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Valid measures of student motivation can inform the design of learning environments to engage students and maximize learning gains. This study validates a measure of student motivation, the Reduced Instructional Materials Motivation Survey (RIMMS), with a sample of Chinese middle school students using an adaptive learning system in math. Participants were 429 students from 21 provinces in China. Their ages ranged from 14 to 17 years old, and most were in 9th grade. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) validated the RIMMS in this context by demonstrating that RIMMS responses retained the intended four-factor structure: attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction. To illustrate the utility of measuring student motivation, this study identifies factors of motivation that are strongest for specific student subgroups. Students who expected to attend elite high schools rated the adaptive learning system higher on all four RIMMS motivation factors compared to students who did not expect to attend elite high schools. Lower parental education levels were associated with higher ratings on three RIMMS factors. This study contributes to the field's understanding of student motivation in adaptive learning settings., (Copyright © 2020 Wang, Christensen, Xu, Cui, Tong and Shear.)

The ability of different methods to analyze formaldehyde and other leachates from proppants was investigated under lab-simulated downhole conditions. These methods include high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), headspace gas chromatography-vacuum ultraviolet spectroscopy (HS-GC-VUV), and headspace gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-GC-MS). Two different types of resin-coated proppants, phenol-formaldehyde- and polyurethane-based, were examined. Each proppant was tested at different time intervals (1, 4, 15, 20, or 25 hours) to determine the timeframe for chemical dissolution. Analyses were performed at room temperature and heated (93 °C) to examine how temperature affected the concentration of leachates. Multiple matrices were examined to mimic conditions in subsurface environment including deionized water, a solution surrogate to mimic the ionic concentration of produced water, and recovered produced water. The complexity of these samples was further enhanced to simulate downhole conditions by the addition of shale core. The influence of matrix components on the analysis of formaldehyde was greatly correlated to the quantity of formaldehyde measured. Of the three techniques surveyed, HS-GC-MS was found to be better suited for the analysis of formaldehyde leachates in complex samples. It was found that phenol-formaldehyde resin coated proppants leached higher concentrations of formaldehyde than the polyurethane resin coated proppants.

Background: Today's uncertain HIV funding landscape threatens to slow progress towards treatment goals. Understanding the costs of antiretroviral therapy (ART) will be essential for governments to make informed policy decisions about the pace of scale-up under the 2013 WHO HIV Treatment Guidelines, which increase the number of people eligible for treatment from 17.6 million to 28.6 million. The study presented here is one of the largest of its kind and the first to describe the facility-level cost of ART in a random sample of facilities in Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia., Methods & Findings: In 2010-2011, comprehensive data on one year of facility-level ART costs and patient outcomes were collected from 161 facilities, selected using stratified random sampling. Overall, facility-level ART costs were significantly lower than expected in four of the five countries, with a simple average of $208 per patient-year (ppy) across Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda and Zambia. Costs were higher in South Africa, at $682 ppy. This included medications, laboratory services, direct and indirect personnel, patient support, equipment and administrative services. Facilities demonstrated the ability to retain patients alive and on treatment at these costs, although outcomes for established patients (2-8% annual loss to follow-up or death) were better than outcomes for new patients in their first year of ART (77-95% alive and on treatment)., Conclusions: This study illustrated that the facility-level costs of ART are lower than previously understood in these five countries. While limitations must be considered, and costs will vary across countries, this suggests that expanded treatment coverage may be affordable. Further research is needed to understand investment costs of treatment scale-up, non-facility costs and opportunities for more efficient resource allocation.

In the 1970s, the "best interests of the child" doctrine focused custody litigation away from parental competition and toward meeting each child's needs. Yet, artifacts of the parental preference doctrine remain entrenched in custody law and practice. The evolving "best interests" paradigm requires redefining "custody" as development, implementation, and adaptation of individualized plans that provide a structure for complementary parenting. This article explores this paradigm shift while providing an introduction to the realities of child custody proceedings and family law courts. The article also identifies the ways in which mental health professionals can work most effectively with the legal system for the benefit of children of divorce and separation.

Community youth development is a challenging approach to youth work that focuses on the incorporation of new values at the practice, management, and community levels. This article explores the implementation of a community youth development approach within the context of learning organization theory, and describes the experiences of three youth-focused agencies making the transition to a community youth development approach.

Two patients are presented who were uremic requiring dialysis despite steady state serum creatinine levels (Cr) of 4.0 and 4.4 mg percent. Their blood urea nitrogen/creatinine (BUN/Cr) ratios of 54 and 44 were shown to be due to excessive creatinine secretion and urea reabsorption. Evaluation of serum creatinine alone may occasionally give misleading information regarding the level of renal function. If clinical evidence of uremia is present while serum creatinine value is relatively low, measurement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) by Na-iothalamate 125I (OIT) or inulin is essential.

Stop-flow studies using infusions of aldosterone-(3)H or its (3)H acid-labile conjugate were done on five rhesus monkeys. The aldosterone-(3)H urine-to-plasma (U/P) ratio decreased in the same distal urine samples as sodium. The (3)H acid-labile conjugate U/P-to-inulin U/P ratio increased in the more proximal samples either with conjugate formed endogenously during aldosterone-(3)H infusions or with labeled conjugate infused alone. Aldosterone reabsorption occurred at a distal site in the renal tubule, and secretion of its acid-labile conjugate occurred at a proximal site.

Tissue composition and in vivo tissue protein synthesis were altered by acute uremia, induced in rats by bilateral nephrectomy. Net protein synthesis (anabolism minus catabolism) was increased in liver and heart and decreased in skeletal muscle, as judged from changes in total organ weight, ratios of protein: DNA and RNA: DNA, and leucine-(14)C incorporation into trichloroacetic acid (TCA)-insoluble, nucleic acid-free material. Concentration of free lysine, a major constituent of histones and ribonucleoproteins, also was increased in liver and decreased in skeletal muscle, a finding suggesting lysine shifted from muscle to liver in association with the changes in protein synthesis. Acute uremia also altered tissue levels of other amino acids. Hepatic concentrations and liver:blood concentration ratios tended to be increased for the essential, but not for the nonessential amino acids. Moreover, the phenylalanine:tyrosine concentration ratio, which reflects activity of the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, was increased in blood, muscle, and liver. These findings indicate uremia selectively alters tissue composition and protein synthesis in different organs and may modify intermediary metabolism of some individual amino acids.