The Secondary School Writing Center: A Place to Build Confident, Competent Writers

The three of us led an International Writing Centers Association-sponsored allday workshop on secondary school writing centers at the NCTE Convention. Writing centers at all levels follow the theoretical background of Bruffee, Murray, Elbow, and North, to name a few. They are not remedial facilities, as some schools would like them to be, or ESL facilities to improve basic writing in English. No, a secondary school writing center is primarily a place where we work with all students, regardless of their innate talent, to build their confidence and competency as writers. Whether we are talking about students who need to fine-tune excellent papers or students who need to discover what they really want to say, a writing center can be a safe harbor within the sometimes stormy seas of the school day. We can think of no better way to reform writing instruction.University Writing Cente

The Contributions of the Gulf of Maine Council to Regional Climate Resilience

This article investigates Canada-US collaboration in support of climate resilience efforts in the Gulf of Maine by focusing on the work of the binational Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment (GOMC). Despite lacking authority over coastal management policymaking, the GOMC made significant progress between 2004 and 2022 towards achieving its climate resilience goals. Most importantly, GOMC actors, including members of the Climate Network, have helped build capacity for more effective measurement, monitoring, and analysis of climate change impacts in the Gulf of Maine. While its participants share common values and support rigorous climate action and marine conservation measures, the GOMC itself has been underdeveloped as a binational collaborative tool due to its limited mandate, financial resources, and small staff

Peer crowd affiliation as a segmentation tool for young adult tobacco use.

BackgroundIn California, young adult tobacco prevention is of prime importance; 63% of smokers start by the age of 18 years, and 97% start by the age of 26 years. We examined social affiliation with 'peer crowd' (eg, Hipsters) as an innovative way to identify high-risk tobacco users.MethodsCross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2014 (N=3368) among young adult bar patrons in 3 California cities. We examined use rates of five products (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookah, cigars and smokeless tobacco) by five race/ethnicity categories. Peer crowd affiliation was scored based on respondents' selecting pictures of young adults representing those most and least likely to be in their friend group. Respondents were classified into categories based on the highest score; the peer crowd score was also examined as a continuous predictor. Logistic regression models with each tobacco product as the outcome tested the unique contribution of peer crowd affiliation, controlling for race/ethnicity, age, sex, sexual orientation and city.ResultsRespondents affiliating with Hip Hop and Hipster peer crowds reported significantly higher rates of tobacco use. As a categorical predictor, peer crowd was related to tobacco use, independent of associations with race/ethnicity. As a continuous predictor, Hip Hop peer crowd affiliation was also associated with tobacco use, and Young Professional affiliation was negatively associated, independent of demographic factors.ConclusionsTobacco product use is not the same across racial/ethnic groups or peer crowds, and peer crowd predicts tobacco use independent of race/ethnicity. Antitobacco interventions targeting peer crowds may be an effective way to reach young adult tobacco users.Trial registration numberNCT01686178, Pre-results

Optical tweezers for signal detection and micromanipulation

The work presented in this thesis explores new multi-disciplinary applications of optical tweezers in the physical and biological sciences. Firstly, the three dimensional trapping of partially silvered sphere in a standard TEM00 optical trap was characterised. These spheres were then coated with an azo dye such that surface-enhanced resonance Raman (SERRS) measurements could be made on a single bead whilst it was simultaneously trapped in 532 nm optical tweezers. The length of time over which the SERRS signal could be recorded was increased, from milli-seconds to minutes, by using 1064 nm optical tweezers and introducing second harmonic light, generated via a frequency doubling crystal, for the excitation of the SERRS signal. In addition to trapping single particles, a spatial light modulator (SLM) was introduced into the optical tweezers to produce holographic optical tweezers. The SLM allowed the creation and manipulation of several optical beams both simultaneously and independently of each other. Three dimensional trapping and manipulation of multiple micron-sized spheres were achieved using the SLM in the Fourier plane of the traps. This ability to trap and manipulate objects, such as fluorescent spheres and E. coli, in 3D was extended to create permanent 3D structures that were set within a polymer matrix. These objects could be created, permanently set and imaged ex-situ. A summary of conclusions and ideas for future work are included

The Housing Affordability Gap for Extremely Low-Income Renters in 2013

This brief provides information on national trends in housing affordability for ELI renter households, as well as insights into which major counties are making the most and least progress on closing the housing affordability gap. The findings are based on data from the 2000 Census as well as three-year averages from the 2005, 2006, and 2007 and the 2011, 2012, and 2013 1-year American Community Surveys. For the sake of simplicity we refer to data averaged from 2011 -- 13 estimates as 2013.This brief is the first publication on housing affordability to combine detailed county-level data on ELI renter households (those with incomes at or below 30 percent of the area median) and the impact of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rental assistance

Peer crowd-based targeting in E-cigarette advertisements: a qualitative study to inform counter-marketing.

