Virtual Communities of Practice for Non-Native K-12 Spanish Educators as Professional Development

Many world language and culture educators are non-native speakers of the language they teach. Although the current face-to-face professional development sessions do a good job in helping educators acquire technology tools to implement in their world language classrooms, professional development lacks in target language enrichment and providing ongoing collaboration among world language educators who are geographically dispersed. Additionally, the cost of attending state-wide, regional, and national world language professional development is very expensive and thus many world language educators cannot take part in these trainings. Consequently, many world language educators do not have the professional training they need to improve their teaching of language and culture. Because of the shortage of professional development opportunities for world language educators, the researcher created a virtual community of practice for non-native Spanish educators. This online community provided a platform for non-native educators from Mississippi and Iowa where they accessed various technology tools tutorials created by the researcher, posted to the virtual community how they would use these technology tools in their Spanish classes, commented on how their teaching ideas connected to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines, and developed ongoing professional relationships with other Spanish educators. The research study lasted seven weeks where there were two groups of participants: a Spanish group and an English group. The Spanish group communicated only in Spanish whereas the English group communicated in English. After the seven weeks of online collaboration, both the Spanish group’s participants and the English group’s participants showed an increase in the three areas of language acquisition: writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. During and after the study, participants provided unsolicited comments about the virtual community of practice. In the participants’ comments, educators mentioned that they would like to see more online professional development that is ongoing similar to this research study. Other participants also stated that they used their participation in the virtual community of practice study for teacher recertification and appraisal at their schools and districts. Even after the study had ended, there were still some educators who posted work created with the technology tools and using the target language into the virtual community of practice for peer feedback

Determining kinetic constants and transport efficiencies at membrane interfaces to optimize the removal/recovery of Cu(II) through lulk liquid membranes containing benzoylacetone as carrier

The removal, separation, and enrichment of heavy metals in aqueous solutions has become a prime concern over the last few decades because of both their adverse effects on the ecosystem and living organisms and their valuable resource character. This paper describes a study to optimize the simultaneous removal/ recovery of Cu(II) from aqueous solutions by bulk liquid membranes, through a facilitated countertransport mechanism using benzoylacetone as a mobile carrier and hydrochloric acid as a stripping agent (protons as counter ions), by analyzing the effect of different operational variables (carrier concentration in membrane phase, stripping agent concentration in product phase, stirring rate, and membrane phase volume) on the removal/recovery kinetics constants and on the transport efficiencies through the feed/membrane and membrane/product interfaces.We would like to thank Mr. A. Guzmán and Mr. J.A. López for manufacturing the experimental cell

La Seguridad Digital y su Importancia en la Formación del Profesorado. Análisis del Comportamiento Online de estudiantes en el contexto checo y polaco

Internet use has skyrocketed in recent years, leading to risky behaviour such as online aggression. The aim of this study was to analyse the risks in the online environment of Czech and Polish students, with a special focus on online aggression. A quantitative approach was employed using an online survey. A total of 13657 students from the Czech Republic and Poland, aged 7-17 years (M = 13.75; SD = 3.85), participated in the study. The results revealed the apps most used by children (mostly YouTube, Facebook and Instagram) and online safety issues such as user theft, sexting and cyber-aggression. Finally, the implications of this work are discussed, highlighting the richness of the data obtained in relation to risk behaviours on the Internet during the Covid-19 pandemic.El uso de Internet se ha disparado en los últimos años, lo que ha dado lugar a comportamientos de riesgo como las agresiones en línea. El objetivo de este estudio era analizar los riesgos en el entorno online de los estudiantes checos y polacos, con especial atención a la agresión online. Se empleó un enfoque cuantitativo mediante una encuesta en línea. Participaron en el estudio un total de 13657 estudiantes de la República Checa y Polonia, con edades comprendidas entre los 7 y los 17 años (M = 13,75; SD = 3,85). Los resultados revelaron las aplicaciones más utilizadas por los niños (principalmente YouTube, Facebook e Instagram) y los problemas de seguridad en línea, como el robo de usuarios, el sexting y las ciberagresiones. Por último, se discuten las implicaciones de este trabajo, destacando la riqueza de los datos obtenidos en relación con los comportamientos de riesgo en Internet durante la pandemia de Covid-19.Czech Republic-Poland Programme (CZ.11.4.120/0.0/0.0/17_028/0001654

Urbanization Increases Seed Dispersal Interaction Diversity but Decreases Dispersal Success in Toxicodendron Radicans

Urbanization is increasing at a rapid pace with negative consequences for native biodiversity. While it is well-known that urbanization can lead to biotic homogenization (dominance of a few competitive species), effects of urbanization on ecological functions that rely on the frequency and efficiency of species interactions are less understood. Seed dispersal success depends on seed disperser feeding rate and diversity, which can affect the probability of fruit removal (i.e. seed dispersal) and germination rates. However, how these factors are affected by urbanization is unknown. In this study, we evaluate the effects of urbanization on factors that contribute to seed dispersal success (seed disperser diversity, frequency, probability of fruit removal and germination rate using Toxicodendron radicans and its seed disperser community as a model system. We found that urban sites had three times more disperser species and two times higher feeding rate compared to natural sites. However, the probability of individual fruit removal did not differ between natural and urban sites. Moreover, germination rate after dispersal was 20% lower in urban sites, leading to overall negative effects of urbanization on T. radicans seed dispersal. We propose differences in seed germination rate are driven by changes in seed disperser species composition and their differences in seed gut transit time. This in turn affects disperser species’ ability to successfully scarify seeds. Overall, our results highlight the need to evaluate urbanization\u27s effects on functional ecological processes, in addition to biotic homogenization effects, in order better understand and mitigate its negative impacts on biodiversity

Preference for Curvature: A Historical and Conceptual Framework

That people find curved contours and lines more pleasurable than straight ones is a recurrent observation in the aesthetic literature. Although such observation has been tested sporadically throughout the history of scientific psychology, only during the last decade has it been the object of systematic research. Recent studies lend support to the idea that human preference for curved contours is biologically determined. However, it has also been argued that this preference is a cultural phenomenon. In this article, we review the available evidence, together with different attempts to explain the nature of preference for curvature: sensoriomotor-based and valuation-based approaches. We also argue that the lack of a unifying framework and clearly defined concepts might be undermining our efforts towards a better understanding of the nature of preference for curvature. Finally, we point to a series of unresolved matters as the starting point to further develop a consistent research program.This study was funded by research grants FFI2010-20759 and FFI2013-43270-P from the Spanish Government—Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (http://www.mineco.gob.es). GG-P was supported by the grant BES-2011-047441.Peer reviewedPeer Reviewe

MatSWMM - An open-source toolbox for designing real-time control of urban drainage systems

This manuscript describes the MatSWMM toolbox, an open-source Matlab, Python, and LabVIEW-based software package for the analysis and design of real-time control (RTC) strategies in urban drainage systems (UDS). MatSWMM includes control-oriented models of UDS, and the storm water management model (SWMM) of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as well as systematic-system edition functionalities. Furthermore, MatSWMM is also provided with a population-dynamics-based controller for UDS with three of the fundamental dynamics, i.e., the Smith, projection, and replicator dynamics. The simulation algorithm, and a detailed description of the features of MatSWMM are presented in this manuscript in order to illustrate the capabilities that the tool has for educational and research purposes.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft