Middle school student motivational experiences in mathematics: a narrative inquiry

2013 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Among middle school students there is thought to be a lack of motivation toward academic achievement in math. Ames expressed this thought in 1990 when mentioning this as one of the biggest problems in education. Motivation to learn and grow through mathematic understanding gives students' purpose. Due to this thought, the focus of the study was to use a narrative inquiry experience-centered approach to gain insight into five middle school students' motivational experiences in mathematics at the end of eighth grade. Each student was interviewed over the course of three different sessions, taking place over a three week span of time. These interviews were conducted during their normal school day at a time deemed by the school as not academically hindering (i.e., a study hall or open block). To help with analysis, interview sessions were audio recorded and transcribed into a basic word processor. Nvivo software was then used to create common themes (or nodes) and connect them to common reference points within each student's interview dialogue. Some themes like intrinsic and extrinsic motivation were created prior to analysis and looked for specifically, while other themes were created after being mentioned by multiple students or in multiple interviews. These added themes were noticeably of value to the participants when speaking of their motivational experiences. Data collection and analysis concluded that personal motivators, both intrinsic and extrinsic, were mentioned by all students over the course of their three interview sessions. Student's desire for accomplishment, esteem, and support were all revealed as common motivators. Interview responses reinforced the view that motivation is supported through small, challenging but achievable goals. Students expressed not wanting simple math problems, they wanted to feel challenged. Therefore, benefits for students may be found if teachers are able to balance mathematics challenges with supporting student's current abilities and academic competence. What was also concluded is a definite relationship between the various levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs being satisfied and an increase in student motivation. Recommendations for research include looking further into whether students are motivated to satisfy their needs, as Maslow suggests, or rather if the act of feeling calm over a need being met creates further motivation toward academic achievement. Future research into this concept would help formulate true connections between satisfied needs and motivational desire

Construction Mortgage Financing in Ohio

This article consists of a review and analysis of the Yarborough decision and the open-end mortgage statute and an assessment of their probable impact upon current construction loan lending procedures. In addition, the authors offer various observations regarding the form in which disbursing agreements and construction mortgage deeds should be drafted. The structure of the article may be briefly described as follows: First, attention will be given to the three methods by which a mortgagee can preserve the priority of its mortgage lien over liens of mechanics men which attach to the mortgaged premises after the recording of the mortgage but before any disbursements are made thereunder. Special consideration will be given to the manner in which the Yarborough decision affects each method. Second, the writers will discuss the manner in which openend mortgages relate to: (1) non-statutory construction mortgages and (2) mechanics\u27 and other types of liens which attach to the mortgaged premises after the recording of an open-end mortgage but before any optional disbursements are made thereunder. In this connection, the use of open-end mortgages to secure construction loans will be considered. Third, the advisability of drafting an open-end mortgage which incorporates the provisions of § 1311.14 of the Mechanic\u27s Lien Statute will be examined. Fourth, the authors will discuss a proposed method by which a mortgagee can reasonably assure that its mortgage lien will take priority over any vendees\u27 liens which exist on the date of the recording of the mortgag

Intraseasonal Variations in Tropical Energy Balance: Relevance to Climate Sensitivity?

