency barriers in the Finnish building sector based on data from interviews with twelve IESCs. Taking a novel supply side perspective, we place IESCs at the centre of the emerging energy services business ecosystem to identify the barriers and hindering factors (real world illustrations of barriers). From this perspective, we also examine cause-effect relationships between the hindering factors and the actors. Hindering factors, reported by IESCs, were categorised under a revised barrier taxonomy consisting of economic market failures and economic market, behavioural, organisational and institutional barriers. The most salient hindering factors—lack of technical skills, disinterest in energy efficiency improvements and non-functional regulation—were analysed with respect to ecosystem actors causing and affected by these factors. Public actors have a key role in overcoming these barriers, for instance, by creating new possibilities for entrants to take part in decision-making, increasing the functionality and practicality of policies and by providing up-to date energy efficiency information.
•We take an energy service company perspective to analyse energy efficiency barriers.•Actor-barrier relationships were identified using a business ecosystem approach.•Main barriers relate to technical skills, disinterest and non-functional regulation.•Intermediaries can play a greater role in helping actors to overcome the barriers.•More active communication between the policy-makers and implementers is needed.
Inadequate and incomplete educational services for English learners (ELs) with disabilities is a common civil rights issue in the U.S. K-12 education system. Although the federal government has ...documented that schools are instituting policies of providing only one set of services, such as special education or EL supports, there is litde understanding as to why this practice persists in spite of educational laws and policies. Through a qualitative comparative case study that draws on two complementary theories, intersectionality and the language planning and policy onion, this study examines two schools' service provision practices for ELs with disabilities. The findings reveal that educators' beliefs about the differential weight of federal special education and EL laws and policies resulted in practices that bar ELs with disabilities from receiving the dual services to which they are legally entitled. The findings underscore the significance of bolstering school leaders' knowledge of federal language education laws and policies, while also instituting greater protections for ELs with disabilities, to safeguard these learners' educational opportunities and rights.
Despite increased attention to the academic progress of English learners (ELs) with disabilities as a result of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, research has yet to investigate the educational ...opportunities of these students in secondary grades. This qualitative embedded case study examined the curricular access of 10 ELs with disabilities in middle school. Utilizing deficit thinking for its theoretical underpinnings, the analysis illuminated that ELs with disabilities were consistently placed in lower academic tracks through a number of mutually reinforcing institutional and perceptual factors. The findings have exigent implications for expanding opportunities to learn of ELs with disabilities through reform to placement criteria and provision of special education and linguistic support across a range of academic tracks.
It is hardly surprising that in the chronicles of the First Crusade (1096–1099) and in the Chronicon of William of Tyre, accounts propagating Christian warfare, impressiveness, authority and command ...stem from military actions blessed by God. In the depictions, the position of being a leader is constructed and maintained by a public display of martial ability, by deeds rather than by words. The sources certainly describe aristocratic warriors influencing their peers or larger mixed audiences by speech, but in these cases too, to be successful, the grasp on command normally requires that physical effort follows the communications. The narratives equate physical action with the motives, values and beliefs of the first crusaders. The initiative aimed at achieving leadership is often described approvingly, but the sources also criticize the leaders for manipulative behaviour and unwillingness to cooperate with each other. The judgement of the sources depends on authorial agenda and dynastic rivalries: the leaders of the First Crusade, here especially Bohemond of Taranto (c. 1054–1111), Tancred of Hauteville (c. 1078–1112) and the successors of Godfrey of Bouillon (c. 1060–1100), understood the relation between written history and the claim on power and actively contributed to the production of the heroic image of the first crusaders, that is, the highlighting of their own alleged excellence as leaders. For these three leaders, a cultural legacy, whether initiated during their lifetime or posthumously, was crucial to creating a lasting image of effective leadership. The case of Peter the Hermit, a preacher from Amiens with a supposedly low social background, is different. The fact that chroniclers and composers of chansons included a figure without military expertise and verifiable support from kin and allies among the leaders of the First Crusade, albeit in a controversial manner, bears evidence in itself of his recognition by medieval audiences. Leadership is a gendered talent in the twelfth-century chronicles. The close relation between command and military action on the one hand, and the categorical exclusion of women from the field of battle on the other, discouraged depictions of female leadership in the crusading context. As a result, women were excluded from the leadership of the First Crusade, and references to female authority did not appear in the sources until several decades later in an altered context, with Queen Melisende of Jerusalem (c. 1105–1161) being the clearest example. In her case, too, gender formed a barrier to action and leadership. William of Tyre’s description of her reign is ambivalent, while her sister Alice’s (c. 1110—after 1151) claim to the regency of Antioch is portrayed negatively. This article compares the models and qualities of the leaders of the First Crusade in medieval sources. The first section considers modern definitions of imposing (charismatic) authority and ties the discussion to the overarching theme of exploring medieval crusader leadership. The second part examines the examples of the leaders of Antioch and Jerusalem and their cultural legacy in the chronicles.
