Organizational Citizenship and Teacher Evaluation: Using the T-TESS to Promote OCB and Improve Student Outcomes

Within the reach of institutional climate, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has received much attention in the business and psychological literature as a constructive mechanism designed to enhance group efficiency (Bateman & Organ, 1983; Organ, 1988; Podsakoff, Ahearn, & McKenzie, 1997). The essential definition indicates that organizational citizenship behavior refers to going beyond the requirements of one’s job with the understanding that taking such actions benefits the greater good (i.e., the company or school), with no expectation of reward or recognition for the action(s). Subsequent studies investigated OCB and its possible application in educational environs as a tool for improving school efficiency, climate, and student outcomes. The literature revealed that in schools where collectively high levels of faculty and administrator OCB existed, there have been improvements to school climate, school effectiveness, and student outcomes. In this paper, the researchers argue that the newly implemented teacher evaluation system used in the Texas public school system, the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS), may be leveraged as an effective planning and professional development tool to strategically and positively impact levels of OCB among the faculty, and by extension, to improve pedagogical practice, school climate, and increase student achievement

Geophysical and Biological Reconnaissance of Rock Habitats in Western Camden Bay, Beaufort Sea, Alaska

This report presents the results of a 10-day geophysical and biological survey in western Camden Bay, in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea. The primary objective of this survey was to confirm the existence of boulders and cobbles on the seafloor as reported by Barnes (1981, 1982). The survey area extended from the eastern edge of the Canning River (mud flat area) to Kangigivik Point and seaward to the 14m contour line (Fig. 1). A solid boundary of pack ice prevented any survey work seaward of the 14m contour. We had proposed to examine the seabed to the 18m contour.This work was supported by the Bureau of Land Management through an interagency agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, under which a multiyear program responding to needs of petroleum development of the Alaskan Continental Shelf is managed by the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) office

Seismic source functions and attenuation from local and teleseismic observations of the NTS events Jorum and Handley

Several strong-motion seismograms recorded at 8 km from a large nuclear test at Pahute Mesa, Nevada Test Site, are modeled using the Cagniard-de Hoop technique. The ratio of vertical to radial motions suggest that the peak values are produced by ray paths that penetrated to a depth several kilometers below the source. A homogeneous layered Earth model with velocity increasing with depth was used in the modeling of the velocity time histories. The upper portion of the velocity model was determined by averaging bore-hole data and the lower portion was obtained from regional refraction measurements. Assuming a modified Haskell (1967) source representation, ψ(t) = ψ_o[1 - e^(-Kt)(1 + Kt (Kt)^2/2 - B(Kt)^3)] we obtain a range of source descriptions with ψ_o varying with K and B, ψ_o (K,B). The range of source models for Jorum are ψ_o (5, 1) = 3.1, ψ_o (5, 2) = 1.7, and ψ_o (5, 3) = 1.2 times 10^(11) cm^3, respectively. Given an explosion source description, it is a straightforward task to determine the teleseismic attenuation from WWSSN observations. From both the short- and long-period observations from these events, an average t^* of 1.3 is obtained for compressional waves of a dominant 1-sec period. This estimate is insensitive to the range of K and B obtained from the near-field modeling

Simulation of strong ground motions

The estimation of potential strong ground motions at short epicentral distances (Δ = 10 to 25 km) resulting from large earthquakes, M ≧ 6.5, generally requires extrapolation of a limited data set. The goal of this project has been to quantify the extrapolation through a simulation technique that relies heavily upon the more extensive data set from smaller magnitude earthquakes. The simulation utilizes the smaller events as Green's functions for the elements of a larger fault. Comparison of the simulated peak acceleration and duration with the data from the Parkfield earthquake is very good. Simulation of three earthquakes, M = 5.5, 6.5, and 7.0 indicate that the slope of the peak acceleration versus distance curve (Δ = 5 to 25 km) flattens, for strike-slip earthquakes, as the magnitude increases

Isoform-level gene signature improves prognostic stratification and accurately classifies glioblastoma subtypes.

Molecular stratification of tumors is essential for developing personalized therapies. Although patient stratification strategies have been successful; computational methods to accurately translate the gene-signature from high-throughput platform to a clinically adaptable low-dimensional platform are currently lacking. Here, we describe PIGExClass (platform-independent isoform-level gene-expression based classification-system), a novel computational approach to derive and then transfer gene-signatures from one analytical platform to another. We applied PIGExClass to design a reverse transcriptase-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) based molecular-subtyping assay for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most aggressive primary brain tumors. Unsupervised clustering of TCGA (the Cancer Genome Altas Consortium) GBM samples, based on isoform-level gene-expression profiles, recaptured the four known molecular subgroups but switched the subtype for 19% of the samples, resulting in significant (P = 0.0103) survival differences among the refined subgroups. PIGExClass derived four-class classifier, which requires only 121 transcript-variants, assigns GBM patients' molecular subtype with 92% accuracy. This classifier was translated to an RT-qPCR assay and validated in an independent cohort of 206 GBM samples. Our results demonstrate the efficacy of PIGExClass in the design of clinically adaptable molecular subtyping assay and have implications for developing robust diagnostic assays for cancer patient stratification

Statistical Inference, Distinguishability of Quantum States, And Quantum Entanglement

We argue from the point of view of statistical inference that the quantum relative entropy is a good measure for distinguishing between two quantum states (or two classes of quantum states) described by density matrices. We extend this notion to describe the amount of entanglement between two quantum systems from a statistical point of view. Our measure is independent of the number of entangled systems and their dimensionality.Comment: 11 pages no figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.