Search

Math journals provide students with opportunities to articulate their understanding of math concepts and/or their frustrations with the gaps in those understandings. The use of these journals supports metacognitive thinking to enhance understanding and application. This study examined the use of math journals by fourth grade students as a conduit for critical thinking, reflection, and real-world math application. For this study, student journal entries consisted of identification of a real-life event, narrative of both the problem's description as well as the rationale for choosing the problem, the use of a problem-solving strategy learned during class instruction, and the use of a numeric or pictorial model to arrive at the solution. Upon completion, students shared his/her journal entry with the entire class. Through this research, I witnessed evidence of growth in mathematical understanding and computation, and I saw students make a deeper connection to math's many real-life applications in their own lives.

Exposure to e-cigarette vapors alters important biologic processes including phagocytosis, lipid metabolism, and cytokine activity in the airways and alveolar spaces. Little is known about the biologic mechanisms underpinning the conversion to e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) from normal e-cigarette use in otherwise healthy individuals. We compared cell populations and inflammatory immune populations from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid in individuals with EVALI to e-cigarette users without respiratory disease and healthy controls and found that e-cigarette users with EVALI demonstrate a neutrophilic inflammation with alveolar macrophages skewed towards inflammatory (M1) phenotype and cytokine profile. Comparatively, e-cigarette users without EVALI demonstrate lower inflammatory cytokine production and express features associated with a reparative (M2) phenotype. These data indicate macrophage-specific changes are occurring in e-cigarette users who develop EVALI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To measure the effects of a quality improvement intervention on length of stay and benzodiazepine use among patients admitted for alcohol use disorder. This retrospective cohort study was performed at the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Patients 18 years and older admitted to a general medical ward with a diagnosis of alcohol related disorders who were treated for alcohol withdrawal were included. The baseline cohort included patients admitted over 12 months. The post-intervention cohort included patients admitted over 12 months. Primary outcomes were total benzodiazepine dose and length of stay. Secondary outcomes included episodes of delirium tremens and seizures. Total benzodiazepine dose decreased significantly over the intervention period. Length of stay also decreased. No episodes of delirium tremens or seizures were observed. A quality improvement intervention directed at general medicine inpatients admitted for alcohol withdrawal was associated with reductions in total benzodiazepine administration and length of stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Electronic clinical decision support (CDS) for treatment of community‐acquired pneumonia (ePNa) is associated with improved guideline adherence and decreased mortality. How rural providers respond to CDS developed for urban hospitals could shed light on extending CDS to resource‐limited settings. Methods: ePNa was deployed into 10 rural and critical access hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Utah and Idaho in 2018. We reviewed pneumonia cases identified through ICD‐10 codes after local deployment to measure ePNa utilization and guideline adherence. ED providers were surveyed to assess quantitative and qualitative aspects of satisfaction. Findings: ePNa was used in 109/301 patients with pneumonia (36%, range 0%‐67% across hospitals) and was associated with appropriate antibiotic selection (93% vs 65%, P <.001). Fifty percent of survey recipients responded, 87% were physicians, 87% were men, and the median ED experience was 10 years. Mean satisfaction with ePNa was 3.3 (range 1.7‐4.8) on a 5‐point Likert scale. Providers with a favorable opinion of ePNa were more likely to favor implementation of additional CDS (P =.005). Satisfaction was not associated with provider type, age, years of experience or experience with ePNa. Ninety percent of respondents provided qualitative feedback. The most common theme in high and low utilization hospitals was concern about usability. Compared to high utilization hospitals, low utilization hospitals more frequently identified concerns about adaptation for local needs. Conclusions: ePNa deployment to rural and critical access EDs was moderately successful and associated with improved antibiotic use. Concerns about usability and adapting ePNa for local use predominated the qualitative feedback. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rats were tested on the interval time-place task. During test sessions, 4 levers provided food in succession. Each lever provided food pellets on a variable ratio schedule for an equal period of time, which ranged from 4 to 8 min across 3 groups of rats. Experienced rats restricted the majority of their responses on each lever to the reinforced period of sessions and anticipated the 3 changes in the location of food availability during each session. Analyses based on Weber's law suggested that the rats restarted timing as they moved from 1 lever to the next. The advantages of this strategy, and its functional similarity to animals' use of landmarks during dead reckoning navigation, are explored.

Rats received 2 daily sessions in a large clear chamber. A lever was mounted on each of the 4 chamber walls. For each rat, a different lever provided food during 0930 and 1530 sessions. The rats learned which lever would provide food at 0930 and 1530. Probe tests suggested that the rats learned to press 1 lever during their 1st session of each day and to then press a 2nd lever during their 2nd session of each day. We propose that this knowledge of the order of a set of events within a period of time constitutes ordinal timing. We contrast the temporal information provided by ordinal, phase, and interval timing and consider why multiple timing systems have evolved in animals.

Action research is one strategic approach teachers can use to positively influence teaching and learning in their classrooms, their schools, and beyond. Action research encourages best practice instruction, supports student learning, inspires school-university partnerships, advances the four professional development school (PDS) core purposes, and cultivates teacher leaders. This article illustrates the impact of teacher leadership on student learning in the STEM areas by reporting summaries of three teacher-led action research projects conducted in partnership with one university's Center for STEM Education. The article concludes that action research is a worthwhile endeavor for both teachers and students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]