CS 46A/B: Introduction to Computer Science Course Redesign

Poster summarizing course redesign activities for CS 46A/B: Introduction to Computer Science.https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/davinci_itcr2014/1006/thumbnail.jp

Hey, this school library isn't what it used to be: The change process and the sociopolitical realities of implementing a curricularly integrated information literacy program

This study sought to add to the knowledge and understanding of the organizational change process for successfully implementing an integrated information literacy program in one American high school. Participant experiences were accessed to identify and describe elements of their successful change process, barriers and supports that affected its success, and discover the relationships among key concepts. It also explored participants' beliefs about the affect of the program on student achievement and examined how these beliefs affected implementation. A qualitative naturalistic inquiry was conducted and reported in a case study format. A Delphi study identified potential high schools meeting study criteria and purposive sampling identified study participants. Primary sources were in-depth, open-ended interviews focused on participants' recollections and understandings of the change process, with additional data drawn from relevant school/state documents, a personal research journal, and relevant literature. Data were analyzed using grounded theory practices. Findings indicated that successful implementation was dependent upon six key concepts: (1) distributed leadership (core concept); (2) effective leadership (3) open and frequent communication (4) better relationships; (5) shared aspects of teaching and learning (6) elements of the information literacy program. Conclusions were: (1) simultaneous occurrence of need, opportunity and leadership for change was essential for successful implementation; (2) distributed leadership practiced by administrators empowered the teacher-librarian and teachers to assume leadership roles; (3) teacher-librarian leadership requires access to ongoing, high quality professional development; (4) continuous high quality, staff development and teacher-librarian staff development role are essential for successful implementation; (5) full-time teacher-librarian and full-time secretary may be inadequate staffing for an integrated program; (6) teacher-librarian's open and frequent communication is key to successful implementation; (7) teachers are at different places on the institutionalization continuum; (8) most serious barriers to implementation are time constraints, heavy workload, and fear of changing one's teaching; (9) a successful program requires a combination of key supporting factors; (10) school library and teacher-librarian role changes are indicators of successful implementation; (11) improved staff relationships result from and propel successful implementation; (12) an integrated information literacy program with a central role for the teacher-librarian contributes to improved teaching and learning

Endothelial and smooth muscle cell interactions with a PCL-PU composite vascular scaffold with potential for bioactive release

Paper discussing endothelial and smooth muscle cell interactions with a PCL-PU composite vascular scaffold with potential for bioactive release

An Exploration of How Using Best Practices Curriculum with Tutoring Affects Kindergarten Literacy: A Literature Review

Early interventions are being used to improve reading skills in children. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the best practices used in kindergarten literacy. The review will look at some of the current tools used in schools that have produced positive results. It will also examine the Wildcat Buddies tutoring program at Central Washington University, which uses the Sound Partners curriculum. The review will focus on how using current programs with tutors may positively impact literacy outcomes for early learners

Schmallenberg virus: emergence of an Orthobunyavirus among ruminants in Western Europe

Recently, a novel virus has been identified among ruminants in Western Europe. This virus, the so-called Schmallenberg virus, belongs to the family Bunyaviridae, genus Orthobunyavirus, serogroup Simbu and is closely related to Akabane, Aino and Shamonda virus. In cattle, acute symptoms in the dam and adult animals generally include high fever, milk drop and diarrhea among others. More importantly, infection during gestation may lead to abortion, stillbirth and congenital malformations. As all bunyaviruses, Schmallenberg virus also uses vectors for efficient transmission. Closely related viruses causing similar symptoms, such as Akabane and Akabane-like viruses, are mainly transmitted by Culicoides. It is very likely that Schmallenberg virus is transmitted by similar vectors. This review provides an overview of Bunyaviridae, their epidemiology, symptoms, prevention and control. Special emphasis is put on the Simbu serogroup of the Orthobunyavirus genus pointing out the similarities between them and closely related members

