The Effects of Readers\u27 Theater on the Fluency and Comprehension of Students Reading Below Grade Level

This thesis explored the impact that readers\u27 theater has on the reading fluency and comprehension of students who are reading below grade level. The study was conducted in 12:1:1 self-contained special education classroom in a rural elementary school in Western New York over the course of five weeks and included four students in 3rd to 6th grades, all reading at different levels. Data was collected through a variety of measures throughout the course of the five-week study including daily observation and note taking of students reading out loud and practicing and/or performing readers\u27 theater scripts. Data was also collected on a bi-weekly basis using running reading records. A tape recorder was used as the student read a story aloud. Students\u27 reading comprehension was assessed at the end of week one, three, and five, a total of three times throughout the study using a comprehension rubric for oral retellings that was adapted from the Developmental Reading Assessment (Beaver, 2006, Appendix C). Students\u27 fluency was assessed using Rasinski\u27s Multidimensional Fluency Scale as they orally read a story out loud (Zutell & Rasinski, 2001, Appendix D). Readers\u27 theater performances were videotaped and field notes on student comments and observable behaviors during video recorded sessions and daily practice sessions were taken. These instruments were used to provide triangulation. The results of this study differed significantly from the results found in other studies (Casey & Chamberlain, 2006; Griffith & Rasinski, 2004; Rasinski, 1999). Students in Rasinski\u27s study (1999) made significant gains in the areas of comprehension and fluency after being assessed using an informal reading inventory. In a study done with elementary aged students, anecdotal notes and results from Rasinski\u27s Multidimensional Fluency Scale indicate that almost each participant made gains in his/her ability to read fluently (Casey & Chamberlain, 2006). In yet another study done by Griffith and Rasinski (2004), the students made significant gains in their reading comprehension over the course of the yearlong study. Unlike results from other studies, the findings pertaining to how readers\u27 theater affects the fluency and reading comprehension of students reading below grade level remain inconclusive. Many factors may have influenced results in the study including the length of time and the time period during which the study was conducted. A five-week study may not have been enough time for students in the 12:1:1 self-contained special education class to make any significant progress in the areas of fluency and comprehension. The results of the study may also have been impacted by the fact that the study was conducted at the end of the school year, which led to more interruptions and a shorter of time than originally planned. The study would benefit by a longer duration and by being conducted at the beginning of the school year when the students are feeling fresh and focused and when there are fewer disruptions in their daily schedule. Providing the students with a kid-friendly rubric to help them self-assess their fluency and reading comprehension, more time spent explicitly teaching comprehension strategies and modeling their usefulness, and conducting a pre-assessment with the students prior to the start of the study could also prove helpful. Future research needs to focus on the message using readers\u27 theater in your classroom truly says. Future research should also focus on ways to explicitly teach students with disabilities how to improve their fluency and comprehension. More research needs to be done on how readers\u27 theater affects the reading comprehension and fluency of students reading below grade level, especially students with disabilities. The impact readers\u27 theater has on fluency and comprehension was inconclusive in the present study

Damage accumulation in thin ruthenium films induced by repetitive exposure to femtosecond XUV pulses below the single shot ablation threshold

The process of damage accumulation in thin ruthenium films exposed to multiple femtosecond XUV free electron laser FEL pulses below the critical angle of reflectance at the Free electron LASer facility in Hamburg FLASH was experimentally analyzed. The multi shot damage threshold is found to be lower than single shot damage threshold. Detailed analysis of the damage morphology and its dependence on irradiation conditions justifies the assumption that cavitation induced by the FEL pulse is the prime mechanism responsible for multi shot damage in optical coating

First Observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission in a Free-Electron Laser at 109 nm Wavelength

We present the first observation of Self-Amplified Spontaneous Emission (SASE) in a free-electron laser (FEL) in the Vacuum Ultraviolet regime at 109 nm wavelength (11 eV). The observed free-electron laser gain (approx. 3000) and the radiation characteristics, such as dependency on bunch charge, angular distribution, spectral width and intensity fluctuations all corroborate the existing models for SASE FELs.Comment: 6 pages including 6 figures; e-mail: [email protected]

Biomineralisation by earthworms: an investigation into the stability and distribution of amorphous calcium carbonate

