Effects of High-Stakes Accountability Testing on Teacher Motivation

There is always a driving force behind our actions in any given situation. In 2000, NCLB instituted accountability testing with strict requirements for all schools in the U.S., hoping to motivate teachers to reach higher levels of instruction by using sanctions or rewards against teachers when standards were not met. However, Deci and Ryan¿s (2000) SDT explains that fostering intrinsic motivation and providing autonomy support for an individual results in more effective outcomes and increased satisfaction. Private and public school teachers in PA were surveyed using the Work Climate Questionnaire and the Work Task Motivation Scale for Teachers to examine differences in self-reported motivation and perceived autonomy support in order to investigate if the use of high-stakes accountability testing (HST) is related to decreased teacher motivation. The results from ANOVAs and correlations indicate differences in self-reported motivation levels of teachers in public and private schools, as well as aid ratio, grade taught, number of years in teaching, and the time the participant responded (before or after the PSSA), as well as perceived autonomy support, suggesting that the presence of HST may influence motivation in teachers

Galactic structure studies with BATC star counts

We report the first results of star counts carried out with the National Astronomical Observatories (NAOC) 60/90 cm Schmidt Telescope in 15 intermediate-band filters from 3000 to 10000 {\AA} in the BATC survey. We analyze a sample of over 1400 main sequence stars ($14\le$V$\le21$), which lie in the field with central coordinates R.A.=$09^h53^m13^s.30$ and DEC=47$^\circ49^{\prime}00^{\prime\prime}.0$ (J2000). The field of view is 0.95 deg$^{2}$, and the spatial scale was 1\arcsec.67. In our model, the distribution of stars perpendicular to the plane of the Galaxy is given by two exponential disks (thin disk plus thick disk) and a de Vaucouleurs halo. Based on star counts, we derive the scale heights of the thin disk to be $320^{+14}_{-15}$ pc and of the thick disk to be $640^{+30}_{-32}$ pc, respectively, with a local density of $7.0\pm1$ of the thin disk. We find that the observed counts support an axial ratio of $c/a\le0.6$ for a de Vaucouleurs $r^{1/4}$ law, implying a more flattened halo. We also derive the stellar luminosity function (SLF) for the thin disk, and it partly agrees with the Hipparcos luminosity function.Comment: 17pages,9 figure

Evolutionary Analysis of a Three-Dimensional Carbon Price Dynamic System

The carbon market is the least-cost tool to reduce carbon emissions. This study explores the evolution of the carbon price in the carbon market from a dynamic system perspective. A three-dimensional carbon price dynamic system is established to quantify the interactions among the carbon price, energy price, and economic growth. The system built in this study presents various dynamic characteristics including chaotic attractors and stable equilibria. Specifically, the existence of chaos in the system is verified by Lyapunov exponents spectrum and bifurcation diagram. In contrast, the system tends to be stable in the case of China after identifying the system parameters through the genetic algorithm. Furthermore, evolutionary trends of the carbon price are analyzed when the system parameters are perturbed. The results show that the carbon price is positively correlated with energy price as well as energy price policy. Besides, the level of the carbon price is negatively correlated with government control in the short term and positively correlated in the long term. This study can help analyze trends in the carbon price in the mid-term to long-term

Complexity Analysis of Carbon Market Using the Modified Multi-Scale Entropy

Carbon markets provide a market-based way to reduce climate pollution. Subject to general market regulations, the major existing emission trading markets present complex characteristics. This paper analyzes the complexity of carbon market by using the multi-scale entropy. Pilot carbon markets in China are taken as the example. Moving average is adopted to extract the scales due to the short length of the data set. Results show a low-level complexity inferring that China’s pilot carbon markets are quite immature in lack of market efficiency. However, the complexity varies in different time scales. China’s carbon markets (except for the Chongqing pilot) are more complex in the short period than in the long term. Furthermore, complexity level in most pilot markets increases as the markets developed, showing an improvement in market efficiency. All these results demonstrate that an effective carbon market is required for the full function of emission trading

Functionalized ionic liquid membranes for CO2 separation

It is imperative to develop efficient, reversible and economic technologies for separating CO2 which mainly comes from flue gas, natural gas and syngas. Membranes based on functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted much attention from researchers in recent years, and have been considered as a very promising technology. This feature article focuses on the research progress in CO2 separation using functionalized IL membranes. The recent advances in the preparation, separation performance, and separation mechanism of supported IL membranes (SILMs), pure poly(ionic liquid) (PIL) membranes, PIL-copolymer membranes, PIL-IL composite membranes and polymer-IL composite membranes for CO2 separation have been reviewed. In addition, the future directions and prospects for CO2 separation using functionalized IL membranes are given.</p

