Concurrent and predictive validity of the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test and the Leiter International Performance Scale - Revised

The relationship between two tests of cognitive ability measured nonverbally and the relative capability of intellectual constructs measured by those tests to predict academic achievement (operationalized by end of the year group achievement tests) was examined. One hundred elementary and middle school students were administered the Universal Nonverbal Intelligence Test (UNIT) and the Leiter International Performance Scale - Revised in counter-balanced order; reading, math, and language scores from Terra Nova were matched with 37 cases in the sample. Correlation coefficients describing the relationship among global scores within the IT and between the UNIT and the Leiter-R were statistically significant (p \u3c .001) and ranged from .33 for the. UNIT Memory Quotient/Leiter-R Fluid Reasoning scores t .90 for the UNIT Full Scale IQ/UNIT Reasoning Quotient and UNIT Nonsymbolic Quotient/UNIT Reasoning Quotient. The coefficient between the UNIT and Leiter-R Full Scale IQ scores was .72 (Q \u3c .001). Mean differences between the UNIT and Leiter-R Full Scale were significant with the UNIT Full Scale IQ score being approximately five points higher than the Leiter-R, t. = 4.73, )2. \u3c .001. Effect size for the t-test was modest, .35. Based on stepwise multiple regression analyses, the UNIT Full Scale IQ predicted all three areas of academic achievement significantly better than the Leiter-R Full Scale IQ score, with the variance accounted for by the UNIT Full Scale IQ score ranging from 39 percent to 55 percent (p. \u3c .01). The Leiter-R contributed an additional 2 percent of variance. In addition, a number of the UNIT and Leiter-R global scores were statistically significant predictors of achievement (e.g., UNIT Reasoning Quotient, Memory Quotient, Leiter-R Reasoning). Results are consistent with prior research that has found the UNIT and Leiter-R to provide comparable measures of general intelligence. However, this is the first study to suggest that the UNIT may be superior to the Leiter-R in its relative capability to predict academic achievement. School psychologists and administrators will find these results useful in choosing assessment instruments to evaluate the increasingly culturally and linguistically diverse population of students

Friendly Fire: Amicus Curiae Participation and Impact at the Roberts Court

This dissertation explores the nature and extent of amicus curiae participation and impact at the Roberts Court. While previous literature has addressed amicus activity and influence in prior eras of the Court, in specific issue areas, and in specific cases, none has focused in a systematic way on the Roberts Court. Compiling data from the 2007-08 through 2011-12 terms of the Roberts Court, this study first examines the levels and categories of amicus participation during this time period. Amicus activity at the Roberts Court is ubiquitous, and exhibits an “arms race” phenomenon, being relatively ideologically balanced. Second, this study analyzes the impact of amici on the ideological direction of the justices’ votes at the Roberts Court. To address this topic, a number of statistical models are estimated, controlling for other known influences on judicial decision-making. The results demonstrate that amicus briefs positively impact the direction of justice votes across the ideological spectrum in both routine and politically salient cases. When, how, and to what degree amicus briefs matter depends on the level of amicus brief disparity, the ideology of the justice, the issue area of the case, and the prestige of the amicus participants involved. The greater the amicus brief advantage in a case, the greater the amicus influence. Moderate justices, as a rule, are more influenced by amicus briefs than more ideologically extreme justices. However, unlike amicus briefs, an advantage of amicus cosigners in a case typically does not impact the direction of the justices’ votes. These findings shed light on the larger debate in the judicial behavior literature regarding whether justice votes are simply a result of judicial attitudes (attitudinal model), or if legal rules and arguments (legal model), and/or public opinion (interest group model) shape judicial decision-making. While affirming that judicial attitudes are the most significant predictors of the justices’ votes, the results indicate that the legal persuasion model best describes amicus influence. Amicus curiae briefs matter for the relevant information they provide to the justices, and most justices, regardless of ideology, are impacted by this information

What Can Gamma Ray Bursts Teach Us About Dark Energy?

It has been suggested that Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) may enable the expansion rate of our Universe to be measured out to very high redshifts (z \gsim 5) just as type Ia supernovae have done at $z \sim$1--1.5. We explore this possibility here, and find that GRB have the potential to detect dark energy at high statistical significance, but they are unlikely to be competitive with future supernovae missions, such as SNAP, in measuring the properties of the dark energy. The exception to this conclusion is if there is appreciable dark energy at early times, in which case the information from GRB's will provide an excellent complement to the $z\sim 1$ information from supernovae.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figure

Temperature sensitivity of the pyloric neuromuscular system and its modulation by dopamine

