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This monograph presents a synthesis of the literature on the educational tools and procedures used with students who have severe intellectual disabilities. The review focuses on how: (1) the goals of education for students with severe intellectual disabilities are consistent with the educational goals of all students; (2) current school reform recommendations are often inconsistent with procedures that are effective for students with severe intellectual disabilities; and (3) the need exists for curricular and organizational tools to accommodate these students within the regular school. Emphasis is on strategies effectively used with this population. Specific sections address: the goals of education; strategies for restructuring schools; strategies related to effective staff roles; strategies related to curriculum; strategies related to instructional delivery; strategies for behavioral support; and strategies for social inclusion. (Contains approximately 225 references.) (DB)

This monograph presents a synthesis of the literature on the educational tools and procedures used with students who have severe intellectual disabilities. The review focuses on how: (1) the goals of education for students with severe intellectual disabilities are consistent with the educational goals of all students; (2) current school reform recommendations are often inconsistent with procedures that are effective for students with severe intellectual disabilities; and (3) the need exists for curricular and organizational tools to accommodate these students within the regular school. Emphasis is on strategies effectively used with this population. Specific sections address: the goals of education; strategies for restructuring schools; strategies related to effective staff roles; strategies related to curriculum; strategies related to instructional delivery; strategies for behavioral support; and strategies for social inclusion. (Contains approximately 225 references.) (DB)

This paper synthesized studies of professional development for middle school content area teachers and the teachers' subsequent implementation of literacy strategies. Four studies were identified as having a majority of participants teaching English/reading, mathematics, science, and social studies in grades 6 through 8. Articles meeting the criteria included two qualitative studies of the impact of professional development on implementation of literacy strategies, one ethnographic study of the characteristics of content area teachers with strong implementation of literacy strategies, and one quasi-experimental study of the impact of professional development on student reading performance. Findings indicate that ongoing schoolwide initiatives that are responsive to teachers' perceived needs hold promise for increasing literacy instruction across the curriculum and improving some student reading skills. (Contains 2 tables.)

This paper synthesized studies of professional development for middle school content area teachers and the teachers' subsequent implementation of literacy strategies. Four studies were identified as having a majority of participants teaching English/reading, mathematics, science, and social studies in grades 6 through 8. Articles meeting the criteria included two qualitative studies of the impact of professional development on implementation of literacy strategies, one ethnographic study of the characteristics of content area teachers with strong implementation of literacy strategies, and one quasi-experimental study of the impact of professional development on student reading performance. Findings indicate that ongoing schoolwide initiatives that are responsive to teachers' perceived needs hold promise for increasing literacy instruction across the curriculum and improving some student reading skills. (Contains 2 tables.)

This study aims to synthesize the existing qualitative, peer-reviewed, published literature on what strategies psychologists employ when attending to culture, and explore whether they are effective.

This article is from BMC Health Services Research , volume 14 . Abstract Background: Qualitative research on self-management for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) has typically reported one-off retrospective accounts of individuals’ strategies. The aim of this research was to identify the ways in which self-management strategies are perceived by people with T2DM as being either supportive or unsupportive over time, by using qualitative findings from both longitudinal intervention studies and usual care. Methods: A systematic review of qualitative literature, published between 2000 and 2013, was conducted using a range of searching techniques. 1374 prospective qualitative papers describing patients’ experiences of self-management strategies for T2DM were identified and screened. Of the 98 papers describing qualitative research conducted in the UK, we identified 4 longitudinal studies (3 intervention studies, 1 study of usual care). Key concepts and themes were extracted, reviewed and synthesised using meta-ethnography techniques. Results: Aspects of self-management strategies in clinical trials (e.g. supported exercise regimens) can be perceived as enabling the control of biomarkers and facilitative of quality of life. In contrast, aspects of self-management strategies outwith trial conditions (e.g. self-monitoring) can be perceived of as negative influences on quality of life. For self-management strategies to be sustainable in the long term, patients require a sense of having a stake in their management that is appropriate for their beliefs and perceptions, timely information and support, and an overall sense of empowerment in managing their diabetes in relation to other aspects of their life. This enables participants to develop flexible diabetes management strategies that facilitate quality of life and long term medical outcomes. Conclusions: This synthesis has explored how patients give meaning to the experiences of interventions for T2DM and subsequent attempts to balance biomarkers with quality of life in the long term. People with T2DM both construct and draw upon causal accounts as a resource, and a means to counter their inability to balance medical outcomes and quality of life. These accounts can be mediated by the provision of timely and tailored information and support over time, which can allow people to develop a flexible regimen that can facilitate both quality of life and medical outcomes.

