Structure strategy interventions: Increasing reading comprehension of expository text

In this review of the literature we examine empirical studies designed to teach the structure strategy to increase reading comprehension of expository texts. First, we review the research that has served as a foundation for many of the studies examining the effects of text structure instruction. Text structures generally can be grouped into six categories: comparison, problem-and solution, causation, sequence, collection, and description. Next, we provide a historical look at research of structure strategyinterventions. Strategy interventions employ modeling, practice, and feedback to teach students how to use text structure strategically and eventually automatically. Finally, we review recent text structure interventions for elementary school students. We present similarities and differences among these studies and applications for instruction. Our review of intervention research suggests that direct instruction, modeling, scaffolding, elaborated feedback, and adaptation of instruction to student performance are keys in teaching students to strategically use knowledge about text structure

The use of time by homemakers with children

The purpose of the study was to find out how a group of faculty wives with children used their time and to investigate some factors in housing and equipment which might influence how they used their time. A comparison was made between homemakers with two pre-school age children and homemakers with two school age children in the way they used their time. Following a letter of explanation of the study, the writer contacted the homemakers by phone to make an appointment to visit them. During this visit the writer obtained the information for the questionnaire and explained the time sheets. Twenty-four homemakers, 12 with pre-school children, and 12 with school-age children kept usable records for this study. The homemakers ranged in age from 21 to 62 years of age. All of the homemakers had attended college with 42 percent graduating and an additional 16.5 percent earning their master's degree. Two were registered nurses. Both groups averaged four years of work before marriage. The homemakers with pre-school children had been married an average of eight years while the homemakers with school age children had been married an average of 18 years. The children ranged in age from four months to 18 years old. The 12.5 percent of the families that did not own their own homes were all from the group with pre-school children. Although all of the homes were well equipped, the families that had been established the longest time had slightly more equipment. Half of the total group used time plans; the majority of the homemakers using time plans were homemakers with pre-school children. Homemakers in this study as well as previous studies most often listed food preparation as the homemaking activity they most enjoyed. Again, cleaning house was most often listed as the activity least enjoyed, followed by ironing. Improved housing, equipment, and methods have failed to change these attitudes in over a quarter of a century. The homemakers with pre-school children spent the greatest percentage of their time caring for children followed by meal preparation and clean-up; the homemakers with school age children spent the greatest percentage of their time on food preparation and clean-up. Both groups spent a little over two and a half hours on meal preparation and clean-up. Homemakers with school age children averaged 48 minutes a day on laundry, whereas homemakers with pre-school children averaged 70 minutes a day. Cleaning house averaged 63 minutes a day for homemakers with school age children and 45 minutes a day for homemakers with pre-school children. Homemakers with school age children averaged 39 minutes for shopping, whereas homemakers with pre-school children averaged 23 minutes. The homemakers with school age children averaged 8 hours and 45 minutes of rest per day, whereas the homemakers with pre-school children averaged 8 hours and 8 minutes. Homemakers with school age children spent more time eating meals, on personal care, and on entertaining and social activities, whereas homemakers with pre-school children derived much of their leisure time from unplanned coffee breaks and chatting with neighbors. Other than the great difference in the amount of time the two groups spent in caring for their children, (the homemakers with pre-school children spent 3 hours and 38 minutes while the homemakers with school age children spent 39 minutes), there was great similarity in the way the two groups used their time. Another finding is that there is little difference in the amount of time the homemaker spent on different homemaking activities at the time of this study in comparison to studies done during the past quarter of a century

Children’s Use of Comparative Text Signals: The Relationship between Age and Comprehension Ability

In this study we examined age differences in children and young adolescents’ use of comparative text signals in order to gain insights into the development of signaling knowledge. We predicted that differential patterns of age differences would be found for readers classified as having low, middle, and high comprehension ability, and that the middle group of comprehenders would have the greatest amount of variability with age. 4th-, 6th-, and 9th-grade readers’ use of words employed to mark comparative relationships were compared by means of an open cloze. Results from analyses of competency of use scores, indicated that readers in the middle comprehension group had a larger number of significant increases in competency with age. Fewer age differences in overall competency were found for readers in low and high comprehension groups. Analysis of individual signals indicated that patterns of age differences may also vary in relation to the particular signal being processed. The findings from this study suggest that readers’ overall comprehension ability may influence the acquisition and use of text signals

Production System Models of Complex Cognition

There have been a number of production system models which have recently made substantial advances in modeling higher-level cognition. These type of model offers only comprehensive approaches to the modeling of higher level cognition. This symposium will involve presentations by four exemplars of this approach to cognitive modeling (ACT, CAPS, EPIC, and SOAR). The presentations will try to illustrate the range of applications to which such models are appropriate, what the similarities and differences are among the various architectures, and what some of the interesting research questions are within each architecture

“Experimental Populations” Outside Historical Range Proposal: Will It Get the Frog Out of Hot Water?

