Digital storytelling in writing : a case study of student teacher attitudes toward teaching with technology

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on October 26, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Roy F. FoxIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012."July 2012"This case study investigated how preservice teachers taught digital storytelling to students who often possessed more technology skills than the teachers. During the spring semester of 2011, two secondary-level language arts teaching interns and their cooperating teachers taught a digital storytelling project. The participants and their students were observed in a constructivist atmosphere, while data was gathered from classroom observations, interviews, surveys, and daily email correspondences with interns and their cooperating teachers. Many lenses were used to view data, while crystallization offered an additional perspective to the coding process. A key finding was that interns discovered that student-centered learning, like that which takes place during project-based digital activities, allowed for facilitation, differentiation, and created a learning environment that fostered expertise to come from anyone in the classroom. Additionally, interns (digital immigrants) experienced uncertainty when teaching technology to digital natives who were more digitally experienced. Interns observed that technology options motivated students to engage, and stay engaged, but it was not a universal cure for apathy. Pedagogical recommendations include motivating teachers to embrace the digital literacies students are using, encouraging teacher preparation programs to better prepare future teachers for the technologies K-12 students interact with on a regular basis, and viewing digital storytelling and digital literacy as more than a project but a way of thinking.Includes bibliographical reference

THE OAK RIDGE ALGOL COMPILER FOR THE CONTROL DATA CORPORATION 1604. PRELIMINARY PROGRAMMER'S MANUAL

Descriptions of input-output facilities and details for operation under the monitor system are included. (auth

Assessing the Tennessee Extension Master Gardener Program Using Both County Coordinator and Extension Volunteer Perspectives

The Extension Master Gardener (EMG) program is a vital contributor to Tennessee Extension residential and consumer horticulture education and outreach. In 2014, 2,480 volunteers statewide completed service and education requirements to achieve or maintain certified EMG status. These volunteers, led by Tennessee Extension agent county coordinators, contributed over 178,800 hours of service while recording over 30,300 hours of continuing education. These totals illustrate both the contributions of EMG volunteers to horticulture outreach and their desire for education to enhance their own knowledge and skill. Understanding the most needed areas of training for EMG volunteers to support their education and outreach to residents is critical to the growth and impact of the program. Therefore, a study was undertaken in 2015 to survey both EMG volunteers and coordinators to determine educational needs for volunteers as well as the preferred training delivery methods. Respondents consistently rated horticultural training in edible and ornamental crops as well as pest and disease management as high priorities. Similarly, hands-on and in-person presentations and printed materials were rated as highly important training methods. Results indicate potential training priorities for the future but also suggest a need to explore differences between coordinator and volunteer perspectives in some areas

A Retrospective Survey of Exercise Habits in Low-Income Female Senior Citizens

American adults spend at least 50% of their time sedentary with the most inactive demographic being low-income women over 60. This is detrimental because routine physical activity benefits for senior women include balancing hormones, maintaining bone mineral density, and decreasing the risk of breast cancer. Statements like “good exercise habits begin during youth; children should play sports to establish healthy habits they’ll continue throughout their lives” are common, but not clearly supported by literature. Objective: The purpose of this retrospective, cross-sectional study was to identify whether physical activity/exercise habits during youth and young adulthood predict old age physical activity/exercise habits in women of low socio-economic status (SES). Research Question 1: Do physical activity/exercise habits during young and early adulthood affect physical activity/exercise habits in female senior citizens of low SES? Research Question 2: Does participation in at least one high school sport affect physical activity/exercise habits in female senior citizens of low SES? Participants completed a modified version of the Chasan-Taber Lifetime Physical Activity Questionnaire and a demographic survey (N=136). Multiple logistic regression was used to examine significant predictors of current physical activity level. Physical activity from the onset of menstruation to 21 years of age was a statistically significant predictor of current physical activity level [B=.0001; Wald (1) = 5.40,

Mechanisms underlying cell-to-cell diversity in clonal populations of yeast

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references.The FLO promoters are among the largest promoters in yeast and receive a complex combination of signals from upstream signaling pathways through their association with downstream DNA binding factors and chromatin remodelers. The genes regulated by these promoters encode cell-surface glycoproteins that mediate a range of cell-to-cell and cell-to-surface adhesions. Phenotypic diversity in clonal populations of yeast cells is mediated in part by epigenetic silencing of the FLO10 and FLO11 promoters. Silencing of the FLO promoters is heterogeneous, or variegated, within a clonal population of cells. The variegated transcription of FLO10 and FLO11 results in a population of yeast cells that exhibits cell-to-cell variability in flocculation, adhesion to and invasion of inert surfaces, and filamentous growth. In this thesis, I discuss chromatin modifying proteins that localize to the FLO10 and FLO11 promoters and act in trans to affect transcription and silencing at these promoters. I describe the results of genome-wide screens to identify additional trans-acting chromatin modifying factors that play roles in the transcriptional regulation and silencing of the FLO10 and FLO11 promoters. Some of the candidates identified in these screens had effects on FLO transcription that initially seemed paradoxical in light of contemporary theories regarding the role of chromatin structure in regulating transcription. Given that histone deacetylases generally repress transcriptional activity, we were particularly surprised to find that mutations in components of the Rpd3L histone deacetylase complex reduce FLO promoter activity, indicating that Rpd3L plays a role in transcriptional activation of FLO genes. Careful analysis of these mutants, their phenotypes, the transcription of FLO11, and most importantly, the noncoding transcripts that we have detected in the promoter region of FLO11, have revealed the basis for this apparent paradox.by Stacie L. Bumgarner.Ph.D

