Using Computer Conferencing Technology To Assist Collaboration between Higher Education Faculty; Student Teachers and K-12 Practitioners

The College of Education at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) created collaborative partnerships with nine major school districts in Iowa in order to establish several kinds of relationships between practitioners and university faculty which computer networks facilitated. A new Cobra computer conference system was expanded to the nine regional off-campus centers where UNI student teachers were working; and modem-equipped portable computers were linked to the campus through a WATTS telephone line. Personnel; including field-based personnel and practitioners; were then able to communicate with nearly all offices on UNI campus through E-mail and computer conferences. Further programs have recruited teachers as center Cadre members. The ability to connect campus faculty to field practitioners has positively affected the teacher education program at UNI. Classroom teachers have been a valuable resource for teacher trainees and student teachers; they have influenced university committee decisions; impacted curriculum content and methods classes; and enhanced rapport between faculty and teachers. When faculty and teachers talked about a mutual interest; traditional barriers tended to disappear. Student teachers have benefited through more frequent communication; and their cooperating teachers\u27 interest in Cobra was heightened. Lessons proposed for similar programs are: (1) keep technical information simple; (2) establish leadership and commitment; and (3) find ways to introduce computer network users face-to-face to build rapport. Contains 8 references. (JB

Quality of life: perspectives and review

This monograph, first in a series from the North Central Regional Project 128 (NC-128) Quality of Life Project, describes the project’s theoretical foundations and objectives and gives a review of literature related to quality of life in the United States. The well-being of persons both individually and collectively has been a subject for study from several perspectives and at various levels of discrimination.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/specialreports/1082/thumbnail.jp

Classroom Teacher Cadres: A Partnership between Agencies That Is Designed To Inspire and Model Best Teaching/Learning Practices for Student Teachers

This paper describes how the University of Northern Iowa constructed formal networks that increased communications with public school practitioners and infused new ideas into the teacher training program. Faculty in the Office of Student Field Experience decided all regional campuses of the university should provide some common experiences for teacher trainees; including not only a common core curriculum; but similar structures for delivery as well. The core curriculum was built on five ingredients: teaching experiences; seminars; journals; conferences; and action research projects. Each regional partnership agreed to arrange pre-student teaching field experiences and a semester of student teaching; as well as hiring clinical supervisors from local schools; establishing regional advisory groups; and establishing a position for a resident professor. Communication among students; faculty; and clinical supervisors at the 12 statewide regional sites improved enormously with the implementation of an E-mail network (supported with telecommunications training for participants); the first of many major expenses that challenged the budget of the project. Suggestions for creative funding of such programs are discussed. Overall; the system of partnerships between local school systems and the state universities was found to produce a better-prepared cadre of teachers and benefit all parties concerned. (PB

Field Responsive; Center Specific: A Model for Collaborative Partnerships

A description is given of the Regional Partnership Program; a field-responsive; center-specific model established at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) designed to oversee clinical field experiences for student teachers. This cooperative partnership calls for a resident tenure track professor to be placed in a geographic area away from the main campus for the purpose of directing the student teaching program; teaching extension courses and being involved in other activities designed by the university. The model involves six regional districts specifically located across the state in such a fashion as to cause the university to be in touch with all areas of the state. The six regional districts serve as the administrative units for the field program; thus allowing the decision-making process to be more closely aligned to the activities and needs of the field. All partnerships have been developed to allow for the incorporation of a cadre of educational practitioners who participate in the management of the regional center and advise the university on matters related to the total education program. The center-specific component of the UNI partnership program was designed to encourage creativity and to respond to regional needs. Cadre involvement extends beyond clinical field experience activities and cadre members are involved in a variety of teacher education matters. (JD

Pollination by hoverflies in the Anthropocene

Pollinator declines, changes in land use and climate-induced shifts in phenology have the potential to seriously affect ecosystem function and food security by disrupting pollination services provided by insects. Much of the current research focuses on bees, or groups other insects together as ‘non-bee pollinators’, obscuring the relative contribution of this diverse group of organisms. Prominent among the ‘non-bee pollinators’ are the hoverflies, known to visit at least 72% of global food crops, which we estimate to be worth around US$300 billion per year, together with over 70% of animal pollinated wildflowers. In addition, hoverflies provide ecosystem functions not seen in bees, such as crop protection from pests, recycling of organic matter and long-distance pollen transfer. Migratory species, in particular, can be hugely abundant and unlike many insect pollinators, do not yet appear to be in serious decline. In this review, we contrast the roles of hoverflies and bees as pollinators, discuss the need for research and monitoring of different pollinator responses to anthropogenic change and examine emerging research into large populations of migratory hoverflies, the threats they face and how they might be used to improve sustainable agriculture

Networking Practitioners To Impact Teacher Education

A description is given of the Regional Partnership Program; a field-responsive; center-specific model established at the University of Northern Iowa; designed to oversee clinical field experiences for student teachers. The model involves six regional districts specifically located across the state which serve as the administrative units for the field program. All of the centers have a common structure to allow for program continuity. Several examples of this continuity include: (1) every center has a tenure track professor who is the administrator for all aspects of the center\u27s operation; (2) all centers have implemented a full semester student teaching curriculum; and (3) all center partnerships have established an advisory cadre of local educational practitioners; consisting of at least five professional educators from regional schools. Individual cadres are free to engage in projects they believe are pertinent to their needs. The center-specific component of this partnership program is designed to encourage creativity to respond to regional needs. Cadre involvement extends beyond clinical field experience activities because cadre members are involved in a variety of teacher education matters. Each regional partnership structures the student teaching clinical field experience in ways that best fit the regional district. (JD

