Corrigenda to and validation of Ozophora woodruffi Slater 2005 (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae)

Important missing specimen data are provided for the original description of Ozophora woodruffi Slater (2005: 245) (Hemiptera: Lygaeidae), along with additional comparative relationships. Because of the missing type information, according to ICZN rules (1999), the species became a nomen nudum. This paper now serves to validate the name, and authorship becomes Slater (2012)

COST COMPARISONS OF ALTERNATIVE METHODS FOR PROCESSING RECYCLED WASTE NEWSPAPERS INTO FARM-ANIMAL BEDDING

The United States is facing a seemingly overwhelming problem of how to dispose of its solid waste. For disposal solutions to be viable, they must be environmentally sound and economically viable. Processing waste newspapers for farm-animal bedding offers a successful partial solution that meets both criteria. Centralized newspaper chopping is found to cost less than on-farm chopping. Both chopped and unchopped waste newspapers can be economically transported considerable distances. The use of waste newspapers for animal bedding is economically attractive at the farm level and can provide a partial solution to the solid-waste disposal problem.Environmental Economics and Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

An Analysis of Two Unusual Reflection Caustics

A reflection caustic consisting of an x or a cross surrounded by a circle was observed using two different reflector geometries. Double-glazed insulating windows that have become bowed, and circularly symmetric cookie trays and cake covers possessing two different curvatures at different distances from the symmetry axis, produce similar caustics when plane waves are incident far off-axis. For the case of the insulating windows, it was found that the concavely bowed outer pane produced the x portion of the caustic and the convexly bowed inner pane produced the circle portion. For the case of the circularly symmetric reflectors, the x and circle portions of the caustic were found to be produced by the regions of greater and lesser curvature, respectively. These results were verified by numerical spot diagram calculations for each of the reflector geometries

Perceptions and Barriers to Adopting Artificial Intelligence in K-12 Education: A Survey of Educators in Fifty States

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making significant strides in the field of education, offering new opportunities for personalized learning and access to education for a more diverse population. Despite this potential, the adoption of AI in K-12 education is limited, and educators’ express hesitancy towards its integration due to perceived technological barriers and misconceptions. The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of K-12 educators in all 50 states of the USA towards AI, policies, training, and resources related to technology and AI, their comfort with technology, willingness to adopt new technologies for classroom instruction, and needs assessment for necessary infrastructure, such as reliable internet access, hardware, and software. Researchers analyzed regional differences in attitudes towards AI integration in the classroom. The findings suggest the overall positive perception of AI and openness towards its integration. However, disparities in access to technology and comfort levels with technology exist among different regions, genders, and age groups. These findings suggest that policymakers and educators need to develop targeted strategies to ensure equitable access to technology and AI integration in the classroom. The implications of this work are the need for an authentic STEM model for integrating AI into K-12 education and offer recommendations for policymakers and educators to support the successful adoption of AI in the classroom

Non-Debye Enhancements in the Mie Scattering of Light from a Single Water Droplet

The glare spots usually seen on a single water droplet which has been illuminated by a plane wave are produced by geometrical rays which correspond to the different terms of the Debye series expansion of the Mie scattered field. Recently other glare spot enhancements have been predicted which correspond to scattering resonances coupling to the orbiting rays associated with high-order geometrical rainbows. We observed the non-Debye enhancement of the eleventh-order rainbow glare spot at an observation angle of 90° on a 3.5-mm water droplet illuminated by polarized He-Ne laser light

Demystifying Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Early Childhood and Elementary Education: A Case Study of Perceptions of AI of State of Missouri Educators

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on society have received a great deal of attention in the past five years since the first Stanford AI100 report. AI already globally impacts individuals in critical and personal ways, and many industries will continue to experience disruptions as the full algorithmic effects are understood. However, with regard to education, adopting in disciplines remains limited largely to Computer Science and Information Technology in postsecondary education. Recent advances with technology are especially promising for their potential to create and scale personalized learning for students, to optimize strategies for learning outcomes, and to increase access to a more diverse population. Research has confirmed that the current use of AI in education (AIEd) leads to positive outcomes, including improved learning outcomes for students, along with increased access, increased retention, lower cost of education, and decreased time to completion. Future uses of AI will include the following: enabling engaging and interactive education anytime and anywhere; personalized AI mentors that will help students identify and reach their goals; and mass-personalization that will allow AI to be tailored to each student’s learning style, level, and needs. Yet with all the potential benefits that AI and machine learning (ML) may provide students, there remains a general reticence to adopt this technology because of misconceptions and perceptions that elementary educators will need expensive equipment, robust support from IT, or to retool and learn programming or coding. As such, this study seeks to identify current perceptions early childhood, and elementary educators in the state of Missouri, USA have towards AI in general; the policies, training and existing resources in districts regarding technology in general and AI in particular; relative comfort with technology and willingness of educators to adopt new technologies for classroom instruction; and perform a needs assessment for necessary infrastructure, including reliable internet access, hardware and software. Results indicate a broad acceptance and willingness to adopt AI in daily activities and classroom instruction, but barriers to entry were identified as lack of resources and training

Lack of an Interchromosomal Effect Associated with Spontaneous Recombination in Males of Drosophila Melanogaster

Author Institution: Department of Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State UniversityIt is shown that the frequency of spontaneous male recombination in two different lines of Drosophila melanogaster (OKI and T-007) are not subject to an interchromosomal effect. Second-chromosome male recombination in these lines was not affected by heterozygosity for the multiple third-chromosome inversions In(3LR)TM3 or In(3LR)Ubxm, which do affect recombination in females. It seems, therefore, that a large fraction of spontaneous recombination in males of D. melanogaster occurs by some mechanism other than that in females. We discuss the possibility that the mechanism is chromosome breakage and reunion, and that these breakage events may be caused by a microorganism

World law

In the third millennium of the Christian era, which is characterised by the emergence of a world economy and eventually a world society, the concept of world law is needed to embrace not only the traditional disciplines of public international law, and comparative law, but also the common underlying legal principles applicable in world trade, world finance, transnational transfer of technology and other fields of world economic law, as well as in such emerging fields as the protection of the world's environment and the protection of universal human rights. World law combines inter-state law with the common law of humanity and the customary law of various world communities