Speak Up or Sit Still? Using Student Voice and Service-Learning to Develop Self-Determination in High School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

Self-determined people possess the skills necessary to understand personal strengths and limitations and to engage in goal-oriented, self-regulated behavior that allows them to successfully take control of their lives (Field, Martin, Miller, Ward, & Wehmeyer, 1998). In contrast, students with emotional / behavioral disorders (E/BD) struggle to manage aggression, impulsivity, anxiety, mood swings, and other disordered thought processes (Minnesota Rule 3525.1329). One approach to helping students with E/BD become more self-determined is direct instruction in self-determination strategies. A majority of educators working with students with disabilities between the ages of 14 and 21 believe promoting self-determination would be \u27very helpful\u27 to prepare their students for success in post-school life (Wehmeyer, Agran, &. Hughes,2000, p. 63) and that self-determination may help students manage disabilities (Benrtez, Lattimore, &. Wehmeyer, 2005). However, claims of success are often drawn from teacher-led worksheet curricula inside classrooms rather than student-directed, real world applications. Student led service-learning (i.e., projects co-created and directed by students that integrate meaningful community service with academic instruction and incorporate student reflection throughout the process) may provide students with self-determination skills that generalize beyond the school setting. Under the right conditions, participants in such hands-on, relevant apprenticeships improve their self-determination attributes of goal-setting and attainment, choice-making, and internal locus of control (Muscott,2000). This study reviewed appropriate literature and employed student questionnaires, observations, and interviews to examine the value of student voice and service-learning to promote self-determination in high school students with E/BD

On the enigmatic X-ray Source V1408 Aql (=4U 1957+11)

Models for the characteristically soft X-ray spectrum of the compact X-ray source V1498 Aql (=4U 1957+11) have ranged from optically thick Comptonization to multicolor accretion disk models. We critically examine the X-ray spectrum of V1408 Aql via archival Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA) data, archival Roentgensatellit (ROSAT) data, and recent Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) data. Although we are able to fit a variety of X-ray spectral models to these data, we favor an interpretation of the X-ray spectrum as being due to an accretion disk viewed at large inclination angles. Evidence for this hypothesis includes long term (117 day, 235 day, 352 day) periodicities seen by the RXTE All Sky Monitor (ASM), which we interpret as being due to a warped precessing disk, and a 1 keV feature in the ASCA data, which we interpret as being the blend of L fluorescence features from a disk atmosphere or wind. We also present timing analysis of the RXTE data and find upper limits of 4% for the root mean square (rms) variability between f=0.001-16 Hz. The situation of whether the compact object is a black hole or neutron star is still ambiguous; however, it now seems more likely that an X-ray emitting, warped accretion disk is an important component of this system.Comment: High Frequency Power Spectrum corrected for unflagged `data dropouts' (described in Appendix) and correct upper limits for variability presented. All energy spectra and long term variability sections unchanged. Additional references and acknowledgements added. 13 pages in emulateapj.st

Is Eighty Percent of Success Just Showing Up? Student Compliance and Refusal to Complete an Advisement Form as an Indicator of First-Term GPA

Motivation and, inferentially, commitment are critical, non-cognitive factors in college success. One needs to detect and measure these attributes prior to a student's acutal enrollment in classes since early detection of at-risk students can lead to the most productive intervention initiatives. Freshmen entering into La Salle University were required to complete a form used as a basis for advising. Students complying (n=427) and not complying (n=291) with the request were compared on high school grade point average (GPA), SAT scores, and first-term college GPA. The noncompliant students had lower credentials on the admissions criteria (high school GPA, SAT) as well as on the outcome measure (first-term college GPA), although the effect sizes were small. The findings support the contention that compliance with requirements is a proxy for academic motivation and can serve as a cue to how well a student will perform

Exploring Stakeholder Value Models via Interactive Visualization

AbstractIn the design of complex systems, models can be used to predict a future system's performance as well as approximate stakeholder preferences on performance. This paper examines the problem of model truthfulness and the challenge of trusting models, with a focus on value models and how they are used to predict stakeholder preferences. A framework is proposed for the analysis of these issues (truthfulness and trust), which is used to discuss the relationship between models and decision outcomes. Interactive visualization is proposed as an efficient and effective method for increasing model truthfulness and model trust, and hence making better decisions. An interactive visualization tool is also presented, and an application of the tool to a complex decision case is discussed

