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McGee Nordentoft posted an update 6 months ago
In applying a methods-oriented approach to evaluation, this study interpreted the effectiveness of a summer reading program from three different stakeholder perspectives practitioners from the school district, the funding agency supporting the program, and the policymakers considering mandating summer school. Archival data were obtained on 2330 students reading below benchmark in Grades 2-5. After propensity score matching participants to peers who did not attend the summer program, the final sample consisted of 630 students. Pre-to-posttest growth models revealed positive effects in Grades 2-4 (standardized slopes of .40-.54), but fifth graders demonstrated negligible improvement (standardized slope of .15). The standardized mean differences of propensity score matched treatment and control group students indicated null effects in all grade levels (d = -.13 to .05). Achieving proficient reading performance also was not attributable to summer school participation. Findings underscore the importance of operationalizing effectiveness in summative evaluation.Due to a scarcity of rigorous evaluations and to commence a realist study addressing the lack of knowledge about the workings of interventions directed towards “NEET” youth, this research aimed to understand how and under what circumstances (re)engagement initiatives are expected to facilitate the social integration of young people who are in a situation that prevents them from entering into studies or work. By conducting the first phase in realist evaluation, qualitative interviews with five managerial stakeholders from two northern Swedish initiatives and reviews of documents were carried out for data collection. Using thematic analysis and retroductive reasoning, an intervention-context-actors-mechanisms-outcomes configuration was developed to elicit an initial programme theory that explained how the initiatives were presumed to operate and under what contextual contingencies. The results indicate that the intervention is expected to improve the youths’ wellbeing and engage them in work or studies by strengthening their competence and confidence in a caring and collaborative context. To incorporate the diverse voices and heterogeneous experiences of youth themselves, and ascertain whether the intervention works as intended, for whom, in what conditions and why, the results now need to be tested in selected cases and refined in subsequent phases of evaluation research.
Poor sleep quality is associated with childhood obesity, and Latinx children have the highest prevalence of obesity in the United States. Parents are key agents to ensuring good sleep quality among children, but limited research has examined sleep parenting among Latinx working parents who may have added responsibilities.
Working Latinx parents of 2-to-5-year old children participated in in-depth interviews exploring parenting and familial contexts of child sleep. Main topics in the interview guide included sleep-related parenting practices, social support, cultural influences, and intervention service delivery and content preferences. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data.
Twenty parents completed the interview. The following themes emerged Sleep parenting, sleep knowledge, impact of familial structures, family commitments, child temperament, and broader contextual factors on sleep, and intervention content and design ideas. Across participants, employment was reported to be a barrier to effective sleep parenting. Parents also reported engaging in practices that may interfere with sleep quality such as using screen time as a distraction and reducing naptime during the weekends to increase the amount of family time. Family-level factors such as co-parenting and spousal support were reported to facilitate sleep parenting. Participants also indicated the need for more sleep parenting knowledge and a preference for mobile platforms and social media to deliver information.
Results not only fill critical gaps in the literature, but also highlight the variability in parents’ approaches to sleep parenting and an urgent need for intervention/programming efforts to target Latinx parent’s sleep knowledge and parenting.
Results not only fill critical gaps in the literature, but also highlight the variability in parents’ approaches to sleep parenting and an urgent need for intervention/programming efforts to target Latinx parent’s sleep knowledge and parenting.Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) offers an alternative option for the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). The utilization of 3-dimensional (3D) culture model might provide better understanding of PDT effects on NPC cells. The aim of this in vitro study was to compare PDT effect on NPC cells using 2D and 3D models. Two 3D culture models were established using liquid overlay method with agarose base (MCL) and hanging drop method (MCS). PDT was carried out using the combination of FosPeg® and 652 nm laser in 3D and conventional 2D models. The effects of 3D culture size and morphology on the uptake and distribution of sensitizer and gene expression were examined. Photocytotoxity, mode of cell death, and protein expression were compared for 2D and 3D models. Regular and irregular NPC spheroids were obtained from MCL and MCS methods, respectively. A significantly down-regulation of LMP1 mRNA were observed in MCL spheroid. The sensitizer uptake in 3D spheroids was half of 2D culture. More sensitizers were required to obtain IC50 in 3D spheroids. Apoptosis, necrosis and autophagosomes were detected in PDT treated 2D and 3D cells. buy N-butyl-N-(4-hydroxybutyl) nitrosamine Different protein expression patterns were observed in 2D and 3D models. FosPeg® PDT is effective in killing NPC cells. MCL-derived 3D spheroid model is more suitable for the evaluation of PDT killing mechanisms.In the present study, pharmacoinformatics paradigms include receptor-based de novo design, virtual screening through molecular docking and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation are implemented to identify novel and promising HIV-1 integrase inhibitors. The de novodrug/ligand/molecule design is a powerful and effective approach to design a large number of novel and structurally diverse compounds with the required pharmacological profiles. A crystal structure of HIV-1 integrase bound with standard inhibitor BI-224436 is used and a set of 80,000 compounds through the de novo approach in LigBuilder is designed. Initially, a number of criteria including molecular docking, in-silico toxicity and pharmacokinetics profile assessments are implied to reduce the chemical space. Finally, four de novo designed molecules are proposed as potential HIV-1 integrase inhibitors based on comparative analyses. Notably, strong binding interactions have been identified between a few newly identified catalytic amino acid residues and proposed HIV-1 integrase inhibitors.
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