PBIS Social Culture in an Alternative Education Setting: What Do Students Know About Their Language, Experiences, and Values?

School discipline and safety has been an ongoing concern in the United States, as well as statistics about the students that are affected by these concerns. Extreme programming such as zero tolerance has created a pathway for students with safety concerns and disruptive behaviors toward alternative education programs. Unfortunately, simply removing students from public schools has not extinguished the undesired behaviors, but may actually increase more severe and frequent discipline problems, as well as restricted these students from needed and accessible programs. While PBIS in Alternative Education (AE) settings has encouraging outcomes, little research is available in these settings where the most severe behavioral needs exist. More specifically, the nature of these schools is to support students who have generally failed in traditional settings because of their mental health or disability, aggressive behavior, and low academic achievement. This exploratory qualitative study examined the approach used to develop a pro-social culture in an alternative special education school for children with emotional and severe behavioral disabilities. A secondary purpose was to understand the student perspective of their social culture and social competence, identifying what students know about their common language, experiences, and values in the PBIS approach. The tentative findings of this study describe that a PBIS approach is a complex system and when implemented with fidelity, can be effective in developing a prosocial culture and school climate that reflects norms, values, perceptions of safety, and interpersonal relationships in an alternative special education setting. Additional findings may suggest that in a PBIS approach, social competence is the knowledge that all students know the rules and expectations and adherence to those conditions may affect the relationships between students and teachers. Students in this setting have demonstrated social competence, meaning they can learn the knowledge and skills to value the common language and behaviors across school settings. While students learn the language and behaviors to access extrinsic rewards, developing moral character also appears to have importance, as students’ feelings of self-fulfillment shift the focus from extrinsic rewards to intrinsic motivation of valuing the PBIS social culture. As an indicator of the prosocial culture and school climate, students appear to create deep meaning of the PBIS social culture by means of their impression of themselves in the school community

Photoemission Electron Microscopy as a tool for the investigation of optical near fields

Photoemission electron microscopy was used to image the electrons photoemitted from specially tailored Ag nanoparticles deposited on a Si substrate (with its native oxide SiO$_{x}$). Photoemission was induced by illumination with a Hg UV-lamp (photon energy cutoff $\hbar\omega_{UV}=5.0$ eV, wavelength $\lambda_{UV}=250$ nm) and with a Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser ($\hbar\omega_{l}=3.1$ eV, $\lambda_{l}=400$ nm, pulse width below 200 fs), respectively. While homogeneous photoelectron emission from the metal is observed upon illumination at energies above the silver plasmon frequency, at lower photon energies the emission is localized at tips of the structure. This is interpreted as a signature of the local electrical field therefore providing a tool to map the optical near field with the resolution of emission electron microscopy.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; submitted to Physical Review Letter

Natural enemies of armored scales (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) and soft scales (Hemiptera: Coccoidae) in Chile: molecular and morphological identification.

Scale insects (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha: Coccomorpha) are key pests of agricultural crops and ornamental plants worldwide. Their populations are difficult to control, even with insecticides, due to their cryptic habits. Moreover, there is growing concern over the use of synthetic pesticides for their control, due to deleterious environmental effects and the emergence of resistant populations of target pests. In this context, biological control may be an effective and sustainable approach. Hymenoptera Chalcidoidea includes natural enemies of scale insects that have been successfully used in many biological control programs. However, the correct identification of pest scale species and their natural enemies is particularly challenging because these insects are very small and highly specialized. Integrative taxonomy, coupling DNA barcoding and morphological analysis, has been successfully used to characterize pests and natural enemy species. In this study, we performed a survey of parasitoids and predators of armored and soft scales in Chile, based on 28S and COI barcodes. Fifty-three populations of Diaspididae and 79 populations of Coccidae were sampled over the entire length of the country, from Arica (18˚S) to Frutillar (41˚S), between January 2015 and February 2016. The phylogenetic relationships obtained by Bayesian inference from multilocus haplotypes revealed 41 putative species of Chalcidoidea, five Coccinellidae and three Neuroptera. Species delimitation was confirmed using ABGD, GMYC and PTP model. In Chalcidoidea, 23 species were identified morphologically, resulting in new COI barcodes for 12 species and new 28S barcodes for 14 species. Two predator species (Rhyzobius lophantae and Coccidophilus transandinus) were identified morphologically, and two parasitoid species, Chartocerus niger and Signiphora bifasciata, were recorded for the first time in Chile

Looking into houses: analysis of LBK ceramic technological change on a household level

International audienceExcavations on the Neolithic site of Balatonszárszó-Kis-erdei-dűlő, located in western Hungary in central Transdanubia, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, revealed several thousand features. On the basis of material culture and architectural features, the settlement can be assigned to the Central European Linearbandkeramik culture (LBK; ca. 5,350–5,000/4,900 cal. BC). Apart from pits, traces of 48 houses were discovered. At least 14 other sets of features could also be interpreted as houses, mainly through the presence of characteristic elongated pits.In the first model of the site’s development, five pottery style groups were distinguished on the basis of stylistic elements such as shape and decoration. These style groups show a spatial pattern within the settlement. Their major characteristics are easy to correlate with traditional typochronological units of the LBK in the western Carpathian Basin. Although chronological relevance can be attributed to the groups, certain typological and stylistic attributes had a long duration and appear in different style groups.For the purposes of this study, eight houses and their associated features were selected. The ceramics from these features are characte- ristic of each style group. The aim was to examine the technology of ceramics, in particular choices in raw materials and intentionally added tempers, as well as building techniques.During a previous analysis of ceramics from the settlement, 461 sherds were chosen for macroscopic analysis, from which 131 samples were selected for further petrographic thin section analysis. Of these samples, 99 come from the eight houses and pits examined in this study. These features produced a total of 9,161 sherds. As part of the analysis of vessel building techniques, all the available material from the examined houses was assessed, out of which 109 vessels could be attributed to a forming method.Ceramic petrographic results show that there is a clear change in ceramic technology at household level. The earliest houses of the site show little variability in choices of raw materials and tempers, while houses of Style groups 2–5 show increased choice in raw materials and purposefully added tempers. As far as vessel fashioning is concerned, an opposite trend can be observed. Style group 1 ceramics show considerable variety in technical practices, with at least three forming methods, while ceramics in Style groups 2–3 and 5 are characterized by only one or two forming methods. Thus it seems that variability in building methods slightly decreased towards the end of the settlement.Ceramic technological changes could be identified on a household level, providing an insight into settlement dynamics. These patterns in the use of raw materials/tempers and building methods may be related to the fact that producers came from different learning net- works and had different conceptions of how to build a culturally appropriate vessel. The strength of analysing ceramic technologies on a household level is that we are able to model where ceramic technological changes first appeared within a given settlement and we can assess the nature of these changes. In turn, these patterns can be correlated with typochronology and the analysis of other types of material culture from the part of the site where the changes appeared. In this way we can improve our understanding of settlement dynamics and social changes

Rainfall threshold for initiating effective stress decrease and failure in weathered tephra slopes

Rainfall is one of the most important triggers of slope failure. Weathered pyroclastic (tephra) deposits are especially vulnerable to slope failure because they commonly form slopes of high porosity and high clay content. Empirically derived thresholds for the triggering of landslides are commonly based on rainfall conditions and have been widely applied in volcanic soils. However, so far only few researchers utilized pore water pressure in the slope as additional variable for the threshold calibration. Here, we derived a new rainfall threshold for initiating the decrease in effective stress in the slope by analyzing a long-term record of rainfall and piezometer data from a slide-prone coastal area in northern New Zealand that consists of clayey, halloysitic tephra deposits. The level of effective stress decrease increased with rainfall intensity and duration. We observed highest effective stress decrease of up to 36% during rainfall events that triggered landslides in our study area. The effective stress threshold exhibits a satisfactory predictive capability. The probability of correctly predicting a decrease in effective stress is 53%. The effective stress threshold contributes towards the implementation of the decrease in effective stress into rainfall thresholds for the occurrence of landslides

DNA markers to disentangle complexes of cryptic taxa in mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae).

Mealybugs (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) are major pests of a wide range of crops and ornamental plants worldwide. Their high degree of morphological similarity makes them difficult to identify and limits their study and management. We aimed to identify a set of markers for the genetic characterization and identification of complexes of taxa in the Pseudococcidae. We surveyed and tested the genetic markers used in previous studies and then identified new markers for particularly relevant genomic regions for which no satisfactory markers were available. We tested all markers on a subset of four taxa distributed worldwide. Five markers were retained after this first screening: two regions of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene, 28S-D2, the entire internal transcriber space 2 locus and the rpS15-16S region of the primary mealybug endosymbiont Tremblaya princeps. We then assessed the utility of these markers for the characterization and identification of 239 samples from 43 sites in France and Brazil. The five markers studied (i) successfully distinguished all species identified by morphological examination, (ii) disentangled complexes of species by revealing intraspecific genetic variation and identified a set of closely related taxa for which taxonomic status requires clarification through further studies, and (iii) facilitated the inference of phylogenetic relationships between the characterized taxa

Complete synchronization in coupled Type-I neurons

For a system of type-I neurons bidirectionally coupled through a nonlinear feedback mechanism, we discuss the issue of noise-induced complete synchronization (CS). For the inputs to the neurons, we point out that the rate of change of instantaneous frequency with the instantaneous phase of the stochastic inputs to each neuron matches exactly with that for the other in the event of CS of their outputs. Our observation can be exploited in practical situations to produce completely synchronized outputs in artificial devices. For excitatory-excitatory synaptic coupling, a functional dependence for the synchronization error on coupling and noise strengths is obtained. Finally we report an observation of noise-induced CS between non-identical neurons coupled bidirectionally through random non-zero couplings in an all-to- all way in a large neuronal ensemble.Comment: 24 pages, 9 figure

Geotechnical Offshore Seabed Tool (GOST): CPTu measurements and operations in New Zealand.

The Geotechnical Offshore Seabed Tool (GOST) was used in three field campaigns in on-and offshore areas in Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Offshore measurements were performed along the main shipping channel in the Tauranga Harbor and onshore measurements were conducted at the locations of two landslides at Pyes Pa and Omokoroa. From each of these sites a sample static CPTu profile is described and reviewed. Additionally, a vibratory CPTu from the Pyes Pa landslide is presented. The CPTu results were used for subsurface sediments investigations at the tested locations

Monitoring the landslide at Bramley Drive, Tauranga, NZ

Omokoroa Peninsula, Tauranga Harbour, is prone to landslides in sensitive pyroclastic soils, especially in coastal bluffs. The largest is the landslide at Bramley Drive that first occurred in 1979, and was reactivated in 2011 and 2012. Since 2012 the landslide has been monitored with laser scans, vibro-and static-CPT, pore water logging at 3 depths, and a borehole inclinometer. Laser scan results track degradation of the scarp and allow development of a preliminary magnitude-frequency curve for failure events on the scarp. To date the borehole inclinometer has shown no obvious shear surface development. However, deformations in phase with the solid earth tides are evident in the cumulative displacement plots. Layers of weak soils separated by sharp boundaries are believed to exaggerate the deformations of the solid earth tides to the extent that they are measurable with a simple inclinometer. Residual deformation after subtraction of the earth tide effects indicate some movement over winter of 2014 associated with sensitive soils at or near the failure surface. The depth of this movement corresponds with a zone of high induced pore water pressures under vibratory CPTu. Pore water pressures indicate two discrete aquifers: an upper aquifer in tephra layers high in the upper part of the sequence that responds to atmospheric pressures; and a second aquifer in the underlying ignimbrites. Pressures in the bottom aquifer are lower than in the overlying aquifer in summer and higher in winter. Large spikes in pore water pressure have been observed during winter of 2014; these coincide with the time of deformation noted in the inclinometer traces