A Case Study of Four Districts\u27 Procedures for Identifying and Serving Culturally, Linguistically, and Economically Diverse Gifted and Talented Students in One State

The underrepresentation of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students is a problem historically researched in gifted and talented programs. This problem largely comes from the way districts identify for giftedness as well as the programming for gifted students. Traditional methods of identification often largely exclude students due to racial or ethnic bias and harsh cut-off scores on tests. This study investigated the current identification procedures of four districts in one state. Additionally, the study addressed programming and how these districts specifically targeted underserved populations within their district. Data were collected through interviews with four District Coordinators from school districts with high populations of culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students. The study found that despite using best practices in identification, these districts still had underrepresented populations within their gifted and talented programs. More research may be needed to address this issue further

Transport of Sellafield-derived C-14 from the Irish Sea through the North Channel

Since the early 1950s, the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Northwest England has released radio-carbon into the Irish Sea in a mainly inorganic form as part of its authorized liquid effluent discharge. In contrast to the trend in which the activities of most radionuclides in the Sellafield liquid effluent have decreased substantially, C-14 discharges have increased since 1994-95. This has largely been due to a policy change favoring marine discharges over atmospheric discharges. C-14 is radiologically important due to its long half life, mobility in the environment, and propensity for entering the food chain. Current models for radionuclide dispersal in the Irish Sea are based on a reversible equilibrium distribution coefficient (k(d)), an approach which has been shown to be inadequate for C-14. Development of predictive models for the fate of Sellafield-derived C-14 requires a thorough understanding of the biogeochemical fluxes between different carbon reservoirs and the processes controlling the net flux of C-14 out of the Irish Sea, through he North Channel. In this study., both an empirical and a halving time approach indicate that close to 100% of the C-14 that is discharged from Sellafield is dispersed beyond the Irish Sea on a time-scale of months in the form of DIC, with little transfer to the PIC, POC, and DOC fractions, indicating that the "dilute and disperse" mechanism is operating satisfactorily. This is consistent with previous research that indicated little transfer of C-14 to Irish Sea sediments, While significant C-14 enhancements have been observed in the biota of the Irish Sea, this observation is not necessarily in conflict with either of the above as the total biomass has to be taken into account in any calculations of C-14 retention within the Irish Sea

Sources of anthropogenic C-14 to the North Sea

The Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant on the northwest coast of England is the largest source of anthropogenic radiocarbon to the UK coastal environment. In a mid-1990s study of C-14 distribution around the UK coast, the pattern of dilution with increasing distance from Sellafield appeared to be perturbed by anomalously high C-14 activities in marine biota in the coastal environment of northeast England. This present study was undertaken during 1998 and 1999 to determine whether this C-14 enhancement was due to Sellafield or the nuclear power plants on the east coast. Seawater, seaweed (Fucus sp.), and mussel (Mytilus edulis) samples that were collected from the vicinity of the Torness and Hartlepool advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGR) nuclear power stations were all enhanced above the contemporary regional background activity derived from natural production and atmospheric nuclear weapons testing. We used previously published dilution factors and transfer times for Tc-99 between Sellafield and various points on the UK coast to determine likely Sellafield- derived C-14 contributions to the activities at the nuclear power plant sites. The results suggest that the activities observed at Torness, which are only marginally enhanced above the natural background activity, are possibly due to discharges from Sellafield; however, the significant C-14 enhancements at Hartlepool are not Sellafield-derived. Furthermore, since both reactors have the same fundamental design, the low activities at the Torness AGR imply that the activities at Hartlepool are not from the AGR, suggesting that there is an input of C-14 to the marine environment in the vicinity of Hartlepool which is probably non-nuclear-power related. However, there is no other authorized site in the area that could account for the observed C-14 enrichments; therefore, further research is required to ascertain the source of this C-14

