System size, energy and pseudorapidity dependence of directed and elliptic flow at RHIC

PHOBOS measurements of elliptic flow are presented as a function of pseudorapidity, centrality, transverse momentum, energy and nuclear species. The elliptic flow in Cu-Cu is surprisingly large, particularly for the most central events. After scaling out the geometry through the use of an alternative form of eccentricity, called the participant eccentricity, which accounts for nucleon position fluctuations in the colliding nuclei, the relative magnitude of the elliptic flow in the Cu-Cu system is qualitatively similar to that measured in the Au-Au system.Comment: Presented at the 18th International Conference on Ultra-Relativistic Nucleus-Nucleus Collisions in Budapest, Hungary, Aug. 4-9, 200

Who are Rural Students? How Definitions of Rurality Affect Research on College Completion

Given a revived national discourse about rural populations, more educational research on rural students is necessary, including ways that rural students transition to college and the success (or lack thereof) that they experience once there. However, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has changed the definition of rurality used in each iterative dataset over the last few decades, casting doubt on the consistency of what is meant by the term rural. The purpose of this study is to: (a) communicate to the educational research audience various ways of defining rural students, and specifically how NCES has changed their definition of rurality over their last three major data collections; (b) demonstrate how conclusions about rural students’ and their college degree completion may differ based on these alternate NCES definitions; and (c) discuss how this specific example using NCES data relates to the wider landscape of research on rural students. Results show that conclusions about college degree completion change depending on the definition of rurality used for analysis. Therefore, the education research community should consider the options for defining rural students, report transparently about the choices made, consider the sensitivity of results to the definition of rurality, and ultimately build a more robust body of literature concerning rural students’ college success. Gaining definitional clarity will be beneficial, particularly for those who wish to translate their research into practical action for the benefit of rural students

The Influence of STEM Definitions for Research on Women\u27s College Attainment

Background Prior research has inconsistently operationalized Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields, presenting an interpretation challenge. A content analysis of 51 quantitative, gender-focused, higher education-oriented, STEM-related studies in the ERIC database published between January 2010 and July 2018 revealed that only 13 articles used an existing STEM definition. In 15, STEM was not explicitly defined, and others defined STEM independently. This wide range of definitions may lead to confusion or misrepresentation of findings for interventions and practices to support women in STEM. To illustrate the issue and prompt recommendations for future research, this study uses data from the United States National Center for Education Statistics’ Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002/12) to investigate the connection between STEM definition and the outcome of college degree completion, comparing results by gender for five ways of operationalizing STEM fields. Results We found the size, direction, and significance of the gender gap depended on STEM operationalization. When STEM was defined as high paradigm fields, the odds of women attaining a non-STEM degree were higher than otherwise. When social science fields were included in STEM, there was no statistically significant difference by gender. When looking specifically at fields considered related to science and engineering, the direction of the relationship was reversed. Conclusion While our findings follow expectations about social science fields and gender, it is noteworthy that results regarding STEM degree completion by gender for science and engineering-related fields were opposite those of high paradigm STEM fields. This result highlights that the definition of STEM matters, and inconsistent operationalization in the literature presents an interpretation challenge. We argue the field should strive to find common categorizations of STEM that retain the legitimate variation in how STEM can and should be defined, while providing a basis for consistent comparison. We recommend researchers and practitioners developing research-based practices: 1) interpret research findings understanding potential inconsistency from different STEM operationalizations, 2) explicitly describe STEM operational definitions to enable comparing findings, 3) routinely analyze sensitivity to alternate STEM definitions, and 4) find common STEM categorizations that retain legitimate variation while providing a basis for consistent comparison

Financial Planning for College: Parental Preparation and Capital Conversion

This study explores the conversion of cultural capital into economic capital, and specifically financial capital in the form of parental financial planning for children’s college education, including reported financial preparations and savings. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002), logistic regression-based analyses of aspects of cultural capital indicated that parental involvement exhibited the most prevalent relationship with financial planning and the amount saved, and that parents’ expectations, but not their aspirations, corresponded to engagement in financial planning. Findings support the conclusion that some parents convert part of their cultural capital to financial capital in preparation for paying for their child’s college education, perhaps representing a typically hidden facet of social class reproduction

Students’ Ethical Decision-Making in an Information Technology Context: A Theory of Planned Behavior Approach

Business educators have increased the focus on ethics in the classroom. In order for students to become ethical professionals, they must first be held to an ethical standard as students. As information technology continues to permeate every aspect of students’ lives, it becomes increasingly important to understand student decision-making in this context. This study seeks to apply a modified form of the Theory of Planned Behavior to assess influences on behavioral intention when IT is involved in an academic setting. Attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, moral judgment, and perceived importance are investigated. After pilot testing four scenarios and the instrument, 90 survey responses are gathered from undergraduate business students from two southwestern universities in the United States. Using SmartPLS, results are assessed by scenario. The results indicate that attitude, subjective norm, moral judgment and perceived importance are significant in some of the scenarios, whereas perceived behavioral control is not significant in any scenarios. A discussion of the contributions of this study, as well as limitations, is provided

