Identification of valid, reliable, discriminating criteria for use in developing evaluation instruments for special education teachers

This study sought to determine discriminating, reliable, and valid criteria to evaluate the performance of special education teachers. Data were collected on criteria to distinguish high performing special education teachers from average and poor performing special education teachers. A sample of over 500 principals/supervisors, teachers, related services personnel, and knowledgeable others was administered a 49-item questionnaire. In addition, the investigation endeavored to determine if appraisers\u27 ability to rate a special education teacher varied according to job assignment. In particular, it tried to verify the ability of typical building principals to make performance evaluation judgments about special education teachers. The study also attempted to determine whether a difference existed between discriminating items for regular and special education teachers. Voluntary participation for the study included 33 special education teachers from school districts located in Arizona, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New York, and Nevada. Each of the 33 special education teachers was evaluated by 15 to 18 raters;Results showed that: (1) all 49 of the survey items discriminated or measured differences between the 33 special education teachers at least at the.05 level of significance; (2) performance criteria found to be discriminating for regular education teachers were also able to discriminate for special education teachers; (3) ratings by raters with little or no special education background were not significantly different from raters with certification in special education; (4) effective teacher behaviors in the regular classroom appear to be effective behaviors for the special education teacher; (5) effective behaviors of special education teachers appear to be readily observable by a variety of observers with various backgrounds and training; and (6) regular educators, particularly principals and supervisors, are capable of making valid observations of special education teacher performance;The study also includes a list of 49 performance criteria for special education teachers based on discrimination power that may be used to develop a performance evaluation instrument for special education teachers

Single Parameter Combinatorial Auctions with Partially Public Valuations

We consider the problem of designing truthful auctions, when the bidders' valuations have a public and a private component. In particular, we consider combinatorial auctions where the valuation of an agent $i$ for a set $S$ of items can be expressed as $v_if(S)$, where $v_i$ is a private single parameter of the agent, and the function $f$ is publicly known. Our motivation behind studying this problem is two-fold: (a) Such valuation functions arise naturally in the case of ad-slots in broadcast media such as Television and Radio. For an ad shown in a set $S$ of ad-slots, $f(S)$ is, say, the number of {\em unique} viewers reached by the ad, and $v_i$ is the valuation per-unique-viewer. (b) From a theoretical point of view, this factorization of the valuation function simplifies the bidding language, and renders the combinatorial auction more amenable to better approximation factors. We present a general technique, based on maximal-in-range mechanisms, that converts any $\alpha$-approximation non-truthful algorithm ($\alpha \leq 1$) for this problem into $\Omega(\frac{\alpha}{\log{n}})$ and $\Omega(\alpha)$-approximate truthful mechanisms which run in polynomial time and quasi-polynomial time, respectively

Representations of families of triples over GF(2)

AbstractLet B be any family of 3-subsets of [n] = {1, …, n} such that every i in [n] belongs to at most three members of B. It is shown here that there exists a 3 × n (0, 1)-matrix M such that every set of columns of M indexed by a member of B is linearly independent over GF(2). The proof depends on finding a suitable vertex-coloring for the associated 3-uniform hypergraph. This matrix result, which is a special case of a conjecture of Griggs and Walker, implies the corresponding special case of a conjecture of Chung, Frankl, Graham, and Shearer and of Faudree, Schelp, and Sós concerning intersecting families of subsets

Tidal Synchronization and Differential Rotation of Kepler Eclipsing Binaries

Few observational constraints exist for the tidal synchronization rate of late-type stars, despite its fundamental role in binary evolution. We visually inspected the light curves of 2278 eclipsing binaries (EBs) from the Kepler Eclipsing Binary Catalog to identify those with starspot modulations, as well as other types of out-of-eclipse variability. We report rotation periods for 816 EBs with starspot modulations, and find that 79% of EBs with orbital periods less than ten days are synchronized. However, a population of short period EBs exists with rotation periods typically 13% slower than synchronous, which we attribute to the differential rotation of high latitude starspots. At 10 days, there is a transition from predominantly circular, synchronized EBs to predominantly eccentric, pseudosynchronized EBs. This transition period is in good agreement with the predicted and observed circularization period for Milky Way field binaries. At orbital periods greater than about 30 days, the amount of tidal synchronization decreases. We also report 12 previously unidentified candidate $\delta$ Scuti and $\gamma$ Doradus pulsators, as well as a candidate RS CVn system with an evolved primary that exhibits starspot occultations. For short period contact binaries, we observe a period-color relation, and compare it to previous studies. As a whole, these results represent the largest homogeneous study of tidal synchronization of late-type stars.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. EB rotation periods and classifications available at https://github.com/jlurie/decatur/blob/master/decatur/data/final_catalog.cs

