An evaluation of a curriculum response to the State of Florida mandate for computer literacy at a large comprehensive high school in Dade County, Florida

Minimum Student Performance Standards in Computer Literacy and Science were passed by the Florida Legislature through the Educational Reform Act of 1983. This act mandated that all Florida high school graduates receive training in computer literacy. Schools and school systems were charged with the task of determining the best methods to deliver this instruction to their students. The scope of this study is to evaluate one school's response to the state of Florida's computer literacy mandate. The study was conducted at Miami Palmetto Senior High School, located in Dade County, Florida. The administration of Miami Palmetto Senior High School chose to develop and implement a new program to comply with the state mandate - integrating computer literacy into the existing biology curriculum. The study evaluated the curriculum to determine if computer literacy could be integrated successfully and meet both the biology and computer literacy objectives. The findings in this study showed that there were no significant differences between biology scores of the students taking the integrated curriculum and those taking a traditional curriculum of biology. Student in the integrated curriculum not only met the biology objectives as well as those in the traditional curriculum, they also successfully completed the intended objectives for computer literacy. Two sets of objectives were successfully completed in the integrated classes in the same amount of time used to complete one set of objectives in the traditional biology classes. Therefore, integrated curriculum was the more efficient means of meeting the intended objectives of both biology and computer literacy.

JORNALISMO DIVERSIONAL: função, contornos e práticas na imprensa brasileira

Há, dentre os gêneros jornalísticos, especialmente os praticados na imprensa brasileira, um agrupamento a que José Marques de Melo atribui o nome de “jornalismo diversional”. Diferenciado por sua finalidade afeita à diversão e por abranger matérias reveladoras de histórias interessantes, a estrutura de seus formatos assimila elementos da literatura e da antropologia. Mas que motivações levam repórteres a desenvolver tal gênero e em quais circunstâncias? Quais métodos são adotados para sua feitura? Que forças agem aí? O estudo apresentado nesta tese buscou compreender como se dá esse processo, observando e comparando os modos de fazer adotados por nove jornalistas brasileiros, escolhidos por se submeterem a dois critérios inter-relacionados: 1) serem reconhecidos pelo meio jornalístico e/ou pelo mercado editorial como figuras que se destacam nesse exercício; e 2) terem produzido textos – com as características mencionadas – para jornais e/ou revistas e que, posteriormente, foram compilados em livro. A metodologia empregada tem vínculo estreito com a perspectiva teórica do newsmaking, valendo-se da técnica apropriada para uma observação que considera diferentes momentos da história (década de 1950 para cá): a entrevista, no seu tipo semiestruturado. O quadro de jornalistas entrevistados é formado por Audálio Dantas, Carlos Wagner, Consuelo Dieguez, Daniela Pinheiro, Eliane Brum, João Moreira Salles, José Hamilton Ribeiro, Ricardo Kotscho e Zuenir Ventura. Como resultado, defendemos que o gênero aqui posto como tema de pesquisa é cultivado por um seleto grupo de profissionais, capazes de direcionar olhares sensíveis sobre a realidade, para dela extrair detalhes e enredos que toquem nos sentimentos dos leitores, divertindo-os, ao propiciar gratificação estética, em contraponto à alienação que se costuma presumir. Trata-se de produção dependente de criatividade e curiosidade, de talento para redigir textos agradáveis e de métodos de apuração e de escrita altamente subjetivos, mas que aparecem como questão bem resolvida no agir profissional desses sujeitos. Essa capacidade também é que os possibilita conquistar espaço, em meio a embates com editores e diretores de redação, para elaborar matérias em que a autoria se sobressai. Por fim, a função de divertir, atribuída ao gênero, é confirmada pelos profissionais, ainda que de modo implícito

Pia Lindstrom, daughter of Ingrid Bergman, covering Women's demonstration at Rockefeller Atlas as a WNBC-TV news reporter

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

News film crew at NOW conference, Houston

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

Producer Jerry Weintraub and reporter for the NY Daily News Pete Hamil on the set of "Cruising" film

General note: Title and date provided by Bettye Lane.

