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2022-23 National Partnership for Student Success School Leader Survey Results
No full textThe principal survey questions and responses that were evaluated in the report, Increasing School Capacity to Meet Students' Post-Pandemic Needs: Findings from the 2022-23 National Partnership for Student Success Principal Surve
WHERE DO POLITICAL AND CORPORATE CAMPAIGNS CONVERGE AND DIVERGE?
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This review identifies specific articles and literature that provide insights into the history of and correlations between current political and corporate campaign strategies. The findings suggest that corporations should and do adopt some of the more refined campaign techniques used by political entities and that scholarly attention should be expanded to include more extensive reviews of corporate requirements in this area. The overarching goal of this study is to: (1) convey the history of both corporate and political marketing strategies, (2) summarize where political and corporate marketing constructs diverge, and (3) demonstrate the increasing converging entanglement of corporate and political marketing campaign tactics. This examination particularly highlights the more advanced methodologies utilized by campaign teams to galvanize the passions of the masses. While those in the political arena have accumulated considerable experience with these methodologies, corporations have made less use of certain types, and have, thus, failed to reap the benefits of their advanced techniques. The strategic parallels these institutions have shared for promoting acceptance and growth deserve intense analysis and reflection to determine how the tactics peculiar to their structures can be optimized to promote the success of each individually and both collectively.
From the British East India Company’s take on lobbying to the corporate marketing campaigns of Bud Light, Chick Fil A, Delta, and Target, corporations and political factions have assumed vital roles in the development and continuing existence of our institutions, both public and private. This review will consider how the evolution and impact of societal sways have both informed and molded campaign strategies in both sectors. As a result, this analysis will, hopefully, help fill the void of academic information that is available in this area. Additionally, this examination will identify the parallels that exist between how the government achieves support of the population on the one hand with how corporations reel in clients on the other, (e.g., lobbying, PAC fundraising, targeting, messaging, third-party activists, and storytelling). This study will then concurrently seek to address insufficient research as relates to the importance of polling a population to assess the impact of corporate campaign messaging
INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY-LEVEL FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH TELEHEALTH UTILIZATION AMONG VULNERABLE MEDICARE BENEFICIARIES DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Get PDFBackground: The COVID-19 Pandemic increased the use of telehealth as an avenue for vulnerable populations to receive services while social distancing. Together with telehealth policy changes, the use of telehealth soared across the United States (U.S.) health system. However, access to these digitally supported services may not have been equitable across the U.S.
Objective: Using claims data, the study documents the use of Medicare Part B telehealth-eligible services within the fee-for-service Medicare program during the first year of the Pandemic. It also identifies key individual and community level characteristics associated with how vulnerable and special needs persons utilized telehealth.
Methods: This is a cohort study of continuously enrolled Medicare FFS beneficiaries in 2019 and 2020. The main outcome is the utilization of telehealth-eligible services. This study used descriptive analyses and a multivariable logistic regression.
Results There were 6,233,884 total beneficiaries who used telehealth eligible services with 57% females. Mean [sd] age is 71.1 [11.27] years. Between 2019 and 2020, total visits decreased by 9%. But this reduction would be lower still, if it wasn’t that telehealth contacts served as alternatives for a significant number of in-person visits in 2020. Telehealth ambulatory utilization accounted for about 1% of contacts in 2019 but 10% in 2020. Individual level factors associated with higher telehealth utilization in 2020 include younger age, female, American Indian/Alaska Native status, not having both Medicare and Medicaid coverage, having a higher number of chronic conditions, and not having the End-Stage Renal Disease. Community level socioeconomic determinants associated with higher telehealth utilization include residing in New England, urban areas, areas with lower levels of internet connectedness, higher community vulnerability. These analyses also stratified across the disabled (under 65) and the aged (over 65) subgroups. The impact of some individual and community-level factors varied across the two subgroups.
