A Study of Teachers\u27 Views of Death Education in the Mattoon, Illinois School District

Teaching children how to cope with death experiences so that they will not ever suffer from prolonged grief is the responsibility shared by all of society. Along with church leaders and parents, teachers, too, must help teach death education. The purpose of this paper was to explore how well equipped teachers are with adequate training and resources to teach death education in the schools. Also, to explore how concerned teachers are with this area of education. This study was done through the use of a three-page questionnaire which was developed by the writer. The questionnaire was given to all teachers in the elementary, junior high and senior high schools in the Mattoon, Illinois school district. The results of the questionnaire were tabulated to show absolute frequencies and relative frequencies of each item. Pearson correlation coefficients were performed to show relationships in teachers\u27 attitudes with their personal knowledge of death. Coefficients of determination were given where significant correlations were found. The results of this study indicate that these teachers report that they feel inadequate in their training and resources for dealing with death education. However, teachers in this study said they were open and positive about teaching death education in the classroom. The implications are that colleges could provide programs in training teachers to deal with death education. Schools could provide inservice and workshops to better train teachers to teach death education

A Study of Teachers\u27 Views of Death Education in the Mattoon, Illinois School District

Teaching children how to cope with death experiences so that they will not ever suffer from prolonged grief is the responsibility shared by all of society. Along with church leaders and parents, teachers, too, must help teach death education. The purpose of this paper was to explore how well equipped teachers are with adequate training and resources to teach death education in the schools. Also, to explore how concerned teachers are with this area of education. This study was done through the use of a three-page questionnaire which was developed by the writer. The questionnaire was given to all teachers in the elementary, junior high and senior high schools in the Mattoon, Illinois school district. The results of the questionnaire were tabulated to show absolute frequencies and relative frequencies of each item. Pearson correlation coefficients were performed to show relationships in teachers\u27 attitudes with their personal knowledge of death. Coefficients of determination were given where significant correlations were found. The results of this study indicate that these teachers report that they feel inadequate in their training and resources for dealing with death education. However, teachers in this study said they were open and positive about teaching death education in the classroom. The implications are that colleges could provide programs in training teachers to deal with death education. Schools could provide inservice and workshops to better train teachers to teach death education

Nitrogen Abundances and the Distance Moduli of the Pleiades and Hyades

Recent reanalyses of HIPPARCOS parallax data confirm a previously noted discrepancy with the Pleiades distance modulus estimated from main-sequence fitting in the color-magnitude diagram. One proposed explanation of this distance modulus discrepancy is a Pleiades He abundance that is significantly larger than the Hyades value. We suggest that, based on our theoretical and observational understanding of Galactic chemical evolution, nitrogen abundances may serve as a proxy for helium abundances of disk stars. Utilizing high-resolution near-UV Keck/HIRES spectroscopy, we determine N abundances in the Pleiades and Hyades dwarfs from NH features in the 3330 Ang region. While our Hyades N abundances show a modest 0.2 dex trend over a 800 K Teff range, we find the Pleiades N abundance (by number) is 0.13+/-0.05 dex lower than in the Hyades for stars in a smaller overlapping Teff range around 6000 K; possible systematic errors in the lower Pleiades N abundance result are estimated to be at the <0.10 dex level. Our results indicate [N/Fe]=0 for both the Pleiades and Hyades, consistent with the ratios exhibited by local Galactic disk field stars in other studies. If N production is a reliable tracer of He production in the disk, then our results suggest the Pleiades He abundance is no larger than that in the Hyades. This finding is supported by the relative Pleiades-Hyades C, O, and Fe abundances interpreted in the current context of Galactic chemical evolution, and is resistant to the effects on our derived N abundances of a He abundance difference like that needed to explain the Pleiades distance modulus discrepancy. A physical explanation of the Pleiades distance modulus discrepancy does not appear to be related to He abundance.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacifi

Levels of Stress and Characteristics of Perfectionism in CSD Students

An electronic survey was sent to the Midwest Clinic Directors’ Listserv requesting they distribute it to students in their CSD programs. The survey collected information about demographics, and students’ top three stressors and stress management practices. Students were also asked to complete the 10-item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS; Cohen, 1994) and the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R; Slaney, Rice, Mobley, Trippi, & Ashby, 2001). A total of 278 CSD undergraduate and graduate students from 15 Midwest institutions responded to the survey. No differences were found between undergraduate and graduate responses to the PSS and the APS-R. Twenty-six percent of the respondents were classified as nonperfectionists, 33% as adaptive perfectionists, and 41% as maladaptive perfectionists. A relationship was found between perceived stress and perfectionism such that respondents with higher levels of perceived stress tended to be classified as maladaptive perfectionists and those with lower levels of perceived stress tended to be classified as adaptive perfectionists. Similarities and differences were found between undergraduates and graduate students in terms of stressors; close to 45% engaged in a stress management practice. Importance of such practices is discussed

