Building reflective practices in a pre-service math and science teacher education course that focuses on qualitative video analysis

The use of video for in-service and pre-service teacher development has been gaining acceptance, and yet video remains a challenging and understudied tool. Many projects have used video to help pre-service and in-service teachers reflect on their own teaching processes, examine teacher–student interactions, and develop their professional vision. But rarely has video been used in ways more akin to qualitative education research that is focused on student learning. Even more rarely has this focus occurred at the earliest stages of pre-service teaching when students have not yet decided to pursue teaching careers. Yet here we argue that there are benefits to our approach. We examine a course for prospective pre-service math and science teachers at the University of California, Berkeley, that engages participants in qualitative video analysis to foster their reflective practice. This course is unique in that the prospective pre-service teachers engage in qualitative video analysis at a level characteristic of professional educational research, in that their analysis focuses on student learning of math and science content. We describe classroom activities that provide opportunities for the preservice teacher participants to better observe, notice, and interpret their students’ sociocognitive activity. The course culmination project involves participants developing and teaching lessons in a high school classroom. The participants then videotape the lessons and conduct qualitative video analysis. Results include detailed examples of two selected prospective pre-service teachers demonstrating coherent and effective approaches to conceptualizing the learning and teaching of mathematical and science content along with some potential design principles for building reflective practices through qualitative video projects. © 2018 Association for Science Teacher Education

Terpsichore, Op.7

The “Whirler” or Muse of Dance, for Large Orchestra, on "Masterworks of the New Era", Vol.11 [CD]: world première recording with the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra / Robert Ian Winstin; recorded in the Philharmonic Hall of Ukraine, Kiev (February, 2006). Editions de la Rue Margot (USA) Cat. No. ERM 6811. ISMN M-7200-7223-4. ASCAP Title Code: 502825438. Recording supported by the Kenneth Leighton Trust (UK) & Foundation for New Music (USA); ca.14 mins. 12 secs. Being one in a series of intense and ethereal or (as here) kaleidoscopically vibrant and sparkling symphonic portraits of the nine muses, Terpsichore (a showpiece for large orchestra) is itself divided into nine dance scenes: 1. The precocious Muse begins her wild, whirling dance; 2. Entrancing Terpsichore dazzles all those who behold her; 3. A most majestic and dramatic solo performer; 4. The beguiling Muse slows and strikes a pose; 5. Her frenzied dance resumes; 6. The Muse displays her hypnotic, swaying gracefulness; 7. She pauses one last time; 8. Her recollection of past glories, and homage to the ancient circular dances; 9. The capricious Terpsichore’s Finale! First performance score reproduced with the aid of a grant from the Society for the Promotion of New Music's "Francis Chagrin Fund" (UK)

SAVASA project @ TRECVID 2012: interactive surveillance event detection

In this paper we describe our participation in the interactive surveillance event detection task at TRECVid 2012. The system we developed was comprised of individual classifiers brought together behind a simple video search interface that enabled users to select relevant segments based on down~sampled animated gifs. Two types of user -- `experts' and `end users' -- performed the evaluations. Due to time constraints we focussed on three events -- ObjectPut, PersonRuns and Pointing -- and two of the five available cameras (1 and 3). Results from the interactive runs as well as discussion of the performance of the underlying retrospective classifiers are presented

Global coral bleaching event detection from satellite monitoring of extreme heat stress

Over the past four decades, coral bleaching events have occurred with increasing frequency and severity, directly linked to increasing ocean temperature due to climate change. For the latter half of that period, satellite monitoring by NOAA Coral Reef Watch in near real-time has provided invaluable insight into bleaching risk. Here, we describe a novel application of those products to develop basin-scale tools for tracking the development of extreme heat events that enable monitoring of global coral bleaching events. Case studies of historical extreme events (1982-2018) across the three tropical ocean basins (Indian, Pacific and Atlantic) were analysed using this basin-scale approach to identify key thresholds of heat stress extent for the definition of global bleaching. Global-scale events are apparent when all three tropical basins experience heat stress in at least 10% of reef-containing locations. An 8-month ‘detection window’ was determined as the optimal period of time through which pixels exposed to heat stress should continue to be counted as part of a basin-scale event to account for seasonal variations across ocean basins. Understanding the broader context of basin-scale conditions can inform management of individual reefs, management networks and other reef stakeholders. Operationalising this product for near real-time delivery will provide an effective communication of the status of coral reefs around the world during an era of unprecedented climate threats

