Alien Registration- Mccollough, Mary A. (Old Town, Penobscot County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/5707/thumbnail.jp

The Hardness-Intensity Diagram of Cygnus X-3: Revisiting the Radio/X-Ray States

Cygnus X-3 is one of the brightest X-ray and radio sources in the Galaxy, and is well known for its erratic behaviour in X-rays as well as in the radio, occasionally producing major radio flares associated with relativistic ejections. However, even after many years of observations in various wavelength bands Cyg X-3 still eludes clear physical understanding. Studying different emission bands simultaneously in microquasars has proved to be a fruitful approach towards understanding these systems, especially by shedding light on the accretion disc/jet connection. We continue this legacy by constructing a hardness-intensity diagram (HID) from archival Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer data and linking simultaneous radio observations to it. We find that surprisingly Cyg X-3 sketches a similar shape in the HID to that seen in other transient black hole X-ray binaries during outburst but with distinct differences. Together with the results of this analysis and previous studies of Cyg X-3 we conclude that the X-ray states can be assigned to six distinct states. This categorization relies heavily on the simultaneous radio observations and we identify one new X-ray state, the hypersoft state, similar to the ultrasoft state, which is associated to the quenched radio state during which there is no or very faint radio emission. Recent observations of GeV flux observed from Cyg X-3 (Tavani et al. 2009; Fermi LAT Collaboration et al. 2009) during a soft X-ray and/or radio quenched state at the onset of a major radio flare hint that a very energetic process is at work during this time, which is also when the hypersoft X-ray state is observed. In addition, Cyg X-3 shows flaring with a wide range of hardness.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Impact of collaborative teaching on K-12 mathematics and science learning

A national effort is underway to transform teacher education program practices and produce effective and highly qualified teachers for 21st century classrooms. This effort prescribes providing preservice teachers (PSTs) with authentic field-based experiences that connects what is taught in teacher preparation programs with what they do in the K-12 classroom. Bridging the gap between theory and practice requires that teacher education programs collaborate with schools districts, redesigning teacher training to better serve prospective teachers and their students (NCATE, 2010). This paper describes a mixed-methods study examining the impact of a STEM site-based professional development program (TEX) on the math and science content knowledge, self-efficacy, and interest in STEM of 4-8 students as well as the self-efficacy and STEM interest in preservice and inservice teachers. The researchers found the TEX program’s collaborative model of team planning, teaching, and evaluating have led to increased student achievement and better prepared beginning teacher

Growing STEM roots: Preparing preservice teachers

This mixed-methods pilot study investigates elementary and secondary pre-service teachers’ (n=12) mathematics and science content knowledge and conceptions of nature of science following the first year implementation of a science and mathematics site-based professional development program. This study utilized pre/post data from science and mathematics content exams, and Views of Nature of Science-C instrument. Data revealed gains in preservice teachers’mathematics and science content knowledge and perceptions regarding the nature of science

BATSE observations of BL Lac Objects

The Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory has been shown to be sensitive to non-transient hard X-ray sources in our galaxy, down to flux levels of 100 mCrab for daily measurements, 3 mCrab for integrations over several years. We use the continuous BATSE database and the Earth Occultation technique to extract average flux values between 20 and 200 keV from complete radio- and X-ray- selected BL Lac samples over a 2 year period

Publishing Our Own Work: Contributing to the Professional Literature Through Systematizing Sharing of Library Reports

Library employees often work on teams, committees, or task forces to do research, and investigation as part of their responsibilities in carrying out the operations of a library; however, much of this work is not published in the professional literature and is only inconsistently recorded in committee documents. As such, this work is hidden both from others in the library who might use it and from the profession at large, meaning that other libraries were not able to benefit from it. To address these challenges, the University of Illinois Library (Urbana‐Champaign) established the Library Occasional Reports Series (LibORS) in 2015. This paper presents a case study of the ongoing process of establishing LibORS. Phases of work included exploring what it would mean to commit to publishing and promoting the University Library’s work as an organizational practice as well as creating workflows, acquisition criteria, editorial guidelines, a report template, and communication mechanisms