Maximizing the Impact of Professional Development for Earth Science Teachers

This study examines the extent to which follow-up sessions can provide support for earth science teachers as they apply what they learn from professional development coursework during the academic year with their own students. Data include direct observation of follow-up sessions of courses for teachers; interviews with course co-instructors and teacher participants; and, document analysis of teacher products with a focus on the lesson plans, laboratory/activity sheets for students, and virtual field trips that teacher participants submitted and shared during follow-up sessions. Strategies are recommended to assist earth science content faculty in increasing the impact of their work with teachers and hence, student instruction

Junction range finder

Electronic system locates interferences in radar reception. System utilizes well known frequency-modulated continuous-wave technique to locate objects with nonlinear impedances. FM transmitter generates signal through bandpass filter which eliminates higher order harmonics around carrier frequency

The role of working memory and contextual constraints in children's processing of relative clauses

An auditory sentence comprehension task investigated the extent to which the integration of contextual and structural cues was mediated by verbal memory span with 32 English-speaking 6- to 8-year old children. Spoken relative clause sentences were accompanied by visual context pictures which fully (depicting the actions described within the relative clause) or partially (depicting several referents) met the pragmatic assumptions of relativisation. Comprehension of the main and relative clauses of centre-embedded and right-branching structures was compared for each context. Pragmatically-appropriate contexts exerted a positive effect on relative clause comprehension, but children with higher memory spans demonstrated a further benefit for main clauses. Comprehension for centre-embedded main clauses was found to be very poor, independently of either context or memory span. The results suggest that children have access to adult-like linguistic processing mechanisms, and that sensitivity to extra-linguistic cues is evident in young children and develops as cognitive capacity increases

Sources of variation in developmental language disorders: evidence from eye-tracking studies of sentence production

Skilled sentence production involves distinct stages of message conceptualization (deciding what to talk about) and message formulation (deciding how to talk about it). Eye-movement paradigms provide a mechanism for observing how speakers accomplish these aspects of production in real time. These methods have recently been applied to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and specific language impairment (LI) in an effort to reveal qualitative differences between groups in sentence production processes. Findings support a multiple-deficit account in which language production is influenced not only by lexical and syntactic constraints, but also by variation in attention control, inhibition and social competence. Thus, children with ASD are especially vulnerable to atypical patterns of visual inspection and verbal utterance. The potential to influence attentional focus and prime appropriate language structures are considered as a mechanism for facilitating language adaptation and learning

Bayesian optimization for materials design

We introduce Bayesian optimization, a technique developed for optimizing time-consuming engineering simulations and for fitting machine learning models on large datasets. Bayesian optimization guides the choice of experiments during materials design and discovery to find good material designs in as few experiments as possible. We focus on the case when materials designs are parameterized by a low-dimensional vector. Bayesian optimization is built on a statistical technique called Gaussian process regression, which allows predicting the performance of a new design based on previously tested designs. After providing a detailed introduction to Gaussian process regression, we introduce two Bayesian optimization methods: expected improvement, for design problems with noise-free evaluations; and the knowledge-gradient method, which generalizes expected improvement and may be used in design problems with noisy evaluations. Both methods are derived using a value-of-information analysis, and enjoy one-step Bayes-optimality

Continuous Wavelets on Compact Manifolds

Let $\bf M$ be a smooth compact oriented Riemannian manifold, and let $\Delta_{\bf M}$ be the Laplace-Beltrami operator on ${\bf M}$. Say 0 \neq f \in \mathcal{S}(\RR^+), and that $f(0) = 0$. For $t > 0$, let $K_t(x,y)$ denote the kernel of $f(t^2 \Delta_{\bf M})$. We show that $K_t$ is well-localized near the diagonal, in the sense that it satisfies estimates akin to those satisfied by the kernel of the convolution operator $f(t^2\Delta)$ on \RR^n. We define continuous ${\cal S}$-wavelets on ${\bf M}$, in such a manner that $K_t(x,y)$ satisfies this definition, because of its localization near the diagonal. Continuous ${\cal S}$-wavelets on ${\bf M}$ are analogous to continuous wavelets on \RR^n in \mathcal{S}(\RR^n). In particular, we are able to characterize the H$\ddot{o}$lder continuous functions on ${\bf M}$ by the size of their continuous ${\mathcal{S}}-$wavelet transforms, for H$\ddot{o}$lder exponents strictly between 0 and 1. If $\bf M$ is the torus \TT^2 or the sphere $S^2$, and $f(s)=se^{-s}$ (the ``Mexican hat'' situation), we obtain two explicit approximate formulas for $K_t$, one to be used when $t$ is large, and one to be used when $t$ is small

