Building Communication Skills in the Language Arts Classroom

The focus of this project is to explicitly work on developing students\u27 skills relevant to communicating with clarity and precision. On a weekly basis, students participate in a discussion-based class activity. The purpose of these activities is to provide students with opportunities to consciously practice speaking and being heard by their peers. And in return, students are also consciously practicing actively listening to their peers. The end goal is for students to feel more confident and capable of verbally expressing their thoughts and feelings in a public, but low-stakes, setting

Results of the Evaluation Study DeAL Decentralized Facade Integrated Ventilation Systems

Report and PowerPoint PresentationMost office buildings in Germany have either no mechanical ventilation system or a centralized ventilation system with fresh and exhaust air supply. Within the last 10 years some projects using decentralized ventilation systems (DVS) came up. Common for this type of decentralized systems is that they take fresh air directly from outside through the facade via the DVS into the room. Within the DVS-component air conditioning (at least heating) takes place. Since the year 2000 more than six companies provide this type of ventilation systems for office buildings and about 50 buildings have been realized in Western Europe. Within a two year research project the evaluation study DeAL investigated 10 of these buildings in respect of: • How do the DVS operate in reality (reliability, energy consumption, noise etc.)? • Are the users and operational staff satisfied with DVS? • Are there advantages that can be quantified within the evaluation buildings? • What is the thermal comfort in these buildings? • Is maintenance a problem with decentralized systems? • Does the necessary "wholes" in the façade influence the building performance (wind, sound protection, water tightness...)? The investigation included detailed monitoring of the DVS for a period of at least one year. The study was finished by August 2008

Mobile sediments in a karst aquifer

In karst aquifers, mobile sediments may play a fundamental role in determining water quality by concentrating and transporting contaminants. This study investigates spatial characteristics of sediment in a karst aquifer, examines temporal characteristics of sediment discharging from a karst spring, and describes a new method for tracing sediment in karst terrane. Sediment samples were collected from different compartments of a karst aquifer (the Edwards Aquifer, Central Texas) and analyzed for mineralogy, grainsize distribution, organic carbon content, and specific surface area. Suspended sediment samples discharging from a karst spring in response to two storms were analyzed for mineralogy and grainsize distribution. To test the hypothesis that allochthonous sediment can move through karst systems, a sediment tracer--montmorillonite clay homoionized to the lanthanide form--was developed. Statistical analysis of sediment characteristics separated the sampling sites into three groups: 1) streambeds, sinkholes, and small springs; 2) wells; and 3) caves. Characteristics of sediments from Barton Springs (the main spring in the region) showed a mixture of the characteristics of these three groups. The mineralogic signature of sediments discharging from Barton Springs in response to storms was initially allochthonous and then became more autochthonous. Temporal changes in aqueous chemistry of Barton Springs varied in response to rainfall, seasonal changes in aquifer level, and draining of the pool over the spring. The results indicate that some sediments, containing calcite and a high organic carbon content, are allochthonous, and others, containing dolomite and a low organic carbon content, are autochthonous. Sediments issuing from Barton Springs contain a mix of both allochthonous and autochthonous sediments. Based on geochemical characteristics, allochthonous sediments have a greater potential to sorb and transport contaminants than do autochthonous sediments. Development and testing of the sediment tracer verified that allochthonous sediments can be transported through karst. Sediments, particularly allochthonous sediments, can play a crucial role in contaminant transport in karst; the volume of these sediments will increase with increasing urbanization. Because those sediment characteristics which determine contaminant transport potential vary both spatially and temporally, determination of sediment volume and type is critical to evaluating its impact on water quality.Geological Science

Direct carrier detection by in situ suppression hybridization with cosmid clones of the Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy locus

A basic problem in genetic counseling of families with Duchenne/Becker muscular dystrophy (DMD/BMD) concerns the carrier status of female relatives of an affected male. In about 60% of these patients, deletions of one or more exons of the dystrophin gene can be identified. These deletions preferentially include exon 45, which can be detected by multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Southern blot analysis of genomic cosmid clones that map to this critical region. As a new approach for definitive carrier detection, we have performed chromosomal in situ suppression (CISS) hybridization with these cosmid clones in female relatives of four unrelated patients. In normal females, most metaphases showed signals on both×chromosomes, whereas only one×chromosome was labeled in carriers. Our results demonstrate that CISS hybridization can define the carrier status in female relatives of DMD patients exhibiting a deletion in the dystrophin gene

