208 research outputs found
Assessing and monitoring student progress in e-learning environments
E-learning has emerged as a form of pedagogy and as a delivery system with broad
implications for meeting personnel needs nationally in special education. At present, it is important
to make investments in research and development to ensure that this new pedagogy becomes fully
developed and is appropriately applied. Assessment and monitoring of student progress in e-learning
environments is an important element of this new form of pedagogy that requires research attention
to maximize the effectiveness of e-learning when applied to teacher education. The authors draw upon
their personal online teaching experience in addressing strategies for assessing student performance and
using electronic portfolios in e-learning environments, both presented as integral aspects of e-learning
instructional process. Perspectives from the literature and lessons learned from the authorsâ own experience are shared.peerreviewe
The effect of limbic damage on the retention and performance of a runway response
Rats were trained to run a linear runway while hungry for food. Then they were tested for retention, continued performance levels, and extinction after recovery from bilateral damage of the hippocampus, the septal area, or the posterolateral neocortex. Retention losses were observed in animals which had hippocampal or neocortical destruction. Slower running speeds were found in animals with hippocampal destruction, while the running speeds of animals with septal area damage increased. Animals with hippocampal destruction and with septal area damage showed greater resistance to extinction than other groups of animals.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33433/1/0000835.pd
Three Super-Earths Orbiting HD 7924
We report the discovery of two super-Earth mass planets orbiting the nearby
K0.5 dwarf HD 7924 which was previously known to host one small planet. The new
companions have masses of 7.9 and 6.4 M, and orbital periods of 15.3
and 24.5 days. We perform a joint analysis of high-precision radial velocity
data from Keck/HIRES and the new Automated Planet Finder Telescope (APF) to
robustly detect three total planets in the system. We refine the ephemeris of
the previously known planet using five years of new Keck data and high-cadence
observations over the last 1.3 years with the APF. With this new ephemeris, we
show that a previous transit search for the inner-most planet would have
covered 70% of the predicted ingress or egress times. Photometric data
collected over the last eight years using the Automated Photometric Telescope
shows no evidence for transits of any of the planets, which would be detectable
if the planets transit and their compositions are hydrogen-dominated. We detect
a long-period signal that we interpret as the stellar magnetic activity cycle
since it is strongly correlated with the Ca II H and K activity index. We also
detect two additional short-period signals that we attribute to
rotationally-modulated starspots and a one month alias. The high-cadence APF
data help to distinguish between the true orbital periods and aliases caused by
the window function of the Keck data. The planets orbiting HD 7924 are a local
example of the compact, multi-planet systems that the Kepler Mission found in
great abundance.Comment: Accepted to ApJ on 4/7/201
Comparison of Type II Endoleak Embolizations: Embolization of Endoleak Nidus Only versus Embolization of Endoleak Nidus and Branch Vessels
AbstractPurposeTo compare outcomes of type II endoleak embolization involving embolization of the endoleak nidus only vs embolization of the endoleak nidus and branch vessels in patients treated with endovascular repair of abdominal aortic aneurysms.Materials and MethodsTwenty-nine consecutive patients (mean age, 77.9 y; range, 63â88 y) with type II endoleak who underwent embolization from 2004 to 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were divided into 2 groups: embolization of endoleak nidus only (group A) and embolization of endoleak nidus and branch vessels (group B). Mean follow-up intervals were 20.5 months ± 14.7 in group A and 24.3 months ± 18.5 in group B. Outcomes were compared between groups by MannâWhitney U and Pearson Ï2 tests.ResultsMean interval from endovascular aneurysm repair to embolization was 47.6 months ± 42.9, and mean presentation time of endoleak before embolization was 23.1 months ± 25.8. Coils (n = 28) and liquid embolic agents (n = 23) were used for embolization. There were no significant differences in rates of residual endoleak (50% vs 53.8%; P = .96) or sac decrease/stabilization (62.5% vs 61.5%; P = .64). Procedure time and radiation exposure in group B (132.3 min ± 78.1; 232.4 Gy·cm2 ± 130.7) were greater than in group A (63.4 min ± 11.9; 61.5 Gy·cm2 ± 35.5; P < .01). There were no procedure-related complications.ConclusionsEmbolization of the endoleak nidus and branch vessels is not superior to embolization of only the nidus in terms of occlusion of type II endoleak and change in sac size despite requiring longer procedure times and resulting in greater patient radiation exposure
Some effects of hippocampal lesions on the behavior of mongolian gerbils
Adult male gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) were subjected to one of three surgical procedures: aspiration of the hippocampus and overlying cortex, aspiration of the cortex overlying the hippocampus alone, or a sham operation. Hippocampal lesions increased the frequency of certain home cage behavior patterns (locomotion, rearing, sniffing and drinking), decreased the frequency of other patterns (sleeping/lying and shredding of nest materials) and left unchanged a third set of measures (alert inactivity, grooming and burrowing). In those cases where increments in occurrence of a given behavior were observed, there were lesion-induced shifts in frequency of initiation of certain behavior patterns (locomotion and sniffing) rather than in the duration of those patterns. This finding argues against a simple perservation view of the increment in frequency of these patterns. Lesion effects on reactivity to novel stimulation varied with the test procedure. Locomotor activity in an open field was enhanced, manipulatory and biting contacts with novel stimulus objects were reduced, and social reactions to unfamiliar visitor gerbils were relatively unaffected.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32726/1/0000094.pd
The Energy-Momentum Tensor for Cosmological Perturbations
We study the effective energy-momentum tensor (EMT) for cosmological
perturbations and formulate the gravitational back-reaction problem in a gauge
invariant manner. We analyze the explicit expressions for the EMT in the cases
of scalar metric fluctuations and of gravitational waves and derive the
resulting equations of state. The formalism is applied to investigate the
back-reaction effects in chaotic inflation. We find that for long wavelength
scalar and tensor perturbations, the effective energy density is negative and
thus counteracts any pre-existing cosmological constant. For scalar
perturbations during an epoch of inflation, the equation of state is de
Sitter-like.Comment: 29 pages, LaTex; to appear in Phys. Rev.