Tonic Dopamine Modulates Exploitation of Reward Learning

The impact of dopamine on adaptive behavior in a naturalistic environment is largely unexamined. Experimental work suggests that phasic dopamine is central to reinforcement learning whereas tonic dopamine may modulate performance without altering learning per se; however, this idea has not been developed formally or integrated with computational models of dopamine function. We quantitatively evaluate the role of tonic dopamine in these functions by studying the behavior of hyperdopaminergic DAT knockdown mice in an instrumental task in a semi-naturalistic homecage environment. In this “closed economy” paradigm, subjects earn all of their food by pressing either of two levers, but the relative cost for food on each lever shifts frequently. Compared to wild-type mice, hyperdopaminergic mice allocate more lever presses on high-cost levers, thus working harder to earn a given amount of food and maintain their body weight. However, both groups show a similarly quick reaction to shifts in lever cost, suggesting that the hyperdominergic mice are not slower at detecting changes, as with a learning deficit. We fit the lever choice data using reinforcement learning models to assess the distinction between acquisition and expression the models formalize. In these analyses, hyperdopaminergic mice displayed normal learning from recent reward history but diminished capacity to exploit this learning: a reduced coupling between choice and reward history. These data suggest that dopamine modulates the degree to which prior learning biases action selection and consequently alters the expression of learned, motivated behavior

Effects of Convection During the Photodeposition of Polydiacetylene Thin Films

In this work, we describe a preliminary investigation of buoyancy-driven heat transfer during the growth of thin films from solution following exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. Irradiation of the growth cell occurs at various directions relative to gravitational acceleration. Through numerical computations, the steady-state flow and temperature profiles are simulated during the course of light exposure. Light-induced polymerization accompanies a heat transfer process through a fairly complicated recirculating flow pattern. A scaling analysis shows that buoyancy-driven velocities only reduce by a factor of 10 for gravity levels as low as 10(exp -2)g(sub 0). Paley et al. observe what appears to be gravitationally sensitive particle development and inclusion in thin films using a photodeposition process. From this study it is clear that production of homogeneous thin films would have to occur in the environment of a complicated flow pattern of recirculation with a nonuniform temperature distribution. Indeed, even when irradiation occurs from the top of the cell, the most stable stratified cell orientation, defects remain in our films due to the persistence of buoyancy-driven convection. To achieve homogeneity, minimal scattering centers, and possible molecular order, photodeposition of polymer films by UV light exposure must proceed in a reduced-convection environment. Fluid mechanics simulations are useful for establishing gravitational sensitivity to this recently discovered process (patent # 5,451,433) for preparing thin films having quite promising nonlinear optical characteristics

Impairments of Social Motor Synchrony Evident in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social interactions typically involve movements of the body that become synchronized over time and both intentional and spontaneous interactional synchrony have been found to be an essential part of successful human interaction. However, our understanding of the importance of temporal dimensions of social motor synchrony in social dysfunction is limited. Here, we used a pendulum coordination paradigm to assess dynamic, process-oriented measures of social motor synchrony in adolescents with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Our data indicate that adolescents with ASD demonstrate less synchronization in both spontaneous and intentional interpersonal coordination. Coupled oscillator modeling suggests that ASD participants assembled a synchronization dynamic with a weaker coupling strength, which corresponds to a lower sensitivity and decreased attention to the movements of the other person, but do not demonstrate evidence of a delay in information transmission. The implication of these findings for isolating an ASD-specific social synchronization deficit that could serve as an objective, bio-behavioral marker is discussed

Reading sentences with a late closure ambiguity: does semantic information help?

Stowe (1989) reported that semantic information eliminates garden paths in sentences with the direct-object vs. subject ambiguity, such as Even before the police stopped the driver was very frightened. Three experiments are presented which addressed some methodological problems in Stowe's study. Experiment 1, using a word-by-word, self-paced reading task with grammaticality judgements, manipulated animacy of the first subject noun while controlling for the plausibility of the transitive action. The results suggest that initial sentence analysis is not guided by animacy. Experiment 2 and 3, using the self-paced task with grammaticality judgements and eye-tracking, varied the plausibility of the direct-object nouns to test revision effects. Plausibility was found to facilitate revision without fully eliminating garden paths, in line with various revision models. The findings support the view of a sentence processing system relying heavily on syntactic information, with semantic information playing a weaker role both in initial analysis and during revision, thus supporting serial, syntax-first models and ranked-parallel models relying on structural criteria