72 pagesTo address the impact of climate change on habitats of endangered and threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing a 2022 rule change to allow “experimental populations” to be introduced into habitat outside the species’ historical range. For essential experimental populations, habitat could be designated beyond current or historical range where “little to no habitat remains within the historical range of a species or where formerly suitable habitat . . . is undergoing, irreversible decline or change, rendering it unable to support one or more life history stages for the species.” A statutory prerequisite (under Endangered Species Act (ESA) section 10(j)) to designation of critical habitat for an experimental population is that “such population is essential to the continued existence of an endangered species or a threatened species.” The ESA defines “critical habitat” but does not separately define “habitat.” Designation of “critical habitat” has been complicated by the Weyerhaeuser v. FWS decision, in which the Supreme Court concluded that “critical habitat” must first be “habitat.

Combining abundance and performance data reveals how temperature regulates coastal occurrences and activity of a roaming apex predator

The redistribution of species has emerged as one of the most pervasive impacts of anthropogenic climate warming, and presents many societal challenges. Understanding how temperature regulates species distributions is particularly important for mobile marine fauna such as sharks given their seemingly rapid responses to warming, and the socio-political implications of human encounters with some dangerous species. The predictability of species distributions can potentially be improved by accounting for temperature's influence on performance, an elusive relationship for most large animals. We combined multi-decadal catch data and bio-logging to show that coastal abundance and swimming performance of tiger sharks Galeocerdo cuvier are both highest at ~22°C, suggesting thermal constraints on performance may regulate this species' distribution. Tiger sharks are responsible for a large proportion of shark bites on humans, and a focus of controversial control measures in several countries. The combination of distribution and performance data moves towards a mechanistic understanding of tiger shark's thermal niche, and delivers a simple yet powerful indicator for predicting the location and timing of their occurrences throughout coastlines. For example, tiger sharks are mostly caught at Australia's popular New South Wales beaches (i.e. near Sydney) in the warmest months, but our data suggest similar abundances will occur in winter and summer if annual sea surface temperatures increase by a further 1-2°C

Nutrient addition effects on tropical dry forests: a mini-review from microbial to ecosystem scales.

Humans have more than doubled inputs of reactive nitrogen globally and greatly accelerated the biogeochemical cycles of phosphorus and metals. However, the impacts of increased element mobility on tropical ecosystems remain poorly quantified, particularly for the vast tropical dry forest biome. Tropical dry forests are characterized by marked seasonality, relatively little precipitation, and high heterogeneity in plant functional diversity and soil chemistry. For these reasons, increased nutrient deposition may affect tropical dry forests differently than wet tropical or temperate forests. Here, we review studies that investigated how nutrient availability affects ecosystem and community processes from the microsite to ecosystem scales in tropical dry forests. The effects of N and P addition on ecosystem carbon cycling and plant and microbial dynamics depend on forest successional stage, soil parent material, and rainfall regime. Responses may depend on whether overall productivity is N- vs. P-limited, although data to test this hypothesis are limited. These results highlight the many important gaps in our understanding of tropical dry forest responses to global change. Large-scale experiments are required to resolve these uncertainties

Differentiation of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia B Cells into Immunoglobulin Secreting Cells Decreases LEF-1 Expression

Lymphocyte enhancer binding factor 1 (LEF-1) plays a crucial role in B lineage development and is only expressed in B cell precursors as B cell differentiation into mature B and plasma cells silences its expression. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells aberrantly express LEF-1 and its expression is required for cellular survival. We hypothesized that modification of the differentiation status of CLL cells would result in loss of LEF-1 expression and eliminate the survival advantage provided by its aberrant expression. In this study, we first established a methodology that induces CLL cells to differentiate into immunoglobulin (Ig) secreting cells (ISC) using the TLR9 agonist, CpG, together with cytokines (CpG/c). CpG/c stimulation resulted in dramatic CLL cell phenotypic and morphologic changes, expression of cytoplasmic Ig, and secretion of light chain restricted Ig. CpG/c stimulation also resulted in decreased CLL cell LEF-1 expression and increased Blimp-1 expression, which is crucial for plasma cell differentiation. Further, Wnt pathway activation and cellular survival were impaired in differentiated CLL cells compared to undifferentiated CLL cells. These data support the notion that CLL can differentiate into ISC and that this triggers decreased leukemic cell survival secondary to the down regulation of LEF-1 and decreased Wnt pathway activation