The Political Economy of Ethnic Empowerment in India

This dissertation consists of three papers, which together examine whether policies meant to address inequality, succeed in mitigating the impact of traditional institutions such as caste and enable ethnic minorities to claim their rights. Using experimental and quasi-experimental methods with data from a variety of primary and secondary sources, this dissertation analyzes whether policies meant to empower vulnerable groups in India have succeeded in doing so. The findings suggest that while legislations in the form of mandated political representation or freedom of information laws are necessary in terms of increasing the accountability of government towards citizens, they may not be sufficient in ensuring adequate and uniform delivery of public services, especially to citizens belonging to marginalized groups. Further, empowering citizens – especially those belonging to groups that have faced historic discrimination – to actively participate in civic and political life may require more active and intensive policy and programmatic interventions.

microRNA Regulation of Cellular Immunity

Immunity is broadly defined as a mechanism of protection against non-self entities, a process which must be sufficiently robust to both eliminate the initial foreign body and then be maintained over the life of the host. Life-long immunity is impossible without the development of immunological memory, of which a central component is the cellular immune system, or T cells. Cellular immunity hinges upon a naïve T cell pool of sufficient size and breadth to enable Darwinian selection of clones responsive to foreign antigens during an initial encounter. Further, the generation and maintenance of memory T cells is required for rapid clearance responses against repeated insult, and so this small memory pool must be actively maintained by pro-survival cytokine signals over the life of the host.

T cell development, function, and maintenance are regulated on a number of molecular levels through complex regulatory networks. Recently, small non-coding RNAs, miRNAs, have been observed to have profound impacts on diverse aspects of T cell biology by impeding the translation of RNA transcripts to protein. While many miRNAs have been described that alter T cell development or functional differentiation, little is known regarding the role that miRNAs have in T cell maintenance in the periphery at homeostasis.

In Chapter 3 of this dissertation, tools to study miRNA biology and function were developed. First, to understand the effect that miRNA overexpression had on T cell responses, a novel overexpression system was developed to enhance the processing efficiency and ultimate expression of a given miRNA by placing it within an alternative miRNA backbone. Next, a conditional knockout mouse system was devised to specifically delete miR-191 in a cell population expressing recombinase. This strategy was expanded to permit the selective deletion of single miRNAs from within a cluster to discern the effects of specific miRNAs that were previously inaccessible in isolation. Last, to enable the identification of potentially therapeutically viable miRNA function and/or expression modulators, a high-throughput flow cytometry-based screening system utilizing miRNA activity reporters was tested and validated. Thus, several novel and useful tools were developed to assist in the studies described in Chapter 4 and in future miRNA studies.

In Chapter 4 of this dissertation, the role of miR-191 in T cell biology was evaluated. Using tools developed in Chapter 3, miR-191 was observed to be critical for T cell survival following activation-induced cell death, while proliferation was unaffected by alterations in miR-191 expression. Loss of miR-191 led to significant decreases in the numbers of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in the periphery lymph nodes, but this loss had no impact on the homeostatic activation of either CD4+ or CD8+ cells. These peripheral changes were not caused by gross defects in thymic development, but rather impaired STAT5 phosphorylation downstream of pro-survival cytokine signals. miR-191 does not specifically inhibit STAT5, but rather directly targets the scaffolding protein, IRS1, which in turn alters cytokine-dependent signaling. The defect in peripheral T cell maintenance was exacerbated by the presence of a Bcl-2YFP transgene, which led to even greater peripheral T cell losses in addition to developmental defects. These studies collectively demonstrate that miR-191 controls peripheral T cell maintenance by modulating homeostatic cytokine signaling through the regulation of IRS1 expression and downstream STAT5 phosphorylation.