Blueprint for Iteratively Hardening Power Grids Employing Unified Power Flow Controllers

A stable electricity supply is vital for modern society. However, many parts of our power transmission grid are operating near their operational limits. Such stressed systems are vulnerable to cascading failures, where a few small faults can induce a cascade of failures potentially leading to a major blackout The unified power flow controller (UPFC), the most powerful highspeed, semi-conductor based power flow device, can be used as a theoretical model to study how these devices can be used to improve power grid resilience. The blueprint presented here can be used to iteratively identify critical weaknesses in power grids and to recommend a means of fixing these weaknesses via the installation of UPFCs. This approach to hardening the power transmission grid will make it less prone to blackouts and better able to forestall or reduce the severity of unavoidable blackouts

Quantifying bamboo coral growth rate nonlinearity with the radiocarbon bomb spike : a new model for paleoceanographic chronology development

© The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 125 (2017): 26-39, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2017.04.006.Bamboo corals, long-lived cold water gorgonin octocorals, offer unique paleoceanographic archives of the intermediate ocean. These Isididae corals are characterized by alternating gorgonin nodes and high Mg-calcite internodes, which synchronously extend radially. Bamboo coral calcite internodes have been utilized to obtain geochemical proxy data, however, growth rate uncertainty has made it difficult to construct precise chronologies for these corals. Previous studies have relied upon a tie point from records of the anthropogenic Δ14C bomb spike preserved in the gorgonin nodes of live-collected corals to calculate a mean radial extension rate for the outer ~50 years of skeletal growth. Bamboo coral chronologies are typically constructed by applying this mean extension rate to the entire coral record, assuming constant radial extension with coral age. In this study, we aim to test this underlying assumption by analyzing the organic nodes of six California margin bamboo corals at high enough resolution (<0.5 mm) to identify the Δ14C bomb spike, including two tie points at 1957 and 1970, plus coral collection date (2007.5) for four samples. Radial extension rates between tie points ranged from 10 to 204 μm/year, with a decrease in growth rate evident between the 1957-1970 and 1970- 2007.5 periods for all four corals. A negative correlation between growth rate and coral radius (r = -0.7; p = 0.03) was determined for multiple bamboo coral taxa and individuals from the California margin, demonstrating a decline in radial extension rate with specimen age and size. To provide a mechanistic basis for these observations, a simple mathematical model was developed based on the assumption of a constant increase in circular cross sectional area with time to quantify this decline in radial extension rate with coral size between chronological tie points. Applying the area-based model to our Δ14C bomb spike time series from individual corals improves chronology accuracy for all live-collected corals with complete Δ14C bomb spikes. Hence, this study provides paleoceanographers utilizing bamboo corals with a method for reducing age model uncertainty within the anthropogenic bomb spike era (~1957-present). Chronological uncertainty is larger for the earliest portion of coral growth, particularly for skeleton precipitated prior to bomb spike tie points, meaning age estimations for samples living before 1957 remain uncertain. Combining this technique with additional chronological markers could improve age models for an entire bamboo coral. Finally, the relative consistency in growth rate in similarly-aged corals of the same depth and location supports the hypothesis that skeletal growth may be limited by local environmental conditions.This research was made possible by National Science Foundation Award #1420984 to M. LaVigne and a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship to M. Frenkel

Epitaxial (111) Films of Cu, Ni, and CuxNi_xNi_yonα−Al on {\alpha}-Al_2OO_3$(0001) for Graphene Growth by Chemical Vapor Deposition

Films of (111)-textured Cu, Ni, and Cu$_x$Ni$_y$ were evaluated as substrates for chemical vapor deposition of graphene. A metal thickness of 400 nm to 700 nm was sputtered onto a substrate of $\alpha-$Al$_2$O$_3$(0001) at temperatures of 250 C to 650 C. The films were then annealed at 1000 C in a tube furnace. X-ray and electron backscatter diffraction measurements showed all films have (111) texture but have grains with in-plane orientations differing by $60^{\circ}$. The in-plane epitaxial relationship for all films was $[110]_{metal}$||$[10\bar{1}0]_{{Al}_{2}{O}_{3}}$. Reactive sputtering of Al in O$_2$ before metal deposition resulted in a single in-plane orientation over 97 % of the Ni film but had no significant effect on the Cu grain structure. Transmission electron microscopy showed a clean Ni/Al$_2$O$_3$ interface, confirmed the epitaxial relationship, and showed that formation of the $60^{\circ}$ twin grains was associated with features on the Al$_2$O$_3$ surface. Increasing total pressure and Cu vapor pressure during annealing decreased the roughness of Cu and and Cu$_x$Ni$_y$ films. Graphene grown on the Ni(111) films was more uniform than that grown on polycrystalline Ni/SiO$_2$ films, but still showed thickness variations on a much smaller length scale than the distance between grains