The effectiveness of creative drama education on the teaching of social communication skills in mainstreamed students

AbstractThe present study was conducted in order to evaluate the effectiveness of creative drama education on teaching the social communication skills of greeting, joining the group and initiating a conversation in preschool level disabled students integrated into mainstream education. A six-year-old hearing impaired female student attending the nursery class of a primary school administered by the Provincial Directorate of National Education in the Province of Konya was included in the study. The “Social Communication Skills Evaluation Observation Form”, which was developed by the researchers, was used as the data collection tool As the result of the study, it was found that creative drama education had a significant positive effect on the social communication skills of the subject

Variability of Low-ionization Broad Absorption Line Quasars Based on Multi-epoch Spectra from The Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We present absorption variability results for 134 bona fide \mgii\ broad absorption line (BAL) quasars at 0.46~$\lesssim z \lesssim$~2.3 covering days to $\sim$ 10 yr in the rest frame. We use multiple-epoch spectra from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, which has delivered the largest such BAL-variability sample ever studied. \mgii-BAL identifications and related measurements are compiled and presented in a catalog. We find a remarkable time-dependent asymmetry in EW variation from the sample, such that weakening troughs outnumber strengthening troughs, the first report of such a phenomenon in BAL variability. Our investigations of the sample further reveal that (i) the frequency of BAL variability is significantly lower (typically by a factor of 2) than that from high-ionization BALQSO samples; (ii) \mgii\ BAL absorbers tend to have relatively high optical depths and small covering factors along our line of sight; (iii) there is no significant EW-variability correlation between \mgii\ troughs at different velocities in the same quasar; and (iv) the EW-variability correlation between \mgii\ and \aliii\ BALs is significantly stronger than that between \mgii\ and \civ\ BALs at the same velocities. These observational results can be explained by a combined transverse-motion/ionization-change scenario, where transverse motions likely dominate the strengthening BALs while ionization changes and/or other mechanisms dominate the weakening BALs.Comment: 24 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ

Growth and evolution in three Philadelphia artist collectives: The Clay Studio, Nexus/Foundation for Today's Art, Vox Populi

Three collectives located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are examined to uncover the critical issues affecting the success and direction of artist collectives. The purpose of this study is to better understand the Artist Cooperative movement as a visual art organizational model and to unveil the key aspects or components that allow the artist cooperative to grow and transform successfully throughout its life cycle. Through investigation of the histories of The Clay Studio, Nexus/Foundation for Today’s Art, and Vox Populi, critical issues and trends are discovered contributing to these collectives success, including the necessity of artists as stakeholders, artists involvement in governance, and the availability of long-term affordable physical space.M.S., Arts Administration -- Drexel University, 201

X-ray and multi-epoch optical/UV investigations of BAL to non-BAL quasar transformations

We report on an X-ray and optical/UV study of eight Broad Absorption Line (BAL) to non-BAL transforming quasars at $z\,\approx\,$1.7-2.2 over 0.29-4.95 rest-frame years with at least three spectroscopic epochs for each quasar from the SDSS, BOSS, $Gemini$, and ARC 3.5-m telescopes. New $Chandra$ observations obtained for these objects show their values of $\alpha_{\rm ox}$ and $\Delta{\alpha}_{\rm ox}$, as well as their spectral energy distributions, are consistent with those of non-BAL quasars. Moreover, our targets have X-ray spectral shapes that are, on average, consistent with weakened absorption with an effective power-law photon index of $\Gamma_{\rm eff}\,=\,1.69^{+0.25}_{-0.25}$. The newer $Gemini$ and ARC 3.5-m spectra reveal that the BAL troughs have remained absent since the BOSS observations where the BAL disappearance was discovered. The X-ray and optical/UV results in tandem are consistent with at least the X-ray absorbing material moving out of the line-of-sight, leaving an X-ray unabsorbed non-BAL quasar. The UV absorber might have become more highly ionized (in a shielding-gas scenario) or also moved out of the line-of-sight (in a wind-clumping scenario).Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

X-ray Insights into the Nature of Quasars with Redshifted Broad Absorption Lines

We present $Chandra$ observations of seven broad absorption line (BAL) quasars at $z=0.863$-2.516 with redshifted BAL troughs (RSBALs). Five of our seven targets were detected by $Chandra$ in 4-13 ks exposures with ACIS-S. The $\alpha_{\rm ox}$ values, $\Delta\alpha_{\rm ox}$ values, and spectral energy distributions of our targets demonstrate they are all X-ray weak relative to expectations for non-BAL quasars, and the degree of X-ray weakness is consistent with that of appropriately-matched BAL quasars generally. Furthermore, our five detected targets show evidence for hard X-ray spectral shapes with a stacked effective power-law photon index of $\Gamma_{\rm eff}=0.5^{+0.5}_{-0.4}$. These findings support the presence of heavy X-ray absorption ($N_{\rm H}\approx 2 \times 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$) in RSBAL quasars, likely by the shielding gas found to be common in BAL quasars more generally. We use these X-ray measurements to assess models for the nature of RSBAL quasars, finding that a rotationally-dominated outflow model is favored while an infall model also remains plausible with some stipulations. The X-ray data disfavor a binary quasar model for RSBAL quasars in general.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, and 3 table

Brain Atrophy and Hypomyelination Associated with Iatrogenic Cushing’s Syndrome in an Infant

Prolonged use of topical corticosteroids, particularly in infants, albeit rare, may lead to Cushing's syndrome. Central nervous system abnormalities including brain atrophy and delayed myelination on cranial magnetic resonance imaging has been reported in patients with corticosteroid treatment. We herein report a 5-month-old female infant with brain atrophy and myelination delay that might be due to iatrogenic Cushing's syndrome caused by topical corticosteroid use

Fast Stiffness Matrix Calculation for Nonlinear Finite Element Method

We propose a fast stiffness matrix calculation technique for nonlinear finite element method (FEM). Nonlinear stiffness matrices are constructed using Green-Lagrange strains, which are derived from infinitesimal strains by adding the nonlinear terms discarded from small deformations. We implemented a linear and a nonlinear finite element method with the same material properties to examine the differences between them. We verified our nonlinear formulation with different applications and achieved considerable speedups in solving the system of equations using our nonlinear FEM compared to a state-of-the-art nonlinear FEM. © 2014 Emir Gülümser et al

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project: Rapid CIV Broad Absorption Line Variability

We report the discovery of rapid variations of a high-velocity CIV broad absorption line trough in the quasar SDSS J141007.74+541203.3. This object was intensively observed in 2014 as a part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Reverberation Mapping Project, during which 32 epochs of spectroscopy were obtained with the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey spectrograph. We observe significant (>4sigma) variability in the equivalent width of the broad (~4000 km/s wide) CIV trough on rest-frame timescales as short as 1.20 days (~29 hours), the shortest broad absorption line variability timescale yet reported. The equivalent width varied by ~10% on these short timescales, and by about a factor of two over the duration of the campaign. We evaluate several potential causes of the variability, concluding that the most likely cause is a rapid response to changes in the incident ionizing continuum. If the outflow is at a radius where the recombination rate is higher than the ionization rate, the timescale of variability places a lower limit on the density of the absorbing gas of n_e > 3.9 x 10^5 cm^-3. The broad absorption line variability characteristics of this quasar are consistent with those observed in previous studies of quasars, indicating that such short-term variability may in fact be common and thus can be used to learn about outflow characteristics and contributions to quasar/host-galaxy feedback scenarios.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Emergence and Variability of Broad Absorption Line Quasar Outflows

We isolate a set of quasars that exhibit emergent C iv broad absorption lines (BALs) in their spectra by comparing spectra in the SDSS Data Release 7 and the SDSS/BOSS Data Releases 9 and 10. After visually defining a set of emergent BALs, follow-up observations were obtained with the Gemini Observatory for 105 quasars. We find an emergence rate consistent with the previously reported disappearance rate of BAL quasars given the relative numbers of non-BAL and BAL quasars in the SDSS. We find candidate newly emerged BALs are preferentially drawn from among BALs with smaller balnicity indices, shallower depths, larger velocities, and smaller widths. Within two rest-frame years (average) after a BAL has emerged, we find it equally likely to continue increasing in equivalent width in an observation six months later (average) as it is to start decreasing. From the time separations between our observations, we conclude the coherence time-scale of BALs is less than 100 rest-frame days. We observe coordinated variability among pairs of troughs in the same quasar, likely due to clouds at different velocities responding to the same changes in ionizing flux; and the coordination is stronger if the velocity separation between the two troughs is smaller. We speculate the latter effect may be due to clouds having on average lower densities at higher velocities due to mass conservation in an accelerating flow, causing the absorbing gas in those clouds to respond on different timescales to the same ionizing flux variations.Comment: 37 pages, 25 figure

Development of Silver Ion Doped Antibacterial Clays and Investigation of Their Antibacterial Activity

Kaolinite, sepiolite, and clinoptilolite were used as carriers to develop antibacterial materials. The materials were enriched in sodium by ion exchange. Silver ion exchange by silver nitrate followed by phosphoric acid treatment enabled the controlled release of silver. The antibacterial function of the materials was investigated by halo test and the amount of silver released was investigated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The enhanced antibacterial efficiency was obtained by minimizing the silver release which further provided longevity to the material and prevented the health risks posed by excess silver release