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Behavior Determined by Biological Processes
Full text linkThe paper is about the condition known as Human Colony Collapse Disorder (HCCD), which has been seen in several communities around the world, is characterized by a sharp fall in population, social cohesion, and economic stability. This study seeks to investigate the root causes and potential remedies for HCCD. The well-known Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), which affects honeybee populations and causes entire hives to collapse owing to a confluence of variables including environmental stressors, illness, and inadequate nutrition, is comparable to HCCD in certain ways. This project\u27s goal is to look at probable HCCD causes and contributing variables, as well as potential prevention and intervention methods. The research will be conducted using a comprehensive literature review of previous research and articles regarding the issue. Surveys and interviews will also be conducted with HCCD survivors, specialists, and mental health practitioners, in related domains. Some of the potential preventative and intervention approaches for HCCD include encouraging healthy lifestyle choices, expanding access to mental health resources, community-building activities, and teaching stress management and resilience-building techniques. It is also critical to tackle the root causes of HCCD, including economic and social disparities, to promote a more equitable environment in which individuals have access to the resources they need to manage their mental health. It looks at the aspects that contribute to Human Colony Collapse Disorder and the causes of it
5-Prong Approach taken by TSU College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to Mitigate COVID-19
Full text linkThe TSU COVID-19 Implementation and Response White Paper outlines Texas Southern University\u27s (TSU) multifaceted approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic, led by the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (COPHS). The initiative, focused on the safety of the TSU community, included creating a COVID Prevention Center (CPC) to enhance collaboration, public health adherence, and campus-wide surveillance.
Key Strategies: Education and Communication: Weekly informational broadcasts, social media engagement, and an internal COVID guide aimed to inform the TSU community and counter vaccine hesitancy. Integration and Coordination: Campus services were streamlined to improve communication and enhance response efficiency, with a comprehensive guide developed for policy implementation. Testing Efforts: The establishment of an in-house CLIA-certified laboratory facilitated PCR testing with quick results, supported by partnerships with ThermoFisher Scientific and the Gates Foundation. Vaccination Campaigns: TSU provided on-campus vaccination, partnering with St. Luke’s Health and TruCare Pharmacy, administering over 30,000 doses to community members. Surveillance Measures: Efforts included contact tracing, genomic sequencing, air quality monitoring, and wastewater surveillance to proactively manage COVID-19 spread.
The report underscores the importance of partnerships between academic institutions and health organizations in creating effective public health responses to the pandemic, while providing a model for campus safety and community health engagement
Race, Racisim, and the Representation of Niger-Congo West African Grammar in African American language :Ebonics in Works by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mark Twain, and Zora Neal Hurston
Full text linkAn analysis of selected works written in African American Language (AAL): Ebonics by Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mark Twain, and Zora Neale Hurston in historical, national American literature are used to document “Race, Racism, and the Representation of Niger-Congo West African Grammar in AAL: Ebonics. This study provides an overview of the Enlightenment period by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. which proved how world-renowned Euro-American meta-physicists justified slavery and colonization based on unsubstantiated science and religious beliefs. Further, Gates used his research to dispute the outlandish and biased historical documentation provided by some European scholars who claimed that Africans were animals and could not speak languages. During the last 50 years, renown linguist, Dr. Ernie A. Smith has provided research which has proven that slave authors could always speak languages. Evidence has demonstrated that AAs can learn to read and write languages comparable to Caucasians and all other human beings. In this study, Smith has presented a comparative analysis of Niger- Congo grammar with AAL: Ebonics’ grammar which validated that AAL: Ebonics is a continuation of the Niger-Congo grammar structure. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Mark Twain, and Zora Neal Hurston learned to speak fluently in English and “plantation talk”. In fact, when Dunbar and Joel Chandler Harris’s work in Ebonics was looked at diachronically and synchronically, it was proven that both men spoke Ebonics using the same rule-governed language. Mark Twain wrote a novel which proved that language develops through nurture vs. nature. Twain demonstrated how a slave protagonist and the slave owner’s baby learned to speak each other’s home language when the slave protagonist switched her slave son for the plantation owner’s son. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Hurston built the first all-AA township to demonstrate how AAL: Ebonics was maintained through social isolation for 20 years. In summary, Dunbar, Twain, and Hurston documented AA history through literature. They were able to support the work of great scholars, such as, Gates, Smith and others by writing realistic stories experienced by African Americans by racist groups, such as, Jim Crow and minstrelsy who were the primary culprits of “race and racism.
