Callovian (upper Middle Jurassic) Magnetostratigraphy: A Composite Polarity Pattern From France, Britain and Germany, and its Correlation to the Pacific Marine Magnetic Anomaly Model

Callovian strata from sixteen exposures across western Europe produced a nearly continuous composite geomagnetic polarity reference sequence spanning the latest Bathonian (Clydoniceras discus Zone) through the entire Callovian and into the earliest Oxfordian (Quenstedtoceras mariae zone). This sequence is compiled from multi-section sequences from France and England, a section in southern Germany, and a section on the Isle of Skye (Scotland). These sections are calibrated with ammonite biostratigraphy, brachiopod associations and sequence stratigraphy. Over 400 oriented core samples were subjected to progressive thermal demagnetization and filtered according to magnetic behavior; the highest quality suite produced mean paleopoles of 67.3°N, 174.8°E (dp: 5.0, dm: 7.6) for the English composite, 80.4°N, 137.4°E (dp: 2.7. dm: 3.6) for the French composite, 48°N, 137°E (dp: 8.0, dm: 13.8) on the Isle of Skye and 81.8°N, 171.1°E (dp: 7.6, dm: 10.1) in Southern Germany. The composite polarity pattern for the Callovian shows a trend of longer durations for the normally oriented zones that is interrupted by three clusters of Chrons dominated by their reversed-polarity. The observed Chron duration in addition to the overall trend in orientation mirrors the pattern found from M37 through M39 in the pre-M29 geomagnetic polarity block models based on marine magnetic anomaly analyses from the Pacific Ocean, with the Callovian-Oxfordian boundary occurring within anomaly M37n (tentatively within M37n.1n) and the Callovian-Bathonian boundary falling within M39n

Socioeconomics, self-esteem and locus of control in third grade students

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between third grade students\u27 socioeconomic status and their corresponding levels of self-esteem and locus of control. Students who received free or reduced lunch were determined as lower socioeconomic status as compared to those who paid full price for their lunch. Five third grade classes were chosen in a suburban area of Philadelphia. One hundred children were used for the study. Seventy-two children were recipients of free or reduced lunch and twenty-eight paid full price for their lunches. The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was given as a measure of self-esteem and the Nowicki-Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children was administered as a measure of locus of control. Results did not indicate a relationship between socioeconomics and self-esteem or locus of control. Findings did support a negative correlation between self-esteem and locus of control for all participants

Use of Kindergarten Screening Assessments for the Identification of At-risk Readers

Early identification of students at-risk for reading problems has become a national priority. At the present time, the most commonly used kindergarten screening methods are self-made by local districts and are not considered effective methods of early detection for at-risk readers. This retrospective study involved third, fourth and fifth grade students enrolled in a suburban elementary school during the 2007-2008 school year. The first research question examined the relationship between at-risk status determined with the Kindergarten Screening measure prior to entry into kindergarten and at-risk status determined by Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures administered in the fall of kindergarten. The comparison between the category classifications derived from the Kindergarten Screening Summary Scores and the category classifications derived from the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills Summary Scores produced the best combination of sensitivity and specificity values. The second research question was designed to examine the predictive relationship between the Kindergarten Screening measure and the Kindergarten Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures with Winter Oral Reading Fluency in Grades 1 and 2. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy SkillsSummary score demonstrated greater levels of sensitivity and greater improvement over chance in predicting Grade 1 Winter Oral Reading Fluency than did the Kindergarten Screening measure for two of the three cohorts and greater sensitivity than Letter Naming Fluency or Initial Sound Fluency for all cohorts. The third research question investigated the effectiveness of the reading instruction based on the results of the Kindergarten Summary Scores, Oral Reading Fluency and Measures of Academic Performace scores. Improvements in at-risk status were noted as for Oral Reading Fluency as cohorts progressed through grades 1 and 2; this was followed by a slight decrease in grade 3, and improvements in subsequent cohorts were consistently reported. Improvement between the fall and spring Measures of Academic Performance scores was also reported for each cohort as well as with successive cohorts, suggesting positive effects of general education instruction and remedial efforts. The effect of Socioeconomic Status was investigated through re-examination of each research question, with the inclusion of Disadvantaged and Not Disadvantaged status. Results indicated that the inclusion of Socioeconomic Status is important in the prediction of at risk status, and in the investigation of effectiveness of reading instruction

Devising and Investigating Benefits of Interconnected Interventions to Promote Education Majors\u27 Culturally Responsive Teaching