Intraseasonal variability of deep convection represents a fundamental mode of organization for tropical convection. While most studies of intraseasonal oscillations (ISOs) have focused on the spatial propagation and dynamics of convectively coupled circulations, here we examine the projection of ISOs on the tropically-averaged heat and moisture budget. One unresolved question concerns the degree to which observable variations in the "fast" processes (e.g. convection, radiative / turbulent fluxes) can inform our understanding of feedback mechanisms operable in the context of climate change. Our analysis use daily data from satellite observations, the Modern Era analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), and other model integrations to address these questions: (i) How are tropospheric temperature variations related to that tropical deep convection and the associated ice cloud fractional amount (ICF), ice water path (IWP), and properties of warmer liquid clouds? (ii) What role does moisture transport play vis-a-vis ocean latent heat flux in enabling the evolution of deep convection to mediate PBL - free atmospheric temperature equilibration? (iii) What affect do convectively generated upper-tropospheric clouds have on the TOA radiation budget? Our methodology is similar to that of Spencer et al., (2007 GRL ) whereby a composite time series of various quantities over 60+ ISO events is built using tropical mean tropospheric temperature signal as a reference to which the variables are related at various lag times (from -30 to +30 days). The area of interest encompasses the global oceans between 20oN/S. The increase of convective precipitation cannot be sustained by evaporation within the domain, implying strong moisture transports into the tropical ocean area. The decrease in net TOA radiation that develops after the peak in deep convective rainfall, is part of the response that constitutes a "discharge" / "recharge" mechanism that facilitates tropical heat balance maintenance on these time scales. However, water vapor and hydrologic scaling relationships for this mode of variability cast doubt on the utility of ISO variations as proxies for climate sensitivity response to external radiatively forced (e.g. greenhouse gas-induced) climate change

Gulls as Sources of Environmental Contamination by Colistin-resistant Bacteria

In 2015, the mcr-1 gene was discovered in Escherichia coli in domestic swine in China that conferred resistance to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort used in treating multi-drug resistant bacterial infections in humans. Since then, mcr-1 was found in other human and animal populations, including wild gulls. Because gulls could disseminate the mcr-1 gene, we conducted an experiment to assess whether gulls are readily colonized with mcr-1 positive E. coli, their shedding patterns, transmission among conspecifics, and environmental deposition. Shedding of mcr-1 E. coli by small gull flocks followed a lognormal curve and gulls shed one strain \u3e101 log10 CFU/g in their feces for 16.4 days, which persisted in the environment for 29.3 days. Because gulls are mobile and can shed antimicrobial-resistant bacteria for extended periods, gulls may facilitate transmission of mcr-1 positive E. coli to humans and livestock through fecal contamination of water, public areas and agricultural operations

Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Coupled End-to-End Research, Development, and Demonstration Project: Integrated Off-Gas Treatment System Design and Initial Performance-9226

ABSTRACT Oak Ridge National Laboratory is conducting a complete, coupled end-to-end (CETE) demonstration of advanced nuclear fuel reprocessing to support the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. This small-scale reprocessing operation provides a unique opportunity to test integrated off-gas treatment systems designed to recover the primary volatile fission and activation products (H-3, C-14, Kr-85, and I-139) released from the spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The CETE project will demonstrate an advanced head-end process, referred to as voloxidation, designed to condition the SNF, separate the SNF from the cladding, and release tritium contained in the fuel matrix. The off-gas from the dry voloxidation process as well as from the more traditional fuel dissolution process will be treated separately and the volatile components recovered. This paper provides descriptions of the off-gas treatment systems for both the voloxidation process and for the fuel dissolution process and provides preliminary results from the initial CETE processing runs. Impacts of processing parameters on the relative quantities of volatile components released and recovery efficiencies are evaluated

Genetic evidence supports sporadic and independent introductions of subtype H5 low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry in North America

