Perception, Challenges, And Academic Performance of Pre-Service Teachers in Student Teaching

This descriptive-correlational study was conducted among 152 randomly selected male and female pre-service teachers of Isabela State University-Echague campus. The purpose of which was to describe and analyze their perception, challenges and academic performance in student teaching with the aim of developing intervention program. Data were collected through survey using an adopted questionnaire. Majority of the respondent were female with academic performance of above-average. The study revealed that male pre-service teachers have more positive perception about student teaching than the female. Specifically, male pre-service teachers perceived that student teaching was an avenue for them to develop their knowledge and skills in teaching including appropriate attitude of an outstanding teacher. However, the study also revealed that male pre-service teachers encountered more challenges than the female pre-service teachers in the areas of classroom management, social environment, curriculum development and relationship with their supervising instructors and cooperating teachers. The study also found out that improving strategies on controlling students’ behavior, mastery of the subject matter, use of instructional materials, developing cordial relationship with other teachers and cooperating teachers, conduct of supervisory activities as often as possible and providing feedbacks will strengthen the possibility of having a better academic performance among the pre-service teachers. Intervention activity, therefore, is suggested focusing on male pre-service teachers with the aim of providing scaffolding in the areas of teaching approaches, communication and promoting good relationship with peers, supervisors and the students, including instructional materials development, values integration and the like

Evaluating the Impact of Trees on Residential Thermal Conditions in Los Angeles Using Community Science

As the planet warms, heat-vulnerable communities in cities face increased heat-related risks including lost productivity, reduced learning outcomes, illness, and death. Despite the growing threat of heat, effective approaches to alleviate urban heat are available. Tree planting has received investment in a growing number of cities around the world, but there are significant gaps in our understanding of the cooling potential of trees in the urban context, particularly the impacts on indoor spaces where urban dwellers spend most of their time. Our study engaged community scientists in Los Angeles County, USA to collect data on the impacts of trees on indoor and outdoor thermal conditions in residential sites. Participants created a thermal sensor network that contributed continuous readings for the study period. We mimicked an experimental research design using a difference-in-differences approach where “treehouses” with more trees and “non-treehouses” with fewer trees were compared on hot days (\u3e90°F or 32°C) and non-hot days. We found that on hot days indoor temperatures in treehouses warm less than in non-treehouses, but that trees provide relatively less benefit at night. We also found that exposure to extreme heat reaches dangerous levels in older residences without trees or air conditioning. underscoring the need for swift action to cool heat-vulnerable communities

Greenpeace cyberadvocacy: message strategies and the framing of the say no to genetic engineering campaign

A content analysis was conducted to examine campaign message characteristics and the framing of genetic engineering (GE) in news articles published in sites dedicated to two countries with different policy stances toward GE---Australia (precautionary) and Philippines (permissive).;The findings show the intent to generate awareness and encourage information seeking among audiences. Logical reasoning that highlighted risks using negative appeals indicate latent and aware publics as target audiences. The Australian and Philippine sites showed spikes in news items published preceding the commercial release of GM crops. In both countries, biotechnology policy was the most dominant frame used. The Philippines used significantly more frames and sources in longer articles

Flexible Learning, Anxiety And Academic Performance Of Pre-Service Teachers: Input To Curriculum Adjustment

This descriptive-correlational study was conducted among randomly selected pre-service teachers of Isabela State University-Echague, Isabela. The purpose of which is to assess their attitude on blended learning, anxiety level and academic performance as an input to curriculum adjustment. Most of the participants of the study were female, user of cellular phone, messenger, and prepaid data. Also, the respondents are receiving financial and moral support from their parents while receiving help for their academics in their friends. In terms of their anxiety level, most of the respondents were suffering from moderate to severe level while they are performing on the average level. Generally speaking, the respondents have a positive attitude on blended learning. Data shows that there is a higher probability that male respondents, user of FaceBook and prepaid data and those who do have someone to support their financial needs have higher level of anxiety. Statistically, the anxiety level of the respondents affects negatively the academic performance of the respondents. Furthermore, there is also a higher possibility that the respondents’ academic performance get better when they have unlimited access to learning materials, with conducive place for learning, with organize time management, and comfortable with the use of laptops and technology-based materials. On the other hand, it was statically proven that when students get bored over the online learning and develop the feeling of being isolated, there is a probability that their grades will be affected negativel