Evidence of acclimatization or adaptation in Hawaiian corals to higher ocean temperatures

Ocean temperatures have been accelerating at an alarming rate mainly due to anthropogenic fossil fuel emissions. This has led to an increase in the severity and duration of coral bleaching events. Predicted projections for the state of reefs do not take into account the rates of adaptation or acclimatization of corals as these have not as yet been fully documented. To determine any possible changes in thermal tolerances, manipulative experiments were conducted to precisely replicate the initial, pivotal research defining threshold temperatures of corals nearly five decades ago. Statistically higher calcification rates, survivorship, and lower mortality were observed in Montipora capitata, Pocillopora damicornis, and Lobactis scutaria in the present study at 31 °C compared to the original 1970 findings. First whole colony mortality was also observed to occur sooner in 1970 than in 2017 in M. capitata (3 d vs. 15 d respectively), L. scutaria (3 d vs. 17 d), and in P. damicornis (3 d vs. 13 d). Additionally, bleaching occurred sooner in 1970 compared to the 2017 experiment across species. Irradiance was an important factor during the recovery period for mortality but did not significantly alter calcification. Mortality was decreased by 17% with a 50% reduction in irradiance during the recovery period. These findings provide the first evidence of coral acclimatization or adaptation to increasing ocean temperatures for corals collected from the same location and using close replication of the experiment conducted nearly 50 years earlier. An important factor in this increased resistance to elevated temperature may be related to removal of the discharge of treated sewage into Kāne‘ohe Bay and resulting decrease in nitrification and eutrophication. However, this level of increased temperature tolerance may not be occurring rapidly enough to escape the projected increased intensity of bleaching events, as evidenced by the recent 2014 and 2015 high coral mortality in Hawai‘i (34%) and in the tropics worldwide

Discovering Regulatory Overlapping RNA Transcripts

STEREO is a novel algorithm that discovers cis-regulatory RNA interactions by assembling complete and potentially overlapping same-strand RNA transcripts from tiling expression data. STEREO first identifies coherent segments of transcription and then discovers individual transcripts that are consistent with the observed segments given intensity and shape constraints. We used STEREO to identify 1446 regions of overlapping transcription in two strains of yeast, including transcripts that comprise a new form of molecular toggle switch that controls gene variegation

Bacterial Communities in Women with Bacterial Vaginosis: High Resolution Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal Relationships of Microbiota to Clinical Criteria

Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common condition that is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes and is characterized by poorly understood changes in the vaginal microbiota. We sought to describe the composition and diversity of the vaginal bacterial biota in women with BV using deep sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene coupled with species-level taxonomic identification. We investigated the associations between the presence of individual bacterial species and clinical diagnostic characteristics of BV.Broad-range 16S rRNA gene PCR and pyrosequencing were performed on vaginal swabs from 220 women with and without BV. BV was assessed by Amsel's clinical criteria and confirmed by Gram stain. Taxonomic classification was performed using phylogenetic placement tools that assigned 99% of query sequence reads to the species level. Women with BV had heterogeneous vaginal bacterial communities that were usually not dominated by a single taxon. In the absence of BV, vaginal bacterial communities were dominated by either Lactobacillus crispatus or Lactobacillus iners. Leptotrichia amnionii and Eggerthella sp. were the only two BV-associated bacteria (BVABs) significantly associated with each of the four Amsel's criteria. Co-occurrence analysis revealed the presence of several sub-groups of BVABs suggesting metabolic co-dependencies. Greater abundance of several BVABs was observed in Black women without BV.The human vaginal bacterial biota is heterogeneous and marked by greater species richness and diversity in women with BV; no species is universally present. Different bacterial species have different associations with the four clinical criteria, which may account for discrepancies often observed between Amsel and Nugent (Gram stain) diagnostic criteria. Several BVABs exhibited race-dependent prevalence when analyzed in separate groups by BV status which may contribute to increased incidence of BV in Black women. Tools developed in this project can be used to study microbial ecology in diverse settings at high resolution