Wild-bird origin influenza A viruses (IAVs or avian influenza) have led to sporadic outbreaks among domestic poultry in the United States and Canada, resulting in economic losses through the implementation of costly containment practices and destruction of birds. We used evolutionary analyses of virus sequence data to determine that 78 H5 low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIVs) isolated from domestic poultry in the United States and Canada during 2001 to 2017 resulted from 18 independent virus introductions from wild birds. Within the wild-bird reservoir, the hemagglutinin gene segments of H5 LPAIVs exist primarily as two cocirculating genetic sublineages, and our findings suggest that the H5 gene segments flow within each migratory bird flyway and among adjacent flyways, with limited exchange between the nonadjacent Atlantic and Pacific Flyways. Phylogeographic analyses provided evidence that IAVs from dabbling ducks and swans/geese contributed to the emergence of viruses among domestic poultry. H5 LPAIVs isolated from commercial farm poultry (i.e., turkey) that were descended from a single introduction typically remained a single genotype, whereas those from live-bird markets sometimes led to multiple genotypes, reflecting the potential for reassortment with other IAVs circulating within live-bird markets. H5 LPAIVs introduced from wild birds to domestic poultry represent economic threats to the U.S. poultry industry, and our data suggest that such introductions have been sporadic, controlled effectively through production monitoring and a stamping-out policy, and are, therefore, unlikely to result in sustained detections in commercial poultry operations. IMPORTANCE Integration of viral genome sequencing into influenza surveillance for wild birds and domestic poultry can elucidate evolutionary pathways of economically costly poultry pathogens. Evolutionary analyses of H5 LPAIVs detected in domestic poultry in the United States and Canada during 2001 to 2017 suggest that these viruses originated from repeated introductions of IAVs from wild birds, followed by various degrees of reassortment. Reassortment was observed where biosecurity was low and where opportunities for more than one virus to circulate existed (e.g., congregations of birds from different premises, such as live-bird markets). None of the H5 lineages identified were maintained for the long term in domestic poultry, suggesting that management strategies have been effective in minimizing the impacts of virus introductions on U.S. poultry production

Cryo-Vacuum Testing of the Integrated Science Instrument Module for the James Webb Space Telescope

With delivery of the science instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) expected in 2012, current plans call for the first cryo-vacuum test of the Integrated Science Instrument Module (ISIM) to be carried out at GSFC in early 2013. Plans are well underway for conducting this ambitious test, which will perform critical verifications of a number of optical, thermal, and operational requirements of the IS 1M hardware, at its deep cryogenic operating temperature. We describe here the facilities, goals, methods, and timeline for this important Integration & Test milestone in the JWST program

Low-Pathogenic Influenza A Viruses in North American Diving Ducks Contribute to the Emergence of a Novel Highly Pathogenic Influenza A(H7N8) Virus

Introductions of low-pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses of subtypes H5 and H7 into poultry from wild birds have the potential to mutate to highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses, but such viruses’ origins are often unclear. In January 2016, a novel H7N8 HPAI virus caused an outbreak in turkeys in Indiana, USA. To determine the virus’s origin, we sequenced the genomes of 441 wild-bird origin influenza A viruses (IAVs) from North America and subjected them to evolutionary analyses. The results showed that the H7N8 LPAI virus most likely circulated among diving ducks in the Mississippi flyway during autumn 2015 and was subsequently introduced to Indiana turkeys, in which it evolved high pathogenicity. Preceding the outbreak, an isolate with six gene segments (PB2, PB1, PA, HA, NA, and NS) sharing \u3e99% sequence identity with those of H7N8 turkey isolates was recovered from a diving duck sampled in Kentucky, USA. H4N8 IAVs from other diving ducks possessed five H7N8-like gene segments (PB2, PB1, NA, MP, and NS; \u3e98% sequence identity). Our findings suggest that viral gene constellations circulating among diving ducks can contribute to the emergence of IAVs that affect poultry. Therefore, diving ducks may serve an important and understudied role in the maintenance, diversification, and transmission of IAVs in the wild-bird reservoir

The African Political Business Cycle: Varieties of Experience

We seek to understand both the incidence and the impact of the African political business cycle in the light of a literature which has argued that, with major extensions of democracy since the 1990s, the cycle has both become more intense and has made African political systems more fragile. With the help of country-case studies, we argue, first, that the African political business cycle is not homogeneous, and occurs relatively infrequently in so-called ‘dominant-party systems’ where a pre-election stimulus confers little political advantage. Secondly, we show that, in those countries where a political cycle does occur, it does not necessarily cause institutional damage. Whether it does or not depends not so much on whether there is an electoral cycle as on whether this cycle calms or exacerbates fears of an unjust allocation of resources. In other words, the composition of the pre-election stimulus, in terms of its allocation between different categories of voter, is as important as its size