BACKGROUND:Cigarette lifestyle marketing with psychographic targeting has been well documented, but few studies address non-cigarette tobacco products. This study examined how young adults respond to e-cigarette advertisements featuring diverse peer crowds - peer groups with shared identities and lifestyles - to inform tobacco counter-marketing design. METHODS:Fifty-nine young adult tobacco users in California participated in interviews and viewed four to five e-cigarette advertisements that featured characters from various peer crowd groups. For each participant, half of the advertisements they viewed showed characters from the same peer crowd as their own, and the other half of the advertisements featured characters from a different peer crowd. Advertisements were presented in random order. Questions probed what types of cues are noticed in the advertisements, and whether and how much participants liked or disliked the advertisements. RESULTS:Results suggest that participants liked and provided richer descriptions of characters and social situations in the advertisements featuring their own peer crowd more than the advertisements featuring a different peer crowd. Mismatching age or device type was also noted: participants reported advertisements showing older adults were not intended for them. Participants who used larger vaporizers tended to dislike cigalike advertisements even if they featured a matching peer crowd. CONCLUSION:Peer crowd and lifestyle cues, age and device type are all salient features of e-cigarette advertising for young adults. Similarly, educational campaigns about e-cigarettes should employ peer crowd-based targeting to engage young adults, though messages should be carefully tested to ensure authentic and realistic portrayals

Reconstructed Intentions in Collaborative Problem Solving Dialogues

We provide evidence that speech act recognition, is 1) difficult for humans to do and 2) likely to misidentify proposals involving reconstructed intentions. We examine the reliability of coding for speech acts in collaborative dialogues and we present an approach for recognizing reconstructed proposals using domain context and other more easily recognized features. 1 Introduction Speech act recognition plays a prominent role in dialogue understanding, in traditional approaches that infer a plan using plan construction operators [PA80], [LA90], [LC91, LC92], and in more recent techniques relying on statistical correlations or finite state machines [RM95, QDL + 97]. Both approaches recognize surface speech acts, using surface form and information provided by the discourse context and the discourse operators, or by a finite state approximation of the planning information. These approaches assume that it is (relatively) simple to recognize speech acts, and that speech acts are a requi..

The world-sheet description of A and B branes revisited

We give a manifest supersymmetric description of A and B branes on Kahler manifolds using a completely local N=2 superspace formulation of the world-sheet nonlinear sigma-model in the presence of a boundary. In particular, we show that an N=2 superspace description of type A boundaries is possible, at least when the background is Kahler. This leads to an elegant and concrete setting for studying coisotropic A branes. Here, apgesan important role is played by the boundary potential, whose precise physical meaning remains to be fully understood. Duality transformations relating A and B branes in the presence of isometries are studied as well.Comment: LaTeX, 32 page

Bars, Nightclubs, and Cancer Prevention: New Approaches to Reduce Young Adult Cigarette Smoking.

IntroductionTobacco contributes to multiple cancers, and it is largely preventable. As overall smoking prevalence in California declines, smoking has become concentrated among high-risk groups. Targeting social/cultural groups (i.e., "peer crowds") that share common values, aspirations, and activities in social venues like bars and nightclubs may reach high-risk young adult smokers. Lack of population data on young adult peer crowds limits the ability to assess the potential reach of such interventions.MethodsThis multimodal population-based household survey included young adults residing in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Data were collected in 2014 and analyzed in 2016. Multivariable logistic regressions assessed smoking by sociodemographic factors, attitudes, self-rated health, peer crowd affiliation, and bar/nightclub attendance.ResultsSmoking prevalence was 15.1% overall; 35.3% of respondents sometimes or frequently attended bars. In controlled analyses, bar attendance (AOR=2.13, 95% CI=1.00, 4.53) and binge drinking (AOR=3.17, 95% CI=1.59, 6.32) were associated with greater odds of smoking, as was affiliation with "Hip Hop" (AOR=4.32, 95% CI=1.48, 12.67) and "Country" (AOR=3.13, 95% CI=1.21, 8.09) peer crowds. Multivariable models controlling for demographics estimated a high probability of smoking among bar patrons affiliating with Hip Hop (47%) and Country (52%) peer crowds.ConclusionsBar attendance and affiliation with certain peer crowds confers significantly higher smoking risk. Interventions targeting Hip Hop and Country peer crowds could efficiently reach smokers, and peer crowd-tailored interventions have been associated with decreased smoking and binge drinking. Targeted interventions in bars and nightclubs may be an efficient way to address these cancer risks