For five years I have supervised a summer literacy camp that connects graduate education majors with students from diverse ethnicities. Each summer I noted I inadequately challenged the education majors to extend their knowledge, examine their attitudes, and expand their abilities to offer culturally responsive literacy instruction to students in the camp. Therefore, I employed a formative-experimental framework to explore the benefits of adding two interventions to our curriculum to stimulate the education majors’ culturally responsive dispositions. My discoveries indicate teacher educators can help education majors develop culturally responsive understandings, and pedagogical repertoires that meet the needs of students from non-mainstream families

Devising and Investigating Benefits of Interconnected Interventions to Promote Education Majors\u27 Culturally Responsive Teaching

For five years I have supervised a summer literacy camp that connects graduate education majors with students from diverse ethnicities. Each summer I noted I inadequately challenged the education majors to extend their knowledge, examine their attitudes, and expand their abilities to offer culturally responsive literacy instruction to students in the camp. Therefore, I employed a formative-experimental framework to explore the benefits of adding two interventions to our curriculum to stimulate the education majors’ culturally responsive dispositions. My discoveries indicate teacher educators can help education majors develop culturally responsive understandings, and pedagogical repertoires that meet the needs of students from non-mainstream families

Vulnerable Patients, Autonomy, Well-being, and Death

At the beginning of our lives and often at the end, we have important medical decisions made for us by proxy consenters including family, legal guardians, and/or medical professionals. This places us in particularly vulnerable and dependent positions that essentially ‘bookend’ our lives. As a bioethicist, I view as among my duties working to improve the experience of medicine for vulnerable populations as well as advocating for protections for such patients against the poor decision-making of others (and, in rare exceptional cases, even themselves). I’ve opted for a ‘covering concept’ model for my dissertation, which consists of three sizeable papers on related topics. The vulnerable populations I focus on in this project are children, the mentally ill, and the elderly. All three of these papers touch on issues surrounding the authenticity and limits of informed consent, tensions between respecting patient autonomy and promoting patient well-being, and how best to face death. In How to Face the Future: A Model for Delayed Disclosure of Incidental Findings from Pediatric Whole Genome Sequencing, I argue that in cases of widely-focused pediatric genetic testing, consent for release of a limited class of incidental findings should be delayed until the pediatric patient or research subject reaches the age of majority. I also propose a model for delayed disclosure in such cases. In Early Palliative Sedation Therapy and the Challenge of Psychological Suffering, I make the case that current end of life palliative care practices in the United States rationally commit us to the moral permissibility of palliative sedation to alleviate refractory psycho-existential suffering, even in cases where death of the patient is far from imminent. In Cardiac Pacemakers and Withdrawal of Care at the End of Life, I make the case that deactivation of cardiac pacemakers is morally distinct from typical instances of withdrawal of care at the end of life. I argue that in highly dependent patients, pacemaker deactivation is morally akin to voluntary active euthanasia, while in non-highly-dependent patients, pacemaker deactivation only serves to lessen the patient’s quality of life unnecessarily

Surrogate Modelling of Combustion Systems for Robust Optimized Scramjet Design

Substantial computational time to develop high speed propulsion systems is the number one challenge facing future development of thrust producing scramjets over a wide operational envelope. Current designs times are substantial due to the need to solve the Navier-Stokes equations using computational fluid dynamics. The computational time for one point can lead to only a few design choices being run before a decision is required. In order to develop robust design a level of understanding of off design performance is also required. If a single design point requires significant resources in computational time, solving the same geometry over a number of design parameters creates a cost too great for design. To mitigate this cost, Surrogate surface modelling can be used to generate a statistical function for the design space with a sparse data set to capture the optima points as well as how the system behaves during off design performance. This paper focuses on generating surrogate surfaces using the Kriging method, employing results for both the supersonic flow and the reaction mechanisms required to accurately predict the combustion performance which requires chemical kinetics to accurately capture the low residence time inherent in supersonic combustion

“Farm School : Recalling Meaning & Memory of the Lynn Bachman School

This project tells the story of a generation, a region, and a unique educational moment in Appalachian history through a series of hand printed, hand bound, illustrated artists books. Capturing the lived experience of elders in the communities of Polk County, Tennessee and Cherokee County, North Carolina, the research expands our understanding of Appalachian education and social work before public education was introduced to the area. The project appropriately merged Dockery’s interdisciplinary work in visual arts, art education and Appalachian Studies and expanded the scholarship on rural education. Utilizing an arts based research methodology, the research introduces the Lynn Bachman Memorial School and Home to the growing body of literature related to Appalachian Settlement Schools. Three elders were interviewed, an archives of historical and artistic images of the Bachman school was generated, and a limited edition of artists’ books that utilize the heirloom craft of letterpress, photo transfer, and German book binding technique was created