We discuss the benefits of using multiple criteria decision support (MCDS) methods in forest management, briefly present some MCDS methods recently applied in forestry, and summarize experiences ...gained from MCDS applications in forestry. Applications of MCDS methods of varying characteristics can be found in the management planning of multiple-purpose forestry. However, the tool to be used should be chosen to fit the planning process at hand. When choosing a method, compromises must often be made. For instance, simple and easily understandable methods may mean loss of attainable information and, correspondingly, deficient analyses. More versatile methods enable deeper analyses and more complete exploitation of available data, but typically they are hard to use and understand. Simple and straightforward MCDS methods are needed in participatory approaches and in planning via information networks. Some recent studies indicate that, especially for behavioural reasons, it would be useful to use more than just one MCDS method, or hybrid approaches, in many planning situations. A further conclusion has been that interactive use of the methods greatly improves the efficiency of the planning process.
In United States K-12 schools, the question "Is it language or disability?" is one often asked about students dually identified as "English learners" (ELs) and "students with disabilities." In this ...article, the author provides a brief historical overview of how and why this question arose in educational praxis. The author then explores the ways in which the question has evolved into a pervasive and troubling filter through which educators attempt to make sense of the academic performance, linguistic development, and even behaviors of ELs with disabilities. This "language-or-disability" filter, however, as the author argues, inordinately focuses on language and disability alone while ignoring the systemic contributors to the academic difficulties ELs with disabilities encounter. By attributing disability or language as the sole source of a wide range of "problems," the filter reinforces a deficit mindset rooted in ableism and monolingualism. The author concludes the article by offering alternatives to "Is it language or disability?" that account for and shift attention to the systemic disadvantage ELs with disabilities experience in their schooling.
Abstract
In this study, I explore how the subject of inclusion is constituted as intersectional in the organizational discursive practices of a civil society organization promoting migrant and ...refugee inclusion. Drawing on Crenshaw's notion of political intersectionality and Fraser's politics of recognition and redistribution, I analyze the political dimension of an inclusion project by showing how intersectional categories are connected to differentiated struggles and strategies of inclusion. The ethnographic study illustrates how two subject positions are constituted as being underpinned by either the logic of recognition or redistribution. Moreover, the findings show how the two strategies interact, revealing the dynamics of privilege and disadvantage at play in the inclusion project. The paper contributes to critical studies on inclusion and intersectionality in organizational contexts by extending our understanding of power dynamics and tensions as integral parts of the intersectional approach.
A high proportion of women start pregnancy overweight or obese. According to the developmental overnutrition hypothesis, this could lead offspring to have metabolic disruption throughout their lives ...and thus perpetuate the obesity epidemic across generations. Concerns about this hypothesis are influencing antenatal care. However, it is unknown whether maternal pregnancy adiposity is associated with long-term risk of adverse metabolic profiles in offspring, and if so, whether this association is causal, via intrauterine mechanisms, or explained by shared familial (genetic, lifestyle, socioeconomic) characteristics. We aimed to determine if associations between maternal body mass index (BMI) and offspring systemic cardio-metabolic profile are causal, via intrauterine mechanisms, or due to shared familial factors.
We used 1- and 2-stage individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis, and a negative-control (paternal BMI) to examine the association between maternal pre-pregnancy BMI and offspring serum metabolome from 3 European birth cohorts (offspring age at blood collection: 16, 17, and 31 years). Circulating metabolic traits were quantified by high-throughput nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics. Results from 1-stage IPD meta-analysis (N = 5327 to 5377 mother-father-offspring trios) showed that increasing maternal and paternal BMI was associated with an adverse cardio-metabolic profile in offspring. We observed strong positive associations with very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-lipoproteins, VLDL-cholesterol (C), VLDL-triglycerides, VLDL-diameter, branched/aromatic amino acids, glycoprotein acetyls, and triglycerides, and strong negative associations with high-density lipoprotein (HDL), HDL-diameter, HDL-C, HDL2-C, and HDL3-C (all P < 0.003). Slightly stronger magnitudes of associations were present for maternal compared with paternal BMI across these associations; however, there was no strong statistical evidence for heterogeneity between them (all bootstrap P > 0.003, equivalent to P > 0.05 after accounting for multiple testing). Results were similar in each individual cohort, and in the 2-stage analysis. Offspring BMI showed similar patterns of cross-sectional association with metabolic profile as for parental pre-pregnancy BMI associations but with greater magnitudes. Adjustment of parental BMI-offspring metabolic traits associations for offspring BMI suggested the parental associations were largely due to the association of parental BMI with offspring BMI. Limitations of this study are that inferences cannot be drawn about the role of circulating maternal fetal fuels (i.e., glucose, lipids, fatty acids, and amino acids) on later offspring metabolic profile. In addition, BMI may not reflect potential effects of maternal pregnancy fat distribution.
Our findings suggest that maternal BMI-offspring metabolome associations are likely to be largely due to shared genetic or familial lifestyle confounding rather than to intrauterine mechanisms.
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