Self-Identified Motivation for Avid Middle School Readers

This study explored the motivation behind avid middle school readers. The purpose of this study was to investigate and determine the motivation behind avid middle school readers. The research question was: What motivations do avid readers possess? The subjects of this study were 50 avid middle school readers aged 11-14. They all attended the same public suburban middle school. An anonymous survey was given to the students to complete in the fall of 2002. The resu1ts of this investigation substantiate much of the previous research in the area of what motivation is behind avid middle school readers. In addition, the information gathered from this study support and reassures us that the current surge in student-centered teaching is on the right track. The most important conclusion is that there is \u27\u27no one size fits all pattern, for which a student becomes an avid reader, rather there are as many ways as there are readers

Ultra-high molecular weight silphenylene-siloxane polymers

Silphenylene-siloxane copolymers with molecular weights above one million were prepared using a two stage polymerization technique. The technique was successfully scaled up to produce 50 grams of this high polymer in a single run. The reactive monomer approach was also investigated using the following aminosilanes: bis(dimethylamino)dimethylsilane, N,N-bis(pyrrolidinyl)dimethylsilane and N,N-bis(gamma-butyrolactam)dimethylsilane). Thermal analyses were performed in both air and nitrogen. The experimental polymers decomposed at 540 to 562 C, as opposed to 408 to 426 C for commercial silicones. Differential scanning calorimetry showed a glass transition (Tg) at -50 to -55 C for the silphenylene-siloxane copolymer while the commercial silicones had Tg's at -96 to -112 C

Properties of Phase transitions of a Higher Order

The following is a thermodynamic analysis of a III order (and some aspects of a IV order) phase transition. Such a transition can occur in a superconductor if the normal state is a diamagnet. The equation for a phase boundary in an H-T (H is the magnetic field, T, the temperature) plane is derived. by considering two possible forms of the gradient energy, it is possible to construct a field theory which describes a III or a IV order transition and permits a study of thermal fluctuations and inhomogeneous order parameters.Comment: 13 pages, revtex, no figure

The Anticipated Impacts of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative on Coast Salish Communities

The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) is the policy directive of the Department of Homeland Security following the Intelligence Reform and Prevention Act of 2004. It will require that all citizens, including American citizens as well as foreign nationals, entering the United States from any foreign country to show documentation demonstrating identification and citizenship

A ‘criminal personas’ approach to countering criminal creativity

This paper describes a pilot study of a ‘criminal personas’ approach to countering criminal creativity. The value of the personas approach has been assessed by comparing the identification of criminal opportunity, through ‘traditional’ brainstorming and then through ‘criminal personas’ brainstorming The method involved brainstorm sessions with Computer Forensics Practitioners and with Product Designers, where they were required to generate criminal scenarios, select the most serious criminal opportunities, and propose means of countering them. The findings indicated that there was merit in further research in the development and application of the ‘criminal personas’ approach. The generation of criminal opportunity ideas and proposal of counter criminal solutions were both greater when the brainstorm approach involved the group responding through their given criminal personas

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News from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonanc

Multi-Estimator Full Left Ventricle Quantification through Ensemble Learning

Cardiovascular disease accounts for 1 in every 4 deaths in United States. Accurate estimation of structural and functional cardiac parameters is crucial for both diagnosis and disease management. In this work, we develop an ensemble learning framework for more accurate and robust left ventricle (LV) quantification. The framework combines two 1st-level modules: direct estimation module and a segmentation module. The direct estimation module utilizes Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to achieve end-to-end quantification. The CNN is trained by taking 2D cardiac images as input and cardiac parameters as output. The segmentation module utilizes a U-Net architecture for obtaining pixel-wise prediction of the epicardium and endocardium of LV from the background. The binary U-Net output is then analyzed by a separate CNN for estimating the cardiac parameters. We then employ linear regression between the 1st-level predictor and ground truth to learn a 2nd-level predictor that ensembles the results from 1st-level modules for the final estimation. Preliminary results by testing the proposed framework on the LVQuan18 dataset show superior performance of the ensemble learning model over the two base modules.Comment: Jiasha Liu, Xiang Li and Hui Ren contribute equally to this wor