PENGARUH KOMUNIKASI, MOTIVASI KERJA DAN STRES KERJA TERHADAP KINERJA GURU AL AZHAR BSD

ABSTRAK Melalui penelitian ini dicari korelasi pengaruh komunikasi, motivasi kerja dan stres kerja terhadap kinerja guru. Oleh karena itu hipotesis ini dibuat untuk mengetahui bahwa terdapat pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan baik secara parsial ataupun secara simultan antara variabel-variabel independen dan variabel dependen.Metode yang gunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah kuantitatif yang bersifat deskriptif analisis, maka dilakukan pengujian statistik untuk mengukur seberapa besar pengaruh diantara variabel-variabel yang diteliti dan proses perhitungan statistik lainnya dengan menggunakan program Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0 for Windows. Sedangkan populasi dalam penelitian ini ialah guru-guru sekolah SD Al Azhar yang berjumlah 110 orang dan menggunakan teknik sampel jenuh dimana semua populasi dijadikan sampel dalam penelitian.Hasil penelitian ini menunjukan bahwa terdapat pengaruh secara parsial antara komunikasi terhadap kinerja guru yang positif sebesar t hitung 12,287 pada taraf signifikansi 0,000. Terdapat pengaruh secara parsial antara motivasi kerja terhadap kinerja guru yang positif sebesar t hitung 10,349 pada taraf signifikansi 0,000. Terdapat pengaruh secara parsial antara stres kerja terhadap kinerja guru yang positif sebesar t hitung 11,030 pada taraf signifikansi 0,000. Sedangkan hubungan secara simultan terdapat antara komunikasi, motivasi kerja dan stres kerja terhadap kinerja guru yang positif sebesar f hitung 71,349 dengan taraf signifikansi 0,000. Jadi dapat disimpulkan bahwa hasil penelitian tersebut terdapat pengaruh yang positif dan signifikan baik secara parsial maupun secara simultan sehingga hipotesis diterima. Kata Kunci: Komunikasi, Motivasi Kerja, Stres Kerja dan Kinerja Guru

The Rise and Fall of Consolidated Works and the Arts in South Lake Union

Seattle’s neighborhoods are at risk of becoming homogenized by gentrification and tech-focused profit-driven development. Though it is well-established that Seattle is a creative and diverse city, cherished arts districts like Capitol Hill and the Uptown region surrounding the Seattle Center have changed. South Lake Union is another a stark example. This case study examines how culturally vibrant neighborhoods are created and what outside factors can inhibit the growth of the distinctive neighborhood identities that are crucial to developing a sense of community and organizing advocacy. It starts with the hypothesis that, without community advocacy, one dominant factor such traffic or a single powerful industry can overwhelm a neighborhood. It will compare three neighborhoods in Seattle and the historical motivations that created them. It will highlight three factors that cultural organizations and arts advocates should consider when advocating for diverse growth in their neighborhood. Underestimating the impact of traffic patterns resulted in problems that have limited the growth of cultural organizations. Loss of affordable sites for arts nonprofits has dramatically shortened the longevity of such organizations in South Lake Union when compared to Capitol Hill and Uptown. Lastly, in the case of the South Lake Union nonprofit Consolidated Works, shifts in their arts programming, coupled with facility instability and a lack of audience in the neighborhood, led to mission drift and were contributing causes of the closure of the once lauded organization

Data Hiding in Digital Video

With the rapid development of digital multimedia technologies, an old method which is called steganography has been sought to be a solution for data hiding applications such as digital watermarking and covert communication. Steganography is the art of secret communication using a cover signal, e.g., video, audio, image etc., whereas the counter-technique, detecting the existence of such as a channel through a statistically trained classifier, is called steganalysis. The state-of-the art data hiding algorithms utilize features; such as Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) coefficients, pixel values, motion vectors etc., of the cover signal to convey the message to the receiver side. The goal of embedding algorithm is to maximize the number of bits sent to the decoder side (embedding capacity) with maximum robustness against attacks while keeping the perceptual and statistical distortions (security) low. Data Hiding schemes are characterized by these three conflicting requirements: security against steganalysis, robustness against channel associated and/or intentional distortions, and the capacity in terms of the embedded payload. Depending upon the application it is the designer\u27s task to find an optimum solution amongst them. The goal of this thesis is to develop a novel data hiding scheme to establish a covert channel satisfying statistical and perceptual invisibility with moderate rate capacity and robustness to combat steganalysis based detection. The idea behind the proposed method is the alteration of Video Object (VO) trajectory coordinates to convey the message to the receiver side by perturbing the centroid coordinates of the VO. Firstly, the VO is selected by the user and tracked through the frames by using a simple region based search strategy and morphological operations. After the trajectory coordinates are obtained, the perturbation of the coordinates implemented through the usage of a non-linear embedding function, such as a polar quantizer where both the magnitude and phase of the motion is used. However, the perturbations made to the motion magnitude and phase were kept small to preserve the semantic meaning of the object motion trajectory. The proposed method is well suited to the video sequences in which VOs have smooth motion trajectories. Examples of these types could be found in sports videos in which the ball is the focus of attention and exhibits various motion types, e.g., rolling on the ground, flying in the air, being possessed by a player, etc. Different sports video sequences have been tested by using the proposed method. Through the experimental results, it is shown that the proposed method achieved the goal of both statistical and perceptual invisibility with moderate rate embedding capacity under AWGN channel with varying noise variances. This achievement is important as the first step for both active and passive steganalysis is the detection of the existence of covert channel. This work has multiple contributions in the field of data hiding. Firstly, it is the first example of a data hiding method in which the trajectory of a VO is used. Secondly, this work has contributed towards improving steganographic security by providing new features: the coordinate location and semantic meaning of the object