Laboratory Analyses of Water and Shellfish from Coastal Waters and Watershed of New Hampshire, Finnigan

The Department of Health and Human Services-New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories (DHHS-NHPHL) has participated in providing laboratory analyses as part of the National Estuary Program since it’s inception in New Hampshire in 1995. The NHPHL has continued to carry out various actions dealing with the monitoring program as listed in the NH Estuaries Project Management Plan

Laboratory Analyses of Water and Shellfish from Coastal Waters and Watershed of New Hampshire

The Department of Health and Human Services-New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories (DHHS-NHPHL) has participated in providing laboratory analyses as part of the National Estuary Program since it’s inception in New Hampshire in 1995. The NHPHL has continued to carry out various actions dealing with the monitoring program as listed in the NH Estuaries Project Management Plan. Introduction: The NHPHL implemented selected actions from the NH Estuaries Project Management Plan and Year Six workplan to help address the environmental problems affecting the state’s estuarine systems

NH Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Laboratories Shellfish Program 2005

The Department of Health and Human Services-New Hampshire Public Health Laboratories (DHHS-NHPHL) has continued to carry out various actions providing laboratory analyses for the routine water quality monitoring, “Red Tide” monitoring, and additional testing after rainfall, excess sewage treatment plant, and emergency events. Also, a validation study was performed using non-EPA funds to compare results between the traditional Paralytic Shellfish Poison bioassay and a newer developed test allowed for screening use

The Townsite Formation: An Aborted Rift Setting in the Yellowknife Greenstone Belt, N.W.T.

The Townsite Formation is a felsic unit separating the Crestaurum and Yellowknife Bay Formations of the mafic dominated Kam Group. Previous workers have divided the Townsite Formation into the Niven Lake, Brock, and Vee Lake lenticles, separated by Proterozoic faults. While substantiating the general similarity of the lithologies present in these lenticles, the mapping carried out in the present study identifies felsic porphyry phases contemporaneous with gabbro sills. This is indicated by “back veining” of the gabbro by porphyry and the absence of chill margins. In both the Niven Lake and Brock lenticles, injection of quartz feldspar porphyry has produced marginal hydrothermal breccias. These breccias give way northward into vented pyroclastic rocks in the Brock and Vee Lake lenticles. Vent proximal pyroclastic facies of the Vee Lake Lenticle grade laterally into more distal facies. The pillowed dacites identified by previous workers have basaltic to andesitic composition. The intrusive quartz feldspar porphyry bodies are dacitic in composition, while associated feldspar porphyries have more intermediate composition. Breccias, formed by quartz feldspar porphyry injecting older volcanic flows have andesitic to dacitic bulk composition. Trace element patterns of the feldspar porphyry and quartz feldspar porphyry intrusive phases indicate they were formed by melting of hydrated Kam Group volcanic flows. Partial melting is consistent with experimental results on the melting of hydrous greenstones and amphibolites. Similar patterns are shown by rocks formed by wet melting of juvenile crust both in modem and ancient rifting environments. Combining detailed mapping and analytical results of this study withprevious geochronological data the Townsite Formation is reinterpreted as having formed an aborted rift some twenty million years after cessation of Kam volcanism. Since the Townsite Formation is spatially related to mineralized segments of both the Campbell and Giant shear systems, it is likely that the intrusion of quartz feldspar porphyries played a role in the genesis of these deposits: there is a “quartzfeldspar porphyry /Au” association in the Yellowknife camp

Exploring the space between: Social networks, trust, and urban school district leaders

Una serie de académicos han estudiado el contexto del distrito en el que se encuentran inmersos los centros educativos. Estos estudios sugieren la importancia de las oficinas municipales como apoyo o limitación del trabajo de los centros educativos ofreciendo estrategias para construir las relaciones entre los distritos y los líderes locales. Esta es una tarea importante y, sin embargo, frecuentemente se pasa por alto que las mejoras de los esfuerzos organizativos se construyen socialmente. Por ello, el análisis de las redes sociales y la confianza entre los líderes del distrito y de los centros educativos puede proporcionar una visión desde dentro respecto a los apoyos y limitaciones relacionados con la mejora. En este estudio de caso se utiliza una red social y datos sobre la confianza para explorar las mejores prácticas relacionadas con los líderes, en un distrito escolar de tamaño medio con bajo rendimiento. Los resultados sugieren unos lazos sociales de la red débiles, bajos niveles de confianza y una previsible relación entre la confianza y los intercambios recíprocos con las mejores prácticas relacionadas con la mejoraA number of scholars are exploring the district context in which schools are embedded. These studies suggest the importance of the district office as a support or constraint to the work of schools and offer strategies for building relations between district and site leaders. While this is an important task, what is frequently overlooked is that organizational improvement efforts are often socially constructed. Therefore, an analysis of social networks and trust between district and site leaders may provide additional insights into supports and constraints related to improvement. This case study uses social network and trust data to explore the underlying best practice relations between leaders in a midsize underperforming urban school district. Results suggest weak network ties, low levels of trust, and a predictive relationship between trust and the reciprocal exchange of best practices related to improvementEsta investigación ha sido apoyada por una financiación de la W.T. Grant Foundation (Grant, nº 10174

Improving low-performing schools through external assistance: Lessons from Chicago and California.