This article is from BMC Health Services Research , volume 14 . Abstract Background: Qualitative research on self-management for people with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) has typically reported one-off retrospective accounts of individuals’ strategies. The aim of this research was to identify the ways in which self-management strategies are perceived by people with T2DM as being either supportive or unsupportive over time, by using qualitative findings from both longitudinal intervention studies and usual care. Methods: A systematic review of qualitative literature, published between 2000 and 2013, was conducted using a range of searching techniques. 1374 prospective qualitative papers describing patients’ experiences of self-management strategies for T2DM were identified and screened. Of the 98 papers describing qualitative research conducted in the UK, we identified 4 longitudinal studies (3 intervention studies, 1 study of usual care). Key concepts and themes were extracted, reviewed and synthesised using meta-ethnography techniques. Results: Aspects of self-management strategies in clinical trials (e.g. supported exercise regimens) can be perceived as enabling the control of biomarkers and facilitative of quality of life. In contrast, aspects of self-management strategies outwith trial conditions (e.g. self-monitoring) can be perceived of as negative influences on quality of life. For self-management strategies to be sustainable in the long term, patients require a sense of having a stake in their management that is appropriate for their beliefs and perceptions, timely information and support, and an overall sense of empowerment in managing their diabetes in relation to other aspects of their life. This enables participants to develop flexible diabetes management strategies that facilitate quality of life and long term medical outcomes. Conclusions: This synthesis has explored how patients give meaning to the experiences of interventions for T2DM and subsequent attempts to balance biomarkers with quality of life in the long term. People with T2DM both construct and draw upon causal accounts as a resource, and a means to counter their inability to balance medical outcomes and quality of life. These accounts can be mediated by the provision of timely and tailored information and support over time, which can allow people to develop a flexible regimen that can facilitate both quality of life and medical outcomes.

A computer program has been written that successfully discovers syntheses for complex organic chemical molecules. The definition of the search space and strategies for heuristic search are described in the paper.

Written as a synthesis of strategies for effecting change, this document is directed toward state and local educational administrators, supervisory personnel, researchers, development personnel, teachers, and teacher educators. In reviewing the literature it was evident that during the past few years there has been a growing emphasis on local initiative in development activities and planning. Local development will require support from Federal, state, and private sources, and improved coordination of change activities among and between all levels of the education structure--from Federal to classroom level. The primary focus must always be on developing local vocational-technical programs which are continuously innovative and self-renewing, with change efforts devoted to improving what the teacher does and how he does it. The literature is reviewed by (1) rationale for planned change, (2) the change process, and (3) alternate strategies for implementation. (JS)

We will perform a critical interpretive synthesis literature review of articles describing primary research or researcher experience regarding recruitment of seldom heard groups into health research studies. This design allows for the flexibility/change in data extraction, literature inclusion or exclusion during the iterative and explorative process of the review with the aim of accurately and comprehensively understanding the topic.

We design controllers from formal specifications for positive discrete-time monotone systems that are subject to bounded disturbances. Such systems are widely used to model the dynamics of transportation and biological networks. The specifications are described using signal temporal logic (STL), which can express a broad range of temporal properties. We formulate the problem as a mixed-integer linear program (MILP) and show that under the assumptions made in this paper, which are not restrictive for traffic applications, the existence of open-loop control policies is sufficient and almost necessary to ensure the satisfaction of STL formulas. We establish a relation between satisfaction of STL formulas in infinite time and set-invariance theories and provide an efficient method to compute robust control invariant sets in high dimensions. We also develop a robust model predictive framework to plan controls optimally while guaranteeing the satisfaction of the specification. Illustrative examples and a traffic management case study are included.

A synthesis of the literature identifies content enhancements used by general education and special education teachers, who collaborate and co-teach in science and social studies. This paper will provide general and special education teachers at the middle school and secondary level with numerous content enhancements for effectively teaching science and social studies to students with learning problems. (Contains 9 figures.)

