New and Developing Research on Disparities in Discipline

This briefing paper describes the results of new research in the area of disciplinary disparities, and identifies remaining gaps in the literature that can guide researchers and funders of research. The brief is organized into two sections:1) What Have we Learned? Key New Research Findings describes research from leading scholars across the nation commissioned by The Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA's Civil Rights Project with the support of the Collaborative, findings from projects supported by the Collaborative Funded Research Grant Program, and other new research on disproportionality in school discipline in the peer-reviewed literature.2) Future Research Needs describes gaps that remain in the research base. Although there has been considerable new knowledge generated in recent years, significant gaps remain, especially in identifying and evaluating intervention strategies that reduce inequity in discipline for all students

Ecological relationships between marine microorganisms and hydrocarbons in the OEI study area, Louisiana

Supported by Gulf Universities Research Consortium, Project #OE73HJMCataloged from imperfect copy: all after leaf 20 wantingSeven cruise projects were conducted in association with the Louisiana Offshore Ecological Investigation (OEI) to determine the relationships between microorganisms and hydrocarbons in surface waters. Techniques were developed to take surface samples and to determine bacterial numbers, hydrocarbon content, and the response of indigenous microorganisms to various added hydrocarbon molecules. The numbers of heterotrophic bacteria as determined by dilution techniques varied from 10 to 10,000 per ml. The hydrocarbon oxidizing organisms varied from 10 to 100,000 per liter with maxima in the month of January. Hydrocarbon concentrations varied from 0.03 to 0.6 micrograms per liter. There was no correlation between the numbers of oil degraders and hydrocarbon concentration found. This may be the result of the in situ low concentrations of hydrocarbons which would limit microbial response. The numbers of bacteria and hydrocarbons were similar to control areas in the eastern and western parts of the Gulf. BOD experiments conducted to measure the response of the microorganisms to various low and high molecular weight paraffinic and aromatic hydrocarbons indicated that all hydrocarbons were oxidized by some of the mixed indigenous microorganisms. These data suggest that an adequate inoculum was naturally present to respond to oil contamination in nature. The high numbers of hydrocarbon oxidizing microorganisms associated with January hydrographic data may indicate that the upland leaching and other contamination of hydrocarbons in the Mississippi River produce the noted microbial response for that month. The dominant saturated hydrocarbons and isoprenoids ranged from C-15 to C-41. Water from Timbalier Bay generally contained higher concentrations than offshore samples and exhibited a more pronounced odd-even preference in the range C-24 to C-33. GC-MS analysis of the dominant paraffins revealed a characteristic biomodal distribution dominated by C-17 and pristane and C-25 to C-35 with an unresolved envelope. No buildup of specific n-paraffin molecules was found, which data corresponded to BOD results of added hydrocarbons to indigenous microflora.Marine Scienc

Flat-top oscillons in an expanding universe

Oscillons are extremely long lived, oscillatory, spatially localized field configurations that arise from generic initial conditions in a large number of non-linear field theories. With an eye towards their cosmological implications, we investigate their properties in an expanding universe. We (1) provide an analytic solution for one dimensional oscillons (for the models under consideration) and discuss their generalization to 3 dimensions, (2) discuss their stability against long wavelength perturbations and (3) estimate the effects of expansion on their shapes and life-times. In particular, we discuss a new, extended class of oscillons with surprisingly flat tops. We show that these flat topped oscillons are more robust against collapse instabilities in (3+1) dimensions than their usual counterparts. Unlike the solutions found in the small amplitude analysis, the width of these configurations is a non-monotonic function of their amplitudes.Comment: v2-matches version published in Phys. Rev D. Updated references and minor modification to section 4.

Sinuosity and the affect grid: A method for adjusting repeated mood scores

Copyright @ 2012 Ammons Scientific. The article can be accessed from the links below.This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Sinuosity is a measure of how much a travelled pathway deviates from a straight line. In this paper, sinuosity is applied to the measurement of mood. The Affect Grid is a mood scale that requires participants to place a mark on a 9 x 9 grid to indicate their current mood. The grid has two dimensions: pleasure-displeasure (horizontal) and arousal-sleepiness (vertical). In studies where repeated measurements are required, some participants may exaggerate their mood shifts due to faulty interpretation of the scale or a feeling of social obligation to the experimenter. A new equation is proposed, based on the sinuosity measure in hydrology, a measure of the meandering of rivers. The equation takes into account an individual's presumed tendency to exaggerate and meander to correct the score and reduce outliers. The usefulness of the equation is demonstrated by applying it to Affect Grid data from another study.This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