We report here the effects of temperature on the p1 neuromuscular system of the stomatogastric system of the lobster (Panulirus interruptus). Muscle force generation, in response to both the spontaneously rhythmic in vitro pyloric network neural activity and direct, controlled motor nerve stimulation, dramatically decreased as temperature increased, sufficiently that stomach movements would very unlikely be maintained at warm temperatures. However, animals fed in warm tanks showed statistically identical food digestion to those in cold tanks. Applying dopamine, a circulating hormone in crustacea, increased muscle force production at all temperatures and abolished neuromuscular system temperature dependence. Modulation may thus exist not only to increase the diversity of produced behaviors, but also to maintain individual behaviors when environmental conditions (such as temperature) vary

Dark Matter Annihilation in The Galactic Center As Seen by the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope

We analyze the first two years of data from the Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope from the direction of the inner 10 degrees around the Galactic Center with the intention of constraining, or finding evidence of, annihilating dark matter. We find that the morphology and spectrum of the emission between 1.25 degrees and 10 degrees from the Galactic Center is well described by a the processes of decaying pions produced in cosmic ray collisions with gas, and the inverse Compton scattering of cosmic ray electrons in both the disk and bulge of the Inner Galaxy, along with gamma rays from known points sources in the region. The observed spectrum and morphology of the emission within approximately 1.25 degrees (~175 parsecs) of the Galactic Center, in contrast, departs from the expectations for by these processes. Instead, we find an additional component of gamma ray emission that is highly concentrated around the Galactic Center. The observed morphology of this component is consistent with that predicted from annihilating dark matter with a cusped (and possibly adiabatically contracted) halo distribution (density proportional to r^{-gamma}, with gamma=1.18 to 1.33). The observed spectrum of this component, which peaks at energies between 1-4 GeV (in E^2 units), can be well fit by a 7-10 GeV dark matter particle annihilating primarily to tau leptons with a cross section in the range of 4.6 x 10^-27 to 5.3 x 10^-26 cm^3/s, depending on how the dark matter distribution is normalized. We also discuss other sources for this emission, including the possibility that much of it originates from the Milky Way's supermassive black hole.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure

Extracting the Gamma Ray Signal from Dark Matter Annihilation in the Galactic Center Region

The GLAST satellite mission will study the gamma ray sky with considerably greater exposure than its predecessor EGRET. In addition, it will be capable of measuring the arrival directions of gamma rays with much greater precision. These features each significantly enhance GLAST's potential for identifying gamma rays produced in the annihilations of dark matter particles. The combined use of spectral and angular information, however, is essential if the full sensitivity of GLAST to dark matter is to be exploited. In this paper, we discuss the separation of dark matter annihilation products from astrophysical backgrounds, focusing on the Galactic Center region, and perform a forecast for such an analysis. We consider both point-like and diffuse astrophysical backgrounds and model them using a point-spread-function for GLAST. While the results of our study depend on the specific characteristics of the dark matter signal and astrophysical backgrounds, we find that in many scenarios it is possible to successfully identify dark matter annihilation radiation, even in the presence of significant astrophysical backgrounds.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures. Minor changes, note added. Matches published versio

Identifying Dark Matter Annihilation Products In The Diffuse Gamma Ray Background

Annihilation of cosmologically distributed dark matter is predicted to produce a potentially observable flux of high energy photons. Neglecting the contribution from local structure, this signal is predicted to be virtually uniform on the sky and, in order to be identified, must compete with various extragalactic backgrounds. We focus here on unresolved blazars and discuss several techniques for separating the dark matter signal from this background. First, the spectral shapes of the signal and background are expected to differ, a feature which can be exploited with the Fisher Matrix formalism. Second, in any given angular pixel, the number of photons from blazars is drawn from a distribution which is far from Poisson. A knowledge of this distribution enhances one's ability to extract the dark matter signal, while ignorance of it can lead to the introduction of a large systematic error.Comment: Matches published version, includes additional section with Galactic diffuse backgroun

Atomic tiles: Manipulative resources for exploring bonding and molecular structure

A simple manipulative resource, Atomic Tiles, is described for scaffolding the learning of Lewis structures without using algorithmic, rule-based methods of drawing. Students use Atomic Tiles to (1) create models of bonding that lead to drawing Lewis structures, (2) use the structures they create to infer patterns required for rational structures and common organic functional groups, (3) translate between Lewis structures and molecular models, and (4) use molecular models to identify isomers

A Study of Relationships Between Moral Development and Empathy in a Church's Peer Ministry Training Program for Adolescents

This study was designed to assess the effects of a peer ministry training course upon adolescents' ability to respond empathetically and upon their level of moral development. Volunteers from a church's high school group were blocked by gender and randomly divided into two groups . Adolescents in the treatment group were trained in thirteen sessions basic helping skills (emphasizing empathy) and measured before and after training on variables of empathy, moral development, and internality - externality. Adolescents in the second group were used as a control and were measured with the same assessment devices