Desktop video conferencing

This guide aims to provide an introduction to Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) and forms part of the ESCalate Busy Teacher Educator Guides. You may be familiar with video conferencing, where participants typically book a designated conference room and communicate with another group in a similar room on another site via a large screen display. Desktop video conferencing allows users to video conference from the comfort of their own office, workplace or home via a desktop / laptop Personal Computer. DVC provides live audio and visual communication in real time from a standard PC and allows one to one and multiple user conferences by participants in different physical locations. Some software features a a ‘whiteboard’ on the computer screen for information exchange and the option to show or share documents and websites between the participants

Letter, 1982 December 17, from Deborah Ray to Eva Jessye

1 page, Ray was a producer for the Detroit Public Television, WTVS

Relationship between greenhouse and field performance of diverse cultivars of summer squash and watermelon grown under moisture stressed conditions, The

2019 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Drought stress poses a major threat to the global food supply, and most domestic vegetable growers lack cultivar-specific information that would allow them to adopt best management practices to limit the impacts of these stressors. Summer squash (Cucurbita pepo) and watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) are two crops in the Cucurbitaceae family that are commonly grown and consumed in the U.S. Heirlooms and modern cultivars of these crops with reports of "drought resistance" are currently available on the market without concomitant recommended modifications to irrigation management. Many published greenhouse experiments have been used to screen cultivars and breeding lines for drought resistance, but often lack paired field trials to confirm results. We conducted a greenhouse dry-down study on nine summer squash and 10 watermelon cultivars, and sustained deficit irrigation (SDI) field trials on a selected 13. Our objective was to determine if crop characteristics identified in the greenhouse studies could be predictive of season-long field success under drought conditions. Colorado-bred conventional hybrids were used as control cultivars in both studies, and were hypothesized to have a more drought-sensitive response than cultivars with reports of drought resistance. Parameters evaluated in the greenhouse study included: days to death, percent soil moisture at death, root:shoot ratio, and root system characteristics. The cultivars that were then evaluated in the field study received one of three sustained deficit irrigation treatments: control, deficit, or drought, using a drip irrigation system in a split-plot design with three replications. Control treatments were reduced to approximately half the average recommended number of acre-inches of water per season for each crop, averaging 5.9 and 4.8 inches for summer squash and watermelon, respectively. Deficit and drought irrigation treatments were reduced 50% beyond the control during the treatment interval, which began after flowering and extended over the course of 12 weeks for the squash, and six weeks for watermelon. The deficit treatment plots received irrigations of equal frequency to the control, in half the amount, and the drought treatment plots received irrigations at half the frequency of the control, with the same volume of water as the control applied at each irrigation event. Squash were grown under rain exclusion and watermelons were grown in an open field with rainfall amounts factored into total water application calculations. Soil moisture and environmental conditions were monitored, and yield and quality measures were taken in both crops. Photosynthetic activity was also evaluated twice each season in the summer squash plot using a MultispeQ. Our results revealed that greenhouse performance was often not indicative of field performance, and that almost all squash cultivars produced acceptable levels of marketable yield under severe water deficits in the field. Watermelon cultivars produced marketable fruits in both years, but performance was inconsistent from year to year, and yield was low across all cultivars and treatments. Modern cultivars and heirlooms with reports of drought resistance, such as 'Desert King' watermelon and 'Desert F1' zucchini, did not necessarily out-perform hybrids or open-pollinated cultivars without such reports, such as 'Amiga' watermelon, and 'Jasper' and 'Dark Star' summer squash. By imposing a sustained deficit of more than 50% below recommended season-long rates, we identified five best-performing cultivars of summer squash that experience an approximate yield penalty of 30% under these conditions. The results of this study offer a prescriptive weekly method of irrigation management combined with recommendations for currently available cultivars that can be readily adopted by local, fresh-market growers to enable significant water savings without reductions in quality

Perceptions of Beginning Teachers and Mentor Teachers: Case Study of a Campus Mentor Program

