WORKING WITH NÊHIÝAW KNOWLEDGE KEEPERS TO DECOLONIZE ASSESSMENT PRACTICES USED IN GIFTED EDUCATION: A MIXED METHODS STUDY

My research was driven by a conversation with two First Nations students who informed me that the gifted programs at our school were not for them. This conversation lead me to seek evidence for the meta-lesson delivered by their lack of representation, as the effect was marginalization for these students. I needed to define this problem of practice with evidence for the underrepresentation of this population within gifted programs. Thus, the first step of my research was to use quantitative data from one school division, which demonstrated that First Nations children are seriously underrepresented. I also needed to turn to the community to seek input and guidance in ways educational practice could be altered to more effectively identify and nurture the gifts of First Nations students. As the conception of giftedness seemed to be influenced by culture and language, and with guidance from the people within the First Nations community that I already had a relationship with, I focused my research within the Nêhiýaw [Cree] community. Another factor that lead to my decision to work specifically with this group included an understanding that I was working with a construct that is impacted by language and culture so focusing on one cultural was important. The method I used was mixed methods which allowed me to collect and correlate both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were used to frame the problem of practice and to help inform changes in practice. These data included gifted population representation rates and survey data from five gifted education teachers. The quantitative data were linked with the narratives provided by two Knowledge Keepers to provide insight for a working definition for giftedness and to infer possible changes for gifted educational practices. My findings showed that there are noteworthy differences in how giftedness is traditionally defined and nurtured by the Nêhiýaw. Using these new understandings I was able to create a working definition for giftedness as well as suggest some potential changes in practice for the identification and nurturing of Nêhiýaw gifted students

An Assessment of Inheritance Patterns in Two Mutant Eye-color Traits of Drosophila melanogaster

This experiment was a two generation test cross (from F0 to F1 and F1 to F2) to check the patterns of inheritance and their chi-square significance. Wild-type males and females were paired with the opposite sex of the two mutant groups -- Sepia eyes and White eyes. The pairing thus resulted in 4 tube conditions. Generations were counted and identified by sex and phenotype -- Wild-type or Mutant. The next generation was seeded with approximately 6 - 8 individuals from each sex and released once the next generation reached their pupal phase. Fresh tubes were seeded between F1 and F2. Identifying these patterns give us a tried and true method of determining future phenotypes and specific genetic patterns like recessive, dominant, and sex-linked traits. This basic experiment also serves as a baseline experiment to help others in the class with their Drosophila experiments and the data will be shared including several diagrams of inheritance patterns and gene expression

Solanum costaricense Heiser

La Paz, by waterfall, on road to Vara Blanca, about 29 mi. from HerediapublishedVersio

Final Report for Organic Partitioning Resulting from Operation of an INTEC Double-needle Sampler

The double needle sampler testing is a continuation of previous test series that investigated the fate of organic species in the Process Equipment Waste Evaporator (PEWE) system at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center (INTEC). This test series was designed to investigate the effects of operation of the double needle sampling systems on volatile organic constituents in an acidic feed matrix

Demonstration of close-coupled barriers for subsurface containment of buried waste

The primary objective of this project is to develop and demonstrate a close-coupled barrier for the containment of subsurface waste or contaminant migration. A close-coupled barrier is produced by first installing a conventional cement grout curtain followed by a thin lining of a polymer grout. The resultant barrier is a cement polymer composite that has economic benefits derived from the cement and performance benefits from the durable and resistant polymer layer. Close-coupled barrier technology is applicable for final, interim, or emergency containment of subsurface waste forms. Consequently, when considering the diversity of technology application, the construction emplacement and material technology maturity, general site operational requirements, and regulatory compliance incentives, the close-coupled barrier system provides an alternative for any hazardous or mixed waste remediation plan. This paper will discuss the installation of a close-coupled barrier and the subsequent integrity verification. The demonstration will take place at a cold site at the Hanford Geotechnical Test Facility, 400 Area, Hanford, Washington

Cost Comparison for the Transfer of Select Calcined Waste Canisters to the Monitored Geologic Repository at Yucca Mountain, NV

