A Randomized-Trial Evaluation of the Effect of Whose Future Is It Anyway? on Self-Determination

Promoting student involvement in planning has become best practice in the field of transition. Research documents the positive impact of such efforts on greater student involvement. Research also suggests that promoting student involvement results in greater student self-determination, but a causal link has not been established. This study used a randomized- trial, placebo control group design to study the impact of intervention with the Whose Future Is It Anyway? process on self-determination. The authors also examined the impact of intervention on transition knowledge and skills. Results indicated that instruction using the Whose Future Is It Anyway? process resulted in significant, positive differences in self- determination when compared with a placebo-control group and that students who received instruction gained transition knowledge and skills.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Enhancing staff attitudes, knowledge and skills in supporting the self-determination of adults with intellectual disability in residential settings in Hong Kong: A pretest-posttest comparison group design

Background: The ecological perspective recognizes the critical role that is played by rehabilitation personnel in helping people with intellectual disability (ID) to exercise self-determination, particularly in residential settings. In Hong Kong, the authors developed the first staff training programme of its kind to strengthen the competence of personnel in this area. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of staff training in enhancing residential staff's attitudes, knowledge and facilitation skills in assisting residents with ID to exercise self-determination. Methods: A pretest-posttest comparison group design was adopted. Thirty-two participants in an experimental group attended a six-session staff training programme. A 34-item self-constructed scale was designed and used for measuring the effectiveness of the staff training. Results: The results showed that the experimental group achieved statistically significant positive changes in all domains, whereas no significant changes were found in the comparison group. Conclusions: The findings provided initial evidence of the effectiveness of staff training that uses an interactional attitude-knowledge-skills model for Chinese rehabilitation personnel. The factors that contributed to its effectiveness were discussed and recommendations for future research were made. © Journal Compilation © 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.postprin

Examining Individual and Instruction-Related Predictors of the Self-Determination of Students With Disabilities: Multiple Regression Analyses

Youngsun Lee, PhD, is an assistant professor of special education in department of education, Inha University, Korea. Her current research interests include self-determination, transition planning, and technology use for secondary students with disabilities.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

The circadian oscillator is regulated by a very low fluence response of phytochrome in wheat

Expression of genes encoding the light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding proteins of photosystem II (Cab) in etiolated wheat seedlings is controlled by phytochrome and a circadian clock. Even photoconversion of <1% of phytochrome to its active form, which can be achieved by moonlight, induces the expression of the Cab genes, particularly that of the Cab-1 gene, in circadian fashion. Thus, this reaction shows the characteristics of a low and a very low fluence response. A single far-red light pulse given to an etiolated seedling is sufficient for a persistence of the circadian oscillation of the Cab-1 mRNA level for at least 100 h. Subsequent red (R) or long-wavelength far-red (RG9) light irradiations alter the free running rhythm. These observations indicate a change in sensitivity to phytochrome and/or a control by stable phytochrome. The latter hypothesis is supported by the observation that the level of Cab-1 mRNA is increased or decreased by a second R or RG9 light pulse, respectively

The planetary nebula NGC 1360, a test case of magnetic collimation and evolution after the fast wind

The central star of this nebula has an observed intense magnetic field and the fast wind is no longer present, indicating that a back flow process has probably developed. Long-slit, spatially resolved echelle spectra have been obtained across the main body of NGC 1360 and over its system of bipolar jets. Deep images of the knotty structures of the jets have also been obtained. The data allow a detailed study of the structure and kinematics of this object and the results are modeled considering the effects of a magnetic collimation process in the development of the nebula and then switching off the fast stellar wind to follow its evolution to its current state. The model is able to successfully reproduce many of the key features of NGC 1360 under these premises.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. ApJ in pres

PyEMMA 2: A Software Package for Estimation, Validation, and Analysis of Markov Models

Markov (state) models (MSMs) and related models of molecular kinetics have recently received a surge of interest as they can systematically reconcile simulation data from either a few long or many short simulations and allow us to analyze the essential metastable structures, thermodynamics, and kinetics of the molecular system under investigation. However, the estimation, validation, and analysis of such models is far from trivial and involves sophisticated and often numerically sensitive methods. In this work we present the opensource Python package PyEMMA (http://pyemma.org) that provides accurate and efficient algorithms for kinetic model construction. PyEMMA can read all common molecular dynamics data formats, helps in the selection of input features, provides easy access to dimension reduction algorithms such as principal component analysis (PCA) and time-lagged independent component analysis (TICA) and clustering algorithms such as k-means, and contains estimators for MSMs, hidden Markov models, and several other models. Systematic model validation and error calculation methods are provided. PyEMMA offers a wealth of analysis functions such that the user can conveniently compute molecular observables of interest. We have derived a systematic and accurate way to coarse-grain MSMs to few states and to illustrate the structures of the metastable states of the system. Plotting functions to produce a manuscript-ready presentation of the results are available. In this work, we demonstrate the features of the software and show new methodological concepts and results produced by PyEMMA

Explosive Nucleosynthesis: What we learned and what we still do not understand

This review touches on historical aspects, going back to the early days of nuclear astrophysics, initiated by B$^2$FH and Cameron, discusses (i) the required nuclear input from reaction rates and decay properties up to the nuclear equation of state, continues (ii) with the tools to perform nucleosynthesis calculations and (iii) early parametrized nucleosynthesis studies, before (iv) reliable stellar models became available for the late stages of stellar evolution. It passes then through (v) explosive environments from core-collapse supernovae to explosive events in binary systems (including type Ia supernovae and compact binary mergers), and finally (vi) discusses the role of all these nucleosynthesis production sites in the evolution of galaxies. The focus is put on the comparison of early ideas and present, very recent, understanding.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in Springer Proceedings in Physics (Proc. of Intl. Conf. "Nuclei in the Cosmos XV", LNGS Assergi, Italy, June 2018