The Whispering Voices Behind the Poetry of Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold: Three Theoretical Approaches to Selected Works: Formalist, Psychoanalytic, and Marxist
Full text linkThroughout the literary world, many critics have attempted to pinpoint the root cause for the sudden changes in style and attitude about writing the poetry that ultimately chased Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold into developing their own style in which to convey their innermost compassion for humanity. They hid their injured poetic souls; they hid their innermost thoughts, but they expressed themselves through their characters. By expressing themselves as the voice behind the speaker, they were able to create an artificial mask and utilize the mask as a method of capitalizing on the very essence of what the dramatic monologue tried to express and establish: a poetic play. But by creating this avenue, Browning and Arnold were able to create a niche for themselves in the closing years of the Victorian Age. Of course one can understand that there are limitless factors that can contribute to the direction of a person’s development from childhood to adulthood, and also the time that elapses between each event and how their points of view change along the way. In studying Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold, a few choice factors should be considered as foremost when analyzing these two poets. In the cases of Robert Browning and Matthew Arnold, the key factors one should focus on are their family upbringing, their cultural values, and the literary pressures they were experiencing. I will demonstrate that formalist, psychoanalysis, and Marxist materialism theories are the keys for unraveling the personas of these two Victorian poets. The formalist critic focuses on the lasting impact a work forms on the readers’ mental imagery of the poem and how the readers react to the poem’s flexibility, while also allowing the readers to find whatever they may wish to find in it. The formalist critic also applies to the appropriateness of the poem’s structure. This method allows the readers to form a pattern, to evoke an idea of where the poet is going with the theme or the plot of the poem. On the other hand, the psychoanalytic critic probes the theory of the development of the human psyche. The psychoanalytic critic focuses on what and how certain personal experiences and events affected these two poets and what compelled them to alter their lives and to alter their writing styles so abruptly. In the case of the Marxist materialist theory, I will show that the status of both of these poets contributed to the transformation of their attitudes, and how their class status enhanced the shaping of their views about their surroundings. This study will focus on their experiences growing up, their experiences concerning their relationship with other family members, and their encounters with their contemporaries. In this study, I will present the argument that both these authors were strongly influenced by parochial expectations, by social upheavals, and by literary pressures from other contemporary poets. The emphasis is to demonstrate how in each poem these influences surface to reveal how these factors played a major role in molding their true personas. This study will take into consideration the historical and personal events that were taking place at the time, such as the after effects of the long lasting change of the transference between ideologies from Hellenist to Hebraic, and the Industrial Revolution, which obscured anything that stood in its way. It was a golden age for innovation, but a trying time for literary works; however, ironically, it was during this time that Browning and Arnold were producing their finest works . Furthermore, in this argument I will show that the poems of Browning, such as “My Last Duchess,” “Porphyria’s Lover,” and “Fra Lippo Lippi,” and Arnold’s “Dover Beach,” “The Buried Life,” and his literary criticism on various poets reveal how each influence surfaces in their poems. This study will shed light on how each historical event was relevant in forming the poet’s resilience and state of mind, in developing his particular views about the world he lived in. This study further explores the possible and probable consequences that peer pressure had on both these writers. The focus of each analysis will be upon revealing clues to their character, to their attitude, and, with the emphasis on the direction each poet took in order to overcome the stigma of exclusion. This overview reveals how each poet earned the right to be included into the company of elite writers and into the realm of great poets whose works are read worldwid
The Impact of Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports on Students with Disabilities
