Soil and Leaf Lead Concentrations in the Lincoln Park Area

Lead contamination in urban plants and soils has been a common occurrence as a result of human activities. The first objective of this experiment was to study the relationship between lead in soils and leaves: what is the source of lead in leaves found in urban trees? More specifically, does lead enter plants predominantly from the soil? It was hypothesized that if accumulation of lead occurred in the soil there would be a significant positive correlation between leaf and soil metal content. The second objective was to test if lead soil hotspots were associated with lead sources that have been banned: automobile exhaust and lead paint use

THE EXPERIENCES OF LITERACY AND NUMERACY COACHES IN IMPLEMENTING INITIATIVES TO RAISE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

This thesis examines the initiative involving the implementation of elementary Literacy and Numeracy Coaches. Using a case study, I examined the challenges and opportunities with which Literacy and Numeracy Coaches were confronted. The study concluded that Literacy and Numeracy Coaches have great potential for improving student achievement and raising improved teaching strategies through professional development. However, due to several factors, including: vague role definition; implementation of too many initiatives at the same time; the shifting of the role due new initiatives encouraged by the Ministry and the board; and too little time for effective implementation, caused the coaches to be overloaded, and the schools to be unsure of the Coaches’ role, thus reducing the potential effectiveness of the Coaching initiative. This study has made a contribution to the limited research on Literacy and Numeracy Coaching in Canada and provided results that may help to inform future initiative

EFL TEACHERS' VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL IMMEDIACY: A STUDY OF ITS DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES

Student engagement with instructors on a personal level can appear in the form of teacher’s immediacy behaviors, which includes two main kinds of immediacy, verbal and non-verbal. Ellis (2004) found when instructors display communicative behaviors similar to immediacy; students’ motivation to learn is likely to increase. Previous immediacy research has neglected to address the determinants and consequences of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers’ immediacy behaviors. Therefore, the present study aims to investigate its determinants as well as consequences by collecting data from a number of EFL teachers and their students. The qualitative data for this study were collected via semi-structured interviews and observations. Two models emerged out of the collected data, including a) the model of the determinants of EFL teachers' immediacy which comprised body gesture, vocal variety, rapport making … b) the model of the consequences of EFL teachers' immediacy including three main categories: affective, cognitive, and perceptive domains. The results of this study showed that among the determinants of teacher immediacy, body gesture and rapport making factors exhibited the highest frequency and among the consequences factors, affective and cognitive were found to be the most frequent ones. The findings can be of particular interest to teachers, educators, and policy makers and can help them in improving the quality of teaching and providing good environment for students to learn.  Article visualizations

The Relationship of Knowledge Management and Organizational Performance in Science and Technology Parks of Iran

Any effective and sustainable changes in an organization refers to three areas related with each other and play the best way in the humans, structure and technology fields. The Knowledge management by emphasizing the three areas with the axis of man and preparing him as a knowledge worker tries to achieve organizational goals.Purpose: The current study aims to investigate the existing relationship between knowledge management infrastructures, knowledge management process capabilities, creative organizational learning, and organizational performance.Originality/value: Previous researches did not appraise the effect of knowledge management and its capabilities on organizational performance, and the specific influence of creative organizational learning was disregarded. The present study demonstrates the mechanism of knowledge management effect on organizational performance and describes the comprehensive dimensions of knowledge management performance.Methodology: Statistical population includes executives of Knowledge based companies in Science and Technology Parks of Iran. The 336 questionnaire was distributed to the census, 248questionnaireswerecompletedcorrectly. The research data were analyzed by PLS software. The unit of analysis is a company that has adopted a KMS. Target population of the research consisted of 700 Top Managers of Knowledge based companies in Science and Technology Parks of Iran (N=700). Random sampling method applied in this study and 248Top Managers were considered as the statistical sample based on "Morgan Table". One standard 5-point Likert questionnaire adopted and distributed between Top managers in the park. 252 questionnaires were returned among which 248 ones were statistically investigated. The structural relations among variables were tested using the partial least squares (PLS) method.Findings: This study shows that the KM processes can mediate between creative organizational learning and factors in the KM infrastructure. The results of the study demonstrate that knowledge management process capabilities has the most crucial role in creative organizational learning. The results indicate that there is a significant influence of the infrastructure capabilities (Collaboration, Trust, Learning Culture, Decentralization, Top Management, Promotion, IT support) on the process capabilities, also the impacts of knowledge management process capabilities on creative organizational learning and the impacts of creative organizational learning on organizational performance was confirmed

Deducing Implications of Fitness Maximization When a Tradeoff Exists Among Alternative Currencies

While the theory of natural selection posits that those behaviors maximizing reproductive success ("fitness") tend to survive, behavioral ecologists frequently explain observed behaviors as maximizing some "currency" on which fitness depends. A weakness of the approach is that reproductive success often depends on more than one currency and behaviors which augment one currency may reduce another. We explain how to deduce from the hypothesis of fitness maximization testable predictions. We expound the approach entirely in terms of two biological examples--a preliminary example involving flower replacement perennial and a more elaborate on involving over-winter hoarding by female mammals.Center for Research on Economic and Social Theory, Department of Economics, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100943/1/ECON389.pd

