Voices Echoing The Past: \u27I Decided To Do Teaching Because of the Teacher That I Had.\u27 Thirteen Female Secondary Entry-Level Teachers Candidates Teaching Not Only What But Also How They Were Taught

This paper reports on a study that sought to uncover and explore the beliefs female secondary pre-service teachers held about teaching and being the teacher as they entered into their teacher education programs. The results indicated that for the participating teacher candidates it was their prior teachers in their intended subject who most informed how they saw themselves in the role as the teacher. Specifically, those secondary teachers who sought critical thinking in them as students impacted upon this teacher-role identity the most. Implications highlight the lack of research on females in secondary education and the importance in-service teachers play in shaping those who may or may not become the teachers of tomorrow

Putting ‘Maori’ in the Mainstream: Student Teachers\u27 Reflections of a Culturally Relevant Pedogogy

This paper reports on student teachers experiences of an education program that was explicitly designed to be grounded in both Kaupapa Māori and mainstream pedagogy. This program started from the Kaupapa Māori view to be Māori as Māori. This was then supported by mainstream epistemology of New Zealand focused good teaching practice. A Kaupapa Māori approach was taken in this qualitative study that used participant driven spiral discourse. The paper suggests that this combined Kaupapa Māori and mainstream approach allowed these student teachers to find their place in education. Conclusions suggest that a culturally relevant pedagogy modeled as good teaching practice was needed for these student teachers to develop an understanding of not only how learning occurs but also how their teaching relates to learning

Teacher Coginition: The effects of prior experience on becoming a teacher

Teachers are unique when compared to most other professionals, as pre-service teachers spend more than a decade observing teachers in practice before entering their own professional training. This study investigated teacher candidates at the earliest point of their teacher training, entry into a teacher certification program, at the University of Sydney and University of Auckland in 2005. Specifically, this study sought to address how prior experiences informed the teacher role identity of male primary, female secondary and non-traditional student teachers. These three teacher candidate groups emerged from a previous study (Sexton, 2002) which explored post-graduate teacher candidates’ beliefs with the most vivid and articulate prior experiences. The study used a mixed-model research design to explore the research question, How do pre-service teacher candidates interpret prior teacher experiences as to the type of teacher they do and do not want to become? 354 entry-level teacher candidates were surveyed using both closed item and open-ended responses. From these participants, 35 were then interviewed before their course commencement and then again after their first teaching practicum. The study showed that there were differences as to how prior teachers informed the teacher role identity of entry-level student teachers. Male primary candidates were more influenced by their positive primary experiences of role model teachers. Female secondary participants remembered those secondary teachers who encouraged the development of critical thinking and they now wish to emulate this in their practice. Non-traditional student teachers remembered a wider range of educational experiences and entered into their teaching program to make a difference in both their and their students’ lives. The study highlights how in-service teachers play an important role in not only who will become teachers but also what subjects and school level future teachers will teach

Effects of Explosions on the Ear

n/

Chiral Dirac fermions on the lattice using Geometric Discretisation

A new approach to the problem of doubling is presented with the Dirac-Kahler (DK) theory as a starting point and using Geometric Discretisation providing us with a new way of extracting the Dirac field in the discrete setting of a hyper-cubic complex.Comment: Lattice2003(Chiral), 3 page

Serum opsonin ficolin-A enhances host-fungal interactions and modulates cytokine expression from human monocyte-derived macrophages and neutrophils following Aspergillus fumigatus challenge.

Invasive aspergillosis is a devastating invasive fungal disease associated with a high mortality rate in the immunocompromised, such as leukaemia patients, transplant patients and those with HIV/AIDS. The rodent serum orthologue of human L-ficolin, ficolin-A, can bind to and opsonize Aspergillus fumigatus, the pathogen that causes invasive aspergillosis, and may participate in fungal defence. Using human monocyte-derived macrophages and neutrophils isolated from healthy donors, we investigated conidial association and fungal viability by flow cytometry and microscopy. Additionally, cytokine production was measured via cytometric bead arrays. Ficolin-A opsonization was observed to significantly enhance association of conidia, while also inhibiting hyphal growth and contributing to increased fungal killing following incubation with monocyte-derived macrophages and neutrophils. Additionally, ficolin-A opsonization was capable of manifesting a decrease in IL-8, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α production from MDM and IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α from neutrophils 24 h post-infection. In conclusion, rodent ficolin-A is functionally comparable to human L-ficolin and is capable of modulating the innate immune response to A. fumigatus, down-regulating cytokine production and could play an important role in airway immunity

Numerical Evidence for the Observation of a Scalar Glueball

We compute from lattice QCD in the valence (quenched) approximation the partial decay widths of the lightest scalar glueball to pairs of pseudoscalar quark-antiquark states. These predictions and values obtained earlier for the scalar glueball's mass are in good agreement with the observed properties of $f_J(1710)$ and inconsistent with all other observed meson resonances.Comment: 12 pages of Latex, 3 PostsScript figures as separate uufil

Symbiont 'bleaching' in planktic foraminifera during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum

Many genera of modern planktic foraminifera are adapted to nutrient-poor (oligotrophic) surface waters by hosting photosynthetic symbionts, but it is unknown how they will respond to future changes in ocean temperature and acidity. Here we show that ca. 40 Ma, some fossil photosymbiont-bearing planktic foraminifera were temporarily 'bleached' of their symbionts coincident with transient global warming during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO). At Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 748 and 1051 (Southern Ocean and mid-latitude North Atlantic, respectively), the typically positive relationship between the size of photosymbiont-bearing planktic foraminifer tests and their carbon isotope ratios (δ13C) was temporarily reduced for ∼100 k.y. during the peak of the MECO. At the same time, the typically photosymbiont-bearing planktic foraminifera Acarinina suffered transient reductions in test size and relative abundance, indicating ecological stress. The coincidence of minimum δ18O values and reduction in test size–δ13C gradients suggests a link between increased sea-surface temperatures and bleaching during the MECO, although changes in pH and nutrient availability may also have played a role. Our findings show that host-photosymbiont interactions are not constant through geological time, with implications for both the evolution of trophic strategies in marine plankton and the reliability of geochemical proxy records generated from symbiont-bearing planktic foraminifera

Selected reliability studies for the NERVA program

An investigation was made into certain methods of reliability analysis that are particularly suitable for complex mechanisms or systems in which there are many interactions. The methods developed were intended to assist in the design of such mechanisms, especially for analysis of failure sensitivity to parameter variations and for estimating reliability where extensive and meaningful life testing is not feasible. The system is modeled by a network of interconnected nodes. Each node is a state or mode of operation, or is an input or output node, and the branches are interactions. The network, with its probabilistic and time-dependent paths is also analyzed for reliability and failure modes by a Monte Carlo, computerized simulation of system performance