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This chapter describes an effort to internationalize a foreign language education initial teacher certification program through a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) grant project that was funded by Valdosta State University. The purpose of the QEP grant was to foster discipline-specific inquiry skills among undergraduate students and to promote the development of global competence. With the guidance of faculty, the teacher candidates who participated in the project conducted a research study that examined teacher beliefs and practices between 18 foreign language teachers from the U.S. and 15 foreign and second language teachers from Spain. The results revealed that both teacher groups share many similar beliefs; however, they diverge in the areas of knowledge and application of language learning standards and the amount of instruction delivered in the target language. The teachers from Spain demonstrated greater knowledge and application of language learning standards, and they also reported spending more time teaching in the target language compared to their U.S. counterparts. Through this research project that took place at home and abroad, the teacher candidates met four global competency learning goals: (1) students investigate the world beyond their immediate environment, (2) students recognize their own and others' perspectives, (3) students communicate their ideas effectively with diverse audiences, and (4) students translate their ideas into appropriate actions to improve conditions (U.S. DOE International Strategy, 2012-2016, p. 6).

A serial mechanism was examined which demonstrated how the daily uplifts in organization's work environment stimulates its innovativeness. The mediating roles of flourishing at work and personal information management motivation was also tested. In this regard, data was collected from 112 pharmaceutical industry employees across Pakistan by using prior reliable measures in a two-wave field survey. The measurement model indicated acceptable levels of reliability and validity. The correlational analysis was used to show significant association among variables. The structural modelling showed that daily uplifts have direct, and indirect effects on organizational innovativeness through higher flourishing at work and personal information management motivation. It was analyzed that daily uplifts boost flourishing at work leading to improved personal information management motivation, which increases organizational innovativeness. The findings presents that understanding of the daily uplifts could be valuable and advantageous for organizations aiming for enhanced innovativeness in their operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: High bacterial loads in chronic wounds increase infection and complication risk. This analysis aims to illustrate how the objective detection and localization of bacterial loads through point-of-care fluorescence (FL) impacts treatment decisions. Method: A retrospective single time-point analysis of treatment decisions from 1000 chronic wounds (DFUs, VLUs, PIs, surgical wounds, burns, and others) assessed by clinicians at 211 facilities across 36 US states. No exclusion criteria were applied. Clinicians proposed treatment plans for each wound before and after FL imaging (MolecuLight) were recorded, including clinical signs and symptoms of infection (CSS), FL-imaging findings, and any treatment plan changes. Results / Discussion: FL signals indicating elevated bacterial loads were observed in 701 wounds (70.8%), but CSS were present in only 293 (29.6%). Post FL-imaging, treatment plans changed in 528 wounds, types of changes included: change in dressing selection (3.2%), more extensive hygiene (17.2%) or debridement (18.7%), FL-targeted debridement (17.2%), FL-guided sampling for microbiological analysis (6.2%), new topical therapies and systemic antibiotic prescriptions (10.1% and 9.0%, respectively). Conclusion: These real-world findings of asymptomatic bacterial load/biofilm prevalence, and of the frequent treatment plan changes post-imaging, are in keeping with clinical trial findings on this technology. These data, from a range of wound types, facilities, and clinician skill sets, suggest that point-of-care FL-imaging information enhances bacterial-infection management and allows for more proactive and custom-tailored therapeutic options. Combined with U.K. randomized controlled trial evidence of improved healing rates, our findings demonstrate the potential of proactive, FL-guided care to improve wound outcomes at a reduced cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]