Innovative Opportunities for Elementary and Middle School Teachers to Maintain Currency in Mathematics and Science: A Community College-School System Partnership

Since 1992 the Manassas Campus of Northern Virginia Community College – in response to requests from local school systems – has developed four innovative methods of assisting elementary, secondary and middle school teachers to enhance their content knowledge in science and mathematics, as well as integrate curriculum units for classroom presentation. These methods are based on the assumptions that: - While teachers at this level have fundamental understanding of math and science, if they wish to incorporate new concepts or technologies from these fields, graduate level content courses are generally beyond their background level. - Community College faculty can often provide a bridge that connects advanced content in science and mathematics with the applications that can be adapted to elementary/middle school curriculum. - Presenting content to a mixed audience of teachers from K-8 allows teachers to see how content can be adapted to grade levels above and below. - Content delivery methods must be interactive and must be responsive to the multiple demands on these teachers’ time. This requires flexibility in scheduling and course requirements

A Migration Study of \u3ci\u3eStelidota Geminata\u3c/i\u3e (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae)

The strawberry sap beetle, Stelidota geminata (Say), is a major pest of strawberries in the northeastern United States. Further knowledge of the migratory habits of this insect pest can enhance the effectiveness of pest management strategies. This nitidulid was shown to migrate from its overwintering sites to one of its primary reproductive sites, strawberry fields, in late May. The beetle population peaked in the third week in July, 1993 in the strawberry field and then gradually declined. In 1994, the peak, as well as the total population, was much greater than in 1993. Furthermore, S. geminata was concentrated in the transition areas surrounding the strawberry fields prior to the ripening of the fruit

The abstract boundary---a new approach to singularities of manifolds

A new scheme is proposed for dealing with the problem of singularities in General Relativity. The proposal is, however, much more general than this. It can be used to deal with manifolds of any dimension which are endowed with nothing more than an affine connection, and requires a family \calc\ of curves satisfying a {\em bounded parameter property} to be specified at the outset. All affinely parametrised geodesics are usually included in this family, but different choices of family \calc\ will in general lead to different singularity structures. Our key notion is the {\em abstract boundary\/} or {\em $a$-boundary\/} of a manifold, which is defined for any manifold \calm\ and is independent of both the affine connection and the chosen family \calc\ of curves. The $a$-boundary is made up of equivalence classes of boundary points of \calm\ in all possible open embeddings. It is shown that for a pseudo-Riemannian manifold (\calm,g) with a specified family \calc\ of curves, the abstract boundary points can then be split up into four main categories---regular, points at infinity, unapproachable points and singularities. Precise definitions are also provided for the notions of a {\em removable singularity} and a {\em directional singularity}. The pseudo-Riemannian manifold will be said to be singularity-free if its abstract boundary contains no singularities. The scheme passes a number of tests required of any theory of singularities. For instance, it is shown that all compact manifolds are singularity-free, irrespective of the metric and chosen family \calc.Comment: 40 pages (amslatex) + 5 uuencoded figures (A postscript version is also available on http://einstein.anu.edu.au/), CMA Maths. Research Report No. MRR028-9

Modeling physical and chemical climate of the northeastern United States for a geographic information system

A model of physical and chemical climate was developed for New York and New England that can be used in a GIs for integration with ecosystem models. The variables included are monthly average maximum and minimum daily temperatures, precipitation, humidity, and solar radiation, as well as annual atmospheric deposition of sulfur and nitrogen. Equations generated from regional data bases were combined with a digital elevation model of the region to generate digital coverages of each variable

Buyer Perceptions of Supply Disruption Risk: A Behavioral View and Empirical Assessment