Silicon Pad Detectors for the PHOBOS Experiment at RHIC

The PHOBOS experiment is well positioned to obtain crucial information about relativistic heavy ion collisions at RHIC, combining a multiplicity counter with a multi-particle spectrometer. The multiplicity arrays will measure the charged particle multiplicity over the full solid angle. The spectrometer will be able to identify particles at mid-rapidity. The experiment is constructed almost exclusively of silicon pad detectors. Detectors of nine different types are configured in the multiplicity and vertex detector (22,000 channels) and two multi-particle spectrometers (120,000 channels). The overall layout of the experiment, testing of the silicon sensors and the performance of the detectors during the engineering run at RHIC in 1999 are discussed.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, Late

SMOS soil moisture product validation in croplands

A validation campaign has been carried out to evaluate the Level 2 Soil Moisture (SM) product (version 5.51) given by the European Space Agency (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite in the Pampean Region of Argentina. The study region was selected because it is a plain, avoiding topography problems, with an SMOS nominal land use class (low vegetation crops, 1-2m height). Transects of ground SM measurements were collected at 5-cm and 6-cm depth using Delta-T ThetaProbe ML2x and Stevens Hydra Probe II SM sensors, respectively. The volumetric measurements were calibrated using gravimetric and bulk density data collected at the same time as the SM sensor measurements. The SM transects covered ISEA-grid SMOS nodes over four extensive agricultural areas with prevalence of soy crops (site 1: -32.982N, -62.505E; site 2: -32.510N, -62.788E; site 3: -32.024N, -63.692E; and site 4: -37.315N, -58.868E, WGS84). The validation sites were selected taking as reference the locations of permanent SM stations property of the Argentinean Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE, National Commission of Space Activities), Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA, National Institute of Farming Technology) and Instituto de Hidrología de Llanuras (IHLLA, Plain Hydrology Institute). Therefore, additionally to validate the SMOS SM product with the ground data collected during the experimental campaign, the measurements are useful to evaluate the station SM data reliability at the SMOS spatial resolution with the aim of using station data series as reference to test different versions of the SMOS SM product. Previously to the campaign, SMOS SM data variability, ESA Globcover land use classification, soil edaphic properties, water bodies and topography were analyzed around the station locations to select the best sites and the experimental methodology. Temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) temporal and spatial variability was also studied at the sites. Additionally, transects of land surface temperature were carried out with Cimel Electronique CE312 6-band radiometers concurrently with thermal-infrared (TIR) satellite overpasses. In previous works, we studied the dependence of land surface emissivities on SM. The analysis of concurrent TIR and SM data make possible to evaluate the utility of the SMOS SM product to improve land surface emissivities and temperature determinations from satellite, giving an added value to the research

Evaluation of two models using CERES data for reference evapotranspiration estimation

