CONCEPT MAPPING: EFFECTS ON CONTENT KNOWLEDGE AND ENGAGEMENT WITH CONTENT IN ELEMENTARY STUDENTS’ PERSUASIVE WRITING

This comparative pre-test/post-test quantitative study investigated the effect of an instructional strategy using concept mapping as a graphic organizer on the quality of persuasive writing compositions produced by fourth grade elementary school students. Six fourth grade classes were assigned as intact groups to three conditions: concept mapping treatment, four square treatment, and control. Participants wrote a pre-test essay prior to treatment. Treatment consisted of an instructional unit collaboratively developed by the researcher and classroom teachers on persuasive writing. Instruction for the three treatment groups was the same except for type of graphic organizer used (Concept Map, Four Square, or none). Following treatment, a post-test on persuasive writing was administered in the form of an essay. The concept mapping treatment group used concept mapping as their graphic organizer, the four square treatment group used the four square method, and the control group used no graphic organizer. Each of the pre- and post-test essays for both treatment and control groups were scored using rubrics created collaboratively by the researcher and participating teachers for Persuasive Content and for Engagement with Content. Only the concept mapping treatment group created concept maps during the post-test. Therefore, only the concept mapping treatment groups’ essays received a score for Sophistication of the Concept Map. One-way Analysis of Variance showed a significant mean difference in Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content between the three treatment groups. Concept Mapping had the highest mean scores on each, followed by Four Square and then the control. Pearson’s product-moment correlation showed a moderate positive correlation between Sophistication of Concept Map and both Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content. Positive correlations were also found between prior KCCT scores and persuasive writing scores and prior writing portfolio scores and persuasive writing scores. No significant correlation was found between gender and persuasive writing scores or race/ethnicity and persuasive writing scores. The results of this study indicate that Concept Mapping improves Persuasive Content and Engagement with Content when used as a graphic organizer in the writing of persuasive essays

Odyssean Perspectives on Trauma

The question of whether trauma has a place in studies of the ancient world deserves fresh consideration. In the past, scholars such as Tritle (2000; 2014) have argued for a universal view of trauma based on human physiology. Others (Konstan, 2014; Monoson, 2014; James, 2014) believe a universalist position is useful for understanding ancient behaviour. On the other side of the debate, scholars such as Melchior (2011) and Crowley (2014) have highlighted some of the cultural and environmental factors that could have caused different rates of traumatisation and resilience in ancient and modern populations. However, these arguments have not adequately considered the issue of how people in ancient societies understood their own experiences of extreme suffering. My thesis addresses the issue of how early Greek hexameter poetry, and the Odyssey in particular, portrays experiences of suffering after overwhelming events, paying particular attention to the impact that suffering has on identity. In Part I of my thesis, I look at the language that this poetry uses to describe overwhelming events and the language it uses to describe emotional responses to them. My discussion establishes how suffering typically affects characters in the aftermath of overwhelming events and how the language that characters use to describe their experiences shapes their responses to them. In Part II of my thesis, I narrow my focus to the Odyssey and consider how it portrays the ways in which suffering has an impact on individual, collective and multigenerational aspects of identity. I argue that the Odyssey exhibits a strong interest in charting how suffering affects characters’ worldviews and identities. By combining modern trauma research with perspectives on suffering found in early Greek hexameter poetry, my thesis re-examines the concept of trauma and reformulates the lines of the debate on its place in studies of the ancient world

Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment of a Living Building

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a tool to quantify the environmental impacts of a product or system. This tool is used to assess environmental impacts of buildings over their lifespan. LCAs performed on standard buildings showed that the use phase dominated the impacts over the course of a building’s lifespan. Consequently, building energy efficiency was the target of reduction measures and high-performing buildings began to emerge. The design of living buildings followed, which are buildings that are defined as being net-positive energy and water. In these energy efficient buildings the significance of the use phase diminishes, shifting the focus to other life cycle stages. This research includes a whole-building LCA of a living building that focuses on the impacts from green building materials, a decentralized water system, a net-positive use phase, and the disposal of structural materials. The material processes used in this LCA were modified by removing the use of highly toxic chemicals per the product submittals; results showed carcinogenic impacts were decreased by up to 96%. The septic system, which is not aerated, used for wastewater treatment contributes to 37% of the global warming potential (GWP, kg CO2eq) for the whole building’s lifespan due to methane emissions. The solar panels on-site generate more electricity than the site demands, allowing for 44,000kWh of green energy to be returned to the grid. Lastly, a scenario analysis was performed on multiple waste streams for materials of two structural models (lumber or steel) with a concrete foundation. Results showed that based on the frame and waste stream selected, the end of life GWP impacts could vary from +14,000kg CO2eq to -10,500 kg CO2eq for the as-built structure. This whole-building LCA aims to identify and mitigate hotspots of the case study building, and to reduce life cycle impacts of living buildings moving forward

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Foundation Phase Teachers’ Beliefs About Response to Intervention

The purpose of this exploratory cross-sectional survey was to describe teachers’ beliefs about the viability of Response to Intervention (RTI) in the South African classroom. This study was guided by the RTI framework. The sample consisted of 100 Foundation Phase teachers who had to respond to 27 statements on a 5-point Likert-type scale. The majority of respondents believed that mainstream classroom instruction is ineffective in supporting children with special needs and that classroom-based support should be the initial phase for supporting struggling learners. They also recognised the necessity for this support to be within an early intervention model. The majority of respondents believed that learners diagnosed with specific learning disorders required specialised interventions as early as possible and that additional support systems such as support staff and parent/guardian support in the intervention planning and intervention implementation process are vital for support interventions.Mini Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2021.Educational PsychologyMEdUnrestricte