Using Giving Voice to Values to Improve Student Academic Integrity in Information Technology Contexts

Academic integrity continues to be a concern for universities and faculty. Yet practical methods for conveying ethical behavior can be difficult to achieve. This study uses the multidimensional ethics scale to gain insight into three situations involving students. The findings from those scenarios are then framed using the Giving Voice to Values ethics pedagogy in order to provide common rationales given by students and to create levers or arguments that can be used to combat the rationales. The common rationales and levers provided in this study, along with the scenarios, can be used as teaching tools to promote ethical action among current students

Decrease in water clarity of the southern and central North Sea during the 20th century

Light in the marine environment is a key environmental variable coupling physics to marine biogeochemistry and ecology. Weak light penetration reduces light available for photosynthesis, changing energy fluxes through the marine food web. Based on published and unpublished data, this study shows that the central and southern North Sea has become significantly less clear over the second half of the 20th century. In particular, in the different regions and seasons investigated, the average Secchi depth pre-1950 decreased between 25% and 75% compared to the average Secchi depth post-1950. Consequently, in summer pre-1950, most (74%) of the sea floor in the permanently mixed area off East Anglia was within the photic zone. For the last 25+ years, changes in water clarity were more likely driven by an increase in the concentration of suspended sediments, rather than phytoplankton. We suggest that a combination of causes have contributed to this increase in suspended sediments such as changes in sea-bed communities and in weather patterns, decreased sink of sediments in estuaries, and increased coastal erosion. A predicted future increase in storminess (Beniston et al., 2007; Kovats et al., 2014) could enhance the concentration of suspended sediments in the water column and consequently lead to a further decrease in clarity, with potential impacts on phytoplankton production, CO2 fluxes, and fishery production

Continuous time resource selection analysis for moving animals

1.Resource selection analysis (RSA) seeks to understand how spatial abundance covaries with environmental features. By combining RSA with movement, step selection analysis (SSA) has helped uncover the mechanisms behind animal relocations, thereby giving insight into the movement decisions underlying spatial patterns. However, SSA typically assumes that at each observed location, an animal makes a 'selection' of the next observed location. This conflates observation with behavioural mechanism and does not account for decisions occurring at any other time along the animal's path. 2.To address this, we introduce a continuous time framework for resource selection. It is based on a switching Ornstein‐Uhlenbeck (OU) model, parameterised by Bayesian Monte Carlo techniques. Such OU models have been used successfully to identify switches in movement behaviour, but hitherto not combined with resource selection. We test our inference procedure on simulated paths, representing both migratory movement (where landscape quality varies according to season) and foraging with depletion and renewal of resources (where the variation is due to past locations of the animals). We apply our framework to location data of migrating mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) to shed light on the drivers of migratory decisions. 3.In a wide variety of simulated situations, our inference procedure returns reliable estimations of the parameter values, including the extent to which animals trade‐off resource quality and travel distance (within 95% posterior intervals for the vast majority of cases). When applied to the mule deer data, our model reveals some individual variation in parameter values. Nevertheless, the migratory decisions of most individuals are well‐described by a model that accounts for the cost of moving and the difference between instantaneous change of vegetation quality at source and target patches. 4.We have introduced a technique for inferring the resource‐driven decisions behind animal movement that accounts for the fact that these decisions may take place at any point along a path, not just when the animal's location is known. This removes an oft‐acknowledged but hitherto little‐addressed shortcoming of stepwise movement models. Our work is of key importance in understanding how environmental features drive movement decisions and, as a consequence, space use patterns

College Enhancement Strategies and Socioeconomic Inequality

The study provides new information on the relationships between students’ socioeconomic backgrounds, utilization of college enhancement strategies, and subsequent 4-year college enrollment. Enhancement strategies represent student behaviors used to bolster the competitiveness of a college application, such as Advanced Placement exams and a variety of extracurricular activities. By drawing on two national datasets that span the 1990s (NELS) and the 2000s (ELS), the study uncovers how these relationships have changed during a period marked by escalating demand for college and growing class inequality. The findings provide partial evidence of class adaptation (Alon in Am Soc Rev 74:731–755, 2009) based on the combination of increased use of multiple enhancement strategies (“high overall use”) among higher SES students and increased influence of high overall enhancement strategy use in predicting college enrollment, particularly selective college enrollment. Implications are discussed in terms of the higher education system and pervasive social inequality