Effects of Cooperative and Individual Integrated Learning System on Attitudes and Achievement in Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a computer-based Integrated Learning Systems (ILS) model used with adult high school students engaging mathematics activities. This study examined achievement, attitudinal and behavior differences between students completing ILS activities in a traditional, individualized format compared to cooperative learning groups

Adoption of Improved Wheat Technologies by Small-Scale Farmers in Mbeya District, Southern Highlands, Tanzania

This study was conducted to gain an understanding of how small-scale farmers in Mbeya District have adopted improved wheat technologies promoted by the wheat research program at MARTI-Uyole. The specific objectives were to assess farmers’ wheat management practices, determine the technical and socioeconomic factors affecting the adoption of improved wheat technologies, and draw implications for research, extension, and policy. A purposive multistage sampling procedure was used to select 202 farmers, 160 from Tembela Division and 42 from Isangati Division, which are two important wheat-growing areas in Mbeya District. Primary data were collected using structured questionnaires and supplemented by secondary information obtained from MARTI-Uyole. Juhudi was the preferred improved wheat variety grown by adopters. For all farmers, the most important characteristics preferred in a variety were high yield, marketability, grain color, and early maturity. In 1997, about 74% of sample farmers adopted improved wheat varieties. The rate of adoption increased between 1989 and 1995 for a number of reasons, including provision of seed and fertilizer by Sasakawa Global-2000 (SG-2000), the collapse of the pyrethrum industry, and market liberalization. After 1995, adoption declined because SG-2000 was phased out and the varieties had succumbed to stem rust and foliar diseases. Tobit analysis showed that farm size, family size, and the use of hired labor were significant factors affecting the proportion of land allocated to improved wheat. Farm size, family size, hired labor, and credit all significantly affected the amount of fertilizer used. Additional improved varieties need to be developed, not only to replace the old varieties, but to give farmers a wider choice. Fertilizer recommendations need to be reviewed to take into consideration farmers’ circumstances such as cash availability and soil fertility. Extension services in the area should be increased and the link between extension workers and landholders strengthened to promote the adoption of improved wheat technologies. The formal credit market is only weakly involved in supplying credit to wheat farmers, but rising input prices, especially for fertilizer, make access to credit increasingly important for farmers. Policymakers and bankers should focus on providing loans to small-scale wheat farmers with high rates of loan recovery and low cost of credit. Farmers should also be encouraged to form their own savings and credit cooperatives at the village level. Policymakers should continue to encourage and support the private sector to invest in input acquisition and distribution so that inputs (especially seed and fertilizer) are available when farmers need them.Tanzania, wheats, varieties, innovation adoption, technology transfer, economic indicators, socioeconomic environment, plant breeding methods, research programs, crop management, fertilizer application, food production, small farms, highlands, Crop Production/Industries, E14, E30,

A Solution to the Flowgraphs Case Study using Triple Graph Grammars and eMoflon

After 20 years of Triple Graph Grammars (TGGs) and numerous actively maintained implementations, there is now a need for challenging examples and success stories to show that TGGs can be used for real-world bidirectional model transformations. Our primary goal in recent years has been to increase the expressiveness of TGGs by providing a set of pragmatic features that allow a controlled fallback to programmed graph transformations and Java. Based on the Flowgraphs case study of the Transformation Tool Contest (TTC 2013), we present (i) attribute constraints used to express complex bidirectional attribute manipulation, (ii) binding expressions for specifying arbitrary context relationships, and (iii) post-processing methods as a black box extension for TGG rules. In each case, we discuss the enabled trade-off between guaranteed formal properties and expressiveness. Our solution, implemented with our metamodelling and model transformation tool eMoflon (www.emoflon.org), is available as a virtual machine hosted on Share.Comment: In Proceedings TTC 2013, arXiv:1311.753

