Issues in Evaluating Special Education Teachers: Challenges and Current Perspectives

Educatio

Aging, Emotion, Attention, and Binding in the Taboo Stroop Task: Data and Theories.

How does aging impact relations between emotion, memory, and attention? To address this question, young and older adults named the font colors of taboo and neutral words, some of which recurred in the same font color or screen location throughout two color-naming experiments. The results indicated longer color-naming response times (RTs) for taboo than neutral base-words (taboo Stroop interference); better incidental recognition of colors and locations consistently associated with taboo versus neutral words (taboo context-memory enhancement); and greater speed-up in color-naming RTs with repetition of color-consistent than color-inconsistent taboo words, but no analogous speed-up with repetition of location-consistent or location-inconsistent taboo words (the consistency type by repetition interaction for taboo words). All three phenomena remained constant with aging, consistent with the transmission deficit hypothesis and binding theory, where familiar emotional words trigger age-invariant reactions for prioritizing the binding of contextual features to the source of emotion. Binding theory also accurately predicted the interaction between consistency type and repetition for taboo words. However, one or more aspects of these phenomena failed to support the inhibition deficit hypothesis, resource capacity theory, or socio-emotional selectivity theory. We conclude that binding theory warrants further test in a range of paradigms, and that relations between aging and emotion, memory, and attention may depend on whether the task and stimuli trigger fast-reaction, involuntary binding processes, as in the taboo Stroop paradigm

Noise Impacts from Professional Dog Grooming Forced-Air Dryers

This study was designed to measure the sound output of four commonly used brands of forced-air dryers used by dog groomers in the United States. Many dog groomers have questions about the effect of this exposure on their hearing, as well as on the hearing of the dogs that are being groomed. Readings taken from each dryer at 1 meter (the likely distance of the dryer from the groomer and the dog) showed average levels ranging from 105.5 to 108.3 dB SPL or 94.8 to 108.0 dBA. Using the 90 dBA criterion required by the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, dog groomers/bathers are at risk if exposure to the lowest intensity dryer (94.8 dBA) exceeds 4 hours per day. If the more stringent 85 dBA criterion and 3 dB tradeoff is applied, less than one hour of exposure is permissible in an 8 hour day. Cautions are recommended for any persons exposed to noise from forced-air dryers

A Rigorous Approach to the Feynman-Vernon Influence Functional and its Applications. I

A rigorous representation of the Feynman-Vernon influence functional used to describe open quantum systems is given, based on the theory of infinite dimensional oscillatory integrals. An application to the case of the density matrices describing the Caldeira-Leggett model of two quantum systems with a quadratic interaction is treated

Documentary Research and Archaeological Investigations at the Waite-Kirby-Potter Site, Westport, Massachusetts

Research on the Waite-Kirby-Potter house in Westport, Massachusetts, included mapping historical resources visible on the surface and excavating 25 test pits and units near the house foundations in the fall of 2009. Field investigations were complemented by extensive documentary research including a complete chain of title and genealogical research on the three families who have owned the property between the late 17th century and the present. The visible historical features include elements associated with the former stone ender (the standing stone end and chimney, an adjacent brick chimney, and a stone-lined cellar hole), stone walls, a 19th-century barn foundation, a family cemetery, and the standing Restcome Potter house. The excavations uncovered a clean gravel work yard in front of the stone end house and sheet trash scatters with artifacts from the mid-18th to early 20th centuries behind and west of the house, as well as the remains of post holes for an agricultural outbuilding or fence at the edge of the near-by agricultural field. A primary trash deposit from a space within the chimney complex was probably deposited c. 1860 and contained numerous reconstructable ceramic vessels and glass bottles. Several of the ceramic vessels date to the previous century and had been curated for some time before being discarded. The most significant contributions are to the architectural history of the property; the combination of archaeological and documentary research has suggested some new or more specific dates for events previously dated only by tradition. We suggest that the stone-end house, traditionally dated to 1677, may have been constructed in the early 18th century between 1707 and 1721 by Thomas or Benjamin Waite. The western addition to the house, attributed to David Kirby, was constructed during the period when David and his father Ichabod’s families both occupied the house (1763-1793). The construction of the Restcome Potter house has traditionally been attributed to Restcome in 1838, but the property’s previous owner David Kirby mentions his “new dwelling house” in his 1832 will, pushing the construction date of this house earlier. Finally, the modifications to the stone chimney took place after 1858, demonstrating the Potter family’s continued use and upkeep of the older house. Test pits around the foundations of the western addition to the stone ender uncovered stone foundations and sill supports intact immediately beneath the modern ground surface

Is glycaemic control associated with dietary patterns independent of weight change in people newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes?:Prospective analysis of the Early-ACTivity-In-Diabetes trial.