The ratio of homology rank to hyperbolic volume, I

We show that for every finite-volume hyperbolic $3$-manifold $M$ and every prime $p$ we have $\text{dim}\ H_1(M;\mathbf{F}_p)< 168.602\cdot\text{vol}\ M$. There are slightly stronger estimates if $p = 2$ or if $M$ is non-compact. This improves on a result proved by Agol, Leininger and Margalit, which gave the same inequality with a coefficient of $334.08$ in place of $168.602$. It also improves on the analogous result with a coefficient of about $260$, which could have been obtained by combining the arguments due to Agol, Leininger and Margalit with a result due to B\"or\"oczky. Our inequality involving homology rank is deduced from a result about the rank of the fundamental group: if $M$ is a finite-volume orientable hyperbolic $3$-manifold such that $\pi_1(M)$ is $2$-semifree, then $\text{rank}\ \pi_1(M)<1+\lambda_{0}\cdot\text{vol}\ M$, where $\lambda_{0}$ is a certain constant less than $167.79$Comment: 32 pages. This version incorporates a number of corrections and stylistic improvements and is to be published in Journal of Topology and Analysi

On the Hierarchical Preconditioning of the PMCHWT Integral Equation on Simply and Multiply Connected Geometries

We present a hierarchical basis preconditioning strategy for the Poggio-Miller-Chang-Harrington-Wu-Tsai (PMCHWT) integral equation considering both simply and multiply connected geometries.To this end, we first consider the direct application of hierarchical basis preconditioners, developed for the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE), to the PMCHWT. It is notably found that, whereas for the EFIE a diagonal preconditioner can be used for obtaining the hierarchical basis scaling factors, this strategy is catastrophic in the case of the PMCHWT since it leads to a severly ill-conditioned PMCHWT system in the case of multiply connected geometries. We then proceed to a theoretical analysis of the effect of hierarchical bases on the PMCHWT operator for which we obtain the correct scaling factors and a provably effective preconditioner for both low frequencies and mesh refinements. Numerical results will corroborate the theory and show the effectiveness of our approach

Antitubercular specific activity of ibuprofen and the other 2-arylpropanoic acids using the HT-SPOTi whole-cell phenotypic assay

Objectives: Lead antituberculosis (anti-TB) molecules with novel mechanisms of action are urgently required to fuel the anti-TB drug discovery pipeline. The aim of this study was to validate the use of the high-throughput spot culture growth inhibition (HT-SPOTi) assay for screening libraries of compounds against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and to study the inhibitory effect of ibuprofen (IBP) and the other 2-arylpropanoic acids on the growth inhibition of M tuberculosis and other mycobacterial species. Methods: The HT-SPOTi method was validated not only with known drugs but also with a library of 47 confirmed anti-TB active compounds published in the ChEMBL database. Three over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs were also included in the screening. The 2-arylpropanoic acids, including IBP, were comprehensively evaluated against phenotypically and physiologically different strains of mycobacteria, and their cytotoxicity was determined against murine RAW264.7 macrophages. Furthermore, a comparative bioinformatic analysis was employed to propose a potential mycobacterial target. Results: IBP showed antitubercular properties while carprofen was the most potent among the 2-arylpropanoic class. A 3,5-dinitro-IBP derivative was found to be more potent than IBP but equally selective. Other synthetic derivatives of IBP were less active, and the free carboxylic acid of IBP seems to be essential for its anti-TB activity. IBP, carprofen and the 3,5-dinitro-IBP derivative exhibited activity against multidrug-resistant isolates and stationary phase bacilli. On the basis of the human targets of the 2-arylpropanoic analgesics, the protein initiation factor infB (Rv2839c) of M tuberculosis was proposed as a potential molecular target. Conclusions: The HT-SPOTi method can be employed reliably and reproducibly to screen the antimicrobial potency of different compounds. IBP demonstrated specific antitubercular activity, while carprofen was the most selective agent among the 2-arylpropanoic class. Activity against stationary phase bacilli and multidrug-resistant isolates permits us to speculate a novel mechanism of antimycobacterial action. Further medicinal chemistry and target elucidation studies could potentially lead to new therapies against TB

Pairing effects on the collectivity of quadrupole states around 32Mg

The first 2+ states in N=20 isotones including neutron-rich nuclei 32Mg and 30Ne are studied by the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov plus quasiparticle random phase approximation method based on the Green's function approach. The residual interaction between the quasiparticles is consistently derived from the hamiltonian density of Skyrme interactions with explicit velocity dependence. The B(E2) transition probabilities and the excitation energies of the first 2+ states are well described within a single framework. We conclude that pairing effects account largely for the anomalously large B(E2) value and the very low excitation energy in 32Mg.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure