How Can Principles of Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Inform the Design of a Junior High Curriculum to Enhance Science Learning in a Meaningful Way?

The objective of this dissertation was to explore how the principles of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) can inform the design of a junior high school curriculum to enhance science learning by providing meaningful learning experiences to all students. The transformative paradigm provided a framework used as a lens to emphasize the importance of understanding the social, cultural, and historical context in which individuals and communities are situated. CSP and Backward Design Model were applied to develop a curriculum for a sheltered science literacy elective class for below grade level readers. The purpose of using CSP in the curriculum design was to create a more inclusive and culturally sustaining learning environment that would support students in developing strong science literacy skills. Project–based learning (PBL) was used with CSP to allow for flexibility and creativity in project designs that give students the opportunity to explore and experiment with different ideas and approaches in the learning environment. The California Department of Education’s descriptions for effective use of CSP in a classroom was incorporated into the curriculum to be used as an assessment tool measuring the effectiveness of the curriculum. The implications of this curriculum development suggest the effectiveness of CSP on science literacy and its connections enhance student performance in science. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, https://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

A Miniaturized Patch Antenna by Using a CSRR Loading Plane

This paper presents a design methodology for the implementation of a miniaturized square patch antenna and its circuit model for 5.15 GHz ISM band. The miniaturization is achieved by employing concentric complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) structures in between the patch and ground plane. The results are compared with the traditional square patch antenna in terms of area, bandwidth, and efficiency. The area is reduced with a ratio of 1/4 with respect to the traditional patch. The miniaturized square patch antenna has an efficiency, bandwidth, and reflection coefficient of 78%, 0.4%, and -16 dB, respectively. The measurement and circuit modeling results show a good agreement with the full-wave electromagnetic simulations. © 2015 Mehrab Ramzan and Kagan Topalli

Investigating The Association Between Chronic Kidney Disease and Clinical Outcomes.

Background Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) can be described as the loss of the kidney function over time. Symptoms usually develop slowly, and it may not appear in early stages. Lab tests can confirm a CKD diagnosis. The approximate number of incidents per year is more than 200,000 cases, and approximately 30 million people are living with CKD today in the United States. This long-standing disease ultimately leads to renal failure at the end. At this present time, there are no known cures for CKD, and the only treatment available is dialysis. Objectives The purpose of this study is to determine the association between CKD and further with hemodialysis (HD) and medical condition such as cardiac complications, cardiogenic shock, hemorrhage, anemia, vascular complication, postop respiratory failure, post op infarct hemorrhage, acute renal failure, new temporary pacemaker, new permanent pacemaker, pericardial complications, and death. Study design The study employed secondary data in a cross-sectional design. Methods A sample of 106,969 was drawn from the population. The outcome variables were a diagnosis of CKD and/or CKD with HD. The predictor variables were cardiac complications, cardiogenic shock, hemorrhage, anemia, vascular complication, postop respiratory failure, post op infarct hemorrhage, acute renal failure, new temporary pacemaker, new permanent pacemaker, pericardial complications and death. Logistic regression was conducted to analyze the relationship between outcome variable and each independent variable. Variables with a p-value Results Analysis shows that subjects with cardiac complications were 17% less likely to have CKD as compared to those who did not have cardiac complications (OR: 0.83, 95% CI: 0.78-0.88). CKD patients who had cardiac complications were 18% more likely to have HD than the subjects who did not have cardiac complications (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.01-1.39). Patients with cardiogenic shock were 86% more likely to have CKD than the subjects who did not have cardiogenic shock (OR: 1.86, 95% CI: 1.82-1.91). CKD patients who had cardiogenic shock were also 18% more likely to have HD than the subjects who did not have cardiogenic shock (OR: 1.18, 95% CI: 1.11-1.25). We have similar results if a patient had other conditions. Conclusion Chronic kidney disease with hemodialysis is significantly associated by the other medical conditions such as cardiac complications cardiogenic shock, hemorrhage, anemia, vascular complication, postop respiratory failure, post op infarct hemorrhage, acute renal failure, new temporary pacemaker, new permanent pacemaker, pericardial complications and death in the United States. Further studies are needed to confirm the results and to understand the prognosis

Decoherence and entanglement degradation of a qubit-qutrit system in non-inertial frames

We study the effect of decoherence on a qubit-qutrit system under the influence of global, local and multilocal decoherence in non-inertial frames. We show that the entanglement sudden death can be avoided in non-inertial frames in the presence of amplitude damping, depolarizing and phase damping channels. However, degradation of entanglement is seen due to Unruh effect. It is shown that for lower level of decoherence, the depolarizing channel degrades the entanglement more heavily as compared to the amplitude damping and phase damping channels. However, for higher values of decoherence parameters, amplitude damping channel heavily degrades the entanglement of the hybrid system. Further more, no ESD is seen for any value of Rob's acceleration.Comment: 16 pages, 5 .eps figures, 1 table; Quantum Information Processing, published online, 5 July, 201