A study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological ownership in organizational settings

Psychological ownership is a feeling of possession in the absence of any formal or legal claims of ownership. In this study, the authors aimed to extend previous empirical testing of psychological ownership in work settings to encompass both job-based and organization-based psychological ownership as well as related work attitudes and behavioral outcomes. Questionnaire data from 68 employees and their managers revealed that job-based psychological ownership and organization-based psychological ownership are distinct work attitudes that are distinguishable from job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Psychological ownership predicted job satisfaction and organizational commitment and mediated the relationship between autonomy and these work attitudes. There was no support for a relationship between psychological ownership and behavioral outcomes. The authors discuss the limitations of the study and the implications of psychological ownership

Navigating Surgical Decision Making in Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)

Surgical management of disorders of sex development (DSD) is associated with contentious debate between and within stakeholder communities. While the intent of surgical management of the genitals and gonads is to benefit the patient physically and psychosocially, these goals have not always been achieved; reports of harm have surfaced. Harm experienced by some patients has resulted in the emergence of an activist platform calling for a moratorium on all surgical procedures during childhood–excepting those forestalling threats to life within the childhood years. This ban is not universally endorsed by patient advocacy groups. Parents, meanwhile, continue to need to make decisions regarding surgical options for their young children. Constructive paths forward include implementation of Consensus Statement recommendations that call for comprehensive and integrated team care, incorporating mental health services, and adopting shared decision making

Stable Kinetochore-Microtubule Attachment Constrains Centromere Positioning in Metaphase

With a single microtubule attachment, budding-yeast kinetochores provide an excellent system for understanding the coordinated linkage to dynamic microtubule plus ends for chromosome oscillation and positioning. Fluorescent tagging of kinetochore proteins indicates that, on average, all centromeres are clustered, distinctly separated from their sisters, and positioned equidistant from their respective spindle poles during metaphase. However, individual fluorescent chromosome markers near the centromere transiently reassociate with their sisters and oscillate from one spindle half to the other. To reconcile the apparent disparity between the average centromere position and individual centromere proximal markers, we utilized fluorescence recovery after photobleaching to measure stability of the histone-H3 variant Cse4p/CENP-A. Newly synthesized Cse4p replaces old protein during DNA replication. Once assembled, Cse4-GFP is a physically stable component of centromeres during mitosis. This allowed us to follow centromere dynamics within each spindle half. Kinetochores remain stably attached to dynamic microtubules and exhibit a low incidence of switching orientation or position between the spindle halves. Switching of sister chromatid attachment may be contemporaneous with Cse4p exchange and early kinetochore assembly during S phase; this would promote mixing of chromosome attachment to each spindle pole. Once biorientation is attained, centromeres rarely make excursions beyond their proximal half spindle

Attentive Reading and Constrained Summarization (ARCS) in two women with moderate-severe Wernicke’s Type Aphasia

Word-finding difficulty, a hallmark of aphasia, can substantially affect communication. Individuals with Wernicke’s type aphasia exhibit discourse characterized by word-retrieval impairments including neologisms and paraphasias (M. Nicholas, Obler, Albert, & Helm-Estabrooks, 1985; Silver & Halpern, 1992). Recently, evidence suggests that discourse level treatments improve word-retrieval processing in people with aphasia (for a review, see Boyle, 2011). The current feasibility study examined the use of a cognitive-linguistic discourse therapy, Attentive Reading and Constrained Summarization (ARCS) (Rogalski & Edmonds, 2008), as a means of improving word retrieval in two women with Wernicke’s type aphasia

Acetylation in Stable Microtubules

Microtubules are an essential part of the cytoskeleton and assist in multiple cellular processes like intracellular transport and cell division. Acetylation in microtubules is a prominent post-translational modification in neurons and it is also a well-known marker of stable microtubules. However, it is not known why stable microtubules are more acetylated than dynamic microtubules. There are two models to explain this phenomenon. The first is that stable microtubules are preferably acetylated and the second is that both are acetylated equally, but dynamic microtubules are destabilized by acetylation. Previous research has shown that dynamic microtubules may in fact be preferentially acetylated, supporting the second model. We have found that at physiological salt concentrations, short dynamic microtubules are more acetylated but no correlation was found between length and extent of acetylation in stable microtubules. We are currently studying how acetylation varies in stable and dynamic microtubules by measuring the rate of change of lengths of acetylated microtubules.This research was supported by the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP).Parmar, Sneha; Coombes, Courtney E; Gardner, Melissa. (2017). Acetylation in Stable Microtubules. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/188038

Novel global effector mining from the transcriptome of early life stages of the soybean cyst nematode Heterodera glycines

Soybean cyst nematode (SCN) Heterodera glycines is an obligate parasite that relies on the secretion of effector proteins to manipulate host cellular processes that favor the formation of a feeding site within host roots to ensure its survival. The sequence complexity and co-evolutionary forces acting upon these effectors remain unknown. Here we generated a de novo transcriptome assembly representing the early life stages of SCN in both a compatible and an incompatible host interaction to facilitate global effector mining efforts in the absence of an available annotated SCN genome. We then employed a dual effector prediction strategy coupling a newly developed nematode effector prediction tool, N-Preffector, with a traditional secreted protein prediction pipeline to uncover a suite of novel effector candidates. Our analysis distinguished between effectors that co-evolve with the host genotype and those conserved by the pathogen to maintain a core function in parasitism and demonstrated that alternative splicing is one mechanism used to diversify the effector pool. In addition, we confirmed the presence of viral and microbial inhabitants with molecular sequence information. This transcriptome represents the most comprehensive whole-nematode sequence currently available for SCN and can be used as a tool for annotation of expected genome assemblies