CHAP Enhances Versatility in Colloidal Probe Fabrication

A colloidal probe, comprising a colloidal particle attached to an atomic force microscope cantilever, is employed to measure directly interaction forces between the particle and a surface. It is possible to change or even destroy a particle while attaching it to a cantilever, thus limiting the types of systems to which the colloidal probe technique may be applied. Here we present the Controlled Heating and Alignment Platform (CHAP) for fabricating colloidal probes without altering the original characteristics of the attached particle. The CHAP applies heat directly to the atomic force microscope chip to rapidly and precisely control cantilever temperature. This minimizes particle heating and enables control over the viscosity of thermoplastic adhesive, to prevent it from contaminating the particle surface. 3D-printed components made the CHAP compatible with standard optical microscopes and streamlined the fabrication process while increasing the platforms versatility. Using the CHAP with a thermoplastic wax adhesive, colloidal probes were fabricated using polystyrene and silica particles between 0.7 and 40 m in diameter. We characterized the properties and interactions of the adhesive and particles, as well as the properties of the completed probes, to demonstrate the retention of particle features throughout fabrication. Pull-off tests with CHAPs probes measured adhesive force values in the expected ranges and demonstrated that particles were firmly attached to the cantilevers

Events leading up to the June 2015 outburst of V404 Cyg

On 2015 June 15 the burst alert telescope (BAT) on board {\em Swift} detected an X-ray outburst from the black hole transient V404 Cyg. We monitored V404 Cyg for the last 10 years with the 2-m Faulkes Telescope North in three optical bands (V, R, and i$^{'}$). We found that, one week prior to this outburst, the optical flux was 0.1--0.3 mag brighter than the quiescent orbital modulation, implying an optical precursor to the X-ray outburst. There is also a hint of a gradual optical decay (years) followed by a rise lasting two months prior to the outburst. We fortuitously obtained an optical spectrum of V404 Cyg 13 hours before the BAT trigger. This too was brighter ($\sim1\rm\,mag$) than quiescence, and showed spectral lines typical of an accretion disk, with characteristic absorption features of the donor being much weaker. No He II emission was detected, which would have been expected had the X-ray flux been substantially brightening. This, combined with the presence of intense H$\alpha$ emission, about 7 times the quiescent level, suggests that the disk entered the hot, outburst state before the X-ray outburst began. We propose that the outburst is produced by a viscous-thermal instability triggered close to the inner edge of a truncated disk. An X-ray delay of a week is consistent with the time needed to refill the inner region and hence move the inner edge of the disk inwards, allowing matter to reach the central BH, finally turning on the X-ray emission.Comment: Accepted by ApJ Letter, 7 pages, 5 figure

Comment on "Control landscapes are almost always trap free: a geometric assessment"

We analyze a recent claim that almost all closed, finite dimensional quantum systems have trap-free (i.e., free from local optima) landscapes (B. Russell et.al. J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 50, 205302 (2017)). We point out several errors in the proof which compromise the authors' conclusion. Interested readers are highly encouraged to take a look at the "rebuttal" (see Ref. [1]) of this comment published by the authors of the criticized work. This "rebuttal" is a showcase of the way the erroneous and misleading statements under discussion will be wrapped up and injected in their future works, such as R. L. Kosut et.al, arXiv:1810.04362 [quant-ph] (2018).Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur

Boundary-detection algorithm for locating edges in digital imagery

The author has identified the following significant results. Initial development of a computer program which implements a boundary detection algorithm to detect edges in digital images is described. An evaluation of the boundary detection algorithm was conducted to locate boundaries of lakes from LANDSAT-1 imagery. The accuracy of the boundary detection algorithm was determined by comparing the area within boundaries of lakes located using digitized LANDSAT imagery with the area of the same lakes planimetered from imagery collected from an aircraft platform

Soil moisture and evapotranspiration predictions using Skylab data

The author has identified the following significant results. Multispectral reflectance and emittance data from the Skylab workshop were evaluated for prediction of evapotranspiration and soil moisture for an irrigated region of southern Texas. Wavelengths greater than 2.1 microns were required to spectrally distinguish between wet and dry fallow surfaces. Thermal data provided a better estimate of soil moisture than did data from the reflective bands. Thermal data were dependent on soil moisture but not on the type of agricultural land use. The emittance map, when used in conjunction with existing models, did provide an estimate of evapotranspiration rates. Surveys of areas of high soil moisture can be accomplished with space altitude thermal data. Thermal data will provide a reliable input into irrigation scheduling