Writing Attitudes and Practices of Content Area Teachers after Participating in the Central Utah Writing Project Summer Institute

The Central Utah Writing Project (CUWP) was created in 2009 and, following the National Writing Project\u27s model of professional development, has held a 3- or 4-week summer institute each subsequent year. This training includes collaborative, constructivist, teacher-led training to improve the teaching of writing in schools. Multiple qualitative and quantitative studies have shown the effectiveness of this professional development in the language arts classroom. This multiple-case study of four secondary teachers, whose individual content areas lie outside English or language arts (math, music, science, and social studies), used data from interviews, observations, and artifacts to provide a description of each case and how each teacher has personally and professionally incorporated the training gained from the CUWP. The study also synthesized common themes across the cases. These themes, necessary for professional development included a participant\u27s personal interpretation of the experience (phenomenon) construction of one\u27s own learning, active learning/ participation in the professional development, the inclusion of authentic tasks, collaborative support community, inclusion of prior knowledge and/or experience, self-efficacy regarding one\u27s own writing and the teaching of writing, motivation as a teacher, motivation as a student, scaffolded modeling, teacher expertise in professional development, and the use of writing in the content area. In short, the study investigates how the CUWP summer institute influences the attitudes and classroom writing practices of teachers whose primary content area is not English or language arts. Results showed that only one of the case studies changed their attitudes about writing from neutral to positive. The other three already possessed positive attitudes toward the use of and the teaching of writing in their own classrooms. All four participants changed their classroom practices as a result of participating in the CUWP summer institute and also deemed the results on student performance beneficial. Each of the four constructed a separate takeaway that they implemented in their respective classrooms

Compression and Relaxation of Fishing Effort in Response to Changes in Length of Fishing Season for Red Snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

A standard method used by fisheries managers to decrease catch and effort is to shorten the length of a fishery; however, data on recreational angler response to this simple approach are surprisingly lacking. We assessed the effect of variable season length on daily fishing effort, measured by using numbers of boat launches per day, anglers per boat, and anglers per day from video observations, in the recreational sector of the federal fishery for red snapper (Lutjanus campechanus) in coastal Alabama. From 2012 through 2017, season length fluctuated from 3 to 40 d. Daily effort, measured by using mean number of boat launches per day (coefficient of multiple determination [R2]=0.58) and mean number of anglers per day (R2=0.67), increased linearly with season shortening, indicating effort compression. In 2017, 2 seasons were allowed: an early season (3 d) and an unanticipated late season (39 d). Daily effort decreased during the late season, indicating that effort can also be relaxed if anglers anticipate longer seasons. Model fit for mean number of anglers per day improved with the addition of a daily wind factor (R2=0.94). The results of this study indicate that responses of anglers to changing fishing seasons are dynamic

High Multiplicity Searches at the LHC Using Jet Masses

This article introduces a new class of searches for physics beyond the Standard Model that improves the sensitivity to signals with high jet multiplicity. The proposed searches gain access to high multiplicity signals by reclustering events into large-radius, or "fat," jets and by requiring that each event has multiple massive jets. This technique is applied to supersymmetric scenarios in which gluinos are pair-produced and then subsequently decay to final states with either moderate quantities of missing energy or final states without missing energy. In each of these scenarios, the use of jet mass improves the estimated reach in gluino mass by 20 % to 50 % over current LHC searches.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures; v3 corrects a few small typo

crs: A package for nonparametric spline estimation in R

crs is a library for R written by Jeffrey S. Racine (Maintainer) and Zhenghua Nie. This add-on package provides a collection of functions for spline-based nonparametric estimation of regression functions with both continuous and categorical regressors. Currently, the crs package integrates data-driven methods for selecting the spline degree, the number of knots and the necessary bandwidths for nonparametric conditional mean, IV and quantile regression. A function for multivariate density spline estimation with mixed data is also currently in the works. As a bonus, the authors have also provided the first simple R interface to the NOMAD (‘nonsmooth mesh adaptive direct search’) optimization solver which can be applied to solve other mixed integer optimization problems that future users might find useful in other settings. Although the crs package shares some of the same functionalities as its kernel-based counterpart—the np package by the same author—it currently lacks some of the features the np package provides, such as hypothesis testing and semiparametric estimation. However, what it lacks in breadth, crs makes up in speed. A Monte Carlo experiment in this review uncovers sizable speed gains compared to its np counterpart, with a marginal loss in terms of goodness of fit. Therefore, the package will be extremely useful for applied econometricians interested in employing nonparametric techniques using large amounts of data with a small number of discrete covariates

APLIKASI MOBILE BERBASIS ANDROID UNTUK PEMESANAN KEBUTUHAN BAHAN PANGAN MELALUI MEDIA TUKANG SAYUR KELILING DAN PASAR TRADISONAL (TUKANG SAYURKU)