This report performs a life-cycle cost comparison of three proposed canister designs for the shipment and disposition of Idaho National Laboratory high-level calcined waste currently in storage at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center to the proposed national monitored geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Concept A (2 × 10-ft) and Concept B (2 × 15-ft) canisters are comparable in design, but they differ in size and waste loading options and vary proportionally in weight. The Concept C (5.5 × 17.5-ft) canister (also called the “super canister”), while similar in design to the other canisters, is considerably larger and heavier than Concept A and B canisters and has a greater wall thickness. This report includes estimating the unique life-cycle costs for the three canister designs. Unique life-cycle costs include elements such as canister purchase and filling at the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center, cask preparation and roundtrip consignment costs, final disposition in the monitored geologic repository (including canister off-loading and placement in the final waste disposal package for disposition), and cask purchase. Packaging of the calcine "as-is" would save $2.9 to$3.9 billion over direct vitrification disposal in the proposed national monitored geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Using the larger Concept C canisters would use 0.75 mi less of tunnel space, cost $1.3 billion less than 10-ft canisters of Concept A, and would be complete in 6.2 years

Electron-Energy and –Angular Distributions in the Double Photoionization of Helium

Photoelectron spectra of helium have been measured at different angles and at various energies above the double-ionization threshold up to 120 eV to investigate the behavior of the energy and angular distributions, of shake-off electrons. Both energy and angular distributions clearly show a U-shaped profile which turns to a flat curve near threshold pointing to a uniform intensity distribution over the kinetic energy for all angles in this excitation energy regime. Our results for the angular-distribution asymmetry parameter indicate qualitative agreement with theoretical predictions but fail to provide them quantitatively

Ancient DNA reveals the timing and persistence of organellar genetic bottlenecks over 3,000 years of sunflower domestication and improvement

Here, we report a comprehensive paleogenomic study of archaeological and ethnographic sunflower remains that provides significant new insights into the process of domestication of this important crop. DNA from both ancient and historic contexts yielded high proportions of endogenous DNA, and although archaeological DNA was found to be highly degraded, it still provided sufficient coverage to analyze genetic changes over time. Shotgun sequencing data from specimens from the Eden's Bluff archaeological site in Arkansas yielded organellar DNA sequence from specimens up to 3,100 years old. Their sequences match those of modern cultivated sunflowers and are consistent with an early domestication bottleneck in this species. Our findings also suggest that recent breeding of sunflowers has led to a loss of genetic diversity that was present only a century ago in Native American landraces. These breeding episodes also left a profound signature on the mitochondrial and plastid haplotypes in cultivars, as two types were intentionally introduced from other Helianthus species for crop improvement. These findings gained from ancient and historic sunflower specimens underscore how future in-depth gene-based analyses can advance our understanding of the pace and targets of selection during the domestication of sunflower and other crop species

A comparison of two dissimilarity functions for mixed-type predictor variables in the δ-machine

The δ-machine is a statistical learning tool for classification based on dissimilarities or distances between profiles of the observations to profiles of a representation set, which was proposed by Yuan et al. (J Claasif 36(3): 442–470, 2019). So far, the δ-machine was restricted to continuous predictor variables only. In this article, we extend the δ-machine to handle continuous, ordinal, nominal, and binary predictor variables. We utilized a tailored dissimilarity function for mixed type variables which was defined by Gower. This measure has properties of a Manhattan distance. We develop, in a similar vein, a Euclidean dissimilarity function for mixed type variables. In simulation studies we compare the performance of the two dissimilarity functions and we compare the predictive performance of the δ-machine to logistic regression models. We generated data according to two population distributions where the type of predictor variables, the distribution of categorical variables, and the number of predictor variables was varied. The performance of the δ-machine using the two dissimilarity functions and different types of representation set was investigated. The simulation studies showed that the adjusted Euclidean dissimilarity function performed better than the adjusted Gower dissimilarity function; that the δ-machine outperformed logistic regression; and that for constructing the representation set, K-medoids clustering achieved fewer active exemplars than the one using K-means clustering while maintaining the accuracy. We also applied the δ-machine to an empirical example, discussed its interpretation in detail, and compared the classification performance with five other classification methods. The results showed that the δ-machine has a good balance between accuracy and interpretability.NWOMultivariate analysis of psychological dat