As supply chains become more complex, firms face increasing risks of supply disruptions. The process through which buyers make decisions in the face of these risks, however, has not been explored. Despite research highlighting the importance of behavioral approaches to risk, there is limited research that applies these views of risk in the supply chain literature. This paper addresses this gap by drawing on behavioral risk theory to investigate the causal relationships amongst situation, representations of risk, and decision-making within the purchasing domain. We operationalize and explore the relationship between three representations of supply disruption risk: magnitude of supply disruption, probability of supply disruption, and overall supply disruption risk. Additionally, we draw on exchange theories to identify product and market factors that impact buyers’ perceptions of the probability and magnitude of supply disruption. Finally, we look at how representations of risk affect the decision to seek alternative sources of supply. We test our model using data collected from 223 purchasing managers and buyers of direct materials. Our results show that both the probability and the magnitude of supply disruption are important to buyers’ overall perceptions of supply disruption risk. We also find that product and market situational factors impact perceptions of risk, but they are best understood through their impact on perceptions of probability and magnitude. Finally, we find that decisions are based on assessments of overall risk. These findings provide insight into the decision-making process and show that all three representations of risk are necessary for fully understanding risky decision-making with respect to supply disruptions

Making Sense Of Supply Disruption Risk Research: A Conceptual Framework Grounded In Enactment Theory

The rich stream of supply disruption risk (SDR) literature incorporates several different theories and constructs across studies, but lacks a unifying decision-making framework. We review 79 SDR studies and advance a comprehensive framework, grounded in enactment theory, which integrates the disparate elements of SDR research and offers new insights into the SDR decision-making process. Enactment theory posits a three-stage, closed-loop process, consisting of enactment, selection and retention, through which individuals process and make sense of equivocal environments. We suggest that this sense-making process also underlies SDR decision-making, and provides the theoretical underpinnings for the environmental, organizational and individual factors that affect the formation of buyers\u27 perceptions of SDR and the actions they take to mitigate such risks. In accordance with our conceptual framework, we develop seven propositions that advance the social and psychological factors that drive the idiosyncratic nature of SDR decision-making

Higgs Decay to Two Photons

The amplitude for Higgs decay to two photons is calculated in renormalizable and unitary gauges using dimensional regularization at intermediate steps. The result is finite, gauge independent, and in agreement with previously published results. The large Higgs mass limit is examined using the Goldstone-boson equivalence theorem as a check on the use of dimensional regularization and to explain the absence of decoupling.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; references adde

Infant contributions to joint attention predict vocabulary development

Joint attention has long been accepted as constituting a privileged circumstance in which word learning prospers. Consequently research has investigated the role that maternal responsiveness to infant attention plays in predicting language outcomes. However there has been a recent expansion in research implicating similar predictive effects from individual differences in infant behaviours. Emerging from the foundations of such work comes an interesting question: do the relative contributions of the mother and infant to joint attention episodes impact upon language learning? In an attempt to address this, two joint attention behaviours were assessed as predictors of vocabulary attainment (as measured by OCDI Production Scores). These predictors were: mothers encouraging attention to an object given their infant was already attending to an object (maternal follow-in); and infants looking to an object given their mothers encouragement of attention to an object (infant follow-in). In a sample of 14-month old children (N=36) we compared the predictive power of these maternal and infant follow-in variables on concurrent and later language performance. Results using Growth Curve Analysis provided evidence that while both maternal follow-in and infant follow-in variables contributed to production scores, infant follow-in was a stronger predictor. Consequently it does appear to matter whose final contribution establishes joint attention episodes. Infants who more often follow-in into their mothers’ encouragement of attention have larger, and faster growing vocabularies between 14 and 18-months of age

Microaggression: My Story as a Higher Education Professional

The purpose of the Special Issue, Microaggression: My Story as a Higher Education Professional, is to share the personal microaggression experiences of higher education professionals (i.e. faculty, administrators, and staff). Microaggressions are negative, unintentional or intentional, statements and/or actions towards a member or members of a historically underrepresented group (Sue, 2010). The statement or action may be unintentional but nonetheless causes a negative emotional reaction by the recipient of the statement/action