Avian articular cartilage: effects of age, genotype and disease

The degradation of articular cartilage, causing degenerative joint disease (DJD), is a documented cause of lameness in broiler strain fowl, which is a major welfare problem. Broiler strain fowl are both heavier and more susceptible to DJD than laying strain fowl. In this thesis the biochemical and morphological basis for this susceptibility has been investigated, particular attention has been paid to the effects of body weight and genotype on avian articular cartilageArticular cartilage from three distinct sites was analysed. Samples from mature broiler strain females, susceptible to DJD, had higher hydration and uronic acid content than age matched, non -susceptible, laying strain fowl. In addition to these biochemical features (also seen in mammalian DJD), broiler strain fowl exhibited DJD histopathology including cartilage thinning and chondrocyte cluster formation. In general, both strains at one day old showed no significant biochemical differences between the articular cartilage sites sampled. However the cartilage from the broiler strain distal tibiotarsus (DTT) at one day old appeared to be biochemically and morphologically distinct from the cartilage of the layer strain DTT and from the other broiler strain joint surface of the same age.Production of an infectious arthritis by inoculation of mycoplasma into the tibiotarsal joint of broiler strain fowl resulted in variable biochemistry of articular cartilage form this joint. However in the non -injected, contralateral joint, sampled from the DTT, there was an increase in hydration and uronic acid content which is dependent upon the degree of lameness. This indicates the importance of in vivo loading in the biochemical composition of avian articular cartilage.Broiler strain birds fed ad libitum, feed restricted and J -line (wild type) were surveyed over the course of one year. Only the ad libitum fed birds developed overt DJD, which suggests that the mass of the bird, and not an overriding genetic element, is the major cause of the susceptibility of broiler strain fowl to DJD. The joint surface which presented the first and most severe signs indicative of early cartilage degeneration was the DTT. The biochemical results obtained from articular cartilage samples of the three groups include hydration, uronic acid, DNA and hydroxyproline content. Histology of the samples was assessed using haematoxylin and eosin stained sections. Proteoglycan content was investigated further by using selected samples for sulphated glycosaminoglycan assays and staining selected sections with Toludine blue and Safranin O. Samples from diseased and non -diseased groups were assayed for pyridinium in order to investigate the role of mature collagen crosslinking in DJD.The exact role of load and the metabolic consequences of body weight in the development of DJD is controversial. A method for artificially loading non -obese birds has been developed. Loading feed restricted broiler strain fowl with an additional 10% of their body weight over a three week period initiated a response including significant biochemical changes in the cartilage of the DTT. These results again emphasise the importance of load on the articular cartilage and the susceptibility of the DTT to DJD

The Benefits of an Open-Science Approach in Student Research Projects

Student projects can sometimes be overlooked when considering open science methods. This is perhaps because of the limited time available to complete the project, a lack of confidence in their open research skills by supervision staff or students, and lower expectations of publications resulting from student project work (particularly at undergraduate level). However, open science methods add value to student projects and provide benefits on several levels. This talk describes from both the student and supervisor perspectives how open science can benefit student projects - from methods to management - using recent undergraduate projects as an example. We give a brief description of the concept of open science as we understand it and discuss the general benefits of an open science approach to research. The Edward Wallace lab (School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh) has run several student projects working with and extending the open source software tool 'riboviz' to process and analyse ribosome profiling sequencing datasets. This collaborative project worked with experts in the UK and USA and aimed to add new features and capabilities to riboviz, thoroughly documenting the software, and successfully using it to analyse a diverse range of datasets from organisms across the tree of life. Student projects recreated existing published results using riboviz, developed new visualisation scripts, and added new optional features to the codebase to address specific research questions. This talk discusses how both the student project and the riboviz project fit into open science research, covering how open science tools were used to plan, manage and carry out an open science project and the challenges these presented. For example, as this was a computer-based project, we discuss the tools and skills needed by the students to successfully complete the project, including programming skills (Unix command-line, R, Python) and version control (using Git and GitHub) and the open resources used to learn and develop these skills. Open software tools such as version control are also explained in the context of student supervision and project management (for example how to use GitHub issue tickets for identifying and quickly solving project problems remotely), and for writing collaborative manuscripts (such as the recently published riboviz 2 paper and open science article). Our experiences provide a strong case study for successful open science approaches in student projects and clear evidence of their long-term benefits to students, supervisors and wider lab groups. We highlight our "top takeaways" aimed at students, day-to-day supervisors, and PIs and demonstrate how others can take the same approach

Using occupancy analysis to validate the use of footprint tunnels as a method for monitoring the hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus

Indirect survey methods are often used in studies of mammals, but are susceptible to biases caused by failure to detect species where they are present. Occupancy analysis is an analytical technique which enables non-detection rates to be estimated and which can be used to develop and refine novel survey methods. In this study, we investigated the use of footprint tunnels by volunteers as a method for surveying occupancy of sites by hedgehogs Erinaceus europaeus. The survey protocol led to a very low non-detection rate and could reasonably be used to detect occupancy changes of 25% with statistical power of 0.95 in a national survey

Is Li2_2Pd3_3B a self-doped hole superconductor ?

We propose that the electrons responsible for superconductivity in Li2Pd3B come from the palladium 4d-electrons. So, its electronic properties are likely to be dominated by strong electronic correlations. The basic unit in this material are Pd$_6$B octahedra which share vertices to form a 3-dimensional network. Due to the highly distorted nature of the Pd$_6$B octahedron, one far stretched Pd atom per octahedra becomes almost inactive for electronic conduction. Thus, the material escapes the fate of becoming a half- filled insulating Mott antiferromagnet by hiding extra charges at these inactive Pd sites and becomes a self-doped correlated metal. We propose a 3-dimensional single band t-J model which could be the correct minimal model for this material.Comment: 4 pages Revtex, 2 figures included in the text, some typos corrected, some text and references adde