Pasar Tradisional adalah tempat bertemunya penjual dan pembeli untuk melakukan transaksi jual-beli secara tradisional. Tukang Sayur Keliling adalah orang yang menjual kebutuhan bahan pangan dengan cara berkeliling. Dalam rangka memudahkan pembeli dalam memesan kebutuhan bahan pangan melalui media tukang sayur keliling dan pasar tradisional, maka dibuatlah aplikasi yang mampu mengefektifkan dan mengefisiensikan transaksi jual-beli yang terjadi secara tradisonal. Dalam proses transaksi jual-beli di pasar tradisional atau melalui tukang sayur keliling masih terdapat beberapa masalah pada sistem informasi barang, pencatatan laporan transaksi, serta tidak tersedianya layanan pemesanan yang dapat digunakan oleh pembeli. Untuk itu diperlukan sebuah aplikasi pemesanan kebutuhan bahan pangan melalui media tukang sayur keliling dan pasar tradisional yang dapat menjadi solusi dari masalah yang ada. Aplikasi ini dibuat dengan metode waterfall dengan menggunakan bahasa pemograman Android dan PHP, serta menggunakan MySQL sebagai database server. Pengguna dari aplikasi ini adalah admin perusahaan “Tukang Sayurku”, manajer, karyawan, dan pembeli. Kata Kunci: Pasar Tradisional, Tukang Sayur, Android, Pemesanan bahan Pangan

Using Group Support Systems to Facilitate the Research Process

Group Support Systems (GSS) and their effects on group processes and outcomes have been an object of intense study over the past ten years. The purpose of this paper is to take a different perspective with respect to GSS research. Rather than discussing research about GSS, we will discuss the capabilities of GSS tools to support the process of doing research. A model of the steps involved in the research process is discussed and specific suggestions for the application of GSS tools are mapped to these research steps. GSS can provide a variety of benefits to researchers, including basic meeting support for multiple researchers in developing elements of the research project, electronically recording data from subjects, performing data analysis, and integrating information and data across the entire research process

Increased brain activation in motor cortex after acupuncture treatment for motor recovery in chronic stroke patients

Acupuncture has historically been recommended as adjunctive treatment to patients with stroke, but its effectiveness has yet to be proven. This case series aims to report the results of using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), together with motor function evaluations, to assess the effect of acupuncture on stable patients after stroke. Eleven chronic stroke patients underwent fMRI and motor function evaluations of their impaired upper limb before and after an 8-week period of acupuncture on two acupoints (Hegu LI-4 and Quchi LI-11), without undergoing simultaneous rehabilitation. Improvements in motor functions of the impaired upper limb were found after acupuncture treatment. Changes in cortical activities were closely related to the finding of improved motor functions. A larger and stronger activation was found in the sensorimotor area of the lesioned hemisphere after receiving the acupuncture intervention. Conjunction analysis demonstrated common regions that were activated during either motor task or acupuncture stimulation. Acupuncture may improve functions of the impaired upper limb in chronic stroke patients via modulating peri-infarct regions that are responsible for plasticity of the motor cortex

Heterologous prime-boost-boost immunisation of Chinese cynomolgus macaques using DNA and recombinant poxvirus vectors expressing HIV-1 virus-like particles

Background: There is renewed interest in the development of poxvirus vector-based HIV vaccines due to the protective effect observed with repeated recombinant canarypox priming with gp120 boosting in the recent Thai placebo-controlled trial. This study sought to investigate whether a heterologous prime-boost-boost vaccine regimen in Chinese cynomolgus macaques with a DNA vaccine and recombinant poxviral vectors expressing HIV virus-like particles bearing envelopes derived from the most prevalent clades circulating in sub-Saharan Africa, focused the antibody response to shared neutralising epitopes. Methods: Three Chinese cynomolgus macaques were immunised via intramuscular injections using a regimen composed of a prime with two DNA vaccines expressing clade A Env/clade B Gag followed by boosting with recombinant fowlpox virus expressing HIV-1 clade D Gag, Env and cholera toxin B subunit followed by the final boost with recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara expressing HIV-1 clade C Env, Gag and human complement protein C3d. We measured the macaque serum antibody responses by ELISA, enumerated T cell responses by IFN-gamma ELISpot and assessed seroneutralisation of HIV-1 using the TZM-bl beta-galactosidase assay with primary isolates of HIV-1. Results: This study shows that large and complex synthetic DNA sequences can be successfully cloned in a single step into two poxvirus vectors: MVA and FPV and the recombinant poxviruses could be grown to high titres. The vaccine candidates showed appropriate expression of recombinant proteins with the formation of authentic HIV virus-like particles seen on transmission electron microscopy. In addition the b12 epitope was shown to be held in common by the vaccine candidates using confocal immunofluorescent microscopy. The vaccine candidates were safely administered to Chinese cynomolgus macaques which elicited modest T cell responses at the end of the study but only one out of the three macaques elicited an HIV-specific antibody response. However, the antibodies did not neutralise primary isolates of HIV-1 or the V3-sensitive isolate SF162 using the TZM-bl b-galactosidase assay. Conclusions: MVA and FP9 are ideal replication-deficient viral vectors for HIV-1 vaccines due to their excellent safety profile for use in humans. This study shows this novel prime-boost-boost regimen was poorly immunogenic in Chinese cynomolgus macaques

Governor Morrill\u27s Proclamation for a day of Public Thanksgiving

https://digitalmaine.com/arc_executive_proclamations_1900/1009/thumbnail.jp