Atomic structure study of the pyrochlore Yb₂Ti₂O₇ and its relationship with low-temperature magnetic order

There has been great interest in the magnetic behavior of pyrochlore oxides with the general formula A2B2O7, in which rare-earth (A) and transition metal (B) cations are ordered on separate interpenetrating lattices of corner-sharing tetrahedra. Such materials exhibit behaviors including quantum spin-ice, (quantum) spin-liquid, and ordered magnetic ground states. Yb2Ti2O7 lies on the boundary between a number of competing magnetic ground states. Features in the low-temperature specific heat capacity that vary in sharpness and temperature from sample to sample suggest that, in some cases, the magnetic moments order, while in others, the moments remain dynamic down to temperatures as low as ∼16 mK. In this paper, three different Yb2Ti2O7 samples, all grown by the optical floating zone technique but exhibiting quite different heat capacity behavior, are studied by aberration-corrected scanning transmission microscopy (STEM). Atomic-scale energy-dispersive x-ray analysis shows that a crystal with no specific heat anomaly has substitution of Yb atoms on Ti sites (stuffing). We show that the detailed intensity distribution around the visible atomic columns in annular dark field STEM images is sensitive to the presence of nearby atoms of low atomic number (in this case oxygen) and find significant differences between the samples that correlate both with their magnetic behavior and measurements of Ti oxidation state using electron energy loss spectroscopy. These measurements support the view that the magnetic ground state of Yb2Ti2O7 is extremely sensitive to disorder

Multimodal synergisms in host stimuli drive landing response in malaria mosquitoes

Anopheles mosquitoes transmit malaria, which affects one-fifth of the world population. A comprehensive understanding of mosquito behaviour is essential for the development of novel tools for vector control and surveillance. Despite abundant research on mosquito behaviour, little is known on the stimuli that drive malaria vectors during the landing phase of host-seeking. Using behavioural assays with a multimodal step approach we quantified both the individual and the combined effect of three host-associated stimuli in eliciting landing in Anopheles coluzzii females. We demonstrated that visual, olfactory and thermal sensory stimuli interact synergistically to increase the landing response. Furthermore, if considering only the fnal outcome (i.e. landing response), our insect model can bypass the absence of either a thermal or a visual stimulus, provided that at least one of these is presented simultaneously with the olfactory stimuli, suggesting that landing is the result of a flexible but accurate stimuli integration. These results have important implications for the development of mosquito control and surveillance tools

Historically unprecedented Northern Gulf of Mexico hurricane activity from 650 to 1250 CE

© The Author(s), 2020. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Rodysill, J. R., Donnelly, J. P., Sullivan, R., Lane, P. D., Toomey, M., Woodruff, J. D., Hawkes, A. D., MacDonald, D., d'Entremont, N., McKeon, K., Wallace, E., & van Hengstum, P. J. Historically unprecedented Northern Gulf of Mexico hurricane activity from 650 to 1250 CE. Scientific Reports, 10(1), (2020): 19092. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-75874-0.Hurricane Michael (2018) was the first Category 5 storm on record to make landfall on the Florida panhandle since at least 1851 CE (Common Era), and it resulted in the loss of 59 lives and $25 billion in damages across the southeastern U.S. This event placed a spotlight on recent intense (exceeding Category 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale) hurricane landfalls, prompting questions about the natural range in variability of hurricane activity that the instrumental record is too short to address. Of particular interest is determining whether the frequency of recent intense hurricane landfalls in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is within or outside the natural range of intense hurricane activity prior to 1851 CE. In this study, we identify intense hurricane landfalls in northwest Florida during the past 2000 years based on coarse anomaly event detection from two coastal lacustrine sediment archives. We identified a historically unprecedented period of heightened storm activity common to four Florida panhandle localities from 650 to 1250 CE and a shift to a relatively quiescent storm climate in the GOM spanning the past six centuries. Our study provides long-term context for events like Hurricane Michael and suggests that the observational period 1851 CE to present may underrepresent the natural range in landfalling hurricane activity.Funding for this project was provided by the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) grant and NSF awards 0903020, 1902463, and 1854980 awarded to Jeffrey Donnelly, and the USGS Land Change Science Program

Impacts of Climate Change on indirect human exposure to pathogens and chemicals from agriculture

Objective: Climate change is likely to affect the nature of pathogens and chemicals in the environment and their fate and transport. Future risks of pathogens and chemicals could therefore be very different from those of today. In this review, we assess the implications of climate change for changes in human exposures to pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems in the United Kingdom and discuss the subsequent effects on health impacts. Data sources: In this review, we used expert input and considered literature on climate change ; health effects resulting from exposure to pathogens and chemicals arising from agriculture ; inputs of chemicals and pathogens to agricultural systems ; and human exposure pathways for pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems. Data synthesis: We established the current evidence base for health effects of chemicals and pathogens in the agricultural environment ; determined the potential implications of climate change on chemical and pathogen inputs in agricultural systems ; and explored the effects of climate change on environmental transport and fate of different contaminant types. We combined these data to assess the implications of climate change in terms of indirect human exposure to pathogens and chemicals in agricultural systems. We then developed recommendations on future research and policy changes to manage any adverse increases in risks. Conclusions: Overall, climate change is likely to increase human exposures to agricultural contaminants. The magnitude of the increases will be highly dependent on the contaminant type. Risks from many pathogens and particulate and particle-associated contaminants could increase significantly. These increases in exposure can, however, be managed for the most part through targeted research and policy changes