School Racial Climate and the Academic Achievement of African American High School Students: The Mediating Role of School Engagement

African American students in K-12 education experience pervasive disparities in academic outcomes across all areas of the schooling experience. In order to understand the factors that promote academic achievement among individuals who face adversity, researchers have sought to examine how school environmental factors hold influence over students\u27 academic adjustment. Drawing from an integrative model of development for ethnic minority children and a process model of engagement, this investigation explored whether three dimensions of school engagement, behavioral, emotional and cognitive, mediated relationships between school racial climate and academic performance and educational aspirations. These relationships were explored in a sample of 139 (79 girls, 60 boys) African American adolescent youth recruited from a high school in the southeastern region of the United States. Findings revealed an indirect effect of perceptions of racial fairness on academic achievement indicators though behavioral and cognitive engagement. Behavioral and cognitive engagement also mediated relationships between youths\u27 perceived peer discrimination and academic achievement indicators. Interestingly, the mediating role of emotional engagement in these relationships was found to be dependent on the predicted achievement outcome. No significant indirect effects of teacher discrimination on academic achievement through school engagement dimensions were found. Study limitations, future research directions and implications are discussed

Bayesian global-local shrinkage methods for regularisation in the high dimension linear model

This paper reviews global-local prior distributions for Bayesian inference in high-dimensional regression problems including important properties of priors and efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo methods for inference. A chemometric example in drug discovery is used to compare the predictive performance of these methods with popular methods such as Ridge and LASSO regression

Content Development of the Educational Interpreter Roles and Responsibilities Guiding Checklist

The purpose of this qualitative study was to extend development of the Educational Interpreter Roles and Responsibilities (EIRR) Guiding Checklist, which was designed to assist the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team in determining and documenting individualized roles and responsibilities of the educational interpreter, as appropriate to the needs of the student receiving such services and the qualifications of the interpreter as a related service provider. Literature indicates a long-standing state of confusion regarding the appropriate roles and responsibilities of the educational interpreter, as well as the need for more clear guidelines and procedures. The Checklist was initially designed by a certified teacher of the deaf who was experienced as an educational interpreter and supervised educational interpreters across a public-school d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) program. To continue preliminary instrument development towards content validation, knowledge of laws and strategies related to DHH education were deemed critical. As such, seven certified teachers of DHH students, who had at least three years’ experience supervising, overseeing, and/or providing training to educational interpreters, provided extensive feedback regarding the Checklist. Content analysis was utilized to determine themes that emerged. Results indicated significant support regarding the need for the checklist, as well as contributions towards further development, thus concluding in 63 revisions. Next steps towards development and validation are presented

Analysis of the linearity characteristics, tape recorders and compensation effects in the FM/FM telemetry system

Linearity characteristics, tape recorder effects, and tape speed compensation effects in FM/FM TELEMETRY syste

CHIANTI - An atomic database for emission lines. XI. EUV emission lines of Fe VII, Fe VIII and Fe IX observed by Hinode/EIS

A detailed study of emission lines from Fe VII, Fe VIII and Fe IX observed by the EUV Imaging Spectrometer on board the Hinode satellite is presented. Spectra in the ranges 170-212 A and 246-292 A show strongly enhanced lines from the upper solar transition region (temperatures 5.4 <= log T <= 5.9) allowing a number of new line identifications to be made. Comparisons of Fe VII lines with predictions from a new atomic model reveal new plasma diagnostics, however there are a number of disagreements between theory and observation for emission line ratios insensitive to density and temperature, suggesting improved atomic data are required. Line ratios for Fe VIII also show discrepancies with theory, with the strong 185.21 and 186.60 lines under-estimated by 60-80 % compared to lines between 192 and 198 A. A newly-identified multiplet between 253.9 and 255.8 A offers excellent temperature diagnostic opportunities relative to the lines between 185-198 A, however the atomic model under-estimates the strength of these lines by factors 3-6. Two new line identifications are made for Fe IX at wavelengths 176.959 A and 177.594 A, while seven other lines between 186 and 200 A are suggested to be due to Fe IX but for which transition identifications can not be made. The new atomic data for Fe VII and Fe IX are demonstrated to significantly modify models for the response function of the TRACE 195 A imaging channel, affecting temperature determinations from this channel. The data will also affect the response functions for other solar EUV imaging instruments such as SOHO/EIT, STEREO/EUVI and the upcoming AIA instrument on the Solar Dynamics Observatory.Comment: 51 pages, submitted to Ap

