Students' Academic Self Perception

Participation rates in higher education differ persistently between some groups in society. Using two British datasets we investigate whether this gap is rooted in students’ misperception of their own and other’s ability, thereby increasing the expected costs to studying. Among high school pupils, we find that pupils with a more positive view of their academic abilities are more likely to expect to continue to higher education even after controlling for observable measures of ability and students’ characteristics. University students are also poor at estimating their own test-performance and over-estimate their predicted test score. However, females, white and working class students have less inflated view of themselves. Self-perception has limited impact on the expected probability of success and expected returns amongst these university students.Test performance, self-assessment, higher education participation, academic selfperception

Spatial and temporal characteristics of benthic invertebrate communities at Culbin Sands lagoon, Moray Firth, NE Scotland, and impacts of the disturbance of cockle harvesting

In the present study, Culbin Sands lagoon, a protected site in NE Scotland, was surveyed every 2 to 4 weeks during a three-year period (1994-1996) to study benthic invertebrate communities. Beds of Mytilus edulis covered 18000 m(2). 53 macroinfaunal species were identified outside these areas. The most conspicuous were: the lugworm Arenicola marina (mean up to 55 casts m(-2)); and bivalves Cerastoderma edule (mean up to 158 ind. m(-2)) and Macoma balthica (mean up to 79 ind. m(-2)) after settlement. The standing stock ranged from 20 to 32 g AFDW m(-2) yr(-1) respectively from more exposed to more sheltered areas. Most species showed a clear recruitment peak in autumn, but others (e.g. Capitella capitata, and Spionidae) displayed several peaks in a year. Communities were also compared between the Sampling sites before and after an incidental disturbance caused by cockle Cerastoderma edule harvesting, which took place in June 1995. One site showed -0.7% variation in the total standing stock, but +22% for smaller-cockles, as larger filter-feeding cockles were removed therefore enhancing their own larval settlement. Polychaete Spionidae Populations also increased after larger cockles were removed. The polychaete Arenicola marina population returned to its normal activities just after the dramatic disturbance of the sediment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Students academic self-perception

Participation rates in higher education differ persistently between some groups in society. Using two British datasets we investigate whether this gap is rooted in students' mis-perception of their own and other's ability, thereby increasing the expected costs to studying. Among high school pupils, we find that pupils with a more positive view of their academic abilities are more likely to expect to continue to higher education even after controlling for observable measures of ability and students' characteristics. University students are also poor at estimating their own test-performance and over-estimate their predicted test score. However, females, white and working class students have less inflated view of themselves. Self-perception has limited impact on the expected probability of success and expected returns amongst these university students.Test performance, self-assessment, higher education participation, academic self-perception

Student Self-Assessment of High-Stakes Tests: An Exploratory Study in an English for Liberal Arts Program

The authors report on research they conducted in which Japanese college studentsshared responsibility for self-assessing their own written work on two high stakestests. In this experiment, students served as a second raters on tests that arenormally blind rated by two instructors. After engaging in an orientation andnorming session identical to that which rating instructors do, students assessed theirown tests using the same rubric that instructors use. Following the institutionalpolicy requiring that blind raters must be within two points in their assessment of apiece of writing, students were also required to be within the same range of the firstrating instructor in order to satisfy inter-rater reliability, otherwise the test, as is thestandard procedure, went to a third rater (in this case, another instructor). While theresults showed that students’ tended to rate themselves too high, the level ofdiscrepancy between teacher and student ratings was not so extreme as to precludeexploring self-assessment further. In addition, the students generally perceived self-assessment as a positive experience. It is hoped that the lessons learned through thispilot study can lead to the successful establishment of self-assessment for futurewriting tests

Subsurface structure in polished fused silica and diamond turned single crystal silicon

The surface and near surface structure of glass and other optical materials is greatly influenced by the nature of the processes used to generate that surface. In high quality optics, the effects of process changes are often subtle and cannot be seen with conventional metrology. The presence of process induced damage in the near surface region is felt in a number of ways. Damage thresholds for optics subjected to high fluences are a particular problem in UV or high-powered laser systems. In high quality glass, the chemical and material composition of the outermost layer is influenced principally by the grinding, lapping and polishing processes used in fabrication. Performance in high fluence applications is often dominated by these process-induced inhomogeneities in the first few hundred nanometers of material. Each succeeding step in a process is designed to remove the damage from the previous operation. However, any force against the surface, no matter how slight will leave evidence of damage. Fabrication processes invariably create dislocations, cracks and plastic deformation between 100 nm and 500 nm below the surface. In glass polishing, the first 100 nm is comprised of material redeposited from the polishing solution. This redeposition layer is responsible for the extremely smooth surfaces that can be generated on glass. Unfortunately, this layer also conceals many flaws present in the deeper surface regions

A retrospective observational study of the relationship between single nucleotide polymorphisms associated with the risk of developing Colorectal cancer and survival

Background: There is variability in clinical outcome for patients with apparently the same stage colorectal cancer (CRC). Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) mapping to chromosomes 1q41, 3q26.2, 6p21, 8q23.3, 8q24.21, 10p14, 11q13, 11q23.1, 12q13.13, 14q22, 14q22.2, 15q13.3, 16q22.1, 18q21.1, 19q13.11, 20p12, 20p12.3, 20q13.33 and Xp22 have robustly been shown to be associated with the risk of developing CRC. Since germline variation can also influence patient outcome the relationship between these SNPs and patient survivorship from CRC was examined. Methods: All enrolled into the National Study of Colorectal Cancer Genetics (NSCCG) were genotyped for 1q41, 3q26.2, 6p21, 8q23.3, 8q24.21, 10p14, 11q13, 11q23.1, 12q13.13, 14q22, 14q22.2, 15q13.3, 16q22.1, 18q21.1, 19q13.11, 20p12, 20p12.3, 20q13.33 and xp22 SNPs. Linking this information to the National Cancer Data Repository allowed patient genotype to be related to survival. Results: The linked dataset consisted of 4,327 individuals. 14q22.22 genotype defined by the SNP rs4444235 showed a significant association with overall survival. Specifically, the C allele was associated with poorer observed survival (per allele hazard ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.05-1.22, P = 0.0015). Conclusion: The CRC susceptibility SNP rs4444235 also appears to exert an influence in modulating patient survival and warrants further evaluation as a potential prognostic marker

On the issue of transparency and reproducibility in nanomedicine.

Following our call to join in the discussion over the suitability of implementing a reporting checklist for bio-nano papers, the community responds

Students' academic self-perception

Participation rates in higher education differ persistently between some groups in society. Using two British datasets we investigate whether this gap is rooted in students’ mis-perception of their own and other’s ability, thereby increasing the expected costs to studying. Among high school pupils, we find that pupils with a more positive view of their academic abilities are more likely to expect to continue to higher education even after controlling for observable measures of ability and students’ characteristics. University students are also poor at estimating their own test-performance and over-estimate their predicted test score. However, females, white and working class students have less inflated view of themselves. Self-perception has limited impact on the expected probability of success and expected returns amongst these university students