[EN] Evapotranspiration is the most important variable in the Pampas plain. Information provided by sensors onboard satellite missions allows represent the spatial and temporal variability of evapotranspiration, which cannot be achieved using only measurements of weather stations. In this work, the Priestley and Taylor (PT) and FAO Penman Monteith (FAO PM) equations were adapted to estimate the reference evapotranspiration, ET0 , using only CERES satellite products (SYN1 and CldTypHist). In order to evaluate the reference evapotranspiration from CERES, a comparison with in situ measurements was conducted. We used ET data provided by the Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario, corresponding to 24 stations placed in the Pampean Region of Argentina (2001-2016). Results showed very good agreement between the estimates with CERES products and in situ values, with errors between ±0.8 and ±1.1 mm d–1 and r2 greater than 0.75 at daily scale, and errors between ±14 and ±19 mm month–1 and r2 greater than 0.9, at monthly scale better results were obtained with adapted model FAO PM than PT. Finally, ET0 monthly maps for the Pampean Region of Argentina were elaborated, which allowed knowing the temporal-spatial variation in the validation area. In conclusion, the methods presented here are a suitable alternative to estimate the reference evapotranspiration without requiring ground measurements.[ES] La evapotranspiración es la variable hidrológica de mayor relevancia en la llanura pampeana. La información provista por sensores a bordo de satélites permite representar la variabilidad espacio-temporal de la evapotranspiración, lo cual no es posible lograr utilizando únicamente datos de sitios puntuales de medida. En este trabajo se adaptaron las ecuaciones de Priestley y Taylor (PT) y FAO Penman-Monteith (FAO PM) para obtener la evapotranspiración del cultivo de referencia, ET0 , utilizando únicamente datos de los productos de satélite CERES (SYN1 y CldTypHist). Los resultados obtenidos con los datos CERES se compararon con valores de ET0 provistos por la Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario de Argentina, a partir de información de 24 estaciones agro-meteorológicas distribuidas en la Región Pampeana de Argentina (2001-2016). Los resultados mostraron muy buena concordancia entre los valores generados con los métodos propuestos y aquellos obtenidos in situ, con errores de entre ±0,8 y ±1,1 mm d–1 y r2 superiores a 0,75 a escala diaria, y errores de entre ±14 y ±19 mm mes–1 y r2 superiores a 0,9, a escala mensual, siendo en general mejores los resultados con el método adaptado de FAO PM respecto al de PT. Finalmente, se elaboraron los mapas promedio mensual de la ET0 para la Región Pampeana de Argentina, los cuales permitieron conocer la variación espacio temporal en el área de validación. En conclusión, los métodos que aquí se presentan constituyen una buena alternativa para el cálculo de la evapotranspiración de referencia, sin necesidad de contar con medidas de terreno.El trabajo se realizó gracias a fondos otorga-dos por la Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica de Argentina, PICT 2016-1486- Estudio de la evapotranspiración en la llanura pampeana argentina a partir de datos de satélite (EVAPAMPAS), y el Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Los autores además desean agradecer a la Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas de Buenos Aires, la Universidad Nacional del Centro de la provincia de Buenos Aires, a la Oficina de Riesgo Agropecuario de Argentina, y al Atmospheric Science Data Center de la NASA Langley Research Center por proveer los datos CERES. Además, se agradece a los revisores anónimos que contribuyeron para mejorar el documento.Carmona, F.; Holzman, M.; Rivas, R.; Degano, M.; Kruse, E.; Bayala, M. (2018). Evaluación de dos modelos para la estimación de la evapotranspiración de referencia con datos CERES. Revista de Teledetección. (51):87-98. https://doi.org/10.4995/raet.2018.9259SWORD879851Aliaga, V.S., Ferrelli, F., Piccolo, M.C. 2017. Regionalization of climate over the Argentine Pampas. International Journal of Climatology, 37, 1237-1247. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5079Allen R.G., Tasumi M., Trezza R. 2007. 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Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 129(1-2), 89- 95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-016-1761-6Carmona, F., Orte, P.F., Rivas, R., Wolfram, E., Kruse, E. 2017. Development and Analysis of a New Solar Radiation Atlas for Argentina from Ground-Based Measurements and CERES_SYN1deg data. Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science. (In press). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2017.11.003Degano, M.F. 2017. Evaluación del producto de evapotranspiración global MOD16 con medidas in situ en la región de la Pampa Húmeda, Argentina. Tesis de Maestría. Repositorio DigitalCIC. Facultad de Física, Universidad de Valencia. Disponible en https://digital.cic.gba.gob.ar/ handle/11746/7085Degano F., Rivas R., Sánchez Tomás J.M., Carmona F., Niclós R. 2018. Assessment of the Potential Evapotranspiration MODIS Product Using Ground Measurements in the Pampas. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE ARGENCON conference.Fisher J.B., Tu K.P., Baldocchi D.D. 2008. 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SPEM dysfunction and general schizotypy as measured by the SSQ: a controlled study

Abstract Background SPEM dysfunction is a well-known phenomenon in schizophrenia. The principal aim of the present study was to examine whether SPEM dysfunction is already observable in subjects scoring high on a specific measure of schizotypy (SSQ General Schizotypy) that was selected because of its intimate relationship with schizophrenic prodromal unfolding. Methods Applying ANOVAs, we determined the relationship of subjects' scores on SSQ General Schizotypy and eye movements elicited by targets of different speed. We also examined whether there exists an association between our schizotypy measure and pupil size. Results We found more SPEM dysfunction in subjects scoring high on SSQ General Schizotypy than in subjects scoring average on that factor, irrespective of the speed of the target. No relationship was found between baseline pupil size and General Schizotypy. Conclusion The present study provides additional evidence that SPEM dysfunction is associated with schizotypic features that precede the onset of schizophrenia and is already observable in general population subjects that show these features