Session 2: Female Orgasms and Evolutionary Theory

Proceedings of the Pittsburgh Workshop in History and Philosophy of Biology, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Pittsburgh, March 23-24 2001 Session 2: Female Orgasms and Evolutionary Theor

Best practices to reduce math anxiety

The subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) have grown in importance because they are fundamental to the future quality of life and the ability to compete in today\u27s global society. The demand for STEM careers is increasing; however, the United States is having difficulty meeting this demand. Society needs students who can research and think critically, so they can be proficient in STEM education and become the next generation of mathematicians, technologists, and engineers. Mathematical proficiency is of particular concern because while it is required from STEM education success, individuals find it challenging. Both adults and children have apprehension about mathematics, and their negative attitudes toward math develop a barrier to STEM education and careers. This negative math phobia, or math anxiety, causes a decrease in math achievement. This study explored the perceptions of elementary teachers in establishing a classroom environment free of math anxiety. Specifically, this study focused on best practices that teachers incorporate in order to reduce math anxiety. The purpose of this study was to (a) determine the strategies and practices teachers employ to reduce math anxiety, (b) determine the challenges teachers face in reducing math anxiety, (c) determine how teachers measure the success of their practices in reducing math anxiety, and (d) determine the recommendations teachers would make for future implementation of strategies in reducing math anxiety

The effect of biochar on the growth of agricultural weed species

Biochar, a carbon-rich residue similar to charcoal, has been proposed as a soil amendment to improve soil quality and increase crop yields while simultaneously mitigating climate change by the sequestration of carbon. The beneficial effect of biochar on crops may extend to weed species and, although it is well known that weeds reduce crop yields, there is little published research on the effect of biochar on agricultural weed species. In a series of greenhouse and growth chamber experiments, three questions were addressed. First, how does nitrogen interact with biochar produced from a single feedstock to affect weeds? Second, how do differences in biochar feedstock affect root growth and root system architecture? Finally, how do differences in biochar feedstocks affect weed and crop growth? In the first experiment, three common weed species, barnyardgrass (Echinochloa crus-galli L. Beauv.), large crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis L. Scop.), and redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), were grown to maturity under greenhouse conditions using a factorial design with biochar (0 and 2% of the soil dry weight) and nitrogen (0 and 14 g N m-2) treatments. Nitrogen increased barnyardgrass and redroot pigweed total dry weight and large crabgrass panicle dry weight. Biochar increased barnyardgrass height by 22% and total dry weight by 47% but did not affect root : shoot biomass partitioning. Biochar reduced redroot pigweed height by 30% but increased branch dry weight by 95%. Finally, biochar increased large crabgrass shoot dry weight by 34% but reduced root dry weight 30% suggesting that biochar allowed large crabgrass to partition more biomass to shoots than roots. In the second experiment, we examined the effects of two types of biochar on large crabgrass root system architecture using a rhizobox mesocosm. Root growth of large crabgrass varied with the type of biochar used; however, biochar did not affect total plant dry weight. The high-nutrient biochar increased above-ground dry weight and the low-nutrient biochar increased below-ground dry weight when compared to plants grown in the unamended soil. When given a choice between unamended and biochar-amended soil, large crabgrass roots grew preferentially in the biochar-amended soil, regardless of biochar type. In the final experiment, we examined the effect of two types of biochar on the growth of two crop and two weed species grown to maturity under greenhouse conditions. Biochar increased the growth of both crop species suggesting that the incorporation of biochar, especially high-nutrient biochar, into temperate agricultural soils may increase crop yields. However, biochar also increased the growth of both weed species, which may complicate current weed management practices. Overall, this research suggests that biochar has the potential to alter root system architecture and to increase the growth of common weed species. Biochar may therefore exacerbate weed problems in agricultural systems

Images of African Americans among winning newspaper entries in the Pictures of the Year archive [abstract]

McNair Scholars Progra

Karen Parks Studio Recital

Kennesaw State University School of Music presents Karen Parks Studio Recital.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/1764/thumbnail.jp

Castor oil and orange juice: how John H. Johnson fed news to black America

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on April 1, 2008)Includes bibliographical references.Thesis (M.A.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2007.Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Journalism.In the mid-1940s, publisher John H. Johnson did not like the image of African Americans that was projected by mainstream, white-owned media. He felt the image constructed was too limited and stereotypical. He also felt that the news in those publications regarding African Americans was too negative. He created Ebony magazine in 1945 to bring uplifting news to African Americans and to construct a more accurate image of that community. As a businessman, Johnson wanted to be successful in his venture and felt that his magazine would sell better with soft news covers, playing the harder news stories inside the magazine. The results of this study indicate that Johnson succeeded in constructing a broader image of African Americans by publishing stories about African Americans in all walks of life, all across the country. Ebony's journalistic style was indeed uplifting, but sacrificed some of the serious political and social commentary news in order to maintain that perspective

Mendelian inheritance in man: diagnoses in the UMLS

pre-printBecause they deal with many distinct but rare inheritance diseases, geneticists have difficulty translating from their codes to other biomedical coding schemes. The objective ofthis research was to investigate the potential uses and difficulties of using the UMLS Metathesaurus for genetic diagnoses and to make recommendations to UMLS developers for improvements in UMLS for common genetic disorders. The 110 most common Mendelian Inheritance in Man disorders from the Missouri Genetic Disease Program over the period of one year were translated into MeSH, ICD and SNOMED. The more common diseases are more likely to be mapped than the rarer ones. Diseases with a proven genetic inheritance pattern are more likely to be mapped than those with speculated inheritance patterns. Approximately one third of all diagnoses were not mapped across all three coding schemes in Meta-1. 2. The ICD coding scheme was found to be too broad to be meaningful for genetic diagnosis or epidemiological purposes. MeSH and SNOMED need to be made more specific and complete, and all of the new version of SNOMED needs to be included in the Metathesaurus