Conclusion: Individual and community level factors are associated with different levels of utilization of telehealth services. Disability status effect modifies the relationship between the various individual and community level characteristics and telehealth utilization. Therefore, all stakeholders should understand these differences to affect equitable telehealth policies and strategies across the diverse Medicare population
Creation of a Next-Generation MANAFEST Assay: A Proof-of-Concept
Get PDFT-cells recognize antigens by utilizing their T-Cell Receptors (TCRs), α/β heterodimers that bind to peptide:MHC complexes. The TCRβ chain is commonly used to track specific clonotypes because of its increased diversity due to the presence of the D gene, which is not present on the TCRα chain. Both the α and β chains are involved in antigen recognition and are necessary for the cloning of TCRs to be used in cell-based therapies, but the current processes for obtaining paired TCRs are time-consuming and expensive. MANAFEST, Mutation Associated NeoAntigen Functional Expansion of Specific T-cells, is an assay wherein peptide-stimulated T-cell culture is combined with bulk TCR sequencing to identify TCR Vβ CDR3 clonotypes. We aimed to optimize the current assay to create a next-generation MANAFEST that allows for antigen-specificity determination and the identification of paired TCRs in a single workflow. To develop this method, we utilized single cell sequencing coupled with the next-generation MANAFEST to both streamline the approach to obtaining paired TCRs and create a more-cost effective workflow. Our goal was to establish proof-of-concept for the development of a streamlined, high-throughput assay that is simultaneously able to identify antigen-specific T-cells and their corresponding TCRs, and we hypothesized that utilizing a single cell transcriptomic panel and TCR sequencing on peptide-stimulated cells would allow us to achieve this goal. We approached this hypothesis with a ten-day cell culture and peptide stimulation followed by single cell analysis and TCR sequencing on a high throughput platform that examined a panel of about 1,000 immune-related genes. We expected that we would be able to discover tumor specific TCRs by identifying the upregulation of genes associated with an activated T-cell signature. Indeed, our bioinformatics analysis revealed an upregulation of genes we anticipated to see, such as IFNγ, CCL3, and GZMB, and we were successfully able to identify the TCRs of the cells expressing these upregulated genes. In doing so, we addressed our central hypothesis—that utilizing a targeted, single cell transcriptomic panel coupled with TCR sequencing on peptide-stimulated T-cells can allow us to simultaneously identify both tumor reactive T-cells and their paired TCRs in a single workflow
Oral History of LeRoy Walters
No full textThis interview with LeRoy Walters, BD, MPhil, PhD, was conducted by Suzanne Snider on March 2 and March 3, 2023 in Rockville, Maryland as part of Moral Histories: Voices and Stories from the Founding Figures of Bioethics, an oral history project of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Prof. Walters is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University and Senior Research Scholar Emeritus at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown. He was born in Sterling, Illinois in 1940. Prof. Walters’ areas of expertise include the ethics of human genetics, including gene transfer research, human fetal and embryo research, and Holocaust studies.On Day 1, Prof. Walters describes his childhood in Pennsylvania, growing up in the Mennonite faith, and his first years as a student at Messiah College where he received a BA in 1962. He describes two years he spent in West Germany after college, during the Cold War and Vietnam War eras; one at the University of Heidelberg and one at the Free University of Berlin. He describes his transition to Yale University Graduate School, where he received his PhD in Religious Studies in 1971, and discusses his dissertation work on just war theory and the influence of James M. Gustafson.Prof. Walters talks about his move to the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University in the early 1970s, where he began as a Senior Research Scholar in 1971. He narrates his early days there, during which he began to curate the Bibliography of Bioethics and Encyclopedia of Bioethics. He outlines the process of founding an information system for bioethics which would become the Bioethics Research Library, and mentions André Hellegers’ support in doing so. Prof. Walters discusses the interdisciplinary nature of bioethics with emphasis on theology’s role in the field. He narrates the origins of the Kennedy Institute's long running intensive bioethics course for healthcare professionals.Prof. Walters describes events of the day during the time of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (National Commission), a commission on which he served as a consultant on fetal research from 1974-75. He mentions the Roe v. Wade ruling, and discusses fetal research and the ethical dilemmas presented in a United States study that administered AZT (an early HIV therapy) to pregnant women in Thailand during the 1990s.On Day 2, Prof. Walters defines bioethics, discusses benefits and limitations of the four principles of bioethics, and outlines “the matrix,” an ethics decision-making tool for thinking about the use of genetic technologies in humans. He charts his various roles over 39 years at the Kennedy Institute, including grant management, administrative work, and his time as Director of the Institute from 1996-2000. Prof. Walters talks about the death of his first wife, Jane M. Walters, in 1988, and the death of André Hellegers in 1979.Prof. Walters discusses Charles “Charlie” McCarthy and McCarthy’s contributions to bioethics. He acknowledges the great influence of Hellegers’ role on the Kennedy Institute’s development of emerging new research and its eventual teaching institution. Prof. Walters talks about Tom Beauchamp’s arrival to the Kennedy Institute, which led to Prof. Walters’ and Beauchamp’s collaboration on their textbook Contemporary Issues in Bioethics. Prof. Walters discusses fetal research, the National Commission, and in vitro fertilization (IVF). He speaks of his appointment to the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) from 1976-1980, and the extensive research it required of him to serve alongside the committee members with advanced knowledge in science. He names some risks of gene editing and discusses his time on the RAC’s Human Gene Therapy Subcommittee. He recognizes the influence of terminology on the public’s perception of bioethical issues.Prof. Walters concludes the interview by discussing cutting-edge genetic technologies such as CRISPR, the future of bioethics, and its interdisciplinary approach. He names his service on the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Bioethics Advisory Board as a great honor of his life, and offers his admiration for science and scientists, naming Eric Kandel in particular. He describes his daily life at the time of the interview in his retirement community.This interview may be of interest to those who wish to learn more about: bioethics and the history of bioethics in the US; the founding and development of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics; the creation of encyclopedias, bibliographies, and information systems; fetal research; research and use of human genetic technologies; abortion; the National Commission; and the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee
THE BIOLOGY AND ENGINEERING OF EXOSOMES AND SARS-COV-2 SPIKE
No full textExosomes are small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) of ~30-200 nm in diameter that are secreted by all cells, have the same topology as the cell, and carry a specific subset of proteins, lipids, nucleic acids, and carbohydrates. Exosomes transmit signals and molecules between cells, which contributes to diverse physiological and pathological processes, rendering their biogenesis and engineering of high biomedical importance.