Differential rotation and meridional flow of Arcturus

The spectroscopic variability of Arcturus hints at cyclic activity cycle and differential rotation. This could provide a test of current theoretical models of solar and stellar dynamos. To examine the applicability of current models of the flux transport dynamo to Arcturus, we compute a mean-field model for its internal rotation, meridional flow, and convective heat transport in the convective envelope. We then compare the conditions for dynamo action with those on the Sun. We find solar-type surface rotation with about 1/10th of the shear found on the solar surface. The rotation rate increases monotonically with depth at all latitudes throughout the whole convection zone. In the lower part of the convection zone the horizontal shear vanishes and there is a strong radial gradient. The surface meridional flow has maximum speed of 110 m/s and is directed towards the equator at high and towards the poles at low latitudes. Turbulent magnetic diffusivity is of the order $10^{15}$--$10^{16} {\rm cm^2/s}$. The conditions on Arcturus are not favorable for a circulation-dominated dynamo

Maternal obesity is associated with the formation of small dense LDL and hypoadiponectinemia in the third trimester

Context: Maternal obesity is associated with high plasma triglyceride, poor vascular function, and an increased risk for pregnancy complications. In normal-weight pregnant women, higher triglyceride is associated with increased small, dense low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Hypothesis: In obese pregnancy, increased plasma triglyceride concentrations result in triglyceride enrichment of very low-density lipoprotein-1 particles and formation of small dense LDL via lipoprotein lipase. Design: Women (n = 55) of body mass index of 18–46 kg/m2 were sampled longitudinally at 12, 26, and 35 weeks' gestation and 4 months postnatally. Setting: Women were recruited at hospital antenatal appointments, and study visits were in a clinical research suite. Outcome Measures: Plasma concentrations of lipids, triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, lipoprotein lipase mass, estradiol, steroid hormone binding globulin, insulin, glucose, leptin, and adiponectin were determined. Results: Obese women commenced pregnancy with higher plasma triglyceride, reached the same maximum, and then returned to higher postnatal levels than normal-weight women. Estradiol response to pregnancy (trimester 1–3 incremental area under the curve) was positively associated with plasma triglyceride response (r2 adjusted 25%, P &#60; .001). In the third trimester, the proportion of small, dense LDL was 2-fold higher in obese women than normal-weight women [mean (SD) 40.7 (18.8) vs 21.9 (10.9)%, P = .014], and 35% of obese, 14% of overweight, and none of the normal-weight women displayed an atherogenic LDL subfraction phenotype. The small, dense LDL mass response to pregnancy was inversely associated with adiponectin response (17%, P = .013). Conclusions: Maternal obesity is associated with an atherogenic LDL subfraction phenotype and may provide a mechanistic link to poor vascular function and adverse pregnancy outcome

Intelligent Control for Drag Reduction on the X-48B Vehicle

This paper focuses on the development of an intelligent control technology for in-flight drag reduction. The system is integrated with and demonstrated on the full X-48B nonlinear simulation. The intelligent control system utilizes a peak-seeking control method implemented with a time-varying Kalman filter. Performance functional coordinate and magnitude measurements, or independent and dependent parameters respectively, are used by the Kalman filter to provide the system with gradient estimates of the designed performance function which is used to drive the system toward a local minimum in a steepestdescent approach. To ensure ease of integration and algorithm performance, a single-input single-output approach was chosen. The framework, specific implementation considerations, simulation results, and flight feasibility issues related to this platform are discussed