Teaching visual literacy in the secondary English/language arts classroom: an exploration of teachers’ attitudes, understanding and application

Doctor of PhilosophyCurriculum and Instruction ProgramsF. Todd GoodsonWith changes in technology over the past decades, literacy now requires receiving and transmitting information using various, multiple media. Recognizing the need for students to be literate in more the traditional areas of reading and writing, professional organizations and states have set standards for English/language arts related to non-print literacy, including visual literacy. Yet, it has been unclear how secondary English/language arts teachers feel about the mandate to teach non-print literacy, if they understand what is expected of them in teaching non-print literacy, and if they indeed are teaching concepts related to comprehension and production of information in non-text format. This study attempts to discover teachers’ attitudes toward, understanding of, and use of visual literacy concepts through a survey of secondary English/language arts teachers in three counties in central Kansas. Based on the information from the responses to the survey, secondary English/language arts teachers in central Kansas have received little formal training in teaching visual literacy and that their informal training consists mainly of discussions with colleagues and independent study. Because they have received little training, most respondents see teaching visual literacy as secondary to teaching traditional literacy rather than as an integral part of such instruction. The state of Kansas has several standards relating to teaching non-print text. Yet, the emphasis on state and national tests is on print text. As a result, secondary English/language teachers surveyed know little about what it means to teach visual literacy. Training in how to incorporate visual literacy instruction with traditional literacy instruction, how to set outcomes for visual literacy and how to assess those outcomes are necessary if standards related to non-print text are to be addressed in secondary English/language arts classes across the state. While English/language arts pursue training in visual literacy on their own, teachers-preparatory institutions and public school systems also have a responsibility to see that English/language arts teachers know how to help their students become literate, not only in traditional literacies but also in non-traditional literacies such as visual literacy

Audit of parenteral nutrition: standard parenteral nutrition regimens -feast or famine?

Background: Adequate nutrition of patients at a surgical unit is of great importance since both over- and undernutrition can lead to serious morbidity and even mortality. Surgical patients are frequently unable to meet nutritional needs by the enteral route and the use of SPN regimens is a common practice. Compared with patient-specific prescriptions, SPN solutions require fewer nutritional calculations, are less expensive, more convenient and offer greater biochemical stability. However, the accuracy and consistency with which these regimens meet patients??? nutritional requirements remain unclear and are undefined in the literature. To examine whether patients at a surgical unit are adequately fed with SPN regimens, 13 surgical patients were prospectively followed- up and a comparison was made between the nutrients prescribed with the SPN solutions and the nutrients calculated individually for each patient. Mat erial and Methods: The exact amounts of macronutrients calculated and prescribed with the SPN regimens were collected. To calculate individualised nutritional requirement the Schofield equation was used with adjustment for activity and stress. Elia???s recommendation was used for protein requirements. Fat/carbohydrate calories were calculated. Anthropometry was used to estimate patients??? nutritional status. Prescribed and calculated energy, nitrogen, fat and carbohydrate were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank tests. Spearman???s rho correlations were calculated. Results : Statistically significant difference was found between fat (sig.=0,001), carbohydrate (sig.=0,05) and energy (sig.=0,03) provided by SPN regimens and the ones calculated. No statistically significant difference was found between delivered and calculated nitrogen. ConclusionS: For short-term feeding, the potential benefits of SPN regimens may outweigh the risks associated with carbohydrate deficit and fat and energy excess. However, for longer-term feeding these risks may become clinically significant. Some improvement of the quality of feeding can be established by calculating nutritional requirements and by assessing the patients??? nutritional status before commencing PN

A high efficiency, low background detector for measuring pair-decay branches in nuclear decay

We describe a high efficiency detector for measuring electron-positron pair transitions in nuclei. The device was built to be insensitive to gamma rays and to accommodate high overall event rates. The design was optimized for total pair kinetic energies up to about 7 MeV.Comment: Accepted for publication by Nucl. Inst. & Meth. in Phys. Res. A (NIM A

Friedmann-like equations for High Energy Area of Universe

In this paper, evolution of the high energy area of universe, through the scenario of 5 dimensional (5D) universe, has been studied. For this purpose, we solve Einstein equations for 5D metric and 5D perfect fuid to derive Friedmann-like equations. Then we obtain the evolution of scale factor and energy density with respect to both space-like and time-like extra dimensions. We obtain the novel equations for the space-like extra dimension and show that the matter with zero pressure cannot exist in the bulk. Also, for dark energy fuid and vacuum fluid, we have both accelerated expansion and contraction in the bulk.Comment: 9 pages, Accepted to publication in IJTP 26 June 2012. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1202.497

Association of HLA types A1-B8-DR3 and B27 with rapid and slow progression of HIV disease

We examined how HLA types A1-B8-DR3 and B27 were related to progression of clinical disease and rate of loss of CD4 lymphocytes in the Edinburgh City Hospital cohort of HIV-positive patients, mainly injection drug users. Patients (n = 692) were prospectively followed from 1985 through March 1994. Accurately estimated seroconversion times were determined retrospectively for a subgroup of 313 (45%). Of 262 patients (39%) who were fully or partially HLA typed, 155 (50%) had known seroconversions. Of 34 patients typed positive for A1-B8-DR3, 29 progressed to CDC stage IV, 22 to AIDS and 20 died. Twelve patients were typed positive for B27; six of these progressed to CDC stage IV, one to AIDS and none died. In a proportional hazards analysis of the 313 patients with known seroconversions, A1-B8-DR3 was significantly associated with covariate-adjusted relative risks of 3.7 (95% CI 1.9-7.2), 3.1 (1.6-6.0) and 1.9 (1.1-3.2) for progression from seroconversion to death, AIDS and CDC stage IV, respectively. Events for B27 were too rare to include B27 in analyses to death and AIDS, but B27 was significantly associated with slower progression to CDC stage IV (0.3, CI 0.1-0.9). Random effects growth curve models were used to estimate individual rates of loss of square root CD4 count and loss of CD4 percentage, for 603 and 617 patients, respectively. A1-B8-DR3 was associated with rapid loss of both markers (p=0.02 and p = 0.01, respectively); B27 was associated with slow loss of both markers (p=0.04 and p<0.005