Surviving Winter: A Fitness-Based Explanation of Hoarding and Hibernation

The purpose of this essay is to provide a quantitative model of the fitness consequences of food hoarding. The model we develop explains storage and hibernation as intertemporal behaviors which maximize fitness. We use the term "fitness" to mean the number of surviving offspring.Center for Research on Economic and Social Theory, Department of Economics, University of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/100944/1/ECON390.pd

Predicting Successful Introduction of Novel Fruit to Preschool Children

Background: Few children eat sufficient fruits and vegetables despite their established health benefits. The feeding practices used by parents when introducing novel foods to their children, and their efficacy, require further investigation. Objective: We aimed to establish which feeding strategies parents commonly use when introducing a novel fruit to their preschool-aged children and assess the effectiveness of these feeding strategies on children’s willingness to try a novel fruit. Design Correlational design. Participants/setting Twenty-five parents and their children aged 2 to 4 years attended our laboratory and consumed a standardized lunch, including a novel fruit. Interactions between parent and child were recorded and coded. Statistical analyses performed Pearson’s correlations and multiple linear regression analyses. Results: The frequency with which children swallowed and enjoyed the novel fruit, and the frequency of taste exposures to the novel fruit during the meal, were positively correlated with parental use of physical prompting and rewarding/bargaining. Earlier introduction of solids was related to higher frequency of child acceptance behaviors. The child’s age at introduction of solids and the number of physical prompts displayed by parents significantly predicted the frequency of swallowing and enjoying the novel fruit. Age of introduction to solids and parental use of rewards/bargaining significantly pre- dicted the frequency of taste exposures. Conclusions: Prompting a child to eat and using rewards or bargains during a positive mealtime interaction can help to overcome barriers to novel fruit consumption. Early introduction of solids is also associated with greater willingness to consume a novel fruit.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Known pathophysiological mechanisms in the incidence of varicoceles

زمینه و هدف: واریکوسل به اتساع و پیچش غیر طبیعی وریدهای اسپرماتیک در بیضه اطلاق می شود و از جمله شایع ترین علت قابل درمان در مردان نابارور می باشد. در افراد مبتلا به واریکوسل عملکرد بیضه به طور پیشرونده آسیب می بیند، اما مکانیسم های دقیق درگیر در شروع و توسعه اختلال در بیضه این افراد، کاملاً شناخته شده نیستند، لذا هدف این مطالعه مروری آن است که مکانیسم های پاتو فیزیولوژی شناخته شده در بروز واریکوسل مورد بررسی قرار گیرد. روش بررسی: مقالات جستجو شده در پایگاه های اطلاعاتی مختلف مانند Science Direct، PubMed و Scopus و پایگاه های مرتبط با مقالات ISI در بین سال های 2015-1983 بررسی شد. یافته ها: واریکوسل در اغلب موارد با اسپرماتوژنز غیر طبیعی، افزایش دمای بیضه و استرس اکسیداتیو ارتباط دارد. این شرایط باعث کاهش کیفیت مایع منی و باروری می گردد. نتیجه گیری: عمل جراحی واریکوسلکتومی میکروسرجیکال به دلیل ایجاد عوارض کم تر و همچنین میزان عود کم تر نسبت به سایر روش ها، رویکرد پیشنهادی اغلب ارولوژیست ها است

Alkahest NuclearBLAST : a user-friendly BLAST management and analysis system

BACKGROUND -: Sequencing of EST and BAC end datasets is no longer limited to large research groups. Drops in per-base pricing have made high throughput sequencing accessible to individual investigators. However, there are few options available which provide a free and user-friendly solution to the BLAST result storage and data mining needs of biologists. RESULTS -: Here we describe NuclearBLAST, a batch BLAST analysis, storage and management system designed for the biologist. It is a wrapper for NCBI BLAST which provides a user-friendly web interface which includes a request wizard and the ability to view and mine the results. All BLAST results are stored in a MySQL database which allows for more advanced data-mining through supplied command-line utilities or direct database access. NuclearBLAST can be installed on a single machine or clustered amongst a number of machines to improve analysis throughput. NuclearBLAST provides a platform which eases data-mining of multiple BLAST results. With the supplied scripts, the program can export data into a spreadsheet-friendly format, automatically assign Gene Ontology terms to sequences and provide bi-directional best hits between two datasets. Users with SQL experience can use the database to ask even more complex questions and extract any subset of data they require. CONCLUSION -: This tool provides a user-friendly interface for requesting, viewing and mining of BLAST results which makes the management and data-mining of large sets of BLAST analyses tractable to biologists

An indirect adaptive neuro-fuzzy speed control of induction motors

This paper presents an indirect adaptive system based on neuro-fuzzy approximators for the speed control of induction motors. The uncertainty including parametric variations, the external load disturbance and unmodeled dynamics is estimated and compensated by designing neuro-fuzzy systems. The contribution of this paper is presenting a stability analysis for neuro-fuzzy speed control of induction motors. The online training of the neuro-fuzzy systems is based on the Lyapunov stability analysis and the reconstruction errors of the neuro-fuzzy systems are compensated in order to guarantee the asymptotic convergence of the speed tracking error. Moreover, to improve the control system performance and reduce the chattering, a PI structure is used to produce the input of the neuro-fuzzy systems. Finally, simulation results verify high performance characteristics and robustness of the proposed control system against plant parameter variation, external load and input voltage disturbance