The properties of extragalactic radio sources selected at 20 GHz

We present some first results on the variability, polarization and general properties of radio sources selected in a blind survey at 20 GHz, the highest frequency at which a sensitive radio survey has been carried out over a large area of sky. Sources with flux densities above 100 mJy in the AT20G Pilot Survey at declination -60 to -70 were observed at up to three epochs during 2002-4, including near-simultaneous measurements at 5, 8 and 18 GHz in 2003. Of the 173 sources detected, 65% are candidate QSOs, BL Lac objects or blazars, 20% galaxies and 15% faint (b > 22 mag) optical objects or blank fields. On a 1-2 year timescale, the general level of variability at 20 GHz appears to be low. For the 108 sources with good-quality measurements in both 2003 and 2004, the median variability index at 20 GHz was 6.9% and only five sources varied by more than 30% in flux density. Most sources in our sample show low levels of linear polarization (typically 1-5%), with a median fractional polarization of 2.3% at 20 GHz. There is a trend for fainter sources to show higher fractional polarization. At least 40% of sources selected at 20GHz have strong spectral curvature over the frequency range 1-20 GHz. We use a radio `two-colour diagram' to characterize the radio spectra of our sample, and confirm that the radio-source population at 20 GHz (which is also the foreground point-source population for CMB anisotropy experiments like WMAP and Planck) cannot be reliably predicted by extrapolating the results of surveys at lower frequencies. As a result, direct selection at 20 GHz appears to be a more efficient way of identifying 90 GHz phase calibrators for ALMA than the currently-proposed technique of extrapolation from all-sky surveys at 1-5 GHz.Comment: 14-page paper plus 5-page data table. Replaced with published versio

Human glutathione transferase T2-2 discloses some evolutionary strategies for optimization of the catalytic activity of glutathione transferases.

Steady state, pre-steady state kinetic experiments, and site-directed mutagenesis have been used to dissect the catalytic mechanism of human glutathione transferase T2-2 with 1-menaphthyl sulfate as co-substrate. This enzyme is close to the ancestral precursor of the more recently evolved glutathione transferases belonging to Alpha, Pi, and Mu classes. The enzyme displays a random kinetic mechanism with very low k(cat) and k(cat)/K(m)((GSH)) values and with a rate-limiting step identified as the product release. The chemical step, which is fast and causes product accumulation before the steady state catalysis, strictly depends on the deprotonation of the bound GSH. Replacement of Arg-107 with Ala dramatically affects the fast phase, indicating that this residue is crucial both in the activation and orientation of GSH in the ternary complex. All pre-steady state and steady state kinetic data were convincingly fit to a kinetic mechanism that reflects a quite primordial catalytic efficiency of this enzyme. It involves two slowly interconverting or not interconverting enzyme populations (or active sites of the dimeric enzyme) both able to bind and activate GSH and strongly inhibited by the product. Only one population or subunit is catalytically competent. The proposed mechanism accounts for the apparent half-site behavior of this enzyme and for the apparent negative cooperativity observed under steady state conditions. These findings also suggest some evolutionary strategies in the glutathione transferase family that have been adopted for the optimization of the catalytic activity, which are mainly based on an increased flexibility of critical protein segments and on an optimal orientation of the substrate

Catalytic mechanism and role of hydroxyl residues in the active site of theta class Glutathione-S-Transferases: Investigation of Ser-9 and Tyr-113 in a Glutathione S-Transferase from the australian sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina

Abstract Spectroscopic and kinetic studies have been performed on the Australian sheep blowfly Lucilia cuprina glutathione S-transferase (Lucilia GST; EC 2.5.1.18) to clarify its catalytic mechanism. Steady state kinetics of Lucilia GST are non-Michaelian, but the quite hyperbolic isothermic binding of GSH suggests that a steady state random sequential Bi Bi mechanism is consistent with the anomalous kinetics observed. The rate-limiting step of the reaction is a viscosity-dependent physical event, and stopped-flow experiments indicate that product release is rate-limiting. Spectroscopic and kinetic data demonstrate thatLucilia GST is able to lower the pK a of the bound GSH from 9.0 to about 6.5. Based on crystallographic suggestions, the role of two hydroxyl residues, Ser-9 and Tyr-113, has been investigated. Removal of the hydroxyl group of Ser-9 by site-directed mutagenesis raises the pK a of bound GSH to about 7.6, and a very low turnover number (about 0.5% of that of wild type) is observed. This inactivation may be explained by a strong contribution of the Ser-9 hydroxyl group to the productive binding of GSH and by an involvement in the stabilization of the ionized GSH. This serine residue is highly conserved in the Theta class GSTs, so the present findings may be applicable to all of the family members. Tyr-113 appears not to be essential for the GSH activation. Stopped-flow data indicate that removal of the hydroxyl group of Tyr-113 does not change the rate-limiting step of reaction but causes an increase of the rate constants of both the formation and release of the GSH conjugate. Tyr-113 resides on α-helix 4, and its hydroxyl group hydrogen bonds directly to the hydroxyl of Tyr-105. This would reduce the flexibility of a protein region that contributes to the electrophilic substrate binding site; segmental motion of α-helix 4 possibly modulates different aspects of the catalytic mechanism of theLucilia GST