Weighing In: Rural Iowa Principals’ Perceptions of State-Mandated Teaching Evaluation Standards

As the accountability movement has gained momentum, policy makers and educators have strived to strike a difficult balance between the sometimes competing demands at the local, state, and federal levels. Efforts to improve accountability and teacher evaluation have taken an especially unique route in Iowa, where local control and resistance to state mandated curricular standards have been popular topics from the statehouse to the convenience store. This research explores principals’ impressions of Iowa’s state-mandated standards for best-practice teaching (as opposed to state mandated curricular standards). Further, the research examined the extent to which the Iowa Teaching Standards (ITS) and accompanying Iowa Evaluator Approval Training Program (IEATP) have impacted the way teacher evaluations are conducted in the state’s rural schools. Evidence indicates that most principals felt that ITS and the accompanying IEATP made them feel adequately or very well prepared to conduct teacher evaluations. In addition, 65% of respondents reported that IAETP had changed the way teachers are evaluated

Listening to Students: Voices From the Inner City

What do students in Catholic schools view as important aspects of their unique form of education? They want a safe environment for learning, caring and concerned teachers, high expectations for learning, responsibility and respect in the school community, and a clear sense of how school relates to success in life. This article describes a study which clearly documents student perceptions and values

Coyote, Canis latrans, Predation on a Bison, Bison bison, Calf in Yellowstone National Park

We observed a single adult male Coyote (Canis latrans) kill a Bison (Bison bison) calf in Yellowstone National Park. The predation is, to our knowledge, the only direct and complete observation of a lone Coyote capturing and killing a Bison calf. The bison calf had unsuccessfully attempted to ford a river with a group and subsequently become stranded alone in the territory of a six-year-old alpha male Coyote

Exploration and Production Program for Locating and Producing Prospective Aquifers Containing Solution Gas and Free Gas- Texas Gulf Coast

This project was designed to locate and evaluate a prospective watered-out gas reservoir in the Texas Gulf Coast inland area. The prospective reservoir was to be suitable for application of enhanced gas recovery methods for producing the unconventional gas that remained in the reservoir after primary gas production ceased. A test well site would be located within a favorable prospect area. Previous work conducted by the Bureau of Economic Geology for the U.S. Department of Energy focused on the selection of test well sites in the Frio Formation and Wilcox Group of the Texas Gulf Coast. These studies were intended to make use of thermal energy, mechanical energy, and gas dissolved in formation waters by producing large volumes of hot water from deep, highly pressured formations. In this project, funded by the Gas Research Institute, interest shifted to locating prospective reservoirs containing significant quantities of free gas in addition to the gas dissolved in the water. Abandoned watered-out reservoirs and wet zones where large amounts of water must be produced to obtain the gas by co-production were identified. The present project, funded by the Gas Research Institute, shows their continuing interest in unconventional gas and in developing prospects that are favorable for co-production of gas and water from watered-out gas reservoirs. Guidelines used to screen gas fields along the Texas Gulf Coast resulted in the selection of the Port Arthur field, Jefferson County, Texas, as a suitable prospect for application of enhanced gas recovery methods. Several watered-out gas sandstones in this field have excellent reservoir characteristics. All 18 wells in the field have been plugged and abandoned by previous operators; hence, leasing problems should be simplified. Abundant shallow Miocene sands in the area are available for salt-water disposal. The "C" reservoir interval, located at an average depth of 11,130 ft, received the most extensive evaluation. Predicted gas recovery by natural flow is 5.1 billion standard cubic feet as reservoir pressure declines from 6,632 to 4,309 psig. A sample economic analysis showed a net present worth of $968,000 and a payout time of 3 years. This prospect has the potential to be economically profitable in addition to being a good research and development test for evaluating co-production techniques. It is recommended that a co-production well be drilled and tested on a site near the Meredith No. 2 Doornbos (Well 14).Bureau of Economic Geolog

Exploration and Production Program for Locating and Producing Prospective Aquifers Containing Solution Gas and Free Gas Texas Gulf Coast - Annual Report

The Port Arthur field in Jefferson County, Texas, has been identified as a promising candidate for secondary enhanced gas recovery methods due to its multiple watered-out gas reservoirs, thick aquifers, and gas stringer sandstones at depths ranging from 10,850 to 11,700 feet. Sidewall core data indicate an average porosity of 30 percent and average permeability of 60 millidarcies (md). Reservoir simulation studies suggest that approximately 3.91 billion standard cubic feet of unconventional gas can be recovered through natural flow from the 11 C" sandstone over a 10-year period, by reducing reservoir pressure from 6,500 to 4,018 pounds per square inch gauge (psig). The break-even gas price is estimated to be $3.45 per thousand standard cubic feet for a 15-percent rate of return. Additional gas recovery opportunities exist through co-production from other sandstones and by further reducing reservoir pressure using artificial lift methods. It is recommended to drill a design test well to a depth of 11,650 feet at a location near the Meredith No. 2 Doornbos (Well No. 14). This test well will help evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of secondary enhanced gas recovery techniques in the Port Arthur field.Bureau of Economic Geolog

Core excitations across the neutron shell gap in ²⁰⁷Tl

The single closed-neutron-shell, one proton-hole nucleus 207Tl was populated in deep-inelastic collisions of a 208Pb beam with a 208Pb target. The yrast and near-yrast level scheme has been established up to high excitation energy, comprising an octupol

The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: photometric precision and ghost analysis

The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) is a first-light instrument for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) that will be used to sample the corrected adaptive optics field by NFIRAOS with a near-infrared (0.8 - 2.4 $\mu$m) imaging camera and Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS). In order to understand the science case specifications of the IRIS instrument, we use the IRIS data simulator to characterize photometric precision and accuracy of the IRIS imager. We present the results of investigation into the effects of potential ghosting in the IRIS optical design. Each source in the IRIS imager field of view results in ghost images on the detector from IRIS's wedge filters, entrance window, and Atmospheric Dispersion Corrector (ADC) prism. We incorporated each of these ghosts into the IRIS simulator by simulating an appropriate magnitude point source at a specified pixel distance, and for the case of the extended ghosts redistributing flux evenly over the area specified by IRIS's optical design. We simulate the ghosting impact on the photometric capabilities, and found that ghosts generally contribute negligible effects on the flux counts for point sources except for extreme cases where ghosts coalign with a star of $\Delta$m$>$2 fainter than the ghost source. Lastly, we explore the photometric precision and accuracy for single sources and crowded field photometry on the IRIS imager.Comment: SPIE 2018, 14 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables, Proceedings of SPIE 10702-373, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VII, 10702A7 (16 July 2018

Characterizing the Cool KOIs. VI. H- and K-band Spectra of Kepler M Dwarf Planet-Candidate Hosts

We present H- and K-band spectra for late-type Kepler Objects of Interest (the "Cool KOIs"): low-mass stars with transiting-planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission that are listed on the NASA Exoplanet Archive. We acquired spectra of 103 Cool KOIs and used the indices and calibrations of Rojas-Ayala et al. to determine their spectral types, stellar effective temperatures and metallicities, significantly augmenting previously published values. We interpolate our measured effective temperatures and metallicities onto evolutionary isochrones to determine stellar masses, radii, luminosities and distances, assuming the stars have settled onto the main-sequence. As a choice of isochrones, we use a new suite of Dartmouth predictions that reliably include mid-to-late M dwarf stars. We identify five M4V stars: KOI-961 (confirmed as Kepler 42), KOI-2704, KOI-2842, KOI-4290, and the secondary component to visual binary KOI-1725, which we call KOI-1725 B. We also identify a peculiar star, KOI-3497, which has a Na and Ca lines consistent with a dwarf star but CO lines consistent with a giant. Visible-wavelength adaptive optics imaging reveals two objects within a 1 arc second diameter; however, the objects' colors are peculiar. The spectra and properties presented in this paper serve as a resource for prioritizing follow-up observations and planet validation efforts for the Cool KOIs, and are all available for download online using the "data behind the figure" feature.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS). Data and table are available in the sourc