Examining EC-6 Pre-Service Teachers\u27 Perceptions of Self-Efficacy in Teaching Mathematics

Mathematics teacher quality has become a major focus in national education reform efforts. In addition, there is an increasing interest in the effectiveness of teacher preparation programs and the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers. Empirical evidence suggests that teacher attitudes, behaviors and values, or dispositions, towards teaching have a significant impact on student outcomes. The purpose of this study is to survey juniors and seniors in an undergraduate teacher preparation program to gauge their perceptions of self-efficacy and comfort with teaching mathematics. The results have implications for, and reaffirm concerns about the undergraduate preparation of elementary mathematics teachers

The onset of photoionization in Sakurai's Object (V4334 Sgr)

We investigate the reheating of the very late thermal pulse (VLTP) object V4334 Sgr (Sakurai's Object) using radio observations from the Very Large Array, and optical spectra obtained with the Very Large Telescope. We find a sudden rise of the radio flux at 5 and 8 GHz - from <= 90 micro-Jy and 80 +/- 30 micro-Jy in February 2005 to 320 micro-Jy and 280 micro-Jy in June 2006. Optical line emission is also evolving, but the emission lines are fading. The optical line emission and early radio flux are attributed to a fast shock (and not photoionization as was reported earlier) which occurred around 1998. The fading is due to post-shock cooling and recombination. The recent rapid increase in radio flux is evidence for the onset of photoionization of carbon starting around 2005. The current results indicate an increase in the stellar temperature to 12 kK in 2006. The mass ejected in the VLTP eruption is M_ej >= 1e-4 Msol, but could be as high as 1e-2 Msol, depending mainly on the distance and the clumping factor of the outflow. We derive a distance between 1.8 and 5 kpc. A high mass loss could expose the helium layer and yield abundances compatible with those of [WC] and PG1159 stars.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; accepted for publication in A&A letter

LIN28A expression reduces sickling of cultured human erythrocytes

Induction of fetal hemoglobin (HbF) has therapeutic importance for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and the beta-thalassemias. It was recently reported that increased expression of LIN28 proteins or decreased expression of its target let-7 miRNAs enhances HbF levels in cultured primary human erythroblasts from adult healthy donors. Here LIN28A effects were studied further using erythrocytes cultured from peripheral blood progenitor cells of pediatric subjects with SCD. Transgenic expression of LIN28A was accomplished by lentiviral transduction in CD34(+) sickle cells cultivated ex vivo in serum-free medium. LIN28A over-expression (LIN28A-OE) increased HbF, reduced beta (sickle)-globin, and strongly suppressed all members of the let-7 family of miRNAs. LIN28A-OE did not affect erythroblast differentiation or prevent enucleation, but it significantly reduced or ameliorated the sickling morphologies of the enucleated erythrocytes

EFFECTS OF INTENSIVE DIET AND EXERCISE ON KNEE JOINT LOADS, INFLAMMATION, AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES AMONG OVERWEIGHT AND OBESE ADULTS WITH KNEE OSTEOARTHRITIS

Importance Knee osteoarthritis (OA), a common cause of chronic pain and disability, has biomechanical and inflammatory origins and is exacerbated by obesity. Objective To determine whether a ≥10% reduction in body weight induced by diet, with or without exercise, would improve mechanistic and clinical outcomes more than exercise alone. Design, Setting, and Participants Single-blind, 18-month, randomized clinical trial at Wake Forest University between July 2006 and April 2011. The diet and exercise interventions were center-based with options for the exercise groups to transition to a home-based program. Participants were 454 overweight and obese older community-dwelling adults (age ≥55 years with body mass index of 27-41) with pain and radiographic knee OA. Interventions Intensive diet-induced weight loss plus exercise, intensive diet-induced weight loss, or exercise. Main Outcomes and Measures Mechanistic primary outcomes: knee joint compressive force and plasma IL-6 levels; secondary clinical outcomes: self-reported pain (range, 0-20), function (range, 0-68), mobility, and health-related quality of life (range, 0-100). Results Three hundred ninety-nine participants (88%) completed the study. Mean weight loss for diet + exercise participants was 10.6 kg (11.4%); for the diet group, 8.9 kg (9.5%); and for the exercise group, 1.8 kg (2.0%). After 18 months, knee compressive forces were lower in diet participants (mean, 2487 N; 95% CI, 2393 to 2581) compared with exercise participants (2687 N; 95% CI, 2590 to 2784, pairwise difference [Δ]exercise vs diet = 200 N; 95% CI, 55 to 345; P = .007). Concentrations of IL-6 were lower in diet + exercise (2.7 pg/mL; 95% CI, 2.5 to 3.0) and diet participants (2.7 pg/mL; 95% CI, 2.4 to 3.0) compared with exercise participants (3.1 pg/mL; 95% CI, 2.9 to 3.4; Δexercise vs diet + exercise = 0.39 pg/mL; 95% CI, −0.03 to 0.81; P = .007; Δexercise vs diet = 0.43 pg/mL; 95% CI, 0.01 to 0.85, P = .006). The diet + exercise group had less pain (3.6; 95% CI, 3.2 to 4.1) and better function (14.1; 95% CI, 12.6 to 15.6) than both the diet group (4.8; 95% CI, 4.3 to 5.2) and exercise group (4.7; 95% CI, 4.2 to 5.1, Δexercise vs diet + exercise = 1.02; 95% CI, 0.33 to 1.71; Ppain = .004; 18.4; 95% CI, 16.9 to 19.9; Δexercise vs diet + exercise, 4.29; 95% CI, 2.07 to 6.50; Pfunction < .001). The diet + exercise group (44.7; 95% CI, 43.4 to 46.0) also had better physical health-related quality of life scores than the exercise group (41.9; 95% CI, 40.5 to 43.2; Δexercise vs diet + exercise = −2.81; 95% CI, −4.76 to −0.86; P = .005). Conclusions and Relevance Among overweight and obese adults with knee OA, after 18 months, participants in the diet + exercise and diet groups had more weight loss and greater reductions in IL-6 levels than those in the exercise group; those in the diet group had greater reductions in knee compressive force than those in the exercise group

