Prior Knowledge Base Of Constellations And Bright Stars Among Non-Science Majoring Undergraduates And 14-15 Year Old Students

As part of an effort to improve students’ knowledge of constellations and bright stars in an introductory level descriptive astronomy survey course, we measured the baseline knowledge that students bring to the class and how their score evolve over the course of the semester.  This baseline is needed by the broader astronomy education research community for future comparisons about which strategies and environments are the best for learning the stars and constellations.  As a comparison group, we also examined the baseline knowledge of 14-15 year old, 9th grade students from the United States. 664 university students averaged 2.04±0.08 on a constellation knowledge survey, while 46 additional students averaged higher at 8.23±0.23. The large, lower scoring group is found to have the same knowledge level as the 14-15 year old 9th grade students which scored 1.79±0.13.  The constellations most often identified correctly were Orion and Ursa Major. For the star portion of the survey, which was only given to the university students, we found essentially no statistically significant prior knowledge for the 17 brightest stars surveyed. The average score for the stars was 1.05±0.05, as expected for guessing, although Polaris and Betelgeuse are labeled correctly more often than any other stars

The FDM demodulating characteristics of non-linear phase-locked loops

FDM demodulation characteristics of nonlinear phase locked loop

APPLICATIONS OF ESTIMABLE FUNCTIONS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH WITH SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE GLM PROCEDURE OF SAS.

An understanding of estimable functions is essential when using an overparameterized linear model. The most attractive features of these functions are their invariance property to the solution vector and their wide range of practical applications in agricultural research. This study reviews some of the ways that estimable functions can be used by the agricultural scientist

Dutch Author Recognition Test

Book reading shows large individual variability and correlates with better language ability and more empathy. This makes reading exposure an interesting variable to study. Research in English suggests that an author recognition test is the most reliable objective assessment of reading frequency. In this article, we describe the efforts we made to build and test a Dutch author recognition test (DART for older participants and DART_R for younger participants). Our data show that the test is reliable and valid, both in the Netherlands and in Belgium (split-half reliability over .9 with university students, significant correlations with language abilities) and can be used with a young, non-university population. The test is free to use for research purposes

Forage Crop Research: Evaluating Forage Species in Iowa for Productivity during Drought Conditions—Quality

The objective of this research is to evaluate the forage quality of forage species for their seasonal productivity differences and their ability to withstand droughty environmental conditions in Iowa

Forage Crop Research: Evaluating Forage Species in Iowa for Productivity during Drought Conditions

Drought often results in greater agricultural damage in southern, western, and northeastern Iowa than in the rest of the state. Slight to severe slopes are prone to erosion, and soils high in clay content are slow to drain excess moisture during wet periods and have low amounts of available moisture during periods of drought. The land is predominantly used for livestock production because of factors that limit level of productivity in row-crop production

Legume Re-Establishment in Pastures after the Application of Residual Herbicides

Integrated management of pastures and hayfields sometimes require the application of broadleaf herbicides to manage weeds. Weed infestations are usually caused by a variety of factors including but not limited to drought, poor grazing management, and feeding weed infested hay in pastures. Weeds can adversely affect livestock access to forage as well as reduce forage quantity and quality. Producers are often hesitant to apply herbicides to manage weeds because of the effect the herbicides will have on forage legumes present in the pasture