ASSESSMENT IN EARLY CHILDHOOD INTERVENTION: THE IMPORTANCE OF TRAINING

Information collected from multiple domain child developmental assessments, known as five area assessments, are being used in early intervention for high stakes purposes such as program monitoring. As a result, it is important to examine variables that may affect test administration fidelity and its impact on obtaining valid data. The purpose of this study was to survey early intervention service providers in the state of Kentucky to determine possible independent variables that may affect their comfort level in administering five-domain tests. Surveys were made available to all early intervention service providers within the Kentucky First Steps early intervention program. Data were analyzed to determine the effect of independent variables such as: amount and format of training in administering assessments, amount and format of training in child development, years of experience, educational degree level, certification in interdisciplinary early childhood education, and discipline area on a provider’s comfort level in administering five area assessments. The results of the study indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between the amount of assessment training a provider received and their self-perceived comfort level in administering assessments

Infusible silazane polymer and process for producing same

Coatings of high thermal and chemical stability for application to metal, glass, ceramics, and other surfaces are formed by reacting diphenyldichlorosilane in the presence of triethylamine with a nitrogen base selected from the group consisting of ammonia and methylamine. The pl polymeric, noncrystalline reaction product is heated in a reaction zone open to the atmosphere at a temperature ranging from approximately 250 C to 450 C until the infusible polymer is formed

Polyimide processing additives

A process for preparing polyimides having enhanced melt flow properties is described. The process consists of heating a mixture of a high molecular weight poly-(amic acid) or polyimide with a low molecular weight amic acid or imide additive in the range of 0.05 to 15 percent by weight of additive. The polyimide powders so obtained show improved processability, as evidenced by lower melt viscosity by capillary rheometry. Likewise, films prepared from mixtures of polymers with additives show improved processability with earlier onset of stretching by TMA

High School Students Using Electronic Environments for Informing Learning and Practice

This action research case study focuses on three high school students using case-based learning, a timed writing and a concept map as part of their research investigation during a two month summer action research program. The astronomy/educator monitored the choice of topic and progress. The students pursued individual paths of inquiry that involved writing, intervening, and reflecting on ideas gleaned from conversations and readings (electronic and conventional)during this self-directed case-based research. The process engaged the students in formal skills such as written communication, literacy, logic, and calculation using an innovative electronic interactive network. Evaluations of timed writings, concept maps, and openended survey are presented and discussed

Tunable Low Density Palladium Nanowire Foams

Nanostructured palladium foams offer exciting potential for applications in diverse fields such as catalyst, fuel cell, and particularly hydrogen storage technologies. We have fabricated palladium nanowire foams using a cross-linking and freeze-drying technique. These foams have a tunable density down to 0.1% of the bulk, and a surface area to volume ratio of up to 1,540,000:1. They exhibit highly attractive characteristics for hydrogen storage, in terms of loading capacity, rate of absorption and heat of absorption. The hydrogen absorption/desorption process is hysteretic in nature, accompanied by substantial lattice expansion/contraction as the foam converts between Pd and PdHx.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

HERMIES-3: A step toward autonomous mobility, manipulation, and perception

HERMIES-III is an autonomous robot comprised of a seven degree-of-freedom (DOF) manipulator designed for human scale tasks, a laser range finder, a sonar array, an omni-directional wheel-driven chassis, multiple cameras, and a dual computer system containing a 16-node hypercube expandable to 128 nodes. The current experimental program involves performance of human-scale tasks (e.g., valve manipulation, use of tools), integration of a dexterous manipulator and platform motion in geometrically complex environments, and effective use of multiple cooperating robots (HERMIES-IIB and HERMIES-III). The environment in which the robots operate has been designed to include multiple valves, pipes, meters, obstacles on the floor, valves occluded from view, and multiple paths of differing navigation complexity. The ongoing research program supports the development of autonomous capability for HERMIES-IIB and III to perform complex navigation and manipulation under time constraints, while dealing with imprecise sensory information

Visual Search and Attention in Blue Jays (\u3ci\u3eCyanocitta cristata\u3c/i\u3e): Associative Cuing and Sequential Priming

Visual search for complex natural targets requires focal attention, either cued by predictive stimulus associations or primed by a representation of the most recently detected target. Because both processes can focus visual attention, cuing and priming were compared in an operant search task to evaluate their relative impacts on performance and to determine the nature of their interaction in combined treatments. Blue jays were trained to search for pairs of alternative targets among distractors. Informative or ambiguous color cues were provided before each trial, and targets were presented either in homogeneous blocked sequences or in constrained random order. Initial task acquisition was facilitated by priming in general, but was significantly retarded when targets were both cued and primed, indicating that the two processes interfered with each other during training. At asymptote, attentional effects were manifested mainly in inhibition, increasing latency in miscued trials and decreasing accuracy on primed trials following an unexpected target switch. A combination of cuing and priming was found to interfere with performance in such unexpected trials, apparently a result of the limited capacity of working memory. Because the ecological factors that promote priming or cuing are rather disparate, it is not clear whether they ever simultaneously contribute to natural predatory search

Peirce's evolutionary pragmatic idealism

In this paper I synthesize a unified system out of Peirce's life work, and name it “Peirce's Evolutionary Pragmatic Idealism”. Peirce developed this philosophy in four stages: (I) His 1868–69 theory that cognition is a continuous and infinite social semiotic process, in which Man is a sign.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43816/1/11229_2004_Article_BF00413590.pd

Pheromone traps for monitoring Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) in the presence of mating disruption

High-dose pheromone lures have proved useful for monitoring some lepidopteran pests in the presence of mating disruption, but not others. We performed experiments in commercial and pilot scale facilities to examine the effect of pheromone dose on detection of Indianmeal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), in the presence of mating disruption. When P. interpunctella males were released into 1000 m3 rooms containing traps baited with 0, 1, or 10 mg (Z,E)-9,12-tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9,E12-14:Ac), traps containing 10 mg captured more than those baited with 1 mg in both the presence and absence of mating disruption. Traps baited with 1 mg captured fewer males in the presence of mating disruption than in its absence, but the opposite was observed with traps baited with 10 mg. When males released into 73 m3 rooms were exposed sequentially to blank traps, traps baited with unmated females, and traps baited with 0.1 mg and then 1.0 mg Z9, E12-14:Ac in the presence or absence of mating disruption, 92% of trapped males were captured in female-baited traps in the absence of mating disruption, whereas in the presence of mating disruption 72% of males captured were caught in synthetic pheromone traps. These data suggest that pheromone lures can be used for monitoring P. interpunctella in the presence of mating disruption. Implications of these data for mass trapping are also discussed. Keywords: Plodia interpunctella, Mating disruption, Monitoring, Pheromone lures, Mass trappin

Students Creating Their Own Thinking-Learning Contexts

This paper focuses on two high school students and their thoughts and feelings as they engaged in a topic of their choosing during a two-month summer action research program. Their high school astronomy teacher monitored their choice of topic and progress. The students engaged in authentic tasks and materials couched in problem-oriented formats within meaningful learning contexts designed to foster thinking and learning. These students worked as a team, but pursued individual paths of inquiry using critical and imaginative thinking, and engaged in social and solitary contexts that involved them in writing, intervening, and reflecting on ideas gleaned from conversations and readings (electronic and conventional) with a university educator and an astronomer/educator during their self-directed case-based research. The process engaged students in formal skills such as written communication, literacy, logic, and calculation using an innovative electronic interactive network. Evaluations of timed writings, concept maps, notebook entries, and vee diagrams are presented and discussed