BACKGROUND: It is unclear whether diet affects glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes (T2D), over and above its effects on bodyweight. We aimed to assess whether changes in dietary patterns altered glycaemic control independently of effects on bodyweight in newly diagnosed T2D. METHODS: We used data from 4-day food diaries, HbA1c and potential confounders in participants of the Early-ACTivity-In-Diabetes trial measured at 0, 6 and 12 months. At baseline, a ‘carb/fat balance’ dietary pattern and an ‘obesogenic’ dietary pattern were derived using reduced-rank regression, based on hypothesised nutrient-mediated mechanisms linking dietary intake to glycaemia directly or via obesity. Relationships between 0 and 6 month change in dietary pattern scores and baseline-adjusted HbA1c at 6 months (n = 242; primary outcome) were assessed using multivariable linear regression. Models were repeated for periods 6–12 months and 0–12 months (n = 194 and n = 214 respectively; secondary outcomes). RESULTS: Reductions over 0–6 months were observed in mean bodyweight (− 2.3 (95% CI: − 2.7, − 1.8) kg), body mass index (− 0.8 (− 0.9, − 0.6) kg/m(2)), energy intake (− 788 (− 953, − 624) kJ/day), and HbA1c (− 1.6 (− 2.6, -0.6) mmol/mol). Weight loss strongly associated with lower HbA1c at 0–6 months (β = − 0.70 [95% CI − 0.95, − 0.45] mmol/mol/kg lost). Average fat and carbohydrate intakes changed to be more in-line with UK healthy eating guidelines between 0 and 6 months. Dietary patterns shifting carbohydrate intakes higher and fat intakes lower were characterised by greater consumption of fresh fruit, low-fat milk and boiled/baked potatoes and eating less of higher-fat processed meats, butter/animal fats and red meat. Increases in standardised ‘carb/fat balance’ dietary pattern score associated with improvements in HbA1c at 6 months independent of weight loss (β = − 1.54 [− 2.96, − 0.13] mmol/mol/SD). No evidence of association with HbA1c was found for this dietary pattern at other time-periods. Decreases in ‘obesogenic’ dietary pattern score were associated with weight loss (β = − 0.77 [− 1.31, − 0.23] kg/SD) but not independently with HbA1c during any period. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting weight loss should remain the primary nutritional strategy for improving glycaemic control in early T2D. However, improving dietary patterns to bring carbohydrate and fat intakes closer to UK guidelines may provide small, additional improvements in glycaemic control. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN92162869. Retrospectively registered on 25 July 2005 SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12916-022-02358-5

Unveiling Extragalactic Star Formation Using Radio Recombination Lines: An Expanded Very Large Array Pilot Study With Ngc 253

Radio recombination lines (RRLs) are powerful, extinction-free diagnostics of the ionized gas in young, star-forming regions. Unfortunately, these lines are difficult to detect in external galaxies. We present the results of Expanded Very Large Array (EVLA) observations of the RRL and radio continuum emission at 33 GHz from NGC 253, a nearby nuclear starburst galaxy. We detect the previously unobserved H58{alpha} and H59{alpha} RRLs and make simultaneous sensitive measurements of the continuum. We measure integrated line fluxes of 44.3 {+-} 0.7 W m{sup -2} and 39.9 {+-} 0.8 W m{sup -2} for the H58{alpha} and H59{alpha} lines, respectively. The thermal gas in NGC 253 is kinematically complex with multiple velocity components. We constrain the density of the thermal gas to (1.4-4) x 10{sup 4} cm{sup -3} and estimate an ionizing photon flux of 1 x 10{sup 53} s{sup -1}. We use the RRL kinematics and the derived ionizing photon flux to show that the nuclear region of NGC 253 is not gravitationally bound, which is consistent with the outflow of gas inferred from the X-ray and H{alpha} measurements. The line profiles, fluxes, and kinematics of the H58{alpha} and H59{alpha} lines agree with those of RRLs at different frequencies confirming themore » accuracy of the previous, more difficult, high-frequency observations. We find that the EVLA is an order of magnitude more efficient for extragalactic RRL observations than the Very Large Array. These observations demonstrate both the power of the EVLA and the future potential of extragalactic RRL studies with the EVLA.« les

Unveiling Extragalactic Star Formation Using Radio Recombination Lines: An EVLA Pilot Study with NGC 253

Radio recombination lines (RRLs) are powerful, extinction-free diagnostics of the ionized gas in young, star-forming regions. Unfortunately, these lines are difficult to detect in external galaxies. We present the results of EVLA observations of the RRL and radio continuum emission at 33 GHz from NGC 253, a nearby nuclear starburst galaxy. We detect the previously unobserved H58a and H59a RRLs and make simultaneous sensitive measurements of the continuum. We measure integrated line fluxes of $44.3 \pm 0.7$ W m$^{-2}$ and $39.9 \pm 0.8$ W m$^{-2}$ for the H58a and H59a lines, respectively. The thermal gas in NGC 253 is kinematically complex with multiple velocity components. We constrain the density of the thermal gas to $1.4 - 4 \times 10^4$ cm$^{-3}$ and estimate an ionizing photon flux of $1 \times 10^{53}$ s$^{-1}$. We use the RRL kinematics and the derived ionizing photon flux to show that the nuclear region of NGC 253 is not gravitationally bound, which is consistent with the outflow of gas inferred from the X-ray and Halpha measurements. The line profiles, fluxes, and kinematics of the H58a and H59a lines agree with those of RRLs at different frequencies confirming the accuracy of the previous, more difficult, high frequency observations. We find that the EVLA is an order of magnitude more efficient for extragalactic RRL observations than the VLA. These observations demonstrate both the power of the EVLA and the future potential of extragalactic RRL studies with the EVLA.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJL EVLA Special Issue. Version with high resolution figures at http://www.astro.virginia.edu/~aak8t/data/rrl/ms.p