SARS-CoV-2 is the enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus that causes COVID-19. Of all the proteins that SARS-CoV-2 encodes, spike is the most important in the fight against the pandemic because it recognizes receptors and mediates binding, catalyzes fusion of viral and cellular membranes, facilitates viral entry, remains the primary target for vaccines and antibody-based therapies, and yet is rapidly evolving. The D614G mutation is the first and by far the only common mutation in all variants of SARS-CoV-2 spike since its zoonotic leap into humans, and was characterized by increased infectivity, viral load and transmission.
My thesis work centered around different aspects of exosome biology and engineering, especially the biogenesis and design of sEVs, which include exosomes, viruses, and virus-like particles. The primary interests lie in (i) elucidating the biochemical and cell biological mechanisms that mediate sEV formation and secretion, (ii) translating our improved understanding of exosome biogenesis and cell engineering to make exosome-based vaccines and therapeutics, and (iii) applying these to the specific case of SARS-CoV-2.
Accordingly, this dissertation is integrated from 4 distinct yet overlapping chapters. Chapter 1 reassesses the mechanism of exosome biogenesis, shows that plasma membrane, rather than the endosome, is the primary site of exosome biogenesis, and establishes that exosome biogenesis is a stochastic, cargo-driven process, and quite likely unsaturable. Chapter 2 reports that choice of selectable marker has a major influence on transgene expression, recombinant protein production, and exosome engineering. Chapter 3 demonstrates that SARS-CoV-2 spike is a lysosomal protein, and the D614G mutation is an intragenic suppressor of spike trafficking defects caused by the earlier furin cleavage site insertion. Chapter 4 extends mechanism informed-exosome engineering to the development of an exosome display platform that allows for rapid production of exosome-based vaccines and therapeutics
Three essays on electricity markets
No full textThis thesis consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, I investigate the shift of the German electricity generating industry towards a greater share of wind generation. I analyze how various government subsidy policies impact the timing and effectiveness of the investment into wind power. I construct a dynamic model of investors’ behavior to evaluate (a) the expansion of wind generation in the absence of government subsidies, and (b) to compare the currently used subsidization of production to the subsidization of investment. The first analysis finds that in the absence of subsidies, investment into off-shore generation would not be realized; there would substantial delay in wind development, and very large avoidable emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). The second analysis indicates that given an equal amount of spending on production and investment subsidies, the investment subsidies will lead to geographically inefficient investments, which leads to large avoidable emissions of GHG.
In the second chapter, I investigate the impact of subsidy policies for wind power supply, namely feed-in-tariff (FiT) and feed-in-premium (FiP), on the strategic behavior of power generating firms in electricity markets in Germany. I find that the participation of wind generators in the electricity market alters the behavior of conventional generators with market power as in Ito and Reguant (2016), so that FiT policy leads to an annual gain of 0.22. This result does not take the possible welfare gains of FiP emerging from more efficient investments in the long run.
In the third chapter, I investigate the impact of Covid-19 related shock on the power markets in Germany. The lock-downs and curfews in 2020 lead to a negative demand shock on the power markets. On the other hand, the German power generation fleet had already been under transformation moving away from fossil fired and nuclear generation to renewables. It is required to take these planned changes into account before attributing the difference in the power generation before and after the Covid-19 shock to the pandemic. By modifying the econometric approach used in Davis and Hausman (2016), I decompose the changes in power generation. Neglecting the transition in power generation fleet leads to overestimation of GHG savings due to Covid-19 between March and September of 2020 as 41 billion pounds of CO2 equivalent instead of only 6 billion pounds
FOSTERING TEACHER EFFICACY THROUGH A COLLABORATIVE ACADEMIC MENTORING PROGRAM
No full textTeacher efficacy and the subordinate factors of teacher beliefs and knowledge of self-regulated learning (SRL) are important influences linked to student SRL and, later, students' academic success. This research study shows how a collaborative academic mentoring program and professional learning community can foster teacher efficacy, strengthen beliefs, and increase knowledge to support high school teachers' and students' academic performance. Utilizing surveys and focus group interviews, mixed methods convergent parallel one-group design was used to examine these factors. Findings suggest a PLC can positively impact teacher efficacy, beliefs, and knowledge. Additional themes include teachers placing a high value on academic mentoring as a beneficial and feasible component of the PLC that facilitates teacher efficacy, knowledge, and beliefs. Limitations of teaching schedules on participating in a PLC are also discussed. These findings indicate that resources, such as allocation of time and institutional mentorship for secondary teachers, are needed to help develop SRL abilities and academic performance in students, ultimately increasing the likelihood that they will experience better outcomes later in life
DATA ANALYSIS AND MACHINE LEARNING FOR ENHANCING RESILIENCE TO FIRE, FROM IGNITION MAPPING TO STRUCTURAL AND SYSTEMS MODELING
No full textFire hazards pose significant threats to our communities. Mitigation of fire risk requires an understanding of a range of issues and processes at various scales, such as the occurrence of ignitions in a community, the performance of a building structure under fire, and the efficiency of prevention and protection strategies. In this thesis, we investigate several of these fire safety issues through the lens of data-driven methods. Bayesian methods and machine learning techniques are adopted and tailored to address selected fire hazards and provide contributions toward solving these challenges for a fire resilient built environment.
The thesis focuses first on fire ignitions. It investigates the problems of fire following earthquakes and wildfires. These issues are studied at the scale of a city or a region. For fire following earthquakes, a hierarchical Bayesian method is developed to allow modeling with scarce data, while for wildfire ignitions, an ensemble-based machine learning model is adopted. Then, the thesis zooms in to the building scale to assess data-based methods for evaluation of structural fire performance. Surrogate models are derived based on machine learning to capture the capacity of slender steel members in fire. Finally, the thesis investigates a framework to assess system resilience under fire hazards. The framework is applied for resilience assessment of facilities subjected to fires in the process industry.
The thesis applies different data-based and modeling approaches to deal with fire hazards from different perspectives and at different scales, with the aim to enhance fire safety and build a more resilient environment against fires for our community
From Pathology to Neurodiversity: An Exploration of School Design to Promote the Achievement of All Learners
No full textInclusive education mandates provided increased educational opportunities for a wide range of learners and called educators to diversify their instructional practices (Baglieri et al., 2011; Fuchs & Fuchs, 1994; Hardy & Woodcock, 2015). However, neurodivergent learners, including autistic students and those with specific learning disabilities, continue to achieve below their peers (Aron & Loprest, 2012; Blackorby et al., 2010; National Center for Educational Statistics, 2019). Moreover, while research in the learning sciences considers learner variability as biologically normative, the prominent school model centers the notion of a neurotypical learner based on a deficit view of disability (Chapman, 2021; Rose, 2015). Set within a preschool to eighth grade, urban, independent school, a multi-method needs assessment utilized a survey (n = 20) and interviews (n = 5) to examine teachers’ self-efficacy for inclusive practices, attitudes, concerns, and beliefs regarding inclusion, and perception of factors influencing inequitable outcomes for students with higher learning needs. Combined results showed lower teacher self-efficacy for designing instruction, binary beliefs regarding ability, and concern about the school’s capacity to support all learners. These findings led to further study surrounding school organizational capacity via a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991). Using organizational learning theory (Argyris & Schön, 1996), this multi-method exploratory study described the process of organizational change from a pathology to a neurodiversity mindset via collective knowledge building. Teaching and administrative staff (n = 4) completed a researcher-designed quantitative survey regarding their perception of neurodiversity and pathology paradigms and engaged in ten sessions considering current school values, practices, and educational outcomes related to neurotypicality and neurodiversity. Results indicated themes of navigating educational ideals within neurotypical bounds, neurotypical norms as hindering student and teacher thriving, and shifting values towards innovative practices and equitable outcomes. Additional analysis described the fidelity of the community of practice implementation and participant experience throughout the process. These results provided a system of built knowledge around neurodiversity to support an action plan for future organizational change toward an inclusively designed school that narrows the achievement gap between students identified as neurotypical and those identified as neurodivergent