Body odor quality predicts behavioral attractiveness in humans

Growing effort is being made to understand how different attractive physical traits co-vary within individuals, partly because this might indicate an underlying index of genetic quality. In humans, attention has focused on potential markers of quality such as facial attractiveness, axillary odor quality, the second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio and body mass index (BMI). Here we extend this approach to include visually-assessed kinesic cues (nonverbal behavior linked to movement) which are statistically independent of structural physical traits. The utility of such kinesic cues in mate assessment is controversial, particularly during everyday conversational contexts, as they could be unreliable and susceptible to deception. However, we show here that the attractiveness of nonverbal behavior, in 20 male participants, is predicted by perceived quality of their axillary body odor. This finding indicates covariation between two desirable traits in different sensory modalities. Depending on two different rating contexts (either a simple attractiveness rating or a rating for long-term partners by 10 female raters not using hormonal contraception), we also found significant relationships between perceived attractiveness of nonverbal behavior and BMI, and between axillary odor ratings and 2D:4D ratio. Axillary odor pleasantness was the single attribute that consistently predicted attractiveness of nonverbal behavior. Our results demonstrate that nonverbal kinesic cues could reliably reveal mate quality, at least in males, and could corroborate and contribute to mate assessment based on other physical traits

Non-viral eNOS gene delivery and transfection with stents for the treatment of restenosis

Background: In this study, we have examined local non-viral gene delivery, transfection, and therapeutic efficacy of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) encoding plasmid DNA administered using coated stents in a rabbit iliac artery restenosis model.Methods: Lipopolyplexes (LPPs) with eNOS expressing plasmid DNA were immobilized on stainless steel stents using poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) and type B gelatin coatings. The gene-eluting stents were implanted bilaterally in the denuded iliac arteries and eNOS transfection and therapeutic efficacy were examined 14 days after implantation.Results: The results show that non-viral lipopolyplex-coated stents can efficiently tranfect eNOS locally in the arterial lumen assessed by PCR and ELISA. Human eNOS ELISA levels were significantly raised 24 hours after transfection compared to controls (125 pg eNOS compared to <50 pg for all controls including naked DNA). Local eNOS production suppressed smooth muscle cell proliferation and promoted re-endothelialization of the artery showing a significant reduction in restenosis of 1.75 neointima/media ratio for stents with lipoplexes encoding eNOS compared with 2.3 neointima/media ratio for stents with lipoplexes encosing an empty vector.Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that a potent non-viral gene vector encoding for eNOS coated onto a stent can inhibit restenosis through inhibition of smooth muscle cell growth and promotion of a healthy endothelium. © 2010 Brito et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

How do you say ‘hello’? Personality impressions from brief novel voices

On hearing a novel voice, listeners readily form personality impressions of that speaker. Accurate or not, these impressions are known to affect subsequent interactions; yet the underlying psychological and acoustical bases remain poorly understood. Furthermore, hitherto studies have focussed on extended speech as opposed to analysing the instantaneous impressions we obtain from first experience. In this paper, through a mass online rating experiment, 320 participants rated 64 sub-second vocal utterances of the word ‘hello’ on one of 10 personality traits. We show that: (1) personality judgements of brief utterances from unfamiliar speakers are consistent across listeners; (2) a two-dimensional ‘social voice space’ with axes mapping Valence (Trust, Likeability) and Dominance, each driven by differing combinations of vocal acoustics, adequately summarises ratings in both male and female voices; and (3) a positive combination of Valence and Dominance results in increased perceived male vocal Attractiveness, whereas perceived female vocal Attractiveness is largely controlled by increasing Valence. Results are discussed in relation to the rapid evaluation of personality and, in turn, the intent of others, as being driven by survival mechanisms via approach or avoidance behaviours. These findings provide empirical bases for predicting personality impressions from acoustical analyses of short utterances and for generating desired personality impressions in artificial voices

Assessing the Impact of Stakeholder Engagement in Management Strategy Evaluation

After completing a large, regional, multi-use Management Strategy Evaluation, we attempt to assess the impact of stakeholder engagement on the project. We do so by comparing the original project plan to the actual project development and highlight the changes which can be more directly related to stakeholder engagement aided by the application of a logic model for program evaluation. The impact can be summarised into four broad classes: a) change in the actual project development; b) a measurable change in the network of interactions both stakeholders (which includes researchers); c) changes in how the computer model was developed and run; and d) changes in attitudes among stakeholders (including researchers). We discuss these changes, the way they have been detected and some lessons we learnt which may benefit future Management Strategy Evaluation projects

