A Study of curriculum development and style: Implemented in culinary arts

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Maize brace root formation and correlation with juvenile nodes and tassel structure [abstract]

Abstract only availableGlobal warming causing changes in weather patterns is making drought a more frequent occurrence. Drought is a major limiting factor of maize production worldwide. To maintain high production levels, it is important to identify maize lines which are tolerant to water-stress conditions. A significant trait in drought tolerance is an extensive root system. Root systems in maize are composed of not only below ground roots but also above ground roots. These above ground roots are commonly known as brace roots, and they function to keep the plant upright and provide a surface for nutrient and water uptake and gas exchange. Preliminary studies have demonstrated correlations between brace root architecture and tassel branching. There is a negative correlation between central spike length and number of nodes with brace roots. Studies also indicate brace roots emerge from juvenile nodes The objective of this study is to examine these relationships on a set of 25 diverse maize lines. Leaf traits were measured to identify juvenile, transitional, and adult leaves. These data will be used to determine if juvenile nodes give rise to brace roots. Various measurements of tassel structure will be gathered and statistically analyzed for relationships between tassel traits and brace root architecture. Examining tassel structure and juvenile node number may help in the selection of maize lines with an increased number of brace roots which allow for adaptation to water-stressed environments

When is it wrong to eat animals? The relevance of different animal traits and behaviours

Research suggests that animals’ capacity for agency, experience, and benevolence predict beliefs about their moral treatment. Four studies built on this work by examining how fine‐grained information about animals’ traits and behaviours (e.g., can store food for later vs. can use tools) shifted moral beliefs about eating and harming animals. The information that most strongly affected moral beliefs was related to secondary emotions (e.g., can feel nostalgia), morality (e.g., will share food with others), empathy (e.g., can feel others pain), social connections (e.g., will look for deceased family members), and moral patiency (e.g., can feel pain). In addition, information affected moral judgements in line with how it affected superordinate representations about animals’ capacity for experience/feeling but not agency/thinking. The results provide a fine‐grained outline of how, and why, information about animals’ traits and behaviours informs moral judgements

Impact of regulatory safety notices on valproate prescribing and pregnancy outcome among women of child-bearing potential in Scotland: a population-based cohort study

Objective: To examine the impact of Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) safety alerts on valproate prescribing among women aged 14–45 years in Scotland and examine trends in pregnancies exposed to valproate. Design: Population-based cohort study. Participants: 21 983 women of all ages who received valproate between January 2011 and December 2019. Methods: All valproate prescriptions issued to women in Scotland between January 2011 and December 2019 were identified and prevalence/incidence rates per 10 000 population derived. The impact of regulatory safety alerts on prescribing was analysed using Joinpoint models. Linked pregnancy records for January 2011 to September 2019 were identified and annual rates of pregnancy per 1000 valproate-treated women aged 14–45 years were calculated for each pregnancy outcome: live birth, stillbirth, miscarriage and termination. Results: Annual prevalent and incident rates of valproate prescribing declined in women aged 14–45 years between 2011 and 2019 from 40.5 to 18.3 per 10 000 population (54.8% reduction) and 7.9 to 1.3 per 10 000 population (83.5% reduction), respectively. Statistically significant changes occurred around the times of the MHRA safety alerts. The number of valproate-exposed pregnancies conceived each year fell from 70 in 2011 to 20 in 2018, a 71.4% reduction, and the number of live births fell from 52 to 14, a 73.0% reduction. Expressed as a rate this was a 46.4% decrease from 15.3 to 8.2 per 1000 valproate-treated women aged 14–45 years in 2011 and 2018, respectively. Live birth was the most common pregnancy outcome. Conclusion: This study demonstrates, for the first time, the capabilities of national data sets to identify drug exposure and derive pregnancy outcome at scale across Scotland. Building on this as part of an evolving national/UK surveillance capability will continue efforts to minimise in-utero exposure to valproate; enabling ongoing surveillance to understand better long-term outcomes, and to inform better provision of health and wider support services

Sources and Mechanisms of Low-Flow River Phosphorus Elevations:A Repeated Synoptic Survey Approach

