Developing And Evaluating A Machine‐Scorable, Constrained Constructed‐Response Item

The use of constructed response items in large scale standardized testing has been hampered by the costs and difficulties associated with obtaining reliable scores. The advent of expert systems may signal the eventual removal of this impediment. This study investigated the accuracy with which expert systems could score a new, non‐multiple choice item type. The item type presents a faulty solution to a computer programming problem and asks the student to correct the solution. This item type was administered to a sample of high school seniors enrolled in an Advanced Placement course in Computer Science who also took the Advanced Placement Computer Science (APCS) Test. Results indicated that the expert systems were able to produce scores for between 82% and 97% of the solutions encountered and to display high agreement with a human reader on which solutions were and were not correct. Diagnoses of the specific errors produced by students were less accurate. Correlations with scores on the objective and free‐response sections of the APCS examination were moderate. Implications for additional research and for testing practice are offered.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108589/1/ets200144.pd

Brainstem metastases treated with Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery: the Indiana University Health experience

Brainstem metastases offer a unique challenge in cancer treatment, yet stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) has proven to be an effective modality in treating these tumors. This report discusses the clinical outcomes of patients with brainstem metastases treated at Indiana University with Gamma Knife (GK) radiosurgery from 2008 to 2016. 19 brainstem metastases from 14 patients who had follow-up brain imaging were identified. Median tumor volume was 0.04 cc (range: 0.01-2.0 cc). Median prescribed dose was 17.5 Gy to the 50% isodose line (range: 14-22 Gy). Median survival after GK SRS treatment to brainstem lesion was 17.2 months (range: 2.8-45.6 months). The experience at Indiana University confirms the safety and efficacy of range of GK SRS prescription doses (14-22 Gy) to brainstem metastases

The Relationship of Expert-System Scored Constrained Free-Response Items to Multiple-Choice and Open-Ended Items

This study examined the relationship of an expert- system scored constrained free-response item (requir ing the student to debug a faulty computer program) to two other item types: (1) multiple-choice and (2) free- response (requiring production of a program). Confir matory factor analysis was used to test the fit of a three-factor model to these data and to compare the fit of the model to three alternatives. These models were fit using two random-half samples, one given a faulty program containing one bug and the other a program with three bugs. A single-factor model best fit the data for the sample taking the one-bug constrained free re sponse and a two-factor model fit the data somewhat better for the second sample. In addition, the factor intercorrelations showed this item type to be highly re lated to both the free-response and multiple-choice measures.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68260/2/10.1177_014662169001400204.pd

Investigation of Dimensions of Social-Emotional Classroom Behavior and School Readiness for Low-Income Urban Preschool Children

The present study identified higher-order relationships among teacher assessments of approaches to learning and emotional and behavioral adjustment constructs for urban, low-income preschool children. It examined the unique contribution of these dimensions to cognitive and social competencies and risk of poor academic outcomes. Analyses of a large, representative sample of urban Head Start children revealed two distinct and reliable, higher-order dimensions of classroom adjustment behavior: Regulated and Academically Disengaged Behavior. Both of the dimensions contributed unique variance to the prediction of early mathematics ability and general classroom competencies prior to kindergarten entry, controlling for child demographics. Each dimension also contributed independently to the prediction of academic risk, controlling for child demographics. Implications for practice and policy were discussed

Conquest and Form: Narrativity in Joshua 5-11 and Historical Discourse in Ancient Judah

One goal of this essay is to offer an exploratory, historiographical analysis of the conquest account in the book of Joshua, an analysis that focuses upon the sociocultural milieu of ancient Judah. I propose to show how this narrative of conquest might have contributed to discourse(s) among the literate Judean community that perpetuated the text, and I will offer a few thoughts on the potential relationship between the narrative and the supposed cultic reforms of the late seventh century b.c.e. A number of biblical scholars have argued that the late monarchic period gave rise to the conquest story as recounted in Joshua. In this essay, I would like to pay special attention to precisely how this narrative might have functioned within the milieu of the late monarchic period, thus refining our understanding of the narrative’s contribution to the discourses of this era and our knowledge of its relationship to other narratives that were probably extant at the same time. In other words, what particular features of the narrative might have had special import in this period? Specifically, I will argue that the narrative reveals certain discursive statements about Yahweh’s cultic supremacy and about important cultic sites in late monarchic Judah, and that this is evident in particular narratival features that are present in the text

Using ALMA to resolve the nature of the early star-forming large-scale structure PLCK G073.4-57.5