Abrupt and gradual changes of information through the Kane solid state computer

The susceptibility of the transformed information to the filed and system parameters is investigated for the Kane solid state computer. It has been shown, that the field polarization and the initial state of the system play the central roles on the abrupt and gradual quench of the purity and the fidelity. If the field and the initial state are in different polarizations, then the purity and the fidelity decrease abruptly, while for the common polarization the decay is gradual and smooth. For some class of initial states one can send the information without any loss. Therefore, by controlling on the devices one can increase the time of safe communication, reduce the amount of exchange information between the state and its environment and minimize the purity decrease rate

Physical Properties of Dentin

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66560/2/10.1177_00220345520310031401.pd

Out of plane analysis for composite structures

Simple two dimensional analysis techniques were developed to aid in the design of strong joints for integrally stiffened/bonded composite structures subjected to out of plane loads. It was found that most out of plane failures were due to induced stresses arising from rapid changes in load path direction or geometry, induced stresses due to changes in geometry caused by buckling, or direct stresses produced by fuel pressure or bearing loads. While the analysis techniques were developed to address a great variety of out of plane loading conditions, they were primarily derived to address the conditions described above. The methods were developed and verified using existing element test data. The methods were demonstrated using the data from a test failure of a high strain wingbox that was designed, built, and tested under a previous program. Subsequently, a set of design guidelines were assembled to assist in the design of safe, strong integral composite structures using the analysis techniques developed

Strong Lens Models for 37 Clusters of Galaxies from the SDSS Giant Arcs Survey

We present strong gravitational lensing models for 37 galaxy clusters from the SDSS Giant Arcs Survey. We combine data from multi-band Hubble Space Telescope WFC3imaging, with ground-based imaging and spectroscopy from Magellan, Gemini, APO, and MMT, in order to detect and spectroscopically confirm new multiply-lensed background sources behind the clusters. We report spectroscopic or photometric redshifts of sources in these fields, including cluster galaxies and background sources. Based on all available lensing evidence, we construct and present strong lensing mass models for these galaxy clusters.Comment: 53 pages; submitted to ApJ

The Magellan Evolution of Galaxies Spectroscopic and Ultraviolet Reference Atlas (MEGaSaURA) I: The Sample and the Spectra

We introduce Project MEGaSaURA: The Magellan Evolution of Galaxies Spectroscopic and Ultraviolet Reference Atlas. MEGaSaURA comprises medium-resolution, rest-frame ultraviolet spectroscopy of N=15 bright gravitationally lensed galaxies at redshifts of 1.68$<$z$<$3.6, obtained with the MagE spectrograph on the Magellan telescopes. The spectra cover the observed-frame wavelength range $3200 < \lambda_o < 8280$ \AA ; the average spectral resolving power is R=3300. The median spectrum has a signal-to-noise ratio of $SNR=21$ per resolution element at 5000 \AA . As such, the MEGaSaURA spectra have superior signal-to-noise-ratio and wavelength coverage compared to what COS/HST provides for starburst galaxies in the local universe. This paper describes the sample, the observations, and the data reduction. We compare the measured redshifts for the stars, the ionized gas as traced by nebular lines, and the neutral gas as traced by absorption lines; we find the expected bulk outflow of the neutral gas, and no systemic offset between the redshifts measured from nebular lines and the redshifts measured from the stellar continuum. We provide the MEGaSaURA spectra to the astronomical community through a data release.Comment: Resubmitted to AAS Journals. Data release will accompany journal publication. v2 addresses minor comments from refere

Failure of Effective Potential Approach: Nucleus-Electron Entanglement in the He-Ion

Entanglement may be considered a resource for quantum-information processing, as the origin of robust and universal equilibrium behaviour, but also as a limit to the validity of an effective potential approach, in which the influence of certain interacting subsystems is treated as a potential. Here we show that a closed three particle (two protons, one electron) model of a He-ion featuring realistic size, interactions and energy scales of electron and nucleus, respectively, exhibits different types of dynamics depending on the initial state: For some cases the traditional approach, in which the nucleus only appears as the center of a Coulomb potential, is valid, in others this approach fails due to entanglement arising on a short time-scale. Eventually the system can even show signatures of thermodynamical behaviour, i.e. the electron may relax to a maximum local entropy state which is, to some extent, independent of the details of the initial state.Comment: Submitted to Europhysics Letter