Search for supersymmetry in events with leptons (e, μ, τ), jets and missing transverse energy with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Two searches for events containing τ-leptons, jets, large missing transverse momentum, and zero or one light leptons (ℓ = e,μ) in the final state have been performed using proton-proton collision data at √s = 7 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The first search was performed using 2:05fb-1 of the ATLAS data collected in 2011, and focused on the final state containing two hadronically decaying τ-leptons. For the second search the dataset was extended to 4:7fb-1, and four separate channels (1τ, 2τ, τ+e, τ+μ) were combined for the final result. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and 95% CL visible cross-section upper limits for new phenomena are set. In the framework of gauge-mediated SUSY-breaking models (GMSB), exclusion limits on the GMSB mass scale Λ are set at 54 TeV in the regions where the lightest ~τ is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (tan β > 20). These limits provide the most stringent tests to date of GMSB models in a large part of the considered parameter space

Preaching the Gospel as a Means of Pastoral Care at LaGrange Baptist Church, LaGrange, Kentucky

During the years of my pastoral ministry, I have observed many Christians who were unable to find comfort in the gospel when they encountered troubles in their lives. This became a deep concern in two ways. First, my people were hurting, and I could not seem to offer them sufficient help in the gospel. My second concern was where the members of the church might turn for help. Chapter 1 outlines the project goals, context, rationale, and definitions that grew out of these concerns. Chapter 2 grounds the task of preaching, which is central to this project, in the New Testament. It provides relevant theological and historical insights that establish the nature and importance of gospel soul care, drawing heavily on the example of the English Puritans. As Chapter 3 explains, the Puritans' keen insight into the human soul forced me to face some contemporary complications in gospel soul care, especially our modern professional and therapeutic approach to ministry. This research was combined with practical work at LaGrange Baptist Church in LaGrange, Kentucky, as described in Chapter 4 and evaluated in Chapter 5

The effects of early years' childcare on child emotional and behavioural difficulties in lone and co-parent family situations

With targeted childcare initiatives and welfare-to-work programmes policy-makers have sought to address employment activation of lone mothers and negative outcomes for children in lone parent households. The present study examines non-parental childcare use and maternal employment among children living in lone and co-parent family situations at ages three and four and emotional and behavioural difficulties at ages four and five. The results demonstrate that negative outcomes associated with lone motherhood are explained largely by mother's age, education, material circumstances and area deprivation; and that maternal employment does not relieve lone mothers’ disadvantages in a way that alleviates the risks of difficulties to their children. However, in any family constellation, mainly group-based formal pre-school childcare does have a positive impact on child difficulties compared to drawing on informal childcare arrangements as main provider. In addition, and specifically for the difficulties of children in lone mother family situations, any non-parental childcare – formal or informal − for at least twenty-five hours per week is beneficial. Study findings support policy agendas which tackle families’ material hardship beyond promoting mothers’ employment, and through investment in formal childcare provision, and also through arrangements allowing lone mothers to divide their weekly load of childcare with another main provider

Implementing social health insurance in Ireland: Report of a meeting and workshop held in Dublin, on December 6th 2010

We considered two basic questions, 'Is it possible to implement Social Health Insurance in Ireland?', and 'How can this be done?'. Can Social Health Insurance be implemented in Ireland? Our answer is a very definite yes. Furthermore, there would be many opportunities, while working towards this end, to improve the performance of our health care system. How can it be implemented? This process will need to be actively managed. There are many difficulties in the Irish health services, but also many opportunities. The greatest strengths are the talented, well-trained and very committed staff. Getting and keeping the support of these staff, for the necessary changes in service delivery, will be critical. Ireland has the capacity to make these changes, but without high quality management, a detailed focussed plan for change, and political support, little will happen. Each step in the change needs to be planned to maintain services, improve service delivery, improve service accountability, and improve service governance. Each sector of the service will need someone to lead the change, and mind that service during the change. Primary care remains under-developed. The HSE plan to develop primary care teams (PCT) has not succeeded. There are several established PCTs which work well. In other areas there are informal arrangements for collaboration, which work well. Overall, there are many useful lessons to learn from the experience so far. Future developments will need to place general practice at the centre of primary care. The mechanisms for doing this will vary from place to place, but need to be developed urgently. Acute hospitals face a crisis of governance. Maurice Hayes' (1) recent report on Tallaght hospital gives an idea of the scale of the changes needed. Tallaght is, we believe, not atypical, and is reputed to be by no means the worst governed hospital in the system. This, alone, should provide a pressing motive for change. Redesigning Irish hospitals to a new mission of supporting primary care, of supporting care in the community where possible can, and must, be done. Long-term care for older people is also a challenge. We advise moving to an integrated needs based system with smooth transitions between different degrees of support at home, and different degrees of support in specialized housing facilities including nursing homes. A similar model should apply to other forms of long-term care, for example for people with a substantial disability. Information systems and management processes both need a major overhaul. The health service remains strikingly under-managed, and fixing this will need a substantial culture change within the services. Wide use of standardized formal project management processes will be vital. There is a separate plan being developed to improve health service IT systems, and implementing this needs to be a high priority. We have not considered other key sectors, for example mental health, disability services, and social services. This does not mean that these are unimportant, merely that we had limited time, and a great deal to cover