Galaxy clusters at high redshift are key targets for understanding matter assembly in the early Universe, yet they are challenging to locate. A sample of >2000 high-z candidate structures has been found using Planck's all-sky submm maps, and a sub-set of 234 have been followed up with Herschel-SPIRE, which showed that the emission can be attributed to large overdensities of dusty star-forming galaxies. In order to resolve and characterise the individual galaxies we targeted the eight brightest SPIRE sources in the centre of the Planck peak PLCK G073.4-57.5 using ALMA at 1.3 mm, and complemented these observations with data from IRAC, WIRCam J,K, and SCUBA-2. We detected a total of 18 millimetre galaxies brighter than 0.3 mJy in 2.4 arcmin^2. The ALMA source density is 8-30 times higher than average background estimates and larger than seen in typical 'proto-cluster' fields. We were able to match all but one of the ALMA sources to a NIR counterpart. The most significant (four) SCUBA-2 sources are not included in the ALMA pointings, but we find an 8sigma stacking detection of the ALMA sources in the SCUBA-2 map at 850 um. We derive photo-z, L_IR, SFR, stellar mass, T_dust, M_dust for all of the ALMA galaxies; the photo-zs identify two groups each of five sources, at z~1.5 and 2.4. The two groups show two 'red sequences' (i.e. similar NIR [3.6]-[4.5] colours and different J-K colours). The majority of the ALMA-detected galaxies are on the SFR versus stellar mass main sequence, and half of the sample is more massive than the characteristic stellar mass at the corresponding redshift. Serendipitous CO line detections in two of the galaxies appear to match their photometric redshifts at z~1.54. We performed an analysis of star-formation efficiencies and CO- and mm-continuum-derived gas fractions of our ALMA sources, combined with a sample of 1<z<3 cluster and proto-cluster members.Comment: 26 pages, revised version, Astronomy & Astrophysics accepte

Discovery of Macrocyclic Pyrimidines as MerTK-Specific Inhibitors

Macrocycles have attracted significant attention in drug discovery recently. In fact, a few de novo designed macrocyclic kinase inhibitors are currently in clinical trials with good potency and selectivity for their intended target. In this study, we successfully engaged a structure-based drug design approach to discover macrocyclic pyrimidines as potent Mer tyrosine kinase (MerTK)-specific inhibitors. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in 384-well format was employed to evaluate the inhibitory activity of macrocycles in a cell-based assay assessing tyrosine phosphorylation of MerTK. Through structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies, analogue 11 [UNC2541; (S)-7-amino-N-(4-fluorobenzyl)-8-oxo-2,9,16-triaza-1(2,4)-pyrimidinacyclohexadecaphane-1-carboxamide] was identified as a potent and MerTK-specific inhibitor that exhibits sub-micromolar inhibitory activity in the cell-based ELISA. In addition, an X-ray structure of MerTK protein in complex with 11 was resolved to show that these macrocycles bind in the MerTK ATP pocket

UNC2025, a MERTK Small-Molecule Inhibitor, Is Therapeutically Effective Alone and in Combination with Methotrexate in Leukemia Models

MERTK tyrosine kinase is ectopically expressed in 30–50% of acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL) and over 80% of acute myeloid leukemias (AML) and is a potential therapeutic target. Here, we evaluated the utility of UNC2025, a MERTK tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for treatment of acute leukemia

Modeling Transport in Gas Chromatography Columns for the Micro-ChemLab

The gas chromatography (GC) column is a critical component in the microsystem for chemical detection ({mu}ChemLab{trademark}) being developed at Sandia. The goal is to etch a meter-long GC column onto a 1-cm{sup 2} silicon chip while maintaining good chromatographic performance. Our design strategy is to use a modeling and simulation approach. We have developed an analytical tool that models the transport and surface interaction process to achieve an optimized design of the GC column. This analytical tool has a flow module and a separation module. The flow module considers both the compressibility and slip flow effects that may significantly influence the gas transport in a long and narrow column. The separation module models analyte transport and physico-chemical interaction with the coated surface in the GC column. It predicts the column efficiency and performance. Results of our analysis will be presented in this paper. In addition to the analytical tool, we have also developed a time-dependent adsorption/desorption model and incorporated this model into a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code to simulate analyte transport and separation process in GC columns. CFD simulations can capture the complex three-dimensional flow and transport dynamics, whereas the analytical tool cannot. Different column geometries have been studied, and results will be presented in this paper. Overall we have demonstrated that the modeling and simulation approach can guide the design of the GC column and will reduce the number of iterations in the device development