161 research outputs found

    Writing Attitudes and Practices of Content Area Teachers after Participating in the Central Utah Writing Project Summer Institute

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    The Central Utah Writing Project (CUWP) was created in 2009 and, following the National Writing Project\u27s model of professional development, has held a 3- or 4-week summer institute each subsequent year. This training includes collaborative, constructivist, teacher-led training to improve the teaching of writing in schools. Multiple qualitative and quantitative studies have shown the effectiveness of this professional development in the language arts classroom. This multiple-case study of four secondary teachers, whose individual content areas lie outside English or language arts (math, music, science, and social studies), used data from interviews, observations, and artifacts to provide a description of each case and how each teacher has personally and professionally incorporated the training gained from the CUWP. The study also synthesized common themes across the cases. These themes, necessary for professional development included a participant\u27s personal interpretation of the experience (phenomenon) construction of one\u27s own learning, active learning/ participation in the professional development, the inclusion of authentic tasks, collaborative support community, inclusion of prior knowledge and/or experience, self-efficacy regarding one\u27s own writing and the teaching of writing, motivation as a teacher, motivation as a student, scaffolded modeling, teacher expertise in professional development, and the use of writing in the content area. In short, the study investigates how the CUWP summer institute influences the attitudes and classroom writing practices of teachers whose primary content area is not English or language arts. Results showed that only one of the case studies changed their attitudes about writing from neutral to positive. The other three already possessed positive attitudes toward the use of and the teaching of writing in their own classrooms. All four participants changed their classroom practices as a result of participating in the CUWP summer institute and also deemed the results on student performance beneficial. Each of the four constructed a separate takeaway that they implemented in their respective classrooms

    Avian influenza at both ends of a migratory flyway: characterizing viral genomic diversity to optimize surveillance plans for North America

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    Although continental populations of avian influenza viruses are genetically distinct, transcontinental reassortment in low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses has been detected in migratory birds. Thus, genomic analyses of LPAI viruses could serve as an approach to prioritize species and regions targeted by North American surveillance activities for foreign origin highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). To assess the applicability of this approach, we conducted a phylogenetic and population genetic analysis of 68 viral genomes isolated from the northern pintail (Anas acuta) at opposite ends of the Pacific migratory flyway in North America. We found limited evidence for Asian LPAI lineages on wintering areas used by northern pintails in California in contrast to a higher frequency on breeding locales of Alaska. Our results indicate that the number of Asian LPAI lineages observed in Alaskan northern pintails, and the nucleotide composition of LPAI lineages, is not maintained through fall migration. Accordingly, our data indicate that surveillance of Pacific Flyway northern pintails to detect foreign avian influenza viruses would be most effective in Alaska. North American surveillance plans could be optimized through an analysis of LPAI genomics from species that demonstrate evolutionary linkages with European or Asian lineages and in regions that have overlapping migratory flyways with areas of HPAI outbreaks

    The Grizzly, October 31, 1986

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    NCAA Drug Tests Bar All but Natural Highs • History in the Making: U.C. Hosts 1st Big Rock Concert Since Hooters \u2782 • Heefner Organ Pumps New Life Into Founder\u27s Day Rites • Letter: It\u27s All in Your Point of View • Hess Encourages Financial Aid Applicants • Jazzing It Up With Branker • Scope of New Course Broadens Science Offerings • Fear of Mosquitoes and Sex? AIDS Expert Tells What\u27s Next • Akin Follows Losing Teams; Laments Vanished Baseball Dream • C & C to Focus on Scientific and Economic Ideologies • Despite Bad Food and Lack of Beer Freshman Say, We Like It Here. • Grizzlies Clash with Stubborn Mules After Kicking Away at G-burg and \u27Nova • Lady Sticklers Stuck at 8-7 After St. Joe\u27s Loss • Sox Go Home Sans Joy Red Cross(e) Knight Named Series MVP • O\u27Donohue and Haux Power Lady Runners to PAIAW Championship • Ursinus Harries Race to a 5-0 Start • Volleyball\u27s Doleniak Back in Action • Win a VCR. Put Your Foot Where Your Mouth ishttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/grizzlynews/1173/thumbnail.jp

    Building an integrated infrastructure for exploring biodiversity: field collections and archives of mammals and parasites.