Which One's Pink? - Towards an Analysis of the Concept Albums of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd

The introduction to this project surveys a number of recent approaches to the study of music, which are utilized in the subsequent analysis of the concept albums of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. The concept album is a genre in which the texts and music of an entire record album are thematically and conceptually linked. The thesis employs techniques of literary criticism in its analysis of song lyrics, and provides an hermeneutic analysis of the music in order to investigate how the sounds influence, and contribute to, the overall meanings of the works. Chapter 1 focuses on The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), while Chapters 2 and 3 focus respectively on Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977). The project illustrates how Roger Waters combines all of the pieces appearing on an individual album in order to communicate the recording's overriding concerns. The project also displays how all three of the works studied are intimately related in their meanings, emphasizing the complexity of the ideas which they present.Master of Arts (MA

Quantitative proteomics analysis of CaMKII phosphorylation and the CaMKII interactome in the mouse forebrain

Ca(2+)/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIα (CaMKIIα) autophosphorylation at Thr286 and Thr305/Thr306 regulates kinase activity and modulates subcellular targeting and is critical for normal synaptic plasticity and learning and memory. Here, a mass spectrometry-based approach was used to identify Ca(2+)-dependent and -independent in vitro autophosphorylation sites in recombinant CaMKIIα and CaMKIIβ. CaMKII holoenzymes were then immunoprecipitated from subcellular fractions of forebrains isolated from either wild-type (WT) mice or mice with a Thr286 to Ala knock-in mutation of CaMKIIα (T286A-KI mice) and analyzed using the same approach in order to characterize in vivo phosphorylation sites in both CaMKII isoforms and identify CaMKII-associated proteins (CaMKAPs). A total of six and seven autophosphorylation sites in CaMKIIα and CaMKIIβ, respectively, were detected in WT mice. Thr286-phosphorylated CaMKIIα and Thr287-phosphorylated CaMKIIβ were selectively enriched in WT Triton-insoluble (synaptic) fractions compared to Triton-soluble (membrane) and cytosolic fractions. In contrast, Thr306-phosphorylated CaMKIIα and Ser315- and Thr320/Thr321-phosphorylated CaMKIIβ were selectively enriched in WT cytosolic fractions. The T286A-KI mutation significantly reduced levels of phosphorylation of CaMKIIα at Ser275 across all subcellular fractions and of cytosolic CaMKIIβ at Ser315 and Thr320/Thr321. Significantly more CaMKAPs coprecipitated with WT CaMKII holoenzymes in the synaptic fraction compared to that in the membrane fraction, with functions including scaffolding, microtubule organization, actin organization, ribosomal function, vesicle trafficking, and others. The T286A-KI mutation altered the interactions of multiple CaMKAPs with CaMKII, including several proteins linked to autism spectrum disorders. These data identify CaMKII isoform phosphorylation sites and a network of synaptic protein interactions that are sensitive to the abrogation of Thr286 autophosphorylation of CaMKIIα, likely contributing to the diverse synaptic and behavioral deficits of T286A-KI mice