Attrition of teachers is a concern for leaders in education; teacher turnover is higher in education compared to many other occupations and professions, especially in the first years on the job (Ingersoll 2003; Ingersoll & Perda, 2010). Nearly half a million teachers leave the education field every year (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2014) while the recruitment and training of teachers is costing the United States about $2 billion each year (Rizga, 2015). The high turnover places a financial burden on districts resulting in decreased resources for books, materials, and staff development of teachers; additionally, replacing teachers can disrupt the instructional process and place restraints on the education system as a whole (Portner, 2008)

Ray Casting Architectures for Volume Visualization

Real-time visualization of large volume datasets demands high performance computation, pushing the storage, processing, and data communication requirements to the limits of current technology. General purpose parallel processors have been used to visualize moderate size datasets at interactive frame rates; however, the cost and size of these supercomputers inhibits the widespread use for real-time visualization. This paper surveys several special purpose architectures that seek to render volumes at interactive rates. These specialized visualization accelerators have cost, performance, and size advantages over parallel processors. All architectures implement ray casting using parallel and pipelined hardware. We introduce a new metric that normalizes performance to compare these architectures. The architectures included in this survey are VOGUE, VIRIM, Array Based Ray Casting, EM-Cube, and VIZARD II. We also discuss future applications of special purpose accelerators.Engineering and Applied Science

Desktop video conferencing in higher education: the potential and the reality

This paper reviews some preliminary experiences of the use of Desktop Video Conferencing (DVC) within a multi-site Initial Teacher Training Institution. The limitations of asynchronous communication such as email and the potential of synchronous communications such as DVC are appraised. Examples of actual and potential DVC are described alongside the attendant benefits derived from both practical experience and research evidence. Consideration is also given to the realities of setting up DVC, such as firewall issues and resource implications including hardware and software

Differences in GlycA and lipoprotein particle parameters may help distinguish acute kawasaki disease from other febrile illnesses in children.

BackgroundGlycosylation patterns of serum proteins, such as α1-acid glycoprotein, are modified during an acute phase reaction. The response of acute Kawasaki disease (KD) patients to IVIG treatment has been linked to sialic acid levels on native IgG, suggesting that protein glycosylation patterns vary during the immune response in acute KD. Additionally, the distribution and function of lipoprotein particles are altered during inflammation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore the potential for GlycA, a marker of protein glycosylation, and the lipoprotein particle profile to distinguish pediatric patients with acute KD from those with other febrile illnesses.MethodsNuclear magnetic resonance was used to quantify GlycA and lipoprotein particle classes and subclasses in pediatric subjects with acute KD (n = 75), post-treatment subacute (n = 36) and convalescent (n = 63) KD, as well as febrile controls (n = 48), and age-similar healthy controls (n = 48).ResultsGlycA was elevated in acute KD subjects compared to febrile controls with bacterial or viral infections, IVIG-treated subacute and convalescent KD subjects, and healthy children (P <0.0001). Acute KD subjects had increased total and small low density lipoprotein particle numbers (LDL-P) (P <0.0001) and decreased total high density lipoprotein particle number (HDL-P) (P <0.0001) compared to febrile controls. Consequently, the ratio of LDL-P to HDL-P was higher in acute KD subjects than all groups tested (P <0.0001). While GlycA, CRP, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, LDL-P and LDL-P/HDL-P ratio were able to distinguish patients with KD from those with other febrile illnesses (AUC = 0.789-0.884), the combinations of GlycA and LDL-P (AUC = 0.909) or GlycA and the LDL-P/HDL-P ratio (AUC = 0.910) were best at discerning KD in patients 6-10 days after illness onset.ConclusionsHigh levels of GlycA confirm enhanced protein glycosylation as part of the acute phase response in KD patients. When combined with common laboratory tests and clinical characteristics, GlycA and NMR-measured lipoprotein particle parameters may be useful for distinguishing acute KD from bacterial or viral illnesses in pediatric patients