Background Many biominerals form from amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC), but this phase is highly unstable when synthesised in its pure form inorganically. Several species of earthworm secrete calcium carbonate granules which contain highly stable ACC. We analysed the milky fluid from which granules form and solid granules for amino acid (by liquid chromatography) and functional group (by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy) compositions. Granule elemental composition was determined using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and electron microprobe analysis (EMPA). Mass of ACC present in solid granules was quantified using FTIR and compared to granule elemental and amino acid compositions. Bulk analysis of granules was of powdered bulk material. Spatially resolved analysis was of thin sections of granules using synchrotron-based μ-FTIR and EMPA electron microprobe analysis. Results The milky fluid from which granules form is amino acid-rich (≤ 136 ± 3 nmol mg−1 (n = 3; ± std dev) per individual amino acid); the CaCO3 phase present is ACC. Even four years after production, granules contain ACC. No correlation exists between mass of ACC present and granule elemental composition. Granule amino acid concentrations correlate well with ACC content (r ≥ 0.7, p ≤ 0.05) consistent with a role for amino acids (or the proteins they make up) in ACC stabilisation. Intra-granule variation in ACC (RSD = 16%) and amino acid concentration (RSD = 22–35%) was high for granules produced by the same earthworm. Maps of ACC distribution produced using synchrotron-based μ-FTIR mapping of granule thin sections and the relative intensity of the ν2: ν4 peak ratio, cluster analysis and component regression using ACC and calcite standards showed similar spatial distributions of likely ACC-rich and calcite-rich areas. We could not identify organic peaks in the μ-FTIR spectra and thus could not determine whether ACC-rich domains also had relatively high amino acid concentrations. No correlation exists between ACC distribution and elemental concentrations determined by EMPA. Conclusions ACC present in earthworm CaCO3 granules is highly stable. Our results suggest a role for amino acids (or proteins) in this stability. We see no evidence for stabilisation of ACC by incorporation of inorganic components

Characterization of megahertz X ray laser beams by multishot desorption imprints in PMMA

Proper diagnostics of intense free electron laser FEL X ray pulses is indisputably important for experimental data analysis as well as for the protection of beamline optical elements. New challenges for beam diagnostic methods are introduced by modern FEL facilities capable of delivering powerful pulses at megahertz MHz repetition rates. In this paper, we report the first characterization of a defocused MHz 13.5 nm beam generated by the free electron laser in Hamburg FLASH using the method of multi pulse desorption imprints in poly methyl methacrylate PMMA . The beam fluence profile is reconstructed in a novel and highly accurate way that takes into account the nonlinear response of material removal to total dose delivered by multiple pulses. The algorithm is applied to experimental data of single shot ablation imprints and multi shot desorption imprints at both low 10 Hz and high 1 MHz repetition rates. Reconstructed response functions show a great agreement with the theoretical desorption response function mode

Experimental study of EUV mirror radiation damage resistance under long term free electron laser exposures below the single shot damage threshold

The durability of grazing and normal incidence optical coatings has been experimentally assessed under free electron laser irradiation at various numbers of pulses up to 16 million shots and various fluence levels below 10 of the single shot damage threshold. The experiment was performed at FLASH, the Free electron LASer in Hamburg, using 13.5 nm extreme UV EUV radiation with 100 fs pulse duration. Polycrystalline ruthenium and amorphous carbon 50 nm thin films on silicon substrates were tested at total external reflection angles of 20 and 10 grazing incidence, respectively. Mo Si periodical multilayer structures were tested in the Bragg reflection condition at 16 off normal angle of incidence. The exposed areas were analysed post mortem using differential contrast visible light microscopy, EUV reflectivity mapping and scanning X ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The analysis revealed that Ru and Mo Si coatings exposed to the highest dose and fluence level show a few per cent drop in their EUV reflectivity, which is explained by EUV induced oxidation of the surfac

Benchmarking Ontologies: Bigger or Better?

A scientific ontology is a formal representation of knowledge within a domain, typically including central concepts, their properties, and relations. With the rise of computers and high-throughput data collection, ontologies have become essential to data mining and sharing across communities in the biomedical sciences. Powerful approaches exist for testing the internal consistency of an ontology, but not for assessing the fidelity of its domain representation. We introduce a family of metrics that describe the breadth and depth with which an ontology represents its knowledge domain. We then test these metrics using (1) four of the most common medical ontologies with respect to a corpus of medical documents and (2) seven of the most popular English thesauri with respect to three corpora that sample language from medicine, news, and novels. Here we show that our approach captures the quality of ontological representation and guides efforts to narrow the breach between ontology and collective discourse within a domain. Our results also demonstrate key features of medical ontologies, English thesauri, and discourse from different domains. Medical ontologies have a small intersection, as do English thesauri. Moreover, dialects characteristic of distinct domains vary strikingly as many of the same words are used quite differently in medicine, news, and novels. As ontologies are intended to mirror the state of knowledge, our methods to tighten the fit between ontology and domain will increase their relevance for new areas of biomedical science and improve the accuracy and power of inferences computed across them

Mechanism of single shot damage of Ru thin films irradiated by femtosecond extreme UV free electron laser

Ruthenium is a perspective material to be used for XUV mirrors at free electron laser facilities. Yet, it is still poorly studied in the context of ultrafast laser matter interaction. In this work, we present single shot damage studies of thin Ru films irradiated by femtosecond XUV free electron laser pulses at FLASH. Ex situ analysis of the damaged spots, performed by different types of microscopy, shows that the weakest detected damage is surface roughening. For higher fluences we observe ablation of Ru. Combined simulations using Monte Carlo code XCASCADE 3D and the two temperature model reveal that the damage mechanism is photomechanical spallation, similar to the case of irradiating the target with optical lasers. The analogy with the optical damage studies enables us to explain the observed damage morphologie