Full text linkThe purpose of this study was to examine the impact of positive behavior interventions and supports for students with disabilities on school campuses compared to campuses that do not utilize PBIS. Specifically, the researcher sought to determine if campuses implementing PBIS impact students with disabilities academic performance on STAAR Reading, ENG I, ENG II EOC, attendance rates, and discipline outcomes compared to campuses that do not utilize PBIS. A causal-comparative research design was used in this investigation in an attempt to identify a cause-effect relationship between two groups. Data was provided by the urban school district to the researcher and downloaded into the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) version 27 to analyze the data. An independent sample t-test was employed to determine whether there was a difference between STAAR Reading, ENG I, and ENG II EOC test of campuses that implement PBIS for students with disabilities and those that did not utilize PBIS. All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level or better and used as the criterion for accepting or rejecting the null hypotheses. Analysis of results indicated that a significant difference did not exist between STAAR and EOC English I and English II test scores for campuses that implement positive behavior interventions and supports to students with disabilities and campuses that do not utilize PBIS. A statistically significant difference was found to exist between the middle school attendance rates during the 2019-2020 school years and high school attendance rates during 2020-2021 for campuses that implement positive behavior interventions and supports to students with disabilities and campuses that do not utilize PBIS. Likewise, a statistically significant difference was found to exist between the middle school discipline outcomes during the 2019-2021 school years and high school discipline outcomes during 2020-2021 for campuses that implement positive behavior interventions and supports to students with disabilities and campuses that do not utilize PBIS. Moreover, a significant difference did not exist between high school discipline outcomes during 2019-2020 school year for campuses that implement positive behavior interventions and supports to students with disabilities and campuses that do not utilize PBIS
Alleviating Irinotecan-Induced Diarrhea Using Locally Bioavailable Naturally Occurring Flavonoids
Full text linkChemotherapy-induced diarrhea is a frequent side effect that occurs with several chemotherapeutic agents. However, it is an understudied area in the management of cancer. This concern is significant with irinotecan, a camptothecin derivative. Irinotecan hydrochloride (CPT-11) is a prodrug that is hydrolyzed to SN-38, a potent topoisomerase 1 inhibitor used as the first-line agent for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. However, there is a concern regarding gastrointestinal toxicity, especially diarrhea. Many patients have reported experiencing diarrhea, and severe diarrhea episodes (grades 3 and 4) have been recorded in about 40 % of patients (J. J. Lee & Sun, 2016). Several medications have been used to attenuate the diarrhea episodes, ranging from nonpharmacological such as using probiotics, glutamine, and activated charcoal, to pharmacological approaches, such as loperamide and octreotide, and diphenoxylate-atropine (Koselke, Elizabeth; Kraft, 2012). Yet, the challenge persists as patients are administered this chemotherapeutic agent; irinotecan does not seem to respond to these anti-diarrheal medications. Researchers have well studied the mechanism and disposition of the prodrug irinotecan; after parenteral administration of irinotecan, it is hydrolyzed by carboxylesterase enzyme to the active moiety SN-38 which is further conjugated to the inactive metabolite SN-38G in the presence of UGT. However, this conjugated form of the drug SN-38G can be deconjugated back to the active drug SN-38 in the presence of β-GUS, produced in the intestine. Thus, constant accumulation of the active drug in the intestinal lumen results in intestinal epithelial injury leading to severe diarrhea. Therefore, this study aims to utilize locally bioavailable naturally occurring flavonoids (wogonin and chrysin) to alleviate irinotecan-induced diarrhea. Before starting the experimental plan, we had to establish a diarrhea model. Firstly, we fed the mouse with regular diets for two weeks; after that, we administered CPT-11 at doses of 50 mg/kg, 60 mg/kg, and 75 mg/kg. However, the animals experienced only grade 1 and 2 diarrhea at those doses. We then decided to change their animal feed to a special diet, which has been reported to contain fewer phytoestrogens and fibers. We repeated similar doses, and at 75 mg/kg, the animals had severe diarrhea (grade 4); thus, we established the diarrhea model at 75 mg/kg dose. Prior to the administration of CPT-11, the animals were divided into three groups, naïve (blank), control (irinotecan-only), and treatment group (irinotecan and oral flavonoids). The treated group was pretreated with oral gavage of wogonin/chrysin at 100 mg/kg per day for three days before co-administering with CPT-11. CPT-11 was administered intraperitoneally (I.P) to mice at a dose of 75 mg/kg per day for six consecutive days as a bolus injection, and then the disease activity indexes (i.e., body weight, diarrhea score, and survival analysis) were monitored. GI tissues were also collected on day 4 (before diarrhea) to quantitate tissue drug concentrations of SN-38 and SN-38G using LC-MS/MS, alongside histological evaluation and using enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay (ELISA) to document inflammatory markers. In addition, a xenograft mouse model study was done using immunocompromised nude mice to evaluate the possible drug-drug interaction of the oral flavonoids in the anti-tumor activity of CPT-11. Oral flavonoids (wogonin/chrysin) alleviated irinotecan-induced diarrhea damage by reducing weight loss (steady body weight) and diarrhea score (grade 1) and attenuating mucositis in the small intestine and colon. The chemotherapy-only administered group