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This guide is part of a toolkit designed to help states and school districts meet teacher recruitment and retention challenges. Information comes primarily from a 1996 report, Breaking the Class Ceiling: Paraeducator Pathways to Teaching, which examines how paraeducator-to-teacher programs nationwide work to create a more qualified and diverse teaching force for U.S. schools. This guide helps people understand the value of paraeducator-to-teacher programs; obstacles paraeducators face in becoming teachers; important elements of effective programs; what is involved in staffing and recruiting participants; and building support for programs. It explains who paraeducators are and why they should be recruited to be teachers. It also presents profiles of paraeducators and discusses the design of paraeducator-to-teacher recruitment programs. Potential barriers for participants are noted (e.g., financial problems, basic skills testing, family responsibilities, language skills, and time commitment). The guide explains how to develop effective programs, discussing program design, staffing considerations, participant recruitment, and follow-up support for graduates. It also discusses how to build support for a program, highlighting collaboration and funding. It concludes with an in-depth look at successful programs, a checklist for program development, and a list of resources. (SM)

This publication is the introductory guide to the Recruiting New Teachers, Inc.'s Toolkit, which is designed to help states and school districts meet their teacher recruitment and retention challenges. The guide provides information on: today's national teacher shortage crisis; how to make a case for stepping up recruitment efforts for diverse teachers (noting the importance of teacher diversity); strategies for selling a district to prospective teachers and coping with the competition; and the use of the Internet in teacher recruitment. The guide concludes by offering five steps for improving teacher recruitment and retention efforts (building a recruitment team, identifying needs, examining available pools of prospective teachers, developing a focus and setting goals, and evaluating readiness to significantly improve teacher recruitment and retention efforts). An annotated list of resources for finding information about teacher recruitment, development, and diversity is included. (SM)

This guide is intended to help the reader understand: the value of teacher induction programs designed to orient, support, train, and assess novice teachers; what makes induction programs work; the essential ingredients of an effective induction program; and how to get started improving efforts to support and assess novice teachers. Six sections present: "Introduction" (e.g., what teacher induction is, why induction programs are needed, why new teacher leave the profession, common barriers for new teachers, and the future of induction programs); "Guidelines for Success" (e.g., view induction as a multiyear, developmental process; provide a first-class mentoring program; invest in technology; and evaluate program effectiveness); "How to Develop an Effective Teacher Induction Program" (getting started and program components); "A Program That Works: An In-Depth Look" (California's Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment projects); "Checklist for Developing an Induction Program" (e.g., understand the value of developing an induction program, put together a planning team, collaborate with partner organizations, provide quality mentoring, and link inductee evaluation to district and state level standards); and "Resources." (SM)

Many people with transtibial amputation rate the fit between their residual limb and prosthetic socket as the most important factor in the use of their prosthesis. Current research suggests that poor fit between the residual limb and the prosthetic socket can cause pain, skin breakdown or alteration of gait. This thesis focused on measurement methods to assess residual limb – prosthetic socket fit in people with transtibial amputation. Three aspects of fit were examined and new measurement methods for each aspect were explored.Fit affects the amount of relative movement that occurs between the residual limb and prosthetic socket. A method to measure this movement was proposed using motion capture analysis. The development and attempted validation of the method were outlined. Results were unpredictable and subject to confounding factors such as marker movement artefact. Therefore, the method was deemed not to be appropriate as a fit measurement tool in its current form. Based on these findings it was deemed necessary to investigate other measures of fit Fluctuation in residual limb volume can also affect fit. The reliability and validity of current residual limb volume measurement techniques were examined in a systematic review. Results demonstrated that circumferential measurements are the most reliable and valid tool currently available. The results from this review informed a study investigating the use of a low-cost optical scanner as a clinical volume measurement tool. Results found that the scanner was reliable when used by the same assessor but was not valid.The loading state at the prosthetic socket-residual limb interface is also an important factor in assessment of fit. The effect of pressure feedback to the prosthetist on the design of prosthetic sockets was assessed. It found that feedback resulted in reduction in pressure over anatomical regions of concern, and improved consistency between prosthetists. A new sensor to measure pressure and shear at the s

Despite the prevalent use of stents in restoring the blood flow within atherosclerotic peripheral arteries, failures due to the occurrence of in-stent restenosis associated with haemodynamic alterations from vascular stenting has yet to be overcome. This, appears to be more technically challenging in peripheral bifurcations.Computational fluid dynamics model have been utilised to examine different hemodynamic scenarios caused by the most common stenting techniques i.e. “Provisional side branch (PSB), Culotte (CUL), Crush (CRU) and Standard T techniques under pulsatile flow condition. This has been investigated considering the effect of meshing, oversize ratio and the main branch stent of appropriate size. The results obtained from the validity of a variety of wall shear stress-based haemodynamic indices in exploring the likely location and severity of ISR was were applied to explain the correlation. Based on these studies, the oversize ratio of 10%, main branch stenting with reference to the distal smaller diameter and proximal optimisation technique were considered to virtually generate the double-stenting techniques. The hybrid adaptive tetrahedral-prismatic mesh, which was shown to be associated with less error band and accurate solution, were utilised for discretising the complex geometries of stented cases where creating the hexahedral grids appeared unfeasible. Detrimental stent interactions at the proximal MB resulted in the highest risk of ISR in CUL, followed by CRU. However, both CUL and CRU revealed the most favourable results in preserving the bifurcation ostium patency as the least adverse events and ultimately ISR was obtained for this area, most notably due to the better SB ostial coverage provided by multiple layers of struts. PSB is shown to be superior to double-stent techniques only when the side branch (SB) is not severely diseased. Among double-stent models, T showed to provide a balanced haemodynamic environment that maintained the flow conditi