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    Museum specimens play an increasingly important role in predicting the outcomes and revealing the consequences of anthropogenically driven disruption of the biosphere. As ecological communities respond to ongoing environmental change, host-parasite interactions are also altered. This shifting landscape of host-parasite associations creates opportunities for colonization of different hosts and emergence of new pathogens, with implications for wildlife conservation and management, public health, and other societal concerns. Integrated archives that document and preserve mammal specimens along with their communities of associated parasites and ancillary data provide a powerful resource for investigating, anticipating, and mitigating the epidemiological, ecological, and evolutionary impacts of environmental perturbation. Mammalogists who collect and archive mammal specimens have a unique opportunity to expand the scope and impact of their field work by collecting the parasites that are associated with their study organisms. We encourage mammalogists to embrace an integrated and holistic sampling paradigm and advocate for this to become standard practice for museum-based collecting. To this end, we provide a detailed, field-tested protocol to give mammalogists the tools to collect and preserve host and parasite materials that are of high quality and suitable for a range of potential downstream analyses (e.g., genetic, morphological). Finally, we also encourage increased global cooperation across taxonomic disciplines to build an integrated series of baselines and snapshots of the changing biosphere. Los especímenes de museo desempeñan un papel cada vez más importante tanto en la descripción de los resultados de la alteración antropogénica de la biosfera como en la predicción de sus consecuencias. Dado que las comunidades ecológicas responden al cambio ambiental, también se alteran las interacciones hospedador-parásito. Este panorama cambiante de asociaciones hospedador-parásito crea oportunidades para la colonización de diferentes hospedadores y para la aparición de nuevos patógenos, con implicancias en la conservación y manejo de la vida silvestre, la salud pública y otras preocupaciones de importancia para la sociedad. Archivos integrados que documentan y preservan especímenes de mamíferos junto con sus comunidades de parásitos y datos asociados, proporcionan un fuerte recurso para investigar, anticipar y mitigar los impactos epidemiológicos, ecológicos y evolutivos de las perturbaciones ambientales. Los mastozoólogos que recolectan y archivan muestras de mamíferos, tienen una oportunidad única de ampliar el alcance e impacto de su trabajo de campo mediante la recolección de los parásitos que están asociados con los organismos que estudian. Alentamos a los mastozoólogos a adoptar un paradigma de muestreo integrado y holístico y abogamos para que esto se convierta en una práctica estándarizada de la obtención de muestras para museos. Con este objetivo, proporcionamos un protocolo detallado y probado en el campo para brindar a los mastozoólogos las herramientas para recolectar y preservar materiales de parásitos y hospedadores de alta calidad y adecuados para una gran variedad de análisis subsecuentes (e.g., genéticos, morfológicos, etc.). Finalmente, también abogamos por una mayor cooperación global entre las diversas disciplinas taxonómicas para construir una serie integrada de líneas de base y registros actuales de nuestra cambiante biosfera

    Addressing Women's Non-Maternal Healthcare Financing in Developing Countries: What Can We Learn from the Experiences of Rural Indian Women?

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    Background and Objectives: This paper focuses on the inadequate attention on women’s non-maternal healthcare in lowand middle-income countries. The study assessed the purchase of and financial access to non-maternal healthcare. It also scoped for mainstreaming household financial resources in this regard to suggest for alternatives. Methods: A household survey through multi-stage stratified sampling in the state of Orissa interviewed rural women above 15 years who were neither pregnant nor had any pregnancy-related outcome six weeks preceding the survey. The questions explored on the processes, determinants and outcomes of health seeking for non-maternal ailments. The outcome measures were healthcare access, cost of care and financial access. The independent variables for bivariate and multivariate analyses were contextual factors, health seeking and financing pattern. Results: The survey obtained a response rate of 98.64 % and among 800 women, 43.8 % had no schooling and 51 % were above 60 years. Each woman reported at least one episode of non-maternal ailment; financial constraints prevented 68% from receiving timely and complete care. Distress coping measures (e.g. borrowings) dominated the financing source (67.9%) followed by community–based measures (32.1%). Only 6 % had financial risk-protection; financial risk of not obtaining care doubled for women aged over 60 years (OR 2.00, 95 % CI 0.84–4.80), seeking outpatient consultation (OR 2.01, 95 % CI 0.89–4.81), facing unfavourable household response (OR 2.04, 95 % CI 1.09–3.83), and lacking other financia

    Studies of di-jet survival and surface emission bias in Au+Au collisions via angular correlations with respect to back-to-back leading hadrons