experienced severe diarrhea (grade 4) and weight loss of about a 20 % decrease. Similarly, with the survival analysis, the oral flavonoids treated group all survived (100 %) both male and female, but in the irinotecan group, only 40 % of female and 60 % of male mice survived. Histological analysis confirmed that the oral flavonoids prevented short, scanty, and denuded villi in the ileum and colon. Moreover, oral flavonoid treatment mitigated irinotecan-induced oxidative stress by downregulating IL-1β, IL-6, IL-18, TNFα, and IFNα. Compared with the control group (irinotecan only), the oral flavonoid groups (irinotecan co-administered) decreased the expression of IL-1β by 2-folds in the small intestine and 1.5 folds in the colon. With IL-6, we also observed a similar trend in both small intestine and colon. Interestingly, the expression of IL-18 was significantly downregulated in the small intestine, with almost a 4-fold decrease and a 2-fold decrease in the colon. The expressions of TNFα and IFNα were downregulated considerably, with about a 2-fold decrease in the oral flavonoid-treated group showing promising potential in reducing the expression of inflammatory cytokines in irinotecan-exposed mice. To evaluate the epithelial tight junction barrier, we use an ELISA kit to detect the expression of tight junction proteins ZO-1 and occludin. We observed that the oral flavonoids prevented the disruption of the tight junction ZO-1 and occludin, especially in the small intestine, in about a 2-folds increase. Having determined that the oral flavonoids significantly impacted the disease activity index, inflammatory cytokines, and tight junction proteins in irinotecan-exposed mice, we decided to see if the coadministration of oral flavonoids and irinotecan could impact the efficacy of the chemotherapy agent. We established a xenograft mouse model using immunocompromised nude mice. We inoculated the nude mice with 2 million cells/mL of HT-29 colon cell subcutaneously into their upper right limb, and when the tumor-bearing mice tumor growth was 150 mm^3, we started the coadministration of the irinotecan and oral flavonoids for seven days. After the study, we excised the liver, small intestine, and colon tissues. The results showed that with the oral flavonoids treatment both at low (50 mg/kg) and high (75 mg/kg) doses of irinotecan, there was no significant impact of wogonin/chrysin on the PK of irinotecan on day eight, as the AUC was within ±1 fold for the control and the treated group. We randomly excised the tumor after 6 hours of dose administration of irinotecan, and we observed no significant difference between the irinotecan-only group and the treated group. The drug concentration of CPT-11 and SN-38 was within ±1 fold for the control and the treated group. Also, the oral flavonoids did not interfere with the anti-tumor activity of CPT-11 as the tumor volumes on the last day of study for irinotecan only, low treated dose, and the high treated dose was 1133 mm^3, 550 mm^3, and 578 mm^3, respectively for the female group, while for the male group was 436 mm^3, 621 mm^3 and 368 mm^3 respectively. This result shows that the female group responded to both irinotecan and oral flavonoids, inferring some gender differences. Interestingly, the oral flavonoids-treated group showed no significant difference to the control group (irinotecan only) in SN38-G tissue drug concentration in the duodenum and jejunum as the oral flavonoid-treated group showed promising potential to alleviate irinotecan-induced diarrhea. In conclusion, we can clearly show that the upregulation of inflammatory cytokines and tight junctions proteins upregulation are significant factors in the development of irinotecan-induced diarrhea, and its manipulation can result in alleviating irinotecan-induced diarrhea by using locally bioavailable naturally occurring flavonoids. This knowledge can be helpful in the management of chemotherapy-induced diarrhea by mitigating this dose-limiting gastrointestinal toxicity
Teachers\u27 Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Culturally Responsive Practices
Full text linkOver the years, research regarding racial disproportionalities in the assignment of disciplinary consequences has been evaluated. Evaluation of the ever-increasing Black-White achievement gap has been at the forefront of educational research for decades. Gaining a better understanding of why this gap persists not only benefits schools but students as well. By enforcing certain policies, Black students are frequently removed from the educational environment due to subjective disciplinary infractions and perceived negative behaviors. Negative stereotypes often perpetuate teacher perceptions and expectations; as a result, minority students, especially Black students, are at the receiving end of those lowered expectations. Teachers must understand the intersectionality of their cultural identities and the methods they employ to teach their diverse learners. There is a significant amount of research on the importance of utilizing culturally responsive strategies in the classroom but lacks focus on how teachers believe these strategies affect Black boys in the classroom This research provides insight into the role teachers’ perceptions of the implementation of culturally responsive practices has in the classroom and on African American males in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the predictable relationship between demographic factors and teachers’ perceptions of culturally responsive practices. More specifically, this research deals with the predictability of the demographic factors of gender, ethnicity, and years of teaching experience on the three components of culturally responsive practices (cultural awareness, habits of using culturally responsive practices, and the impact of culturally responsive practices on African American middle school aged boys)