The Evolution of Bat Vestibular Systems in the Face of Potential Antagonistic Selection Pressures for Flight and Echolocation

PMCID: PMC3634842This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor

The Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS) is a four telescope array designed to characterize relic primordial gravitational waves from inflation and the optical depth to reionization through a measurement of the polarized cosmic microwave background (CMB) on the largest angular scales. The frequencies of the four CLASS telescopes, one at 38 GHz, two at 93 GHz, and one dichroic system at 145/217 GHz, are chosen to avoid spectral regions of high atmospheric emission and span the minimum of the polarized Galactic foregrounds: synchrotron emission at lower frequencies and dust emission at higher frequencies. Low-noise transition edge sensor detectors and a rapid front-end polarization modulator provide a unique combination of high sensitivity, stability, and control of systematics. The CLASS site, at 5200 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, allows for daily mapping of up to 70\% of the sky and enables the characterization of CMB polarization at the largest angular scales. Using this combination of a broad frequency range, large sky coverage, control over systematics, and high sensitivity, CLASS will observe the reionization and recombination peaks of the CMB E- and B-mode power spectra. CLASS will make a cosmic variance limited measurement of the optical depth to reionization and will measure or place upper limits on the tensor-to-scalar ratio, $r$, down to a level of 0.01 (95\% C.L.)

Joint Consensus Statement on the Vaccination of Adult and Paediatric Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Recipients. Prepared on Behalf of the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (BSBMTCT), the Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group (CCLG), and British Infection Association (BIA).

Haematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients have deficiencies in their adaptive immunity against vaccine preventable diseases. National and International guidance recommends that HSCT recipients are considered 'never vaccinated' and offered a comprehensive course of revaccination. This position statement aims to draw upon the current evidence base and existing guidelines, and align this with national vaccine availability and licensing considerations in order to recommend a pragmatic and standardised re-vaccination schedule for adult and paediatric HSCT recipients in the UK

Measurement of the Inclusive Semi-electronic D0D^0 Branching Fraction

Using the angular correlation between the $\pi^+$ emitted in a $D^{*+} \rightarrow D^0 \pi^+$ decay and the $e^+$ emitted in the subsequent $D^0 \rightarrow Xe^+\nu$ decay, we have measured the branching fraction for the inclusive semi-electronic decay of the $D^0$ meson to be: {\cal B}(D^0 \rightarrow X e^+ \nu) = [6.64 \pm 0.18 (stat.) \pm 0.29 (syst.)] \%. The result is based on 1.7 fb$^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ collisions recorded by the CLEO II detector located at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR). Combining the analysis presented in this paper with previous CLEO results we find, \frac{{\cal B} (D^0 \rightarrow X e^+ \nu)} {{\cal B} (D^0 \rightarrow K^- \pi^+)} = 1.684 \pm 0.056 (stat.) \pm 0.093(syst.) and \frac{{\cal B}(D\rightarrow K^-e^+\nu)} {{\cal B}(D\rightarrow Xe^+\nu)} = 0.581 \pm 0.023 (stat.) \pm 0.028(syst.). The difference between the inclusive rate and the sum of the measured exclusive branching fractions (measured at CLEO and other experiments) is $(3.3 \pm 7.2) \%$ of the inclusive rate.Comment: Latex file, 33pages, 4 figures Submitted to PR

Weight loss maintenance in women two to eleven years after participating in a commercial program: a survey

BACKGROUND: After 5 years, most reports show that less than 10% of people maintain a 5% loss from initial body weight. Weight maintenance after 10 years is rarely assessed, especially in commercial programs. The current article reports weight maintenance in individuals who had participated 2 to 11 years earlier in a popular commercial weight loss program based on Canada's Food Guide called Mincavi. METHODS: Randomly picked subjects answered a telephone questionnaire. Participants, 291 adult women from various regions of the province of Quebec, had followed the program 2 to 11 years earlier for at least a month. Body weight at the beginning and at the end of treatment was recorded as well as actual weight, age and height. Existing records allowed partial verification of the sample. RESULTS: Based on corrected weights, percentage of women who maintained at least 5% of their initial weight loss are as following; 2 years = 43.6% (n = 55), 3 years = 33.3% (n = 42), 4 years = 23.8% (n = 42), 5–6 years = 38.2% (n = 55), 7–8 years = 29.4% (n = 51), and 9–11 years; 19.6% (n = 46). Five to eleven years after they had participated in the program 29.1% of all women maintained a weight loss of at least 5%, while 14.3% maintained a loss of at least 10%. CONCLUSIONS: Even though success rate is not as high as could be wished for, results show that participation in the Mincavi program can lead to effective weight maintenance long after individuals have left it. These findings suggest more thorough studies should be conducted on this weight loss program