Organic Chemistry Book

Despite the widespread attention given to education reform, no substantial knowledge base has existed for identifying and implementing effective reforms for at-risk student populations. This document, the third of three volumes, describes the research design for a study that identified the essential mechanics of effective reforms for students at risk. The study also identified the incentives for and barriers to implementing and sustaining reforms and their effects on students. The case study of 18 school sites involved two-person trips to 12 schools in 1994 and one-person trips to 6 schools in 1995. The first 12 sites were grouped into 6 pairs, according to their distinctive reform characteristics: major urban reforms; low-budget, high-systemic-support efforts; high-community-achievement sites; public-private ventures; high school restructuring efforts; and work/learning combinations. Methods included archival analysis; a survey of school staff; three different focus groups with teachers, students, and parents; the shadowing of two students at each school; classroom and campus observations; and interviews with the principal, onsite program coordinator, district superintendent, funding representatives, program advocate, program developer, and other administrators. The report contains a summary of publications and proceedings from the 1992 National Conference on Educational Reforms and At-Risk Students. (LMI)

Despite the widespread attention given to education reform, no substantial knowledge base has existed for identifying and implementing effective reforms for at-risk student populations. This document, the third of three volumes, describes the research design for a study that identified the essential mechanics of effective reforms for students at risk. The study also identified the incentives for and barriers to implementing and sustaining reforms and their effects on students. The case study of 18 school sites involved two-person trips to 12 schools in 1994 and one-person trips to 6 schools in 1995. The first 12 sites were grouped into 6 pairs, according to their distinctive reform characteristics: major urban reforms; low-budget, high-systemic-support efforts; high-community-achievement sites; public-private ventures; high school restructuring efforts; and work/learning combinations. Methods included archival analysis; a survey of school staff; three different focus groups with teachers, students, and parents; the shadowing of two students at each school; classroom and campus observations; and interviews with the principal, onsite program coordinator, district superintendent, funding representatives, program advocate, program developer, and other administrators. The report contains a summary of publications and proceedings from the 1992 National Conference on Educational Reforms and At-Risk Students. (LMI)

Background: Policies that create healthy food and physical activity environments are key for addressing the burden of disease from obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Health-promoting environments enable healthy behaviours with less individual effort, making them generally more effective interventions than, for example, behavioural interventions such as educational campaigns. Adoption of such upstream policies by policymakers is, however, often challenging. We aim to understand which strategies and tactics have been employed by non-commercial actors to facilitate the adoption of upstream policies for healthy food and physical activity environments. Methods: We will undertake a systematic review and best-fit framework synthesis, a method for qualitative evidence synthesis. We will search Medline, Embase, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences for primary studies. Eligible articles report how non-commercial actors, for example public institutions or non-governmental organisations, use strategies and tactics to facilitate the adoption of public policies that create healthy food and/or physical activity environments at local, regional, national, and supranational legislative levels, in high- and middle-income countries. We will initially screen records in the systematic review software Rayyan and assess eligibility of a minimum of 20% of all titles and abstracts in duplicate to calibrate our screening process. After calibration, we may use ASReview to screen the remaining titles and abstracts. We will assess eligibility of a minimum of 20% of all full-texts in duplicate. Data analysis will draw on an a priori framework, which will be used as a coding frame for the thematic analysis of included articles. This a priori framework was created during the development of the study protocol and is based on a systematic database search for theories, models, and frameworks related to strategies to facilitate policy adoption, hand-searching of seminal policy theory, and subsequent secondary thematic analysis of relevant articles. The a priori framework includes categories for policies, involved actors, strategies and tactics, influence on policy adoption, and context. The categories of the a priori framework will be applied deductively and revised, as needed. Further themes will be developed inductively during the synthesis process, ultimately advancing the a priori framework. Results: The review will have two main outputs. Firstly, the revised a priori framework will constitute a conceptual model illustrating the main successful strategies employed for facilitating the adoption of different types of policies for healthy food and physical activity environments. Secondly, we will present concrete examples of strategies and tactics employed to facilitate the adoption of specific policies or categories of policies (e.g. taxation of unhealthy foods, incentives for active transport). This ‘menu of options’ is intended to help public health advocates and other actors to develop and tailor strategies to facilitate the adoption of effective policies for healthy food and physical activity environments.