Position Inversion of Goafs in Deep Coal Seams Based on DS-InSAR Data and the Probability Integral Methods

The goafs caused by coal mining cause great harm to the surface farmland, buildings, and personal safety. The existing monitoring methods cost a lot of workforce and material resources. Therefore, this paper proposes an inversion approach for establishing the locations of underground goafs and the parameters of the probability integral method (PIM), thus integrating distributed scatter interferometric synthetic aperture radar (DS-InSAR) data and the PIM. Firstly, a large amount of surface deformation observation data above the goaf are obtained by DS-InSAR, and the line-of-sight deformation is regarded as the true value. Secondly, according to the obtained surface deformations, the ranges of eight goaf location parameters and three PIM parameters are set. Thirdly, a correlation function between the surface deformation and the underground goaf location is constructed. Finally, a particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to search for the optimal parameters in the range of the set parameters to meet the requirement for minimum error between the surface deformation calculated by PIM and the line-of-sight deformation obtained by DS-InSAR. These optimal parameters are thus regarded as the real values of the position of the underground goaf and the PIM parameters. The simulation results show that the maximum relative error between the position of the goaf and the PIM parameters is 2.11%. Taking the 93,604 working face of the Zhangshuanglou coal mine in the Peibei mining area as the research object and 12 Sentinel-1A images as the data source, the goaf location and PIM parameters of the working face were successfully inverted. The inversion results show that the maximum relative error in the goaf location parameters was 16.61%, and the maximum relative error in the PIM parameters was 26.67%

The Complete Chloroplast Genomes of Two Lancea Species with Comparative Analysis

The genus Lancea is native to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and consists of two species, Lancea tibetica Hook. f. et Thoms. and Lancea hirsuta Bonati. Here, we report the complete sequences of the chloroplast genomes of L. tibetica and L. hirsuta, which were 153,665 and 154,045 bp in length, respectively, and each included a pair of inverted repeated regions (25,624 and 25,838 bp in length, respectively) that were separated by a large single copy region (84,401 and 84,588 bp in length, respectively) and a smaller single copy region (18,016 and 17,781 bp in length, respectively). A total of 106 genes in L. tibetica and 105 in L. hirsuta comprised 79 protein-coding genes, and 4 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, as well as 23 and 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes in L. tibetica and L. hirsuta, respectively. The gene order, content, and orientation of the two Lancea chloroplast genomes exhibited high similarity. A large number of informative repetitive sequences, including SSRs, were observed in both genomes. Comparisons of the genomes with those of three other Lamiales species revealed 12 highly divergent regions in the intergenic spacers and in the matK, rpoA, rps19, ndhF, ccsA, ndhD, and ycf1 coding regions. A phylogenomic analysis suggested that Lancea forms a monophyletic group that is closely related to the clade composed of the families Phrymaceae, Paulowniaceae, and Rehmanniaceae

Visible Light-Mediated Monofluoromethylation/Acylation of Olefins by Dual Organo-Catalysis

Monofluoromethyl (CH2F) motifs exhibit unique bioactivities and are considered privileged units in drug discovery. The radical monofluoromethylative difunctionalization of alkenes stands out as an appealing approach to access CH2F-containing compounds. However, this strategy remains largely underdeveloped, particularly under metal-free conditions. In this study, we report on visible light-mediated three-component monofluoromethylation/acylation of styrene derivatives employing NHC and organic photocatalyst dual catalysis. A diverse array of α-aryl-β-monofluoromethyl ketones was successfully synthesized with excellent functional group tolerance and selectivity. The mild and metal-free CH2F radical generation strategy from NaSO2CFH2 holds potential for further applications in fluoroalkyl radical chemistry

CO2 separation performance for PIM based mixed matrix membranes embedded by superbase ionic liquids

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) have drawn much interest in CO2 separation due to their excellent separation performance, mechanical property, and desirable processability. However, obtaining highly compatible MMMs is a great challenge and is vital to avoid the loss of the separation selectivity of the MMMs. In this work, superbase ionic liquid (1,8-diazabicyclo[5,4,0]undec-7-ene imidazole ([FIDBU] [Im])) was used as a wetting agent to increase the interfacial compatibility between ZIF-67 and PIM-1, hence improving the membrane gas separation. [HDBU][Im] embeding into the MMMs could efficiently enhance the compatibility and diminish the interfacial voids. Furthermore, incorporating 5 wt% [HOBO] [Im]@ZIF-67 nanocomposite into the PIM-1 matrix improves the gas permeability and CO2 selectivity. The separation performances under the different temperatures were also conducted and showed that reducing temperature slightly decreases the gas permeability but significantly increases the CO2/CH4 selectivity via enhancing the CO2 solubility. The permeation active energies, diffusivities and solubilities were obtained to explain the gas permeate mechanism. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved