The shift in active shooter preparedness after Columbine

Presentation for Spring 2019 Undergraduate Research Exposition. The purpose of this research was to explore the changes in education systems' and emergency management agencies' perception of school violence after the mass school shooting at Columbine High School in 1999

Sexual Assault Prevalence in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Communities

Presentation for Spring 2019 Undergraduate Research Exposition. Explores the shocking statistics of the rate of sexual assault in deaf and hard of hearing communities and pushes for greater advocacy for this population of people

Using Physiological Conditions To Assess Current And Future Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica) Habitat Use In The Subarctic

Arctic regions are experiencing the disproportionate impacts of climate change. Animals that are dependent on the environment to meet physiological requirements are highly susceptible to changing conditions. Rana sylvatica (wood frogs) must use habitats that balance thermal and hydric physiological requirements. I investigated how environmental conditions and habitat characteristics influence wood frog physiology and habitat use near Churchill, Manitoba. I used validated plaster models to estimate water balance and body temperature throughout the Subarctic. I found that water loss rates were greater in the tundra than in the boreal forest and ecotone macrohabitat types. Wood frogs are more likely to use microhabitat locations where there is decreased water loss rates and increased surface moisture. Frogs are also more likely to frequent locations with increased cover from vegetation and decreased exposure to harmful environmental conditions. I also found that physiological conditions can be predicted by using measured environmental conditions. Maintaining water balance is important for frogs in Subarctic landscapes. However, maintaining physiological conditions may be particularly challenging for amphibians found in extreme environments that are vulnerable to future climate change. Predictions of physiological conditions can help us understand how these Arctic and Subarctic amphibians will respond to changes in habitat suitability

The effects of a system-wide mentoring program on beginning teacher retention rates

The purpose of this evaluation is to determine how a systemwide mentoring program affects new teacher retention rates. There are several different types of mentoring programs in the world of education that could be used to support growth in new teachers. The school system being evaluated has recently changed from having schoolbased mentors to having systemwide fulltime mentors. These mentors work with new teachers sometimes as much as once a week in order to promote growth and provide support to the beginning teachers. In this transition year, the school system provides first year teachers with a fulltime, systemwide mentor. The second year teachers continue to have schoolbased mentors. This study looks at the differences between the two types of programs and evaluates their effectiveness. This study also looks at how the two different types of mentoring programs affect new teacher retention rates. The results of the study show that systemwide mentors proved to be more effective and helpful to the beginning teachers. However, the study also shows that the preliminary results do not prove that systemwide mentoring programs increase the average retention rate. There are several other factors besides mentoring that leads to teacher turnover, many of which are discussed in this study

Study of B -> \rho \pi decays at Belle

This paper describes a study of B meson decays to the pseudoscalar-vector final state \rho\pi using 31.9\times 10^6 B\bar{B} events collected with the Belle detector at KEKB. The branching fractions B(B^+ \to \rho^0\pi^+) = (8.0^{+2.3+0.7}_{-2.0-0.7}) \times 10^{-6} and B(B^0 -> \rho^{+-} \pi^{-+}) = (20.8^{+6.0+2.8}_{-6.3-3.1}) \times 10^{-6} are obtained. In addition, a 90% confidence level upper limit of B(B^0 \to \rho^0\pi^0) < 5.3 \times 10^{-6}is reported.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Lett.

Improved Measurements of Partial Rate Asymmetry in B -> h h Decays

We report improved measurements of the partial rate asymmetry (Acp) in B -> h h decays with 140fb^-1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider. Here h stands for a charged or neutral pion or kaon and in total five decay modes are included: K-+ pi+-, K0s pi-+, K-+ pi0, pi-+ pi0 and K0s pi0. The flavor of the last decay mode is determined from the accompanying B meson. Using a data sample 4.7 times larger than that of our previous measurement, we find Acp(K-+ pi+-) -0.088+-0.035+-0.013, 2.4 sigma from zero. Results for other decay modes are also presented.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Search for CP violation in the decay B0->D*+-D-+

We report a search for CP-violating asymmetry in B0 -> D*+- D-+ decays. The analysis employs two methods of B0 reconstruction: full and partial. In the full reconstruction method all daughter particles of the B0 are required to be detected; the partial reconstruction technique requires a fully reconstructed D- and only a slow pion from the D*+ -> D0 pi_slow+ decay. From a fit to the distribution of the time interval corresponding to the distance between two B meson decay points we calculate the CP-violating parameters and find the significance of nonzero CP asymmetry to be 2.7 standard deviations.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Measurements of neutrino oscillation in appearance and disappearance channels by the T2K experiment with 6.6 x 10(20) protons on target

111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee comments111 pages, 45 figures, submitted to Physical Review D. Minor revisions to text following referee commentsWe thank the J-PARC staff for superb accelerator performance and the CERN NA61/SHINE Collaboration for providing valuable particle production data. We acknowledge the support of MEXT, Japan; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CEA and CNRS/IN2P3, France; DFG, Germany; INFN, Italy; National Science Centre (NCN), Poland; RSF, RFBR and MES, Russia; MINECO and ERDF funds, Spain; SNSF and SER, Switzerland; STFC, UK; and the U. S. Deparment of Energy, USA. We also thank CERN for the UA1/NOMAD magnet, DESY for the HERA-B magnet mover system, NII for SINET4, the WestGrid and SciNet consortia in Compute Canada, GridPP, UK, and the Emerald High Performance Computing facility in the Centre for Innovation, UK. In addition, participation of individual researchers and institutions has been further supported by funds from ERC (FP7), EU; JSPS, Japan; Royal Society, UK; and DOE Early Career program, USA

Measurement of the electron neutrino charged-current interaction rate on water with the T2K ND280 pi(0) detector

10 pages, 6 figures, Submitted to PRDhttp://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.91.112010© 2015 American Physical Society11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PRD11 pages, 6 figures, as accepted to PR

Circadian Modulation of Gene Expression, but not Glutamate Uptake, in Mouse and Rat Cortical Astrocytes

Circadian clocks control daily rhythms including sleep-wake, hormone secretion, and metabolism. These clocks are based on intracellular transcription-translation feedback loops that sustain daily oscillations of gene expression in many cell types. Mammalian astrocytes display circadian rhythms in the expression of the clock genes Period1 (Per1) and Period2 (Per2). However, a functional role for circadian oscillations in astrocytes is unknown. Because uptake of extrasynaptic glutamate depends on the presence of Per2 in astrocytes, we asked whether glutamate uptake by glia is circadian.We measured glutamate uptake, transcript and protein levels of the astrocyte-specific glutamate transporter, Glast, and the expression of Per1 and Per2 from cultured cortical astrocytes and from explants of somatosensory cortex. We found that glutamate uptake and Glast mRNA and protein expression were significantly reduced in Clock/Clock, Per2- or NPAS2-deficient glia. Uptake was augmented when the medium was supplemented with dibutyryl-cAMP or B27. Critically, glutamate uptake was not circadian in cortical astrocytes cultured from rats or mice or in cortical slices from mice.We conclude that glutamate uptake levels are modulated by CLOCK, PER2, NPAS2, and the composition of the culture medium, and that uptake does not show circadian variations