This article is from International Journal of Nanomedicine , volume 9 . Abstract Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and most aggressive malignant primary brain tumor in humans. Current GBM treatment includes surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, sometimes supplemented with novel therapies. Despite recent advances, survival of GBM patients remains poor. Major challenges in GBM treatment are drug delivery across the blood–brain barrier, restriction of damage to healthy brain tissues, and limitation of resistance to therapies. This article reviews recent advances in the application of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), gold nanorods (GNRs), and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for hyperthermia ablation of GBM. First, the article introduces GBM, its current treatment, and hyperthermia as a potential modality for the management of GBM. Second, it introduces MNPs, GNRs, and CNTs as inorganic agents to induce hyperthermia in GBM. Third, it discusses different methodologies for synthesis of each inorganic agent. Finally, it reviews in vitro and in vivo studies in which MNPs, GNRs, and CNTs have been applied for hyperthermia ablation and drug delivery in GBM.

This article is from Cells , volume 1 . Abstract Damage to DNA is common and can arise from numerous environmental and endogenous sources. In response to ubiquitous DNA damage, Y-family DNA polymerases are induced by the SOS response and are capable of bypassing DNA lesions. In Escherichia coli, these Y-family polymerases are DinB and UmuC, whose activities are modulated by their interaction with the polymerase manager protein UmuD. Many, but not all, bacteria utilize DinB and UmuC homologs. Recently, a C-family polymerase named ImuC, which is similar in primary structure to the replicative DNA polymerase DnaE, was found to be able to copy damaged DNA and either carry out or suppress mutagenesis. ImuC is often found with proteins ImuA and ImuB, the latter of which is similar to Y‑family polymerases, but seems to lack the catalytic residues necessary for polymerase activity. This imuAimuBimuC mutagenesis cassette represents a widespread alternative strategy for translesion synthesis and mutagenesis in bacteria. Bacterial Y‑family and ImuC DNA polymerases contribute to replication past DNA damage and the acquisition of antibiotic resistance.

How best to design and redesign high-throughput experiments for zeolite synthesis is addressed. A model that relates materials function to chemical composition of the zeolite and the structure directing agent is introduced. Using this model, several Monte Carlo-like design protocols are evaluated. Multi-round protocols are found to be effective, and strategies that use a priori information about the structure-directing libraries are found to be the best.

The use of active compliance enables robots to carry out tasks in the presence of significant sensing and control errors. Compliant motions are quite difficult for humans to specify, however. Furthermore, robot programs are quite sensitive to details of geometry and to error characteristics and must, therefore, be constructed anew for each task. These factors motivate the need for automatic synthesis tools for robot programming, especially for compliant motion. This paper describes formal approach to the synthesis of compliant motion strategies from geometric descriptions of assembly operations and explicit estimates of errors in sensing and control. A key aspect of the approach is that it provides correctness criteria for compliant motion strategies. (Author)

This project report examines strategies for effective school desegregation based on case studies of individual schools, national school surveys, ethnographic studies of classrooms, trend analyses, opinion surveys and conference interviews, and court documents. The strategies identified in the report include the attainment of one or more of the following possible outcomes of desegregation: (1) ending racial isolation among schools and within schools; (2) avoiding resegregation among schools and within schools; (3) improved race relations among students; (4) improvements in academic achievement; and (5) public support for desegregation and school policy. Discussions of pupil reassignment policies, community involvement, and plans for desegregating neighborhoods and housing are related to the findings of the study. Also addressed is the need for structural and curricular changes in schools and more effective inservice training for teachers and administrators. (JCD)

The goal of this project is to develop theoretical frameworks and computational tools for synthesis of provably correct control and communication strategies for teams of autonomous vehicles from specifications given in rich, human-like language. Central to our approach are finite abstractions, which allow for the use of (adapted) temporal logics as specification languages, tools from formal verification resembling model checking for analysis and control, and techniques inspired from synchronization in concurrency theory for synthesis of communication strategies. We believe that we accomplished the initial objectives of the project. Specifically, we developed abstraction and control strategy for discrete-time affine systems, techniques for MDP control from PLTL and PCTL formulas, a top-down approach for distributed synthesis of control and communication strategies, and several applications to robot motion planning and control.