Measurement of the quality of content preparation of post-secondary elementary-level teacher candidates participating in student teaching experiences during the fall of 2005 and spring of 2006: a pilot of the Iowa Department of Education Student Teacher Evaluation (IDESTE)

This dissertation research investigated the validity and reliability of the Iowa Department of Education Student Teacher Evaluation (IDESTE) instrument and has provided initial comparisons of the IDESTE to other measures in the system. A team of experts, including staff members from the Department of Education, the K-12 system, and teacher preparation programs, developed the IDESTE. The initial form of the IDESTE was administered to every student teacher in the state in 2005-06 and results were aggregated by the Department of Education. A subsample of this overall sample was identified, and additional data were collected on this subsample to compare with IDESTE performance. The IDESTE was found to have good reliability, face validity, and construct validity. Concurrent validity was solid as well, despite the lack of variability of the IDESTE sample. Predictive validity could be determined through subsequent administrations of the IDESTE;Findings from analysis of the IDESTE results indicate that cooperating teachers generally believe student teachers to have adequate content area preparation. In fact, roughly 60% of the scores submitted were 5 (highest score) on a 5-point range. While the other measures examined (ACT, Praxis I(TM), grade point average, and C-Base) all correlated more highly with each other, low to moderate correlations existed between these measures and the IDESTE results. This could mean that the instrument simply does not add value to this measurement of content competency, but that conclusion runs counter to the results of construct and face validity and of reliability. It is more likely that the IDESTE measures the construct of content adequacy in a different way than do the other measures, which makes sense given that the IDESTE is more performance-based than any of the other measures (except for grade point average);The pilot of this assessment suggests several implications for future practice, research, and development that should be considered for future programming and policy efforts. Attention to these implications and recommendations, described above, will contribute to moving the body of research forward and should help to ensure the provision of quality teachers in every learning environment in Iowa

Effect of halite and calcite coatings on thermal infrared spectra wih implications for Mars exploration

Knowing the occurrence and distribution of soluble ionic salts allows us to model the aqueous history and geochemical conditions of surface solutions on Mars. Salts deposited as coatings are particularly important for attaining this knowledge because the thermal infrared (TIR) remote sensing method for determining mineral abundance is limited to the top few hundred micrometers of the surface. To better understand the TIR properties of salt coatings, we investigated the effects of coating thickness and texture on the TIR reflectance spectra of halite- and calcite-coated glasses. We evaluated salt coating textures that could occur on Mars: 1) continuous, uniformly thick layers of salt without exposed substrate; 2) discontinuous particulate salt coatings with variable thickness and exposed substrate. Salt-coated glasses have spectral features attributable to the substrate and the coating. Partially transmissive coatings decrease the intensity of substrate absorption bands as thickness increases. This decrease in intensity is exponential for continuous and coarse particulate (\u3c 50 μm) halite coatings and linear for fine particulate halite coatings (\u3c 2 μm). All halite coating textures and continuous calcite v coatings have spectral features indicating nonlinear mixing of the coating and substrate spectra. Therefore, coatings may result in significant challenges to modeling mineral abundances on Mars using a linear deconvolution algorithm for TIR spectra. An exception is fine particulate calcite coatings (\u3c 8 μm), which are effectively optically thick and display linear spectral mixing. We find that halite coatings can cause an increase in a reflectance minimum (emissivity maximum) found previously to be useful for identifying chloride deposits on Mars. Continuous and coarse particulate halite coatings that are thicker and cover more substrate increase the reflectance minimum and are easier to detect in remotely sensed TIR spectra. Fine particulate halite does not increase the reflectance minimum and is not detectable by the method

Estimates of Genetic Parameters for Calving Performance from Designed Selection Studies

A multiple trait animal model was implemented to study the direct genetic and maternal genetic relationship among four traits, dystocia (DYS), perinatal mortality (PM), birth weight (BW) and gestation length(GL), expressed at the birth of a calf. The sign and magnitude of genetic correlations among calving traits demonstrates the need to use multi-trait animal models for genetic evaluation of animals for calving performance. Adequate information exists to begin developing a calving performance index. This index will enable breeders of dairy cattle to optimize the health and well-being of replacement animals and reduce the incidence of dystocia and perinatal mortality

Band Gap and Edge Engineering via Ferroic Distortion and Anisotropic Strain: The Case of SrTiO3_{3}

The effects of ferroic distortion and biaxial strain on the band gap and band edges of SrTiO$_{3}$ (STO) are calculated using density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory. Anisotropic strains are shown to reduce the gap by breaking degeneracies at the band edges. Ferroic distortions are shown to widen the gap by allowing new band edge orbital mixings. Compressive biaxial strains raise band edge energies, while tensile strains lower them. To reduce the STO gap, one must lower the symmetry from cubic while suppressing ferroic distortions. Our calculations indicate that for engineered orientation of the growth direction along [111], the STO gap can be controllably and considerably reduced at room temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures. To be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Overview of Dairy Cattle Breeding

The overall objectives of dairy cattle breeding research are to generate new knowledge and to provide this information to breeders in Iowa and the nation. We are attempting to accomplish this by developing new knowledge that will be of value in the future and also have information that can be provided to the breeding industry to answer present-day problems. Because more than 70% of the dairy cattle in the United States are bred artificially, our work will have more impact if it can eventually be applied through the artificial insemination (AI) industry and breed associations. A great deal of research and groundwork needs to be done before research can be applied on an industry-wide basis

Perinatal Mortality in Holsteins

A comprehensive analysis of perinatal mortality for Holsteins in the upper Midwest was recently completed. Results showed that the incidence of perinatal mortality or calf losses near birth has been increasing since 1985; from 9.5% in 1985 to 13.2% in 1996 for virgin heifers; 5.3 to 6.6% in multiparous cows over the same time period. Replacement value of calves lost to perinatal mortality in the United States is about $125.3 million per year. Sufficient data exist to permit identification of those sires whose daughters have a higher than average incidence for perinatal mortality with the birth of their calves. Further research is in progress to more completely establish the mode of inheritance for perinatal mortality. Other quantitative traits associated with early calfhood diseases, e.g., gestation length, dystocia, and incidence of twins are being examined

Numerical solution of the nonlinear evolution equation at small x with impact parameter and beyond the LL approximation

Nonlinear evolution equation at small x with impact parameter dependence is analyzed numerically. Saturation scales and the radius of expansion in impact parameter are extracted as functions of rapidity. Running coupling is included in this evolution, and it is found that the solution is sensitive to the infrared regularization. Kinematical effects beyond leading logarithmic approximation are taken partially into account by modifying the kernel which includes the rapidity dependent cuts. While the local nonlinear evolution is not very sensitive to these effects, the kinematical constraints cannot be neglected in the evolution with impact parameter.Comment: 22 pages, 37 figures, RevTe