The Perceived Self- Efficacy Of West Virginia Public Elementary School Teachers To Teach Character Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the level of West Virginia public elementary school teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching character education. Questions addressed teachers’ overall level of perceived self-efficacy for teaching character education; the levels of perceived self-efficacy in student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom management; and the differences between levels of perceived self-efficacy and selected school and teacher demographic/attribute variables. Teacher self-efficacy to instruct character education was measured using the Teacher Self-Efficacy to Instruct Character Education (TSICE) survey, an adaptation of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) designed by Megan Tschannen-Moran and Anita Woolfolk Hoy (2001). The TSICE was distributed electronically to principals in 420 West Virginia elementary schools. Principals were asked to forward the survey to their teachers for response; 433 teachers completed the survey. Overall levels of perceived self-efficacy indicated that teachers had a significantly high level of total self-efficacy for teaching character education and held high levels of self-efficacy in the three sub-factors. Statistically significant differences were reported by counselors in character education functions including responding to difficult questions, aiding student comprehension using a variety of assessments, providing alternative examples to students, and providing appropriate challenges like service learning. Statistically significant results were also found for teachers of PreK – grade three for gauging student comprehension and establishing routines that stressed good character in the classroom. Ancillary findings indicate that the respondents felt they were least able to influence positive out-of-school behaviors and best able to influence positive principled behaviors

Effects of a Carbohydrate Hydrogel beverage on endurance cycling performance and gastrointestinal comfort

PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of a novel maltodextrin-fructose hydrogel (MF-H) on cycling performance and gastrointestinal distress symptoms. METHODS: Nine endurance-trained male cyclists completed three experimental trials consisting of a 98-min varied-intensity cycling protocol followed by a performance test of ten consecutive sprint intervals. In a cross-over design, subjects consumed 250 mL of a treatment beverage every 15 min of cycling. The treatments consisted of 78 g . hr-1 of either a) MF-H, b) maltodextrin-fructose (MF), and c) maltodextrin only (MD) All data were assessed using repeated measures ANOVA’s. RESULTS: There were no differences in average sprint power between treatments (MF-H, 284 ± 51 W; MF, 281 ± 46 W; and MD, 277 ± 48 W), or power output for any individual sprint. However, mean power output for sprints 7-10 was significantly lower in MD (259 ± 2 W) versus MF (269 ± 2 W; p=0.04) and versus MF-H (270 ± 2 W; p=0.01). Subjective ratings of gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms (nausea, fullness, and abdominal cramping) increased significantly over time during the cycling trials, but few individuals exceeded moderate levels in any trial with no systematic differences in gastrointestinal discomfort symptoms observed between treatments. CONCLUSIONS: Ingestion of a maltodextrin/fructose hydrogel beverage improved cycling performance late in exercise compared to maltodextrin alone, but provided no further performance benefits versus a maltodextrin/fructose beverage. In addition, the maltodextrin/fructose hydrogel beverage resulted no systematic benefits in gastrointestinal comfort versus the other beverages

Dual regimes of ion migration in high repetition rate femtosecond laser inscribed waveguides

Ion migration in high repetition rate femtosecond laser inscribed waveguides is currently being reported in different optical glasses. For the first time we discuss and experimentally demonstrate the presence of two regimes of ion migration found in laser written waveguides. Regime-I, corresponds to the initial waveguide formation mainly via light element migration (in our case atomic weight < 31u), whereas regime-II majorly corresponds to the movement of heavy elements. This behavior brings attention to a problem which has never been analyzed before and that affects laser written active waveguides in which active ions migrate changing their local spectroscopic properties. The migration of active ions may in fact detune the pre-designed optimal values of active photonic devices. This paper experimentally evidences this problem and provides solutions to avert it.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Agriculture Environmental Management System Electronic Manure Handling Process Map

Utah State University Cooperative Extension Agriculture Environmental Management Systems participants developed an electronic process flow method for identifying aspects and assessing impacts from the manure handling systems on animal feeding operations. This method breaks the manure handling system into manageable portions by delineating every process and support activity on a process flow diagram. Then each process and activity is individually examined to identify associated aspects. This approach expedites the identification of aspects in relation to those processes and activities. It also fulfills the operational control condition to identify those operations and activities that are associated with identified significant environmental aspects

A neutron scattering study of the interplay between structure and magnetism in Ba(Fe1−x_{1-x}Cox_{x})2_2As2_2

Single crystal neutron diffraction is used to investigate the magnetic and structural phase diagram of the electron doped superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$. Heat capacity and resistivity measurements have demonstrated that Co doping this system splits the combined antiferromagnetic and structural transition present in BaFe$_2$As$_2$ into two distinct transitions. For $x$=0.025, we find that the upper transition is between the high-temperature tetragonal and low-temperature orthorhombic structures with ($T_{\mathrm{TO}}=99 \pm 0.5$ K) and the antiferromagnetic transition occurs at $T_{\mathrm{AF}}=93 \pm 0.5$ K. We find that doping rapidly suppresses the antiferromagnetism, with antiferromagnetic order disappearing at $x \approx 0.055$. However, there is a region of co-existence of antiferromagnetism and superconductivity. The effect of the antiferromagnetic transition can be seen in the temperature dependence of the structural Bragg peaks from both neutron scattering and x-ray diffraction. We infer from this that there is strong coupling between the antiferromagnetism and the crystal lattice

Formation of Chromate Conversion Coatings on Aluminum and Its Alloys

In situ X-ray adsorption near-edge structure (XANES) has been used to investigate the formation of chromate conversion coatings on pure Al, commercial Al alloys (AA 1100, AA2024, and AA7075), and a series of binary Al–Cu alloys. The method employed cells designed to determine the growth of the total chromium [Cr(total)] and hexavalent chromate [Cr(VI)] in the chromate conversion coating (CCC) as a function of exposure time to a chromate solution. Three sets of data were obtained, where (i) the Al was exposed to only a limited amount of solution; (ii) the chromate solution was excluded after short periods of repeated exposures to the solution; and (iii) the Al was exposed continuously to the chromate solution. All the results showed a very rapid initial growth within the first seconds, followed by a continued increase in thickness for exposures up to 1 h. Measurements with Al–Cu binary alloys demonstrated that the difference observed in AA2024 and AA1100 may not be due to Cu alloying. The proportion of Cr(VI) in the coatings becomes approximately constant after 180 s of exposure for all the specimens examined, even though the coatings continued to grow