A preferred vision for administering secondary schools : a reflective essay

This reflective paper will address four areas, which are important components of a learning community. First, the importance of a positive school climate, and how this plays an integral part in the creation of the learning community. Second, to look at character education and a shift in discipline policies to help prepare students for our changing society. Third, a paradigm shift from extra curricular to co-curricular educational opportunities for our student body. Fourth, a look at educational leadership in developing the learning community

Atrazine Degradation in a Small Stream in Iowa

A study was conducted during 1990 through an 11.2-km reach of Roberts Creek in northeastern Iowa to determine the fate of atrazine in a surface water environment. Water samples were collected at ~1-month intervals from April through November during stable low to medium flow conditions and analyzed for atrazine and two of its initial biotic degradation products, desethylatrazine and deisopropylatrazine. Samples were collected on the basis of a Lagrangian model of streamflow in order to sample the same parcel of water as it moved downstream. Atrazine concentrations substantially decreased (roughly 25-60% ) between water entering and exiting the study reach during four of the seven sampling periods. During these same four sampling periods, the concentrations of the two biotic atrazine degradation products were constant or decreasing downstream, suggesting an abiotic degradation process

Ultra-large polymer-free suspended graphene films

Due to its extraordinary properties, suspended graphene is a critical element in a wide range of applications. Preparation methods that preserve the unique properties of graphene are therefore in high demand. To date, all protocols for the production of large graphene films have relied on the application of a polymer film to stabilize graphene during the transfer process. However, this inevitably introduces contaminations that have proven to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove entirely. Here we report the polymer-free fabrication of suspended films consisting of three graphene layers spanning circular holes of 150 $\mu$m diameter. We find a high fabrication yield, very uniform properties of the freestanding graphene across all holes as well across individual holes. A detailed analysis by confocal Raman and THz spectroscopy reveals that the triple-layer samples exhibit structural and electronic properties similar to those of monolayer graphene. We demonstrate their usability as ion-electron converters in time-of-flight mass spectrometry and related applications. They are two orders of magnitude thinner than previous carbon foils typically used in these types of experiments, while still being robust and exhibiting a sufficiently high electron yield. These results are an important step towards replacing free-standing ultra-thin carbon films or graphene from polymer-based transfers with much better defined and clean graphene.Comment: 9 pagers, 5 figure

Using Large Databases of Groundwater Chemistry in the Northern Midwest USA: The Effects of Geologic and Anthropogenic Factors

Regional geochemical databases for the northern Midwest USA are being compiled to examine the various geogenic and anthropogenic factors that control the chemistry of groundwater. At the regional scale, variations are seen that are attributable to agricultural and urban effects, or to geologic factors. Examples of the former include enrichments of nitrate in groundwater, while examples of the latter mainly highlight geochemical differences between carbonate rocks and all other rock types in the region. This paper examines a few of these regional effects and the spatial scales at which they can be observe

Fate and transport of glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid in surface waters of agricultural basins

CONCLUSIONS: Glyphosate use in a watershed results in some occurrence in surface water; however, the watersheds most at risk for the offsite transport of glyphosate are those with high application rates, rainfall that results in overland runoff and a flow route that does not include transport through the soil

Water quality in the eastern Iowa basins

This article summarizes major findings about nutrients in surface and groundwater in the eastern Iowa basins (see map) between 1996 and 1998. The data were collected as part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water-Quality Assessment Program (NAWQA). Water quality is discussed in terms of local and regional issues and compared with conditions found in all 36 National NAWQA study areas assessed to date. Findings are explained in the context of selected national U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) benchmarks, such as those for drinking water quality and the protection of aquatic organisms

Artificial intelligence for clinical decision support for monitoring patients in cardiovascular ICUs: a systematic review

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models continue to evolve the clinical decision support systems (CDSS). However, challenges arise when it comes to the integration of AI/ML into clinical scenarios. In this systematic review, we followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), the population, intervention, comparator, outcome, and study design (PICOS), and the medical AI life cycle guidelines to investigate studies and tools which address AI/ML-based approaches towards clinical decision support (CDS) for monitoring cardiovascular patients in intensive care units (ICUs). We further discuss recent advances, pitfalls, and future perspectives towards effective integration of AI into routine practices as were identified and elaborated over an extensive selection process for state-of-the-art manuscripts. Methods: Studies with available English full text from PubMed and Google Scholar in the period from January 2018 to August 2022 were considered. The manuscripts were fetched through a combination of the search keywords including AI, ML, reinforcement learning (RL), deep learning, clinical decision support, and cardiovascular critical care and patients monitoring. The manuscripts were analyzed and filtered based on qualitative and quantitative criteria such as target population, proper study design, cross-validation, and risk of bias. Results: More than 100 queries over two medical search engines and subjective literature research were developed which identified 89 studies. After extensive assessments of the studies both technically and medically, 21 studies were selected for the final qualitative assessment. Discussion: Clinical time series and electronic health records (EHR) data were the most common input modalities, while methods such as gradient boosting, recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and RL were mostly used for the analysis. Seventy-five percent of the selected papers lacked validation against external datasets highlighting the generalizability issue. Also, interpretability of the AI decisions was identified as a central issue towards effective integration of AI in healthcare