Assessing the Cell Phone Challenge to Survey Research in 2010

Updates an analysis of the complexity of including cell phone samples in surveys and issues of non-coverage bias. Examines weighted estimates from landline, cell, and combined samples; demographic and other characteristics of each group; and implications

rHARM: Accretion and Ejection in Resistive GR-MHD

Turbulent magnetic diffusivity plays an important role for accretion disks and the launching of disk winds. We have implemented magnetic diffusivity, respective resistivity in the general relativistic MHD code HARM. This paper describes the theoretical background of our implementation, its numerical realization, our numerical tests and preliminary applications. The test simulations of the new code rHARM are compared with an analytic solution of the diffusion equation and a classical shock tube problem. We have further investigated the evolution of the magneto-rotational instability (MRI) in tori around black holes for a range of magnetic diffusivities. We find indication for a critical magnetic diffusivity (for our setup) beyond which no MRI develops in the linear regime and for which accretion of torus material to the black hole is delayed. Preliminary simulations of magnetically diffusive thin accretion disks around Schwarzschild black holes that are threaded by a large-scale poloidal magnetic field show the launching of disk winds with mass fluxes of about 50% of the accretion rate. The disk magnetic diffusivity allows for efficient disk accretion that replenishes the mass reservoir of the inner disk area and thus allows for long-term simulations of wind launching for more than 5000 time units.Comment: 21 pages, 43 figures, accepted by Ap

Visualising Discourse Structure in Interactive Documents

In this paper we introduce a method for generating interactive documents which exploits the visual features of hypertext to represent discourse structure. We explore the consistent and principled use of graphics and animation to support navigation and comprehension of non-linear text, where textual discourse markers do not always work effectively

Bringing Families In: Recommendations of the Incarceration, Reentry and Family Roundtables

Building on the findings of the New Jersey Reentry Roundtable and a growing concern around the state about how to improve outcomes for the more than 70,000 individuals expected to return home from prison over the next five years, the roundtable examined the complex role that families – broadly defined – play in the lives of prisoners during incarceration and after their release. This document presents a set of recommendations emerging directly from roundtable sessions and provides a road map for individual and collaborative efforts accepted by a range of key players in New Jersey, including government officials, community and faith based service agencies, advocacy groups, family members and formerly incarcerated people

Culturally responsive teaching and student self-efficacy in Alaskan middle schools

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017Culturally responsive teaching may provide practices and dispositions which support closing the achievement gap between minority and Caucasian student populations. For this research, culturally responsive teaching can be considered as teaching practices that address students' specific cultural characteristics. These characteristics include common practices such as language, values and traditions but also include concepts such as communication, learning styles, and relationship norms. The research also presents a definition of culturally responsive teaching that extends beyond curriculum and instruction to focus on student teacher relationships, empathy, and the teacher as learner. This research explores the beliefs and practices around Culturally Responsive Teaching in ten Alaskan Middle Schools. A mixed-methods, sequential explanatory research design was used to answer the research questions: 1. How do teachers identify what is culturally responsive teaching, and what is not? 2. How is culturally responsive teaching implemented in Alaskan middle schools? 3. How is culturally responsive teaching connected to student self-efficacy in Alaskan middle schools? Although culturally responsive teaching has become a recognized practice in the fields of teacher preparation and professional development for teachers, the working definitions as well as evaluation tools are inadequate to describe the actual practice that teachers enact when they are engaged in culturally responsive teaching. Despite state regulations requiring Alaska school districts to include teaching practice of the Alaska Cultural Standards in teacher evaluations, there is only limited focused research available about the implementation of the standards in classrooms. Through semi-structured interviews and surveys with teachers and principals, formal classroom observations, as well as a student self-efficacy survey, this research addresses the lack of research and understanding regarding the relationship between culturally responsive teaching and self-efficacy for middle school students. This study identified the integration of local culture and language into academic content areas, teaching through culture, and the establishment of positive, respectful working relationships with students as promising practices for culturally responsive teaching

Non-Arrhenius ionic conductivities in glasses due to a distribution of activation energies

Previously observed non-Arrhenius behavior in fast ion conducting glasses [\textit{Phys.\ Rev.\ Lett.}\ \textbf{76}, 70 (1996)] occurs at temperatures near the glass transition temperature, $T_{g}$, and is attributed to changes in the ion mobility due to ion trapping mechanisms that diminish the conductivity and result in a decreasing conductivity with increasing temperature. It is intuitive that disorder in glass will also result in a distribution of the activation energies (DAE) for ion conduction, which should increase the conductivity with increasing temperature, yet this has not been identified in the literature. In this paper, a series of high precision ionic conductivity measurements are reported for $0.5{Na}_{2}{S}+0.5[x{GeS}_{2}+(1-x){PS}_{5/2}]$ glasses with compositions ranging from $0 \leq x \leq 1$. The impact of the cation site disorder on the activation energy is identified and explained using a DAE model. The absence of the non-Arrhenius behavior in other glasses is explained and it is predicted which glasses are expected to accentuate the DAE effect on the ionic conductivity.Comment: 2 figure