Volumes of highly twisted knots and links

We show that for a large class of hyperbolic knots and links, we can determine bounds on the volume of the link complement from combinatorial information given by a link diagram. Specifically, there is a universal constant C such that if a knot or link admits a prime, twist reduced diagram with at least 2 twist regions and at least C crossings per twist region, then the link complement is hyperbolic with volume bounded below by 3.3515 times the number of twist regions in the diagram. C is at most 113.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Minor changes to clarify exposition, fix typos, and correct a historical inaccuracy in the introduction. Paper has now appeared in AG

Assessment Scores of Remote and In-Person Learning for Grades Three - Six Students in an East Tennessee School District

The purpose of this comparative, quantitative study was to explore the relationship of interim test scores among remote and in-person learners, low-income students, and students with disabilities. In March 2020, a portion of students enrolled in a K-12 school in Northeast Tennessee was moved into remote learning until the end of the school year in May 2020. In July 2020, parents were given the option for their child to attend remote or in-person learning. While some chose in-person learning, giving reasons such as child-care, work obligations, or personal preference, others chose for their children to continue to receive online learning due to health concerns brought on by the pandemic. Since these decisions were made, some parents that originally opted for online learning chose to send their child back to school due to perceived obstacles faced within the online environment. This study was conducted to determine the efficacy of online learning in comparison to in-person learning for students grades three – six separated into the following categories: general population, students with disabilities, and low-income students. Comparison of both mathematics and literacy interim third quarter checkpoint data were analyzed using SPSS software to conduct a series of independent t-tests. Data were analyzed at the 0.05 level of significance. Twelve research questions were addressed testing corresponding null hypotheses. Results included third grade online literacy scores significantly exceeding the scores of in-person. Mean literacy and math scores were approximately equal for online and in-person learners. Overall, scores for students with disabilities and low socio-economic students were approximately equal whether the learners were online or in-person

Review of Jon Smith and Deborah Cohn, eds., Look Away! The U.S. South in New World Studies.

Jon Smith and Deborah Cohn, eds., Look Away! The U.S. South in New World Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2004. xi-xii + 521 pp. ISBN 0822333163 (paper)

House Flies: Manure, Media, and Microbes

This study was conducted to determine if there is a difference in bacterial abundance in house flies based on sex and rearing environment (manure versus artificial media) for house flies. This is important in determining the effectiveness of the facilities where the flies are being raised. Although, previous studies have shown differences in bacterial abundance between male and female house flies, it still remains unknown whether there is a discrepancy in bacterial abundance between rearing environments in the lab. We hypothesized that there would be a greater abundance of bacteria in females than males and a greater bacterial abundance in the manure environment than the artificial media. We determined that there was no significant difference between house fly sex or the environments in which they were raised. These results are meaningful because they introduce evidence of forced interaction that could skew the bacterial counts. In the future, the results would be more telling with a larger sample size.

An integrated approach to the analysis of environmental factors that influence male reproductive health

At least 30 million men are infertile around the world, identifying male factor infertility as a global health issue. In the past 70 years, evidence of a significant general decline in sperm quality has been reported, prompting concerns about the implications for reproductive health. Over the same period, there have been substantial changes in human lifestyles. New technologies, such as mobile phones and wi-fi, have been proposed to have a negative impact on a range of health outcomes, from an increased risk of cancer to a decrease in fertility. However, these links remain controversial. Over the last 30 years, the introduction of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) has offered infertile patients, particularly men with severe male factor infertility, a successful treatment option. However, miscarriage rates associated with fertility treatment can be as high as 30% and how this risk had changed over time was unclear. In addition, there are natural fluctuations in human health, including seasonal changes to birth rates. However, the clinical implications of these fluctuations need to be established. In this thesis, using an integrated approach that combined epidemiological research with laboratory investigations, I show that sperm quality is negatively affected by exposure to RF-EMR from mobile phones and wi-fi. I also identified a seasonal summer increase in sperm motility and morphology that followed patterns of seasonality in birth rates and in the success of assisted conception cycles. I showed that although the number of successful conceptions from ART has increased over time, there has been an equal increase in miscarriage rates. Male reproductive health continues to be under-researched when compared with the female, this inequality needs to be addressed in order to understand the causes of the decline in male fertility and the relationship this has with subsequent reproductive success.NER

Measuring the difference we make: the state-of-play of outcomes measurement in the community sector in Western Australia

The term ‘outcomes measurement’ refers to the measurement of the difference that an initiative, program or organisation makes to the lives of people they engage with. Outcomes measurement provides evidence on whether initiatives, programs and organisations are making a difference to the lives of people they serve. It is an important basis of learning within organisations of what works and what doesn’t work. Outcomes measurement also provides the foundation stone for evaluation, strategic planning and good governance, and is critical to good decision-making in respect of the appropriate allocation of resources by funders.  This report extends our previous Bankwest Foundation research and investigates the experiences of on-the-ground community organisations, government and philanthropic funders of community service organisations, and community sector peak bodies with outcomes measurement in Western Australia. This is particularly important in Western Australia as recent regulatory reform has placed outcomes measurement firmly on the agenda for all Western Australia departments, agencies and the organisations they work with.  This study finds outcomes measurement at a tipping point in Western Australia. Our mapping of outcomes measurement in Western Australia and consultations with community sector stakeholders in Western Australia suggest not simply a growing interest in outcomes measurement and a broad appetite for progress and change, but that community sector organisations, big and small, as well as funders, are implementing or seeking to implement a systematic, well-grounded outcomes measurement framework in their organisations and through their funding programs. Community organisations and the funders of programs are also moving towards more strategic use of the outputs of outcomes measurement and connecting measurement with strategy and performance improvement.&nbsp