The Impact Of Instructional Coaching And Mentoring On First-Year Teachers’ Job Fulfillment And Performance In Urban Schools: Implications For Educational Administrators
Full text linkElementary school teachers in testing grades have had different responsibilities over the years. Urban schools are constantly expected to provide students with a more intense curriculum and rigorous instruction. The duties and responsibilities of a first-year teacher directly affect how novice teachers judge their performance and effectiveness. Teachers are held accountable for student achievement at increasingly higher rates. This study investigates the effect of teacher mentoring and instructional coaching on first-year elementary math teachers’ job satisfaction and student performance. It can create effective teacher mentoring by including instructional coaching to retain new teachers, help self-reported job satisfaction, and increase student achievement. Six hypotheses were formulated for this study. A causal-comparative design to measure the perception of novice teachers’ attitudes towards receiving instructional coaching with mentoring and how it relates to their job satisfaction. The Chi Square measured if there are statistically significant associations between first-year teachers who have mentoring as primary instructional support and the treatment of instructional coaching and first-year math teachers who have only mentoring as a primary source of instructional support. the groups. Based on the findings, this study concluded mentoring and mentoring with additional content support may have an impact on the different levels of student achievement, but further research needs to be conducted. In addition, grade level does not appear to impact the student achievement or job satisfaction of first-year math teachers on the standard of approaching for the state of Texas Standardized test. Furthermore, in general, educational administrators should attempt to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of first-year math teachers through evidence-based practices
Analysis of the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak on Houston Bike Share Ridership
Full text linkA bikeshare system is a transportation service which bicycles are available for shared use by individuals for a short term at low or no cost. It is affordable to users and a healthy system for both users and the environment. It is a solution for people who do not have a vehicle and to limit the increase of private car usage. The study aimed to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on bikeshare ridership with a case study for the City of Houston. The data used for this study include ridership data for 2019 and 2020, COVID-19 cases of the city of Houston from the Harris County residents for the year 2020, and temperature and precipitation in Houston for the years 2019 and 2020. The methodology includes descriptive analysis as well as using Negative Binomial regression modeling to derive the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variables. According to the descriptive analysis, there was an overall increase in ridership during the COVID-19 period in 2020. The longer duration trips in 2020 are much higher than those in 2019, and most of the trips occurred during off-peak followed by evening and morning peaks. Moreover, the regression analysis revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had a statistically significant positive impact of COVID-19 cases on the average daily ridership. The weekend indicator had the strongest statistically significant positive impact on the average daily ridership. The temperature indicator had no statistically significant impact on the average daily ridership and precipitation had the strongest statistically significant negative impact on the average daily ridership
Impact of Geographical and Demographic Factors of Clinical/Social Preparedness, Attitudes, and Basic Knowledge of Secondary School Counselors Regarding Services for LGBTQ+ Students
Full text linkThe purpose of this study was to examine the school counselors’ total competency of preparedness, attitudes, and basic knowledge of LGBTQ+ students across the United States. Specifically, the researcher was concerned with the predictable relationship between the school setting (middle and high school), geographical location (urban and rural), and the number of professional development training hours on the total competency (preparedness, attitudes, and basic knowledge) regarding LGBTQ+ students of school counselors. The sample consisted of 174 secondary school counselors from the American School Counselor Association (ASCA). Purposive sampling was utilized to select the population sample. Sequential Multiple Regression was used to analyze the predictable relationship between school setting, geographical location, and the number of professional development training hours on total competency. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested at the .05 level or better. The LGBT-DOCCS (Bidell, 2017) and a demographic questionnaire were used to gather for this study