Elastic π+p\pi^{+}p and π+π+\pi^{+}\pi^{+} scattering at LHC

We discuss the possibility of measuring leading neutron production at the LHC. These data could be used to extract from it $\pi^+ p$ and $\pi^+\pi^+$ cross-sections. In this note we give some estimates for the case of elastic cross-sections and discuss related problems and prospects.Comment: 26 pages, 25 figures, to be published, minor text correction

Exponential Metric Fields

The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) mission will use advanced technologies to achieve its science goals: the direct detection of gravitational waves, the observation of signals from compact (small and dense) stars as they spiral into black holes, the study of the role of massive black holes in galaxy evolution, the search for gravitational wave emission from the early Universe. The gravitational red-shift, the advance of the perihelion of Mercury, deflection of light and the time delay of radar signals are the classical tests in the first order of General Relativity (GR). However, LISA can possibly test Einstein's theories in the second order and perhaps, it will show some particular feature of non-linearity of gravitational interaction. In the present work we are seeking a method to construct theoretical templates that limit in the first order the tensorial structure of some metric fields, thus the non-linear terms are given by exponential functions of gravitational strength. The Newtonian limit obtained here, in the first order, is equivalent to GR.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science, 17 page

Application of Time Transfer Function to McVittie Spacetime: Gravitational Time Delay and Secular Increase in Astronomical Unit

We attempt to calculate the gravitational time delay in a time-dependent gravitational field, especially in McVittie spacetime, which can be considered as the spacetime around a gravitating body such as the Sun, embedded in the FLRW (Friedmann-Lema\^itre-Robertson-Walker) cosmological background metric. To this end, we adopt the time transfer function method proposed by Le Poncin-Lafitte {\it et al.} (Class. Quant. Grav. 21:4463, 2004) and Teyssandier and Le Poncin-Lafitte (Class. Quant. Grav. 25:145020, 2008), which is originally related to Synge's world function $\Omega(x_A, x_B)$ and enables to circumvent the integration of the null geodesic equation. We re-examine the global cosmological effect on light propagation in the solar system. The round-trip time of a light ray/signal is given by the functions of not only the spacial coordinates but also the emission time or reception time of light ray/signal, which characterize the time-dependency of solutions. We also apply the obtained results to the secular increase in the astronomical unit, reported by Krasinsky and Brumberg (Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron. 90:267, 2004), and we show that the leading order terms of the time-dependent component due to cosmological expansion is 9 orders of magnitude smaller than the observed value of $d{\rm AU}/dt$, i.e., $15 \pm 4$ ~[m/century]. Therefore, it is not possible to explain the secular increase in the astronomical unit in terms of cosmological expansion.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in General Relativity and Gravitatio

Calcium and magnesium supplementation of ewes grazing pasture did not improve lamb survival

Context: Clinical deficiencies of calcium and magnesium may result in the metabolic disorders hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia, resulting in ewe and lamb mortality. However, the contribution of subclinical deficiencies to perinatal lamb mortality in grazing flocks is unclear. Aims: To test the hypothesis that calcium and magnesium supplementation during the lambing period would increase lamb survival to marking age. Methods: In 2017, an on-farm study used five flocks across New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. On each farm, twin-bearing mature Merino ewes (n = 400–600) grazing pasture were allocated to two replicates of control and supplemented treatments. The supplemented groups were offered 30 g/ewe per day of a loose lick containing magnesium chloride (MgCl2(H2O)6), calcium sulfate (CaSO4·(H2O)2, and salt (NaCl), in the ratio 12.5:32.5:55.0, designed to have a low dietary cation–anion difference (−390 meq/100 g). A second study was conducted in 2018 on one farm to test the form of supplement. This study used two replicates of three treatments: control; a low-dietary cation–anion difference supplement as used in 2017; and a standard lime, Causmag (calcined MgO) and salt loose mix (ratio 1:1:1). Mature twin-bearing composite ewes (n = 600) were allocated to groups and those supplemented were offered minerals for the last month of pregnancy and during the lambing period. Blood and urine samples were collected in both experiments for analyses of mineral concentrations. Key results: In the 2017 study, only two flocks consumed >10 g/ewe of supplement per day, and supplementation did not increase lamb survival to marking age in these flocks. In the 2018 study, the mean consumption of supplement was 18 or 20 g/ewe per day. Of non-supplemented ewes, 61% were deficient in plasma calcium (≤90 mg/L) and 17% were deficient in magnesium (≤18 mg/L) at Day 140 after the start of joining. Lamb survival was not increased by supplementation and was 77 ± 3.8% in both treatments. Conclusions: Calcium and magnesium supplementation did not increase lamb survival. Implications: Lamb survival was not increased by calcium and magnesium supplementation; however, evaluation under a wider range of grazing conditions with adequate supplement intake is required

Bulk Scale Factor at Very Early Universe

In this paper we propose a higher dimensional Cosmology based on FRW model and brane-world scenario. We consider the warp factor in the brane-world scenario as a scale factor in 5-dimensional generalized FRW metric, which is called as bulk scale factor, and obtain the evolution of it with space-like and time-like extra dimensions. It is then showed that, additional space-like dimensions can produce exponentially bulk scale factor under repulsive strong gravitational force in the empty universe at a very early stage.Comment: 7 pages, October 201