Remote sensing of cloud base charge

Layer clouds are abundant in the Earth's atmosphere. Such clouds do not become sufficiently strongly charged to generate lightning, but they show weak charging along the upper and lower cloud boundaries where there is a conductivity transition. Cloud edge charging has recently been observed using balloon-carried electrometers. Measurement of cloud boundary charging without balloons is shown to be possible here for low altitude (<1km) charged cloud bases, through combining their effect on the surface electric field with laser time of flight cloud base height measurements, and the application of simple electrostatic models.Comment: Proceedings of the Electrostatics Society of America conference, Ottawa, June 201

An Investigation of Prekindergarten Teachers’ Read Aloud Choices

The value of children’s literature as a tool for promoting literacy, improving content knowledge, and increasing print motivation is evident. Empirical evidence relating to the types of books early childhood teachers read aloud and the reasons for their choices, however, does not exist. The purpose of this descriptive study was to provide current, in-depth documentation of the read-aloud book choices of prekindergarten teachers (n=151) in a nationally recognized, state-wide program regarding the variables of genre, publication date, and diversity along with the teachers’ rationale for selecting the books. Responses to two open-ended questions inspired by Yopp and Yopp (2006) were analyzed thematically and compared with research-based recommendations for best practices. Books read aloud were quite homogenous, including mostly recently published examples of contemporary realistic fiction or folklore with almost no multicultural or award-winning books present. The findings highlight the importance of increasing early childhood teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature and the implications of book choice on children’s development and learning

Miniaturized atmospheric ionization detector

A small scintillator-based detector for atmospheric ionization measurements has been developed, partly in response to a need for better ionization data in the weather-forming regions of the atmosphere and partly with the intention of producing a commercially available device. The device can measure both the count rate and energy of atmospheric ionizing radiation. Here we report results of a test flight over the UK in December 2017 where the detector was flown with two Geiger counters on a meteorological radiosonde. The count rate profile with height was consistent both with the Geigers and with previous work. The energy of incoming ionizing radiation increased substantially with altitude.Comment: Proc 18th Conference on Atmospheric Electricity, Nara, Japan, June 201

Lord Kelvin’s atmospheric electricity measurements

Lord Kelvin (William Thomson) made important contributions to the study of atmospheric elec- tricity during a brief but productive period from 1859–1861. By 1859 Kelvin had recognised the need for “incessant recording” of atmospheric electrical parameters, and responded by inventing both the water dropper equaliser for measuring the atmospheric potential gradient (PG), and photographic data logging. The water dropper equaliser was widely adopted internationally and is still in use today. Following theoretical consid- erations of electric field distortion by local topography, Kelvin developed a portable electrometer, using it to investigate the PG on the Scottish island of Arran. During these environmental measurements, Kelvin may have unwittingly detected atmospheric PG changes during solar activity in August / September 1859 associated with the “Carrington event”, which is interesting in the context of his later statements that solar magnetic influ- ence on the Earth was impossible. Kelvin’s atmospheric electricity work presents an early representative study in quantitative environmental physics, through the application of mathematical principles to an environmental problem, the design and construction of bespoke instrumentation for real world measurements and recognising the limitations of the original theoretical view revealed by experimental wor

Learning strategies and its relation with school performance in the formation of Civil Engineers: FES Aragón, UNAM Case

El propósito de este trabajo consiste en determinar si las Estrategias de Aprendizaje (EA) influyen en el Rendimiento Académico (RA) de los alumnos de noveno semestre de la carrera de Ingeniería Civil de la Facultad de Estudios Superiores (FES) Aragón de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM); en este caso, hablamos de una población de 34 estudiantes a quienes se le aplicó el Cuestionario de Evaluación de las Estrategias de Aprendizaje de los Estudiantes Universitarios (CEVEAPEU) que fue elaborado por Bernardo Gallardo, Jesús M. Suárez-Rodríguez y Cruz Pérez Pérez en el año 2009, con el objetivo de presentar un instrumento más completo para evaluar el uso de Estrategias de Aprendizajes por parte de los estudiantes universitarios. Está conformado por dos escalas, seis sub-escalas, veinticinco estrategias y ochenta y ocho ítems con respuesta: muy en desacuerdo, en desacuerdo, indeciso, de acuerdo, muy de acuerdo. Asimismo, para dicha población, se indagó cuál fue su Rendimiento Académico, reflejado en su promedio general de calificaciones obtenido hasta el octavo semestre cursado de la licenciatura; el rango de estos fue de 6.91 a 9.14The purpose of this paper is to determine if the Learning Strategies (EA) influence academic performance (RA) of de students of the ninth semester of engineering, the study superior faculty (FES) Aragon, about of Mexico National University (UNAM). In the case speak about of o the 34 population of stdents to whom it was applied test Evaluation Questionnaire of Learning Strategies for University Students (CEVEAPEU), to write for Bernardo Gallardo, Jesus M. Suarez-Rodriguez and Cruz Perez Perez in the year of 2009, With the aim of presenting a more complete instrument to evaluate the use of Learning Strategies by university students. It is made up of two scales, six sub scales, twenty-five strategies and eighty-eight items with response, Very disagree, disagree, undecided, all rigth, strongly agree. Also, for this population, It is investigated what was its Academic Performance, reflected in its general average of qualifications, obtained until the eighth semester of the degree; The range of these was of 6.91 to 9.1

Activation of Nrf2-Regulated Glutathione Pathway Genes by Ischemic Preconditioning

Prophylactic pharmacological activation of astrocytic gene expression driven by the transcription factor Nrf2 boosts antioxidant defences and protects against neuronal loss in ischemia and other disease models. However, the role of Nrf2 in mediating endogenous neuroprotective responses is less clear. We recently showed that Nrf2 is activated by mild oxidative stress in both rodent and human astrocytes. Moreover, brief exposure to ischemic conditions was found to activate Nrf2 both in vivo and in vitro, and this was found to contribute to neuroprotective ischemic preconditioning. Here we show that transient ischemic conditions in vitro and in vivo cause an increase in the expression of Nrf2 target genes associated with the glutathione pathway, including those involved in glutathione biosynthesis and cystine uptake. Taken together, these studies indicate that astrocytic Nrf2 may represent an important mediator of endogenous neuroprotective preconditioning pathways