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    We report first results from an analysis based on a new multi-hadron correlation technique, exploring jet-medium interactions and di-jet surface emission bias at RHIC. Pairs of back-to-back high transverse momentum hadrons are used for triggers to study associated hadron distributions. In contrast with two- and three-particle correlations with a single trigger with similar kinematic selections, the associated hadron distribution of both trigger sides reveals no modification in either relative pseudo-rapidity or relative azimuthal angle from d+Au to central Au+Au collisions. We determine associated hadron yields and spectra as well as production rates for such correlated back-to-back triggers to gain additional insights on medium properties.Comment: By the STAR Collaboration. 6 pages, 2 figure

    Measurements of Dihadron Correlations Relative to the Event Plane in Au+Au Collisions at sNN=200\sqrt{s_{NN}}=200 GeV

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    Dihadron azimuthal correlations containing a high transverse momentum (\pt) trigger particle are sensitive to the properties of the nuclear medium created at RHIC through the strong interactions occurring between the traversing parton and the medium, i.e. jet-quenching. Previous measurements revealed a strong modification to dihadron azimuthal correlations in Au+Au collisions with respect to \pp\ and \dAu\ collisions. The modification increases with the collision centrality, suggesting a path-length dependence to the jet-quenching effect. This paper reports STAR measurements of dihadron azimuthal correlations in mid-central (20-60\%) Au+Au collisions at \snn=200~GeV as a function of the trigger particle's azimuthal angle relative to the event plane, \phis=|\phit-\psiEP|. The azimuthal correlation is studied as a function of both the trigger and associated particle \pt. The subtractions of the combinatorial background and anisotropic flow, assuming Zero Yield At Minimum (\zyam), are described. The away-side correlation is strongly modified, and the modification varies with \phis, which is expected to be related to the path-length that the away-side parton traverses. The pseudo-rapidity (\deta) dependence of the near-side correlation, sensitive to long range \deta correlations (the ridge), is also investigated. The ridge and jet-like components of the near-side correlation are studied as a function of \phis. The ridge appears to drop with increasing \phis while the jet-like component remains approximately constant. ...Comment: 50 pages, 39 figures, 6 table

    System size and energy dependence of near-side di-hadron correlations

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    Two-particle azimuthal (Δϕ\Delta\phi) and pseudorapidity (Δη\Delta\eta) correlations using a trigger particle with large transverse momentum (pTp_T) in dd+Au, Cu+Cu and Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{{NN}}} =\xspace 62.4 GeV and 200~GeV from the STAR experiment at RHIC are presented. The \ns correlation is separated into a jet-like component, narrow in both Δϕ\Delta\phi and Δη\Delta\eta, and the ridge, narrow in Δϕ\Delta\phi but broad in Δη\Delta\eta. Both components are studied as a function of collision centrality, and the jet-like correlation is studied as a function of the trigger and associated pTp_T. The behavior of the jet-like component is remarkably consistent for different collision systems, suggesting it is produced by fragmentation. The width of the jet-like correlation is found to increase with the system size. The ridge, previously observed in Au+Au collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{{NN}}} = 200 GeV, is also found in Cu+Cu collisions and in collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{{NN}}} =\xspace 62.4 GeV, but is found to be substantially smaller at sNN\sqrt{s_{{NN}}} =\xspace 62.4 GeV than at sNN\sqrt{s_{{NN}}} = 200 GeV for the same average number of participants (Npart \langle N_{\mathrm{part}}\rangle). Measurements of the ridge are compared to models.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

    Measurements of D0D^{0} and DD^{*} Production in pp + pp Collisions at s\sqrt{s} = 200 GeV

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    We report measurements of charmed-hadron (D0D^{0}, DD^{*}) production cross sections at mid-rapidity in pp + pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Charmed hadrons were reconstructed via the hadronic decays D0Kπ+D^{0}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}, D+D0π+Kπ+π+D^{*+}\rightarrow D^{0}\pi^{+}\rightarrow K^{-}\pi^{+}\pi^{+} and their charge conjugates, covering the pTp_T range of 0.6-2.0 GeV/cc and 2.0-6.0 GeV/cc for D0D^{0} and D+D^{*+}, respectively. From this analysis, the charm-pair production cross section at mid-rapidity is dσ/dyy=0ccˉd\sigma/dy|_{y=0}^{c\bar{c}} = 170 ±\pm 45 (stat.) 59+38^{+38}_{-59} (sys.) μ\mub. The extracted charm-pair cross section is compared to perturbative QCD calculations. The transverse momentum differential cross section is found to be consistent with the upper bound of a Fixed-Order Next-to-Leading Logarithm calculation.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figures. Revised version submitted to Phys. Rev.
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