The studies described in this dissertation collectively demonstrate that miR-191 has a profound role in the maintenance of T cells at homeostasis in the periphery. Importantly, the manipulation of miR-191 altered immune homeostasis without leading to severe immunodeficiency or autoimmunity. As much data exists on the causative agents disrupting active immune responses and the formation of immunological memory, the basic processes underlying the continued maintenance of a functioning immune system must be fully characterized to facilitate the development of methods for promoting healthy immune function throughout the life of the individual. These findings also have powerful implications for the ability of patients with modest perturbations in T cell homeostasis to effectively fight disease and respond to vaccination and may provide valuable targets for therapeutic intervention.

Quantifying Eukaryotic Gene Regulation in Hormone Response and Disease.

Quantifying the function of mammalian enhancers at the genome or population scale has been longstanding challenge in the field of gene regulation. Studies of individual enhancers have provided anecdotal evidence on which many foundational assumptions in the field are based. Genome-scale studies have revealed that the number of sites bound by a given transcription factor far outnumber the genes that the factor regulates. In this dissertation we describe a new method, chromatin immune-enriched reporter assays (ChIP-reporters), and use that approach to comprehensively test the enhancer activity of genomic loci bound by the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). Integrative genomics analyses of our ChIP-reporter data revealed an unexpected mechanism of glucocorticoid (GC)-induced gene regulation. In that mechanism, only the minority of GR bound sites acts as GC-inducible enhancers. Many non-GC-inducible GR binding sites interact with GC-induced sites via chromatin looping. These interactions can increase the activity of GC-induced enhancers. Finally, we describe a method that enables the detection and characterization of the functional effects of non-coding genetic variation on enhancer activity at the population scale. Taken together, these studies yield both mechanistic and genetic evidence that provides context that informs the understanding of the effects of multiple enhancer variants on gene expression.

Evaluating the Sandcastles Program: A Group Intervention for Children of Divorce

The Sandcastles program has been utilized nationwide as a one-time group intervention to assist children of divorcing parents. For several years Miami-Dade family court services mandated participation in the program for divorcing or separating families. Currently, there is a paucity of research and evaluation to ascertain the efficacy of the program. This symposium will provide details and discussion regarding the planning and process used to establish an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of the Sandcastles program for families in MiamiDade County. Any preliminary outcomes available at the time of the symposium will also be shared.

El periodismo deportivo condicionado por la gestión comunicativa de los clubes de fútbol: el caso del FC Barcelona

Las relaciones entre los gabinetes de Comunicación de los clubes de fútbol y los periodistas deportivos se enmarcan en el modelo de Gieber y Johnson (1961) por el que el hecho de que ambos compartan objetivos comunes, donde los gabinetes de Comunicación necesitan que los medios publiquen determinadas informaciones y los periodistas precisan de noticias que publicar, provoca una pérdida de independencia por parte de los periodistas, ya que necesitan a esos departamentos como fuentes. En la actualidad, los departamentos de Comunicación de los clubes de fútbol, como el del FC Barcelona, se han constituido en gatekeepers. Esto ha acentuado las históricas diferencias que existen entre los periodistas y los profesionales de la comunicación corporativa, incrementado por el control informativo de estos departamentos lo que provoca constantes tensiones entre ambos.

Formal evolution and content in Asturian newspapers. From World War One to the Primo de Rivera Dictatorship

Between 1914 and 1923, and in general during the 1910s and 1920s, important changes occurred in the Asturian press that can be seen, for example, in the type of dailies which achieved certain readership levels. The form and number of pages evolved, images became more common, so-called citizen journalism was more freely practised, and there was a trend -when there was an opportunity- towards publishing articles which involved the author travelling to distant lands. Simultaneously, the consideration of sport as a show and the treatment given to other content both helped outline a new media scenario.

The Broader Impact of Disability Research: Aligning Public Policy with the Experiences of People with Disabilities and Healthcare Providers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-07

Assessing variation in personal health service delivery and workplace smoking ban enforcement by local health departments

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Sodium in School Lunches Before and After Implementation of the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act of 2010

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-08