HAT-P-50b, HAT-P-51b, HAT-P-52b, and HAT-P-53b: Three Transiting Hot Jupiters and a Transiting Hot Saturn From the HATNet Survey
We report the discovery and characterization of four transiting exoplanets by
the HATNet survey. The planet HAT-P-50b has a mass of 1.35 M_J and a radius of
1.29 R_J, and orbits a bright (V = 11.8 mag) M = 1.27 M_sun, R = 1.70 R_sun
star every P = 3.1220 days. The planet HAT-P-51b has a mass of 0.31 M_J and a
radius of 1.29 R_J, and orbits a V = 13.4 mag, M = 0.98 M_sun, R = 1.04 R_sun
star with a period of P = 4.2180 days. The planet HAT-P-52b has a mass of 0.82
M_J and a radius of 1.01 R_J, and orbits a V = 14.1 mag, M = 0.89 M_sun, R =
0.89 R_sun star with a period of P = 2.7536 days. The planet HAT-P-53b has a
mass of 1.48 M_J and a radius of 1.32 R_J, and orbits a V = 13.7 mag, M = 1.09
M_sun, R = 1.21 R_sun star with a period of P = 1.9616 days. All four planets
are consistent with having circular orbits and have masses and radii measured
to better than 10% precision. The low stellar jitter and favorable R_P/R_star
ratio for HAT-P-51 make it a promising target for measuring the
Rossiter-McLaughlin effect for a Saturn-mass planet.Comment: Submitted to AJ. 20 pages, 9 figures, 5 tables. Data available at
http://hatnet.org
KELT-11b: A Highly Inflated Sub-Saturn Exoplanet Transiting the V=8 Subgiant HD 93396
We report the discovery of a transiting exoplanet, KELT-11b, orbiting the
bright () subgiant HD 93396. A global analysis of the system shows that
the host star is an evolved subgiant star with K,
, , log , and [Fe/H].
The planet is a low-mass gas giant in a day orbit,
with , , g cm, surface gravity log , and equilibrium temperature K. KELT-11 is the brightest known transiting exoplanet host
in the southern hemisphere by more than a magnitude, and is the 6th brightest
transit host to date. The planet is one of the most inflated planets known,
with an exceptionally large atmospheric scale height (2763 km), and an
associated size of the expected atmospheric transmission signal of 5.6%. These
attributes make the KELT-11 system a valuable target for follow-up and
atmospheric characterization, and it promises to become one of the benchmark
systems for the study of inflated exoplanets.Comment: 15 pages, Submitted to AAS Journal
Understanding the Impacts of Stellar Companions on Planet Formation and Evolution: A Survey of Stellar and Planetary Companions within 25 pc
We explore the impact of outer stellar companions on the occurrence rate of giant planets detected with radial velocities. We searched for stellar and planetary companions to a volume-limited sample of solar-type stars within 25 pc. Using adaptive optics imaging observations from the Lick 3 m and Palomar 200" Telescopes, we characterized the multiplicity of our sample stars, down to the bottom of the main sequence. With these data, we confirm field star multiplicity statistics from previous surveys. We additionally combined three decades of radial velocity (RV) data from the California Planet Search with newly collected RV data from Keck/HIRES and the Automated Planet Finder/Levy Spectrometer to search for planetary companions in these same systems. Using an updated catalog of both stellar and planetary companions, as well as detailed injection/recovery tests to determine our sensitivity and completeness, we measured the occurrence rate of planets among the single- and multiple-star systems. We found that planets with masses in the range of 0.1â10 M_J and with semimajor axes of 0.1â10 au have an occurrence rate of 0.18^(+0.04)_(â0.03) planets per star when they orbit single stars and an occurrence rate of 0.12 ± 0.04 planets per star when they orbit a star in a binary system. Breaking the sample down by the binary separation, we found that only one planet-hosting binary system had a binary separation 100 au and 0.04^(+0.04)_(â0.02) planets per star for binaries with separation a_B 100 au. Finally, we found evidence that giant planets in binary systems have a different semimajor-axis distribution than their counterparts in single-star systems. The planets in the single-star sample had a significantly higher occurrence rate outside of 1 au than inside 1 au by nearly 4Ï, in line with expectations that giant planets are most common near the snow line. However, the planets in the wide binary systems did not follow this distribution, but rather had equivalent occurrence rates interior and exterior to 1 au. This may point to binary-mediated planet migration acting on our sample, even in binaries wider than 100 au
A Green Function for Metric Perturbations due to Cosmological Density Fluctuations
We study scalar perturbations to a Robertson-Walker cosmological metric in
terms of a pseudo-Newtonian potential, which emerges naturally from the
solution of the field equations. This potential is given in terms of a Green
function for matter density fluctuations of arbitrary amplitude whose time and
spatial dependence are assumed known. The results obtained span both the
linearized and Newtonian limits, and do not explicitly depend on any kind of
averaging procedure, but make the valid assumption that the global expansion
rate is that of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model. In addition, we discuss the
similarity to diffusive processes in the evolution of the potential, and
possible applications.Comment: 19 pages, REVTeX. SU-ITP-9233, submitted to Physical Review
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