peer-reviewedHigh-resolution water quality monitoring indicates recurring elevation of stream phosphorus concentrations during low-flow periods. These increased concentrations may exceed Water Framework Directive (WFD) environmental quality standards during ecologically sensitive periods. The objective of this research was to identify source, mobilization, and pathway factors controlling in-stream total reactive phosphorus (TRP) concentrations during low-flow periods. Synoptic surveys were conducted in three agricultural catchments during spring, summer, and autumn. Up to 50 water samples were obtained across each watercourse per sampling round. Samples were analysed for TRP and total phosphorus (TP), along with supplementary parameters (temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, and oxidation reduction potential). Bed sediment was analysed at a subset of locations for Mehlich P, Al, Ca, and Fe. The greatest percentages of water sampling points exceeding WFD threshold of 0.035 mg L−1 TRP occurred during summer (57%, 11%, and 71% for well-drained, well-drained arable, and poorly drained grassland catchments, respectively). These percentages declined during autumn but did not return to spring concentrations, as winter flushing had not yet occurred. Different controls were elucidated for each catchment: diffuse transport through groundwater and lack of dilution in the well-drained grassland, in-stream mobilization in the well-drained arable, and a combination of point sources and cumulative loading in the poorly drained grassland. Diversity in controlling factors necessitates investigative protocols beyond low-spatial and temporal resolution water sampling and must incorporate both repeated survey and complementary understanding of sediment chemistry and anthropogenic phosphorus sources. Despite similarities in elevation of P at low-flow, catchments will require custom solutions depending on their typology, and both legislative deadlines and target baselines standards must acknowledge these inherent differences

Examining EC-6 Pre-Service Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Self-Efficacy in Teaching Mathematics

Mathematics teacher quality has become a major focus in national education reform efforts. In addition, there is an increasing interest in the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers. Empirical evidence suggests that teacher attitudes, behaviors and values, or dispositions, towards teaching have a significant impact on student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to survey juniors and seniors in an undergraduate teacher preparation program to gauge their perceptions of self-efficacy and comfort with teaching mathematics. The results have implications for, and reaffirm concerns about the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers

The ‘me’ in meat: Does affirming the self make eating animals seem more morally wrong?

People typically extend limited moral standing to animals reared for food. Prominent perspectives in the literature on animal-human relations characterize this phenomenon as an outcome of moral disengagement: in other words, a strategy that protects people from moral self-condemnation. To provide a direct test of this hypothesis, we exposed people to a self-affirmation manipulation, and hypothesized that this would lead them to be more critical of their own meat eating and be more appreciative of animals’ minds and suffering. Three experiments tested this idea in meat-eaters from the United Kingdom. Two initial experiments (n = 244, n = 247) found that affirming the self made eating animals seem more morally wrong. However, a subsequent pre-registered experiment (n = 719) failed to replicate this effect. In addition, this experiment found no effects of the affirmationprocedure on specific beliefs about eating animals that participants consume compared to animals they do not consume. A mini-meta analysis of all the experiments found only weak evidence in support of the idea that affirming the self makes eating meat seem more morally wrong. There was no evidence that the affirmation procedure affected beliefs about animal minds

Changing minds about minds: Evidence that people are too sceptical about animal sentience

Our relationships with other animals are governed by how we view their capacity for sentience and suffering. However, there is currently little agreement as to whether people's beliefs about animal minds are largely accurate or inaccurate. We used an innovative task to examine how people update their beliefs in response to noisy but informative clues about animal minds. This allowed us to compare participants' posterior beliefs to what a normative participant ought to believe if they conform to Bayes' theorem. Five studies (four pre-registered; n = 2417) found that participants shifted their beliefs too far in response to clues that suggested animals do not have minds (i.e., overshooting what a normative participant ought to believe), but not far enough in response to clues that suggested animals have minds (i.e., falling short of what a normative participant ought to believe). A final study demonstrated that this effect was attenuated when humans were the targets of belief. The findings demonstrate that people underestimate animal minds in a way that can be said to be inaccurate and highlight the role of belief updating in downplaying evidence of animal minds. The findings are discussed in relation to speciesist beliefs about the supremacy of humans over animals

Are we smart enough to remember how smart animals are?

Some theoretical perspectives suggest people overestimate animals’ mental capacities (anthropomorphism), while others suggest they underestimate them (mind-denial). However, studies have generally not employed objective criteria against which the accuracy or appropriateness of people’s judgements about animals can be tested. We employed memory paradigms, in which judgments are clearly right or wrong, in 9 experiments (8 pre-registered; n = 3162). When tested shortly after exposure, meat-eaters’ memory about companion-animals (e.g., dogs) but not food-animals (e.g., pigs) showed an anthropomorphic bias: more information consistent with animals having vs. lacking a mind was correctly remembered (Experiments 1-4). Vegetarians and vegans memory, on the other hand, consistently showed an anthropomorphic bias regarding food and companion animals alike (Experiments 5 and 6). When tested a week after exposure, both those who eat meat and those who do not showed signs of shifting toward a mind-denying bias (Experiments 2, 3, and 6). These biases had important consequences for beliefs about animal minds. Inducing mind-denying memory biases caused participants to see animals as possessing less sophisticated minds (Experiments 7-9). The work demonstrates that judgments about animals’ minds can depart predictably from reality and that such departures can contribute to biased perceptions of their minds