Determining Quasar Black Hole Mass Functions from their Broad Emission Lines: Application to the Bright Quasar Survey

We describe a Bayesian approach to estimating quasar black hole mass functions (BHMF) when using the broad emission lines to estimate black hole mass. We show how using the broad line mass estimates in combination with statistical techniques developed for luminosity function estimation leads to statistically biased results. We derive the likelihood function for the BHMF based on the broad line mass estimates, and derive the posterior distribution for the BHMF, given the observed data. We develop our statistical approach for a flexible model where the BHMF is modelled as a mixture of Gaussian functions. Statistical inference is performed using markov chain monte carlo (MCMC) methods. Our method has the advantage that it is able to constrain the BHMF even beyond the survey detection limits at the adopted confidence level, accounts for measurement errors and the intrinsic uncertainty in broad line mass estimates, and provides a natural way of estimating the probability distribution of any quantities derived from the BHMF. We conclude by using our method to estimate the local active BHMF using the z < 0.5 Bright Quasar Survey sources. At z = 0.2, the quasar BHMF falls off approximately as a power law with slope ~ 2 for M_{BH} > 10^8. Our analysis implies that z < 0.5 broad line quasars have a typical Eddington ratio of ~ 0.4 and a dispersion in Eddington ratio of < 0.5 dex (abridged).Comment: 25 pages, 14 figures, emulate ApJ style, accepted by Ap

A multi-model approach to stakeholder engagement in complex environmental problems

We describe the different types of models we used as part of an effort to inform policy-making aiming at the management of the Ningaloo coast in the Gascoyne region, Western Australia. This provides an overview of how these models interact, the different roles they cover, how they fit into a full decision making process and what we learnt about the stakeholders involved in our project via their use. When modelling is explicitly used to address socio-ecological issues, the key determinant of success is whether the models, their results and recommendations are taken up by stakeholders; such uptake in turn depends on addressing stakeholders’ concerns, on engaging them in the project, on ensuring they feel ownership of the decision process at large, and that they understand and trust the modelling effort. This observation has guided our approach and has resulted in treating ‘building a model’ as the catalyst, rather than the final aim, of the process. In other words, extensive interactions in order to introduce, showcase, discuss and tune the model used for final decision making have represented both a requirement and an opportunity to ensure (i) model relevance, (ii) its acceptance, (iii) that all information available in the stakeholder team was accounted for and (iv) that stakeholders holding different levels of understanding of modelling, what it does and what it can provide to decision-making could develop an informed opinion on its use. To fulfil these roles we developed five broad classes of models: conceptual models, toy-models, singlesystem models, shuttle-models and a full-system model. In conceptual models the main drivers of a system are highlighted for subsequent representation as components of the full-system model. This usually results in a diagram summarising our understanding of how the system works. In toy-models a problem is simplified in such a way that only a handful of components are included. The purpose of these models is mostly educational: we want to understand how each component affects the problem and in order to achieve this, we temporarily renounce a satisfactory understanding of the overall problem. In single-system models we include a fairly detailed representation of a single component of the system (in our case recreational fishing and tourism); these models can be used to introduce stakeholders to modelling, provide temporary results from the study of a single activity, which will feed into the development of the final full-system model, or address sector-specific issues. In shuttle-models, we include the minimum number of processes we believe are crucial for a basic understanding of the overall problem. We know these models are still too simple for full system description, but they provide a sufficient understanding to enable us to contemplate, build and use the more complex models needed for full problem description. The term ‘shuttle’ refers to taking us from a minimum to a full description of the problem, a journey which is necessary both to developers in model definition and parameterisation and to stakeholders in the interpretation of the final full-system model results. Finally, the full-system model includes all information collected through the project and addresses all scenarios of stakeholders concern, and whose definition has been greatly eased by use of the ‘simpler’ models. As an example, a conceptual model may identify fishing and tourism as the main drivers of a region; a toymodel may describe how catches affect fish stocks; a single-system model may include the effect of gear, regulations and other processes affecting recreational fishing; a shuttle-model may include a simplified representation of the interaction between fishing, tourism, and infrastructure development on the overall health of the local ecosystem; this will gradually ‘take’ us to comprehend the ‘full’ model which may include tourism pressure, fish market values, climate effect, larger food-webs, etc