Creating Communities of Practice Focused on Writing Instruction

This article will share the literacy coaches\u27 experiences of engaging in a literacy community of practice (Lave and Wenger, 1991). It will share the writing cohort process, topics discussed, books read, professional developments enacted, and materials generated during their time of study. The writing cohort enacted meaning and identity to the community to create learning and growth. Effective communities of practice promote innovation, spread knowledge, develop social capital, and facilitate existing knowledge (Lave and Wenger, 1991). These communities learn and grow through requesting information, problem solving, and reusing available assets. After a thorough description of the writing community and its practices, we offer insights into how others can create, maintain, and foster similar communities within their schools and school districts. This examination of writing practices profoundly impacted students as well as the cohort participants

Statewide and Census Division Demographic and Economic Systems, Navarin Basin (Sale 83) Impact Analysis

This study examines economic and population impacts of the proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) petroleum development of the Navarin Basin (Sale 83). The study begins with historical baseline analyses of the population and economies of the State of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. Next, base case projections of conditions in the absence of OCS development are proposed. Subsequently, the impacts of OCS development are examined. The projections were done using the MAP and SCIMP models developed at the University of Alaska's Institute of Social and Economic Research. In the base case, statewide population increases to over 590 thousand by the year 2010. In the 1.2 Bbbl oil discovery case, the maximum percentage impact upon statewide population is 3 percent, or 16,800, in 1993. The Aleutian Islands' base case resident population is predicted to rise from 3,654 in 1980 to 8,348 in 2000 due to growth in the bottomfish industry. The maximum increase in population is 281, or 4 percent, in 1996. The maximum impact upon Aleutian Islands' resident employment is 12 percent (291) in 1996. The maximum impact upon Aleutian Islands' nonresident or enclave employment is 45 percent (770) in 1989 during the construction of OCS facilities.Prepared for Bureau of Land Management Alaska Outer Continental Shelf OfficeYe

Spectroscopy of Quasar Candidates from SDSS Commissioning Data

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has obtained images in five broad-band colors for several hundred square degrees. We present color-color diagrams for stellar objects, and demonstrate that quasars are easily distinguished from stars by their distinctive colors. Follow-up spectroscopy in less than ten nights of telescope time has yielded 22 new quasars, 9 of them at $z> 3.65$, and one with $z = 4.75$, the second highest-redshift quasar yet known. Roughly 80% of the high-redshift quasar candidates selected by color indeed turn out to be high-redshift quasars.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "After the Dark Ages: When Galaxies were Young (the Universe at 2<z<5)", 9th Annual October Astrophysics Conference in Marylan

Automated Determination of [Fe/H] and [C/Fe] from Low-Resolution Spectroscopy

We develop an automated spectral synthesis technique for the estimation of metallicities ([Fe/H]) and carbon abundances ([C/Fe]) for metal-poor stars, including carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars, for which other methods may prove insufficient. This technique, autoMOOG, is designed to operate on relatively strong features visible in even low- to medium-resolution spectra, yielding results comparable to much more telescope-intensive high-resolution studies. We validate this method by comparison with 913 stars which have existing high-resolution and low- to medium-resolution to medium-resolution spectra, and that cover a wide range of stellar parameters. We find that at low metallicities ([Fe/H] < -2.0), we successfully recover both the metallicity and carbon abundance, where possible, with an accuracy of ~ 0.20 dex. At higher metallicities, due to issues of continuum placement in spectral normalization done prior to the running of autoMOOG, a general underestimate of the overall metallicity of a star is seen, although the carbon abundance is still successfully recovered. As a result, this method is only recommended for use on samples of stars of known sufficiently low metallicity. For these low-metallicity stars, however, autoMOOG performs much more consistently and quickly than similar, existing techniques, which should allow for analyses of large samples of metal-poor stars in the near future. Steps to improve and correct the continuum placement difficulties are being pursued.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures; accepted for publication in A

On-Orbit Results and Lessons Learned from the ASTERIA Space Telescope Mission

The Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) was deployed from the International Space Station (ISS) on 20 November 2017, beginning a technology demonstration and opportunistic science mission to advance the state of the art in nanosatellite performance for astrophysical observations. The goal of ASTERIA is to achieve arcsecond-level line-of-sight pointing error and highly stable focal plane temperature control. These capabilities enable precision photometry—i.e. the careful measurement of stellar brightness over time—which in turn allows investigation of astrophysical phenomena such as transiting exoplanets. By the end of the 90-day prime mission, ASTERIA had achieved line-of-sight pointing stability of approximately 0.5 arcseconds root mean square (RMS) over 20-minute observations, pointing repeatability of 1 milliarcsecond RMS from one observation to the next, and focal plane temperature stability better than ±0.01 K over 20-minute observations. This paper presents an overview of the ASTERIA flight and ground system, summarizes the pre-delivery test campaign, and discusses the on-orbit performance obtained by the pointing and thermal control subsystems. We also describe the process for planning opportunistic science observations and present lessons learned from development and operations. Having successfully operated for over 200 days as of this writing, ASTERIA is currently in an extended mission to observe nearby bright stars for transiting exoplanets

Cycloadditions of Oxacyclic Allenes and a Catalytic Asymmetric Entryway to Enantioenriched Cyclic Allenes

The chemistry of strained cyclic alkynes has undergone a renaissance over the past two decades. However, a related species, strained cyclic allenes, especially heterocyclic derivatives, have only recently resurfaced and represent another class of valuable intermediates. We report a mild and facile means to generate the parent 3,4‐oxacyclic allene from a readily accessible silyl triflate precursor, and then trap it in (4+2), (3+2), and (2+2) reactions to provide a variety of cycloadducts. In addition, we describe a catalytic, decarboxylative asymmetric allylic alkylation performed on an α‐silylated substrate, to ultimately permit access to an enantioenriched allene. Generation and trapping of the enantioenriched cyclic allene occurs with complete transfer of stereochemical information in a Diels–Alder cycloaddition through a point‐chirality, axial‐chirality, point‐chirality transfer process

The Angular Clustering of Galaxy Pairs

We identify close pairs of galaxies from 278 deg^2 of Sloan Digital Sky Survey commissioning imaging data. The pairs are drawn from a sample of 330,041 galaxies with 18 < r^* < 20. We determine the angular correlation function of galaxy pairs, and find it to be stronger than the correlation function of single galaxies by a factor of 2.9 +/- 0.4. The two correlation functions have the same logarithmic slope of 0.77. We invert Limber's equation to estimate the three-dimensional correlation functions; we find clustering lengths of r_0= 4.2 +/- 0.4 h^{-1} Mpc for galaxies and 7.8 +/- 0.7 h^{-1} Mpc for galaxy pairs. These results agree well with the global richness dependence of the correlation functions of galaxy systems.Comment: 12 pages. ApJ, in pres