This article describes the design and implementation of external support to low-performing schools using data from Chicago and California. Using the literature on external support, instructional capacity, and policy strength, the study gathered data from interviews, observations, document review, and surveys. The findings suggest that the model of assistance employed in both Chicago and California was inadequate to the task. While the policies examined demonstrate recognition that low-performing schools need additional capacity if they are to substantially improve student outcomes, external support providers used limited and haphazard approaches, and as a result, the support component had little influence on teaching and learning. In addition, because the external supports relied on a market-like support structure with few other mechanisms to ensure quality, and because there was limited quantity (intensity) of support, the benefit that external assistance might otherwise have provided was limited. This was particularly problematic for the lowest capacity schools, many of which experienced limited change despite increased educator effort and involvement of external providers. In essence, external assistance through these school accountability policies did little to improve educator and organizational performance

Prototyping the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) for adult learning content creation at scale

As Large Language Models (LLMs) and other forms of Generative AI permeate various aspects of our lives, their application for learning and education has provided opportunities and challenges. This paper presents an investigation into the use of LLMs in asynchronous course creation, particularly within the context of adult learning, training and upskilling. We developed a course prototype leveraging an LLM, implementing a robust human-in-the-loop process to ensure the accuracy and clarity of the generated content. Our research questions focus on the feasibility of LLMs to produce high-quality adult learning content with reduced human involvement. Initial findings indicate that taking this approach can indeed facilitate faster content creation without compromising on accuracy or clarity, marking a promising advancement in the field of Generative AI for education. Despite some limitations, the study underscores the potential of LLMs to transform the landscape of learning and education, necessitating further research and nuanced discussions about their strategic and ethical use in learning design

“No powers, man!”: A student perspective on designing university smart building interactions

Smart buildings offer an opportunity for better performance and enhanced experience by contextualising services and interactions to the needs and practices of occupants. Yet, this vision is limited by established approaches to building management, delivered top-down through professional facilities management teams, opening up an interaction-gap between occupants and the spaces they inhabit. To address the challenge of how smart buildings might be more inclusively managed, we present the results of a qualitative study with student occupants of a smart building, with design workshops including building walks and speculative futuring. We develop new understandings of how student occupants conceptualise and evaluate spaces as they experience them, and of how building management practices might evolve with new sociotechnical systems that better leverage occupant agency. Our findings point to important directions for HCI research in this nascent area, including the need for HBI (Human-Building Interaction) design to challenge entrenched roles in building management

Design of Phase 3 Studies Evaluating Vixotrigine for Treatment of Trigeminal Neuralgia

Purpose: Vixotrigine (BIIB074) is a voltage- and use-dependent sodium channel blocker. These studies will evaluate the efficacy and safety of vixotrigine in treating pain experienced by patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) using enriched enrollment randomized withdrawal trial designs. Patients and Methods: Two double-blind randomized withdrawal studies are planned to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vixotrigine compared with placebo in participants with TN (NCT03070132 and NCT03637387). Participant criteria include ≥ 18 years old who have classical, purely paroxysmal TN diagnosed ≥ 3 months prior to study entry, who experience ≥ 3 paroxysms of pain/day. The two studies will include a screening period, 7-day run-in period, a 4- or 6-week single-dose-blind dose-optimization period (Study 1) or 4-week open-label period (Study 2), and 14-week double-blind period. Participants will receive vixotrigine 150 mg orally three times daily in the dose-optimization and open-label periods. The primary endpoint of both studies is the proportion of participants classified as responders at Week 12 of the double-blind period. Secondary endpoints include safety measures, quality of life, and evaluation of vixotrigine population pharmacokinetics. Conclusion: There is a need for an effective, well-tolerated, noninvasive treatment for the neuropathic pain associated with TN. The proposed studies will evaluate the efficacy and safety of vixotrigine in treating pain experienced by patients with TN

Field observations of canopy flows over complex terrain

The investigation of airflow over and within forests in complex terrain has been, until recently, limited to a handful of modelling and laboratory studies. Here, we present an observational dataset of airflow measurements inside and above a forest situated on a ridge on the Isle of Arran, Scotland. The spatial coverage of the observations all the way across the ridge makes this a unique dataset. Two case studies of across-ridge flow under near-neutral conditions are presented and compared with recent idealized two-dimensional modelling studies. Changes in the canopy profiles of both mean wind and turbulent quantities across the ridge are broadly consistent with these idealized studies. Flow separation over the lee slope is seen as a ubiquitous feature of the flow. The three-dimensional nature of the terrain and the heterogeneous forest canopy does however lead to significant variations in the flow separation across the ridge, particularly over the less steep western slope. Furthermore, strong directional shear with height in regions of flow separation has a significant impact on the Reynolds stress terms and other turbulent statistics. Also observed is a decrease in the variability of the wind speed over the summit and lee slope, which has not been seen in previous studies. This dataset should provide a valuable resource for validating models of canopy flow over real, complex terrain