Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning

The findings are grouped into four sections. The first section on student achievement finds that there were positive effects on student mathematics and reading performance and that the lowest-performing students made substantial gains relative to their peers. The second section on implementation and the perceptions of stakeholders finds that adoption of personalized learning practices varied considerably. Personalized learning practices that are direct extensions of current practice were more common, but implementation of some of the more challenging personalized learning strategies was less common. The third section relates implementation features to outcomes and identifies three elements of personalized learning that were being implemented in tandem in the schools with the largest achievement effects. Finally, the fourth section compares teachers' and students' survey responses to a national sample and finds some differences, such as teachers' greater use of practices that support competency-based learning and greater use of technology for personalization in the schools in this study with implementation data

Translating Standardized Effects of Education Programs Into More Interpretable Metrics

Evaluators report effects of education initiatives as standardized effect sizes, a scale that has merits but obscures interpretation of the effects’ practical importance. Consequently, educators and policymakers seek more readily interpretable translations of evaluation results. One popular metric is the number of years of learning necessary to induce the effect. We compare years of learning to three other translation options: benchmarking against other effect sizes, converting to percentile growth, and estimating the probability of scoring above a proficiency threshold. After enumerating the desirable properties of translations, we examine each option’s strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that years of learning performs worst, and percentile gains performs best, making it our recommended choice for more interpretable translations of standardized effects

Flux domes in superconducting films without edges

Domelike magnetic-flux-density distributions previously have been observed experimentally and analyzed theoretically in superconducting films with edges, such as in strips and thin plates. Such flux domes have been explained as arising from a combination of strong geometric barriers and weak bulk pinning. In this paper we predict that, even in films with bulk pinning, flux domes also occur when vortices and antivortices are produced far from the film edges underneath current-carrying wires, coils, or permanent magnets placed above the film. Vortex-antivortex pairs penetrating through the film are generated when the magnetic field parallel to the surface exceeds H_{c1}+K_c, where H_{c1} is the lower critical field and K_c = j_c d is the critical sheet-current density (the product of the bulk critical current density j_c and the film thickness d). The vortices and antivortices move in opposite directions to locations where they join others to create separated vortex and antivortex flux domes. We consider a simple arrangement of a pair of current-carrying wires carrying current I_0 in opposite directions and calculate the magnetic-field and current-density distributions as a function of I_0 both in the bulk-pinning-free case (K_c = 0) and in the presence of bulk pinning, characterized by a field-independent critical sheet-current density (K_c > 0).Comment: 15 pages, 23 figure

Electric Field Effects on Photoluminescence-Detected Magnetic Resonance of a π-Conjugated Polymer

Electric fields are central to the operation of optoelectronic devices based on conjugated polymers as they drive the recombination of electrons and holes to excitons in organic light-emitting diodes but are also responsible for the dissociation of excitons in solar cells. One way to track the microscopic effect of electric fields on charge carriers formed under illumination of a polymer film is to exploit the fluorescence arising from delayed recombination of carrier pairs, a process which is fundamentally spin dependent. Such spin-dependent recombination can be probed directly in fluorescence, by optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR). It is found that the ODMR signal in a polymer film is quenched in an electric field in the absence of a current, but that, at fields exceeding 1 MV cm(-1), this quenching saturates at a level of at most 50%

Contrast-Induced Neurotoxicity following Cardiac Catheterization

We report a case of probable contrast-induced neurotoxicity that followed a technically challenging cardiac catheterization in a 69-year-old woman. The procedure had involved the administration of a large cumulative dose of an iodinated, nonionic contrast medium into the innominate artery: twelve hours following the catheterization, the patient developed a seizure followed by a left hemiplegia, and an initial computed tomography (CT) scan showed sulcal effacement in the right cerebral hemisphere due to cerebral swelling. The patient’s clinical symptoms resolved within 24 hours, and magnetic resonance imaging at 32 hours showed resolution of swelling. Contrast-induced neurotoxicity should be found in the differential diagnosis of acute neurological deficits occurring after radiological procedures involving iodinated contrast media, whether ionic or nonionic

CD28 and the Tyrosine Kinase Lck Stimulate Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase Activity in T Cells via Inhibition of the Small G Protein Rap1

Proliferation of T cells via activation of the T-cell receptor (TCR) requires concurrent engagement of accessory costimulatory molecules to achieve full activation. The best-studied costimulatory molecule, CD28, achieves these effects, in part, by augmenting signals from the TCR to the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase cascade. We show here that TCR-mediated stimulation of MAP kinase extracellular-signal-regulated kinases (ERKs) is limited by activation of the Ras antagonist Rap1. CD28 increases ERK signaling by blocking Rap1 action. CD28 inhibits Rap1 activation because it selectively stimulates an extrinsic Rap1 GTPase activity. The ability of CD28 to stimulate Rap1 GTPase activity was dependent on the tyrosine kinase Lck. Our results suggest that CD28-mediated Rap1 GTPase-activating protein activation can help explain the augmentation of ERKs during CD28 costimulation

Solstice: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics, Volume XI, Number 2

This document was delivered over the internet.The purpose of Solstice is to promote interaction between geography and mathematics. Articles in which elements of one discipline are used to shed light on the other are particularly sought. Also welcome, are original contributions that are purely geographical or purely mathematical. These may be prefaced (by editor or author) with commentary suggesting directions that might lead toward the desired interaction. Contributed articles will be refereed by geographers and/or mathematicians. Invited articles will be screened by suitable members of the editorial board. IMaGe is open to having authors suggest, and furnish material for, new regular features.Peer 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Contains attachments.Description of SolsticeVolXINo2.pdf : Cover of Journa

Military service, deployments, and exposures in relation to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis etiology

Factors underlying a possible excess of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) among military veterans remain unidentified. Limitations of previous studies on this topic include reliance on ALS mortality as a surrogate for ALS incidence, low statistical power, and sparse information on military-related factors

Military service, deployments, and exposures in relation to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis survival

Military veterans may have higher rates of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) mortality than non-veterans. Few studies, with sparse exposure information and mixed results, have studied relationships between military-related factors and ALS survival. We evaluated associations between military-related factors and ALS survival among U.S. military veteran cases